I’m a good saleswoman.
I overcame the objections of one tough customer.
True confessions? I almost didn’t go to Concept Camp.
Each session of Concept Camp, a program of business acceleration center VT KnowledgeWorks, facilitated by Director Jim Flowers, begins on Wednesday at 8:00 PM at the Mountain Lake Resort.
Up at 4:30 AM on Wednesday to work, by 4:30 PM on Wednesday, not done--as always--with The Accelerated Entrepreneur’s daily tasks, i.e. work in the business, work on the business, and make money while doing it, I had these thoughts:
- I don’t have time to go to Concept Camp.
- I should stay in town and work, not leave town to talk about working.
- Leave a start-up biz mid-start-up for three days? Was the man crazy?!
- I don’t have time to pack.
- I shouldn’t leave my husband.
- I shouldn’t leave my cat.
How did I overcome my objections?
One way, of course, was easy. I had made an internationally-available-via-blog public commitment to going to Concept Camp. As I debated about whether or not to go to Concept Camp, I thought this blog post was particularly choice: Concept Camp - Come with Me?
Two was harder, but as profound. The acceleration process at VT KnowledgeWorks is just that--a process. I was accepted into the program and, therefore, into the process, I had invested in the process, and, as hard as it was to tear myself away from my idea of the way I thought I should be running my business, I needed to allow the process to work.
I went to Concept Camp.
In retrospect, I think my objections were classic of any entrepreneur, passionate about his or her idea and about bringing it to fruition as a business.
As with Presidents’ Council, another VT KnowledgeWorks program, what happens at Concept Camp is confidential.
I will offer these insights:
- As a start-up company, I'm very glad my saleswomanship includes overcoming objections with appeals to the real and to the ideal. And that they work.
- To my fellow Concept Camp attendees: I think it takes courage to risk distance from an idea in hopes of seeing it in a new way. I honor your visions and thank you deeply for your help with mine.
- I think when I reflect one year from now on what most sharpened and deepened my business focus and acumen, I can easily imagine putting Concept Camp at the top of the list.
- My husband and my cat, shockingly, survived a few days without me.
And, as I have written many times and expect to write many more to Jim Flowers, Director of VT KnowledgeWorks:
Thanks, Jim.
The next session of business acceleration center VT KnowledgeWorks’s Concept Camp is December 17-19, 2008. For more information, please contact Lindsey Eversole at leversole@vtknowledgeworks.com.
Jim Flowers writes So you want to launch a business…, a blog about the principles of successful start-ups. You can read his view of Concept Camp.
Concept Camp is sponsored by Hodges, Jones & Mabry, PC, Certified Public Accountants.
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