We’re all looking for more customers, increased revenue, and more recognition. At the same time, the Dynamic Development of a business, especially in the early stages, is impossible to do automatically and “find its own” way. It takes constant effort, focus, flexibility and coordinated moves for a company to overcome the challenges of startup and bridge the Moore Gap , reaching and gaining the first critical mass of loyal customers/followers.
It is especially critical that the initial steps are taken in your immediate living space, neighborhood, local market, community or group. In particular, you need to focus on gaining the trust of your “tribe” before you start thinking about expanding into other geographies and the global community! In this way, a solid foundation is created, which will have allowed you to see any changes or improvements that need to be made, before addressing a larger audience. At the same time, it is much easier, practical and cheaper to have direct feedback on the product or service you offer.
Avoid Airbnb’s mistake
It’s probably not known, but Airbnb started with a strategy of global simultaneous expansion! The three founders of Airbnb tried to reach a global audience from day one, as this seemed logical based on their business model.
But after five years of fruitless efforts, they decided to return to New York – their base – and first strengthen their presence in the domestic market, before turning to the global market.
Soon, from the 20 rooms they had at the beginning, they acquired 200, which gave them the necessary impetus to expand into foreign markets, and end up today being the number one rental company, which has even entered the stock market.
Start local
What we learn from the case of Airbnb is that many times enthusiasm leads us to set high goals, forgetting or overlooking the intermediate stages that it is necessary for a business to go through! That is, we set as our goal our expansion abroad, without taking into account our immediate community, our “race”.
A leader, of course, needs to set high goals for his company and have dreams for expansion, but at the same time, any growth, even dynamic, is appropriate to be done gradually, and after we have secured our solid initial base.
Intel decided to invest in a consumer campaign for Intel Inside, a program that involves Intel partnerships across personal computers, data centers, and IoT devices that define nearly every aspect of our lives and transform industries. It was a low-cost local campaign, including billboards and media ads. Only when the first positive results arrived did they expand it.
Therefore, focus initially on your immediate, local communities-“tribes”, because there you will find the people who will support you, but also you will have the opportunity to get a “taste” of the response that your services or products have, in order to make any improvements or changes where needed.