I wrote a post roughly three weeks back titled, “The 3 Rs for Closing Out the Year” recommending what steps to take with your solopreneur business in order to have a strong start to 2010. Now in our third full week of the new decade, are your New Year’s resolutions decaying?


This is the time most people run the risk of allowing their resolutions to become rubbish. The post-holiday blahs are kicking in at the same time results from most of your resolutions haven’t had an opportunity to take hold; couple that with a British researcher, Dr. Cliff Arnall, designated today as “The Most Depressing Day of the Year” for many reasons, and you run the high risk of bad habit relapse.


You’re still in the process of change. Running a successful business is tough – running a faltering business can be tougher. Although we would all love to sprint to quick success, business is a marathon requiring proper pace and patience.


Where you happy with the results from your 2009 habits? If so, then you probably made few (if any) resolutions. However, if you’re hoping for positive changes in 2010, then you need to be dedicated to change at a time when your desire for the comfort of your common habits is kicking in.


Here are a couple of techniques to help keep hope alive.


1. Take an honest look back at your 2009 results as compared to your potential. You need to remind yourself of the results you experienced from past decisions and actions. Making weak choices has more to do with failure than the economy.


2. Review your resolutions, better yet, post them in from of your workspace. You need to keep your resolutions present – a morning mantra – in order to effect change. We are creatures of habit, and if you don’t train yourself to think and act differently, you will fall into the same old traps.


3. Are all resolutions created equal? Shed your unrealistic resolutions now. If not, their inevitable failures create a cancer that can kill your desire to remain dedicated to the healthy resolutions.


4. Change starts one step at a time. Although you may be hoping for growth in leaps and bounds, there are factors outside of your control that can leave you feeling stuck. When you get stuck, stop and think about your next action instead of acting on instinct. Most people will go with what they know instead of trying something new. Is your choice of action leading you towards your new goals? If not, choose change in favor of comfort.


5. Stay healthy. Watch your diet, get plenty of exercise and rest. Your physical health has a tremendous impact on your energy level, your focus, your clarity of mind and your attitude. Bad attitudes lead to backsliding.


6. A stumble isn’t a trend. Just because you may have made a weak choice leading you away from one of your resolutions doesn’t mean you can’t get back on track right now. Did you learn anything from this mistake? Hopefully, it reinforced your belief that your old habits are the real rubbish and not your new resolutions.


I don’t think it’s any big shock to you that most people are like electricity – seeking the path of least resistance. However, most people aren’t successful solopreneurs. Now is the time to install a delay in your circuitry, take a second look at your New Year’s resolutions, shed the truly unrealistic ideas and re-commit yourself anew to those that you can achieve.


All the Best,


Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

Unless this post is your first experience with my site, you know I am a solopreneur business consultant and copywriter. My consulting work thus far runs a 75 / 25 split of curing the ills of troubled businesses versus assisting solopreneurs in the start-up phase. There are a couple of common themes amongst these troubled companies – a primary illness is the dreaded “launch quickly then figure out what to do” disease.

Often, sinking solopreneurs ask me to help them with new marketing ideas. After a series of questions, my instinct is to focus our combined efforts on the research and analysis of marketing instead of communications.

Why?

Marketing consultant, Greg Digneo, put it perfectly in his interview when I asked if good marketing can save a bad business model. His response, “I believe in the opposite actually – good marketing will make a business with a bad model go bankrupt faster.” I believe he is right.

Want some examples to clarify the point? I’ll give you three. Some of these you may not remember because they came and went in a flash (supporting Greg’s point), but not without burning up a substantial stash of cash first.

Fashion Café

Mentioning a collaboration between Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Ell Macpherson and Christy Turlington is an excellent method for getting the news sources buzzing. Add in famed Italian restaurateur, Tommaso Buti, into the recipe and how could the Fashion Café flop?

Who doesn’t want to eat like a supermodel with tummy tempting delights like the Naomi inspired $20 salad – a pack of cigarettes, a flute of champagne, two tomato slices and a leaf of iceberg lettuce? Kicked off in the mid ‘90s with plans of world domination through multiple locations and bloated marketing, go figure they went belly-up.

Honorable mention:       Planet Hollywood. Sure it’s still around, but when was the last time you or anyone you know ate in one? It’s a far cry from the hype when they first launched it.

McDonald’s Deluxe Line

Any product launched under the golden arches is like being born into the Walton family (Wal-Mart founding family, not John-Boy); you instantly have a bank full of cash to do as you please. The McDonald’s execs brought in an executive chef and forked over a $100 million to an ad agency for this alternative line for “grown-up tastes”. Sources online indicate the final price tag for this flop was $300 million.

Honorable mention:       New Coke.

The Adventures of Pluto Nash

Hollywood is a business built on buzz. A studio gives the instant greenlight to a project including funny people Eddie Murphy, Randy Quaid, Jay Mohr, Peter Boyle and John Cleese. However, this epic flop saw nothing but red. With a reported total budget of $100 million, after separating out payroll and production costs, the marketing whizzes still had roughly $40 million to play with for marketing and distribution. The results? A $95 million loss.

Honorable Mention:       85% of all films produced in the USA.

So if your business is faltering, don’t immediately jump to marketing campaigns (aka marcom). Take a step back and remember the other two key elements of marketing  - research and analysis.

1. Do you have a well defined UVP (Unique Value Proposition)?
2. Do you have a well defined target audience?
3. Is this audience growing or shrinking? Are they large enough to support your goals?
4. Is your UVP properly aligned with your target market?
5. Do you have the right mix of products and services at a fair market price?

There are a number of other solopreneur soul-searching questions to ask before seeking out a marketing expert. If you don’t know how to answer these questions, seek out a business consultant before funding more marcom programs.

All the Best,

Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide 

First, let me wish you a Happy New Year before we just jump right in! The start of a new year is often a time to review, reorganize and renew your strategies for success.

My post today is about unemployment. May not be the happiest of topics for the start of 2010, but as an earning solopreneur, you should still care what happens with the job market. Although you are the captain of your own personal industry, you’re sailing a sea of people set adrift due to downsizing and business closures.

So how does this apply to you?

That depends. This population can help or hinder your business. I think most of us don’t assume that because we are solopreneurs, this new mass of unemployed only have an indirect impact on our businesses by creating a lag on a recovering economy. It is quite possible a percentage of these people will become a competitor, a customer or a partner.

In a recent article written by AP Economics Writer, Jeannine Aversa, titled, “Even as Economy Mends, a Jobless Decade May Loom”, we may have to wait until 2015 to see a job market with an unemployment rate closer to the 5% – 6% that we’ve become accustom to. The article quotes there are 15.4 million jobless in the States. I personally know a number of unemployed people not currently cashing a government issued check, making that number erroneously low.

Even if a third of this population find jobs in the next two years, this still leaves a significant force of talented people hunting for opportunities to create their own income.

My recommendation, stay aware of this trend and assess what industry sectors and job titles are hardest hit so you can determine how this impacts your current business plan.

According to a recent Rasmussen Report, 67% of Americans believe the unemployment rate will be the same or higher in 2010 than in the recently departed year – and we do live in a world of perception. If these same people polled are those out of work, chances are higher that they will curb their spending and / or decide to open a business of their own instead of waiting for a viable job offer to come along.

No, you don’t need to watch unemployment stats like a day trader watches the fluctuations of foreign currencies, but it doesn’t hurt to take some time periodically (now and in another three months) to do some research and stay aware of the developing trends.

Here are some links to sites that can help you with unemployment stats:

US Department of Labor

US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation

MSN Career Builder Job Info & Trends

Just as you would watch any other growing demographic, this is a significant segment of our population that can potential add dollars to your business or take them away. Through research and planning, you can properly alter your business plan to turn this tide in your favor.

All my best to you in your endeavors for 2010!

Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

Whether your business is booming or you’re wandering opportunistically hoping for luck to happen, the closing of the year is an excellent occasion to focus on the 3 Rs for building a better start to the New Year.

But wait, if business is booming, why would you need to build a better start? If it ain’t broke don’t sweat it, right? Not so fast. We’ll get into why this is a weak choice in a minute. For those of you with lackluster livelihoods, making a change is a more obvious choice.

And now, on with the 3 R’s.

Review

In every industry and with the companies competing for its market share, there are cycles. Just a few short years ago construction, real estate and mortgage lending as a whole were making some millions, but now instead of buying a new Benz, many of these same people are filing BK. If your business is doing well, you still need to take time periodically for review to ensure that the road ahead is as advantageous as you assume it will be.

If your business is flat lining and you’re on the verge of signing the death certificate, if you can afford to, take a week or two to review first. You’ve dedicated time and money, you sacrificed time with the family, don’t throw it away just yet. You may be missing the mark due to a few tweaks.

Instead of listing all areas of your business to consider in this post, check out my Review page for a detailed run down. If this is a good down time for you, take the time to assess all items now instead of waiting.

Reorganize

Don’t skip to this step without performing your review first. Although you may think you know your business and your industry, as mentioned above, we operate in dynamic markets. Your review is similar to going in for a physical. You will make better choices when you know specifically what to focus on.

Once you’re armed with that knowledge, re-assess your original plan and create current market-appropriate alternatives for moving forward. But, you say you already have a business plan? Business plans are living documents. Unless your business is ready to go belly up, you don’t often have to revamp your entire original plan. Often some simply massaging in a couple of key areas will suffice.

Your sole action may be to perform a SWOT analysis. You may need to further fine tune your target market. A common mistake when you’re struggling for survival is to go after everyone and anyone. This is often a deadly mistake.

Let me share an analogy to help make the point.

About 15 years ago, I used to body surf regularly at a world famous location at the end of the Balboa Peninsula in southern California called, the Wedge. On a good day, waves would roll in somewhere between 15 – 20 feet and break right on shore. This spot was responsible for quite a few broken necks and dislocated shoulders. If you didn’t have your fins and were only accustom to waist-high waves, it was best to stay on shore and enjoy the scenery.

My roommate at the time had a friend visiting from Indiana. Having lived in Fort Wayne, I can safely say I saw more cows and cornfields there than waves. Feeling courageous, this visitor wanted to head back home with more than a T-shirt. The day we took him to the Wedge, the waves were about 5 – 7 feet overhead on average – a decent day.

While out bobbing in the water trying to learn the feel for the flow, a swell came in producing some 10-foot waves. Now when these waves start rolling, they not only put a pounding on you if you’re in the wrong spot, but they also create an incredibly strong undertow.

The inexperienced swimmer can find themselves in a nasty situation in a hurry. As you struggle to swim to shore, the undertow will pull you backwards into a wave that will hammer down on top of you or suck you up, throw you and then put you through a massive rinse cycle.

Most inexperienced swimmers will struggle through this airy wash trying to find the surface, just in time to realize that they are being pulled back into position to go through this energy draining cycle again. And again. And again, depending how long the set lasts or until a lifeguard can pull you out.

Our Hoosier friend found himself in this situation. We were yelling helpful instructions to him that we informed him of before he entered the water, but his survival instincts deafened him to our advice.

In these situations, it is best to stay calm, swim out to face the wave, duck under it, blow out your air and head for the bottom. All sets give you an opportunity to find smaller waves or calmer waters to make your way back to shore. However, most people not experienced in dealing with these waves will struggle to find the surface and the shore – all the while expending most of their energy after the first wave or two.

Trying to grab any business that comes your way can have the same affect. Different customers have disparate demands requiring variations on products, services, marketing, customer service, etc… You are at high risk of expending your energy and money trying to find which way is up after being sucked into this whirlpool.

With your newfound knowledge from your review, reorganize your plans (strategies and tactics) and goals – and stick to them.

Renew

Now that you have a clearer picture of your business and market, plus a focus for moving forward, it is time to recharge your batteries. Whether the forecast is sunny or stormy, the weather will change. You want to make sure that you are fully rested for the year ahead.

What are some simple ways to recharge?

• Dedicate yourself anew. Remember why you started your business and what goals you are going to accomplish.
• Get some rest.
• Get regular exercise and watch your diet. I know that this is a tough time of year to accomplish these two when friends and family take up your time and big meals are customary. However, you only have to make some sacrifices over the next two weeks to give you a good start for the New Year.
• Set up new motivators that may be more applicable to your current situation. After reviewing and reorganizing, you may have an altered focus requiring new motivators.

The reality is you can prioritize time for the 3 R’s at any time throughout the year. Depending on your industry, your year-end may fall in a month other than December. However, in most industries, the close of the year traditionally is a period when prospects and customers focus on family and friends. Take advantage of this time to re-assess what your business needs instead of simply running it.

All the best during these holidays.

Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide

When was the last time you gave your business a good SWOT?

Now I know we all have different parenting skills for raising our solopreneur babies. You may be the overly nurturing type that wants to spoil that offspring of yours in hopes that it will buy you a big house and send you on fancy vacations when it becomes rich and famous.

But, I’ve parented a few businesses (and babysat quite a few others) in my time, enough to know that if you don’t apply consistent discipline to this baby of yours, chances are that instead of it taking care of you in your old age, you will be paying its bills for a long time to come.

So what can you do? Give it a good SWOT.

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. A SWOT analysis supports a goal that you want to achieve in your business. The purpose of the SWOT analysis is to paint a realistic picture of what you have going for you and what you are up against in reaching your goal. This quick visual analysis stimulates strategic planning to take advantage of your strengths and opportunities while mitigating or eliminating your weaknesses and threats.

For example, you may decide that you want to reach a goal of $10,000 a month consistently in revenue. As the diagram above shows, you will create a four-square analysis comparing your strengths and weaknesses with the external opportunities and threats that exist for that specific goal.

The first key ingredient to a successful SWOT analysis is to make sure that you set a realistic, obtainable short-term goal. Your longer-term, bigger goals and strategies are in your business plan, right? If you don’t have a business plan, we can argue that point later, but at least give a good look at my Planning page.

The second key ingredient to a successful SWOT analysis is honesty. When you are listing your strengths and weaknesses, you need to be honest with yourself. Don’t worry, since you are a solopreneur, no one else is watching. You will do yourself a big favor by setting the ego aside.

The third key ingredient is don’t hold back when creating your list for each section. Write down everything that comes to mind. You don’t want to edit as you go along. This can lead to frustration and writer’s block. You want the ideas to flow first, then save the editing for later.

What do you edit out? Anything that doesn’t apply to your goal.

Once you have a clearer picture with your SWOT analysis, you can start to formulate strategies for reaching your goals. This is an excellent method for setting appropriate goals and re-energizing your efforts.

And as always, if you find that you are struggling with a SWOT analysis for your solopreneur business, don’t give up. Your business needs your attention. Write me back. I am here to help you through this.

All The Best,

Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur’s Guide