Timothy A. Koonce: The Secret to Getting Exactly What You Want (In Business)

getting exactly what you want

By Brooke B. Sellas, {grow} Contributing Columnist

Getting exactly what you want in life or in business seems next to impossible these days. I’m here to tell you, it’s not.

I’ve noticed something lately as I’ve been trying to get my way. Tenacity pays off and so does data. Patience is also something to note.

In our current society, where we subscribe to the “I wanted it yesterday” mentality, we are basically setting ourselves up for not getting what we want.

Let me explain.

The Secret To Getting Exactly What You Want (At Home)

Recently, my husband and I decorated our front room. It sat empty for two years because it’s a more formal space, and when we combined our furniture from our single days, we just didn’t have enough to work in this fancy type of setting (think: giant 1930s fireplace, chair railing, and old school box windows with even more molding).

Of course, I picked decorating elements straight from magazines like Better Homes and Gardens and Crate and Barrel. And as we marketers know, with the big name, comes the big price.

Here’s where patience, tenacity, and data come in.

I found the perfect rug for our space to the tune of $3,500. My husband would stroke out if I told him that’s what we’re spending on a rug — being a finance man, he gave me a budget and a stern warning that we would stick to that number.

Patience

I knew that I was probably not going to get this rug. So I saved myself the trouble of coming up with some pitch about how this was going to be the best $3,500 rug EVER purchased.

Data

Keeping patience as a mantra, I found several similar rugs that were cheaper but not quite as fitting for the space. I presented all options and explained how I’d keep looking for a rug that looked like the expensive rug but was reasonably priced.

Tenacity

I have a knack for research and my husband has a knack for finding THE BEST deals. Together, we kept searching until we found the same exact rug on a discount site for $1,200.

Needless to say, I got the rug of my dreams, we stuck to the budget, and now we’re both enjoying our new fancy formal room.

Patience (In Business)

Last year my company, B Squared Media, grew by over 230%. As much as I want to celebrate that, I’m busy picking it apart so we can do the same or better this year.

Getting what you want in life or business comes down to the same principles.

Patience

As I reach the five-year mark, I’ve stopped saying I want to “grow.” Last year was an excellent lesson in hyper growth — and truth be told, it was harder than I would have liked.

See, all of these writers are running around telling you how easy it is to grow, to get the money, and scale your business. Either I didn’t have the same magical experience with growth, or they’re selling you one of those “get rich quick” schemes.

It took me four years to have enough business to put a team together (rather than do it all myself). And all that growth revenue we made last year? Most of it went to paying for that team.

My mental mindset in 2017 is to focus on editing and refining the processes and people that got us to grow. This year is about focused growth or scaling.

Data (In Business)

Mark recently asked his Alpha Audience Facebook Group what processes they use to assess their career path.

business-process-2017-mark

I think data is a must — whether you’re advancing your career working for someone else, or own your own business. Focus on what you can control.

We just completed a time/task exercise where we looked at three things:

What is the average time to complete common tasks?
Who is currently assigned to a task (and their hourly rate)?
Who should be assigned to the task (and their rate)?

We found three golden nuggets in the process.

We discovered an average time to complete tasks by pay grade. This allows us to set better pricing with packages that include many different tasks and processes or team members.
In some cases, more experienced team members are doing low-value tasks (so we can save money by adjusting who is assigned to certain tasks).
We also uncovered the next logical area to hire for, allowing us to replicate processes AND people as we scale.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a numbers person. But I am truly in love with using data to uncover ways to grow.

Find a way to love your data, and then put it to work to help you flourish.

Tenacity (In Business)

Approaching my fifth year in business, I’ve seen a lot of other business owners come and go. Some of them found more passionate paths or decided to go back to corporate life.

There is no right or wrong answer, but I often feel that our “I wanted it yesterday” society and way of thinking has people chasing their own tails.

It’s hard (so hard) to keep at something … especially because it’s hard! Growing so much last year was incredibly difficult.

By combining patience and data, I feel that I’m given fuel to continue to be tenacious in achieving what I want.

Of course, I’m never going to get exactly what I want. This isn’t about pushing the easy button and getting exactly what you want.

It’s about learning to use these three themes, or your own processes and workflows to inch your way closer to winning at most things.

What are your secrets for getting exactly what you want? I beg you to share some of those golden with us below!

Brooke B. Sellas is an in-the-trenches digital marketer & owner at B Squared Media, blossoming blogger, and a purveyor of psychographics. Her mantra is “Think Conversation, Not Campaign” so be sure to give her a shout on Twitter.