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Go ahead, dream small

Written by: John Jantsch

Article Overview: There’s a time and place to go big, lord knows we get told how small we are often enough.

Go ahead, dream small

There’s a time and place to go big, lord knows we get told how small we are often enough.

Score CardBut when it comes to marketing your small business I would trade big dreams and pages of killer ideas for one little strategy brilliantly and consistently executed. Small business owners get so caught up in the “web 3.0 idea of the day” that they never get around to doing the sometime overlooked blue collar work that actually makes a difference - you know, networking with peers, writing an article, calling up strategic partners, making one more sales call, taking a journalist out for coffee. It’s the sum total of these seemingly small actions that create the big dream and not really the other way around.

The key is to understand the work that makes a difference, remained focused and plug away. Chasing the new new thing will drive you crazy and never allow you feel what momentum does for a small business. I know this advice isn’t terribly sexy, it’s a little like telling you that the only way to get good at your marketing business is to practice, but in a way, that’s it.

Here’s a tip if you find the allure of the noisy new thing is too loud to stay focused on what needs doing. Create a score card with no more than ten marketing related action items on it. Rate each of those items for importance - give a new sales presentation five points and a new blog post two for example. Both of those marketing related activities will pay off, but one is clearly more important than the other. Now, set a goal of twenty points every day. (The blog post and sales presentation would have netted you seven.) By turning your little marketing tasks into a game you get two benefits. 1) You might actually keep focused on winning the game by completing important actions and 2) if you find yourself with some free time, you might dive into an important marketing task instead of wasting your time reading email.

This little concept can apply to every single person in your organization. In fact, spending the time to figure out the most important little actions each of your staff should take on a daily basis could be one of the most important tasks you could undertake.

Now go out there and dream a little smaller.

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Article Tags: allure, blog, coffee, collar work, dreams, five points, free time, journalist, killer ideas, momentum, peers, sales presentation, score card, small business owners, strategic partners, sum total, time and place, wasting your time, winning the game



Related Forum Posts
Re: Quote of the Day - "Believe in your dream." - Dave Thomas ( - Hi GT - I think that's very true. I would also say that sometimes our dreams are mis-aligned. Many people dream of making a lot of money but when that's your only goal, it rarely happens. The most successful entrepreneurs have a dream of a world they want to create and products and services they want to offer to help people. That's a dream that can get you out of bed early and start working!
Nana excercise - Nana > answer the following: 1. If you had no chance of failure what would you dream to be your ideal Job or Business? 2. What about this dream excites you? 3. What Field of Study (Major) will get you closer to this dream? 4. What other Field of Study would "compliment" (Minor) your dream to get you closer to it. REMEMBER: there is no wrong answer. I'm hoping this exercise will help place you in a program that makes you excited at a "most probable likely" future. Your answers will help open a dialogue on the forum.
Re: What or Who Sparks Your Business Interest - This is a nice thread, and I love reading all the stories. For me it started with the dream of owning my own business, I wanted my own store, selling puzzles, jigsaws, etc. It was too expansive to start and it is not a very successful niche here. So I decided to check other niches and then came the internet marketing option. The dream of being wealthy was always a dream and my parents always told me that to be rich you have to be born into a rich family or be a thief. I decided to prove them wrong.
Re: What are some fun games for small business owners? - I also think that playing traditional games like Chess or Shogji (Japanese Chess) are helpful to small business owners because they promote the idea of constantly staying several moves ahead of your opponent/competition.
Re: The greatest gold mine in the world - I agree, Kevin. I actually invite my clients to look at what their absolute dream business would look like... doing exactly what they love to do, having the kind of lifestyle they want and bringing in what they think would be an incredible income. Then I invite them to open up to the possibility that it could actually happen! This dream business then sets the bar for what we begin coaching towards. The sky then becomes the limit! Here's to all of us setting that bar higher to what we really want! Warmly, Tami


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