From ” Ready, Fire, Aim. $0 to $100 million in no time flat”.

Summary : Part One of Four+

Michael Masterton is a serial entrepreuner and advisor to many business owners.

His philosophy is one of choosing action over perfection. He breaks the life cycle of a business into 4 stages – Infancy, Childhood, Adolescence, Adulthood.

In Infancy, Masterton’s advice is highly practical. Focus on sales, sales and sales.

Your business is a train, sitting on the tracks. ” You want to get it going, not spend time polishing it. You should put coal in the furnace and get the boiler hot. Steam runs the pistons, polish doesn’t”.

Why it matters: This is a book for entrepreneurs. Hopefully that is you.

Here are his observations on businesses in their infancy.

* Don’t waste your time on corporate marketing.
Don’t do marketing that is based on building a brand. Do marketing that is focused on sales, getting leads, and growing a customer base.

* Don’t waste money on invisible business extras like office space, furniture, equipment and the like.

* Don’t be misled by phony business experts.
Be careful who you listen to. Have they succeeded in the field they are advising in?

* Be proud of your business acumen, but don’t be arrogant about your business ideas.
Have the confidence to back yourself, but don’t let your ego get in the way if your ideas are wrong.

* Ask for advice from smart people.
However successful you become, reach out to others for advice.

* Don’t ever believe you know more than your market.
You may know a lot about your product or service, but don’t commit yourself to a major idea until you have tested the market.

* Make sales your company’s top priority.
Don’t delegate responsibility for this role. Hire and manage well, but you need to be in the driver’s seat of this process.

* Learn everything you can about sales and marketing.
Read and listen to everything, and everyone you can. This will help you with your business, and allow you to start a 2nd and 3rd business.

* Discover your optimum selling strategy  (OSS)- the combination of media, pricing and positioning that brings you the most qualified leads.
Working out the best channel and message for your company is your main job. Once you have that, you can leverage your activities.

* Understand pricing. Learn the balance between winning orders, and making profit. All other things being equal, go for more customers and growing your client base.

* Understand Allowable Acquisition Cost (AAC).
Understand two sides of marketing – allowable acuisition cost and lifetime value. Know what you can afford to spend to win a customer.

* Make your marketing goal to bring in a number of qualified customers.

* If possible use direct mail or email to discover your optimum selling strategy.
This gives you a low cost mechanism with fast feedback.

* Don’t invest a lot in inventory until you have figured out your OSS.
There’s cheap ways to test such as selling, then making or fulfilling the orders.

Check out the book…

Three Great Ideas You Can Use:

1. Developing a sales strategy is absolutely essential to any business venture. Developing an “Optimum Selling Strategy” can be the difference between success and failure.

2. Understanding the difference between marketing and sales is also critical. Learning this and putting it to work can be the difference between success and failure. Development of the Unique Selling Proposition for our business is crucial as well.

3. Every start up business needs four personality types to make it work: a seller, an improver, an organizer and a pusher. Identifying those business types in your business will make success much more likely.

+ Still to come: Childhood, Adolescence, Adulthood.

Ready, Fire, Aim : Stage One (of Four): Infancy is a post from: Venture Capital Centre. Click Here To Download Our Free E-Book Explaining Exactly How To Create A Business Plan That Investors Will Read