Is your business a destination business? Or is it a I need business and don’t care who you are as long as you can sort out my issue? Alternatively it could be a luxury business that would be used occasionally by those with money to spare? It’s a tricky question to answer. My business is a need now business, but I want it to be a destination business.
I went to IKEA today, and this must be one of the most successful destination businesses there are. When you go to IKEA, it’s more of an experience. Indeed, some of my friends tell me how they enjoy going to IKEA to have the ‘IKEA experience’.
The IKEA Experience
The Ikea experience involves arriving at IKEA at about 10.30 or 11 am, going directly to the café and having meatballs, chips, and a coffee and then walking around the shop for a few hours getting ideas and discussing the rooms created by IKEA. After shopping, they return to the restaurant for something to eat on the way out. They plan to spend at least five hours just walking around and looking for bargains. Indeed, IKEA is a destination business.
(The perfect business waiting area from IKEA)
IKEA – Bedroom
Bedroom – IKea
IKEA – Dressing Room
Destination businesses can also be online, for example, Amazon, eBay, and YouTube. These websites understand their customer’s needs. They offer the services quickly, efficiently and without complications. We know they will deliver, and we trust that the information from these sites will be accurate, informative, and valuable.
What makes a destination business?
Make sure you understand your customers’ needs (or how you will solve the ‘pain’ they are currently in) and what it is they are after. Leverage your products in a way that your customers understand what it is your offering. How can you make your products or services vital to your customers? For example, if I say I am a solicitor and leave it at that. Will my customer know what services I offer? We know different solicitors provide different services—for example, Contract law v Criminal Law. If I said, I am a contract solicitor. You understand with certainty which part of the law they work.
Add an Upsell
Add an upsell – something your customers didn’t think they wanted until you showed them how important or valuable it would be for them. Going back to IKEA, if you popped in for a few candles, how likely are you to browse the store and pick up a few other odds and ends. I could never go into IKEA without spending at least £60. Did I need the items before I went into IKEA? No? Did I know the things existed before I went into IKEA? Not only did I not know they existed, but I didn’t know I wanted them.
My website is www.publishmystoires.com. In the title, it states that I publish stories. Within that heading, there are sections for writing memoirs, publishing fiction and poems. My blog www.forgetmenot.publishmystories.com is all about writing my memoirs and letting people know that writing memoirs are easy once you understand your topic. Therefore, I clearly state that I can transcribe manuscripts ready for publishing.
How to upsell on a website?
Upselling has been standard on a website for many years. It starts with you giving your email address for a free eBook or something else just as enjoyable. Then at check out, you see other items that may be of interest. You will even a notice of how many people have bought that item today. Confirming that your decision was wise and other people agree with you.
My upsell is letting my authors know I can arrange for their books to be published. I can also create a simple website for them and help them start their marketing plan if needed.
Getting customers to trust you and your services
Getting customers to trust and respect you is not as easy as it sounds. You must provide flawless service. Have superb customer services and aftercare. The product has to be outstanding, and you need to be as passionate about your customer as they are. The customer needs to feel that they are the only person you are looking after. To be blunt, you want them to come back time after time and tell everyone about your reasonable service. Testimonials, customer feedback, and surveys are so important.
What I learnt about writing my memoirs
Customers will support and spend money on a destination business
Understanding your customer’s needs and easing ‘their pain’ has to be the target for any entrepreneur
A thriving destination business is the responsibility of the owner and customer. Customers will vote with their feet or credit card.
Writing My Memoirs – 31 Day Challenge – Video and Blog Posts
Writing in your voice is so crucial to your writing style. I know this as I had lost mine; if I am honest, this is not the original blog post I was going to post today. I had spent the last three hours writing a post and researching wearing a dressing gown outside the home. The reason for this was that I opened my curtains today and noticed a woman walking her dog. She was wearing a pink terry-towelling dressing gown and flip-flops. My entire article was about social norms and values, our individual freedoms and being judgemental. It was more like an essay or lecture. So my three hours have resulted in no blog post and me starting afresh.
Deciding if you should walk away from a task can be daunting. You need to evaluate several factors. How much time is this costing you? Should you spend your time on more cost-effective tasks? Is there someone cheaper and more experienced that can do the job instead of you? After careful consideration of the above philosophy. I am going to walk away from the previous three hours of research. The post will be marked down as an experience to stay focused in the future. It turned out to be a vanity blog post to say, look at me, don’t I know many long words.
I don’t want to write my memoirs using words that are not from my mouth. Words need to resonate with me, as they are so important. My style of writing is straightforward, to the point, and I think easy to read. Using a voice that is not mine is not part of me writing my memoirs or www.forgetmenot.publishmystoires.com.
Writing in your voice
Writing in your voice is so important; it will convey more to the reader about you than you will realise. You tell your reader your truth in your words, and it is you being genuine when writing your memoirs. It is very much the tone you use, the words, the way you describe something. When writing your memoirs, you have the control.
So, I stopped writing my last post. It was a good essay if I was at university, but I don’t want to write in that style. Writing my memoirs in this business blog is about me. I do not wish to lecture or get on my high horse and tell you how to think. I would prefer you get to know me and my style, know Publish My Stories, and writing memoirs is fun.
What I learnt about writing my memoirs
I need to stay focused on my primary goal and not go off on a tangent
Have the courage to walk away from a business deal or activity if it isn’t working
I have found my voice in my blog and my business.
Writing My Memoirs – 31 Day Challenge – Video and Blog Posts
An Entrepreneur’s Mindset is generally different to that of an employed person. Entrepreneurs usually have a distinct attitude and set of priorities compared to those people in paid jobs. (When I use the term entrepreneurs, I am talking about those people who set up a business from nothing). We look at things uniquely and wherever we are, every decision, social occasion we talk about, consider or plan something for our business. If we need a job done, it will never occur to us to ask ‘How do I this’. Our first concern is the outcome that I want to achieve. From there, we will then decide on how to get the task completed.
Our minds are all over the place. How do we earn more income, what products can we sell, who will buy this service? How can we leverage our current services? It is a different outlook, which is not right or wrong, it’s just different.
My Hell
My personal hell would be a day of shopping for makeup and clothes. It just has no interest for me. I am not really interested in my socks are matching as long as my feet are warm or if my bag is a different colour to my shoes as long as it holds everything I need it to hold. It just isn’t one of my priorities. Now, if it is one of my author’s books, that is a very different story. The font has to be spot on, the formatting and front cover need to tell a story in its own right and the author has to be 100% happy with the outcome, I am slightly anal about that, because to me, it’s a product that I have produced and I want my clients to treasure that product.
Take, for example, walking home yesterday. Just as I was leaving the office, the skies opened with torrential rain. It just wouldn’t stop. I didn’t have a coat with me as the weather forecast said it would be sunshine all day. So, there I am standing the lobby looking at the rain falling and pondering, how am I going to get home. I could, for example:-
Walk and get soaked
Call a taxi
Get a lift from someone
Wait until the rain stops
Options are available if you think hard
There would be more options if I set my mind to it, Critical Thinking (a very good business term for evaluating all options). I think situations through and make my decisions quickly and run with the consequences. It has served me well and I learn quickly from mistakes, especially as I am a firm believer that mistakes are more valuable than getting things right all the time.
Back to my story. I wanted to walk home as the dog also needed a walk, and the rain would wash her coat, which is a bonus. So, how to get home without getting too wet. Now, I considered my solutions was rather ingenious considering my limited options. Get a plastic bag, cut a hole in the top and arms and like magic an instant raincoat. So, there I am with my pink plastic bin liner, cutting in a hole for the neck and arms to hear someone from behind me question what I was doing.
I explained what I was doing and why. She couldn’t understand why I didn’t just wait for the rain to stop, as she was doing. Her car was 10 feet from the front door. It never occurred to her to walk to her car in the rain and get wet and that a makeshift plastic bag could act as a temporary raincoat for a few minutes. What upset her more was the fact that the pink plastic bag was a Biffa bag, and a trade Biffa bag at that.
Appearances can matter
I have been a member of BNI (a networking group for small businesses and entrepreneurs) for many years. Every so often a member would be asked to give a 10-minute presentation on what their business is and what referrals they are looking for. On one occasion, I took several tools that I use in my business and carried them in an orange plastic bag. As I stood in front of the 35 other members explaining my business and what each tool represented, I felt the presentation went well. It was only after my presentation two women in the group came to me and said they loved the presentation but couldn’t get past the orange plastic bag. They suggested that next time I should use a company branded bag.
It concerned me for a while and what was interesting was that both ladies worked for an entrepreneur, which differs from being an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur’s mindset will equate every penny spent to hours worked or jobs completed. Why would they focus on something as immaterial as the orange plastic bag and not the contents of the bag and what I was saying? To them, the importance of someone’s outward appearance was just as important as what is being said or sold. I have taken this on board and retired my orange plastic bag. However, I am still in business and the two ladies are not working for other companies that provide branded products.
Learning Points about an Entrepreneur’s Mindset
There are many ways to get a task completed, focus on the outcome first and work backwards
Don’t be guided by someone who has never had the courage that you have shown by setting up your business
Thinking outside the box is a prerequisite for an entrepreneur, so stand up and yell, “I will do this, and I will do it my way with the results I want to achieve.”
Writing My Memoirs – 31 Day Challenge – Video and Blog Posts
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