Michael Gerber offers his third principle of small business success in The Most Successful Small Business in the World. He calls it the collaboration of all the parts of a business working together. What’s so special about this principle? It seems to be like a no brainer.  In this post, I will share how Gerber turns this no brainer upside down. Enjoy and prosper.
When We Started our Businesses
When we started our businesses, we started from our own perspective. We started with what we wanted from our businesses. How could the business operations serve our needs? We identified how much money we needed to make from our business. It was our business. It was our baby. It was our creation.
Gerber’s Genius
What if we started instead with the market place? Who are the people we serve and what problems or needs would our business solve for them? Gerber says, “Start with the market placeâ€. Without this starting point, we have no business or we have a business that always struggles.
I am reminded of similar thoughts from other greats in the business world. Eugene Schwartz in Breakthrough Advertising. We can never create a market. We can only tap into the desire or want that already exists. If no desire exists, we have no business.
Gary Halbert’s principle of the starving crowd. If we were to open a hamburger stand, what would be the most important ingredients to make it successful? Would it be the location; the quality of the hamburgers; customer service; the hamburger making system; the cost of the hamburgers? No, Halbert says our greatest chance of success would come from finding a hungry crowd!
Respond to the Market Place
Gerber says our second step is this market driven approach is our business idea. How will we solve this customer’s desire or problem? The strength of our business will only be as strong as our idea. Our idea needs to transforms the customer’s life around that problem we solve. This is the heart and soul of any successful business.
The Third Step
Only when we have completed these first two steps, do we organize our business functions. Our business functions are molded and shaped in response to the market place and our transforming business idea. All of the parts of a business, the marketing, the business model, the operations, the staff, the financing are created in response to the market place. It’s not about us. It’s about our response to the market place.
Conclusion
Gerber has turned upside down the approach to small business. Go to the market place to find the problem and create a bigger than life solution. Only when these two steps are completed do we start to organize our business functions.
How would we change our current business operations if we started from this market principle? How different would our business be if we changed our business to a response to the market place rather than our own business perspectives? Good questions to ask ourselves!
To be continued, your comments are welcomed…
Al Hanzal
