Fast Company > Quotes

“Nothing will teach you more about perceived value than taking something with literally no value and selling it in the auction format. It teaches you the beauty and power of presentation, and how you can make magic out of nothing.”
― Fast Company, The Small Business Guide to Growth Hacking

“When you focus on building value first, you compromise the culture and vision of an organization, losing purpose and meaning.”
― Fast Company, The Small Business Guide to Growth Hacking

“Vision is what pulls at our emotions and creates desire to challenge the status quo.”
― Fast Company, The Small Business Guide to Growth Hacking

“If you want to grow your business without the headache and stress of growing your payroll, first talk to your clients to find out exactly what they’re looking for, then reach out to web developers and inquire about turning your content into an interactive web-based tool. It’s easier and cheaper than you might think. Maybe technology has afforded us the ability to clone ourselves after all.”
― Fast Company, The Small Business Guide to Growth Hacking

“When he was just 23, Houston took a four-hour bus ride from Boston to New York, planning to use the time to work on a project. But he was stymied, because he forgot to bring the thumb-size hard drive that held his files. Deciding he’d been inconvenienced by this sort of thing for the last time, he wrote the very first lines of Dropbox code during the ride.”
― Fast Company, The Small Business Guide to Growth Hacking

“I’ve updated the value of what I sell, rather than the quantity.”
― Fast Company, The Small Business Guide to Growth Hacking

“The emotional attachment that links customers to your product, as opposed to any other, translates into sustainable growth. Here are some basic rules to connect, shape, influence, and lead with your brand: Choose your target audience: The surest road to product failure is to try to be all things to all people. Connect with the public: Your objective is to make your audience feel an emotional attachment to your brand. Inspire and influence your audience: An inspirational brand message is far more influential than one”
― Fast Company, The Small Business Guide to Growth Hacking

“For many small businesses, growing in size is a distraction. Because I value my free time and wanted balance in my life, I chose to grow in terms of profit instead. With a team of just five, I’ve gone from $500,000 to $1.5 million in annual revenue just by adding technology and new offerings. I’ve updated the value of what I sell, rather than the quantity.”
― Fast Company, The Small Business Guide to Growth Hacking

“Regardless of how realistic you think you are being, the change process will take three times as long as you like.”
― Fast Company's Editors and Writers, Fast Company The Rules of Business: 55 Essential Ideas to Help Smart People (and Organizations) Perform At Their Best

“1. TIMING IS EVERYTHING The timing of your product or service must be right in the marketplace. Mackey bit on the organic and natural food revolution just as the public’s palate for these products oozed into the mainstream, but if the market isn’t ready and you are way ahead of the market, then you must possess the drive and the willingness to sacrifice in order to make that product or service work.”
― Fast Company, The Small Business Guide to Growth Hacking

“The secret to staying competitive is not necessarily in growing your business in the traditional sense, but in using technology to innovate.”
― Fast Company, The Small Business Guide to Growth Hacking

“According to Jannenga, “WebPT hires for culture first and skill set second. I can train someone to be a better product manager, but your core values and how you approach your job is more important.”
― Fast Company, The Small Business Guide to Growth Hacking

“The most important element is that you have a great product or service. If you have this, everything else is easy. But here are the key elements of an effective pitch: • Ten slides • Twenty minutes long • Minimum 30 point font • Black background”
― Fast Company, The Small Business Guide to Growth Hacking

“Starbucks considers a product’s success not only in terms of consumer acceptance but also in terms of employee”
― Fast Company, Breakthrough Leadership: Winning Strategies From Amazon, Twitter, J.Crew, and Other Cutting-edge Companies

“If you want to create a scalable business, you have to understand just how crucial it is to build brand equity. The emotional attachment that links customers to your product, as opposed to any other, translates into sustainable growth. Here are some basic rules to connect, shape, influence, and lead with your brand: Choose your target audience: The surest road to product failure is to try to be all things to all people. Connect with the public: Your objective is to make your audience feel an emotional attachment to your brand. Inspire and influence your audience: An inspirational brand message is far more influential than one that just highlights product feature functions.”
― Fast Company, The Small Business Guide to Growth Hacking

“Managing creative people—not so easy,” she says. “A lot of emotion, a lot of stroking. Some people need tough love. Some people need a lot of love.” Above all is the challenge of managing in a subjective realm. “There’s no right or wrong answer,” says Lyons. “When someone creates something and puts it in front of you, that thing came from inside of them, and if you make them feel bad, it’s going to be hard to fix, because you’ve actually crushed them.”
― Fast Company, Breakthrough Leadership: Winning Strategies From Amazon, Twitter, J.Crew, and Other Cutting-edge Companies

“Mackey created a repeatable process of selling high-quality natural and organic products in communities with the right appetite for a brand that relies on customer affinity. It takes a combination of understanding market demand and market size and having repeatable processes to support that market to have a scalable business. And Mackey had to strive to sustain innovation in a world where even Walmart peddles organic foods.”
― Fast Company, The Small Business Guide to Growth Hacking