Start Up Blog

Daneel points us to Open Cola. An interesting flip from the usual. Some insights for start ups.

It’s vital to get our projects to market quickly.  When projects drag on, we can lose interest in it. We’re tired, bruised and scared from the battle - the battle of bootstrapping. We often lose interest when it counts most, close to launch. We get sloppy.

Our audience doesn’t care. Why should they? All they see is our offer and our enthusiasm when we engage them. If we’ve lost interest in our project then, why should they be interested?

Consumer promotions simply don’t work anymore, they’re old world. Bribing your audience with the allure of a car or holiday won’t build your brand, rather damage it.

 They remind me of the kid with no friends who bought companionship because they had a motorbike or pony. There is a sense of desperation.  Occasionally someone will end up liking what’s really on offer (the person / the product), but more often, once the offer disappears so does the loyalty.

If you’re thinking of running a consumer promotion on your start up, maybe you should think about improving your business model. Reinvest the money and time into your proposition. Something is wrong.

There’s nothing more powerful in marketing than this. It allows the other important things to happen. Like being remarkable, sexy, premium, eyeball worthy, first, functional or ‘the’.

There’s another reason it counts. It makes the un-fun part of a start up easier. The administration. It’s far easier to do all the non audience stuff when you only do, make or sell one thing. Accounting, banking, inventory management, production, tax, supply chain, warehousing, distribution, invoicing et al… all become less arduous.

Then we can focus on the stuff that really matters.

A question: “Have you ever started a small business?”

What will define our answers?

• The fact that we had an ideas journal?

• The fact that we typed up a small business plan?

• The fact that we even looked at some costings to pull it together?

• The fact that…

We need to define success in launching a business the same way the tax department does, when we have got revenue.

Until this time, all we’ve done is flirt with theory. We must do to become.

Cold calling is difficult.  What choice do we have when we are establishing a product in a new distribution channel? One in which we have few contacts. (note: my definition here is B2B & excludes interuption phone calls to private dwellings)

Try two phase calling. Turn up and ask for the manager or owner. You only want 5 minutes to talk about an idea with them. You simply tell them what you are doing and ask for some input. It goes something like this:

We are developing X and think it could be good for your industry or a business similar to yours, but we’re not sure. This is what we are thinking, what do you think…?

Two things often happen. Firstly they tell you what type of marketing you should be doing. Then, they may ask you to bring in your widget to show them next time. What it needs to be successful is a low status approach. Let them they own part of the idea. Collaborate with them. Don’t bring anything with you. No samples, no brochures, nothing. Just talk with them.

If they’re not interested move on. Don’t be annoying. 

This can work because you remove their defenses. They don’t have to figure out a way to reject you. Then next time you come to actually sell something to them, it’s not a cold call, it’s warm.

In the movie The pursuit of happiness, there’s a seen where the main character asks a successful Ferarri driving stock broker his secret. He replies with two things, “People and numbers”

What it doesn’t mention is the subtlety of this statement. It’s actually about numbers ‘of’ people. It’s the art of rainmaking.

The most important role in any start up is your ability to make rain. (read here sell). It can only be done by hitting the pavement and phone. Our technical and strategic brilliance will need to the back seat for a while. Especially in launch phase.

Success ratios aren’t nearly as important as the number of calls we make. The former improves when we focus on the latter. 

Climate change is regarded by many as the biggest problem facing the global community.  It’s an issue that is unlikely to be resolved any time soon due to the fact the climate change isn’t the problem. It’s actually the symptom. The problem is excessive consumption.

Everything we do (consume) happens to emit greenhouse gases. Driving, eating, buying, mining and buildings all consume energy and resources being manufactured, delivered and used.  Governments and corporations are unlikely to encourage reduced consumption because apparently, growth is good.

It’s no different with early stage business development. If you’ve got an issue make sure you focus on the problem, not the symptom, or you’re unlikely to solve it.

A friend has a theory that it’s easier to get people buy a product when the purchase price is a single unit of currency. Maybe a $5 note or a $1 coin.

Hard to verify, but at least we’re sure us there isn’t any trick pricing.

Some things are just nice to look at. They demand eyeball time, so we investigate further.

What does your website, bottle, office, church, uniform, gadget look like?