How do I build my business? Depends on who you ask…

Right now I’m on a flight back home from Las Vegas, where I spent the last few days hanging out with good friends, trying to mentally justify that perpetual last hand of the night, and indulging in a few light Buds and heavy meals.

However, I also got a chance to attend a few sessions of a great conference centered around entrepreneurship.  Two of the speakers had huge cred on this topic since each has built multi-million dollar businesses on their own.

One was Gary Vaynerchuk, who was there to speak on using social media tools (near and dear to anyone today who is trying to make a big noise on the web).  This was extremely cool for me since I didn’t realize he was going to be there until he came on stage.

The other was Mark Victor Hansen, one of the writers (along with Jack Canfield) of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series and the most successful non-fiction author of all time.

Each delivered great insights to the audience, and each provided their roadmap of how to be a successful entrepreneur.  What was fascinating, though, was that Vaynerchuk’s and Hansen’s approaches radically conflicted in a critical ways.

The first was on how much work is involved in becoming a successful entrepreneur.

Let’s start with Vaynerchuk.  Anyone who has visited winelibrary.tv or read Crush It! knows that Gary is passionate about his belief both great content and great hustle are needed to make it.  He hit on this point over and over and over again.   In fact, he insisted that winning online is essentially an endurance test.  He who tweets, blogs and emails the most number of hours per day wins.  Period.

Of course, this flies in the face of the “work smart, not hard” mantra that those of us who have spent any time in corporate America hear all the time.  Even in corporate life, though, Gary’s points feel, well, on point.   As any vice president of almost any company can tell you, the real expectation is that you’ll work smart and hard (real hard).  As I look back over the past couple of decades as a banker, management consultant and marketing executive, I can tell you that 70-hour work weeks have been fairly common in my life.  The fact that I have to handle that kind of day job now and manage Roam-It Gear (the company behind the IceMule Cooler) and the one or two other companies I have started (or am in the process of starting) in the evenings and weekends means that Gary’s words resonate with me.  Anyone got a Verve energy drink?

Hansen, though, spent a significant amount of time talking about “doing things the smart way”.  These comments preceded a few tactical suggestions around how to get to the right level of individual you need – essentially leapfroging the legions of people who you presumably don’t need to bother with.

I have to admit that I had a bit of trouble with this line of thinking.  On the one hand, I can see how a clever email or introduction can open doors, but, on the other hand, if you are in a consumer business, aren’t all those people you avoided potential customers and advocates for your product or service?

Both of these guys agreed on one thing, though – one of an entrepreneur’s most important duties is to connect with his or her customers.  When you’re obsessed with getting a new site up, managing manufacturing issues or dealing with a budget problem, you can easily forget that one.  That’s a big “whoops”.  Connect with customers – write that down and staple it to your hand.

The second was on how and when to monetize your relationships with potential customers.

In Vaynerchuk’s view, two things in addition to out-hustling everyone else are ultra important – great content (assuming you are building an online presence) and caring.  The content has to be compelling.  But most of all – care.  If you don’t care, people’s BS meters will go off and you’re finished.  You can’t fake caring so if you don’t really, truly care about your business and your customers, get out.

Keeping this in mind, he went on to state that your job is to NOT sell – at least not for a while.  According to him, it may take dozens and dozens of non-conversion-oriented interactions to create the kind of conversion opportunity that will create not only a customer but an advocate for your business.  In this world, the company that just focuses on SEO, adsense optimization and strong landing pages with ‘buy now’ forms is doing almost exactly the wrong things.

However, Hansen was different.  Way, way, way different.  Hansen was all about the close.  Practically every sentence was a conversion opportunity for him.  During his speech, he mentioned several companies that were doing revolutionary things and then noted that he had significant ownership stakes in each of the companies cited.  This could be taken as an endorsement, but it felt more like an advertisement.  Hansen ended his talk by pitching a program of his own, complete with directing all in attendance to a table beyond the convention floor where they could sign up and make their down payment.

The difference was one of transaction vs. relationship.  What occurred to me was that whichever direction you choose, it must be aligned to your business model.  If you need to build a brand, count on repeat business and live on referrals, Vaynerchuk is your man.  If your business is oriented to a single transaction, or if your market is so huge that your main goal is pitching enough people that the small number who convert will be plenty to make your revenue forecast, Hansen’s more direct approach may be just for you.

So, I got a chance to hear two great self-made gazillionaires talk about entrepreneurship with passion and commitment.   Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.  The conference continued but I was getting hungry so I started making my way toward the door to get a jump on the dinner crowd at the nearest buffet.

As I walked toward the door, I became vaguely aware that a new person had taken stage and begun to speak.  Honestly, I have no idea who it was, I was hungry and moving and was only half-listening.  Then this guy, whose name I didn’t even get,  said something that helped me put the opposing ideologies of Vaynerchuk and Hansen into perspective:

“Get clear on who you are and why you are in business.  If your “why” is strong enough, the “how” will take care of itself.”

I like that.

Stay cool, James