be-unreasonable.com » Being Unreasonable http://be-unreasonable.com/blog The Be Unreasonable Blog Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:06:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 en hourly 1 CTRL-ALT-DELETE http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/ctrl-alt-delete/ http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/ctrl-alt-delete/#comments Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:00:17 +0000 author http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/ctrl-alt-delete/ I don’t know about you, but for most of us there are times when business just gets stuck.

Our time-tested, reasonable patterns of creating products and getting new customers produce fewer and fewer results. I don’t know why – it’s not possible to say how this happens, except that in a complex environment – just like a computer operating system – the combined effects of other players’ actions can cause your own efforts to get all garbled and twisted.

A year before, your latest marketing launch might have made a big splash, but now – maybe because of new competitors with bigger marketing budgets than yours, you’ve made barely a ripple and all your reasonable efforts seem wasted.

So you go back to your playbook; your well-worn collection of tactics and strategies that has always earned money in the past – new products, flashy launches, maybe even a celebrity endorsement or industry guru saying good things about you – but nothing seems to work.

And worse, you still don’t know why.

It isn’t just the new competitors have more money, but they seem to be reaching the market in ways you don’t understand. What’s happening here?

Relax, and take a deep breath, because nothing you know how to do is going to work, and following your standard playbook is like pouring money down the drain.

It’s time to hit the three-fingered reset key:

Control-Alt-Delete.

That’s what it’s like when you decide your old rules – even though they still apply – aren’t getting what you want. All the reasonable actions that have worked in the past are having no effect.

Control-Alt-Delete.
Clearing your mind, wiping the slate clean, writing on a new sheet of paper. Decidedly NOT building on whatever your storehouse of good ideas holds.

The bad news, the really bad news, is that hitting the reset key and choosing to be unreasonable won’t cause your competitors to go away. But it will give you the opportunity to shrug off your old habit-patterns of thought.

Hitting the reset key can be a way to achieve a new level of thinking. Instead of asking a question based on what you know has worked in the past, you start asking about what – in the realm of possibility – what might work now.

As long as you are consumed by being reasonable, you will always cycle back to the same limited sets of options. By being unreasonable you are no longer held down by your previous success, and you are free to move into the future.

Why do most cars use the same inefficient engines and fossil fuels? Why are we stuck with sub-standard television options? Why do most cell phone data systems work as poorly as they do, given that some countries have achieved speeds twenty-times as fast?

It’s because all the players – producers, consumers, regulators, investors – have agreed to play by an agreed upon set of rules, and are all locked, quite reasonably, in a system which requires major, massive investment – and no one is willing to take the economic risk of breaking them because doing so could be fatal.

Does the same hold true in your business? Are you bound by a real set of constraints that limit your ability to address new opportunities.

In most businesses this simply is not true. The rules are not rules, nobody has bothered to prove these ideas to make sure they should be hard and fast. They are simply accumulations of past history. They are not legitimate market constraints; they are just the way you (and they) have always done things.

Let’s face it: Hitting the reset key is not going to be the solution to everyone’s problems – but it could be the solution to your own!

Will you break rules of your own past behavior, or perhaps – even more boldly – will you break rules set down by decades of industry and even, cultural, norms?

Tell me what you think and post your comments right here.

]]> http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/ctrl-alt-delete/feed/ 16 The Unreasonable Manifesto, Part 2 http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/leadership/45/ http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/leadership/45/#comments Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:31:45 +0000 author http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/45/
If you keep doing what other people want you to do, and thinking about what other people want you to think, what do you suppose is likely to happen?

Repeating the successes of the past, preserving tradition, doing things as they are “supposed” to be done, will- at best – produce results like those had before.  Except that in this new future – our present – those results can’t possibly be as good, as productive, or as powerful as they once were.  And probably not as much fun, either.

Unreasonable success requires unreasonable approaches to the future.Breakthroughs needn’t happen by chance. You can create them at will.Breakthroughs are great leaps forward, and while they can happen by accident, they can also happen by design.

Here are principles of Being Unreasonable

11. Don’t base your life on what’s likely. Base it on what you dream about

Take the possible further. Chart the course of your life not on what you think probable, not on what you think possible, but on that about which you think fantastic.  The biggest breakthroughs and biggest successes come from dreamers.  (Caveatfanaticus {dreamer beware}: It will still you take all the same work to get there – dreams just don’t yield results without action.)

12. Expect the best

Expect the best from those around you. Expect them to be successful. Count on it. Plan for it. Budget for it. Expecting the best gives you the highest likelihood of getting whatever IT is.  Start with the best case scenario and figure out how insure it. By the way, expecting the worst has a similar, but opposite, effect.

13. Don’t think, “Can I accomplish it?” Think, “How can I get this done?”

If it is worth doing, and you have strong reasons for doing it, you’ll find a way. Stop worrying if it is possible. Trust me, it is. Focus your deepest mind on how to make it happen.  Remember, the best answer to “How…?” is “Yes.”

14. Back yourself into a corner, so the only place you can go is forward

Warrior-sage Sun Tzu wrote that nothing is as dangerous as an enemy backed into a corner.  They will fight to the death for the have nowhere else to run.  Don’t think about “enemies,” use this strategy on yourself.

15. Cut your timelines in half. You’ll do better work

Not only does work expand to fill the time available, so do our schedules, creating a viscous and every-expanding circle. We need pressure to accomplish great things. Shorten your timeframes, cut them in half. Then tell your friends. Your work may not be any better, but you’ll get it done in less time.

16. Ask people for a lot. They just may give you what you need

Shrinking violets rarely accomplish anything, and asking for what you want will often get it for you.  People like to serve. People like to accomplish. People like to win against great odds. Why not ask them for everything.

17. You don’t have to when someone says you should

People say, “you should” when what they really mean is, “In the past, most people I have known have done thus-and-so.”  Ask, “Why should I?” whenever the conversation turns to should’s and shouldn’ts.  Should is the road to mediocrity.  “Why should I”, is the first step towards majesty.

18. If you’re not scared, you’re not doing anything worthy

ll great ventures things in life contain elements of profound risk, and the promise of failure as well as success.  Courage isn’t acting without fear, it is being afraid, and acting anyway.  If you are not at least a little afraid, you are probably not doing anything worthy of the name great. Unreasonable people are often afraid.  So what, just be sure you are afraid of the right thing.

19. Don’t worry about getting it just right

Perfection prevents progress. New ideas must be tested against human beings. If you wait until you get it perfect, it may be too late. It may be never. Think functionality and workability. Experiment in the chaos of the real world, and fix the problems that arise later.

20. Freedom comes from responsibility

Be fully responsible for your actions and the effects they produce. Most people look for outside causes. Unreasonably lay claim to every miracle and debacle within your sphere of influence, which includes, by the way, everything. Make it all yours, for that’s the only way to exert dominion over your world and gain freedom.

I’d unreasonably like to hear what you think.  Take a minute and put your comments below.

If you missed the first 10 ideas read them here.

]]> http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/leadership/45/feed/ 20 The Unreasonable Manifesto, Part 1 http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/the-unreasonable-manifesto-part-1/ http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/the-unreasonable-manifesto-part-1/#comments Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:32:17 +0000 author http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/the-unreasonable-manifesto-part-1/ Great success in life requires two parallel streams of effort. Small but important things done consistently day in and day out provide a nurturing base of sustenance, while an occasional breakthrough brings true success and prosperity.  Breakthroughs – extraordinary accomplishments – begin with extraordinary ideas and find their realization in extraordinary actions.

Think about that word for a minute.  Extraordinary… break it down and it means extra ordinary.  Not extra in the sense of “more ordinary” but rather from the Latin root – beyond, outside, superior – to the ordinary. What I call unreasonable.

Most people have a handle on the “small” things, maybe not the consistency part, but at least they know what those things are. Unreasonable, on the other hand, is where the challenge comes in. Most people don’t quite grasp being unreasonable, so to make it easier for you to get your hands on, here are the first ten principles.

1.    Being Unreasonable means starting from what’s already happened as given.
To make great things happen, go beyond your logical conclusions, your extrapolations, or the obvious things that at first glance seem to make sense. Stop settling for what everyone else thinks is okay: go beyond the status quo, what is what is expected and what is predicted.  Start where you are and take that first giant step.

2.    Being Unreasonable requires breaking compromises
Break compromises which force you to sacrifice what truly matters in exchange for efficiency and expediency. Compromises are a fiction that exists because of your belief in a false context. Change the context and the need for compromise goes away.

3.    Don’t wait to play your high cards
Being unreasonable is about giving your best in every single situation in which you best is called for.  It is about asking people for their best because it is in everyone’s best interests.  People hold back their best cards waiting for just the right time to play them. Don’t hold back.  Play your aces.

4.    Do More Than Asked
Do more than asked for – most people don’t ask for what they truly need and therefore don’t get it from you.  Ask people for more than people usually do, you will shock them into action beyond what they thought themselves capable.

5.    Act on the Possibility of Things
Being unreasonable is about acting on the possibility of great things without worrying about the probability of success.  Doing this increases the probabilities of success dramatically, insuring that possible things become real.  Make the improbable happen, by bringing attention and resources to those things which lie beyond the norm, beyond the expected, but which can change your world.

6.    Consider why normal is considered normal
Ask how normal things got to be normal.  Is it because they were hugely effective or is it because they were modestly effective, and easy? Being unreasonable is not about being abnormal, paranormal or trans-normal – it is setting aside what seems normal so you can see with fresh eyes, acting to create the results you seek, without regard to what normal people think is normal.

7.    You know what you should be doing. Do it.
You don’t need more gurus or pundits (especially me) to tell you what to do.  You already have considered this, and though it may seem unreasonable, you already know what to do.  All you need to do is take action.

8.    Your old strategies can’t make you any better.
If you have already executed them, your old strategies are not likely to help you improve.  They’ve already done that, and all the changes are incorporated into your current world.  It is time for something new.

9.    Think whatever thoughts
Reasonable thinking silently edits and censors your extraordinary thoughts. Think whatever thoughts arise without approval or disapproval, following them to their conclusions. Often the most transformative ideas come intuitively and unbidden.  Then reasonable thinking kills them.  Don’t let it.

10.    Don’t base your life on what’s likely.
If you have been paying attention to the world, what you now think of as likely is already incorporated into your life, business and personal.  It is also probably incorporated into the life of those around you, making it even less interesting. Search your world – internally and externally – and find the promise of the possible.  Base your life on that.

Make sure to add your comments below.  Go ahead: Be Unreasonable

]]> http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/the-unreasonable-manifesto-part-1/feed/ 16 The Law of Focused Action http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/leadership/the-law-of-focused-action/ http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/leadership/the-law-of-focused-action/#comments Tue, 26 May 2009 13:13:55 +0000 author http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/the-law-of-focused-action/ Everyone wants to be more successful, but often, hard work seems just too hard. Some people turn to the Law of Attraction for help, so I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately.

Hey, you know what? All hoopla aside, I like the LOA. And why not? It’s a cool idea, and if the choice is between focusing my mind on things I want versus focusing on things I don’t want, I’d rather spend my mental energy on things I want.

But here’s the question: Is “just” thinking, and emoting, and visualizing, and meditating, and yes, praying, about things I want going to bring them into my life?

LOA gurus say yes and offer proof like a garage full of fast cars, a big house, weight loss…

I don’t believe it.

If all you do is think, emote, visualize, meditate and pray, you may feel better, but all by themselves, those things aren’t going to make your house bigger or your cars faster.  And if you think about being thin, and keep eating, well, as they say, the proof IS in the pudding…

If it did work, everyone reading The Secret would be rich. And while a few are, most are not.

But here’s what does happen…

When you sharply focus your internal self on what you want as directed by the LOA, you are going to see many subtle things you might otherwise have missed. You’ll also see some obvious things your previous blinders kept from view.

It’s also going to help you stop sabotaging yourself in whatever ways you’ve spent a lifetime mastering. (Everyone’s an expert at their own version of this.)

It may even make you more “attractive” to people who can help you, because you’ve become a more positive, pleasant, less whiny person to be around, and perhaps more fun, besides.

In all these ways, practicing the law of attraction can make a huge difference.

But here’s one more very important point…

You see, in the physical world, where most of us live, if you want something to happen, you’ve got to move things around. Whether it’s atoms or bits, things still have to move around.  And that takes action.

The good news is that your LOA-driven focus can to cause you to DO THINGS, large and small, that you otherwise might have delayed, or blown off entirely, or done badly, which you will now do well. In other words, your LOA mindset can cause you to TAKE ACTION. And not only any action, but the right action. FOCUSED ACTION.

Is there something spiritual at work here? I can’t say, I’m not an expert. But I can tell you this: If you don’t have that last bit – the part about taking focused action?  Not much is going to happen.

But if you consistently take Focused Action, doing the right things, day in and day out, you can make miracles happen.

So I’ve a proposal.  The Law of Attraction is fine, but if you want really want to heat up your business and your life, apply the Law of Focused Action.

Be Unreasonable.  Sharpen your mental focus using LOA.  Then put the Law of Focused Action to work. Get busy with the things that will make a difference. Now.

P.S.  My apologies to anyone else who’s written recently about any similar subject.  When a lot of great minds think alike, that’s the LOA in action. Right?

Put the Law of Focused Action to work and add your comments below. 

]]> http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/leadership/the-law-of-focused-action/feed/ 27 The Zen of Upsell http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/marketing/the-zen-of-upsell/ http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/marketing/the-zen-of-upsell/#comments Wed, 20 May 2009 03:17:04 +0000 author http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/marketing/the-zen-of-upsell/
In times like these one the easiest things you can do to earn more is to make sure you upsell your customers and clients.

Upsell?

Upsell, in case you’re not familiar with the term, simply means offering your customer more than what they originally planned to purchase. When the guy behind the counter at McDonalds asks, “Would you like fries with that?”, that’s an upsell. When reservation clerk asks if you’d rather sit in the VIP orchestra section instead of the mezzanine, that’s an upsell. When the car salesman offers you the super snow-resistant undercoat on your new Hybrid, that is an upsell.

Why don’t more people use the upsell? Because,

1) they’re not educated to do it;

2) they haven’t thought it through;

3) they haven’t set up an up-sell “path” or “program”;

4) they don’t know what to sell; or,

5) they think it’s cheesy.

This last one’s important: lots of marketers feel as if they’re being pushy or they’re somehow taking advantage of their customer.

You’ve got to get this: most customers don’t know what they really want.

They haven’t thought it through.

They haven’t taken the time to figure out how to maximize the result they’re trying to create.

By helping them with an upsell, by adding pieces for them that go together, you’re making it easier for them to get what they really wanted.

Say I walk into a clothing store to buy a new dress suit. I pick out the one I want and the salesperson then offers me some shirts to go with it.

Is this a bad thing? Do I feel taken advantage of?

No, not really. First of all, I personally hate to shop, but once I’m in the store, it’s good to get all that shopping over with. If I get shirts and maybe even some of ties that go well with the suit, while I’m standing right there right then, I leave the store with a far better solution than having to try to match the suit and shirts and ties later.

Not only do I not have to go into any more stores, but it helps me put the package together more effectively than if the suit is at home and I’m looking for shirts in another store. Offering me “the upsell” is providing a service.

It’s giving me more of what I want, not less. Frankly, if a store doesn’t offer me those up-sells, those accouterments, I will be served less, not more.

Upsells are easy sales because you’ve already overcome all sales resistance.  The upsell offer is made once your customer has already decided to buy.  They may even have their wallets out and their credit cards ready.  All you have to do is present the upsell option and you’re good to go.

The upsell is a win for your customer and it’s a win for you. They get more of what they want and you get to increase your revenue without having to find another customer.  Plus, the additional gross margin on the sale becomes drops right to your bottom line, a win-win all around.

Be unreasonable.  Upsell.

(Like to hear your thoughts on this. Comment below.)

]]> http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/marketing/the-zen-of-upsell/feed/ 12 Breaking Rules, Good and Bad http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/leadership/both-good-rules-and-bad-rules-can-be-broken/ http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/leadership/both-good-rules-and-bad-rules-can-be-broken/#comments Wed, 13 May 2009 02:04:57 +0000 author http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/both-good-rules-and-bad-rules-can-be-broken/ There are no rules that fit all situations. (Check the Ten Commandments if you don’t believe this.) Our businesses and our lives are far too complex for any guidelines to be 100 percent appropriate in all cases. This is not meant as an inducement to break very basic rules, such as your core values. It means that when your beloved rule comes smack up against holding back progress, you should at least be willing to question whether the rule is still appropriate, or whether it’s some kind of holdover.

You will not be struck down if you break the rules. (You may be fired, or you might lose market share.) But it is worthwhile to weigh the risk of breaking a rule against the potential payoff.  And definitely don’t worry about “getting in trouble” if you’re sure that your rule breaking will help deliver the goods. (See the discussion of permission.)

And you don’t have to be “the best” to make up your own rules, although it does help. A certain amount of experience and insight is attributed to those who are “the best,” and if you are considered “the best,” it gives you a great deal of credibility and insulates you from backlash.  And, of course, making up your own rules may help you to be the best.

Rule breakers are not lawbreakers. (Not necessarily, anyway.) Know the difference. If you find that breaking the rules will in fact break the law, and you still plan to break that rules,  make sure you are doing it for a very good reason. Almost all of the time–unless you are deliberately setting an example or fighting for social change–it would be better to find another way.

Break rules when your new approach will make you more effective, or when the old rule is simply not effective at all. Otherwise, why are you breaking the rule?

Leaders are typically more comfortable with breaking rules than other people, that’s probably a big chunk of what makes them leaders. If you have people working for you, encourage them to question rules that aren’t your (business’s) goals. This could help turn them into leaders all by itself.

Knowledge doesn’t make something right. There’s an old saw that if you don’t know that there is a rule, you don’t know enough to break it. This is nonsense and has nothing to do with rule breaking. Understand the situation you are in. Figure out why things aren’t working and base your next actions on what will work. Of course it helps to understand the current environment, and you may try to avoid wanton rule breaking just for its own sake. But in the end, if there’s a rule in place and you inadvertently break it, see the next rule.

“It is easier to apologize later than to ask for permission,” said Admiral Grace Hopper, the inventor of COBOL. This woman broke so many rules it would make your head spin. If you ask for permission first, are refused and do it anyway, you’re really in trouble. So it’s better not to ask. If you’re certain that you’re right, go ahead and do it. You’ll find out more about the penalties later anyway.

The rules for who should and should not break the rules are as follows: novices do not know the rules; amateurs know the rules, but have trouble following them; pros know the rules and can begin to bend them as necessary; and geniuses, who know the rules, break them, create new rules, and break those as well. Each of these people can break the rules as necessary. Even novices are allowed to break the rules, as they may have radically effective propositions based on their innocence. –Anonymous

Creativity does not have to result in rule breaking. There are all sorts of ways to improve your results inside of the current rules, especially when those rules “make sense” and are working well. But most of the time, creativity does result in rule stretching.

And just because you break the rules doesn’t mean you’re a genius or even an innovator. Rule breaking may produce no valuable results whatsoever. On the other hand, breakthroughs never happen without rule breaking. It’s part of the definition.

]]> http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/leadership/both-good-rules-and-bad-rules-can-be-broken/feed/ 6 Time as a Point of Focus http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/time-as-a-point-of-focus/ http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/time-as-a-point-of-focus/#comments Fri, 24 Apr 2009 01:00:35 +0000 author http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/time-as-a-point-of-focus/ Maybe you’re like this – I definitely am. One of the most common “issues” for people is not having the time to get everything done. If you talk about this, you’ll find that people think that if they had “more time,” like more hours, during the day, that would solve their problem, but I just don’t believe that’s true and here’s why:

At this point I have surveyed thousands of folks asking them how much “high productivity” time they send during an average work day – high productivity being time when they are increasing the value of their businesses. The answers average about two and one-half hours, and this despite how much time they actually work. In other words, this same 150 minutes holds true for an seven-hour day or a twelve hour one.

I’ve thought about this a lot and come to believe the real issue is not “more time” because it doesn’t seem to matter how much time there is, but rather what you manage to do with it. Now, THIS IS NOT NEWS : EVERYBODY ALREADY KNOWS THIS.

And yet, so many of us seem powerless to change the result. But I’ve also come to view time in what for me is a new way. Time is not something to be saved, or somehow managed, but rather I’m seeing time as a measure of how much “me” there is available for things. I find this point of view somewhat freeing and it provides a new kind of focus, like a new clarity of intention. I’m not sure why this is, but it’s working for me.

Based on this thinking I included a ‘getting more stuff done with the time available” mini-program in my newest FormulaFIVE material; something I call Sustainable Performance Mastery. This is a fancy way of saying getting more of the right things done more of the time. So needless to say, I’ve been focusing my own energy and attention on just that – improved output, improved results, less actual time worked.

And you know what? It’s really working for me.

I’ve just released Sustainable Performance Mastery to the folks who are in the FormulaFIVE program. I’ll keep you posted on the results.

]]> http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/time-as-a-point-of-focus/feed/ 0 The Path http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/the-path/ http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/the-path/#comments Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:22:47 +0000 author http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/the-path/


Mastery: 

Practice,

Improve,

Plateau,

Study,

Decline,

Practice,

Improve,

Repeat

]]> http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/the-path/feed/ 0 Marketing Metrics Mistakes http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/marketing/marketing-measuring-mistakes/ http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/marketing/marketing-measuring-mistakes/#comments Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:15:22 +0000 author http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/marketing/marketing-measuring-mistakes/ Here are three “Marketing Mistakes” that business owners routinely make.  (I saw an article in Direct Magazine which inspired me.)

1. Marketing plans and not aligned with business goals.   For instance, say you have a goals to grow top-line revenues by 50%. (Only 50%?  Well, it is a recession.)  In Formula 5 terms, that would mean a three-part combination of strategies to improve pricing and margins, monetization of each customer, and of course, lead generation.   Most business owners never think this way. They never try to figure out what it will take to reach that 50%, in action-oriented terms.

Work backwards from the goal. Ask the question, what will it take?  Which parts of the business would be most amenable to improvement?  Once you figure that out you can take the next step.

What can you add to your value proposition to justify a price increase – and how much could you add?  What can you sell to your existing (and very happy) customers?  Do you have that product or service? If not, what’s the plan to create it?  What about new leads?  Can you amp up your existing programs, or do you need to create new channels?

Create goals for each of these three improvement programs, with detailed action steps.  Get busy meeting the business goals.

2) Not measuring the right things to reach those goals.  Most business owners don’t keep good track of their marketing activities so they have no idea what’s what.  Online marketers tend to be better, but not that much.  As the old saying goes, if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.  If you don’t keep careful track of things, you are unable to take the right actions, and you never know if you’re on or off course.  And if all you’re looking at is number of new leads and conversion rate – well, that’s not bad, but it is just not enough.

Understand your  Customer lifetime profits,  average customer life, purchase frequency, and average transaction size.  Add to that your conversion rates and cost of customer acquisition by marketing channel, and you know everything necessary to drive the business results.  Without every one… it’s sort of like driving your car without a gas gauge.  Would you do that?

3) Not knowing the cost of your goals, and not spending to reach them.  This is the one almost every small business owner makes, and many large ones as well.  Want to grow your business by 50%?  Have you bothered to figure out that you need to advance $100,000 on lead generation and spend another $100k on product development and $50k on customer service to reach that goal?  Do you have the cash or credit to do this?  Most people never bother to figure this out which results in many business growth plans stopping short. And failure to execute always leads to failure.

Address each of these mistakes and you have a much higher chance of reaching your growth goals.

]]> http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/marketing/marketing-measuring-mistakes/feed/ 12 Important Decisions http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/important-decisions/ http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/important-decisions/#comments Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:07:39 +0000 author http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/important-decisions/ Talk about important decisions. 

“The barnacle” the author explained “is confronted with an existential decision about where it’s going to live. Once it decides.. . it spends the rest of its life with its head cemented to a rock.”  (This quote is from John Gardner, who was quoting an unknown author)

]]> http://be-unreasonable.com/blog/being-unreasonable/important-decisions/feed/ 0