A business plan is for SOMEONE ELSE.

What would be more effective is something designed for YOU.

My personal opinion is that a business plan should be replaced with:

1. The Vision
2. Habits

The Vision is your image of how things will look once you’ve transformed your lump of clay into something alive, mature, and that facilitates your lifestyle and your dreams. The Vision has to be highly personalised. It may take on any form e.g. an image, a colour, a document etc – whatever speaks to you. Something that you give meaning to. The Vision is adaptable and will evolve.

Habits trump goals or plans. Uncover what the correct habits are, and then to commit to them. Ceaselessly practicing the right habits will achieve the Vision.

Leverage: while most whiskey distilleries devote themselves to the time consuming (10-20 years) and laborious task of creating whiskey, Johnnie Walker would simply buy whiskeys from a range of distillers and then blend and repackage them.
That’s some serious leverage.

Consistency: making Scotch demands a mix of art, science, alchemy and luck. Johnnie Walker didn’t like those odds. People prefer consistency to art. By blending a range of whiskeys, he was able to deliver a consistent, reliable product.

Branding: Johnnie Walker must have been one of the first products to successfully segment it’s market: each sub-brand (red,black, green, blue etc) has its own distinctive personality and market. The business has a product for each segment of the market: from cheap cans of mixed red label and coke, to the prestige of Blue Label, all the way up to a bottle that will set you back $5k – or $650 a glass at Rockpool.

The business also pioneered the ‘walking man’ image and the ‘keep walking slogan, which has burnt itself into the minds of consumers, as a symbol of determination and staying the course.

By turning the label to an angle of 24% they were able to increase the size of the font and make the bottle stand out on the shelf. Such a simple way to stand out and be noticed.

Dont’t be the racehorse, own the racecourse: when the business started to gain success they started buying up distilleries to ensure a regular supply.

Innovation: Johnnie Walker changed the shape of the whiskey bottle to something more square than normal. This made it more distinctive, but it also meant far less breakage on its journey around the world to establish itself as the global super-brand it is today.

Story: you’re not just buying a product, you’re buying a story. This is one of the most powerful uses of film to tell a brand.
(thanks to Steve Sammartino and his Startup Blog for alerting me to this great video)

Initially establishing herself as a comedian, Tracy Bartram became a household name in Melbourne in the 90′s when she co-hosted Melbourne’s top-rating breakfast radio show.

But there was always a lot more to her that she wanted to express through music, performance and teaching…and heal within herself.

In this video, Tracy shares the ups and downs of building her career as a performer. She discusses the challenges she faced in living a fulfilling creative life, and how she learnt to overcome them.

This is an inspiring story, that also contains some great practical advice, about how to live a soulful and authentic creative life.

To check out some of the cool stuff Tracy is up to, have a look at tracybartram.com.au

Like many of my generation, and older generations, I share a sentimental attachment to the printed word, and enjoy the opportunity of browsing in a bookshop.

But bookstores are becoming increasingly unsustainable, both as an economic model, and environmentally.

Increasingly the market is choosing the alternatives of buying books online, e-books, audio books. Or not reading at all.

The harsh reality is that there will be more closures of book stores.

And the question has to be asked: Could the demise of bookstores be the canary in the coalmine signaling a wake up call for other businesses?

With the rise of outsourcing, almost every business in so called ‘first world countries’ could be under threat if they don’t evolve their business.

Outsourcing is still in its early stages. But when the general public learn that it’s almost as easy and cheap to get a website, brochure, logo etc outsourced as it is to buy a pair of shoes online, creative professions like web designers and graphic designers will feel the heat.

This may be a little scary, but it demands a response to evolve your business.

Provide exceptional customer service

Make the fact that you’re local to your customer count for more. Be more responsive. Make your understanding of local conditions more important. Make your relationship with your customer more important.

Go more upmarket

If you’re competing on price you won’t stand a chance as more price competition through outsourcing becomes the norm. By choosing to service more high end clientele you place more emphasis on the intangible aspects that set your business apart from lower-end ones.

Go more niche

Evolve your business from more of a generalist service to something that gains recognised expertise in a specialised area. Again, this moves you out of the domain of competing on price. Customers will pay a premium to be serviced by a market expert.

Go more ‘lifestyle’

This approach will only suit some businesses. But if you are providing what was previously considered to be a mass market essesntial like bread, books, or flat-pack furniture, then you will not be able to compete unless you redefine your product as a lifestyle item, gift-ware, hobby etc. e.g. A bakery selling organic, spelt, sourdough rye baked in a 100 year old oven powered by a windmill cannot compete with the bread aisle in ALDI. And doesn’t need to. Because it becomes a purveyor of health, of lifestlye, of nostalgia, of gourmet etc rather than cheap carbohydrates.

So, to return to the idea of demise of the bookshop – they will not die out. What we will be left with is a handful of specialised, expert stores offering exceptional customer service, building deep, long-term relationships with customers, providing great advice, and a wonderful buying experience that cannot be replicated online.

This affects all of us. What are your thoughts? Do you think my predictions are accurate? What else can businesses do to evolve? Please write your comments below.

A smart strategy. And at some stage in the future you will enjoy the benefits of this work.

But the reason to implement systems in your business that bring you benefit every day, is the peace of mind that it can bring the business operator.

Running a business means dealing with an incessant series of highs and lows: you missed out on a big contract – you feel the disappointment associated with what could have been. You make a couple of big sales – you’re back on the horse and riding high again.

It’s like reacting to a series of clouds drifting across the sky that keep blocking the sun.

The problem with this approach is that it burns a lot of energy. The other problem is that your success is defined by forces, to some degree, beyond your control.

A more effective apprroach is to devise and refine systems, and to work them.

The focus then becomes not on the immediate win or loss, but how closely you are sticking to the rules you devised for yourself.

Your view then becomes wider and more long term.

And temporary setbacks are more likely to be viewed with the appropriate perspective.

This scenario places artists and creative types with an opportunity to not only turn a crust, but to thrive.

There was a time a while back when purchasing a CD of your favourite band was immensely satisfying. Supersharp digital mastering, a mini booklet, elegantly presented in a plastic case. What more could you ask for?

But with the rise of file sharing, the CD copped a life-threateing blow. It dawned on consumers that the CD as a delivery mechanism was soulless, inconvenient, and poor value.

While the record companies cried poor and went on the attack, the smart artists built their own delivery mechanisms: Selling their product to consumers directly, and a resurgence of playing live.

Art as a boxed up commodity just didn’t cut it. Consumers wanted to participate, and to experience the art in a unique, individualised setting: a gig, a festival, to blog about their experiences, access rare recordings, remix the material etc.

Now we’re moving to the next level:

Consumers or fans want to be involved and connected to the process of the artist, they want to be involved in the creation of the art, and in some cases be the subject of the art. They want to form partnership arrangements with the artists. They want to go on a journey with the artists.

Here’s some scenarios in which I can see artists and creative types using to build relationships with audiences:

Membership: You don’t just buy a CD, you buy a subscription to the artist’s creative output. You are the first to be alerted to when new material is released.

Special Access: You don’t just receive the official products, you also receive access to sketches, works in progress, abandoned work, diary entries, speical events.

Community: You don’t just receive a product, but entree into a community of people who value similar work. This may occur through membership websites, forums etc.

Patronage: A revisiting of the days when Royalty and Gentry would financially back artists to capture their lives, or be in their proximity. In a world in which a sizable group of people are bored by what they can aquire materially, the prospect of building a studio in the back yard of your mansion for an artist to have a residency may be the next frontier.

Shares: Buy a work of art before it exists, at as reduced price. The price increases as it grows closer to completion. Get in early and save money like Kogan Live Price

Inner Circle: A small group of highly dedicated followers pay a premium for unprecednted access to the artists time. Check out the premium ticket available at the upcoming 21st Century Education Summit and what you get for $5k.

Group Buying: e.g. a group of old surfing buddies chip in and hire a top surf video director to document their surf weekend away.

Speical Events: Workshops by the artists, events curated by the artist etc

What do you think? Is this nothing short of selling out? Or can it be done with an integrity that allows artists to transcend the starving artist cliche, and build deeper and lasting connections with their audience?

I went to see the band The Felice Brothers play on Thursday night. A great American band whose music cannot be easily classified, but traverses the territory of folk, rock and country in the tradition of Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie.

This tweet by @mikewh who saw them the night before in Sydney captured the atmosphere of the show perfectly:

Caught Felice Brothers #annandalehotel last night. Sonic barrage – not playing songs but living them… #felicebrothers

I was really struck by the extent to which these guys immerse themselves in the energy of the songs, really throwing their heart and soul into it. Considering the fact that they would have played some of these songs live thousands of times, they succeed in bringing a freshness and vitality that, as an audience member, helps you to feel like you’re part of something special.

…not playing songs but living them..

I contrast this with a Linkedin page I saw a while back. It contained a description of the type of work the person is really passionate about, and then what the person does to ‘pay the bills‘. If I was hiring I wouldn’t be after someone who was just looking to ‘pay the bills’; who would approach the work as a necessary evil, a means to an end, or stop-gap measure until some real work comes along.

Why not try playing the song with gusto and abandon, even if it’s not your song? By throwing your heart into the work you are currently doing you might find you get a lot more out of it.

Each time I go and see a great band it reminds me that creative work happens when you abandon the process of going through the motions and hurl yourself headlong into the moment.

He’s applying some creative business principles in a really effective way:

Subvert people’s expectations

when you stop at a red light in Australia, the only person you expect to see working is a window washer. A mime artist breaks people’s expectations and grabs their attention. When people see something original or unique they pay attention.

Connect with a large captive audience

At a busy traffic light at rush hour this guy probably gets an audience of 20-50 people every 3 minutes who have nothing to look at but their dashboard. While the light is red he owns that market.

Appeal to an audience’s need to escape

Consumers typically want to be transported from where they are by the promise of where a product or service can take them. Some roadside theatre is just the thing to help transcend rush hour monotony.

Inject art, play, and irreverence into business

People are looking beyond products and services. They want an experience. Something different. A story.

In a digital world, ideas are crying out to be borrowed, manipulates, reworked, repackaged, and generally messed with in a cool way. Take, for example, the amazing work of Kutiman:

By mashing up a range of youtube clips he’s created something greater than the sum of its parts.

Contrast this with the list of web design ripoffs catalogued on a website called You Thought we wouldn’t notice. A hall of shame featuring work that thieves have added nothing to.

Truly great theft occurs in the form of a gift to the victim (ironically). It helps them to see their own work reflected back to them in synthesised and distilled form. It arranges the work into a context, and alerts the original creator to meanings and possibilities that they may not even have been aware of.

Great theft is expansive. It opens up conversations. It’s premised on the idea that if you’re going to borrow, you have to put something back that wasn’t there before.

One side of the spectrum clings tight to a paranoia that by putting ideas out there they will be stolen, counterfeited or bastardised.

The side not governed by fear realises that by unleashing ideas you get vital feedback, and some kind of sense of whether your ideas have legs or not.

When it comes to dealing with ideas, the key is to occupy an expansive rather than a contracting state. Give them space to breathe and room to roam.

On the other hand, don’t let the air out of the balloon too soon. When an idea exists only in your mind there’s something almost holy about it. Once you release an idea it’s not really your anymore. Not fully, Not in the same way. Sometimes releasing an idea prematurely can cut short its developmental process. It will come into the world misshapen, impure, not quite comfortable in its own skin.

At their essence, ideas are energy. They can’t really be created or destroyed, just transferred. It’s an arrogant mind that assumes it’s given birth to something unique – something that did not exist before. It’s that same arrogance that, if it takes hold, can lead you to fortify or corral an idea.

When you share your ideas you breathe life into them because you get feedback, and test them out in the world. But they need to be ready to fly before you push them out of the nest.

Ideas are raw, growing, changing.

I.P. is chiselled, fixed, commodified.

And the best way to grow a spark of an idea to a polished slab of I.P. is to know when to share and when to shut up.