Shatter the myth that entrepreneurship is a solo activity

A myth is defined as a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation. I like the reference to entrepreneurs being heroes! But even at the movies, heroes at their penultimate hour of need get a helping hand from those around them.

The word Entrepreneur comes from the French ‘prendre’ or to undertake. Often time this undertaking is bigger than the entrepreneur themselves.  The entrepreneur is the visionary, the driving force behind the business idea but not always the one to bridge every gap or close every deal. An entrepreneur is great at sharing that vision and if true to the undertaking at hand will very quickly realise that he alone cannot accomplish it by himself.

This is where many entrepreneurs are today and in reality even if you’re a one man band your activities are never solo because of things like:

1. Mastermind groups – Essential when you just need to be able to bounce off other business people to whom you have an affinity with or common goal

2. Breakfast meetings – These popular business referral meetings help the entrepreneur to leverage the others in the group to sell and promote their wares to their colleague’s respective networks

3. Partnerships – The “business marriage”! Some work and some don’t, but if you consider the likes of Google, YouTube, Facebook, Innocent (Smoothies), LastFM and the list goes on; all of these companies started off having really strong partnerships in place from the outset.  Business can also have partnerships. Today more than ever do you have companies collectively pitching to win bigger contracts and consolidating their services to tailor solutions to their prospects.

4. Joint Ventures – Not ready for long term commitment? Well there are many joint venture partnerships or JV’s which are geared more towards short term projects where at least two businesses or entrepreneurs pull together.

5. Online Networks – Many entrepreneurs just can’t get the face time needed to build those necessary relationships so they do it online instead! Networks like LinkedIn and Facebook allow you to grow your network and therefore your net worth at your convenience, in your own time. On the train or plane or number 18 bus you can meet other business people to form friendships, partnerships, ideas, ask and answer questions. It is arguably the most valuable resource business people and entrepreneurs have ever had; the instant access to millions of others just likes them

6. The Board – At some point its worth sticking to what you’re good at and not being a jack of all trades (you know the rest) Surrounding yourself with people who are better than you at certain things was the formula Sir Richard Branson used and I’d say worked quite well. Allowing others to take the reins for key areas of your business is the only way to grow.

All of the above and more is the daily bread of entrepreneurs across the world and shatters the myth that it is a solo activity. Ask any entrepreneur you know which one of the above they rely on the most J

Happy GEW 2010!

Contradict the myth that entrepreneurs are born not made

Growing up I remember thinking that people who got dressed in business suits and carried briefcases where the ones fortunate enough to have become entrepreneurs and “got out of the rat race”…

Compare that to today where the term entrepreneur isused quite loosely… I’m forced to ask the question : what’s changed since then?  How come there seems to be so many more entrepreneurs around now than there was then?

What’s changed in our society to mean that the image associated with entrepreneurs makes so many people clambering to get on the new entrepreneur ship, sailing off into the sunset toward financial bliss?

I believe that the timing of Napolean Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich, which was published in 1937, during the Great Depression was essentially written to tap into the mindsets of people who have become financially successful by going it alone was crucial to its success.  By giving laws to success it’s become a “must read” for any budding entrepreneur, and over 70 years later still remains the top of the best-seller list.  Which in itself proves that many more people today are clambering to find out what it is that makes a successful entrepreneu

r, and dare I suggest that they are also trying to confirm or perhaps find out in the first instance if they too have what it takes.

Whether or not the book answers that question for its readers, I’m not sure – but what I do know is that traditionally well-dressed business men seen going to work was called just that back in the day : Business Men.  The popularity of the term entrepreneur is seemingly fairly new.  Coming from the mindset that entrepreneurs where ones that were born to it and would inherit on the work that their fathers or grandfathers had built up, I grew up thinking that those were the more fortunate ones and wishing that I could have been born into a family where my future was mapped out for me like the “fortunate few”… Needless to say this has since changed to understand an entrepreneur (according to Wikipedia) to be a person who has possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea and assumes accountability for the inherent risks and outcome of that venture… it should and now does encompass anybody with a fresh new idea or business venture and is literally taking the brunt of the responsibility onto their own shoulders.

A more generally held theory is that entrepreneurs emerge from the population on demand, from the combination of opportunities and people well-positioned to take advantage of them.  Hence the timing of Hill’s book becoming such an instant success and maintaining its standing over 70 years later.  Necessity may not be THE mother of invention – but she puts fire in the bellies of those with an entrepreneurial mindset.  We’ve been through many recessions and the prospect of simply jumping out of a window to relieve yourself from financial strain has become the cowards way out….  Today you grab the bull by the horns, take a look at your resources closet : make a list of the 20 of the things you love doing and pool 2/3 of those together and start walking on the road to becoming an entrepreneur.

Today we’ve many fantastic examples of people who’ve done just that quite successfully – from Richard Branson, to Shaa Wusmund and Tim Campbell – who all saw a need and created answers to that need, thereby birthing in themselves examples that the rest of us now learn from.  But I’ve found that there’re also many would-be entrepreneurs who are still holding down their 9-5s and generating an income outside hours purely born out of necessity in this time of general economic uncertainty.

So this could then mean if you’re somebody with a fresh idea that approaches an old business problem with fresh eyes , or somebody trying to market a new invention that you’ve managed to prototype from your garage….  You could even be one of the younger entrepreneurs who seem to be more fearless emerging these days – on the eve of Global Entreprenuer Week UK which runs from 15-21 November 2010, realise that if entrepreneurialism is a skill like any other and can be taught and not made.  The amount of flare you manage to do it with is where you put your stamp on it – so simply learn the rules and do it your way – it’s one of the few places you’ll be allowed to do just that.  In so doing you’ll manage to lead and inspire others around you to do the same.

What PR Companies NEED to know about Social Media

From a client point of view, going out looking for a social media company to propel their campaign into the status-sphere isn’t easy. Who do they turn to? Is it their web guy? The online marketing company they normally used, their PR company or the teenager at home who’s always on Facebook?

The answer requires us to take a step back. Social media isn’t owned by anyone. Traditionally there has been strategy pigeon holing. For example, we’ve had online marketers take ownership of the search engines and PR companies and press releases. When in practice search engines and press releases are used by both parties albeit in differing amounts.  This type of categorisation has kind of worked thus far and it seems as though we’re naturally trying to do the same thing with social media (marketing). The obvious problem here is that social media is nothing like search, email or other forms of direct marketing, so it would follow that the same method of ownership would require a fresh perspective.

However, another issue is online marketing or online PR isn’t governed or properly defined by any relevant ‘body’. And as usual, phrases are coined, popular terms stick and a list of abbreviations and initialisms proliferate our industry. But as these quickly become concrete, are we simply confusing ourselves and our audience when looking for help?

According to dictionary.com PR is the practice of creating, promoting, or maintaining goodwill and a favourable image among the public…

Let’s look at this definition a little closer and see how social media can fit in.

1. Goodwill:
   1. Creating it… Having a considered presence across the social networks (we’ll assume for this article that means Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and MySpace – all where applicable)

E.g. DJ David Morales not only exists across the obvious networks but those specific to him and his audience in this case iLike, SoundCloud and MixCloud

1. Promoting it…Adding value is the best way to put this into a business context. Be it a charity event, CSR activity, sponsorship or giving more to your customers than they expect. Using the social networks is undeniably the most effective way to not only seed but viralise that value

E.g. Dell’s primary presence on Twitter is Twitter.com/DellOutlet where they promote discounts, offers and coupons to their 1.5M followers

1. Maintaining it…The sociable bit! Listen and respond. Always remember these are supposed to be somewhat social places, even LinkedIn isn’t treated like a stuffy board room or company environment. One of the biggest mistakes made by most engaging in this regard is neglecting the need for continuous dialogue with said audience.

E.g. A discussion posted in the TED group on LinkedIn produced 1,155 comments.

Nb. The important factor to consider here is that it’s not just the volume of comments a discussion might have but the connections you can make because of it.

1. Favourable image:
   1. Creating it…Branding is important and carrying that branding across to your social properties is part of the overall picture your audience will be looking at. Granted, some networks don’t allow much branding, so that then becomes your brand values and how these conversations are handled.

E.g. Tongue cleaning company OraBrush do a great job of this on YouTube

1. Promoting it…Tools like HootSuite and PingFM to name just two allow you to easily promote new ideas, products, offers, events etc without having to trawl through each account and update manually. Taking advantage of the flexibility of Facebook Pages for example means you can be a lot more creative than before.

E.g. Alicia Keys ensures that her fans can listen to her music from her Facebook Fan page

1. Maintaining it…These social networks change their look, layout and rules all the time, so keep up so that your image doesn’t look dated. But image means more than what they see on the page, and your image can be carried to the peers of your audience on a word. This can only be maintained by considering a more personable approach to the conversations with your audience. This can oftentimes be bolstered by honesty and authenticity.

E.g. Virgin Unite use a wall like setup for their website incorporating the popular Like button

What Recruitment Companies NEED to know about Social Media

Better known as Social Resourcing, social media’s effect on the recruitment industry has been incredible.

LinkedIn being the most obvious with over 80 Million professionals growing by 3 million each month, this provides a buoyant environment for people looking for and advertising jobs. Even though Linkedin wasn’t originally setup with recruitment in mind, you can see from its ‘What is LinkedIn’ page that career is a key part of the value proposition

Doing things offline – building relationships, speaking to candidates and employers, finding the right fit and following a process are all still very much a necessity. However the essential difference using online and now social tools is leverage. Much of the heavy lifting which would have been done with phone calls, newspaper adverts and direct mail can now be replaced by much lower cost mediums like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

With the ability to track your social activities using simple tools like Google Analytics it means that recruiters can now get far more granular statistics on what worked and why. Split testing things like landing pages, marketing messages, job headlines etc are essential in lowering the overall cost to acquire a successful candidate.

This year Jobvite published their industry barometer on how 600 employers are using social networks to recruit.

• 46% of respondents plan to spend more on social recruiting in 2010 than 2009
• 36% will spend less on job boards
• 38% will spend less on third party recruiters and search firms
• 92% of those hiring in 2010 currently use or plan to recruit via social networks
• Of this group, 86% use LinkedIn, 60% use Facebook and 50% use Twitter for recruiting
• For candidate quality, respondents rated social networks significantly higher than job boards who landed in last place, just above search engine optimization

Very recently a Facebook job search app called Branch Out gets $6M in funding.

With the ability to pull in all your information from LinkedIn it makes the process quick and easy. If this application does well, perhaps Facebook might develop something more around this space. So recruiters will certainly need to put more focus on Facebook for recruiting in the following months.

Along with apps like Branch Out there will be a continuing drive towards the niche. Another example is tweetajob.com

Getting involved in targeted recruitment networks away from the big social platforms will increasing become more and more important.

Recruit Socially helps Recruiters & Employers find Job Seekers FREE! View Resumes & CV’s from Skilled Professionals and Graduates worldwide

NGA.NET’s User Community was established for their customer-base of HR professionals, who are committed to sharing knowledge & experiences with other NGA.NET HR software users.

What (Us) Technology Companies NEED to know about Social Media

Let’s face it, on the whole, us techie entrepreneurs (yes I was born a techie…forced to become a marketer!) haven’t been the best at taking this social media bull by the horns and making a huge splash.

Has this come from the fact that traditionally we just built things and other people (sales guys) sold it? Perhaps… But if you’re a smaller outfit and can’t afford the big retainers or salaries of a biz dev guy then what? Are we stuck in geek mode unable to properly communicate features and benefits to our audience? Or has social media come to the rescue?

Let’s look in more detail at what you can do right now to get more social success!

What’s in a name?

I’ve worked with quite a few tech start-ups on this problem of almost dumbing down what their technology or software does in order to present it to their b2c audience.  So without focussing on the companies who I think have done a poor job of naming their companies let’s have a look at a example of  who has done a good job and why.

There’s a saying, if you can’t beat them join them.  Geek Squad are an IT support company based in the UK and inside The Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy shops. They have taken the once historically negative term “geek” and made it cool. Making it clear exactly what they are from a consumer point of view which is the important thing.

Now the funny thing is, once the target embraces the slur normally associated with them it tends to become cool. For example Flowtown recently produced an info graphic showing the evolution of geeks from the 50’s until today.

Now in regards to social media it’s often about kudos, cool factor and likeability (is that a real word?). So when your audience is scanning through their invites to groups, invitiations and page suggestions on Facebook who do you think will get more clicks…Geek Squad or ABC IT Support Ltd?

Are your customers are stupid?

No they’re not even though we sometimes think they are by not being able to understand the complexities of HTML 5 or who Linux is. When it comes to your software or service all they care about is what’s in it for them. So make it painfully clear.

A good example is Evernote.com

Three simple steps represented in both words and pictures gets the message across with a clear call to action (in this case download now) and that’s it! Make it more complicated that at your own peril!

And yes your thingy does way more than a few things but for the most part really successful tech ideas have concentrated being good at one thing first then expanding their offering.

Now think about your communications across social media. Most of them are hooks which lead your audience to landing pages, promotional websites, offers etc. But guess what; unless those hooks are clear, concise and fit in 140 characters then you’re going to be in trouble. Thus the need for dumbing down.

The FREE Trial

Yes I know you probably already offer one so what’s the big deal? The FREE trial has become the norm for software and technology companies selling their wares online. However there is a massive assumption made here by most companies.

Firstly that people will like your software during the trial and therefore make a purchase.  Think about using ways to extend the users trial period by asking them to refer your product to their social networks. Or give them discounts and credits for friends who sign up. This way it gives people more time to play around with your software and ‘get to know it better’.

Secondly, that the downloadee (which is definitely not a word J) will use the product within that time period.  How many times have you downloaded something and just not had the time to use it. Then you go back to and the trial has expired! So annoying L. Why not consider automatically following that person on Twitter just before the trial ends with a default reminder or request for feedback. How about instead of the trial lasting ‘days’ make it ‘usage’. So 30 uses instead of 30 days, then offer them an extra 10 days if they allow the software to post usage to their Facebook wall every 5 uses or something.

Xobni does something quite clever but enabling social networks within their Outlook plug in.

Letting people have access to their contacts social properties

Building in viral mechanism into the software so people can very easily share the love

What is Evolution Marketing?

The only constant is change, continuing change, inevitable change that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be – Isaac Asimov

Once an idea has become too popular it loses its effectiveness. Essentially it has reached a point of saturation and therefore its usefulness should be revisited. The concept of Evolution Marketing addresses this problem by constantly staying ahead of the curve. But what does this mean in real terms and how can you apply it to your business?

Let’s have a look at what’s happened before to see if we can determine a trend.

Marketing: The Website

Sounds simple right but this was the first marketing tool used by organisations. Interestingly enough the first web page looked something like this:

In 1990 Tim Berners-Lee (a British engineer and computer scientist and MIT professor credited with inventing the World Wide Web) started the project, a website was quite simply a bunch of links to document the project of the WorldWideWeb (W3) being a wide-area hypermedia information retrieval initiative aiming to give universal access to a large universe of documents.

20 Years later even though today’s websites look different they still perform essentially the same function. That was to enable people to have access to a large number of (pages) documents by way of hyper-links.

Commercially, this meant the same thing as having a shiny full page in the Yellow Pages. People used it to get information, so you just had to be there.

Marketing: The Banner Ad! (L)

When HotWired decided to make money from their website in 1994, they set in motion events that would come back to haunt us all: The creation of banner ads.

AT&T was the first to dish over some money to HotWired to display the beast they created, a 468 x 60 banner that came to life on October 25 1994.

The First Banner Ad

Still used to this day we’ve developed a love/hate relationship with the banner advert which would pop up when you least expected it. But in terms of branding and awareness it still forms part of a valuable overall marketing strategy.

Marketing: The Directory

Yahoo! Ruled the roost on this one, becoming the must go to destination for anything web. This came at a time where we were trying to simply do what we did offline (using directories) and replicating it online. Seemed like a fair assumption at the time…oh how little we knew!

Marketing: The Search Engine

The first – Archie!

The first few hundred web sites began in 1993 and most of them were at colleges, but long before most of them existed came Archie. The first search engine created was Archie, created in 1990 by Alan Emtage, a student at McGill University in Montreal. The original intent of the name was “archives,” but it was shortened to Archie.

Archie helped solve this data scatter problem by combining a script-based data gatherer with a regular expression matcher for retrieving file names matching a user query. Essentially Archie became a database of web filenames which it would match with the users’ queries.

The best – Google! (nuff said)

Marketing: Email

Ray Tomlinson is credited by some as having sent the first email, initiating the use of the “@” sign to separate the names of the user and the user’s machine in 1971, when he sent a message from one Digital Equipment Corporation DEC-10 computer to another DEC-10. The two machines were placed next to each other. The ARPANET significantly increased the popularity of email, and it became the killer app of the ARPANET.

Email marketing is now the staple communications diet of both marketers and consumers alike. It’s probably the thing we best translated from the real world into the electronic one. Today however email as a marketing tool has been eroded by the evil dr. spam who finds new ways to stop our hero from being used effectively.

Marketing: Social Media

The first – SixDegrees.com, 1997

It was founded by Andrew Weinreich, a well known entrepreneur & internet executive. The concept of an online social network which made the process of “meeting people you don’t know through the people you do know” more effective.  At its peak, the site had 3,500,000 users and 100 employees

The best (arguably) – Facebook.com

A simple proposition which has taken the world by storm, no lengthy explanation is needed here, I’m sure you have a profile!

So back to the point, what have we learned?

Let’s recap

Websites >> Banners Ads >> Directories >> Search Engines >> Email >> Social Media

The obvious trend here is that everything has become more personal especially if you tag onto the end of social media – mobile (which deserves its own article, to come…)

Finally the last bastions of personal space are the ever popular location based services. Described as being those online, mobile applications that can inform your network where you are by simply ‘checking in’ to that location. This could be a pub, coffee shop, retail outlet, club, gym etc. The business owner or proprietor can equally create incentives to encourage those consumers to ‘check in’ to their establishments more frequently. This can be through offers, vouchers, discounts, specials etc.

There are a number of services available right now worth looking at:

Foursquare

Google Latitude

Gowalla
Rummble
Loopt
Whrrl
Brightkite
Burbn
CauseWorld
Plancast
MyTown
Foodspotting
Fire Eagle

No matter how far we go technologically or how clever the strategies become it is all to one end; better understanding of what human beings want and how we interact. Albeit to create better marketing campaigns of course J and sell us better widgets.

So what’s coming next?

Here are a few ideas…

1. Mobile marketing direct to your handset. Where advertising and branding become useful content
2. Discounts and couponing based on your location. So you might sit down in your local coffee shop and receive a time based offer
3. Search will become far more intelligent, actually understanding the meaning or intent behind our search terms based on an aggregation of our behaviour online
4. Voice enabled tweeting and updating. Advances in speech recognition software will make it easier for us to share what we’re doing without even having to pick up our mobile phone or login into our networks…we will always be ‘on’
5. Mobiles will spit out 3D holograms lettings us watch a movie trailer ‘out’ of our phones without the use of silly glasses

There are tonnes more predictions but as we fall forward and grow more quickly than ever before the next 24 months will be ones to watch. And if you’re still not sure, then watch this space and we’ll keep you in the loop!

Human beings have a need to be wanted, desired, liked, loved, appreciated, understood and more than ever – connected. ‘Location, location, location’ – the mantra normally associated with property and real estate is now finding its way into our social networking existence.

‘Location based services’ are described as being those online, mobile applications that can inform your network where you are by simply ‘checking in’ to that location. This could be a pub, coffee shop, retail outlet, club, gym etc. The business owner or proprietor can equally create incentives to encourage those consumers to ‘check in’ to their establishments more frequently. This can be through offers, vouchers, discounts, specials etc.

Business Application

The most popular application of choice today is called Foursquare. A game which allows you to share your location, unlock badges and if you frequent a certain location the most for 2 months you’re given the title of “Mayor”. Currently with over 1M users and an offer from Yahoo! of $100M they’re gaining traction at lightning speed. Much quicker than Twitter did…

Now why would you want to become the Mayor I hear you cry?

This is why…

OR

Mayors of Starbucks Now Get Discounts Nationwide with Foursquare

Now this certainly doesn’t apply to all business models but for those with ‘customers’ as opposed to ‘clients’ partaking in this ‘game’ might well be something of interest.

The value proposition presented by location based social networks is underscored by the fact that a lot of people update their Facebook or Twitter statuses with where they are what they’re doing there. However, apart from a glorified FYI there’s no value offered to the users of Twitter or Facebook by you doing this.

Socially

On a purely social note, sharing your location opens up your network based on people who share similar interests to you.

PR?

MTV and VH1 have done a celebrity deal with Foursquare. Says Mashable: “On Foursquare, this makes a lot of sense – a celebrity checking in to Starbucks could cause a mob scene, but check-ins at a more controlled environment like an official appearance could help ensure a packed house. In addition to Pauly D, celebs from MTV/VH1 shows including The Hills, The City and The TO Show will be utilizing Foursquare in various ways.”

Services

There are a number of services available right now worth looking at:

Google Latitude
Foursquare
Gowalla
Rummble
Loopt
Whrrl
Brightkite
Burbn
CauseWorld
Plancast
MyTown
Foodspotting
Fire Eagle

Conclusion

Is this one of those ‘Twitter’ things that you just can’t see value in that ends up being the ‘next big thing’ – YES.
Will people refuse to use it because it’s not ‘business’ like enough and allow the more forward thinking companies globally to make a killing from these technologies? – YES

18 months ago people argued vehemently if social media marketing could produce a return and some missed the boat or are playing catch up (and not catching up). Today it’s not whether it works, the question is how can it work for me or you.

So where you @? The past, present or the tech driven future.

Julian Hall delivers a workshop to a delegation of Dominicans on the importance of innovation and entrepreneurism highlighting the framework for good ideas and sustainable enterprise and how to effectively leverage technology in business.

Hosted by the Caribbean Telecommunications Union the workshop was delivered over Skype and was a follow-up to the roadshow in St Maarten also facilitated by Julian Hall and Mark Lewis of Bravig.com.

STEPHAN EYESON, CEO of GetProBasketball.com teams up with Pure Online Genius to roll out a complete marketing strategy to help slam dunk his community based website.

Get Pro is as a new online service, which connects basketball players, coaches, scouts and agents in an easier, quicker and more effective way. They allow players at all levels of basketball to get advertised through GetPro from high school, college, university and professional teams. They cater to all levels of basketball from across the world. They believe in getting you  the best options possible to succeed in your basketball journey and believe that GetPro is the new platform to do so.  They are a one stop shop for coaches to get players and offer a full package for players to be seen wherever they want to.

Pure Online Genius spent some time working with RasDemolition Man.

POG helped to update his presence on FB, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube – for more information on RasDemolition Man – tour dates, tracks – go to http://www.myspace.com/rasdemolitionman