At last week’s growth community group at Fishburners, Expert in Residence and Managing Director at ikaros, Daniel Lohrmann was in conversation with the two Crockd co-founders, Rosa Clare-Willis and Andrew Ford.
Having grown the business to 7 figures in only 7 months, the pair shared the following tips for other early-stage entrepreneurs.
1. Set deadlines for your company and stick to them.
Setting strict deadlines helps you be prepared for them and to hold yourself accountable when you’re not. For example, if you’ve set a particular launch date for a product, even if you’re not completely ready at the agreed deadline you can launch your marketing campaign anyway just to test for demand of the concept itself.
2. Branding is as important as product
Figure out what your target market wants in a brand and cater to them. Find out how they speak and what they care about, and make that consistent across the business. Think about whether you can make your brand as a ‘doing word’ (eg, “Let’s get Crockd up”). Think about whether you want to have yourself in your brand – anonymity and androgynous branding help make it ‘shareable’.
3. Make sure to understand things yourself first before outsourcing it Customer feedback/data is really important to understand your business strategy. Only engage external agencies once you’ve figured out your business for yourself and have done enough tests to know what your offering is.