Tis Better to Receive than Give!

Newspapers, Television, Radio, Telephone, Internet, Mobile Phone... Every time a new channel or device enters the market advertisers froth at the mouth imagining how much spam, I mean content, they can throw at the consumer each minute.

Until the internet came to town sending your message and hoping for a response through another medium was the only option. But now with the internet and even more powerful the smartphone a major shift is happening.

The most valuable experiences on the web are the social networks where the user creates the content. So why aren't we thinking the same way about mobile devices? Why aren't we doing more than just pushing social networks onto the mobile device but creating networks where the mobile phone is THE device, the point of interaction and the place where the consumer has their voice?

Now before I continue let me tell you how I define voice. Voice is the expression of an individuals opinion, perception or experience communicated in any manner available including but not limited to text, voice, video and photos.

Back to the post. Foursquare and Twitter have done a half descent job at demonstrating the virality of location-based, real-time, user generated content... the question... is are they missing the mark?

Twitter has become spam. It takes too long to weed through what's important and what's a marketer hashtagging content to get my attention... and Foursquare... Ok... it is cool, but sounds a lot like a way to make Loopt work. I know where you are... I see the value there but they are still missing the real value.

So what's the magic mix? Here are the questions that I am asking when I look at companies. What content can individuals create that businesses won't or can't? What content can individuals create that professional content creators can't afford to collect? What content is interesting enough to post, tag, talk about and search for?

Figure it out... there are many options and the winner is... Well, the winners have yet to be determined but for once I agree with a few of the useless user products out there, "you must have a relentless commitment to the user".

Stop pushing, start listening and see where your users take you.

The Winner Makes Fewer Mistakes

I read this quote the other day from a tennis player talking about the difference between winning and losing. "It isn't who is higher ranked or more experienced, but who plays better that day... the one that makes fewer mistakes.. that's the one that wins."

Mistakes are made when decisions are made based upon emotions like impatience and fear or bad personality traits such as greed, pride or ego.

In all of our lives there has been that moment where we felt as though we made the perfect decision. We took in all of the information, analyzed the different paths and made a decision based upon the data. Note that sometimes a data point is "I get a bad feeling about this"

Early on in every business, product or strategic decision there is that moment where you have decided to succeed or fail. This moment, this decision... it isn't driven by the actual decision that you've made but by how you came to that decision.

The hardest part about this is the struggle I see many young entrepreneurs experience "how do I innovate rapidly and analyze my decisions properly?" It is a process, one that must be unique to each individual.

Here is what I do.

1. I do a quick analysis of success (How do I define it, is is feasible, at what cost)
2. I come up with a high level execution strategy including costs, partners and pitfalls
3. I pass this information on and discuss it with trusted friends, family or colleagues. I make sure I get the opinion of at least one trusted individual who knows me but knows nothing about the industry I am targeting. This ensures I will have someone looking at the concept from a strictly practical perspective.

If the strategy passes these three tests it's time to formalize the execution strategy... detail the costs and action items, rally the troops and execute. Research, analyze, adjust and execute

Get to the Money Conversation

There are thousands of great ideas and concepts that in theory sound groundbreaking. You won't hear anyone tell you "that is a bad idea" or "no one will ever pay for that"

But the question is, will anyone actually pay for it? If so who and how much. Projections are more an exercise of seeing how much you understand your operating expenses and marketplace. The truth of it is that with any new service it is all a guess until you have actual sales and sales processes to build upon.

Too often we build first and sell second. What are we building for if no one is willing to buy? How much would it cost to put together a demo, a biz dev presentation and set a meeting? A couple of weeks maximum. But when you are done you will know what will work, what won't, what is worthy of an actual sale and at what price.

All of the guessing, planning and building is a waste of time if you don't know if anyone will buy. Sure, some people get lucky and get it right.. Most get the market right, the objective right but the product and deliverable wrong the first couple of times.

I remember the first time I heard Josh Kopleman say "run as fast as you can into a wall, then run as fast as you can in another direction until you stop hitting walls" Probably not the exact quote but you get the picture. At first I thought, is that really a good strategy? If you have no focus how can you succeed? The point is that if you spend all of your time building and planning but have no idea what the market is really willing to do you are wasting your time and investors money. Here is what I would do.

1. Test: Do you have a small budget? Build a few landing pages. Create SEM campaigns and drive people to these landing pages and see what they do. What messages resonate and drive visitors to the "sign up".
2. Keep it simple. Once you have an idea of what fills the pain you are trying to solve, solve the pain. Forget features; solve the pain quickly, easily and cost effectively.
3. Sell. Get it in front of people and get to the money conversation.

Remember that in any sales process there are 3 main steps.

1. Why buy
2. Why buy now
3. Why buy from you

Don't build a "platform" until you know you have a product or process that can get through these three steps to a sale.

I used a lot of terms that imply a definitive "never" or "don't ever"... This doesn't work for every business and every product. However, for the most part the core concept of prove that there is a market willing to buy through an actual sale... that is the best way to build a business.