The following were written in November 1997 by my dad, William Bigler, who was a highly successful process engineer and project manager for Corning, Inc. for over 40 years. These principles are a compilation of the most important lessons he learned about product manufacturing, project management—and life. He shared them with me, and now I’m sharing them with you.
Product Creation
Solving the Right Problem
The Biggest Mistake Product Creators Make and How to Ensure Your Product Idea Will Succeed in the Marketplace As a consultant, the most common question I hear is, "What’s the biggest mistake that people make when creating products?" I’ve been asked this question a lot lately and the answer seems clearer than ever: Business owners don’t understand their target market well enough. For example, I’ve seen products that provide a solution to a problem—but it’s not a problem that intended target market experiences. I’ve also seen products that solve the right problem, but the solution doesn’t fit the target market’s […]
The Five Keys to Finding Leverage in Your Business
Perspective is a great thing. My husband and I just finished an intense four-month push to launch our new product and business (Make, Market, Launch IT). In my last post, I shared my biggest mindset lessons. Now, I want to share some distinctions around the business side of things – and where the biggest points of leverage are for you. First of all, information product/online marketing industry is a crazy one. Those of us in the industry are so conditioned to think, and even expect, that a new product launch will do millions of dollars in revenue. (And that a […]
What’s the Single Biggest Commodity in Your Business Today?
I’ve been dark these past few weeks after finishing my first major launch. I wanted to have some time to both recover and think through what I could share that would have the most value to you. Of course, what immediately comes to mind are all the distinctions about how to maximize squeeze pages, split test your offer, use webcasts to increase sales, manage affiliates, and so on. But as I was thinking about this, I realized that there’s something deeper I want to share – something that I believe is the single most important thing in your business today.