BUSINESS PIONEERS CAN TEACH US LESSONS KC Small Business Monthly December 2007 By John Landsberg The old business joke is, “How can you tell the pioneers? The answer: “They’re the ones with the arrows in their backs.” In business that very often is true. Many of the pioneers in business and industry were the ones who were initially shot down for their ideas. As an example, in 1983, inventor James Dyson launched the world’s first bagless vacuum cleaner after developing more than 5,000 prototypes. Great idea? Actually, no one would touch it because it threatened the vacuum cleaner bag business. Dyson couldn’t sell his invention and so in 1993 he opened his own factory. Today his world-famous vacuum cleaner has been a monumental success and is considered the market leader. Now those big vacuum cleaner corporations are trying to copy him. Maybe the wisdom to be gained by Dyson and other “pioneers” is that the old saying of “failure is not an option” isn’t really true in most business situations. In fact, for most small business people failure is a very real option they face every day. The real key is to try and minimize the failures. The music group Radiohead decided to let its fans download its new “In Rainbows” CD and pay whatever they wanted. The group anticipated their loyal fans would pay about $10. for it. They were wrong. Fully 62% of people who downloaded “In Rainbows” didn’t pay a cent. Another 17% paid $4 or less. Instead of the $10 per download the group had hoped for, the average price ended up being $2.26. Radiohead will survive its marketing disaster, but most small business folks would be filing for bankruptcy if they had undertaken such a wild idea. "An estimated 46% of the resources that companies devote to the conception, development and launch of new products go to ventures that don't succeed - they fail in the marketplace or never even make it to market,” said one business study. The difference between success and failure can be very slim. Unfortunately, small business people have limited resources, and really don’t have the luxury of making million dollar mistakes like major corporations (see “New Coke”). So, how do you avoid failing? Probably the best way is to look at those companies that are “best in class” in your business. What have they done in order to be successful? Could your business emulate them? Are there certain areas where your business could be even more successful than the leaders? Let’s face it, you simply do not have the research and marketing dollars of the big players. However, if you have a retail business you can learn a lot by just walking around Wal-Mart. And if it makes you feel better, the Wal-Mart folks are checking out Target on a regular basis and vice versa. Costco and Sam’s Club employees regularly visit each other’s stores. It is said that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” As small businesspeople, sometimes imitation can be a very smart strategy for making your business successful.