by Traverse Legal, reviewed by Enrico Schaefer - January 26, 2007 - Uncategorized
The mindset of the successful tech-age entrepreneur is one of exploration and revolution. The successful tech-age entrepreneur is always keeping both his mind and eyes open to find new and exciting ways to enhance and maintain his advantage.
However, this mindset can sometimes be corrupted by getting more interested in closing the doors of the competition – in this case the traditional-style law firms – rather than simply seeking to best them. The danger with this mindset is that you lose sight of the key aspect of the business equation – the customers.
While this mindset of destruction is very dangerous for your own entrepreneurial goals because your customers do become subsidiary to the competition, seeking to drive your competition crazy, according to Guy Kawasaki, can be yield great benefits. Kawasaki’s list of techniques are much more all-encompassing, but specifically, the idea of knowing what your business represents, and turning your "customers into evangelists", are ones of special significance to firms like ours.
In general, it is what tech-age firms represent, that gives them the competitive edge against our bigger competitors. This is because the basic identity of technology itself is of efficiency and ease, and to dedicate your business to that identity is to adopt technology’s positive traits for your own; and in a world in which efficiency and ease is what everyone is looking for, providing it in legal service allows you supply the consumers with exactly what it is that they want.
The idea of turning "customers into evangelists" is also of interest to tech-age firms because of both the ease and necessity of doing so. I say it is "easy" because after you have shown your client the huge competitive advantage you hold over the box-firm down the road, it is totally illogical for them to return to the inefficient and more expensive service being offered by our competitors. We all know the necessity of getting these dedicated clients, but it is important for all entrepreneurs to keep that necessity in the back of their mind every time they are dealing with any of their clients; because after all, those are the clients that keep your business in the black.
Check out Kawasaki’s post, "The Art of Driving Your Competition Crazy" for his full list of techniques.
As a founding partner of Traverse Legal, PLC, he has more than thirty years of experience as an attorney for both established companies and emerging start-ups. His extensive experience includes navigating technology law matters and complex litigation throughout the United States.
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. This page was approved by attorney Enrico Schaefer, who has more than 20 years of legal experience as a practicing Business, IP, and Technology Law litigation attorney.
