Selling Archives - Page 17 of 21

Me vs We

Posted on October 7, 2007 by Steve Sammartino

The greatest , Muhammed Ali was credited as delivering the shortest poem of all time while addressing Harvard University with:

‘Me We’

And it’s not lost on entrepreneurs either. Given the brands, markets and business evolve from conversations we need to pay attention to tiny details in the way we speak. So here’s a start up blog view on some best practice.

Whenever we can, we ought use the word “we” before we use the words “I” or “me”.

Here’s why:

It’s inclusive

It’s generous

It’s team oriented

It’s bigger than ‘me’

It confirms in a subconscious way that any business is about much more than the founder.

Successful start ups and businesses involve we, not just me.

It’s nothing personal…

Posted on October 4, 2007 by Steve Sammartino

…it’s just business.

They made the decision as a vote of confidence against you. But they didn’t want to tell you the truth, so they just invented this cliché instead, so they could deceive you. So it must be personal.

People buy from people,

people sell to people,

people meet with people,

people talk to people,

people decide on people.

Business is people. So business is personal.

Two types of investment

Posted on September 27, 2007 by Steve Sammartino

There are only two types of investment which can be made:

Investments in money

Investments in time

The good news is that if we haven’t any money we can always invest our time. We can read books, read blogs, go meet people, study, get a job doing commission only sales, make business plans, practice public speaking, exercise, walk, play sport, help others, pray… Anything which gives us more knowledge…. anything which gives us more health…. anything which adds value to us as people.

The more ‘time’ we invest, the more we become, the quicker the money will find us.

The symmetry of hindsight

Posted on September 22, 2007 by Steve Sammartino

We’ve all read the stories about how great start ups and emergent brands got their mojo. In hindsight it always seems so strategic, symmetrical and single minded.

This issue is hindsight. It will be something single minded and symmetrical that works. The problem is this: If we’re single minded from the start, and we get it wrong where does that leave us?

An old Chinese fishing proverb applies here: Cast the net wide.

Try everything.

Try everything quickly.

Find something that works.

Then stick to it in a single minded fashion.

Contrary to most modern marketing and entrepreneurial theories, we need to ‘get single minded, not start single minded.’

We never read about the 100 things any hero brand tried and failed with, only the winning strategy. So it all seems so perfect and well thought out. The truth is, most of the strategic wisdom arrives in hindsight. The more things we try, that greater probability we have of stumbling upon the right strategy – the one that works. But we should never fall in love with the plan before we commence.

It will all seem very strategic, symmetrical and single minded in hindsight.

Two important words

Posted on September 18, 2007 by Steve Sammartino

Here’s two important words for start ups:

Follow up.

Feel free to add comments.

Quote

Posted on September 10, 2007 by Steve Sammartino

Collingwood Football Club president Eddie McGuire offers this retrospective on cheque book recruiting:

“I’ve never seen anyone who won the lotto become *Kerry Packer”

*insert revered businessperson’s name here…

Entrepreneur lesson:

Hoping and luck is never the same as learning, creating and building.

Momentum

Posted on September 6, 2007 by Steve Sammartino

Momentum is the key to the success for any start up.

In classical mechanics, momentum is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. P=mV

The start up blog definition is a bit simpler:

Momentum = How big you are X How quick you do things.

Hence, the momentum of anything will increase if either of the above factors increase while the other factor remains constant. That is, you don’t need both factors to gather momentum.

A small thing moving fast can gather momentum. A big thing moving slowly can gather momentum. This is why big companies (although they react slowly) still have momentum, their mass helps them maintain their forward motion and ulitmate power.

The lesson for start ups is simple;

We want to gather momentum

We are small

We must focus on speed