bwagy, the blog of Ben Young

I’m talking about new unchartered ideas.  Ideas that are being executed for the first time.

They fit in at the head of the curve, where everything is new, the cost of change is low and change is rapid.  Indicative of new projects (can be within a large organisation), early stage and smaller companies.

Systems Ideas, ideas that have been executed many times & have a set of steps to build & demonstrate value fit in here.  The cost of change is higher, thus a systemised idea fits in & is more effective.  Indicative of maturing / larger companies.

Now I know many of you (including me) would probably hesitant to engage with someone that calls them a sales coach, however Jack Daly is the real deal, he was Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006 and has built half a dozen (from scratch) national businesses in the US.

On a recent visit to New Zealand (yay!) I was lucky enough (thanks to the Results.com!) to sit down with him and talk business.  Of which I am really grateful for (thanks guys!).

I’ve shared the YouTube videos below, they’re absolute gold, and gold for everyone.

In effect we’re all in sales, we need people on our side (in personal & professional modes) to help us get going from community work to business, if you have the time please have a listen I’m sure you’ll either get value out of it today if not in the future.

Part 1:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr80VqfSpLE

Part 2:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO4vEiwDgpY

Part 3:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLi3eTphlXE

Part 4:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRLa0XMrp0Uv

Thanks again to Results.com & Jack Daly for giving up his precious (and very expensive) time – legends.

Paralysis kills business, procrastination is cited as one of the biggest regrets by owners of failed small business.

When you have a small team, procrastinating for a few hours can be a huge cost, as each person carries a larger impact on the bottom line.

What I suggest is develop some systems or processes to highlight when it is happening, then how to deal with it, much better to identify and deal with it now rather than tomorrow.

It doesn’t take long and is well worth your time investment….

Platforms are about opportunity.

Using our platform imagine the possibilities.

Using Fontera (a milk co-operative) as your platform you can suddenly reach unreachable markets.

Using Facebook as a platform you can engage with your customers in new ways.

Using Basecamp as a platform to organise your business from you can suddenly run your business from any location easily.

I have written about Platforms before but I’ve been chewing them over moreso of recent.

How can I turn these resources into a platform for others? How could I modify our systems to provide a platform for others (and operate as a saas)

Some ideas i’ve had is:

Turn my productivity system into a platform for others to use

Turn our research writing systems into a service to other organisations wishing to collate information

Turn our Marketing systems into Software as a Service

Stop and think about your existing systems / services, could you rebundle those into a platform? Maybe you should? or maybe just critically thinking about it will help you manage your existing resources or platforms better.