“A determined soul will do more with a rusty monkey wrench than a loafer will accomplish with all the tools in a machine shop.” ~ Robert Hughes

People are always looking for a new tool.

It may not be necessary. Make the most of the tools you already have.

Ingenuity leads to BIGG success.

People think a new tool will make life easier.
Forget about finding the easy route. Be willing to work hard.
Industriousness leads to BIGG success.

People worry about the condition of their tools.
Keep your tools in good repair. Then they’ll be there when you need them. Preparedness leads to BIGG success.

People are too concerned about using the right tool.
Think outside the tool box. Find more uses for your current tools.
Flexibility leads to BIGG success.

People give up if the tool they’re using doesn’t get the job done quickly.
Don’t worry how long it takes to do the job. Just finish the task somehow. Persistence leads to BIGG success.

People spend too much time looking at all of their tools.
Tools are only useful when used. Grab one and get to work.
Action leads to BIGG success.

You have all the tools you need at your disposal.
Even if you don’t, tools can be bought.

You may not know how to use the tool.
If you don’t, you can learn.

The secret to reaching BIGG success isn’t the tool. It’s YOU!
The operator of the tool is much more important than the tool.

So quit chasing tools. Stop making excuses. Get off your duff. Use the tools you already have. It leads to BIGG success.

 Image in this post from stock.xchng

Bill Rosenberg was nine-years old. He often tagged along to work with his dad, who owned a grocery store in Boston.

One hot summer day, Bill’s dad made the boy responsible for selling watermelons. If the nine-year old didn’t sell them, they would go bad.

Bill set up a stand in front of the store.

And he stood there. And stood there. And stood there.

People weren’t buying!

The young man wasn’t about to give up. His dad was counting on him.

But he realized that he needed to get creative. He thought about it. He looked around. He got an idea. Maybe this would work.

He repositioned his watermelon stand right by the streetcar stop. He barked out, “Bring a watermelon home! Surprise your family!”

More people saw his stand. They were impressed with the boy’s enthusiasm. Before long, all the watermelons were gone. Bill was a BIGG success!

What happened to Bill Rosenberg?

He went on to start Dunkin’ Donuts, a chain that sells over $5 billion of food and coffee through its nearly 9,000 stores.

Creativity is a critical skill in the new economy. Persistence has always been crucial. Put the two ingredients together and you have the recipe for BIGG success.

We all know the old saying, “If at first you don’t succeed – try, try again.”

The first solution often seems obvious. However, what do you do when it doesn’t work?

You have to come up with a second solution. That’s harder to do.

You have to get more creative. And you can’t give up.

Source: Time to Make the Donuts by William Rosenberg

 Image in this post from FrenchByte

We had dinner with a friend recently. He’s an entrepreneur turned venture capitalist. We talked about what sparked the change. He said, “A bad day”.

We can relate. If it weren’t for a bad day in each of our lives, we would have never started BIGG success. We both reached a point, independently and coincidentally at about the same time, where we decided it was time to move on.

Good days lift our spirits. Bad days sap our strength. Unless they’re really bad.

When we get really beaten up, when we’ve hit our head against the wall one too many times, when we just can’t take it anymore – that’s the spark for innovation in our lives, in our businesses and for our customers.

BIGG success is life on your own terms. It’s about entrepreneuring your life – taking control to build the life that’s custom designed just for you. Persistence pays in pursuing your dream. But when the right bad day comes, you know it’s time to move on.

You’ll see yourself rising from the ashes of frustration. You’ll the warmth from the flames of hope. Soon the fire in your belly will roar hot again. It’s that fire that will help you reach BIGG success.

If you’ve had a bad day, send us a note at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com. Maybe we can help you light the fire.

Image in this post by hortongrou

There are a number of reasons why entrepreneurs miss the mark. We’ll talk about three of them today.

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RAS – Ready Aim Syndrome

A lot of people spend a lot of time looking for that perfect idea. As soon as they find it, fortune will be theirs.

But the perfect idea never comes. So they find themselves aiming and aiming and aiming.

We have an acquaintance who is always telling us about his latest greatest idea. The problem is he never pulls the trigger. He never does anything because no idea will stand the test of time. By the time he is finally ready for his bigg idea, the opportunity has passed.

RFS – Ready Fire Syndrome

These people have an affliction that is opposite our first group. They don’t have the patience to test their idea slowly and inexpensively.

They think that every idea is a bullseye. All they have to do is get started.

Most ideas are garbage. They won’t stand up to the scrutiny that should be done before launching.

Walking the tight rope
So the challenge in launching a new endeavor is walking that tight rope between analysis paralysis and banning planning. You have to find the balance.

Most successful entrepreneurs probably fire quicker than most people would be comfortable doing. However, the ones who reach bigg success understand that there is tremendous value in the planning process as well.

FTS – Fixed Target Syndrome

Once you launch, you have to understand the need to be fluid. The situation on the ground will change. You will learn things you didn’t know before.

Here’s a very important point – the only way you learn these things is by launching. Those who are still on the sidelines will never catch up. You’re trying to hit a moving target, not a fixed one.

Our miss

Unfortunately, this subject is close to us. We launched a new business late last year. We help financial institutions communicate better with small business owners.

Now you know what’s been going on with financial institutions in the last twelve months. We saw the free fall happen right before our eyes.

But we had been working on this thing for a while. We had surveyed a number of potential customers. Our product was a good fit. So we launched.

But when the economy took a tumble, so did our customers’ budgets.

We kept listening. We responded. We tweaked our product offerings. We certainly can’t report that we’re a bigg success yet with this venture, but it seems to be gaining traction.

Along the way, we’ve learned a lot about our customers and about business. We certainly can look back and see things we would do differently. But that will always be the case.

The important thing is to get an idea, test it to see if it’s a good opportunity and then get started and adapt. That leads to bigg success. At least we hope so!

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Thanks so much for checking in with us today. Please join us next time when we’ll talk about when to shut up. Guess that’s our cue. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
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The First Question Entrepreneurs Must Ask

Think Like an Entrepreneur

(Image in today's post by jaylopez)

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Passion

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Deb, you've talked with thousands of entrepreneurs and you've found some critical keys to business success and they all start with “P”. Your first one is Passion. You have to love what you do.

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It’s not unlike a relationship; it’s not unlike love. You have to be passionate about the person that you commit your time and your life to. It certainly doesn’t mean that you’re going to like them every second. Similar to operating a small business, you don’t have to love every part of it. A personal example of that … I used to own an inn in Bar Harbor, Maine and I cleaned more toilets in five years of inn ownership than most people would ever want to do in a lifetime. So that wasn’t my favorite part, but I was certainly passionate about my business as a whole and I was willing to clean the toilets to make it work.

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When you’re on the outside looking in, Deb, do you think there’s a tendency to romanticize that vision of what it means to own your business? I think a lot of people who have never done it before are disappointed that it’s not easy. It is hard, so you really do have to love it, but not romanticize it.

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Exactly. I always suggest that if you do have a romantic dream of owning an inn, for example, or operating a restaurant, that you go and work in one for a while. Really experience it; really find out what it’s going to take. Of course, it’s different when it’s yours, but you have to understand what the job entails.

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Yeah, you definitely have to make sure you know what you’re getting into. That you see that toilet!

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Product

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Moving on to your next “P” for business success – it is Product.

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You have to have a product or service that people will actually pay you money for. Oftentimes, I’ve seen entrepreneurs romanticize their idea for a product or a service or an invention even. They just think it’s the greatest thing … that everyone will want this. They’re in love with it, but they really haven’t tested the market to make sure that other people will be as passionate about it as they are. And that these people will actually pay money for it because that is really a key.

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Yes, because there are bills to pay!

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There are … that’s the reality! It’s worth it to take the time to do the market research to be as certain as you possibly can be that there is a market for your product or service.

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Persistence

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Next on your list, Deb, is Persistence.

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This is so important. When you start a business or when you’re trying to grow a business, things often can become challenging. They may not go the way that you want. Certain things may take longer than you hoped. You just have to persist through those challenging times. But you need to know when to cut your losses. It certainly doesn’t mean that you should just keep going and going and going if things aren’t going well. Sometimes you just have to say, “This isn’t working.”

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George just worked with an entrepreneur who had to do that. She had to call it quits. But what’s interesting is that she has a great attitude. She’s not calling entrepreneurship quits, just that particular business. There was really no place else to go with it. She’s taken the lessons learned and regrouping, but then she’s going to launch another business at some point. I admire that in her.

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Entrepreneurs are born with that genetic gift, as I call it sometimes. At other times, I call it a curse! We will come back with the next great idea and constantly be creating something. We just take those lessons, good and bad, and apply them to the next great idea.

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Planning

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And another one of your P’s for business success is planning.

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Plan! Plan! Plan! You really do have to develop a business plan. If you’re just starting a new business, it’s critical to determine many things, including if a market exists for your product. But also planning has to happen every day and every week and every month. You have to plan the small things out and you also have to plan the big picture. You constantly have to be in planning mode. When you’re the boss, there’s nobody else telling you what needs to get done this week.

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I think that’s one of the bigger challenges for people who just start a business. Not having that person to answer to. It could be a coach. In my former businesses, I met with one of my partners every week to make sure that he kept me on track. We try to do that with our coaches. You need that outside person to keep you focused and working on what you say you need to work on.

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Get more small business advice from Deb Neuman on her web site: debneuman.com.

Join us tomorrow when we discuss Deb’s last three critical keys to business success. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00344-030509.mp3

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Critical Keys to Business Success – Part 2

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Profitable Passions – Part 1

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