I’ve been reading “EnterLeadership”, the newest book by Dave Ramsey. He’s learned quite a few things about business over the past 20 years or so while helping a whole bunch of people come to terms with their debt problems. This book is good, and his Financial Peace materials are great. I’ve made a commitment to not borrow money, and while it’s costing me opportunities, I’m confident that it will all work out in the long run.
One of the things I read in the book is that a business starts with a dream, but the dream has to be changed into a vision, the vision into a mission statement, and the mission statement broken down into goals (and then you get to work on the goals). I think that many in the Internet marketing world have a dream — but not much else.
Guilty as charged. So I’ve started working on changing my dream to a vision (the term “vision”, in my opinion, isn’t that well defined in the book — but at least he suggests other resources). But vision is simply the ability to see what people need. And I’m going to take my particular vision (help people who need to protect their business) into a mission statement, then I’m going to develop some goals and start working on them.
So Dave’s calling me a “dreamer” was my “Aha!” (or “Doh!”) moment. Fundamental, you might say, but that’s OK. There’s really not much in the book that is “new” (at least not to me), but hearing it from Dave Ramsey makes a difference to me. And I certainly don’t want him asking me three months for now if I actually did the stuff he wrote in the book… (Yes, the potential to be humiliated on national talk radio really doesn’t appeal to me! “Yeah, look at Tom; he just read my book and never did anything! And to top it off, he wrote about it from a blog called ‘Business Action Steps’! What an oxymoron…”)
One last word: As I started working on all this and further defining my business, I realized that a lot of BSOs (Bright Shiny Objects) started losing their appeal. And a lot (but not all) of Internet marketing targets those dreamers who have no vision — much less a mission statement or a plan on how to implement it. “They” really are taking advantage of you.
So take your dream, turn it into a vision, decide what you are going to do (i.e. a mission statement), figure out how to do it, and get to work. Once you do that, you’ll discover that those push-button riches products no longer appeal to you because you are finally working on building a business that delivers value to customers.
One last Dave Ramsey Tidbit: He said that we should follow the Golden Rule in our business, and I think the best way to describe that is to put yourself in the shoes of your customer. How would you feel about the product and service you deliver if you were on the buying end? Would you improve quality? Would you figure out a way to provide better support? Would you stop hammering your product update list with affiliate offer after affiliate offer? Would you change your price from $497 to $49 to better reflect the true value of your offer?
If so, then do something about it. Today. And don’t forget about those who have already become your customer; take care of them, too.
In case it isn’t obvious, Dave Ramsey, his employees, associates, agents, family, and pets do not endorse this blog in any way, shape, or form and my positive ramblings about his latest book should not be misconstrued to mean that Dave and Company think I’m the best thing since sliced bread. I bought his book, like what I’m reading, and think that it might be helpful to you, too. Nothing more, nothing less.
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