Category: entrepreneurship

trust shift

Disruption is crossing out the middlemen. At least, that’s what was generally considered as disruption for the past couple of years. Crossing out the middlemen, however, hasn’t resulted in the disappearance of go-betweens altogether. It has created fewer yet more powerful intermediaries.

Innovation is restoring trust. Disruption is shifting towards that new trust. That’s what Philipp Kristian told me yesterday in a wildly interesting conversation.

Innovative companies that will prevail will be the most trustworthy ones.

automate more

Businesses and their owners often try to increase productivity by means of automation.

The goal of automation isn’t to spend less time. The goal is to spend more time on other meaningful tasks.

full-contact sport

Entrepreneurship is a full-contact sport.

You need a lot of warming up and permanently train for strength and stamina. Unfortunately, not everyone fights fair, so blows below the belt will be dealt.

Get knocked down seven times, crawl back up eight times.

everything inc

Running a business isn’t necessarily exclusive to entrepreneurs. People in a relationship, with (or without) their own family, are also at the head of their enterprise. There are specific rules, expectations, and tasks to complete. Even without receiving a paycheck at the end of the month for successfully running your family incorporated, there is still an incentive to manage it as well as you can.

Entrepreneurs with another business, next to the business mentioned above, have to manage both simultaneously. Potentially extremely difficult.

If both companies go well, super smooth sailing. If one out of two is experiencing distress, the temporarily suffering business might drag the other down. If both are doing bad, brace yourself.

on a platter

Usually, my reasoning behind sharing unique insights is as follows.

Easy to copy business models don’t allow for the business owners to share all their know-how. Reason why? With that know-how, everybody can replicate that business model in a matter of days.

On the other hand, a business model that is hard to copy allows the business owners to share their unique insights. Years of development, an expensive production process, or validation trials could make the business model hard to replicate. From that point of view, owners could share their know-how, even evangelize through thought-leadership.

The caveat is as follows. If the party on the other end of the table has virtually unlimited funds and resources, sharing unique insights is always a risk. Regardless of the complexity of the business model and its ease to copy.

stop convincing

One of the worst things that can happen in a sales conversation is convincing the customer after they’ve indicated they’re ready to buy.

Hot leads might already be convinced before a sales meeting. There is not much left to do but to clarify the details and seal the deal.

Cold leads might need a lot of convincing. If you manage to do so throughout a meeting, the art is knowing when to stop. Overloading the customer with compelling information after the customer signals buying intentions is detrimental.

More (convincing information) isn’t better. It might confuse the customer. Know when to stop.

mess in the middle

In the beginning, there is everything — a lot of potential, ideas, and ambition. Before businesses start, everything is up for grabs. The potential is tantalizing — a clean canvas waiting to be painted.

Later on, when founders start operating the business, it’s a big incomprehensive mess. No clearly defined borders. No idea who should pick up what kind of tasks exactly, and that’s perfectly fine.

At the end, when the business is successful, the canvas looks like a work of art.

Creating something out of nothing is a messy process. Embrace the mess in the middle.

chameleon

Entrepreneurs are versatile. Not necessarily experts in a particular domain, but an extensive interest in a wide array of topics.

When a new challenge comes along, they submerge themselves in a bath of knowledge to quickly get an understanding.

One of the greatest characteristics that go along with the above personality traits is the ability to behave like a chameleon.

Whether it’s in a board meeting, pitching to investors, connecting with the target audience, or interviewing employees, entrepreneurs have to be able to blend into entirely different worlds quickly.

no no no

There is a limited amount to the rejections one person can take. To make sales and perform well, one must create an armor-like shield.

Typically people need some confirmation now and then. A pat on the back or a mini-win that empowers.

Many jobs, outside of what is strictly considered as sales or business development, entail sales-like activities. More specifically, persuading people. When a nurse has to administer medicine to a patient, and the patient refuses, the nurse has to persuade the patient. Even though they might experience resistance, they will succeed eventually. Which feels like a win. People in sales have to be willing and able to go for prolonged periods without wins.

Persuading people to buy a product will inevitably be met with a lot of no’s. Brush that dirt off your shoulder and on to the next.

global value

Even though added value should be tweaked per region, take the different tastes of a can of Coke around the world, for instance. Some values are so universal that they can be applied, unaltered, around the world.

Take scooters, for example. People like to save time and energy. Hence the model of shared mobility through scooters, bicycles, or mopeds has been embraced by many cities worldwide.

However, some cities have failed to do so or even refused to do so. Maybe those cities deem their infrastructure unfit to allow for scooters? If so, that says something about that city and its mobility program in the first place.

For businesses providing universal values, obstacles can still be introduced nevertheless. Perhaps by policy- and lawmakers.

Businesses providing universal value-add should expect friction, sometimes from an unexpected place. Upon being hindered, those businesses can just move on to the next market. Whose loss is it anyway?