20/11/2017

Starting from 0,0,0,0

Zero is a number. It adds no value to a sum, but in mathematics, physics and life we treat it as a starting point, just as we do in photography. I am picking up a journey again, but for all practical purposes I am starting at the beginning: from zero.

You can measure a blog post: the words, commas and paragraphs. If you want, everything can be quantified. It is a hard truth. Sometimes we believe some things have no defined value, no matter how much we try to measure them. But when the subject is starting a business, you cannot do it without running the numbers. One of them is zero—not necessarily your budget today, but the fact that in many parts of a new venture you are starting from scratch: no people, no technical resources, no training in certain areas.

Marketing is a tool that, in a way, helps us move as far away from that initial zero as possible, so there is no going back and the numbers that matter become high enough. I studied mathematics up to university level, although I do not have a degree. I first chose a technical career, and mathematics may have been one reason I struggled at school—but not for the reason people might think. I am more rational than emotional: I weigh up the options in front of me before deciding. The university courses I started simply did not offer enough to justify the effort, in my case. I do not want to be an example to anyone; I have worked hard for many of my professional and personal achievements, and I could not have done it without what I learned there.

Numbers are everything. If I cannot reach enough potential customers to meet my goals, I will not turn them into customers—or, in the end, sell them anything. In a dreamers’ world, my offer would be so tempting that every prospect would become a customer and buy my product: 100% of the target. But that is not how it works. You have to start from zero as many times as necessary. I have spent a while researching, reading and figuring out how to make the most of my potential. I am reaching some conclusions. One is that I will have to invest the only thing I have today—time—in exaggerated amounts, and turn some of those hours into a little money. That would be enough to feel satisfied: to reach a goal, a percentage, a number other than zero after all that effort.

An achieved goal is a number you can add, and it is different from zero. I have made my goals more realistic—or, better said, more achievable—so that each one, however small, adds up.