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This should be your first move...
Make sure your data collection is on point.
Data is fundamental to any successful business operation.
It took me a shocking amount of time to realize the importance of this.
It is the only way you can know what is working and what is not.
So how do you make sure you are not making the same mistakes as me?
Let’s talk about it ⬇️
Pro-Tip: Find the right tools for the job.
When I am choosing what tools to use for my business
I look at it like I am building a team. Everyone has their roles and responsibilities.
Everyone is here to do their job.
It’s effortless to buy too many tools for your business.
It takes strategic thinking to identify the right ones.
With new technology coming out every day, how do you know
what you really need?
Maybe these questions can help guide you:
Have I gotten direct feedback from my target market that tells me I need
this solution?This helps make sure you are doing what is in the best interest of the customers you serve, not your interests or beliefs.
How does this complement the current suite of software I am using?
This helps make sure that the tools you select work as a team. Eliminating redundancy in your operation.
Will this disrupt any workflows that I or others are leveraging?
This helps make sure that you consult the appropriate stakeholders before purchasing.
Tech bloat can be very expensive and hard to reverse once you have started using a lot of different tools for your business.
It is also a horrible way to burn hard-earned capital.
Spend more time focusing on the right tools that support the objectives
of the organization.
Pro-Tip: Design clear processes and systems
In my opinion, the worst position for any business to be is guessing what to do next.
Designing the right systems helps you understand where you need to collect information from the marketplace.
This also helps you track the right information and not get caught up tracking
vanity metrics.
At TeachOne, we take our clients through a lot of this work during
our strategy sessions.
Let’s take you and your business for example.
What information will you collect on your target customer?
Maybe you’ll want to know their:
Name
Email
Phone Number
Position
How did they find your solution?
That way you can track how people flow through your funnel and make adjustments where and when necessary.
Once you have this mapped out, you can start to identify how you want to
capture the information.
From there you can start building the tech stack to support that system.
This way you have the right information guiding your business forward and a clear understanding of how people navigate through it.
Pro-Tip: Be intelligent about how you gather feedback
Founders often overlook the importance of having one central source
of truth for their operation.
They tend to have information scattered in several different locations.
In turn, this makes it difficult to know exactly what is working and what is not.
The best founders build a single source of truth into their business from day one.
That source of truth tracks the most important elements of their operation.
Not doing this can result in a lot of frustration.
If you are a bit confused about what exactly you need to track, think to yourself…
Where will I find my ideal customers?
Why are they interested in my product or service?
What motivated them to get in touch/buy?
Business can feel a lot like a journey of discovering what doesn’t work more
then what does.
You need data to do this work intelligently and ultimately find your success.
Building a business is fucking hard.
If no one has said that to you like that, let me do it for you.
This journey won’t be easy, but it becomes 10x harder if you don’t have the right information guiding you forward.
If you ask me, the very first thing you should do is design systems that help you acquire the right information about your target market and existing customers.
That way you are in a position where your decisions are guided by what you’ve
learned not what you think.
That being said…
What are you waiting for?
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