Just finished Chris Anderson’s new book “Free.” Despite it’s potentially contentious content, the book throws new light on how to make money out of offering free products. Occasionally, its in danger of being too much of a history lesson, but you can’t avoid the main points Chris has wanted to communicate in his usual blatant style.

I guarantee that it will get you thinking and could turn the way you look at your business upside down, particularly, if you are involved in any form of digital content. For me, its certainly helped me look at the future business model of my company and clarified some thinking. The key statements:

1. “People are making lots of money out of charging nothing.”

2. “Those that understand the new ‘Free’ will command tomorrow’s markets and disrupt today’s.”

3. “Free may be the best price, but it can’t be the only one.”

It’s an extraordinary look at how you can use ‘Free’ to shift your business not only into a different gear, but, into a different world. There are useful examples of how some businesses have taken advantage of ‘Free’ and those that haven’t. How new business models that exploit the concept will be the survivors and leaders of the future. There are still a few questions, particularly why digital content is worth significantly less than a physical product such as a book (omitting the overhead cost of the book) despite the same amount of imagination, knowledge and experience that goes into it. And, the damage that ‘Free’ may do to some companies. However,  despite Anderson occasionally looking at the world through rose tinted glasses, you’ll get to the end of ‘Free’ and think that its actually a blinding flash of the obvious!

Don’t forget as well as buying the ‘atom’ form of the book you can download a free copy of the ‘bit’ form from Chris Anderson’s website!

Or should that be ripe? Who knows! Anyway, how do you know whether you have what it takes to run your own business in today’s turbulent, innovative, changeable business world? I’ve pulled together an alternative list that would have business advisers, bank managers and accountants cringing!

 If you are right for running your own business you will see boundless opportunities, whereas, others do only what the boss has told them to do. You’ll relish change whilst people not ready for start up seek order, routine, stability and security. Many small business owners view their talent as a craft, to be worked on over years, constantly improving and refining their skills. Other people wonder  how much pension they will get.

If you are considering start up you’ll be looking forward to personally influencing people, customers and employees alike. If you regularly exercise positional authority, stay in a proper job! Great entrepreneurs build their business based on trust and sincerity, whereas, if you like to control everything, consider something else.

People starting their own business are always motivated to do more and inspire people to push the boundaries. If you think offering incentives to work harder motivates, think about taking up a hobby instead!

Entrepreneurs are always around interesting people, those that are involved in the latest idea, the most innovative of products/services and, are at the leading edge. Others court the ‘old boy’ network, meet with mundane and boring business people and don’t understand the real meaning of interesting.                    

You are known for being occasionally opinionated, or is that passionate, because you have strong views, if you keep quiet and don’t rock the boat, perhaps running your own business isn’t for you. If you are always looking at new ways/ideas and regularly stick your head above the parapet and your colleagues think this stuff is just b*****ks. Yep, go on, get out and start something.          

Finally, if you truly do real work that adds value and the other people around always look busy and work harder than anyone else they know, then perhaps now, is the right time to think about jumping to your own ship.

Obviously there is more to it than just this but, hey, has it helped you make a decision?

I got into a debate this week with Chris Brogan, http://www.chrisbrogan.com on Twitter, albeit briefly, about sales. It started with a statement from Chris that all people nowadays need to be sales people. I’m not so sure; in fact, I think sales is dead, at least in the traditional way.

Sales people are middlemen and women and we know what’s happening to them across the world. The need for the sales role is diminishing and rapidly. Sales people are going to have to reinvent themselves and companies with sales departments are going to have to change the role somewhat radically.

Why? We have so much information at our fingertips, 24/7, almost anywhere. We don’t have to just rely on the company brochure for the information on the product/service. We have access to forums discussing the product, chat rooms, websites that focus on the product run by consumers. We have become a generation very adept at researching and understanding the product better than ever before. We are lot more savvy and I don’t need a sales person to offer their very, very subjective point of view.

The traditional differentiators have gone. There is very little difference between products anymore; one Princess yacht is very much like a Sunseeker yacht. The difference between Audi and Skoda is minimal. Sales people are a very expensive resource for companies selling ‘no difference’ products. The actual product isn’t what makes you competitive anymore it’s the relationship you build. A sales persons job needs to evolve into a more customer experience role. A lot of companies will argue that they have already done this. They haven’t, its very rare to really experience an amazing customer experience.

We live in a world of abundance but are set up as if our product was scarce. There is a tendency when the world is full of similar offerings to sell more aggressively and take more sales people on. In fact, it should be the complete opposite.

Patrick Dixon in his book Futurewise said, “Experiences will matter most.” People no longer buy sales patter but the experience. If potential customers are in contact with you, its probably because they have already done their research, so it’s a question of the relationship you build with them that’s just as important as the features and benefits.

Sales reps need to be retrained and motivated to building strong bonds with customers, encouraging word of mouth referrals amongst their account base and working hard at improving the experience, not whether they can field objections and close the sale.

As Colin Shaw mentions several times in his books, customer experience is the only competitive advantage you have left. By the way visit Chris Brogan’s website, its got some great info and advice there.

Work can be cool and, when you run your own business, you can dictate how cool. So many small business owners get bogged down and end up in a day-to-day routine because they don’t have cool customers. What being your own boss teaches you is that you don’t have to compromise anymore. In fact, you don’t have to deal with idiots either. Phew!

It’s an important point. People will advise you to go out and get as many customers as possible and quickly when you start up. That’s completely the wrong advice. Yes, take on lots of customers but make sure they are remarkable. You’ll know in your mind what a great customer is. These are the kinds of customers who add value to your business, make you work hard in the positive areas, push and challenge you, the point of running your own business. And, if they are truly remarkable, you’ll have a client list that will make your competitors go green.

As Janis Joplin said “Don’t compromise yourself, honey. You’re all you’ve got.” Resist the urge to rush and grow a huge customer list that’s eventually going to cost you money. It’s not the size of the list that matters but its credibility and reputation.

Two masters in one place….cool!

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/07/four-videos-about-noise-social-and-decency.html

If you wanted to learn to ski jump (apart from being crazy) you’d find someone who had already done it. Because your health and, possibly, your life depended on it, you’d get the best. You’d make sure that you took advice and coaching from someone who had actually been through that terrifying feat several times. Known what it was like to hurtle down a steep run not knowing how they are going to land. You’d never ask a lawyer, or, a teacher, or, a bank manager unless they had been through the experience themselves of course.

Your business is a lot like this. Don’t ever take advice from someone who hasn’t been through the white knuckle ride of starting and running a business over the long haul. You are better surrounding yourself with people in business rather than accountants, bank managers, friends and relatives. Its easy to listen to their views, which are often the most subjective you will get and often not the best advice. Encircle yourself with high quality people who know what they are talking about and have the credibility and reputation to match it.

If only it was another blip, a rough spell, a dip in the economic cycle but this time its not. Things have shifted and they have shifted radically. The financial sector will go back to ‘business as usual’ there is not doubt, despite new rules and regulations. But for most of us, the sand has moved and people’s mood has changed. The tide has more than just turned.

The eclectic mix of urgency, technology, culture and transparency will continue to drive truly interesting times over the next few years. This shift was happened already, an economic crisis just gave it a good old nudge. Much is going to change but some of the most fundamental are:

Innovation – Progress is a sure thing but it won’t just come from the big corporates, most innovation in the future will come from small groups of people or individuals. Innovation will be rampant in information technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, science and clean energy. For the business owner now is the time to ring fence your R & D budget and protect it as if your life depended on it. Research suggests that those who invest in R & D during a downturn will out perform those when things get better.

Fast and slow – The unabated swing to doing things fast ever increases. It’s hard to see where it will stop? There will be a point when we out run ourselves. Things move so fast now that many regard market research and preparing for a product launch with precision, completely outdated and that most products/services just need to be launched and then learn from that. Basically, stuff the research beforehand. Whether it’s reckless or responsive depends on your market place. There are times to slow down, take stock, understand the purpose and consider growth to ensure you don’t get mowed down in the process but also maintain an air of unabridged control. Perhaps we need to fail fast and grow slow?

Talent – Your employees will be the hub of your business not you or the business entity. Prepare for some huge changes in the way you will need to attract, lead and retain exceptional people with huge heaps of knowledge. There will be a war for talent and retention will be a large part of the small business owner’s role and output. No point in attracting bright people only to lose them because you can’t lead for toffee. Business owners will buy peoples ideas and creativity not how many hours they work. How much collective talent you have will dictate how competitive you are in the future.

Customer Experience – The relationships with customers will need to be more significant and intense. Getting customers attention is an expensive process, so keeping them makes more sense. They will expect more of an experience as your products/services become less important or different. They will seek out a meaningful relationship with you as the world around us seemingly becomes more superficial, untrustworthy and potentially faceless. Watch as we go back to deep, caring conversations with customers as we reject being told how good companies/brands are.

Technology – It’s not going away and so we can’t ignore how positive it can be. It has changed our processes, systems, marketing, efficiency, production, health and much more. Expect the pace of change to increase in excessive amounts and be prepared for it. No longer can you scoff at such inventions as Google and Twitter. Many small businesses still don’t have an electronic database and then wonder why they are struggling to keep their head above water! Social media will form the most substantial part of your marketing budget as we go more viral and word of mouth makes a huge comeback.

We will get through this immediate crisis even though the pain will be felt for years to come. Perhaps a shake out, rationalisation was overdue? Unfortunately, for some, it’s been a terrifying shock. What is more important though is how business will respond to the permanent, deal breaking changes in human behaviour, expectations and technological advances that will literally mean the difference between survival and growth. There is still going to be fall out, not because of a financial crisis across the world but because business simply failed to change.

An amusing talk given to TED by Carl Honore discussing the principle and benefits of slowing down. Thought provoking and worth 19 minutes of your time.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/carl_honore_praises_slowness.html

I’ve been involved in an interesting process recently that included defining the word entrepreneurship. Fine, it was required. We needed to stick a flag in the mountain and identifying what we meant, but it threw up some fabulous conversations that identified how differently people see words.

Most entrepreneurs wouldn’t define themselves as anything, that’s far too stereotypical, never mind an entrepreneur. We need to be careful about definitions. They change and are very individual. Ones definition of quality might be completely different than another. What is exceptional customer service to one person may be average to another and a definition of what is deemed as creative can get you into deep, very hot, water.

Business and work is becoming more like the art galleries of the world. What’s one mans meat is another mans poison. It’s becoming harder to define what quality is, what originality is, what great is as opposed to just good. One size fits all and assuming that all customers and employees define it in this particular way is surely an ignorant stance. Like the songwriter who wrote the song “A whiter shade of pale” said when asked what it was about; he had no idea, its whatever the listener wants it to be he commented. Defining purpose is important, but people will have different interpretations. We won’t entertain definitions in the future. Be prepared for a world of business and work that sees things in this way, in a very individual way!

Decide who you are and who you are not? Then plan by the end of next year what four things you will have a reputation for in your market place. Those four things need to differentiate you. It’s not so much about what you do anymore i.e.: architect, designer, IT consultant, photographer etc. It’s about how you add value, how you influence and how you inspire people to think differently.

Ask yourself what do I want to be? What values do I have and never want to compromise on? Does what I do make a difference? Why am I distinctive? Ask yourself these questions regularly and if you can’t answer them, get your customers to.

This should start you thinking:

1. Who are you?

2. What is your purpose?

3. What is your product offering?

4. What is your value proposition?

5. How different is it to the others?

You are the brand. You are the business there is no escape. It’s not about how well you manage your business, it’s actually how well you lead yourself, your customers and the team around you.