Those businesses that have a vision for their future tend to create it. A vision isn’t just a plaque you put up on a wall but a rallying call that gets people excited. It’s inspires them to go “above and beyond” for not just the monetary rewards but because they are building something great!

I remember back in the early nineties I had a web development company. It was the early days of the Internet and people were only just getting online. There was one thing that I clearly understood and that the Internet was a global phenomenon.

Even though we were a tiny little startup I decided to inspire the team with a big and very audacious vision! It was, “We change the world!” Every time we published a website we could see people from all over the world going to it…..therefore, in our small way, we changed parts of the world.

I’m a self-confessed data junky. I love my numbers and if they can be plotted on a graph so I can see a trend then so much the better! Domain investors live and die by their numbers. If you ignore looking at the stats then you can miss out on some significant opportunities and take bullets rather than dodging them.

Beyond the numbers and charts is understanding how to interpret them and how they may impact your business decisions. From a very high level there are a number of charts that I like to pay attention to and in this article, I’ll step you through them.

World-wide Growth in Internet Users

Ultimately underpinning every e-commerce transaction is a person wanting to buy, watch, click or doing anything. If the number of Internet users suddenly began decreasing then I can guarantee that it’s going to have a big impact on your business.

It’s not often that I experience the level of incompetence that I have from Optus, my Internet Service provider. For those of you that don’t know, Optus is the second biggest ISP in Australia…so there one of the big boys on the block. My experience has sparked me to write this article and circulate it to as many people as possible as an example of bad customer service and hopefully warn other away. So what’s the story?

I’ve been a good loyal Optus customer for about 15 years and I pay for the highest level of Internet possible. About five weeks ago I noticed that the speeds were getting slower and slower…..which is never good as I regularly do video conference calls etc.

After checking the speed with both the external and Optus Internet speed checks I found that I was getting about 20% of the rate that I expected. This clearly explained why many of my skype calls end up in either me or the other party speaking like a robot!

There is a massive difference between a business relationship that you have with suppliers versus partners. Many domain investors view their registrar, brokers and traffic monetisation providers merely as suppliers of services. They then go ballistic if anything goes wrong and lash out at anyone that is convenient.

For a start, do not assume that the other person on the end of the skype call is out to defraud you. My experience has been that the vast majority of the people that work in the domain industry are honourable individuals that are trying to put food on the table for their families. So dial back the angst and be nice.

I’ve heard of parking company account managers getting absolutely abused and sworn at by customers for the smallest of things. It’s amazing the stories you will hear if you just sit at the bar at conferences….. To be quite honest with you, I’m stunned at the behaviour of some individuals.

If something really does go wrong, then the best advocate you have is your account manager! Look after them, be polite and work with them when there is an issue. We all work in the technology industry and quite often at the bleeding edge so things WILL occur from time to time. It’s called, “Stuff happens….so get over it.”

Get it out of your head that parking companies are out to steal your money and they have a secret stash of margin ferreted away. In this highly competitive environment any company that behaved in this manner just wouldn’t survive……just think about it for a second, those companies that have behaved in this manner are now closed.

I don’t really know of any company that tries to defraud customers by playing with their revenue share. I’m not saying that this doesn’t happen but I’m not aware of it. There may be rogue individuals that try things on from time to time but they get quickly dealt with.

Also, given that ParkLogic’s algorithms route traffic to the winner at that point in time it’s really pointless trying to play with revenue shares as the traffic just automatically migrates away. As I said to one parking partner, “You will get precisely how much traffic you deserve.” I wasn’t being mean….I was just stating a fact.

When something goes wrong (and remember it will) then contact your partner (ie. account manager) and work with them on the problem. I can almost guarantee there will be a time when you need to ask a favour for some special assistance and let me assure you that those people who are pleasant are more likely to get the answer “Yes”.

It’s all about communication….discuss any issues in a respectful manner with your business partner. The communication must also be transparent. If something has gone wrong, then your business partner needs to openly discuss this and the resolution/compensation that will be provided.

If your business partner tries to hide what really is the core of the issue in question, then my advice is to move on. Whether they are a monetisation provider, registrar or someone else there needs to be open and honest communication so that all parties can take remedial action.

So take a deep breath, keep calm and be professional so that you can grow your business with close reliable partners.

Many readers are aware that I recently launched a new business and that I was having trouble enticing customers to the service. It just so happens the business is a new bird bath outside my study window and the customers are birds (the flying ones).

Although there’s been a lot of funny anecdotes there has also been a serious thread of discussion about how to attract customers to a new business. Every new business has a vision of their ideal customer and a “full proof” plan on how to attract them. The problem is that years of experience has proved plans look great on paper and reality is something else entirely.

For example, I had a great vision of birds flocking to my wonderful bird bath and I would enjoy them singing away outside as they happily splashed away. My reality was a bird bath that was entirely ignored.

The one thing that a start-up has to their advantage is their ability to quickly change direction. If the plan isn’t working, then change the plan. Don’t burn more cash…..move!

In my case, I tried to entice the birds with bread. They loved the bread on the ground and completely ignored the bird bath. I then moved the bird bath. That still didn’t work so I moved it again. I constantly tweaked my “business” with the end goal of attracting my customers (ie. birds).

If a start-up is to succeed, then it must get customer feedback as fast as possible. There is no point in building the ultimate product that no one wants. For those people who tell you they love what you’re doing then ask them the same question with a charge attached.

I’ve seen so many businesses give their products/services away in the name of “market share” only to find that once they try to charge no one wants what they’ve built. A sale isn’t a sale unless ultimately there is a financial transaction attached. Anyone can give a service away…..it’s much harder to sell it.

So where am I at? As can be seen by the pictures I now have multiple different species of birds enjoying the bread and the bird bath. This is important as the different species indicate that I’ve now tapped into not just a single market but multiple different market segments.

A start-up needs to quickly classify what customer segments are buying their products/services. This means really paying attention to what customers are buying versus the time wasters and then focusing your efforts to exploit the revenue opportunities.

I should say that my feathered customers are also paying customers. The other day, Roselyn and I woke up to a magpie warbling beautifully outside our bedroom window. That was payment enough for us both. For me, it was wonderful to know that I’d managed to successfully launch another little start-up business.