Having the best product or service is the most important thing for having successful business

In an ideal world, where there is the perfect market, being the best would result in you creating a monopoly, because you are the best and your competition can’t keep up with you. In the real world you don’t have to be the best to get the best deals.

You can be a lousy supplier, but with the right connections, friends or bribe at the right place, you can get the best deals. If you know the people who make laws, you can get them to create the monopoly for you. Don’t expect you will win just because you are the best. The markets are manipulated and people are manipulated too. This is how oligarchic economies work.

The golden rule of economy is: “He who has the gold, makes the rules.”

As we exchange not gold but money for goods, it is updated to “Who controls the money supply makes the rules.”

Small markets, where there is little money to be earned and which are not interesting for the big players, are probably not manipulated, yet. But if there will be a lot of money to be made, there you’ll find the sharks, lies and manipulations. The big question is ‘What is most important for success?’

And the answer is ‘Find someone who is already successful in what you want to achieve, copy his behavior, improve it if possible and do the same.’ You don’t have to start doing something that nobody else has ever done. In my opinion it is better not to do extraordinary things. Best for financial success is to do basic, ordinary things and do the few things that really matter extraordinarily well.

Copy what works and throw away everything else. Throw it away even if it is shiny and fancy and everybody is doing it. You don’t have to follow the crowd. Many people I know are waiting for the perfect product to start a business.

They keep waiting for ten years. I believe that they must have seen at least one perfect product during that time, but they got used to the waiting and missed the opportunity. You can have the best product in the world and end up broke. But there are others who started their actions and found the perfect product on the way.

One of central European TV companies which is called Markíza, started in business by producing nylons and pantyhose. Later they changed their core business, becoming the leading TV station in Slovakia. Later he sold the company with big profit to CME.

It is easier to start moving and then to find the best product or alter your core business; don’t procrastinate. Do something even if it will end with failure and you will have to switch to something more profitable. The first step is the hardest, and then with momentum at your back you will be able to find the solution.

For mainstream markets you have to use profitable marketing. How you sell something becomes more important than what you sell and as much as 50% of your costs can be spent on marketing. Even with a product that isn’t very good, you will learn how to sell: and being able to sell profitably is the most important ability when running a business.

Sales create cash flow and cash is the lifeblood of business.

There are some world-class companies which operate with minimum marketing costs. They use only word of mouth and PR marketing. Usually these operate in niche markets and already have strong brand identity and solid reputations.