13 Business Lessons Learned From A Burger anamtahir.com /business-lessons-learned/ Anam Tahir
Eagerly waiting for the weekend, finally it was The Sunday when I got to eat the famous burger. Sat in my Hyundai Santro, my butts tightly squeezed between my mother’s and sister’s, I waited for “the burger” to be delivered. It was already ten minutes to midnight and it had started drizzling. As the chilly breeze gusted through the windows, it carried the rain droplets with it. I could feel the cold droplets seeping through my red cotton kurta on to my back. I curled my arms around my body. I was waiting no where but across the road in front of a small road-side kiosk located in a far flung area in Lahore. Swimming in the ocean of my never-ending thoughts I paid no heed to the mindless, endless chatter of my siblings. As I stared mindlessly at the man, hearing the rhythmic pounding of his turner against the grill, all of a sudden the entrepreneurial mp4 plugs into my mind and some great business tips swiped across my mind!
Business Lessons Learned From A Kiosk Owner!
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The burger is all over Facebook these days. Everyone I know is actively giving top reviews in most of the foodies groups. Families, girls and guys drive all the way from far flung areas just to grab a bite of this yumilicious burger. The owner of this kiosk had been an employee at one the famous fast food chains in the city until recently when he started his own business venture. His list of fixed assets include a grill, a few cooking utensils, a couple of bulbs, a fan and a gas burner. His marketing expense. Not even an old dime! As a budding entrepreneur I learned some great business lessons from him!
Business Lessons Learned L.1 Give too much value for too little money! The burger tastes nothing less than a McDoanld’s Big Mac but is double in size and half the price!
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(Trust me it’s huge! That’s the only picture I have :/ ) Focus on giving value to your potential customers. Not just value. Massive value! Your customer should feel in their gut that the value they are getting out of your product is way more than the value of money that they are spending on your product. If that happens, you will never have to chase your customers anymore. Your customers will follow you! Give them so much value that they die to get their credit cards outta their pockets! That’s how the law of attraction marketing works!
L.2 Reverse engineer your product When starting your business, instead of finding customers for your product, find product for your customers. Research about their problems. Know what they want. And then produce that product. Solve their problems. It should be about them, not you!
L.3 Get their emotions involved Nothing feels better than drying up your precipitating taste buds with some finger-licking-food! That’s where human emotions jump in and that’s exactly what he does. Spot on! Your product should make people “feel” that YOU are “the one” who is going to solve their problems. They should “feel” that you exactly know their pain points. They WILL come to you! Guaranteed!
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L.4 Keep things simple When you are starting out your business, do not get into nitty gritties. Do not make things too complicated. It will do nothing but make you feel overwhelmed to the point that you might think of quitting! A SIN!
L.5 Find perfection in imperfection Don’t try to be perfect. Don’t think about starting your business when every thing seems perfect. It’s never going to be perfect! Do not wait for the day when there’ll be rainbows and lollipops. That some day, one day, is never going to come. You have only got today! Dive in and learn as you swim.
L.6 Perseverance That guy stands there for more than twelve hours a day! He’s working in cold. He’s working in rain. He’s working under the sun. He’s working! If some day all of a sudden bad weather hits and hardly any customer shows up, he doesn’t say, “Aaargghh this business sucks! I’m not gonna do it!” Instead he perseveres in the toughest of times! If you want to be an entrepreneur , perseverance should be in your DNA!
L.7 Nothing Beats Hard Work! Two words. Work hard!
L.8 Never be afraid of failing! That guy, when he started off, was not afraid of failing at all. He didn’t fear about the “what if’s.” He didn’t have fear, “What if people didn’t like my burger.” “What if I am not able to stand the existing lethal competition.” He had the balls to take the plunge, face the cut-throat competition from an over-flowing number of burger makers and rub it in their faces! You have to have the-burger-kiosk-guy-spirit!
L.9 Patience Your passion, your ambition is just the path to success.
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Your patience is the vehicle that leads you to success. That explains everything!
L.10 Believe True entrepreneurs bleed faith! Having faith in yourself is THE Key to success. Your limitations only exist in your mind. I’m gonna quote one of my favorite sayings of Napolean Hill,
Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
L.11 No Excuses. Excuses! What are they? Excuse me please. If you are about to begin or have just begun your entrepreneurial journey, then do one thing. Go Excuse-Immune! If you have an excuse for not doing something, it simply means you don’t think it’s that important. Period. You better not start your business then!
L.12 Start small The world’s leading businesses today started from a dorm room! Do I even need to go into details?!
L.13 It’s okay if you don’t have a fat marketing budget If your product is worth it, people will market it for you! Oops, I forgot to share another picture.
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($1 = Rs.105. You can do the math! My favorite: Yum-Pum ) If you like it, like it! If you enjoyed reading it and want your friends to enjoy it too, please don’t forget to hit the share button below. Me and they, both will be glad! :D I’m sure you too want to share some business lessons learned from your everyday life. Please don’t hold back. Jump straight into the comment box below! I would love to hear your stories! As always. :) I wish your business a Yum-Pum-luck! May you have many mmmmm finger-licking moments with your business, Anam
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