Archive for May, 2010

Cleveland Cavs Killer Lebron James Gives Small Business & Startups A Few Lessons

As many in the sports world today are talking about, last night’s Boston Celtics victory over the Cleveland Cavs to eliminate the #1 seeded Cavs from the playoffs was a real shocker.  It was made worse by the fact that it accelerated the summer of Lebron James’ free agency.  For the city of Cleveland and Cavs fans (like me), this was as close to a sporting apocalypse as they have seen since Cleveland’s past sporting meltdowns that are so famous, they have one word names attached to them: the Drive, the Fumble, the Shot and  the Wedge.  So from this debacle…actually they are calling it LeBacle in some circles, there has to be a few lessons learned for us small businesses and startups.  Here are a few quick ones that come to mind:

1. One Star Teams Often Fail– the ongoing critique of the Cavs is that they only have one star on their team, Lebron James.  In the NBA its generally known, that you need to have a team made up of at least two stars and several excellent roll players to win in the playoffs. The Cavs have failed for years to get multiple stars on the team to play next to Lebron.  They have tried, but each time the players have massively underperformed like Mo Williams the last two years. So lesson learned for us businesses is to make sure your team has multiple stars and if you have roll players that may be your contractors/vendors, ensure you have folks that can deliver in the clutch.

2. One Person Should Not Hold A Team Hostage – the Cavs have let Lebron James hold the team, the city and frankly Cleveland sports to some extent hostage.  Everything he wants, he gets.  New players, new coaches, new lineups, even new travel plans like when the team is playing in Miami because Lebron wants to stay out and party instead of returning home, guess what the coach orders – the team to stay an extra night in Miami (well who would blame him for that one – I would take an extra day in Miami too!).  That need to make one person hapy has lead the Cavs to make continual changes to their team to find just the right fit of players to Lebron’s liking.  This has had the effect of destroying any team chemistry. That was so evident in the series against the Celtics.  Cavs players that had succeed for the entire regular season (7 months!) found themselves on the bench. Suddenly the team that dominated the regular season, looked absolutely lost.  Startups and small business can learn from this and aim to have a consistent team, where folks play key roles, keep each other accountable and management makes every effort to not take people in and out of the lineup to match one “star’s” whims.

3. Play Your Heart Out & Show it – the now famous Game 5 where it looked like Lebron James wanted to be anywhere but in a sold out arena of Cavs fans (who absolutely adore and support him to no end) in one of the biggest games of his playoff career.  He played scared, he looked timid and in such a big game the star played so small that the whole world saw it.  This should be an easy lesson for us small businesses and startups.  Go 100% and go with passion and enthusiasm.  Even when you may get down, get back up and fight.  In the biggest “games” for your business, step up and seize control of the game.  Dont wait like Lebron did in Game 5 and let the “game” come to you.  Success will come to those that seek it out.

4. Do Not Ignore Your Fans – No one looks at it this way, but they really should.  The Cavs fans are Lebron’s customers.  If no one showed up to see him play, would he get those multi-million dollar contracts?  No! The Cavs fans have enthusiastically supported the Cavs and Lebron since he first put on that jersey.   There is simply no fan base in the US that will support Lebron the way he has been supported for years – even without the championships.  These fans are Lebron’s customers.  Can he get other fans/customers in multiple other cities?  Yes, or course he can but will they be as rabid, as passionate and will they literally make him the face of the entire city like they would in Cleveland if Lebron delivers that long lost championship that has eluded the city for over 40 years? Never.  So lesson learned for small business and startups, when you succeed and you start growing, do not be so easy to turn away from your bread and butter – the customers that got you to your success. That means be very careful because the grass is not always greener on the other side and be very careful in not serving and supporting your core customers.

5. Life/Business Goes On After A Loss – Ok, this lesson should actually be taken from the Cavs fans and less from Lebron.  Its maybe also a little self-healing from me.  After the loss and likely departure for Lebron from Cleveland, life goes on.  DO NOT LAUGH, but I will move on to the other team that I swore off a few years ago for their ineptitude, the Cleveland Browns.  As we likely close the chapter on Lebron in Cleveland and the chance of winning that elusive major sports championship that Cleveland fans so want, we just adjust and say well now our hopes are that Mike Holmgren can take the Browns to the promise land and end the 40 year drought.  So for your business, always be flexible and if someone/something or a major project is let down, bounce up and move on because that success will come.  It will come one day and it will feel so good…..just like I know I will feel when the Browns finally win the Super Bowl! (as my wife, the Steelers fan and Pittsburgh native, mocks me from across the room).

Tell us what you learned from Lebron’s and the Cavs collapse.

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Archive for May, 2010

Diary of a Startup: A Few Lessons Learned For Entrepreneurs

On a day that I am bewildered by my Cleveland Cavaliers and their absolutely horrendous performance last night, I am a little reflective.  After all, us Cleveland fans likely have just watched Lebron James‘ last home game in Cleveland as a Cavalier.  When he officially leaves (I truly hope he doesnt but I am a Cleveland fan and we are used to such let downs), maybe I will do a post on how startups and small business can learn from the Cavs/Lebron breakup.  Until then, here is another installment in our continued feature at KikScore called Diary of a Startup.

This one is a quick summary of a few lessons learned from our experience and from other folks I have talked to about their startup experiences:

1. Bandwidth Limitations. No I am not talking about your broadband cable access.  Instead, bandwidth as in you and your team’s ability to keep iterating and making improvements while also juggling all of the operational and marketing aspects of a startup.These types of bandwidth and resource constraints are especially present in nights and weekend startups.  One of the ways we have dealt with the bandwidth issue is continually working to prioritize items/tasks/enhancements/issues as a team.  But as you prioritize do not forget about that enhancement that you talked about doing three months ago that may have been de-prioritized along the way! Also as needed, it is key that contractors, freelancers and outsourced resources get used to increase overall bandwidth for the startup. But remember these tips and tools when using offshore resources.

2. Manage Expectations – As with anything in life, it is important to manage everyone’s expectations including yourself.  The reason why?  Nearly everything you do at a start-up from getting going, getting something developed, partnership discussions, getting funding, optimizing your product and your homepage, takes longer than you think.  That does not mean you should sit back, because you still need to push and push hard.  However, you just need to prepare yourself, your team, customers etc and appropriately manage timelines and understand that sometimes things beyond your control come in that may delay things.  The trick is not to get upset, but figure out how to keep things on track and moving forward.

3. Continually Get Feedback – This is an underestimated one, but has been incredibly valuable to us.  Talk to everyone about your product, your business model and especially have customers (and potential customers) give you feedback.  This is so helpful in giving you and your team a new perspective and has also, at least with us, given us some great new ideas for channels for KikScore.  Here is a an excellent post at the Untemplater Site by Jun Loayza on a feedback plan for startups. Another related note is take the negative feedback in stride.  Frankly, some of the negative or constructive feedback is more valuable than the other feedback.  And please be careful not to just dismiss someone’s feedback, especially customer feedback because you think you know better or you say, “What does that person know?”  That is a sure ticket to failure.

4. Put That Feedback in Perspective – So you first need to get feedback, but then what do you do with it?  The trick is not to act on every piece of your feedback that you receive.  That will set you off in 1,000 different directions and be counterproductive.  Also you do not want to just dismiss feedback.  This is where it is important for the team to approach the feedback from three very basic perspectives: a) common sense; b) what will make the customer experience better; and c) what is “doable” and actionable based on resources, priorities and strategy. Here is a recent post on how we acted on customer feedback.

5. Social Media is Not the Marketing  Savior  – Don’t get me wrong, using social media is a low cost way to build brand awareness for your startup, get leads, make connections to though leaders, get great introductions to partners, manage your startup’s reputation and respond to customer issues.  Frankly doing all of this via Twitter, Facebook, a blog and other social media channels is a must these days for most startups.  BUT, doing all that does not guarantee success.  Frankly, these days doing all of things and having a social media strategy allows you just to play in the game.  In order to win and really succeed as a startup (and be a repeat MVP like Lebron James), you need to give your customers a great customer experience, make your product easy to use and help your customers solve a problem that they have.  As my friend Shashi B has told me before, no amount of marketing, social media or marketing campaigns will protect your company from a sucky product! Make your product great, make sure your customers are happy and that they evangalize your product and the marketing then comes a lot easier.  That actually will make the social media marketing easier as Zappos has demonstrated. In fact, here is a good post on the story of Zappos with an excellent and informative powerpoint deck that is worth a read.

Let us know if you have any lessons learned from your startup or small business.

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Archive for May, 2010

Fringe and Small Business

I must admit, I am a Fringe junkie… the X-Files of the new generation… if you are a follower of Fringe, or Fringe science one can see how an obsession with a theory (or a job) can overtake you.

Let’s take the Walter Bishop of ‘our world’ vs. the Walter Bishop of ‘the other side’… why is it that he within our world is attempting recovery from insanity whilst the ‘other’ Walter seems to have done quite well for himself and been spared the asylum visit?  One could theorize that our world Walter became so obsessed with not only bringing Peter across but also with protecting him all these years and it eventually overtook his entire psyche.  Where the other side Walter has been focused on finding Peter, he seems (at least in our brief introduction to him last week) to be well put together, so perhaps not as ‘obsessed’ with this mission or at least capable of keeping the sanity surrounding his zeal.  An entrepreneur can easily be led astray down one Walter path vs. the other… so how do you keep the sanity while trying to get your business off the ground?

Here are some key areas that have helped us at KikScore:

Organization and Time Management

Know your market/customer  and react to feedback

Delegate – If you have a team, you can’t do it all yourself

Set clear goals for all team members and communicate

Keep track of lessons learned

What are your Fringe theories?  And how do you keep your sanity in your start-up?

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Archive for May, 2010

How Do You Judge A Website?

Let’s assume that you are shopping from a website that doesn’t use our KikScore service.  Why?  I don’t know…maybe you like to live dangerously.  How do you judge website (and the corresponding business)?  I don’t know about you, but it’s very similar to judging a book by a cover.  I mean, it is a marketing tool, so you are supposed to make decisions on the information and images that it provides.  But in making your surface-level decisions, here are some tips in helping you form a better non-kikscore shopping experience:

1.  Contact information:  A warning sign for a less than robust shopping experience would be the lack of contact information (outside a email address).  A phone number isn’t necessarily a guarantee of a great company, but knowing a mailing address, twitter info and other pieces of contact information is a good indicator that a company is interested in being having satisfied customers.

2.  Management Bios —  A site that provides actual names and backgrounds of its management team is another indication that it is trying to be transparent (and reachable).  Looking at the experience of the management team should give you an indication of prior achievement in business and, relatedly, an understanding of being trustworthy in business (at least it’s more of an indication than a faceless corporate or product name).

3.  Privacy Policy:  A privacy policy is a voluntary commitment, but it is an commitment and clear indication of what a company will do with your information post-transaction. 

4.  Look and Feel of the Site:  A sharp looking site with a minimum number of typos is a commitment.  Serious and professional business people will take the time to convey the right image and message.

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Archive for May, 2010

KikScore Interviews Zadyball Creator Alayna Slinker

While recently shopping for a unique baby gift for a friend’s newest arrival, I stumbled upon Zadyball – a unique toy that combines the things babies love best: putting soft stuff in their mouth and having a snuggle buddy.  If only I’d found this when my daughter was that small!  Zadyball is a small company that is doing wonders for moms and babies around the globe!  We are very thankful that Alayna took the time to  share the exciting Zadyball journey with KikScore.

1. Tell us about Zadyball and who you focus on serving?

A Zadyball is a handcrafted toy designed with babies in mind. They are soft to hold and cuddle, and have lots of knotted fabric strings to grab and rub. Zadyball is easy for young babies to hold on to, and it quickly becomes a favorite!

I made the first Zadyball in 2004 when my son was about 6 months old. He had a stuffed animal with a knotted string for a tail. He loved playing with the string, and would rub it to help him fall asleep. Since the string was his favorite part of the toy, I decided to make a toy for him with lots of strings for him to play with.

He loved that ball SO much and took it with him everywhere we went, and refused to sleep without it.

We got comments on it all the time, usually to the effect of “what is that thing?” And, after I explained it, many people said “hey, my kid would like that too!” So, I decided to start making them for my friends and giving them as gifts at baby showers. Other shower guests started offering to buy them from me, and I eventually started selling them online and in small stores all over the world.

Our focus is to bring a little bit of happiness to the lives of babies and their families.

2. Where will Zadyball focus most of its energy in 2010?

This year, I’ve been focusing on giving the website a bit of a “facelift”. I’ve been working on improving the product images as well as optimizing the website for search engines.

3. If you had 2 lessons learned from your business that you could pass on to others about having an online business, what are those?

One thing that I’ve learned is that quality pictures are CRUCIAL to online sales. In a “real” store, people can use all five senses to view a product. They can pick it up, shake it, feel it, throw it, even smell and taste it if they really want to. But, the only sense that is available when buying online is SIGHT. So, what they are seeing had better look good!

The second thing I’ve learned is how important it is to be unique. When shopping online, buyers can view products from all over the world side-by-side. You have to be one of a kind in order to stand out.

4. If your business/store could be any movie or movie character, what movie/movie character would it be and why?

Well, I think that to run my business, I’d like to be like Elasta-Girl from The Incredibles. I have to be flexible in order to make everything work. And I couldn’t do it without my family by my side – with all their super strengths!

5. If Zadyball could have a dream spokesperson for your company who would it be and why?

A fabulously stylish mom who wants to have fantastic toys for her children.  Someone who people can relate to.

6. How do the folks at Zadyball let loose after a busy day working?

In addition to running my business, I am a full-time mother of three, so I don’t have a lot of down-time.  Most often, my work is done while they are sleeping. But, my best times are spent just hanging out with my favorite people – my little munchkins, and my wonderful husband.

7. Do you have any parting thoughts for our readers and the small business community?

Never become complaisant. Always be on the lookout for ways to improve your business and your product. And listen to your customers – they are the best source for great ideas!

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Archive for May, 2010

Follow Iron Man to Get Small Business Success – The 5 Steps

Probably my favorite of the super hero movie characters, Iron Man, makes his much anticipated return today in Iron Man 2.  I remember when the first Iron Man came out – about at the same time when The Dark Knight was out – and thinking this movie and the character are just going to be another lame super hero movie.  But I was soooo wrong.  The movie, Iron Man, had an awesome story, great visuals, it was really funny and a great cast.  It truly was so different, at least in my eyes, than the typical comic magazine turned big budget movie.

So can small businesses (and even startups) learn a few things from the movie and Tony Stark who is Iron Man? Absolutely and it would be fitting that we do because after all Tony Stark is the entrepreneur and the head of the fictional Stark Industries.  So here are a few learnings we small businesses can all learn from Iron Man:

1. Be Innovative:  At the beginning of the first Iron Man, Stark was not only holed up in a cave-prison in Afghanistan, but also surrounded by a massively armed set of guards called the Ten Rings.  What did he do, he improvised and out of basically scrap Stark created the Iron Man suit (v1.0) in that cave to take on his guards.  Here is where small businesses may really identify with this parallel of being surrounded and having to break out in order to get customers to recognize that you exist.  By being innovative in a way that helps your customers and solves a problem for them, you can break your business out and get more exposure.  Lesson Learned: Continually look to innovate and improve not only your product, but also your business processes to make yourself more efficient, nimble and flexible in the marketplace.   That way you can break out of that cave and get your customers attention. By the way, here are 4 Tips to Spark Innovation in Your Small Business by Prasad Thammineni, the CEO of OfficeDrop.  It is an excellent post.

2. Avoid Distractions & Stay Focused:  The man underneath the Iron Man suit, Tony Stark, is a serious playboy who likes the wine, women and parties (kinda like that joker QB from Pittsburgh!).  What’s wrong with a few martinis before a big fight, Tony probably thinks?  So he has ample distractions to take him away from his efforts to protect the world against the “bad guys.”  But, Tony does ultimately succeed and actually innovates by building a new Iron Man suit and some seriously awesome weaponry. He does this by putting those distractions aside and staying focused on the tasks at hand.  Small businesses and startups suffer from the same issue of being bombarded by near constant distractions from achieving our goals.  We have to learn to channel our inner Tony Stark and put aside the distractions so we can always remember to focus on our core business goals.  Lesson Learned:  Know your weaknesses that can lead to your business being distracted and set up a method for steering clear of those distractions so you can remain focused on your goals. Here is a good post that has tips for small businesses on Staying Focused on the Tasks that Matter by Ali Hale.

3. Have a Great Advisors and Business Partners:  Pepper Potts is Stark’s assistant and James Rhodes is Stark’s military advisor.  Potts continually works to keep Stark on the straight and narrow away from his numerous vices.  Rhodes, on the other hand, bails out Starks and also gives him continual guidance on all things military and weapons capabilities.  Both Potts and Rhodes play a pivotal role in helping Stark live up to all of the Iron Man hype and deliver on his important promises.  Small businesses and especially startups are just like Tony Stark in need of that guidance.  With all of the distractions, endless choices that small businesses have to make and the pressures to stay ahead of the competition by being innovative, having strong business advisors and partners is critical for success.  Without their guidance and direction, being successful in your business is that much harder.  Lesson Learned:  It really is worthwhile to take the time to run ideas by mentors and seek out advisors that have been there before!  Getting guidance from others, especially successful entrepreneurs, on key business decisions and strategic goals may really pay off in the long run for your business. Here is a post about how we have found advisors to be helpful at KikScore called, Why Didn’t We Think of That.

4. Take risks:  Stark’s original Iron Man suit was not only innovative, but it was a huge risk.  But with the help of his cellmate, he measured his risks and builds that suit of armor.  Stark was surrounded by risks before he created his new invention – having limited time to build it, creating it in hiding while being watched by his guards and all of the while being severely injured and getting no treatment.  But Stark believed in his invention and had laser-like focus to quickly build the suit with the help of his cellmate partner, Dr. Yinsen.  His risk paid off in that he was able to escape from the Ten Rings.  Being risk-adverse, is simply not an option for small businesses especially in our hyper-competitive marketplace.  Therefore small businesses need to be prepared to take acceptable levels of risk after understanding and appreciating the consequences of the risk and taking steps to mitigate those risks.  Lesson Learned:  Instead of running away from risk, sometimes small businesses need to accept and take the risks in implementing (or even changing) your business strategy and tactics to create major success.

5. Be Resilient:  In the movie, Stark’s spirit and will are continually tested either by himself or by the villains.  During his slugfest with the Ten Rings and later in the movie with Obadiah Stane’s much bigger suit, Spark in his own Iron Man suit keeps taking vicious hit after hit.  But Stark  continually gets back up time and time again after these multiple and brutal hits.  Then at the very end, in the heat of battle Stark enlists Potts to help him out.  After all of the hits Iron Man has taken, he and Potts creatively lure Stane to his doom and Iron Man finally prevails.  Small businesses and startups should remember that need for resiliency and the ability to get back on your feet again after falling or even taking a hit from a competitor.  That ability to repeatedly get back up, learn from your mistakes and take those hits, can really pay off in the long run by making your business stronger.   Lesson Learned: Your small business may make mistake or take hits, the key is to keep fighting.  If you adjust, stay flexible and keep fighting back, your business can eventually prevail. Remember, as the management and business guru Jim Collins and author of Good to Great has said, “Resiliency (not perfection) is the signature of greatness, be it in a person, an organization, or a nation!”

Small business and Iron Man really do have a lot in common.  So try to keep your small business  focused, resilient and take those risks while being innovative and seeking out guidance from partners and key advisors.

How do you think a small business can be like Iron Man?

Enjoy Iron Man 2!

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Archive for May, 2010

Sometimes the Best Security is Common Sense

This past weekend I spent a lot of time online researching software.  Sounds pretty uneventful (even a bit nerdy).  But unfortunately, I was doing the research after I purchased it and attempted to load it on my computer.  At that point McAfee warned me that many users have indicated that the software (that I paid $70 for) was malware/spyware.  Then and only then did I have the bright idea to research the service.  Wouldn’t you know it, I just paid $70 to infect my home computer.  I’m not stupid (not always), so why did I do this?  Because a friend recommended the software — and he seemed savvy, so I blindly bought without researching the service or the company. 

A recent posting by PC World shows that I’m not alone.  Routinely consumers share sensitive personal information on social media sites, in blog posts and responding to phishing scams.  In fact almost 40% of surveyed users indicated that they have posted their full birth dates (including year) on a social media site.  At the same time I bet most of these people shred their bills and sensitive mail.  Why even bother…you’re basically emailing fraudsters the keys to your house when you provide personal identifying information online.  In fact, that’s happened too, where people have been robbed by FaceBook “friends” after indicating that they are going on vacation. 

Without revealing any sensitive information about yourself, please share any unintentional disclosures you have made online.

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Archive for May, 2010

Please pass the salt and pepper…oh, and don't forget my personal credit card processing machine!

A few weeks ago I was eating at a local sushi restaurant here in Denver (Banzai Sushi – highly recommend it) when something happened that has never happened to me in a restaurant before.  After my wife and I finished eating our delicious dinner we asked our waiter for the check and instead of bringing us a money holder with the bill in it, he reached into his back pocket and placed a miniature credit card processing machine on our table with a paper copy of the bill and left.

After my wife and I stared at it and then each other for a second we read the very basic steps on the machine and in seconds swiped our own credit card, printed the bill, signed the check, and left.  What a great idea!  I am not sure why or how this idea was formulated at this specific restaurant but I imagine that it started with some fraud complaints of some type from customers.  I thought that this solution was a great opportunity for the restaurant to not only resolve the possible fraud issues around customers giving a perfect stranger their credit card but it also saved time.  Other than the obvious additional expense of the credit card readers that would be needed I am not sure why more restaurants have not started implementing this new process.

I did a little research online and also found out that a new device called the SmartSwipe is becoming more popular recently as well.  This at-home credit card swiping machine that connects to your home computer through the USB port takes another part out of the fraud equation when shopping online, a virus on your computer, by immediately encrypting your credit card information and sending it to the merchant securely.  This device makes it impossible for trojan horse-type viruses that may unknowingly reside on your home computer to secretly grab your credit card information while you type it into your browser.  I think this is another great invention that speeds up credit card transactions and makes them less liable to fraud.

Have you noticed any great new inventions out there that have reduced fraud while shopping online or in stores?  (besides KikScore of course)

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Archive for May, 2010

What Sells a Product: Marketing or Functionality?

In both my day job and with KikScore, there is a raging debate…what really drives consumers to buy your product or service?  If you talk with the product team, it’s the features and capabilities of your product.  Customers are stunned by the available features of your product and must have it.  The sheer elegance of this service makes your product a customer priority.

On the other hand, the sales team is convinced it can sell “ice to an Eskimo”…that regardless of the product, through persuasiveness, a salesperson can convince a shopper to become a customer.   Don’t even get me started on the branding team…they literally believe that the choice of font will dictate the annual revenues.  They may be right, but it’s only for really cool fonts.

Who’s right?  This is an important question, as it really dictates how resources are allocated.  For KikScore, we’ve been working hard on product features and new services.  Sounds like a good idea, but that means we are not applying time and money towards marketing and sales/creating new channel relationships. 

There really is no way to find out the right balance.  Successful products magically seem to have great features, slick marketing and a very solid sales team.  Is it a chicken and egg scenario?  Or do all of these need to exist before your product takes off?

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Archive for May, 2010

Shashi B, the Social Media Swami Talks & Small Businesses Should Listen

The Social Media Swami, Shashi Bellamkonda from Network Solutions, joined the Small Business Hour Talk Show to discuss  how small businesses can best use social media to help their businesses. During the interview he also discussed the trust level small businesses hold with the public, whether performance reviews are useful, and much more.  If you have never heard Shashi Bellamkonda, you really should listen.  He is one of the most genuine, thoughtful and practical speakers that is out there on small business, social media and marketing.  You may recall, Shashi was the one of the main speakers at our Social Commerce Camp DC back in February this year.  Look out because the next Social Commerce Camp is coming to the Denver/Boulder area later this year!

Click HERE to listen to the interview of Shashi. There is 20 minute intro discussion at the beginning of the recording and Shashi’s highly useful interview is after that.

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