Who are you?
To see and find gaps in your market begins with setting a baseline. To know yourself, ask questions to give yourself an articulate idea of who you are and what you do and being able to do the Before & After. Can you answer this questions and find yourself being different? What do I offer? Who’s the specific group of people I’m trying to serve? What makes me different from the others? What do they buy instead of what I sell? Do they know who I am? Do they know what I do? What drives their…
Where you at?
Knowing your context. Now that you have a base to make comparisons, between you and your customers, it’s time to see the playground —and how you could find the gaps. Start with these questions: What’s already there? What does the playground look like? Is it leveled? Is it inclined towards someone/something? Is there someone too big? Is it atomized? Is it crowded? What’s my access here? What’s my reputation here? Who’s playing in it? Who are my direct competitors? Who are my indirect…
Don’t break what’s working
“See how much you can raise your prices without losing customers.Raise your prices, slowly, safe and sound.See how far up you can go.Don’t break what’s working.” How many times have you heard that? However… If you have shit clients, you’ll keep them. Only now with a few (more) cons. They’ll: Argue the price raise Try to squeeze more scope in Complain more Look at how much time you’re putting in Feel scammed Feel you’re squeezing them dry (because you’re “greedy”). Look at every tiny, stupid…
UP. It takes you down.
UnderPromising. Friend of the list, AI and Data Science expert, Genevieve Hayes replied to yesterday’s email on OD-ing (bold mine). “Reading this email after yesterday’s email made me realise that underpromising/overdelivering and setting your price low to begin with are actually just two variations of the same thing. They are both risk management strategies caused by a lack of self-confidence in your own abilities, but both are bad in that they create a psychological anchor in the minds of…
The problem with winning business
Winning business. Sets the language and actions as a finite game. You win, I lose. In a competition, so to not lose, you need to crush the other players. That’s your only way to get your bite of the cake. A limited cake. → Sets the client as the prize to be won. You need to win the client. They’re the most precious thing (because they have the money). So you set yourself as a vendor amongst many. → Makes you believe that “If you want it hard enough you’ll get it.” And that’s not how life…
OD-ing
Not overdosing. OverDelivering. “Always underpromise and overdeliver” —Crap advisor We’ve been wrongly taught that using this scam (some call it tactic) will delight our customers. In reality, it’s a way to save our asses and don’t lose face when our guesstimates don’t happen accurately… because they’re —guess what— estimates ????♂️. Underpromising and overdelivering is a… Lie to your clientYou’re not 100% honest with the delivery. Lie to yourselfTo avoid that uncomfortable moment of saying…
Scale up
That’s all you hear: “You need to scale up” as the way to grow your business. What do they even mean by that? That you “must grow”. You can scale up and grow and still… Have high revenue and high costs Be near bankruptcy Be unprofitable Get thin, almost inexistent margins Be in the midst of a price war Get commoditized Be ignorable Get (more) shit clients Increase revenue (and hidden, sunk costs right with it) Surpass your capacity Destroy value Keep your clients unsatisfied Growth is not…
The BEST guitar player of all times
Everything is seen as a competition. Winners. Losers. Who’s the best —and everyone else can’t be the best too. There needs to be only one. It’s about winning. In business. Or life. How can you win where there are no fixed rules or equal results? How can you win in a game that will outlive you? Whoever tells you “Here’s how you’ll win [in life or in business]” is bullshitting you. You can get ahead or behind. Winning? Nah. Ask yourself: do you really have competition? The interesting thing…
Secret Hacks to Increase Traction (part 2)
Here are the last 14 of 28 Secret Hacks to Increase Traction (SHIT) to fit right in and get quick market share: [You can read the first 14 here] 15. Build a love mark. Because you need to be loved by everyone. And can manufacture love. 16. Build a personal brand. Because that way you’ll show up authentic. And brands aren’t artificial. 17. Find your brand’s purpose. Because every business needs a purpose. 18. Marketing is storytelling. Because it’s about creating compelling content to earn…
Racers and 4x4s
Ethan Garofolo’s lovely email about “What’s faster: Land Rover or F1 Racer?” set up the stage for a different path. While he talks about how at early stages of business, it feels more like you need a 4×4, and when you advance, you focus on getting an F1 in order to grow; there’s another perspective. It depends. How most people see things is “Ok. This is bumpy and quite an irregular field. Let’s look for a smoother road, so we can build our F1.” They start looking for the perfect road to have…
