Frogs

Do you want to know the best piece of advice I can give? Here it is – Do things which make money. Okay listen to this – now maybe I’m a simpleton but after years of browsing the net, gleaning bits and pieces about aspects of good business practice and how to implement them, and after talking for four million hours with clients and listening to people blathering, it’s rare to find stuff which pinpoints exactly why all of this is important. All the coaching and blogging in the world isn’t going to help you if you are lost in the details and losing the reason why you are working – to make money.

Now I’m not talking philosophically here. I’m talking nuts and bolts. I understand all of the new gurus bleeting on about having a passion for participating in conversations et al. And this is great if you are a business and you have in place a plan to make money out of those conversations. If you are not in business this does not apply to you so you can go back to chatting, blogging, facebooking, twittering, whatever it is you do which makes you feel good. If you have a business then your number one priority is to make money and I don’t care what anyone says. All the kindheartedness and social well-being you have pent up which you want to impart on the world as a business owner means nothing if your business is going down the toilet.

So here’s the thing – start from the end point and work back. The end point is of course making the money. Consider this as a lily pad and you are a frog. Now jump back from your lily pad until you reach where your product is conceived. If your path is too long and complicated take out all the lily pads which are not helping you get cash in the company. Draw lily pads up on a whiteboard and in each pad write the step you have in place which leads from your product to your customer. Don’t lose sight of this drawing – ever.

It’s simplistic and metaphoric (a little like me) but the essences of things often are.