How to create an easy win for your business

by Mark Silver

Sometimes you do need to really go for something big. And sometimes you don’t.

In 2011 we were in the middle of a big ambitious goal: a website redesign, including a major update of our look, and launch by July 1. It took a lot of focus and effort from the team, and from me: rewriting outdated copy, thinking through the vision, etc, etc.

It was a big goal, and an important one, too. We went for it full out, and finished it in six weeks.

We hit our deadline, which I felt great about. And it was NOT an easy win.

The Heart of Money Was an Easy Win

That same year I taught our Heart of Money Transformational Journey course, and everything about it was an easy win. It sold out before the early bird deadline, the participants were sincere and enthusiastic. The questions asked in the assignments were thoughtful and real.

I had taught it many times before (and since). I know the material cold, and so it’s easy to riff and add in other pieces, to bring it alive.

What made The Heart of Money an easy win? And if it was so easy, why wasn’t I more ambitious and go for something bigger?

Why I Chose the Easy Win

The end of 2010 was rough. Two of our team members left. Because our team was smaller, I picked up many of the pieces. And our boys had just turned two in November, and were a double handful.

Coming into spring things felt alive again. More of an ease and flow in my experience of working the business. So when it came time to do the Heart of Money I had a choice: take a known quantity and make it REALLY BIG. Or go for the easy win.

When I sat in my heart, the easy win felt right. I could help people. We could make a good profit, and help fund our website redesign project. And I wouldn’t have to put a huge effort into the Heart of Money promotional campaign.

I chose easy over ambitious, because we already had one ambitious project going, and I needed the rest.

They Didn’t Know It Was Easy Until After It Was Over

One of our clients had an easy win, too. They hit the perfect number of sales, the number their heart showed them, well into gravy and profitability. But they didn’t know it was an easy win until afterwards. They chose ambitious, and felt a lot of stress during the launch. We spent a fair amount of time in Remembrance, coming back into the heart, relaxing into the easiness of what they were doing.

It was a great lesson for them about when to choose easy.

What the Easy Win Doesn’t Do For You

A more mature business has much readier access to the easy win formula, but if you’re willing to get clear, anyone can have an easy win.

Here’s what an easy win won’t bring you:

• The most ambitious amount of money you can think of.
• The high, and related depletion, of living on adrenaline for weeks.

Here’s what an easy win WILL bring you:

• Some money. Often enough, or slightly more than enough.
• The feeling of accomplishment that comes when you hit your goals.
• Many nights of good sleep in a row.
• Often it will set you up to have an easier time with your next ambitious goal.

The Easy Win Recipe

There are three ingredients to the Easy Win Recipe.

1. Create an easy offer on a topic that you know, really know, your audience wants.

I said “wants” not “needs.” Hopefully it’s both. People want ice cream, they don’t as often want brussell sprouts.

However, as a heart-centered person, you can include some brussell sprouts or other leafy greens when you give them ice cream.

A few years ago the local naturopathic college was giving free talks on different health-related topics. Attendance had been meh, kinda so-so. Then they announced a topic, “Women and Hot Flashes- dealing with menopause.”

The room was packed. They hit a topic that was both ice cream and brussell sprouts- badly wanted, and badly needed.

How about for you? What topics does your audience badly need?

2. Choosing an easy price.

In our Right Price exercise, using your heart to identify a price rarely gives you a single number. More often a range of prices, starting at the lowest price that feels acceptable and going up to an ambitious price.

If you choose a price at the lower end, you make it easier for you and for the people buying. An ambitious price can sometimes inspire you, and it can sometimes shut you down.

3. Limiting the quantity.

When you have an open-ended offer there isn’t as much urgency for people who really want a spot to grab it. They think, “ah, I can get it later.” Urgency can be manipulated, but it can also be used with integrity, in a healthy way.

To be healthy, the quantity limit has to mean something, beyond “If I only offer six of these, people will go crazy!” Find a legitimate reason to limit the number. And yes, it counts to say, “I’m a bit tired when I think of dealing with more than that.”

More recently we’ve had as many as 700 people in our Heart of Money course (we changed the pricing, among other things). At that point in time, however, we had never had more than 80 or 100 people. Although our email list was larger, I chose 50 for a number of reasons.

For one, it just felt right in my heart. For two, we didn’t have as large a support team, and I wanted everyone to have a great experience and to be responded to promptly. And three, I didn’t want to have a long-drawn out promotional campaign trying to fill every single spot.

Could we have filled 80 or 100 spots? I think we could have. But 50 was enough. It felt right. It was an easy win.

For our clients, it was 125 people in a course instead of 500. For me, it was 50 instead of 100 or more. For you, maybe it’s only making three client slots available.

What is “easy” depends on your circumstances.

And guess what? The next time you offer it, you get to truthfully say, “Last time it sold out, so don’t wait.” Which is powerful.

If you’re tired of always, always reaching for the stars, maybe you need an easy win. Create an offer people really want, an easy price, and a limited quantity, and you can have that easy win.

And no, as I said above, one easy win won’t make your business. But several easy wins will. And a reputation for sold-out offerings doesn’t hurt. Plus having some rest and ease in your promotional campaigns is something you and your audiences can appreciate.

Sound good? Ask me any questions, or tell me stories about easy wins. I’d love to hear them!

Deciding when to go for an easy win and when to push, and to stay accountable both to your business and your heart… not something to do entirely on your own. Pay from the heart pricing, compassionate accountability and accessible spiritual nourishment— can I encourage you to join our Community? Take a look.

With love and appreciation,

Mark Silver, M.Div.
Heart of Business, Inc.

Every act of business can be an act of love.