How to use Steampunk in Your Startup

I've posted about steampunk before, that wonderful Victorian World Re-envisioned sub-culture that has slowly pervaded mainstream society. It's worth noting for any marketer in any startup. I just wanted to clarify things a bit after my first post on the subject. 

I'm not suggesting any new venture replace their lithium batteries with steam-powered engines. Nor should they add levers to their smart phones - although that would be kinda cool. What I am suggesting is that you take notice of trends that guide buyer decisions. Sherlock, both modern Cumberbatch and Victorian clothed Downey, Jr. versions, speak to an interest in all things steampunkish. Then there's "The Knick" with Clive Owen and many more. The general public gets an warm fuzzy when it's wrapped in tweed or silk. So maybe your product design or at least its marketing should consider some form of trend conformity. 

Here's where some clarification is needed. Steampunk speaks to an audience that is enthralled with details, richness, depth, men and women who want to see the opposite sex take a little more time and some more flair in dressing.  I love my iphone, but part of that love is the ability to add old world warmth with steampunkish designed wallpaper. Likewise, I don't wear a bolo hat, but a vest with my suit was an up-sell I couldn't pass up. And the watch pocket in the vest inspired my wife to buy me a pocket watch, which I freakin love! 

In marketing material, be aware of the deeper trend. Don't dress actors in Victorian period clothing,  but do add the same richness and detail you might find in a Victorian photo. Add some updated steampunkish items as well. Think Willem Defoe and Gary Oldman in recent Prada adds.  

There may be nothing Victorian at all in your product or marketing. When taking advantage of the steampunk trend, see it for what it is, a desire to enrich, embellish, and return to a more elegant sense of style and design. To re-envision the modern world with old world charms of politeness and flair, creating a better world that draws on the best of today and the past is steampunk. Capture that emotion in anyway possible. Just don't be bland and unimaginative. That is how steampunk can contribute to your marketing efforts.

Looking for some photo samples to add. Hit me!

Startups Need Strategy, Not Cash!

THE SITUATION

Client approaches business strategist, me, to raise funds for them. They assume they have the real deal and only need to have it put into a pretty document to get that funding. And that funding includes a full year’s salary, a well outfitted class A fully staffed office space. And they want all of this funded before a single dime is raised by the new venture.

THE REALITY

I don’t do that and no one will invest that plan. My job is to analyze and align the entire business. This includes aligning the founders’ skill sets with market realities, seeking collaborators, bootstrapping when possible and getting to market long before raising that first dime to prove the concept for the guys who will invest a dime, lots of dimes.

If properly aligned, most founders are amazed at how little cash they actually need to get started. My current new venture has trimmed its start up cost from $175K to $3,000 by awarding options, taking equity partners and using collaborators that are helping the product get to market quicker and smarter than ever dreamed. The product focus has changed dramatically along the way, the value has increased exponentially, and collaborators have starting coming to the business.

Another client, one I’ll never hear from again, I hope, asked me to help him raise $435K for a holistic all-natural-healing type new venture.

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Don’t get me wrong. There’s a ton of money to be made in the hippy market. But this founder wanted me to raise funds for a company car, a fully equipped office with all new equipment and furniture, salaries for himself ($75K), two part-time hippies, marketing funds for TV advertising, and a well-known hippy healer working 1-2 days a week for $50K. All this without reliable revenue projections! He couldn’t even define his unique selling point.

I suggested he not hire anyone. Simply collaborate with that well-known professional healer, do his own part-time work, get class B or C office space on a short-term lease filled with used furniture, get a multifunction printer for $150, share marketing costs with the well-known guy, use temps when needed, and take the damned bus. I figure he could fund the whole operation with a credit card or maybe a weekend tag-sale. And I offered to help with all of this, but only if he could define the unique value if his service.

I haven’t heard back from him.

Another business and soon to be feature article here, asked for help developing a hub for entrepreneurs in the Hartford, CT area. The site would do everything from collecting details about entrepreneurs, service providers and investors along with validation for each, social components that were really unique, and it already had generated a great deal of interest from local heavy-weights through sheer founder determination and about 1,000 miles of month in sweat equity. His total start up cost was next to nothing. I volunteered to help at no charge because it would provide an avenue for finding new clients and because I liked the entrepreneurial skills the founder demonstrated. Talk about a collaboration!

Anyway, if you want to create something wonderful, something worthwhile, and you're willing to do whatever it takes to get there, even take the city bus for a few months - God forbid, call me to help. If you want quick cash for a company car, still call me. I want to give you a competitor’s number.

Startup Marketing and Video Campaigns

As a business strategist, I analyze the competitive landscape against the core competencies of my clients and develop business strategies based on this. This includes business model (how you do business), target markets (who you sell to), pricing and channel development (how the product moves from design through manufacture and into the customer's hands). One very critical and obvious channel is marketing to the customer.

Once you understand exactly who the customer is, age, sex, ethnicity location etc.. and I can help here, determining how to get to that customer is both art and science. Radio, television, print and web-based social campaigns are all still viable options, depending on the product.

Video is an option that should not be overlooked in nearly any market. Online video in particular is exploding. Unfortunately, and way too often, a client will be driven to pay for the prettiest video, the funniest video or one that hits a personal client emotion. Imagine a funny or sexy cancer-treatment advertisement. Some things should be serious.

All marketing campaigns should be targeted and aligned with the marketing goals of the organization, be it for profit or not. George Constance Business Strategy Consulting works with a number of partners to develop every aspect of a business venture. Through careful analysis and alignment, we reduce wasted cost and effort. And because we work with several partners, each with specific skills, we can develop your business timely and cost effectively. Something every startup needs.

 If you're considering a marketing campaign, contact us to meet our marketing partners, videographers and web designers.

The Multimedia:

From our preferred marketing partner, Silent Partner Marketing. Contact us for an introduction.

Paying for Convenience

Keurig has a neat little product that raises the price of a cup and is bad for the environment with its little extra plastic cup step, not to mention the entire new industry to make, distribute and hopefully recycle the little buggers. Of course I'm talking about those little K-cup devises that produce a single cup of coffee or tea or whatever they pack into those suckers. They're selling like hell and Coca-Cola has taken a 10% stake in the company. So why is this eco-unfriendly high priced product selling? 'Cause it's so damned easy to just plug in, press play, and walk away with a cup and no pot to clean. Is it that much easier to do than the usual method? Apparently, they're a hot item that's getting hotter than their product every day. Lesson here, for pricing strategy folks, convenience trumps price when it's dished out in small increments. In the first world, anyway, even doubling the price of something that's considered an affordable luxury is not out of the question. Oh, and the Keurig pot, the rice to play, is pretty pricey too. Think I'm gonna follow around some really sedentary folks to see what they do and need/want. Shouldn't be hard - they're sedentary - right?

Small Business Gets Black Eye from Obamacare

Greta Forbes article on the unexpected negative impact of Obamacare on small business that needs to be addressed asap. Click through here to read full article of Forbes.

Baby, This Ain't Workin!

In business, friendships, political affiliations, and even marriages, sometimes walking away is the best thing for everyone involved. But so often we wait way too long before making that difficult decision. And we’re all guilty of it. Lord knows I am. It’s natural. The thought of walking away from something you’ve put so much effort into is admitting you’ve wasted those long hard hours. It’s admitting you’ve failed. 

Sadly, for failed partnerships, the indicators of failure were probably there all along. But we, indebted as most are, simply resist. We make excuses to not walk. We work hard at fixing the unfixable. This is often because we lack an alternative. “This venture is all I have” mentality forces us to work ever harder at fixing the unfixable when we should have been working on the next big thing. 

How do you fix this? First be honest with yourself. If it ain’t working, it ain’t working. Don’t think of it as a failure, think of the venture as a wrong turn that is standing in the way of truly profitable efforts. After all, you wouldn’t keep going in the wrong direction after discovering you’ve made a wrong turn, would you? No, you get off that wrong road and on the right one. And like in business, the longer you go down that wrong turn, the longer it will take to double back and get to your destination.

So, if you’re worried about losing face, forget about it. The longer you wait, the worse the face. If you’re concerned you have nothing else, you never will, until you get off that lame horse and start looking for new opportunities. And there are always new opportunities for those looking. 

The Need for Speed in Marketing and Branding

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When was the last time someone mentioned they were using Microsoft WORD to you? How about a mention of those cool new browser features? I’m guessing not since they were first introduced. 

There’s a tremendous branding lesson here. Word of mouth moves like money through a politician’s hands. But once a product has entered mainstream or common use, we never speak of it. 

If you’re an innovator, you’ve got those precious few days to capture conversation and get branded. Yeah I know, easily said, but hard to do. I don’t pretend to have the secret formula here. I only want to point out, as a business strategist, that a well conceived plan to target those very talkative and listened to tweeters and bloggers should be planned long before launch. You might even consider adding features to attract the more attractive talkers. Following this, launching the campaign should even precede the product launch. Get folks talking, anticipating and finally commenting. 

It’s no coincidence that Apple lost a version of a soon to be released iphone or released disappointing battery-life test results before launch. They wanted talk started before launch. They were gathering the troops to get that rapid early marketing link. Sure this is Apple, but it also works for startups. If you can start the conversation, do it like yesterday.

Would You Invest in YOU?

When asked what I do for a living, my usual answer is that I massage startups into something fundable. This requires a lot of work and starts with a screening process. I don't want to waste time on non-fundable projects. And screening step #1 is to ask the founder what he or she would do with $10 million if they won it in a lottery.

I'm surprised at how many entrepreneurs would invest in almost anything BUT their own project. Seriously y'all, if you won't invest your money in your own project, how can you expect anyone else to.

It gets better, when I confront the entrepreneur with this question, they often respond that they are looking for an investor who can afford the risk and wouldn't feel the loss of it didn't work out. And they say it with a straight face.

Look folks, people with money didn't get that way by not caring about losing any of it. They do take risks, that's the norm, but they take calculated risks. And part of that risk calculation is examination of the entrepreneur. After all, you are a part of the product.  If you have a profitable business that is seeking growth funding, well you're pretty much vetted. But for startups, the investor wants to see some passion and skin in the game. This might be a cash commitment, acceptance of debt, returning to graduate school for some expertise or simply doing what's needed, when needed.

I recall a story about a prominent China manufacturer in Britain that only hired mute people as a means of protecting the secret to their unique manufacturing process. A man who later successfully started a competing company faked being a mute to get a job there until he learned the craft. Now I don't recommend this kind of corporate espionage today, but you get the point. This guy was investable.

Key Learning here: Before asking for money from any investor, ask yourself, Is this good enough for me to invest in?"

Building Corporate Culture and "Love Buddies"

Imagine calling this guy your "Love Buddy"!
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Everyone understands that a corporate strategy requires a corporate culture that can execute it. Unfortunately, so few corporations understand how to build that culture.

I recall my stint in the US oil industry back in the 80's and 90's. High paid consultants were brought in to tell employees how to build that culture. They were told how interact and how many hours should be spent doing leisure or team building activities. They teamed up employees with each other and assigned titles, like "lover" and "love buddy". Imagine a corporation of engineers and geologists who cut their teeth in the oil patches of West Texas and Oklahoma suffering through that nonsense. It, of course, failed.

The problem I experienced back in the day wasn't that corporate culture building was a bad idea. It was a great idea. Building it was the problem. No one can build a corporate culture. Cultures develop over time. What the manager and CEO can do is ENABLE a culture to develop and guide its direction. This involves developing and understanding the company Vision and communicating that Vision to all employees.

But a moment about Vision. If you want employees to be committed, that Vision must be one they want to support. Making a bucket of money selling groceries for the stockholders rarely invigorates an employee. But reducing neighborhood unemployment by 74% and/or funding a local school through a grocery coop will. Employees working towards the latter Vision will not only be more committed, but actually alter Mission, the how the Vision is achieved, to be more effective. This is done through commitment and employee cooperation. Have some faith. With a clear achievable and desired goal, you'll be surprised by employee performance. This is culture. The CEO's job is to create the environment where that culture will develop and then reward high performers. It is not the CEO's job to dictate how the employee built that culture.

So what does the CEO do to enable a culture? Pretty much a four phase job, communications, enabling and rewarding. Develop that vision, communicate the vision, listen to employees, enable employees to act on good ideas and develop mission, and reward good performance. And keep in mind, a proper CEO will be sure to include not only the stockholders but employees in the financial rewards, further incentivizing everyone to continue to build on a successful culture.

Best of luck "love buddies".

Develop The Pitch First!

Developing the pitch for a product or service is often done long after development and prototyping. I personally feel this is a big mistake and want to make a case for making this priority number one for any entrepreneur.

Pitching helps define the product. If you can’t state what it is in a few sentences, you don’t understand what it is. Humans are bombarded with data and tend to screen the noise for what interests them consciously and subconsciously. Practice a pitch until it narrows down on the single most desirable feature of feature set. 

Even if you are able to accurately describe the product in a short concise way, you may be leaving out the real meat for an investor. Testing a pitch can help identify those features that are important to those you need to collaborate with or seek funds from. I’ve found that what the meat is depends on the person pitching to. With that in mind, I tailor a pitch to appeal to as many stakeholders as possible. This may include the products unique tech-related coolness for the developer or the value in terms of human betterment or financial success to others. 

The practiced pitch may also reveal additional features that a product could use or markets that the founder hadn’t considered. My favorite example is a product I’m developing that requires a large scale rapid ramp up to generate revenue. Pitching indicated that the product was more valuable as a tool that others could use to monetize their large databases. 

Most entrepreneurs pitch to an investor as someone that can finance their vision. A well-developed pitch should focus on presenting a joint opportunity for both investor and entrepreneur. Practicing a pitch forces the entrepreneur to consider the other side of the investment table can help reveal those common interests and opportunities. 

Finally, pitching is a nerve racking experience for any entrepreneur. The clock is always ticking and each rejection seems to speed up the clock.  Practicing a pitch can help alleviate the stress and make the entrepreneur look more confident and prepared. 

You might want to checkout Bill Kenney's site Developing the pitch for a product or service is often done long after development and prototyping. I personally feel this is a big mistake and want to make a case for making this priority number one for any entrepreneur.

Pitching helps define the product. If you can’t state what it is in a few sentences, you don’t understand what it is. Humans are bombarded with data and tend to screen the noise for what interests them consciously and subconsciously. Practice a pitch until it narrows down on the single most desirable feature of feature set. 

Even if you are able to accurately describe the product in a short concise way, you may be leaving out the real meat for an investor. Testing a pitch can help identify those features that are important to those you need to collaborate with or seek funds from. I’ve found that what the meat is depends on the person pitching to. With that in mind, I tailor a pitch to appeal to as many stakeholders as possible. This may include the products unique tech-related coolness for the developer or the value in terms of human betterment or financial success to others. 

The practiced pitch may also reveal additional features that a product could use or markets that the founder hadn’t considered. My favorite example is a product I’m developing that requires a large scale rapid ramp up to generate revenue. Pitching indicated that the product was more valuable as a tool that others could use to monetize their large databases. 

Most entrepreneurs pitch to an investor as someone that can finance their vision. A well-developed pitch should focus on presenting a joint opportunity for both investor and entrepreneur. Practicing a pitch forces the entrepreneur to consider the other side of the investment table can help reveal those common interests and opportunities. 

Finally, pitching is a nerve racking experience for any entrepreneur. The clock is always ticking and each rejection seems to speed up the clock.  Practicing a pitch can help alleviate the stress and make the entrepreneur look more confident and prepared. 

You might want to check out Bill Kenney's site http://www.testmypitch.com/. Great concept for the founder.