Top 7 startup tips

I was asked to give a list to Tim Reid on a few micro marketing / startup tips for his terrific podcast. I thought they were worth sharing in point form here.

  1. Project management is the key skill (Outsource weaknesses, be blissfully unaware how to do technical things, manage the value chain.)
  2. Think micro (Start small, no tiny. think hyper-local, and expand out from there)
  3. Compound effort (Our labour compounds over time like interest and investments do, social media takes compound effort)
  4. Speed is better than perfection (perfection is the enemy of success, launch review and iterate constantly)
  5. Manage for cash flow not profit (Money in and money out are the only 2 financials that matter, we can’t go broke when cash flow positive)
  6. We’ve got to sell (Selling is a core skill, we have to sell not just to customers but to everyone in our business world, employees & suppliers too, have a sales guru in your team)
  7. Start now (The right is never going to come, stop waiting for it)

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Everyone cares

How to make a Hungry Jacks (Burger King) Whopper:

  1. Take the top of the bun and swipe mayonnaise across it twice starting in the middle of the bun and swiping out ways
  2. Sprinkle lettuce onto mayo base just enough so the white of the mayo shows through the lettuce.
  3. Add two slices of tomato on top of the lettuce at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock.
  4. Put the meat patty into the base of the bun.
  5. Spread 4 pickles in a dice configuration while using the squeeze ketchup bottle in opposite hand to spread the pickles.
  6. Squirt 3.5 circles of ketchup on the beef patty starting at the outside of the circumference.
  7. Lightly sprinkle onion onto the ketchup at 50% of the thickness of the lettuce.
  8. Place both thumbs onto the tomatoes of the bun top and flip onto the base.

Serve hot!

The reason I’m sharing this with you is, that I learned how to make a whopper over 20 years ago, at a wage of $3.00 per hour and I still remember exactly how to make it. It was and probably still is, the lowest paid job available in the economy.

And yet a business colleague recently told me his his employees didn’t care about their job or the brand of his company because they were Uni students, and part time workers. What a crock. I took particular pride in making fast, well formed whoppers. Even thought it was a menial wage. At the time I was in year 9 at school and had zero intention of going to University or finishing school for that matter, yet I still cared. I cared because I had good managers, encouragement and there was a culture of doing your best, maybe even a little healthy competition to make the fastest and best burgers. It’s my strong belief that the vast majority of people take pride in what they do, no matter how menial it happens to be. So when I hear people saying their employees don’t care about their job, because it is part time, or low paid, I tell them this story. The story that all people no matter what they do have pride in their job, so long as one ingredient is in place:

They know we value what they do, and we treat all employee efforts with respect, regardless of where they stand in the hierarchy.

Startup Blog says: Employees will respond to how we treat them. We must respect them in the first instance. When we do this and we’ll get results reflective of human nature, not the hourly pay rate.

Salvage Bazaar

I’m really impressed with new Melbourne Startup www.salvagebazaar.com

What is it? Salvage Bazaar is an online marketplace where you can buy and sell recycled and scrap building materials.

I’m impressed for a few reasons:

  • It’s a nice iteration for on line real estate market
  • It has strong eco / environmental credentials

It’s a very nice addendum  to the existing established real estate websites in most markets such as www.realestate.com.au in Australia.

It also has a strong play with the move towards gentrification of housing in inner city areas, as well as green / eco requirements emerging in the architecture scene.

But here’s the kicker: the founder Kim Pannan, has never done anything in the tech space before in her life, not even blogging let alone founding, designing and building her own commercial web business. The bit I love is that Kim was a graduate from Startup School. So a feel a bit like a proud uncle.

If you want to learn to what Kim did – who incidentally bootstrapped Salvage Bazaar on very little money, then you might want to grab 1 of the 2 seats left at the Melbourne Startup School.

Great bootstrapping

This Nutrigrain commercial isn’t really about cereal. It’s a message for Entrepreneurs. Take a look.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–8dc0_9Se4]

Notice how he didn’t let his environment (non coastal) hold him back?

Notice the tools he built to train himself and replicate his desired future?

Notice, the time invested in his dream, the years of dedication?

He wasn’t concerned about the resources he didn’t have, rather those he could use to bootstrap his training. It’s an attitude that all entrepreneurs should have.

Best we take a second look.

Web everywhere

Recently I was chatting with a Director at a global advertising agency about changes in the media landscape. The impact that the internet was having. She mentioned that the internet only affected a certain portion of the population – not all target audiences. The younger generation, the web savvy, the technophiles…

I retorted with the following:

Once upon the web was a thing you had to visit. First it was in military installations, then Universities. Eventually it was present in only very large corporates on selected computers. Later, on every desk in every company. Afterwhich  every computer in every home had it. And now it’s on our latops, in our cafes, in our pockets, it’s the GPS that directs our cars and powers the touch screen shopping mall directory. Next year all TV’s sold will be web enabled – 5 billion channels. It’s on every digital display in our lives.

It came to us, it removed the original demographic bias. The web is everywhere and permeates our entire existence. It has changed advertising forever.

The web is no longer and thing or a place. It is omnipresent.

Convention busting – retail

Long held wisdom in the retail industry is that items must be displayed on shelves by category. Idea being that we know what thing we are looking when we shop. But what if we’re just browsing? What if we don’t want anything in particular? Bring on Smiggle – stationary retailer who display their range by color.

Eyeball worthy…. I better go check out what they have in purple.

They aren’t the only ones moving towards it, as  on line retailer etsy also display their range on line by color, with an amazing interface – check it out. It just works.

What other conventions need to be busted in your startup category?

Feed your conscience

I’m currently working on a project with a social enterprise called Abbotsford Biscuits. Which I am proud to be involved with.

Abbotsford Biscuits is a social enterprise that had its genesis back in 2005. It exists to employ people who have been excluded from mainstream training and employment. Abbotsford Biscuits has an ambitious vision of becoming a self sustainable social business over a 3 year period. And I’ve been called in to help make it so. My part will be getting the company involved in digital media and getting people like you (those who care about stuff because it’s worth doing) involved.

First – how good is this tag line:

Second: I’m aiming on for some crowd sourced strategy ideas to supplement what I already have planned. So I’d love some input in the comments.

The current plan includes the following ideas:

  • A loyalty club. Where shareholders get paid in biscuits not money. Where members can get customized gourmet biscuits. Ideas include members own design or company branded biscuits?
  • Fund raising for other organisations utilizing AB products.
  • Customised biscuits for members which can be their own design.
  • Micro financing to support the brand and grow the brand.
  • Access to exclusive events with leading Australian chefs.

But it’s an open book, which could make this project a lot of fun. I’d love some input.

Here’s a couple of pics I took while on premise recently, they look like twitter biscuits!

Yummy!