Even the most disruptive of the disruptive get started with the most basic of MVPs.<\/p>\n David Rohrsheim, General Manager of Uber Australia and New Zealand, revealed the inside story behind Uber\u2019s start in Australia.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the start, Uber was just me and my colleague. We drove over to the taxi rank at Sydney Airport, to the big \u2018holding area\u2019 where all the taxis wait in between jobs. We put a flier under the windscreen wipers of each taxi. The flier was an \u2018expression of interest\u2019 asking them to get in touch if they\u2019d like to become an Uber driver. We\u2019d hoped that some drivers would see it as an opportunity to get more work and we\u2019d get a pool of drivers to test our MVP out.\u201d<\/p>\n It worked. They got enough drivers to create an MVP and they rolled it out in a small test launch that led to the Uber juggernaut we\u2019ve come to know and love.<\/p>\n Few people are willing to buy anything, especially software, services and information products, without knowing how it works. That\u2019s why we should be open to giving away free content (things that in the past you would have charged big bucks for) such as a report, an eBook, a webinar or a video series. Free content helps build trust but remember it has to be of high value and high quality.<\/p>\n A good example of this is DropBox. They built their database rapidly by offering their users an extra 2GB of storage if they shared the site with their Gmail contacts. What can you offer your network that\u2019s so valuable they\u2019ll share it willingly?\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Most start-up\u2019s grapple with finding customers, especially if there\u2019s no marketing budget to speak of.\u00a0 But often, they try to find hundreds of customers when they should be focussed on finding just one.<\/p>\n One of the key issues at the heart of this is the belief\u00a0 that \u2018if I just write one fantastic blog, my database will explode \u2026 if I just get on one TV talk show, I\u2019ll be inundated with sales \u2026 if I just create one amazing video, it will go viral and I\u2019ll get 100,000 Facebook fans overnight\u2019. Unfortunately, for most, it just doesn\u2019t work that way.<\/p>\n When Kate Morris, founder of online beauty retailer AdoreBeauty.com.au started out, she had no customers at all but when she got one she was committed to serving them to the best of her ability.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes, people are so busy trying to dominate the market with media releases, events and multiple products they forget that the essence of business is finding and then serving, one customer, and then another, and then another. And, of course, one customer leads to two customers, and two customers lead to four and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n In our haste to find 100, or 1000 customers we often overlook the one customer right in front of us, pleading with us to take our money.<\/p>\n Success leaves clues so why reinvent the wheel you can learn from those who have gone before you. Take a leaf out of the book of these big disruptors and see if it makes a difference to your business.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cruzandco.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Starting-a-new-business-1024x617.jpg\")
<\/a>Having interviewed over 100 of Australia\u2019s top digital disruptors, you learn a thing or two about how to build an online business. Here\u2019s three tricks of the trade I picked up talking to those who have been there done that.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
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