Boring Business Advice (that works really well for everybody)
Inspired by the recent podcast Interview with Josh Kaufmann (https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/049-josh-kaufman-of-the-personal-mba) I'd love to collect some "boring advice" - advice that works really well for most people, but that most of us ignore and look for shiny, new advice.
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas A. Edison
Some things that immediately come to mind:
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Don't just have "a great idea" - do research a profitable audience (even easier: that you belong to and that you can find online) - alex hillman and amy hoy call this "Sales Safari"
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collect email addresses right from the beginning (don't let the list get cold - at least ask them to introduce themselves and what they struggle with + offer help)
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build trust through solving their pains for free and drop them in your target audience (alex hillman and amy hoy call this "Ebombs" = educational bombs)
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go to the place that your audience hangs out (be it online or offline) and listen in + ask about their work/life and what problems they have. Aim first to understand why they have that problem and what it costs them (not immediately offer solutions).
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learn and practice copywriting/sales (one of the most useful tricks: check your writing for "me-itis": are you talking from your own perspective ("me" "I" "my") or the perspective of your (potential) customer? ("your" "you") )
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price on value (easy to understand, often due to emotional barriers (= anxiety) hard to implement. What often helps is (just like with copywriting/sales in general) to move the focus from oneself to the customer: What problem do they have? What do they desire? What would this be worth for them financially/emotionally?)
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presell your product/service before offering it (be honest and open about it being a presell. Your customers can be part of the dev process and therefore shape their solution and will get way more hands on help from you than with any more established business.)
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hire people based on work samples (do a small project first!)
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if something is really painfully repetitive: This can be a great opportunity to automate it (using zapier or other tools)
What other (boring) advice have you tried and found to be very useful for starting and growing your business?
Here is the most boring business advice: Value.
This is perhaps the most evergreen advice of business I have to give: You create value and get paid for it. If you do not create value it's very hard to get paid for it.
Succesful businesses create and capture value for their customers. If at the core of your business you do not produce value, any other things (spending on marketing) will be worthless.
Yes! Also it's critical to (if you start an new business or target a new audience) if your target audience also pays (sufficently) for value currently. Otherwise you create a lot of value but are unable to capture much of it.
Business is an exchange of value, no different than buying lemons at the street market. Forget about the word "business" - it's all about creating value then selling it.
Exactly!
This is something that Sam Altman talks about a lot. It sounds so obvious and yet he joked that even most YC companies forget that you HAVE to create value for someone else (aka solve a real problem they have) before you can get paid for it.
bingo
Here's some boring advice for marketing: DON'T LIE.
Seems simple but its great to keep in mind. Laura Rohder of MeetEdgar recently said this in a podcast episode and she explained how it keeps your copywriting simple and straightforward.
There's a tendency in marketing make everything sound ground-breaking and laser-bending. Keep it simple, always tell the straightforward truth. No exaggerations, no features that don't exist yet, no empty promises.
As someone who tried this approach: the problem is that (as doctor House would often say) EVERYBODY LIES. Which means people learn to discount what you say, taking the top 25-40% off your claims. If you just tell the truth, you'll end up 25-40% below your competitors.
Yes, I know this is all hand-wavy math, but it's about marketing, so. This was my experience. I'd find customers very, very surprised later on that we could actually deliver on our claims.
I'm not sure if I agree. With the rise of the internet, review platforms, open communication, and freemium services, people are more skeptical than ever.
Exaggerating features, lying about customer service, or making risky promises are ALWAYS at the expense of the customer. Most churn comes from misunderstood expectations. Manage expectations = manage churn.
There's a big shift in the market right now in the way that customers buy from businesses. No one likes being pitched, no one likes filling out a form, and no one likes a product that isn't what they thought it was.
Companies like Drift are taking a customer-first approach to marketing by focusing on the customer experience. They cut out gated content and focused on giving value first.
There's nothing wrong with making your product sound like it's the best in the market, but exaggerating features and over-promising always comes back to bite you. This is a huge problem with roadmaps. Companies sign with a tech vendor with the promise that in 3 months, they will have x, y, and z features complete and ready for us. 9 months later and it's still "right around the corner" and they're going to leave, as they should.
I agree with everything you wrote. And I tell people the truth. Which is why I regularly lose to others who don't — this was my point.
I'll offer one that I consider "simple but not easy": you need to take care of your personal well-being along the way.
Building a company is a crazy roller coaster. It doesn't matter if you are just starting out or you've been doing it for years. There are intense highs and lows every single day.
You have to learn how to deal with the ups and downs of the roller coaster. That is the price of admission.
Through trial and error, I've found the best way to stay even keeled is by building better habits. I now go to bed and get up at the same time each day, start off the morning with meditation and 5-minute journal, go for an afternoon walk to clear my mind, etc).
Might sound boring. But I've seen dramatic improvements in my personal productivity and psyche.
And the more I research, the more I realize that the best entrepreneurs also have really good habits and routines. In my opinion, this becomes a big part of their secret sauce for productivity / focus.
I've become so fascinated with this that I've made it into my side project.
Check out Tribe of Five (www.tribefive.me) if you want to work together to get ahead of the stress, anxiety, and the roller coaster of emotions that every entrepreneur is guaranteed to face.
Cheers!
Jonathan
Talk to your customers. A lot.
Not sure if this counts, but a piece of advice from a super random book I picked up from a used book store was about reaching your intended target when making sales calls. If you want to get past their secretary, get up early and call before their normal business hours. More often than not, they are in before their secretary and will usually answer the phone.
I was having a problem getting through a secretary for the site manager of a local distribution center for a global company. I followed this advice the very next day. It lead to a deal that lasted 10 years.
Don't let admin stuff pile up. File your invoices, bills and other crap regularly, and use a system that will allow you to find stuff.
Important because keeping the books up to date helps with knowing about the health of your business, and having a good archive will help if anything happens to something you've bought breaks down and you need proof of purchase.
Cannot agree more. The admin stuff has to be taken care of and is usually the least fun, but just as important as working/selling your product/service.
A successful business is a story of many little wins. Little wins happen by showing up. Focusing on little wins prevent big failures. Little wins iterate on little failures.
Failure is a data point—a lesson learned. It's not a state of being. Embrace failure and expect it. Fail forward.
Life will charge taxes on you. A sickness, a flat tire, an economic downturn... It's better to be prepared for them beforehand than be forced to react to them after-the-fact..
Diet, sleep, and exercise are needed in combination. The highest performers across many professions tend to sleep the most. Exercise helps make better use of the foods you are eating and produces the hormones you need to think clearly.
Create a means to reflect. Whether you do a 5-minute journal, transcendental meditation, 'Getting Thing Done', or whatever system is popular today... it's important to find where your next 2% improvement will come from. Life is just a series of these steps that push you forward, 2% at a time.
Oh man, what a great topic. Here are a few for me:
Good post, thank you!
Discipline never goes out of style. Be disciplined in your actions, and you'll conquer all the demons!
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