The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It
Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World
|
 Al Herbach  Friday, February 5th, 2010 I haven’t done a recommended links post is a while and so here we go:
Seth: This week Seth Godin directed me to two very cool web resources that I urge you to take time to read and view.
The first is the video Lemonade. It deals directly with folks in the advertising agency business who have been laid off and how they found their next steps. Some people feel that it is talking about the need to start a new business, but my take is that it shows that you really can make Lemonade out of lemons if you pursue your dreams. The video is well made and totally engaging.
The second is a free e-book on pricing. How exciting can that be, you ask? Well, the author, Todd Sattersten who has developed the business book review site inbubblewrap, clearly explains the components of pricing, costing and especially margin. He also delves into the concept of free. All in all a very quick and information packed presentation. And the price is right!
The Brain: Harvard Business Review had a nice article on how the middle aged brain (of which I am the proud owner) has some inherent benefits as it relates to businesses. It is good to hear that while we sometimes can’t remember names, we have built other skills that can help us in the business world.
Microsoft: Microsoft’s perception in the marketplace has changed over the past 25 years. The New York Times has a nice article on what the company has done to put itself in their current market space. This is a good warning to Google as well as any other company that goes through significant growth.
Al Herbach Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 In time for the holiday season (well, actually too late for Hanukkah) I give to each of you the following links:
- Seth Godin provides a free e-version of his latest book, What Matters Now, a compilation of short essays on single topics by a raft of 70 big thinkers. People like Chris Anderson, Jason Fried, Arianna Huffington, Kevin Kelly, Dan Ariely, Gina Trapani and Tim Sanders. Absolutely worth every penny
- Amazing story about how the IRS terrorizes audits a young mother who makes $10 per hour because they can’t believe that she can support herself on that income.
- Mark Cuban has an interesting idea on how to fund some of our most pressing problems. I think he is on to something. This type of tax has the benefit of being a very small amount on a huge number of transactions and will be almost invisible.
- Customer service and large companies. Go hand and hand like a horse and carriage? Not so much at American Airlines. See what happens when an employee reaches out to a customer who has some issues with their web site.
- If you ever have to give a big presentation and you want to add video clips of famous sayings from movies, you have to catch this site. There are over 12,000 clips and they are approved for use by the studios.
Al Herbach Monday, November 30th, 2009 I was reminded recently that I haven’t done a links column is a while, so here goes for a few good reads:
- Seth Godin writes about funding for a business. The typical methods are debt (loan) or equity (stock). He proposes a third way that might make some funding sources happy. I am intrigued.
- Dustin Curtis writes about the science of entrepreneurship. This article was fun to read, but take a look at the rest of the articles on his blogazine. He is a talented User Experience designer and each article is beautiful and thoughtful. Also to be read are the two articles about American Airlines and their user experience. By the way, American Airlines fired the AA designer who wrote to Dustin.
- Fun logic test here: Are you a cognitive miser?
- For entrepreneurs out there who are having problems with marketing, here are over 100 marketing questions that will help you get started thinking about how to market your company (or yourself).
Al Herbach Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 Entrepreneurship: A few start-up related posts. First the twenty things that I wished I had known before I started my business. (Hat Tip: JL) Then, from a genuine internet star, Jessica Hagy, The Start-Up Checklist. Are you an entrepreneur or a hobbyist? Lastly, not exactly start-up specific, Seth has a good pithy blog post on Jello.
Al Herbach Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 Entrepreneurship: Think the inner city can’t be a place to start a new business? Think again. Given that there is a whole lot more real estate out there available, albeit some with bank branches and auto dealerships. Smart entrepreneurs are going to be looking for ways to make a business around these sites.
Strategy: Another Seth Godin gem. Knowing how to ask is more important than the ask itself.
Behavior: Dan Ariely, author of the terrific book Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions , spoke at a recent EG conference. EG is an offshoot of the TED conference. Dan’s topic was about how we make decisions. Besides the usual visual games, he discusses some of the reasons that we make decisions and how options that have absolutely no value often distract us in our decision-making process. Marketers are using this information today to get you to move on their buying process. In fact, as Dan describes, it could be a matter of life and death in a medical setting.
Fun: I was one of the unnamed friends at Kristin’s turkey (and other assorted goodies) fry-off last weekend. Pictures and recipes are included in her blog. I admit that I was unsure about the whole deep frying bit, but man, these treats were wonderful.
Al Herbach Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 Way back in the good old days (circa 1984), when I was just a young whippersnapper, my wife and I started our business. Well, actually to be correct, she started it and I joined in after about a year. We were a small (4 person) company focused on developing solutions for IBM minicomputers. We had an expertise in an ERP product on that platform and we were looking to grow. An opportunity came along from IBM to join a Marketing Assistance (or Partner) Program. We joined up and dutifully went to the first few meetings. We had the requisite skill set on their hardware and operating systems. The IBM partner coordinators asked us, what is your specialty? How can we determine who to send to you? Being the smart marketers that some of you know us to be (NOT!), we said “We can work with any customer. We know the programming language and the operating system.” Of course, for the next 6 months, the only sound not coming from our office was the ringing of the phone from our partners at IBM. There was, however, wailing and crying and asking “What is wrong with us?”, mostly from me.
We went back to our IBM partner advocates and told them about our prowess with Distribution Systems, including a product that they sold. We talked about our technological expertise and then about some success stories helping customers solve distribution issues. From that point on, we finally got some leads from IBM. Over the course of the next 13 years, I would venture that this distinction allowed us to book over $3M of revenue.
We had a common problem. Our problem was not that we weren’t good at what we did. We were and we had revenue paying clients to prove it. Our problem was that we had to get over the fact that we couldn’t be all things to all people. We needed to put a line in the sand and proclaim to all that solving distribution software problems for companies were what we were best at. Once people (clients, partners, recommenders) have a hook, they can then help you get to the next step.
Most young companies don’t want to skinny down the possibilities, afraid of closing doors. My recommendation is not to worry about closed doors. Worry instead about making your open doors a clear priority, with an easy to understand differentiator and a clear value proposition. Oh, yeah, it helps if you are really good at that niche. But to paraphrase Seth Godin, Be Remarkable. You can’t be remarkable if you say you can do everything for everybody.
|
|
