I just read a wonderful article about a film released last year. “Lemonade Stories” tells of the unheralded role of Moms in entrepreneurs’ lives.
As I read the quotations from each of the interviewed entrepreneurs, I can see they have very similar Moms to mine. A major theme that emerges is a Mom’s belief “when no one else believes” in the entrepreneur. This support turns out to be the last push needed to tip the entrepreneur to success.
Technorati tags: relationships, entrepreneurship, family
Here’s the thing. Seth’s main thesis is that, with the crumbling of what he calls the TV-Industrial Complex, mass marketing has become broken. Suddenly mass media has become to cluttered, too noisy, too fragmented, people are too busy to pay attention, they have too much choice etc etc. So unless you already have a product that is heavily mass marketed successfully, you will probaly fail if you try going down the same road. So what to do?
Seth’s answer is for companies to stop trying to think of clever, “creative” ways to mass market ordinary products, but instead to start making remarkable products.
Technorati tags: design, marketing, pomotion, remarkable
I have to say though, that this has probably been the most stressful week I’ve had in a while. It is a real roller coaster. I find mood hinging on the hit counts and sign up counts. One day only a few people signed up and it really bummed me out. I really need to adjust my expectations to the long haul better. Little good comes out of constantly checking the statistics.
Technorati tags: web2.0, launch, entrepreneurship
Like Mr. Ibuka, I firmly believe that it is always best to solve your own business problems. In fact, I have never, and will never, allow my employees to visit another company to see how they are handling a particular solution. I know that if I let my employees look to other companies – particularly competitors — for solutions and ideas, that whatever solution they decide upon will be mediocre at best.
Technorati tags: problem solving, business, innovation
The idea is simple: to try and make $1m (US) by selling 1,000,000 pixels for $1 each. Hence, ‘The Million Dollar Homepage”. The main motivation for doing this is to pay for my degree studies, because I don’t like the idea of graduating with a huge student debt. I know people who are paying off student loans 15-20 years after they graduated. Not a nice thought!
The problem with trying to think in terms of “how do we get to $10 billion in revenue in 2050” is that you lose sight of the fact that your resources are very limited today. Staying focused on earning the first $50K of revenue allows you to concentrate your resources on a very well-defined short-term goal.
Technorati tags: bootstrapping, planning, marketing
Mena Trott (via Jason Fried):
So here we are — a big, small company or a small, big company. I’ve been on both sides of the table and have to say that it’s pretty nice where we are. And since the “small is better” argument is very often offered in both elegant (Signal vs. Noise) and ignorant (Generic “Being Corporate Sux!!”) ways, I thought I might contribute my reasons to why bigger can be better.
Technorati tags: startup, software, size, corporate, web2.0, design
Somehow I have no problem getting up at 4AM to make sure my boat is in the water right at sunrise, everyone knows that’s when you get the big fish.
Jumping out of bed on a Saturday morning at 5AM to take my 6-year old to hockey practice – no problem, I look forward to it.
Yet, I used to have trouble dragging my sorry butt out of bed for 7:30AM when I worked in my corporate career.
What about you?
Technorati tags: motivation
Call it the Day Two dilemma.
You have a brainstorm, wake up the next morning, and need to figure out whether the idea is actually worth pursuing — or better left under the covers.
Technorati tags: marketing, research, entrepreneurship
“There is no competition for someone who thinks it all through,” says Mr. Gerber. “Getting information isn’t difficult. Deciding you need it is crucial.”
Technorati tags: marketing, research, entrepreneurship
Ken Dyck 