Many fall into the trap of hard work. People often believe the more you grind, the more money you make. If you have been thinking this way, you have been all wrong. I discovered that the biggest players in business often apply the simplest but smartest strategy to get ahead.
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Working your butt off won’t give you the numerical increase you need. Nope. It is by applying smart ideas that can get you along. Now, in this article, I am going to show some SMART ideas Bill Gates applied at Microsoft to beat off his competitors and earn billions of dollars. As a big fan of Bill Gates, I have learnt what the business guru has been doing all these years. So, let’s get down to it.
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Go For The Bigger Fishes
It’s cool you want to sell to the masses, but it is not going to give you the big break. Now, let me tell you a story about Bill Gates. Bill Gates had been working on Microsoft with his best friend, Paul Allen. They were building computer operating systems and were simply struggling to sell their products to companies in Silicon Valley. Microsoft didn’t become Microsoft until he sold the MS-DOS operating system to the biggest tech company in the world at the time, IBM. It hit the news. It was Bill Gates’ MS-DOS that powered IBM’s new personal computer.
With the money he got from the sales, he was the first person to buy IBM’s personal computer. It was through the personal computer other inventions and innovations were made. So, the trick to growth is having a big client that will give you a big break. How do you do this? Networking and meeting people with connections. It could be a classmate, a Facebook friend, a connection on LinkedIn, a mention on Twitter, etc. For example, you are a freelancer, rather than writing for small blogs, why not aim at big companies. Give them an offer they cannot resist.
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Build Your Team With Salesmen And Product Guys
First and foremost, doing it all by yourself is ultimately crazy and silly. Who works alone these days? Stop grinding alone! Get a team. The importance of getting a team is that you will have more hands, contacts, more ideas, and more money. This was the biggest smart move Bill Gate’s Microsoft made when he employed Steve Ballmer, who was a salesman. According to Wikipedia, when Steve Ballmer was hired by Bill Gates, the Microsoft stocks sales tripled.
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However, Microsoft lost out as an innovation leader during the age of iPhone and Android. But Microsoft made retraction and got Satya Narayana Nadella, who was a product guy. The best companies employ a team that is full of salesmen and product guys. Nadella has been credited for helping bring Microsoft’s database, Windows Server and developer tools, to its Azure cloud. Microsoft’s success story has been around hiring or working with product guys and salesmen.
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Commission & Outsource
Microsoft has always been reputed for outsourcing some of its projects to programmers. Under a three-year agreement,
Infosys managed Microsoft’s internal IT services, including IT help desk, desktop management, and infrastructure and application support, from multiple Infosys centres. The deal included applications, devices, and databases in 450 Microsoft locations in 104 countries. Don’t always get stuck with the company’s resources when it might be cheaper and time-saving to either commission or outsource.
Getting a permanent employee might be a little bit expensive. And most often employees might slack in getting their jobs done. Most often, people who aren’t within the company can be more pressured to get the job done, because they will want to get results in order to be paid. For instance, you can hire a commissioned salesperson. You could choose to employ interns, which is cheaper and of course, interns might always want to put their best in order to prove themselves. You can also hire a part-time person or an independent contractor.
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Get A Publicity Stunt
Microsoft has applied publicity stunts of using documentaries to boost its profile. One of the biggest smart strategies Microsoft has always used is to either run a biography or pay the media to write about them. Sometimes, Microsoft has often gone controversial, attacking its rival. In this light, one of the ways to emulate Microsoft is to dedicate a great deal of time to running campaigns about your business.
Featured Image Source: Sure Success NG
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This article was first published on 15th December 2021
nnaemeka-emmanuel
Nnaemeka is an academic scholar with a degree in History and International Studies from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He is also a creative writer, content creator, storyteller, and social analyst.
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