Can You Get Past A Burnt Bridge?

All humans make mistakes and business owners can make even more mistakes and some times even burn bridges. Burning a bridge doesn't mean you can't move forward and be successful.

Little Fish Philosophy Tips For Success

1 Be Humble

1 Little Fish Philosophy:

Have an awareness that you actually burnt down the bridge

2 Gather Knowledge:

2 Little Fish Philosophy:

Learn which of your actions led to burning down the bridge

3 Act With Wisdom:

3 Little Fish Philosophy:

Have a better understanding of fire prevention

4 Go Forth With Courage:

4 Little Fish Philosophy:

Build new bridges - you're allowed to

You just have to remember that if you have burnt a bridge down, you can gather the rubble (the lessons learned) into a pile and walk over the rubble to the other side because no one can stop you but yourself.

Keep Swimming Little Fish!

Own Your Business Or It Will Own You

As a little fish in the pond of big businesses, you feel the financial pressure to get going with your new venture almost immediately without having spent time planning.

With that sense of urgency, the good news is that you'll probably make some quick money at the start, but the bad news is that you won't be able to sustain it. Owning a viable business requires more than just excitement or flying by the seat of your pants, it requires a plan that will help you determine:

• Your value proposition

• Who your customers are

• What type of relationship you want to have with them

• How you want to communicate to them

• How you want to sell or deliver your product or service

Once you've been able to answer these questions, you'll then be able to put some policies and procedures in place to help execute your plan, thoroughly and consistently without guessing.

If you don't put a plan in place at the beginning, you will spend most, if not all of your time and energy being reactive. Being reactive means being owned and being owned means you'll soon loose passion for what got you to start your business in the first place.

Keep Swimming Little Fish!

How Often and How Much Do You Water Your Lawn?

When you're a little fish in the pond of big businesses, you have to concentrate your marketing efforts. A large company will have larger funds and therefore will have the privilege of marketing far and wide because their brands are already widely known and powerful.

A smaller company will have a smaller advertising budget and will have to be careful not to spread their marketing efforts too thinly. For a small company, thin marketing efforts are shallow efforts and shallow efforts will fade long before any impact is made.

Analogy

Watering your lawn is a necessary chore if you want beautiful green grass. If you water a couple of times a week for a couple of hours each time, the water will have the opportunity to penetrate down to the roots and promote a healthy lawn.

If you water your lawn daily for 10-15 minutes, the sun will evaporate the water that sits on the blades of grass, long before the water has even had the chance to make it down to the roots, rendering your efforts useless.

Don't advertise in everything that comes your way. Be selective and plan to do it for a while.

Keep Swimming Little Fish!

Are You Focusing On The Wrong Thing?

As a little fish in the pond of big businesses it's easy to get caught up in one detail and neglect the bigger picture of your business. When you focus too narrowly on one thing, especially something that is negative, you miss the opportunity to see all of those positive aspects of your company that far out weigh the acute challenges you may be facing.

Analogy

You have a telephoto lens on your camera and are focused in on an old-dilapidated building and decide that it's far too ugly to take a photo of. Then you change to a wide-angle lens and see that this old house is perched on a hillside overlooking a spectacular valley with wild flowers in full bloom. The rotting house is now no longer your focus, but is a small element within the composition of your masterpiece instead.

Keep Swimming Little Fish!

Do Your Prospects Judge You By Your "Book-Cover"?

Those prospects that have taken the time to get to know you, will probably have the opportunity to experience your wonderful product or service, but what about those prospects that judge you based on your visual brand? Most of the time, you will have to pass their "book-cover" test, before a prospect even picks up the phone to call you.

So ask yourself what your "book-cover" is saying. Do you even have an image or a consistent message and if you do, is it well designed, recognizable, sharp and meaningful? If you have answered no to any of these, then you might be missing out on the opportunity to win over new business.

Some may argue and say that they have a high closing-rate of those prospects they do have the pleasure of meeting with and because of that, they don't need to have a great "book-cover", but what about those prospects who never get as far as picking up the phone to call you in the first place, because of your book-cover? Your closing rate might be lower than you think.

Analogy

Like most, I find myself drawn to book covers that are visually appealing, that have catchy titles, brief but well written descriptions and that are displayed and stacked neatly in the appropriate genre-specific areas. Those publishers, authors and booksellers show that they've taken time to identify their audience and communicate the idea of their book in ways that are meaningful to their readers. Sometimes this is enough to get some one to buy the book and in the end, if the author has done a good job and the reader is satisfied with what they've read, then they will seek out that author again and again.

Keep Swimming Little Fish!

Do You Know How Important You Are?

As a little fish in the pond of big businesses, we tend to move out of the way and allow our larger competitors to fill the marketplace, but have you stopped to consider that the large companies often can't fulfill every one's order. Sometimes when a company is too big, they can't slow down long enough or mold well enough to accommodate the individuality of smaller customers. Little fish like us are the solution; we have the experience, the flexibility and desire.

Analogy

Imagine a room, and let's call that your marketplace. Now imagine that room filled with larger boulders and in between those boulders is space or crevasses that the boulders can't fit into or mold around to completely fill all the empty and remaining space in the room...Those crevasses are the untapped markets that only you - the little pebbles or the Little Fish can get to! That's how big your market is and how important you are to that market.

Be proud to be a Little Fish. Next time someone says that you're too small, tell them that it's because you're small that you're able to provide them with the exceptional service and products they deserve.

Keep Swimming Little Fish!

What Are You Watering In Your Garden?

When you're a little fish in the pond of big businesses, it easy to get caught up in the hype of a potential customer, but have you taken the time to evaluate the quality of your new lead?

Like everything in business, and in life for that matter; the things that grow the most, are the things you give the most attention to. If you give much attention to a good customer, whom you respect and who respects you, then the possibility of growing that relationship into more business and possible referrals, is great. On the other hand, if you have a potential customer that doesn't share your business values and you give them much attention, they will inevitably grow into a potential "problem customer".

Analogy

If you water grass, your grass will grow green and lush. If you water weeds, the weeds will grow big and strong and take over your entire garden. If your garden is full of weeds, no one will want to visit.

It's simple. Concentrate on the type of customers you want to have.

Keep Swimming Little Fish!