I was thinking about the need for small business owners to create remarkable and identifiable businesses as I was driving to the office the other day.  I have been living in my house for over twenty years and there is only one efficient driving route to town.  Cursed forever with the efficiency gene from both sides of the family, I seldom change course.

After arriving at the office, I attempted to recall a mental picture of every house I passed on the first mile of the trip.  Keep in mind that I have driven this road thousands of times and a portion of the route is undeveloped farmland.  It should have been an easy exercise.

Amazingly, I couldn't do it.  The plain houses, the white three bedroom ranches, the dated cape cods, would not all come to mind in order or disorder. 

Recognizing the exercise first as being a sad report of my observation skills, the better conclusion is that every business that resembles a white three bedroom ranch is doomed to a legacy of seldom being noticed.

How does a business owner create a remarkable business?

Purple marketing expert Seth Godin offers a collection of business ideas from 33 business experts in his latest book project, “The Big Moo”. An advance copy made it into my hands and I have been reading the collection of business strategies included in it.

The themes of each short essay (no author has a byline on his essay) hold true to the book cover tag line that reads, “Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start being Remarkable”

Three of my favorites excerpts:

1. “You may be the master of your domain in your office, but chances are you’re also a victim of your mastery. . . Go out and get some inexperience. Go back to square one. Put yourself in a position to discover something new.”
2. “Keep an “Idea Wallet” so you don’t momentarily lose insights. Real-world anthropologists carry a field notebook and a camera to record their discoveries. Try recording ideas in real time-on your PDA, or even on a folded sheet of paper you keep in your back pocket”
3. “Three Rules of Life (And Everything Else)

• "Your attitude is your life. You can choose your attitude."
• "Maximize your options. . . Before you settle on just the right thing, play out a few more possibilities."
• "Don’t let the seeds stop you from enjoying the watermelon.”

In a Seth Godin moment, everyone knows where the purple house is in their town.  Is your business purple?

Stand out from the crowd and market methodically! Marketing is part of the plan to create the business you have always wanted!! This is just one of the eight strategies I help small business owners with to achieve their goals. Would you like to know more? click here

"It is just the little touches after the average man would quit that make the master's fame." -- Orrison Swett Marden

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it is spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you." -- Carl Sandburg

"I want all my senses engaged. Let me absorb the world's variety and uniqueness." -- Maya Angelou

I’ve started to take notice of my driving route with a little more enthusiasm. By the end of 2005, I should be able to rattle off a description of each house. There is a larger lesson for me in noticing and writing about this subject.

Rather than noticing and remembering the houses on the route, I should be working on noticing what else I’m not noticing

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Life is short, ride hard.

Doug

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