Probably
most exciting company to not only survive, but come out strong out of dot-com crash of late 90's is Google Inc. Having started out small as a company operated in garage of a friend and employing a staff of three, Google's meteoric rise to a top name on Internet is not really that perplexing when we analyze core strengths and policies of this company.I am a super-fan of Google. I am also a fan of studying success so that I can learn from it. Here are a few key points that you, as a home based business entrepreneur, can learn from Google:
1) Capital Isn't Everything
It may be hard for newcomer to home based business scene to swallow this fact. After all, more capital investment would mean more money to spend on advertising and building a home business. Its tempting to think how your business would be right now if you had, say $100,000 to start with, instead of meager $1000 you scrambled to get from selling things around your home.
But here's one thing more important than capital - ingenuity. Ingenuity involves making best of resources available to you, making every advertising dollar count, and treating every customer or prospect invaluable to your business.
Capital in wrong hands, in hands of an inexperienced entrepreneur or marketer, is just a waste of money. Ingenuity, on other hand, can turn a $1000 capital into a thriving business. And yes, when you get ingenuity part right, then whatever extra capital you get would be worth so much more.
2) Differentiate and Win - Think Outside Box
Innovation, ability to think outside box and a willingness to test ideas and make mistakes is trademark of any truly successful company, especially in Google's case. Recently when Google's Gmail was launched, many ISPs and email providers were scrambling to offer more space to their free email accounts, simply because Google offered 1G of space. What they didn't get, however, was that Gmail was more that just about space.
So how did Google differentiate? They turned what would otherwise been just another email service into something much more. It is, as any user would be able to testify, best way to store, organize and find information contained in emails. Keeping track of business responses and follow-ups is a breeze with Gmail. Try it yourself if you cannot believe that statement.
Many home based business entrepreneurs, especially ones involved in network marketing, shiver at word "saturated". In a network marketing environment it may dawn upon every person, at one point or another, that there are many others with products and opportunities that are similar to theirs, and products that they are expected to sell may be in highly competitive industries. I felt that way once too, but here's real question - what can you offer?
Not too long ago a friend of mine, after completing her course on cosmetics, offered free facials and beauty consulting to promote cosmetic products sold by her network marketing company. By doing things most people were not doing at that time, she simple blew competition away.
So what can you contribute to your home based business to make it different, to make it stand out from crowd?
3) Give Your Customers Exactly What They Want
The success of Google's AdWords and AdSense is due to this simple fact - they gave advertisers exactly what they wanted. Marketers wanted a quick, results based, and dynamic advertising tool, and they got Adwords. Website owners wanted more advertising revenue, but did not want hassle of maintaining it over hundreds of pages that they have, and they got Adsense.
Its a pretty simple strategy - understand what your customers want and give it to them!
My ex-sponsor in my old network marketing company used to say that in order for me to move their nutritional supplements, I had to teach people that supplements can prevent many hazardous illnesses. Prevention is better than cure. But here's what I learned in a few years - majority of people are looking for cures, not prevention. Most of people I met in Malaysia are looking for a cure to sleeping disorders, a cure for fatigue, a cure for arthritis, and so on.
