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The CAOS Challenge: Launch a new product quickly and cheaply.

In Insight 4 Mins Read By

In his book, Entrepreneur Revolution Author and Entrepreneur, Daniel Priestley shared a very great concept he called CAOS (Concept, Audience, Offer, and Sales). The CAOS challenge objective is to conduct a low-risk launch of a new product or service. You test the commercial response to a product or service by simply conducting sales meetings armed with little more than a brochure and a sign-up form.

The CAOS challenge can be used even if you have a business already, conduct a low-risk launch of a new product or service. I love formula/acrostics as a teaching mechanism, the books I remember the most are the ones with mnemonics; books like:

In order to launch a product or service, you will need four things:

Concept.

You need an answer for the basic questions people will ask: What’s this product or service about? What problem does it solve? Why should people listen to you?

To complete this step, put together a slide presentation on Keynote or PowerPoint so that you can present your concept to people in a presentation. Deliver this presentation to several close friends or associates in order to get feedback and criticism to improve it. Remember that the concept has to be something you are passionate about, something you can add value to and something people are willing to pay for.

Audience.

Who is this product or service for? Who do you need to get in front of in order to sell it?

Devise a questionnaire or survey that you can get 50 people to complete in order to discover insights into the drivers behind what kind of people are interested in your offer and what makes it appealing or what turns them off the idea.

Offer.

 What’s the deal? What do people get for their money? What are the terms and conditions?

Construct a four to eight-page brochure that outlines exactly what you are offering people, include the features and benefits of the offer and as much information as you can that will entice someone to buy. Accompany it with a sign-up form people can complete if they want to buy and a form that has the relevant terms and conditions on it.

Sales.

 Can you present and sell this concept? Can you handle questions, concerns and objections? Can you get payments or deposits? What is you conversion ratio from presentation to sale?

“When you sit with people and present your offer, be brave and ask them if they would like to put down a deposit or full payment in order to become one of the first clients for your business at a special rate. If they object, ask them why share any insights that might clarify the value you offer and see if you can find a way that they would comfortably make the purchase. Either way, record the main objections and your responses so that you can improve the way you and your offer address people’s concerns.”

“When you have these four areas covered, make face-to-face appointments with people to deliver a sales presentation, ask them to buy the product on the spot and see what they say in response. Your initial objective isn’t necessarily to make sales but to get feedback, and it’s hard to get real feedback unless you actually ask people to part with money for the product. Keep detailed records of every sales meeting to uncover the common objections and to determine the ratio of presentations to sales.”

The CAOS challenge isn’t designed to build a business on, it’s designed to quickly and cheaply test an idea in a commercial environment. If you go out and meet with 20–50 people and you make £10k+ in sales, there’s a good chance you have the makings of a business. Don’t worry too much yet about how it will scale or how it will run without you. At this stage, just see if you can get people to buy something.

All the best in your quest to get better. Don’t Settle: Live with Passion.

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Seven hard truths of Entrepreneurship by Daniel Priestley.

In Insight 8 Mins Read By

Entrepreneur Daniel Priestley in his great book, “Entrepreneur Revolution: How to Develop Your Entrepreneurial Mindset and Start a Business that Works” shared seven hard truths of entrepreneurship and I found them to be very true and helpful. He writes:

Seven hard truths of Entrepreneurship

TRUTH 1: IT’S HARD AND IT GETS HARDER

Entrepreneurship isn’t easy: you’re taking on people’s problems. You are taking on problems for your customers, for your staff, for your family and ultimately yourself. This responsibility is something that your family and your staff won’t or can’t grasp (and nor should you try to make them – it’s your journey not theirs). Entrepreneurship is so hard at times, it’s not even worth mentioning how hard it is. Rather than hoping for the day it’s effortless, you need to embrace the challenge. Realise that you aren’t digging ditches or scavenging for food and water.

Entrepreneurship is so hard at times, it’s not even worth mentioning how hard it is.

Your problems are entirely of your own making and you are engaged in a meaningful struggle to bring your vision out into the world. Stop looking for reprieve and start making things happen – accept that it’s hard, but you’re living in the most exciting time in history and it’s hard because you’ve chosen a new path.”

TRUTH 2: NO ONE IS COMING TO SAVE YOU

There’s no entrepreneur coming to ‘take you to the next level’ – they are already building their own businesses. There’s no world-class manager who’s coming to join your team and fix every issue – they already work for Google and they would want crazy money to leave. They certainly wouldn’t want to work for someone who needs saving.

In every way, you are in the driver’s seat and everyone is looking to you for leadership. Great people on your team will be great because you made them great – you trained them, developed them and believed in their potential, even while they made mistake after mistake.

Removing the hope that someone is coming to save you leaves you with the realisation that this business is in your hands, and your hands only. Stop searching for the White Knight and start showing up with bravery and leaning in to your challenges.

TRUTH 3: IN ORDER TO DO THE WORK YOU LOVE, YOU HAVE TO WIN THE WORK

Here’s the problem, in order to do the work, you need to win the work. You have to get a client to transfer the money, sign the cheque or enter their PIN. Until that happens, it doesn’t matter how cool your ideas are or how good you are at delivering value to a client.

There’s no easy sales system that generates clients passively. Great companies with billion-dollar brands still need excellent sales professionals to secure new business. No amount of content generates automatic sales, beautiful branding won’t do it either, and great sales people will only perform on your team if they can see how you sell first.”

“Sales skills can be learned. You can craft brilliant presentations, get better at listening and work on your communication skills.

Eventually, you can inspire a team of people who help win business – but only if you can find your groove when selling first. Lean in to the sales process and never take your foot off the accelerator.

TRUTH 4: THINGS DON’T WORK FOR LONG

There’s no foolproof system, there’s no magic bullet and there are no people who just work hard without leadership. Every system will need to be refined, every cutting-edge strategy will become commonplace, every hot product will cool off, every ace team member will need training and every asset will need developing.

Business requires you to juggle and there’s no such thing as a ball that just stays in the air, there are only people who get good at juggling. As soon as you give up on the expectation that things will just work, you suddenly embrace the challenge of dealing with more and more complexity. You discover a rhythm of pre-empting what needs your attention, and you begin to fix things just as they begin to break rather than waiting for them to get completely destroyed. Expect people and things to break down over time and lean in to the process of reinvention.

TRUTH 5: YOU ARE GOING TO FAIL

Despite your best thinking and most diligent planning, most of what you do won’t work. Your best advertising will be ignored by most people. Your best sales presentation will be rejected by a huge portion of people you present to. Your foolproof solution will fall apart at a crucial time. You’re going to lose a battle you should have won. You’re going to be at a low point and then another thing is going to come along and crush you. You’ll have days that you just can’t get yourself fired up no matter how hard you try.

Some of the best entrepreneurs have had complete business failures and gone bankrupt. Even when the worst things happen, the sun comes up the next day and you have another opportunity to try something else.

Let yourself off the hook for being perfect – it’s not even a possibility. Get on with doing the best you can and expect delays. Lean in to failure because it’s a great teacher and it’s part of the process.”

TRUTH 6: IT’S UNFAIR

Sometimes people don’t keep their word, some deals go badly and situations unfold that everyone agrees is wrong. Even when this happens, don’t become jaded or bitter. Don’t complain how unfair things are – accept it and move forward.

Keep the perspective that life in general isn’t fair and there’s a good chance you’ve been on the right side of the unfairness before. You were probably born in a country that gave you an unfair advantage, you probably had lucky breaks, you probably had an education millions of people dream of. You probably have an unfair amount of health and good looks. If you have running water and healthy food available, many people would consider those basics of life aren’t fairly distributed. As an entrepreneur, you must never complain about how unfair things are for you, instead champion the causes of others less fortunate than yourself and solve problems others won’t solve for themselves. Then you will be fine. Lean in to the unfairness and be grateful that you have the opportunity to overcome your unique set of challenges.

TRUTH 7: YOU’RE NOT ENTITLED TO REWARDS

You’re not on this planet to be the recipient of riches and great rewards. You’re not entitled to travel, to have a big house or to enjoy endless holidays.”

“You’re here to solve problems for others. Your most rewarding work will be in the service of others, doing meaningful but challenging work. You might not get recognised for this work, the credit might go to someone else, or the people you help might not be grateful at times.”

“It just so happens you’ve already won the human lottery. By virtue of the fact you’re alive at this moment, you’re educated, have access to technology, medicine and information, you’ve already got the rewards. You’re luckier than 99.9% of every human being that has walked the earth. Now it’s time to bring your A-game for helping others.

As soon as you give up on the idea that you’re doing this business for a payoff, and you just serve others as best you can and as sustainably as you can, you’ll start to gain huge satisfaction from the work itself. Everything on top of the opportunity to serve will be a bonus. Additionally, without any sense of entitlement to rewards, you will be the one who chooses to reward yourself as and when you want to rather than expecting the rewards to magically arrive. Lean in to serving others and accept the rewards you choose.”

Business is tough, but it’s great. It’s a challenge that forces you to perform at your best and it won’t tolerate anything less. The main thing that makes business miserable is juvenile expectations that it should always be fun, fair, easy and rewarding by default. If you want it to be easy, it gets damn hard. Paradoxically, if you embrace the struggle, it’s a lot more fun and you start to realise just how lucky you are.

All the best in your quest to get better. Don’t Settle: Live with Passion.

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The Entrepreneur Brain.

In Insight 7 Mins Read By

In his very great book, Entrepreneur Revolution: How to Develop Your Entrepreneurial Mindset and Start a Business that Works, best-selling author and Entrepreneur Daniel Priestley observed that there are three key part of an ‘Entrepreneur Brain'”: The reptile, The monkey and The Entrepreneur (Visionary).

DON’T LET THE REPTILE RUN YOUR LIFE

The reptile – fight, flight freeze (emotional often in a bad way – aggression, fear, panic, etc).

If you operate from the primitive, survival part of your brain, you can expect to live like a reptile. Reptiles don’t achieve very much, they eat scraps, they crawl all over each other, they don’t evolve and they feel the cold when the winters of life come around. Reptiles are either fighting for scraps, mating or conserving energy while watching anything that moves to see if it’s good for food or sex.

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The Great Depression.

In Insight 7 Mins Read By

“History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes” – Mark Twain

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States. It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. The stock market crash of 1929 led to the Great Depression and was a prelude to World War II.

The Great Depression started in the United States after a major fall in stock prices that began around September 4, 1929, and became worldwide news with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929, (known as Black Tuesday). Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide gross domestic product (GDP) fell by an estimated 15%. By comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession.

The Great Depression had devastating effects on both rich and poor countries. Personal income, tax revenue, profits, and prices dropped, while international trade fell by more than 50%. Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 23% and in some countries rose as high as 33%.

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The $25,000 Idea: Strategy for Goal Achievement.

In Insight 5 Mins Read By

In his great book, Lead the Field, Earl Nathingale shares a great story about goal achievement:

The story goes that the president of a big steel company had granted an interview to an efficiency expert named Ivy Lee. Lee was telling his prospective client how he could help him do a better job of managing the company, when the president broke in to say something to the effect that he wasn’t at present managing as well as he knew how. He went on to tell Ivy Lee that what was needed wasn’t more knowing, but a lot more doing. He said, “We know what we should be doing. If you can show us a better way of getting it done, I’ll listen to you – and pay you anything within reason you ask.” 

Lee then said that he could give him something in 20 minutes that would increase his efficiency by at least 50 percent. He then handed the executive a blank sheet of paper and said, “Write down on this paper the six most important things you have to do tomorrow.” The executive thought about it and did as requested. It took him about three or four minutes. 

Lee then said, “Now number them in the order of their importance to you and to the company.” That took another, three, four, or five minutes. 

Then Lee said, “Now put the paper in your pocket, and the first thing tomorrow morning, take it out and look at item number one. Don’t look at the others, just number one, and start working on it. And if you can, stay with it until it’s completed. Then take item number two the same way; then number three, and so on, until you have to quit for the day.” 

“Don’t worry if you have finished only one or two items on your list. The others can wait. If you can’t finish them all by this method, you couldn’t have finished them with any other method. And without some system, you’d probably take 10 times as long to finish them – and might not even have them in the order of their importance.” 

“Do this every working day,” Lee went on. “After you’ve convinced yourself of the value of this system, have your men try it. Try it as long as you like, and then send me your check for whatever you think the idea is worth.” 

The entire interview hadn’t taken more than a half-hour. In a few weeks, the story has it, the company president sent Ivy Lee a check for $25,000, with a letter saying the lesson was the most profitable, from a money standpoint, he had ever learned in his life. And it is said that this plan was largely responsible for turning what was then a little-known steel company into one of the biggest independent steel producers in the world. 

One idea! The idea of taking things one at a time, in their proper order; of staying with one task until it’s successfully completed before going on to the next; of living one day at a time.

For the next seven days, try the $25,000 idea in your life. Tonight, write on a slip of paper the six most important things you have to do. Then number them in the order of their importance. Tomorrow morning, go to work on item number one, and stay with it until it’s successfully completed. Then move on to number two, and so on. When you’ve finished with all six, get another piece of paper, and repeat the process. 

You’ll be astonished and delighted by the order this brings into your life – and by the rate of speed with which you’ll be able to accomplish the things that need doing, in the order of their importance. This simple but tremendously effective method will take all the confusion out of your life. You’ll never find yourself running around in circles, wondering what to do next. 

As you use this method, remember to live the best you can, one day at a time. You need not worry about tomorrow, or the next day, or what’s going to happen at the end of the month. One day at a time, handled successfully, will carry you over every hurdle; it will solve every problem. You can relax in the happy knowledge that successful tasks make successful days, which, in turn, build a successful life. This is the kind of unassailable logic no one can argue with. It will work every time – for every person.

The reason for writing down what you consider only the most important things to do is obvious. Handling each task during the day successfully is important to the degree of the importance of the task itself. Successfully doing a lot of unnecessary things can be pretty much a waste of time. Make certain that the tasks you take time to do efficiently are important tasks – tasks that move you ahead, steadily, toward your goal. 

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Acres of Diamonds.

In Insight 6 Mins Read By

In Earl Nightingale’s very inspiring and influential book, lead the field; he shares the story of Russell Herman Conwell (Founder of Temple University). Dr. Conwell gave over 6,000 lectures on “Acres of Diamonds.” He was able to raise several million dollars, with which he founded Temple University.

In 1843, a man was born who was to have a profound effect upon the lives of millions of people. His name was Russell Herman Conwell. He became a lawyer, then a newspaper editor, and, finally, a clergyman. During his church career, an incident occurred that was to change his life and the lives of countless others. 

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Colonel Anderson and Books.

In Books 5 Mins Read By

In his Autobiography, Steel Magnate and Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie writes a glowing tribute about Colonel James Anderson, the man who opened his library to young boys in the community and in the process encouraged young Andrew to become a life long learner.

“As the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.” The treasures of the world which books contain were opened to me at the right moment. The fundamental advantage of a library is that it gives nothing for nothing. Youths must acquire knowledge themselves. There is no escape from this.


With all their pleasures the messenger boys were hard worked. Every other evening they were required to be on duty until the office closed, and on these nights it was seldom that I reached home before eleven o’clock. On the alternating nights we were relieved at six. This did not leave much time for self-improvement, nor did the wants of the family leave any money to spend on books. There came, however, like a blessing from above, a means by which the treasures of literature were unfolded to me.

Colonel James Anderson–I bless his name as I write–announced that he would open his library of four hundred volumes to boys, so that any young man could take out, each Saturday afternoon, a book which could be exchanged for another on the succeeding Saturday. My friend, Mr. Thomas N. Miller, reminded me recently that Colonel Anderson’s books were first opened to “working boys,” and the question arose whether messenger boys, clerks, and others, who did not work with their hands, were entitled to books. My first communication to the press was a note, written to the “Pittsburgh Dispatch,” urging that we should not be excluded; that although we did not now work with our hands, some of us had done so, and that we were really working boys.  Dear Colonel Anderson promptly enlarged the classification. So my first appearance as a public writer was a success.

My dear friend, Tom Miller, one of the inner circle, lived near Colonel Anderson and introduced me to him, and in this way the windows were opened in the walls of my dungeon through which the light of knowledge streamed in. Every day’s toil and even the long hours of night service were lightened by the book which I carried about with me and read in the intervals that could be snatched from duty. And the future was made bright by the thought that when Saturday came a new volume could be obtained. In this way I became familiar with Macaulay’s essays and his history, and with Bancroft’s “History of the United States,” which I studied with more care than any other book I had then read. Lamb’s essays were my special delight, but I had at this time no knowledge of the great master of all, Shakespeare, beyond the selected pieces in the school books. My taste for him I acquired a little later at the old Pittsburgh Theater.

John Phipps, James R. Wilson, Thomas N. Miller, William Cowley–members of our circle–shared with me the invaluable privilege of the use of Colonel Anderson’s library. Books which it would have been impossible for me to obtain elsewhere were, by his wise generosity, placed within my reach; and to him I owe a taste for literature which I would not exchange for all the millions that were ever amassed by man. Life would be quite intolerable without it. Nothing contributed so much to keep my companions and myself clear of low fellowship and bad habits as the beneficence of the good Colonel. Later, when fortune smiled upon me, one of my first duties was the erection of a monument to my benefactor. It stands in front of the Hall and Library in Diamond Square, which I presented to Allegheny, and bears this inscription:

To Colonel James Anderson, Founder of Free Libraries in Western Pennsylvania. He opened his Library to working boys and upon Saturday afternoons acted as librarian, thus dedicating not only his books but himself to the noble work. This monument is erected in grateful remembrance by Andrew Carnegie, one of the “working boys” to whom were thus opened the precious treasures of knowledge and imagination through which youth may ascend.

This is but a slight tribute and gives only a faint idea of the depth of gratitude which I feel for what he did for me and my companions. It was from my own early experience that I decided there was no use to which money could be applied so productive of good to boys and girls who have good within them and ability and ambition to develop it, as the founding of a public library in a community which is willing to support it as a municipal institution. I am sure that the future of those libraries I have been privileged to found will prove the correctness of this opinion. For if one boy in each library district, by having access to one of these libraries, is half as much benefited as I was by having access to Colonel Anderson’s four hundred well-worn volumes, I shall consider they have not been established in vain.

 Source: The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie, 1920.

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It’s the People Manifesto by Coach Bill Campbell.

In Insight 2 Mins Read By

“THE TOP PRIORITY OF ANY MANAGER IS THE WELL-BEING AND SUCCESS OF HER PEOPLE.”

In the Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell, the authors shared one of Bil Campbell’s dictates for getting the most out of people; he had developed the manifesto while he was at Intuit and often repeated it practically verbatim to his coachees.

Bill Campbell played an instrumental role in the growth of several prominent companies, such as Google, Apple, and Intuit, fostering deep relationships with Silicon Valley visionaries, including Steve Jobs, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt.

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