Alex Turnbull shares some myths about business that resonated with me.
I’ve learned a lot – we all have – and I look at business and entrepreneurship in a completely different way now than I did five years ago.
There were so many assumptions that I had that have been proven wrong that I’ve lost count, and even completely forgotten about most of them.
But these days, I’m very lucky to get many questions from founders looking for advice. And I’m reminded of just how many myths are floating around about growing a business. Myths that I believed, and that many (if not most) first-time founders still believe.
Some of the myths were also things I’ve seen in our industry a good bit, including:
- The founder should do every job: Alex recommends focusing where you’re good and outsourcing other things.
- Launching at conferences: he calls the type of customers that come from such a launch as “tire kickers” versus those that really need what you’re selling. (Though, personally I launched at PressNomics with success, however it was my ideal audience at the conference.)
- Everyone shares your problems: this was really interesting to me. He says, “We’re all vulnerable to the false-consensus effect, in which we assume that others share the same beliefs that we do. But just because we have a particular problem or viewpoint, doesn’t mean that our customers do.” I see this often in products in our industry.
- It’s all about the product: Nope. Alex says, and I agree, “if you want to beat the competition, your product isn’t all that matters. You’ll also have to out-market them, out-support them and outperform them in many other ways.”
These are just some of the twenty tips that are well worth checking out.
