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Entrepreneurs and Squirrels Who Cross the Road

Written on September 26, 2011 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Entrepreneurship

We’ve had an abundance of squirrels in our neighborhood this fall. Entrepreneurs can learn a lot from these furry creatures about storing up a hoard for winter and business cycles.

We were on our way to the grocery store not long ago. In the middle of the road, a squirrel had apparently stopped with its nut in his paws.

We don’t know what happened. We just know he didn’t make it.

Shortly thereafter, another squirrel ran across the road in front of us, with a huge nut in its mouth. We hit the brake hard to avoid hitting it.

It made us wonder:

Why did the squirrel cross the road?

Why did his friend give his life for a nut?

We returned home from our shopping excursion and took a break on our patio. Two squirrels scampered through our backyard – one squirrel chasing the other one.

Apparently, the smaller squirrel had wandered into unfriendly territory. He ran back across the street into familiar turf. Fortunately, he made it back home safely.

What can entrepreneurs and small business owners learn from these squirrels?

Risk increases when you cross the street to chase nuts.

Many entrepreneurs and small business owners focus too much on new customers in new territories.

New is exciting.

New gets the juices flowing.

New feels like progress.

But chasing nuts on the other side of the street means going up the learning curve. It requires taking more risk.

The most successful entrepreneurs are excellent risk managers. They know that “new” comes with more risk.

Larger, more established competitors are lurking. They will guard their turf vigorously. They will try to chase you away as soon as they learn about you.

And there are market forces which you may not fully understand at first. These vehicles can run you over, even when you’re feeling elated by finding a huge nut.

The most successful entrepreneurs devote more resources to growing relationships with existing customers. And looking for more customers nearby – customers who are just like the ones they already serve.

Of course, sometimes you do have to cross the road. But most of the time it’s better to focus on the nuts in your own backyard. It leads to BIGG success!

Would you like to make more money, more dependably? Maybe we can help.

Image in this post from stock.xchng

Tags: audioblog, bigg success, Business, customer service, george krueger, mary-lynn foster, Relationships, risk managers, small business owners, squirrels, successful entrepreneurs

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Set Expectations to Be a Success

Written on September 21, 2011 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Communication

Sometimes, some customers expect too much.

So do bosses, spouses, kids, parents, family members, friends and anyone else you have a relationship with.

Why do they expect too much?

We hate to do this. It’s something we rarely do. But we feel it’s necessary in this case. Before we try to fix the problem, let’s fix the blame.

It’s your fault!

You’re the reason they expect so much.

Before you get defensive, take comfort in this. We’re in the same boat as you are; it’s our fault with the people in our world.

What have we all done wrong? In most cases, it’s a communications problem. And a timing issue.

Let’s think about an example. A customer hires you to do a project. You’re excited to have the work. It will be great to get paid.

So you jump in and get started. You get it done. But the customer is far from thrilled. In fact, they’re unhappy.

They said they expected Y. You only delivered X.

You knew upfront that you were only going to deliver X. You didn’t price the job to provide Y.

But you never told the customer.

There’s the communication problem. Of course, you could tell the customer now. But that’s where the timing issue comes in.

Now, anything you say will sound like an excuse. And relationships aren’t built on excuses.

So what can you do?

In this case, we would eat the extra costs and deliver Y. But we would take a lesson away so we get a return on this unfortunate investment.

What’s the lesson?

You must communicate upfront if you want to manage expectations. Before you start a task, a project or a relationship, everything is open for discussion.

But expectations are being set based on those discussions.

When you tell a customer what you can’t do upfront, it’s an explanation. After the fact, it’s an excuse.

Set expectations upfront so you don’t have to make excuses. It leads to BIGG success!

How do you manage expectations?

Image in this post from stroinski