Right for what?

Every person in the business must be the right fit in executing the business plan. No matter how small the role is and no matter how far down the hierarchy it is. Problems happen when they do not know what is the business objective they are supposed to achieve and what their specific role is in the grander scheme of things. Their roles need to be contextualised for them. If it wasn’t explained to them, hold the manager responsible.

Do they know?

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Did you keep the other for another day?

The fastest way to your objective maybe one that you have not taken. Because it is one you have not taken, it will look risky because you are unfamiliar with it. That is anxiety, not risk. Yet, sometimes the riskier path is the one that can get you to your objective the fastest.

Which road will you take?

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What happened yesterday?

Forget yesterday, embrace today so you can make tomorrow better. Learn to let old concepts go and embrace new ones if they do not work. Focus on what you can do better today, too much analysis of what happened yesterday will cloud your decisions. Do whatever post mortem you need to do, make a decision and move on.  Eventually, it is not as important as the decision you will make today to impact tomorrow.

What good can happen tomorrow?

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Is it worth pursuing?

For those who think they have to do what they love totally ignores the fact that many of us doing what we love actually “fell into it” or it happened by “accident”. If you don’t go with the flow and keep focusing on pursuing what you “love”, you may miss serendipity which is very much a part of how love happens.

Did you allow it to happen?

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What did you ask?

A good question to ask in order to get to the right answer is “What do I NOT know in this case?” This is your blind spot. It gets you to learn what you do not know. Asking the right question is a skill. The more you do the better you get. When you get the answer, be humble and wise enough to accept it even when it is inconvenient and uncomfortable.

Who is the best person to ask?

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What is the true cost?

Good strategy and planning are expensive. So is good execution. Bad strategy and planning will cost you a fortune. So is bad execution.

Whether you realize it or not, either way you pay.

Choose well.

How would you be paying?

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This works for most things?

An idea.

Some faith.

Add confidence.

Take action.

Have patience.

How do you start?

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Did you focus on the process?

Crawl, walk, run. That’s how it is. One before the next. You can’t rush through what takes time to build. Keep doing what you are doing and focus on the process. The progress will take care of itself.

How fast do you think you can go?

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Do you want it bigger?

If you run a business perhaps these three are questions that you should ask yourself.

Is it a perennial seller?

Are you profitable?

Are you proud of what you have now?

If you answered yes to all of these, then the size of the business is just a matter of choice.

Is bigger always better?

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How did you scale?

13 years ago, when we started our business, some friends said it’s not scalable. Some said it is an old model. Some said the market is too crowded.

We went in ahead because that’s all we know what to do. We were too stupid to learn the new things they were talking about. Too ignorant about new business ideas they were espousing. Too lazy to learn easier ways to build a business.

13 years later we are still here. All of them have successfully changed jobs a few times.

What did you scale?

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Do you deny yourself success?

We worked on a project recently where the client has run a campaign for the past 2 years and sales was still stagnating and slow growing. We came in, adjusted some parameters and sales went to an all-time high. All data points to the media selection and budget allocation. Yet some members of the team deny that the new initiatives worked.

Some people defy logic. They failed earlier and people say you learn from failure. They didn’t. Now that they have succeeded and people say success leaves traces and breeds success. They didn’t learn either.

Denying some things work when it works for you is suicide.

Will ego help you decide?

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Why would you listen?

Write down your personal objectives when you start your own business. What do you want this business to do for you? Then reread it often. Monthly if you can. Weekly even better. Because along the way, you will get distracted by what others say, you will question your own direction, you will want what others do and you will cover what’s others have even though these things have nothing to do with why you started your business and your personal objectives when you started it.

Did you get distracted?

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Would you like to learn about business?

Everyone who wants to learn about business should start their own business. It doesn’t even have to be big. Technology has evolved so much that it has opened up so much opportunities to everyone. You have a hobby that you want to monetize? There is a platform for it for you. You want to test your business idea without having to quit your job? You can. The tools are all right there for you.

Start a business and I guarantee you will learn a lot about business and a lot more about yourself.

Would you like to learn more about yourself?

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What is it trying to tell you?

You begin to develop a professional gut feel the longer you stay in the industry the more practice you have in your craft.

While it is not data based, this professional gut feel is priceless. It helps you make decisions that no one and no data can help you decide.

After 30 years in the industry (out of which 13 years running my own business), my business partner and I have developed a good feel of what kinds of clients will work well with us and which ones won’t.

We make decisions to take a client or otherwise pretty quickly after the first meet. When we stop to trust this feeling, it starts to punish us.

How long before you know you know something?

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What did they advise you?

People can tell you a lot of things about running a business. But one thing they forget, they aren’t in your shoes and probably won’t understand fully your situation. They also don’t understand what you want to build and how you want to build it.

That’s not to say you do not listen to well-intentioned advice. Take in all the advice. Then reflect. Sometimes act. Turn these into something that works for you. You need not take all the advice because it’s your business and it requires YOUR magic.

Who’s best to listen to?

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Can you face the facts?

Regardless of how bad your business situation is; confront the facts. Face them with courage and take the painful steps that you need to do. Understand that even with the best efforts, you may fail. It may take longer than expected to turn your situation around. But never ever lose confidence that eventually you will prevail, no matter how tough it is.

Recognise that you may fail, but never lose confidence that you will prevail.

Can you hold on to your confidence?

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Did you write it down?

If it's not written, it's not counted. Many people talk about all sorts of ideas over beer, at parties and at meetings. Writing commits your thoughts on paper. The process of writing it down shows the seriousness of your thoughts and ideas. It can be referred to at a later time. Heck, even resurfaced after you have long forgotten about them. Don't keep saying that you have thought about it or you have come out with the idea. If it's not written, there's no proof you had that idea.

After writing it down, explore it further. Give it the details and the flesh it needs to be bulky and actionable. Sometimes after writing, you would realise that it is not a very good idea at all or that you can’t even further it on a piece of paper; much less bringing it to live.

Did you flesh it out?

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Is it too expensive to sell?

You can make something expensive and sell it well as long as it is worth a lot more to your consumers.

Are you pricing too cheap?

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Are you smart enough to shut up?

You can’t affirm and assert your own superiority unless you have done the hard work to have the skills, knowledge and wisdom to back up them up. You know you run the risk of being exposed especially when you shoot your mouth off with more than you can back with true substance.

Are you wise enough to know understated superiority?

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Will you end up taking longer to arrive?

There is so much pressure to deliver the numbers that most business people end up doing what is easier, shorter and cheaper. As long as I deliver the numbers now, it doesn’t matter what happens years later. It is exactly this short-termism over years that contributes to the drag in a company’s progress. Too much focus on the short-cuts rather than the commitment in creating a long-term solution or system that works makes that drag (which you can fight for a while) a dead weight that drowns you.

Will you end up paying more than you can afford?

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Would you listen more?

Whenever you hear someone quote you cases and data to help with your business, resist the urge to deflect the examples and data as not relevant to you or that they are unlike your case. Especially when they come from people with experience, more than a few cases are quoted and the data reliable. That primal reaction of being defensive will not help your cause. It doesn’t solve your challenge. Being defensive gets you no solution.

Better yet, ask better questions. Ask more about how is this relevant? Why is this similar to your case? Your end objective should be to seek to understand and solve your problem. Not win an argument but your problem unsolved.

So, what if you win?

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Will you point the way?

There will come a time when you need to stop exploring. Yes, one of an entrepreneur’s strength is being creative. But at some point, you need to commit to the one point you want your team to go. Commitment is also an entrepreneur’s strength. Commit to a destination and then have the team row with you with vigor. That vigor from the team comes when they know you are committed. When you change the destination and/or the direction too often, it signals to them you haven’t got a clue.

Will they abandon ship?

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Do you really want to change for the better?

There are many opportunities that appear as stumbling blocks, more work, hard work and even unnecessary work. But these are things that makes you leap into the next frontier. Except they don’t have the bells and whistles that make it apparent to you. They can be a SOP that is WRITTEN, a real marketing plan that has segmentation and targeting done right and in writing and not just a flowchart, a coherent marketing communications plan that solves a marketing challenge instead of one dependent on a key person’s verbal brief.

These opportunities are there to help you grow. Growing takes effort and yes, there are painful work. Perhaps, that’s why they call it growing pains.

Are you jumping when you need to?

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What is your product?

If your product is delivered by a person, your product is a service as well. Don’t just look at what your consumers are consuming. Look at how it is being delivered to them as well.

What is your service?

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What do you fight with?

You can’t gain clarity if you don’t fight your own assumptions, wrestle with your own beliefs and tackle your own experience. Especially when new data and facts present themselves. There is a time to self-reflect and gain new insights.

Who would you wrestle today?

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What’s your opinion?

Everyone has an opinion on branding and marketing. Every Tom, Dick and Harriet is a brand strategist or a marketing strategist now. But not many can hold a substantial opinion that can weather the process of a good discussion much less debate.

The sad truth is many refuse to do their “homework” before appearing as an expert.

“I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything that I don’t know the other side’s argument better than they do.” — Charlie Munger

Did you do your homework?

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What is the best outcome?

It’s easy to get immediate wins. It’s tougher making tough decisions that take commitment, make it appear you are losing with immediate gains. These decisions often buys you time and options in the long run.

Building your brand over the long run takes investments that may not show immediate results. Over time it builds brand equity. It increases consumer’s willingness to pay for your brand over your competitors. You have to start now no matter how small you think this move will be and stay consistent to it.

What’s the best outcome in the long run?

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Will it make a difference?

Decisions on marketing and branding are like decisions on your fitness, health and finance. Small decisions that probably doesn’t make a lot of difference now but in the long run stacks the odds for you.

Not saving the few bucks on a daily basis probably doesn’t make you poorer. Saving that few bucks on a daily basis also won’t make you richer. Skipping your 5x5 program on back squats, bench press and weighted pull-ups won’t make you weaker now. Neither will it make you stronger five days down the road. Likewise, not doing brand building work will not hurt you now, nor will it help you that much. But over time, these millimeters that you gain by making the right decisions will be the miles in between you and your competitors.

Can you see the difference?

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What are you overlooking?

If your business isn’t working, don’t just look at your marketing. Chances are there are underlying issues to solve in finance, human resource, logistics and the likes. One way is to look at where your business is vulnerable. What is making it performing less than optimal now? The lack of business (and the main reason you are looking at marketing is because you think, if I can market more my business will be better) maybe because the business is not running optimally. In this case, bringing more people to your door will kill you faster.

Did you focus on the wrong thing?

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What is right?

I hear this very often in marketing, branding and communications plan or tactic meetings. “There is no wrong or right.” First off, there is a wrong or right. There are benchmarks we can measure with, best practices we can follow, experience we can lean on to get the right answer. Even if, that is even if I agree there is no wrong or right, there is always a better answer. We need to be courageous enough to be held accountable for our work. “There is no wrong or right” is a cop out answer to move forward so that you can’t be held accountable later.

Which is better?

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Where is the great wise one?

To develop your own wisdom that relates to your industry takes reflection and insight. No one can give it to you. You need to earn that wisdom. It comes with time, most definitely. You can surely depend on the wisdom of mentors but those are theirs. You include them into your own “system” while dependent on their answers and seeking your own. Over time with enough mistakes, the way you respond to those mistakes via reflection, you gain insight. The cumulation of these insights give you wisdom.

Who is the great wise one?

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Where would you stand at the end?

Do IT so well that no one else can copy you. “IT” being anything you choose to be great at. Notice I didn’t say good. That is your competitive advantage. In life or if you are marketing some stuff.

To be great at something may seem tough to do but I assure you. It’s not that difficult. Consider this, not many people have the tenacity and courage to be great. It’s tough work, half your competitors are gone. It takes time, another half of your competitors are gone. In this long hard work, you compete against yourself. When you win, you against your competitors too. It builds a moat around you. No one will come near you, no one will or can compete with you.

Is great that tough to do?

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Who’s better?

It takes awhile in life (mileage may vary) for one to realize, competing with yourself is the most challenging. That’s why most people choose to compete with someone else. They have someone else as their benchmark. Way easier to see what other peoples’ strengths and weaknesses are and then compete against that. Way tougher to turn the mirror towards us and face the ugly self. Admitting that, this is what I need to do, here is where I have to improve, here is what I need to stop doing.

Don’t score the wrong goals. This is life. Not a game.

Who are you competing with?

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What should vary?

Success leaves traces and these traces can be a common approach you can use. Sometimes we call these principles. Doesn’t mean it is suitable for everyone but it does mean it can be used as a guideline or general rules.

Does it mean if you follow it with surgical precision success will chase after you? Probably not. But it does mean now you have a set of principles you can follow. What differs is the approach. That is where you as a manager comes in, looking into the differences and the similarities and then prescribing the best way forward.

What should be the same?

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Why are you doing this?

You need one focused reason why you do what you choose to do. Then you can measure the commitment against the reason you chose to do it. You can measure if it is worth it at the end. All other reasons are secondary and bonuses. Don’t get sidetracked when you decide what to do. Focus on the one reason. Then decide whether you want to do it or not.

Why would the other reasons matter?

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Do you love the dark?

Most people focus on the light at the tunnel. Sure, it gives us hope. Keeps us going. But don’t ignore the long darkness in the middle. It is this stretch that makes you grow.

Did you ignore your growth?

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What can bring success?

Heroes and heroines who succeed bring heart to everything they do. They turn up, do the work and don’t complain. They don’t rely on motivation and inspiration. They do what they need to do when they need to do. Keep on keeping on and completing the work. That makes them heroes and heroines and that makes them succeed.

Who can succeed?

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Wanna try something new?

One easy way to keep looking for new and better ways to do things is to keep expanding your radius of experiments.

Keep pushing your boundaries and expanding your radius. Pushing the edge gives you the edge.

How do you do new things?

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Should you do it?

Many entrepreneurs get sidetracked into doing things their company can do just because it makes them money.

Pursuing everything that you can do rather than what you specifically want to do will put you on a very different route.

Think carefully about the route you want to take your company. Your mission, your strengths and the areas you want to strengthen. Focus on those to grow to where and what you want to be.

Where will it take you?

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