Work and music: conversations between you, customers and fans.
As an entrepreneur, I look for ideas that make sense to me and try and find sense out of what I read. After reading a blog post by Derek Sivers called Valuable to others, or only to you? about making music for others it made me think about not making music, but about the creativity part for entrepreneurs, about making meaning, as Guy Kawasaki states. What does Sivers mean?
While musicians make music and the audience listens to the music there’s a conversation going on there between them. The musician plays the music and if the audience likes it they applaud, that’s the conversation. An entrepreneur makes a product or service and sells it to his or her customers. The feedback from both the sales and the comments from the customers is that an entrepreneur is having many conversations between his customers and himself or herself. Both the musician and the entrepreneur are “making music”
What does a conversation between a customer and an entrepreneur look like?
- Entrepreneur: I have an itch or I see someone else’s itch and I want to scratch it. I’ll make a product/service to take care of my/your itch and see if others like it.
- Customer: Oh, I see how you solved your itch, do I have the same itch? Yes, No, or Maybe.
- Entrepreneur: Here’s my itch more defined, do you have the same itch?
- Customer: Yes, I do. Now will your solution really solve my itching problem?
- Entrepreneur: It not only solved mine, but here are others that it my solution solved as well.
- Customer: I really don’t believe your solution will solve my itch. You’re pulling my leg!
- Entrepreneur: Well here’s a sample to try and see it if works for you.
- Customer: Yes, I do believe it does solve my itch. How much is it?
- Entrepreneur: It’s only this price?
- Customer: I’ll have to think about it.
- Entrepreneur: You come back now if you have any more questions, OK?
This is just one type of conversation, but notice that it is something which both the customer and entrepreneur agree upon, there is no fraud or attempt to defraud by either the customer or the entrepreneur. This is a true business relationship where both sides agree that things are what they are.
Where problems begin is when either the customer or the business work to defraud the other from their rightful property or provide a less than good product for the money.
When it works, then the solution to an itch becomes a better business and it grows.
What conversations are you having?
