Tate Chalk, co-founder and owner of Nfinity, the first and only brand with a core focus of designing and producing high-performance athletic footwear for women, takes that definition a step further. Despite winning numerous entrepreneurial awards, including the prestigious American Business Awards' "Stevie" for Business Innovation of the Year, Tate sees himself simply as a business owner who found a hole in the market and filled it by meeting the needs of his consumer, the female athlete.
I recently wrote about an interesting discussion about fear I had with Tate prior to interviewing him on my Bold Ventures Radio program. As a successful business owner, Tate said he is scared all the time - scared of achieving success and even scared of maintaining it. In spite of, or because of, his fear, Tate continues to achieve serious success. During the actual interview, Tate shared with me some valuable "tips" that have helped him achieve this rocket-propelled success in a mere five years:
Be Patient: For Tate, meeting a need means truly MEETING the need, not simply addressing what you think people want, and being patient in process. I think we all can agree, as he said, that it's very easy to sell our souls to total brand extension in order to quickly "achieve success" by taking a successful brand to other categories and lines of a business. According to Tate, however, doing so diverts you away from the true core and authenticity of the business - which in his case is to build the perfect shoe for female athletes. Nfinity has achieved their success by being patient with their product. They have done and continue to do extensive research, both scientifically and in the marketplace, to understand a female athlete's needs based on her unique physiology (i.e., wider hips and gate) and to identify if and how those needs have been addressed. (As it turns out, they haven't, which is why Nfinity is so successful. They're the only ones doing it.)
The hardest part of growing their business, and an example of their patience, lies in the task of educating their consumers, the female athlete, that their needs actually aren't being met. This, in turn, has allowed them to grow organically using Web 2.0, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, mobile content and texting campaigns.
Be Open: Making a decision after a heated debate can be quite difficult. According the Tate, though, it's a practice he often employs. He has a very smart, talented staff who have their own thoughts and ideas about the marketplace. Tate often makes his best decisions about the company after listening to his staff, often in a fiery discussion. He also listens to the complaints among his consumer base by visiting female athlete-specific web sites and chat groups, as well as talking to various sports teams. Hearing these messages, even if they're based on negative thoughts, helps him better address the current need and thus stay true to his business.
Be nimble: Being nimble is easy do as a small company, but that doesn't make it any less important. Nfinity produces their shoes in China. They don't own the factory, but rather have to buy time to use the facilities, while at the same time sharing space and time with bigger manufacturers. Because it's a pay-to-play situation, and they can't pay as much as the big guys, Nfinity must be able produce whenever they can get the space. This often leaves small businesses somewhat at the mercy of the factory so they must truly know the people they're dealing with and trust they'll give them what and want they want it.
That said, it's important to have a back-up plan, being nimble enough to change locations if circumstances dictate as such (if a factory closes, if there's a mistake, etc.). Currently, Nfinity is looking into Vietnam to save about 8% in production costs. It's just a plan right now, though, because Vietnam is about 20 years behind China in that it doesn't have the infrastructure yet to produce as quickly and efficiently. Nfinity has done their research and established a plan anyway, in case they need to quickly cut costs or something happens to the Chinese market that would prevent business from being done.
Be relevant: Not only does Nfinity meet the relevant needs of their consumers, but they are relevant within current cultural thought. They believe in the Green movement and are in the top 20 percentile of companies using green products to create their vegan shoes, again setting themselves apart from the old-school mentality.
Nfinity is meeting their consumers' needs every day. Are you doing the same? How? Let me know!
No comments:
Post a Comment