The Millionaire Fastlane
Page 34
Yes, I said it.
Business plans are useless because they’re ideas jacked-up on steroids.
Unless you count a barbecue-stained Hooters napkin, I never had a business plan. In fact, the best business plans are ad-hoc scribbles on notepads, old Arby’s bags, Baby Ruth wrappers, and voice memos on your iPhone. The problem with business plans is that they’re another manifestation of potential speed. Like supercharged garage queens, they aren’t any more powerful than the lawn mowers that sit next to them.
Business plans are useless until they are married to execution.
And guess what happens then?
The moment you execute, the world will tell you just what I told you: Your business plan is useless. The market (the world) will steer your business in unimaginable places that will violate everything about your business plan. Interview any successful entrepreneur and they’ll tell you that they started off with intention A and ended at intention B. They sell product X and ultimately end selling product Y.
The world tells you where you should be going, and no, the world doesn’t give two pence about your 150-page PowerPoint business plan.
Instagram started as a check-in location application. After hearing the market, it pivoted into a mass-market social network that focuses with a photographic emphasis. I started my website as a directory, and it transformed into a lead-generation portal. The world has the incorrigible power to corrupt business plans the moment the idea is transformed to reality.
However, this does not exempt financial analysis.
A blind jump into a business without knowing the specific financial constraints that govern that business would be foolhardy. When I made the decision to create a limousine website over a limousine company, I did a financial analysis. However, I didn’t get entangled in the intricacies and paralysis of planning, which is no substitute for execution.
Figure out what needs figuring and just go do it.
The world will do its job and tell you the directions to travel.
But I Want Venture Capital!
I know I know: I can hear the objections already. Without a business plan, how will you get venture capital? Or investors?
You can’t.
Without a business plan, you won’t get funding. But please, take heart, the issue isn’t your business plan nor will it ever be your business plan. The best business plan in the world will always be a track record of execution.
If you are a successful entrepreneur, suddenly people will want your business plan because they know you can execute. If I received a business plan from an entrepreneur who sold his company for $20 million just two years earlier, you can bet your sevens I’d read it. The value is not the plan, but the person giving it and his track record of execution.
Today, I know a circle of people who would read my business plan if I gave them one. They know I have a track record of execution that validates the business plan. If you don’t have a track record of execution, the business plan is a worthless piece of Kinkos-bound pulp.
Get Funded with Execution, not with Business Plans
I started my company on a shoestring and 900 bucks. No investors, no funding, and no help. The fact is, had I wasted 150 hours on a 95-page business plan, no one would have read it because I was unseasoned: I had no money, no track record, no races entered, no finishes, and no races won.
However, as I built and grew my business, something miraculous happened. As my ideas crystallized into tangible assets that could be consumed by the world, suddenly I became the approachable asset.
Venture capitalists and angel investors called me—I didn’t call them.
Suddenly, people wanted to see my business plan.
Why the sudden change of heart? Wasn’t I the same guy just years earlier?
Sure, but instead of an idea on paper, I had tangible results that reflected execution.
A common question on the Fastlane Forum is “How can I find investors for my idea?” It doesn’t matter if the idea is an invention or a great new website, my answer is never what these people want to hear.
If you want investors, get out and execute.
Create a prototype.
Create a brand.
Create a track record that others can see or touch.
Dive into process.
When you have a physical manifestation of an idea, investors will open their wallets. Heck, be good enough and they will be fighting to give you money.
You see, when you have nothing except 120 pages of text, charts, and graphs, that shows organizational skills, not execution. Angels to private equity never invest in business plans—they invest in people with track records of execution. That is your best business plan!
So if you really want to get funding for your business, get out and make your idea tangible. Give investors something they can see, touch, and feel. Give investors a glimpse of your execution, because that is what creates speed on the Fastlane.
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions
➡The world gives clues to the direction you should be moving.
➡Business plans are useless because they are ideas on steroids.
➡As soon as the world interacts with your ideas, your business plan is invalidated.
➡The marketplace will steer you into directions that were previously unplanned for.
➡The best business plan in the world is a track record of execution—it legitimizes the business plan.
➡If you have a track record of execution, suddenly people will want to see your business plan.
➡If you want your business to get funded, take action and create something that reflects tangible execution.
➡Investors are more likely to invest in something tangible and real; not ideas dissected endlessly on paper.
[40] - Pedestrians Will Make You Rich!
If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.
~ Jeff Bezos
The Bishop in Your Chess Match
When life is tough, we seek the counsel of priests, rabbis, or pastors. They are the “go-to” guys of life’s problems. Yet when it comes to your business, who is your go-to guy? Who is on the frontline with your customers? The bishop in business’s chess match is how you treat your customers—customer service. Your customer service should serve one function, similar to our men of the cloth, and that is to “always be there”: help, support, and resolve.
My Internal Roadmap: My Black Book
The Fastlane roadmap was my compass for wealth, but I also had an internal roadmap, and no, it wasn’t my business plan.
It was my little black book.
Nope, my black book wasn’t a treasure trove of telephone numbers from female hotties but a written record of all complaints, grievances, and issues my business experienced daily. This book has served as my guide for over a decade.
When business owners hear a complaint, most of them ignore it. Most of them pass the buck to an employee and pray the issue goes away.
Not in the Fastlane.
Complaints are a beautiful thing. They represent free feedback and expose unmet needs in your business. They represent the journey’s road noise.
I logged my customers’ complaints because they provided a kaleidoscope into the customer’s mind. One complaint meant there were 10 others who felt the same way. When my black book accumulated similar complaints weekly, I had to evaluate the issue and take corrective action.
Complaints are the world’s whispers hinting the direction you should be moving.
The Four Types of Road Noise (Complaints)
When the world unleashes its opinion on your new website, product, or concept, what should you expect? What should be addressed and what should be ignored? There are four types of complaints:
(1)Complaints of change
(2)Complaints of expectation
(3)Complaints of void and
(4)Complaints of fraud.
Complaints of Change
Change endangers comfort, expectancy, and security.
When I redesigned my website and hundreds of complaints poured in, I expected a certain degree of resistance. It’s normal. In fact, every redesign I’ve ever done in 10-plus years was met with resistance. The question for critique was, how much was normal? And how much was legitimate?
Complaints of change are the least informative and therefore are the ones most difficult to decipher. For my redesign failure, data confirmed that the complaints were substantial. Bounce rates tripled and my conversion ratio suffered. I had to suck up the failure, revert back, and start over.
When you change, there will be complaints. Guaranteed. And yes, not all of them are actionable simply because human psychology is in play, not the integrity of your work.
Complaints of Expectation
Complaints of expectation occur when you negatively violate customer expectations. You convince them to do business with you, they expect something, and what you provide doesn’t meet that expectation. This happens because either your service failed or their expectation was malformed by a deceptive marketing strategy. Regardless of which, both expose a problem. And it’s your problem, not the customer’s. You either need to do a better job in fulfillment or a better job in managing their expectations.
“Your service sucks.”
I heard that complaint hundreds of times and yet my company not only survived, it thrived. If my service sucked and I was told it sucked, how did my business succeed?
I dug into the claims.
Advertisers who complained, “Your service sucks,” didn’t use my service as designed. Their expectations were malformed. I owned a lead generation service that sent email leads to clients. The thing about leads is they must be followed. You don’t book leads after they sit in your email box for three weeks and then answer them like a first-grader. You don’t book leads when you log in to your account once every millennium. Yes indeed, my service sucks when it isn’t used properly.
Instead of targeting my customer, I sought to better manage expectations.
I made it abundantly clear that leads are only as good as the person following them. Unfollowed leads go unbooked.
Also, because most of my customers weren’t communicatively savvy, I launched educational campaigns to ensure professional responses. If I couldn’t manage the complaints, I could manage the expectations.
I knew if my customers were making money, they’d keep paying me.
When you order halibut at a restaurant and it’s served raw, your expectation of a well-cooked meal is violated. You complain. Yet, for the owner there is a bigger problem: Why was it raw? Is the chef incompetent? Does the kitchen process need retooling? Complaints of expectation expose operational issues, marketing misinformation, and/or product problems.
If you hire a home renovator who advertises “guaranteed bathroom remodels in two weeks” and the job takes two months, your expectations are violated and either the marketing campaign needs to reflect that truth, or the operation needs to be retooled to fit the expectation. Either way, operations or marketing needs change.
Complaints of Void
Complaints of void are when your customer continually requests something and you don’t have it. Complaints of void are extremely valuable, as they expose unmet needs.
Early in my lead generation days, one of the most common complaints I received from limousine service providers was, “I don’t do weddings!” Customers would request limousines for weddings and some providers didn’t offer wedding service. Likewise, many providers didn’t do airport transfers.
The complaints piled in and a pattern emerged.
I added a website feature that allowed providers to specify the services they offered—problem solved.
By fixing the issue, I raised the value of my leads.
Higher value equals greater magnitude, higher profits, and growing asset values.
Complaints of void are gold mines of opportunity. People freely tell you exactly what they want and you don’t have to pay for it! Unmet needs are served up on a silver platter.
Complaints of Fraud
In March 2005, a woman entered a Wendy’s restaurant and claimed that a dismembered human finger was in her bowl of chili. Her intent was not only to complain, but to sue. Fortunately, the fraudulent complaint was thwarted after the woman’s litigious past was exposed. The following month, Las Vegas police arrested the woman for grand larceny.
At the bottom of the barrel are fraudulent complaints.
Ask any business owner and they’ll confirm fraudulent complaints are the most disheartening because they reflect society’s worst: Illegitimate complaints designed to exploit the business owner.
I had to deal with fraudulent complaints almost weekly.
A customer typos a price and some idiot thinks that they are entitled to a limo for $5.00 an hour versus the $50.00 per hour. “You owe me or I will contact my attorney and sue!” Yes, I’m sure you have an attorney. Good luck with that, champ. You’re going to pay a lawyer $250 an hour to fight over a typographical error amounting to 45 bucks? Do you know what kind of fool you sound like?
Unfortunately, when you deal with millions of customers, you will encounter hundreds of Sidewalkers determined to get theirs. Yes, it can make you cynical because exploitive complainers are low-class frauds. When you drop a fly in your soup hoping to get a free meal, sorry, you’re a crook.
How do you deal with exploitive complainers?
You respond once with grace, explain your position, and move on.
Pick Your Battles
There’s an old saying, “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”
I started my business with an overzealous goal to keep everyone happy.
That soon proved to be insanity.
Complaints need to be managed with a balance, which is why I kept records. I wanted to identify patterns that would enhance the value of my service. I knew better products produced better customers, and better customers paid more.
Nowadays it’s easy to follow the complaints for your business. Twitter.com offers owners the ability to keep track of what customers say. Google alerts can notify you when a website mentions your company name. With social media, keeping track of feedback is easier, but deciphering the noise is difficult.
“I don’t want to pay for your service.”
Some complaints need to be ignored. If you try to make everyone happy, you’ll drive yourself nuts.
Pick your battles.
Solve complaints that add the most value while helping the most. As a business owner you must remember that, while you don’t have a boss, the person who pays your rent is your customer and they always should be heard—but sometimes ignored.
Use “Sucks” to Your Advantage
No need to sugarcoat it. Customer service in the modern age sucks. We have become so swamped by poor customer experiences from the world’s businesses that we now expect crappy customer service as a standard.
Have you ever called a computer manufacturer for support?
Or called your big national bank?
Or your health insurance provider?
Sucks. Sucks. And double-sucks.
Customer service today has become a lost art. Our service expectation for businesses has become so pathetic that we’ve been numbed to expect nothing positive: dismissed, disinterested, or worse, disregarded.
Down the block from my home, there is a strip mall with a corner restaurant that changes ownership every six months. Since I’ve lived in the neighborhood, four restaurants have opened and four have closed. While I can’t comment on the first three failures, and I can on t
he last.
When I dined at the latest restaurant’s incarnation, the food was decent but the service was deplorable. Drinks went unfilled. The silverware was dingy. The waitress was arrogant, as if our patronage was an inconvenience. After leaving, I thought, “That place ain’t gonna last,” and sure enough, a few months later the sign went up: “For Lease.”
While bad customer service is frustrating while playing our consumer role, it gives us entrepreneurs a great opportunity. Wherever customer service sucks, a great opportunity awaits.
You see, the beauty of expectation is that it works in reverse. While complaints of expectation are about the violation of expectations negatively, customer service that S-U-C-S is about violating expectations positively.
Exchange “Sucks” for “S-U-C-S”
You can explode your business into the stratosphere by deploying a customer service strategy that exceeds expectations: I call it SUCS, or “Superior Unexpected Customer Service.”
We all expect a certain level of suckage when it comes to customer service. This is an advantage for Fastlaners. For example, if I discover a $10,000 fraudulent withdrawal on my bank statement, my first instinct is to freak out. My second instinct is to call the bank to resolve the problem. At that point, my brain immediately creates a smorgasbord of expectations for the bank call. Here is my “expectation profile,” or what I expect:
✓I expect to hear a recorded message or an automated attendant.