Co-founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson of 37signals, a company that creates project-management software and other online management tools, believe that anyone can start and operate a business with fewer resources than they think. Based on the authors’ own startup success, their book Rework champions a simpler, cheaper, less labor-intensive way to manage any company.
Rework’s less-is-more philosophy deconstructs conventional business wisdom and rewrites it according to today's Internet-based paradigm. It shows that you don't need an MBA, outside investors, strategic plans, or a board of directors to launch a business. You also don't need to work 100 hours per week or hire 100 employees. You don't even need an office. Instead, reject old-school thinking, embrace simplicity, and run your company like a smart, frugal, well-oiled machine.
In this summary, we’ll cover various elements of Fried and Hansson's business philosophy, including advice on:
Much of what we've learned about business is no longer true, but plenty of people still buy into the myths. They’re impressed when you run a big company in a high-rise building with a lot of employees, but they're not nearly as impressed when you work out of your garage by yourself.
But company growth is highly overrated. What really matters is "appropriate size." Your one-person company may be far more profitable than someone else's 100-person company.
Additionally, many people admire workers who burn the midnight oil to make a deadline or give up their weekends to finish a big project. They’re seen as truly dedicated to their company’s success. But workaholism doesn't turn profits. Productivity occurs when you figure out the fastest, smartest, and most efficient way to get things done—not when you pull all-nighters.
The best companies are ones that produce a meaningful product—one that has a positive impact on the world. Your product doesn't have to influence millions of people, but it should make at least a few lives better or easier.
Ideally, your product should also make your own life easier. If you set out to invent something that you personally want or need, you'll make the best product possible. Many businesses have started this way: James Dyson was vacuuming his house one day and got frustrated by how often the vacuum lost suction, so he invented the Dyson cyclonic vacuum.
Don't fall into the trap of seeking outside funding or borrowing a pile of cash to start your business. Sure, it sounds great to have a big influx of cash to spend. But it comes with strings attached—like a board of directors who will tell you how to run your company. You'll find yourself working to please your investors rather than your customers.
You may think you need tons of money to go into business, but you don't. In fact, you’re better off if you start up your business with as little as possible because it will force you to economize. Don't hire employees. Don't rent office space. Don't pay for advertising. Do everything you can to operate your business on a shoestring.
Don't view budget constraints or time constraints as negative limits—working with what you have leads to creativity and innovation as you look for inventive ways to cheaply produce an excellent product, and it will help you keep your product simple.
Once you've made a product, it's time to move forward with releasing it. Most business owners put so much time and energy into creating their product, they're afraid to release it into the world. They keep tinkering endlessly because they fear it's not good enough yet.
Don't put off your launch because you're trying to attain perfection. Go ahead and unleash the earliest, not-yet-perfect version of your product. You'll gain valuable knowledge from user feedback—you'll learn what works and what doesn't, which you can use to launch product version 2.0.
Don't let the fear of making a bad decision slow you down or stop you from deciding at all. It's far more productive to make the wrong decision now than to put off deciding until later. You can build on a less-than-perfect decision by making corrections and alterations, but you can't build on an empty void in which no decision was made.
Consider what makes up the foundation of your business and make that your top priority. For example, if you've opened a burger joint, focus on the burgers, not the condiments. If you've opened a flower shop, focus on the flowers, not the vases. Sure, there's always other stuff you could work on, but focus on the core.
Running a business requires expending energy in many different directions. You need to know when your time and energy would be better spent doing something else. Evaluate whether that energy is well spent by analyzing the value of your projects at frequent intervals:
Set up your workday so that you—and your employees, if you have any—have plenty of uninterrupted time during normal business hours for deep, focused work. For example, you might institute a company rule that no one may talk between 10 am and 2 pm each day. “Talking” includes any form of communication—no email, no instant messages. Just turn the volume down to zero and dive deeply into work.
As a corollary, avoid meetings if at all possible. They're notorious time-wasters. If you must have a meeting, follow these protocols:
Don't create products that mimic your competition's products. If you let your competition define the rules of the game, you'll lose. Instead, inject some of your individual passions or obsessions into your product. Suddenly, you're fresh and original and the competition won't be able to copy you.
You might even want to position your company as the antithesis of your competition. For example, the car company Audi positions itself as the young, fresh alternative to old-school luxury cars like Mercedes and Rolls Royce. Customers love taking sides in a product war, and if they dislike your competitor, they’ll automatically side with you.
Don't feel like you have to constantly upgrade your product so that you'll be able to keep your first customers forever. If your customers outgrow your product(s), that's fine. Go find new customers who need your product exactly as it is. Aim to appeal to a certain type of customer rather than any one individual whose needs may change over time.
When a customer requests a change to your product, your default response should be a polite "no." Liberal use of the word "no" keeps you focused on your priorities rather than distracted by continual product tweaks. If customers are asking for a change that is truly worth making, you'll hear that request repeatedly and from a lot of customers. Only then is it worth considering.
Previously, you had to buy expensive ads to reach potential customers. Now, you can reach them via the Internet for free (or nearly free). Tweet about your product. Write a blog about it. Shoot promotional videos and post them on Instagram or YouTube. You could get a lot of attention, and if people are interested in what you're tweeting, blogging, and posting, they’ll probably be interested in your products, too.
While your competitors are out selling their products, you can make your brand stand out by teaching your customers what they want to know about your industry. Giving out useful, free information builds brand loyalty. For example, a wine shop owner teaches people about wine on the YouTube channel "Wine Library TV."
To attract the attention of the mainstream media and get them talking about your company, don't go the traditional route and send out hundreds of press releases. Journalists typically ignore press releases because they don't know who is sending them and the releases rarely contain anything newsworthy. Instead, try a more targeted, personal approach. If a journalist has written a story about your industry or competitors, contact them by phone or write them a personal note that explains why your company might make a good news story.
For the best results, concentrate your efforts on smaller media outlets. Sure, you'd love to get your product featured on the cover of Time magazine, but that's unlikely to happen when you’re first starting out. Instead, target the niche media—blogs, newsletters, or magazines that focus only on your industry. The smaller media outlets are actively looking for stories, and their audiences are specifically interested in your industry (and thus more likely to be interested in your company than the general public). You might get a surprise bonus: Stories that are covered by trade publications are sometimes picked up by much bigger media outlets.
When you think it's time to hire someone, ask yourself if there is any way to avoid it. What would happen if you didn't add another employee? Does that job you're hiring for really need to be done, or can you get by without it? Is there a machine or a piece of software that can do the job instead of a person?
If you believe you must hire someone, don’t put your trust in resumes, fancy degrees, or even 30 years of experience. Instead, hire your best candidates to do a 20-hour “tryout” project for you, and then you’ll get to see the quality of their work.
As the business owner, you need to know how to do every job in your company. Before you advertise an open position, spend some time doing the job yourself—even if it’s a task you aren’t trained to do. This is the only way to know if the position should be full-time or part-time, what questions to ask potential employees, and whether the person you hire is actually doing a good job.
Sometimes mistakes happen. Maybe your product has a bad flaw. Maybe it doesn't do what it's supposed to do. Thanks to the Internet, anything and everything your business does (or doesn't do) can go viral. If your business screws up, don't deceive yourself that you'll be able to cover it up. Own up to your mistakes. Tell your customers immediately. If it's warranted, tell the news media and the general public. The top person in your company should deliver the news along with a sincere and detailed apology.
Even when everything is going smoothly, you still have to watch out for your company’s reputation. Friendly and efficient customer service is always critical. Customers hate being put on hold. They hate hearing canned messages about how much the company cares about them even though no one will take their call. But they’re over-the-moon happy when their calls or emails are answered with speedy, personalized service.
You don't even need to have a perfect solution to their problem or question. Just saying you'll look into it and get back to them will make them feel valued.
A great company culture develops over time through consistent positive actions, not by installing foosball tables or espresso machines. If managers treat their employees kindly, kindness will become part of the company culture. If employees leave work daily at 5 p.m., then a healthy work/life balance becomes the norm.
Focus your energies on creating an environment in which every employee can do his or her best work. Even a mediocre employee can do outstanding work in a nurturing environment. Give your employees the tools, space, privacy, respect, and trust they need to achieve greatness. Don't create needless bureaucratic policies—like having to get a manager’s approval to leave work for a dentist appointment—that make them feel like they work for Big Brother.
Use positive, direct, clear language when dealing with your employees. Don't use industry jargon or corporate-speak in the interest of sounding "professional." And beware of absolutist language like "I need this by the end of the day," "we can't spend more time on this," or "you should be able to do this easily." These kinds of directives create unnecessary tension and stress.
When you "need" something done immediately, try phrasing it as a question: "Do you think you could finish this by the end of the day?"
Along the same lines, limit your use of "ASAP." Most things don't really need to happen as soon as possible. Every request is not equally urgent, so save ASAP for when it really matters.
Co-founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson of 37signals, a company that creates project-management software and other online management tools, believe that anyone can start and operate a business, and they can do it with fewer resources than they think. Based on their own startup success, Fried and Hansson champion a simpler, cheaper, less labor-intensive way to manage any company. Rework details the insights the pair gained while keeping 37signals intentionally small, lean, and low-maintenance.
Chapters 1 and 2 contain a list of principles that deconstruct conventional business thinking. In brief, you don't need an MBA, outside investors, strategic plans, or a board of directors to launch a business. You don't need to work 100 hours per week or hire 100 employees. You don't even need an office. Instead, you need to reject old-school myths, embrace simplicity, and run your company like a smart, frugal, well-oiled machine.
The world is filled with pessimists who will tell you that your innovative business ideas and product concepts won't work because people aren’t ready for something new. They'll also say that the only way to do business successfully is to emulate the way it's always been done. Don't believe these naysayers. Other people's failures are their failures, not yours. You're traveling a different path.
Model for success: 37signals has broken dozens of traditional business rules and still succeeds. The authors have taken an untraditional path by employing fewer than 20 people who work from home from countries all over the world. They don't spend money on advertising or salespeople. They've even revealed their success secrets to the world, and it hasn't hurt them.
We've all heard that nine out of 10 new businesses fail. Some people say that such failure serves a purpose—it teaches us to learn from our mistakes. In reality, mistakes don't teach us anything useful. They show what our next step shouldn't be—repeating the mistake again—but not what it should be.
A Harvard Business School study bears out this idea. It showed that people who succeeded with their first business were much more likely to succeed with a future business. On the other hand, when people who failed at their first business started a second one, they had no greater chance of success than people who had never run a business at all.
Mimic the theory of evolution: Build on adaptations that work, not ones that don't. If something works for your business, keep doing it. Learn from success, not failure.
CFOs and CEOs believe they need to create long-term plans for their business, but such plans are based on past performance, which by definition has little to do with future performance. Just because your business operated one way in the past doesn't mean it will operate in the same way in the future. Every business is subject to constant flux that can’t be predicted: The market changes. The competition changes. Even customers change.
If you make company-wide decisions based on long-range plans—in other words, guesses— you're engaging in fortune-telling. Worse, your strategic plan can become a straitjacket that doesn't allow for improvisation as conditions change. You'll miss out on key chances to change direction because you're blindly following your original plan.
Yes, you should think about your company's future, but don't plan for it as if you can control it or accurately predict it. Instead, plan what you'll do in the immediate future, like this week. Make future decisions as you observe the changing conditions around you.
People are impressed when you run a big business in a high-rise building with 100 employees, but they're not nearly as impressed when you work out of your garage by yourself. However, company growth is highly overrated. Many owners of large businesses long for the days when their companies were smaller and easier to manage. They're faced with headaches that small businesses don't have, like crippling rent, sky-high employee benefit costs, and overwhelming IT infrastructure.
In terms of company growth, what matters is appropriate size—your business should grow to the right size for your particular business. Your three-person company may be far more profitable than someone else's 300-person company.
Americans admire hard work. We're wowed by people who devote their lives 24/7 to their jobs. ("Wow, you slept at the office. High fives for your dedication!")
But hard workers who pull all-nighters actually create problems instead of solving them. Workaholics tend to be martyrs—they enjoy feeling like they're the hardworking heroes who save the company from disaster. They make other employees feel like they're not doing enough. And worst of all, they're not that productive. Instead of trying to figure out a smart, efficient answer to a problem, they just throw more hours at it.
Hire the worker who figures out the fastest, most efficient ways to get things accomplished then goes home at 5 o'clock, not the worker who burns the midnight oil.
The word “entrepreneur” is overused and misunderstood. Somewhere around the year 2000, "entrepreneur" came to mean a visionary leader who spouts brilliant business ideas (and probably drives a flashy Tesla). But an entrepreneur is actually just a person who starts and operates a business. If you own a nail salon, you're an entrepreneur. If you're a freelance writer, you're an entrepreneur. If you invented the Tesla, you're an entrepreneur.
If you're starting a business, think of yourself as a "starter" rather than an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is within anyone's reach, so stop using language that implies you have membership in an elite, geniuses-only club. Anyone with the gumption to start a business is a starter.
Take a few minutes to examine your beliefs about what it's like to start a business.
Briefly describe your mental image of what an entrepreneur looks like. (For example, do you picture an entrepreneur (or a “starter”) as an MBA in a button-down shirt who works 100 hours per week? Or do you picture someone who tinkers in their garage, rides their mountain bike every day, and frequently borrows money?)
Now that you have an image in mind, ask yourself where that image comes from. (For instance, does it come from traditional depictions of entrepreneurs in the media?)
Do you have any evidence that your beliefs about entrepreneurship are true or untrue? Based on this, how might you revise your original description of an entrepreneur?
Now that we’ve deconstructed the old entrepreneurial paradigm, let’s explore how to create a product or launch a new business using the innovative principles that worked for the authors’ company, 37signals. These principles include:
The business you're starting should make a positive impact on the world. Any business that doesn't will quickly feel meaningless. If your product or invention makes even a few people's lives better or easier, you'll gain deep satisfaction from your work. Plus, your business will have a much greater chance of success.
Model for success: Craigslist was started by one man, Craig Newmark, and it's one of the Internet's most influential websites. It makes people’s lives better by helping them connect with each other within their local communities, whether to find a job, rent an apartment, sell an old refrigerator, or find a new tennis partner. Craigslist has survived on the Internet for a quarter of a century, and Newmark is now a billionaire.
If you've ever wished you had a tool that did X or an app that made Y easier, you should invent that tool or app. Create something that you personally want or need, and you'll make the best product possible.
Model for success: James Dyson was vacuuming his house one day and got frustrated by how often the vacuum lost suction, so he invented the Dyson cyclonic vacuum.
Everyone thinks they have a million-dollar idea, but very few people act on their ideas. Why? Many people fall back on the lame excuse that they “just can’t find the time.” But if you want something badly enough, you always find time, no matter what else is on your schedule. You can start a new business at 6 p.m. after your day job ends. You can do it on the weekends. You can get up an hour earlier every morning.
Instead of making excuses, devote one hour a day or a few hours a week to creating your dream business. You'll quickly learn if you're genuinely enthusiastic about the business or if you're just day-dreaming.
Once you've created a product, stand by it wholeheartedly. Have bold opinions about why it's the best in its class, and express those opinions without reservation. You may come up against some haters—not just your competitors but even some of your own customers—but that's okay. Not everybody has to love your product—just enough people to keep you in business.
Model for success: Whole Foods is often mocked for being an elitist, expensive grocery store, but they stand by their commitment to selling only healthy, natural foods—and they don't apologize for it.
Your company's mission statement—and all its communications—should accurately reflect who you are and what you do. If you say that you care about your customers, "walk the talk" by offering incredible customer service. If you say that your company cares about the environment, get outside and plant some trees or take steps to reduce your carbon footprint.
You might think you need outside investment to start your business, but you're better off without it. Sure, it sounds great to have a big influx of cash to spend. But it comes with strings attached, like a board of directors who will boss you around and tell you how to run your company. You'll find yourself working to please your investors rather than your customers.
You can avoid the outside-funding trap by practicing frugality. It's easy to assume that a startup business "needs" all kinds of things, but consider whether you can do without them. Ask yourself questions like these:
Startups are subject to the same economic rules as long-established businesses. You can't ignore your profit and loss statement just because your business is in its infancy. Every business succeeds or fails based on the basic laws of revenue minus expenses.
Don't tell yourself you'll focus on the numbers later. From the first day you launch, pay close attention to every dollar of "revenue in, expenses out."
If you create a business for the sole purpose of selling it, your priorities are wrong. First, the odds of success are terrible—there's only a minuscule chance that some corporate giant will come along and acquire your business. Second, even if that happens, your only satisfaction will be a big, fat check—which pales in comparison to the personal fulfillment of running a business. Third, you'll be so focused on finding someone to buy your company that you won't pay attention to more important tasks, like getting customers to love your brand.
Rather than concerning yourself with your exit strategy, put your efforts into nurturing a successful business where you'll want to work until the day you die.
Don't underestimate the value of being a small business—in fact, do everything you can to stay that way. Staying small gives you priceless flexibility. You can be creative, take risks, and make mistakes. You can adapt to the needs of your customers. You can wake up one day and change your product or business model. You can easily take action.
Every time you see your company gaining size or mass—more employees, more meetings, more inventory, more long-term planning, and so on—ask yourself if you can avoid it.
Now that we’ve discussed how to start your new company, we’ll cover how to run it with minimal resources for maximum efficiency. We’ll also discuss the importance of making decisions and moving forward—not waiting for the perfect time or the perfect scenario. That includes releasing your product even if it doesn’t seem 100 percent ready and ignoring small details as you focus on your product’s functionality.
Don't view budget constraints or time constraints as negative limits—they actually help your business run more efficiently and economically. Also, having to work with what you have leads to creativity and innovation as you look for inventive ways to cheaply produce an excellent product.
Create constraints even if they don't exist. When developing a new product, don't throw tons of staff hours and money at it. Instead, allocate only bare minimum resources. That will force you to keep your product simple, which will help your company run efficiently.
Model for success: Southwest Airlines flies only Boeing 737s, so all of its excess parts fit all of its planes. Its flight crews can work any flight. The airline is simpler to manage and less expensive to maintain than airlines that use multiple types of planes.
Because resources and time are always limited, focus your energies on one idea at a time. Not every idea that comes into your head is worthy of your time, energy, or money. Limit your ideas and the best ones will float to the surface.
Analyze what's at the core of your business and make that your priority. For example, if you've opened a flower shop, focus on the flowers, not the vases. Sure, there's always other stuff you could work on, but the core of your business should always take priority.
In the early stages of product creation, ignore tiny details, like what color it will be or where the logo will be placed, until after the prototype is functional. You can't recognize what details matter until the project is farther along.
Model for success: A famous drawing teacher at Walt Disney Studios taught his animators not to pencil in the details of Disney characters—clothing, facial expressions, hair—during the early stages of character development. Time spent on details too early was always wasted effort.
In business, it's dangerous to say, “Let's decide later.” You want to keep moving forward, and that only occurs when decisions get made, even if those decisions aren’t perfect. You may think you need to wait to decide until you have more information about the choice at hand, but you're just as likely to make a good decision today as you are tomorrow.
Don't let the fear of making a bad decision slow you down. It's far more productive to make the wrong decision now than to put off deciding until later. You can build on a less-than-perfect decision by making corrections and alterations. You can't build on an empty void in which no decision was made.
Your business should be extremely selective about what it doesn't sell. You don't need to have 50 “okay” products; you just need to have one superlative product.
Model for success: The famous Zingerman's Deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan doesn't carry 100 kinds of olive oil simply for the sake of filling up the shelves. The owners select only the very best olive oils they've personally tasted and love. They want to keep their reputation for only stocking quality products.
Successful businesses are built around elements that people want today and will still want in the future. Your product should include features that have a permanent appeal so customers will always want it.
Model for success: When Jeff Bezos created Amazon.com, his business strategy was built around shopping desires that never change, like the desire for fast shipping and easy returns. Despite the huge diversity of goods that Amazon sells, every product comes with those same timeless features.
As you develop your company's product, don't waste too much time and energy trying to forecast trends or fashions. Give up on trying to stay ahead of the curve and focus on the opposite: What won't change (in other words, what will remain popular with consumers) matters more than what will change.
When your business faces a stumbling block, you may want to throw extra time, money, personnel, or other resources at the problem. After all, you want it fixed. But if you cut back rather than increase the resources devoted to that problem, you'll make better decisions. You'll be forced to make tough calls that you wouldn't make otherwise.
Trying to purchase a good solution is never the answer. Fancy tools don’t help. After all, Eddie Van Halen could make a toy guitar sound amazing, and Vincent Van Gogh could paint a masterpiece with a cheap watercolor set.
Stop looking for the gadget, shortcut, or other expensive “fix” that will solve your business problems. Play your game the best you can with what you have.
Every business makes more than one product. If you own a lumber company, your main product is two-by-four boards, but their byproducts—sawdust and chips—can be made into particleboard and fireplace logs. Even if you don't manufacture goods, your business still creates a product that has potential collateral products, and you should find a way to make them profitable. (For example, if your company writes software, you could also write a book about how to write software.)
Models for success: Henry Ford made Model T automobiles, but in doing so, he also created wood scraps. So he came up with a process for turning the scraps into charcoal briquets and founded another company to sell the briquets.
Most business owners put so much time and energy into creating their product that they're afraid to release it into the world unless it’s “perfect.” They keep endlessly tinkering with their invention because they don't think it's "ready" yet.
Don't put off your launch because you're trying to attain perfection. Go ahead and unleash the earliest, not-yet-perfect version of your product. You'll gain valuable knowledge from user feedback—you'll learn what works and what doesn't—and then you can launch product version 2.0.
If you find yourself hesitating to launch because you need to make a few more product adjustments, give yourself a tight deadline. For example, tell yourself that you must launch your product exactly two weeks from now. You'll gain laser-sharp focus and stop making unnecessary tweaks.
Model for success: The upscale home-goods store Crate and Barrel didn't get its name by accident. The owners didn't have time to build display cabinets for their first store's grand opening, so they used the containers that goods were packed in—crates and barrels—to display their wares. Crate and Barrel is now one of the best-known names in the home-goods business.
To make the best use of your time and energy at work, focus on the essential core of your business and don’t get sidetracked by less essential parts.
What's the most essential part of your business? (To find this out, ask yourself: If I took away XX from my business, would I still have a business? Fill in XX with whatever is appropriate. For example, if you run a hamburger stand, you can take away the ketchup and the diet soda and still run a hamburger stand, but you can't take away the hamburgers.)
What are some of the less essential parts of your business? (For instance, do you produce a smaller “side-product” or accessory to complement your main product?)
Do you think dropping these “inessential” strands of the business to focus on the “core” instead would help or hinder your business? Explain why.
Successful businesses are built around features that customers want today and will still want in the future. Your product should include elements that have a timeless, permanent appeal.
Consider a product you're developing (or think about your existing product). Will it still be relevant—and in demand—in 10 or 20 years? Why or why not?
If your product isn’t currently timeless, how might you tweak it to give it a permanent appeal? (If you believe it is timeless, what tweak could you make to further ensure that it’ll remain relevant?)
In this chapter, we’ll discuss how to keep your business moving forward after your product is launched. Specifically, we’ll discuss:
If you want people to understand a new concept or product plan, make a model of it. Draw it. Sculpt it. Make your vision "real" in any way that doesn't require the unhelpful abstraction of language or the dullness of a document.
Model for success: When Alaska Airlines wanted to imagine what future airports would look like and how their employees could function most efficiently in them, they built a miniature airport inside a warehouse. Then they tested their prototype by putting real people to work in their mocked-up airport.
Instead of just hammering away at a project, analyze the value of that project at frequent intervals. You need to know when your time would be better spent doing something else. To find out if your current work project is truly valuable, ask yourself these questions:
It's a lot smarter to abandon a project—even one that you've already put significant energy into—than to keep funneling resources into a dead end. Just because you've invested many hours of time and effort into something doesn't mean you should keep investing more. Not every project is going to be a success.
If any project is taking you longer than two weeks to complete, get a colleague to take a look at your work. They might be able to find a solution that isn't visible to you, or they might tell you the best solution is to drop the project. Either way, you'll get a valuable reality check.
Build uninterrupted work time—a long period in which there is no talking—into your company’s regular work day. You get the most work done when you’re not interrupted by questions, conversations, or impromptu banter, all of which kill productivity.
When you're repeatedly interrupted, you can't get into the mental state in which deep thinking and productivity occur. Every time you experience an interruption, your brain endures a taxing "mental-switching" process. It's forced to leave what it was happily working on, deal with the interruption, and then try to get back into the groove of what it was doing before.
To combat interruptions, set up your workday so that you and others on your team get critical "alone time" every day during normal business hours. For example, you might institute a company rule that no one may talk between 10 am and 2 pm each day. "Talking" includes any form of communication—no email, no instant messages, no meetings. Just turn the volume down to zero and take a deep-dive into work.
Communication and collaboration are critical to your business, of course. But whenever possible, choose communication channels like email, which allows people to respond when they're ready—not when they're in deep-thinking mode. Avoid communication that requires a right-now, drop-whatever-you're-doing response, like walking into someone's cubicle, calling them on the phone, or texting them.
(Shortform note: For more on the importance of blocking out time for focused work, read our summary of Deep Work by Cal Newport.)
Meetings are notorious time-wasters. During a meeting, what could be said in 10 minutes often stretches out to 30. If you have six people in the meeting, that's 180 minutes of productivity you just threw out the window. If you absolutely must schedule a meeting, follow these steps to save time:
When you're looking for an answer to a problem, embrace the concept of "good enough." Your goal should be to achieve maximum efficiency with minimal effort. Complex solutions waste time and resources, but "good enough" solutions get the job done quickly and to an acceptable standard.
Long-term projects start to feel dull quickly. When you feel like you'll never see the finish line, it's easy to lose motivation. If you're stuck on a long-term project, build in frequent "small wins”: markers that you can proudly announce to your colleagues and customers. Step-by-step achievement markers give you a chance to celebrate and share your success.
Instead of putting your head down and plugging away on a long-term goal, build in deadlines or progress markers at two-week intervals. Give yourself a "win" you can announce to the world.
Suggesting you sleep more may seem like odd business advice, but lack of sleep is detrimental to your business's health as well as your personal health. When you miss out on sleep to finish a work project, your focus gets fuzzy. You make poor decisions. Your productivity slows down. Your creativity, demeanor, and morale suffer. The solution? Go home, go to bed, and tackle the problem tomorrow.
Human beings are terrible at making accurate projections, and the bigger the project, the more inaccurate we are. Most of us can't correctly estimate how long it will take us to clean the house, let alone how long it will take us to remodel the house.
Even on massive public-works projects that have hundreds of analysts crunching the numbers, inaccurate estimates happen. For example, when the Denver International Airport was constructed, it cost $2 billion more than estimators predicted. It also took 16 months longer than expected. The project was simply too huge and had too many variables to be estimated accurately.
If you need to estimate how long a project will take or how much it will cost, break it into small chunks. You'll still likely be wrong, but you'll be wrong on a much smaller scale. Break your 12-week project into 12 one-week projects. After the first week, you'll see that you were off by 25 or 50 or 75 percent, and you can adjust your estimates for the next 11 weeks.
Creating a long list of tasks to accomplish is both a guilt trip and recipe for failure. You won't get everything done, and then you'll feel bad.
Write a short to-do list instead of a long one. Divide big projects into small, attainable tasks. You'll be able to accomplish everything on your list, which will raise your morale and motivate you to keep going.
As a business owner, you might think your job is to make big, bold, sweeping decisions every day. But if you’re past the launch stage, bold decisions can be problematic. Once they're made, it's hard to change them, even if they ultimately harm the business. To give yourself more latitude, make big changes in baby steps, one little decision at a time.
Sometimes business owners get stuck on a problem because they’re searching for an ideal solution. To get unstuck, they need to give up on finding a perfect answer and embrace the concept of “good enough,” or achieving maximum efficiency with minimal effort.
Consider the current state of your business. Describe a problem that you haven’t yet solved because you haven’t come up with a perfect solution.
Assume that a perfect solution to that problem doesn’t exist. Now consider how you could get it solved right now to a “good-enough” standard. Make a list of two or three possible solutions.
In this chapter, we’ll explore the importance of ignoring the competition. What your competition does is out of your control, but what your company does is within your control, so that’s where you should focus your energy. You won’t achieve success by copying what somebody else is doing—in fact, you might succeed by doing exactly the opposite.
Copying may seem like a great shortcut to building a business, but it's bad policy. When you create a knockoff product or write a book that reads much like the latest bestseller, you don't get to experience the many-layered process of invention. You won't understand why a product looks the way it does or functions the way it does. Worst of all, you'll put your company in the backseat instead of in the driver's seat: You've made your company a follower, not a leader.
To stand out from the crowd, inject some of your individual passions or obsessions into your product. Suddenly you're fresh and original, and the competition won't be able to copy you.
Model for success: The shoe retailer Zappo's stands out over other shoe retailers because of its over-the-top customer service, the passion project of its founder. All Zappo's employees take a turn in the call center: New hires for any department start by spending four weeks answering customer calls. And they're trained to speak at length with callers, not just follow a canned script.
Instead of copying someone else's product, position yourself as the antithesis of their product. Consumers relish taking sides in a product war, and if they dislike your competitor, they’ll automatically side with you.
Models for success: The car company Audi positions itself as the young, fresh alternative to old-school luxury cars like Mercedes and Rolls Royce. Dunkin' Donuts positions itself as the anti-Starbucks with advertising that pokes fun at Starbucks' pretentiousness.
Do you feel like you're always on the defense, trying to improve your product to overthrow the competition? Take the opposite approach—instead of adding features to your product, try subtracting features. Simplifying your product may be the right move to make you stand out. There's plenty of market share for small, simple, and basic products—and you can brag about the fact that your invention does "less."
Model for success: Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, bicycle brands started making bikes that had more gears—first 10 speeds, then 21 speeds—plus high-tech suspension systems and super lightweight frames. But soon after 2000, that shifted. Suddenly the hottest bikes on the market were "beach cruisers"—heavy, single-speed bikes that looked straight out of the 1950s. People were happy to pedal along on the simplest machine with two wheels.
Another important element of running a business is deciding when and if you should make improvements or upgrades to your product. Customers may request modifications, but that doesn’t mean you should make them—even if it means your customers outgrow your product.
Your customers may ask you to add features to your product. Don't say yes just because they're customers. Make "no" your default answer. Liberal use of the word "no" keeps you focused on your priorities rather than distracted by continual product tweaks. (Of course, your "no" must be polite. Explain your reasons and most people will understand.)
As a corollary to this principle, don’t bother keeping track of all the upgrade requests your customers ask for. If they're asking for something worthwhile, you'll hear that request so often and from so many people that there's no way you can forget it. If they're asking for something unimportant, you'll forget their request, and that's fine.
Model for success: ING Direct is the fastest growing bank in America because they say no. They've streamlined their business—they don't offer credit cards or online brokerage, just various types of savings accounts. A customer who wants more than that has to find a different bank.
If your customers outgrow your product(s), that's fine. Don't make it your goal to keep the same customers forever by making frequent product tweaks to accommodate their needs.
Instead of changing your product, go find new customers who need your product exactly as it is. Aim to appeal to a certain type of customer rather than any one individual whose needs may change over time.
When you come up with a potential upgrade for your product, don't drop everything to pursue it. Just because you're excited about this upgrade right now doesn't mean it should take priority.
Give your upgrade idea a cooling-off period. See if it still seems brilliant a month later.
Some products are "in-store-good." They’re packaged beautifully and are usually accompanied by slick advertising that delivers the promise of something great.
However, customers want more than pretty packaging, so your products should be "at-home-good." These products are more impressive once you take them out of their package and start using them. They deliver more than they promised—and they rarely need upgrades.
In this chapter, we’ll discuss how and when to publicize your product, and how to do it with little or no advertising budget. Specifically, we’ll cover:
When you’re just starting out, don’t rush to promote your product. You might think you want everybody to know your company's name, but obscurity has its advantages: You can try out new ideas, take risks, make mistakes, and fix problems without the whole world watching.
Previously, you had to buy expensive ads to reach potential customers. Now, you can reach them via the Internet for free (or nearly free). Tweet about your product. Write a blog about it. Shoot promotional videos and post them on Instagram or YouTube. You'll get a lot of attention, and if people are interested in what you're tweeting, blogging, and posting, they will probably be interested in your products, too.
While your competitors are out selling their products, you can make your brand stand out by teaching your customers what they want to know about your industry. To build brand loyalty, give out useful, free information on your social media channels.
Model for success: A wine shop owner teaches people about wine on the YouTube channel "Wine Library TV." The authors' blog for their company 37signals features articles on industry issues. It has an audience of more than 100,000 daily readers. This kind of publicity is exponentially less expensive than buying ads or sending out direct mail.
As a corollary, you can also give free lessons on how your business operates. Too often, business owners tend to think all their information should be proprietary—they don't want their competition to know their processes. But revealing your company secrets may bring you more loyal customers.
Model for success: Consider the world's best chefs. They go on television and YouTube and show every home cook how to make their most famous dishes. They write cookbooks and give away all their secrets. This just makes their restaurants even more popular.
People enjoy learning the inner workings of businesses—that's why factory tours are so popular. Showing how your product is made builds brand loyalty because customers feel like they have "insider" status.
Model for success: Jelly Belly, manufacturer of tiny jelly beans in unique flavors like Buttered Popcorn and Chili Mango, offers factory tours at its manufacturing plant in Fairfield, California. After touring the plant and learning how the sweets are made, visitors head to the gift shop to stock up on their favorite flavors.
Take a lesson from the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, which celebrates the scratches, dents, and cracks that develop in things as they age. An ancient vase's tiny flaws are what makes it unique from all other vases. Be transparent about your product's imperfections or shortcomings. Customers will appreciate your honesty.
Companies send out mass promotional pitches to thousands of media outlets every day. They're hoping that some writer or editor at a TV station, newspaper, or magazine will promote their product or announce their services, but that rarely happens. Journalists typically ignore press releases because they don't know who is sending them and they rarely contain anything newsworthy.
Instead of flooding a bunch of strangers' inboxes with press releases, try a more targeted, personal approach. If a journalist has written a story about your industry or competitors, contact them by phone or write them a personal note that explains why your company might make a good news story.
Sure, you'd love to get your product featured on national television or on the cover of Time magazine, but that's unlikely to happen when you’re first starting out. Pitch a story about your product to one of these major outlets and you'll get ignored. Instead, target the niche media—blogs, newsletters, or magazines that focus only on your industry. The smaller media outlets are actively looking for stories and their audiences are specifically interested in your industry (and thus are more likely to be interested in your company). You might get a surprise bonus: Stories that are covered by trade publications are sometimes picked up by much bigger media outlets.
Model for success: The authors' companies have been written up in Wired and Time, but they've gotten more "hits" from stories that ran on Macintosh fan websites or the productivity website Lifehacker.
The best way to promote your product is to offer a small freebie. Candy shops and bakeries know this well. Customers have a one-inch-square bite of your dark chocolate almond toffee, and suddenly they want to buy five pounds of it. Similarly, we expect software companies and app developers to give us a seven-day trial before we buy.
The business of marketing is not contained within your marketing department. Think of marketing as the hundreds of tiny actions that happen at your company every day: Each one sends a message—positive or negative—about your company.
If you send an email to anybody, you're marketing. If you place a candy bowl in the lobby, you're marketing. If your assistant answers the phone, that's marketing. If you develop an app that has glitches or a website that has spelling errors, that's marketing.
We've all heard about companies that became overnight sensations, but those stories are mostly tall tales. Behind the "overnight success" headline is a backstory of somebody working on a product for five years. In the few cases where a company really does achieve lightning-fast success, it rarely lasts because there's no solid framework holding it up.
Don't kid yourself that your new product will quickly make you rich. No one cares about the launch of a new product, no matter how much its creators have spent on a public relations campaign. Instead, focus on achieving slow, deliberate growth that eventually leads to success. (In five years, your company may be another "overnight success" story.)
If you run a business, you’re an expert in a lot of things—probably more than you realize—and other people would like to learn what you know. Even if you don’t see yourself as social-media-savvy, you can make your brand stand out by teaching people about your particular business or the industry you work in.
What interesting or useful information do you know about the industry your business operates in? (For example, if your company makes tennis balls, you definitely know a lot about tennis balls, but you probably also know how to hit a perfect serve, what the best tennis clubs in the country are, how to teach tennis to kids, and so on.)
If you were going to teach the world the things you know about your industry, what would be the easiest format for you to use, and why? (For example, could you best explain your knowledge through the written word or through pictures?)
Plan out one social media post (either text-based or photo-based) that you could make to teach people something about your industry. Write down the general theme of the post, what specific text or photo you’d use, and how you might be able to link the post back to your product or service.
The principles in this chapter spell out when and how to hire (and when not to). We’ll explore:
As a business owner, you need to know how to do every job in your company before you hire someone else to do it. That's the only way you'll know if the position should be full-time or part-time, what questions to ask potential employees, and whether the person you hire is actually doing a good job.
It may feel uncomfortable to do a job you don't know how to do, but do it anyway. The knowledge you gain will pay off: You'll develop a deep understanding of every aspect of your business.
Model for success: The authors wore the hats of system administrator and customer support representative at 37signals before they hired someone for those roles. Their experience doing those jobs helped them to hire people who had the most appropriate skills: They knew what those skills were because they’d had to develop them themselves.
Only hire an extra employee when you consistently have much more work to do than you can accomplish—when you are so busy for so long that you feel like the quality of your work is declining. Don't hire just because you feel overwhelmed for a short period of time.
As a corollary, if someone quits or gets fired, don't replace them right away. If you wait for a few months, you may find that you can get along just fine without someone in that position.
Ask yourself if you really need to add to your staff. What would happen if you didn't? Does that job really need to be done, or can you get by without it? Is there a machine or a piece of software that can do the job instead of a person?
You might meet someone who you think is brilliant, energetic, hardworking, and just plain great to be around—the ideal employee in every respect. But that doesn't mean you should hire them. Ask yourself:
Define whether or not you have a need for an additional employee, then go find someone great to fill that need. Don't hire someone great and then try to figure out what they should do for you.
If you hire a bunch of new employees simultaneously, your workplace will be the equivalent of a politely boring cocktail party. Because your multiple new employees don’t have the trust that comes with long-standing relationships, everyone will try too hard to be “nice.” When the group is discussing problems with your product, no one will take a contradictory or controversial stand. You don't want to create a culture of appeasement. You want a culture of radical candor.
A resume is not an accurate reflection of who a person is. Writing an impressive resume is a skill that has nothing to do with how well an employee can perform in any position: Most candidates have been schooled on how to pad their resumes with action verbs and inflated job titles. Employers have very little means for checking a resume’s exaggeration factor—and the people who are applying to your company know that.
When reviewing resumes, don’t be swayed by an applicant claiming “10 years of experience.” In just about any industry, there isn't much difference between 10 months of experience and 10 years. Once someone gets past a minimal baseline, it doesn't matter how long they've been doing something—what matters is how well they've been doing it.
Also, don’t be overly impressed by fancy academic degrees. Intelligence isn't necessarily born in the classroom. In fact, too much time in the academic world can actually impair key business skills like the ability to write concisely. When hiring, don't be afraid to consider candidates who didn’t go to a prestigious university or didn't even go to college.
The research: According to a 2006 Wall Street Journal article, of the top 500 American companies, only 10 percent of the CEOs received undergraduate degrees from Ivy League colleges. The other 90 percent graduated from state colleges or less prestigious private colleges (the University of Wisconsin had the highest single school total, 9 out of 500).
Instead of reading resumes, read cover letters. That's where you'll find out if the applicant can communicate clearly and in full sentences, whether or not she knows anything about your company, and whether or not she might fit in with your company.
Hire people who do the work rather than delegate the work. A lot of time management books advise people to manage their time by delegating tasks to others, but in a small company run by a small team, every employee needs to be hands-on.
When hiring, look for candidates who have managed their own projects or run their own companies. You have a company to run, so you want employees who set their own goals and figure out ways to meet them—employees who don't need or want to be managed.
Whether you need to hire a programmer, marketing guru, or mechanic, make sure that person is a great writer. Writers think clearly and keep their audience in mind. They make sure people can understand what they're communicating. Since much of today's business happens via email and instant messaging—not by phone or face-to-face—solid writing skills matter now more than ever.
Remote work is the new normal, so hire the best people no matter where in the world they live. To ensure the efficiency of your remote team, make sure that for two to four hours each day, everyone works simultaneously (regardless of time zone). Also, hold an in-person meeting every few months. When everyone is in the same room, you can discuss big-picture concepts and get to know each other a bit better.
Since interviews provide an extremely limited view of who someone is and how well they'll fit into your company, hire the top candidates to do a small project, perhaps something that will take about 20 hours. You'll get a better picture of their potential.
Model for success: The airplane manufacturer Cessna creates a workday simulation for prospective managers. Each candidate has to handle imaginary customer service issues and respond to other fictitious company problems.
In this next chapter of the summary, we’ll tackle how to manage your company's reputation in good times and bad. We’ll look at tips on:
Thanks to the Internet, anything and everything your business does (or doesn't do) can go viral. If you've made a mistake, don't deceive yourself that you'll be able to cover it up. Take a lesson from the 1989 Exxon environmental disaster, when the tanker Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound. Exxon turned their mistake into a public relations disaster by not responding to the crisis immediately. The media crucified them.
Model for success: In contrast, when Ashland Oil spilled oil into a river near Pittsburgh, the company chairman traveled to the scene immediately, held a press conference, and got crews working on cleaning up the mess. By managing the crisis openly and immediately, the company saved face.
If your business screws up, tell your customers immediately. The top person in your company should deliver the news (along with a sincere and detailed apology if an apology is warranted).
There's no single right way to apologize, but one of the worst ways is being overly formal: "I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you." The word "may" implies some doubt over whether or not an inconvenience actually occurred, and "I apologize" sounds distant and standoffish. Use the more direct "I'm sorry."
When you're considering the best way to apologize, think about what you'd want to hear if you were on the receiving end. Consider whether you would believe the apology you’ve crafted.
When it comes to your company's reputation, great customer service is critical. Customers hate being put on hold. They hate hearing canned messages about how much the company cares about them even though no one will take their call. But customers are over-the-moon happy when their calls or emails are answered with speedy, personalized service.
You don't even need to have a perfect solution to their problem or question. Just saying you'll look into it and get back to them will make them feel valued. (But make sure you do follow through, or you’ll lose their trust.)
Have every team member, from your company’s engineers to your marketing staff, connect with your customers for at least a few hours each month. When engineers and designers hear customer feedback directly—instead of getting it second- or third-hand from salespeople or marketing managers—they'll be more motivated to make a great product.
Some complaints resolve themselves, especially ones that involve changes to your product. Customers often have a knee-jerk reaction to changes—even improvements—so don’t be surprised if you hear complaints about your product’s new feature. Once the customers get used to the change, the backlash will stop.
Do This, Not That
Tell the customer who doesn't like the product change that you hear what they're saying and understand their feelings. But don't change your product again just to make them happy. Wait a bit and see if they learn to adjust to the change.
In this final chapter of the summary, we’ll examine the notion of “company culture.” Specifically, we’ll learn how to create a workplace in which staff members do their best and enjoy their jobs.
A great company culture develops over time through consistent positive actions, not by installing foosball tables or espresso machines. If managers treat their employees kindly, kindness will become part of the company culture. If employees leave work daily at 5 p.m., then a healthy work/life balance becomes the cultural norm.
It's impossible to hire only geniuses and rock stars, so stop trying to. Instead, focus your energies on creating an environment in which every employee can do his or her best work. Even a mediocre employee can do outstanding work in a nurturing workplace. Give your employees the tools, space, privacy, respect, and trust they need to achieve greatness.
It's a waste of time and energy to regulate your employees' work hours or police their actions during the workday. Banning employees from social media sites or telling them they need approval for a $10 lunch expense creates an atmosphere of mistrust—and doesn't make them more productive.
Remember the discussion about workaholics in Chapter 1? Workaholics throw extra hours at a problem when they should be looking for a smart, efficient shortcut. They're martyrs who create more problems than they solve. You want to hire employees who know how to manage their time wisely and productively.
Instead of hiring someone who's willing to give 100 hours a week to your company, hire the person who has a full, busy life outside of work. That person will be the most efficient worker.
Just because an employee does something wrong once doesn't mean you need to create a policy addressing the error. Policy-making often feels like punishment. Instead of punishing your whole crew for one person's mishap, talk to that person directly. Only create a policy if the problem happens repeatedly.
Direct, straightforward language is the only kind you should use with your employees (and also with the outside world). Don't use industry jargon or corporate-speak in the interest of sounding "professional." Drop the fake formality.
Whether you're giving an employee feedback, writing a blog post, speaking at a conference, talking to customers, or writing an email, speak in your authentic voice.
Too often in business we use phrases like "I need this by the end of the day," "we can't spend more time on this," or "you should be able to do this easily." These kinds of directives create unnecessary tension and stress. Likewise, extreme words like "can't," "never," and "need" send a bossy, do-what-I-say message. When people hear them, they bristle.
When you "need" something done immediately, try phrasing it as a question: "Do you think you could finish this by the end of the day?" And when you're about to say you "can't" launch the product in its current state, ask yourself if that's really true. If it is, ask yourself if there's another way to phrase it.
Along the same lines, limit your use of "ASAP." Most things don't really need to happen as soon as possible. Every request is not equally urgent, so save ASAP for when it really matters.
The final principle: If you feel inspired to create a product or start a business, get to work right now. Inspiration is a wonderful tool that can help you do two week's work in two hours. But inspiration doesn't hang around and wait for you. It's a temporary state, and it's up to you to squeeze the most out of it whenever you get the chance.