The Camping Trip

There are some things in life I’ll likely never understand.  Like why I sometimes notice rainbows, and other times I don’t. Why sometimes life and business is hard work & other times it’s almost effortless.  Like being swept down a fast moving ocean,  just on the edge of feeling like it’s out of control.

My best guess is that I would be bored if life was predictable. In fact, that’s probably the reason  I’m an entrepreneur instead of in a really practical & stable accounting position.  With health benefits, regular vacations & lots and lots of meetings.  My life is no longer anything like that. But it’s also not always greener on the other side of the fence. It’s not a direct polar opposite of the stereotypical “job” life.

Take this past week as an example?  Where I knew all week I needed to create an influx of cash before heading to Portland for WDS, and for whatever reason kept drawing a complete blank.  Wishing on the stars that someone would just tell me what they needed. Because I would happily create it for them & sell it. I just didn’t want to put something together that no one wanted.

So, what did I do instead?  Pretty much nothing.

I thought about it  – a lot.  And then I did what I always do. I showed up in my online communities and listened between the lines of conversations. And I heard from one person, and then another a common theme.  The only problem is that I didn’t actually have a solution to this problem.  Not something I could imagine packaging up as a solution – because the results would vary so wildly. It just didn’t seem possible.

So instead I went back to a tried and true method of having a “Fire Sale”.   I put everything in my online store on sale for 48 hours.

It didn’t work! I made a grand total of $3.00 from that sale.

But in the midst of taking that action step I had an ‘aha’ moment. I could, in fact, find a way to create a mini-version of one of the problems I knew people were struggling with. I did a quick gut check in- and, I threw together the fastest sales page (or shopping cart description) I could. Just moments before heading out to a weekend camping trip (that truthfully I didn’t feel I deserved, because I hadn’t worked hard enough this week, or made enough money – I know! It sounds a bit crazy to me now too).

I added this item to my shopping cart.  Made a few comments in some online groups, sent a message to a select group of people on my email list & handed over the keys of my virtual office to my VA (email passwords & facebook messages).

And wouldn’t you know it? The program sold out.  Actually, more than sold out. I didn’t set the inventory up right on my shopping cart and sold an extra 10 spots.

It really seems to be an unusual ebb & flow.  Part guessing & lots and lots of action.

Had I sat around thinking for another 2 days, instead of putting an offer out, I would never have known how many people really craved the solution I was offering.

What action are you taking today? Not busy work, but action that connects you with your ideal customer.  It doesn’t need to be a “success” . Even failures lead us closer to our dreams, if we don’t spend too much time wallowing in the muck.