{"id":2393,"date":"2014-01-25T11:45:04","date_gmt":"2014-01-25T16:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/?p=2393"},"modified":"2017-04-23T16:10:03","modified_gmt":"2017-04-23T21:10:03","slug":"how-to-kill-your-startup-in-5-simple-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/how-to-kill-your-startup-in-5-simple-steps\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Kill Your Startup in 5 Simple Steps"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kill<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve started a business and decided you want to drive it into the ground, here are five sure-fire ways to get you there faster. Rest assured that these marketing strategies have all been battle-tested by countless entrepreneurs before you, and are guaranteed to kill all but the most stubborn startups.<\/p>\n

1. Don\u2019t talk to anyone who looks like a customer.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Kill<\/p>\n

\n

Talking to prospects and customers when you\u2019re building your product or service is grossly over-rated. What could they possibly know that you don\u2019t already know? After all, you started this business. They just buy stuff. Make sure your product moves from your mind to production untainted by other human beings. Spend all of your resources developing a full-blown product that you know people need \u2013 even if they don\u2019t. And never release it until it\u2019s perfect. Then, once your resources are depleted, release it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. Make your website look like a self-serve buffet.
\n<\/strong>
\nThe thing about prospects is that they\u2019re perfectly capable of digging through ridiculous piles of information to find what they need. They do it all the time. So make sure your website lays out tons of information your prospects can pick over. Don\u2019t make the mistake of trying to package your information to match the decision cycle your prospect is going through. That risks being useful. And never ask for contact information in exchange for valuable content. You want to keep all your web visitors anonymous so you don\u2019t inadvertently generate any sales leads.<\/p>\n

3. Don\u2019t let prospects find you.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, buyers are pretty self-sufficient because they can be. Armed with Google, they can find out everything they need to know about what you sell. So when they\u2019re looking, you have to make sure they can\u2019t find you. Fortunately, the range and scope of social media and inbound marketing tools is staggering, so in your confusion why don\u2019t you just skip the whole thing. Don\u2019t get any help. In particular, don\u2019t even look-up what SEO means. If you can\u2019t resist the Siren songs<\/a> of a blog, Twitter, and LinkedIn, then make sure you immerse yourself in those social media platforms completely, chasing every link, video, and hashtag so you can entirely wipe out your weekday mornings.<\/p>\n

4. Don\u2019t pursue prospects.
\n<\/strong>
\nJust because it\u2019s quite easy to identify 50 prospects who, by all rights, should be buying your product, don\u2019t be tempted into chasing them around town with intriguing marketing campaigns. If prospects aren\u2019t prepared to work to find you (and we took care of that in our last step), they don\u2019t deserve your attention.<\/p>\n

5. No peeking.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

The fastest path to growth is to double-down on what works. So make sure you have no clue what works. Don\u2019t measure anything you do or, alternatively, measure every single thing you do. In the first case you\u2019ll crash around blindly, and in the second, the piles of data you produce should wipe out your weekday afternoons, relieving you of the pressure of success.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you\u2019re determined to tank your business, don’t reverse these five strategies and create a repeatable marketing system. Repeatable marketing systems allow you to achieve a high-level of consistency, scalability, measurement and success \u2013 and that\u2019s something you\u2019d really rather avoid, right?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

0<\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div>
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\nIf you\u2019ve started a business and decided you want to drive it into the ground, here are five sure-fire ways to get you there faster. Rest assured that these marketing strategies have all been battle-tested …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2393"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2514,"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393\/revisions\/2514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.feedthebeast.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}