We're still on the boat theme. I was talking about the need for a bigger boat (or rather a bigger team) at the end of my post a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd explain.
Apparently, successful products are launched by teams. It makes sense, no big revelations there. While we've got a team of sorts it is distinctly lacking in some areas.
You see I've realised so far that businesses like ours are about two things:
- Making stuff
- Selling stuff
Everything else is peripheral. Some people might tell me that they should be the other way around but I think I don't want to get into the argument about which comes first. I am however pretty sure that you can't have one without the other and keep going for too long.
There are of course a lot of things that feed into each of these too areas but I think they are all in support of these principle activities.
We've got a pretty good handle on the making stuff part. It's far from easy but we've got that working prototype you can see in the photos and, at risk of sounding more clichéd than a 1980s motivational speaker, I've no doubt we can overcome the remaining challenges.
As for selling stuff? That's another ball game. A totally different animal. A whole new kettle of fish. We need some help. That much is clear but not a lot else is. As far as I can see, the options look like this:
- Get marketing and Public Relations company to sort it all out
- Employ a marketing person to sort it all out
- Bring a marketing director on board to sort it all out
- Hire a contractor to sort it all out
- Try and do it ourselves and screw it all up
Option 5 is clearly a bad idea. Option 1 would cost loads and probably wouldn't give us what we want anyway. We;re not trying to re-brand an international airline. Option 2 gives all the headaches of employing people and would be a massive continual drain on cash.
Option 3 sounds appealing. - We need someone front the sales and marketing long-term and maybe it would be a good idea to bring them on now. It would mean giving equity away which in itself is not a problem but it becomes a big problem if we get the wrong person. We would have to work out the arrangement, the shares and all the legal side of things. If it all goes wrong then the best case is an amicable split but complicated share-arrangements or buying back shares, company evaluations, more legal stuff and lots of pain.
The other problem is that we don't know who that person would be. Even if we could find somebody we would then be entering into a involved business relationship having never worked with each other before.
That leaves option 4. - We know a few people with relevant industry experience and who either do freelance work anyway, or who might do a bit of freelance moonlighting. We get them to a small bit of work, a little bit a time to build contacts, network, sort out PR and all that sort of stuff and see how the relationship develops. If things go well we then have some working history to develop things further and maybe look at turning them into one of the other options.
This seems like a reasonable approach for a lot of what we need. It minimises commitment and long-term financial risk and builds up working relationships. We need to ensure we've got the cash to support their work and try to foster a relationship that means we can rely on them. Then maybe the good ship Worthington Sharpe will start to look a bit like this.
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