entrepreneurship Archives - Page 217 of 235

Risk – repost

Posted on September 12, 2007 by Steve Sammartino

The post below is from the early days of startup blog. For those who’ve already read it, it’s a good reminder. For those who haven’t it’s worth considering.

If you’re reading this blog and not involved in your own business, stop for a second and ask your self why?

You’re obviously interested in entrepreneurship, marketing and small ‘start up’ business. You’re smart and capable.

But we’re Risk Averse. All of us. But isn’t risk relative? Isn’t risk relative to what we have to lose? Maybe we should reconsider what we ‘could’ lose.

Are we risking:

Our Health?
Going Hungry?
Shelter?
Access to medical services?
Our Education?

The fact that we’re on the internet tells us it’s none of the above.

Maybe we’re only risking ‘Status’. Maybe we’re only risking ‘Title’ and ‘Conspicuous Consumption’.

What is our true assessment of the risk? Is starting a business really that risky?

Simple Permission Marketing

Posted on September 11, 2007 by Steve Sammartino

Here’s a really simple way to execute some permission based marketing. Get a story of your business in a newspaper.

Pages need to be filled. Business writers are interested in reporting on new businesses. Start with a small local newspaper. Tell them why the local community needs to know about your business. We must focus on what’s in it for them – not us.

Most big newspapers are also interested in start ups these days, and even run entrepreneur and enterprise specific sections. So why not go for some big fish:

The New York Times?
The Australian Financial Review?
The Wall Street Journal?
The London Daily Telegraph?

It’s permission based marketing because people choose to read or choose not to read the article. If they do read it, they’re engaged and obviously interested. The article title tells the reader if it’s for them. It’s content, not interuptive advertising. Simple permission marketing.

Here’s the trick: It’s got to be news worthy.

Quote

Posted on September 10, 2007 by Steve Sammartino

Collingwood Football Club president Eddie McGuire offers this retrospective on cheque book recruiting:

“I’ve never seen anyone who won the lotto become *Kerry Packer”

*insert revered businessperson’s name here…

Entrepreneur lesson:

Hoping and luck is never the same as learning, creating and building.

Momentum

Posted on September 6, 2007 by Steve Sammartino

Momentum is the key to the success for any start up.

In classical mechanics, momentum is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. P=mV

The start up blog definition is a bit simpler:

Momentum = How big you are X How quick you do things.

Hence, the momentum of anything will increase if either of the above factors increase while the other factor remains constant. That is, you don’t need both factors to gather momentum.

A small thing moving fast can gather momentum. A big thing moving slowly can gather momentum. This is why big companies (although they react slowly) still have momentum, their mass helps them maintain their forward motion and ulitmate power.

The lesson for start ups is simple;

We want to gather momentum

We are small

We must focus on speed