February 4, 2012

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Focus Is The Key To A Successful Startup

Focus Is The Key To A Successful Startup
by: Wil Schroter

The definition of a startup means you have very few resources to employ and little time to get them to do something valuable. The clock is always ticking, and the money (if you even have any) is running out by the day. With so little to leverage, you need to make sure that the focus of your company’s product offer is as razor sharp as possible.

Don’t be all you can be. Be as little as you can be.

Most startup companies fail because they try to be too many things to too many people right from the onset. They think of every possible option they could load into their product offer. While this may give them the feeling of being one of the “big boys,” the grim reality is they are not. In fact by trying to be too many things from the start, these companies often end up delivering no real value at all.

Instead of trying to be all things to all people, try being one thing to all people. Think of PayPal, the highly successful startup that allowed users to e-mail money over the Internet to each other. PayPal could have chosen a million options for their offer. They could have become an on-line credit card company, an auction site, a loan provider and so on. But what made the company successful was their focus on only one offer – e-mailing money from one person to the other.

PayPal did one simple thing so well that the industry giant eBay purchased them for $1.5 billion in 2002, even after eBay had already built the same service themselves. PayPal is a great example of a company keeping a sharp focus one doing on thing right even when so many great opportunities could have easily distracted them.

Bite off less than you can chew

Delivering your product to market is an amazing feat to begin with. Even still, a common problem among small companies is their inability to predict what it will take to actually support a product once it has gone to market. It’s easy to conceive complex products with lots of features. But actually bringing that product to market and supporting its use with customers is a whole different story.

Instead of trying to roll out everything and the kitchen sink in your approach to market, just roll out the sink. If you find that you can support your product just fine after it’s been successfully selling in the first year, then go ahead and add to it. It’s a lot easier to add features along the way than it is to support features you don’t have the resources for to begin with.

You have ten seconds to get it right

Your customer has a life, even if you do not. They are being constantly bombarded with marketing messages from the latest movies releases to the newest type of shampoo. They don’t have the time or energy to stop their entire day to focus on just your product. So if you are lucky enough to have ten seconds of their attention, you had better make good use of it.

The exercise of developing your value proposition in ten seconds is a great way to distill down your feature set to those items that will get people’s attention right away. If it’s not going to add value to the ten second pitch, it’s not critical to your product’s success. If you can’t get your customer’s attention with the one key benefit to your product, the rest of your features will never see the light of day to begin with.

Stay on target gold leader

Your product launch is just the beginning of keeping your focus. Once you have brought your product to market and enjoyed some early success, it may become even harder to stay focused. Now you have customers calling you and recommending (or demanding!) features to be added and services to be provided. All of these distractions make it even harder to keep you and your team focused on a single goal.

Fortunately the process of keeping your resources focused post-launch is entirely the same. You need to pick your battles and allocate your resources toward the few initiatives that will be best served to do the one thing right that is truly driving your company. Serving the needs and whims of every customer sounds great, but it can also be a terrible detour when trying to keep the forward progress of your company moving.

If at any point during your journey you’re unsure whether or not you’re spending your time and resources effectively, just ask yourself one question, “Is this driving the core benefit of our product?”. If the answer is “yes”, you’re headed in the right direction.

About The Author

Wil Schroter is a serial entrepreneur, author, and public speaker. His latest book “Go Big or Go Home” will be available in 2005. Connect directly with Wil at WSchroter@Yahoo.com.

Filed Under: Startup Tagged With: ,

Are You Taking Care of Business?

Are You Taking Care of Business?
by: Patty Gale

Too often, when we say we are “taking care of business”, we think about the paperwork, the accounting, the inventory, etc… the trivial things that are important to get done in order for our business to run smoothly and efficiently. While necessary, they are not the most important.

We need to change our thinking about what “taking care of business” means. We need to make sales in order to have a profitable business, and we know without our customers or consultants, we don’t have a business. They are our lifeblood, they are what keeps us moving forward, and meeting their needs should be our primary mission.

Without consultants or customers, there are no sales. Without sales, there is no revenue… without revenue, there is no business and we might as well go back and get a j.o.b. It is crucial that we take care of our customers and consultants. CRM (customer-relationship management) is a buzz-word in “big business”. Many large corporations have implemented systems and technology to supposedly create customer care. Some have been successful, many have not.

Most of these systems simply give the illusion of customer care, but have failed miserably in actually providing it.

How many times have you been through the “round robin” of “press 1 for this” and “press 2 for that”, only to spend an hour or more and never actually speak to a live person or get your problem solved? You hang up in the phone in frustration and vow never to spend money with XYZ Company again. This approach to customer care continues to baffle me as to why large companies believe this is effective. How can they possibly think that customer relationships can be created and nurtured by a recording?

Are those who make these decisions that far removed up the “corporate ladder” they can’t see this isn’t customer care at all and having the opposite effect?

Each and every one of our customers and consultants should be made to feel like they are our most important one. If we don’t take care of them, someone or some other company will. Small and home businesses have an incredible opportunity to take back customer care and relationships the way it is supposed to be. We are in an incredible position to “take care of business”.

Technology is wonderful. Without technology, there would be no internet and many of us would not be in business. However, there is no technology on this earth that can replace human connections. Technology will never replace our customers knowing that there is someone who truly cares about their needs.

So, how about you? Are you taking care of business?

About The Author

Patty Gale is a successful entrepreneur who specializes in personalization and customer care for all her clients. She exchanged her suits, hose and heels for working at home in her “jammies” and is on a mission to empower other women to do the same.

She can be reached at: www.CommuteInYourJammies.com or www.PattysPrettyPaper.com

Filed Under: Business Management Tagged With: ,

Get Tough

Get Tough

Running a business requires many skills. One major skill is to be tough. Not everyone is your friend and people will try to take advantage of you. Be prepared to be tough. A friend of mine who recently sold his business had a very interesting experience with a business partner and friend. This other guy was horrible to deal with. He squeezed the last penny out of a deal and put pressure on my friend wherever he could. Imagine someone threatening to take his business to the competition in one minute and then turning around and be your best friend while inviting you for lunch and a hockey game.

Here are some ways to show toughness in the business world:

• Don’t talk too much. Keep it short and simple. Don’t open yourself. The less you talk, the less you reveal about your own position. The less you talk, the more you can listen for weaknesses or opportunities and to take advantage of your opponent.
• Be slow and conservative with your concessions. It can really grind your opponents down. If you must give, give just a little, and ask for something back in return immediately – even if it’s their concession to take an issue off the negotian table.

• Be firm. No means no. Don’t have a problem to give your opponent the feeling he just hit a wall. Explain your position – be firm.

• Keep things moving. Don’t let opponents to go back to issues already worked out and settled. Once an issue is settled, it’s settled. Your opponents must feel that your time is precious and that you do not tolerate wasting your time.

• Stay focused. The last person standing at the bargaining table is the one with the greatest power of concentration. Don’t loose sight of what is in there for you.

Filed Under: Business Management Tagged With: , , , ,

Got time?

Got time?

Are you stressed? Not enough minutes in the day to handle all your tasks and still spend quality time with the family?

You’re running your own business and time is money. Still – even with modern technology and automatization time has become a luxury for many of us technology professionals. Time becomes more crucial when you’re being self-employed. You’re not being paid when not working and to maximize your revenue it is important to get most out of the day.

It is never too early to start being more efficient and to work with the time that you have. Maybe there is a way that you do not have to work longer hours, but to squeeze more value out of the available time.

1) Learn to say “No”. Put a value on your time. Sometimes it is just not worth doing certain things when being asked. it may sound rude, but saying “No” to a problem client can save you a lot of time.

2) Delegate. If you have employees you hired them for a reason. Make sure they do the work you imagined them to do. Don’t spend your own time on something you hired somebody for.

3) Set priorities – daily! Every morning set up a list of the 3 most important things that need to be done that day. At the end of the day those 3 things NEED to be done.

4) Don’t travel. If you can use phone, email, IM, or fax to get something done – don’t travel. Do not leave the office for tasks that can be taken care of remotely. Even driving 15 minutes (one-way) to meet a potential web design client can be a waste of time. If you really need to meet with somebody – prepare yourself properly. Your time to travel needs to be as efficient as possible. Ask better questions over the phone before going somewhere.

5) Be prepared. Prepare yourself for situations like talking to your banker or the new client. A meeting can only be really successful if you are fully prepared.

6) Do less things that don’t work. You will have much more time when you eliminate the work and tasks and do not deal with people that take up your time, but do not generate return of investment.

7) Do more things that work. Identify the activities, projects, people that generate the highest return on your time.

8) Do less meetings. Meetings can be productive. But often meetings are an excuse not to do real hands-on work. Fewer meetings can increase productivity.

Filed Under: Business Management Tagged With: , , ,

Customer Loyalty

Customer Loyalty

Loyal customers are the foundation of almost every business. Going the extra mile to provide outstanding customer service is the first step to customer loyalty. But there is more. Of course – your products and services in general need to be good. If you offer lousy uptime there is not really a reason to be loyal when being a customer. You just don’t deliver, period.

Here are a few more suggestions to gain customer loyalty.

1) Be smart. Be smarter than your customers are. Make sure you and your staff always (no exceptions) have more answers than your customers have questions. Most people are very loyal to expertise and proven skills.

2) Pay Attention. Pay attention to what your customers really want from you and what they really are hoping to find. If you see a pattern – follow it and adjust accordingly.

3) Attitude and outfit. Show positive attitude. Always be on time; never ever run late when a customer is involved. Be professional, act professional. If you meet with a customer – don’t look like coming from a .COM company (even if you are) where shorts and T-Shirts are business attire. Don’t over-dress either.

4) Dump any strict policies. Don’t make customers think, that doing business with you is a risk. Be generous and flexible. Every situation is unique – so can be your decisions. If a customer is not satisfied, give him the money back and try spinning this into an even bigger sale.

5) Don’t hire unlikable people. Nobody likes to give money to someone they don’t like. Even if your staff might never really talk to customers and only communicates via email or forums – a personality will always shine through. A customer will feel after a while, who he is dealing with.

6) Don’t be pushy. Don’t try to push a customer to something they don’t want, they don’t need or they are not sure about. Show options, be patient. Customers like that more than a stupid sales pitch.

7) Offer superior products. Add a little more to each product or service than necessary.

None of these things alone with get you loyal customers, but a combination of things will make it very difficult for a customer to leave. If you get a customer to this point, you are able to ask for a higher price for your products and most of them will be happy to pay a little more so that they can continue to enjoy the service and the products that you provide.

Filed Under: Business Management Tagged With: , , , ,
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