Why You Should Love Your Business If You Want To Succeed — Day 17 of 365 Leadership Blogging
Today was a look back for us. As we carried out our termly clear down and tidy up the kid’s toys, we came across some papers which jogged our memories on one of our proudest business ventures.
The business model was tight and we were pretty much first to the market amongst much larger legacy competitors. The engagement from our audience was incredible, so much so we had publishing companies approaching us to review new authors books for the sector.
It was an amazing time but all that status and recognition didn’t turn up overnight. The business idea was birthed around the same time we had our first son. It literally came to Vanessa as if God himself took time out of his busy schedule to visit and whisper in her ears. Everybody who heard it loved it and everyone who worked with us was excited to be part of something groundbreaking. It didn’t take much to sell the idea. However, it did take a lot to make sales.
People were slightly sceptical and curious at the same time, which didn’t help as we believed it was a no brainer — get on board now before everyone else does and you are left out in the cold window shopping. Those were my thoughts. We remember having our first external meeting with a large player in the sector. Invited in by their Commercial Director, we didn’t know what to expect but felt it must be a good thing. The shock on the director’s face when we told them we were effectively the business team behind the brand was priceless. They couldn’t believe it but it kept them working with us for a while so the honesty in our story counted for something. Because our business model was new and it involved the use of technology for distribution, not everyone was quite convinced. We went around in circles explaining to potential customers the difference between page views, unique visitors and website hits. How ad placements worked and what advertorials were. Hindsight really is cruel, as knowing what we know now, we would have definitely pushed harder on the sales and marketing.
We knew our business model was tight when we were approached by someone who wanted to buy into our business for expansion. The numbers looked good initially but after the excitement, they didn’t add up and neither did his story so we gracefully declined. A few months later we noticed a very similar business model turn up and start to directly compete with our brand. They almost had the same name and same brand colours. Go figure. At the time it happened we had run out of seed capital to keep us going so we were slowing our pace. Our hands were tied, or so we thought, and the larger competitors had suddenly woke up to create their own version of our business model. We were upset for a while but more satisfied that our business model was good enough to copy and for our competitors to take note.
We have toyed with the idea of selling the brand and associated assets several times over the years but couldn’t quite let it go. We are passionately romantic about the brand. We slaved days, nights, weeks, months and years to create something from scratch that met people and businesses right where they were. We developed new skills such as website design and build, editorial management, outsourcing to freelancers, hiring writers, digital publishing, branding, content creation and management, social media marketing (when it wasn’t trendy), digital marketing, all on the back of our own seed capital. Yes, we are romantic but also very proud of our accomplishments.
We didn’t, however, let the romance get in the way of good business decisions. When we knew we couldn’t push the boat any further we stopped pushing and diverted our attention elsewhere. If the business wasn’t making money then it wasn’t really a business. But as we take a fresh look back at our business model and the numbers achieved, it struck us that with a little tweaking in our model, our sales approach and marketing activities, our business would have been great. That gives us comfort and a sense of peace. The feeling of knowing that what we created was appealing to people, is fantastic. Knowing that we were just off the mark from creating a fantastic business, is even more encouraging.
We have our lessons, our knowledge, our experience and new insights to work from. The future looks bright and so should yours if you have a similar story. Be passionate and romantic about your business, just stay true to good old business wisdom. It will help with the tough decisions during tough times.
