5 Marketing Questions To Answer Before You Tackle Development
If there’s one thing that I’ve learned in working with entrepreneurs and startups over the years, its that a great idea will only take you so far. Don’t get me wrong – ideas are the seed of every successful business – but if I had to choose between a company with a great idea and an unclear execution plan, or a company with an OK idea and a fantastic execution plan, I’d go with the execution focused company every time.
One often overlooked part of the execution strategy, especially with early stage startups, is marketing. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that my experience as a marketer may be coloring my opinion here, however you can’t argue that no matter how good your product/service is, if your customers don’t a) know about it, b) understand why you’re different from the competition and c) have a clear feel for its value, then your business is certain to be short lived.
4 Things To Do Before Asking For An NDA
I talk with entrepreneurs regularly. Every one of them has a new idea or a twist on something that’s going to disrupt an existing market. Most come to Terralien because they need a development partner.
They’re super excited and want to tell me all about it. The conversation goes something like this:
Client: I want to get a quote on this idea I have. It’s a game changer.
Me: Great, tell me a little about what you you’ve got in mind.
Client: Do you want to sign my NDA or send me yours?
Me: We sign an NDA when there’s an intent to work together.
Client: Well how do I know you aren’t going to rip off my great idea? You are a development shop after all…
Leveraging iPads for Data Collection
Imagine you’ve just won a contract to build a form-heavy app for a medical practice with reams of paper forms to convert. And, there’s a dizzying array of information they will need to gather each day. Entering data on an an iPad will give the doctors instant credibility with their patients. Getting started is easy but if this was you, you’d hit a wall really fast.
Time & Materials vs Fixed Price
At Terralien, I work with entrepreneurs to create great custom web and mobile applications. Few people get to be part of taking so many new ideas from the backs of napkins to actual revenue generating products. One of the challenges to getting things started is dealing with the question: “Can you tell me how much this is going to cost and will you agree to do it for exactly that price?”.
