Mindshare Marketing

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Art is never finished, only abandoned. — Leonardo Da Vinci

Working in a startup company and developing a new product, I can vouch for the accuracy of this statement.  We’ve spent countless months of hours laboring on our little project only to might not be the right word to describe it … the reasons to not move forward are endless.

All the same, we must still move forward.

Without taking the next step, we will never verify our hypotheses about the customers.  We’ll never know if the market research was accurate.  So rather than completing our masterpiece, we abandon it to the sphere of public opinion and customer demand.  It’s a depressing aspect of customer development, but a necessary one.

No product is ever completed to perfection – to spend precious resources trying is futile and wasteful.  There’s a reason iTunes is on version 8.2.  There’s a reason we aren’t still using MS DOS.  Development and progress requires that we take the next step and deliver our product.

So how far are you on the deliver schedule for your next breakthrough?  Has development stalled so you can apply the final finishing touches?  Or are you ready to take the plunge?

Mindshare Marketing will be taking a brief hiatus for the remainder of the month of June.  I have a few things to take care of and need a little time away from the blog to do the.  Tune in at 9am Pacific on July 1st for our next update!

As busy as entrepreneurs and small business owners can be, we occasionally get bored.  You know what I mean.  You sit in front of your computer and think, “why am I doing this?  I don’t really want to.”  Boredom is just a lack of has been covered over by all of the frustration and exhaustion of the working world.

But there’s a remedy – make your boredom productive.

If you feel unmotivated, change gears entirely.  If staring at the computer is too draining an activity, get up and do something else.  But not just anything, something you would normally do when you’re done working with the computer.  If you work from home, get up and do the laundry.  If you’re in the office, turn the monitor off and take a few minutes to reorganize the supplies in the break room.  Both are necessary tasks that break you away from the monotony of the every day.

After you’re done with your short interval, go back to work refreshed (if you’re still bored there’s something else going on…).  Sometimes it takes us a moment or two to recollect ourselves to re-engage our passions.  Your passion is the most valuable asset you have – don’t let it burn out!