Be Proactive or Perish

[ashwinsatyanarayana]

Wish you a very happy new year, Warriors.

I was just talking to a few business owners on the New Year's Eve and I found out some things that irked me, big time. Most of them were talking about passive ways to grow their business actively. It won't happen. I didn't see a modicum of pro-activity; interest, enthusiasm or aggression in their approach to business.

Here's what I feel -- Be proactive or Perish:

Go hit them, 'coz they don't know you exist: One of the fundamental tenets to good business practice is the fact that no one in the damned world knows that you even exist until you step-up and voice out. Building a site but not promoting it well enough; opening up an offline retail store and sitting there like a pretty swan expecting people to swoon all over you -- c'mon folks, it ain't going to happen.

Doing exactly what the competitors do will take you exactly where they are: I am sure this is not what we want. We don't want to be where our competitors are, we want to be better than them; above them; beyond them. My big bunch of business owners yesterday night revelaed their super-hot, super-secretive marketing strategy and can you guess what that is? -- Doing exactly what the others are doing. I can fathom where they are going to be.

Spending on Crap that Doesn't amount to anything: Most small business owners spend on stuff they don't need -- equipment they don't use; their marketing spend, at best, is unaccounted for; they don't know anything about return on investment and half the people I spoke to don't even have-- or understand the need to have -- a website.

They rely on word of Mouth: I can't believe their conviction when they dropped that line on me. No one is denying the power of word-of-mouth marketing but no business owner can wait until the word spreads enough. His children can't wait until the neighbours hear about the amazing widgets that can suddenly take you back in time, or whatever it is that people sell.

You now know why the "offline Cash Cow" thread is so popular :-)

We all have lessons to glean from this conversation and maybe, just maybe, if we apply this to our own businesses, we might do just that much better.

Have a rocking 2009!