Binny Lane, Week 3

Wow.

The sales came. And they came fast. Much faster than I expected.

Within the first 20 minutes of posting on Facebook what I was trying to do, I had a few orders for cookies, one for a cheesecake, and a couple for the pudding cakes.

We spent a lot of time baking and I found myself wondering how anybody makes any money doing that.

And then, while I’m writing this, I got my first cancellation.

But, the thing I feel I learned this week is that it can happen. With the right messaging and the right contacts, it can happen. The business I want to create is possible. It’s possible. It can happen.

And I can make it happen.

Before the cancellation, I had all the profit I needed. I even had a spreadsheet showing the costs for each dozen cookies, each cheesecake and each pudding cake. I figured out, on my own, how to track that information. I kept receipts, logged costs for ingredients, and baked my little heart out.

And made a profit.

Not enough to pay myself with, but a profit nonetheless. (I know I’m donating the profits, but hypothetically, I didn’t make enough to have paid myself anything for all the effort.)

I can do this! No lesson is more valuable, to me, than that.

My Primary Aim

What do I value most?

What kind of life do I want?

What do I want my life to look like, to feel like?

Who do I wish to be?

How do I want my story to be told?

What would I like to be able to say about my life after it’s too late to do anything about it?

If I were to write a script for … the mourners at my funeral, how would I like it to be read?

What am I aiming for?

Primary Aim

From The EMyth Revisited

How To #1: Measure the Result of Change

It’s important to be able to measure the results of changes we make in how we do things. Below is a set of guidelines to help us measure the impact of changes.

  1. Determine how many people you were having an impact on before the changes is made
  2. Figure out how many people bough products/services, and what the dollar amount was, before the change was made
  3. Count the number of people you’re having an impact on after the change was implemented
  4. Count the number of people who purchased something
  5. Figure out the average unit value of a sale
  6. Determine what the improvement was after the change

Adapted from The EMyth Revisited

The Key to Failure

If you want to fail, be boring. That’s it.

To explain just a little more:

  1. Don’t listen to your customers – they don’t know what they’re talking about.
  2. Don’t worry about email campaigns or social media, and FOR SURE don’t respond when people reach out that way.
  3. Come up with big ideas and pin them on a board in the back room. That room where nobody goes so nobody else will see them or use them.
  4. Keep doing things the same way you always have and just copy your competition.
  5. Don’t challenge yourself or your employees.
  6. Don’t ask hard questions like “Why not?” That question makes people think and that’s just too much effort.

This is a recipe which means that you need all of the pieces to make a real successful failure. It’s possible though, and you can do it too.

Don’t Be THAT Guy

You know what guy I’m talking about. The guy that thinks he’s better than everyone else. The guy that doesn’t watch the tapes, listen to himself, or pay attention to anyone else. He’s so wrapped up in his own awesomeness that he can’t see anything outside of his stardom.

im awesome 2

THAT guy.

im awesome

Or that guy.

Either way, being that guy will blind you from these guys coming right at ya.And when those guys hit you, because they will, if you’re not ready because you weren’t paying attention, you will get destroyed.

Personal Injury

The moral of the story: Pay attention to your competition. They’re paying attention to you and they’re trying to get ahead of you. They’re trying to steal your business. If you become complacent, they will succeed. Keep your customers happy and don’t be THAT guy.