Top 10 Tips of Digital Entrepreneurs

Brad Howarth spent some time talking to a variety of entrepreneurs, including me, on what it takes to be successful for an article in SmartCompany. The collection of secrets are:

1. Make every dollar count
2. Become a global economist
3. Don't lose focus
4. Listen, adapt and change
5. Cultivate free advice
6. Learn to sell
7. Become a name dropper
8. Keep your team informed
9. Be wary of consultants and advisers
10. Be talked about

My original three 'tips' I sent to Brad for the story were:

1. Focus
Initially Ephox targeted the broadest possible market we could. As a start-up in Australia this meant the small business market before trying the education market. Both of these efforts resulted in some great media coverage but few sales. When we started to focus on partnering with larger software companies such as IBM, Oracle and Vignette we were able to access much larger opportunities, build alliances and tailor our product development. Large customers do see value in the ‘next big thing’ but more often than not their concerns are around more mundane issues such as integration costs, reference sites and quality.

2. Sales Execution
Despite being a highly technology-oriented founder I always had a great appreciation of the importance of sales and marketing. However, appreciating the need for sales and marketing and translating that through to significant sales was another thing. We wasted a lot of business development and marketing activities on opportunities that were difficult or impossible to translate into sales. It is critical for a startup to have a professional discipline around the sales process and the day-to-day execution of sales.

3. Think Long Term
Continuous improvement of product, sales, marketing, engineering and operations takes time to add up and take hold. Ephox took three years to get its first $1m in sales, 18 months to get the next million, 12 months for the third million, 10 months for the fourth, 8 months for the fifth, 6 months for the sixth, 4 months for the seventh and is now on course for its first $1m month. I have always had an unshakable belief that if we improve every part of the business every day of every year our efforts will translate into superb results over time. In my experience, the cliché that starting a business is a marathon and not a sprint is completely true. A smart, committed and passionate team who share a view of the long term is essential.