Successful entrepreneurs are not built in a day. It takes undiluted passion, multiple failures, lot of grit and a long term (read eternal) commitment to empathize with customers to earn the crown of ‘entrepreneurship’.
But in a business landscape which is already thriving with many innovators, how do you as an entrepreneur cut through the clutter and carve a niche for your business? Especially when you have to be on your toes most of the times, shuttling between customers - current and prospective, business partners, business functions leads and more.
While talking to some of our customers, who are successful entrepreneurs, we learned some of the strategies that can give an entrepreneur a power boost. Here is a quick recap of the same, for you to ponder.
By committing to achieve customer delight. Always.
While the strategy to create a dent in the market may be different for different businesses, at the core of it all is focusing on offering ‘customer wow’, whether you are at your office or on the go. Here the customer can be your product’s end-consumer, partners, and even employees.
For instance, one of Signeasy's customer, Roman Rytov, Co-founder and Chief Wheeling Officer, Wheely Grilly, a grill-on-the-wheel food truck operating out of Atlanta, GA shared in a recent interview that the lightening speed at which he responds to his customers gives his business a powerful edge over others.
Sharing the reason, Roman said, “The speed of reaction is what differentiates us from other food trucks. When we respond within a few minutes after the inquiry has been sent with the total package and all the paperwork signed (while others ask for extra time to get to the scanner), it creates an overall impression of professionalism and excellent execution.”
The industry vertical that your business operates in doesn’t matter. Strive to make your consumers successful through your solution and your business would automatically keep catapulting to the next level.
By being responsive, even while on the go.
A split second and just the right opportunity has the potential to switch gears of your business. And if you are an entrepreneur, you cannot afford to ‘switch-off’ at any point in time. Doesn't mean you need to remain chained to desktops or be living out of your office!
You might be a enjoying a brief vacation in Hawaii, soaking in some sun and sand or you might be on a business trip to another part of the globe - a smartphone, an internet connection (and yes, commitment to keep the lights on) is all what it takes to ‘not miss an opportunity.’
For instance, taking a holiday didn't stop entrepreneur and Signeasy customer Peter Gijselaers who runs Dirt Crew, a record label company based in Berlin, from signing important and urgent license requests. He did this using Signeasy app on his iPhone.
Another Signeasy customer, Trevon Doerksen, Founder & CEO, Mobovivo recollecting a recent incident that reinforced his belief of staying connected even while on the move, said, "The other day, I saw a guy signing contracts that he would ask the hotel front desk to print off. Now, I sign as I walk out of the front door of the hotel for a jog."
By looking out for smart productivity hacks.
Being productive all the time is a myth. But spending some time to filter out smart productivity hacks is something that would help entrepreneurs to reach their optimum productivity.
Anthony Carrino, Entrepreneur, TV Personality and a Signeasy customer is a firm believer in this. He has filtered out the apps that can reduce his time spent on mundane work drastically, freeing up his mind for other critical things.
Talking about how he simplified the complexity of his work he says, "No two days are alike, and I am constantly on the go. When I receive a contract that I am still negotiating and needs work, I open it in Pages if it is a pages or word doc with track changes or open it in Notability if it is a PDF to highlight and add text boxes with notes. Then it gets saved to Evernote so I have each contract iteration."
"It's probably about 50/50 when it comes to whether I originate the contract or someone else does, so I use Signeasy to both collect signatures and to simply sign a document. I use it from my iPhone when I know a doc is totally done and it's a quick signature, and for the times I need one last read before signing I use my iPad, for the extra screen real estate."
The key takeaway from these entrepreneurs is that if you want your business to stay ahead of the curve, you have to build your own armor of strategies to keep yourself productive and available for your customer, all the time.
And by the way, if you have not tried Signeasy yet, here is where you can check it out:
Signeasy for Android
Signeasy for iOS
Signeasy for the Web
