Why You Need a Knowledge Sharing System
May 2, 2009 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
At least once a week when I refer to a web site or a blog or an influential person or business, the person I’m talking to responds - “great, what’s their name, company and url?”
And once again, I explain that I could never remember that level of detail, but it doesn’t matter because I know how to instantaneously find what I want and need in my personal and solo psf knowledge sharing system.
The response I get to my explanation always surprises me - no response. Nobody ever asks what my system is or how it works or why I consider it a critical asset. I’m surprised because its so apparent to me that its the core of my business and should be for every professional services practitioner.
And its free!
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Claim Your Clients
April 22, 2009 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
A friend told me she and her partner had been looking at a mirror in Ikea for 6 months. It started at $70 and although it kept getting marked down, they didn’t buy it because they didn’t need it. The other day it was $9.99 so they bought it and put it away for now.
Several solo business friends commented that if it takes that much discounting to sell a product in this economy, how can professional and creative service providers sell?
Well, there’s always another store discounting their mirrors. But you’re the only one who does what you do and that’s how you (your global microbrand) show up everywhere.
And once a person shows up in your “store”, you have the ability to sense their unmet needs and you have the systems in place to immediately begin sharing with, inspiring and supporting them. When they’re ready to purchase, they’re already your treasured client and the project is already in process. If they don’t buy you still get a return on your natural influence: learning, content and permission assets, social capital.
You’ve shifted your consciousness from being attached to specific results and outcomes to being poised and ready to receive from indirect channels that unexpectedly appear when you’re not waiting and not urgently pushing for them. You’ve released your concerns and worries to a higher power so you can focus on creating and being of service.
I hope these statements hold at least some truth for you. If so, you’re probably unconcerned with discounting to make a sale.
Wormhole image credit: visualparadox.com
Solo PSF Business Models - Pt 2
April 8, 2009 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
In Pt 1: Evaluating solo professional service business models, I pointed out the importance of building content assets. I included this old slide that is somewhat outdated but I think still highly relevant.
A few readers asked: what do you mean by build system (or process) assets?
Going Solo Presentation - Babson:2005 - Mary Wynne-Wynter
The systems I refer to are unique to the solo professional who may also license or own systems such as financial planning or CAD. You might take your unique systems and process for granted, until or unless you’re expected to deliver equivalent value differently.
The tools you use may be widely available, simple, open source or even free. But how you use, integrate and continually refine and upgrade them to service, support and (hopefully) delight your clients is valuable asset.
For example, I integrate wiki’s, social media tools, tagging and rss feeds as an integral shared learning system between me and my clients. Anyone “could” do it, but I’m the one who does it. Simple does not necessarily mean “easy to copy”.
The solo business model you choose may preclude your building system assets. That may work out great for you as long as you’re aware of, and take the time to evaluate, the pros and cons of the model you choose.
Solo PSF Business Models - Pt 1
April 8, 2009 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
I was recently talking to a friend, a marketing professional, who was leaving her job to go out on her own. When I asked her if she wanted ongoing contract work, specific projects or to design her own program(s), she said it really didn’t matter to her.
That conversation reminded me of a workshop I gave at Babson 4 years ago about Solo Professional Services. I dug up what I considered the key slide, and the one that caused the most confusion. The audience didn’t understand the evaluation criteria: “building assets”.
Going Solo Presentation - Babson:2005 - Mary Wynne-Wynter
The presentation is somewhat outdated, but I think that confusion about building assets still exists. A model based on branded content ownership and control is not the recommended model for everyone. But as de-jobbing accelerates and independent professional service providers fill the gap, its more important than ever to fully evaluate and understand the short and long-term implications of the model you choose to provide your services.
Related Post: Solo PSF Business Models - Pt 2
Don’t Get Derailed, Get Intense
February 12, 2009 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
During times of extreme uncertainty and massive shifts, its human nature to have thoughts of panic and self-doubt. These become self-fulfilling only if you believe in them and identify with them.
Solo professionals are often alone and vulnerable to getting lost in thoughts triggered by events that are exploding in frequency. A deal falls through, there’s not enough money, inquiries slow down to a trickle or less, investors pull back, unexpected family needs show up, losses accumulate. And if that’s not enough, millions of other professionals are telling (and selling) other solo’s what they’re doing wrong and what they should be doing.
When you don’t separate who you are from the onslaught of triggered thoughts, you’re at higher risk of getting derailed. A precursor is a sense of urgency to do or chase something different, and its accompanied by a lot of anxiety, tension and doubt - paradoxically, the exact things you’re trying to get away from.
Its not possible to stop all negative thinking, unless you live perhaps in a monastery. But you can refuse to identify with the thoughts and the debilitating emotions that accompany them. You do that by observing them and feeling them for what are: thoughts, not you. And then you refuse to respond to them by unconsciously going off in an unwanted direction and getting derailed.
Resolve to replace urgency and scrambling with intensity. Urgency scatters energy and attention and inhibits poise and readiness to receive. Intensity is focused on intuitively choosing to do one thing at a time with the highest quality.
Nobody can tell you what that “thing to do” is. It could be, for example, producing a creative work, taking a walk, washing the car, helping a client, eating an apple, working on finances, being with other people, looking for a job, playing with kids, doing errands, taking a nap.
What’s important is that you merge with what you do and not with your thoughts about it which make you doubt your choice. Florence Scovel Shin tells us “Let God juggle your affairs”. You don’t need a religious orientation to accept truth in that statement and to feel a sense of relief.
We’re part of something that needs to happen. Although its huge, and beyond our knowledge, control and understanding, with awareness and intensity, we are the conductor and on the right track.
Photo credit:Pewari Naan Photostream
My 12-Month Social Media for Solo Professional Service Firm Experience
December 13, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Leave a Comment
RedShift:12-Month Social Media Experience
I realized that its been exactly 12 months since I decided to get involved with social media. I’d already been blogging for a number years, but prior social media experiments were disappointing. Its good that I gave it another chance.
There’s so much out there about how to use social media for professional and business benefit. It can be daunting to find the right information that you can relate to if you’re a small business or professional service provider just getting started. That’s why I wanted to present my experience as a story and a picture. I didn’t follow a plan; I just dove in.
The experiential, test and learn approach worked great for me and it was right that I waited until the social networking applications allowed users full control. If I made a mistake, or changed my mind, it was easy to edit or delete. I needed that.
I didn’t have a plan beyond wanting to connect with people and bring my content to a higher level, and I think that was a good thing. I developed my own social media models and tools as I learned and gained experience. The more I learned, on my own and from others that I connected with, the more clear I got about where I was going with social media and how it integrated with my my business. It was an iterative, not linear, progression. That’s typical for me, but that’s me. Success in social medial looks and feels different for everyone and there’s nothing wrong with figuring out what’s most valuable to you as you work with it.
My only strong recommendation is to not get bogged down in a lot of advance research or planning, or wanting to be like others. That’s because of the sheer volume of information out there and the huge numbers of people involved. Just start. You’ll figure it out as you go along.
I think that iterative processes and learning are better expressed in visuals and I’m hoping readers will relate to some of my activities and milestones in the diagram and hopefully can imagine their own. I’ve tried to illustrate how my social media experience for a small professional service firm is an ongoing, fluid work in process.
I’m pleased that I’ve built a good foundation and platform for growth, have new relationships with excellent people, and have expanded my personal and professional influence. The biggest return at this point is the content I’ve developed and integrated through repeatedly expressing my ideas, insights, beliefs and observations for my small, high quality and growing community.
The only cost was my time and its been well spent. In fact, after only 12 months, my social media experiment has morphed into my most important small business system. Its become the cornerstone of my intellectual and social capital development and hopefully, in the near future, a driver of increased awareness of my brand by people who need what I offer.
For small businesses and professional service providers in the connected and conceptual world, social media can definitely add to the Value of You!.
Alignment Pricing Your Professional Services - Its a Conversation, not a Proposal
December 9, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Leave a Comment
I’m playing around with my business right now. Its one of the great things about being an independent and an entrepreneur. You can try things.
This week an impulse to do something innovative with my fees just took hold. Granted, I’m interested in shifts to buyer power and business models like VRM that have sprung forth from that shift. But it just felt really important to take action as long as what I did passed my basic criteria that it be integral, that is:
- good for me and my business
- good for my clients
- good for my community
- some kind of greater good
I just feel so strongly that a lot of people need my help and I want to make it easier for them to get it and for me to give it. Its as simple as that; in fact it always has been but our resistance gets in the way of what’s easy and simple and creative.
Since the dawn of professional services we’ve made setting fees difficult and complex because we’re attached to and identified with a lot of beliefs and assumptions about them and the clients who pay them. I’ve decided to not believe, assume or expect that anymore. As a result of that shift, I’ve published “suggested fees” for my programs and will encourage anyone who has concerns or issues with the fees to converse simply and openly and honestly with me to align our:
- intentions
- readiness
- perceptions of value
- desires
In so many ways, personal, professional and social, we’re starting things over and we’re in it together. That’s why I want aligned partnerships, based on trust and focused on new direction and positive change. So I’ve decided to be that partner and give the fees space. They’ll find their natural level and I’ll have more time to play, dream and innovate.
Differentiate Your Professional Service Practice
December 4, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Leave a Comment
Photo credit: Wessex Archaeology's photostream (coastal and marine set) on Flickr
I get asked over and over by some people about what kind of coaching and consulting I do. They seem to have a preconceived notion, or perception of it and then attempt to reconcile my explanation to somehow fit their worldview. Sometimes I can’t figure out if they’re curious and trying and wanting to understand, or just not listening.
But now I’m realizing that people are pulled out of their comfort level when they’re in the depths, and the depths is my space.
I work with people at the level of often hidden assumptions, expectations and beliefs. In organizations, its collections of those - the culture. I use metaphysical metaphors to support the change facilitation process. I shouldn’t be surprised that people want to stick their toe in the water many times before they risk getting a touch of the bends.
I’m blogging this because I’m getting a sense that there’s a growing desire, or movement, or response to series of crises, to go deeper: in life, business and self-awareness. I think its a great sign that people and businesses are showing willingness and readiness to move beyond the surface of their experience, and with a leap in faith, take the plunge into what’s deep and unknown…that with which we identify but which contradicts what we want and where we want to go.
I don’t believe that “going deep” is only within the realm of professionals who focus on “people” issues. Accountants, consultants, health professionals, lawyers, technology professionals, etc, can practice recognizing opportunities to serve clients at a deeper level. It starts with allowing more space for conversation and sharing, being present without an agenda, and being willing to think differently about everything we and our clients think we know.
Uncertainty is the new reality for our clients. We can help them make it their pivot point of power from which they can create and direct their change and growth, if we dare to be different.
The value of You!
November 24, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Leave a Comment
RedShift: The New ROI-Of You
If everything you read or hear about money and finance contradicts your present experience, what you want and where you’re going, why look or listen? Think about it: do you want the so-called “experts” to determine your worth?
You may protest, saying you have $100 in the bank and owe $20,000, so you know you’re toast. Really? By what criteria? Most of the financial valuation criteria was designed for a world economy that bears little resemblance to the present, and maybe none to the near future.
So perhaps:
You’ve heavily invested in your physical well-being that will likely prolong your life for 20 years. Is that not a high-yield investment?
You’ve created a global micro-branded business that is not generating much revenue. What about the many intangible assets that can be amortized? How much? How long?
You’re beginning your encore career and are concerned with making yourself and the world better. How do you value your present and future impact? On how many lives? For how many generations even after you’re gone?
You’re sticking out, for 8 more years, a job you despise to meet your financial goals. How do you value what you really owe for that 8 years, or beyond?
The probable scenarios are countless. What does yours look like?
Remove your attention from the 100% negative financial reporting and boldly claim and create the value of you. Its not a fantasy. Its creative authority. Perhaps your -$19,900 negative worth is actually +$4 million. Which will you intend?.
Social Media and the Medical Device Industry
November 8, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Leave a Comment
Social Media - Medical Device Industry
I have a former background in machine-tool, as a controller and later, a partner. A key market was medical device which has continued to grow, 6% annually in the U.S., which manufactures a large percentage of global product.
Despite industry consolidation, approximately 80% of the more than 8,000 U.S. medical device firms employ less than 50 people. What they lack in resources, they can make up in agility and responsiveness to highly specific customer needs and requirements which include R&D partnerships and new market applications for existing products and processes.
Success for the small medical device manufacturer requires continual research, a focus on promotion, internal knowledge sharing and collaborative partnerships. For these reasons, as well as their insistence on getting the biggest (measurable) bang for their media investments, medical device companies can greatly benefit from social media.
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