Archive - June, 2006

Dane Morgan Gives It Away

June 23, 2006 in Business, E-Commerce, Entrepreneurship with 0 Comments

Remember my post a few weeks back? This one here?

A good friend and member of mine, Dane Morgan, has given away a stellar idea. He says, “how about a community where people can engage and discuss lyrics to music.” You can see a blurb from his post below or visit his site using the link at the bottom.

I think it’s a fantastic idea! I really do, let’s face it! We’ve got eBible discussions, wine wikis, etc etc..Bands like discussion areas where fans can discuss their music.

Bring this to a central location, monetize the site and I think you’ve got a great little business idea. He’s right though, this would need to be done right. It would need to function better than MySpace and be clean, easy to navigate and search for your fav. bands. In turn, this would put you in touch with possibly millions of other fans.

“But if you are looking for an idea for a new site to start as a small home business, you might want to give this a shot.The idea is simple. It’s a community based site in the full flavor of Web 2.0. You would want a membership script and give each user a profile page and a publishing page. Then the idea is to encourage conversations between the users with a little twist. They are supposed to post their comments to one another in song lyrics. I call the site concept songversations (and at the time of this writing songversations.com is unregistered).”

DaneMorgan.com

The ultimate fool-proof business plan

June 6, 2006 in Misc with 8 Comments

This is just a quick post. I’m swamped this week but wanted to share this as I thought it was appropriate as we move into the hot summer.

If you’re thinking about starting a business, one of the most important things you can do to ensure success is to create a business plan.

If you’ve got children and you’d like to start teaching them early about the values of entrepreneurship or if you need a little kick-in-the-butt yourself in regards to effective business planning, this post is for you.

I remember my first business. In the town where I lived they had just built an amazing multi-million dollar marina. This marina was just awesome! Literally hundreds of spots for boaters to park and party and every single space sold out almost instantly.

I was very young. Maybe 10-12 years old, I can’t remember exactly. I asked the marina management if they we be opposed to me walking around the marina and “offering cold pop” to boaters. They agreed as long as my parents were around and knew what I was doing. My entrepreneurial instincts kicked in at a young age. I knew this idea would be a hit.

I simply filled up my little red wagon with ice and about 6 different varieties of cold pop. I then just strolled up and down the docks selling the beverages to boaters. You wouldn’t believe how much money I made at such a young age. I was able to do this little stint for about 2 or 3 summers until the marina realized that I was essentially cutting off sales for them before they even had a chance to occur (boaters having to leave there boats to walk to the marina shop.)

This was a pretty cool business. Think about it. Mom would drive me up to the grocery store where I’d invest my allowance in a few cases of pop and a couple of bags of ice. We would fill up my wagon with ice and pop and I’d go out and sell. When I ran out, I would just walk back to Mom’s car fill up the wagon and go out again. The boaters began to know me and I began to know them. I started to learn the boaters habits. I knew which boaters would be around and what types of pop to carry more of. It was flawless business execution.

I can’t remember exactly how much I made but I do remember pop was expensive. It was around $8.99 for a case of 24 cans. I’d sell the pop at a $1.50 each or three for $4.50. On a good day I’d easily sell 7-10 cases of pop and on a bad day I’d sell maybe 1-4 cases. Not bad for a being 10 years old. As the boaters began to know me and look forward to my visits they also began to give tips or tell me to “keep the change.”

My father always played an important role in all aspects of my business endeavors and still does to this day. He went to great lengths to help me succeed in the cold beverage business and still does with any other venture I’m involved in.

I stumbled upon this article which shows how one father taught his children about entrepreneurship. I think the article is important for a few reasons. For starters, it gives us some examples about how we can teach these lessons to our own children and secondly, it shows you how to create a small business plan for any business that will almost ensure success. It shows that writing a business plan doesn’t have to take months and be a massive volume. It can take a few days and some proper thinking. This father taught his children everything from pricing to scheduling to equipment purchases.

I’d love to hear your thoughts after reading this.

Click here for The Ultimate Business Plan

[tags] business, entrepreneurship, business plan, sales, business planning, business execution, small business [/tags]

Ketchup has it figured out and mustard still has a way to go.

June 2, 2006 in Business, Marketing, Misc with 9 Comments

I just read this post by Seth Godin. It got me thinking about branding and more specifically, the power of television advertising as a branding tool. Seth points out that Tabasco is a brand we all know very well. I have a bottle of Tabasco and when I run out, I’ll go buy another.

I noticed something else while glancing at my Tabasco bottle in the fridge. I also always have on hand a bottle of Heinz Ketchup. Beside that sits a no-name jar of yellow mustard and a nice jar of some fancy schmancy grainy Dijon mustard from William & Sonoma. I thought about this for a moment. Why did I have a bottle of Tabasco, Heinz ketchup, specialty Dijon mustard and a little old bottle of no-name ketchup?

Why would I bother to save .99 cents instead of buying a brand named mustard like French’s? Well maybe, yellow mustard is just yellow mustard so who cares right? Well if that’s the case then why not buy the no-name brand ketchup? It’s simple, Heinz the best ketchup money can buy. I always purchase the brand name ketchup. I even paid extra for a new bottle of Heinz Organic Ketchup the other day. The answer to my thought is actually quite simple and relative to the Tabasco story. Heinz Ketchup and Tabasco Hot Sauce are two of the most well-known food products in the world. I’ve seen both companies run different ads on TV frequently. Even if you haven’t seen one recently, you’ll all remember the Heinz ketchup commercials where random people just sit for the ketchup to come out of the bottle. The ketchup will only come out when it’s ready. But you already knew this. You also already knew that Heinz has “57 Varieties.” Most of this, we all learned from watching TV and excellent branding.

I do realize that French’s mustard does do their share of branding. You’ll find French’s at just about every major sporting stadium across the country. But when was the last time you saw a French’s mustard commercial? I honestly can’t remember. I did a Google search and couldn’t find any reference to a French’s mustard commercial. I then searched YouTube and was able to find literally hundreds of “Heinz Ketchup” videos but nothing about mustard.

What does this mean to you? I don’t watch a ton of TV but I watch enough to know that Heinz is the best brand of ketchup money can buy. But when I’m at the grocery store I’m just not convinced the French’s mustard is worth .99 cents more than the no-name stuff. So French’s loses my sale. Maybe it’s just not worth it to advertise mustard on TV? Maybe French’s makes the no-name stuff too? Maybe I’m just not remembering some classic mustard commercials? Maybe it’s just plain old yellow mustard.

[tags] branding, brands, advertising, heinz, mustard, marketing [/tags]