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You are what you is

In Germany, around 2.23 million solo self-employed people work without dependent employees. They take care of all biz components and develop, among other things

  • the business idea,
  • the capabilities, offerings, and activities,
  • an overview of the required funds,
  • a description of the customer groups and sales channels,
  • the pricing for the assortment offered,
  • the business plan for the next five years, and
  • open a chargeable bank account,
  • invent a name and a logo,
  • obtain the official permits and insurances,
  • register a trade or other legal form,
  • conclude contracts with payment service providers and
  • prepare a legally compliant bid and invoice forms as well as the accounting.

Solo self-employed people have to work it all out by themselves before the first invoice can be written, unless they either have supporters who volunteer to help or use existing savings to pay for external support.

Starting your company is like taking off an airplane. It needs a long runway with a good take-off run until there is enough lift to take off and get to flight altitude. A company needs revenues, which only occur when possible customers are aware of the offer. This requires offers that are ready for use, good relationships, and meaningful KPI’s.

Ready to use products and/or services

The offers must be in a condition that they can be performed the next day. What does this mean? A baker wants to sell healthy mini-baked goods. To do this, she needs recipes for mini pretzels and croissants, organic suppliers, and a bakery line tailored to small products that she can handle on her own.

An idea is not enough to be marketable. This applies not only to manufacturing industries (e.g., procurement, production, distribution and disposal logistics, production, energy, process engineering) but also to people-related (e.g., consultants, therapists, coaches, trainers, social workers, nursing attendances) and fact-related (e.g., dry cleaners, banks, insurance companies, ICT, advertising) attendances.

Without the prepared offers, one or maybe two projects can be improvised during the start-up phase. But in the long run, this approach is dangerous because it is difficult for solo self-employed to get out of this treadmill. Moreover, although the first sales can be realized, the continuous improvisations damage the quality of the offer, lead to permanent overload and prevent reliable long-term utilization.

Good relationships
In the past, providers could meet in a marketplace and offer their deliverables for sale. This increased the likelihood of being noticed by possible clients. Even today, the clientele meet at the weekly market for fruit, vegetables, and eggs.

It is a good idea to start with existing contacts and relationships. For this purpose, the target groups should be classified according to interests, potential turnover, and other vital factors. The existing network can be graded here. By marking deciders and opinion leaders, a prioritization of possible customers is created, with whom the idea can be discussed or even offered at an early stage. It should be clarified who can best be addressed with which approach. By involving this clientele at an early stage, a favorable climate for offers and negotiations is created and may even make it possible to immunize them against offers from competitors.

There is no revenue without customers.

Important:
Customers are those,
who need the offer,
have sufficient budget AND
are willing to pay for it.

In the medium term, the first contacts generate new prospects through word-of-mouth and other publicity measures. Then, with mutual exchange and the offer’s visibility, more and more possible buyers (leads) exist to achieve the entrepreneurial goals.

Focused marketing
Once a publicly accessible PoS is established, flags can be raised with one’s logo and offerings, informational materials can be displayed, giveaways can be spread, and so on. However, if particular deliverables of any kind are offered that do not fit into a traditional marketplace (something solo self-employed people should consider), effective advertising measures are inevitable.

This is the approach taken by legions of providers who, in the absence of capacities of the solo self-employed people, want to assist in drafting, designing, and publishing. The keywords at the end of this article (see below: Supplement) give an impression of the number of topics. With all the pressure to generate sales as quickly as possible, do not get carried away with overelaborated promotional activities and the development of unrealistic external presentations. Focused marketing needs the following minimum kit, which must be created decisively by the entrepreneur:

  • a name that fits the personality and the business,
  • an overview with the offers (products and/or services),
  • a one-minute elevator pitch (statements to arouse curiosity with exciting slogans, outlining the proposal, showing customer benefits, examples, suggesting the next step through a call-to-action),
  • a presentation of the company (including company profile, core competencies, philosophy, history, personal introduction, goals, strengths, certificates, a service portfolio (preferably with prices), project examples, customer statements, data protection, contact and further info)
  • a flyer that further details the elevator pitch and provides incentives for customers to come forward; and
  • a first landing page on the Internet derived from the above points, which can be developed by oneself with the help of appropriate templates.

There should be no hesitation about getting inspired by established companies, but without trying to do the same. The big players have exceptional employees and an extensive budget that is not available to a start-up. When formulating a proposal, avoid platitudes such as best quality, less time, or lowest price. It is more critical to elaborate on what makes the bidder stands out: e.g., exceptional expertise, unique experience, merciless customer orientation, an agile approach, and precise outcomes.
The following applies to the messages: Less is more. Hubris should be self-critically avoided, and what one can safely master should be made one’s own as well as only be promised, what can be kept.

Bottom line: For all those who start the adventure of becoming solo self-employed, there is no doubt that their own business is the most important enterprise of all times. This self-confidence is essential to overcome the shallows of the first years. To have a chance of survival, the offers should be neatly worked out, existing relationships be used, and marketing be focused on the essential aspects. The litmus test when reading your external presentations is to look in the mirror. If you have not blushed and avoided hubris, you should have managed appropriate messages. In the end, you are what you is – no more, but also NO LESS.

Supplement:

Keywords for unfocused marketing

Working out the following aspects in their entirety goes far beyond what is required.

  • Marketing Strategies:
    Direct marketing, Networking, Influencer marketing, Referral marketing, Event marketing, Guerrilla marketing, Content marketing, Event marketing, Telemarketing, Email marketing, Social media marketing
  • Marketing plan:
    Market analysis; marketing mix (product, place, promotion, price); marketing objectives; key performance indicators (lead conversion rate, traffic conversion rate, cost per lead, cost per customer); marketing concept; Corporate Identity; marketing controlling
  • Promotional materials:
    Postcards, flyers, folders, presentation folders, long format postcards, door hangers, business cards, labels and stickers, stamps & ink pads, notebooks, magnets, paper bags, product tags, gift certificates, websites
  • Publications:
    Annual report, image brochure, customer magazine, newspaper, blogs, television, daily newspaper, display papers, online/mobile, outdoor advertising, trade magazines, radio, weekly/Sunday newspaper, movie theater, newspaper supplement
  • Events:
    Open houses, plant tours/tours, panel discussions, meetings, trade shows, trade show booths, webinars
  • Press:
    Releases, conferences, interviews, tweets, background interviews, editorial visits, videos, podcasts
  • Sponsoring
  • Online:
    Website; online advertising (banner, affiliate, email, keyword advertising, …); search engine optimization (SEO); landing page; lead management.

Decision-making reloaded

Incredibly, we make 20,000 decisions a day. With sixteen hours that we spend every day awake, these are about 20 decisions per minute. In the last minute, you may have decided to:

  • open your IT device,
  • choose between email and social media,
  • prefer one link over another when skimming,
  • prefer the title Decision reloaded to a Forbes List 2021,
  • open this post
  • skip the first paragraph,
  • look at the picture,
  • go back to the beginning of the post,
  • believe or not that we make 20,000 decisions a day,
  • read on with this assumption,
  • believe that these are 20 decisions per minute,
  • continue reading on this basis for the time being,
  • ignore up the ringing phone,
  • take a look at the rest of the article,
  • continue reading based on the remarkable keywords,
  • delay your previous activity,
  • read on despite this list,
  • understand that decisions are an essential part for you, even if not 20 times a minute,
  • use the topic for yourself,
  • recognize that 20 decisions have taken place in the last minute.

You have likely thought about similar considerations in the past minute – mostly unconsciously. With such a frequent activity, it makes sense to refresh our understanding of decision-making.

However, the emphasis of this post is not on the small decisions that we continually make unconsciously, but we turn to the big ones that have far-reaching effects and are made consciously. For this, we look at the time span and the components of a decision, the alternatives, the lasting of the impact, and the responsible parties.

  • Deciding – an act or rather a process?
    The blow of the hammer of a judge or auctioneer is the moment when a decision is concluded. Through this official act of an authorized person, a decision enters into force, or a final choice is made. The decision-making process needs time to work out the components, weigh them against each other, establish them with a binding act and evaluate the effects afterward.
    Depending on the leadership style, (de)centralized top-down vs. bottom-up, leaders satisfy their mindset. The process-oriented decisions, which should turn those affected into participants and make implementation more likely, are the more viable ones.
  • The moment of decision
    The “right” moment is a matter of belief. There are the reactive leaders, who make decisions as late as possible, if at all – There is nothing left but to rectify the situation. Then there are the active ones who roll up their sleeves and solve a difficulty directly – Where is the problem? What can we do? We do it like this. Then there are the pro-actives who try to foresee difficulties with a far-reaching radar and make preventive decisions – We investigate these developments and make sure that nothing unforeseen happens. And eventually, the passive decision-makers (what an oxymoron), who follow the illusion that by avoiding a decision, they would not decide – We agreed after lengthy negotiations that we should definitely think about when we could meet to discuss how to proceed.
    There is no one right moment to decide what must/should/could be determined. The late decision has more information, but follow-up problems are already happening. A timely decision is the last chance to prevent the consequences. The proactive ones lack information and may deal with obstacles that never occur. The important thing is that a decision is made at all.
  • Components of a decision
    Reducing a decision to one act does not meet its complexity. It is the interplay of several aspects that together constitute a decision. It starts with the triggers that determine the pressure to decide – e.g., deadlines, imminent danger, stakeholder demands. Often several goals have to be reconciled with each other. The search for solutions becomes more difficult due to a lack of information about the past, present, and future. Since there are always many options to choose from, at least three should be worked out. To avoid surprises and unintended consequences, the possible impacts must be anticipated, e.g., through appropriate scenarios in which the alternatives are “tested”. To clarify the role of the decision-makers, they need outlined tasks, competencies, in the sense of agency, and a firmly outlined responsibility that defines the consequences for the decision-makers.
    These components take time, i.e., the decision-making process.
  • Decision alternatives
    The number and the spread of options are an essential aspect of decision-making. Let us consider inevitable decisions where we believe we have no choice, although there is always a choice between one action or no action. This means that we always have at least two alternatives – even if doing nothing is always the worse alternative.
    Experienced executives know that there are always at least three options to take full advantage of the available space.
  • Half-life of decisions
    Let us imagine we would be standing on a balcony. A conflagration is blazing in the flat beside us. We can hold out on the balcony for fear of jumping – and burn to death. Or we can jump down from the second floor – in the worst case, we break our necks. Less decisive people will say it does not matter what they choose. However, there is a higher probability of survival in the jump. In any case, the NECESSARY decision has an infinite half-life. You either immediately end up in eternal rest or continue to live as if nothing had happened. With all other decisions that have no final consequences, you can always revise your decision afterward.
    The need for action increases according to the importance and the urgency. The more people affected, the greater the reach, the more constant the consequences, and the greater the costs, the better you have to prepare and evaluate the decisions.
  • Who decides?
    A decision has already been preceded by another significant one – Who decides? The choice of who decides is the responsibility of the orderers – e.g., a steering committee or the recipients. And before that, the question arises, who chooses this circle. And so on. Those assigned, who do not want to be burdened with responsibility, call for public decision-making and thus delegate responsibility and consequences to the majority. According to the Highlander principle (There can only be one), however, one specific person should decide, otherwise, there is no clear accountability. Nobody decides when several decide. In this case, everyone is collectively to blame, and thus no one.
    The unambiguous assignment of one person increases the quality of a decision.

Bottom line: Until now, the personal income also depended on decision-making because decision-makers were placed at management levels. In the course of Theory Y, agility, and servant leadership, the detached leaders become obsolete. They are replaced by the employees on-site. However, this does not change the decision-making process, the choice of the moment, the building blocks, the need for alternatives, the half-life, and the clear mandate despite decision-makers at all levels. Besides the doing, decision-making is the most crucial element in business and the last resort for the leaders, who are becoming obsolete with the current collaboration models.