How Jason Fried Got Good at Making Money (and What We Can Learn All Learn From That)
There’s a great article in this month’s Inc. Magazine by Jason Fried, the founder of software company 37signals and a regular contributor to Inc. We use his Basecamp product and I like many of their other offerings, so I’m a big fan. In the article. he talks about how making money to him is about freedom, and he cites 6 specific lessons. I recommend you read the whole article. Heck, I think you should subscribe to the magazine!
Here are some of my biggest takeaways from his article, which include some things I knew, but it’s always good to review.
“I made the discovery that people’s reasons for buying things often don’t match up with the company’s reason for selling them.”
When we develop website strategies, we coach clients to think about the benefits to the customer and how that is not necessarily how our clients perceive the value of their goods and services. That’s one of the benefits of social media, by the way. Social media gives you an opportunity to listen to your market and here what problems people are looking to solve. He goes on to say,
” Understanding what people really want to know – and how that differs from what you want to tell them – is a fundamental tenet of sales. And you can’t get good at making money unless you are good at selling.”
And I agree when he says that’s hardly a unique insight and that most companies miss the mark daily is a lesson and objective to strive for every day.
“Sell only things that you’d want to buy for yourself”
It’s all about passion and I think it’s easier to succeed when you’re passionate about what you do. Your customers will notice too.
“People are happy to pay for things that work well. Never be afraid to put a price on something. Even if there are free options, even if the market is flooded with free. People will pay for things they love.”
Let me tell you something. Sometimes you don’t want cheap customers. My experience is that they can be the most demanding, inflexible and highest maintenance. Sometimes that just kills your ROI.
“So here’s a great way to practice making money: Buy and sell the same thing over and over on Craigslist. Seriously.”
This is an interesting exercise. He talks about selling a commodity, like an iPod. Try and figure out how to sell it for more than you paid for it by changing the item description, headline or photo. See what works, sometimes a product shot with people works better than one without. I saw a study once that seemed to prove that showing a picture of a toy for a small child sold better with a picture of a child playing with the toy than just showing the product.
The important lesson is: test everything!
