After reviewing our 60-day startup, we have learned three things:

In a highly competitive business environment, how can you achieve success in a short period of time? How can you find your position and continue to grow in a world of dense information? This article will share the key experiences and insights accumulated by the author during his entrepreneurial period to help you unleash greater potential in a limited time. From finding differentiated advantages, continuously accumulating compound interest, and sticking to your own decisions, this article explores methods and strategies for achieving extraordinary achievements in a short period of time. Whether you are an entrepreneur, a professional, or someone pursuing personal growth, these views will inspire you.

Although the time is short, the work intensity is high and the information density is high, and all kinds of feelings are always emerging in bursts.

I have summarized a few of the most important points and would like to share them with you.

1. Find the differentiated advantage and do your best to achieve the best

When studying Xiaohongshu, my biggest feeling is that the decisions they make are different from conventional cognition and do not follow the beaten path.

The industry believes that it is necessary to expand the user base and increase the transaction volume, because that is what Douyin has done and it has been verified.

But Xiaohongshu’s perspective is completely different.

CEO Mao Wenchao is thinking about: misaligned competition, that is, finding one's own differentiated advantages. What Douyin does well, Xiaohongshu does not do.

The advantages of Xiaohongshu lie in its creators with aesthetic ability, the quality of its graphic content and its atmosphere; it also lies in the mentality of its advertising, which allows it to define its own concepts and monopolize the market, etc. This has been written in previous articles, so I won’t expand on it here.

These are Xiaohongshu's unique advantages, and they are striving to achieve the best, even at the expense of scale and efficiency.

Let’s go back to our startup company.

The content IP + consulting consultant model is certainly not new, but it does not mean that there are no opportunities. The key lies in how to approach it.

There are a lot of different consulting companies that are centered around individuals. We were a little confused about how to explain our value and what problems we should focus on solving for our clients.

There are two core thinking paths:

1) Which market is bigger and easier to make big money;

2) What are our advantages and it is easier to find core values.

This choice is not easy, especially in the early stages of a company’s development, where quick cash flow should be the most important thing. Moreover, there are too many KOLs on Douyin who teach others how to make money, and they endlessly spread crude and utilitarian shortcuts to achieve a certain number of W or a few small goals.

It seems that we should choose 1), but we are determined to choose 2).

Pursuing long-term value is a value that is engraved in our bones. Internet operation is our differentiated advantage. Therefore, thinking path 2) is the most suitable for us.

Beyond that, opportunities have indeed been identified in this area.

In the process of serving customers, we found that large-scale operations in the existing market are the best solution to bring growth at present. After all, the bonus period has passed, and it is difficult and costly to acquire customers, so we need to completely change our thinking.

Moreover, most companies have neglected this aspect in the past few years, leaving room for growth now.

We have our own knowledge system and solutions to meet this demand. We continuously output content and communicate with customers, which not only attracts more new customers, but also brings growth to the business of existing customers.

Then, from successful growth cases, continuously improve your knowledge system and form a flywheel effect.

The key to achieving such results in just 60 days is that we work hard to find differentiated advantages and then remain steadfast and do our best to achieve the ultimate.

2. Don’t underestimate the value of compound interest

There is a very direct description of the value of compound interest: if you increase it by 1% every day, it will double in 70 days.

People tend to ignore the accumulation of small things and just want to get results quickly. Even in my daily consultations, I am always asked questions like: how to achieve explosive growth, how to achieve goals within 1 month, etc.

It is wrong to ask the question in this way.

When we see Luckin Coffee making a hit product like the Soy Sauce Latte, the first thing people in the industry think of is to analyze this case and imitate it and make one of their own.

But there is one key piece of information that is easily overlooked.

Luckin Coffee has been doing brand collaborations since a few years ago, with an average of at least one brand collaboration event every month. Most of the efforts here have been ignored by the industry, which only sees the most popular one.

In essence, this is a complete and systematic approach to creating explosive products. It can only be successful if it meets both high frequency and high quality.

There is also a company-level marketing strategy behind it, which also includes factors such as team culture, infrastructure, and talent composition, which is similar to the logic behind NetEase H5's hit in previous years.

Only seeing what everyone can see is the most worthless information.

We have also made some small gains in the value of compound interest.

1. I have been writing articles for WeChat public accounts for 8 years

Many of the bosses who come to us for consultation are ordinary practitioners a few years ago. Every article I update adds a little weight to their cognition.

You may not read all the articles, but know that I am always there.

2. Live broadcast sharing, I have done more than 100

My live broadcast content is either sharing knowledge and experience, or talking with guests. I don’t talk about products or sell goods. At most, I will introduce my company’s business at the end.

There weren’t many people attending each live broadcast, but we kept doing it for a year, with a total of more than 100 broadcasts. Many people in the industry knew what I was doing, and when they met and talked about it, they would mention: I’ve watched your live broadcast, and the content was very dry.

I know that they must have watched very few shows, and each show would not exceed 10 minutes, but long-term, high-frequency, high-quality content can be covered.

There are many more. For example, I have updated 130 cases on Knowledge Planet, totaling more than 100,000 words; for example, the recorded podcast has been played more than 500,000 times on the entire network... I won’t list these numbers.

The accumulation of these bits and pieces has enriched my knowledge system, and my writing and cognitive abilities have continued to improve. After I started my own business, the accumulated compound interest had an outlet for explosion, allowing the company to see actual benefits.

3. Listen to others’ opinions and make your own decisions

Lei Jun said that 99% of the questions have standard answers, so just ask someone who knows.

I would like to add that the key lies in what the problem is.

In the early days of starting a business, we didn’t understand a lot of things, which was completely different from working in a large company before. So we would ask a lot of friends for advice, read books, and look at content on the Internet.

There is more and more information, but I don’t have the ability to distinguish it, which makes me even more confused. I don’t know how to make the next decision, which is very painful.

After thinking about it for a long time, I finally understood:

What is provided by the outside world is just information. You must have your own thinking logic and framework to filter out valuable information, and more importantly, make your own decisions.

Because only you know what is suitable for you, what you can understand, and what you are willing to do.

Back to Lei Jun's words, there are definitely standard answers to specific questions, such as how to register a company. But for non-standard and complex questions like entrepreneurial direction, you still have to trust your own judgment.

I prefer what Robin Li said: Listen to the opinions of the majority, discuss with the minority, and make your own decision.

After 60 days of starting the business, we achieved the quarterly goal that we thought was unattainable ahead of schedule and received positive feedback. We definitely did not follow the guidance of any predecessors, but made our own decisions in actual combat.

This decision is not made overnight, nor is it 100% perfect, but it is adjusted as it is made.

This principle is like why it is meaningless to work backwards from successful cases. It is better to analyze failed cases.

Because successful cases are built on the interweaving of multiple complex factors and are impossible to reproduce. Backtracking only makes people feel comfortable, but has no application value. However, the nodes that lead to failure are worth paying attention to and learning from.

Continuous improvement, asking for advice and studying are our driving force. But in the end, we decided to do it ourselves.

Author: Han Xu, WeChat public account: Operation Dog Work Diary