Comments on: SCREENSHOT: Build A Business That Scales

By: Brian Armstrong

Brian Armstrong — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:34:52 +0000

Interesting info…I like the idea of user testing. I think good user interface design is consistently undervalued by most companies and journalists when commenting on the success of a product!

By: Denzil Fitch

Denzil Fitch — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:20:14 +0000

The Apple iPhone is a product that scales big-time. I just heard a talk by Bob Borchers, who was the marketing genius for Apple when they launched the iPhone.
Borchers’ most surprising comment was that “Being first is not that important.” He said that every basic feature of the iPhone was invented and developed by others. Apple’s skill was to develop prototypes, let people handle them, get feedback, develop more prototypes, etc, until they finally had an “A+” product.
Borchers’ least surprising comment was that Apple’s success is largely due to having a smart”dictator” (Steve Jobs) who can see that a new product under development will never be an “A+” product, and immediately cut it off and move onto something else.
One more interesting comment he made is that Nike corporation lets its test group customers choose all of their products, rather than having some executive decide what the customer should want to buy.

By: Brian Armstrong

Brian Armstrong — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:55:26 +0000

Thanks! Yep, building that water wheel really is much more difficult, which why most people never even attempt it. But if you can get one running, ever little bit helps.

Sometimes it’s easy to get discouraged because the passive income starts trickling in really small amounts. It’s hard to get excited about earning $10 passively in one month, but I really think each dollar of passive income is probably worth 10 times a dollar of earned income. It’s just hard to live on it in the beginning :)

By: Brian Armstrong

Brian Armstrong — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:52:28 +0000

Yep good point, most people are trying to make sure they can pay rent this money. When you start working on projects that will pay off 5 or 10 years down the line that’s when they REALLY pay off.

By: Brian Armstrong

Brian Armstrong — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:51:22 +0000

Thanks Daniel, I think you’re right. This site isn’t a particularly big money maker, but I think it’s valuable just in that when I launch a new product I have some people who are willing to help me try it out and spread the word. Thanks for the kind words!

By: College Town Menus (CTM)

College Town Menus (CTM) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:49:46 +0000

Great article Brian. I like these mini posts about a small topic, but elaborated on. Your water wheel example before was great, and this one builds on top of it nicely. Scaling is the pinnacle importance to my website, hopefully I can create a nice water dam instead of some small water wheel, haha. Keep it up!

By: bobby

bobby — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:56:38 +0000

Great post.

When you take the time initially to think about and lay a proper foundation for your business, you’ll be able to handle that rush of traffic without all the stress.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:00:43 +0000

Well said Brian, if you help enough people they will eventually return the favour. For example if the info you provide on this site helps enough people I can see you making it big in the near future.

Keep on going with this site and your other projects.

Stay blessed.

By: Brian Armstrong

Brian Armstrong — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:40:26 +0000

Thanks for the kind words Alan, I think you’ll enjoy it!

By: Alan

Alan — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:42:28 +0000

good points
I’m going to buy Breaking Free even though I have it in a pdf file.
If I read a lot of pdf files, I would buy an e-book reader.