Have an actual phone number listed on your site where you can be called. Anytime.
A real phone number, with a real person answering, in real time, for real customers / members / web surfers. Real easy.
Why? Have you ever tried to call Yahoo, Google or Ebay?
There’s no easier way to differentiate your start up and outdo a big guy.
I stumbled across a great and simple start up business.
They rent out very high quality red carpet runnerrs – That’s it. You don’t get any more single minded than that.
They’re delivered in roll up bag which you simply unzip and roll out the carpet.
Start up costs seem to be pretty low as well. A few high quality carpets, a clean website (www.rubyredrunners.com.au) and some word of mouth to high end hotels, private jet airlines, wedding organizers, glitzy carnivals and private parties for the well healed.
Just imagine how ‘honored’ you’d feel if your spouse hired a ruby red runner to welcome you home one night after work!
A blog comment appeared as per below:
Hi,
I read your blog from start to finish this afternoon. I just wanted to say thanks.
Thank you for writing about your experience. For the tips. For the ideas. For the motivation.
Just.. thanks.
I was chuffed. I nearly fell for it, but then I realized that anyone who could read 50,000 words in an afternoon must be a ‘machine’.
Got me thinking about the value of people. Only a person could figure out this wasn’t genuine. Policies and systems can only go so far. Human input and decision making is really the most valuable thing we have in our business. And so it could be said that all humans in our business should really have policy veto power – from the reception desk to the corner office.
Trust your people.
Jamie has been coined as many things over the past few years including; 
gastronomist
media personality
health & wellness lobbyist
social-preneur
Here’s another description to consider: Genuinely passionate person.
He’s doing something he loves and believes in. He’s not faking it and there are no tricks.
We simply know this intuitively when we see him cook, eat and hear him talk. He exudes passion about food and everything to do with it. On top of this he uses his gift for good, such as his project Jamie’s School dinners, which you can check out by clicking here.
Here’s some quotes from Jamie himself:
I’ve seen kids with lunchboxes that contain half eaten McDonalds, a packet of crisps, and a can of red bull. That just makes me want to weep. That’s just like giving them a line of coke.”
“I’ll being doing school dinners for the next 10 years, if not th rest of my life”
“My view is that we’re all pretty spoilt now….but I think the best luxury in life comes from experience and knowledge, and I think that food and cooking are among the most important things out there for us to learn.”
Result: He’s respected. He’s in demand. He’s a business. He’s a brand.
Kudos Jamie.
It’s nice to be recognised for a consistent effort occassionally. As can be seen below Startup blog makes the top 100 business blogs – number 82.
Honestly, I’d still do it if no one was reading – because it’s worth doing.
We all know it’s good practice to blog about our business or start up. We want to be authentic, transparent and build a relationship. But often we struggle with what to write about.
What we’ve done at www.rentoid.com is try to make sure it’s a dialogue and not a monologue.
You can check out the rentoid blog here.
So here’s a super list of ideas on how to blog about your business:
Don’t just blog about your business
Blog about other things your people may be interested in
Comment on other blogs similar to yours
Ask for feedback
Act on feedback
Answer comments on your blog
Put pictures on your blog
Tell your people about cool stuff your business is doing
Tell your people about mistakes you’ve made
Tell your people about delays in product releases
Ask your people what they want to hear about
Find other blogs / business geographically close to you and connect
Blog about your company values & beliefs
Blog about other cool businesses with similar ‘values’
Put a blogroll on your sidebar of similar businesses
(sounds counter intuitive, but keeps you honest and frames where you belong)
Put what your blog is about in the sidebar
Give your people a reason to come back
If it’s relevant link to another story or blog
Blog about your launch
Give a sneak preview
Blog about something funny that happened in the office
Blog about your people
Blog about your media coverage
Blog about why you’re better than the competition
Blog about why you’re worse, and what you’re doing about it
Show pictures of product / design / your retail outlet
Post your advertising
Run a sampling campaign via your blog
Focus on the theology of your site & business
Add comments to this blog entry to add more ideas….
The recent deal where Microsoft took a 1.6% stake in Facebook for $US240 Million valued the company at $US15 Billion.
Here’s some numbers:
Facebook has a revenue of approx $100m per annum.
Although profit is currently undisclosed, even a generous 50% profit on sales margin would result in a diminutive profit of $50 million.
This would result in a PE ratio of 300 times!
Which means, it will take Microsoft 300 years to pay back their investment.
Start up blog view: This could be the most ridiculous sale price anyone has ever paid for a company.
Has everyone forgotten about these start up web 1.0 heroes of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s:
kozmo.com
Global crossing
Worldcom
govWorks.com
eToys
Boo.com
Pets.com
theGlobe.com
Where Investment banks and reputable companies such as Microsoft paid exorbitant prices for many now non-existent companies with zillions of page views, sessions and ‘potential’?
It’s different this time, right?
At some point in our journey we all have to value a business. So we must remember the following:
When selling: Potential, emotion and short memories can get you a great price
When buying: Forget ‘potential’ and focus on ‘current’ earnings and investment payback period.
Bonus conspiracy theory: Microsoft really bought the personal information of the 42 million active Facebook members.
