Be Anti Fragile

Listening to a client’s business snapshot this week*, I was taken by his explanation for how businesses, not only in the current stormy economic climate, need to be ‘anti-fragile’.

This mode of thinking, adapted from the business processes of Nassim Nicholas Taleb, outlines 3 types of businesses and the way they are vulnerable to the ups and downs of the economic cycle:

Fragile – like a teacup, this type of business can perform its functions for years but stress placed on a weak spot will cause it to shatter.

Robust – stronger than fragile, but not strong enough to take advantage of the power of the economic upswing, as they’ve merely survived the struggles of the downturn

Anti-fragile: businesses who understand and actually benefit from volatility. When chaos reigns, they profit.

So, how does this apply to your website and why is a web building business with a penchant for strange old images talking with me about business theory?

The way we can support you to be ‘anti-fragile’ is to build a site that will:

• show your audience you know their pains and are their solution
• have integral systems that improve efficiency
• funnel visitors through the sales cycle to become valued customers
• Deliver regular, valuable blog content about topics that are adjacent to (or, if you are interested, may even seem unrelated to) your primary product or service (you may discover a whole new market searching for solutions that you’re perfectly placed to provide quickly and efficiently)
• Run regular marketing experiments, to find new ways to create more web traffic or convert more of it into subscribers or paying customers
• take signups to build your mailing list is your primary point of communication with your nurtured audience
• deliver products that serve your market, establish you as the trusted expert for your niche, speak to your audience, build a broad income base

Understand how your audience and communications, your products, services are served (or not?) by your onsite messaging and beyond. Galvanise your business to be more than just robust. A downturn gives opportunities to those that are ready, healthy and profitable, while the upswing afterward has a powerful slingshot momentum. Do this through a site that shows your expertise, that sells your service to an audience who you know, understand and who trust you to serve them.

Sign up for Jacob Aldridge’s monthly business snapshots in his powerful, insightful and entertaining: Don’t Waste a Good Recession program

To discuss how we can support you to become ‘Anti-Fragile’, starting with your online communications, book a time to talk: