Over the past two years, you’ve given us two thumbs up in so many ways. You’ve made us one of the regularly featured business career podcasts in iTunes. You’ve helped us grow the number of people who visit our site every day.

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Bigg Success is not a two-seater. We love to hear from you. We’re so happy that you’ve been here to share your thoughts with us over the past two years.

Because it takes two to tango. We couldn’t do this if it weren’t for you. We thank you so much for all your support.

Bigg success is life on your own terms. It’s two for the price of one here. We feel so fortunate to be able to work together. That’s life on our own terms!

Now on to the topic of today’s post.

There’s a two-step in selecting your partner or partners. We got lucky on this one, even though we had two left feet! It naturally happened for us.

But don’t follow our lead. You probably want to be more intentional. There’s a dichotomy at play – your partnership must be two-faced.

The first face: You and any partner should be like two peas in a pod.
Partners must share the same vision and values or they will constantly be at odds with each other. For example, business partners must agree on whether you’re in business to create current income or to build long-term wealth. Your strategies will be quite different with these two different visions of success.

You also have to share core values. You will face some tough decisions on the path to bigg success. Partners with different core values may respond differently.

The second face: Two heads are better than one.
It’s important to have a shared vision. It’s important to have the same core values. However, if you share too many characteristics, your partnership will likely fail.

You want a partner with complementary skills. If you both have the same talents and strengths, you would probably be better off with a different partner. There won’t be much synergy in your relationship.

You also want a partner with a different point-of-view. You want someone who takes a different approach. Otherwise, neither of you gets a critical review of your ideas. You needlessly waste time and money because your bad ideas don’t get filtered out before you take action on them.

We think these principles apply to any partnership.
You can extend it as far as you want. It may apply to your partner in life, a partner in business, key employees or a joint venture partner on a specific project.
 
The key to building partnerships that aren’t two-dimensional is to understand this dichotomy when you select a partner. It’s critical for creating synergy which multiplies your results more than two-fold.

Get this right and you’ll get two tickets to paradise … partnership paradise, that is. And that’s bigg success!

Put in your two cents worth anytime. Review our show in iTunes. Leave a comment. E-mail us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com. Call us at 888.455.BIGG (2444). However, whatever, wherever or whenever … we love to hear from you!

Thanks so much for reading our post today. Please join us next time when we look at a killer combination – that’s two things – that lead to bigg success! Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00520-111209.mp3

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Thanks to You, Bigg Success is One Year Old!

(Image in today's post by heyjoewhereyougoingwiththatguninyourhand,CC 2.0)

We like to combine work and play. While we were playing, we got a couple of ideas for post, including this one today.

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Where are your customers from?

As we made a purchase, the clerk asked us for our phone number. She said, “We like to know where our customers are from.”

Isn’t that an important thing to know about your customers? 

Geographic area
This is what the store we were at wanted to know. This may or may not be important to your business. It may be useful for targeting areas for your marketing.

Marketing activity
Unlike large companies, small businesses can’t afford to invest a lot of money on building their brand. When we spend money as small business owners, we need to see a return in the short-term while also building our brand long-term.

So discover what marketing activity is driving people to your business. While this is an inexact science, you want to determine as closely as you can if the time and money you’re spending on various activities are paying off.

Consumers often segment the research and the purchase. They may do some research on you as a result of one marketing activity. Then they may respond to another one to make a purchase.

The first activity may be important to the process but doesn’t get the credit it deserves.

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Prior to Bigg Success, my businesses relied on inbound telemarketing. In other words, our customers called us to schedule projects. Our Customer Service Reps might ask this question, “How did you hear about us?” Later in the process, we might also have them ask, “How did you get our phone number today?” We often got a different answer from the same caller!

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Isn’t that amazing? You don’t want to annoy your customers with too many questions. You do want to get as much information as you can as a natural part of the conversation you’re having.

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Demographics
There are a number of factors that may be important to understand about your customers. What is their level of education? How much money do they make? What is their occupation?

Obviously, you may not directly ask them some of these questions. You may survey them anonymously.

This information helps you target your products and services better. It’s also highly likely that your future customers will be a lot like your current customers. So it helps you qualify prospects.

Where are your customers going?

It’s arguably more important to know this one. What are your customers trying to accomplish? What problems are they having trying to do that? How can you help them?

Retailers
The type of business you have will dictate how you find this out. Let’s say you’re a retailer serving lots of customers with relatively small purchases. While they’re checking out, you may ask them if there was anything that they didn’t find.

You may want to keep a list of their requests. When you start seeing something over and over, you may want to add that item to your inventory.

Consumer services
For a consumer service business, the question is very similar. “Is there anything else that I can help you with today?” 

We used a version of this in my service businesses and it was amazing the projects we would uncover. For instance, we often learned that they were considering a remodel from this simple question.

Business services

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If your business serves other businesses, the best way to find this out is the hard way – talk with them! This is what we do. It takes a lot of legwork to keep in touch with your customers at this level. But it’s the best way to find opportunities.

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Nobody likes to be sold. People like to buy.
Discover what your customers are trying to accomplish.
Uncover the problems they’re having getting there.
Then show them the solution you can provide and you’ll be a bigg success!

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Thanks so much for reading our post today. Please join us next time when we’ll celebrate a bigg milestone. Until then, here’s to your bigg success.

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00519-111109.mp3

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Beware of Being Too Kind to Your Customers

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(Image in today's post by LotusHead)

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He was referring to the band’s 1983 performance at the Lloyd Noble Center. There were four to five times as many people in the crowd this time compared to a quarter century earlier.

Becoming a star takes a lot of time and hard work

Is there another alternative?
We heard this story about U2 through a great post by Kris Dunn, the hr capitalist. He said that there is another way: instead of working your butt off, you can eliminate everything that doesn’t lead to bigg success. (Okay, we’ve paraphrased what he said a little bit!)

The problem with the second choice is that it’s often hard to know, in advance, what will ultimately lead you to the success of which you dream. You may unwittingly eliminate the thing that will put you over the edge.

And we’re not talking about The Edge from U2!

Overnight success is a misperception
Internationally best-selling author Chris Brogan (we love adding that tag to his name) has a great series of posts on being an overnight success. He says in the first one:

“Overnight success doesn’t sleep in. Overnight success doesn’t watch a lot of TV. Overnight success doesn’t have a whole lot of hobbies right now.”

We live in a society where we think overnight success is a reality. The problem is that it’s almost always a misperception. We need to look behind-the-scenes where bigg success is created.

Let’s shed some light on becoming a star:

Find your delight.
Bigg success is life on your own terms. So set your terms and get started on the path to bigg success. But remember that, since you’re setting the terms, bigg success will set the price. Paying the price is much less of a burden if you’re doing what you love. 

Keep your eyes on your lighthouse.
Fair weather or foul, light or dark, you have to keep going. In your darkest moments, the only consolation you may have is that you can still see your lighthouse. Your vision of success can’t be taken away from you. Keep focusing on it to keep going.

Work by candlelight.
There’s one simple difference between people who reach bigg success and people who don’t. People who reach bigg success are willing to do whatever it takes to get there.

Yes, you have to be willing to work hard. Yes, you have to be willing to work in the face of opposition. Even if the power goes out, you’ll light some candles so you can keep on keeping on!

Highlight what’s most important every day.
It’s easy to get distracted. It’s easy to waste time. It’s easy to go nowhere.

It’s hard to focus all your efforts and energy exclusively on what’s most important today to move you closer to your dream life. It’s hard to keep it in front of you. It’s hard to get right into your next task or project when you complete one.

Relight your torch every day.
Bigg success is a long journey. You have to fuel your fire. You may get your daily mojovation here at Bigg Success. You may meditate. You may listen to great music while you work out.

If it works for you, it works. Just do something – anything – to keep your torch burning.

The bottom line is this:
Lightweights don’t ever get to step into the spotlight.
You have to work hard and smart to become a star.
You have to persevere if you want to be center stage.
And isn’t this ironic … you have to risk failure to reach bigg success. 

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Thanks so much for reading our post today. You light up our life! Can you believe we’ve gone from U2 to Debby Boone in one short post?

Next time, we’ll discuss two things you should know about your customers. Please join us. Until then, here’s to your bigg success.

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00518-110909.mp3

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5 Lessons from Baseball to Be a Hero in Business

A New Media Maverick

(Image in today's post by srbichara)

Last year, holiday sales were down 3.4%. This year, even more Americans are dealing with job loss, fear of job loss, wage cuts, a drop in home prices and a rise in credit card interest rates.

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So what will consumers do? What's a retailer to do?

Working twice as hard but not making anymore
Let’s start with retailers. Dropping prices to push out inventory has become the norm since last year. Offering extreme discounts is a tactic many will use to try to get customers in their doors. Here's what that means:

Let’s say you have a product that costs you $10. You normally sell it for $20, leaving you with a $10 profit. You decide to cut your price by 25% to $15.

So now you make $5 every time you sell a product. You have to sell twice as much of this item just to make the same amount of money!

In this example, we used a product sale to keep it simple. However, many small businesses sell a service. So think about it this way:

Carrying forward the numbers above – if you cut your hourly rate by 25% – you would have to work twice as much but you wouldn’t make anymore.

Is it worth it? Would you be better served pursuing another strategy?

Consumers are more price-sensitive, but value is still king
Now, let's look at those customers. Experts cited in the article say consumers will shop for good value on items they want and need. Note the term “value”, not price.

Consumers are more price sensitive than ever. However, because they have been bombarded with super-low prices, they are beginning to think that those products are worthless.

Furthermore, they will pass up an offer – even if the price seems too good to be true – if they think they just don’t need the item. If you cut prices too much, you may kill your business by killing your customer with kindness!

3 strategies for a tight-belt economy:

• Divide your product or service offerings into three categories – must have, need and want. In this economy, focus on the must haves. Which customers must have your must have product? Focus most of your efforts here.

• Is there a way to bundle a “need” with a “must have” or a “want” with a “need”? Offer a special deal on the bundle rather than the individual product or service. You may find that you can sell more without having to work a lot harder.

• Think about your customer’s bottom line. How can you add value to your product or service and boost your customer’s bottom line at the same time?

For example, is there some essential knowledge that you could impart to help your customer use your product or service to save money? If so, they’ll be much more likely to buy – even now.

How are you compelling your customers to buy your products or services?

Share that with us by leaving a comment, e-mailing us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com or leaving a voice message at 888.455.BIGG (2444).

We think you’re too kind for checking in with us today. Thanks so much!

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There’s a popular celebrity who says it took him 26 years to get one mile down the road. Please join us next time and we’ll fill you in on his story of bigg success. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00517-110609.mp3

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(Image in today's post by xenxen)

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It’s about George Robert Tebbetts who gave 53 years of his life to Major League Baseball – first as a player, then a scout and, finally, the manager of the Cincinnati Redlegs (as the Reds were known at that time).

He is better known by his nickname: Birdie. How did he get his nickname?

No, it doesn’t have anything to do with the use of his middle finger!

The article says that his aunt observed that he had lips like a bird. Wikipedia says his aunt said he chirped like a bird.

We don’t know which source to believe, but they do both agree that his voice was irritating. According to the article, he got thrown out of a game because, as the umpire said, “I have a splitting headache and that voice of yours just kills me.”

Time awarded him the Manager of the Year honor in 1956 because of the way he had turned around his team. There are all kinds of lessons in this article about baseball, of course, but also about leadership, life and entrepreneuring.

There are also a number of great quotes by Birdie in this article. Quotes that make you think and quotes that make you realize how colorful he was.

Like his scouting report on a young pitcher, where Birdie said, “Major league stuff and a great arm. Screwy in the head. Eliminate head and I recommend. Get good surgeon.”

But our favorite quote is where the title of the article comes from:

“Baseball is a game of inches … a fellow gets up in the ninth and comes through with a liner between third and short — he's a hero. Two inches the other way and he's a bum because he hit into a double play.”

True in baseball. True in life. True in small business and entrepreneuring.

So here are 5 lessons from baseball about being a hero in business:

Prepare to be a hero
You select your bat. You practice … and practice … and practice some more. You have to know your competition almost as well as you know yourself.

Step up to the plate
You’ll never be a hero if you don’t put on your uniform. You’ll never be a hero if you don’t get out of the dugout. You have to step up to the plate. You have to risk striking out.

A lot of people never take their turn at bat. They have ideas but they never act upon them. They spend so much time preparing that they never get in the game.

Pick your pitch
You won’t be a hero if you swing at every pitch. You’ll strike out before the right one comes along.

Opportunities are all around you. Most of them aren’t worth your time.

There are prospects you could pursue. Pick the right ones for you, your products or services and your company.

There are projects you could initiate. Select the ones that will advance you the furthest toward your goals. Let the rest pass right by.

Don’t worry about the result
When you’re up to bat, you don’t know where the ball will go when you hit it. You can’t worry about that. You just have to focus on hitting it hard. 

You can’t make a prospect say “yes.”
You can give your prospect your best pitch.

You can’t force an employer to hire you.
You can give them every reason to put you on their roster.

Heroes know you can’t control results. You can only control your activity. So they focus on the activity and let the results take care of themselves.

You may not be a hero today but you can rest assured you will be a hero soon.

Inch your way forward.
Focus on getting a little faster, a little better, a little smarter every time you’re at bat.

Take away the lessons – from failure and success – to hit a grand slam the next time out! That’s bigg success!

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Thanks so much for reading our post today. Please join us next time when we discuss why you should beware of killing your customers with kindness. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00516-110509.mp3

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(Image in today's post from Time.com)