Are you sleeping?

Last blog of the year. If you have to do something better next year, it is to sleep more. Sleep more, sleep better. There is nothing to be proud of in sleeping less. Bragging about sleep deprivation is stupid. You should do better.

Sleeping more allows you clarity in thought. It makes your mood better. It lets you make better decisions. It gives you better health.

Do you want a better year?

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Is it exciting?

Entrepreneurs get excited over new ideas easily. That’s how they are. But excitement should not be confused with importance. Just because you have a new idea and you are excited over it doesn’t mean it is important for your company.

Pull up a chair. Write it down. Now ask yourself of all the things you have to do, is this the most important one you need to tackle right now?

Is it the most important?

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You want to get better?

Do less. Don’t do more.

If you want to improve your business, try trimming. Look for things to cut. No, not just costs. But things like product lines, service portfolio. Things that you can do without. Don’t try improving things without first cutting. First look to cut and then with what’s left, improve on them. It makes you focus easier. With less to do, you can do better.

Is more always the answer?

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Are you giving away your secrets?

Don’t be afraid of sharing your recipes. No one is going to copy you and be as successful as you with your recipe. Help someone get better and see yourself get better. Chefs who share their recipes have never gone out of business.

Are you gaining fans?

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Why aren’t you succeeding?

Take responsibility for the plans that you have. (Read it again if you have to.)

You think there is a secret?

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Should you stop now?

Putting in the time and figuring it out when something ‘fails’, no matter how tough, helps you avoid making unnecessary decisions you will otherwise make. Then get at it again rather than throwing in the towel too early. It ensures success in the long run.

When should you stop?

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Is fear number one?

Whenever fear shows up in the things you want to embark on, list down all the emotions you are going through. Don’t just let fear show up. Amongst all the emotions you are capable of; there will be a few others; most often excitement will be there. Courage too, because it often does, just by the existence of the idea you want to embark on. List your skills too that you need in order to see success in what you want to do, where fear has appeared. Once you are done with this list, number them. You will probably realize that fear isn’t that up front. It only appears so because you have given it attention. Plus, the skills you have will likely melt fear away anyway.

You didn’t think you are that good, did you?

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Can you sprint a marathon?

If ideas are easily copied, perhaps your only competitiveness is being able to execute it faster than your competitor. And being able to come out with more ideas faster the next round. Do it so often that they eventually run out of stamina to create and to create fast enough to catch you.

Are they catching up?

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Who’s cheering for you?

Excitement gives birth to energy. Energy that an entrepreneur needs in order to progress, to keep going when all other resources are scarce. That alone can sustain you for a long time. Learn to get excited over things when everything else is dragging you down. It may just be that little push you need at this moment in time.

Are you excited?

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How much are you making?

Increasing your profitability isn’t just about looking at your cost and your selling price. It starts with looking at your consumer segments, choosing the right target and taking a precise position and message to the segment. Then the messy process of kneading the right product and price together to maximize profit.

Are you starting at the right place?

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Is it about courage?

Taking “massive action” is a mantra that is as cliché as “just do it.” But cliché doesn’t mean it is useless. If you are looking for results from what you have been doing, don’t make small adjustments. Especially when you have been making small adjustments to what you have been doing for a long time. Yet, not seeing results.

Make a commitment to take massive action. Something that scares you. See if that takes you on a positive trajectory.

Or is it about commitment?

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What is a better choice?

Forget about payback and taking revenge on that person that did you wrong. Remember to pay it forward and help another for the good deed someone did right by you today.

Lessen the energy you spent writing the complain rant on social media for the service you did not get. Increase the effort you need to hand write a compliment letter for the initiative someone did for you.

Take every chance to start a virtuous cycle and stop the vicious one.

Which will get us further?

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What’s so hard?

There is no such thing as it’s too hard. It’s too hard because you fear it. Do it often enough, you gain the inertia. Do it often enough and you develop a skill to overcome whatever is hard. Do it often enough, you overcome it. Overcoming what us hard often times gives you the biggest impact. The task itself is not hard. Fear of failure is the hardest part.

Is fear the hard part?

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How sharp are they?

If you rely on your skills and knowledge to deliver good work for your own company, then you need to ensure that your arsenal is well equipped. Not just equipped but functioning well.

If your arsenal is left wanting, and the few weapons that you have aren’t sufficient then you wouldn’t expect to win, would you?

Perhaps it’s time to evaluate the skills and knowledge that you have and if they are still able to serve you.

Is it time for an upgrade?

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Are you helping it grow?

There are almost always great hopes and plans when a brand is born. Great plans come with great responsibilities too. You can’t birth a brand and let it grow in the wild on its own. You need to back it up with monetary investment. Only substantial investment will give the brand gets a chance to fight for life, live and then perhaps thrive. It is not a one-time effort. It needs nurturing and maintenance. 

Can you play the long game?

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Are you starting a business?

1. Things will be very tough going.

2. You need a few tonnes of energy to push through.

If you believe in the sentences above, now multiply it by 10.

Are you estimating your tenacity wrongly?

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Are you worrying about the right thing?

If you are a small and medium business, don’t worry about your competitors. Worrying instead about your brand’s obscurity. All else being equal, your problem is almost one of awareness. 

Who else knows you?

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What is it that they won’t do?

Is there something that is absolutely legal and ethical that your competitors won’t do? They may be supposedly accepted practices of the market that are waiting to be broken so you can stand out. They may be things that people in your industry cringe at. But your target isn’t in the industry. Your target accepts these supposedly “cringey” things. They make you stand out. 

Why don’t you do it?

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Are you sprinting?

Selling something involves two very long marathons. The first marathon is making it. Take your time to make a product or service that is worthwhile for people to part their hard-earned money for the true value that you deliver.

The second marathon is the marketing part of it. Don’t focus all your time on the making that you don’t invest enough energy and money into marketing it. People need to know this wonderful product or service you created for them. 

You need to focus on both. 

Do you know you are in a marathon?

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How do you get to the budget?

Don’t ask, "What is the cheapest way to be noticed?" But ask "How much does it cost to get X number of people to know about me?" Cheap is not the objective. 

How cheap is cheap?

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Who is going to teach you?

Business ideas are great. Wanting to make a difference is great. Starting right is important. It’s not impossible even for bootstrapped business. The most detrimental is when you are knee deep in challenges and seeking a way out. And you know you need to fix the business foundation. There are no U-turns now. The costly mistake is that you are listening to the wrong people. Get your advice from the right source at the start.

Who can you learn from?

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How painful will it be?

A brand’s value, growth or demise lies in the hands of brand owners. They can drive it to grow for centuries or decades and still stay strong like Coca Cola (founded in 1886), Disney (founded in 1923) & McDonalds (founded in 1940). It’s not by happenstance. It’s by deliberate painstaking planning and process. And the reason why the brand is valuable is because the brand owners invested in the brands over the years.

How much are you willing to put in?

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When’s the next one coming?

Every new brand comes with a cost. It needs to be nurtured before it can yield returns. If it needs so much tender loving care than you care to think, then think again before you start another brand. Do you really need another brand to draw your attention and energy from the real deal? Have you considered the cost vs benefits?

Creating is the easy part. Maintaining, that’s heavy. That’s a lifetime commitment.

Should you stop?

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When do you know you need to kill your brands?

Don’t be blinded by the sales numbers. Instead, look at the profit and future. Which ones are your profit contributor? This is the start of your analysis. Then look at potential for growth. Is it building on market share? That signals potential for growth. Then look at the direction and acceleration of the brand growth. Once you know all these factors, which one to cull and which one to milk becomes clear.

Which ones would you invest in?

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Where is the best place to start?

Diagnosis before strategy, strategy before tactics. 4Ps is a tactic. If you are starting with any of the Ps, you can be sure that you are being tactical about it. Go back one step to your strategy. Who is your target? What is your position or message to them? What is your objective? These make up your strategy questions. Once you answer these, the 4Ps become easy.

Are you starting at the right place?

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Can you fight for survival?

If you are a small brand or a small business, there are a few crucial things you must do.

One, define your ultimate customer. You have heard of the term – your target market. Do not be afraid to make this a well-defined small market. You can worry about the mass later. For now, you need the right footing, and a well-defined market means you can focus on delivering value to them wholeheartedly.

Two, create a differentiation. That differentiation should not be on low pricing of your service or product because it’s a differentiation that is easily copied and it eats into your profitability.

Three, look to price higher so you can make a decent profit. Think about the value you are delivering and price it from there. Don’t just look at direct competitors but look at similar products that delivers the same benefits. How do they price?

Does it scare you?

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Are you paying a heavy price?

If you set your advertising budget based on a percentage of sales, then the next question to ask is – will this budget generate optimum sales and maximum profit?

Set your budget according to your objective. If you want to generate optimum sales, then ask yourself how much you should spend to get there.

What is it costing you now?

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Why would they come back more often?

Increasingly the data is revealing that most of your buyers are non-loyalists. For example Byron Sharp’s 60:40 rule i.e., 60% of your sales are coming from the top 40% of your consumers which means nearly half your sales (40%) is coming from the 60% switchers and non-loyalists. McKinsey’s data reveals similar findings i.e., 42% will stick with you and 58% are tempted away.

Perhaps it’s time to convince the switchers.

Where are the additional sales coming from?

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What should you change?

Whenever things do not work, some business owners tend to change things very quickly. They change so often that each implementation does not have the time to work. In order not to change too often, one way is to ensure that you get your strategy right.

Once your strategy is right, stand firm. Hold the line. If things do not work, chances are it is the tactics that are wrong. Let the tactics play out for awhile before you decide that it is not working. If it is not working, change the tactics and not the strategy.

Are you changing too often?

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Have you bred enough?

Growing brands are always exciting. Giving you the expected profit and growth. When you grow too many, that’s when some will grow and some will not. That’s when too few resources are being shared by too many brands. You can’t focus. Eventually you will have to cut. Pruning a tree allows the tree to grow better and healthier. It is painful. But necessary.

When should you cull them?

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Can you program loyalty?

People who buy you aren't necessarily your loyalists. That you probably already know. But you hold on to the idea that there are loyalists and probably quite a few of them. Hence you developed your loyalty program.

But people who buy from you often may not be your loyalists. They could be shaky customers. They shopped around, compared and came back to you. If you were told 69% of your customers are always looking around instead of being die-hard fans. And if you were told that your true loyalists are only 13% of your consumers, would you still think there is a great ROI behind your loyalty program?

Would you change the way you market?

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Who did you miss?

Explore all your consumer segmentation again. Are there people you can add as your target this year? Start considering people who may not have engaged with your brand or have any experience with your brand. They may be category users who are switchers. Get them to consider your brand. The idea is to widen and diversify your consumer segment for brand growth.

Who can you add?

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Do they know you?

A sizeable number of business owners we meet focus on the bottom of the sales funnel. We don’t blame them. Sales and immediate returns are an important part of keeping the business running. We liken an overwhelming focus on this to picking the fruits off a tree. Eventually the fruits will be depleted.

Put more focus on the top of the funnel. Awareness and considerations are very important aspects in the consumer purchase decision journey. We liken this to fertiliser for the plant. It provides nutrients for future growth. Research has shown brands that are in the consideration set are twice more likely to be purchased. Which means it makes your bottom of the funnel work a lot easier too.

Are they considering you?

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Are they loyal to you?

The best way is obviously to do market research to find out how loyal your consumers are to you. But many companies without this data just assume that they have a lot of loyal consumers. Hence, they invest heavily in loyalty programs.

Not all categories are “loyalty” driven. If your brand belongs to a category where it is shopping driven, then you may want to rethink your investment in your loyalty program.

Are they switching?

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Do you think they care?

You: spend hours, days, weeks, months discussing and deliberating on each element and word to be used.

Consumer: spend a split of a second whether to buy or not to buy.

Instead, create distinctive brand identifiers that will help consumer identify with your brand.

Use it as much and as often. Don’t get tired of those brand identifiers.

You will spend hours with those brand identifiers but your consumer will spend a split second.

How do you help them remember?

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How did they know it is you?

An element becomes distinctive and an asset to you when it is linked synonymously with you and recognizable. That loud guffaw that could be heard 10 doors away. That gait. That dressing style. Similarly with brands. That logo, that font, that visual element that is uniquely yours. Your brand identifiers. That tone & manner.  A brand owns distinctive brand identifiers through continuous association & awareness. Repeat until it becomes synonymous. Until it signals your brand. And then repeat some more.

Perhaps somethings shouldn’t be changed. Well, at least not too often or until they know it is you.

Are you recognizable?

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What about job satisfaction?

Of course, profit is important. Without profit, the company ceases to exists. But being the most profitable won’t keep you going for long if there is no overarching purpose of why you exist. Why you do what you do. The one thing that takes you through the mundane, the painful, and the dreary of daily work. A purpose needs to guide your pursuit.

This purpose that guides you and wakes you up when you have made all your money. This purpose that guides your company and keep it going for years to come.

Are there other considerations beside money?

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Where do you want to go?

Strategy is a bastardised word. So many people use it so loosely that even when they are discussing tactics, they think it is strategy.

The beginning of strategy is actually vision. Or objective when you think about it on a smaller scale. Strategy is then the plan to get there. This plan when divided into its various elements is the tactics. You can’t have a strategy if you do not have a vision or an objective.

Set a clear end point. Make it SMART. Then use strategy as the oath to get there.

Vision (or goals or objective if you like) should drive strategy and strategy in turn drives the tactics. Not the other way around. It is obvious. However, in real practice we often don’t see it happening.

A few reasons for this. Firstly, deploying tactics is simple. The act of doing something makes one feels that a strategy is in place.

Two, there is a lack of understanding what a strategy is and the difference between tactics and strategy. This loops you back to one.

Three, the focus on the short term. It takes time to run elements in a strategy in an integrated fashion. These take time to see results. Most people don’t have the vision to see further.

How will you get there?

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How will you grow?

Very often we hear prospective clients for our consultancy business or prospective students for our marketing and branding masterclass say that they can’t afford marketing and branding activities. Regardless of the examples we give, the answer is almost always, “Oh, well they are big hence they can afford it.”

Think about a few companies and brands that you like or observe often. These companies grew because they invested in marketing and branding even before they became big. Marketing and branding spurs growth. It’s a growth factor in that it is crucial to growth. They didn’t wait until they could afford marketing and branding. It’s not that companies are big therefore they can afford marketing. It’s that they used marketing and branding to become big.

How did they grow?

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Where is the leak?

The sales funnel or purchase funnel that you use has various names. It has various stages too. Depending on which model you use; some has a longer journey, some lesser. Most of the time you will be tempted to fix the bottom of the funnel. After all, that is where the sales come in. But often times, the most strategic thing to do for your brand is to fix the largest leakage.

Fixing the leakage can only happen when you have a customized funnel that suits your brand and category. Do research on your consumers which you will inevitably cover your competitors too, then calculate where the “leakage” is. Then fix the part with the largest leakage. It may well be it’s the purchase stage that has the biggest leakage. But you will be surprised often times the leakage is somewhere else.

Are you fixing the right spot?

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Do you want the cake?

You can have it all if you learn to prioritize. Know what you truly want, know what you don’t want. Take some risks, manage your time, moderate your energy and believe in the genius of the AND as Jim Collins calls it.

Do you want to eat it too?

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Why the long hours?

Sometimes long hours are a reflection of poor planning and priorities. Sometimes even skills. If you lack the skills to deliver then obviously you will spend more time working on something.

If you spy on yourself, some hours are actually lost at work while you fiddle around the social media and do personal stuff. That’s all fine and no one will hold it against you. It’s your time and your responsibility alone. As long as you do not blame the heavy workload for the long hours.

Who’s telling you the truth?

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How low can you go?

Your business exists to make money. Profits keep you going. You already know that. If you think lowering your price in the hope of making it up in volume, think again.

McKinsey in a 2003 article titled “The Power of Pricing” concluded that cutting prices to drive volume is, “generally doomed to failure in almost every market and industry.”

How much do you want to make?

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