Category: startups

Constructive Criticism

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

We all know it’s useful… blah blah blah…

Instead here’s a perspective on how to take constructive criticism from Sporting Broadcaster Bruce McAvaney in reference to Aussie Rules Football great Nathan Buckley.

“He’s really open to constructive criticism. Criticism is hard for all of us, yet he can embrace it. He’s less worried about how he’s feeling and more worried about how well he does”

The discussion came about when Buckley retired from football and went into commentating. Even then Buckley was driven to improve and asked McAvaney for advice which resulted in the quote above.

Rambo – the ultimate boostrapper

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Rambo First Blood part 1, is a movie all entreprenuers ought invest 2 hours watching.

The key lessons is simple: The ultimate resource is creativity. It’s game winning. John Rambo single handedly defeats an army choc full of resources, through ‘creative boostrapping’. Bootstrapping which then invented new tactics the competitors didn’t even consider. Key words that come to mind are; Insight, Passion, Risk, Mind Control, Tenacity, Belief and Courage. This film should be the first lesson in any entrepreneurial learning forum. Be like Rambo and win.

25 years on this film still rocks. There are so many cool scenes I won’t ruin it here by explaining them. Better yet, go watch it, then tell us your favourite scene and why in the comments below.

Testimonials

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Testimonial pages are fairly predictable. Find a bunch of your best customers, get them to say something nice. Convince new customers you and your team are a bunch of trustworthy, nice people to do business with.

Problem is this: predictable = skeptical

Here’s an idea: Take a random sample of comments including ‘some’ bad. The implicit assumption here is that we have more good reviews than bad. If we don’t forget the testimonials and fix your stuff.

Once we’ve got a representative sample of testimonials including some negative what we’ve done is taken our brand into the realms of reality. Result: Increased levels of trust and reduced skepticism.

  • We are saying that we are real – we occasionally make mistakes.
  • We are saying we are honest – which is refreshing.
  • We are saying we can’t please everyone – which is authentic.

Startups out there – differentiate your self with some authenticity.

Media diet – startup style

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

As promoted in the 4 hour work week a media diet is a nice way save time. For entrepreneurs a different type of media diet is required.

A business trends diet

Here’s how – avoid all business related articles as they pertain to new strategies & trends.

Here’s why – We already know enough to be successful. Our problem is doing the stuff.

Unless we are just starting in the business world – we’ve heard every strategy and the fact is that most ‘new’ business ideas are simple derivatives of business theories which have been around since the birth of commerce. Cables channels and tech stuff is the worst. Who’s got the time to read 86 posts from techcrunch every day? – not me.

We ought just trust our judgment and make the call that we know enough to get moving…and the rest we’ll learn on the job…. So in the spirit of this blog entry, ignore the articles you were about to read and get back to your stuff.

Outsourcing – Visuals vs Backend

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

As webpreneurs we all now employ offshore coders to develop sites using super cool resources like Odesk and Elance. The process is a simple one. But just like all things good, there are some catches. Here’s some advice from someone whose done, does it and occasionally avoids it.

The main thing you need is patience and very considered briefs. When there is a language barrier, ideas and words can be taken very literally.

Our experience is that some (not all) offshore IT practioners are indifferent with ‘visual’ requirements. Maybe it’s a cultural implication. And there are many things we’ve had done much better offshore, like finding creative solutions to technical problems. We’ve worked with some great creative bootstrappers. But it’s clear that more developed markets put a much higher value on ‘aesthetics‘. So we get all our rentoid visuals done locally, while we outsource alot of our backend work. It’s akin to a convenience store you might see in India, there just not quite as pretty as those in Australia and the USA. See below.

Western Convenience Store

Convenience Store India

Fathers day

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

I was asked recently why I’m not so focused on events like – fathers day. The question posed is below:

Don’t marketers have calendars of all the events throughout the year?

Here’s my answer:

I don’t think it’s a winner. Most events never are: One reason – Clutter.

Every man and his dog are on these calendar events… It’s good for some thing to fill the gaps, but I don’t think it is a game winner. Which is why I don’t over do ‘event style marketing’. I’d rather create my own events. I might not have 20 million people interested – but the 26 or 1000 or so who care – are listening , and listening closely.