Paul Wallbank – Brilliant Communications

Tag: entrepreneurs

  • Blinking

    Blinking

    A while back I wrote about leaving customers behind. As a business grows or evolves some customers are left behind.

    That’s not to say those customers are wrong or bad, just that they are not the right fit for the long term objectives of your business.

    Sometimes those customers are raving fans and passionate patrons are important; if you can meet your clients’ business and emotional needs then you, and your customer, are in a great place.

    But not always, sometimes those fans are a boat anchor to your business.

    In 1998  Steve Jobs announced he was ditching the Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) standard for Mac computers and moving to the USB standard for new computers. Thousands of outraged Mac fans swore they would never buy an Apple computer again.

    Henry Ford is quoted as saying if he’d asked 1890s what they wanted, he’d have built a better horse cart rather than a motor car.

    Sometimes customers don’t know what they want and sometimes those who do know what they want aren’t the customers you want.

    If you have to make that decision, it has to be firm – blinking in the face of opposition doesn’t work. You’ve shown you’ve blinked on one thing and you’ll be blinking on more. You’re now owned by your customers and the most conservative, risk adverse ones at that.

    Once you’ve given ownership of your business to your most conservative customers, you’ll have to fight to regain control.

    It’s much better to make a calculated, informed decision and go for it  – if you’re right, your business is going to be stronger without those risk adverse and often low margin customers.

    A lot of people decided they wouldn’t buy Steve Jobs’ or Henry Ford’s products again. Eventually they did.

    Similar posts:

  • Is your business killing you?

    Is your business killing you?

    It’s hard work running a business and often we hear stories of the tycoon who drops dead from a heart attack or finds themselves divorced, friendless and penniless at the end of many hardworking years in building up their venture.

    Being an entrepreneur means you live in your business as much as work in it, but it if we’re not careful it can kill us.

    Know your finances

    There are some who believe that a business plan and cash flow projection are unnecessary, they are wrong and at best are falling for survivor bias.

    Insufficient capital is the main reason why good businesses fail, it’s also the leading cause for marital breakdowns and the failure of business or personal relationships.

    Not understanding your finances means you have no idea whether your business is really profitable or if those returns are sustainable. If you don’t realise the cash position of your venture than you are at real risk if there’s an unexpected change in the market should an unexpected event like sickness or a tax bill arrive.

    Take a break

    If you don’t take an occasional vacation you are at risk of genuinely going mad. You need some time away from the grind to recharge your batteries.

    Getting away from daily work issues also helps your business as it’s an opportunity to see the wider perspective of the markets and society you operate in.

    Exercise

    Many of us don’t get time to exercise, which starts to slow us down both physically and mentally. Even if our businesses are a success, we may not have the health to enjoy the benefits. Remember the guys who die of a heart attack at 50.

    Eating

    Coupled with not exercising is having a bad diet, because we don’t have time to eat well we often end up eating convenient junk or not have a balanced diet. Take time to grab a healthy breakfast and lunch.

    Poor work practices

    When we stressed, racing to get a job done or under pressure, we often take shortcuts or break regulations. This can be anything from a truck driver not respecting driving time limits, a plumber not lifting heavy goods properly through to a consultant not changing the tyres on their car because they didn’t have time to be off the road.

    Either way, not respecting safe working practices can be catastrophic for the business person and those around them.

    Have an objective

    Your business plan should have objectives for your business on a 12-month, one year and three year horizon along with an exit plan.

    An exit plan could be building great apps, revolutionising your industry, amassing a retirement nest egg, handing the operation to the kids, franchising the business, a stock market float or making a trade sale.

    Whatever your reasons for being in business are, having a clear objective to work towards helps guide you through the morass of daily tasks in running a business.

    Ditch the negative people

    Whingeing, whining negative customers will drag you down, similarly with business partners and employees who will bitch and moan about customers, the government or staff. Successful businesses are run by optimistic people.

    Be objective

    The flip side to negativity is undue optimism and a lack of objectivity. It pays to have a realistic view of where a business is going and often that vacation helps you get the objective view needed.

    When you get a great business idea it can difficult to let go, so that’s why we need the ability to step back and understand who we are, why we are doing this and where we’re going with the project.

    Even if our businesses are successful, we need to be a position to enjoy the hard work and return on our labour.

    Similar posts:

  • What business can learn from Groupon

    What business can learn from Groupon

    Groupon, pioneer of group buying and one the fastest growing companies in history, will have its launch on the stock markets today with an initial public offering (IPO) that’s values the business at thirteen billion dollars, more double the $6bn that Google offered for the three year old company last year.

    A recent Business Insider profile of Groupon had some fascinating insights on this unique company and its growth, there’s a number of lessons that most business owners, entrepreneurs and managers can take from this company’s dramatic growth and market leadership regardless of the sector they operate in.

    Apply tech to your business

    Many people make the mistake that Groupon is tech startup when it’s actually a sales operation.

    Groupon’s business model isn’t really new, what they have done is applied various web technologies to the directory and voucher shopping industries and come up with a 21st Century way of doing things.

    Bringing together different modern tools like social media, cloud computing, local search and the mobile web makes businesses more flexible and quick to develop new market opportunities.

    Prepare for quick changes

    Groupon was born out of another business – The Point. As The Point steadily died, Andrew Mason and his mentor Eric Lefkofsky decided to try something different and Groupon was born.

    This ability to change focus quickly – often called “pivoting” – is essential in changing markets. In volatile times like today where today’s business conditions can’t be taken for granted we have to be prepared for rapid changes.

    Fortunately the cost and time to changes your business focus has dropped dramatically with digital and online tools, which is another reason to embrace tech.

    Get a good business mentor

    Eric Lefkofsky bought maturity and a perspective to Groupon’s young leadership, having a different and more experienced view of the business helped it develop and grab the opportunity.

    An experienced business mentor can be worth their weight in gold.

    Back a good idea

    In Nicholas Carson’s Business Insider profile he describes Andrew Mason role at Eric Lefkofski’s business before The Point as “an intern, ‘kind of squatting in their offices’”. Lefkofski was prepared to back the geeky kid camping on his premises.

    Putting your prejudices and judgements on the shelf to back good ideas, particularly those that don’t cost much to execute, is one way to find where the opportunities lie.

    Tell your business story

    Regardless of what you think of Groupon’s claims, they tell a very good story which has lead to their amazing growth and the development of the group buying industry.

    Being able to tell your story, in your terms, is one of the great advantages the web, local search and social media deliver. There’s no reason why your business shouldn’t be dominating the local market in whatever field you work in.

    Regardless of what your business does, it can benefit from applying the online tools that are available to all of us.

    We may not be the next Groupon but the web gives us the opportunity to build our business to take advantage of the 21st Century. It’s worthwhile understanding the new tools at our fingertips.

    Similar posts:

  • Using free services

    Using free services

    The lure of free is attractive – free web hosting, free software or the free lunch always grabs our attention.

    Deep down though we know there’s really no such thing as a free lunch and the same is true with all the other free deals, there’s always a cost of some sort.

    Often the definition of free can be a problem; there’s the social media model of free that harvests your personal data, the Silicon Valley version that hopes a big company will buy the service, the earnest work of volunteers and the freemium marketing model.

    Most computer users have used the freemium model, this is where the business gives away a basic free version in the hope of encouraging enough customers to the paid premium version that has support and additional features. Common examples are AVG Free Antivirus, Google Apps and Mailchimp’s Forever Free plan.

    All of the freemium services come with a catch, AVG’s free software is only licensed for home use ­– so no using the free version on your office computer – while Google Apps only supports ten unpaid users and if you have more than 2,000 people on your mailing list then Mailchimp is no longer free.

    Developing a free product to raise your profile is a common way for entrepreneurs to enter markets and establish a reputation. This is particularly common in the software and web design industries where coders and designers offer free applications or templates to build their portfolios.

    These products developed by entrepreneurial designers and programmers are often great, but as there is the risk the developer will lose interest as their business evolves. The WordPress Guy, Tony Constantino, warns “when a free theme stops being supported in 6months you will get left behind”

    By far the most lucrative free model to date has been the advertising supported business. This is nothing new as commercial radio and television stations have had this model for nearly a century, but Google have taken this online with their advertising platform that funds their search tools and many other free services.

    A variation on the advertising supported model is the data mining carried out by social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. This isn’t as transparent and may be a problem for business users who don’t want to share their client details with an internet service.

    Increasingly the free services are based around the Silicon Valley model of a deep pocketed venture capital company funding a business with the aim of building the customer base through offering freebies services with the aim of selling to a trade buyer.

    The danger with the Silicon Valley VC model is its instability as most companies shut down without finding a buyer. Even when they do find someone to buy the venture the service often doesn’t last as we saw when the once popular free hosting service Geocities was shut down by Yahoo! in 2009.

    Despite the traps free can be good for your business but you should understand the terms, conditions and hidden costs that come with the products. Often you’ll find paying for a product delivers a much more functional and better service that requires less of your time.

    One service that might help businesses choose the right free or trial online services is Cheapstart, that compares the various services available for entrepreneurs starting out.

    Similar posts:

  • Survivor Bias – the danger of learning the wrong lessons

    Survivor Bias – the danger of learning the wrong lessons

    A recent blog post by Chris Guillebeau on his terrrific Art of Non-Conformity site looked at the value of qualifications.

    Chris’ post is a great read and it’s obviously worked for him, though we always should keep in mind with these stories that we’re reading about someone who has managed to make it work.

    We all have a lot to learn from Chris and other success stories however the winners’ tales are only half the story; that for every success who dropped out, started a business or travelled the world and did well there are many more who – for whatever reason – didn’t.

    That’s part of the equation of risk, that for every success there are failures. For risking failure, the successes are rewarded – despite the best efforts of our political and corporate leaders to engineer away the risks and leave only the rewards for those best connected or placed to take them.

    For every winner, it’s also worthwhile listening to those who didn’t quite succeed. The lessons from “failure” are probably stronger and just as enlightening.

    Taking a jump, quitting your job, starting a business, becoming a freelancer or travelling the world isn’t for everybody. Many of us are happy staying in the cubicle or the workshop or the village and leading a comfortable, secure and safe life.

    Societies need a balance of the risk taking adventurers and the anchors of solid, secure working people. Neither is wrong, neither is bad and a balance of the two is essential for a healthy, prosperous and sustainable society.

    It’s not to say we shouldn’t take risks, just understand the dangers are there and your appetite for living with uncertainty before making a big step into business, travel or whatever it is where you see the opportunity.

    Similar posts: