Entrepreneurial Leverage – The X Factor That Allows The Individual To Beat Big Companies Every Time
Here is how and why the man or woman in their Garage, Basement, or Bedroom that is hoping to start a business and beat the big companies out there that have hundreds of employees and millions of dollars at their disposal can do it.
I have written about this before over the years but I think that I have honed it down so that everyone with two neurons firing (that could be me on a good day) can understand it. Here is the secret to how you as an Entrepreneur can beat the big guys.
First I want to layout some ground work that I have done before but, I want to put this all inside one nut shell.
The thing that we have to start off with is Moore’s Law which is Gordon Moore of Hewlett Packard fame that says basically this….
The capability and speed of computer chips will double every 18 months and the price will be cut in half.
This has remained true since 1965 if you can believe it or not.
What does this mean to our conversation about the Entrepreneur being able to take on big companies?
Well, first off while many people know this, very few realize how fundamentally this has changed business.
Washington And Most Companies Don’t Get It And How Moore’s Law Has Drastically And Fundamentally Changed The Economy Forever
First and foremost most medium and large businesses do not realize how this has changed things and most assuredly the Government has not realized it either.
Over 70% of all people are employed by small businesses currently and nearly 90% of all new jobs are now being created by them, in spite of the Government’s best attempt to not only not help Small Businesses, but, make running and starting one even more and more difficult if not practically impossible.
In the recent stimulus package for instance while there were hundreds of billions given to large businesses, did you know that there was more money given to the National Endowment For The Arts than to Small Businesses? That is how out of touch Washing DC and even most Politicians in most States have become. When it comes to this basic tenant of the Economy and how much things have changes since the 70’s, Politicians truly are worse than clueless and what they did has hurt the ability of Small Businesses to borrow money and survive and thrive which is one of the main reasons I believe the Goobers in DC were surprised at the climbing unemployment rates.
So let me explain why the folks in DC and a lot of others don’t understand what is going on. Because of Moore’s Law, and what it has done to computers, you as an individual can sit in your underwear in your Bedroom or on the beach for the matter and do the work of 15 to 17 people say five to seven years ago. Or even only 24 months ago as I will show you.
And actually I put the multiplier at 17 people about every 2 years now. I will show you why in a later post and I am calling is “Anderson’s Entrepreneurial Law”. So what this means is that when it comes to being able to produce a professional looking products online, put up sales pages, ordering, even accounting and customer service, even only 5 years ago, what you can do by yourself now, would have taken 15 to 20 people to do.
Plus, prices have dropped dramatically. A url or domain name used to cost $100 ten years ago, now you can get them at places like GoDaddy.com (see link to the right) for under $10.
The same thing for hosting, and websites, and a host of other tools you need to go online.
Now lets also bring in another fact that I think is just as critical and that is speed of implementation. I have also written extensively on the past about this as well.
Here is how Ms. and Mr Entrepreneur can run circles around the big boys. If you have ever worked in even a relatively good sized company, there is a whole chain of command that you have to run through to get anything new done. There the whole inevitably internal political chain of command that an idea has to run the gauntlet of and then there is the real one that the idea has to survive as well.
First worker Bee A has a great idea for a widget to solve a problem she sees people having on the Web. She knows she can probably fix it by doing x, y, and z and it would take her at most 2 weeks to get the solution done.
But….
Here are just a couple of scenarios. She presents it to her immediate supervisor and depending on if the supervisor has any brains or is in a good mood or not, she might say , “that is stupid” or “that is kind of good” or “that is great but we should do it like this”. Now the brilliant million dollar idea might get shot down at the start because the supervisor is ignorant, does not feel like starting anything new, is jealous she did not think of it, or knows that her supervisor does not like ideas.
But regardless, there are at least a dozens of hurdles that the idea must overcome, and even if it does not get shot down, it may become so changes by the time it gets approved because everyone wants to put in their two cents worth that the solution may not work.
Couple that with a time frame that could realistically be months or years for the idea to actually get out there, the opportunity is more than likely gone.
Now take the same million dollar idea with our intrepid Ms. Entrepreneur. She see the problem, comes up with the solution, creates the fix herself or outsources it and two weeks later she introduces it to the market place and it is a hit and the million dollar idea pays her a million dollars.
This scenario is repeated thousands and thousands of times each and every day. She who gets to the market place first more often than not wins the game before other even realize there was one going on.
An Entrepreneur’s Distinct Advantage
The key for the Entrepreneur is to successfully use the leverage that Moore’s law provides and the speed of implementation that is simply not available to medium to large companies..
Now this is easier said than done, but in the next few weeks, I am going to lay out the exact tools provided to us by Moore’s law that you can use compete and beat the big boys at their own game.
As you may know I get to Beta Test quite a few things before they get out to the public and there are some tools that are coming out soon that are going to totally level the playing field and be game changers for most of what is going on with the web and marketing.
And I have not heard a peep about what I am going to share with you anywhere else. Really mind blowing cool stuff.
In the meantime, remember, you have a big advantage!
Cheers,
Andrew “Easy” Anderson
Great article! Right on the money. I don’t think people really realize how good they have it with all of the doom and gloomers out there.
Sure things are a bit tough but what one person can do with technology these day is amazing from when I first started in business in the 70’s.
Thanks for a good read and reminding me to get busy.
Bob Newsome
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