The peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), also known as the peregrine,[1] and historically as the duck hawk in North America,[2] is a cosmopolitan bird of prey (raptor) in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-grey back, barred white underparts, and a black head. The peregrine is renowned for its speed, reaching over 320 km/h (200 mph) during its characteristic hunting stoop (high-speed dive),[3] making it the fastest bird in the world, as well as the fastest member of the animal kingdom.[4]
I used the falcon because it’s an amazing animal and more interesting than some dumb graphic meant to communicate speed.
Success in most things is determined by your timing/speed. Online success is no different. As website owners we are constantly marketed to about speed (page speed), copy, video, and images. These things matter but the speed in which you move yourself is the most important.
The hardest part about launching a business online is starting. You can’t build Amazon alone in your closet and launch it out of nowhere one day. You have to start small. You have to start.
Start Now
Once you start moving you can make changes. So decisions that lock you into certain courses should be carefully considered. Long term leases, CRM platforms that require 1 year commitments. Website platforms that seem cheap, however will cost you hundreds of hours to move off of later.
Maximizing your flexibility while continuing to publish, learn, engage with customers and grow will ultimately be the best strategy for reaching your goals.
Simplicity
One of the things I struggle with is comparison. Lots of clients have this issue too and they don’t even realize it. As web developers and designers we set them up for this as well with questions like:
What websites doe you like?
What companies in your space are really doing it well?
The unintended consequence of this line of thinking is that you travel down the road of comparison. You compare what you want to look like, to what your competitors or perceived competitors look like. This means you end up losing site of the fact that they have been in business for 10 years longer than you or that their target customer isn’t the same as your target customer.
Starting simple means answering these questions:
Who is my target customer?
What do I need to do, to get them to buy from me today.
If we are honest, what is the absolute minimum I need to do to get a sale.
Examples are fun
Imagine a bake sale at your kids school.
Who is the target customer: Other kids and some parents.
What is the absolute minimum you need to do: Bake something eye catching for kids, probably lots of colors or over the top decadence.
Starbucks Unicorn Frap generated over 155,000 posts to instagram in 5 days
Kids at a bake sale don’t really care about your ingredients, your packaging, your nutrition facts. The fact that your baked goods were on the Today show. They just need something to catch their eye over the other sea of brown/black boring choices.
What it takes to stand out in your business is likely something super simple. Maybe its a simple message on an easy FAST loading page. Maybe its an email from you after the fact.
Maybe its a personal phone call. When you start with the end in mind it prescribes all of your steps.
To look like competitor A, I need a giant massive website with 700 blog posts, and add 16 new ones each day. I need to have a lot of customer illustrations and animations. I need to be able to offer a super competitive price.
All of the fun and independence that drove you to start this adventure gets sucked out the window.
You do not need to look like everyone else, to be successful. You just need to start, have faith and be confident in your value. The faith part is the hardest part. Stay tuned to this blog as we are riding on a ton of faith and we are super tired of giving a sh1t about what other people are doing.
All of these references were taken from Wikipedia.
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Heinzel, H.; Fitter, R.S.R .; Parslow, J. (1995). Birds of Britain and Europe with North Africa and the Middle East (5 ed.). London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-219894-3.
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Friedmann, H. (1950). “The birds of North and Middle America”. U.S. National Museum Bulletin. 50 (11): 1–793.
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“All about the Peregrine falcon”. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1999. Archived from the original on 16 April 2008. Retrieved 13 August 2007.
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“Wildlife Finder – Peregrine Falcon”. BBC Nature. Retrieved 18 March 2010.