Archive for Seth Godin
What do you want from me, I just work here?
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Was just reading this post by Seth Godin and it reminded me of one of the big attitude problems you often find with businesses in Israel.
And that is that workers tend to treat their job as their job and nothing more. They don’t look to go the extra mile and they for sure are not interested in the “brand” they are working for. Of course their are exceptions to this rule as with every rule, but I the attitude is not just with businesses here in Israel, but with government offices as well.
If the store closes at 6:00pm, the worker has the lights off and is locking the door at 6:00pm. And if someone tries to come in they will here the excuse that the register is shut off. This even happened to me recently with a pharmacy when I needed medicine for my wife who was sick. The guy was sitting there and it would have taken him 2 minutes to get the medicine and take the money, but he refused because he was “closed”.
The problem is that the client is not as important to a worker here in Israel as he is to the boss. The boss/owner will almost always make exceptions ans try to take care of a client. This may be because it is good business practice, but then again it could be because of a Power Trip that comes with being the owner.
I think one of the underlining reasons for this stems from the boss/owner. It is his responsibility to create the culture and atmosphere that will make his workers feel like they are part of something special and that they are all building something together. Now I have not really ever worked for an Israeli boss, but somehow I get the feeling that the way the bosses in Israel treat their workers is similar to the way the workers treat their customers.
Who Cares? That’s the first question you should ask before you launch an idea
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Time and time again it pains me to see people launch businesses, websites, events and the like and as soon as I see the announcement I shake my head and say this is not going to work. How do I know that they are going to fail and why are they going to fail? Because they forgot to answer the one question that needs to be answered.
Who cares? Just because you think it is a good idea and you think it is a service you would like does not mean that everyone or even anyone else would share your passion or even pay for it.
People today are loaded down with so much going on in their personal and professional lives that time has become the greatest commodity.
Why should they spend time getting to know your product, site or to attend your event? What makes it worth spending time with you instead of with their children?
Before launching you MUST speak with your target market. Ask them if they like your idea, product or service. Ask them if they would pay for it and if so for how much. Don’t be afraid that someone is going to “steal” your idea. They won’t. It is not so easy to just hear about an idea and then do it yourself since passion is what will make you a success and it’s hard to become passionate about someone elses idea.
So before you go out and so whatever it is your going to do, go out and ask others if they care. A lot of times you may get some great feedback on how to make your product more valuable. You can findout that people would not care about your product unless… Unless what? Well you won’t know unless you ask!
Has any of my readers succeeded because they did some research before launching or failed because they did not ask? Please place them in the comments below.
Mashable presents Seth Godin Video on 7 tips for start-ups in a down market
Posted by: | CommentsAs readers of this blog know I am both a big fan of Seth Godin and of Mashable. Today Mashable posted a video asking Seth for tips for start-ups in todays down market. You can watch the video below. These tips are great advice for Israel entrepreneurs as well.
Viral Marketing: Download your free book, The Idea Virus, by Seth Godin
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Seth Godin is priceless. He is always giving away free advice from his blog and free books you can download, like this one called Unleashing The IdeaVirus. The best way to have your product our business succeed is having it spread like a virus. Quickly and penetrating everyone it comes in contact with. Is your new product viral? How can you make it viral? Read this book and move to the head of the class. Read this blog post for an example on how Seth got this book read by millions of people in a real life example of what he teaches you in his book.
