About John Jantsch
|
| John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and author of Duct Tape Marketing - The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide (foreword by Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth) published by Thomas Nelson - due out in the fall of 2006
He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system and Duct Tape Marketing Authorized Coach Network.
His Duct Tape Marketing Blog was chosen as a Forbes favorite for small business and marketing and is a Harvard Business School featured marketing site. His blog was also chosen as "Best Small Business Marketing Blog" in 2004, 2005 and 2006 by the readers of Marketing Sherpa. |
Recent Article:
Build Your Boats Before You Need Them
- For more on John Jantsch visit www.ducttapemarketing.com
A lot of folks thinking about starting a business spend all their time doing the typical start-up stuff like incorporating, finding office space, and designing business cards. All good and needed steps mind you, but don’t neglect the most important step.
If you are employed today and thinking about going out on your own, start talking to prospects first, start exploring your ideas with them, start asking them to become clients - before you ever open the doors. In fact, if you can swing it, offer to work for some potential clients for free, before you take the leap. (If you have a job I am certainly not talking about moonlighting at your employer’s expense.)
The thing that many start ups neglect most often is market research. Many failed businesses are so because they never figured out how to get profitable customers. I’m not saying that you spend all your time on research, you know I want you to take action, but you’ve got to start hanging out with your prospects and seeing what it takes to earn their trust and you should do this way before you must do it to eat.
Too many potential small business owners are waiting around for the day when they have a big enough nest egg built to jump right into the deep end while they try to figure out how to build their boat. If you play your cards right you might just get to wade into the safe end of the pond with a sea worthy boat in hand the day your open sign turns around - that’s the leap you should be looking to take.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 |
Related Articles |
|
 Wanting
|
| |
Summary
It is not things that are going to make us happy but our willingness to grow as a human being and share that growth with others. In this way we will make our small mark on the world. Grow through your readi...
|
|
Lesson #3: Enjoy The Process
|
| |
 “It's not that I want money,” says Buffett. “It's the fun of making money and watching it grow.”
|
|
Lesson #2: Never Surrender
|
| |
 “All my life people have said that I wasn’t going to make it,” said Turner. “They laughed at me when I started with CBS. They laughed at me when I started CNN. They laughed at me when I bought the Braves. They laugh...
|
|
Lesson #1: Ensure Efficiency
|
| |
 “The secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well,” said Rockefeller. “According as you put something in, the greater will be your dividends of salvation.”
|
|
Laughter is the Best Revenge
|
| |
I try to be a better person. I strive to be a better person. But I think it's part of human nature to wish ill of people who have done us harm. The artist Paul Gauguin said, "Life being what it is, one dreams of rev...
|
|
|
More John Jantsch
|
|
![[Get Copyright Permissions]](http://license.icopyright.net/images/icopy-w.gif){kind=small}
