Art of Earning, Business Brainstorm
If it works for William Shatner, surely, it will for me.
Right?
About halfway through the development phase of my last digital guide, The Art of Earning, I was in an all-out mind battle about what to charge (or to charge at all) for it. This wasn’t a “pick a high number and stick a 7 on the end” kind of deal.
This was a deeply personal book but one I knew could help a lot of people.
And I wanted it to help a lot of people.
In the shower – where else? – it hit me. Name your own price.
Here’s why:
Free is great but investing in yourself is better.
I love free content. And I produce a hell of a lot of it. But at some point, free content becomes something you consume mindlessly. You might find an idea or two “nice” but act on the main principles? Honestly answer the questions contained therein? Nope. No way.
It’s too easy to think the answer is in the next piece of free content.
Investing in a product – even as little as $5 – helps you pay attention to the ideas at hand and take concrete action based on those ideas. Investing in a product is very much about investing in you & your business.
Ben Bernanke isn’t the only guy concerned about inflation.
You don’t have to be chief of the Fed to be concerned about price inflation. While there are many stellar digital programs that deserve to be priced in the top-tier of information, there are many which do not. There are some 50 page pdfs that deserve to be priced at $50, $100, or ever $200. That’s the kind of value they provide. That’s the exception, not the rule.
The Art of Earning is not those books. Yes, I believe that if you apply the principles to an active reevaluation of your relationship with money, you’ll have the capacity to make tens of thousands of more dollars per year quickly. But you’re going to have to do a heckuva lot more work to build your business than I did to write that book.
I could have made the price much higher. Maybe I still will. But I’m happy with the price as it is.
Everyone needs an exercise in gratitude.
Especially me. Had my money workout not been so total & complete, it would be easy for me to look at the smaller payments that come in as proof that people just want things cheap, that a steal is even better than a deal.
But honestly? That’s not my reaction. It’s been one of gratitude. Seeing $5, $7, or $8.44 payments roll in has left me feeling warm – not cold. I haven’t been focused on the difference between the “real price” and the price paid, I’ve accepted the enormous gift of trust & hard-earned coin those customers have been willing to part with.
I’m sure the next question is: will “name your own price” work for me?
Answer: It might.
For name-your-own-price to work for you, you need:
- A product you can afford to have lower profit margins on. A digital book is a great way to experiment with this model because it’s almost all profit. How could you incorporate a high profit margin product into your business?
- A reputation of high value. Generally, I would not recommend this pricing structure for those just beginning in business. I have a collection of ebooks and a reputation as a coach & blogger that allows me to trust my customers with pricing a valuable product. Are you building a product/services line that represents high value?
- A way to capture the leads. I won’t kid you, The Art of Earning has been a great lead generator. Traffic to the blog, sales of other products, speaking gigs, and coaching clients are all up up up since the release of this book. I had a wide & strong platform to support the buzz that I generated through this book and knew how I was going to channel that buzz. If 500 new sales came through your business in a month, how would you continue the customer relationship?
I’m planning interviews with some other entrepreneurs – both product makers & service providers – who have tried this model of pricing. What questions should I ask them? What questions do you still have for me about the name-your-own-price model?
***
By the way, if you haven’t yet, you can pick up The Art of Earning – and name your own price – right here.
Business Brainstorm
Social media has transformed our world into one great big small town, dominated, as all vibrant towns used to be, by the strength of relationship, the currency of caring, and the power of word of mouth.
— Gary Vaynerchuk, The Thank You Economy
This, you know. Social media gives you the best opportunity to talk to fellow business owners and loyal customers since, well, the last time you strolled down a thriving main street.
Best of all, social media doesn’t mind if you’re in your pajamas.
We also know that social media contributes to tipping points and even revolutions. It connects neighbor to neighbor and grandson to grandma.
Social media has reinvented word of mouth by creating word of type, swipe, and tap.
But before there can be sharing, there has to be something to share. And there has to be people who want to share it.
And this is where Early Adopters come in.
What is an Early Adopter?
They’re the people who wait in line for the latest iDevice. They’re the people try out new software before you’ve even heard of it.
According to The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development:
“Passionate, early users of new technology or products who understand its value before mainstream markets.”
Yes, they’re most often associated with tech.
But they’re also the people who try out the new restaurant in town before the reviews come out. Or the newest microwaveable meal at the grocery store. Or the salon that just opened. Or the doula that just started her practice. Or the artist that hung her first show.
Early Adopters rely on curiosity to fuel their purchasing decisions far more than brand names or customer reviews.
But Early Adopters do more than just buy your stuff.
Early Adopters want to help you and (here is the best bit) want you to be successful.
— The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development
Whether your business is 30 days old or 30 years old, you can harness your own Early Adopter community. Your new widget or service may be a hard sell for those who are used to using something else but, harness your Early Adopters, and you’ll be able to make your initial offering much more palatable to the masses.
Game? Here’s how you do it:
Use Early Adopters to make in-progress products better.
Create an email list for people who are specifically interested in a new product. Email them regularly with content tangential to the development of your product. Ask for feedback, opinion, and personal experiences. Create a conversation that informs the development of the product you’re working on.
Use Early Adopters to get feedback on in-use products.
Since Early Adopters are those most likely to “get it,” utilize them to provide the feedback that gaps your designer experience with the user experience of those you’re selling to. Survey the first wave of buyers and seek to understand how they’re using the product and why they wouldn’t live without it anymore. Adjust sales copy, your positioning, and your product/service based on a careful analysis of this feedback.
Use Early Adopters to produce more.
We spend too much time in development and not nearly enough time in testing, deployment, and analysis. Create a first run product that is high in quality but lacking in bells & whistles. Sell these products (or services) to an invite-only list (see point 1) and solicit feedback so that you can create a second run product with the features, bells, & whistles your wider audience actually wants. Then you’ll be creating your next first run product instead of banging your head against your desk wondering why the first product didn’t sell.
Reward Early Adopters for giving you a hand.
Reward? On this budget?! A mention on Twitter, an email conversation, or sending them a preview copy of your next product are all great – and cheap – ways to reward your Early Adopters. Luckily, they don’t require much more than acknowledgment and the very first heads up on what you’ve got coming next.
I know, I’m an Early Adopter.
Start finding your Early Adopters today.
Run a sales report, create a Twitter list, thank them by name on your Facebook page, create your “Sneak Peek” email list… do something that helps you identify these key people in your business.
But first, leave me a response below and tell me what you’re going to do with them!
Big Thinking, Business Brainstorm
By the beginning of this year, I had achieved each of the big goals I had set out to achieve with my business:
- Earn enough to stay at home with my daughter.
- Earn a full-time salary.
- Earn enough to allow my husband to quit his job.
- Earn $100,000 in a year.
The first two goals always seemed doable. By the time I started working towards the third, the outcome was already in sight. Frankly, the fourth one crept up on me without my noticing its tip-toe steps.
When I reached that point, I felt a little lost.
Overwhelmed.
Out of my element.
Fearful of stagnation.
Not to mention, those are all earning goals and – whilst I love making money beautifully – there’s more that I want to accomplish with my business!
Sure I could keep producing, keep earning more bit by bit, keep serving my clients… but what was I working towards?
Ease? Elegance? Comfort? Yes.
But I suspected I could do that and still work towards something bigger than I’d ever dared to dream of before.
I posed this question to several of my business models & mentors in the first quarter of 2011:
How do you set new goals when you’re completely outside the realm of your experience?
The people I asked – Danielle LaPorte, Marie Forleo, Amanda Steinberg – they all offered solid answers. But still, I felt lost.
I could feel my power tingling like magic on the tips of my fingers. But I didn’t know where to channel it, where to cast the spell.
How do you move forward when your goals are behind you?
As a solopreneur, my business relies on ME for its vision & execution. My experience is all I have to go on. My brain, all I have to rely on.
That’s limiting.
What I really needed was a team to hold my vision and push it all around the edges, expanding it to the point – maybe, past – of bursting.
But a team full of employees, a physical location, a list full of others’ needs… that’s limiting too.
What I created was a whole new (to me) approach.
Instead of either trying to go it alone or hiring a team, I created relationships – both formal and informal – that could hold and expand my vision without weighing me down.
Carrie, formerly my “virtual assistant” is now exercising her own expertise as my personal Business Manager and Assistant Editor for Scoutie Girl. We “meet” weekly to discuss my ideas, work out systems, and discover new ways to execute my mission. She’s working on everything from scheduling to communication management to event planning.
I’d say she offers me the use of an extra brain – but it’s so much more than that since she brings her own outside perspective to this business.
She believes in what I’m trying to accomplish and knows that she’ll be better off in her own business the more I’m able to achieve in mine.
I’ve also been busy cultivating informal relationships. My bubble-bursters include other entrepreneurs, thinkers, and activists who want me to succeed every bit as much as I want them to succeed. I suppose, really, we’re mutual bubble-bursters. We help each other push past what is on the surface to more fully realize our complementary visions.
These are not just people I rely on to promote my products or retweet my posts. These are people I trust with my mojo and momentum. I trust them to challenge me, not just stroke my ego.
I’ve met my bubble-bursters through Twitter, my blog, random emails, conferences, and referrals from clients. Potential bubble-bursters are all around you but you have to do the work to build trust.
If you struggle to find your voice & vision outside your beginners’ bubble, it’s time to sure up your relationships with those in & outside your business. Make sure they understand your passion and the change you want to make in the world. Ask them to push you when they see you settling – and sometimes, even when you’re not!
What can you do today? Set up some Skype or coffee dates with people who you already consider in your circle and just talk shop. It’s not so much about asking for advice as it is becoming aware of how your bubble-bursters react to your ideas & concerns. It’s about allowing someone else to hold a bigger dream for you than you can imagine – and creating big dreams for your friend in return.
Are you ready to burst your business bubble?
Business Brainstorm
When I read about business, I rarely read business books.
Nope, I’m more into psychology, cultural criticism, or philosophy. It’s a heckuva lot easier to be innovative when you’re not presented with tactics to copy.
This summer, I have been tackling creative writing. I am not a creative writer. I do not have novel manuscript waiting in my desk drawer for the right person to come along. I don’t even have an novel idea dancing around in the back of my head.
But – I suspect – much like you, I have deep & true attraction to fiction and it’s creation.
What has struck me most in reading about creative writing is just how much it mirrors the way I construct my business. I wrote previously about how I felt the book Bird by Bird was a killer biz study. And I’ve mentioned I’m working on a group coaching program around these concepts for the Fall.
Before we can dive into your business-as-novel strategy, we’ve got to set the stage. So today, we’re doing a character study.
And YOU, my friend, are the character.
As I see it, the business owner is the narrator of the story. She functions in a capacity that provides direction and perspective to an otherwise secret set of events. In some businesses, the entrepreneur may be a bit of an omniscient narrator – chronicling the story without being a part of it. But, more likely, you find yourself as an integral part of the story.
You are influencing the action, calling the shots, and managing the dialogue. You’re providing perspective, structure, and meaning to the story.
Understanding who you are and how you relate to your business – and the work at hand – helps you to maintain consistency & momentum over the course of this epic tale.
Take a minute to consider who you truly want to be as a business owner: confident? graceful? flexible? outgoing? caring? tenacious? unyielding? fierce? intelligent? What do you-as-business-owner look like in 5 years? 10 years?
Start to create that mental picture of who you are as a business owner, the role you’re growing to fill, and the entrepreneur that you are striving to be in the not-so-distant future.
Got it?
Let’s take that picture and make it move. Ya know, like in Harry Potter. Or those new trippy animated gifs…
Get down with your dialogue. When you interact with prospects, what language do you use? When you talk with loyal customers, how do you present yourself? When you’re in a peer group, how do you act? When you’re talking to your team, how do you provide direction?
Of course, dialogue is just one – albeit, important – way to define your business owner narrator. Another way to define this character is with the setting she finds herself in.
Do you work out of your home? In an office? Do you take virtual meetings or do you prefer a high class coffee shop? Do you “get dressed” for work or are yoga clothes your preferred uniform? Do you make time for colleagues or work in solitude?
There are no right answers to these questions but knowing your ideal answer to each of these questions helps you makes decisions, communicate priorities, and focus on what’s important to you.
The image of you-as-business-owner and story narrator also doesn’t have to be 100% true to you-as-mom/wife/brother/boyfriend/BFF. In fact, I like to think of my business owner self as more like the amplified and stylized but true-to-vision version of me. More like 120% of the person I know I am on the inside.
Once you’ve played around with the quirks, language, and environment of your own character, it’s time to develop your own business mythos. Right now you – yes, you – are operating under a set of beliefs and ethics. This goes beyond “show up on time” or “say thank you & mean it” to core concepts that define the work that you do and the vision you have for the world.
A few of my core business beliefs:
- Making money & making art go hand in hand.
- Honest & earnest enthusiasm sells.
- Getting started is fast. Building a thriving business takes time.
- Questions are better teachers than statements.
- Challenge all assumptions.
When you understand those core beliefs you know better how to handle the situations that arise in the course of business, make decisions that affect the way your brand is perceived, or evaluate strategic partnerships. You’re prepared for best case and worst case scenarios alike. You have a sense of the end game and you know what you’re trying to achieve.
That’s huge.
So – language, environment, idiosyncrasies, and core beliefs – what else helps you to understand who you are as a business owner? How else do you communicate who you are through your business?
And, perhaps more importantly, how would your business be different if you allowed your character to call the shots? Leave your response in the comments below.
Want more like this?
There’s more where this came from, baby, a lot more. Think intimate, high-touch, high-concept group coaching. Think business as novel. Think the power of other brains plugged in to your brain (and biz). Want to learn more? Sign up here for backstage access.
Business Brainstorm
Entrepreneurship gets in your blood. It’s a thrill, building a business and being in charge of your own enterprise. It can be a hard habit to break.
— Carol Tice, Will Today’s Entrepreneurs Ever Retire?
You’ve heard it before: I love my work so much I would do it for free! Okay, maybe.
How about: I love my work so much I would do it forever! Ouch.
When you’re driven by passion and a big, bold mission, it’s hard to imagine yourself not working until your last breath. Or is it? It’s harder still to imagine a plan for working yourself out of a job when you’re struggling to stay in control of your current business plan.
But planning for retirement – or, at the least, that time when you might want to have more fun – is an important part of your long term goal setting.
How would you make business decisions differently if you knew what retirement looked like?
How do you envision retirement as of today?
- Sipping cocktails on a far off island beach?
- Hardcore philanthropy?
- Ceaseless travel?
- Going back to school?
- Ease, rest, and relaxation at home?
- Work as fun instead of working to fund fun?
Bottom line: you’re not building a business or income stream just for today or tomorrow. You’re building a strategy for long term gain and satisfaction.
Entrepreneurship Library GIVEAWAY
Want to win a library of 6 books to support your entrepreneurship and help you build that strategy for long term gain & satisfaction? Thought so. I’m giving away a copy of Drive by Daniel Pink, Start With Why by Simon Sinek, Linchpin by Seth Godin, Taking the Leap by Pema Chodron, Uncertainty by Jonathan Fields (forthcoming), and The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau.
These are books and people who have transformed my business.
Here’s how to enter:
- Visit our giveaway sponsor’s site, Business on Main, and take a look-see at this article on entrepreneurship & retirement (link will open in new tab).
- Then, come back here and leave a comment below with your thoughts on retirement. Want to work forever? Are you one of the 4 in 10 who are don’t plan to retire? Or do you have a clear vision of what “work” will look like (or not!) in your 70s or 80s?
- Giveaway ends Monday, August 1 at noon Eastern. Winner will be selected at random and contacted by email.
- One entry per person.
My blog is a part of an online influencer network for Business on Main. I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis.
Business Brainstorm
This post is for those who are wanting: wanting to quit the day job, craving to find their spot in the world, hungering for the opportunity to make a difference, yearning for the idea. This post is for those of you asking “what if?”
This post is also for those who are feeling like it should be easier than this. Like there’s a magic potion with eyeball of frog and tail of newt. Like it seems everyone around you gets it on the first try – why is it taking you so darn long? Like if you don’t get it right this time, you’re going to quit.
Let’s begin with one of the most common questions that lands in my email box, “How do I get started when I don’t know the what?” The answer isn’t difficult but it’s not an answer everyone wants to hear.
Here’s one recent example:
Hello Tara and Team Gentile,
This is Patrice writing — how are you?
Tara, I’ve recently discovered you. I’ve sent your website and newsletters to many, many friends who are creative and inspired. What you and so many women are doing a la cyberspace is TRULY AMAZING!!!
I oh so very much would like to be your student and client. My issue, Tara, is that I don’t have an idea for business. I’m not a creative being; I’m linear, detail-oriented, a connector, blah blah. I long for a solopreneurial life and the freedom to work hard on my terms. Any suggestions about how to understand my vocation?
Thank you, Tara, all the VERY BEST to you!!!
Patrice
And here’s my response:
Hey Patrice!
Thanks for writing.
First off – you’re a creative being to me. Just to want this crazy counter-cultural solopreneurial lifestyle means you’re capable of putting unusual solutions to usual problems. That’s creativity at work!
I believe we’re most creative when situated in circumstances that really “juice” us. What kind of work have you done in your life that’s really turned you on? That’s made you excited to learn more and exercise your skills? Start there. Even if it’s a bunch of different things.
Then check out people around the net who are doing similar things. Understand what conversations they’re having, who they’re connected with, what services they’re offering. Comment on their blog – ask a question or two. And see how you can insert yourself into a community of people who are quite a few steps ahead of you.
Then branch out – observe what people in different fields are doing and try to glean some inspiration that you can take back to that work that really turns you on.
That’s how I started out! And that’s the advice I give for finding that first idea. Remember, your idea doesn’t have to be a thang it just needs to get you started. Your initial concept is more about the momentum it creates than the end result.
Once you’ve got that under your belt, you’ll be a perfect client for me! Stay in touch!
Tara
***
You see, I got my entrepreneurial sea legs riding the new art & crafts boat. Many people think of what I do and the strategies I espouse as particular to Artists.
It’s not. You’re all artists to me. Just by reading this blog or seeking out your own information, you’re engaging in creative thinking. Just by putting pen to paper about your dreams, you’re engaging in a creative act. This process of finding your passion, acting on a vision, and earning serious coin isn’t about ditching your analytical skills or joining some cooperative community.
Identifying your profit providence is a process of becoming more aware of what’s already going on in your work, life, and desires.
Awareness creates opportunity for amplification. And amplifying what you’re already doing will help you create the experiments you need to get results you can analyze.
The thing is, the process I described to Patrice, takes time. Identifying, amplifying, experimenting, and analyzing takes time.
It might be possible to set up a new business with little money or time but that doesn’t mean that getting to that point doesn’t take a while.
I researched my first venture into online business for 6 months while my newborn daughter nursed, slept, and cooed. It only took me 2 weeks to launch the thing. After I launched it, I kept experimenting & researching until… well, there is no until. Look at me, I’m still researching and experimenting!
There is no perfect idea. A ha! moments come and go. Your perseverance is what shows your creativity, ambition, and passion. Nothing less.
