It's about customers (stupid!)

Where to start?

I want to try to get across what starting a business is really about.  I want to help you understand just how hard it can be and how the odds are stacked against you.  If you still want to do it then I want to help you understand what works and what doesn't.

This is about starting companies on your own or trying to spin out a company from a corporate.  You would imagine the latter is much easier with the lowered risk and support from the parent.  Well you would be wrong.  Starting on your own is daunting but starting out from a corporate tends to inherit all the bureaucracy and short-sightedness that made you want to leave in the first place.

Maybe the best place to begin is to tell you about customers.  Steady now - this is not too advanced and you might find them useful.

I talked to a company with a great idea a while ago.  Patent protected, it looks like the Holy Grail when you hear them talk about it.  Faster broadband for all!  They can just increase your broadband speed - sounds good right?

Well at the same time you'll have to pay more than double your current charges.  Still interested?  If you can't get broadband now you won't be able to get it with this company either.  So you have to already have broadband and just want a faster service.

Tell me.  What are you going to do with your increased bandwidth?  I play online video games (look for interCEptOr in Counter-Strike - I'll be the dead one at the bottom of the stats) but I don't need more speed.  I mean it would be nice but I can't justify the extra cost and that market is full of students and unemployed males from Wigan as far as I can see.  They can get by with what they already have.  What are you going to do with it? 

I won't go on about broadband because the point is general.  When someone has to persuade you about why you need a service then you probably don't.  Need is pain.  When you have something that is really inconvenient in your life then you recognise a solution when someone shows it to you. 

Sick of the shower burning your bum when someone flushes the toilet - you need the ....... 

Worried about losing your family photos from your laptop, then you need the ..........

If there is not a 'selfish benefit' to a company, one that you understand intrinsically, then you probably don't want to buy the product and I don't want to help it grow and succeed (because it won't).

Copyright Richard A D Jones 2006

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