As we start the second decade of the 21st century, one thing is clear, you must design your business for the web. The MADE in 48 HOURS Bootcamp was designed to help entrepreneurs understand that the Matrix exists.
There really is a global network which connects us all. At first glance the World Wide Web appears to be millions of individual sites connecting billions of Internet users, but what truly exists is a fairly uniform, coherent system that connects buyers and sellers worldwide.
You must, as a business owner, understand that system and you must learn how to leverage its properties, if you want your business to thrive. Build your business without mastering these principles and your competitors will beat you to the sale every time.
In the film Apollo 13, stranded astronauts had to use scarce resources to make a square carbon scrubber fit into a round hole. Failure to achieve this objective would mean asphyxiation in deep space. With help from home, those hard pressed men did the previously impossible.
Small business owners are forever becoming experts at doing something with nothing. Startups and small enterprises can’t afford the top media folks, they can’t hire the big SEO teams, they can’t hire press teams to promote their products. They don’t have the resources. But, with our help, entrepreneurs can become experts in how to find customers online, and they can learn how to make sure their customers can find them.
The tools and techniques we show you may seem counter intuitive. Sometimes we will buy ads on Google for a few pounds only to abandon Adwords in order to undertake Search Engine Optimization. Sometimes we’ll tell you to stop posting messages on Facebook, and start posting videos on Youtube instead. Understanding the web means you know how to use tools to achieve your objectives even when you are using them in ways their creators never intended.
As you move through these materials, we’d like you to remember one thing.
“The Heart of Your Business is the Value You Provide Your Customer”
You must understand exactly how your business delivers something completely and entirely unique in the world to those you serve. You cannot be “just another web developer”, “just another catering company”, “just another florist”. The world . . . the web is too small. Your customers are now able to find and buy from exactly the business they want.
“What unique promise do you make your customers?”
Are you the “Leeds Bakery with the Best Brioche in Town”? Are you the “Ethical Florist”? Are you the “Number Two Car Rental Company that Always Tries Harder”? Don’t begin marketing your business online until you know who you are and who your customers want you to be.
If you can’t completely and persuasively sum up your entire business in 140 characters, start with our Brand Identity exercises. We’ll teach you how to derive your unique sales proposition and the related keywords you can use to promote your business world wide.
You are the secret waiting to be discovered by people looking for the promise you make . . .
WHAT DO YOU THINK?