When I was just starting out in the web game in the 1990’s, I met a bloke just back from working in London and about to open a restaurant. He wanted to change the way Melbournians ate fine food. There would be no mediocrity. Every ingredient would be individually sourced and the finest available. The staff would approach hospitality as professionals, not as students with a part time job. The sommelier would be a verified expert at pairing the finest wines with the finest food. The venue, whilst humble would be in a great location, have parking and be easily accessible to his customers.
So what happened? Well today that man is one of Australia’s most successful restaurateurs, is regularly featured in the social pages, occasionally appears on a certain TV cooking show, and has a number of very successful restaurants.
So what does this have to do with online success?
It’s all about vision. My mate defined his vision and worked tirelessly to see it realised. He knew that in the high end market he had to do something different and be 100% committed to quality. He bought the best French butter available, he arranged Melbourne’s first degustation menu, and promoted himself whenever and wherever he could. It didn’t happen overnight but people discovered that he was doing something different and offered a suburb culinary experience.
Pretty soon word of mouth spread and the little restaurant took off.
The point I am trying to make is that the recipe for online success is not about tools, products, or a new PPC or social media strategy, it is about vision and drive.
Sure you need to get the products right, understand your market, build a great brand, and have efficient processes, but without a vision and the drive to realise it you will struggle to successfully build a great online business.
With the web, it’s easy to become enamoured by technology and bright shiny tools. Everyone has some great advice about a web host, PPC, SEO, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, taking payments, colours, design, layout, the size of your font, your background colour, your logo, delivery and fulfillment, email marketing, CSS, YouTube, link building, Google Panda, Facebook pages, PayPal, PHP, .NET, jquery, and so on.
That’s all bullshit.
My advice is to forget the tools and focus on the vision. Once your vision is written in huge letters on your wall start looking at which technology can help you realise it.
My mate wanted to change how Melbournians ate fine food by introducing a new European style of dining, what’s your vision?