Theme.
This week's #founderhacks are all about the importance of focus and they come from the marvellous Steve Bruce - a solopreneur based out of Hong Kong and a specialist LinkedIn consultant.
Seen.
Liking Likes
This week someone shared a post on LinkedIn about their kitten.
It was, admittedly, a cute kitten and received a lot of likes and comments.
The poster was pleased. They'd struggled to get engagement with their business content and they seemed to have struck a chord.
However, when they were asked what this had done for their business, although they felt it may have increased awareness, they were not able to point to a single lead or contact that had arisen from the post.
This reminded us that when measuring success, we have to be careful what we measure. What makes you feel good, may not be the most meaningful.
Read.
Essential Problems
What problem do you solve, and for who and how do you make it easy for them?
The question is posed by Dan Priestley's book Key Person of Influence. It encourages us to distil our understanding of our business to its essence.
Our experience has been that although we may have many strings to our bow, trying to present these as a first impression is likely to confuse. We've found that finding a clear answer to this seemingly simple question creates a decision making tool.
When you know exactly the problem you solve, the message becomes clear and you can stop talking about anything else.
Once you know exactly who you solve it for, then you don't need to invest any time trying to talk to anyone else.
Being clear about how you make it easy for them, means you can charge a premium for solving their problem.
If you can charge a premium for the work you do, the more likely you are to create a successful business, and perhaps this could lead to an even happier life.
Learned.
Solopreneurship
Have you decided what you want your business to be?
The old adage tells us if we want to go fast, we should go alone. If we want to go far, we should go together.
But this is a choice, not an instruction. Going fast is a valid choice too.
Depending on your business idea, going it alone may be a valid choice. Deliberately not scaling and remaining a solopreneur.
Other business ideas may inevitably need large teams and infrastructure.
We've seen that if founders don't make this choice they can fall in to building a team by default. Their businesses quickly starts to drive them.
So if you're developing something new, it might be worth thinking about early on. If you started with the objective you want to achieve, and the life you want to lead, which choice will you make?
And finally.
Last week Ben and Alex took part in a 100km race along the Ridgeway - Britain’s oldest path - finishing at the Avebury Stone Circle. Whereas Ben got to see the marvellous spectacle of the Avebury Stone Circle sadly Alex didn't. Whereas Ben decided to plan and train for the ordeal properly sadly Alex didn't.
Alex did however learn some important lessons along the part of the Ridgeway he did see: 1. Alex is now 52 not 25, and 2. These days Alex does need to train for events like these if he is going to finish them.
Don’t forget to check out the accompanying podcast version of #founderhacks for a tantalising live experience of team atomex!
