I originally wrote this in 2010 but wanted to revisit, fix and re-publish for others to read.
—
If I wasn’t doing my startup in San Francisco, here’s some random thoughts on how I would do it in another city – most likely in my home town of Moncton, NB. (which I ended up doing with Clarity!)
1. Start. Build something. Launch. #JFDI
2. Ping friends on Skype and ask them to full screen share and do ad-hoc user testing.
Read More
I’m often asked how – in a 2 year period – we were able to:
The truth is… very little sleep and hacking away at our approach to getting work done.
I believe most people don’t mean to be lazy. They typically aren’t producing because they haven’t improved the way they work. Everyone is capable of 3-5 times more output by changing few simple things around in HOW they work vs. WHAT they work on.
Read More
Subscribe to my YouTube channel
Today I’m excited to share with you something that’s been frustrating the begeezus out of me, which is that most people would rather be entertained than educated!
It seems like it’s a subtle thing, because you’re like, “Dan, you are entertaining and you are teaching me stuff… what are you talking about? I love this! Why would you stop doing that?”
Truthfully, most people would rather zone out and watch 4 hours of TV, than actually learn something that moves their dreams and ideas forward, or improves their health or their relationships with their family. They would rather sit there and be numbed out by watching the news!
Read More
If you owned a restaurant and I asked you to suggest a restaurant for me to host an event at – wouldn’t you be pissed?
Well, here’s the deal…
If you email me asking for business advice and you haven’t tried Clarity – then I’ll take it as a personal insult.
Here’s why…
A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people.
~ Will Rogers
The other day I was talking with my mom – who owns a delivery service – and she asked, “Dan, you know a bit about business, what can I do to grow?” (You may find this funny, but I’ve never talked business with my mom.)
That’s when I realized I had one chance to share with her something that, if it stuck, could help her improve her situation… so I thought about it for a few minutes, then asked, “How many business books have you read?” to which she replied, “None.”
The #1 thing you can do to grow your business is to invest time taking care of your health.
This may sound counterintuitive, but it’s true.
The more you invest in your health, the more your business will grow.
It’s no different than when you’re on an airplane and they tell you to dawn your own oxygen mask first before assisting a child.
Your physical health needs to be good first, before everything else in your life can thrive.
Read More
The challenge in todays world is that almost anyone can be reached via email. You can either guess their email using a tool like Rapportive, or just find their public Facebook page and message them directly. In some ways, your inbox is filled with everyone else’s to-do lists.
One of the best things about building a technology company is the ability to work from much anywhere. One way to take advantage of this is to go on a “workation“. I took my first workation three years ago when I decided to spend six weeks in Canada over the summer. The plan was to work in the morning, enjoy the boat in the afternoon, and finish up anything at night. To my surprise it actually worked quite well. Since then I’ve done a half dozen and feel blessed to be able to live in a world where this is possible. Here’s some secrets I’ve learned along the way to make them productive.
When is it too early to tell the world about your idea? What if someone steals it? Might someone copy it?
Here’s a great quote that always puts this into perspective for me:
“Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats.”
~ Howard Aiken
I’m of the opinion that it’s never too early to start soliciting feedback from potential customers, advisers, or partners regarding your company/product idea.
Here’s a few best practices I have used to launch companies in the past.
The 10 List
If you have an idea, make a list of 10 people who might buy it. This does not include your friends or family. Seek real potential customers: call them up (a call is better than email), explain what it is, how it works, then ask:
“Is this something you would pay for or find useful?”
That being said, here’s the trick: don’t let them discourage you! Use the feedback to modify your approach or delivery (elevator pitch).
A Web Site
I would suggest spending the 20 bucks to get a web site: buy the domain, set up a splash page, and start collecting emails. You’ll get potential customers, fans, even partners that will want to be notified when you launch.
Here’s the minimum information you should list:
Everything else is optional and not as important as you think (e.g., logo, About Us). Just get the web site up.
Iterating Your Idea
Try and get something put together ASAP; this might include a visual design (screen mockup or wire frame), a working prototype (even if it’s ugly), a PowerPoint or something equivalent—the concept is to get something in front of these people (The 10 List) yesterday.
Prelaunch (Alpha)
If you’ve put your idea out there and engaged people in the iteration of the concept, then you might already have a list of emails from the web site. Invite this group to an early alpha of your product or service. The trick is to make it extremely simple for them to offer feedback. Email works; consider adding something in the user interface (applications) or a comment form (services) in the on-boarding process—that would be ideal.
Launch & Iterate
I’m a big fan of getting something out there ASAP and delivering value in order to iterate on the idea, get feedback and implement changes. Here are some ways you can do this:
The trick is to be honest with your customers. Remember that your goal is use their feedback to help improve the concept, marketing message, even the branding.
If you plan on charging for your product or service, I wouldn’t recommend offering early customers free service/product. Their feedback for a free service or product will be dramatically different than for one they have paid for. You want feedback from customers who have paid—it will be more honest and specific, and it will hold you accountable to deliver more value than the price you are charging. That’s how business works.
“It doesn’t take money to make money, it takes creativity and adding value to make money.”
The Big Take Away
The best ideas come from personal need. The best feedback comes from real customers, not the ones you made up in your head :-). Share your idea with everyone. Get feedback from people who work in the industry your solution benefits.
Do you have any other tips or suggestions for why you should launch early & often? Any tips on how to get your idea out there and iterating on the feedback?
Related Articles:
Do you already work 60, 80, maybe 100 hours per week? If so you’re definitely not lazy, but are you really working on the right—or as they say—the “Main Thing”?
“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing” ~ Stephen R. Covey
Easier said than done. Read More
3 FREE videos reveal how to get more customers, improve your marketing and build your online business.
