CHAPTER 1Your Business and Products
What is your business? And what are the fundamental rules associated with building and growing that business? Before we look at how you position your business for success in the digital age, let's look at what your business is and go through some of the traditional rules for building any successful business.
What is Your Business?
In fact, before you answer that question let's answer this one. What is a business? That's easy, right? A business sells something. But you'd be amazed by how many people fail to understand this.
If you are not selling something, or planning to sell something, then you don't have a business. You may have a brand, you may have a large following, but until you are actually selling a product or service (and ideally for a profit), you don't have an actual business.
Interestingly, the digital age has given us the ability to look like a business even when we're not. We can all start a brand, by thinking of a name, buying a website, designing a fancy logo, creating social media pages and even getting thousands of people to follow us, but until you are trading a product or service (even if it is your own power of endorsement), you do not have a business. Many so‐called “entrepreneurs” or “start‐ups” do not fully appreciate this point. Many of them have a brand but not a business. This is not to say you cannot turn your brand into a business (and we will go into more detail on this subject later in the book), but until you ...