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Page 114 GO IT ALONE!
- Guglani is emphatic about testing and learning from customers. In this regard, he describes himself as risk averse. Nothing is implemented without relentless experimentation and customer feedback. “We test and then we retest,” he says. “And the market can change, which means we can’t assume what worked at one time will continue to work. The biggest challenge in doing business day to day is to keep the patience and discipline that has brought us to this point. Each day we fight the urge to dive into untested waters and quench our thirst to accelerate.”
Emoonlighter.com’s success accelerated when it changed its pricing model to take a percentage of the revenue earned by freelancers from jobs it helped them secure. Once again, this is a common theme that runs through this book: Startups often test a variety of business and pricing models, and their success is often built on finding the right innovation in this area. They find the payment system that makes the most sense for each party to the transaction. Blake Barker, an entrepreneur writing in an article distributed by Business Week Online about his experiences, echoed the importance of ensuring that time is not working against you. Indeed, Barker suggests that the central business model innovation that made his firm a success, a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) designation, took at least a year to earn. But because he carefully analyzed his market prior to launching his business, Texas Beef and Pork Company (www.texacan.com), he understood that this would be the basis for the competitive advantage of his effort, and he built sufficient time into his launch schedule.
. . . you must take the time to understand the market, the competition, and, above all, to reinforce your unique selling proposition. At Texacan, we wholesale and retail specialty meats. Period. That’s what we do. . . .
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GO IT ALONE! Copyright 2004 by Bruce Judson. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
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