A fter reading just a few pages, it’s easy to see why everyone raves about Eric Ries’ invaluable manual “The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses.” Ries is a fantastic writer, but two aspects of his writing style separate him from the pack of typical business writers and keep you turning pages: He is intellectually honest and cheerful about his business insights. Eric takes a common notion in business — “fail fast, succeed fast” — and breaks it down into a system that works for businesses and keeps consumers happy. “The Lean Startup” recommends the use of a minimum viable product, or MVP, to gauge demand before you embark on major product development. Forbes describes an MVP as “a product with only a basic set of features, enough to capture the attention of early adopters and make your solution unique.” If you jump into building the best product possible before measuring what your consumers actually need, you risk wasting a lot of time. Market research can tell you a lot, but MVPs can tell you even more. Plus, if your initial rollout is successful, you can respond quickly to consumer feedback and tailor your final product to specific needs.
Jump-Start Your Business With Eric Ries’ ‘The Lean Startup’
but he also warns against putting any real value in vanity metrics, which TechCrunch describes as data points, “like registered users, downloads, and raw page views.” Anyone can generate immediate hype for a product, but it’s another thing to maintain constant engagement and experience growth of consumer interest. With a good MVP and continued improvement of your service or product, your business will see that growth and also retain customers. Ries’ guidance does not end with MVPs and vanity metrics; here are some other key takeaways that will keep you on the lean startup path when it’s most daunting.
“It’s the boring stuff that matters most.”
“Remember if we’re building something that nobody wants, it doesn’t much matter if we’re doing it on time and on budget.”
“Customers don’t care how much time something takes to build. They care only if it serves their needs.”
In the epilogue, Eric’s intellectual honesty shines; he readily admits that some readers may take his theories as a means to justify their past business actions. But he encourages everyone to use his book instead as a guide for what they will do next in their entrepreneurial journey.
Throughout his book, Ries emphasizes the importance of consumer feedback for the success of your business,
A Better Resolution
T his year,
fewer people than ever are making New
Year’s resolutions, and it’s not hard to see why. A 2015 report from U.S. News & World Report found that 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail. More recent studies put the failure rate as high as 92%. If New Year’s resolutions don’t work, why bother making them? The truth is that it’s not the resolutions that are the problem. Instead, the problem is people are never taught the right way to make New Year’s resolutions. In the spirit of better resolutions, here are three tricks for making strong 2020 goals. Focus on Major Areas Start by identifying 4–5 major areas of your life that you want to strengthen. These could be your physical health, business, spiritual health, personal relationships, or even your mental well-being. Once 2
you identify your major areas, create three goals for each one. If you find yourself constantly stressed, a goal for your mental health could be to make more time for relaxing hobbies. If you want to boost your business, make a goal to revamp your marketing campaigns. Having many goals means many opportunities for improvement. Write a Game Plan Strong goals come with a built-in game plan. When you write down your goals, which you should always do, format them in a way that is actionable. “I want to exercise more,” becomes, “I will go to the gym before work three times a week.” “I want to spend more time with my spouse,” is more actionable when written as, “Every Monday, my spouse and I will plan our Friday date night together.” Talk About Your Goals No matter what goals you set, nothing works unless you hold yourself accountable to achieving them. The best way to do this is by telling someone about your goals. Ask a friend or family member to be your accountability partner and periodically check in on how your goals are doing. If you know your best friend is going to ask about your goals, it’s harder to give up on them when things get tough.
Need an accountability partner for your 2020 goals? I’d be happy to help. Email Deb@DLJTaxServices.com and tell me all about your goals for the New Year! I’d love to hear everyone’s big plans and help you get there.
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