What are you working on?

I wish I could kick more fellow entrepreneurs in the backside. I have lost count of the number of people I meet/chat with who are working on really interesting projects and ideas but WHO DO NOT SHARE THOSE IDEAS publicly.

This post is a kick in the backside... because I want you to succeed.

Let's get right into it.

(and as always lots of random pics that have nothing to do with this post other than to let you get a glimpse of what I see as I travel around the world... you can always see all the pics at https://photos.app.goo.gl/bDMoWjAzKU5Ytv7z8)

The science behind sharing

I have just published my 2nd book (it's crap... don't buy it) and am writing my 3rd book on the Access to Markets challenge of startups and small businesses. Access to markets is a fancy way of saying "need to find clients and partners". In my work and research it is clear that the major challenge with accessing markets is really an access to networks issue. Most startups and small businesses - and I am referring to the ones that aren't backed by famous personalities or people with big networks) struggle with visibility... They might be working on the most interesting things for which there might be real demand yet because people don't know about it they don't get the traction they deserve.

So how do we solve this? That's the beauty of it. It SO EASY AND FREE.

We solve this by SHARING WHAT WE ARE WORKING ON.

Yes. Really.

But but but

...isn't that what everyone is already doing on fakebook, LinkedIn etc? Aren't we swamped with already with posts advertising what we are working on?

That's where the difference comes in between sharing what you are working on and advertising what you sell. They are two distinctly different types of content which in turn (as a generalisation of course) also elicit two very different types of reactions.

• Advertisements (self promotion) generates value judgement and needs analysis at the outset, shrouded in scepticism.
• Communicating what you are working on has a completely different effect (trust me on this: we did tons of tests).

What are you afraid of?

Think someone will steal your idea? Let me tell you something: someone WILL ONE DAY do that. Or are you hoping you will grow a business completely invisibly? As you grow competitors will copy you. But here's something else you might like to know:

1. There's space for many competitors in the market!
2. People/businesses aren't as rational as you think. If you do a great job at customer service and are a good supplier people will stick with you and support you even if next door there is a competitor.
3. You don't have to be an idiot in the way you do share things. Don't breach client confidentiality for example or share ridiculously detailed how to guides.... The trick with sharing is to give enough information that potential partners/collaborators/clients can get a sense of what you are working on but who don't have the appetite to go through the learning curve you had to go through in terms of application of what you know.

The thing is: in business the difference between an aspiring entrepreneur and a real entrepreneur is that the latter rolls up their sleeves and does it. To give you an example, we run the online academies of 455 cities in 28 countries: I have lost count of the number of organisations and people who told me that there's nothing particularly innovative about what we do and that they can do it themselves. I just nod, agree and wait... sometime it takes a year before the organization comes back to us because they can't make the economics of online learning work for them. And that's my point: you KNOW A LOT MORE THAN YOU THINK YOU DO and that's is worth tons. Those hours trying to figure out how to deliver something with few resources? All those nights trying to find innovative solutions to a tricky problem? Those countless trips and small projects you did? Those have real value to an organisation that doesn't have time.

That's how (truth be told, a little by accident) we discovered our own value proposition. If a company has aaaaalll the time in the world and lots of cash they can do what we do. But if an organisation or city wants to launch an academy in under 1 hour to all their customers or citizens then we are unbeatable. And that's my long winded point: you know shit. A lot of shit. And that's worth gold to some people. But how do you share that?

By sharing

• What are you working on?
• What are you looking for?
• What are you struggling with?

So....

Let's make it practical...

Imagine you saw this on my timeline (actual case)... for the sake of today's example, let's say it is LinkedIn (but can be any platform you like):

"Did you know that globally there are over 10 million towns, of which 4.560 have a population of over 150.000 citizens. Almost all of these cities are trying to tackle the United Nations SDGs - in different places with different degrees (e.g. a rural town in Africa tackling access to water vs a city in Poland tackling youth unemployment). The very large cities (Frankfurt, London, etc) have teams and resources to research and implement solutions to tackle various SDG challenges. But most of the other cities and towns (the majority) are struggling with juggling priorities.

So what can we do about it? That's what we are currently working on since many months and are launching end of April in 30 municipalities and then rolling it out to many others.

At this phase I am just sharing in case you or your organisation are actively working on SDG related solutions (think tackling unemployment, support of the elderly, water and sanitation, local economic development, infrastructure, renewable energy etc) and want to have a chat to explore potential synergies"

See what I did above? Am sharing enough to get attention and interest, hopefully stimulating interest from the right organisations (PS - you never really know until you post something if you wrote a good post).

Want to make it more practical?

1. Eg. 1 The gardener - "So excited! For the last few years I have helped countless homes in (name neighbourhood) to improve their gardens and find ways to help the homeowners lower their garden maintenance costs. This has opened the doors to a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with (NAME THE REAL ESTATE AGENCY OF THAT NEIGHBOURHOOD) and together we are helping more properties that are on the market to turn the gardens around so that they make an even bigger first impression to potential buyers. I will update you with pics as we do more projects, but this is really exciting and I am personally so grateful to the many clients (tag them?) who trusted me over the years.

eg 2 The web site developer - "Just wanted to share the work I am doing with a client of mine in the hope it helps others out there in a similar situation. My client is a local restaurant (best pizza in town!) and they reached out to me to design a website. I refused. Instead we spent more time understanding what truly drives sales... and a nice funky website just doesn't. Much more important is to integrate their offering into various marketplaces (ubereats, etc) so that they are more integrated in the channels where clients normally are. So happy to help (name of owners) in this and I hope the next pizza is on you :-)"

Try it!

Share what you are working on! It doesn't have to be a masterpiece. Start with something like "Just wanted to share what I am working on in case there are others out there that could benefit from this". Always put a nice pic that is personal (DO NOT USE AI generated pics like this one of me... AI pics are relatively easy to spot and often create a lack of trust to the actual content). It's ok to be humble: not everything needs to be ridiculously impressive. Be real in your sharing. And you'll be surprised how often people come to the party, tagging others, starting conversations etc.... all things that increase the visibility of your post (engagement = increased visibility) which ... well... isn't that what solves access to markets? :-)

Hope this post helped.