Archive of posts from July 2019

What do you do when ‘sales’ stops working in your (otherwise) sustainable business?

We fix it! (What’s the alternative?)

First: Is it you?

There’s one of three reasons why your sales would decrease. The first is the most common: you’re the problem.

Not the market, not the platform… you.

How can you be the problem? Simple: you break it.

You could overcook the “marketing” with overly-complex technology solutions you don’t fully understand. Now it’s broken.

You could decide to...

If we have the right business strategies, can we circumvent the need for hard work?

If that’s the goal, it’s normally the wrong goal:

Strategy without hard work

We’re sold this structure in almost every marketing advert we see online.

“There’s one secret trick you don’t have that enables easy success. Sign up for the webinar now.”

Of course, it’s premises like this that give “marketing” a bad name.

You see, this is unnatural in our current market. Effective,...

Every time I make something, I’m haunted by this.

“How could it be better?”

“How could it be more valuable?”

“How could it serve more deeply?”

While everything must eventually ship, and while this is no excuse for procrastination, there’s a curse we should all carry if we care.

That curse is this: being haunted by the pursuit of bringing even more value to those you wish to serve.

Blog posts can’t be perfect. But if there’s more you could...

“Why is profit not the most important thing to your business?”

Great question, and one I received this week that I thought I’d speak to on the daily blog.

Profit’s important, of course.

Profit is a requisite economical component of operating a business in the market in our era. Without any profit, any hiccup will put us into debt we can’t pay back. We can’t invest in growth under those conditions, we can’t support our teams under those conditions, and...

Doing good has always been hard.

It has always been easier to turn a profit when you don’t keep giving it away to people who can never repay you. Worse, to those who you wouldn’t permit to repay you, even if they could.

The interesting change occurring today is… that’s all changing.

See change

People wear their hearts on their sleeves, heads, pants, wrists… this is the new economy: people care more now.

Assuming responsibility for the world we...

We see 10,000 ads a day, according to Forbes. Ten thousand.

And we receive them across phones, tablets, notebooks, smart TVs, smart speakers, messengers… people are getting blind to ads, right?

Wrong.

What doesn’t work anymore

People are not getting blind to ads.

They’re getting blind to selfish people.

They’re more-than-ever interested in messages, stories and encounters with people who clearly have a heart of service for them.

People may be seeing 10,000 ads a day. But 99% of those...

We all measure progress a little differently, don’t we? Consider these scenarios…

Male entrepreneurs on Instagram with their success quotes and nice suits.

‘Like’ counts that dictate whether the highlight reel of our life is worthy.

How many dollars turned-over in our business in a 12-month period.

Compare these scenarios to…

Using the tools available to us to bring something special to the world (because the well-copied path is already well-trodden).

Staying the process regardless of how many ‘Likes’ something...

You’re turning customers away without realizing it.

The reason? Paradoxically, because you’re too afraid to turn away customers intentionally. Let’s unpack this…

Why nobody wants to ‘wear’ your brand

Nobody wants to wear one-size-fits-all clothing.

It’s not flattering. It doesn’t pull in any of the right places. It doesn’t hide your embarrassing bits. It’s not your color.

Yet the garment that doesn’t want to turn anyone away… the garment that pursues a “yes” from everyone… gets a “no” from...

Which pieces are the replaceable parts of your cause-driven business?

The whole thing:

If you don’t do it, someone else will…

As we’ve covered in the past on the blog, consumers are becoming increasingly intolerant to businesses without cause.

As that trend continues, we’re going to see more and more cause-driven and sustainable businesses for the benefit of the marketplace and of causes that need our support.

None of us are, individually, so special that the world needs us....

There’s a popular Forbes article doing the rounds at the moment, citing that social enterprises must put purpose second in order to survive.

Nonsense.

Delaying purpose delays connection

Purpose is part of a cause-driven or sustainable business’ ability to relate to its target audience.

It’s a way to isolate not just “why this” but also “why us” and “why now”.

Delaying connection–denying a business’ ability to relate with and endear those it wishes to serve–is a fast-track to commoditization.

Fascinating thing about website owners…

A website is needed… So a website is made.

When it’s done, you hope it’s amazing. And when you think about improving it, you do one of two things:

1. You tweak things based on your own preferences, or based on what you saw someone say in a blog post. Or,
2. You look at your stats and make improvements based on what you think that data is telling you.

Here’s the fascinating part…

At...