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Archive for the ‘Fail Fast’ Category

5 Easy Steps To Make Your Next Painting Project Fail Proof

Friday, May 27th, 2011

Having a home that you love takes time and energy, which are two things most people want more of! That is why it is important to do your homework when you are ready to start on your next painting project. Here are my easy and fail proof steps to take to ensure you select the right paint colors for your home today!

  1. Feel First. Determine how you want to feel in the space prior to looking at paint chips or fan decks. This will help you stay focused on your end result which is your desired feeling.
  2. Be a stranger in your own home. Stand at your front door and close your eyes. Then open your eyes and experience what you see. This exercise will help you select colors that are complementary since you will see several spaces.
  3. Review and determine the undertone color of the existing hard surfaces, elements such as the floor, countertop, and cabinet colors and furnishings, furniture, lighting and accessory colors, when selecting for the walls, ceilings, door and trim paint colors.
  4. Always test your paint color before you purchase. How many of us, yes me included, have more than 1 quart of “oops” paint in your basement, colors you thought would work and didn’t! Most paint companies have inexpensive sample cans that are perfect for testing.
  5. Apply 2 coats of the paint color on both the walls and ceilings in different parts of your space. It is important to see both the wall and ceiling colors next to each other to get a clear visual of how the color will look throughout the entire space. Review the colors over a few days to experience the color shifts from the changes in the natural light.

As a color consultant for over 9 years, I have experienced a lot of frustration and stress from people trying to select paint colors. My advice to you is to take your time, feel first and sample your paint colors. This is the first step in transforming your home and yourself, so enjoy the process!

Kathy Banak is an interior designer, color consultant, and founder of  Authentic Home, interior design.  Over the past 9 years I have owned and operated several paint stores and know first hand the frustration and stress many people experience when selecting paint colors.  And for many it could take months and sometimes years to make the decision. There simply are just too many paint color choices available on the market today that people just get overwhelmed.

Check out my Authentic Home Blog and connect with me on Facebook and Twitter!


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4 Ways To Get the “F” Word Out Of Your Vocab

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

Ladies, enough with the “F” word! The only way that you can fail, is if you give up! The only way that you can fail is if you don’t even try!

Ladies, get that non-progressive, self-defeating “F word” out of your head and out of your vocabulary ASAP.

The right question to be asking your self and acting upon is; how will I set myself up for business success?

My belief is that the “F word” all starts with a mindset. If you choose to focus on failing and why things won’t work – I can promise you that you will have a long road ahead of you to attain business success. The right mindset, a positive mindset is what’s required to get the “F word” out of your vocabulary permanently.

When your mind is consumed with why it won’t work, then you have already taken 5 step backwards before you have taken even one step forward. If you don’t believe in yourself, your product, or your service, neither will your customers.
Here are some tips to get you setting yourself up for business success and deleting the “F word” from your vocab.

Tip #1

Choose to focus on progressive thoughts and how you will make it work and how you will be successful. But don’t be disillusioned, thoughts alone don’t bring about success – positive thought, hard work and progressive action bring about business success.

Tip #2

Choose to not fight change and learn how to embrace it (no matter how difficult it may seem in the moment). Ladies, the reality is this: times change, your clients change, market conditions change – the decision is yours, are you going to submit to the “F word”? Of course not! Make a conscious decision to be willing to embrace change or what will happen is that “change” will manage you – and that is when you lose control. Be intentional about looking for the opportunities in times of change – trust me, they are there.

Tip #3

Nobody likes to make mistakes. However, the simple reality of life is that at some point, all of us are going to be wrong, do something bad, or somehow screw something up. That’s just life.

As a business owner, recognize that you are going to make a lot of mistakes, it’s not the “F word”. Set yourself up to learn from mistakes you make and things that have not gone as planned, use these new “lessons learned” to fuel your success.

Tip #4

At most times we are our biggest fans of our products or services – we know that what we do or sell can help a lot of people. But the real question is – Who else knows? If you truly believe in your product or service, show and tell the world (your target audience). If they don’t know, they can’t benefit from the incredible stuff you have to offer, which equals no sales and no income. Ladies forget about being humble when getting your company name out there – just do it. Put the “F word” to the fire and push full steam ahead.

On a closing note, we should never accept and embrace failing fast as a concept. You can call it failure but I choose to call it – learning “WHAT NOT TO DO”, which is just as important as learning “WHAT TO DO”.

So ladies, let us toast to permanently eliminating the “F word” – Cheers!

Karen Donaldson is a Motivational Speaker, Public Speaking and Presentation skills coach and Founder of Karen Donaldson Inc and Panache Life Inc. She has helped numerous executives, entrepreneurs and sales professionals become panic free presenters, communicate with confidence and clarity, command attention whenever they speak and deliver presentations that close the sale.

Visit Karen at www.karendonaldsoninc.com for free resources, one-on-one coaching programs and upcoming events.

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Lessons from The Dailey Method

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

So, you think you can dance? If you can, I envy you. While some of you may be ready to two-step or salsa with the best of ‘em,  I have  had to find other ways to remain limber.  I now teach what I consider to be the most effective exercise I have ever tried. And I have tried a lot of them. My regimen includes a combination of that constant battle we call core-conditioning, as well as stretching, orthopedic exercises, and ballet barre work. Turns out I have a bit of ballerina in me after all.

My exercise of choice is called The Dailey Method, and I opened up TDM Studio in Scottsdale, Arizona almost two years ago.  It was the first of its kind in Arizona, and a name that very few people in the area knew or recognized. However, with ballet barre studios being the hottest ticket these days in cities like L.A., San Francisco, Chicago and New York, I was excited to introduce Scottsdale to the power of the barre.  Being the first does come hand in hand with risk, and I knew there was a possibility that I could fail.

The Dailey Method, along with other barre workouts,  is especially great for women because it focuses a lot on strengthening the smaller muscles groups in the core and around the spine which can offset, or ward off, Osteoporosis and help improve posture and balance. The method combines elements of Pilates and Yoga with exercises and stretches designed to target each of the major muscle groups of the body, so you first work the muscle then stretch it out, which is why it’s so effective at toning and lengthening the body, and creating flexibility. But again, in Arizona, I heard a lot of, “The Dailey what?”

In business, we hear, “If you make it past the first year, you will probably make it.” I visited other TDM studios, and not one of the other studio owners had gone out of business. There were about 11 Dailey Method studios when I opened, and by the end of this year there will be about 38 nationwide and one in Paris, so the ballet barre method of exercising is growing quickly and showing every sign that we will indeed make it.

Anyone who reads and “likes” this article on Facebook will be offered their first class free at The Dailey Method Exercise Studio in Scottsdale. Visit the TDM Facebook page and ask for your class. You shall receive.

This article was written for CRAVE by Linda Nofer of The Dailey Method.

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Tic Toc What Are You Waiting For?

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

time's a tickin' / fail fast

Fail Fast-

It may sound like strange business advice, but I’ve invested a lot of money and years to learn this valuable lesson – so trust me.

If it seems harsh to propose failing fast, imagine the alternative of failing slowly – with the small heart attacks that never end year after year. Dare to fail fast.

Isn’t it true that everything we learn and know in life come from trial and error? From learning to walk, to starting a business, we fail in order to master. Sure, you should read all the “how to” business books and give thought to the business plan, but it will still be like learning how to swim by reading a book. It’s just not enough.

There’s been really fast (Wow Cookies-weekend) and really slow (Pike Place Market cafe-15 years) business failures in my life. My shelf life for ideas is now six months maximum. Whether I’m starting something new, or a project inside a current business, I get in, prototype, get it out there. Is it going to fly or not? The faster I know, the better.

I have no patience for perfectionists. When people tell me they are working on a business idea but waiting for the perfect time, location, or partner, my experience is that they will never launch. I don’t live in that world. You can have a Facebook page, twitter handle, and business card up today. You can design your book cover and put it out for comment before you even write the book. You can prototype a product/service and pretend you are in business before you actually take the real leaps. You can’t know what will happen (and I hope you succeed), but at the very worst your failure will be fast and you can take that idea back to the drawing board or simply pursue the next.

My two highest profit businesses as of today, were at one time certified failures. They later got reinvented, rethought, even “flipped” in an entirely new direction. They were fast failures of great value.

If you want to read more about the above businesses (and how I eventually made them work), check out my new book CRAVING SUCCESS.

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Test Early, Test Often

Friday, May 6th, 2011

We’ve all heard it: fail early, fail often. Its a mantra in the land of coding and has become perennial advice to entrepreneurs. We’ve all heard the stories: Michael Jordan misses 51% of his shots, Thomas Edison tried and failed over 1000 times trying to invent the light bulb.

So how does all that translate to you and your business? One word: TEST. Test your ideas. Forget about failure. Test early, test often.

Every entrepreneur, especially in creative fields, is terrified they will launch and hear crickets. No one wants to hold a launch party for one. Boost your chances for success by testing your ideas before you launch. Ask your market what they want before you invest time and money into creating a product.

You don’t have to pay for expensive marketing services to do a focus group. Activate your network instead.
Who makes a good test market?

Your mastermind group- It’s what they are there for. At your next meeting ask if they are willing to focus group your ideas. This is the place you can be completely honest and get open feedback. I am part of a group in which we all share parts of our projects before they go live: web copy, products, videos and concepts. Their feedback kept me from making a big mistake with a product last year. Test early!

Your family, friends and neighbors- A colleague wanted to create a product aimed at teens. He used his niece and her friends as a focus group. In his market research he found that teens don’t have a way to make purchases online. He could have wasted months trying to market on the internet. Instead, he saved tons of time by testing early and understanding his market’s distribution needs.

Your inner circle networking group or mail list- I know a coach who does free programs to a select group before she launches a paid course or product. She uses feedback from the freebie to perfect the final product. You can also offer a discount to a small beta group. The beta group’s feedback will help you refine your final offer.

Search online- There are coaches, counselors and service providers who will do free consultations or advice sessions. Sales and marketing professionals in particular often have free offers you can take advantage of. If you approach the session with very specific questions in mind you can make the most of your time.

Test your ideas before you invest time and money in a new project. Get feedback from whatever sources are available to you. Using your network to test your ideas can save you time and money.

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Deanna Lohnes is the owner of Parlance, a copywriting company aimed at small businesses. Connect with Deanna online, Facebook, and Twitter.

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Introducing Our May Theme: Fail Fast!

Monday, May 2nd, 2011

Fail fast? What kind of advice is that?! Think about it. You have this brilliant idea, you’re infatuated with it, and you *know* it will be bigger than Beanie Babies and Harry Potter combined. How terrible are you going to feel if you invest your life savings, hours away from your family, and precious alone time into this venture and it fails? Do your homework. Test the waters. Find out if it will work and get it out of your system if it’s not worth it – as fast as you can. A great way to do this is “prototyping” your business before you actually launch to see if it will be the hit you’re hoping for. CRAVE founder, Melody Biringer, learned this first hand, and this month she’s sharing her lessons about prototyping businesses and failing fast. We also have great blog posts from CRAVE entreprenesses sharing their valuable tips and insights based on their experiences. Stay tuned!

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