Some observations about business:

(Nota bene: I may have no idea what I’m writing about.)

You do not have to be number one to succeed. The most successful businesses I’ve observed have not been household names, but have served a niche market & served it well.

Be careful when “growing the business”. Looking for opportunities to “grow the business” is good. Making changes to make your product to appeal to casual customers at the expense of dedicated customers is suicide.

Don’t expect low-margin products to compete with high-margin products. Most companies need a range of related products to be successful. Some products will be high-margin; some, low. Don’t treat your products as separate businesses-within-a-business that compete against each other. There are benefits to having a comprehensive product line. Don’t make it simply about the profitability of individual products.

Size your company to the market for your products. Figure out what products you want to make & the size of the market for them. Size your company according to this. Don’t try to invent products to support a company of arbitrary size.

Don’t confuse “bad product” with “bad product category”. The “personal digital assistant” failed as a product. It wasn’t because the concept was bad, it was because the implementations were bad. Palm came along with a good implementation of the concept & made loads of money.

Never tell your customers that you’re predicating any future products in a category on the sales of a flawed product.

last updated 1 year ago #