There's No Business Like Show Business!

This all sounds off the beaten track but today, I wanted to talk about a news article which was put in front of me by a friend of mine and you can find the original article here: http://www.businesszone.co.uk/topic/finances/susan-boyle-effect-what-entrepreneurs-can-learn-britains-got-talent?ref=ukbf

She came on, if you might have witnessed at the beginning of the auditions for Britain's Got Talent, and the initial reaction was - laughter. Not with her, or for her, but AT her. Why? She wasn't pretty, she didn't have a good figure, she looked, dare I say it, batty and she generally looked as if she couldn't sing for toffee.

This article written at the link, expresses the connections, albeit, darkly, between Susan Boyle and what it is to run a small business. Now, you may initially want to throw your head back and laugh til you are blue in the face, but this article, frighteningly has a valid point.

These videos of the badly dressed Boyle is quite astounding. Not only can she really sing, but she actually managed to prove Cowell wrong - which in itself deserves a medal in my book. She has since become a world wide phenomenon, being now mentioned in The Simpson's (which, as you will know is an accolade in itself) as well as being the doll at every important venue, being played on the radios of all the most important people in the world. No bad eh?

Yet there is a destruction behind this - world domination, of any description does not always lead one to the right conclusions. More often that not, one's actions are seen as merely to be continuously that power til the world stops turning, but unfortunately Ms Susan has simply proved to us how a human being reacts in a situation - you blow, when the world stops promising that domination for you.

So, what can we as SME's learn from this? Not to throw a tantrum in the face of diversity (or not) as the case maybe - there could be a joke there somewhere, but on a serious note, there is a lesson to be learned here. In the article, it asks the question,

"What is your definition of success?"

As a business owner, what do we think as being successful? Stefan Topfer said recently that you defy your own success and that could be at any level, and have any meaning. Do you believe that when you go to bed at night, that you have had a successful day? Or do you wonder if the day should have been filed under F for failure?

In today's society, you don't have to win to be a success - we've seen that we Will Young and the young man who came second, Gareth Gates. Both have been as successful as each other. Last year's runners up in BGT were the pairing of Signature, who are now tipped to be performing for Micheal Jackson. Whats the winner, George Sampson been doing? Don't think I can remember...

It's all about learning from mistakes - okay, so Susan had a swear and threatened a few people but that still doesn't take away the fact that she can sing. There have been many people in the world of showbiz who have done things the wrong way around, but that never takes away what they can do. We don't like Gary Glitter for what he has done lately, but that still does not take away the fact his records thirty years ago were legendary.

We will sometimes get it wrong with customers that will end up with them going next door to find someone who can do a better job - that doesn't make them bad, it just means that they are exercising their right to chose where they want to go and who they want to do business with. As a business owner, you have to try and get them back - you make up for your mistakes, you offer them something, they smile and return knowing you better and respecting you as a human being the same as them - well, sometimes that works...

We can see from Susan though that at first she got it right - it was the song that did it for her - and as businesses we all need to find the right song to sing. Once we have it, the market is putty in our hands. What Susan didn't do is come on and sing "The Ugly Duckling" which would have seen her as the laugh we initially thought she was going to be. The thing should should have stuck with was that song, but when she came on and sung "Memory" at the semi's she was flat. I don't care, she was as flat as a pancake. Wrong song, bad temper equals second place.

People want to see something different and that's we got with Susan. In business we strive to be something different and perhaps even quirky like Susan. We love that as emotional beings and as consumers - we like things to stand out and this is the secret key to business - the very lesson of today.

We are all Susan Boyles in business, looking for a song, a break - there is indeed very little difference between office business and show business. We are all Ethel Merman's trying to throw tonnes of shoulder at the world. Some of us will win, some won't but we learn and we grow.

I hope Susan learns and grows from this madness in her life that has been the last three months. She should write a book and if she does, there will be a whole line of SME's queuing up for book signing.....

onemum 2009