How To Be Happy In Business

I got my beloved laptop back this week and while the ancient desktop, kindly lent by Steve Watson, did stirling service, I’m so glad my lappie is back.  One thing I realised though, I had to give it a tidy up!

I had been introduced to Dropbox just before the power failed on my laptop, so my first job was to set that up – as Dropbox backs up and updates the files you set to sync constantly, and you can get 50GB for $9.99 a month, it’s brilliant value and very practical.

The first thing to tidy up was my desktop – I’d got used to working minimally over the last week and wanted to get rid of the non-essential items on the desktop.  One of the things I found though, that I had downloaded from somewhere, was this Venn Diagram which had obviously struck a chord although I hadn’t looked at it since.

However, as it’s the time of year that you think about the year to come, what you are going to focus on, what you want to do differently, etc., I thought I would print it off and just think about it for a while.

I loved it’s simplicity and the colours appealed too!  Reminds me of a kitchen we had in a house we renovated!

As you may know, for various reasons I’m slowly moving away from the whole wealth creation arena, in spite of various offers to stay involved.  This has left a real void in my working life as I search for a clear and inspirational direction, going forward.  It needs to be inspirational, so that I keep motivated!  I haven’t had a problem with being motivated, ever since I founded The Money Gym, and I want to feel that impassioned for the next 10 years too!

Several people and books have helped enormously, notably Joff Day’s “How To Let Go & Move On” and Daniel Priestley’s “How To Become A Key Person Of Influence” and I’m now reading Andy Shaw’s “Creating A Bug Free Mind” which is going to have a big effect on my thinking, I know.

But I have been wandering around in what Judith Morgan called the “creative void” for about a year now.  Drawn to Local Business Marketing, but not massively keen on all the going out and networking that requires, knowing I could bring value to any business, in terms of marketing strategy, but a bit put off by all the competition out there.  Also I’m pretty bad at follow up and carry through, so unless I build a team of outsourcers I’m going to struggle with delivery.

But as I sat and looked at this Venn Diagram, wondering what I should focus on in 2011, I had a moment of clarity. I was asking myself the questions….

What do I do well?

1. Writing
2. Speaking & Inspiring
3. Creating Strategy
4. Finding Great Tools To Assist With That

What Do We Want To Do?

1. Writing
2. Speaking
3. Help people create strategic plans for their businesses

What We Can Be Paid To Do?

Aye, there’s the rub (as my old dad AND Steve Watson say on a regular basis).

It’s not so much as what we can be paid to do, as what people are willing to pay for, as the recession continues and investment in one’s business gets more and more cautious.

Can I be paid to speak?  Yes, but I need to join the Professional Speakers Association and find myself an agent perhaps?

Can I be paid to write?  Well, I’m not willing to be a writer for hire but if I keep blogging daily, the traffic will increase on this blog to the point where I’ll earn from affiliate commissions, advertising and consultancy work.  It might even lead to more speaking gigs.

Can I be paid to help people create strategic marketing plans for their business?  Yes, I think I can.

As someone with a mailing list, I’m able to quite easily see what people will buy, because some mailings fall flat and some just fly.

The things I’m finding people are willing – even keen – to pay for are:

1. Anything with a guaranteed Return On Investment
2. Building WordPress websites for those with “websites that don’t work”
3. Stockmarket trading type investment workshops
4. Marketing type products (but not recurring memberships right now even if better value)

Number 1 is interesting as it makes for a whole new way of selling – which is much nicer actually, as it involves learning about someone’s business, working out what improvements in traffic and conversions they might achieve, and what value that might add to your business.

Well, I can certainly do Number 2, or outsource it to Steve, and it’s a good lead product for a full online marketing strategy, or when offered as part of an ongoing “done for you” service.  It’s not a viable business model if you are just going to build those websites, as that’s just trading time for money.

Number 3 is out, however I do know some great people to refer those folks to, so can earn commission for that.

Number 4 was discovered, when I soft-launched the Spartan Marketing Masterclass in December.  It sold well considering I only did a sales video and not a full sales letter, and it was just leading up to Christmas so I’m very excited about the possibilities for the New Year, and the participants are saying we are delivering great value so far.

Spartan Marketing can be a live Masterclass as it is already, delivered by webinar, a home study product, a series of articles, an ebook then a real book, a membership site, 1-day workshops and 2-day bootcamps.

See?  I talked myself right into that one!  It’s a brand that’s pretty much creating itself to be fair, ever since I came up with the name.  To the point where I bought the domain names today.  Always a green flag sign.

Then I went to look at the website of the chap who created this Venn Diagram – easy because it was in the diagram itself.

I found Bud Caddell at WhatConsumesMe.com – another inspirational blog to add to my Feedreader!

Go check it out – he credits being raised by two generations of entrepreneurs for his insights and I’ve become an instant fan!

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