The Entrepreneurial Author’s Edge

The Entrepreneurial Author’s Edge

Fortunately, as an entrepreneurial author, you’ve got an edge. This edge keeps the fires of your passion burning brightly. It gives you a decided advantage over the authors who preceded you because it helps you avoid their mistakes and built upon their successes. It is, without question, the way of the entrepreneurial author.

You’ve got the entrepreneurial author’s edge in insight. You’ve given thought to your priorities. You aren’t going to be misled by the entrepreneurial myths involving overwork, overgrowth, and overextending your reach. You realize that your journey is your destination and that your plan is your road map. This insight will help you maintain your passion.

You’ve got the entrepreneurial author’s edge in relationships. Every sale you make leads to a lasting relationship. Every reader you get is going to be a customer for life. Your sales and even profits will probably go up and down, but your number of relationships will constantly go up, and your sales and profits will eventually follow.

You’ve got the entrepreneurial author’s edge in service. You see your service from your customer’s point of view, not merely from your own. You realize that your service gives you an enormous competitive advantage over those who may be larger but less devoted to making and keeping customers delighted with your business. You know well the power of word-of-mouth marketing and how it derives from excellent service.

You’ve got the entrepreneurial author’s edge in flexibility. You are not enslaved by policies and by precedent. Instead, you are fast on your feet, sensitive to customer needs, and aware that flexibility is a tool for building relationships, profits, and your overall business. You are guided by the situation at hand and not by the way things were done in the past. Your flexibility adds to the passion that others feel about your company.

You’ve got the entrepreneurial author’s edge in follow-up. You don’t have to be reminded about the number of potential relationships that are destroyed when customers are ignored after they make a purchase. Rather than ignoring them, you pay attention to them, remind them of how glad you are that they’re customers, and pepper them with special offers, inside information, and care. They never feel ignored by you and reciprocate by never ignoring your business when it comes to repeat purchases or referrals.

You have the entrepreneurial author’s edge in cooperation. You see other businesses as potential partners of yours, as firms that can help you as you help them. You don’t keep you eye peeled for competitors to annihilate, but for businesses to team up with to form networks. Your attitude will help you prosper in an era when people are forming small businesses in droves.

You have the entrepreneurial author’s edge in patience. As an entrepreneurial author, you are not in a hurry, never in a rush. You know how important time is, but you also know how too much speed results in diminished quality. Because of your planning, you avoid emergencies and high-pressure situations. Patience is one of your staunchest allies.

You have the entrepreneurial author’s edge in economy. You know how to market without investing a bundle of hard-earned money. You have learned that time and energy are valuable substitutes for large budgets. You realize that in most business activity, you have a choice of any two of these three factors: speed, economy, and quality. You always opt for economy and quality. Your patience helps you economize.

You have the entrepreneurial author’s edge in timeliness. You run a streamlined operation, devoid of fluff or unnecessary work. Your comfort with technology allows you to operate at maximum effectiveness. Your business is a state-of-the-art enterprise because it operates in the environment of today rather than that of ten years ago. Although you focus on your plan, you know the magic of proper timing and can make adjustments so that you are available just when customers need you.

You have the entrepreneurial author’s edge in commitment. This commitment will set you apart from many other authors. It will help you achieve your aims with confidence. It is so powerful that you feel passion toward the commitment, and the commitment to power your passion. Without this inner commitment, even the best plans may go awry. With it, plans turn into a bright reality.

The radiant light of love

The closer you examine it, the more you see that the way of the entrepreneurial author is illuminated by the radiant light of love-love of self, work, family, others, freedom, independence, life. The entrepreneurial author has a lifelong love affair with life. The deeper and more heartfelt her love, the more she is capable of generating the fiery and exquisite passion that fuels her business and ignites her entire life.

The time has never been better

In history of humankind, there has never been a better time to be an entrepreneurial author than right now. All the circumstances are now in your favor-the mindset, the technology, the splintering of many large businesses into even more small businesses.

Throughout the world, others are embarking on the same path that you will thread. Many are authors, but few are entrepreneurial authors. Some will fail because the lure of largeness is too strong. Some will fade because they don’t understand the role of balance in their lives.

But entrepreneurial authors will succeed.

They will not judge the future by the past. They will be able to place work in the proper perspective. They will feel a sense of continual excitement about what they do. And they will be well aware of their edge over others.

Their passion-the fire in their hearts-will serve as the ultimate edge.

This article has been excerpted from The Entrepreneurial Author by Jay Conrad Levinson and David L. Hancock, available from Morgan James.