Successful entrepreneurs are usually reputed as possessors of a closely guarded secret ingredient, formula, technique or system. This is especially true in industries such as food and fashion where value of the final product is judged in terms of real-time consumer experience. Big government also recognizes entrepreneurs’ rights to keep such trade secrets through various measures one of which is the Intellectual Property Law.
Fortunately, not all such secrets are covered. Business gurus don't always agree on many things, but they are in unison as to what the most important secret to business success is: quality.
“Quality” is a tried and tested strategy in any business, craft or profession. Practically in any competitive human activity that involves performance. The secret, however, lies not in knowledge or acknowledgment but in application.
A simple and obvious concept, quality is actually hard in practice.
To a consumer, quality could be that “something” that makes a product worth the price tag it commands. It’s the latest cell phone he’s dying to buy; the best restaurant he plans to dine in with his loved ones; the fancy European vacation he’s been saving up for years.
Quality requires hard work for its achievement, and more. It requires dedication. Excellence. Even perfection.
Quality always has a premium attached to it, and consumers are always willing to pay for it --- although not always prepared to pay. There's a huge distance between willingness and preparation.
Instead of focusing on ‘good quality’, many focus on ‘low price’ --- which is a valid strategy unto itself. It is often too late, however, before people realize for themselves the sad lesson best summed up in the Leon M. Cautillo quote "The bitterness of poor quality remains long after low pricing is forgotten!"
Human nature as it is, most customers will always suck up to dirt cheap imitations of the original. But they will always come back to good, old-fashioned high quality.
Quality is actually the safest business strategy, that is why it is for entrepreneurs who are in it for the long game.
Being a small new player, don't feel compelled to play the game of “high-quality, cheap price”, which corporate giants can execute easily.
Stick to your guns. Offer quality at a reasonable, not cheap, price.
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