#12: Here's a thought...

An occasional series in which a review of recent posts on MyVenturePad reveals the following nuggets:

What are you waiting for?
We live in extraordinary times. The Internet changed the game and social media brought the game to a whole new level. There has never been so many tools available at our fingertips. Geography is no longer a restriction. The list could go on and on. The point is, it has never been easier to start your own business.

Is there an echo in here?
The great thing about this activity is that it creates a certain layer of human filtering. This is why sites like Digg, Techmeme, Slashdot, Tweetmeme, RSSmeme and others are so useful. The problem is that it leads to group think. We’re all reading the same blog posts, following the same people ipn Twitter, linking to the same things and drinking the same Kool-Aid. It’s dangerous. It’s this kind of group think that leads really smart people to miss really obvious things (mortgage crisis anyone?).

Teach them and they will learn
If you want your customers and partners to behave in certain ways then teach them how to do it. Now, I’m not simply talking about teaching them how or what to buy - I mean teach them a behavior that clearly has a benefit to them, but ultimately may benefit your cause.

Stepping out
Customers want to hear your voice. They want you to be a thought leader. It is more than the stale white paper. It is about the tone and interaction you are willing to subscribe to when you engage in social media marketing practices. A community, a blog, you tweets, they all help you create authority simply by stepping out.

How you gonna push through the dip?
The joint part, though, is where the real problem arises. Pushing through the dip is the only way for a venture of any kind to succeed. The dip separates projects that begin from projects that finish. It’s easy and hopeful and exciting to start something, but challenging and often painful to finish it. When the project is a joint one, the pressure to push through the dip often dissipates. “Well, we only have a bit at stake here, so work on something else, something where we have to take all the blame.”

Don’t forget those leaps of faith
You need a lot of things to be a successful venture capital investor. You need to understand the market you invest in. You need great networking skills. You need to be able to add value to your investments. You need an understanding of financial markets and how companies are valued. Those skills are necessary but not sufficient. Because most of all you need to be able to make leaps of faith. And the right ones, of course.

One idea at a time
Lead nurturing during a complex buying process is about reeling out small, potent, viable and strategic ideas in a way that helps your prospects embrace them. Once they've attached to one great idea, they'll more easily (and eagerly) dig into the next meaty topic you cover. And here's the great part. Nurturing with one idea at a time allows you to measure more precisely for interest levels. If you cram a bunch of ideas into one piece of content, how the heck do you expect to know just what it was that caught your prospect's attention?

Some Twitter, some don’t
A recent Nielsen study found that 60% of people who sign up for the service stop using it after one month. Of course, that means that 40% continue and that percentage is becoming part of a bigger pie.

Read, blog, learn
Regardless of whether expertise is achieved through research, thinking or “doing,” there is no doubt that reading plays a major part in the claim to expertise. Of course, one must also be able to communicate what you learned from reading, but think about it – how many books would you read a year? And how many blogs? How much of books and blogs (and for that matter, other sources of knowledge such as podcasts, ebooks, YouTube videos, etc.) contribute to your understanding of your specialist skill? How do you translate it to your professional life – or the practise of your passion?

It may take a lifetime, but…
Bootstrapping is underrated. It took us longer than it might have, but after having reached critical mass, it’s really good to own your own business outright. It might have taken longer, and maybe it was harder — although who knows if we could have done it with investors as partners — but it seems like a good ending. Family business is underrated. There are some special problems, but there are also special advantages, too.