Entrepreneur: Be Disruptive

It has been well documented that it is easier now more than ever to start a business.  I hope you get as excited as I do when I read that sentence.  The ease of starting a business now is due to the evolution of technology, its efficiency and effectiveness, increased reach, and affordability.  Think about all the apps and websites out there that offer business management tools and creative interfaces that are user-friendly and very affordable, sometimes even FREE.  Moreover, the quality of these services and products are getting closer and closer to what a professional accountant or graphic designer would charge premium dollars to execute.  So what does that mean? Start a business NOW!? Well not exactly, as the barriers of entry fall, the more competitors enter the market, the lower the profit margins become, the more a company has to innovate and disrupt.

Disruption and innovation have always been essential for new companies entering an established market place with many competitors and industry leaders.  The only difference now is that everyone and anyone can start a business and enter a market place; no matter the location, access to capital, or industry experience.  However, just because it is easy to start a business does not mean you should, or  for that matter, if you do it will be successful, make you rich, etc.  I believe it is the opposite.  Yes it's easier, and you can start and run a global business from the comfort of your own home, but that just means there are more people doing it and most likely failing at it.

When you enter an established market place it is more important, now more than ever, to come in and make a splash, shake things up, and make a name for yourself as quickly as possible.  Disruption is, in my opinion, the most important attribute any SMB or Start-up should posses.  By definition disruption is a disturbance or problems that interrupt an event, activity, or process.  Therefore, as an entrepreneur that has an idea or wants to launch a business, the first things you should ask yourself is, how can I disturb and/or interrupt the existing market place.  How can I get my product/service out into the market place with the least amount of resources (capital, people, infrastructure, etc.)?  Without a disruptive plan starting and launching a business can be difficult, far more difficult than with a plan to disrupt the market.  Think about it, you want to start a car/ride sharing business but plan on replicating the existing taxi and limo service business models.  What do you think your chances are in capturing even a fraction of a percent of market share?  I'd say slim to none.  These services have been in existence for 50 plus years, and are entrenched in every major city with strong unions and political leverage.

So what do you do?  You disrupt the market, interrupt the normal way of doing business.  You innovate.  You change the way things are done.  You let the competition know you are for real.  You capture as much market share as you can, and quickly!  Look at what Uber and Lyft are doing.  They are now approaching the market leaders in this space, with the taxi and limo unions doing everything they can to stop them, or at least slow them down.  They leveraged technology to disrupt an inefficient, archaic business model, which is happening across many long established industries: Music, Entertainment, Razors, Higher Education, Business Management Services, Financial, Automotive, etc.  Disruption is happening everywhere and it is only going to continue.  It is essentially the new economy where entrepreneurs, SMBs, and Multi-Nationals are in a race to see who can shake up the market place, drive revenues, and become/remain market leaders.

With that said, should you start a business?  I can't say for sure as that is up to you.  However, if you do, make sure you have a disruptive plan in place from the jump.  Do not start a business thinking you'll be able to compete using traditional methods, business models, and techniques.  Go in and disrupt the market place, shake things up, challenge the norm, innovate, and be unique!

As always, I'd love to hear your comments and thoughts on this topic.

If you are in need of any business and/or marketing consultation, feel free to shoot me a brief introduction note at: modernbizstraetgy@gmail.com.

Cheers,

ModernManTellsAll

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Business: You don't know my Industry

The misconception business owners have when dealing with consultants is the fact that they believe since said consultant does not work in their industry they cannot help them fix the problems that exist.  This may have been true ten, twenty, thirty, fifty years ago, however, in today's world, where everything/everyone is connected, information is easily accessible, the industry and competition can be researched and analyzed effectively and quickly; not having worked in an industry is irrelevant.  Furthermore, business is business and competition is competition, as long as thorough research has been conducted a consultant, or a competent consultant for that matter, should be able to identify the primary issues a company is having within two or three weeks, and design and implement a strategy a few weeks thereafter.  To be honest, in my experience the major issues that the majority of SMBs/Start-ups that I meet with and consult for are very similar with minor variances according to the industry.  For the most part the issues stem from fundamental business practices and processes: Lack of organization, lack of clearly defined goals (leadership), lack of data tracking, and lack of communication.

As you can see, these common issues have absolutely nothing to do with a particular industry or business.  The problem with a SMB or start-up that is experiencing growth, which is a great thing, is their resources get drained and everyone is consumed in the day-to-day and forget about or failed to implement the fundamental foundation of any successful business; and by the time a consultant is needed, problems have compounded to a point where a company can become essentially paralyzed.  That said, a professional, well-trained business consultant could easily rectify these issues rather quickly.  As long as the company leaders are in agreement, upfront and honest with the issues, and are willing to commit to a well-defined plan/strategy, things can turn around and the proper processes can be in place.  Just don't use the excuse of you do not know the industry, as that is of no use to anyone.

In my experience companies that are able to implement basic business processes prior to launch or within the initial launch phase are the most successful and are able to accelerate growth rather quickly.  I know the fun/glamorous part of running a SMB or start-up is working on something you are passionate about and with a team of people who share that passion; however, that high will only last so long before the company hits a road block (e.g. runs out of money).  As much as we all love to be in the trenches and creating something new and of value, without capital investments the product/service will not make it to market, or if it does the lifespan will be limited.

My advice to anyone in this position is to take the time to design and implement fundamental business processes prior to launch -- even before hiring.  At least have an outline of what processes are ideal for your company, and then hire someone to design and implement them.  Don't make the mistake of having the mindset of we'll fix it later, as it may be too late or you won't have the capital to allocate towards professional consultation.  There are many ways a consultant can benefit your SMB or start-up no matter what phase your company is in, all you have to do is find the right one and trust that they have the background and skill-set to get the job done!

As always, I'd love to hear your comments and thoughts on this topic.

If you are in need of any business and/or marketing consultation, feel free to shoot me a brief introduction note at: modernbizstraetgy@gmail.com.

Cheers,

ModernManTellsAll

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Business/Marketing: Just because you use Google AdWords, Facebook, etc...

I've lost count of the amount of times I've heard companies and clients say: "We've used Google AdWords and/or Facebook and Twitter advertising in the past and it doesn't work."  Or they'll say: "Yes we are currently (or working with a third-party) utilizing Google AdWords, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., in our marketing/advertising campaigns, but if anything changes we'll be in contact."  Well, that's great!  You should be using one or more of these platforms, paid and/or organic, in some way or another, otherwise you are potentially missing out on a lucrative revenue stream, and at the very least, increasing brand awareness and loyalty.  However, just because you are or have used AdWords, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., does not mean you are maximizing their potential, in all reality chances are you are not.  Let's face it, these companies are for-profit and prefer the uneducated and misguided to use their services as it pads their bottom lines.  Think about it, if your ad does not appear on the first page Google or if your Facebook ads are not reaching your target market(s) you are essentially throwing your hard earned money at companies that are, or are close to being worth billions of dollars.  They actually count on the majority of users to blindly throw money at advertisements -- even if a company is allocating as little as $10/day, and there are 100s of 1000s doing so, the profits can be astronomical.  I'll spare you the math, however, if you multiply (10 x 1000 x 100 x the amount of days), you'll get the point.  Great business model to emulate if you can, btw!

The same is true for companies that are using a 3rd party vendor for months and/or years without seeing even a minimal increase in their ROI.  Granted after months/years, most companies will get the point and drop said vendor, but after how much capital has been lost?  Coupled with the fact that many of these 3rd party vendors, definitely not all as there are a lot of great ones, are out to get your money as well -- hitting or getting close to their numbers as the contract end-date nears.  And believe me, they are banking on the fact that the company is not versed in PPC campaigns and the various platforms.  Some companies have invested so much in their marketing/advertising campaigns, trusting the 3rd party vendor as being experts, only to go out of business.  Small to mid-sized businesses simply do not have the resources to sustain an unsuccessful marketing campaign -- in fact they rely on each calculated investment to provide incremental benefits at least in the short-term.  So what do you do?

For starters, companies must realize that these platforms, although logical and necessary, are extremely complex, with many variables and KPIs.  And often times work off one another, hence the integrated marketing campaign.   Secondly, as stated above, there are literally millions of companies, some of which are your competition, using these marketing/advertising platforms daily!  Obviously, their budgets will vary from dollars a day to 1,000s of dollars a day, but budget doesn't necessarily declare a winner.  Kind of intimidating, don't you think?  No wonder why so many companies will tell you AdWords, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc., do not work, or they are a waste of money.  Or worse, they have live campaigns running with high impressions and low click-throughs and conversions -- low to no ROI, etc.  

When companies tell me these platforms do not work, my first reaction is, are/were you using it correctly?  To use a sports analogy: If I gave someone a baseball bat and told them to step-up to the batters box and take a few swings at a major league pitcher, chances are they are going to tell me it doesn't work. Well, I'd argue there's a lot of professionals that hit off these pitchers every single day with that same bat -- some better than others.  The same rules apply for your SEM campaign, just because everyone has access to the same tools doesn't mean everyone can hit it out of the park.

The moral of the story is: Just because you use Google AdWords, Facebook Advertising, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, etc., doesn't mean you are using it properly and effectively.  And it most certainly doesn't mean it doesn't work!  As a matter of fact it does, and many company's are taking full advantage of it.  And, no, you do not need to have an enormous marketing budget, all you need is a trained professional that understands the dance between analytics and messaging, and how the entire campaign works as one, not individually.

As always, I'd love to hear your comments and thoughts on this topic.

If you are in need of any business and/or marketing consultation, feel free to shoot me a brief introduction note at: modernbizstraetgy@gmail.com.

Cheers,

ModernManTellsAll

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Entrepreneur: Launching a Business

Having been a part of numerous startups over my career in various industries, and having known and knowing close friends, family members, and business associates that have made the leap and taken the risk of starting their own businesses, I wanted to share a few things that I feel are very important to get right from the jump.

1) Write a business plan

This is a BIG one, yet is rarely executed properly, if it's even done at all. Many entrepreneurs and small business owners feel they have a great idea for a new product/service, feel they can take an existing product/service and do it better than what is currently on the market, or have an incremental innovation to an existing product/service that will enhance the consumer experience and fulfill a need. In fact, these reasons are why most businesses and startups are launched, however, 3 out of 4 will fail! That is an extraordinary high percentage. Yes, some will fail due to lack of capital funding and others will fail by burning through capital far too quickly, and some will fail from lack of leadership, direction, and vision. Regardless of the reason, a lack of a well thought out business plan is more often than not at the root of the problem.

Writing a business plan forces the business owner to carefully analyze why they are starting a business, who their competitors are, what is the market for the product or service, economic climate, etc., prior to investing all that time and money, which is needed to get a business off the ground. Many people I have met with, and worked for actually, will for-go writing a business plan all together, claiming they have it all in their heads; they are purely reacting to scenarios day-to-day. Writing a business plan is a proactive approach as it will help streamline your thoughts, make adjustments prior to launch, enable a clear vision for the business, enable you to seek and procure investors, heck, it may even force you to re-evaluate your decision to start a company all together.

I would suggest consulting with someone who is well-versed in writing a business plan(s) and/or launching startups, even if it may be seen as a costly expense as it will no doubt save you money in the long run and moving forward. If you do not know anyone to consult with, or if you find it to be too costly there are many websites that offer business plan templates for a limited one-time fee, some may even be found online for free. However, I would be cautious of anything that is free as many times in life you get what you pay for.

2) Determine your target market(s) and position your brand accordingly

This one is all too common as well. You have a great product/service that is ready for market, perfect let's start making some money! Right?? Well, of course one wants to make money, but who exactly are you selling to? A small business or startup (typically) does not have the resources to just get a company off the ground and start selling to anyone and everyone that is ready (or not) to buy. Furthermore, marketing can be an expensive business unit, particularly without a clear target market(s), as much will be wasted (time and money) while you're testing to see who is going to be a viable customer for your business. Determining your target market(s) should be done prior to launch, again a proactive approach, not a reactive one.

Once your target market(s) have been identified, it is extremely important to position your brand accordingly. What do I mean by this? Well, let's say you have targeted the high-end, high-quality coffee consumer market - essentially competing with Starbucks. This would not be an easy task, even with a well-thought out business plan and preparation; however, it could be done with a focused strategy. Therefore, when you position your brand on the high-end, high-quality market, all of your branding and marketing should be targeted as such. You want to go full-bore and start capturing market share in that space immediately. Far too often I have seen companies without a defined target market and brand positioning waste valuable resources at a fast-clip by trying to serve any and all markets, even to a market that would never pay $2 for a cup of "drip" coffee or $5+ on an "Orange Mocha Frappuccino" (couldn't resist the Zoolander reference).

3) Start tracking financial (costs, expenses, revenues) and sales data immediately

Many new (and sometimes experienced) entrepreneurs and small business owners fail to do this as they just jump right in and start producing and selling their product/service. I am all for initiative and motivation as that is what is going to enable your company to survive and thrive, however, prior to launching I'd recommend putting the data tracking applications in place. This can be accomplished through the use of Excel, Quickbooks, Quicken, or any other new app/software that is out there in the market place (there are a lot of them). Again, this may seem like an obvious implementation, but you'd be surprised how many business fail to have this in place, or have started it but stopped for whatever reason, too busy, lack of spreadsheet knowledge, I'll do it later, etc.

The problem with failing to track financial and sales data is that as it accumulates and business operations pick up (hopefully), the harder it is to go back and input the data. Furthermore, having all your data tracked will enable you to compare data from previous days/weeks/months, forecast sales, procure more capital in the future, find partners and investors, identify issues, etc. In today's technological world financial tracking and data storage is highly accessible and in many cases fairly user-friendly. Once again, I'd recommend consulting with a professional on this matter, at least initially to setup the templates.

Obviously there are many other factors that go into launching a business, many of which have been posted in other posts on LinkedIn. However, I feel these 3 are major factors to consider prior to launching a business and in the long run save you a lot of time, money, and headaches moving forward.

As always, I'd love to hear your comments on this topic, so please leave comments if you desire.

PS - If you are in need of any Business and Marketing consultation for your small to mid-sized business/start-up feel free to shoot me an email at: modernbizstrategy@gmail.com.

Cheers,

ModernManTellsAll

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Marketing: 3 most common digital marketing mistakes

The 3 most common digital marketing mistakes...

Ah yes, it's that time again.  With digital marketing becoming more of a necessity than a "fad," I thought I'd share my opinion/observations on the three most common mistakes I see across the digital landscape and with clients and associates.

1) Duplicate and redundant content across all channels

I have this listed as number one for two reasons: For one, it is probably the most common.  And two, it drives me nuts to see this.  Think about it, with 3rd party apps like Hootsuite, SpreadSocial, and SocialOomph scheduling and coordinating posts is super easy, and sometimes too easy as a social media manager or operations manager can schedule multiple tweets for the week and assign the same posts across all channels (not recommended).  This makes sense right??  Spread our message to as many people as we can across all channels efficiently...that's the name of the game.  Well, no, not really.  All of the social media channels have a different communication and interaction method, and many times, a completely different demographic.   Therefore, duplicating the same message across all social channels could in fact be hindering your brand instead of growing it.  Many social media users are extremely educated and versed in the proper communication and interaction methods/techniques and can quickly tell what your company is doing, and many times turn them off all together.  It actually portrays laziness as well, almost as if you don't want to take the time and don't really care about your product/service.  So take the time to properly communicate, promote, and engage across all social channels.  If you're limited on time and resources then narrow your channels down to one or two.

2) Poor grammar 

Poor grammar, the ultimate brand killer.  If there's one thing we've learned over the last few years, it's the fact that one or two mistakes on social media can absolutely damage your brand, and it can be very hard to bring back the loyalty.  I'm not going to tell you what you should or should not post as far as graphic content (American Airlines), politics, religion, etc. as that is obvious.  What I do want to address is the use of poor grammar.  I get that you only have a certain amount of characters to get your message across; however that should not mean you have to sacrifice proper grammar.  Yes, it forces you to be far more creative with your writing, which is a good thing; All the more reason to find a qualified digital marketing expert to communicate this message properly.  I understand that mistakes are made from time to time, as many of us get so busy and our attention is not fully focused on our social media posts; heck, I'm sure you can find a few grammar mistakes on this blog (I am not perfect).  However, when these mistakes are constantly happening you will discredit your brand and portray a lack of professionalism and commitment to stand behind your product/service.

3) Buying followers and likes

OK, I get it you want more followers.  This actually used to be a lot more common two or so years ago, however, I still see this happening with some smaller companies that I meet with, they have 1000s of followers on Facebook and/or Twitter, and my first reaction is, WOW, that's great!  Then I'll ask questions such as: How are your sales from these channels? How much is your website traffic increasing monthly? What is your ROI?  Once I get the answer, which is most common, none or very little.  My next step is to analyze the social media channels and see how engaged their followers are; are there a lot of likes and shares, comments, etc.  Typically the answer is no.  If you have a few thousand followers and you're posting content regularly, you should, by default have some interactions happening.  That is if your followers are a part of your target demographic and actually invested in your message: your brand and your product/service.  If they are not, then those thousands of followers mind as well be one.  That said, not all is lost as the reality is, if you have that many followers it is that much easier to find and engage, new, real, potential customers and attract them to your social media pages organically.

So there you have it, the 3 most common digital marketing mistakes I have come across over the last few years.  The best advice I can give is to pay attention to what you are posting, what you're followers are saying, and where your content is being distributed.

As always, I'd love to hear your comments on this topic, so please leave comments if you desire.

PS - If you are in need of any Business and Marketing consultation for your small to mid-sized business/start-up feel free to shoot me an email at: modernbizstrategy@gmail.com.

Cheers,

ModernManTellsAll

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