Is the Way You Park a Reflection of How You Entrepreneur?
Entrepreneur Office Hours - Issue #228
I’d like to test a quick theory, and I need your help. Answer the following poll question about parking for me:
The reason for my poll is that I posted a question on Threads asking why people reverse into parking spots. Within a few hours, it had lots of comments. Here’s what I wrote:
First of all, I should mention I’m impressed by the genuine thoughtfulness and insightfulness of people’s comments. Rather than spewing all sorts of nasty/snarky hate, which is what I expected, people were politely answering my question. Who knew the Internet could be anything other than a cesspool of angry negativity?
Second, I was interested in the reasons people gave. For people who reverse into their spots, most of the reasons they gave were related to themselves.
“It’s easier for me…”
“It’s quicker for me…”
“It protects my truck…”
And so on.
It’s all quite selfish, right?
In contrast, I specifically don’t reverse into parking spots because I feel guilty blocking other people.
To be clear, I don’t think I’m better than people who regularly reverse into their parking spots. But I do wonder if my awareness of others is a reflection of being entrepreneurial. After all, entrepreneurial people are trained to have empathy for others.
At the very least, that’s my theory. I could be completely wrong, hence the poll. It’s a very unscientific way of testing whether I’ve taken my obsession with analyzing everything from an entrepreneurial perspective a bit too far.
-Aaron
This week’s new articles…
The Huge Assumption New Entrepreneurs Make About Market Positioning That’s Completely Wrong
Knowing the best way to position a new startup within a market is harder than most founders realize.
There’s Only One Good Reason to Bootstrap a Startup
Bootstrapping companies can be a great strategy for lots of founders, but only if you’re doing it for the right reason.
Office Hours Q&A
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QUESTION:
Note: The following question was posted in response to Issue #225 where I explored the concept of a “50-cent offering” – i.e. a cheap way of placating customers to distract them from something that could otherwise be annoying. For example (as discussed in the previous issue), the soup/salad Japanese restaurants give which distracts people waiting for their shared tables to fill.
Hi Aaron, this is a really interesting question. What kind of 50-cent offerings can I make for my customers if/when they get frustrated/disgruntled with waiting? I think I may need help here...
I currently operate as a 1-woman shop, doing mostly 1:1 coaching as I build out my product-market fit to scale. When a customer waits over the weekend for me to open my laptop again, what kind of things could I offer?
A quick email saying I will jot this down for Monday? Naturally we may be in totally different industries/service offerings but any thoughts are helpful :) Thank you!
- Renee
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It’s taken me a little while to respond to this question because I was struggling to come up with a great answer. And, in truth, I still don’t have a great answer beyond what you suggested about sending an email. But I have another interesting example of a “50-cent offering.”
As you’ll see in one of my posts this week, I recently took my kids to Legoland. In our hotel – which was the on-site, Lego-themed hotel, the elevator had a unique quirk. It was verrrrrry slow (as-in 15 seconds between floors slow, which is unusual for elevators). However, during the ride, it played exciting dance music.
The experience was so unique, I even made a Reel about it:
The point of sharing all this is that the Legoland hotel elevator’s party music is the same as the Japanese soup and salad. It’s a way of turning a flaw into an unexpectedly delightful moment that actually makes it a feature rather than a bug.
In other words, I’m sorry I don’t have a great solution for you, Renee. I promise to keep thinking about it. But, in the meantime, I feel like we should all be fascinated by this 50-cent offering concept. It seems like a creative and powerful way for startups to turn obstacles into assets.
Got startup questions of your own? Reply to this email with whatever you want to know, and I’ll do my best to answer!
