Category: Marketing Insight

Why I don’t promote Startup blog

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

I get told all the time my blog is quite good. I’m chuffed. It’s nice people get something out of it. And yes, it has grown in the almost 3 years it’s been going. Grown from 10 readers a month to about 30,000. And No.1 on Google for ‘Startupblog’. But I don’t promote it hardly at all, other than a tweet here or there. I’d rather people just find out. And here’s why:

As soon as we start creating stuff for the ‘popularity contest’ we start to compromise what we do. We’re doing it to win, rather than for the love of creation. Our work suffers and we start making it for ‘them’ instead of ‘us’. Slowly we evolve into a qausi-politician trying to please everyone and yet stand for nothing.

This sounds counter intuitive to all the marketers out there…. but, the world has changed. We used to make stuff for them, round the edges and then sell to everyone. But now they’ve already got more stuff than they need – physical and informational. So what we have to do now is create stuff we love and let the people catch up. The people who are in fact ‘us’. Our people, not them.

I’ll be blogging 10 years from now (among other things) and if I stay the course, they’ll keep coming, like they already have. The only promotion this blog will ever get is the Kudos it deserves from those who discovered it… and then spread it. Given I don’t advertise on it, or make a living from it – that’ll suit me just fine. My main goal is to take pride in my content – not my ranking.

Entrepreneurs ought there – create something you’re proud of.

When things are broken…

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

…fix them straight away.

Sure it will cost you more

Sure the budget doesn’t allow

Sure it was unexpected

Sure you can leave it for a while

But the reality is this – when we leave things broken, we leave a part of ourselves broken. it messes with the mind, and it effects our persona, our personal brand and our confidence levels. In short it messes with the mind. Show me a person with a banged up car or an unruly house and I’ll show you someone whose finances are not in order.

Don’t mistake what I am saying here. I’m not talking about wealth, I’m talking about attitude.

The attitude of people who fix stuff – is the same as the attitude of the people who usually find success. Success doesn’t tolerate letting things deteriorate – success always repairs anything which is broken. Success knows that it permeates the right culture and it makes us money in the long run.

Creator or Consumer?

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Creation has a mindset. It is instinctive. It is in all of us, and that’s why we live in civilizations. We’ve created new ways, new things.

People often mistake the emotional rewards of consumption with creation. When people are consuming they’re living vicariously. We replace the instinct to create, with consumption. This world rewards creators. Business is about creating, which is why it can be rewarding. Conversely, most people associate success with consumption. Consumption is an illusion we’ve made or done something useful. It’s a shortcut. Hence, conspicuous consumption often exudes a sense emptiness.

Is this why we see so many balanced and satisfied craftsman, farmers and artists? People creating things have a sense of contentment. A sense of self reliance. Even if what they are creating is a simple vegetable patch which feeds their family.

It’s because the true rewards in life come from the act of creation. Consumption is a poor substitute. Create something.

Dreams for sale

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Here’s a truth all entrpreneurs must know, embrace and accept. Our selling skills are more important than our technical genious, web wizardry, or financial footwork.

If we can’t sell we better find someone who can work with us. Running a succssful startup requires the dream to be sold – for someone to buy our dream. Until we’ve sold this dream we are nothing – We do not exist.

Good news – we can always learn or outsource it.

Quirky fact: Boring = Profitable

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Unless you are from the US – you have never even heard of any of the 10 oldest businesses in the USA. Nope, not one. There’s not a sexy brand among them. They include boring industries like, banking, ingredients, manufacturing inputs and insurance.

You can check it out by clicking here.

The important insight for Start Ups and investors is this:

The boring stuff is almost always more profitable than the sexy.

Why: Because exciting, sexy stuff attracts lot’s of competitors and people want to play there. They want to play there because it’s fun, it’s in the papers, it’s featured in business forums and leverages over-riding social trends. Then it gets busy and the cream disappears – (read here abnormal economic profits) . It’s no different to the house prices rising in popular suburbs and the yield declining. Simple economics discovered centuries ago.

So what? It’s vital we know the difference between sustainable & exciting. The most important factor for survivial is profit – end of story. Sure, profits can be made in any industry, but chances are there’s more profit in the areas everyone else forgot about.

Startup tips

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Tonight I was speaking with entrpreneur David Eedle who sold his start up www.artshub.com.au for some big money in 2006. When asked what matters for web startups he said the following:

The same principals which matter to any business. The principals never change. He also said these things in particular matter:

  • Earn more than you spend
  • Get your value proposition right – clue it’s not ‘free’
  • You have to sell something before you sell the company
  • You can’t do it by yourself – you need some awesome people to help you, but less than you think. Think in handfulls.
  • You don’t need dedicated resources and high end tech stuff. It never wins.

And startup blog agrees with every word.