Rambo – the ultimate boostrapper

Rambo First Blood part 1, is a movie all entreprenuers ought invest 2 hours watching.

The key lessons is simple: The ultimate resource is creativity. It’s game winning. John Rambo single handedly defeats an army choc full of resources, through ‘creative boostrapping’. Bootstrapping which then invented new tactics the competitors didn’t even consider. Key words that come to mind are; Insight, Passion, Risk, Mind Control, Tenacity, Belief and Courage. This film should be the first lesson in any entrepreneurial learning forum. Be like Rambo and win.

25 years on this film still rocks. There are so many cool scenes I won’t ruin it here by explaining them. Better yet, go watch it, then tell us your favourite scene and why in the comments below.

Testimonials

Testimonial pages are fairly predictable. Find a bunch of your best customers, get them to say something nice. Convince new customers you and your team are a bunch of trustworthy, nice people to do business with.

Problem is this: predictable = skeptical

Here’s an idea: Take a random sample of comments including ‘some’ bad. The implicit assumption here is that we have more good reviews than bad. If we don’t forget the testimonials and fix your stuff.

Once we’ve got a representative sample of testimonials including some negative what we’ve done is taken our brand into the realms of reality. Result: Increased levels of trust and reduced skepticism.

• We are saying that we are real – we occasionally make mistakes.

• We are saying we are honest – which is refreshing.

• We are saying we can’t please everyone – which is authentic.

Startups out there – differentiate your self with some authenticity.

Media diet – startup style

As promoted in the 4 hour work week a media diet is a nice way save time. For entrepreneurs a different type of media diet is required.

A business trends diet

Here’s how – avoid all business related articles as they pertain to new strategies & trends.

Here’s why – We already know enough to be successful. Our problem is doing the stuff.

Unless we are just starting in the business world – we’ve heard every strategy and the fact is that most ‘new’ business ideas are simple derivatives of business theories which have been around since the birth of commerce. Cables channels and tech stuff is the worst. Who’s got the time to read 86 posts from techcrunch every day? – not me.

We ought just trust our judgment and make the call that we know enough to get moving…and the rest we’ll learn on the job…. So in the spirit of this blog entry, ignore the articles you were about to read and get back to your stuff.

Outsourcing – Visuals vs Backend

As webpreneurs we all now employ offshore coders to develop sites using super cool resources like Odesk and Elance. The process is a simple one. But just like all things good, there are some catches. Here’s some advice from someone whose done, does it and occasionally avoids it.

The main thing you need is patience and very considered briefs. When there is a language barrier, ideas and words can be taken very literally.

Our experience is that some (not all) offshore IT practioners are indifferent with ‘visual’ requirements. Maybe it’s a cultural implication. And there are many things we’ve had done much better offshore, like finding creative solutions to technical problems. We’ve worked with some great creative bootstrappers. But it’s clear that more developed markets put a much higher value on ‘aesthetics‘. So we get all our rentoid visuals done locally, while we outsource alot of our backend work. It’s akin to a convenience store you might see in India, there just not quite as pretty as those in Australia and the USA. See below.

Western Convenience Store

Convenience Store India

Mobile Web – timely advice

Here’s an insight from web polymath Chris Sacca straight from his twitter page.

Timely advice during the movement to hand held devices.

Sustainable Business Proposition

One of my favourite business maxims is the Single Minded Proposition. The retailer below ‘used’ to have a single minded proposition as a $2 shop. They’ve had a recent name change…

If you’re going to be very specific in your business model – make sure it’s timeless.

Fathers day

I was asked recently why I’m not so focused on events like – fathers day. The question posed is below:

Don’t marketers have calendars of all the events throughout the year?

Here’s my answer:

I don’t think it’s a winner. Most events never are: One reason – Clutter.

Every man and his dog are on these calendar events… It’s good for some thing to fill the gaps, but I don’t think it is a game winner. Which is why I don’t over do ‘event style marketing’. I’d rather create my own events. I might not have 20 million people interested – but the 26 or 1000 or so who care – are listening , and listening closely.

Quick thought

Most of the important stuff is easy to know, hard to do.

Which why we must focus on action. We know what makes a great artist, sportsperson, laureate, or financier.

But chances are we are none of these. As we have not done it. We must act to become.

Truth in advertising

You’ve probably seen this hilarious spoof on marketing and advertising. If in Australia you may have seen The Gruen Transfer.

Here’s my truth in advertising:

Most people who work in advertising don’t understand advertising at all. They are too busy using other peoples money to impress themselves by making 30 second movies and highway art.

If you’ve ever worked in marketing you’ll know this truth.If you’ve ever seen who wins the advertising awards at Cannes, you’ll know this as well. It’s because most agencies don’t really understand marketing, which is the foundation of advertising. Advertising will only ever be part of marketing. Very rarely does an advertisement do what it’s designed to – Change behaviour, or heaven forbid persuade the audience to buy something.

So rather than explaining what advertising is, we’ll just let you know what it isn’t:

1. Advertising is not art

2. Advertising is not film

3. Advertising is not entertainment

4. Advertising is not about creativity

5. Advertising is not design

Advertising is not all the things most people believe it to be.

It may well ‘be’ the things mentioned above, but this can only ever be a bonus. If it is any of the things mentioned above at the expense of influencing behavior, people taking action or actually selling – then it fails as far as startup blog is concerned.

When your start up rocks enough to afford advertising remember this parable.

Purpose

Does your stuff have real pupose? Or does it just exist, because it exists?

I think the olympic walk has no purpose. It’s the equivelant to a contest to see who can whisper the loudest.

A history of something existing or occuring is no reason for it to continue to in the future. It’s got to make sense.

photo reuters

When it comes to start ups – it’s got to have a purpose which is beyond the founder making money. Maybe our opportunity is replacing something which has no purpose with something that does.