Are You Derailing Your Business with Details?
Details can kill your web business. And I'm not talking about
details killing your business from the standpoint of being
careless about them. While it's true that being careless can
hurt your business, everybody knows that (even if they don't
always put it into practice).
The way I'm talking about that details can kill your business is
if you focus too much on them.
Say what?
How on earth can focusing too much on details hurt your business?
Ever tried to walk on a railroad track?
When I was a kid, my aunt and uncle had a house right next to a
railroad track. My uncle once challenged me to walk on the track
without falling off.
Hey, it's not like walking a tightrope. That track was as wide
as my feet. Should be no problem. So I started walking it,
carefully watching my feet with each step to make sure I stayed
on the track. But I couldn't get more than a couple of steps
before I'd lose my balance and fall off.
My uncle taught me that the only way to walk that track
successfully was to look at a point a ways down the track - not
down at my feet. By setting a goal and focusing on it, I could
walk on that track as easily as if I was walking right on the
ground. It was only when I focused on my feet that I tripped up.
It works that way with business, too. Our natural reaction is to
put all our attention into "watching our feet" as we deal with
this short-term detail and that. But when we do that, we "fall
off the track" of where we wanted to go.
Now, I'm not saying that we should ignore the details of our
business as we gaze wistfully toward our vision of the knock-out
business we dream of building. You never get anywhere without
taking step after step after step to reach your goal. But you
never get anywhere, either, if all you look at is the present
step.
The point in the distance that you need to focus on is the need
your audience has and the solution you have that will fill it.
It requires you to understand your audience - who they are and
what they need and what concerns stand in the way of them
choosing your solution.
It's way too easy for us to focus on details, namely, on the
latest traffic building tips or tools, the latest bells and
whistles we can add to our site. Details are usually driven by
facts, and facts are something we feel we can learn and control.
Understanding the people who make up our pool of potential
customers is a lot more scary. It requires us to step outside
ourselves into the hearts and minds of other people.
Given the choice between dealing with predictable facts and
details or dealing with unpredictable human nature, most of us
will jump at dealing with facts any time.
But that just gets us stuck staring at our own feet as our feet
inexplicably slip off the track. The only way to stay on track
is by looking toward your ultimate goal: you helping people
solve some problem in return for them repaying you fairly for
the time and effort you put into it.
That's really the most simple definition of what business is.
The details are not your business. The facts and the tips and
the tools are not your business either. They're merely the steps
you take to get to that point in the distance. And the more you
take that to heart, the more easily you'll stay on the track
toward your goal.
About the author:
Jeff Baas is a long-time student of the steps to success
required in a wide variety of disciplines. He's found the same
principles lead to success in virtually every field, and failure
comes when people try to skip around them. See these principles
applied to Internet marketing in the Seven Steps to Starting a
Small Business Online in the articles, product reviews and free
marketing strategies newsletter at
http://www.onestopwebsupport.com
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