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    Kill the Noise
    Kill the Noise
    Kill the Noise
    Ebook116 pages1 hour

    Kill the Noise

    By Matthew Smith

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    About this ebook

    Kill the Noise explores the basic premise that small business owners need to develop discipline and focus on what it is they truly do best and avoid the distractions, wasted time and unproductive side projects. The noise. By learning to identify and kill the noise, small businesses can operate more efficiently with a simpler model.

    The book includes practical examples and personal stories that apply to small businesses of nearly all types.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMatthew Smith
    Release dateMay 28, 2015
    ISBN9780996425223
    Kill the Noise

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      Book preview

      Kill the Noise - Matthew Smith

      Do You Have Noise?

      • Tired of wasting time on social media with little to no results to show for it?

      • Do you hesitate to rely on professionals for important business functions like marketing, accounting, and legal?

      • Ever struggle with pricing models, understanding market value, or how to set pricing?

      If you answered yes to any of the above, you have noise, and if you want your business to run as smoothly and efficiently as possible, you need to kill it.

      This book is for you.

      Introduction

      Noise: unwanted sound. Nobody likes it. Acoustically speaking, noise can be as mild as the annoying buzz coming from a fellow commuter’s too-loud earbuds, or it can be downright damaging, like the roar of a jet engine. Either way, I think it’s safe to say that we’d all like to eliminate the noise around us as much as possible.

      In the engineering world, a common concept is the signal-to-noise ratio, which describes how much intended versus unintended content is coming through. For example, in radio frequency engineering, the job of an antenna is to listen for signals. The challenge lies in the fact that a listening antenna collects not only the intended message (signal) but also everything else (the noise) within its receiving range. As such, the system must take what the antenna collects and then decipher the signal from it while ignoring the noise.

      This concept has reached far beyond the engineering and acoustic industries. Nowadays, the word noise can be attributed to anything that is unwanted or distracting. For example, think of topic forums on the internet, or think of any comments section following an online article or blog. Some of the content there is on-topic, timely, and important, but much of it is just noise.

      This figurative type of noise comes up in business all the time, especially for entrepreneurs who are just getting started or who are at a decision point. As a small business owner, you must be open to hearing about, and be capable of recognizing, opportunities and areas for growth. You need to be able to make wise decisions about shifting directions or introducing new products and services. Most importantly, you are no longer just looking for opportunities, you are also carefully screening them.

      But again, the challenge is in identifying the noise and ignoring it so that only the important and actionable bits come through. In fact, we might be presented with a dozen ideas, all of which are worthy, all of which are great. Your job is to select and devote your limited time and resources to only those ideas that fit into your larger goals and that are uniquely applicable to you, your business, and its mission. Otherwise, even a great opportunity can be a distraction.

      This is a hard lesson to learn, and many learn it too late. Some only learn it after finding themselves in a business, job, or industry they never intended nor desired to be in.

      The Hedgehog Concept

      The Ancient Greek poet, Archilochus, wrote, The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. The idea was so simple and so brilliant, that it inspired Isaiah Berlin to reflect on it centuries later and bring the idea into the modern world with his 1953 essay, The Hedgehog and the Fox. Business consultant and author Jim Collins took it even further in his book, Good to Great.

      Berlin proposes that there are two types of people: those who try to gain skills in many areas but who never reach the top level in any of them and those who choose to put all their effort into one thing and ultimately excel at it. Collins then applies this to business. He argues that for small businesses in particular, it is far better to focus on that one thing than to try to do everything. For finding that one thing, he has three simple criteria:

      • What is your passion?

      • What can you be the best at?

      • What will sustain you economically?

      In your business, you need to be able to answer these questions, both for yourself and for your business. In other words, generate your own Hedgehog Concept. Find or create your own opportunity that satisfies these three key ingredients. This isn’t to say that you can’t branch out into new areas later, but to establish your business as the best for your clients and customers, you need to focus on what it is you excel at. Of course, as your business grows, noise will creep in and eventually you’ll need to refocus again.

      Kill the Noise

      This is what you came here to learn. Throughout this book, you’ll find common examples of business noise, most of which we’ve experienced at my marketing company, Modmacro. My hope is that you’ll be able to learn from the experiences of myself and my colleagues and hopefully kill the noise in your own business.

      The first step in doing this, of course, is simply recognizing that your business has room for improvement. I’m assuming it was that recognition that caused you to pick up this book in the first place, but in case it wasn’t, I’m telling you right now that you have room for improvement. There is always something that can be streamlined, and there is always noise to kill. If you’re lucky, you’ve caught it while it’s still a nagging hum rather than a deafening roar.

      If you’re still not convinced you have noise in your business, I encourage you to take a closer look. Revisit everything.

      • Are you offering the right services? Are you reaching the right customers?

      • What is your process like? Do you have an efficient and well-trained staff?

      • Is your staff living and breathing the company culture?

      • When was the last time you sat down with your colleagues and set goals for the company?

      Ask all these questions and more. Only when you go over everything with a fine-toothed comb will you be able to see where noise might be creeping in. Sometimes, even the loudest noise is hard to spot when you’re right in the middle of it. So take a step back.

      Once you see specific areas of your business that need attention, it’s time to find a better way to doing things. The chapters of this book will not only provide you with real life examples to help you kill the noise you’re experiencing but also help you figure out a way to prevent that same issue from coming up again. After all, once you’ve taken the time and spent the effort to improve something, it would be horribly inefficient to see it pop back up again. Just like a good spring cleaning, once the noise is killed, your efforts need to be put towards maintaining a clean business that is

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