Be Different or be dead

August 7, 2021

Why forecasting is for businesses that really can’t live in the moment

Source: Pexels

Why forecasting is for businesses that really can’t live in the moment.

Forecasting has long been standard practice for businesses across all industries and sectors.
Every business-related publication, including the likes of well-respected blogs like Harvard Business Review, has dedicated thousands of words to explaining exactly why proper forecasting is necessary—and indeed crucial—to the financial and operational success of your company.

Traditional business strategies claim to provide us with the ideal tools and methodologies to build the perfect, airtight plan. They offer us analysis in demand and forecasting models, structured SWOT analysis, decision-making frameworks, and a host of other seemingly essential approaches.

I agree that these are mature and logical strategies that can assist businesses to chart their future paths. But unfortunately, that’s as far as my support for forecasting reaches.
Even Harvard Business Review has admitted in one of its effective forecasting guides that prediction is only possible in a world in which actions have been preordained.

This world-leading business publication states outright that no amount of present action can influence future outcomes, as the future unfolds in significant and usually quite unexpected ways. The occurrence of the Covid-19 pandemic is a perfect example.

Considering this, I believe that while forecasting can be a mildly helpful tool in charting future courses for growing businesses, it’s definitely not a useful approach for predicting or adapting to the future.

In short, forecasting is for businesses that can’t live in the moment, and instead spend their team fruitlessly attempting to predict the future. All while forsaking current opportunities and advantages in their paths.

Here’s why.

Reaction to the unexpected is an ideal business plan

According to Roy Osing, the traditional approach to forecasting doesn’t touch on the principle of responding to the unexpected —and that doesn’t work to your advantage.
Successful companies are those who can adapt rapidly to surprise events they weren’t anticipating at all. Companies that die are the ones that fail to adapt, regardless of how proficient they were at drafting forecasts.
Chances are you’ve never seen a plan unfold in exactly the way you expected it to. This simply isn’t possible, nor is it realistic. Instead of forecasting, try Osing’s planning on the run model — Plan, Execute, Learn, Respond, Execute — with the present instead of banking on an uncertain future.

Quick reactions trump planned reactions

The world of business is fluid, imperfect, and ever-changing. It can’t be predicted or even explained by trend analyzes, which is why even your best-made plans will hardly ever work.

Businesses that are always trying to live in the future instead of in the moment will simply never be able to keep up.

The ability to react quickly and proactively to change will fare better for your business than trying to make the ‘perfect’ moves based on shaky forecasts. As long as you’re making many imperfect moves at a rapid pace, you’re setting yourself up for growth. Or at least progress in a positive direction.

Failure is a valuable teacher — and forecasting can’t prevent it anyway

Let’s face it. Businesses research the future and constantly create forecasts in a desperate bid to evade the risk of failure. It’s completely understandable that every entrepreneur wants to achieve success. But at the same time, success only encourages you to stay within your current boundaries and parameters.

If you’re achieving success in the present, you may feel the temptation to rest on your laurels. You may assume that you can achieve the same level of success in the future by doing exactly the same thing.

In most cases, nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that no amount of forecasting can prevent failure, so it seems fruitless to avoid it.

Forecasting is prone to all sorts of corrupting influences anyway, including bad data, excessive optimism, and a general lack of transparency.
Failure forces you out of your comfort zone and prompts you to devise innovative and often unexpected solutions to challenges and crises.

I’m sure you can imagine which scenario promotes faster, more sustainable growth in the long run. Live in the moment, try your best to adapt to current challenges, and remain willing to learn from your failures at all times.

Accept uncertainty and live in the present

So, what’s a business to do in the face of uncertainty if they have no control over predicting the future?

According to Forbes the only way forward is to be better prepared for disasters and unexpected developments. Statistical modeling can give you a general idea of what to expect in the coming weeks and months. But don’t get carried away. It really is just a general idea and nothing more.

Businesses are better off accepting that the world is uncertain, learning how to use data to assess the current levels of uncertainty they face, and augmenting this uncertainty range. This can be done using innovative and time-appropriate solutions.

The rest, as they say, is up to fate.

— Addisson Shaw is a passionate writer with a background in data science. Her writing focuses on the wonders of technology in marketing and business management. During her free time, Addisson loves exploring the outdoors and enjoys going on hikes with her friends.

• Posted 8.7.21 at 06:51 am by Roy Osing
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March 20, 2021

Why female entrepreneurs are rising to be the best in class

Why female entrepreneurs are rising to be the best in class.

Whatever you give to a woman, she will improve.

The same goes for business. Even though the world is yet to become a level playing field for both genders, women can bring about the necessary change in entrepreneurship.

With the right platform, they can dare to be different. Where men focus on money and power, women focus on empathy. While men are strict on results, women build strong relationships.

According to the female entrepreneurship statistics, the number of women-owned businesses has increased by 3,000% from 1972 to 2018. Today, there are more than 9.4 million people employed in female-owned businesses in various industries.

Women aren’t afraid of making a change in any sector. Healthcare, technology, hospitality, and many more industries are welcoming female entrepreneurs. Business women aren’t afraid of being different.
For example, Maiko Sakai, Simmone Taitt, Trisha Okubo, Priya Virmani used their backgrounds to find inspiration and turn their ideas into reality.

The success of female entrepreneurs will grow over time, and the uniqueness of women’s leadership has the power to change the world. Women can be great at what they love doing and have what it takes to thrive in today’s economy.

The statistics in the infographic below about female entrepreneurs will tell you more about how women lead their businesses.

— Jenifer Kuadli is a Content Coordinator at WhyDoesEverythingSuck.net. Delivering top-notch content is her main focus, and she never stops until she turns it into a masterpiece. Outside of work, you can find her playing the guitar and re-watching ‘Friends’.

• Posted 3.20.21 at 05:33 am by Roy Osing
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December 26, 2020

How to manage social media without it taking up all your time

Social media has marked a new dawn in customer relations. With this ‘fourth wall’ breaking to enable two-way conversations, instantaneous feedback and round-the-clock access, we’ve seen a complete revolution around how businesses and organizations can build relationships with their customers.

Whether they’re established stakeholders or new visitors, the 21st century and its swathe of social media platforms have made it more important than ever to really connect with the non-negotiable of delivering true value.
In fact, value in the era of social media is defined with metrics of engagement making it a time where the qualitative is quantitative and every business and organization truly has the opportunity to build relationships that are reinforced with their guiding values.

With half the world using social media, there’s over 3.5 billion chances to tell stories, share good news, connect meaningfully, and meet customers where they are on their preferred platforms.

Despite this, as a time of unparalleled engagement and activity, an effective and authentic strategy doesn’t just happen. Just think of these hallmarks of exceptional social media and the approaches that underpin them:

● Considered content of a calibre that gets the story right needs a holistic approach based on customer and market analysis
● Timely and accurate responses that hit the mark because they’re backed with purpose rather than obligation
● Informative and helpful messages accompanied with rich media developed with higher order thinking

These three prongs of activity combined with monitoring and abstract conceptualisation are only as good as the time that’s devoted to them. Yet, even though it’s the place where most businesses and organizations know their customers are, it can also be the last place where attention is turned or where team resources are allocated.

The reality is that social media requires an investment of time — something many businesses and organizations don’t have a lot of. This spells disaster, so what can be done to overcome this and where to from here?

Well, M2 On Hold produced this infographic ‘How To Manage Social Media Without It Taking Up All Your Time’ as a helpful resource for everyone from professional marketers to start-up businesses.

Read on for the full guide and to renew your strategy for how you manage social media channels, content development, and customer engagement while working smarter not harder.

— Justin Green is the General Manager at M2 On Hold. As part of his role he enjoys creating useful content on social media marketing.

• Posted 12.26.20 at 06:29 am by Roy Osing
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December 23, 2020

How to make virtual events work for your business

Source: Pexels

As humans, we’re wired to spend the first part of our lives trying to fit in, only to figure out that the magic of what we have to offer is in the things that make us stand out.

Sameness is safe. The brain is wired to notice anomalies because they may be dangerous. But they also make life more interesting.

If a continuous tone drones on for a while, you’ll just tune it out. But, change the pitch or volume, and the brain snaps alert. In psychology, that’s called the orienting reflex, and it helps us stay alive.

As in biology, so in life… and business.

This is particularly true of the event-planning business.
In this unprecedented time, we’ve all been violently shaken out of our normal: face-to-face has flipped into screen-to-screen.
The time is ripe to start using virtual events to get your message out.
So, how do you make a virtual event work for you?

Why choose virtual events?

Before we go into how you can leverage them, let’s look at why virtual events present an opportunity for your business.

Virtual events may be the new kids on the block when it comes to marketing, but they have been gaining in popularity since long before the pandemic outbreak. Why?

Virtual events are more budget-friendly and accessible to wider audiences, with no geographical limitations. They are not dependent on the venue, the weather, refreshments, or other factors that require serious consideration in regular event planning.

All this doesn’t mean you should just wing it. You’re responsible for providing your attendees with the most value possible, while reaping the biggest benefits for your business.

Online networking and forming a community

Having a community has never been more important than it is now, and communities that form around virtual events will become a lifeline for many businesses that choose to adapt.
What learns and adapts lives on. What doesn’t, withers and dies.
In your community, you and your partners can find solutions together, bound by a common goal, interest, or need.

The benefit of a community is support. You don’t have to know everything, as long as you have a relationship of mutual respect with someone who has the skills that help you achieve your goals.

Combined effort built civilizations, and it can do the same for business. Use the virtual event as a networking platform and an opportunity to widen your scope, influence, and visibility, and therefore value.

The rule of community is that when one grows, the collective grows as well.

Picking the right virtual event format for your business

In business, it’s important to know your goal, and then find the best way to get there.

Explore your niche and get to know your customers.

Depending on the product or service you offer, some types of virtual events will have a higher chance of success than others.

Do you need an up close and personal webinar for your core audience, or a workshop to disseminate hands-on knowledge to a large user base?
Perhaps a highly structured conference for industry professionals is the way to go?

Maybe a behind-the-scenes tour of the business or an informal fireside chat to touch base with your home-bound, pyjama-clad team? Pick the format that works for you and follow through.

KPI, ROI and intelligent strategies

Once you’re clear on the goal you want to achieve, determine what key performance indicators (KPI) you’re going to use to measure your success.

There’s a variety of indicators for you to focus on, such as new leads, revenue, exposure via social media, or attendance.
Keep in mind that data is invaluable. It is a source of precious insights, and it will help you improve each time and get the kinks out.

Start by making a meta-strategy and plan the execution timeline. Break things down into smaller segments and dive in.
Be ready for surprises and minimize wild cards. There is always more to do than you think, always!

To minimize the chance of being blindsided by an unforeseen circumstance, make sure you have a detailed strategy in place.
This will help you prioritize and make sure all the hard work you and your team have put in pays off.

Delivering the right content to the right audience

There is a tribe of like-minded individuals out there searching for what you have. Find them.
If you go all wide and vague trying to target everyone just to run up the numbers, you’ll waste resources for barely a blip on the radar.

You don’t need everyone. You need to laser in on your ideal customers to make the biggest possible impact with the resources at your disposal.

Cross-reference with your current customer base demographics, look at who your closest competitors are targeting, or imagine your perfect attendee/customer/guest and build from there.

Make sure to keep your target audience in mind through all aspects of planning.
From determining the channels you use to promote and hold the event to the content, its format, and even the accompanying materials such as landing pages or e-booklets, your marketing choices and communication style should align with your target audience.

Knowing your audience will allow you to be less generic, to stand out, and truly deliver at a higher level than the bland beige monotone of ‘trying to speak to everyone’.

Follow up, thank-yous and feedback

Organizing an event means creating a memorable experience. Harness the reverberations of this experience in the days following the event and follow up while the emotions are still fresh.

In marketing, that’s known as the maximum impact zone. Send out thank-yous to make sure the people feel that you appreciate the time, attention, money, and effort they’ve invested in your event.

Thank everyone who contributed and participated, and use the recorded materials and insights to gain more traction, sending out ripples long after the wrap-up.

Wrap up

When you do things your way, they patronizingly label you crazy or strange. After you succeed in doing it, they lovingly call you eccentric.

Don’t be afraid to do things differently and venture into modes of communication you’ve never tried before. Keep what is tried and true, but add your own flavor.
When you plan your virtual event, remember what attracts audiences to you in the first place.

The bottom line is, if you don’t stand out in business, you’re (virtually) dead.

So make sure you stand out.

— Lisa Michaels is a freelance writer, editor and a thriving content marketing consultant from Portland. Being self-employed, she does her best to stay on top of the current trends in business and tech. Feel free to connect with her on Twitter.

• Posted 12.23.20 at 05:09 am by Roy Osing
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