What are you giving away for free?
by Andrew Smith on 13/06/07 at 8:28 pm
4 comments
We’ve mentioned the company 37Signals here before, and they’ve provided another interesting thought here:
How does a chef break big and become a household name? One of the best ways is to release a cookbook or have a big cooking show on TV.
Mario Batali, Julia Child, Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay, Rachael Ray, Rick Bayless, etc. You probably know these chefs better than you know the chef of one of your favorite restaurants down the street.
These chefs give away their recipes, their secrets. They say “This is how I do it and you can do it too. Don’t worry, it’s not hard, just follow along.”
The more they give, the better off they are. The more they open up, the better off they are. The more they let you inside their kitchen the better off they are. These chefs have built empires by making their knowledge available to the public. They are astute business people.
If you’re looking for a way to break your business in a big way, follow their lead. How can you give away your formula, your secrets, your recipes? How can you give away what you know to increase your exposure and expertise?
We give away inside secrets on our blogs (World Wide Creative on The Heavy Chef, and Live Alchemy on their blog), but I think we can probably be bolder that. I’ll give it some thought.
Andrew Smith is the pedantic systems guy behind Live Alchemy, a SA e-commerce company. Andrew writes for Ideate in an attempt to make the world a more efficient place. View more articles by Andrew Smith.
Shane
Jun 14th, 2007
Andrew, this is quite big for anyone who works in SA. South Africans tend to hold things tightly with fear losing it, rather than being open handed and generous. I think Africa suffers with this problem generally. I mean look at dear Robert!
Andrew
Jun 14th, 2007
I had a further thought after writing this post – small businesses often have the same insider “secrets” as big business, either because the information is not that complex, or because entrepreneurs used to work for corporates. Small businesses stand to gain more and lose less by sharing this stuff with customers, and will quickly come across as the “hero” in a type of Robin Hood scenario.
If you’re a small business, think about how you can gain an advantage over the big guys by lifting up the skirts on your industry.
Karin H.
Jun 14th, 2007
Givers gain!!!
We give out free advice everywhere we can: blogs, DIY-forums, showroom, email, phone calls (am being inundated at the moment with calls from people having problems with their floor – we didn’t supply – and/or their fitter – not ours).
Our competitors hold their (trade) secrets close to their chest
It builds trust, it really does. Had a customer in last Saturday: knew he wanted to buy from us and us only because of all the advice we had given (free) on one of the DIY-forums.
Life is great, life is free
Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)
RKS Computer Solutions
Jun 16th, 2007
Hi Andrew,
Small businesses do tend to hold things tightly, if only to preserve cash flow in order to better themselves…
Answering your topic question, here’s is what RKS Computer Solutions is giving away… Free USB2.0 Flash Drives for incoming hits, all the info is on our home page… http://www.rkscomputersolutions.com
Freebies and give-aways are always good ways to attract new customers…
Have a good day!
Riaan