Entrepreneurs and egos
From BradInman.com
By Inman News, Thursday, March 11, 2010.When bringing an idea to life, strategy defines a startup's success, said Inman News Publisher Brad Inman in a recent blog post.
Rather than doing it all, he said, a winning strategy involves picking a specific area of focus. Ideally, that focus should involve developing a solution to a problem. Especially when opportunities seem endless and demand for something like online video is expanding rapidly, as with his TurnHere and Vook businesses, strategy is key to making sure you are providing value and maximizing your investment, he said.
A good strategy depends on assembling and listening to a team of managers, board of directors, investors and advisors with diverse viewpoints -- some of which do not agree with yours, Inman said.
"Entrepreneurs often get blinded by the purported brilliance of their first strategy or their first product, and we get stubborn about changing. Our egos are often big, our pride is bigger and moving off a position is difficult. Smart coaching by investors can help. Bottom line: The committee in my head should not be my single source of direction," Inman said.
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Submitted by Chris Freeman on March 12, 2010 - 9:08am.
"The committee in my head should not be my single source of direction."
I think that says it all!
Chris Freeman
Chief Technology Officer
WOLFNET www.wolfnet.com
Submitted by Barrett Powell on March 14, 2010 - 12:25pm.
I have 4 products I am trying to bring to market; a Real-Estate CRM/Portal Solution, a Real-Estate Document Management Solution, a neat little GIS to GPS solution, and a Wordpress/Social Networking/SEO/Content framework solution.
My problem is two fold. 1) Picking which one to focus on first, and 2) Listening to people around me.
With the first problem, picking one, I am constantly contacted by people from all over the County, in some cases the world, asking when one or the other will be available. I made the mistake of posting a YouTube video demo before I was really ready. Each time I'm ready to start focusing I get a bunch of e-mail inquiries for the other apps.
With the second problem, I find it is difficult sometimes to communicate your vision. For example, I sat with one of the folks on the team that is helping me bring the Agent Framework solution to market. She is focused on the SEO portion of the project. She if very intelligent and knows what she is talking about. We are working on the order and setup process when an agent or firm wants to order the solution. One of the steps has to do with setting up the key works and phrases that identify who the firm or agent is and who and what they focus on. This task in itself is difficult with agents and firms to just get them to narrow their focus and describe what they do best.
So we are working on this and in my mind I am approaching it as if I am sitting with an agent or firm going through a business review and business planning session. Eventually we work down to what everyone does best; what demographic they focus on or what area or neighborhood they know best. My SEO expert was approaching from a purely analytics approach, how many people are looking or what information. In the end, we reached the same conclusions; we just came at from a different point of view.
And there lies the challenge many times...technology people approach solutions from a non-Real-Estate side. So it is difficult to give up and go with the committee if you're not sure the committee is on the same page.
Barrett Powell, Owner/Broker/Consultant
Southern Advantage Companies
RSA Software & Consulting
288 East Street, PO Box 1427
Pittsboro, North Carolina 27312
http://www.REMAXChatham.com
http://wbarrettpowell.wordpress.com
barrett.powell - Skype
wbarrettpowell@gmail.com