I know a guy who has a 3 year old business (not web related) and he’s made some decisions recently that might seem rather extravagant.
But they aren’t.
A quick rundown: He spent thousands of dollars to be the ‘platinum’ sponsor for a popular web site and podcast. He has already secured the services of a major industry personality for a product expo that doesn’t happen until next spring, and he bought the biggest booth size he could afford.
To top it off he’s joined the biggest industry auction houses so that he can get his hands on the best product available.
Everything he has done has been incredibly costly and sets him up for incredible results. He’s doing everything that the industry leaders are doing. His goal is to encourage his prospects to perceive him in the same light.
But do they?
I’d like to think so, but business is tough and you never do know without trying something whether you’ll have success. You have to be smart about it and gauge risk as best you can.
I think the same principle applies to the web.
It’s easy to think small. I do it myself. It’s a lot easier to think about launching a small project than consider pulling off a major endeveour.
Blinksale could have been just an internal invoicing system, but instead they made it a business.
Basecamp could have been an internal project management application, but instead they made it a business.
Will your next idea be small or big? It’s time to think big.
One response to “Expect Big Results When You Do Big Things”
It’s an interesting point — do you go for “small and achievable” or “big albeit more risky”? For me, I think the answer has to be both.
I get really excited by thinking big and about the idea of having industry-leading products, really changing up your industry, doing something no one else has done before, etc. But that bigness has challenges associated with it.
First, as you pointed out, it can be really expensive! So I think you’ve got to really commit to your big ideas judicously. Second, the reality is that even big ideas are still achieved one small step at a time. I sometimes find bigness intimidating (“how could we possibly achieve that?”), but I find the next milestone very achievable.
Sorry, this was a really long comment, wasn’t it!