Mediocre businesses bore me to death. There are millions of plain old vanilla businesses that do things the same ole way. Some of them are successful and many of them aren’t…they just get by…they just survive. I’ve spent my lifetime studying businesses and the ones that get my attention are the ones that get everyone’s attention. Disney, Zappos, Starbucks, Amazon. Businesses like these buck the status quo and the do business ballsy. They watch what everyone else does and they run the other way. Big Hairy Audacious Businesses are built by Big Hairy Audacious Teams….people that fly in the face of conformity. Companies like these end up forging movements because the world is bored of the same ole. If you are bored of following text book models of building a business, I dare you to try something ballsy. Every once in a while when you do something ballsy, the world takes notice. And every once in while a spark is created and a movement takes on a life of its own. Here are four simple ideas for doing business ballsy.
1. Advertise Your Competition: I was shopping for one of a kind business cards today. I never ever carry plain old business cards because I feel that business cards are the first impression potential clients have of my marketing ability. My real estate brokerage is unlike any other and neither are my business cards. Today, I visited www.PrintPepperment.com which is a website that offers die cut business cards. I knew I was in love when I saw this on their website:
How ballsy is that? They are so confident in their product and value that they offer links to their three main competitors. As a consumer, I didn’t even click on the other links. I was in love. I like to do business with businesses who are so confident in their value that they have no reason to hide their competition.
2. Speaking Of Competition: What does your competition say against you? For me, one of my competitors is my former franchiser. Instead of eloquently explaining their value proposition, they enjoy telling prospects that we are competing for that my company is being sued by their headquarters. Ballsy companies are the ones that find out what the competition is saying and then turn that into their own value proposition. When I present my value proposition to prospects I explain that the reason they want to choose my firm over the other is because of that lawsuit. I explain that I left the franchiser and I explain why I left. I then make sure to remind the prospect that great organizations are not built by leaders who handcuff their clients and/or employees with overbearing and overbroad contracts. Great organizations are built by people who won’t sit back when they are bullied, who won’t settle for the status quo when the status quo is mediocrity, and by people who are willing to stare pain and hardship in the eyes today because they know that a better future is possible.
3. Embrace Your Crazy: I was recently reading Darren Hardy’s book, The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster, and Darren talks in his book about the level of crazy it takes to build an awesome business. Walt Disney had a crazy idea to turn orange groves into a place where people from around the world would come to find happiness. Tony Hsieh had a nutty idea to build an online shoe emporium. Steve Jobs wanted to make computers that were small and elegant and wanted to put thousands of songs in a device that was as small as a stick of gum. What if these entrepreneurs didn’t embrace their crazy. Next time you have a unique, audacious, unusual, and crazy idea….don’t talk yourself out of it. Embrace your crazy.
4. Take Risk: Your life and your business are on a trajectory. It will remain on that trajectory unless and until you do something bold. Change is the only way to put your life and business on a new trajectory. Don’t take stupid risks, but rather smart, thoughtful, well planned risks. Bold change is always a risk but it’s also the fastest way to grow a great business. The best part about taking risk is that there’s always something you can learn from it. If you take a risk and you succeed, you now know that you are capable of so much more than you used to expect of yourself. If you risk and lose, you get two lessons (1) you get to examine the reason for the failure so you can take smarter risks next time, and (2) you still have the benefit of knowing that you are capable of so much more than you previously expected of yourself. Smart, methodical, calculated, risk makes you better as an entrepreneur and gives you the chance to build something unlike anyone else has ever built, like Disney, Zappos, and others.
There are millions of mediocre, vanilla, boring companies to choose from. Take a look at what they’re doing, then don’t.
Stacey Alcorn is the author of REACH! and Tuned In. She is a business strategy and sales consultant for large corporations and Global Fortune 100 Firms. She is also a keynote speaker, blogger, trainer, and start-up consultant. Her sales training products have been licensed by hundreds of organizations around the world who use her one-of-a kind sales training materials as the genesis for their own brand growth. Make sure to sign up here for my REACH! Weekly News for awesome interviews with Leaders & Visionaries that I only share with my VIP members.
