We witnessed the decline of a successful business first-hand. Some details have been changed to protect the guilty.

Listen to this post! Click a player to hear George & Mary-Lynn on The BIGG Success Show Podcast. (Runtime 5:15)


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She ended up making a critical mistake. She changed to a more mainstream menu and reduced prices.

Unfortunately, this move put her squarely in competition with a number of other restaurants, including several chains.

As in most areas, the restaurant business is highly competitive in our area. We’ve been ranked near the top of dining out per capita consumption. But we’ve also been ranked way up there in terms of number of restaurants per capita.

So when the owner made the changes, she went from being one-of-a-kind to being one-of-many. The result was that she ended up closing the restaurant.

You see this all the time. You can miss the boat when starting a new business. You may get it wrong when running your own business. It’s a critical key to success in business.

Popularity versus profitability

You must keep in mind the huge difference between popularity and profitability.

You can be a success in business without being popular.
But you can’t be a success in business without being profitable.

Profit is not a dirty word! It’s a necessity.

Without profit, you won’t be able to sustain your current level of sales in the future.

You need profit to repay any loans you have.
Profit provides the capital to grow your business.

Without profit, you won’t be able to give your people raises and other perks.

Without profit, the BEST you can expect is to remain stuck right where you are.

As humans, we have a desire to be popular. We want to fit in. We want to be admired and respected. There’s nothing wrong with that per se. But this emotional desire for popularity may kill your business!

Let’s talk about three ways that may happen.

This desire to be popular may keep you from honing in on your ideal customer.

The restaurateur we mentioned earlier had an upscale crowd. She wanted more customers so she toned it down.

Unfortunately, she lost her best customers chasing after customers who didn’t spend as much.

A lower average ticket, coupled with lower profit margins, killed her business.

You can and should love your customers. You want your customers to love you. But you want the right customers to love you.

Wanting to be popular may lead you to charge too little.

We’ve already hinted at this. People are smart. They like a good deal.

If you price your products and/or services below your total cost, you will be popular. You’ll also find that, the more popular you are, the more money you’ll lose!

It’s far better to have fewer customers who gladly pay you what you’re worth.

Provide what a select group of customers want or need and you’ll create more value for them. Then price your product and/or service accordingly.

You may not be as popular, but you most certainly will be more profitable.

The desire to be popular may keep you from making tough internal choices.

For example, entrepreneurial leaders can’t afford to make personnel decisions based on popularity. You must make choices based on who is best suited to help you get to your destination.

It leads to BIGG success!

Want to maximize your profitability? Maybe we can help.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00793-032212.mp3

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

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

He stood at the bar, surrounded by people…yet all alone.

Music. Talk. Laughter. A blender. Noise. He was aware of them all but his thoughts were even louder.

Why did she leave me? Why doesn’t she love me anymore?

She used to be his biggest fan. She used to tell him so.

And she never stopped telling others how much she loved him. She said so…on Facebook and Twitter and in real life.

Listen to the audio version of this story. Click the player to hear it on The BIGG Success Show podcast.

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When they first got together, people said they were a perfect match. He looked out for her needs. He took care of her. His passion was visible to everyone.

But over time, he began to take her for granted. He thought she would always stick with him. She would always be a fan.

She would catch him looking at others. At first it was just a glance. But the glances showed more interest as time went by. He didn’t think she noticed; he was wrong.

She also noticed that he didn’t look out for her like he used to. He just didn’t seem to care as much.

The passion was gone. But she wondered if he still loved her.

He seemed more distant. It seemed like he found others more interesting than her.

It used to be just the opposite. No one was like her. He was devoted to her. But now it had come to this.

She couldn’t take it anymore. She left him.

She started buying from his competitor.

His competitor shows the same kind of passion for her that he used to show. She hopes this relationship lasts.

It’s complicated…but if it works out, she’ll talk about him on Facebook and Twitter and everywhere else she can.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00689-041411.mp3

Image in this post from dspruitt

It’s a great post. He talks the BIGG difference that kindness has made in his life. So he’s encouraging all of us to make kindness a daily habit.

Listen to this post on The BIGG Success Show podcast:

Since we think we could use a little more kindness in the world, we thought we’d chime in.

Kindness is contagious

Researchers have found that kindness is contagious. It makes us feel good to see someone helping another person. It makes us want to do the same thing.

Kindness accumulates happiness

Another study shows that there is a link between kindness and happiness. Happier people tend to be more kind. Kindness leads to more happiness. So happy people become even happier by being kind. Kindness accumulates happiness!

Successful entrepreneurs win with kindness

Many potential entrepreneurs make a critical mistake: they think about their own gain. It kills the business.

Successful entrepreneurs think about helping a group of people (i.e. their customers) solve a problem. Then they kill them with kindness to keep them coming back again and again. Repeat business leads to BIGG success!

So, at its essence, entrepreneurship is about kindness – creating value for yourself by adding value in the lives of other people. If kindness is contagious, maybe entrepreneurship is as well!

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Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file | podcast:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/biggsuccess/00676-030111.mp3

Image in today’s post from heathbrandon