The 6th Small Biz Commandment

Picture of B2B Bandits

B2B Bandits

The 6th Small Biz Commandment

We use these as a compass to make sure we are taking our clients (and our company) in the right direction. Inevitably we slip up and break a commandment and pay the price in sanity, reputation, time and cash.

The 6th Commandment:  GET UNCOMFORTABLE 

photo credit: laubarnes via photopin cc
photo credit: laubarnes via photopin cc

Last month, Seth and I flew down to San Antonio, TX to help BudgetDoc with their booth at the National Diabetes Association Conference. Long story short, we ended up running the booth – that is do-able, since Seth and I had experience working crowds. But the other issue was devastating from a marketing perspective. We had brochures, fliers, a fancy vinyl banner AND NO SWAG.

No cheap pens. No key chains. No stress balls.

Nothing.

My first suggestion was a bag of chocolate bars (like Halloween), but I was gently reminded that it was a *diabetes* conference attended by people that could quite literally die from a large fluctuation of blood sugar. After a slight panic attack, I thought to myself, what would Johnny do?

Well, Johnny B had rescued many of our early projects years ago with a quick visit to the dollar store. He was convinced that most of the world’s problems could be solved with some cheap bric-a-brac and gaffer tape. So I mapped the nearest Dollar Store, grabbed a cart and filled my cart to the brim – for $78. As the frustrated clerk scanned scores of tiny object with even tinier barcodes, I realized something.

I had no plan.

You all know the advice, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.  And as an ex-military man, helping a decorated Army veteran catapult his business via a 10ft x 10ft patch of carpet on a convention floor, our plan-less operation seemed even more ominous than usual.

After arriving with bags of glittery plastic, our clients looked at me with a hopeful gaze. Then I spotted Seth dancing in front of our booth with brochures in hand to draw attention to our vanilla booth. He powered through a ridiculously uncomfortable situation and was getting the job done funneling people away from the much sexier nearby displays.

Encouraged, I dumped out all of the dollar store haul and went MacGyver-style. 10 minutes later, I had created a display of prizes, and taped some hand drawn signs on yellow legal pad paper behind me. One said FREE AWESOMENESS. The other said “Shoot the Target” (a hand-drawn bulls-eye). And the third one said WIN A SUPER DUPER AMAZING PRIZE. Our first guest clamored for the plastic gun with foam arrows, and quickly broke the gun.

Oliver and Seth chilling in the aftermath of our uncomfortably awesome day.
Oliver and Seth chilling in the aftermath of our uncomfortably awesome day.

The gathering crowd (and our clients) looked at me suspiciously as I scrambled to rescue it. Eventually I wrapped some rubber bands (also a find from the dollar store) on the ends of the foam arrows and instructed them to throw them like darts.

Between Seth crooning to the little old ladies, and my creepy carnie style rapport with the crowd, our patch of awesome became one of the highlights of the 100+ booths.

So where is the lesson buried? If we didn’t step – no – if we didn’t LEAP into the choppy waters of discomfort and certain failure, we would have failed in a flagrant public display of mediocrity. I’m not saying that having a plan couldn’t have helped things a bit, however, all you small biz owners out there know that even carving out time to draft a plan is a luxury.

Getting uncomfortable scrapes away our ‘business’ veneer and shows the world that we are just like them.

Flawed, strange, clumsy, nervous, awkward and awesome.

 

I don’t know about you, but I would buy from that guy.

 

– Nate –


See the rest of the commandments here:

10th Commandment – Be Human

9th Commandment –  Leave No Interaction on the Table

8th Commandment –  Remain Relevant

7th Commandment –  Rock Your Niche

6th Commandment –  Get Uncomfortable

5th Commandment –  wouldn’t you like to know 😉 Get notified by signing-up here for our monthly newsletter 

Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.

Robert Greena’s 6th strategy of War state

Digging these strategies?

Get them delivered to your inbox weekly.

READ MORE

Genuinely Curious

by B2B BanditsDecember 29, 2017

"This is just stupid!" I roared from inside my boss' windowless office. Thankfully no windows meant good acoustics for rage-Nate. Debra,...

Story Worthy

by SBTNovember 26, 2017

An ex-friend (we'll call him J) called me out of the blue today. I had a hard time remembering why...

Emotional Injury

by SBTApril 2, 2017

Last month, I clocked just shy of two thousand miles driving zig-zagging all across California. House hunting. School hunting. Business hunting. Sanity hunting....

one problem

by SBTMarch 6, 2017

I've learned a lot from my TV addiction. I was a beta customer of Netflix during the red and white...

Nostalgic Revolution

by B2B BanditsFebruary 1, 2017

I wrote the below ramble a few months after moving to Chico, California. It took me 3-years to do something...

Tangible Reinforcement

by SBTJanuary 19, 2017

Confession time. I'm a resolutions addict. It all started in Murrieta, California. My mom had just achieved three gigantic milestones. After...