The value of your network

Anyone who starts a company, whatever the sector, will sooner or later need to sell some products or services... and very often this will happen sooner rather than later. The initial money from the founder's savings or initial investment will allow for the so much development of a product or skills to be sold until the funds run out. At this point the company will be caught by the business imperative : find some money to continue or die. And unless a new funding round can be secured, the company will need to sell something, which will finally happen some day anyway.

At the point of selling, the obvious contacts base any company will turn to is the primary network which will have been aggregated previously, during the early stage of the company or, much more likely, during past experience of the founder and eventual associates or employees. This will be the first test of the quality of a company's offer: if it cannot sell into its primary network, and is unable to reach further directly, it is destined to end.

If it does sell to its core network of close family and friends, with extensions to former work colleagues, long-lost acquaintances and casual encounters that become friends and customers as your offer triggers a closer relationship that satisfies one of their needs, it passes this first step and goes on to the next round of finding more clients and more money to keep on developing products and/or learning new skills to serve.

As for me, I would like to thank my friends and family, whom I am very much grateful to, for having been my earliest support and initial customer base for my first venture, the digital agency Fluorcom, especially:

• James Bansac Architectes
• Agence Laurent Bansac Architecte
• Formassad, training for health and social professionals

Though this initial input of money and credit for your products or services can be important to continue going forward, your primary network will also give you an opportunity for growth by enabling you to learn from them and/or benefit from their extended network to services other people or companies like them or linked to them.

From them you can get access to an extended network, acquire extra specific skills or knowledge of a particular environment, sector or industry that will allow you to sell better, resell or sell further. That is what happened to me and my company: thanks to my first clients, I could reach to more clients, learn more from their particular industry and expand further into similar environments. And I guess, this is the subsequent step towards the success of your venture: go beyond your own network. Hopefully I can write more about this soon ;).

Why entrepreneurship, international and digital?

In this new post I will present the reasons I became, or at least tried to become, an international and digital entrepreneur. The journey to do so has not been easy, and most certainly is far from being complete, but as for everything in life, the journey is often more important than the goal. Anyhow, I hope my motivations and reasons might bear some interests for some people, so I will try to present them as clearly and concisely as possible.


As to this the latest of these attributes, entrepreneur, I believe, it is a very important trait of my personnality from a most early age. Many will say that they have always had the will, the drive, the independance and the energy it takes to become an entrepreneur, but very few actually take the decision to start on their own and keep on going forward when the first difficulties arise. People who wish to become entrepreneur be warned: it is hard, lonely and demanding road you would engage on.

I do not know any entrepreneur who's been successful by himslef, as soon as he started his venture. They all have faced doubts, fears, lack of self-confidence, lack of money, lack of support and even conflict within their own organization. Fewer have not given up for the comfort of having a steady income you can rely upon, reasonable working hours that let you have some peace out of your job, or even a boss taking decisions for you not to have to be responsible for failures. Even fewer have come to earn any money, fewer again to reach some sort of success.

As for me, I am far from being done with an established and undoubtedly recognized success, but after more than 2 years, I am still confident in my will to face it all to remainan entrepreneur at the head of my company EYE3 GROUP and its ventures.


Concerning the international dimension that I try to embody for my company and its ventures, it comes from a double realization. 

First, a strong international has been part of my education and personal profile from a very age. As young as 15 years old, I could participate in a 3-month exchange in Ontario, Canada, quite far from my family, my native language and city of Lyon, France. Later, I had the chance to go study one year in London, one year in Madrid and one year in Paris, through my scholarship at ESCP Europe. After graduating, I was hired to work in Vietnam for 2 years, before starting my company in Hong Kong while managing it from Vietnam, and finally move to Thailand last year.

The second reason comes from a constation that many I made quite early as many other people do: an international company intrisically have an edge over non-international companies. Formulated differently, a company, even a single-person one, which can properly manage an international network of stakeholders, clients, providers or workers (directly hired or subcontractors), its administration and finances, has an advantage over any national companies through its ability to better optimize the use of its resources, its needs and its expenses, as costs, rules and skills differ a lot from one country to another. This also comes from a deeper constatation: as the economy became really global (after the end of the Cold War) and people, goods and capital can now move quite freely almost anywhere in the world, the notion of "nation" has been rendered somehow obsolete, to the great despair of national politicians who always try to solidify their vanishing powers, but I believe, to the great benefit of any and every individual, be it for business or not.


The last axis that I try to make the most of for my company is the digital revolution, that is shaking the very foundation of business and society.

As presented above, I believe that companies that can manage their resources internationally have an edge over non-international ones. The extremely large array of digital tools available for businesses render this international management almost as easy as the management of local resources. And what's even more beautiful about it is that it doesn't come at a great cost! Many extremely useful services are free, and the hardware and connections required to make it work are every day cheaper.

The second advantage of the digital century, which is obvious but somehow becoming everyday more difficult to benefit from is the reach of Internet: any business big and small can reach almost anyone through Internet and the digital products and services it helps to convey. Nevertheless, this opportunity vanishes for more and more companies, as it takes everyday more skills and money to reach people that are everyday more Internet-aware and difficult to convince. Thankfully for me and my company, one of our ventures is Fluorcom, which also becomes everyday more skillful at communicating in this digital era, as do I... ;-)

Foreword

Welcome to my new blog!

I will try to present here (in English for now, until I figure out the best way to present this information in multiple languages beyond the limitations of Google Translate...) some views and reflections on international and digital entrepreneurship that I gather in my everyday life as the founder and managing director of EYE3 GROUP and working with a variety of people to launch, develop and manage its various ventures, in several countries, especially, France, Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong.

Most notably the ventures that were launched with some success:

-Fluorcom, a digital communication agency, that's actually the Internet and digital backbone of EYE3 GROUP and a way to provide quality services while keeping on learning about the Internet and digital environment to stay ahead of its latest developments, strategies, design, technologies, marketing techniques and trends. Though a much stronger client base needs to be built, a certain sign of success with Fluorcom is the very positive feedback received from our few clients, especially when they come back to us for more services.

-Architecte de Bâtiments, a guide for buildings project managers in France (exclusively in French) that gives a lot of useful information on how to conceive and construct buildings in France. This website also allows visitors to obtain a quotation for their project from our associated architects. The most obvious sign of at least some success with this venture is that, in its particular niche, Architecte de Bâtiments is starting to earn the attention of a few thousands of visitors per month.

-EYE3 AGENCY is an international entreprises services agency that helps companies launch, develop and manage their international operations, especially between Europe and Asia, and possibly also America. EYE3 AGENCY's business is still very modest, but a lot of demand comes from companies in many countries like India, France, the UK, Greece; and I certainly hope to push it forward soon!

These small successes have not come to realization without a lot of work, a lot of worries and the occasional emergencies to resolve on the go some troubles that had never been expected. Nevertheless these hassles are  probably part of all companies' journeys, and certainly some of the moments when particular points of weakness get improved, skills acquired and a manager's views enlarged. These will probably come along to fuel the stories of these blog, probably also with their lots of crispiness to be shared with you! ;-)

Thank you for following my adventures which I hope to have enough time to share with all of you on a regular basis. And for all of you entrepreneurs out there, courage!

Please do share your views, opinions and experiences!