A client asked me what I mean when I use the word ‘assets’.
That’s a fair question.
An asset is something that you build and can use without ever running out of it. A television advertising campaign is an expense, a brand is an asset. Because the brand gives you something extra (familiarity, identity, community, reputation, integrity, etc.) without needing to spend a dime extra. When you need to buy a list of leads, that’s an expense. But when you have a list of people who gave you permission to market to them (via email, RSS, etc.), than that is an asset. Why? Because you know they want to hear from you. You know the marketing campaign will have an effect (by keeping your brand front in mind, addressing a real existing client need, etc.)
An asset means you’re not just shooting in the dark, but that you get something extra, for free.
When you start up, you have no assets. When you are Google, you’ll have many.
That means you should be working on building assets every day. What is your brand? What makes you unique? How do you convey this with personality? How do you get people to WANT to hear what you have to say? Every penny should invest in building assets, even while you are shooting in the dark.
Tags: Strategy
Can you consider assets as a tool or strategy to survive? How important are assets in our daily life?
(Report comment)
Hendrix, you ask about the importance of assets in our daily life. They are everything. Every time we think about how to react, how to phrase something, how to make someone understand us or how to contribute to the community, we are creating assets. We can call on support, trust or a vote based on who we are, but who we are is based on the assets we’ve build in the past.
Assets are an enormous tool to survive as a business: Apple can make claims Microsoft never can, based on its assets.
I know that an accountant might shoot me down for my liberal use of the word ‘asset’, but the businesses I work with don’t always count all their assets as assets. I’m just trying to widen the scope a bit.
(Report comment)
So you can consider assets as a weapon that no one can get. If you got this you are completely unique from others.
(Report comment)
Just hoping that this is not a waste of time. Don’t you think that this will be a risk to our business?
(Report comment)
Assets are created automatically. It is in the way you treat your customers, you engage in the community, in the value that you create and communicate. I am trying to convey the idea that we need to think of our very actions and ways of communicating ourselves as assets.
(Report comment)
assets are of valuable quality and for me this is very important. for some people, they may think this can be something that is not interesting or rather a waste of time. but come to think of it, if you have it, you will have a better source of belonging and this may be converted into cash.
(Report comment)
I highly agree on you lorenz. It is very important that we think of our moves in our business that we will not regret. I don’t think it’s a waste of time.
(Report comment)
I guess it is effective if you amaze buyers with your sales talk. It is really important that you should possess good qualities as a producer.
(Report comment)
It’s important to have strong foundation in your business. Do mean to say that assets are something built by the company to make them strong?
(Report comment)