Test. Test. Test.
Everything in business is a test. The good ol' days - writing a business plan, pitching for investment, building out a product for the exact market stated in the business plan, launching the product through a large budget Launch strategy - those days are over.
As an entrepreneur, you should now consider yourself a scientist. Your job now is to run as many tests as possible, with the least amount of expenses to find mass adoption of your product. The tests should start in the ideation phase and shouldn't ever end. The single worst thing you can do now as an entrepreneurial is have one idea and do everything you can think of to bring that specific idea to market. Start with a problem area and test ideas around it.
Test for consumer problems
What problems are present in which you can bring a solution to market? The best businesses solve a problem consumers have (or didn't know they had but now realize life is better with your product). I heard the other day: You cannot just ask consumers what they want - they do not know. But if you observe and test them, their actions will lead you to holes that need to be filled. Inefficiencies will present themselves. Great entrepreneurs see these inefficiencies early.
Test for Product/Market fit
Once a problem is found and a solution has been built, the real work starts. Take it from me, your first attempt will not be the golden fit and you will have to re-align somethings. Call it pivot, call it whatever you want... it will happen. I don't know why we are making such a big deal about pivoting, great entrepreneurs constantly pivot their ideas until they get the right market fit. Ask Edison, he pivoted like 5,000 times...
Test for Business model
How to make money is the question every company must face. I believe this is an area a startup must test early and often. This question should never have just one answer. Small tests on business model, payment options, advertising (I know... I know....) and other methods of creating revenue. It's just a test. Do some A/B testing on a select group on users. Release a payment option to 1% of users and see what happens. You might just discover your next big innovation and create a new billion dollar industry.
Test for Perseverance
Ask any founder of a startup (still running) and they will have hours of talking on the subject of perseverance. The startup experience will test you and your perseverance. Just don't give up. Do anything you can think of to put off the quitting of your vision. Read Delivering Happiness by Zappos Tony Hsieh to get an idea on Perseverance. I had no idea they went through the hell they did with their startup. You need to read this book if you are a founder of an early stage company not knowing if the future is bright or bleak.
Test for leadership
I laid out the importance of brand and company leadership expansively in my last post The One Thing That Separates Apple From Microsoft. Suffice it to say I think this is the most underrated, under-talked about, overlooked but most important aspect of building out your long term brand. You must answer he question: Why are consumers going to want to use my product? Believe it or not, it will be due to the leadership of the company CEO. Test your leadership skills early and often to find the right connection with general consumers.
Test for Funding
Investors don't tell you this, but they are testing you at every stage of the game. First time you meet them at a "social event" they are testing your IQ and your EQ (your social intelligence) to see if you are someone they would even want to take an interest in. Next time when you meet for a pitch, they will test your concept and your perspective on the market. When they don't call you back, they are testing your perseverance. When they give you money, they are testing your ability to turn X into 10X. If you pass that test, you will most likely be able to get money from them anytime thereafter.
I could go on... but I think you get the point. If you thought your tests were over after graduation, think again. They only have just begun. Embrace the test.
Image courtesy of Flickr user Canyon289
Boasting popular sporting events and original entertainment shows, cable programmers long ago surpassed the broadcast networks in viewers.
Now they are beginning to close the advertising-revenue divide.
"For the first time, the cable upfront take will be greater than the broadcast upfront," Bill Koenigsberg, chief executive of Horizon Media, said this week at the National Cable & Telecommunications Assn. convention in Chicago.
This year, many top cable channels, including Time Warner's Turner networks, have been able to raise their ad rates by more than 10% in the so-called upfront market, the period when advertisers place their orders for the bulk of the commercial time for the upcoming TV season.
Of course, it is slightly unfair to compare the ad revenue of scores of cable channels with that of the five major broadcast networks, but cable being poised to take in more ad revenue is nevertheless a symbolic moment for the industry.
Broadcast networks still fetch a premium for their 30-second spots because most of their programs are watched by much larger audiences than those for most cable shows.
With cable, however, advertisers can focus more on select audiences. For example, home-improvement stores buy time on home and garden shows, while movie studios can zero in on the younger audiences drawn by MTV or ABC Family.
Demand for national cable TV advertising is up about 8% compared with last year, Tim Spengler, president of Initiative North America, said at the convention. Cars, banks and other financial services, national retail stores, pharmaceutical firms, technology companies and Hollywood movie studios have been among the strongest advertising categories, he said.
"We are also seeing more spent on online video," Koenigsberg said.
However, he cautioned that the strong upfront market doesn't necessarily mean that economy is bouncing back. "I don't think the barometer of this upfront is a predictor for the future," he said. “The jury's still out on whether or not the money is going to continue to flow in."
Advertisers were encouraged to buy time during this spring's upfront market, because those who sat on the sidelines last year were punished. Prices for commercials spiked by 30% or more later in the year. So this year, advertisers placed their orders early.
One area where cable is not making gains is political advertising. Cable networks hoping for a bigger slice of the 2012 campaign-spending pie might be disappointed, particularly when it comes to the presidential race, warned to two top political advisors -- David Axelrod, senior advisor to President Obama, and Ed Gillespie, former counsel to President George W. Bush.
Cable news networks CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC will attract plenty of political dollars -- but presidential candidates most likely will continue to steer the bulk of their dollars to local TV stations, Axelrod said.
"We spent the vast majority of our money last time on broadcast television," Axelrod told attendees at the cable convention. Only 12% of the money went to cable television, he said, adding that about 68% of the dollars went to TV stations in battleground states.
"It's still the nuclear weapon," Axelrod said of TV stations. "We will probably spend a little more on cable this time, but there still are barriers in cable television that we need to overcome."
He explained that more commercial spots are up for grabs on local broadcast stations, and that candidates have a greater level of assurance that their messages hit the right geographic targets. "It is a national campaign, but it is delivered locally," he said.
Decisions also come down to how much money the various candidates raise.
"If the president has a billion dollars to spend in the election, you know they will be buying time on "American Idol" and "NCIS" and our nominee will be buying the Cooking Channel in Butler County, Ohio," Gillespie, the Republican said.
-- Meg James
RELATED:
Fox Broadcasting upfront advertising sales approach $2 billion
What we learned about the fall 2011 TV season at the 'upfronts'
ABC wraps up advanced advertising sales, generating more than $2.2 billion in prime-time
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