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Stop, collaborate, listen

AS SOME of our readers have pointed out on various occasions, I'm little more than a classless journalist.

So with that in mind, I don't mind admitting that the first-ever tape I bought at the age of 14 was Ice, Ice Baby by rap sensation Vanilla Ice.

Let's be honest, I peaked in my career around the same time as he did and while he went into starring in South African beer adverts, I became a journalist.

Anyway, one of his songs sprang to mind for me this week after a meeting with Gavin Symanowitz from GetAGreatBoss.com, which I think has some cryptic merit for  budding entrepreneurs. The song Ice, Ice Baby includes the lyrics: "All right, stop collaborate and listen. Ice is back with a brand new invention."

When you are running a small business with limited resources, your life is pretty predictable. You get up as early as you can, work as late as possible and constantly bemoan the fact that there are notenough hours in the day. There is always something else you should be doing but just never quite get around to.

In short, you have to use your time as smartly as possible or you will find yourself chasing your tail and exhausting yourself in the process.

Gavin is a good example of someone who used his time well.

His GetAGreatBoss product is useful for human resource functions within an organisation, but he thought it could have some uses within the media context.

Keep it simple

He didn't get married to an idea or pour all of his energy into reinventing the perfect product. He created a mock-up that was functional and then asked if he could demo it to me for some input.

Importantly, he asked two of the most critical questions that many entrepreneurs forget to ask: "Will you use my product?" and "How much will you pay to use my product?"

I liked it and recommended that two people I know have a look at it, as it may have some practical use for them.

Instead of investing a whole lot of time in product development, marketing material or hard selling, Gavin kept it simple. Then like any good opportunist, he said he had some content which might be interesting for our sports platform and asked who he could pitch it to. Two "ins" for the price of a cup of coffee.

How many of you are sitting with business plans that have pencilled in a big media group as a client? How much do you estimate it is going to cost you to get that "in" to these big businesses?

Now before any of you start clogging up my mailbox looking for introductions - it's not going to happen. Gavin and I have met previously at networking functions and he wasn't pitching me something, so I know we share common interests.

I get the sense that a lot of entrepreneurs convince themselves that their product is brilliant - but forget to ask the most basic questions. The end result for them is a lot of money, time and energy spent on something that may not even have a practical use.

If you are one of those entrepreneurs burning the candle at both ends, then by all means take some advice from Vanilla Ice - stop, collaborate, listen. Work smarter rather than harder.

Heck, if he was able to reinvent himself as a TV celebrity there is nothing stopping you from doing so.

 - Fin24
 
 

 

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