You just need

1. a great idea,
2. money,
3. marketing, right?

#1: To get started, you DON’T need a great idea. You just need customers who are happy to pay you to solve their problem.

#2: To get going, you DON’T need money from investors. You need cash generating products to keep you going.

#3: To grow, you DON’T need clever marketing. You need customers who love you, and who happily recommend their friends, who then love you too.

What can you do to un-learn the lessons we’ve been taught to build an industrial age business where the factory is king, and re-learn the new lessons to grow an information age business where the customer is king and queen?

Focusing 100% on the customer also keeps you from getting distracted on the wrong thing.

How to succeed in a start-up:

- Launch fast
- Make your users really love you
- Avoid distractions
- Don't give up
- Don't die

And above all, understand your users!

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

“Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.” – Bruce Lee

There's always a way

Be your own boss

Life’s obstacles are like rocks in a river. You can spend your time trying to move them or remove them. Or you can just flow around them.

Thank the rocks for reminding you to be like water. After all, it’s the rocks that make the music in the river. It’s the rocks that allow us to feel the flow.

———————————–

Acquisition – How do users find you?
Activation – Do they have a great first experience?
Retention – Do they come back?
Referral – Do they tell others?
Revenue – Do they buy from you?

By focusing on these 5 key metrics, you can keep improving your customer experience, increasing your routes to market, your customer engagement, loyalty, spend and actions.

Acquisition – Measure your cost of new lead by dividing your marketing spend by the number of new leads who visit your service or app – keep increasing visits while reducing your cost per lead.

Activation – Measure the number of leads who become subscribers, and measure your cost of new subscribers – keep increasing your activation conversion rate and reducing your cost per subscriber.

Retention – Measure how many of your subscribers check in with you (by visiting your app or opening your messages) at least 2 to 3 times each month – keep increasing your active subscriber base and know who your raving fans are.

Referral – Measure how many of your subscribers are referring and how many of your new subscribers are from referral – by maximising referrals, you maximise your viral growth.

Revenue – Measure your revenue per subscriber – how many of your community (paying with their time) become customers (paying with their money) – and based on their average spend and frequency of spend, what is the lifetime value of each customer?

We treasure what we measure. By simply tracking these five metrics every week, you can zoom in on the best actions each week to improve your business for both you and your customers.

“What gets measured, gets managed” ~ Peter Drucker
“You were born with greatness.
You were born with wings.
You are not meant for crawling, so don’t.
You have wings.
Learn to use them and fly.”

Rules for Startups:

Rule 05: Know your core competencies and focus on being great at them
Rule 12: Make the job fun for employees
Rule 09: Keep the organization flat
Rule 01: Don’t start a company unless it’s an obsession and something you love
Rule 02: If you have an exit strategy, it’s not an obsession

Tips:

1. Lower prices led to more customer visits,
2. More customers increased volume of sales,
3. Volume of sales attracted more 3rd party sellers,
4. More 3rd party sellers led to better economies of scale
5. Better economies of scale led to lower prices…

• TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR, FIRST WORK FOR YOUR HEROES
• DOING GOOD IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN LOOKING GOOD
• CUT OUT THE MIDDLE MAN

What’s the big small thing you can do? Create it, connect it, change the world – and make your own million dollar

'When all else is lost, the future still remains'