There’s a Catch-22 situation that entrepreneurs often find themselves in. My agency is in it right now.
We’re trying to penetrate the professional association market. The problem is that associations will only work with agencies who have already worked with associations- especially on association specific software. To get new association clients, you have to have worked with association clients. Catch-22.
This limits the competition in the market to just a handful of existing agencies who have been doing this work for twenty to thirty years. “Insular” is a phrase I’ve heard thrown around a lot by consultants who service the space.
It’s a great market- if you’re on the inside. But how do outsiders like us get on the inside?
There’s a tactic that I’ve employed in the past that I call, “Folding Nothing.” You start with nothing, and you fold it in half. What you end up with is something a little more than nothing. You fold it again and it becomes more substantial yet. Within a few more folds you have something and you keep working with that something until you have what you need.
That reads like the inscrutable, seemingly nonsensical Tao Te Ching. But it’s not so esoteric (or profound) in practice, it’s just investment, sacrifice, and risk taking.
To give a simple example, often when I sit down to write, I’m not sure what I’ll write. If I stare at the blank screen that doesn’t change. When things start to coalesce is when I start to jot down random, but relevant ideas. These ideas spark a course of inquiry and I’m off to the races. That’s how I ended up on today’s topic.
As it relates to our situation, I’ve already done a lot of folding nothing by speaking at association conferences, developing thought leadership and IP, connecting with possible partners, and volunteering with state associations of associations (meta.) Next up, we’re going to develop some prototypes and engineering as marketing to demonstrate that we can work with association software. The code we write won’t be for actual clients. But some percentage of the time it will be good enough to land us work. Then we’ll be on the inside of the wall.
When you encounter these Catch-22 situations, remember that few environments can remain in stasis. As time passes changes are introduced. Entropy prevails. Weeds grow in the cracks of the sidewalk.
Be that little weed that grows into a tree that rips the concrete apart.
Read more about folding nothing: http://knighterrant.co/folding-nothing/