A lot of businesses fail in 5 years or less. We’ve survived 14 years.
It’s not been easy, and it’s not come without great challenges: We’ve survived the great recession, and the great pandemic. Not to mention the common obstacles to business growth. But we are still here, so let’s pull out the Professor’s whiteboard for our top 3 business survival tips…
Saturday Night Live recently mocked the entitlement paradigm with a bit called You Can Do Anything. It’s about a talk show where the guests are encouraged to do whatever they think they can do.
No matter how good they are.
No matter if they’ve ever done it before.
It doesn’t matter.
You can do anything!
We agree.
You can do anything.
You may not do it well.
You may fall flat on your face.
You may fail.
With a little practice, you will surely get better at it.
With a lot of practice, you may even achieve some level of success.
But you won’t reach BIGG success. So “You Can Do Anything” is the worst advice you can ever receive.
Listen to this post! Click a player to hear George & Mary-Lynn on The BIGG Success Show. (Runtime 4:48)
I wanted to be an astronaut. But math and science were not strength. My mom said to me, “Math and science are going to be really important if you want to be an astronaut.” That was really important to me. I realized how much work it was going to take for me to be an astronaut.
Look at American Idol. The people who reach the finals, and ultimately win, have spent years honing their craft. They may be young, but most of the time, they’ve been singing for ten or more years.
Now we’re all about positive thinking. But sometimes the best thing you can discover is what you can’t do.
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I was a decent athlete in a much earlier era of my life. But the problem is I played all sports – football, basketball, baseball. Now, I was never going to be a great basketball player. But I could have been a much better baseball player if I had been forced to focus.
Look at Michael Jordan. In our opinion, he’s the greatest basketball player of all time. He’s also a pretty good golfer. But he tried baseball and didn’t make it.
Which raises the question – will you be content with success?
Or is it BIGG success you’re after?
We can only conclude the latter since you’re here with us.
So you’re a BIGG goal-getter.
Step 1
To reach BIGG success, follow George Costanza’s example. Instead of following the advice we hear all the time – think “can” – do the opposite and think “can’t”.
That’s Step 1: to find your talent.
Sometimes it pays to think about you can’t do. Because you may find it easier to spot your shortcomings than your strengths. But you’re not going to stop there!
Step 2
You’re going to quickly move to Step 2: Think the opposite. You’re not a detail person? Okay. Are you a BIGG picture thinker?
Not good at math? Are you good at English?
This is what you often see. There’s a yin and yang to talent. We tend to naturally fall into categories.
Discovering what you can’t do often helps you discover what you can do. And leads to BIGG success.
https://biggsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/bigg-success_stacked-1080.png10801080George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Fosterhttps://biggsuccess.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/BIGG-Success-Nurturing-Your-Inner-Entreprener.jpgGeorge Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster2012-01-31 07:00:102017-09-30 14:43:00Positively the Worst Advice Ever if You Want to Find Your Talent
Henry Ford had a friend named Alexander Malcomson. He convinced Ford to raise money and do it BIGG. Ford resisted at first before giving in.
Malcomson’s job was to peddle the stock. He asked his attorneys, John Anderson and Horace Rackham, to invest.
Anderson jumped at the chance. Rackham sought the advice of his banker, one of the most respected bankers in Detroit. Rackham explained the opportunity to the banker.
The banker pointed out the window of his office and said, ‘You see all those people on their bicycles riding along the boulevard? There is not as many as there were a year ago. The novelty is wearing off; they are losing interest. That’s just the way it will be with automobiles. People will get the fever; and later they will throw them away. My advice to you is not to buy the stock. You might make money for a year or two, but in the end you will lose everything you put in. The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty – a fad.’
Rackham was convinced until he ran into Malcomson a few days later. Malcomson convinced him to take a flyer on the fledgling company. Rackham invested $5,000.
How did it turn out? Rackham eventually sold his stake for $12,500,000.
BIGG success comes to those who listen to the right advice.
Most businesses and non-profit organizations have a web site by now. Good thing since more and more people are searching online for services instead of using the phone book.
There’s a lot of advice about how your website should look. It’s important to pause to realize …
It's the experience that counts the most!
Just like in the bricks-and-mortar world, people value the experience.
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I've had two bad user experiences recently. The first one has to do with a local not-for-profit organization for which I volunteer. I produce the audio for the radio and television commercials that promote the event. The commercials mention a web address to get more information. However, that address takes you to the organization's national website. I spent ten minutes trying to find the page with information about our local event.
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If memory serves, Mary-Lynn, you told me that you saw a link, “Find your local event.” But it directed you to sign up or log in to get more information.
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Right! It’s crazy. I shouldn't have to sign up to simply get information. Regardless, I finally recovered my user name and password. Then I logged in, but I still haven't found the local page. I ran out of time and will have to go back.
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People who aren’t as invested as you probably wouldn’t put that much effort into finding the local information. Worse yet, they may never go back to the site.
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Tip #1: Create a landing page specific for what you are promoting.
Make it easy for people to find the information they want. For example, our local branch could have a page that ends with the name of our city. They could set up an address like this: nameoforganization.com/champaign.
That's a landing page. It’s the address you want to promote to people in your area for information about your local organization – especially when you’re using local TV, radio, or the newspaper.
Here's another example for a business: If you are promoting a deal, use a web address like one of these:
yourbusinessname.com/deal
yourbusinessname.com/summersale
Create your landing page in advance. It can reiterate the most important points of your advertisement and provide more information. Also provide links to your home page and any other pages that people interested in this promotion might find useful.
Integrating your offline marketing with online marketing makes all your marketing more productive. It’s a time-tested strategy. If visitors to your site get the information they want quickly, they’ll be more likely to take the time to visit other areas of your site.
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The second bad experience occurred when I read an article online about a local tech series that is free and open to the public. The article was on our local newspaper's website. It gave details on the upcoming session and offered a link to the organization's website to get more information on all of the sessions in the series.
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So you went to the website to find out more information, and I remember hearing a … how should I describe it … a frustrated sigh coming from you.
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That’s a good way to say it. I was frustrated because I couldn't find anything about the series. I clicked on several page links, including their events link. Nothing. I used their search tool to search for the name of the event. Still nothing. Finally I went to their calendar and typed in the exact date. The first session in the series came up. It contained the same information that was in the article. Nothing further about the entire series. I was planning to put all of the dates on my calendar. I guess I’ll have to call them.
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Tip #2: Make it easy to find the information you promote.
If you want people to know about your events, make it easy to get that information. Especially if your event is getting press!
Create a page like we suggested above. If you prefer to link people to your home page, create a link and highlight it so people can find it quickly and easily. For example, in the case we mentioned above, you could highlight it this way:
"Tech series starting in August"
Make it very visible on your site. When people click on that link, it will take them to the page you've created with all the information about that event.
Your site is an excellent tool to compliment your other marketing efforts. But if you don't make it easy for people to find what you’re promoting, they won't participate in your sale or event.
Prepare your web site for visitors before you advertise or send out a press release. That will help make your campaign a bigg success!
Do you have any tips from your bad user experiences? Or maybe a good experience combining your web site with traditional media? Share that with us by leaving a comment below, calling us at 877.988.BIGG(2444) or e-mailing us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com.
Thanks so much for reading our post today. Please join us next time when we’ll discuss artificial dissemination. Yes, you read that right! Until then, here’s to your bigg success!
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The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
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I wanted to be an astronaut. But math and science were not strength. My mom said to me, “Math and science are going to be really important if you want to be an astronaut.” That was really important to me. I realized how much work it was going to take for me to be an astronaut.
I was a decent athlete in a much earlier era of my life. But the problem is I played all sports – football, basketball, baseball. Now, I was never going to be a great basketball player. But I could have been a much better baseball player if I had been forced to focus.
Most businesses and non-profit organizations have a web site by now. Good thing since more and more people are searching online for services instead of using the phone book. 
I've had two bad user experiences recently. The first one has to do with a local not-for-profit organization for which I volunteer. I produce the audio for the radio and television commercials that promote the event. The commercials mention a web address to get more information. However, that address takes you to the organization's national website. I spent ten minutes trying to find the page with information about our local event.