From aquatic sporting goods for dogs to Michelle Obama-inspired fashion websites, niche products and services have the potential to generate big bucks if they capture the hearts, minds and wallets of a dedicated consumer base. Unlike conglomerates that target the masses, niche businesses cater to highly defined markets that are often over-looked, underserved or disenfranchised by larger competitors. With an abundance of available outlets, resources and online platforms, identifying and reaching a target audience has never been easier for small business owners. Are you ready to become the big fish in a small pond? Is your passion unique enough to turn a profit? Here are 5 steps to make your niche business a hit.
Create a Simple Service
A simple service is a singular offering that focuses on the needs of a narrowly defined customer base. Whether you yearn to be the premier manufacturer of dog lingerie or the industry-leading producer of edible Christmas tree ornaments, make sure you can easily answer these questions: Who needs your service? What’s uniquely useful about that service? What makes your service better than your competition? Fine-tune your brand name, website, and marketing tactics to focus solely on selling your unique specialization and expertise. Remember: Focus. Focus. Focus.
Real World Example: In 2004, my partners and I launched a typical “do everything” video production company. After years of under-performing, I transformed the company into a single product specialist. While the vast majority of video production companies still tout their large service rosters, Sizzle it! has carved out a niche as the only company that specializes in sizzle reels–stylized 3-to-5 minute product videos commonly used by PR and marketing professionals. Result; Sizzle It! has emerged as a go-to company for sizzle reels and benefits from top keyword visibility on all major search engines.
Craft Your Niche Marketplace
The key to your simple service’s success is to capitalize on a niche marketplace that you feel is being underserved. A niche marketplace is a small, specialized market segment within a larger, viable commercial industry. When identifying the niche marketplace you wish to enter, consider the following questions: Who lives in your marketplace? Why have they been underserved? How can you better serve them? How can you unite them? In short, why is your simple service the solution to their problem? Compile the data you collect to produce a detailed profile of your target customer. Using the data from your customer profile, join or create online groups, feeds and networks that are relevant to your simple service. Connect with your niche marketplace’s key decision makers, enthusiasts, and influencers using social networks such as Facebook, Ning, Twitter and MeetUp.
Real World Example: There are thousands of T-shirt stores both online and offline, but few have truly established or engaged a niche marketplace. Threadless is a user-generated T-Shirt and apparel website that determines its product line based on the results of online design competitions. Winning artists receive recognition, cash prizes and their designs sold on Threadless gear. The company has united a niche marketplace of trendsetting hipsters, artists and design aficionados seeking wearable art. Result: the company sells over 1 million shirts per year.
The next time you’re stuck in traffic or waiting in line at the post office, angry because you can’t rush back to your computer to blast out a newsletter or fresh press release, consider this: You’re already moving at more than 500,000 miles per hour through the galaxy (well, our solar system is, anyway). On top of that, the Earth is rotating at 900+ miles per hour.
So you are doing something, even if you’re standing still. We have an unfortunate tendency in our fast-paced society, especially among those of us who are “Type-A” entrepreneurs, to confuse strategic non-action with “being lazy.”
Furthermore, many companies (large and small) have an unfortunate tendency–especially during this persistent recession–to make rash purchases when they are desperate. Not good for business.
Most of the purchases we make happen because we like the company we’re dealing with: We know the owner, trust the brand, identify with the company’s values or innovative products, etc. When you send newsletters out of desperation, telling customers about an “outrageous RECESSION SALE,” your prestige and social marketing capital quickly dwindle.
Purchases made out of necessity do occur from time to time, but the vast majority of business is still attracted because your customers know, respect and trust you. Do not lose this trust.
There are days when I send no pitches at all on behalf of my PR clients or myself. This is not because I am lazy; it is because silence is as important as noise (as any Zen master, entrepreneur or not, would undoubtedly tell you).
Recently, two companies sent me needy newsletters touting recession sales, buy-10-get-one-free offers, and everything in between. I have lost respect for the companies and likely will not buy from them again.
Instead of bombarding your customers with static newsletters, take a few weeks (yes, weeks) to craft the perfect pitch. Then send it to friends–ask them what they think and how it can be improved.
Use the constructive feedback to make the pitch shorter and more powerful. No one will buy from you because your business is down 20 percent this year. Just like no one buys an iPhone because she feels sorry for Apple, People buy out of naked, shameless self-interest or because they respect the brand’s past successes. This is absolutely basic stuff, yet many otherwise competent marketing departments seem to have forgotten the most basic tenets of modern capitalism.
So stop groveling, stop blind pitching, and start crafting.
Here’s a real-life example. My book has been out for a while. At first I would introduce myself and hand out teaser cards at media parties. Of course, this was lame, static marketing that produced little in the way of results.
Then I tried something different. When a friend e-mailed me saying he or she loved my book, I would ask that person to mention it on his or her Twitter page; how much he enjoyed reading it, a favorite quote, whatever.
Now when I search for my book on Twitter, I see recommendations from complete strangers. If you combined two of the most recent recommendations my book has reached 11,500-plus followers. It stands to reason that at least a few will read the book and perpetuate this process ad infinitum.
I am no longer actively telling any of my friends to mention it or pitching the book to television and radio bookers. But it continues to sell well, even in this harsh economic climate, where readers think twice before dropping 15 bucks on a book.
Try this for yourself. An easily repeatable social action can reap rewards for your business without you doing any direct work. Prime the pump by working your contacts and friends, then let go of the steering wheel entirely. See what happens.
With newsletters, rather than send needy static pitches, send out carefully written pieces of advice that are likely to be circulated forever–much like my Twitter suggestion. Instead of writing primarily to close the sale, as most newsletters do, write primarily to impress and excite the reader. An excited client is likely to forward the newsletter’s advice to 15 or 20 of his closest friends or work colleagues.
A newsletter touting a press release service, for example, should provide bankable insights on how to make sure the press release gets calls from TV bookers and newspaper reporters, and be specific. A yoga newsletter, rather than simply push the reader to sign up for a monthly package, should include an insightful meditation exercise. Consider putting your URL in the middle of the newsletter so that it will not get accidentally cut out over time as is the newsletter gets forwarded.
Remember, a carefully worded newsletter should offer value and excitement; if you don’t have something exciting to say, silence may be better.
David Seaman is a marketing, PR and buzz expert and author of Dirty Little Secrets of Buzz, in stores nationwide. He has appeared onCNN, HLN, FOX’s Morning Show, CBS Radio News, SIRIUS, XM, E! Radio, and more than 60 other local and national programs. To contact David and learn more about him, visit http://www.shutterline.com
We show how you can start, run and grow your business for, you guessed it, free.
Over the decades–heck, even centuries–philosophers, politicians, tycoons and other leaders have insisted that you can’t get something for nothing: “There’s no such thing as a free ride,” or “Nothing in life is free.” Well-known economist Milton Friedman once said, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Even Entrepreneur columnist Robert Kiyosaki’s rich dad told him the same thing.
But in our evolving Web 2.0 world and with Google leading the way, the rules have changed: You can get something for nothing–and for entrepreneurs, that something can have a significant impact on their businesses. Today, the web is full of free tools to help entrepreneurs start, run and grow their businesses for next to nothing. It’ll just cost you some time and an internet connection.
Gary Vaynerchuk, co-founder of Wine Library, has been taking advantage of free business tools for nearly three years to grow his 11-year-old wine retail business. Using a combination of web-based tools, such as social networking, blogging and video, he’s taken his company to annual sales of $50 million. His success with these tools has even landed him two book deals and regular speaking engagements across the country. “Building brand equity and connecting with your consumers through these social tools has a global impact on your business and your brand,” says Vaynerchuk, 33, who launched Wine Library with his father, Sasha, 65.
Springfield, New Jersey-based Wine Library uses Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to notify its “friends” about daily specials, something it used to do solely through e-mail. Its Facebook presence includes a custom app called Ask Gary, where people can ask questions about wine. And the company keeps a regular video blog, Wine Library TV. “Viral aspects of your message explode once you use these tools,” says Vaynerchuk. “When I think about how much brand equity I have with Wine Library TV and how quickly it happened for [so little cost], the fact that I spent millions of dollars building the brand prior to using these tools makes me want to throw up.”
As Vaynerchuk has found, “customers appreciate the interaction,” says Mike Whaling, president of 30 Lines, a social media marketing company that helps businesses expand their brands’ online reach. “Traditionally, it was one way. It was shouting: brochures, white papers, advertisements. Now it’s much more focused on multimedia and engagement.” And whereas brochures and advertising of days past had a price tag, more and more of today’s tools are free.
But aside from the obvious (duh, it’s free), what does this surge of tools mean for small businesses? “It starts to level the playing field,” says Whaling. “It gives small businesses the opportunity to put themselves out there and really compete with the larger companies.”
“It allows a little guy to look like a big guy,” says Drew McLellan, owner and CEO of McLellan Marketing Group. “It makes a small business look very sophisticated.” For example, an entrepreneur can build a website easily with various blogging and web design options. A company can launch a targeted marketing campaign across numerous social networks. A business owner can manage calendars, clients and projects using different collaborative and project management software. All for free!
Alison Boris and Kathi Chandler, 38 and 31, respectively, have been capitalizing on free tools since nearly the inception of their Los Angeles-based online bag boutique, AllyKatStyle, in 2007. Like Vaynerchuk, they’ve created a MySpace page for their company. They also have profiles on Digg and StumbleUpon, which are community-centric content sharing sites, to drive traffic to allykatstyle.com. Outside of the popular social networking tools, they use QuantCast (embedded in the website) to monitor traffic, frequency, demographics, geographics and more, and Skype is their official business phone. Says Chandler, “They’re great grass-roots tools to drive traffic to the site and provide free advertising through bloggers and word-of-mouth.”
Communication/E-mail Dimdim: open-source web conferencing application; free basic service I Want Sandy: keeps track of daily details Jott: voice-to-text service for creating notes, lists, e-mails and text messages; free basic service Oovoo: video messaging, chatting and conferencing Paltalk: group IM, chat and video call application Plugoo: direct chatting with any blog or site visitor YouSendIt: send files up to 2GB; free basic service
Storage Adrive: 50GB of online storage and backup for all file types; free basic service JZip: data compression utility Mozy: 2GB of online, data and remote backup solutions; free basic service
Financial BizEquity: company valuations Mint: personal finance, money management, budget planning and financial planning software MyBizHomepage: financial dashboard for small business QuickBooks users QuickBooks: small-business accounting software; free download (Simple Start 2008) Wesabe: financial advice, analysis and planning
Content/Media/Video Audacity: open-source software for cross-platform audio recording Blip.tv: video blogging, podcasting and video sharing service; free basic service BlogTalkRadio: radio network for users to host their own shows DropShots: video hosting and photo sharing FeedBurner: media distribution services for blogs and RSS feeds Fix My Movie: video enhancement service; free basic service Paint.NET: image and photo editing software Phixr: picture and photo editor Seesmic: video conversation platform SlideShare: share and embed slideshows, PowerPoints and PDFs into web pages VideoSpin: video-editing software
Marketing/Networking/PR Blogger: blog publishing tool Craigslist: online classifieds and job postings network CollectiveX: create social networking and collaboration sites for groups Entrepreneur Connect: Entrepreneur’s social networking site LinkedIn: business social networking site Pligg: open-source, community-centric site for discovering, rating and sharing content PolicyMap: geographic and demographic information system for creating custom maps, tables and charts; free basic service YouNoodle: networking for startups and valuation with Startup Predictor Your Pitch Sucks?: PR pitch reviewing and advising
Office Productivity/Organizational Adobe Buzzword: collaborative word processor application CutePDF Writer: PDF creator; free basic service Dabble DB: create, manage and share online databases; free basic service Doodle: schedule and coordinate meetings and other appointments FreshBooks: invoicing, time-tracking and expense service; free basic service Google Calendar: shareable calendar and schedule organizer Google Docs: collaborative word processor and spreadsheet applications OpenOffice.org: open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets and more Stikkit: organization and reminder system that integrates with productivity applications SurveyMonkey: create and publish custom online surveys; free basic service ThinkFree Office: office productivity suite; free basic service WuFoo: HTML form builder for creating interactive forms; free basic service Zoho: office, productivity and collaboration applications
Project Management/Collaboration LogMeIn: remotely support and access digital information; free basic service ProjectStat.us: project management solution and updates Project2Manage: collaborative project management solution Remember the Milk: task management solution and to-do lists Socialtext: wiki and website collaboration; free basic service Team Task: collaborative project management and community website builder Yugma: web meeting and collaboration service
Security Adeona: open-source laptop tracking and recovery software BitDefender Online Scanner: virus scanners; free basic service ZoneAlarm: firewall protection from hackers and threats; free basic service
Web Google Alerts: e-mail updates based on choice of query or topic KickApps: platform of applications to integrate social features into a website Microsoft Office Live Small Business: create a company website, domain and e-mail; free basic service Synthasite: web hosting and building Weebly: website and blog creator Widgetbox: web widgets for various applications Woopra: web tracking and analysis application; free basic service
Originally published in the January 2009 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine
13 things not to do when adapting your product to an online model.
Here’s a compilation of 13 silly and even stupid ways some companies are hindering adoption of their products and services. So if you are doing any of them, don’t.
Forcing immediate registration: Requiring a new user to register is a reasonable request—after you’ve sucked him in. The sites that require registration as the first step are putting a barrier in front of adoption.
The long URL: Say a site generates a URL that’s 70 characters long or more. When you copy, paste and e-mail this URL, a line break is added. Then, people can’t click on the link or it only links to the first part of the URL.
Windows that don’t generate URLs: Have you ever wanted to point people to a page, but the page has no URL? Did the company decide it didn’t want referrals, links and additional traffic?
The unsearchable website: Some sites don’t offer a search option. If your site goes deeper than one level, it needs a search box.
Sites without Delicious, Digg and Fark bookmarks: There’s no reason why a company wouldn’t want its fans to bookmark its pages. When my blog hits the front page of Digg, page views typically increase six or seven times.
Limiting contact to e-mail: Don’t get me wrong; I live and die by e-mail. But sometimes I want to call or even snail-mail a company. Many companies only let you send an e-mail via their “Contact Us” page. Why can’t companies be honest and just call it “Don’t Contact Us”?
Lack of feeds and e-mail lists: Make getting information about your products and services easy by providing e-mail and RSS feeds for content and PR newsletters.
Making users retype e-mail addresses: How about the patent-pending, curve-jumping Web 2.0 company that wants you to share content but requires you to retype your friends’ e-mail addresses? I have 7,703 e-mail addresses in Microsoft Entourage. I’m not going to retype them into some done-as-an-afterthought address book.
No e-mail addresses as usernames: I’m a member of hundreds of sites. I can’t remember my usernames, but I can remember my e-mail address. So why not let me use that?
Case-sensitive usernames and passwords: I know; these are more secure. But then I’m more likely to type in my user name and password incorrectly.
Friction-full commenting: “Moderated comments” is an oxymoron. If your company is trying to be a hip, myth-busting, hypocrisy-outing joint, it should let anyone comment. Also, many times I’ve started to leave a comment on a blog but stopped when I realized I’d have to register.
Unreadable confirmation codes: A visual confirmation graphic system is a good thing, but many are too difficult to read. All you have to prove is that you’re not a robot. So if the code is “ghj1lK,” entering “ghj11K” should be good enough.
E-mails without signatures: Communication would be so much easier if everyone included a complete e-mail signature with their name, company, address, phone and e-mail address.
Guy Kawasaki’s mantra is “Empower people.” He is co-founder of Alltop.com, a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, former chief evangelist for Apple Inc. and author of nine books–most recently, Reality Check. Visit smallbusiness.alltop.com. – Entreoreneur magazine.
Microblogging platform Twitter has 32 million users, an increase from about 2 million a year ago, according to research mentioned in the Wall Street Journal. Some Internet measurement services show that figure increasing 50% to 100% month over month. While it is not clear that Twitter will become as large as social networks MySpace and Facebook or video-sharing site YouTube, the company could certainly have 50 million visitors by the end of the year.
Because Twitter can be used with ease on both PCs and mobile devices, and because it limits users to very short messages of 140 characters or fewer, it has become one of the largest platforms in the world for sharing real-time data. A number of large businesses and celebrities have hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter. This includes personalities like Oprah and Ashton Kutcher. JetBlue (JBLU), Whole Foods (WFMI) and Dell (DELL), along with other multinational corporations, are among the most followed names on the service. (See the top 10 celebrity Twitter feeds.)
As Twitter grows, it will increasingly become a place where companies build brands, do research, send information to customers, conduct e-commerce and create communities for their users. Some industries, like local retail, could be transformed by Twitter — both at one-store operations that cater to customers within a few blocks of their locations and at the individual stores of giant retail operations like Wal-Mart (WMT). In either case, having the opportunity to tell customers about attractive sales and new products can be done at remarkably low cost while providing for greater geographic accuracy.
For Twitter to be a part of a company’s efforts to communicate with customers, the customers must be willing to “follow” the company on Twitter. That allows the individual consumer to choose which firms he is willing to get messages directly from. It may not be surprising that “new age” brands like Whole Foods and JetBlue have large followings and older and much larger brands like Kroger (KR) and American Airlines (AMR) do not. Whole Foods and JetBlue have successfully marketed themselves as being “customer-centric” — the kind of companies that would not misuse the access to a customer’s private Twitter information. (Read Ashton Kutcher’s take on why the Twitter founders made the TIME 100.)
While there may be commercial value for using Twitter to communicate with customers, the danger is that the Twitter community could turn against a marketer viewed as being too crass by being relentlessly self-promoting. Twitter users have set up their own rules of conduct when using the service, not unlike those with MySpace and Facebook. These rules were not put together by Twitter itself, which mandates only rules of use. Like many social-network sites, Twitter is self-governed by its members, and companies must take that into account as they join the service.
Twitter is still in the early stages of developing a plan for making money as a company, but plenty of large corporations like Starbucks (SBUX) are already using it as a marketing tool. Twitter will probably evolve into both a community of individuals and a community of companies that provide goods and services for those individuals.
24/7 Wall St. has come up with 10 ways in which Twitter will permanently change American business within the next two to three years, based on an examination of Twitter’s model, the way that corporations and small businesses are currently using the service and some of the logical extensions of how companies will use Twitter in the future. Some of these firms are already using Twitter, but their efforts are in the earliest stages of development. 24/7 Wall St. evaluated other sensible and potentially highly profitable ways Twitter’s real-time, multiplatform presence is likely to be
In sales, “getting new business” is also called “prospecting.” Unfortunately, using that term tends to turn off average salespeople who are afraid of doing it. If you know how to prospect properly, you’ll never fear doing it.
The best place to start prospecting is with people who have already paid money for products and services similar to yours.
When you’re finally prepared enough with knowledge about your product, service, or concept and have a good level of selling skills, you then need to begin finding those people. Because you won’t have a lot of qualifying, presenting, closing, or follow-up to do when you’re new, your primary focus should be on prospecting. In fact, early in your selling career, your daily plan should be to invest about 75 percent of your time prospecting. The other 25 percent of your time should go toward developing your product knowledge and presentation skills.
So, how do you find these elusive, but absolutely essential prospects? Read on!
Friends and Relatives
The first potential clients that usually come to mind are friends and relatives. Then, move to people you come in contact with on a social basis. Those you meet socially would include fellow church members, school workers, and those you enjoy doing your hobbies or playing sports with. Business friends would include people you have worked with in the past or met through workshops or clubs and organizations specifically set up for business professionals.
Other Salespeople
One area of prospecting that is often overlooked is other salespeople. Work up a win-win situation with other salespeople by sharing leads or finding a complement in your product or service to what they have to offer. The favors you give away often return tenfold.
Do your prospecting efforts end with your last appointment of the day? If you answer yes, you’ve closed your eyes to a lot of business.
Enjoying a dinner in a restaurant, shopping in a mall, dropping off dry cleaning, and purchasing groceries put you in contact with potential future clients. If you’re in network marketing, you can benefit by turning those who have demonstrated good people skills on to your business. In doing so however, never intrude on their work time. Simply say, “I can’t help but notice that you have a nice way with people. I’m curious, are you achieving all of your goals working here? The reason I ask is that the firm I represent is in an expansion mode and we’re looking for quality people to take advantage of the opportunity. Do you have an interest in knowing more?”
If they do, say: “Ethically, because you’re working now, I’m not at liberty to discuss it. However, if you’d like to jot down a number and time I can reach you when you’re not working, we can visit and see if it’s a win-win possibility.”
Always carry your business cards with you and freely hand it out to those you feel particularly impressed with. Following up with a letter or thank you note regarding the service they provided leaves a good impression of you and your company.
Newspaper
A favorite prospecting tool, and one that is the greatest source around, can be delivered to your doorstep for under a dollar a day in most areas. It’s the newspaper. I used to read mine with a pen so I could circle all of the opportunities I found. The local news, business, and announcement sections are the most beneficial portions of the paper.
Circle who has been promoted in business, who recently had a baby, who just started up a new business, who just sold or purchased a home in the community, and so on. Then, contact them. You do this by cutting out the article. Make a copy for yourself. Then send a brief note, saying, “I saw you in the news. I’m in business in the community and hope to meet you someday in person. I thought you might enjoy having an extra copy of the article to share with friends or relatives.” Always include your business card.
People love seeing that they were in the news. And they love having extra copies of the articles to send to friends and relatives who are not in the local area. When you follow up, you’ll already have something in common to talk about — the news item. By providing this small service in a non-threatening way, you can gain a lot of big business. I know I did. You can, too.
When I was young, and new to sales and marketing, I heard a story that has stayed with me all my life. It is about a Japanese Martial arts expert who lived long ago. I cannot give a source for the story or tell you if it is fact or urban myth the lesson it teaches for sales, for life, makes it worth telling again.
The story tells of a well respected family in Japan who had always been leaders in martial arts, a samurai family. The eldest son of the new generation was very skilled and very proficient and very sure of his ability. He did things easily and always won when he fought.
Come the day of the national titles he went to fight with full confidence in his skills.
The fight though did not go as expected, he lost, he lost badly, he was humiliated, his family was shamed.
He left the tournament and he left the city. He went to live in the forest, far from people.
When he was alone he came to understand that he needed to put aside his arrogance and begin again to learn his art from the basics. He found the tallest tree in the forest, bowed in respect, and then began to practice his punches and his kicks by hitting the tree.
The result of is work did not show on the tree but it showed in his hands and his feet. In the beginning he suffered terribly.
Day after day, week after week, month after month he practiced kicking and punching the tree and lived by foraging in the forest.
The tree showed a little flattening of the bark but the change was not in the tree, the change was in the hands and the feet that struck it. Raw knuckles hardened, calluses formed, muscle and bone toughened, technique improved till the warrior could strike the unyielding tree with strength and with power, again and again and again.
Finally the tree started to yield, the bark began to chip away from the pounding and, day after day, the training continued.
Eventually, as the months passed, the tree had been ring-barked and it died.
When the last leaf fell from the tree the young man knelt and honored the tree and left the forest to return to the city.
He trained for a time with other fighters to get the rhythms of sparing and he enrolled to fight in the national titles.
Not only did he destroy any fighter who stood before him on the day, he never lost another fight in his life.
Interesting story but what does it mean to us?
It means that we need more than natural ability to be the best we can be.
In many ways we are warriors ourselves when we go out to work. We are not fighting with our fists but using all our skills and abilities to achieve outcomes for our businesses and for our families.
Sometimes we have core activities that are part of our jobs and that just have to be done.
Sometimes there are two outcomes, we do the job but we also learn skills that we need; consistent work habits, handling rejection, earning to listen, building word and language skills so people understand us clearly.
We need to be mature in our manner and methods and that only comes from the experience.
Some things you just need to do over, and over, and over, and over.
So take this little story and stick it in the back of your mind. When you have a job that is long, and hard, and that seems thankless, then stop and look closer at it. See if it is going to make you stronger and more capable.
Is this work actually “punching the tree” for your profession and your life?
It is bringing change in you and who you are?
Is doing such work with strength and consistency going to make you a warrior yourself, strong, experienced and confident in your own life?
The United States is experiencing an explosion of latin growth. By 2010 1 in 5 Americans will be Hispanic. Currently, there are 44.3 million Hispanics in this country representing 47% of the country’s purchasing power. California and Texas have 50% of the Hispanic population.
Hispanic young men are at an average age of 18 with white/non-Hispanics only at 27.6% is under 9 years of age. The countries coveted purchasing power being from 18 to 35 years old.
Latino owned business growth according to the 1997 Economic Census. In March of 2001 nearly 6% of all U.S. businesses were Latino owned.
As the Latin population continues to climb researchers and marketers are rushing to learn more about this culture and how it is changing our country.
Destiny. What a powerful word. And the great thing about it? Everyone has one! You have a destiny! Another great thing about destiny? We have a significant role in shaping our own destiny! In essence, you can choose your date with destiny – powerful!
Your destiny is the dream that lies within you of your desired and preferred future. And the things that we choose each day are what lead us to that destiny: Our actions, our words, our attitudes, and our relationships. They all add up to develop and shape that date on which we will reach our destiny.
Here are some thoughts to think about as you work on shaping your Date with Destiny:
The Mental Question: Do you believe that you can achieve a life of abundance? The frank truth is that many people simply do not believe that they can achieve what lies in their heart. Success is for someone else, a better person, or a smarter person. This is not true and is perhaps the greatest obstacle we face on the journey to our destiny. If we are to achieve the abundance in life we must first believe we can, or face our own continual self-sabotage of what a college professor of mine called “stinkin’-thinkin.’”
Here is the truth:
It doesn’t matter what your intelligence is.
It doesn’t matter what your current resources are.
It doesn’t matter what you currently earn.
It doesn’t matter what family you came from.
Nothing in your current circumstances matter in whether or not you can achieve your destiny! Nothing! Now, your current state may make it a longer or harder journey than someone else, but the possibility is always there no matter what your current circumstances are.
And that is the message we need to continually tell ourselves. “I can do it.” Not “I can’t do it.”
Clear vision. Do you have one of your destiny? Here are some questions to determine whether or not your vision is clear.
Can you describe it in intricate detail?
Can you “see” it?
Can you “feel” it?
Can you “hear” it?
Here are a couple of illustrations.
Perhaps you came from a dysfunctional family and your dream is to have great moments with your family. Let’s start with a Thanksgiving meal. Can you see each person there? What are they wearing? Are they smiling? What is the conversation? Can you hear the laughter? Can you experience the joy? Can you smell the turkey? Can you see people hugging each other and saying “This was wonderful,” as they leave?
Another scenario: Your company. Can you see the large building you are in? Can you see the workers? Can you feel the positive attitude they have as they carry out their work? Can you experience the excitement as you get the quarterly results? Can you see yourself handing out healthy bonuses that bring pleasant surprises to your employees?
This is where it begins. A clear vision of your destiny.
Consider your resources. Are you aware of the resources you will need in order to set your date with destiny? Do you know how you will go about getting them? What are your natural gifts and talents that you have? How can you best utilize them in achieving your destiny?
What are your current level of resources?
Money?
Time?
Emotional health?
Help from others such as friends, family, employees or volunteers?
What will be your needed future level of resources? And have you developed a plan to achieve this level?
The last thing I would encourage you to do is fix a date in the future that you believe you could believe you will be living your destiny by. A real date. What this enables you to do is then begin to work backwards in setting goals to move you along the way, proving you with future points to strive for and evaluation point to reflect upon.
Here are the points again:
Answer the mental question: Do I really believe?
Develop a clear vision.
Consider the resources needed.
Set a date with destiny.
Develop a plan to get there.
Success Quote and Commentary
“Sow a thought and you reap an act; Sow an act and you reap a habit; Sow a habit and you reap a character; Sow a character and you reap a destiny.” — Samuel Smiles
recently came across a terrific description of a salesperson … and it’s from the 1940s. Aside from the sexist language, a sign of the times, I think it’s still right on.
During a convention of Chrysler sales managers in Los Angeles, Harry G. Moock, a company vice president, issued this description of a salesman:
“He has the curiosity of a cat, the tenacity of a bulldog, the friendship of a little child, the diplomacy of a wayward husband, the patience of a self-sacrificing wife, the passion of a Sinatra fan, the assurance of a Harvard man, the good humor of a comedian, the simplicity of a jackass, and the tireless energy of a bill collector.”
What can I say … I’ve always been a Sinatra fan.
Passion is at the top of the list of the skills you need to excel whether you’re in sales or any other profession. A salesperson without passion is just an order taker.
If you’re in sales, you can have a great product, a tremendous territory and a fabulous marketing campaign, but if you don’t have passion, it’s hard to make a sale. When you have passion, you speak with conviction, act with authority and present with zeal. When you are excited and passionate about a product—or anything for that matter—people notice. They want in on the action. They want to know what can be so good.
There is no substitute for passion. If you don’t have an intense, burning desire for what you are doing, there’s no way you’ll be able to work the long, hard hours it takes to become successful.
“Make sure that the career you choose is one you enjoy,” said Kathy Whitworth, who won 88 LPGA tournaments, more than anyone on the men’s or women’s professional circuit. I was lucky enough to be in attendance when she won four of them. “If you don’t enjoy what you are doing, it will be difficult to give the extra time, effort and devotion it takes to be a success. If it is a career that you find fun and enjoyable, then you will do whatever it takes. You will give freely of your time and effort, and you will not feel that you are making sacrifices in order to be a success.”
President Harry Truman once said: “Good work is never done in cold blood; heat is needed to forge anything. Every great achievement is the story of a flaming heart.”
Mark Twain was once asked the reason for his success. He said, “I was born excited.”
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