No One Told Me What Being an Entrepreneur Really Means
blog.fairsoftware.netDifferent strokes for different folks, but I could count on one hand the number of business emails I've sent in the last four years that went to someone other than a customer, supplier, or "people I know well enough to invite out for coffee."
This might be a weakness in my skillset, but I tend to think that outbound marketing is a very time-intensive proposition, and as a sole businessman time is something I can never really have enough of. I don't want to do anything that has to get over a spam filter, a low-conversion inbox scan, and then a low-conversion salespitch for it to positively affect my business. (And, it goes without saying, spam is right out.)
I don't know what your personal threshold is for writing non-spammy email, but I personally can't put my hands on a keyboard and not type a hundred words. Even at ten emails a day, that is a thousand words. That could be an article, an interview, a blog post (that would be criticized for overlength), etc, etc. All things that I get to keep, that stay available on the public Internet, and that aren't strongly dependent on the reception of individual third parties.
I'd much rather write the thousand words and pull some folks to me. After that, perhaps we could do email and/or coffee.
That works for you b/c your stuff is something an individual can find and buy/sign up for on your site.
If you were producing something more complex, such as software for companies or organizations, you would need a different approach.
But your product doesn't really suit that kind of marketing, your situation is very limited. Your product would actually become unprofitable if you had to spend face time convincing someone to buy it, most aren't.
One of pg's articles mentions that the successful YC's are ones where one of the founders is always on the phone, contacting people. That is the reality for a lot of business.
Bigger ticket items have to have some direct contact. Even trying out relatively cheap b2b software like redgate products gets direct emails (probably initially canned but I got a prompt human response to my reply to it). You will also find yourself in direct contact with Dell if you buy as a business.
Email is the easy part. Meetings and phone calls are the worst. I mean - they are if you've never done that before so often.
I've managed to turn my company into a mostly email based business. I have had maybe 5 meetings all year this year in person, and a couple phone calls a week tops. I've been in business almost 10 years and the act of going to meetings and having phone conversations is still a major challenge for me.
Biggest problem: I don't have time to think before I blurt something out when on the phone or in person. With email, I can craft my words, then even WAIT before I say them, think some more if needed, and I control my conversation rather than vamp and hope for the best.
Yup, if you're a programmer (like most of us), transitioning into that role is very tough. You have to be very extroverted and it can be unsettling sometimes.
I'd love to see some interviews with successful programmers turned CEO's/managers (but in smaller companies, not Bill Gates) to see how they managed it.
Also, shouldn't you call people instead? Calls are generally more personal and harder to ignore than a random email from a stranger.
Also, shouldn't you call people instead? Calls are generally more personal and harder to ignore than a random email from a stranger.
I find calling is more effective, too.
But I won't call someone I don't know unless I can get an introduction.
Watch Paul Singh and you know how it is done http://mixergy.com/mailfinch-paul-singh-interview/
Here's a direct link to the mp3: http://mixergy.com/wp-content/audio/Mixergy-MailFinch-Paul-S...
I think you can find some interviews like that on Mixergy.
My comment on the blog: I disagree that emailing strangers makes you a entrepreneur. But, I do agree with the spirit of what he's saying that to be a successful entrepreneur you do have to step out of your comfort zone and contact those that you don't know.
it’s just contacting people you don’t know to ask/beg for favors
My take on "what being an entrepreneur really means" is 179 degrees from yours:
I can't wait to contact people I don't know to share what I'm doing and how it can improve their lives.
If you don't feel the same way, maybe you shouldn't be an entrepreneur.
I regularly go to Tech Breakfasts, Chamber of Commerce meetings, industry dinners, dev groups, and network over coffee or beer just for the chance to talk about what I'm doing. I love doing this almost as much as writing the code itself. It gets me off my butt and away from my terminal and also gets valuable feedback from others.
Coding in a vacuum is like trying to push cooked spaghetti through a straw. Getting away from my text editor and talking to others, regardless of method, completes the loop and improves the whole process.
And anyway, I'm not writing it for myself. It's for them. They really need to know.
I work with a lot of entrepreneurs, and the ones I try to avoid are those who think they're doing a favor to everyone they grace with their message. Like street preachers, their zeal makes them blind to the general public's disinterest in their noise, but they're sure their excitement about their social gifting platform will spread like wildfire if they can just. Tell. More. People.
If your heart doesn't cry a little bit every time you ask for a favor from a stranger, or email someone who you know only has a 1 in 10 chance of being interested, then you're probably the guy people avoid sitting next to at Tech Breakfasts.
I began to copy and paste some of what you said, teaspoon, but then I just decided to respond to the whole post with, "Where the hell did that come from?"
If you avoid other entrepreneurs, then maybe you're hanging out with the wrong ones.
If you liken anyone promoting their own business to a street preacher, then perhaps you're the one missing the point.
As for me, I don't ask favors from anyone. I just build what they already need and have asked for. I love writing software and I love sharing it with those who are interested, including those next to me at Tech Breakfasts. I've sold lots of software and built lasting relationships and friendships this way.
So I thought I'd share that with OP, who seems to have a problem doing and enjoying it as much as I do. Your attitude and response does nothing to help him (or anyone for that matter).
On a second reading, my comment was needlessly inflammatory. Sorry for that.
Perhaps we're talking about kinds of "sharing". I'm talking about cold-emailing strangers and asking for writeups which, to be fair, is what the the article is about. Those may be necessary evils for one's venture, but recognize when you're doing a favor and when you're asking for one. That understanding is the foundation of any business relationship.
The world could do with more entrepreneurs who hesitate before asking the favor of time and attention, and HN could do with less of the "maybe you shouldn't be an entrepreneur" attitude from everyone else.
Or maybe, just maybe, he's right, and that you WILL want to hear the good news about his product. Customers write love letters to our support department all the time about OUR products.
You're making a classic logical mistake: Just because some men buy their wives flowers after they cheat, doesn't mean that if a man buys his wife flowers, he's cheated.
EDIT: That said, the OP (article not commenter) is not going to get his CEO wings from cold-emailing.
Some people are natural sales people, some aren't. I've noticed that the guys really really good at selling don't even think about problems of a product or social barriers to contacting people and just do it.
As I can't read their mind I'm not sure if it's a mindset they deliberately choose or just a different way of looking at life, but you definitely sound like one of those kind of people.
Great trait to have, but not everyone has it. Doesn't mean you can't be an entrepreneur if you don't have it though.
I don't think it has anything to do with sales or selling.
Are you passionate about your work? Obviously most of us are. We talk to each other here about it all the time. Do to any dev group or hacker hangout and it's hard to hear yourself think with all the chatter we share with each other about our work.
Emailing, calling, or talking to civilians is the same thing. As soon as we think it's "selling", we set up a mental block that's no good for anyone.
Just build a great product for others and share your passion about that product with them. Anyone can do it. In fact, most of us already are.
Just be yourself, let others know how your work will benefit them, and let the "selling" become a byproduct of that process. It's much easier than many of us think if we just give it a chance.
Now you're describing the difference between an extrovert and an introvert. Appreciate everyone is not the same!
Though I do actually think your advice is a great way of looking at the process and for introverts consciously motivating yourself with that mantra.
I think you're setting up a false dichotomy.
Imagine that someone had a really annoying mosquito bite. Imagine you had a tube of anti-itch spray you could sell to that person. It would be lose-lose of you to not at least inform the person of the option to buy.
edw519 is implying that the product he is building solves a pain and he feels ethically compelled to share it. That's good, that's smart. That doesn't mean that you can't ALSO make tons of money building trinkets and selling them aggressively, 'cuz many people like to be sold things, but it seems that edw belongs to category 1.
> I don't think it has anything to do with sales or selling.
It does. Whether you know you are selling or not, you are selling.
> Just be yourself
If you are a natural born salesman, then that works. If not, by all means be yourself anyway, but be aware of what sells and what doesn't, and put some effort into it.
The book which has taught me what selling really is (and why techies often fail at it) is "The art of salesmanship" (I guess that's the English translation) by Heinz Goldmann (sadly it's little known).
Interestingly, Goldmann points out why sometimes skilled and passionate people fail at selling.
For me, being an entrepreneur has meant two long years of putting the other people in our company first (I'm talking paychecks here) while we bust our butts (along side everyone else) to build the company to profitability. When your income is on the line, you don't hesitate to ask for the sale. Not for a moment. Not if you "get it".
There seem to be a lot of people here that apparently missed the point, so I am going to repeat the comment I added to the OP blog:
He didn't say that 'sending lots of emails' makes you an entrepreneur - he said that is one thing that he has to do as an entrepreneur that he wasn't expecting. There was another post, I think about a year ago on HN, where a founder pointed out that he ended up cleaning the company's toilets until they could afford to hire a janitor. There are all kinds of jobs that need to be done for a business to function that many people don't realize beforehand.
Why wouldn't you hire someone to do this for you? Seems like a waste of your time.
"Getting out of the building" is not a task you want to outsource. Speaking to initial potential customers is critical to the start up and must involve the founders. Once you establish product/market fit outsiders can come into play.
The process of sending messages and setting up the initial contact is pretty mechanical, should be easy to outsource if you're smart about it.
Of course, the CEO should close the leads himself.
A friend of mine just outsourced this very task. They sent the emails in bulk, and most (if not all) of the company names were wrong. Ouch.
Things like this really kill your chances to have a good start out of the gate. I think it's better to micro-manage your customer contacts.
Quoting Steve Blank:
Customer Development is the process of how you get out of the building and search for the model. Customer Development is designed so that you the founder(s) gather first hand experience about customer and market needs. It can’t be delegated. Let me say it again: Getting customer feedback can not be delegated.
http://steveblank.com/2010/05/13/consultants-don%E2%80%99t-p...