It has been 12 months since I published the first of the travel apps and the experience has been great fun. The idea came from seeing what people were doing, by a person who was there to make their traveling adventure comfortable and enjoyable. The decision at the very beginning was, the product had to be earning income from day one. Which is why in the prelude to the launch, the marketing to reach potential customers was in full flight. The result was that six weeks after launch enough subscriptions were sold to publish the next three travel apps.
My approach to sales is simple and direct, there is no soft way to gently coax the money from a client. Trout tickling, may work on fish. Still it requires the fisher to put their arm into the water in the first place. Going direct to my clients for a yes or no, avoids wasting time for both parties that is better spent being productive in our businesses.
With the goingtoplaces.com traveling apps creating a basic WordPress website was good enough for an online presence. The customers who paid subscriptions, wanted apps that worked for their businesses, the WordPress site was functional and did what was needed. It also saved expenditure in the beginning that was better spent on marketing and promotional material that got more sales and downloads. Many web designers lost me with their desire to convince me that my website would be amazing with the different options available. There is nothing special about web design, like a shop it has to be functional. Four walls and a roof does the job.
Running a lean business is one of the keys to success. Every thing has to be effective and the purpose is to engage and service the customers. What is seen as a necessity for some businesses is not for others. There is a broad spectrum set of do’s and dont’s to set up a business. Making money is economic reality, enough not to be losing money at the end of the day, week and month.
I am excited by the plethora of start ups and new ideas taking their first steps into existence. At the Entrepreneur Expo in Adelaide on the 6th of July, there were many exciting developments on show. I did not spend much time browsing the other sites, as much as I would have liked to. Expo’s are sales avenues first and doing that job was what was required not ambling around browsing. End result was connections made and sales leads.
The look in some of the stall holders faces when I explained that my ‘startup’ was financed, by making money itself bemused me. As a person not involved with the world of startups until then, having simply put mine together in regional isolation. This learning experience at the Expo encompassed a complete introduction to a universe I had no idea existed. You may question that statement of ignorance, I had heard of startups of course. Never had I looked at the boundless information online, my time was spent working to reach the current stage of success.