Niche

Two Ways To Start A Business

Two Ways To Start A Business

Garth Beyer

Starting A Business
One way is to start with your own idea, build a business plan around it, and shout, shout, shout with hopes people hear you, switch from competitors to you, and give their attention. To be successful with this, you have to change the way people think, act, and feel.

Damn difficult to do.

Another way is to start by searching for a niche, an area that’s been untouched, perhaps listening to more than a million complaints of people until you come up with a solution. The method: you find a small problem and you provide a small solution.*

To be successful with this, you gather a tribe of like-minded people who have the same complaint, the same problem and you give your solution to them. Instead of changing the way people think, act, and feel, you’re listening, understanding and reacting to how people think, act, and feel.

You can shout, advertise and sell or you can connect, gather, and give.

Two ways to start a business. I think you know which way is better.

 

Stay Positive & Either Way, Have Fun With It

*All big problems have been solved with big solutions. Times have really changed. Think the taxi industry. Big solution for big problem. Then think of Uber and Lyft. Small problem. Small solution. Huge success.

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You’re A Marketer Now, Get It Right

You’re A Marketer Now, Get It Right

Garth Beyer

New Age Marketing

Marketers used to rent eye-balls, they used to take out a loan for a potential audience, they would buy media space to shotgun market. That was marketing at its most traditional. That was marketing when the masses mattered, when there were only 3 television networks, when developers hadn’t come up with a way to block pop-up ads yet.

When I write you’re a marketer now, I’m not knighting you a marketer, I’m reminding you that you’re a marketer now, as in, you’re a marketer in the 21st century, as in the post-renting, post-loaning, post-shotgun marketing world of it.

Now as a marketer you own eye-balls, you own an audience and you own media space in a niche location. The success of your marketing is dependent in how you find those looking for you, treat those who already find you, and provide for those who frequently visit your home; be it your blog, your catalogue, your YouTube account or some other space your tribe gathers.

Marketing involves ownership, and ownership is scary. The stakes are much higher for marketers than they were 10 years ago. You can’t blame the mass for not clicking your ads, you can’t blame the lack of newspaper circulation for the decreasing sales numbers, you can’t blame Facebook for preventing your video from going viral. If some effort of yours is unsuccessful, it’s your fault. More ad space, bigger banners, extra magazine inserts won’t help.

Getting marketing right involves taking care of what you own.

For many that starts with understanding that you have ownership of an audience and a space.

 

Stay Positive & Remember My Favorite Aspect Of Marketing: You Get To Choose What You Own

And here is some bill the cat for you.

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“Put Dog Shit In A Tube And I’ll Try It”

Garth Beyer

Words from a work colleague after my boss brought back tubed meat and tuna from Switzerland. (Yes, we joked about using it as toothpaste.)

Everything about the tubed food seemed and looked disgusting. I use past tense because they finished the tubes. Nothing new to talk about or cringe from now.

However, a bit of wisdom that managed to squeeze itself out of the tubed food talk is this: why is book cover design so lucrative if we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover?

Answer: Because we do anyway.

Apparently if you put dog shit in a tube and make it look presentable by design, my coworker will try it. It’s the truth, really. To some people canned tuna doesn’t make sense, but tubed tuna does. Consider yogurt and gogurt. Consider toothpaste in bottle verses in a container you dip your brush in. Design matters.

The first step in design (or for any effort to impact people) is to know your audience.

The first thing to know about your audience is they will judge a book by its cover; that’s how you get people to try something, consider a service, open a book, read your blog.

My one defense to this truth and favorite aspect of design is you often get more than one chance to make a good first impression. If the book cover doesn’t engage readers to open it up, then redesign the cover. That simple and most people won’t notice.

And my last design tip. Don’t forget the weird. Because there are weird people who will eat tuna out of a tube, and, yes, as disgusting as it is, there are people who could be persuaded to purchase dog shit in a tube. Maybe not eat it, but at least purchase it.

 

Stay Positive & It’s Actually Sounding Like A Pretty Good Gag Gift To Me

HT to Chip Kidd for being an idol.

Appeal To The Masses, But If That Fails

Garth Beyer

–  Create a gadget for everyone to carry with them.

–  Write a cook book everyone can read.

–  Design a sweatshirt everyone will wear.

–  Build a desk everyone can use.

Good luck… However, if none of those tasks work out and you find yourself incapable of appealing to the masses, perhaps, just perhaps try some of the following:

–  Sketch something only a few may appreciate.

–  Design an app only a few will love.

–  Write a blog only a few will read daily.

–  Build nightstands only a few can get their hands on.

While scarcity practically multiplies your success rate, so does personalization. Make something only a few will love. I’m not sure where anyone got in their minds to be successful you have to appeal to the masses. I’m not even sure why some businesses and individuals make it an end goal.

It also pays to remember you can only stretch yourself out to so many people. Do you think you can appeal to the masses? Better question, do you even want to?

 

Stay Positive & It’s Okay Better If You Don’t

The More Different You Get

Garth Beyer

the scarier it gets.

Weekly I sit down and chat with people carrying around bright, innovative minds. They pitch ideas and ask for my feedback. The majority of ideas are similar to ones already in existence. The trouble seems to be in differentiation or finding the hole, the angle, the niche of their idea.

The further away they get in our brainstorming session from what they already know exists (and works! [and is safe!]), the more scared they get and the quicker they dismiss the idea as “not as good of an idea as I thought it was.”

Niches are the creativist’s worst trap. Asking someone how they will differentiate their business is really asking them how much uncertainty and fear they can dance with.

Sometimes I wonder if what you decide to do with your business is not what differentiates you from others, but that you just do something with your business… that is what will differentiate you from others.

 

Stay Positive & Business Isn’t Like Sports, Oddballs Get Picked First

What Are They Admitting To?

Garth Beyer

Flappy Bird

You’re searching for customers. Your marketing. Your advertising like crazy to get new folks to buy your product or service or enroll in your seminar or MOOC. To get anyone to try whatever you are offering requires them to admit to something. But what is it? Do you know? You need to.

It’s hell trying to top your competitors, it’s even more difficult to get your competitor’s followers to follow you. Why? Because to do so, those followers have to admit that they want more (most don’t) or that they made the wrong choice to begin with.

Take a second to realize how monumental of an internal confession that is.

I keep wondering why so few people who loved Flappy Bird aren’t trying anything similar like Ironpants, Super Ball Juggling or Red Bouncing Ball Spikes. To do so is to admit that they made a wrong choice of playing Flappy Bird to begin with. Either they don’t want to admit to that or they simply don’t want better, they want Flappy Bird.

I don’t suggest you find a niche because you can’t compete with someone like Apple or Zynga. You could certainly make something as good or better than them. Getting people to admit they like you more or that they were wrong to like the other competitor first, that’s the exhaustive (and endless!) battle.

Unless of course, Apple or Zynga die and there’s room in the market for you. Then again, like I said, not everyone is flapping over to different games after Dong Nguyen took Flappy Bird down.

Niches are important. Find them.

*UPDATE: since writing this post IronPants and another flappy bird spinoff has made the top app list. I would be fascinated to see how many users of these apps know of flappy bird.

Stay Positive & It’s Easier To Get People To Admit They Wanted Something Your Competitor Didn’t Offer

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Death Of Spectating In Sports

Garth Beyer

Quickly, don’t be confused. I didn’t say death of “spectator sports.”

1010648_10201588067809783_1465580148_nLast night at Miller Park I watched the Brewers shut out the Cubs. Victory for the Brewers meant that the Cubs are officially the worst team in the league right now. Given that they were tied with the Brewers for that title before the game, victory was not as great to the Brewers as, say, it was to the Chicago Blackhawks.

What I realized though, was that the sport itself didn’t make the game. My great experience was not fueled by the talent and flare of the players. Heck, I could have watched a little league baseball game and been more impressed. That aside, place me in any stadium, field, or rink and what makes it remarkable is everyone in the stands.

Previously called “spectators,” that’s a dying phrase in sports.

A spectator is someone who looks on or watches. Simple as that. But when I scan the stands, I don’t see any spectators. (Worth noting, to be a spectator also implies being silent, taking it all in. It’s difficult to be a spectator when you are texting someone the score, high-fiving those behind you, making noise, and shouting “Let’s Go Brewers.”)

What I see is people connecting, relaxing, cheering, and making the most of their ballgame experience, not just the ballgame. “This spectator sport” and “that spectator sport” are simply categories for people to meet up with like-minded people, not to watch players pitch a ball or hit a puck.

The reason for this post is to note that it is easy to turn a business into a baseball game. The part oft forgotten is that you still need to build a stadium that certain types of people go to. This may mean that there’s a seating limit, certain concessions, and a place for people to purchase matching clothes.

The players/clients don’t make the game/business,                                                                          the game/business makes the players/clients.

BallParkFood for thought: Maybe we don’t go to sporting events to watch them play. Maybe they play sports to get us (the audience/fans/families/superfans) to go crazy, interact with each other, and connect on what I consider a personal level.

 

Stay Positive & Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Garth E. Beyer