The art of the start was very compelling to me since I want to start a successful business in the near future. There were way more than five compelling takeaways from the Art of the Start but I will try to summarize them all while focusing on the most important five.
The first compelling take away was the reason for starting an entrepreneurship project/business.
Those three things are “making meaning”, Right a wrong” and “keeping something good”. My previous thoughts were to “make money” and “make something revolutionary”.
My previous thought process was fundamentally flawed in the way it prioritized money first instead of the product that I would be making. This changed my way of thinking and now I have to revisit all my ideas so a can capitalize on them properly
The second compelling take away was the reason for a mantra and not a mission statement this showed that whenever I create my business I need to focus on all of the employees as part of my business and they all need to be fully informed about how and why the business exists no matter where they are placed in the company or their education levels.
The third compelling take away was the reason to focus on people. In the early stages of entrepreneurship, one of the most valuable assets is the team dynamics. So as a leader trying to create an entrepreneurship based business means I have to focus on creating the most efficient and diverse team.
The fourth compelling take away was the presentation information explained throughout the entire speech. This includes the 10 20 30 rule where following this rule forces you to know what you are talking about while being efficient and concise in your presentation. Another thing that falls into this category is the charts whereas an entrepreneur you strive to create exceptional value to customers and to provide a unique product or service.
The last compelling take away was the business model and hiring strategy. The first part is to have a good business model. The three things that he said to have a great model is to “be specific”, “keep it simple” and to have “milestones”. Be specific refers to answering the what, when, why and how for everything about the business. Keeping it simple refers to keeping the answers to the questions previously mentioned simple and easy to understand by everyone allowing for clear and concise feedback. Milestones refer to having big goals accompanying little goals for the business.
The measure of finding out if a goal is big is if after you achieve it you will want to tell your family about it.
Two smaller takeaways that I got from the speech are to observe consumers that use your product/service in unintended ways and to hire infected people. Observing consumers that use your product/service in unintended ways allows your business to capitalize on making products/services to meet the needs of these consumers. Hiring infected people refers to not only hiring people with good work experiences, educational backgrounds but who are also better than you and love the company/product. For customers flatten the learning curve for all products/services and to embrace evangelists of all types.
Since I am not creating a product or service I will focus on the way I deliver my interview questions.
Now that I am moving away from in-person interviews will be using Google form for completing interviews more efficiently. I will be working on a small piece of writing that accurately describes the project/interview so that people can efficiently understand what the project is about and how to complete the interview. So the main concepts of the value proposition that I am using are accessibility, convenience, and usability.
I help young people in college or out of college express their opinions about college and higher education by creating a structured interview/survey.
My total available market is all people obtaining an associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree or are between the ages of 18-22. My total addressable markets are people within my social circle who are willing to take the survey.