Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Differentiate yourself...
The other day we went with Peter for ASME (Association of Small and Medium Enterprises in Singapore) networking night. We love those events - you can meet lots of business men and other interesting people and networking is one of the major ways to do business in Asia (we think so far :o).
Looking forward to the event, we stepped inside and first enthusiastic networker approached us with huge smile and question of what we do and how can we cooperate together..... Nice, thats what we came for, let's get straight to the point. So we started explaining, as so many times before, what we do and how we do it. Before we could elaborate on anything, he interrupted us after first our sentence that there are 10 other guys doing the same thing in there and he already talked to them so he knows what we do.......We were struck with the shock and horror.....
To sum up, it takes one sentence that gives you a chance to talk about your business further, either you do it or you are one of the many. Yup, correct - seems like we still haven't found (to prave orechove) the main thing to differentiate us..or rather we believe we did, but we still did not manage to efficiently word it so strangers get it with our first sentence and they will feel like its something special. We know that there are many software companies BUT we also know that there are only few that can be compared to us...but we have to pass this message to others too and that's where real troubles start.
We discussed since that time and even before so many times how we shall word it so people get it and how to uniquely position ourselves among thousads of other software companies at the market and IT'S NOT EASY. I guess the only way is to go OUT THERE as much as possible and test as many different speeches as possible cause what REALLY differentiates us is not what people out there want to hear anyway.
Being responsible for marketing, this is even more frustrating for me, I know why marketing is important and I want to do it right way, but nowadays it seems like its all just about naming simple things fancy ways to describe yourself in sound way that is different to others and thats what I dont like.
Thus, I decided to practice the old classics marketing way :o)..Keep it simple and straitforward - We are NextLogic, we provide quality, efficient & affordable business software solutions to small & medium sized companies. The only way I can prove it at this stage is the fact that 80% of our existing business comes from referrals from our existing customers who are happy with us and want more and more. .....And of course we are working on our branding, cause I just read today that ...
Ignoring branding (even for SMEs) in this century is a commercial suicide....Not that we care if something is commercially right or wrong, we just believe in branding and want to build NextLogic brand like parents want to have successful kids :o)
So we are working hard to differentiate ourselves right now
Looking forward to the event, we stepped inside and first enthusiastic networker approached us with huge smile and question of what we do and how can we cooperate together..... Nice, thats what we came for, let's get straight to the point. So we started explaining, as so many times before, what we do and how we do it. Before we could elaborate on anything, he interrupted us after first our sentence that there are 10 other guys doing the same thing in there and he already talked to them so he knows what we do.......We were struck with the shock and horror.....
To sum up, it takes one sentence that gives you a chance to talk about your business further, either you do it or you are one of the many. Yup, correct - seems like we still haven't found (to prave orechove) the main thing to differentiate us..or rather we believe we did, but we still did not manage to efficiently word it so strangers get it with our first sentence and they will feel like its something special. We know that there are many software companies BUT we also know that there are only few that can be compared to us...but we have to pass this message to others too and that's where real troubles start.
We discussed since that time and even before so many times how we shall word it so people get it and how to uniquely position ourselves among thousads of other software companies at the market and IT'S NOT EASY. I guess the only way is to go OUT THERE as much as possible and test as many different speeches as possible cause what REALLY differentiates us is not what people out there want to hear anyway.
Being responsible for marketing, this is even more frustrating for me, I know why marketing is important and I want to do it right way, but nowadays it seems like its all just about naming simple things fancy ways to describe yourself in sound way that is different to others and thats what I dont like.
Thus, I decided to practice the old classics marketing way :o)..Keep it simple and straitforward - We are NextLogic, we provide quality, efficient & affordable business software solutions to small & medium sized companies. The only way I can prove it at this stage is the fact that 80% of our existing business comes from referrals from our existing customers who are happy with us and want more and more. .....And of course we are working on our branding, cause I just read today that ...
Ignoring branding (even for SMEs) in this century is a commercial suicide....Not that we care if something is commercially right or wrong, we just believe in branding and want to build NextLogic brand like parents want to have successful kids :o)
So we are working hard to differentiate ourselves right now
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
BNI story
I just arrived back to office after my usual Tuesday morning business breakfast in BNI. I would like to share why I wake up every Tuesday morning at 5:30am to participate at those meetings.
What is all fuss about? I am not gonna go too much into official explanation of BNI as it can be found at our official website (www.bnimalaysia.com) and its done by people who have been through all this for much longer time so no point going into their area. It is more about how I feel about it, what it gives me or rather what it allows me and my company to give others.
BNI stands for Business Network International, its 15 years old networking and business referral organization and it has many chapters in Malaysia as well as in 15 other countries if I am right. First of all the organization itself reminds me AIESEC I was member of for many years. I found another organization where I can feel like part of the group of people that have the same problems and ideals about their business as I do.
Yes, of course firstly we meet every week to exchange business referrals and practive word of mouth marketing (which definately work and especially in Malaysia or rather in Asia in general), but what inspires me the most is still the higher and deeper vision behind BNI. I guess I am always happy to do things that have more contributional value to other people lives or other people businesses.
I literally love BNI philosophy, which says GIVERS GAIN - Its like I have always done it and believed in it but never word it so precisely. All my motivation comes from here - motivation and inspiration to go and do whatever it takes to make it work and happen.
I want to give, I want my company to give - to give very good service and products that will positively change someone's corporate live - its that small piece we can contribute to each other. And we definately give lots of quality for very cheap money, why we do it? Make no business sense???
Because we believe that Givers eventually really gain. I might not earn a lot on solutions i develop for my BNI fellows for example but the feeling that it might help these small entrepreneurs to realize their dreams and run their businesses a bit smoother feels great and thats all I need. And again we all in NextLogic strongly believe that great things are waiting somewhere out there for good people with genuine intentions like we all have in BNI. Well, I cannot talk on behalf of all but at least for my Millenium chapter and especially few individuals that already gained my trust no matter what. Thanks a lot Fawziah - slimming undergarment trading (my first ever BNI customer), Raja - art gallery owner (www.pelitahati.com.my), Rebecca - our company secretary (www.e-latterrain.com) , Chloe - our cake lady, Alice - our messy accounts expert accountant as well as Chee - our nutrition expert. Owe you all a lot.
Monday, December 12, 2005
How would you travel to...Penang??
I had a presentation about our company in front of the group of small business owners. I had to come up with simple explanation of why small companies should go for customized software solutions when market is jammed with so many cheap of the shelf solutions.
Finally, we came up with great example on which I explained the difference. I asked them a question - How would you travel to Penang and why? The presentation was held in Malaysia, thats why Penang :o). Penang is a city approx. 5 hours drive away from KL by car.
After asking a question - we had a little discussion and all people agreed that to save time and keep flexibility and convenience they would travel to Penang by car.
(You have to consider that I was asking the question from business point of view, where most of business owners value the most their time and convenience :o). This example wouldn't work in other scenarios that well.)
What is the paralel to making a business decision about what kind of software solution to use in your daily company life???
in PAPER - many small companies still use paper for everything - they write quotations and invoices in hand, they use paper notebooks to monitor daily or monthly sales, etc. It is a great way but of course very time consuming and not very efficient, especially if you have more than 10 customers or over 20 - 50 business transactions a month. I compared using paper to travelling to Penang by bicycle - it is a tool you can use(just like paper), but you would come to Penang not in 5 hours but in 15 hors or more, you would be very tired and with no energy to perform whatever you planned to do....would it be a smart decision? (Maybe if you go to Penang for holiday and you need to kill some time, but not when you are going to close important business deal, right?)
in EXCEL - many companies (even bigger ones) still hire people just to handle reports and manage data in Excel, Excel is a marvellous tool but 99% of the people that are using it can utilize barely 10-20% of its possible functionality, sometimes using Excel in a right way can be more difficult than using some automated software solution BUT still in a way Excel is customized solution - you define the process and required output yourself, it saves some time but still its not very efficient......It is like travelling to Penang by motorbike - you have the flexibility of deciding what time to go, when to stop but it would take you again at least 7 - 8 hours to get to Penang and it would be tiring too, which is moderate wasting of your valuable time & energy you can spend somewhere else
in OF THE SHELF SOLUTION - there are many companies (and unfortunately many consultants pushing customers to this) who just buy any solution available at the market (many times just because its cheap and you do not need to invest any time in defining it as its already done) and then adjust company operations to the solution - its very convenient solution - why??? As I said, it doesnt really require to know anything about the business or industry, company can take whatever is given and use it, many times again only very little percentage of the possible functionalities is used due to NO NEED ot NO IDEA on how to utilize them for company business - BUT its a nature of people to go for as much as possible for as little money as possible.
When comparing any off the shelf solution to Excel I prefer and recommend Excel - because no matter what, Excel is adjusted to company's way of doing business, of the shelf solution is adjusted to hundreds of companies in the same industry and thus unnecessarily overloaded with buttons and functionalities that will never be used, will confuse users and at the end company achieves less operational efficiency than with Excel.
Again comparison to travelling to Penang - its like travelling by bus - its more convenient than bicycle or motorbike, you just come and pay and go, no need to think or drive (put some extra effort to achieve desired outcome) BUT you have no control over what time to go, where to stop, etc. because bus company has a schedule and routines you as a passenger have to follow and again it will be more time consuming than travelling by your own car and much less efficient....
in RIGHT SOFTWARE SOLUTION - Here, RIGHT software solution comes into the picture = software solution that helps your company to save time, which you can in return invest in activities that matter - sales or customers service, etc.
Right software solution in your company is like travelling to Penang by your own car driving it - yes, there is higher initial investment & direct responsibility (you also need to know how to drive) BUT it gives you all flexibility you need to travel anytime you want, as fast as you want, you can adjust your own seat to your needs, etc......similarly RIGHT software solution requires higher initial investment, not just money but mainly time and your know how about your business so it can really reflect what is happening in your company and automate it efficiently to achieve desired outcome. From a long term perspective it pays off much more.
Generally, there are many business owners who will never understand the beauty of customized software solution because they do not understand the beauty of their own business fully - ONLY people who know what they want and how they want it will not stop there and would always go for the BEST solution (not the second or third best solution....)
What do you think???
How would YOU travel to Penang?
Finally, we came up with great example on which I explained the difference. I asked them a question - How would you travel to Penang and why? The presentation was held in Malaysia, thats why Penang :o). Penang is a city approx. 5 hours drive away from KL by car.
After asking a question - we had a little discussion and all people agreed that to save time and keep flexibility and convenience they would travel to Penang by car.
(You have to consider that I was asking the question from business point of view, where most of business owners value the most their time and convenience :o). This example wouldn't work in other scenarios that well.)
What is the paralel to making a business decision about what kind of software solution to use in your daily company life???
in PAPER - many small companies still use paper for everything - they write quotations and invoices in hand, they use paper notebooks to monitor daily or monthly sales, etc. It is a great way but of course very time consuming and not very efficient, especially if you have more than 10 customers or over 20 - 50 business transactions a month. I compared using paper to travelling to Penang by bicycle - it is a tool you can use(just like paper), but you would come to Penang not in 5 hours but in 15 hors or more, you would be very tired and with no energy to perform whatever you planned to do....would it be a smart decision? (Maybe if you go to Penang for holiday and you need to kill some time, but not when you are going to close important business deal, right?)
in EXCEL - many companies (even bigger ones) still hire people just to handle reports and manage data in Excel, Excel is a marvellous tool but 99% of the people that are using it can utilize barely 10-20% of its possible functionality, sometimes using Excel in a right way can be more difficult than using some automated software solution BUT still in a way Excel is customized solution - you define the process and required output yourself, it saves some time but still its not very efficient......It is like travelling to Penang by motorbike - you have the flexibility of deciding what time to go, when to stop but it would take you again at least 7 - 8 hours to get to Penang and it would be tiring too, which is moderate wasting of your valuable time & energy you can spend somewhere else
in OF THE SHELF SOLUTION - there are many companies (and unfortunately many consultants pushing customers to this) who just buy any solution available at the market (many times just because its cheap and you do not need to invest any time in defining it as its already done) and then adjust company operations to the solution - its very convenient solution - why??? As I said, it doesnt really require to know anything about the business or industry, company can take whatever is given and use it, many times again only very little percentage of the possible functionalities is used due to NO NEED ot NO IDEA on how to utilize them for company business - BUT its a nature of people to go for as much as possible for as little money as possible.
When comparing any off the shelf solution to Excel I prefer and recommend Excel - because no matter what, Excel is adjusted to company's way of doing business, of the shelf solution is adjusted to hundreds of companies in the same industry and thus unnecessarily overloaded with buttons and functionalities that will never be used, will confuse users and at the end company achieves less operational efficiency than with Excel.
Again comparison to travelling to Penang - its like travelling by bus - its more convenient than bicycle or motorbike, you just come and pay and go, no need to think or drive (put some extra effort to achieve desired outcome) BUT you have no control over what time to go, where to stop, etc. because bus company has a schedule and routines you as a passenger have to follow and again it will be more time consuming than travelling by your own car and much less efficient....
in RIGHT SOFTWARE SOLUTION - Here, RIGHT software solution comes into the picture = software solution that helps your company to save time, which you can in return invest in activities that matter - sales or customers service, etc.
Right software solution in your company is like travelling to Penang by your own car driving it - yes, there is higher initial investment & direct responsibility (you also need to know how to drive) BUT it gives you all flexibility you need to travel anytime you want, as fast as you want, you can adjust your own seat to your needs, etc......similarly RIGHT software solution requires higher initial investment, not just money but mainly time and your know how about your business so it can really reflect what is happening in your company and automate it efficiently to achieve desired outcome. From a long term perspective it pays off much more.
Generally, there are many business owners who will never understand the beauty of customized software solution because they do not understand the beauty of their own business fully - ONLY people who know what they want and how they want it will not stop there and would always go for the BEST solution (not the second or third best solution....)
What do you think???
How would YOU travel to Penang?
