“Developing deep customer relationships can take longer than the product development cycle. Gotta have balance…do both” – David Thomson

You have to start early with customers.  It’s better to consult with them, even before you start developing the product.  Then let them beta test for you.  Find out the top five things they want the most and target those.

Loyalty takes time and several interactions.  Every web site view, every support call, every coffee chat, every site visit… all these things build relationship.  The researcher does these things when there’s time.  For researchers, there’s never time.

The CEO makes time, takes the call, buys the coffee.

Talk to five customers a week… for a start.

Read “Blueprint To A Billion” by David Thomson

“There’s a difference between failing and being a failure.” – Chris Miller

The man went to the CEO’s office to report that the $100,000 project was not going to work out.  Fearing loss of confidence, demotion and worse, he apologized for failing the important project.  The CEO wisely replied, “It wasn’t a $100,000 failure. If it had worked, we would have made millions but it didn’t.  Turns out I only paid $100,000 to find that out it.  Sounds like a bargain.”

Shots on goal are the only ones that score.

 

“Price is a terrible place to compete. There will always be someone willing to go out of business faster than you.” John Jantsch

Low Cost Provider is a good business model but only if you have a significant competitive advantage in cost.  Mature markets always compete on price until technology changes the game.

Better to compete on value.  Solve a big problem in a big market.  The iPod was not the first MP3 player.  Nor did it enter the market as the cheapest.  It cost $300 and in two years, it captured 92% market share.  It wasn’t perfect.  It didn’t have more features.  It had three things:

  • 1,000 songs in your pocket
  • Easy interface
  • You could buy your favorite songs for a dollar

But it had one big thing… it was cool!

People like cool.  People paid for cool.  A lot of people.

Read “Duct Tape Marketing”  by John Jantsch

“Entrepreneurs are the spark plugs in the engine of the US economy” – Grady Vanderhoofven

Money is of course the fuel but entrepreneurs are the fire.  Communities need to embrace their entrepreneurs.  They are the ones hiring and creating new jobs.  It’s great to have a new manufacturing plant move in but most likely, they left somewhere else and they can leave you when the economics dictate.

But it’s a long term play.  It may be two or three or four years before startups reach 25 employees.  So, have a lot of them.

And failure?  So what?  If a company forms, raises $2 million, hires 25 people, pays them great salaries for 5 years and does’t make it, why is that not a good thing?  They payed taxes, bought cars and refrigerators, office supplies and paid office rent.

Then again, they may grow to be worth $billions.

Home grown companies tend to be sticky.  After all, they chose your community to get started.  They must like it there.  Make sure they don’t leave.

“The death of the entrepreneur is solitude.” – Ernesto Sirolli

No matter how good you are or how much confidence you have, or how good your idea is…

You can’t get there alone.  You’ll need:

  • mentors
  • advisors
  • investors
  • partners
  • staff
  • commuity
  • customers

Surround yourself with good people.  Take them to lunch or buy them a $2.10 cup of coffee.  That’s important!

Join entrepreneurial support groups.  Share your time with others.  Be humble and ask for advise.

Say thank you!

“If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way.” – Mark Twain

Entrepreneurship is risky.  The thing is that entrepreneurs know their risk and develop plans to manage it.  Still, you’re never really sure your idea will work till you get into the market and that may take months and $ millions.

It is said that in Silicon Valley, an entrepreneur is not fundable until he or she has had at least one spectacular failure under the belt.  What that means is that investors want you to learn on somebody else’s nickel.  But learn you must.

They say the average entrepreneur faces failure two to three times before they find a hit. In the world of baseball batting, that’s pretty good odds.

A teacher in an electronics class said, “If your project works the first time when you finish, you haven’t learned anything.” Learning comes from figuring out what went wrong and correcting it.

Just remember, you’re not going to starve.  Give it a shot.

“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.” – Ghandi

Never say you don’t have competition.  Your biggest competitor is your customer’s decision to do nothing.  That means your solution does not ease their pain at a price they are willing to pay.

Regardless, once you start getting traction, others will notice and join you in the market.  Having intellectual property and patents are a good thing but in the end you have to win in the market.  Potential competitors won’t spend any time on you until you show promise.  They may pass along false information as they seek to protect their customers from you.  Some will try to beat you in court.  Not because it’s legit but because they can and because it distracts you and costs you money you may not have.

The only viable strategy is to provide a solution to a big problem at a price people are willing to pay.

Then you win.

“Here’s the sound of me running-“pad pad pad…” Here’s me running in the rain-” squeege squeege squeege” – Shawn Carson

Running in the rain sucks! Running nine miles in the rain sucks for a really long time.  But it’s what you do if you’re training for a marathon.  You could hit the treadmill or you could just skip it for a day.  Or two or three.

Market research sucks!  Talking to 50 customers to understand their pain is not as fun as programming code or completing a prototype.  Finding a cheaper supplier takes time away from R&D.  You could put it off or just skip it.  After all, you know what customers want.  You’re going to tell them.

Runners run for the running.  Sometimes it rains and your feet get wet.  But logging that long run pays dividends in the end.    Entrepreneurs take care of the business.  Customers will tell you what they want if you ask them.  Listening to them will help you deliver the solution they are willing to pay for.