Every now then

Every now and then something really great/buzzy happens out of the blue. I go about doing what I do best, selling guitars, amps etc, exchanging tales, stories and experiences with customers who have become shop friends. Mike Ashby is a great shop friend who has always been supportive of Bungalow Bills, and has written an article in his Coaching Mag (see below). Thanks Mike you made me speechless and anyone who knows me would say "Thats Impossible'!
Bill Bungalow

Dr Mike Ashby
NBCoach
Copyright 2009 Mike Ashby
National Business Coaching
Email: mike@nbcoach.co.nz www.nbcoach.co.nz
Tel: 09 529 2885

Times like these call for new approaches. The good news is that what you do now can lay the foundations for a much better business in future years. In fact, in lots of ways, you'll never have a better opportunity to shape your business the way you want it. But you’ve got to move way out of your comfort zone.

Constructive Dissatisfaction

There is a point at which we get so frustrated with our inability to make progress that we actually do something about it!

The recession is getting many of us to that point of frustration quicker than we might like. We realise that we can’t keep going the way we've been going.

Constructive dissatisfaction is different from just being unhappy with results. First described at UPS, it implies an awareness that the way things are is not the way you want them to be. Many people go through life and business without that awareness, which means they don’t ever feel the need to improve.
The real value of constructive dissatisfaction is that it moves us into action mode. My friend Bill Latimer has owned Bungalow Bill's music shop for an undisclosed number of years. It's a great shop, as full of character as Bill himself. He's got a great brand and a loyal following , and his is unlike any other guitar shop you'll see. He appeals to serious guitarists who are prepared to cut back on non-essentials like food in order to finance a really good guitar.

Over the years Bill has tried a few different things, but he reached the point last year where he decided he needed to make some fundamental changes. He got a new line of guitars as his core product, read a couple of good business books that got him thinking differently, did a bit of email marketing. There were some things he wouldn't do. He wasn't all that comfortable with the marketing side-he's too nice a guy to make a big deal of the heavyweight musicians who make a special pilgrimage to his shop.

So he pushed himself in a different direction and did two things:
· He spent a lot of time getting to grips with new media, and after 12 months has got his website looking very cool. It's generating a lot of leads, and he's getting more people in his shop
· He wrote out some cards and put them next to each guitar, telling a little story, in his own inimitable fashion, about the guitar
Business is up 30% on last year. And it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Let your dissatisfaction push you over the wall of your fears, your procrastination and all your what-iffing. There is no way out but over that wall. You’ll feel better for taking action, and who knows, it might be so crazy it actually works!
Action Exercise:
If you want to get better results with less effort, harness your dissatisfaction. Let it drive you to:
· Look at things you haven't seen
Go places you haven't been
Do things you haven't done
“What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do” John Ruskin