Submitted by Katie Hellmuth on | 0 Comments
A recent NPR business story by Sonari Glinton piqued my competitive spirit one evening while I was feeding dinner to my baby. The story looked at Hyundai's steady climb vs Toyota, and how they are doing it. The reporter likened that rivalry to the two lead characters in the 1950's movie, All About Eve staring Bette Davis and Anne Baxter. In that movie, Eve (Anne Baxter) is Bette Davis' assistant, and eventually overtakes her.
The report focused on Hyundai's start-up nature, youthful energy in an old good-old-boys environment, and how they have been aggressively ramping it up to be in front of new customers. I was left with the following business building thoughts:
Being deeply in tune with your people (aka customer).
I'm referring to your customer or client as "people" because that is what they are. Glinton refers to Hyundai's marketing campaign that promised that if you bought a Hyundai car and lost your job in that year, you could return the car. Hyundai studied their consumer, and realized that the consumer was afraid of making an investment in a car that they couldn't finish paying off if they lost their income. One of Glinton's sources thinks that only a handful of people actually returned their car, but it was a message that psychologically relieved Hyundai's consumer, and made the purchasing decision easier.
The start-up mentality is high-energy and quick-moving.
To call Hyundai a start-up at this stage of the game, compared to a start-up who doesn't have numerous production facilities established yet, signals to me that even a large business can shift into a start-up mentality. This approach encourages an aggressive strategy, and one that is deeply in tune with the needs of your consumer. As a start-up, you are closer to $0 than you are to $1,000,000, which makes you hungrier. And if you want to catch your profit, you have to be in tune with the needs and fears of your audience.
Watching and learning from your competition.
Sadly for your competition, they could be a great model for you to learn from. If they are going through a communication blunder, keep your eye on it (don't gloat or do a dance of joy), and watch how consumers respond to their crisis. This way, when you are making a business move that could result in the same fate, you can be on the offense in building an effective strategy.
Go Go Go.
Companies, from start-ups to bigger guys like Hyundai, have to be persistent in business building. Which can be overwhelming if you have a lot of ideas and only so much time. You can still go go go if you plot out a list of goals you want to accomplish. This could be reaching out to a new prospective promotional partner to discuss terms of a deal you are working on together, or writing a blog post for your business. Keep pushing yourself to balance the small things with the large things, but know that every step you take a step to a stronger business.
Having the mind of a start-up can be exhausting and trying on your family life, if you want to be working out your ideas, but also want quality family time. Our Tin Shingles are doing that every day, just like you. Some of them have opened up their daily challenges to us in our Diary of a Small Business series. Hook up to it in your RSS feed or follow it on Twitter at #smallbizdiary or just watch for it in our newsletter. You'll see similar entrepreneurial drives, achievements, frustrations and more. After all, the start-up is an exhilarating and exciting business approach!
