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>> (I used to believe you got the product right, then sold it.. no sirree, that's not how big business really works). What would you have done differently in r

• petercooper 18y ago
  I'll say what I'd do now, and what I'm about to do on the "next" thing, having gained quite a lot of education and mentoring on the "business" side of things since then. I'd start selling. Day one. Even if the product or service I'm selling still needs to be developed, I'd work out who wants what I'm developing, what they'll pay for it, and how I can sell to them. Once I have the product working in a saleable form (think 37signals "Getting Real" levels of "done" here - not perfectionism at all), I'd switch 80% of energy to selling it. Cash is king. With cash coming in, I can pay other people to do the grunt work as well as work on improving the product. But.. selling is absolutely key. Last time I focused on making a kick ass product, and it worked, but I didn't know who the market was, and all the sales were from luck alone. I didn't sell the product whatsoever. It sold itself, but that's not a good strategy unless you have a mass market product. If you have a niche product, you need to be selling it yourself from day one. I would highly recommend a book called "Ready, Fire, Aim" by Michael Masterson ( http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Fire-Aim-Million-Agora/dp/0470182024 http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Fire-Aim-Million-Agora/dp/047018... ). It outlines the whole process of successfully generating a high revenue business from start to finish, and is written by someone who has launched several businesses that have gone on to reach 8 and 9 figure revenues.