Why Strategy Matters in Your Business or Your Job Hunt

Answer These Questions, and Decide as you Move Forward

by Patty DeDominic, Coach to High Achievers in Finance, Business and Philanthropy.

 I just finished up a Master Mind call with the Maui team lead by David Finkel.  His firm is one of my favorite clients as  I love to watch David teach and am honored to be a colleague.    My role with the Maui team is to Coach entrepreneurs with growing companies.    We work on personal use of time, strategic priorities, human resource issues and other important business strategies and opportunities which inevitably arise in growing enterprises.   

It's really fun to work with business owners who seek to build scale-able companies.  Because I admire people who are willing to risk their money and their pride to become more successful, serve clients with passion and  build job creating enterprises it rarely seems like work.      As a coach to business owners and senior people, it's as if we are the Coach's Coach!

Today David did a deep dive on some key strategies in the building blocks of business.  Systems for success as I love to call them.       

  Overview of the 5 Strategic Marketing Decisions

1.      Choice of target market.

2.      Choice of product or service to focus on selling.

3.      Choice of business model.

4.      Choice of pricing.

5.      Choice of positioning and branding.

Job Hunter or CEO.... look at the similarities

Each of these decisions has an impact on your time, energy and how you will need to position yourself and your company.     Think about it, the above decisions are useful for job hunter too.      

It you haven't thought of yourself as an enterprise, consider doing so.    Consider who is your ideal target market (insert employer or industry?     If you are a job candidate, it is local or national business?  Large or small employer?    In a growing industry, filled with lots of demand for your continued growth or is it in a declining industry which will call on your resourcefulness and implementing tried and true strategies of the past?  

Choice of Pricing is important too for job hunters, are you the low price model or the guy with deep expertise and premium price?    Your communications and methods of connecting with potential employers will depend on your answers to the above.  

Branding is also important for job hunters and when you are clearer on items 1-4 above you will be able to get a better picture of the brand called YOU, Inc. 

Would you like to get a complimentary copy of our latest 176-page bestseller,       

Build a Business, Not a Job? 

 Just go to www.MauiMastermind.com/custom/freebook

to get your free copy today!

Good luck as you are preparing your business or your career for growth.   As always, you are free to take advantage of our expertise for a free 25 minute consultation at any time.   Feel free to click the link above for your free (no obligation) copy of the book or call me 805 453-7490  

Patty DeDominic      

Do What you Love........

Aaron Neville

& Patty DeDominic

at the University of California

at Santa Barbara

If you've been around

for more than a few

decades you will know and love the Neville Brothers.

They do what they love.

These Louisiana men can cause people to jump to their feet and chant, dance and give wild applause. This was the case not too long ago with the Neville Brothers overwhelmed all of us at UCSB. Old and Young, hip and conservative....none of us could sit still as Aarom cruned and serenaded the audience along with his talented band of brothers.

I vowed to write this short article to remind all of us that we need to follow our true hearts desires when finding our career callings. Aaron Neville has a very distinctive and unique voice. Perhaps when he was a child he was thought as "different". He also loves to make him self look unique...as you can see from the attached photo, he is not a conformist in any way!

http://www.nevilles.com/

If you would like to hear some of the Neville Brothers unique and distinctive sound please go to their site, click on the link above.

I asked Aaron if he always knew he was destined to be Special? "When did you know you had a unique talent, a special voice and a gift to share with others? Did you need a lot of encouragement or did you just "know it"? Aaron Neville told Patty DeDominic, (conservative) Los Angeles Business Coach and author, that he always knew...... he just let his talent show and people responded. He said he would sign for anyone who wanted him to and would show off, and get himself little perks for sharing his gifts. Neville told me "I used to sign and get let into Movies for giving them a little show". He was tired that night, the group had flown across the country, given over two hours of the most fantastic music I had heard in years and now they were smoozing with some of the donor of the UCSB Arts & Lectures program: he was still working.

The brothers are an amazing example of people who are living their dreams and sharing their talents. They do what they love and it surely shows!

You'll Need Some Bright Ideas to Weather this Season of Economic Tsunami

Derek Cheshire on Getting Bright Ideas

When you have a bright idea there is always someone who takes the wind out of your sails by asking “What about …?” Why not preempt them by doing a little homework first?

Below are 50 questions, variations on the usual who, what, why, when, where.
Think your idea through using these as prompts and see if you can improve your idea.

Who
1. Who is affected by the problem?
2. Who else has it?
3. Who says it is a problem?
4. Who would like a solution?
5. Who would not like a solution?
6. Who could prevent a solution?
7. Who needs it solved more than you?

When
8. When does it occur?
9. When doesn’t it occur?
10. When did it appear?
11. When will it disappear?
12. When do other people see your problem as a problem?
13. When don’t other people see your problem as a problem?
14. When is the solution needed?
15. When might it occur again?
16. When will it get worse?
17. When will it get better?

Why
18. Why is this situation a problem?
19. Why do you want to solve it?
20. Why don’t you want to solve it?
21. Why doesn’t it go away?
22. Why would someone else want to solve it?
23. Why wouldn’t someone else want to solve it?
24. Why is it easy to solve?
25. Why is it hard to solve?

What
26. What might change about it?
27. What are its main weaknesses?
28. What do you like about it?
29. What do you dislike about it?
30. What can be changed about it?
31. What can’t be changed?
32. What do you know about it?
33. What don’t you know about it?
34. What will it be like if it is solved?
35. What will it be like if it isn’t solved?
36. What have you done in the past with similar problems?
37. What principles underlie it?
38. What values underlie it?
39. What problem elements are related to one another?
40. What assumptions are you making about it?
41. What seems to be most important about it?
42. What seems to be least important about it?
43. What are the sub-problems?
44. What are your major objectives in solving it?
45. What else do you need to know?

Where
46. Where is it most noticeable?
47. Where is it least noticeable?
48. Where else does it exist?
49. Where is the best place to begin looking for solutions?
50. Where does it fit in the larger scheme of things?




On Derek Cheshire of the UK
Derek encourages a holistic approach to Innovation. His work encompasses consultancy, idea generation, creativity workshops and facilitating continuous innovation. Derek is an accomplished speaker and has compiled a number of articles on Business Creativity and Innovation. One of his papers has been published by the ICFAI University Press in India as part of a reference book Ideas, Creativity and Innovation. Derek is a member of the mastermind group for the Design Interaction course at the Royal College of Art and Design in The Hague, speaking at their 2007 Mastermundo event and recently took part in the CNBC programme The Business of Innovation.