As we move into 2024, I'm continuing to drive forward on company projects, so I've been reading books on business thinking and would like to share some insights.
These two books complement each other perfectly. The first, "Is It Really That Hard for Companies to Make Money?" by John Warrillow, essentially argues for converting services into products and systematizing product processes. The key is to hand off product "sales" to others—a product shouldn't be something only you can sell. Instead, you need to build a "product" that others can also sell, ultimately creating a company that can continue operating "even without the founder." That's the true essence of a business.
The book uses storytelling and dialogue format, similar to "The Courage to Be Disliked" and "Mr. Toad Goes to See a Psychotherapist," where a wise mentor guides the protagonist and reader into scenarios and deeper thinking. Toward the end, the author shares his own experience and insights.
The second book, "Profit with Precision," comes from Professor Chen Zongxian of Union Capital Group. Over the years, Chen has accumulated professional CEO and executive experience across 71 domestic enterprises. I even took his annual CEO class a couple of years ago, and his business wisdom remains incredibly useful to this day. The master shows you the way, but the cultivation is your own responsibility. What the teacher offers are pain points and solutions in the business world, but translating these insights into your own enterprise and strategy depends entirely on the decision-maker's understanding and execution.
I've read many of Chen's books, and "Profit with Precision" once again opened new horizons for me. I want to discuss both books together in this piece.
The core of "Is It Really That Hard for Companies to Make Money?" is "letting others handle sales" and "building a company with market appeal." "Profit with Precision" revolves around what Chen has repeatedly emphasized: "you don't necessarily have to manufacture the product yourself," "enter international markets," "segment your market," and other sales fundamentals. It also addresses shortening delivery times and MOQ (minimum order quantity). Once you secure operational foundations and profit margins through proper staffing, mastering the speed and quality of these two elements will accelerate business growth.
In the context of digital products, expanding your team, providing training, assigning specialists to specific roles, and investing in high-volume production (content pipeline) creates economies of scale. For example, a self-media creator doing short videos alone takes a day, but a large media company can have 20 people working simultaneously to produce vast amounts of content daily. Scaling up in this way requires solving quality control problems.
Regarding quality control, from a media operations perspective, I believe initial communication with clients is crucial. Understanding customer needs, pain points, preferences, and various relational nuances, then executing accordingly, reduces communication gaps. If the sales team completes client outreach but then hands off to planning and editing teams without ongoing follow-up, you lose that emotional foundation built in early discussions. When things don't go perfectly, it becomes hard not to become purely transactional. (The Chinese world still values face greatly.)
As we enter the new year, I'm optimizing and considering the future direction of my company. The one-person business model ran its course in the previous year. Beyond seeking personal challenge, I want to validate these business concepts, inject new stimulation and growth into my life, and keep growing. While I anticipate growing pains, I believe bringing these concepts to life and making them work will be an amazing process!
