Snowquester, anyone?

Yeah, that didn’t really work out.

I bet there are more than a few school superintendents and OPM higher-ups and at least one Executive Director of a local leadership organization who are seething this morning.  It smarts, doesn’t it – the betrayal of every single weatherman in the world?

Fortunately, the snowquester debaucle was good for one thing.  It gave me an idea about predictions.

Predictions are just guesses.

People ask me all the time:

• What should I do to get more clients?
• Will it work if I tweet three times a day?
• Or three times a week?
• How often do I need to blog?
• What sorts of posts will resonate with my target market?

The truth is, I don’t know.

I can make a prediction based on my training and experience.  But like the weatherman, I don’t know all the variables.

Predictions are educated guesses, but they’re guesses all the same.

Beware the ulterior motive.

I bristle even writing this.  But look, there’s a reason the weatherman errs on the side of blizzard.  It’s all about ratings, people.

An imminent snowstorm increases viewership.  Even this hardcore anti-news nut caved a couple of times and watched the forecast. Because people genuinely want to be prepared.  And what if he’s right?

I like to think I don’t have ulterior motives when I’m making predictions for my clients, but I’m human. To be honest, I’m probably less likely to recommend a strategy I can’t help you with, if only because I don’t know as much about it.

The point is, when you evaluate a prediction, consider the predictor’s possible motives.  No need to make accusations.  Just keep it in the back of your mind and let it tone down any wild, knee-jerk reactions you might otherwise have.

The solution is to test.

Your business is a laboratory and you are the mad scientist.  You need to make predictions, but then you need to test those predictions.

If you decide, with no evidence, to create an editorial calendar that includes six different topics, then refuse to change it even once it becomes clear that two of those topics are absolute duds, you’re working too hard for no good reason.

If you keep going to a networking event where you never meet anyone interesting, you’re wasting your time.

If you build a website and never look at the analytics to see how people are using it…well, you get the idea.

Predictions are fun and interesting, but they’re just the beginning.

Photo by alexkerhead

First in an occasional series on simple things you can do to grow your business.

Before I started my business more than 12 years ago, I made my living as a marketing coordinator.

Marketing coordinators support salespeople by creating collateral, handling advertising and public relations, and writing proposals, among other things.   My sales guys would encourage me to visit clients with them, but I hated it.  “You make the money, I’ll spend it,” I was fond of saying.

Suddenly I was on my own.  I had to figure out, for the first time, how to sell myself.  Honestly, starting out, I underestimated the importance of this skill, as I think most first-time business owners do.

I started hanging around salespeople of all stripes, mostly at networking events, but also as a member of several referral groups.  I studied them. How do they do it?  How can I do what they do and still be me?

Since I work with many first-time business owners, I started thinking about all the things I’ve learned and how I can offer more than a few tib-bits I’ve acquired over my decade+ in business.

So without further ado, rule #1 for success in business:

Rule #1: Be the First Person to Arrive for Meetings

It sounds like a small thing. Don’t be late for meetings. In fact, be early if you can.

I say, go one step further.  Try to be the first person to arrive for any meeting.  That usually means showing up early.

If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you already know that the so-called gold standard is to be less than 15 minutes late.

I’m guilty.  I am a seasoned procrastinator.  I’m all about “I’ll just do one more thing before I go.”  And historically that made me late, pretty much all the time.

Remember how, in college, there were rules for how long you had to wait for a professor before you could take off?  15 minutes for a Master’s, 30 minutes for a PhD?  So it’s tempting to ask yourself, how long can you be expected to wait for a colleague who’s running behind?  Or how long can they be expected to wait for you?

I’m not sure that’s the right question.  Do I need to describe how it makes the person you’re meeting feel when you breeze in 10 minutes late, throw your stuff down, and run to grab coffee, while they’re settled and ready to begin?

You’re better off being the other guy.

We’re all busy.

Yes, we’re all busy.  We can’t afford to be sitting around waiting. This is an argument for being on time, but it’s also an argument against being on time, because you know the other guy’s going to be late. Why should you waste your time waiting?

Here’s why: when you’re late for a meeting, that goes to your professionalism. Why should you compromise on that when it’s such a simple thing to plan generously for travel time?

Not to mention, being the first person in the room puts you at such a strong advantage in a meeting, it’s absolutely worth fighting for.

The secret is preparation.

Don’t you dare sit there and tell me you don’t have time to blog.  I’m writing this post in a Starbucks while I’m waiting for an appointment.

Don’t you dare tell me you can’t deal with social media when you own a smart phone.  It takes two minutes, max, to post to your twitter feed.

In fact, I’d argue you can do a hell of a lot of marketing while you’re waiting under the light at Starbucks. Not to mention in the 15 minutes before a scheduled appointment.

It’s worth the effort.