Presentation is everything? - Entrepreneurs need to make sure they are always on the right side of the fence

Over the last couple weeks that I have been in India, I have had some very interesting experiences that have got my entrepreneurial side thinking quite a bit.

For the last few days I have been in the city of Hyderabad staying at the Westin Mindscape hotel. Every morning I have been going downstairs to the lobby to purchase a cup of coffee at a price of 270 rupees (approx $5 USD). The coffee is great and they put it in one of the fanciest plastic cups I have ever drank out of with the Westin Hotels logo on it. Now this morning I decided to go for a little fresh air literally just outside of the hotel, not even 500 meters away. I bought a cup of coffee that tasted almost identical for 10 rupees (0.18 cents USD). Now this coffee shop looked like a shit hole on the side of the street and they served it in a flimsy plastic cup. The funniest thing is living in North America my whole life I am conditioned to think that the $5 cup of coffee is better but it’s not. The presentation of it is better and that is all. So thinking as a businessman and about money, next time I go for that cup of coffee I’m obviously going to the 0.18 cent shop as long as it doesn’t affect my time. That’s $4.22 still in my pocket.

Now let me tell you another story. A while back I was quoted for a certain job I needed from a team in the United States. The guys in the USA met me at their fancy office in Manhattan and impressed me with a killer presentation with all these fancy videos, slides, charts, fancy words, etc. They even took me out for a nice steak dinner with a very expensive bottle of wine. They really impressed me but the guys also quoted me a rate of approximately $120,000 USD for the job I needed done. Let me put it to you this way, I got the exact same job done here in India for approximately $9000. I’m not even joking, I saved $111,000. The guys here in India didn’t have that fancy office like they do in Manhattan, all the bells and whistles of professional video presentations etc, but I could see that they had the ability to deliver an end product that was identical to the guys charging a $120,000. The guys delivered and I couldn’t be happier.

Now at the end of the day the Westin Hotel is brilliant for being able to sucker people in for $5 for a cup of coffee. The USA guys are also brilliant because they have had people willing to pay them the $120,000 for similar jobs. Heck if I owned those two businesses, I would charge the same high amounts. Heck I do it with the maid services I own.

To all of you young entrepreneurs, the point I am trying to make in this story is to make sure you always choose the right side of the fence. This is a very very important lesson in business. When you are the buyer, don’t get impressed with all the fancy presentation. However when you are the seller, make sure you impress others with that fancy presentation. There is enough suckers out there willing to pay, but business people aren’t them and they always know when to be on which side of the fence.