Don’t be Afraid of the Truth

We should never force a plan to work, because it would only cause too much problems, and we end up depressed. The best thing to do is to change the plan. Your goal is great, but specifications of goals is greater than the goals themselves. It tells you how you plan to achieve those goals. For example, “I want to help 1000s of people whom are going through their biggest challenges in life”, which is a fantastic objective. Asking how makes you thinks deeper. While you are thinking, and answering, different critics in how to achieve your goals will emerge.

Everything great has up- and downsides. The same people that can helps you succeed can also cause your failure. It might not be because of their performance or loyalty. But about their contribution to how you think. Let me introduce you to two different kinds of people, among many – the ones whom rather have you at their level and the ones whom will allow you to elevate to a level of your own.

Each one of these groups have their advantages and disadvantages. Those whom will have you at their level could be because they are thinking here and now. The argument could be, you would make more money now than what you are planning. In that situation, then you need to ask yourself a question, is money your motivation? If it is, then I recommend you follow that advice.

Because you have already accepted being at their level, which means you are either easy to manipulate, or you do not have enough confidence in your business. Lack of confidence is one of the basic reason that people do a lot of research. They want to know how their idea will make the world better. They don’t focus on money, but how they want to change the world.

When you want to change it, then stay away from these people – just have a social relationship with them – so you can do things that matters to you. The people whom will allow you to elevate to your level are the ones whom will criticize your idea. When these people are criticizing you, then they are asking questions, and putting perspectives into things.

There are different kinds of challenges, and you can’t predict all of them. These kind of people have input in different aspects to make your success harder. If it is not brutally hard, everyone will be doing it. People criticizes an idea for a reason. I won’t ask why people criticize your goals and objectives. But the truth is not about holding your hands; it prepares you for what you are getting into.

In all area of lives, critics do not condemn anything, but enlightens its weaknesses. I have a program for simplifying success, and I am still detecting flaws in it. The success are measured in different ways, and all ensures that each objective corresponds with plans and strategies. Thinking of critics or risks assessments as something that detects the ugly truth about your idea gives you a good overview of your business.

Don’t see these negativities as condemning perspectives, but as an opportunity to know where flaws lie, and consider strategies to handle them. You would know where to improve. Try to make it perfect, and breakdown the work force that surround goals achievements. It gives you a complete perspective of the good and bad in your business.

Infrastructure is Essential to All Businesses

Have you look around in your city, even on the internet? When you do in real life, you will transport yourself from one location to another with different methods. Whether you walk, ride bicycle or motorcycle, drive a car or other vehicles – they are all means of transportation. The things you transport on – road – are the infrastructures that make it possible to move around the city.

In your home, there are kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living room and so on, and they have infrastructures. Those roads, water pipelines, and so on allow you to live in your city. What do these have to do with business? I like to make it very simple for people to comprehend where I am going. The business idea can be seen as the house that people would live in.

For anyone to live in that house, they need to be able to cook, maintain hygiene, store food, electricity, water and so on. These things make it attractive for people – it covers all their basic needs in life. For people to find your company attractive, consider the same thing, and how they would attract people. Infrastructure could be the thing that make or break your business – today and tomorrow.

Our modern world has challenges for businesses – people entering and leaving – that proves that valuable things today becoming obsolete tomorrow. This is why we position ourselves in a dynamic environment – waking up to accept change. Changes are even visible in cities – they are consistently building new roads, houses, community centers and so on.

We need a dynamic infrastructure that can be changed in the future. The biggest challenge is the sunk cost, because it makes being dynamic harder. However, only when dwelling in negativities. Most sunk costs have already paid-off before they are unbeneficial. It might be crazy, but if an asset has generated significant revenue for a company, it has paid its due! For that reason, it could be used for other purposes or sell.

Your business has objectives to achieve/accomplish with SMART-method. How you plan to achieve every function/objective should have respective infrastructure. The most challenging aspect of infrastructure is establishing how these are interacting with one another. In these aspects, don’t focus on your competitors, but yourself. It proves your capabilities to yourself.

If you look at everything the company has: sales and marketing strategies, tactical and operation strategies, risks assessments and managements, research and developments, and so on, you will realize that everything participate in the big picture. There has to be a way to bring all these things together – infrastructure. Each objective/function has a parent (how), because how to get what you want is more important than what.

How tells your infrastructure, and how the “road” must be for it to achieve/fulfill that objective/function. Clarifying how to accomplish each objective is easy. But connecting them is a different story. For example if one objective focus on simplifying relationship between customers and the company, while another wants to maintain 600 customers within the next three months, they have to interact.

The simplification of relationship has to be constructed in a way that appeals to the masses, while aiming for 600 customers, which causes problem, because dissatisfaction rate was about 20%. The challenges are what connects the two, and how to link them. Do you know why? Because stabilizing how to simplify customer relationship covers much things, but connecting it to something else change things: using the customer relationship to attract as many people as possible.

Traditionally, a lot of things can happen on the way. Let me run a scenario – real life – that I have seen several times before. In a bus terminal, buses are aligned horizontally. Among them, there are two buses, three four buses in-between them that leave at the same time. These two buses follow the same route (to some extent). When one bus reverse, and start driving off, the other bus blocked its path, when it reverses.

The buses followed each other, with the blocker in front. But before they follow different paths, the blocked one in the beginning reached the destination first – the one that block comes second. It means something happens on the way that allows one to overtake the other. Business is similar – dynamic. Infrastructure must be very well prepared, before execution to achieve objectives. It is not about the what, but the how. It is the establishment of how your business will operate, interact, compete and achieve all of its goals.

Endless Planning

Business life is simple, when we are consistently planning where we are going. Our plans are evidence of it. Action research is a critical part of the business development. Normally speaking, before starting, you have done different kind of case studies – independently. This research is based on a lot of case studies. For example, if you are in electronic branch, you will start examining how to develop a prototype for a specific electronic device. If you are in publishing branch, you will do research on how the publishing process works, and how you could improve it, when you start your own business.

Plans and strategies are what keep business alive. If you want to last long, then you should consistently make plans. They takes time to prepare and planned. When it comes down to it, it is still all in the execution. Just like the best idea is useless, without acting on it, best plans are in the same condition without executions. Executing plans and strategies are what generate result.

In a dream world, each plan will work out exactly as expected, but in reality some plans will not work out, while others do work out. It is even possibly rare for a plan to work out, when comparing to what we expect. What we expect should be our driving power – the objectives. In all countries, businesses like LLC, AB, LTD are juridical people, whom are allowed to deal with people and other companies.

As a juridical person, they’d have their own life goals, which are divided into small goals, and executed one after the other. Since it has a life on its own, it has things to do consistently – none is simple “plug-and-play”. We cannot just provide one plan and execute it, because sometimes we find it more productive to simultaneously execute two three plans. This gives room to know the most productive plan, and the less productive ones.

Back in the early days, starting a business was more of a project. It was launching it, and expect people to buy from the company without doing much. That was a mistake that now make me laugh at myself. You have probably never made the same mistake, but it is worth learning from. Without mistakes, there are no improvements. Without failure, there won’t be success – they are paradox to one another.

The moment you start your business, it is standard for you to start executing the marketing plans and strategies. This is great, but we miss sales plan and strategies. The two are equally important, and we must know how to consistently plan and execute them. It is also beneficial to have both sales and marketing reflect on one another. Most of the time, there will be something bothering us – our worry plate. This worry plate puts us on our toes. They keeps us alert, which breathe life to the business.

As a businessman, you are a scientist, who makes different tests – finding answers, and allocating resources, based on those answers. There are no guarantees in business, due to endless worries, plans and strategies. But, they are what keep the business going. There are no consistent result, it is scaling what you found out, to determine how it will works out. The test tells if it will work out or not, so you can instantly decide to either stop it or improve it. If you stop it, then develop a new test.

When we say consistent planning, we mean you should always plan and execute something. After executing a plan, start working on a new one – all the time. Don’t stop planning and executing what you planned. When you stop, then you are throwing the towel – you are giving up. Meanwhile, we should try to find out if the previous plan worked out or not.

Wise Choice of Competitions

Kodak exited the market after long history of making money, because they could not maintain and sustain their conditions, while businesses in the same niche did. A firm normally goes into ‘attack mode’ when entering into the market. It is a way to demonstrate the incentive to battle against any company. Plans and strategies are mainly developed to do that. But, choice of competitions are more critical than any other things. I have seen companies competing against other companies not exactly in the same niche.

Amazon is an excellent example. I have seen companies picking them as competitors, because of high varieties of reasons. During the analysis of such companies, the only question I asked was, do these companies do what Amazon does, and why the competition? It does offer a variety of services, but first and foremost it is a retail store. eBay is also a retail store. Amazon and eBay could compete against each other, because they are exactly in the same niche. A competition against such company is very similar to competing against stores that are selling your products and services.

The competitions between IOS and Android is well known. Apple is a wonderful company, and as a business- man or woman, I won’t compete against it, unless it is necessary. If my business is not in the niche of electronic branch, competition is meaningless. Most – if not all – other branches are all in the niche of finding simplification for its customers/clients. The world is now more of mobility and information than stationary, which makes applications a valuable tool. I’m better off with an IOS application than creating a product to compete against them – I don’t have the same expertise.

The best competitive strategies find mutual features, benefits, experiences etc., from others that are similar, and differentiate itself from them – right? The moment you enter into a business, you are ready for a fight – admirable and determined. A true entrepreneur must pick its opponents and battles wiser than it pick its plans and strategies.

When you choose a competition, ask yourself, is the chosen rival what you are (remember you are your business)? Key Indicator Performance is a tool that helps narrow down the choices. When your competitions are not exactly the same, exclude or cooperate with them. A smart entrepreneur will rather focus on maximizing its profit than picking battles.

He/she only focus on doing the things that competitors do not think of, and that could boost the profit more than unnecessary competition. For maximization, we need to choose tactics that should benefit our business.  It means, another company’s customer is a prospective customer of ours. If people purchase products from Amazon, then we put our products on there, and their customers will become ours, without making them a competition.

Don’t get me wrong, pick your fight – I recommend you compete against anything that stands in your way. But, we have to thoroughly assess our opponents, before choosing them, and then plans and strategies to tackles them. When an opponent is wisely chosen, plans and strategies become easily developed and executed.

The Business’ Core

Two days ago, I found out what I was doing wrong: I never truly understand the business' core, until now. It is not the product or business idea. These are tools for creating the business core. We are all driven by one, and an organization needs one. Truth is, some people cannot think of it, except knowing what they want to do. Comprehending it helps create a solid business.

The value of a business lies in the core, and they are in combined creating competitive advantage that the business really need. The business core are the business scope, vision and mission. Traditionally, this is what start the business – we want to do something. There is already something specific that we want the products to do. We create a product/service to do that. As a result, we have the core, but might not be established – it does not necessarily mean we do not know what we are doing. 

These determine both the tactic and operational strategies of the business. It creates the process your business goes through, and we need to know the role it plays. For example, a business with a mission to provide products that boost the connections among people, must have products that fulfill those functions. We all have specific goals, but they are mostly tied together to the good life we really need, which is why knowing how to use the core help your business.

The things we do reflects on them. It’s imaginable that our current task/project is more favorable than dwelling in the past. People focus more on what they are currently doing, than its connection to previous things. Normally speaking, we have to let go of the past, and focus on the present. However, if you want to be successful, you have to make sure that what you did in the past are critical to your current ways of life.

For example, if you think of the ways you make your decisions, you will see how your experience also plays a critical role in making them. For us to know exactly what we do, acknowledge that everything we do must reflect on the business core – vision, mission and scope. They are the genesis and source of continuous planning, and make it easier to know the appropriate strategies for our business.

This is where you get your specialization, which gives you the authority in your area of expertise. Everything is under your control, you decide it, and success also depends on you maintaining them. They help create a solid business.

Business Needs Ideology

All ideologies define one idea about how people should be treated within the governed areas. In form of business, it is the way you threat other people. It is not just for governments in the world. It’s for organizations, business, institutes and everyone. It is an autonomous set of characters that define who you are, and the kind of people you associate with. You have one. Most – if not all – business analysts say we most specialize on one single thing, and put our resources around it.

It is the core of your business, which is the idea. This traditionally define required resources, how you need to be, and more importantly who you need to be. They are all together collaborating to establish your business’ ideology. If you are alone, providing a cogent one might not be needed. However, when you start reaching out to customers, clients, investors and so on, you realize that you'd have to be something to approach them. They approach the identity – before considering financial benefits.

If you've been in business, and hired people, you neglected others in the process that goes from applications to interview. And worse, more people will be stopped after the interview, while only a few get hired. This happen because of a lot of reasons. But it could be because they do not fit into the business culture or they just don’t belong. Did you see how ideology greatly reflect on your business?

In short, it defines what you believe in, which could be why your business exist. It is what you stand for, and whom you might interact with. It contribute to minimizing your chance of failing. Malcom Little (Malcolm X) said, "If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything.” Ideology defines a business, and help with creating a solid business – you know what you are fighting for.

This could be one of the reasons most companies failed in the beginning - no clear identity of the reason they are existing or how they need to be to define and relate with the market. For example, an entertainment company that do not have anything that actually make people happy. Imagine entering into a theatre, and don’t have the entertaining feeling. Or a company with business scope that strengthens how it sympathize with its customers, but when communicating with the customers, they are replying with "oh, that's bad", "what? He did that".

This obviously could be interpreted as they are not sympathizing, but rather striving after getting customer off the phone. You as a person needs an identity, and so do your business. Reflect on it, why do your business exist, who does it talk to? What gives it authority? Why should someone follow it? It might be analyzing your vision, but make sure you'd know what your business stand for, otherwise it might fall for anything.These are why you are still in business – stand for something!

The Believable Brand

Creating a brand can be challenging in different ways, because it must align with how you are interacting with the customers – and build faith in your products. Forget the challenges, and focus on making sure that the branding is intact. But first, we should define branding. The promise you make to the customer. A matter of expectations that you promise to manifest. This is a marketing practice, where you’d create something that directly identifies your product, while differentiating it from all other products in the same niche.

It is a story that define the things that your company stands for – it is a matter of what people can relate to when they think of your company. This gives you the major edge that increase your competitive advantage in the market. Establishing a brand has different process. The best thing is to make sure that this brand is absolutely taken from whom you are, where you are expecting to go, and the people you are perceived to be. This is what place a position for your business.

The believable brand is the one with clear identity. The thing that will easily differentiate you from others. For example, when you’d think of making telephone calls, you’d think of a phone. However, when specify the phone, you might think of Apple, Samsung, Sony, LG, HTC and so on. These kind of thoughts depend on a lot of factors – but it can be narrowed down in different ways.

Consider where you will go when you are in need of something. If it is food, you might go to Walmart or a fast-food restaurant. The brand for such fast-food company could be the taste, how fast you’d get your food, and so on. Your process of picking a product/service is quite similar. Customers behave differently for high variety of reasons.

Your brand has to be aligned with your identity! So far, it would have established itself. In the materials you’ve already developed, your brand is there – just reflect on them, and you will find it. Just reflect on everything you’d got, and you will see the branding coming to your mind. Your identity has to be consistent, and it will be in your best interest to maintain it! For more information about branding, click here.