Tag: Small Business

May 26, 2025

Business Planning is Guesswork: Embrace Agility for Sustainable Growth

What if the very clarity you seek for your future is actually holding you captive? We’ve all been told to define our ambitions, to become a specific “thing,” but this widely accepted wisdom might be a profound limitation. Imagine a path where not knowing opens doors, rather than closing them. It’s a counter-intuitive truth that reshapes our understanding of purpose and potential ❕

The Illusion 🎭 of Long-Term Business Planning

Business planning is guesswork, it’s as simple as that. Unless you’re a genuine psychic or fortune teller, long-term planning doesn’t make any sense. You’ll unnecessarily spend hours working on something that’s based completely on fantasy, guesswork, and countless assumptions.

For in business as in life, there are endless variables that are simply out of your control. So rigid business planning is pretty useless, and if you’re one of those who say “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” then I ask you to show me one business plan with bad projections or a business plan that seemed stupid but people – unless they’re nuts – started that business anyway.

And as you research that, you’ll find out that there are hundreds of business plans that seemed great on paper but failed in execution because of some unforeseen event or change in the environment. So business planning is guesswork, and let’s leave it to that! And that will relieve a lot of pressure when you’re planning something.

Now it’s true that planning might work sometimes, and you’ll get the results you expected. However, in the long run, the desire for too much control will drive you crazy; it’s a pretty suffocating way to live. It’s much easier to ride the chaos than to control the chaos. So why not ride the chaos? Embrace it? Use it to your advantage rather than fight? This is key to a truly agile business strategy.

Embracing Agility and Present-Moment Action ⚡

Furthermore, planning stops you from being fluid and being able to pivot and adapt to the changes because you’re taking present decisions based on past judgments: “We will do this because this is what we said we’ll do!” This gives you a false sense of certainty even while you’re making bad decisions. Who hasn’t heard someone saying “This is how we have always worked!”?

“When I let go of who I am I become who I might be”

If you can’t change fast enough, you’ll lose. This has caused giants like Kodak and Nokia to collapse. So it’s necessary to let go of the decisions of the past and be here in the present and act in the present. Don’t plan for the next 5 years, but decide what you want to do this week and act on it. This is the essence of flexible business strategy.

And if it doesn’t bring the results you expected, learn from it and evolve on the go. Take yourself lightly; anything you do is beautiful when you don’t pollute it with expectations. Find your true expression and regard yourself as a cloud or a wave. Have you seen a badly shaped cloud? An ugly wave?

Just flow with things, not against them, and this will give you confidence. You’ll feel the ground underneath your feet lifting you up instead of climbing. And this will allow you to use any situation to your advantage. It’s like what the founder of Judo, Jigoro Kano said: “When They Push You Pull! When They Pull You Push!” This mindset is vital for adaptability in business.

Even when things don’t turn out as you anticipated, you’ll be able to use them for your benefit. It’s like sailing instead of rowing. Even if you want to go against the wind, you use the wind to go against the direction of the wind; you don’t fight it! You tact!

This doesn’t mean you should be completely disorganized or shouldn’t have a strategy to deal with unforeseen events, but you don’t have to pressure yourself too much about it, and you certainly don’t need to spend weeks and months writing it down.

Purpose-Driven Strategy and Small Bets 🧭

So, what to do instead? The first thing to do is be driven from within, to be driven by a purpose, not a plan, perhaps a set of values or loyalty to some vision of the future without worrying too much about the details. This is the foundation of a purpose-driven business.

The second thing you might do is to be quick and place small and safe bets and learn from them. There’s an old maxim that says “measure twice, cut once.” While this works fine in an operations setting, when the goal is creating an as-yet-unseen future, there isn’t much to measure. And spending time trying to measure the unmeasurable offers temporary comfort but does little to reduce risk. It’s wiser to treat each decision as a hypothesis and learn from that, testing the waters before going all in. This is the core of a small bets business approach.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

As I’m typing this article, I couldn’t help but think about the movie Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump is a simple man with a low I.Q. but good intentions. He’s running through childhood with his best and only friend Jenny. His ‘mama’ teaches him the ways of life and leaves him to choose his destiny.

While Forrest isn’t particularly gifted intellectually, he does the task at hand with utmost sincerity and resilience. Forrest joins the army for service in Vietnam, finds new friends called Dan and Bubba, he wins medals, creates a famous shrimp fishing fleet, inspires people to jog, starts a ping-pong craze, creates the smiley, writes bumper stickers and songs, donates to people and meets the president several times.

However, this is all irrelevant to Forrest, who can only think of his childhood sweetheart Jenny Curran. When he finally reunites with Jenny, an ambitious and smart girl since her childhood, we could see that she had completely messed up her life despite being significantly smarter and seemingly better at life. This forces one to think about what did Forrest do that others around him didn’t. This offers valuable Forrest Gump business lessons.

One of the things you’ll quickly notice is that Forrest had an open mind with which he seized on every opportunity, and he did so without any pride or prejudice. And he kept on doing that over and over again.

So, while it’s true that to a man who doesn’t know to what shore he sails no winds are favourable, it’s also true that if you’re too picky about the shore, you’ll spend your last days surrounded by sea and will be eventually swallowed by it. But a man who uses each situation to his advantage, the one who knows when to pull and when to slacken, always gets his heart’s desire in some way or another! This approach leads to true business growth and resilience.

Endnote-Your Business Superpower: Agility, Not Just Plans! 💯

So, my incredible readers, if there’s one glorious truth I want you to carry in your heart after reading this, it’s this: Your business journey doesn’t have to be a rigid blueprint; it can be an exhilarating, joyful dance with destiny! 💃🕺🌟

Seriously, let go of the pressure to have every single step mapped out! That’s old news, a dusty scroll from a bygone era! 📜🚫 Instead, embrace the beautiful, wild, unpredictable chaos of being an entrepreneur. Trust your gut intuition like it’s your superpower ✨, lean into your deepest purpose like a comfy armchair 🛋️, and remember that every tiny, courageous step you take is a masterpiece in the making! 🎨 masterpiece!

You are not a static noun, trapped by past plans or dusty forecasts. 🚫 You are a powerful, flowing verb, constantly adapting, learning, and becoming! 🚀 You are like the majestic wind in a sail, not fighting the roaring current, but using it to propel you forward to uncharted territories! 🌬️⛵🗺️

So, go forth and flow with all your amazing energy! Make those small, smart bets with a wink 😉, learn like crazy with an open heart ❤️, and pivot with a confident smile! 😄 Your future isn’t about perfect predictions; it’s about perfect presence and boundless, sparkling possibilities! This isn’t just about business; it’s about a richer, more vibrant, and undeniably joyful way to live and create! 🌈🥳🎉

Ready to ditch the rigid plans and truly live your entrepreneurial adventure with pure joy? Let’s make some absolute magic happen, together! 👇💫

What’s the one “guesswork” rule you’re going to bravely break today? Drop your thoughts, dreams, and breakthroughs below! 👇💖 Comment, share, and spread this ecstatic message like wildfire if it resonated deep in your soul! 🔥 Let’s ignite a whole movement of purpose-driven, adaptive, and utterly unstoppable rockstars! 🚀🌟💖🥳👑
May 20, 2025

Ethical Sales: Drive More Sales Without Being Pushy Using This Framework

How to Sell Without Being Pushy: Ethical Sales Framework

The word “SALES” often carries negative connotations, associated with amateur or unethical salespeople who use pressure and manipulation to push poor-quality products and services. Many entrepreneurs cringe at the thought of “selling,” picturing aggressive door-to-door salesmen or relentless telemarketers. This unfavorable image often stops businesses from growing, as sales are fundamental to business expansion.

This article redefines selling, offering an unconventional understanding of sales that will help you boost sales without being pushy. Forget pitching, presenting, pushing, manipulating, or convincing. True sales are about:

⚓ Inspiring the prospect to make a confident decision.

⚓ Helping them deeply think through their challenges.

Making a purchase decision can be daunting. People work hard for their money and fear making the wrong choice. Your role as a sales professional is to facilitate this decision by providing confidence and certainty. To guide you, I’ve developed a simple yet powerful ethical sales framework, turning the word SALES into a mnemonic device.

The S.A.L.E.S. Framework for Ethical Selling 📐

S = See: Understanding Client Needs and Perception 👀

“Seeing” your client means more than just a follow-up. It’s about recognizing the attention you’ve already garnered from leads. Companies spend billions on attention (billboards, ads) because if you’re out of sight, you’re out of mind. Why would you neglect to retain and convert the attention you’ve worked so hard to get?

Beyond the surface, “seeing” involves deep perception of your client’s situation. What specific difficulties are they facing? What amenities are they truly seeking? And critically, which of your products or services genuinely meets their needs or solves their problems? Understand their buying motives: are they shopping for price or seeking the best quality? You wouldn’t try to sell a luxury car to someone looking for an economy vehicle; tailor your perception to their needs.

A = Ask: Probing Deeper with Powerful Questions ⁉️

Don’t assume – ask! Validate your perceptions and probe deeper to truly understand the problem better. Always discover the root cause of any problem. A powerful technique is to ask “Why?” five times consecutively. Here’s an example:

❔🥺 Boy, I have a headache…

❔Why? Because I have a cold.

❔Why did you catch a cold? Because yesterday I spent time in the cold.

❔Why? Because I didn’t take my coat.

❔Why? Because I didn’t think that it would be so cold outside.

❔Why? Because in the morning I don’t check the weather forecast. (✅)

Solution: Install a thermometer on the balcony and watch it before going out. While temporary solutions like pain relievers offer quick fixes, they don’t tackle the root cause, leading to recurring problems.

Asking “what?” often leads to simple commands. Asking “how?” can encourage micromanagement. But asking “Why?” opens doors to unexplored ideas and solutions, making you stand out as a qualified and valuable salesperson.

You can also ask clients about their most important decision-making factor – is it price, a great track record, or something else?

L = Listen: The Power of Active Listening in Sales 👂

Listen carefully. Jot down notes and occasionally repeat what you’ve heard to show you’re truly engaged. Never interrupt your client; it breaks their flow and they might forget crucial points. Let them speak. The more they open up, the better your understanding of their problem. This active listening is key to building strong client relationships.

It also helps you uncover unspoken needs and concerns that might not surface otherwise. A client who feels heard is more likely to trust your expertise and be receptive to your eventual solutions. By truly internalizing their perspective, you can tailor your approach to resonate more deeply with their unique challenges. This foundation of understanding paves the way for collaborative problem-solving and mutually beneficial outcomes.

E = Empathise: Building Trust and Reciprocity ✨🤝

Now that you have the full picture, empathize. Put yourself in their shoes. Do you genuinely believe you have the right product or service for them? If not, consider recommending a friend who works for another company that might offer a better fit. This builds stronger friendships and, more importantly, a lifelong relationship with your client. They’ll see you as a person of honor and values.

According to the psychological law of reciprocity, when you do something for someone, they feel inclined to do something in return. When you contribute meaningfully to someone’s life and deliver tremendous value, they’ll feel a strong urge to reciprocate! This is how ethical selling creates lasting impact.

S = Serve: Proposing Solutions and Closing Ethically 💡🤝

To serve means to propose the optimal solution and effectively close the deal. After summarizing their situation and confirming your understanding of their problem, you can confidently propose:

“From what I understand, this issue is causing you £10,000 in lost revenue. If that’s correct, then if I send you a proposal worth £1500, would you be willing to close the deal before this weekend?”

A question like this summarizes everything, puts the client in a decision-making state, and confirms mutual understanding. Once they agree, and you send a sensible proposal, you’re 99% of the way to closing the sale ethically. All that remains is to deliver the product or service as promised.

Ethical Endnote 📝

This framework is such a breath of fresh air! 🌬️💖 It completely shifts the perspective on sales from aggressive pushing 🥊 to genuine connection and heartfelt service. I especially loved the “Ask Why?” technique – such a simple yet incredibly powerful way to uncover true needs and dig deep! 💡🔍

What’s one sales interaction that truly changed your perspective on selling, for better or worse? 🤔 Share your thoughts and stories below! 👇 I’m genuinely curious to hear your experiences. Let’s redefine sales together, one positive interaction at a time! ✨🤝📈