I am revitalizing my 2020 article into a video.
Below is my article in 2020:
If you belong to Generation X, you may be one who were inspired to start a business because of this movie – Field of Dreams. Sorry Millennial’s you may not be able to relate, but even those who have not seen the movie believes just build your business and customers will line up at your door.
Although the movie was meant by the director to be about family reunions, “If you build it, he will come” and the father-son catch as the finale. The long line of headlights impacted me more, the pun “If you build it, they will come” became a slogan for startups. Unfortunately it is not that easy, business is not simply finding your product and registering your business. Now that I have gained white hair the last scene makes me ask, how did the people learn about the field?
Clients does not just come in droves without doing any marketing activity. It may be through word of mouth but the impact will not be that big in a short period of time. You need to do mass marketing to gain such a big impact. Unless you have baseball ghosts who can whisper to a lot of people, nobody will know about your product and business if you do not take the effort of telling people about your product.
I always mention in my business planning seminars, “If you want your business to succeed, make sure you and your business partners also sell aside from doing what they are tasked to do.”. You as the owners got to sell, sell, sell! You are also the best salesman for your company because you have the passion for your product. But many times I encounter business owners are afraid to sell. Example are tech-business owners that are developers, they are usually introverts and shy. They want to be the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs by creating the next Windows or Apple. Unknown to them it took a lot of influencing and manipulating not just inspiring people. Even if you have the best product in the world but you cannot convince people that it is the best product in the world, might as well apply for a high paying tech job.
Another way is to look for partners that will help you convince people, the marriage of chaos and order.