This week we have a guest blog by my friend and colleague Terry Murphy, Business Strategist – Grasshoppers Don’t Walk:

“I’ve just had a great sit-down with a friend and colleague.  Great because it was well overdue and we seem to have similar perspectives on a number of areas of life.

There were other ‘great’ aspects to our meeting as well, but…  There’s always a “but” isn’t there?  (I was once told that was one of my more redeeming features although I think that had two ‘t’s in it.)

The but… our chat brought up a number of challenges for me.  Button pressing wasn’t on the agenda formally, but sometimes it just happens.  So what buttons were pressed today?

Shiny Baubles…the definition

If I had a pound for every business owner who revealed a new shiny bauble, I would be…well richer than I am today.

For those of you not entirely sure what Shiny Baubles are in my language, they are great ideas that are really just distractions.

Imagine, if you will, you are the owner of a small business.  You make and sell widgets through retail outlets.  You could establish a link with an association that has an online presence and a large following of members, all keen on widget based hobbies.  This association’s members could buy hundreds of your widgets.  But they won’t because they are hobbyists and hate spending money.

That idea was a shiny bauble…it seemed like a great idea and could have caused you hours of development, linking with that particular association or club, finding others like it, working on the offer, only to find it was not a real market.

“It seemed like a good idea…” is the key to it being a shiny bauble.

How about teaching people through a course of videos, how to use your widget.  Seems like a good idea…

What about getting a van, fitting it out and driving around villages selling widgets to people who cannot get the shops.

Seems like a good idea…

Just how many other, off-the-wall ideas have you had around your business, that, with just a bit of thought can be discounted as non-viable.  But we like the look of them and spend hours on them.

Sorting Out My Shiny Baubles

In my conversation this morning, I remembered and got quite enthusiastic about a number of business ideas I have had over the years.  I count them all as shiny baubles now, but at the time…well you can guess, I took some of them far too seriously.

Let’s take a closer look at shiny baubles and how to handle them.

We could imagine a Christmas tree that we keep up all year round.  Every good business idea is a bauble we hang on the tree.  Now only some of these are shiny, attractive, distracting ideas.  We can cast off the dull ones quickly.

But amongst the rest, let’s imagine they all have a dollar amount inside them.  We don’t know how big the amount is and for some the amount is too small to take time over.  However, creativity, imagination and risk-taking are all part of any successful entrepreneur. So there are likely to be quite a lot of baubles on the tree by next Christmas.

Reflecting on Shiny Baubles

I’m going to make a leap now to a different concept, but one that can help with the baubles.

I spent some years in the military and remember a famous quote by the US General, George Paton.  “When you are up to your a*** in alligators, it is difficult to remember your mission is to drain the swamp.”

When it comes to your shiny baubles, I recommend you swiftly look to see if you can see your mission reflected in them.  Those were you cannot, tape up so they are not so shiny.  Don’t necessarily take them off the tree as your life mission may change.

But for those in which you can see your mission’s reflection, crack them open, work them hard and pocket the dollars within.

Greatest of luck sorting through them…(you do have a mission, don’t you?)”