Category: New Business Development

I wanted to add business quotations
to a couple of my sites.
I am constantly collecting quotations and
thought others would enjoy them also.

I had a choice when setting up.
I could incorporate the quotations
into my established sites or
I could build a new site and link to it
(via the handy dandy widget on the sidebar).

One lesson I had drummed into me
during my time at
a certain beverage company
(number 4 on the
Brandz Top 100 Most Powerful brands listing)
was when in doubt,
separate.

Why?
Because now I’m building
two brands instead of one.

When you develop a product,
think
“can this be run independently?”
and
“how can this be designed in?”

A “cheat” to ramping up sales quickly
is to associate your new brand
with an established one.
This is to be done cautiously
as the two brands will be perceived initially
as being similar.
The good AND the bad of the established brand
will transfer onto the new one.

Before pitching my novel to publishers,
I made a conscious decision
to link my author brand
with the romance genre.
I weighed the pro’s
(huge established audience)
against the con’s
(no respect from the literary community),
before finally deciding that
it was the right thing for my novels.

There is risk with this strategy.
Anything damaging the romance brand
will now damage my author brand.

Think before you link.

There is a great article in
The Wall Street Journal
about aging friendly products.

Inventors are targeting
the three major senior concerns;
decreased motor skills,
impaired vision, and
forgetfulness.

Some of the highlights include
touch controlled faucets,
flexible font sizes on electronics, and
stoves that sound an alarm when pots boil over.

The big win is that these innovations,
while designed for an older consumer,
appeal to all ages.

How can you make your products more senior friendly?

Coca-Cola is a global company.
It prefers that product offerings
from country to country
are the same.
Prefers,
due to system efficiencies,
but doesn’t insist upon it.

For example:
Despite being popular in the U.S.,
there is no Cherry Coke in Canada.
It has been introduced a few times
and failed each time.
There is no local demand for that product.

There IS, however,
a demand for more Five Alive flavors
at a higher juice content
so Coca-Cola changes the base product to supply it.
That local success is then tested
in other countries.

Coca-Cola thinks globally
but
acts locally.

Can your company take global successes
and tweak them for the local market?

I asked a young entrepreneur
if he trusted his new mentor.
His reply?
“What does it matter?
I have a non-disclosure agreement.”

Here’s the nasty little secret about
non-disclosure agreements
(or any other legal document)…
they’re only worth the resources
you have to enforce them.

You have no money?
Then non-disclosure agreements
aren’t going to help you much
(unless you can convince your lawyer
to take her fees out of the settlement).

Yes, get them signed but
know that the only thing backing them up
is the character of the person signing.

I recently watched
a spider take down a ladybug
four times his size.

A combination of factors
helped him with this seemingly impossible task.
The web was well woven and in the right spot.
The ladybug was old and weak.
When the ladybug got entangled,
the spider worked furiously for two days to secure it.
But once that was accomplished,
the spider ate well.

Sounds like your average entrepreneur’s story.
Preparation, luck, and a lot of hard work
leading to success.

Harvard Professor Stephen M. Kosslyn
in February’s PM Network
reminds readers that
“Our brains are drawn automatically to differences.
So, if a graphic or color is brighter, bigger or darker,
that’s what people are going to look at.”

I’ve noticed recently
a marked increase 
in bright yellow sport cars
instead of the usual silver or red.

Why?

If you look at the most popular car colors,
red is now in the top 5
(white is number one at 19% of all cars).
Red is no longer different.
It no longer draws the eye.

Either sports car owners are buying more yellow cars
to stand out and be noticed
Or
the same number of red sports cars are being sold
but with the color being so common,
I no longer notice them.

Entrepreneurs are moderate optimists.
Optimism is essential for taking the calculated risks
all business founders need to take.

So how to nurture this optimism
while the media is all gloom and doom?

Easy answer.
Turn the tv off and
focus on the business.

Don’t worry about being uninformed.
You will still hear the bad news.
You simply won’t hear it constantly.

Protect your optimism.
It is essential to your success.

I hear it from wanna-be entrepreneurs
all the time.
If only they had a million dollars,
they could get their idea off the crowd.

The thing is…
there are plenty of ideas
that don’t need a million dollars in capital
to launch.

As Geek Squad’s founder Robert Stephens says
“Innovation is about trying lots of things.
Rather than spending $100,000 on one idea,
we could put $1,000 toward 100 ideas …
Many billion-dollar businesses don’t start out
as a billion-dollar idea,
they start out as a $500 idea.”

Get started with that $500 idea.

Spring is traditionally the launch
of the home renovation season.
Wondering if the possible recession
is going to put a damper on this year’s spending,
I asked a buddy of mine in the business.

His marketing angle?
It is all about paint.
He’s calling paint the lipstick of the reno business,
low cost yet impactful,
an affordable luxury.

Are you offering an affordable luxury
in your product line?