We have a second Accelerate With IBA program this year, and have recently spent time together in Sydney and Darwin.
We are lucky to have an incredible cohort, who are willing to grapple with tough questions and big ideas.
I like to keep track of our more interesting conversations, and I’m sure we have more to come in early 2020…

Entrepreneurial Growth Is So Satisfying To Watch
One of our alumni came in to speak to our current cohort, explaining how his ideas progressed over the past 18 months.
He was incredible, almost a different person to the one we first met in Alice Springs.
Someone asked him what the most valuable part of the program was, and his answer was surprising – the block he missed.
Having been exasperated with the world of business, he skipped a block and contemplated if he wanted to continue, and this was a turning point.
Having fully bought in, he’s gone from strength to strength.

Becoming The Only Provider Your Customers Will Consider
Our returning alumnus was asked by the group about who helped him create his website, and he had an interesting answer.
He’d been following a particular developer on Instagram for two years, observing her work and appreciating how she operates.
When he finally needed a website, only one person was considered.
What I like about this example is that you don’t have to be cheaper than the competition to succeed, in fact it’s often easier to sell to customers who want someone they trust rather than someone who is cheap.
It also reminds us of the long sales process – your future customers might be your current followers, so it’s worth showing them how you treat your craft.

Creation Looks Like Magic
On our first day of the program in Darwin we had a Welcome To Country and a cultural workshop at Mindil Beach, where we learned how to throw spears, create string out of trees and make fire.
Making fire looks like hard work, and even a bit silly…until the first trail of smoke emerge from the wood.
The moment you see that small orange flame flicker out of the kindling is like magic – all of the hard work has turned into something so powerful.
It’s an amazing analogy for the process of starting a new business, and the sudden moment you go from zero to one.
You might think of your ideas as a homemade/pretend business, proverbially rubbing two sticks together, but the moment that first customer takes you seriously is like the first sign of real fire.

Multiple Businesses, Single Intent
Two entrepreneurs were nervous about bringing their existing business into the program alongside their new venture, as it might represent a breach of the rules.
Their concern was that their new business (an app) was different from their current business (training for small businesses).
On closer inspection, the two are different models that are working towards the same underlying intent – to empower small business owners with the tools they need to grow their companies.
Given this, we’re very happy to have the entrepreneurs work on both models simultaneously – in fact having two attempts at each new tool/canvas will make each model sharper.

Am I In Need Of A Sister Business?
Developing a brand position can be tricky – you have to pick what you want to be known for, then guard that reputation carefully.
This means saying “no” to some customers, which most entrepreneurs are reluctant to do.
One of our participants found a solution through her “sister business”, with its own name and position, allowing it to take on different types of contracts without diluting the main brand.
You see lots of designers use this technique, e.g. Armani Exchange or Marc by Marc Jacobs, as a way of entering different price brackets without compromise.
Instead of trying to have your cake and eat it too, this gives you the option to have two small cakes.

What Constitutes A “Good Person”?
I meet a lot of Indigenous entrepreneurs who are getting into business so that they can help other people.
When we dig a little deeper, they’re not necessarily trying to help everybody, but rather the good hearted people who need support.
That raises the question of what makes someone a “good person”?
Is it the size or structure of their business?
Is it their personality?
Is it their behaviour and decision making?
How will you spot it?
How will your team spot it when you’re not in the room?
My suggestion is to reverse engineer it – think of five great customers you currently love to serve, and try to deduce what they have in common.
It might be the mission of their business, the way they treat their staff and customers, or what they do with their surplus.

How Does Your Business Support Your Customers’ Behaviour Change?
We know from our Value Propositions that customers aren’t looking for physical products, but rather the improved states of being they offer us (e.g. buying a Rolex because it makes us feel successful, not because we need a super-accurate watch).
The challenge here is that as our customers’ motivation fades over time, they’ll stop seeing improved results.
This is why we have so many juicers sitting in pantries around the country – everyone has a fantastic first week when they’re enthusiastic, but one day it gets put away and doesn’t get pulled out again.
Our customers’ success comes from behaviour change – if we can change the way they think and act then they’ll experience great ongoing results.
Therefore, every entrepreneur has the job of designing a behaviour change process for their customers, creating new habits that give their customers the best chance of sticking to their newfound progress.

What Role Does Your Customer Want You To Play?
As part of your behaviour change work, there will probably be a spectrum of roles you can play.
These range from hands-off and automated roles, such as producing online content that can be easily consumed, through to running group workshops, or even intensive 1-1 coaching over a number of years.
These have different levels of scalability, different price tags, different time commitments, and will probably have different guarantees of success.
e.g. a personal trainer could post workouts online, or run group classes, or come to your house and force you to exercise.
A lot of entrepreneurs pick the part of the spectrum that they assume customers will want, but this is a crucial assumption.
What if you’re wrong?
What if there’s a demand for content that doesn’t require you to be in the room, or which can be viewed by 10,000 people at a time?
What if some customers will pay a premium for personalised attention?
The easiest way to test this is through customer conversations and a draft menu – let your customers gravitate to whichever role they’d like you to play for them.

“We Don’t Have Enough Time To Test”
I find this idea really strange.
Testing assumptions sounds like it will be time consuming, but surely it’s quicker than fully committing to an idea?
Testing is too important to not do – if you assumption is flawed then you’ll want to find out early, if it’s valid then you get to proceed with renewed clarity and confidence.
Testing your business ideas isn’t homework, it’s entirely in your own interest.

What Happens When You Care The Most?
During the block I’ve been watching Sarah Blakely’s course on Masterclass.
She describes her thought process when starting Spanx:

“I don’t have the most experience, I don’t have the most money, but I care the most.
Let’s see what happens when I care the most.”

This is the same competitive advantage our Indigenous entrepreneurs have – they have the greatest proximity and understanding of local challenges and opportunities, and they care more than anyone else.
This is a mixed blessing – the work becomes a calling rather than a job, the founder has skin in the game, and is less likely to compromise on the outcomes of their business.
It also means that the founders gets pulled in multiple directions, carries the burden of community expectations and is more likely to experience emotional burnout.

Who Might You Inspire?
We have a young Indigenous fashion designer in the group, who is working through her Theory of Change.
It’s tricky to describe and measure the social outcomes from selling Indigenous designs on clothes and accessories, but we also discussed the impact the founder is having on the broader community.
It turns out, at age 23 she has a tribe of followers who are inspired by her work – and not just young people interested in fashion.
She’s shown that the act of being a self-starting entrepreneurial young person in an Indigenous community sets a precedent for others – engineers, lawyers, designers, etc.
Never underestimate how important this is; you inspire more than just your customers.

The Double Diamond
You might be familiar with the Double Diamond or 4 D’s model used in design thinking.
Ideas start with Discovery, where we look broadly to understand all the problems affecting an issue.
We then Define a specific part of the problem to work on, which becomes part of our Mission.
Next we go broad again to Develop new solutions, creating lots of possibilities which can be quickly tested.
Finally we Deliver a tangible prototype, which can be taken to market for further improvement.
In our most recent block in Darwin, most of our group are at the end of Define and the start of Develop.

This process is really sensible but also feel unnatural.
It would make more “sense” to pick the best solution from the beginning and invest a lot of time and money – but what if we’re wrong?
By starting with the problem (not the solution), we gain greater clarity over what exactly is going wrong today, which issues are symptoms and which are root causes (we’ve been using The Problem Tree this week).
Then when we define which part of the problem is ours, we commit to one root cause and agree to let other people/organisations tackle the others.
It feels empowering to double-down on the issue that breaks out heart, and cathartic to let other groups take responsibility for the projects we can’t solve.
Then by looking at a wide range of solutions, we let the best ones rise to the top, especially the good ideas that aren’t immediately obvious.
These good ideas will survive some testing, which will tell us which ones are worth further investment of time, money and attention.
Yes, it takes a bit longer than committing blindly to one idea, but we emerge as people who are qualified to work on important causes – these are too important to get wrong.

We’re back in Darwin early next year, then on to Sydney for our Showcase, and I’m looking forward to their next phase of growth.