I met a very bright young guy who started his own business. There is something about a new entrepreneur that you can spot immediately. It's a sort of glow, not quite the glow that an expecting mother has, but a glow nonetheless.
As we talked, I noticed that he was divulging advice that seemed to come from a place of experience. He talked about the hustle and his rigorous schedule during grad school and how he hasn't been in the gym for 4 weeks. When he was younger his goal was to have a 6-pack, but things have pivoted since he started his own business. He talked about setting priorities. "If you want to have a 6-pack, spend four hours a day in the gym. I guarantee you'll see the results, but is that time worth it for you? When I started my business, some of those things that I loved doing became less significant."
So much knowledge was being dropped that I asked him to slow down as I fervently took notes as if I were preparing for an exam. What he said next wasn't the most profound thing in the world, but there are moments where someone says something you've heard a thousand times before that suddenly makes sense the 1,001 time. "You can't grow a business from behind a desk or in an office."
Being a guy that recently made the leap, he has experience with both the corporate world and the entrepreneurs grind. He mentioned that he has never seen an instance where a company leads a growth strategy from behind the desk or strictly over the phone. "In my experience, in sub-Saharan Africa especially, I haven't seen a time where sustainable business has been done without a face-to-face meeting."
Most young entrepreneurs follow the same pattern. You concoct a grand idea to take over the world, you work on building your product or service, you make your creation available, but then wonder where all the customers are.
You have to meet people!
I believe the hardest part of any business is attracting customers. Building the product is the exciting part. You worry about the little things you think customers want. You launch beta with a small group of friends and family members and you go back and put some finishing touches on what you think is a perfect product. On launch day, you get silence.
I've heard seasoned entrepreneurs say, "Get customers before you build the product." I can only imagine how hard this is. It takes a special kind of person to market and attract customers to something that hasn't been fully conceived yet.
My advice is to focus more of your energy on finding customers. Your first iteration isn't going to be perfect...not even close, especially if you build it without customer input. Be creative and find people to test out your product. In doing so, you get real people to give you feedback on creating something even better and you have your first evangelists.
You can't grow a business behind a desk or in an office! Whether you're Microsoft or the tiny startup in a studio apartment, one thing is true across the board: You need to meet people. Who are the influencers in your industry? Find out what they know. You need to be obsessed with getting information and the best way to do that is to meet those that already have that information.
Brian Chesky, founder and CEO of Airbnb, said he wasn't able to read quickly enough so he set up meetings with all the CEO's he knew and asked them what they know. One needs to be humble and seek information and advice even at the risk of looking like a fool.
Stay tuned for a follow up post on what you should be looking for as you network to bring your product to real people.