Boy, that’s an exciting headline, huh? What could possibly be the most important thing you could be doing to market your coaching or consulting business?
Most marketing experts will tell you it’s clearly branding your business or creating your comprehensive marketing plan. Both those are certainly important.
But according to 19 year-old entrepreneur Ben Casnocha, founder of Comcate and author of My Start-Up Life: What a (Very) Young CEO Learned on His Journey Through Silicon Valley, the most important thing you can do when starting a business is “harbor a bias towards action.”
If you want a successful business, any successful business, you have to take action. Don’t just think or talk about your ideas; actually put them into action. Successful business owners actually implement their ideas. They let themselves make mistakes, learn from those mistakes and keep growing. Action is what makes a business successful.
If you’re a coach or consultant, you’re paid to think, to talk, to be an expert. Yet to be successful in your business you’ll need to go beyond just thoughts and conversation. You’ll need to actually implement them.
How? Action steps
- Write it down
When you have an idea around your business, write it down (take action). Writing it down makes it a bit more real. If your thought in your mind, it’s likely to get jumbled up with the thousands of other thoughts you have each day. - Brainstorm
After you take the action of writing down your idea, brainstorm it. You can do this in as little as 2-3 minutes. Take longer if you have But get your thoughts about the idea on paper while their fresh. You’ll be surprised what this can lead too. - Action Steps
At the end of your mini brainstorming session, write at least one thing you can do in the next 48 hours that will help in the development of your idea. AND DO IT! - Do It
I put this twice on purpose. It’s in the action of doing that you’ll find success. Creating action steps that you don’t take action on are useless. So honor yourself and your ideas by following through on your action steps. - Get Help
If you find you’re having trouble implementing your ideas, get help. There are plenty of coaches and consultants who can help you take action. Generally, consultants are great for ideas and training while coaches tend to be better at keeping you on task and helping with follow through.
Believe it or not, this is how almost every successful business gets launched. You have an idea and you put it into action. So today, how can you take a single step toward implementing your best idea? Think about it – then act. First with your comments below.
Thanks to Wendy Piersall for asking me to write for her Second ‘How To’ Group Research Project. There’s a number of great posts people have put up on various topics around blogging and business. Check some of them out:
- Mr Flexibility: finding work-life balance
- How to start a company and a family at the same time
- How to cross-market your blog and your business, promoting each to each other’s audience
- Increase your blog’s stickiness
- Google Sitemaps: get found faster
- Countermeasures to combat Google Page Rank leak
- Non-techie intro to SEO
- The how and why you should start leveraging video
- 3 huge steps on how to leap from the business security of a job to a home business
- Beyond Adsense, how to attract independent advertisers to your blog
- How to get your Google Adsense account banned
- How do you get your home business setup right?
- Moving to another domain, what I’ve learned so far, part 1
- Recognition, reaching out, & beyond
- The ultimate guide to where the moms are online
- Safely move your blog
- Protecting forms from spam
- What is Reddit and how can I use it to promote and market my blog posts?
- Web 101, the three-column CSS layout
- CSS for beginners – changing the fonts
- Quick guide to Google Analytics for bloggers
- Statcounter.com and how you can make it work for you
- How to start an online store
These are all good reads, so check them out. But not before you join the conversation below.
Totally agree, especially with the point about getting help. People forget even their friends can help them. You don’t necessarily need a coach! 🙂
Hobo,
Absolutely. How have you used people you know to help with your business?
Great post Dawud! I love that quote “harbor a bias towards action.” So true.
And I’ll cop to the fact that asking for help is NOT one of my strong points. So hearing it again is helpful!
Thanks
Ed,
Thanks. I loved the way Ben phrased that as well. I watched a video with him in it and it’s really hard to believe he’s only 19.
I know what you mean about asking for help. Interesting is it? I do ask – but usually not before I’m leveled behind a mountain of stuff. Do you have any strategies that work for you in avoiding this?
Dawud, I really like coming to your blog. I am equally honored to be in your company in the blogosphere and over at Wendy’s blog.
When I read your quote from Mr. Casnocha I said to myself “hey that sounds like Tom Peters. So, I pulled my book “In Search of Excellence” by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman and there on the first page and listed as number One of their “Eight Basic Principles” is “A bias for Action”
Looks like regurgitation to me.
An yes, of course, only action will produce results.
Joe,
Thanks. But I’m really the one who feel honored. I know your life is busy. So it humbles me to know that you spend a bit of it reading what I write. Thank you. Please, feel free to join the conversation here any time.
Charlene,
Interesting. Ben seems like a very sharp young man. And I know he’s had mentors. Perhaps Tom or Robert were one of them. Or, perhaps he read their book. Either way, the young man is remarkable…and right.
Ditto to Ed “Great post Dawud! I love that quote “harbor a bias towards action.” So true.”
This is why the most favorite chapter in my best-selling book “Empowering Women to Power Network” is so empowering!
Title: The Empowerment Equation for Success
Desire + Action = Success
Action= 5 A’s:
Acquisition, Affirmative Attitude, Accountability, Asking & Accomplish
To receive the entire chapter for free, it’s offered as a free eCourse for 7 days when signing-up for my monthly “Empower Me Now Tips” monthly ezine.
Notice: if I have an entire chapter on “Action”, and defined by your post as being the #1 way to be a successful entrepreneur; shows the severity of this principle/step and why 90% of entrepreneurs fail in the first year…they’re *not* acting!
Ponn,
Thanks. I like your formula. Where did it come from?
I totally agree with the ‘harbor a bias towards action’ part! It’s what I’m incorporating more of this year – action.
It’s easy to fall into the habit of ‘ready, aim, fire’ or ‘ready, aim, ready, aim, fire’ vs ‘ready, fire, aim’ and correct as you go…
The business plan is more than a plan—it is a tool that helps you evaluate your business concept, your product or service, and discusses how to implement your ideas. A business plan is also a tool to obtain investors, lenders, and strategic partners. You can find many resources and opinions on the Internet as well as your local bookstore on how to build an effective business plan.
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