Access Florida Finance Corporation

How to Become the Expert in Your Niche

May 14, 2012 | lynb | Access Florida Finance Corporation, Business Tips, Newsletter | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

What does it mean to be an expert in a particular niche? What are people looking for in an ‘expert’? When people start looking for an expert in a particular field, they are looking for valuable information. Information that is valuable to them. They want to be taught something that they do not know.

Why do you want to be viewed as an expert within your niche? Expert status is a tool to increase the number of people who patronize your business. Creating expert status may be the missing step in taking your business to the next level.

So how do you become an expert within your niche?

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Startup Founders: Don’t Freak Out

May 7, 2012 | lynb | Access Florida Finance Corporation, AFFC Events, Business Tips, Newsletter | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment
by: Dharmesh Shah
When I was working on building my first start-up, Really Bad Things(TM) happened on an alarmingly regular basis. I was in my early 20s and living in Birmingham, Alabama (where there was no start-up ecosystem at the time). So, when something happened that we thought would quite possibly kill the company, one of us (I had a co-founder) would freak out. Sometimes, both of us would freak out. Sometimes, we would freak each other out. Then, we would ultimately decide to take the Scarlett O’Hara (Gone With The Wind) approach — “I’ll think about that tomorrow” and get back to work. After all was said and done, things worked out quite well. But, there were so many “near fatal” events, that we lost count.
I’ve since done two more startups and spent time with many, many entrepreneurs — often in some of their darkest days. I have one piece of advice that’s going to sound trite (because it is):

Don’t Freak Out. 

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Be committed to your BUSINESS, not your ‘business plan’

May 4, 2012 | lynb | Access Florida Finance Corporation, Business Tips, Newsletter, U.S. Business | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

- As a way to capture your current plan and thinking about the business, business plans are inefficient. Shortly after you’re done writing it (or editing it), you will realize that the plan is a little out-dated and does not reflect your current reality.

- Start-ups change constantly, especially in the early days when you’re trying to find product market fit. The market changes, you get more feedback from your customers, and your understanding of the opportunity changes. Even more simply, you might just change your mind.

- In the early days, your startup is likely changing so frequently that going through the effort of making sure your business plan keeps up with your latest thinking is frustrating and futile. You’re much, much better off spending that time and energy talking to customers and making the product better. The risk is that you revise the plan so much, have toiled so many nights getting it just right that you actually start becoming emotionally attached to the plan. It becomes your baby — not the business itself. This can be fatal.

Avoid becoming overly committed to what you’ve written down. Stay pragmatic and willing to change.