You have to Bee yourself…

photo by aussiegall

Make sure you read all the way to the end of this post, there’s a link to a fantastic and heartwarming story that shows the power of developing a new business (and it does have something to do with bees…).

Next time you’re out and about, take some time and go to your local bookstore and do a quick browse through the Business section.

You will find volume after volume of books that promise that they have the secret ingredient to your business success. Some of these books are excellent and will stand the test of time as truly delivering a valuable message. Unfortunately a lot of them will be a flash in the pan.

The reality is that business success is both extremely simple and amazingly complex. (sounds like a cop out doesn’t it!).

Business Success is complex…

Business success is complex because being a successful entrepreneur requires a lot of things done well, all at the same time:

Identifying a need / want that people will pay for.
Finding a new / better/ remarkable way to fill that need / want.
Developing the operational process of delivering that solution at a reasonable price that encourages buyers and makes a nice profit.
Finding the best way to market and sell the solution.
Delivering the solution and consistently giving more value than your customers expect.
Managing the costs and revenues in order to continue delivering a bottom line profit.
Getting up the next day and finding a way to improve everything all over again.

If you miss out on any one of these 7 items, then it’s unlikely that you won’t have a business success on your hands.

Business Success is simple…

Sometimes it’s possible to over think the whole business thing. At the end of the day, you can summarize the key to success in two steps:

Give people something they want.
Be yourself

Give people something they want.

Admittedly it’s not very flashy and I don’t think I can stretch it into a book, but everyone needs something – actually everyone needs a lot of stuff. There is a huge amount of opportunity around us every single day and what I sometimes have trouble recognizing is that many of those opportunities are relative.

How many times have you observed people that are just trying to do something you think is simple and yet they’re running into problems?

If you enjoy computers (or you’re under the age of 25) setting up and running a blog is simple. There are a lot of people that don’t think that – those people could use help and likely would pay for that help in many cases.

Some people really enjoy gardening and yard work…a lot of people don’t and will gladly pay to have that done for them.

Be Yourself

If you’ve ever tried to be someone else, it’s really hard to do.

How many people try to be something they’re not because they think they need to act a certain way to be successful. My experience over the years is that my biggest successes have been when I’m just being myself – it’s also the easiest way to stay consistent.

People know when you’re being genuine and they will react positively to that. People also generally know when you’re not being genuine..and they will react to that as well, usually to get as far away from you as they can.

A real life success story

I’ve never met Tony and Terri Scwhager, but I’m guessing I would like them. There is an excellent article about Tony and Terri and their son Anthony from nearby Lawrence Kansas in Fortune Small Business.

The story, entitled A honey hobby becomes a thriving business, is about how Anthony Schwager wanted to start keeping bees as a hobby in the third grade. After a few years he started harvesting the honey and had so much they took it to the local farmer’s market to sell it.

Nine years later they’ve grown that very humble hobby into a real business making real money and they credit most of that success to Anthony, despite the fact that he has some disabilities. He’s extremely successful selling the product because he just talks to people and can clearly and easily explain the products and the benefits.

He found stuff that people want to buy and he’s consistently just being himself…and being successful!!! It’s a great story – make sure you check it out.

Could you simplify your approach and generate more success? I’d love to hear about it.

Shawn Kinkade www.aspirekc.com