Tuesday, February 24, 2004
A day of employment frustration
While the owner of the etched home decor company I handle website and marketing for is driving back from trade shows out East, I was holding down the fort at the office. I look forward to getting back to focusing more on enhancing sales on the site than manning the phones.
I know, starting a business is not exactly a direction that affords peace and thoughtful comtemplation. I'm sure that succeeding at business will bring with it as much disruption of my concentration as I experienced today. But at least it will call on me to make decisions where I have the final responsibility instead of trying to anticipate what decisions Mark, the owner, would want made in the many areas where the broad scope of his business leaves a lot of gaps in established practice.
Another step today, though. Coming home, I got a couple of test e-Bay listings up of products I think will sell. Of course my research also suggested some totally different directions to try, but I'll have to restrain myself on those.
If there's one thing I've learned from planning a business, it's that it's way too easy to dash off into step 11 before you really finish step 1. So many possibilities! So many options!
It all comes down to fear of loss. It's the key to all marketing, recognizing how how to tap into the customer's fear of losing an opportunity that is at the root of the decision to buy.
But fear of loss is a two-way street. It's something the marketer has, too. Chasing every opportunity only destroys focus, and focus is what enables those little steps and little steps and little steps that build into success.
Enough for tonight. There's still a couple of tasks to complete.
May your focus be clear, my friend.
Jeff
© 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Jeff Baas, One Stop Web Support
