Posts Tagged ‘pressure’

Why we’ve got to break the rules…!

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
Create some buzz

Create some buzz

We’re all under constant pressure to conform. From our earliest days we want to fit in. We want to be liked at school and with our friends. We don’t want to stand out. We’re told to work hard, to get a “proper job”, to do what we’re told and somehow it will all be ok…?

And now, as business owners we’re supposed to do what everyone else does… panic, bed in, and hope for the best, or the swift passing of this recession – Inshallah ! But there’s a problem with this way of thinking…. and the problem is that it takes the locus of control away from us…

Successful entrepreneurs and business owners refuse to conform because conforming means doing what everyone else does. Its clear that many businesses will struggle in the year ahead, and if we do what they’re doing then we’ll struggle too. As the old saying goes, “if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got”. The rather more well known version goes – “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result” So, we must be different, we must do things differently…. So what can we do?

Firstly, don’t cut our marketing and advertising (unless you know its not working) Look for ways to attract customers at a low cost. I’m a big believer in marketing, especially when we don’t have any spare dosh for advertising – Marketing is just a fancy term for being creative in everything you do that promotes your business, and for a very small outlay you can generate some very positive publicity for your business. How can you get people talking about your business? After all referrals are the cheapest and most reliable way to bring in new business.

Secondly, don’t buy into the belief that people aren’t spending money. While it’s clear that consumers decision making process on how to spend money has changed, if you understand the sales process and the value proposition you can position your business as the first choice for your customers.

The third idea is Implementation – try things, better a good plan today than a great plan tomorrow! Don’t wait until everything is just so, just jump in and have a go! This is a perfect time to try things you’ve always thought about doing…. So loyalty cards, birthday clubs, open evenings, workshops, fashion cafes…. Whatever you go with, the only requisite is that we take action, remember, nodding is fun to do, but largely ineffective.

Finally, whatever you do, don’t conform to the countries negative mindset. There is a comfort in joining in the whole recession conversation, but just as you choose what to wear in the morning, you can choose your mental outlook.
Don’t ignore the recession and pretend its not there in a tra la la la la kind of way, but just don’t act from a mindset of fear, make the changes that need to be made from the mindset of focus and determination. This is really the time to market yourself shamelessly- Have some fun with your marketing – really push the boat out, get everyone together and think of the stories and possibilities around your business.

While we’re talking about money, its worth remembering that the same amount of money still moves around every day, regardless of whether the stock market is up or down, and regardless of whether house prices go up or down, it’s still moving. Whenever there’s a segment that’s going through a down cycle, there’s a segment going through an up cycle. So, bearing this in mind, how could you position yourself and your business to be in the position to receive some of this flowing money?

Which are the media that your target customers read, which places do they go to? Which organisations do they belong to? How creative can you be in getting a potential list of new customers together? Check out the library, the post office, online forums, local centres and community opportunities.

Once you’ve found them, how can you communicate to them in a way that resonates with them, on twitter, facebook, by email, by post, by poster, by banner, an invitation, a declaration, a modification ? – What’s going to work best for your potential customers?

The only limit is how creative you can be – Remember there’s no prizes for conforming ! Give yourself a big target ( It’ll be easier to hit )- So for April, why not make it your goal to create some buzz around your business – with the end goal of converting some buzz into business (sales) and have some fun doing it.

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Posted in Adding value, Building a media profile, Conforming, Independent retailers, PMA, Positive mental attitude, Publicity, Retailing in a recession, consumer trends, marketing | No Comments »

Pressure,the law of Vacuum and how you can use this to create a compelling future

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

Tell everyone what you're going to do !

Tell everyone what you're going to do !

Following on from my post about the law of Pertubation….

The law of pertubation explains that in order for something to grow there must be pressure. It explains why behind every good idea is someone championing it, that either got really mad and angry about something, or saw a possibility for something different. You’ll know as well as I do that at work, if you don’t have everyone behind an idea, no matter how good it is, it just won’t have legs.

Or, if you have no time to implement something, but you put someone in charge who loves it, then it’ll work. Every great idea, needs a champion !

So, now given that we need pressure in order to grow, and that there’s no pressure when we’re comfortable, and therefore no growth. How can we create pressure, and kick start growth?

There’s a few ways, and I’ll explore some of them here:

One way to create pressure is to create more space. The Law of Vacuum, another very cool law, says that nature abhors a vacuum and everything grows to fill the available space. You can see this in your own houses, “everything expands to fit the space available to it” Look around, I’m sure when you moved in you thought you had oodles of room, but now….?

At work, you can see this in time management and procrastination ! Have you noticed how activities always expand to fill the time allotted. If you want something done sooner, then you’ve just got to create a smaller timeframe, which applies more pressure, so the job gets done sooner. There’s a great quote about deadlines, “if it wasn’t for deadlines, nothing would get done!” Have you ever noticed how much work you can get through two days before you’re due to go on holiday? Stuff that’s been on your to do list for literally months is cut through, like a hot knife through butter – why isn’t it like that all the time? Hmmmm, there’s not the same pressure !

If you want more business, create the space for it. Hire more salespeople, expand your shop space, buy another van, book the space to conduct a workshop, etc. Creating space will naturally create pressure for you to fill that space.

Another way to create pressure, and its everyone’s least favourite, is to tell EVERYONE what you’re going to do ! So if you want to open another shop in the next year, for instance, then tell everyone you know, your family, neighbours, friends the dog, the postman, customers, publicise it in the local newspaper, that’ll create some pressure to get that second shop. We tend to like to do things undercover, that way if it doesn’t work out, we didn’t fail, because we weren’t really trying. Its one way we fool ourselves into avoiding the pressure for change. No one likes to look stupid, but really, what’s the worst that can happen?

Create a compelling future, for you and for those around you, so that going through the discomfort of the change process is going to be worth something in the end. Its rather like moving house, you only do it, because its going to be a nicer house, more room, a better neighbourhood, a bigger kitchen, or some such reason. Or at least that’s how you sell, or are sold the idea.

You create the picture of how the future will look, your vision of it, how the shop will be, what colour the walls will be, the new products you will be able to sell, what the new type of customers will be like, how going upmarket will transform your finances, or whatever it is, and then you talk about it, until everyone is on board with your idea.

Remember nature abhors a vacuum and will fill it up regardless, so you might as well have it filled up with your compelling vision of what the future will be than a random assortment of your staff’s visions, which will be eclectic and will diffuse the USP of your shop, so remember the law of vacuum and set a direction today and champion your vision….

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Posted in Retailing in a recession | No Comments »

Recession, Pertubation, Retail & thermo nuclear dynamics : What you need to know !

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

Pertubation in action !

Pertubation in action !

Many of you reading will be asking, What on earth is Pertubation and what’s it got to do with me and my shop?

Well, prepare yourselves because it’s an endlessly interesting law of thermo nuclear dynamics, and if you can see what’s happening at the macro level, then you can take it back down to the micro level !

The second law of thermo nuclear dynamics is essentially, that things are either growing of dying, moving forward or going backwards, things cannot stand still, they may appear to, but in fact they are always in a state of flux. If you want proof of this, look at an old photograph album, and think about all the things that have happened to the people in the pictures. You’ll get my point.

The whole point of life is that it can’t stand still, its always moving, and it’s the same for people and the businesses they run. The dictionary definition for perturbed is essentially “an alteration of some state” So, lets explore that idea.

In order for change to occur, pressure must be applied. We mostly prefer to stay within our comfort zones, this is also human nature. But in order to grow and develop we have to step outside our comfort zones. As children we do this automatically, but over time life kicks us in the teeth a few times and we learn that it can be a bit dangerous to step out too far, so most of us curtail some of our dreams and ambitions, and settle for less than we’re capable of. It’s a fundamental contradiction, human nature versus the universe.

Ilya Pregegine, a Russian born, Belgian theoretical scientist won the Nobel Science prize in Chemistry in 1977, for his work on change, that ultimately led to the laws of thermo-nuclear dynamics. He found that in order for change to occur, pressure must be applied. So to get out of our comfort zones, ultimately we must also have pressure applied or pertubation.

Pertubation is essentially the pressure before the change. So for instance, when you switch on a kettle, the water is at first cold, slowly heating up because of the pressure applied to it, which culminates in the water boiling and entering a different state, its now boiled water. Obviously the water didn’t choose to be boiled, it didn’t have any control over it, but it got pertubated all the same, and it was different after going through this process – see any similarities to life yet?

The biggest difference between inanimate objects that get pertubated and us, is that they don’t make it mean anything. If we were the water, we’d be complaining, wondering how it happened to us, and looking for someone to blame.

So its probably best to stop fighting it, and go along with the process, trusting in the outcome, and knowing that its part of life, things change, and we have to change with them. Sure we’ll fight them, because that’s part of our nature, but in the end accepting it, will make the path more enjoyable and us open to new possibilities.

How many people have created new possibilities out of being made redundant, or found new love after a messy divorce – millions of them !

So, what’s this got to do with business and retail?

Everything! The world around us is in constant flux, leaders come and go, morals and social morality evolves, trends explode and fade away, fashion erupts and meanders, economies go up and down. We have to stay at the forefront of this movement, watching, learning, educating ourselves so we can make considered judgements and evolve our businesses. It’s easy to see a business where the owner has given up, or doesn’t know what to do, there’s an air of despair about it.

Once in a while, pertubation will hit a country, just as the recession is doing now in the UK, causing pressure, panic and worry for millions. But it’s just a principle, like all the others that govern our lives. Looking at a macro level, if we accept that this is going on, and seek to find how we can innovate and evolve our businesses, this will be a more beneficial use of our time than bemoaning our fate.

When the dust settles on the economy and the casualties of change have been wheeled away, it’ll be an altered world, and the best way to be successful in an altered world is to see it coming and be prepared.

Remember for any change to occur there must be pressure applied, when enough pressure is applied we reach a point of pertubation. We actually are perturbed, this is when we go out and do whatever it is we were putting off doing! There is no pressure when you’re comfortable, this discomfort preceeds all change, whether you want a new house, business or partner, the rule is always the same. So it would be wise to use this rule like a superhero, for good ! If you know the rule, don’t work against it, because you won’t win, you’ll just exhaust yourself trying…..go with the flow, looking forwards not backwards.

On a final note Ilya Prigegine, who I think we can agree was a pretty smart guy, also said: ‘the world is richer than it is possible to express in any single language” which is pretty cool and a nice way to be remembered.

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Posted in Retailing in a recession | No Comments »