Ramon Ray, small business expert and five-time entrepreneur, returned to host a new episode of the Rundown with Ramon Show, sharing practical business insights for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Ramon is the publisher of ZoneofGenius.com

Key Points:

• Building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to test market interest before full development
• The importance of offering tiered pricing options like Netflix and Spotify
• Learning from Lyft’s second-place strategy through service diversification
• Overcoming mindset limitations that block business growth
• The value of thinking bigger with your business goals and pricing

Testing the Waters with MVP

Ramon emphasized the power of creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to validate business concepts before investing too heavily. He shared how Cars.com reportedly started by simply testing whether customers would place credit card information online to purchase vehicles, without having the full infrastructure in place. The founder would manually fulfill orders to prove the concept worked before building the complete system.

Ramon applied this approach himself recently, creating a landing page for an event and reaching out to potential partners before investing in venue, staff, or other logistics. “You don’t have to get it all done,” Ramon advised, explaining that sometimes just getting the vision out there is enough to attract interest and validate your concept.

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Lessons from Subscription Giants

Drawing insights from Spotify and Netflix, Ramon highlighted how these companies weather economic uncertainty through their subscription models and varied pricing tiers. He encouraged small business owners to consider offering different pricing levels to accommodate various customer budgets.

“Maybe Deanna Lambert wants to pay $1,000 a year for the all-in. Maybe Kevin Bernard is saying, no. I wanna pay $19 a month for something different,” Ramon explained, illustrating how different customers might prefer different entry points. For service businesses particularly, having tiered options allows you to serve more customers without diluting your premium offerings.

Diversification Strategies from Rideshare Companies

Ramon shared insights from Lyft’s business strategy as a second-place competitor to Uber. While acknowledging Uber’s dominance, he pointed out how the company has diversified its offerings through Uber Eats, Uber Delivery, and car rental services.

“Even though most of you watching this are not the billion-dollar valuation companies of an Uber,” Ramon noted, “the lesson learned is, as your business reaches a certain size, are you offering a diversification of solutions to your customers?” He described his own approach with Zone of Genius, which includes a publication, podcast, email list, and events.

Mindset as the Greatest Business Barrier

A significant portion of the episode focused on mindset challenges that limit business growth. Ramon reflected on how past experiences shape our current business decisions, sometimes unconsciously.

“The only difference between me and you, only difference between you and me is, yes, our experiences,” Ramon explained, acknowledging how childhood experiences, parental lessons, and early challenges form our business mindset today. He encouraged viewers to identify what might be blocking their progress, sharing that even successful entrepreneurs face mindset limitations.

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Thinking Bigger with Your Business

Ramon closed with an encouragement for entrepreneurs to “think just a little bit bigger than what you are thinking.” He noted that when business owners ask him about pricing, they’re typically charging too little because they’re not seeing their own value clearly.

“I believe in them. I see something in them more than they see in themselves,” Ramon shared, suggesting that outside perspective often reveals untapped potential. This message of expansive thinking served as a fitting conclusion to an episode filled with practical strategies for business growth.