Sometimes it is necessary to step out of your comfort zone in order to succeed both in business and in life. And well, the other day was one of those times. I had a big meeting, or lunch rather, with a person in the local economic development agency and an entrepreneur, both looking to pull me into an absolutely huge project. And today acts as, sort of, an interview…
The entrepreneur owns a local printing company. One of the biggest in my tri-state area. Actually, it might even be the biggest. He knows printing, but doesn’t know the Internet – other than checking email and doing a bit of research. So it’s my job to take his thoughts and translate them to something that will be successful online.
In preparing for this interview, I did a couple things that you might not think about – but that are crucial to success.
- The first was to get my suit dry cleaned. This is by no means a necessity, but when they walked in and said, “What did you get so dressed up for!” I knew I got their attention.
- Secondly, the purpose of their meeting was to get an idea of whether or not a website clone was possible. Well, it wasn’t a clone, but a direct competitor. So I had my team work up some prices for that.
- Thirdly, I did research on the primary target, as well as their two competitors who are rooted in the bricks and mortar business. This was an easy enough challenge because all three are publicly traded. So it’s nothing more than hitting up Yahoo Finance and going through the process.
- And fourthly, the presentation. All of the information had to be presented in a clear concise manner – over a salad.
One side note, you should approach lunch meetings like you would a first date. Don’t get the pizza buffet, or spaghetti, or anything like that. Stay safe and eat chicken salad.. Personally, I love to eat, and I would hate for three or four helpings at the lunch buffet to deter a possible business partner.
As much as I hate saying it, image is everything.
The end result was the entrepreneur lined up the next meeting between him and I, at his facility. In the meantime, I have been doing more research and looking into the prospect of getting a couple grants. It is an interesting process, and I will be sure to keep you updated. Being that nothing is final, I can’t release the name of the target competitor, but their yearly revenue is $271 million without any other major players in the online market…
Any guesses?
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