Execution is key (again)
Posted by: Fidji SIMO in Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Internet/Technology
I’ve already written about the failure of my company creation but that’s not the kind of thing you get over easily especially when a good friend sends you an email proving that your idea wasn’t crap because… somebody else is developing it, but is doing it much better than you were.
When I created BlogEntreprise, my idea was to tackle a growing niche of the blog market: small businesses and clubs, by allowing them to communicate simply and interactively with their customers, members or prospects without requiring a webmaster. Creating a corporate blog platform was also a way of creating a directory of these blogs, unlike other blog platforms mixing personal and professional blog. As I said in my previous article on the subject, the main problem was the awful design, and the fact that we had absolutely no money to invest in it. Finding investors would have been impossible as neither my partner nor me were committed full time.
Blog4Trade is doing EXACTLY the same: a directory of corporate blogs, classified in different categories of the corporate world, with exactly the same positioning (”the first blog platform 100% business”, targeting small businesses), with exactly the same marketing speech about the advantages of a blog for a company and exactly the same features (”blog of the month” on the home page).
But clearly, when you look at the two screenshots in this article, would you rather create a blog on BlogEntreprise on the left or on Blog4Trade on the right? The decision takes less than a second. But what is really hard to swallow is just that all the key success factors were there, except one (design) which would have cost no more than €3000, but it is an amount we didn’t have at the time.
No great idea cost nothing. They always cost something, even if “something” is really low. So you really have to evaluate this “something” before because, how great your idea can be, it won’t be revealed unless you finally get this “something”. Now I will leave my bitterness to wish good luck to Blog4Trade which seems to be a really good platform!
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Sorry to hear about your missed opportunity. But, looking at it positively, this proves that your and Remy’s instinct was correct and that the next time you decide to follow it, you will have learned from this and all your other experiences, and greatly improve your chances for success!
I have often the same feedback when I see my ideas which come true. But execution is key, and above all, Remy and you took the step…and you know and I am sure, you will have other opportunities, a real background and hindsight for launching another enterprise! As I already said to you, you have full of potential!!
Hi Vincent, Hi Bea,
Thanks for the cheering up guys, it’s really appreciated! Of course this kind of lesson will be priceless if I create another company, which is why I share it on this blog (it’s not only to be cheered up!). I’ll do better next time
Hi!
Of course blog4trade is nice, but it’s still only for the french speaking market. What about the english speaking one? Is there anything close to that in the US? Well, i can imagine that the first movers are usually there, but still, what about the US?
Cheers!
Hi Ilias,
Thanks for your comment. It seems that in the US, the market of corporate blogging is much more organized by communication agencies which offer a blogging product in their package. But I’m sure there’s still a market for very small businesses (like the clothing store round the corner!). But I’ll definitely wait before jumping again on any opportunity!