How can I skate to the profits?

Copyright 2015 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
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I know books by several authors are valuable.
I think I'm just understanding concepts, then more terminology comes up my understanding is gone.
I know Clayton Christensen is a professor, so he expects a lot from people who want to learn.
Since I'm not a student, as a store owner I have different responsibilities & needs.
I think I need a basic explanation, but I wonder if the basics are enough for success.
Do any local retailers need all of the information in these innovation books?
I've tried book summaries & reviews, but those decrease words without simplifying anything.
I know I'm hoping for a lot technical concepts to boiled down. Crude oil is refined & becomes kerosene, gasoline, diesel & lubricant. Can I get only the form I need from the complete, complex content to run my economic engine?
I'm supposed to skate to the profits, but I can't play rough hockey & figure skating wouldn't work.

Subject: Skate To Where The Profits Will Be
In reply to: No skates, just a ski 's message, "How can I skate to the profits?"

It seems you understand some concepts, so I'll help you focus on what's important for you now.

If you need help with specific concepts, please post your questions.

I'll explain things in basic ways. I'm NOT being patronizing, condescending or sarcastic. I think I know what you mean & my explanations are based on what I interpret.

As always, there are other related issues that would take up more space & time. Some of those issues are situation specific, so I'd need a lot of information.

The crude oil analogy can be used well (no pun intended). I'm using something that also fits - fit means being adapted to the prevailing conditions.

It's a like a baseball fits in a baseball glove because the gloves & balls are made to be compatible.

A slightly bigger ball could be used if gloves are coated with oil or adhesive, so a ball could slip in or just stick. The oil or adhesive could be an interdependency or a coated glove could be an interdependent module being tested.

Yes, it's probably incompatible with - doesn't fit - baseball rules.

"Fit" can also mean a medical or emotional negative reaction. If anything is forced into an incompatible system, problems will happen.

Analogy (It's imperfect, but work with me here, OK?):
A human brain can process a lot of things at the same time. Most of this processing is subconscious.

As you learn, parts of your brain are processing input by trying to link input with what you already know.

In this analogy, your brain has 9 conscious points of linking; let's personify those as highly skilled, fast moving baseball players. Each has a specific function & position on the field.

If somebody throws 9 baseballs, each will be caught by your players. Each player has a specific action to do after catching a ball.

In effect, you just linked 9 new facts with your previous knowledge. Those facts fit your knowledge base.

Book authors don't know how much readers have learned, so they put in all they think is necessary to help us. The content in their books are like balls.

In effect, to help various people, each chapter might have 81 balls of different sizes & kinds.

Those balls (symbolizing facts & concepts) are thrown into your stadium - at the same time. Your players can catch one ball at a time, but not 9 balls of different sizes & kinds.

Each player will catch one ball of the 9 thrown to/at him/her. That one ball will probably be a baseball because of his/her skill set.

Their training & equipment are optimized for a specific sport - baseball.

If you tell them to clear the area, they'd probably start with baseballs before processing the other balls.

If one ball is a football & the others are spherical, each player might process footballs last because those are less like baseballs.

Spherical balls fit how players are trained & earn money.

Clayton Christensen & his coauthors have emphasized vital concepts & theories. Products & services (& how they're offered) should fit how consumers live their lives & how marketers' businesses are set up to make money.

Back In Your Store

In addition to all things you focus on each day, you're trying to understand new information. Primarily, your mind is set to run your business.

Successful businesses have routines as part of best practices.

Though you're busy with your business, you have an advantage over students. They're learning things theoretically & might use the information in the future.

You can study & implement what applies to your business now & link new information to what will happen in the near future.

You'll also learn things you can't use yet.

Assuming you're already set up to process baseballs & possibly other spherical balls, avoid footballs while you process balls that are more like baseballs.

In other words, I advise you to examine your current knowledge & link facts & concepts that are similar to facts & concepts you already know.

Eventually, if you find a way to use a football in your situation, then pick it up & use it.

Interdependencies Are Unpredictable Without Rules & Links

You should also being learning how to link concepts & actions. You need some logical rules.

In a game, results would be unpredictable if a short-stop threw a football to a catcher to tag a runner at home plate. It's especially true if the catcher didn't expect a football.

Combining games (baseball team with a football team) would be like combining modules from different processes.
Would a baseball player be told to signal for a fair catch?
Would a runner headed for home plate be tagged out or tackled?
How would a score be tallied?

Without a common set of rules, players wouldn't know what to do.

Best practices can be developed after rules are established.

You don't have to know how to pass a football yet. When you notice a need for a skill or knowledge, you can start learning then. You should apply what you & your business are ready to use.

When you listen to & read information, I advise you to focus on mostly what fits your current situation.

Some of Clayton Christensen's knowledge can help you indirectly when you evaluate inventory orders & suppliers.

Your business probably isn't ready for the majority of what Clayton Christensen & other Harvard professors wrote.

To explain why & to help you understand the concepts more, I'll use the following analogy.

Your Current Business & Knowledge Are Modules

What Clayton M. Christensen & others wrote are modules that fit the premise of innovation. For your business their modules are interdependent (flexible but somewhat unstable) until refined enough to smoothly fit in your business.

You need one or more interdependencies & modules to optimally fill the gaps between your modules & theirs.

When a Student Is Ready a Teacher/Lesson Appears

Teachers/lessons are there now, you won't recognize them until gaps are filled.

You may need somebody to use an outside/more distant perspective to see the whole situation, then make recommendations.

Learning these concepts is/should be part of working on your business. You don't have to work on your business alone.

Whether you use a master mind group, consultant or employee, you need somebody to do that work in addition to recommending things.

This will cost money & time, but will also increase your cash flow & profit enough to more than compensate for the expense. For you to work on your business & in it, you'll need to delegate.

A problem is - How can you pay somebody before you get more profit & cash flow?

Find somebody who is confident enough to work on contingency, because s/he will only get paid after her/his work brings more profit & cash flow.

I realize it can be hard to know when you may soon need a skill or knowledge set.

It can be harder to know which skill or knowledge set will be needed soon.

By researching & using information, maybe you can get as close as you can to the high profit levels & stay as long as you can.

You should keep reading articles, blog posts, book summaries & reviews, because you'll get a basic idea of what's available.

Maybe you won't use every gigabyte of information you accumulate; each byte can be a potential part of a valuable solution.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2015 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here-
https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/
http://www.voy.com/31049/


Subject: Helping People With Their Priorities Can Be Profitable
In reply to: No skates, just a ski 's message, "How can I skate to the profits?"

Relevant & Important - It Might Be A Priority

Relevance is another major part of skating to where profits will be. Here are valuable things to learn:
What was recently relevant in your niche members' lives?
What caused its relevance to decline/end?
What's relevant in your niche members' lives?

What do the answers indicate about what will be relevant to your niche members? It's valuable to know why a product, service, feeling, experience, etc. is relevant & a priority. Reasons are distinctions you can use to make more meaningful offers.

It's vital to know what will be relevant to & highly prioritized by niche members because that pertains to where profits will be.

What are your niche members' priorities?
What's relevant - connected/related - to your niche members' priorities?
What will your niche members' priorities be?
What will be relevant to your niche members' priorities?
You should help clients connect with what they need to fulfill priorities.

A Bird In The Hand

Often, loss avoidance is a higher priority than gaining benefits.

This fits what Clayton Christensen & Michael Raynor wrote (in The Innovator's Solution) about presenting an issue as a threat to get cooperation & resources. Later, presenting that issue as an opportunity might motivate people to achieve it.

A big paradox is: Some ruin their health (lose good health & their lives) & neglect what is/used to valuable to them.

We can apply the 4 quadrants of Stephen R. Covey's book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Compared to anything that would be in Quadrants 3 & 4, profits might be higher in products & services that fit into Quadrant 2 - Important, Not Urgent.

The highest profit levels could be in marketing products & services that fit into Quadrant 1 - Urgent & Important.

Unfortunately, some people prioritize many unimportant things, but to them those things are relevant.

No matter how high of a priority people put on things in Quadrants 1 & 2, avoiding risk will probably feel more relevant & be a higher urgent & important priority.

Yes, the possibility of loss may seem more likely & more serious than gaining a prized possession.

I want to be sure you're aware of these issues, but I don't have enough time now to explain each point.

For any particular relevant, high priority issue, determine how much emotion is involved in an actual or potential loss.

How strong are the emotions people connect to opportunities?

Opportunities can be the possibilities of gaining benefits &/or potentially avoiding or mitigating losses.

Sometimes, successful selling involves the awareness of loss that is occurring or has occurred.

People might buy things to urgently avoid potential losses.

Though opportunities aren't tangible benefits, people don't want to lose opportunities.

Some life insurance policies have built in annuities. Annuities help clients gain money & insurance mitigates losses.

Positive & Negative Stuff Happens

To help yourself focus on what's relevant, you should think of the word as 'real event'. In this context, an event is stuff that has/will cause important positive &/or negative results.

For your business to be relevant (part of niche members' lives), help make their wishes, dreams, goals/objectives become real events. Relevance also includes helping people avoid negative events or mitigating the results.

Meaningful - What Fulfills Their Need For Meaning?

What is "meaning" to/for them? What gives & expands meaning in their lives & specific events?

The meaning of a word can be a conation (how a person defines a word) &/or denotation (a universal definition). It's similar with objects.

An object might have a similar meaning to people in general, but yet evoke additional different thoughts & feelings in individuals.

A synonym can help you understand & use a word as part of your vocabulary. As part of your vocabulary, a word is relevant to you.

There may be other ways to correctly use a word (conations &/or denotations), but if you don't know those, they won't help you. A thesaurus can help add dimension & make a word is more useful.

People can find/create more purpose in their lives by learning & adding more options. Relevant businesses offer valuable options for learning & experiencing.

The Meaning Of A Life

The meaning of a person's life is the meaning s/he assigns to it. To add more meaning, people can add more dimension(s).

You can help them add dimensional meaning.

Is a consumer's life too eventful?
What can you offer to reduce negative effects?
What do consumers need to add positive effects & factors?
What can you do to help with these preventions & improvements?

What do your niche members want/need relief from?
What kinds of relief do your niche members use by default?
What's an affordable & better option than their default methods?
Where do your niche members go for temporary or (perceived) permanent relief?
When do they seek relief?
What are their priorities & preferences when they plan & get relief?
What did they do for relief before? What do they want to repeat & avoid?

Please post your insights about adding more meaning, distinctions & dimensions to consumers' lives.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2015 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here-
https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/
http://www.voy.com/31049/