Thoughts On How We Work: Marathons Vs. Sprints

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how we work. Do we work with an end in mind, or are we trapped in the proverbial hamster wheel, always running but not quite sure where we’re going?

I believe bringing a healthy balance to work and life requires a different way of thinking about the work we do.

Marathons vs. Sprints

When you run a sprint, you compress all of your energy into a short interval of time. The end is clear and near. When you reach the finish line, you celebrate. In business, I like to think of short term projects as sprints. Perhaps it’s a product launch, or a new feature update in your software. There is a clear end point, and a fixed deadline for completion. Your team rallies together to meet the goal, and you celebrate a victory when its achieved.

Marathons, on the other hand, are run with an entirely different strategy. You can’t over exert yourself at any one moment, or you’ll never make it. Sure, there’s still a finish line, but its a long way off and it requires a sustained mental and physical effort. In business, running a marathon is comparable to building a long-lasting business that outlives trends and fads.

Without sprints, we rarely celebrate victories. We would never get any rest. But without marathons, we would never accomplish anything that truly matters, such as building a brand you’re proud of or creating a legacy business that leaves generational wealth to your family or charity.

I’ve realized a key to motivating my team and myself is to run sprints in such a way that allows for maximum energy and rest. A successful sprint provides a finish line, a motivating moment to continue the hard work that matters, the marathon.

Your life’s work will be a marathon. But don’t forget to celebrate the sprints along the way. 🙂

Oh crap, this might not work…

“Oh crap, this might not work….”

Have you ever had this thought run through your head while attempting something new, daring, or creative?

Lately I’ve been realizing that I’m doing the same things over and over because they’ve always worked in the past. I just assume they will continue working. But things change, and we have to constantly be on our toes, innovating new ideas.

If we can’t honestly say “this might now work”, we aren’t thinking big enough!

I want to encourage you to step out of your normal routine, and “try something that might not work”. There are no failures, only lessons.

The Case Against Discounting: 5 Reasons Your Business Is Better Off Without Them

Today as I write this, it is Cyber Monday. The day we all return to work, sit down at our desks, and shop till we drop. 70% off. Buy one get one free. Free 2 day shipping. Bargain shoppers salivate at the thought of deals to be had.

So what did my business offer customers for this national retail holiday?

0% off.

That’s right, absolutely no discount at all. Are we missing out? I don’t think so. Let me explain the 5 reasons we shun discounting, and why I think you should too:

  1. They attract the wrong kind of customer: One of most valuable insights I learned from my days as a marketing analyst is that discounts attract the wrong kind of customer. What exactly is the right kind of customer? Good customers shop frequently, and without the need of incentive. They believe in your brand values, and appreciate your product for what it is. They don’t need bribes to purchase it. Discounts inevitably attract customers that will only ever shop when you have discounts. It’s simply a myth that promotions are an inexpensive way to acquire customers who then come back and buy full price items later. Discount shoppers buy discount merchandise, simple as that.
  2. They create a future expectation that’s impossible to fulfill: Discounts are addictive. Sure, you only start with 10% off. Maybe you even inflate your retail price to make up for it. But then when sales lag you sweeten the deal to 15% off, then 20%. Before you know it, you’re bleeding margin in order to attract and retain customers. We all intuitively know this is true. We wait late into the Christmas season because we know the deals will get better and better and retailers get more desperate. Don’t fall for this trap.
  3. They simply shift sales from one period to another: Oftentimes business owners get a false sense of the benefit of promotions when looking at their sales data. Inevitably, every time you offer a discount, your sales spike. However, what’s hidden in this information is that fact that you often steal sales from the future that would have happened anyway. For example, suppose you offer aggressive discounting in early November, before the Black Friday/Cyber Monday discounting week. You’ll likely see a huge bump in sales, however a good portion of these sales would have bought later in the month, and you simply shifted the sales backwards, with no net gain.
  4. They devalue your product: What does it say to your customer that you are able to lower the price willy nilly on your items? It tells them that they were overpriced to begin with, and you probably are overstocked and no one is buying.
  5. They take the focus off what really matters: your brand and your “why”: Discounting strategy is the tail wagging the dog. Think of all the meetings your team has spent trying to lay out the perfect promotions. All the planning, all the markdowns, all the creative that had to be designed. What if all that effort went into new product development, customer service, or developing your brand?

While I mentioned that our business offered zero discounts this Cyber Monday, that doesn’t mean we did nothing. Instead, we shifted the attention back to our brand values, and what our customers care about most. Last May we launched a program with RescueBank that feeds shelter animals through the purchase of every item. Instead of discounting, we doubled our normal donations from Black Friday through Cyber Monday. This put the emphasis back on our “why”. The result? Absolutely stellar sales, more funding for a cause, and no devaluing of our brand. I encourage you to ditch the crutch of discounts. Years from now, your business will thank you for it.

Challenge: Think about the brands you passionately love the most. How much or how little does discounting play into their strategy? Leave a comment below.

Entrepreneurship Is The Art of Saying ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ At The Right Times

A single 3 letter word is responsible for all freedom and success I’ve had in my business life. Without this 3 letter word, nothing would even start at all. It’s a scary word at times, a word that brings the baggage of commitment. It’s also a word that that requires a lot of faith.

As you might have guessed, this 3 letter word is yes.

Every business opportunity or idea starts with yes. You make a commitment to pursue a vision that isn’t yet a reality, but you intend to make it so.

Why ‘Yes’ Has Become My Enemy

Now you might assume that the enemy of yes is no. But that simply isn’t the case. In fact, I’m at the point in my life where it’s actually the word yes that’s become a sworn enemy.  But how can that be? How could I turn my back on the word that’s responsible for achieving so many goals in my life?

In the early stages of a business, your success thrives on saying yes. When you’re trying to get traction for a new product or service, you’re probably going to need to say yes a lot. You’ve got to figure out what works, and its hard to experiment by saying no.

But as your business grows, you begin to learn what works, and where your priorities should lie. One of the traps of success is that it creates a surplus of opportunity. Saying yes brings opportunities, but opportunities bring distractions from your main goal and purpose.

In the early days, you sought out opportunities like mad. Opportunities were scarce. But as your business begins to thrive, opportunities begin presenting themselves effortlessly. People take notice and throw ideas, joint ventures, and partnerships at you from everywhere. It’s very easy to assume that because yes got you here, that it will also get you there. But this is a lie.

The secret to creating more time is learning to say no.

As necessary and important as yes is, its an inherent time stealer. Every time you use it, you’re making a commitment of time and resources you can’t get back. And therein lies the paradox: it’s actually not possible to say yes to anything without saying no to something else. There’s always a trade.

Learning to say yes and no at the appropriate times is absolutely vital for the success of your business.

What stage are you in right now? The yes stage, or the no stage? Share your thoughts below.