Category: entrepreneurship

The Prius Monopoly

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Maybe it’s the spaceship interior or the futuristic aerodynamics, but there’s no doubt that when it comes to hybrid cars, the Prius has the monopoly of the mind.

 

This has been verified by the board game itself – Monopoly, where the Prius has now taken place of the racing car.

 

The hybrid movement is not without its naysayers…

  • A $50,000 Greenpeace badge?

  • The eco-razzi car of choice?

  • Not as green as public transport?

It shouldn’t matter if it is moving human consumption in the right direction.

That fact is all this is the result of some damn good marketing. Kudos to Toyota.

Anthill magazine

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

In the model of Fast Company and Inc magazine Australian Anthill is a magazine for entrerepneurs and fast growth companies. It can claim first to market in this geography.

 

anthill-magazine.jpg

The fact is Forbes, BRW, Fortune et al tend to focus on the top public companies. There’s some learnings, but it’s not all we need as entrepreneurs and stewards of fast growth companies.  If you’re reading this blog it’s fair to say Anthill is for you. Another good thing about this magazine is its willingness to provide some free content on line. With the advent of the internnet, publishing now has a sampling forum.

 

For those in Australia, the mag makes a good read for when your PC isn’t handy and provides the depth most blogs don’t. 

 

Be sure to check out yours truly in the startups section on page 78 or here.

American Chopper

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

I love to see people who are passionate about what they’re doing. American Chopper is a classic example. There’s so much belief, it shows in their product output. It’s also a fantasy brand.

 

Definition – Fantasy Brand: Brand which people can also consume vicariously, through media or secondary branded offers such as merchandising.

Football teams are also often fantasy brands. Think Manchester United and the ‘Theatre of dreams’

American chopper has it all, a single minded proposition, theatre, emotion, craftsmanship, autheticity, artistic integrity, and premium pricing. Put simply you’d seek them out to build your chopper, because it’s them. Very cool.

Customer service

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

I needed a web guru for a project I am working on. So through a friend I got onto Barbara at Pearl Creative Consultants.

 

Pearl specialize in connecting ‘creative’ resources to businesses in need – freelance and permanent.

Although Barbara didn’t have what I needed on her books, she connected me with a colleague of hers and was exceptionally helpful. There was nothing financial in it for her – yet. As an entrepreneur Barbara understands time lag.

Guess who I’ll call next time I need such a service? And if you’re in Australia you should too.

Retire young

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

I used to think I wanted to retire young

I used to think I wanted to be rich

I used to think I didn’t like working

I used to think I didn’t like my company

 

then I realized…

 

Retiring young is not the answer

Getting rich is not the answer

Entrepreneurship is not the answer

The answer is you must do ‘something’ you enjoy. Something meaning ‘projects’.

Find projects you love then stopping work, retiring and getting rich become irrelevant.

1984 – update

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Seems George Orwell was about 23 years out…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91wuBqlny50]

 

No doubt it will be handy, in fact it’s quite brilliant. There’ll be opportunities for entrepreneurs to leverage the service too. But I’m not sure if Google is losing focus on it’s core business or is about to take over the world? Does the world want this?

 

Maybe the next search champion will be one that isn’t so pervasive.