Have you ever seen those “top books
to read for cs” lists? It’s frustrating to see 50+ books that you have
to finish reading before moving on with your startup. They make you feel
like, if you don’t read them a disaster will happen.
Although that is somewhat true. I
have good news for you. You don’t have to read them all! I’m going to
give you 7 of the most powerful tips needed for a great start. But, am I
giving you everything you have to know? Of course NOT, and that’s where
the bad news comes in…
You will have to read them
eventually, but just to buy you some time I’ve summarized the important
starting points from all the books I’ve read, so you can get a
well-informed head start. I’m doing this so you can start now and stop
with the “I have to learn” excuses. Sound good? Then, get a pen and
paper because you’re going to be starting sooner than you think.
Here are the seven bulletproof business fundamentals needed for success:
1. It’s all a test
You won’t get everything right the
first time. Many entrepreneurs think they’ve failed whenever their
product doesn’t work out. It feels terrible… I know. You work for months
on a product and then no one buys it. In fact, that’s why they tell you
to launch as soon as you can.
You just have to improve one thing at
a time. Oh yeah, one more thing… Don’t just accept feedback. Rather you
should demand it and reward for it!
2. Give them the fish
Customers don’t want to learn how
it’s done. Let me give you an example, imagine you enter a barbershop
and the barber gives you scissors and teaches you how to cut your own
hair. I’m guessing, you wouldn’t be happy at all. All you wanted was to
get a quick haircut and then get out of there. Right? You don’t want to
learn how to cut hair. You want your haircut. That’s why you should
never teach your customers how to fish. Instead, sell the fish to them!
“It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” – Steve Jobs
3. Target, Lock and engage
Be specific. Don’t try to do
everything and don’t try to target everyone. If you think your product
is too general then make it specific. I don’t care if you’re selling
pizza or an online course.
Here’s an example, Would you rather
be a bodybuilder’s pizza restaurant or just the next boring pizza
restaurant? Obviously the first one because it stands out and it’s
specific. Bodybuilders who love pizza will rush right through your doors
because you told them that this place is for them, you focused on them
and you welcomed them. Unlike the general pizza place that makes them
feel like the next customer. When you specifically create something for
someone they will feel special.
That’s not all. Have you ever
considered how much it would cost to promote your products to everyone?
Hint: A LOT! Selling to everyone isn’t logical either. I mean, you
wouldn’t try to sell a car to a 10 year old or candy to a 70 year old,
would you? Ok, you get the point.
4. Playing the monopoly game
If you really want to make it big in
the business, you need to have an advantage. Not just a tiny advantage,
but, a great one. You need to stand out and be different. Remember that
bodybuilder’s pizza place I told you about? That stands out to
bodybuilders like no other pizza place ever will.
Contrary to what you learnt at
school, competition is actually a bad thing and you need to try your
best to avoid it. Exactly like the bodybuilder’s pizza place did. They
differentiated themselves from the competition and began operating in
the bodybuilder’s pizza market. It is a pretty small niche market, but
they now have a monopoly in it.
As long as no one starts competing
with them early on and they scale fast, they’ll still be the dominant
business in the market. So what’s so bad about competition?
The problem with competition is that it wastes people’s efforts and forces them to survive rather than innovate. Innovation is what keeps our economy
moving forward. Look at all the huge companies out there that are
taking lead in all the innovation, they all have some kind of monopoly.
For example, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. Each of those companies have a monopoly:
- According to Smartinsights, Facebook owns 80% of the social network market.
- According to Theeword, Google owns just over 88% of the search engine market.
- According to Time, Microsoft owns just over 90% of the computer operating systems market (not for smartphones).
Although no company owns 100%, they
do own the majority share and that’s what makes them super successful.
However, these companies did not start big. They took over a small
market and then scaled up from there (just like the pizza place).
Facebook became popular in Harvard College then other colleges and then
the whole world. It didn’t take over the whole world over night. The
same with Google and the rest of the world’s largest companies. That’s
exactly what you should do too.
5. How much will you get paid exactly?
Your income is proportional to the value you provide. First, let’s define value.
Value simply put is answering the following question: How can I help
people more? That means the more you help people the more you’ll get
paid in return. It’s as simple as that. Whenever you want to create a
product, always ask yourself, how can I help my target customer even
more? Just make sure it’s something they really need help with.
6. What’s in it for me?
Who cares about features! People want
to know what’s in it for them. What benefit do they get out of it? What
problem does it solve for them? There are two types of benefits,
logical and emotional (also known as the head and the heart benefits).
People simultaneously weigh whether something fits well, is affordable,
addresses a need – head part – and whether it makes them happy, look
good and loved – heart part.
Features fall into the logical part.
As an entrepreneur you should figure out what emotional needs you can
fulfill along with the logical ones. You’ll stand out when you do that
since a lot of entrepreneurs only focus on logical features. Remember,
the power of emotions!
7. Are they talking about you?
You’ve probably heard of “word of
mouth” or referral marketing and it’s greatness. That’s true, every
business needs some sort of “word of mouth” marketing especially in the
start.
Want to know how NOT to get it? Be
boring! People don’t talk about boring. Have you ever talked to someone
about what you had for breakfast last week? No, you wouldn’t even care
to remember it, let alone talk about it. But, you can guess it was
probably the same old boring breakfast.
Want to know how to get people to
talk about you? By surprising customers. That’s because people talk
about surprising out of the ordinary experiences. It usually sounds a
bit like this:
“You can’t believe what happened
yesterday! I ordered a Latte from the XYZ café and oh man, the interior
design is just out of this world, I’ve never seen anything like it. I
even got a free blueberry muffin and it was the best muffin I’ve ever
tasted. You should really go and check it out.”
It doesn’t have to be something too
big and expensive. In fact, it shouldn’t. Something as little as a hand
written thank you card or tiny gift will go a long way. Whatever you do
make sure you’re not boring, otherwise everyone will forget about you.
“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.” – Steve Jobs
So there you have it. The 7 business
fundamentals needed to run a successful business. Nevertheless, knowing
them won’t help. You need to act! You can read all the books you want,
but it won’t mean anything if you’re not taking action.
Write them on a notepad and refer to
them whenever you’re making your business decisions. It’s not what you
know, it’s what you do that counts. If you don’t act now, someone else
reading this post will.
