Comments on: Developing an Online Business in Bursts of Madness

By: JC Hewitt

JC Hewitt — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:55:18 +0000

That makes a lot of sense! Thanks for sharing.

By: J. D. Bentley

J. D. Bentley — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 23:22:20 +0000

From my experience, it’s almost impossible to know who your niche is until you get yourself out there. This is all a part of being agile. The goal should most definitely be to find a niche, but if you’re starting with a niche then you might neglect to find or see bigger opportunities. I think it’s better to start broad and narrow things down based on what you like and what you see working.

By: J. D. Bentley

J. D. Bentley — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 23:19:29 +0000

I don't think we really have a formal method for applying this to sales. We have pretty much no overhead and what we're selling isn't cheap so we only need a handful of clients at a time. When the time comes we have a 'networking' week where our entire focus is connecting with people. This is where all of our clients have come from. We never really sell anyone on what we do until they've indicated that they like what we offer.

Anyway, lately this networking week has become less and less important because we've been getting better at networking. It's something we can do all the time now so we're seeing a steady influx of interest from potential clients.

But my best guess would be timeboxing networking. I'll be exploring the subject in the next few weeks and see if I can't come up with some better ideas.

By: Fabian | The Friendly Anarchist

Fabian | The Friendly Anarchist — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 21:07:13 +0000

Interesting … and making me think. This appears to be so true, yet not established in the mindset of most: "For someone wanting to start a web design business, this would mean setting up a one- or two-page website. It doesn’t mean deciding who your niche is." Now, of course it’s nice to know your niche and whatnot from the start, but it’s not a requirement. At least for the persons that prefer doing cool stuff instead of doing weeks of Adsense research. Good one, JD.

By: JC Hewitt

JC Hewitt — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:47:27 +0000

This sounds a lot like what Steve Blank writes about in his work on customer development.

I can't go to a conference without hearing experienced multi-millionaire entrepreneurs pumping this kind of process.

A business without any customers (but with plenty of funding) is more like an expensive hobby than a company.

I'd really like to hear more about how you apply this process to lead generation and sales. That tends to be where my organizational method breaks down. I'm great at it in short bursts, but it's like a completely different way of thinking to the actual work, so I have trouble organizing the two.