Nearly 15 years ago, O.A.R. (greatest band ever) recorded their first album in a basement, paying something like $500 for two hours of recording. To this day, a song from that album called That Was a Crazy Game of Poker remains their most popular. In it, there’s a part where singer Marc Roberge says the words: “I don’t know what to say anymore.”
The story is the band had a limited amount of songs written, and decided to play all available material to fill the two hours. Some songs, like Poker, weren’t completely finished. The first half of it was rehearsed, but prior to recording, the second half hadn’t even been written. The band improvised the rest of the way, and nearly 15 years later, the song remains their biggest crowd pleaser.
Perfection and procrastination are one in the same
Here’s the thing: Perfection is a synonymous with procrastination. It’s never achieved and is the perfect excuse to keep fidgeting around rather than getting things done. There comes a point when it’s time to deliver the goods, whether you think you’re ready or not.
Roberge’s improvisational line, “I don’t know what to say anymore,” is among the loudest sung lines by the crowd during their live shows. Of course, the band didn’t mean it to be that way, but they trusted their abilities, went to work, and produced. If they had waited around for the perfectly-written song before recording, their most popular song might never have been created.
Learn to trust your abilities and be confident in your work.
“Looks good from my house”
Writers–creative types in general–are particularly prone to self doubt and the pursuit of perfection. Most writers hate their work. He is so much better than me at writing, what’s the point.
My articles contain more spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors than I’d like, and I’m okay with that. I’d rather share my ideas with the world than spend hours revising every word. It’s more important to produce than be perfect.
There’s a saying my boss uses to describe this: “Looks good from my house.”
Most perceived imperfections are so minuscule that they aren’t worth fretting over.
Realize when your work is good enough and learn to be content with that.
It’s better to ship now and improve later than it is to never ship at all.
Somehow, word has spread that entrepreneurship is nothing but glitz, glam, money, and freedom. You can do anything you ever wanted, work seven minutes a week, make tons of cash. I’d like to completely debunk that myth. Many people call themselves entrepreneurs because it’s the “cool” thing to be, kind of like being in a band in high school. It’s rebellious.
What entrepreneurs really want
Being an entrepreneur doesn’t guarantee success, money, or celebrity. In fact, most of us are extremely hard working individuals barely grinding out an income sufficient enough to get by. The thing is, it’s not about making a boatload of money, it’s about freedom. To paraphrase Chris Guillebeau: an entrepreneur is someone willing to work 24 hours for themselves to avoid working one hour for someone else. If there was one sentence I’d use to describe my philosophy on entrepreneurship, it would be that.
We don’t embrace entrepreneurship because we dream of a villa on the beach, rather we embrace it so we can make our own decisions. We want freedom, not money. Running our own businesses gives us the opportunity to work passionately instead of being trapped inside a cubicle working for the man.
What a lot of people don’t understand is that entrepreneurship is extremely hard work
Building a profitable business is very difficult. Customers don’t just stumble upon your products or services, you have to be active in finding–AND retaining–them. Whether you run an online business, retail store, or accounting firm, building a loyal customer base willing to spend money doesn’t just happen overnight.
The custom apparel business I manage is ten years told and has sales of over $1,000,000/year, yet we still slam out 50-60 hour work weeks during our peak seasons. We work late to get projects completed on time; we work Sundays if we have to. Yet it’s enjoyable. We chose this path and we enjoy working together. This is what makes entrepreneurship enjoyable. Not the year long vacations we (never) take, but the grind of getting things done and building something sustainable through hard work and vision.
Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone, but for those who are cut out for it, it’s an amazing journey. It’s about embracing challenges, building legacies, and helping others.
Scarcity sells, less of something must mean it’s high in demand. Simple economics, right? Wrong.
Scarcity
There is no free lunch according to believers scarcity. Lost revenue is all they can think of when they hear “free,” not goodwill and word of mouth advertising. Scarcity works short term but is unsustainable. Customers hate greed.
It displays a lack of confidence in your abilities and the depth of your knowledge.
Abundance
Entrepreneurs who believe in abundance share freely because they understand the long term benefits of doing so. Abundance builds tribes, vibrant communities who vouch for you and keep coming back for more.
Not every product you produce needs to cost something. Why not release an introductory ebook for free (thereby demonstrating your depth of knowledge and understanding) as well as offer a more targeted and focused ebook that sells for $49? Publish helpful and insightful articles freely to your blog and offer a private community (such as Third Tribe Marketing) which charges $47/month for training courses and interaction with mentors.
Giving away free knowledge demonstrates an abundance of said knowledge.
Examples
- Seth Godin publishes at least one amazing idea EVERY day on his blog–without fail–free of charge. He also has a dozen books for sale and is one of the most sought after professional speakers.
- Chris Guillebeau writes amazingly insightful articles twice weekly on his blog and has two manifestos available for free download. Chris makes a living through his Unconventional Guides business which provides extremely in-depth and useful content. Read more about his Unconventional Guides business by clicking here.
- Chris Brogan posts daily on his blog and is one of the most helpful person on the Web. He commands nearly $22,000 from corporate clients for a single day of his time.
Conclusion
Abundance is a win-win game. Seth, Chris, and Chris are three of the most viral writers on the Internet. Their free work is spread by countless retweets, blog posts, Stumbles, Diggs, etc., exposing more and more people to their paid work. Fans of their work become a marketing department within themselves.
Giving things away doesn’t equal lost opportunity costs. ‘Free’ spreads ideas quicker than ‘fee.’ It’s your free services and knowledge that bring attention to your paid products.
Starting a new business is easier and cheaper than ever before. With the advent of the internet, you can now market and sell products to the entire world. Being an entrepreneur has never been more advantageous than now.
With this in mind, having the “entrepreneurial spirit” is essential to capitalizing on these opportunities.
What is the entrepreneurial spirit, you ask?
I was over at my girlfriend’s parents’ house one day. Her sister was making a strawberry dessert and used a cutting board to cut the strawberries. She accidentally left the strawberries sitting on the cutting board, and after cleaning up, realized she stained the cutting board with a pretty little strawberry design. Her father told her she should buy a couple cutting boards, stain them on purpose, and sell them.
What the hell does that have to do with making money?!
Now I’m not saying these would or wouldn’t sell, that’s beside the point. The point is that an entrepreneur is someone who spots opportunities where others don’t, and capitalizes on them. Did my girlfriend’s sister think to turn her mistake into a business? No. But her father did, and he just happens to be a successful entrepreneur himself.
Keep your eyes open for opportunities, they are everywhere, you just need to pay attention.
Are you visible to your target audience? Social proof and visibility equal trust. Trust equals sales. Customers feel more comfortable buying from familiar businesses, which is why companies like Nike and McDonalds spend billions of dollars on advertising every year. Businesses who understand the impact of social proof and visibility are primed for success.
Visibility
Visibility is when your customers get that voice in the back of their heads that says, “I’ve seen that guy around a lot lately. I better see what he’s all about.” It’s name recognition, familiarity. People buy from businesses they are familiar with, it’s human nature.
A few tips for increasing visibility:
- Market your business. This doesn’t mean you need to buy television commercials. You can buy advertising through Google’s AdWords program, or your local newspaper, or start a blog, as long as it’s specific to your niche. The company I work for caters to schools, little leagues, and sports clubs, so we purchase advertisements in school newspapers, sponsor sports teams, buy banners in the outfield of the high school’s baseball field, etc.
- Take advantage of social media and the internet. Start a blog about your small business. Join discussion groups and forums. Build a social media presence via Twitter and Facebook so your customers have another way to interact with you.
- Be active. Attend conferences and work shops. Tell people about your company while you’re there, be prideful. Read and contribute to industry publications. Form mastermind groups.
- Give back. Sponsor events that your target audience participates in. My company sponsors little league baseball teams, which means our company name goes in league programs, on the back of players’ jerseys, etc. Our brand is constantly visible to our audience.
Social proof
Social proof is visibility taken to the next level. It’s when your brand is endorsed by someone other than yourself. The subscription count on Darren Rowse’s photography blog is social proof. Once your see 500,000 other people subscribe to his blog, you instantly know he’s a reliable source. When you see Derek Jeter or LeBron James or David Beckham wearing their sponsors’ clothing, that brand takes on an air of authority. If top athletes like them are wearing it, it must be of great quality.
Having others doing your marketing for you is extremely powerful. Here are two tips to increase your social proof.
- Fire your customers. Working with the right customers is crucial. Weed out whiny, complaining customers by reserving your best prices and superior service for your gracious customers. Sponsor their events, bail them out when they need it, bend over backwards to please them. These are the customers who vouch for you and refer others your way. You can’t please the whiny, angry, annoying customer. He just leaves mad and tells everyone about it, and there’s nothing you can do. Don’t try to fight it, just save your best effort for your best customers; they’ll become your very own marketing team.
- Tout your successes. Don’t be shy. Don’t hesitate to let people know of you’re success. Don’t be obnoxious of course, no one likes a bragger. Do it gently, make sure customers know you don’t live and die by their purchase. Confidence breeds trust. Do it in subtle ways like featuring a prominent customer as ‘Customer of the Week’ on your blog. Customers don’t want to do business with desperate companies, they like supporting reliable, sustainable businesses.
Trust equals sales
Social proof and visibility lend familiarity to your brand. Familiarity breeds trust. Trust equals sales. Get out in front of your customers, make sure they know who you are. Do everything you can to please those who vouch for you. Think of your favorite blog or local business. Chances are you’ve seen them somewhere other than their home base. Chances are someone, whether it was word-of-mouth or a link from another website, told you to check ‘em out. The most successful businesses understand the power of social proof and visibility and use it to their advantage.
My name is Tyler and I'm a 22-year-old entrepreneur from Washington, D.C. You can learn more about me