Simon Woodroffe says risks are worth taking
Five key takeaways from Simon's rockstar talk
1. Throw away the marketing budget
Before any marketers start to panic, Simon did frame this as a ‘metaphoric’ trashing. His main point was simple – you can’t do market research on something that doesn’t exist yet, so if your idea is truly innovative, invest your money in making it really good.
2. Successful ideas aren’t always unique ideas
The best businesses don’t always have to be brand new ideas. The magic words you want to hear from people are ‘why has nobody done this yet?’ so you know you’re satisfying a genuine need.
3. Don’t be scared of businesses that are bigger than yours
When you start a business it can be easy to feel intimidated by bigger companies and allow their actions to shape your own business plan. Instead of avoiding these companies, think creatively about how they might be able to help you achieve your goals, through sponsorship, mentoring or simply sharing suppliers.
4. Reinvent the playing field
Entrepreneurs are often told that their ideas are too different and will be hard to sell. In fact, coming up with a game-changing idea is the hardest part. If you’ve managed to do that, you can control changing the rules of selling it, marketing it and making it a success.
5. Do what you’re good at
‘Spend 95% of your time doing what you’re good at,’ Simon told us. It can be easy to get caught up trying to do everything as a business founder. Instead, focus on doing what you’re best at, and allow other people to do the same.
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