Aug 10

Innovation is Everywhere

Richard (above left) is the door-to-door recovering addict salesperson who charms people out of $120 for asphalt sealing. 

Jay (above right) is the guy who spends the next 40 minutes performing this minor miracle of lane maintenance.

What’s their DV (differentiated value)?

1. Richard’s nice smile and personality

2. The fact that he is a recovering addict who wants to pay it forward by writing a book and creating YouTube videos about the “false promise drugs give you”

3. Their price is quite a bit lower than their competition ($120 v $200)

4. Richard’s reason-tells-but-emotion-sells approach to making the sale

5. Jay’s cool edging invention, which you can see in use above.

He proudly showed me how he gets such great straight line edging–he uses a piece of sheet metal curved with a counter weight on it so it doesn’t fall over. It also has a broom handle attachment so he can easily move it 1-handed and without bending down as he sprays sealant on your driveway.

Not only does it give him nice edges, it makes sure that sealer doesn’t spray on nearby retaining walls and structures or kill your grass or

contaminate your garden beds. 

Necessity is the mother of all invention, and innovation is wherever you find it.

After he closes the deal, Richard walks on to make more sales while Jay does the work. You pay Jay after he’s finished. That’s a successful form of labor specialization even if it’s only a tiny micro business.

@ profbruce @ quantum_entity

postscript: Jay’s edger kind of reminds me of the Firestone Apple Picker circa 1975

You can read more about this at https://profbruce.tumblr.com/post/80252915428/on-creativity-my-oldest-son-andrew-now-living

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About the Author

Bruce is an entrepreneur/real estate broker/developer/coach/urban guru/keynote speaker/Sens founder/novelist/columnist/peerless husband/dad.

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