All business and professions are about one thing – creating value for someone else. When you are able to create value for someone, you can expect to be paid for it. The more value you can create, the more you will earn. Focus on creating value and you will have a valuable enterprise.
Advice from Masters – Quotes & Tips on Creating Value
Your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them. Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.
Your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.
The most valuable thing you have to give people is yourself. No matter what you think you’re selling, what you’re really offering is you.
Bob Burg – Author – The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea
The key question you must consider is, “What problem do I solve?”
Christopher Locchead – Author – Niche Down
Questions to check your value hypothesis:
Is a problem or desired benefit strong enough? Does the solution fit the customer expectations? Is the customer ready to pay a certain price? Do we know who our early evangelists are?
Donatas Donikar – Author – Start-up Evolution Curve
Value is created when a person makes something useful and shares it with the world.
Chris Guillebeau – Author – The $100 Startup / The Art of Non-Conformity / Side Hustle / Born for This / The Happiness of Pursuit
Fortune-seekers can rarely sustain their passion through the hard times. Successful enterprises are laser-focused on Value Provided to Customers. Entrepreneurship is not about you; it’s about effectively serving others.
Timothy Clark – Author – Business Model You
Recommended Books on Creating Value
The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you
Authors: Rob Fitzpatrick,
Questionnaires and surveys are filled with lies — you’d rather ask your Mom about your product than waste your resources by asking consumers. Unless, you find the right way to do it. In Mom Test, Rob Fitzpatrick shares the Dos and Don’ts of building strong consumer relationships, and most importantly, how you can detect their lies.
Start Something That Matters
Authors: Blake Mycoskie,
Are you’re a passionate person with a dream and a purpose for your life? Do you want to do something you love and serve the world through it? If you want to become an entrepreneur and a humanitarian at the same time — Start Something that Matters is the right book for you. The owner of TOMS or as he is often called, the Chief Shoe Giver shares how he integrated profit and social good while having fun.
The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea
Authors: Bob Burg,John David Mann
Bob Burg gives you the story of Joe, a young and ambitious man who seeks success and realizes that real success comes looking for you not when you are a go-getter, but rather when you’re a go-giver. Burg unravels the power of giving importance to the interests of others — the secret to fulfilment and success on an individual and organizational level. In his classic style of narrating, Burg reminds the reader of the timeless proverb — “Give and you shall receive.”
Other concepts on Entrepreneurship
Test Marketing
Often there can be significant differences between our perceptions of what our customers want, and what our customers truly want. Gut and Instinct are often poor predictors of actual consumer demand, as are the encouraging words of our close friends and family. Before you invest significant time, energy and money into developing a product, it is essential that you actually test if people will buy what you are creating.
1000 True Fans
‘1000 true fans’ is a concept that explains why it is not essential to be famous and have a huge following to earn a successful living working on your passion. In fact, all you need are a much smaller set of passionate fans (1000 for example), who become your marketing evangelists and core customers.
TIM – Time Income Mobility
While the vast majority of people chase money, the ‘new rich’ have learnt the value of finding an optimal balance of TIM (Time, Income & Mobility) instead. There are 2 major advantages of focusing on TIM – (1) Having time and location flexibility, can lead to your money being worth a lot more (2) Time and Location independence can lead to happiness and content, which money simply can’t buy.
Your team
Your business is only going to be as good as the people who run it. All successful entrepreneurs know that putting together the right team of professionals is one of the most critical steps for any businesses success, while newbie entrepreneurs often try to do it largely alone. Learn to surround yourself with superstars, and you are sure to succeed in any endeavor.