In business as in life, nothing comes easy even if it is made to seem so. That successful business down the road – Do you really think they became successful by sitting on their hands and waiting for people to come to them to use them? Do you really think that they never chased a contract in their business life…of course they did, the fact is that they may have worked until their fingers bled, burnt the midnight oil and then some, but all the while they probably won’t tell you that it went like this – instead it’ll be a rosy picture of “well we simply did this or all we did was this…†makes it sound easy doesn’t it?
The fact is – business is not easy…
…It’s not a simple road to riches. You have to work and work and work even harder to build up a good business and it won’t happen by accident!
I’ll let you into a little secret…
In the world of business you and you alone make your own luck. It is in your hands is your success. You really can be the master of your own destiny.
How so? How can it possibly be so simple after all I’ve just told you about it being a long hard struggle? Well here’s the thing – it is never going to be an overnight success. Never. You will never open a business one day and then the next, have a train load of customers turn up at your door. (Unless you are opening a train station of course!) But you can seriously weigh the “luck†factor in your favor. All you need to do is become a “do-er.”
Yup, it’s that simple. Become a do-er. You want to get that shining diamond of a contract? Write the letter to the company offering that contract and tell them why your company would be best suited to getting that contract. Do you have an area of expertise? Contact your local paper/magazine/good blog and offer to write on that subject? Get your name out there and known. Start to build you business by doing. After all no-one is going to “just come to youâ€. You need to actively make moves so it’s easier for people to approach you back.
Remember years ago (no… further back than that…you’re not that young you know!!) Remember the school dances? Boys on one side, girls on another? Now think who were the successful ones that got all the dances with the pretty girls? That’s right, the ones who approached them and asked them to dance. It certainly wasn’t the ones sat the back of the hall in the dark and gloom. It was the ones at the front of the hall bopping away in the flashing disco lights, having all the fun, weren’t they?
Well in business you too can have all the fun. Just get up from the back of the hall and start asking for those dances! You’d be amazed at the “success†you get if you just get up and ask for it. Go on try it – You deserve it!
This is all so very true. Some people desperately want to be business owners, but know their chances of failing are high, and that it’s going to take some imaginative thinking… not robot-like actions of a 9-5 that they may be used to. I believe business is something that takes a lot of guts, and ambition to achieve… it doesn;t just happen, which is why I feel so many businesses fail. Contrary to the old saying “build it and they will come”… we need to put ourselves out there a bit more… because they don’t just come!
Good post!
-Terra
http://www.BetterForBusiness.com
Yes Terra, that’s so true…they don’t just come because you “build it”…but hey, when I was told it would be blood sweat and tears by my Dad when I first went into business I didn’t fully get what he meant back then…I do now!! lol.
thanks for the comment. 🙂
Your term ‘doer’ reminded me of a comment the CEO of Detroit’s oldest architectural firm once told me – “Ed, I am a doer-seller” which meant that he sold what he worked on. He didn’t have a salesperson sell for him. Sometimes in business you wear many hats. There are hundreds of business models that work, you just have to discover the one that works for you. I too am a doer-seller.
Hmmm…a doer-seller…I like it Ed, it’s really does what it says on the tin!! 🙂
I so agree that you have to wear many hats…today my role is going consist of dogedly tracking down a particular television producer and trying to cold pitch an idea I have for show to him…training my new PA and getting her settled into my style of working, advising 5 other staff members when required, and hopefully signing up 3 new franchisees today and that’s all before the natural run of the day takes over and general business “stuff” crops up as it tends to do…If each hat were a different colour then I guess todays going to be a real rainbow day!!! lol!