Category: New Business Development

On each of my other blogs,
I get at least a request a day from sites
asking for reciprocal links
or mentions
or offering me “free” posts.

I prefer not to link to strangers.
I prefer not to post guest pieces from strangers.

So what do I do?
I ask if they’re interested in completing
a short interview (3-5 questions)
via email.
I then post their answers,
linking back to them,
using them as “experts”
(everyone is an expert in something).

But wait, isn’t this a lot of work?
It would be if everyone said yes.
Fortunately for me,
only about 24% say “yes, send me the questions.”
And then 46% of those don’t bother answering them.

Stephen King’s goal is
to create passion for the product
(in this case, the stories). 

Recently,
he compared his stories to heavy metal music. 

Metal music’s message is…
“I’m going to clear out your head.”
“Don’t you be talking about sh** when I’m playing.”

His writing… “I want you to burn dinner.”  

Are users so passionate about your product
that they burn dinner?

Guy Kawasaki did a 360 on his Truemors launch,
including the total price tag ($12,107.09).  

What really interested me was the comments. 

Most were unsupportive/borderline hostile. 
He spent too much money,
they didn’t like the product
(even though they were not the target audience),
it could have been launched faster,
the success is unsustainable.   

Now crank up the hostility
due to you not having Kawasaki’s history of success
and you get a pretty good idea
of what the reaction to your own ideas will be.

I’ve launched product successes,
I’ve launched product failures,
the negativity around each pre-launch
has been the same.

When asked how he decides
on the song list for a concert tour,
country singer Keith Urban  
states that he doesn’t. 

He doesn’t have one song list. 

Why? 
Because by offering different songs
in each show,
he encourages his crazy monkeys
(the name for his die hard fans)
to go to more than one. 

Multiple purchases by the same customer.

I read blogs in English. 
I write blogs in English. 
Sometimes I forget that
there are entire segments
of the blogosphere
available in different languages. 

Bigger segments than the one I play in. 
English is not the number one blogging language. 
Japanese is, at 37% of the blogosphere,
English is second at 33%. 

Know another language? 
Consider blogging in it.

The bans against trans fat
has the food industry worried. 
So worried that they’ve been
working overtime
trying to find solutions. 

The ingredient
CoaVel is being heralded by baking experts
as the solution to completely eliminating trans fat
from commercially sold baked goods.

Was this solution a breeze to find? 

Nope. 
Along the way, researchers dealt with exploding muffins
and hockey puck cookies. 
It took trial and error
to find this now deemed “easy” solution.

Jeff Cornwall reminds would-be entrepreneurs
to ask themselves
3 key questions
before pulling the trigger on a business. 

Is there a market? 
Is there a margin? 
Is this for me? 

One test of the third question
is whether or not you can walk away
from the idea with no regrets. 
If you can while you’re in the rosy pre-launch stage
then you will likely bail
when the going gets tough…
and it WILL get tough.

It doesn’t often rain in Marrakech
during the month of May.
One of the locals said he couldn’t remember
it raining in May the past 12 years.

It rained this year.

Almost everyone at the breakfast table
was unhappy about this.

Almost everyone.

One smartly dressed businessman
bounced into the room,
exclaiming how wonderful the rain was.

And it was…for him.

The man was a roof installation salesman.
When better to sell roofs
than when it was raining?

Someone profits from every situation.

Marian Salzman points out three major trends,
the growth of brand sluts,
making complex things simple,
and increased isolation
as the average person grows wealthier.* 

The third trend I find most interesting. 
Salzman points out that as people have more,
they become more paranoid
about keeping what they have. 
This drives them to withdraw from others,
seeing them as possible threats. 

What does this mean? 

More gated communities. 
More tables for two. 
Less church attendees. 

* May 2007 issue of easyJet Inflight 

Country star Alan Jackson
had to deal with resistance
when he launched his now loved
but then controversial song
“I’ll Go On Loving You”.

He said “I knew the fans would like it
but didn’t know if we could get it
through all the red tape at the radio
to get it to the fans.” 

Every industry has gatekeepers.
These gatekeepers have to be sold on new ideas
before the innovations even have a shot
at being sold to the target market.