Loading...
Answers
MenuIn your opinion, what played the biggest role in the success of your business?
Is there a specific event, strategy, advertising method, business partnership, etc (or maybe pure luck and timing) without which your online business would not have reached the success you have today? (in terms of increase in revenue and profit)
Answers
I can give you the standard answer, brand, audience, marketing and half a dozen other things. You can spend thousands on any or all of those three things but if you don't grind, get better all the time and learn. You've wasted your money and time.
1. Grinding.
The reality is just grinding away every day. 14-15 hours a day 6-7 days a week, not for a month, a year, 2 years... whatever it takes. Never say die attitude.
Whilst our competitors are on holidays or just slacking off. We're still working stealing their customers. If you don't keep grinding away you'll never succeed. Of course just grinding away isn't enough.
2. Continuous improvement
Never settling, learning from mistakes, recovering from it and just keep grinding away. Just focus on just getting better all the time.
What has made us successful, (4x) was just getting better. Better at knowing our customers, better at producing the product. Better at communicating with our audience. Better at customer service, better at everything that matters to our industry, our market.
3. Finally, it's self-education. Being open minded to new knowledge. Learning from others, learning from customers, learning from competitors. Learning from successful entrepreneurs in other industries. Constantly learning new skills and learning to be a better entrepreneur.
If you really want to succeed. Grind, work on getting better and keep learning. Everything else may be helpful but if you don't do these three things you are relying on luck.
Very very simple answer for me, brand quality, diligent effort and word of mouth through the community i serviced. summed up in what I call the wow factor. If you want to discuss more feel free to give me a call.
I had to define my perfect client and focus on that niche'. It is about having the idea and following through with it. I had to become known for helping a certain type of person and getting them the results they wanted and over delivering. You need the wow factor and keep on learning about yourself and your business.
In every business I've ever been apart of, it has to be customer service. From the very earliest times, treating every interaction with customers and potential customers proved invaluable. Paying extra careful attention to their needs and problems allowed us to turn them into our biggest advocates, which in turn result in free marketing (the best kind). Repeating that only cost us time, but yielded more than if we would've invested in more traditional marketing mediums (like SEM).
Perseverance, hang in there. Even when everybody says you should just quit. Eventually thing will get better, no matter what.
Success is not a destination, it's a journey. Know that you won't know everything; be humble and be willing to put in a lot of hard work. If you're a founder of your business, your business is going to be an extension of you in a lot of cases. For us, it's really trying to measure value creation outside of your usual metrics (number of sign-ups; conversion rate; leads generated; etc.). Finally, treat every customer as if they own you, because they do.
Currently, I have a bookkeeping business that is primarily done virtually. What makes it work is utilizing everything at my disposal to communicate with my clients.
Customer service though becoming increasingly automated is still about connecting and building loyalty. A testament to what's working is repeat customers. What I offer is not just number crunching but I anticipate needs in a way that has garnered me and my company the trust of those whom we serve.
It does take time but it's worth it. Regardless of all the bells and whistles of marketing and offering the latest and greatest product or service, without a connection, folks won't continue to buy. People tend to be loyal to folks they know, like and trust. Matter of fact, I heard Ali Brown, Multimillion dollar entrepreneur who built her business online say something very similar. She also said that we have to be in front of a potential customer at least seven times before they buy from us.
I have taken this advice to heart, am getting results and would love to talk more about ways you can connect with your clientele. Contact me at www.suzetterhinton.com for a free consultation.
Sales is king. It's the only think that can grow a business and also save it. Companies are like people, everyone does things slightly different. Some things work great for some companies, and for others it can be a complete flop. By some of the answers I see on here, there are a lot of praise for design and proper branding. However, I've seen a beautifully designed and incredibly branded company fail miserably; and I've also seen a brutally branded company flourish with millions in revenue.
The only difference was that one produced sales, and the other didn't. It doesn't matter how you get there (of course it needs to be ethical), but companies need to produce sales. It depends on your sales strategy and approach to marketing. A business with poor branding must have a strong sales team. Vice versa, a company with fantastic modern branding must execute creative marketing strategies to bring in sales. Including partnerships, email marketing, paid advertising, and others.
Moral of the story is that the one thing that works best in my company isn't going to be the best thing in yours. The only differentiator between good and great companies is customer service, or, unwavering service in general. You must make your customers and clients love you.
Let me know if you have any questions. Just message me. I'll help you develop a winning sales strategy. That's all I do.
When we started TakeLessons, the first thing we had to do was understand if our product resonated with users. There were a lot of different strategies and partnerships that lead to our ultimate success, but first and foremost is ensuring your product meets a need in the marketplace.
Focus on customer satisfaction. In the early days, you treat each customer with a white-glove approach. Speak to them. Help them. Learn from them. What did they like? What didn't they like? What could you do better?
Then, take their feedback and iterate your business/product around it.
Once you've made some changes, go back to those customers and ask how you did. Get their feedback. Then repeat the process, but include new users, with fresh perspectives.
What this does is two things. First, it gives you direction on how to build a better product. Second, and maybe more importantly, it shows your customers that you are there for them, and willing to put in effort to do things for them. These customers will turn in to advocates of your business, spreading the word about it, (ie increasing sales), and help to increase your customer lifetime value as they keep using it.
Keep doing this, and over time, you'll have a great business, with customer-focused products.
Happy to discuss more in depth.
Related Questions
-
I have this social media idea,but no coding skills. How do I get someone to do the coding (cant afford to pay them) and not give away half of my idea?
Dilip was very kind in his response. My answer might be a bit on the "tough love" side. But that's for you to decide. My intention, just for the record, is to help you (and those like you) on your path to success. And that starts with having a viable philosophy about entrepreneurial-ism and business. And I'm going to answer this because I get asked some form / version of this question very frequently from newcomers to entrepreneurial-ism. The scenario goes something like this: "I have a great idea. It's amazing, I love it, and I just KNOW it's gonna make me a ton of money. But I have no money right now so I can't afford to (fill in the blank with things like "to build it / create it / market it / etc" or "to hire the required staff needed to work in my business to sell it / develop it / etc"). And I don't want to tell anyone about my great idea because I'm worried someone will steal it and make MY million / billion dollars. But I can't afford to legally protect it either... So how do I launch without the skills to personally create the product AND no money to hire anyone else to do that either??" The answer is ... You don't. Look - let's be honest. All you have is an idea. Big deal. Really. I'm not saying it's not a good idea. I'm not saying that if properly executed it couldn't make you a million / billion dollars... But an idea is NOT a business. Nor is it an asset. Until you do some (very important) initial work - like creating a business model, doing customer development, creating a MVP, etc - all you really have is a dream. Right now your choices are: 1. Find someone with the skills or the money to develop your idea and sell them on WHY they should invest in you. And yes, this will mean giving up either a portion of the "ownership" or of future income or equity. And the more risk they have to take - the more equity they will want (and quite frankly be entitled to). 2. Learn how to code and build it yourself. MANY entrepreneurs without financial resources are still resourceful. They develop the skills needed to create what they don't have the money to pay someone else to do. 3. Get some cash so you can pay someone to do the coding. You'll probably have to have some knowledge of coding to direct the architecture of your idea. So you will likely still have to become knowledgeable even if its not you personally doing the coding. (This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of options... And I'm sure some of the other experts here on Clarity have others to add - and I hope they do) To wrap up - Here's my final tip to you that I hope you "get"... It's FAR more valuable to have an idea that a very specific hungry crowd is clamoring for right now - One that THEY would love and pay you for right now - Maybe even one they'd pre-order because they just have to have it - Versus YOU being in love with your own idea. [Notice I didn't say "an idea that some as-of-yet-undetermined market would probably love"] I wish you the best of luck moving forward.DB
-
how to start earning on clarity.fm
Most of the earnings come from the people you are in contact with. The platform is not that big at the moment but it can be earned. My recommendation is to create content on your private page web, facebook, instagram ... and leave a clarity link through your work. If you need extra help call me for 15 minutes.DB
-
How has Uber grown so fast?
Obviously, they do the fundamentals well. Good brand. Good experience. Good word of mouth. Good PR. Etc. Etc. But after my interview with Ryan Graves, the head of Global Operations at Uber (https://www.growthhacker.tv/ryan-graves), it became clear that they are operationally advanced and this is a huge part of their success. I'll explain. Uber isn't just a single startup, it's essentially dozens of startups rolled into one because every time they enter a new city they have to establish themselves from essentially nothing (except whatever brand equity has reached the city ahead of them). This means finding/training drivers, marketing to consumers, and building out local staff to manage operations for that city. This is where Ryan Graves comes in. He has a protocol of everything that must be done, and in what order, and by who, to ensure the best chance of success in a new city. So how has Uber grown so fast? Essentially, they figured out how to grow in one locale and were relentless about refining their launch process to recreate that initial success over and over in new cities. No plan works for every city, and they've had to adapt in many situations, but it is still a driving factor for their success.BT
-
What is the average series A funding round at pre revenue valuation for a enterprise start up w/cutting edge tech on verge of our first client.
With all respect to Dan, I'm not seeing anything like that. You said "pre-revenue." If it's pre-revenue and enterprise, you don't have anything proven yet. You would have to have an insanely interesting story with a group of founders and execs on board with ridiculous competitive advantage built in. I have seen a few of those companies. It's more like $3m-$5m pre. Now, post-revenue is different. I've seen enterprise plays with $500k-$1m revenue/yr, still very early (because in the enterprise space that's not a lot of customers yet), getting $8m-$15m post in an A-round. I do agree there's no "average." Finally, you will hit the Series A Crunch issue, which is that for every company like yours with "cutting edge tech" as-yet-unproven, there's 10 which also have cutting edge tech except they have customers, revenue, etc.. So in this case, it's not a matter of valuation, but a matter of getting funded at all!JC
-
Whats the best way to find commission sales reps?
This is not my specialty, however, I have been in your position many many times -- maybe this will help. If the product is in-tangible, then look for JV partners on the Internet. Try to find an expert that deals with these JV opportunities (like me). If the product is physical, then look for sales organizations that have networks of sales people across the country. You do the deal with the organization and the independent network of sales people sells your product. It's a sweet setup if you can negotiate a margin that works for everyone. Hope that helps - Cheers - NickNP
the startups.com platform
Copyright © 2025 Startups.com. All rights reserved.