In 2003, I made the jump from a career as a vice-president of a software company to being an entrepreneur. I had just enough cash in the bank to fund my venture and with more than a decade of executive-level experience, more than enough confidence to try. It was exhilarating.<\/p>\n
I had come up with an idea for providing retailers with an analytics service to help them measure store traffic and shopper conversion rates \u2013 I called the company HeadCount. This, I thought, was a can\u2019t miss idea.<\/p>\n
Notwithstanding my previous big-business experience, I made many of the classic mistakes entrepreneurs make, but what I didn\u2019t anticipate was that retailers simply wouldn\u2019t get it. I thought there was plenty of pent-up demand for my new analytics service, but as I soon discovered, it was extremely difficult to get retailers to even take my calls, and when they did, many simply didn\u2019t see the value.<\/p>\n
After a year of banging on doors, I was so dejected I almost folded the company. Almost.<\/p>\n
Creating a communication platform for your business<\/strong><\/p>\n During my many sleepless nights, it occurred to me that I had two key issues: first, there was a legitimate lack of understanding about the benefits my analytics could provide, and, second, I couldn\u2019t get to the real decision-makers \u2013 senior executives, who are constantly hounded by salespeople and rarely take their calls.<\/p>\n My obsession with trying to solve these challenges \u2013 and a desperation to keep my business alive \u2013 led to a eureka moment: I\u2019ll write a book!<\/p>\n It occurred to me that, in part, most retailers didn\u2019t see the value in what I was offering because very little had ever been said about it. While traffic counting had been part of retailing for years, the fact was there were hardly any articles about it, no academic papers and definitely no books about it \u2013 even textbooks on retailing ignored it.<\/p>\n Not only would a book help me make the case for why retailers should use these analytics, but it would also be a great way to reach decision-makers \u2013 I could send copies directly to CEOs.<\/p>\n My next challenge was to figure out how to write a book and get it published \u2013 how hard could that be?<\/p>\n The only problem with a \u2018Book Strategy\u2019 is that you actually need to write a book<\/strong><\/p>\n During the day I continued to scratch on retailers\u2019 doors and try to sell my analytics service to keep the business going and on evenings and weekends I would write. My enthusiasm for the topic and fear of business failure were all the motivation I needed. But it was hard \u2013 really hard.<\/p>\n As the weeks turned into months, enthusiasm tuned into drudgery and on many occasions I questioned my sanity and the whole book strategy. What if it didn\u2019t work?<\/p>\n The reality was, I didn\u2019t have any options. We continued to burn cash and just weren\u2019t getting any traction in the business. Furthermore, I had convinced everyone on my small start-up team that the book would lead us to the entrepreneurial promise land.<\/p>\n After six months, the book was done. I\u2019ll spare you the gory details on what I discovered about book publishing, but suffice it to say, unless you\u2019re famous or a truly gifted writer \u2013 which I am neither \u2013 the only way to get your book published is through self-publishing.<\/p>\n CEOs don\u2019t talk to salespeople\u2026but they talk to authors<\/strong><\/p>\n When the first shipment of 50 books arrived I was almost overwhelmed by a sense of accomplishment and pride \u2013 I did it! The total elapsed time from first page to published book was about a year.<\/p>\n But pride doesn\u2019t pay the light bills, so I started sending out copies to CEOs and senior executives of major retail chains, and a funny thing happened \u2013 they started taking my calls. The calls led to meetings, meetings led to signed contracts, and the business started to grow. Beyond opening doors, the book proved to be an effective PR tool that helped us get some much needed coverage and, ultimately, it proved to be an effective training resource for store managers.<\/p>\n