Yesterday, I wrote an article on SmugMug. One of the commenters was a founder of the company, Chris MacAskill. He stopped by and offered some additional ‘personal startup points’ which I think are a great addition to the article. Among them, Chris said, “Our mantra has been, “be different or be damned…”
To me, that advice is worth about a million dollars to any entrepreneur…
You HAVE to be different if you are looking for insane success. Your product has to be a bit cooler. Your marketing a bit tighter. Your customer service and response time exceptional.
Does your product have its own spin?
The great tech companies have been built, not because of innovation, but because they bought innovation and spun it just a bit differently. Microsoft didn’t innovate Windows, they bought it. Apple didn’t invent mp3 players, but they made them cool. Google didn’t invent search, but a lot of people think they did!
Even taking that down to a personal level, entrepreneurs and innovators are different. Who in their right mind would foresake a paying job so they could put in long hours and build a company of their dreams? At the risk of a guaranteed weekly paycheck? Me for one!
Furthermore, who said that a photo sharing website could actually make money? No one did!! But a few people thought differently. Hence, SmugMug’s extraordinary success.
Do you refer your competitor? Maybe you should start!
One of the things I picked out in the TechCrunch article was that this:
Yahoo, Flickr’s parent company, meets with the SmugMug team regularly and the Yahoo user interface team has recently sung the praises of SmugMug
I think this kind of interaction is extraordinary.
I used to work at a local cell phone retailer in my area, Cellular One. At the time, the big local competitor was Verizon. Instead of trying to push a Cell One phone on a customer, I would tell them to shop around. Explore the possibilities. If a Verizon plan would fit their needs better, then by all means, go for it!
Wouldn’t you know that those people I sent away came back. I was ‘salesman of the month’ 7 times out of 16. The funny part was telling upper management that the reason for my success was that I sent the customers away to shop Verizon! I told you I think differently!!
All I did was assess their options and recommend the best plan. It was up to the customer to choose!
Be different
If you are starting a business, think a bit bigger than everyone else. I don’t mean that in a wishy-washy, you can do anything sense, but if your idea is legitimate then run with it. If you have a need that just isn’t being met by current offerings, build a new product. Design a new site.
Just make sure you put your spin on it. “Be Different Or Be Damned.”
Thank you Chris!
No related posts.
{ 2 comments }
Great article. I very much agree that most businesses are black sheep, simply cloning the current trend in their industry. The companies that have made it, like Apple, Google, and Smug Mug, truly “thought differently” about their core business model and image. It worked! These companies are all very succesful and to be different in this world, is to stand out in a positive way.
Very nice quote, it is similar to what Gary Hamel says about companies:
“they know how to get better but they don’t know how to get different!”