Invent a thing worth making, with a story worth telling, and a contribution worth talking about.The second step is to design and build it in a way that a few people will particularly benefit from and care about.Tell a story that matches the built-in narrative and dreams of that tiny group of people, the smallest viable market.Spread the word.Show up –regularly, consistently, and generously, for years and years – to organize and lead and build confidence in the change you seek to make.

Marketing in five steps 

Creative people can change the world.You cannot change everyone.Change is best made with intent.Human beings tell themselves stories.We can group people into stereotyped groups that often (not always) tell themselves similar stories.

Things marketers know  

Connect us to our purpose and vision for our career or business.Allow us to celebrate our strengths by remembering how we got from there to here.Deepen our understanding of our unique value and what differentiates us in the marketplace.Reinforce our core valuesHelp us to act in alignment and make value-based decisions.Encourage us to respond to customers instead of react to the marketplace.Attract customers who want to support businesses that reflect or represent their values.Build brand loyalty and give customers a story to tell.Attract the kind of like-minded employees we want.

Good stories:  

Status is always relative.Status is in the eyes of the beholder.Status attended to is the status that matters.Status has inertiaStatus is learnedShame is the status killer

Six things about status  

Dominion is a vertical experience, above or below.Affiliation is a horizontal one: Who's standing next to me?

Dominion vs. Affiliation  

Tactics are easy to understand because we can list them. You use a tactic or you don't.Strategy is more amorphous. It's the umbrella over your tactics, the work the tactics seek to support.If you tell your competition your tactics, they'll steal them and it will cost you. But if you tell them your strategy, it won't matter. Because they don't have the guts or the persistence to turn your strategy into their strategy.

Tactics vs. Strategy  

Direct marketing is action oriented. And it has to be measured.Brand marketing is culturally oriented. And it can't be measured.

Direct Marketing vs. Brand Marketing  

Make sure the right people is attracted to itMake sure the promise that brought them in aligns with where you hope they will goRemove steps so that fewer decisions are requiredSupport those you're engaging with, reinforcing their dreams and ameliorating their fears as you go.Hand those who have successfully engaged in the funnel a megaphone, a tool they can use to tell the others. People like us do things like this.

How to fix your funnel 

Marketing 101 coming from the expert: Seth Godin

#1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller Instant New York Times Bestseller A game-changing approach to marketing, sales, and advertising. Seth Godin has taught and inspired millions of entrepreneurs, marketers, leaders, and fans from all walks of life, via his blog, online courses, lectures, and bestselling books. He is the inventor of countless ideas that have made their way into mainstream business language, from Permission Marketing to Purple Cow to Tribes to The Dip. Now, for the first time, Godin offers the core of his marketing wisdom in one compact, accessible, timeless package. This is Marketing shows you how to do work you're proud of, whether you're a tech startup founder, a small business owner, or part of a large corporation. Great marketers don't use consumers to solve their company's problem; they use marketing to solve other people's problems. Their tactics rely on empathy, connection, and emotional labor instead of attention-stealing ads and spammy email funnels. No matter what your product or service, this book will help you reframe how it's presented to the world, in order to meaningfully connect with people who want it. Seth employs his signature blend of insight, observation, and memorable examples to teach you: * How to build trust and permission with your target market. * The art of positioning--deciding not only who it's for, but who it's not for. * Why the best way to achieve your goals is to help others become who they want to be. * Why the old approaches to advertising and branding no longer work. * The surprising role of tension in any decision to buy (or not). * How marketing is at its core about the stories we tell ourselves about our social status. You can do work that matters for people who care. This book shows you the way.

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

business

Business

books

Books

Over the past quarter century, Seth Godin has taught and inspired millions of entrepreneurs, marketers, leaders, and fans from all walks of life, via his blog, online courses, lectures, and bestselling books. He is the inventor of countless ideas and phrases that have made their way into mainstream business language, from Permission Marketingto Purple Cowto Tribesto The Dip. Now, for the first time, Godin offers the core of his marketing wisdom in one accessible, timeless package. At the heart of his approach is a big idea- Great marketers don't use consumers to solve their company's problem; they use marketing to solve other people's problems. They don't just make noise; they make the world better. Truly powerful marketing is grounded in empathy, generosity, and emotional labour. This book teaches you how to identify your smallest viable audience; draw on the right signals and signs to position your offering; build trust and permission with your target market; speak to the narratives your audience tells themselves about status, affiliation, and dominance; spot opportunities to create and release tension; and give people the tools to achieve their goals. It's time for marketers to stop lying, spamming, and feeling guilty about their work. It's time to stop confusing social media metrics with true connections. It's time to stop wasting money on stolen attention that won't pay off in the long run. This is Marketingoffers a better approach that will still apply for decades to come, no matter how the tactics of marketing continue to evolve.

Seth Godin is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change.Godin is author of ten books that have been bestsellers around the world, and he is also a renowned speaker. He was recently chosen as one of 21 Speakers for the Next Century by Successful Meetings and is consistently rated among the very best speakers by the audiences he addresses.Seth was founder and CEO of Yoyodyne, the industry's leading interactive direct marketing company, which Yahoo! acquired in late 1998.He holds an MBA from Stanford, and was called "the Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age" by Business Week.

Seth Godin

This is Marketing

This Is Marketing

The most common error of a smart engineer is to optimise the thing that should not exist.

Elon Musk talks about this 5 Engineering Principles during an amazing interview series at Starbase Texas. In this article I apply these principles to Software Development and share personal examples.

productivity

Productivity

computerscience

Computer Science

product

Product & Design

Elon's 5 Engineering Principles - Software Development Edition

The film industry did not offer a very rosy view of the business world in 2021. Dominated by streaming giants and independent studios, the year in movies had a wealth of poignant stories about financial distress in a range of cultures and locations. There was a mass of gig economy workers struggling professionally and financially. A daughter helping to keep her deaf parents' fishing business from collapsing. An Albanian widow in Kosovo working to start a small business amid civil unrest. Inspirational and tragic alike, each film has a lesson to offer for entrepreneurs.

The 8 Best Movies of the Year for Entrepreneurs

This high-octane thriller tells the true story of how Ross Ulbricht created his infamous dark web-based "Amazon-for-drugs," which amassed more than $1 billion in sales before being taken down by the DEA.
It's an instructive parable about the dangers of unfettered e-commerce.

Silk Road

The epic documentary about how WeWork's frathouse-like office culture, unrealistic expectations, and cartoonish overspending caused the co-working business's IPO and its utopian vision to unravel in just six weeks. 
Along the way, co-founder Adam Neumann demonstrates some excellent examples of how not to lead an organization.

WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn

Ruby, a Child Of Deaf Adults (CODA), spends every morning before school working on the family's struggling commercial fishing boat in Gloucester, Massachusetts. 
Embroiled in the local fishing industry's fight with authorities, Ruby must choose between her family obligations and her dream of pursuing a music career. A critical darling, CODA is a touching story of learning how to communicate and the challenges of running a family business.

CODA

The Gig Is Up explores the human costs of the $5 trillion gig economy. 
Told through the lives of people working for Uber, Deliveroo, and other companies, the documentary offers an alternative view of the much-hyped transformation of the global workforce.

The Gig Is Up

El Buen Patrón is the thrilling Spanish-language story of the owner of an industrial scales manufacturing business (Javier Bardem) who works tirelessly to pacify his disaffected staff before a visit from an awards committee. 
Satirical and witty, the film is focused on what happens when supervisors cross boundaries into employees' personal lives.

El Buen Patrón (The Good Boss)

This Albanian-language darling of the Sundance film festival tells the story of a widow in Kosovo starting a business selling honey and ajvar (a traditional relish made from red bell peppers) to provide for her two children, in the face of overwhelming grief and a repressive patriarchal society.

Hive

Transforming a niche (and often dangerous) hobby into a globally recognized sport takes an entrepreneurial vision. 
The late Jake Burton Carpenter did just that for snowboarding. By tenaciously pulling together sponsors, ski resorts, and major athletes, Carpenter launched his business--and ultimately a worldwide phenomenon.

Dear Rider

Produced by and starring The Evil Dead's Bruce Campbell, this horror-comedy film pits an unmotivated team of toy store employees against a horde of bloodthirsty, parasite-infected shoppers on Black Friday. 
It's a gory--but apt--satire of what life is like on the front lines of the retail industry during the Covid pandemic. Fittingly, Black Friday will premiere on Black Friday, November 26.

Black Friday

From 'WeWork' to 'El Buen Patrón', this year's film lineup is jam-packed with stories of workplace disasters and financial woe. Here are eight 2021 movies every business owner should see, listed in order of release date.

From 'WeWork' to 'El Buen Patrón', this year's film lineup is jam-packed with stories of workplace disasters and financial woe.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

movies

Movies & Shows

startup

Startups

The network effect in marketing is where an increase of users or people change the increased value proposition of the service or good. For example, as Instagram Reels, inspired by TikTok's idea of short-form entertainment content, grew in popularity, so the value of Instagram to share content and communicate new ideas increased. However, it can also create a false reality of effective customer relationship management.

The network effect

Media reports state that 80% of B2B buying decisions were based on direct and indirect communication. Only 20% were based on pricing and other logistics. In business, it's about building relationships. Yet entrepreneurs who get involved in social media marketing often forget to retain their business relationships in the real world efficiently. Millennials still prefer communication outside of your Instagram or LinkedIn story updates.

How the Network Effect impacts your business operations

Call, message or have an in-person meeting with your existing clientele. Ask them if they need assistance. Show interest in them. A chat can have a more profound effect than saying hello through your social media stories.

Reach out to your existing customers

Webinars are popular and have become the new normal.  Go to various meet and greet events in your city to network with people and use these events to reshape your existing clientele.

Show up to various networking events

If you had an interesting conversation at a networking event, send a follow-up message. Show them that you are really interested in having another discussion with them and ensure that you can add value.

Follow up with new connections

Add a personal touch to most of your social media content. Reflect your values, beliefs and mission to your community with your LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram profile.

Make your social media reflect your brand

Have a real interest in what your customers are saying. Listening can build closer relationships with your networks. Talking regularly to your customers can create a voice effect. Your customers will be able to hear your voice when they read your social media profiles.

Listen to your customers

Grow your  CRM with and without social media.

How do you build a strong CRM with and without social media?

career

Career

Is the Network Effect Impacting Your Efficiency as an Entrepreneur?

Many entrepreneurs say that working for themselves for too long has made them unemployable. Yet, many still decide to transition back to corporate. While you may have more skills and talent to offer a company, reporting to someone else is a major change and you may be concerned that you won't be able to fit in seamlessly.

Becoming an employee

As a current entrepreneur, you already have a steady income and may afford to take longer to find the right fit. Write down what your ideal career situation looks like for you. It takes an average of five months for a person to find a new role, so there is nothing wrong if you're still struggling after a month or two.

Focus on finding the right fit

A coach can assist in finding out the kind of role you're looking for. You may be out of the loop for a while and may have an outdated idea of the typical hiring process. A coach can bridge this gap, help get you up to speed on the latest interview techniques, and give you valuable feedback that appeals to companies. Coaching programs can also help you improve your skills.

Consider finding a coach

Most entrepreneurs are proud of creating their own companies successfully. Still, some employers might be concerned that your background and attitude mean you're not a team player and may struggle to follow instructions. Your background could give you an edge. A recent survey found that the most sought-after skills include taking the initiative and being able to adapt. Try to frame your background as experience in becoming adaptable and self-sufficient, and emphasize that you're excited to work in a team.

Don't over-emphasize your entrepreneurial experience

If you've found yourself wanting to transition back to corporate, take the proper steps.

How to Go From Entrepreneur to Employee Again

<ul><li>Successful people find value in the most unexpected places. They think in terms of principles, not formulas.</li><li>Refining an existing idea moves the world from 1 to n, but to move from 0 to 1, we must create something new.</li><li>Progress comes from Monopoly, not competition. </li></ul>

Every moment in business happens only once

A start-up is the largest group of people you can convince of a plan to build a different future. <ul><li>Big organisations are risk adverse</li><li>A brilliant loner does not have the means to create a new industry</li></ul>It takes multiple people to create new technology, but also smallness for momentum and flexibility.

Why Start-ups?

The first and most crucial decision is whom to start it with.<ul><li>Ownership: who will run the company's equity</li><li>Possession: who will run the company's routine</li><li>Control: who will govern the company</li></ul>

Building a Strong Foundation

<ol><li>Proprietary Technology: 10x Better than next best alternative.</li><li>Network Effects: Provide immediate value to early adopters.</li><li>Economies of Scale: Cost per unit declines as production increases.</li><li>Branding: A reputation that differentiates itself from competitors and guarantees quality.</li></ol>

Monopoly Characteristics

<ol><li>It's better to be bold than inconsequential</li><li>A Bad Plan is better than none</li><li>Don't Compete: competition destroys profits</li><li>Sales Strategy matters as much as product</li></ol>

Lessons of the Dot-Com Bubble

Small changes have disproportionate results."The secret in venture funding is that the top investment equals or exceeds the rest of the fund combined." <ul><li>One market will bring the greatest success</li><li>One distribution strategy will outperform all others</li><li>Some moments will count more than others</li><li>What's more important probably is not obvious</li></ul>

The Power Law

The best place to find secrets is to ask questions no one is asking and look where no one else is looking. <ul><li>"What important truth do few people agree with you on?"</li><li>"What valuable company is nobody building?"</li></ul>The best entrepreneurs know this: every successful business is built around a secret that's hidden from the outside. A great company is a conspiracy to change the world; when you share your secret, the recipient becomes a fellow conspirator. <a href="https://www.justologist.com/newsletter/">Subscribe to my Newsletter to Learn More!</a>

Finding Secrets

'Zero to One' is one of my all-time favorite books. Peter Thiel discusses how successful companies are built around a strong foundation, secrets, and monopolies. This book is for aspiring entrepreneurs and investors who want to build a valuable business that creates new things, rather than develop on existing ideas. 

WHAT VALUABLE COMPANY IS NOBODY BUILDING? The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin wonâe(tm)t make a search engine. If you are copying these guys, you arenâe(tm)t learning from them. Itâe(tm)s easier to copy a model than to make something new: doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. Every new creation goes from 0 to 1. This book is about how to get there. âe~Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how.âe(tm) ELON MUSK, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla âe~This book delivers completely new and refreshing ideas on how to create value in the world.âe(tm) MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO of Facebook âe~When a risk taker writes a book, read it. In the case of Peter Thiel, read it twice. Or, to be safe, three times. This is a classic.âe(tm) NASSIM NICHOLAS TALEB, author of The Black Swan

WHAT VALUABLE COMPANY IS NOBODY BUILDING? The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. If you are copying these guys, you aren’t learning from them. It’s easier to copy a model than to make something new: doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. Every new creation goes from 0 to 1. This book is about how to get there. ‘Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how.’ ELON MUSK, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla ‘This book delivers completely new and refreshing ideas on how to create value in the world.’ MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO of Facebook ‘When a risk taker writes a book, read it. In the case of Peter Thiel, read it twice. Or, to be safe, three times. This is a classic.’ NASSIM NICHOLAS TALEB, author of The Black Swan

Peter Thiel is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Peter Thiel has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Peter Thiel's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Peter Thiel

Blake Masters is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Blake Masters has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Blake Masters's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Blake Masters

Zero to One

In the wake of Jack Dorsey’s resignation from Twitter, some have begun asking whether the move could herald a new era, in which founders voluntarily step aside rather than sticking around for decades or waiting to be ousted.
To explore the value added by a founder-CEO, an analyze of stock price and financial performance data from more than 2,000 publicly traded companies found that founder-led firms outperform those with non-founder-CEOs — but that the difference dwindles to zero just three years post-IPO, after which founder-CEOs actually start detracting from firm value.

To stay or walk away

While founders add the most value as CEOs in the early years of a firm’s development, by the six-year mark, they become more valuable in non-CEO positions, such as CTO or a board seat. Of course, six years is just an average — the optimal timing will vary substantially based on the specific situation. 
But in general, encouraging a founder-CEO to transition to another role within the organization enables the firm to benefit from new top management while still leveraging the founder’s deep knowledge about the organization in an advisory capacity.

Strategy 1: Funnel founders towards non-CEO positions

Every founder is drawn to entrepreneurship for different reasons. Gaining a better understanding of what drives a particular organization’s founder is the best way to help them determine the next step that they’ll find most rewarding. 
Some founders, for instance, are passionate about the specific ideas or causes underlying their businesses.

Strategy 2: Funnel founders towards personal passions.

In organizations where the founder still holds significant power and influence, board members and executives may be reluctant to even think about succession planning, let alone open up a candid conversation on the topic. 
But one way or another, succession will have to happen eventually, and it’s likely to go a lot better if the CEO is involved from the outset in crafting and implementing the plan.

Strategy 3: Involve founders in succession planning

On average, their value-add tends to decline after an IPO.

How Long Should a Founder Remain CEO?

Fatal Assumption: If you understand the technical work of a business, then you understand a business that does technical work. This is simply NOT true.
A technician who tries to start a business will take the work he loves to do and turn it into a job.

The Entrepreneurial Myth

We are all three people at the same time:
<ul>
<li>The Entrepreneur is the visionary. The dreamer. The catalyst for change. To the Entrepreneur, most people are problems that get in the way of the dream.</li>
<li>The Manager is pragmatic. He plans, organizes, and compulsively clings to the status quo. It is the tension between the Entrepreneur’s vision and the Manager’s pragmatism that creates the synthesis from which all great works are born.</li>
<li>The Technician is the doer. He is happiest working in the current moment. He believes that thinking isn’t work; it gets in the way of work.</li>
</ul>

The Entrepreneur, The Manager, and The Technician

The owner and the business are one and the same thing. Without you, the business would not exist.Infancy ends when the owner realizes that the business cannot continue to operate if you do it all yourself. At this point, you either close the doors or move on to adolescence.Remember: The purpose of going into business is to get free of a job so you can create jobs for other people.

Infancy: The Technician’s Phase

Many small business owners get another technician to help.But then they manage by abdication, rather than by delegation. The owner gets some of their time back as they give a new help more responsibility. But over time, the quality of the work begins to slip. Suddenly you realize that nobody really cares about your business the way that you do, or is willing to work as hard.

Adolescence: Getting Some Help

Every adolescent business reaches a point where it pushes beyond its owner’s Comfort Zone – the boundary within which he feels secure in his ability to control his environment, and outside of which he begins to lose that control.When this happens, many technician-turned-business-owners “get small” again. They get rid of what they could not control. They go back to infancy.You eventually find that you don’t own a business – you own a job.Other adolescent businesses will continue to grow faster and faster until they self-destruct from their own momentum.

Reaching The Boundary

You have to prepare yourself and your business for growth. To educate yourself sufficiently so that, as your business grows, the businesses foundation and structure can carry the additional weight.The key is to plan, envision, and articulate what you see in the future both for yourself and for your employees. Because if you don’t articulate it – write it down clearly – you don’t own it.A Mature company is different from an Adolescent company in that it starts differently. It is founded on a broader perspective of building something that works not because of you, but without you.

Building A Mature Company

<ul><li>Entrepreneur asks “How must the business work?”</li><li>The entrepreneur sees the business as a system for producing outside results – for the customer – resulting in a profit.</li><li>He starts with a picture of a well-defined future, and then comes back to the present with the intention of changing it to match the vision.</li><li>He envisions the business in its entirety, from which is derived its parts.</li><li>The present-day world is modelled after his vision.</li></ul>

Entrepreneurial Perspective

Has less to do with what’s done in ta business and more to do with how it’s done. The commodity isn’t what’s important – the way it’s delivered is.It understands that without a clear picture of that customer, no business can succeed.The business is the product.The customer is always an opportunity.

The Entrepreneurial Model

<ul><li>McDonald’s calls itself the “most successful small business in the world” because that’s exactly what it is.</li><li>The Business Format Franchise proves the franchisee with an entire system of doing business.</li><li>The true product of a business is the business itself.</li><li>Ray Kroc, the founder of the fast-food chain, understood that at McDonald’s, the hamburger wasn’t the product. McDonald’s was.</li><li>You need a systems-dependent business, not a people-dependent business.</li></ul>

The McD Revolution

The Franchise Prototype is the place where all assumptions are put to the test to see how well they work before becoming operational in the business.It is the answer to the perpetual questions, “How do I give my customer what he wants while maintaining control of the business that’s giving it to him?”A Business Format Franchise is a proprietary way of doing business that successfully and preferentially differentiates every extraordinary business from every one of its competitors. In this light, every great business in the world is a franchise.

The Franchise Prototype

Your business is not your life. They are separate things.Pretend that the business you own – or want to own – is the prototype, or will be the prototype, for 5,000 more just like it. Perfect replicas.Great businesses are not built by extraordinary people but by ordinary people doing extraordinary things. But for ordinary people to do extraordinary things, a system – “a way of doing things” – is absolutely essential in order to compensate for the disparity between the skills your people have and the skills your business needs if it is to produce consistent results.

Working On Your Business, Not In It

<ul><li>Must provide consistent value to your customers, employees, suppliers, and lenders, beyond what they expect.</li><li>It will be operated by people with the lowest possible level of skill.</li><li>It will stand out as a place of impeccable order.</li><li>All work will be documented in Operations Manuals.</li><li>It will provide a uniformly predictable service to the customer.</li><li>It will utilize a uniform color, dress and facilities code.</li></ul>

Rules to Follow

Building the prototype of your business is a continuous process:<ul><li>Innovation</li><li>Quantification</li><li>Orchestration</li></ul>The franchisor aims his innovative energies at the way in which his business does business.The entire process by which the business does business is a marketing tool, a mechanism for finding and keeping customers.The business is the product, and how the business interacts with the consumer is more important than what it sells.

The Business Development Process

Innovation continually poses the question: What is standing in the way of my customers getting what he wants from my business?Innovation is the mechanism through which your business identifies itself in the mind of your customer and establishes its individuality.

Innovation

<ul><li>Orchestration is the elimination of discretion, or choice, at the operating level of your business.</li><li>Orchestration is the pursuit of producing a consistent, predictable result in the world of business.</li><li>If you haven’t orchestrated it, you don’t own it.</li><li>A franchise is simply your unique way of doing business. And unless your unique way of doing business can be replicated every single time, you don’t own it.</li></ul>

Orchestration

Your Business Development Program is the vehicle through which you can create your Franchise Prototype.7 Step Process:<ul><li>Primary Aim</li><li>Strategic Objective</li><li>Organizational Strategy</li><li>Management Strategy</li><li>People Strategy</li><li>Marketing Strategy</li><li>Systems Strategy</li></ul>

Your Business Development Process

What would you like to be able to say about your life after it’s too late to do anything about it?If you were to write a script for the tape to be played for the mourners at your funeral, how would you like it to read?Create an intentional life.As with Mature companies, I believe great people to be those who know how they got where they are, and what they need to do to get where they’re going.Great people have a vision for their lives that they practise emulating each and every day.They go to work on their lives, not just in their lives.

Your Primary Aim

<ul><li>What do I wish my life to look like?</li><li>How do I wish my life to be on a day-to-day basis?</li><li>What would I like to be able to say I truly know in my life, about my life?</li><li>How would I like to be with other people in my life – my family, my friends, my business associates, my customers, my employees, my community?</li><li>How would I like people to think about me?</li><li>What would I like to be doing two years from now? Ten years from now? Twenty years from now? When does my life come to a close?</li></ul>

Before Starting, Ask Yourself

<ul><li>Your Strategic Objective is a very clear statement of what your business has to ultimately do for you to achieve your Primary Aim.</li><li>Your business is a means rather than an end, a vehicle to enrich your life rather than one that drains the life you have.</li><li>When creating standards for your Strategic Objective always ask yourself: What will serve my Primary Aim?</li><li>The first standard of your Strategic Objective is money, the gross revenues. How big is your vision? How big will your business be when it’s finally done?</li></ul>

Your Strategic Objective

When is your Prototype going to be completed? In two years? Three? Ten?Where are you going to be in business? Locally? Regionally? Nationally? Internationally?How are you going to be in business? Retail? Wholesale? A combination of the two?What standards are you going to insist upon regarding reporting, cleanliness, clothing, management, hiring, firing, and so forth?

Other Strategic Objectives

<ul><li>You cannot organize a company around personalities. You must organize around accountabilities and responsibilities.</li><li>Start with the org chart.</li><li>Separate shareholders from employees. Remove yourself from the business.</li><li>Imagine all of the positions that your company will need when it’s complete. All of the accompanying responsibilities. </li><li>Then fill in each position with the employees that you have – even if that means you must take on more than one job title.</li></ul>

Your Organizational Strategy

<ul><li>A Management System is designed into your Prototype to produce a marketing result.</li><li>You want it to be as automatic as possible.</li><li>It must be effective at finding and keeping customers.</li><li>An operations manual is a series of checklists.</li></ul>

Your Management Strategy

<ul><li>The work we do is a reflection of who we are.</li><li>There is no such thing as undesirable work. There are only some people who look upon their work as a punishment for who they are and where they stand in the world, rather than as an opportunity to see themselves as they really are.</li><li>Make sure people understand the idea behind the work that they’re being asked to do.</li><li>The customer is not always right, but it is our job to make them feel that way.</li><li>Everyone who works here is expected to work toward being the best she can possibly be at the tasks she’s accountable for.</li></ul>

Your People Strategy

<ul><li>Never figure out what you want your people to do and then try to create a game out of it.</li><li>Never create a game for the people you’re unwilling to play yourself.</li><li>Make sure there are specific ways of winning the game without ending it.</li><li>Change the game from time-to-time – the tactics, not the strategy.</li><li>Never expect the game to be self-sustaining. People need to be reminded of it constantly.</li><li>The game has to make sense.</li><li>The game needs to be fun from time to time.</li><li>If you can’t think of a good game, steal one.</li></ul>

Rules of the Game

<ul><li>How we do it here</li><li>How we recruit, hire and train people to do it here</li><li>How we manage it here</li><li>How we change it here</li></ul>

The Hierarchy of Systems

<ul><li>What your customer wants is all that matters. And what your customer wants is probably significantly different from what you think he wants.</li><li>Demographics and psychographics are the two essential pillars supporting a successful marketing program. If you know who your customer is – demographics – you can then determine why he buys – psychographics.</li><li>You must ask your customers about who they are. Send out surveys and questionnaires. Reward them for completion.</li><li>You must be sensitive to the science of marketing art. You have to be interested in it.</li></ul>

Your Marketing Strategy

<ul><li>You can build systems for hard systems, soft systems, and information systems.</li><li>Hard systems might be the colors, letterhead, and tools that everyone uses.</li><li>Soft systems include the way you do things and how you communicate.</li><li>Information systems are the data that is recorded, organized, and used for decision making.</li></ul>

Your Systems Strategy

An instant classic, this revised and updated edition of the phenomenal bestseller dispels the myths about starting your own business. Small business consultant and author Michael E. Gerber, with sharp insight gained from years of experience, points out how common assumptions, expectations, and even technical expertise can get in the way of running a successful business. Gerber walks you through the steps in the life of a business—from entrepreneurial infancy through adolescent growing pains to the mature entrepreneurial perspective: the guiding light of all businesses that succeed—and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether or not it is a franchise. Most importantly, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business. The E-Myth Revisited will help you grow your business in a productive, assured way.

An instant classic, this revised and updated edition of the phenomenal bestseller dispels the myths about starting your own business. Small business consultant and author Michael E. Gerber, with sharp insight gained from years of experience, points out how common assumptions, expectations, and even technical expertise can get in the way of running a successful business. Gerber walks you through the steps in the life of a business—from entrepreneurial infancy through adolescent growing pains to the mature entrepreneurial perspective: the guiding light of all businesses that succeed—and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether or not it is a franchise. Most importantly, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business.The E-Myth Revisited will help you grow your business in a productive, assured way.

Michael E. Gerber is a true legend of entrepreneurship. Inc. Magazine called him "the World's #1 Small Business Guru." He started over 40-plus years ago addressing a significant need in the small business market: businesses owned primarily by people with technical skills but few business skills, and no place to go to get meaningful help.

Michael E. Gerber

The E-Myth Revisited

The eLearning market is expected to exceed US $ 241 billion by 2022, so there are a ton of opportunities for anyone looking to start creating online courses.
But, if you want to get a slice of this pie, you need to find a niche that people are looking for. In other words, it is necessary to find out if there is a market for your course.

Creating An Online Course

You have an excellent idea for creating online courses, you’re ready to start developing the content, but the question arises: is there a market for this product?How do you know if your idea will be a huge success or a big failure?The answer is simple: do market research.Researching whether there is an audience interested in your online course before creating it is very important.

Market Research First

Naturally, you want to invest your money, time and effort in something that is in high demand. Otherwise, creating online courses and building a distance education business will be a complete waste of time.

Course Topic Demand

Ask friends, family and people who fit your target audience, that is, have a relationship with the area and theme you intend to teach. Find out what their difficulties are and what they would like to learn. You can use social media, email, join groups and discussion forums, among other channels, to get as many responses as possible.

Testing Demand: Asking People

This survey can give you an idea if the topic you intend to address has a demand and if enough people are already trying to solve it. Search Google, Amazon, popular podcasts and other online education-related platforms. Take the opportunity to use your competitors as inspiration to create successful online courses.But be aware, if there is little or no competition, this is a bad sign. It probably means that there is little or no demand for your idea.

Checking The Competition

Google is a powerful tool that you can use to analyze the demand of their course. Use the keyword planner to find out what people are searching for and what topics are most searched for. Another great keyword tool is Answer The Public. Just select keywords related to the course topic and see how many questions arise. The more questions there are, the greater the interest in the subject.

Keyword Research 

Many people who start creating online courses make the mistake of assuming that their course is perfect for everyone. However, those who do not focus on a specific group, end up reaching anyone.It may seem counterintuitive to restrict your course audience, but it is proven that courses have sold best when created with a specific target audience in mind.

Your Specific Target Audience

You have an excellent idea for creating online courses, you’re ready to start developing the content, but the question arises: is there a market for this product?

Creating online courses: how to validate my course idea

Find 100+ Facts about Entrepreneurship - Curated from inspiring sources like Books, Podcasts & Articles - Genuine Insights from like-minded Users like You!

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The E-Myth Revisited

Creating online courses: how to validate my course idea

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Read like a Pro.

This Is Marketing

Elon's 5 Engineering Principles - Software Development Edition

The 8 Best Movies of the Year for Entrepreneurs

Is the Network Effect Impacting Your Efficiency as an Entrepreneur?

How to Go From Entrepreneur to Employee Again

Zero to One

How Long Should a Founder Remain CEO?

The E-Myth Revisited

Creating online courses: how to validate my course idea

Innovation and Creativity

It's time to Read like a Pro.

It's time to
Read like a Pro.