PROBLEMS, PAIN AND PROFIT

The many ventures I've been involved in over the years have mostly been driven by a combination of sheer excitement and a newly found passion for the particular field I was entering into, plus a burning desire to be able to express my own take on how things ought to be in that industry.

How things ought to be...

I'm not sure there's anything I dislike hearing as much as "It cannot be done, " "It's impossible," It would be really difficult," and most of all, "We don't have what we need to do it."

The feeling I get when I encounter these statements in any form, especially when enduring a less than stellar service experience, is often a stirring to just go ahead and open my own business in that line, and do what they're supposed to be doing the way I feel it should be done.

Once I get in that zone, my mind starts trying to zero in on the problem and work out a solution that creates a better product or service experience. This was how I got involved in fashion, event planning and tech, by simply being dissatisfied with what was obtainable and making a decision to make something better.

To make something better...

In most cases, I had no prior experience in the field, no money saved up and no team to work with when I decided to pursue the idea, but those things always seemed secondary to the passion that drove me towards my newly found goal.

All I'd say is "I'm starting my own...." and then set a date when it would be launched. It is after my declaration to my friends and family that I'd then begin brainstorming on how it could possibly be done, what and who I'd need to do it, and who I was making it for.

Upon satisfactorily answering those questions, the project starts and the countdown to my launch begins. More importantly, my word of mouth PR and marketing goes into overdrive as I begin revealing tit bits and juicy revelations from the grapevine of what to expect from the final product.

That's what happened two decades ago, when after searching for something interesting to do on the web, I decided to start a blog, or what was then called "My personal website."

It was at a time when we didn't have smartphones or democratized Internet, and we had to go to cybercafés to surf the web at exorbitant prices, sometimes much more than we could afford.

It was a time when just having an email address made you sound cool, and owning a mobile phone meant you were rich enough to continually feed a device with enough recharge cards, instead of just paying to use the phones at the local business centre near you.

Picturing the above description of that period makes it seem like it wasn't a good time for blogs, to be honest. Seriously, how would people pay per minute at a cybercafé to read your thoughts? What special thing would you have to say that'll make people part with their lunch money, just to visit your site.

Well the truth is that I thought people liked me enough to want to be a part of what I was doing, and perhaps i didn't have enough training in product development and marketing to know that I should research the market first, before developing the product. What I knew was to keep telling people you're coming up with something soon, fill them with an equal dose of suspense and anticipation, then let them countdown until the big reveal. That was my simple strategy, which in hindsight would probably be something right out of an influencer's bag of tricks today, but there was nothing scientific about it back then, it was simply called "creating awareness."

Creating Awareness...

Now it's one thing to create awareness for an upcoming launch, to let people know that something big is coming, but it's another thing to make them feel like they are a part of what is coming. Granted, everyone loves a good countdown and the average customer is a sucker for new things, but still you'd need to get them onboard to take the next step of actually purchasing the product when it comes out, instead of just sitting idly on the sidelines talking about it.

For this, awareness needs to draw participation. In other words, the target audience must become the central attraction and protagonist of the story. The launch must become their own promotion party, celebrating the new level they're set to attain by patronizing the new product!

Hence, they must be part of the process from the beginning. So, rather than pen down my thoughts for months before going live, I went around asking people in my school who wanted to be on my blog to submit their pictures. Those who did would be featured from the first day and the whole world could see and read about them online.

This was long before we could do so on Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat, and that was how it morphed from being my website to becoming a social site for my schoolmates. This was an even bigger reason to look forward to the launch.

It was suddenly an exciting proposition, we were going to make some people celebrities and update the school on whatever they were up to. At that time I didn't mind that we had to actually scan the pictures before we could upload them online, and that we had to go far from school to a café that had faster Internet to painstakingly put all the site contents on the web, at a cost much more than my pocket money. It was all worth it, because I couldn't wait for the world to see what I had been cooking for months.

Fast forward to the day of the launch, it was independence day, and as we would have it, a businessman had just opened a cybercafé right inside our hostel. His timing couldn't have been better. The countdown was over, we were live and the movie theatre had been brought right to our doorstep.

Suddenly, many people went into the café to browse through the site for the very first time and many of them came out half surprised and half angry at the fact that I hadn't written what they expected. Some felt a little embarrassed, some laughed so hard at what they read about others, that they gladly accepted what was written about them, and soon flocks of people rushed to visit the site and see what everyone was talking about.

The owner of the cybercafé probably make a fortune that day, and for a considerable period after, because many students went into the café, visited the site, then came out and told their friends about it, and finally they'd come back to show their friends what they had been talking about. This cycle was on non-stop repeat, and soon I was receiving ideas and suggestions on who I should feature next. 

Many started being on their best behaviour when I passed by or visited their room, because they knew I could always write about what I saw them doing on my site. It was fun visiting a café and seeing everyone reading through the same website, and not knowing you were standing behind them, but it was a lot more fun being approached for advert placement. That was when I knew I had something.

This was my first ever experience starting any venture whatsoever and launching something that blossomed immediately it was born. It taught me many lessons, many of which I still use today.

It taught me the power of three important 'P's in making any product - passion, promotion and participation.

Till this day, I'm reminded to always start from a place of passion, to get involved in projects I'm passionate about, projects that allow me make a change and make history while I'm at it. I'm reminded that making the audience aware of the product is part of the product and not a separate activity on its own; and most of all, I'm reminded that the customer is the protagonist of the play and must be written into the story of every new product from the beginning; from the very first scene he must be an active participant in the process that births and grows the product. 

Prospective customers shouldn't just be demographic statistics you look at on a screen, they should be the co-creators of your product and the first set of marketers you hire to sell it.

This is how you build a total experience, not just a new product or service, but something captivating enough to cause a complete culture change and immortalize the brand in the process.

Dear entrepreneur, always move in the direction of your passion and drill down to the pain points you or those close to you have experienced while being served by those currently operating in the market. Then make it your mission to alleviate their suffering by building a product that gives them pleasure instead, and makes you profit as well. 

Never forget what brought you into business in the first place, never forget the problem you came to solve in the marketplace. Stay passionate about it, be determined to make something awesome. But also remember to focus your attention on the prospective customer. Find him, carry him along and make him your lab assistant and town crier. Working together, the two of you can truly change the world and make it a better place for us all.

I'm rooting for you two.

To your success,

Olayinka A. Williams 

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