5 Key Intangibles to Factor Into Your Next Business Venture

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5 Key Intangibles to Factor Into Your Next Business Venture

By Martin Zwilling | Inc Magazine | August 11, 2024

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According to the author in his early experiences as a business executive and adviser, he has often seen new business investors focus primarily on the strengths of the management team, or a sustainable competitive advantage. In reality, these are core attributes for every funding equation, and while these are necessary, they may not be sufficient to make your new venture the total success embodied in your vision.

In the past few years, the author has been seeing a renewed focus on other less tangible attributes that can set your new business apart. Examples include the conscious capitalism movement, the B Team,, and the Benefit Corporation (B Corp).

According to the author he has always struggled to communicate the multiple other relevant priorities, and the other intangibles required for a great execution. He found many of these in the classic book Great From the Start: How Conscious Corporations Attract Success, by John B. Montgomery, which does a great job of laying out specifics and case studies.  It also starts with a good summary of the intangibles, summarized as the five rules of relevancy, by Mark Zawacki. If you aspire to start your own business or look to join a new venture, you need to heed these recommendations:

1. A business needs to be relevant and stay relevant. Relevancy for a new venture company is the discovery and understanding of the real addressable market for a product or service. This is not the total opportunity out there, and not the total target market, but the subset of customers who have and will spend the money you need to cure their pain.
2. A business needs to find a voice relevant to its ecosystem. These days, you have to foster a community of support for your business. That means educating targeted supporters is key, even before you start to sell. Selling too early triggers customer defenses and drives them away. Everyone hates being sold to; we all prefer to buy. 
3. A business must gain balanced traction. This is not just sales traction, but a proper balance between resources, product, and customers. It means building a viable and desirable product before selling, assembling the right team with funding, and recruiting and educating enthusiastic customers who will be your best advocates. 
4. A business must form alliances within its marketplace. Today’s ultra-competitive global environment demands that you make alliances early. New ventures often pay lip service to strategic partnerships, but then schedule these efforts far down the road. The right partnership strategy early can make and keep a company relevant.
5. A business must maintain a relevant laser focus. Too many early-stage companies are so desperate for customers that they operate in a frantic and random sales mode. They sell into multiple verticals, or pursue multiple revenue streams, such that they can’t develop a repeatable, scalable sales process, and don’t do anything extremely well.

2 key takeaways from the article

1. Very often, new business investors focus primarily on the strengths of the management team, or a sustainable competitive advantage. In reality, these are core attributes for every funding equation, and while these are necessary, they may not be sufficient to make your new venture the total success embodied in your vision.
2. In the past few years, there has been a renewed focus on other less tangible attributes that can set your new business apart.  Five of these are: a business needs to be relevant and stay relevant, a business needs to find a voice relevant to its ecosystem, a business must gain balanced traction, a business must form alliances within its marketplace, and a business must maintain a relevant laser focus.

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Topics:  Startup, Entrepreneurship, New Business Model, Venture Capital, Strategy