Every Entrepreneur passes on a few phases of hardships and troubles which normally can be structured easily with the characteristics of Animals. This paper is a study of the relational animal phases of an Entrepreneur.

The first stage of any startup entrepreneur is a GOOSE phase

GOOSE PHASE

Now, have you all noticed a goose? What is it’s most prominent characteristics? Is it the look? The beaks? The colour? The talent to swim and walk? NO!

The most important characteristics of a Goose is QUACKING.. Constant quacking. It is this quacking that makes us even look down at a goose. This is the starting stage of any entrepreneurial journey. No matter it is helping or not, it is relevant or not, it is productive or not, it is listened or not, a startup Entrepreneur has to continuously quack about his Product/Concept/Start-Up non-stop so that one way or the other people will start noticing it. It is this looks of the people that you need in the initial phase of your business. So, the simple agenda is You do Business or You don’t do Business, but you QUACK about your business to anyone and everyone you meet along the way.  This is also the first and foremost rule in the VCP principle of branding which says any branding requires Visibility, Credibility and then comes Profitability automatically. This phase is all you have to do to gain Visibility.

Now is the second phase of the cycle which is Rabbit phase

RABBIT PHASE

What comes to your mind when you think of a rabbit? Cuteness? Yes. It is Looks.

Now, the theory goes like this.

In the goose phase,  you would have quacked about your company or idea to many without any return expectation. Now, it is time for you to concentrate on your appearance and grace. Equally you also need to cover more audience in this phase by your speed. Look like a rabbit so that you attract people and run like a hare so you cover more audience to quack to.

Let’s say, you have talked about your company to quite few people.  Now, what you need to do is change your dressing, appearance and other accessories to a more appealing and attractive way.This is the phase where you need to have personality training, regular visit to salons etc. You can also consult an image consultant who would help you design your style of dressing, make up etc. More concentration needs to be given on dressing like you can attend meetings in Suits. A little expense on branded watches, good perfumes, polished shoes, well pressed dresses, a good card pouch etc would give you more brand appeal. This is a phase where you will have to do all these things so that you never compromise on your brand appeal.

Once you appear perfect,  it automatically increases your confidence and your speed of quacking. The audience would now feel, “See, this guy started a company and see him now,  he has changed completely now.  What an improvement.  ” This is a time where you need to seriously consider on your punctuality. Schedule meetings properly and be present before 15 minutes at-least to each meetings. And make sure that the other person whom you are meeting notices this punctuality in you. This will in turn raise your brand value higher.

People doesn’t see your real business but the projections we give them.  And the most important saying here is “Looks gives the best impressions.”

In this phase you need to know things like,

Which spray odour suits you,  which colour suits you,  your best outfits and style of dressing,  what style of moustache and beard suits you,  which brand clothes should you choose etc etc…

Now you might ask stating multi-billionaires like Steve jobs, Mark Zuckerberg all wear very plain and common dressing, and so how is dressing that important to your brand? Mark and Jobs both wear the same t shirts,  grey and black obviously, but they took that to the next level of people telling a guy wearing black round necks as jobs style.

It is that brand we need to create. Either project your brand by good common style or project your brand by making a style. End result should be the same. We should be able to choose a particular style that suits us well and label it as our brand visibility.

And selecting that style is not easy. Jobs took 18 years, a kick off from Apple and a lethal cancer before he could finally freeze to his final attires. Also, personality includes much more than dressing. A guy who went to interview with Apple met jobs inside the elevator, he later said,

“His eyes were soo piercing that I attended my life’s most complicated interview then and there but with no words spoken.”

Now comes the next phase

GOAT PHASE

The phase where we deliver services to the people who came to us as a result of our first 2 phases of marketing. We have already quacked a lot of times to people who are known to us. We have travelled to places with speed and changed our appearance and attitude already.

By these actions we would have received a few clients by now from our personal circle or from people to whom we had pitched our business.

Goat is known for its offerings like milk,  fur, mutton and leather.  The complete goat is of use to people. Likewise this is the phase where we deliver our complete services to the clients. Put in all our efforts to deliver our services. Just concentrate on how good your product is and how good your service to the client is. The rest of the things follows your automatically. This is again a phase where an Entrepreneur would possibly be thinking of recruiting skilled labour so that he/she don’t go down on the product quality.

As the animal theory states,  you started quaking about your business to close circles in goose phase.

You changed and improvised your looks, attitude and character and Started running far and wide spreading your quacks in outer circles.

And then when people came to you as your customers you gave them daily milk, seasonal wool and lifetime meat as your services.

If you would have done this so far perfectly,  obviously your company would have started getting recognition in small scale level. Now comes the most important phase of your Journey, which is the next phase. I shall write about that in part 2.

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