When you launch your business or new product, all you can think about is it being successful and embraced by everyone. I mean what could be better than that? Maybe the better outcome would be a less popular product. Hear me out on this.
My wife and I were sitting outside at the Cherry Cricket this weekend (a great place to grab a burger in Denver). About every 5 minutes, we saw a different Range Rover. They drove by in different colors and different levels of cleanliness. But they all seemed to be driven by the same person. He had spiky hair, big aviator glasses and a preppy shirt. At that moment I declared that no matter how much I liked the car, I would never own one — as I didn’t fit the prototype.
The same thing has happened with Burberry. It used to be rare to see the Burberry pattern on an item of clothing. Now you have Burberry wallets, baby clothes and hairbands. And these are being worn by near-homeless people.
At what point does success hurt you? While Apple makes excellent products, there are certainly more people that are using a Mac because they don’t want to follow the crowd and use a PC. This will continue to be the case until, of course, Apple becomes too popular and then something else will take the place of those rooting for a niche player.
Does this matter for a small business owner? Probably not right away. As when the your product or business takes off (and becomes the newest thing for the aviator glasses, prepster set) you’ll likely sell your business. But if you hold on, take some time, watch the crowds, and decide if your brand is being hurt by its own success.
Late last week, PressTV asked to interview KikScore about some recent developments in cybersecurity and cybercrime. PressTV’s Rhonda Pence sat down with me to discuss a number of topics related to online fraud, safe online shopping, the security of our networks and the rise in power and damage that hackers inflict on the public. Her report also covered a recent study that found that 1 in 5 online shoppers have experienced a cybersecurity issue when they shop online. This echoes what we previously covered in an earlier post about a March 2010 government report that found a 22% increase in cybercrime complaints.
Take a look at the video report. It is short and about 2 minutes long.
After watching the video, you may want to take a look at our 5 Must Read Tips for Safe Online Shopping. It will help you increase your chances of staying safe. Also special thanks to Rhonda and Nick Ewing for helping me with getting a copy of the video interview. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
Do you like a clean shave? No, I am not talking about on your face or your legs. How about your head? I came across HeadBlade on Twitter late last year. For those of you who do not know who or what HeadBlade is it is only the global leader in head shaving razors and headcare products for head shavers. HeadBlade offers its head razors and related headcare products on its website and in more than 25,000 retailers, including Walgreens and Rite Aid. Company President Todd Greene founded HeadBlade for head shavers who adopted the look as their chosen lifestyle. Some well-known Headbladers include Deal or No Deal host and former doctor from St. Elsewhere, Howie Mandel, American Idol star Chris Daughtry and 2009 British Open champion Stewart Cink. Todd not only is the founder and President of Headblade but is also a blogger for The Huffington Post. Swing by the HeadBlade website to see the Picture, User and Letter of the month from happy Headbladers.
Todd took some time out to answer questions and give us his take on HeadBlade and growing a business.
1. Tell us about HeadBlade and who you focus on serving?
The original HeadBlade was designed in 1999 and was the first razor designed for the scalp. Ten years later we’re still the only company that makes and sells razor and headcare items for people who shave their heads.
2. How did you get your started selling online?
I came up with the concept in 1997 and it wasn’t until 99 that I brought it to market. Since I had little start-up funding (think family and friends) I had to do everything myself. I didn’t have any experience with wholesale and since my first production run was 1,000 units, I was not producing on a large enough scale to consider major box retailers. And the costs to go into them are very high when you consider the margin is fairly low, you have to pay for sales and rep group, you’re responsible for shipping/returns/damages, plus slotting fees. Really the internet was my only option at the time. Since I had worked as an artist for software companies in Seattle, and had experience working for both GeoCities and ESPN.com, I realized the value of creating and website and selling direct.
3. What inspires you to grow the HeadBlade business?
HeadBlade is a my passion. Essentially I created the better mousetrap. I had been shaving my head since 1992 and there was no company that spoke (or sold) to the demographic. Eventually I designed and made prototypes. Once I went through the patent process, and realized none of the large companies were interested in my idea, I decided to go it alone.
4. If you had 2 lessons learned from your business that you could pass on to others about selling online, what are those?
The first is that everything takes longer and costs more than you originally plan. I’m not talking Murphy’s Law necessarily, but pad your calendar for unforeseen disruptions. The other is that the customer is always right. If someone sends you an email complaining about shipping costs, or items out of stock, etc; take a deep breath and realize you can empower them and give them a very positive opinion of your company. Word of mouth is huge, especially with all the networking sites, and nothing is better than great word of mouth. Just ask anyone who has written or read a restaurant review on Yelp!
5. Where will HeadBlade focus most of its energy in 2010?
We are focusing on social networking sites, our affiliate system, and new product development.
6. As we start 2010 what do you see as 2 new trends in your business?
The large razor companies, Gillette and Schick, are rolling out new versions and the emphasis is now on a comfortable shave, not the number of blades. This is huge for HeadBlade because we were never part of the razor wars; we’ve been making ergonomic shavers and headcare for guys that shave their heads. Now that the cold war is over everyone can focus on what makes a great shave; and our design and headcare products are both performance and price competitive.
7. If your business/store could be any movie or movie character, what movie/movie character would it be and why?
We have a great company and very cool culture, especially since we make head shaving products. Think Die Hardmeets Office Space.
8. If HeadBlade could have a dream spokesperson for your company who would it be and why?
Michael Jordan. He broke down so many barriers and even dropped an endorsement deal with a haircare company to shave. I’d like to say Gandhi would have been great but not sure if he wanted to be so commercial.
9. What is the biggest challenge that HeadBlade faces as a small business and how do you work to overcome that challenge?
Our biggest challenge is getting to the Tipping Point as Malcom Gladwell would put it. People still don’t know about us.
10. Do you have any parting thoughts for our readers and the small business community?
Read “Dream” by Paulo Coelho. Then go for it. Oh, yeah, everyone should shave their head at least once in their life. Use HeadBlade when you do.
We at KikScore would like to thank Todd and HeadBlade for giving the community his thoughts on the small business experience. If you have questions for Todd, please leave them in the comments below.
You have a great idea, some money in the bank and a little extra time. So do you go it alone and launch a business? Or, instead, do you find partners to help you make your idea a reality?
It’s a common dilemma. The upside about going alone seems to be having absolute control over the product direction. No need to reach agreement on how to approach the market, pricing or even the name itself. For example, with KikScore, we have several meetings each week to make sure we’re all on the same page and updated on development and partner development. If this were a sole enterprise, that time could be saved (or at least redirected).
But being alone isn’t all sunshine and flowers (or whatever else you may find appealing). With sole control comes sole responsibility. If there is an issue with your business or customer service, you need to solve it. If you are great at product design but not sales, well, too bad. And forget brainstorming, you’re the brain and the storm. There’s a good summary of the pros and cons in this blog post.
How about the number of partners? Does it get more or less complicated to run your business if the number of partners increases? I don’t have any hard studies on this, but anecdotal information (i.e. KikScore’s experience growing from 4 to 7 partners) has not been too impactful. I think the most important thing with partners is to have an odd number….that way you don’t have stalemates on important votes.
Do you have any business partners? Or are you going it alone?
While researching a couple of issues from a recent KikScore customer signup, the importance of a quick and informative response to current and would be customers became critically evident. As a small business, you need to educate your customers so they have confidence in the product you are providing, and also share information in layman’s terms to alleviate confusion and not tech-speak your customers into oblivion.
I struggle with this balance while straddling the technical and marketing role at KikScore (and in my day job too). Your customer base doesn’t share the in-depth knowledge that your team has on the inner-workings of your system, and thus you need to take a step back when responding to a customer inquiry/issue and put yourself in the customer’s shoes. This entails not only empathizing with the issue at hand, but also providing deeper context surrounding the potential resolution/fix to the customer’s concern and conveying that back to them in a timely and informative manner.
In the world of social media today, any response you share with customers (and prospects) can (and most likely will) be posted or passed along the internet waves and will have an impact on not only the legitimacy of your business/product but also on its future branding potential.
I love being a small business owner for several reasons: you’re on the forefront of trends; you interact with other small business owners and share ideas; you are forced to think creatively about getting the word out about your business. But the thing i love more than anything about owning a small business is wearing my KikScore baseball hat. First off, it’s pretty cool as far as those type of caps go (it’s a washed out grey, so it goes with almost anything…my wife disagrees, but what does she know?)
I’ve been wearing corporate baseball caps for years…usually from my day-job/corporate employer. So it has special meaning to me to wear my own branded gear. But here’s the question — does it actually do anything for KikScore? I’ve been walking around every airport, city park and taco stand with my hat on, but I haven’t seen a spike in traffic since I’ve been wearing it. Same goes for my KikScore bumper sticker. So is this just a vanity hat?
This weekend, my parents flew out to Denver to visit my wife and me. I’m at the airport by 7:30 am on Saturday morning. Through the crowd I see the outlines of my parents. My Dad is wearing a baseball cap. But as he approaches, it’s not the KikScore hat I gave him, but some free hat his neighbor gave him. What the hell is going on?! So I ask him about it and he sheepishly said he can’t find it. Can’t find it? Not sure if I mentioned this, but this is my DAD. So if the hat doesn’t engender any positive mojo with him, what are my chances with a complete stranger?
That all being said, I’ve now run out of the second batch of hats and bumper stickers — as friends and family keep asking for the free gear. So I’m probably going to order more, but is it just an ego thing or is it good business?
What are your thoughts about the effects of branded SWAG for your small business? Does your Dad at least wear your gear?
The Internet Crime Complaint Center is a partnership between the National White Collar Crime Center and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and is set up to receive complaints of crime on the internet. The Complaint Center is known as IC3 and annual issues a report notifying the public of trends that they see in complaints that they have received from the public about cybercrime. IC3 received complaints across a wide spectrum of cybercrimes including online fraud, computer intrusions and hacking, theft of trade secrets, identity theft and international money laundering. The 2009 Internet Crime Report was just published in mid-March 2010 and here are some of the key findings:
1) There was a 22% increase in cybercrime complaints in 2009 compared to 2008 (336, 655 total complaints)
2) More than a half billion dollars in monetary losses were reported in 2009 – $559.7 million – from cybercrime
3) The top 5 categories of reported offenses from victims were: a) non-delivered merchandise(19.9%); identity theft (14.1%), credit card fraud (10.4%), auction fraud (10.3%) and computer fraud (7.95%).
4) Of those victims that reported monetary losses from the cybercrime, the mean dollar loss was $5,580 and the median was $575.
5) The vast majority of the complaints were made from the United States, but IC3 received complaints from victims in Canada, the UK, Australia and India.
6) The perpetrators in the United States tended to reside in the followings states: California, Florida, New York, the District of Columbia, Texas and Washington. A number of perpetrators were also alleged to have been in the UK, Nigeria, Canada, Malaysia and Ghana.
What does all of this mean? All of this reinforces that online shoppers must remain vigilant when they shop online. Cybercrime is only increasing. We have covered in previous posts 5 Steps for a Safe Online Shopping Experience. Shoppers should familiarize yourself with these and other steps to keep you safe online. The Ic3 also listed a good resource at www.lookstoogoodtobetrue.com that consumers can look to for consumer alerts, tips and fraud trends. Separately, we have also given online sellers guidance as well on ways that merchants can build, demonstrate and increase trust for their website visitors so they can sell more.
We imagine cybercrime will only continue to grow and so we must be prepared to combat it by demanding transparency online and arming ourselves with information and safe shopping tactics so we do not become another victim.
Please tell us what you think of the 2009 Internet Crime Report and these statistics.
This is the first in a two part series on leadership traits and skills that can help increase the chances of startup and small business success. There are literally thousands of books and probably many more blog posts on how to succeed in a start up or small business. There are some great sites solely devoted to these topics like the Small Company Blog and StartupNation. Books on leadership in business are also everywhere including ones by like Jack Welch’s Straight from the Gut and Jim Collins who wrote Good to Great and Built to Last. This posts, however, actually tries to bridge these two areas and discuss leadership traits and skills that can help a startup or small business succeed.
In my time at Kikscore and also in conversations with friends, contacts and folks I have met at conferences like SXSW, there seems to be a consensus that the following traits really can help bolster your company:
1. Embrace Wearing Multiple Hats: Small businesses and startups have in their fabric that they are resource constrained. As a result startups and small businesses that often succeed are the ones where the owners are comfortable juggling multiple tasks that may straddle finance, marketing, technology, customer service, operations and business development. But even more importantly the owners need not just embrace the multiple hats, but also at the very same time constantly be thinking two to three steps ahead to determine when is the best time: a) that you need to switch hats and put on another operational hat or b) when you need to put on a brand new hat in order to ensure success in a certain area of your business. At early stages of startups and small businesses, the ability for owners to successfully wear these different hats can even determine whether a company survives or fails. This trait also dovetails with the fourth trait below because it is also important to know when to put down the hat and instead hire an expert.
2. Take & Give Feedback: Owners and leaders in startups and small business need to embrace literally 360 degree feedback. This is feedback from customers, from vendors, partners, investors, fellow employees, their management team and even their own families! A continuous feedback loop from all of these parties ensures that you, your business, your product, your team and your partners are having an open and transparent conversation to put your business in the best position for success. Instead of shying away from feedback, encourage and embrace it especially from your team and your customers. At first it may be uncomfortable but in the end if you have some level of detachment and a lack of sensitivity/insecurity to others’ comments you can really grow yourself and become a better leader. Continual feedback from your customers is also critical for building a great product that customers cant get enough of and keep buying!
3. Focus and Refocus: A startup and small business pulls owners and management in many directions. As a result, it is very easy to lose the focus of your company and your plans for growth because you let other external factors drive your focus. It is imperative to have a focused set of objectives/goals for the company. But as a company you need to do more than just have these objectives/goals. The best startups and small business keep these objectives/goals in the back of their mind in every action they take. Even more importantly, they measure what they did yesterday, are doing today and will do tomorrow against these objectives/goals. That is why it is critical that on a regular basis that startup and small business management track progress of the company and day to day tasks against these objectives/goals. Only by doing this will you be able to have a core focus and also continually make sure you refocus on the most important objectives for the business. We outlined the importance of keeping your startup focused in a previous post here as well as methods to maintain that focus here.
4. Hire and manage outsourced resources: While your role in the startup or small business may be to wear many hats, a critical job is to know when its time to call in an expert in a certain operational area. When it is clear that you need assistance for product development, marketing, strategy, customer service or even back office operations, its time to outsource. Outsourcing can save you valuable time, money and help you focus on your core operations and goals of growing your business. While you focus, your outsourced vendors can step in and help you. But too many outsourcing arrangements fail. It is not enough just to hire a vendor to perform an operational function for you. It is critical to the success of your business that you set expectations, train, and create defined deliverables that your outsourced vendor can understand and meet. It is imperative to set clear expectations, actively manage the outsourced resources and continually measure the value the vendor brings to your company. In the hiring and managing of these resources, you have to be comfortable with quickly and decisively terminating outsourced vendor relationships that are not working. Here are a few tools you can use to help manage outsourced technology developers.
5. Be a Great Teammate: Startups and small businesses are only as good as their respective teams. Therefore the team dynamic is instrumental in business success. As a result for your company, it is imperative that you support your teammates and you continually deliver great results in your role on the team. But that is not enough. Great teammates are the ones that go far beyond what is expected and are relentless in their pursuit of a great product and phenomenal customer experience. They step in and fill voids when they may exist but the void is actually not readily apparent. These teammates think two, three and sometimes four steps ahead and take on the responsibility to address the issues that will come up down the road. The best startups and small businesses are the ones where the teammates continually push each other so that they can each grow to make each other better. That in turn makes the company and the product better. Great teammates also mean your fans and customers are happy! For tips on building the right team check out this excellent post on that topic.
Look out for Part 2 in this series that will be published next week. Until then, please tell us what you think about the traits and skills you have seen in successful startups and small business.
Every generation has a movie that defines it. It seems pretty obvious that this generation will be defined by Hot Tub Time Machine. There have been plenty of movies about time travel, but what other combines time travel with hot tubbing and the 80s? The fact that John Cusak is poking fun of the decade that established him will establish this movie as a all-time classic.
In gearing up for this movie, I started thinking, what would I do for KikScore if I had access to at HTTM (yes, we need to create an acronym for it…it’s too long to keep typing). Here’s some thoughts:
1. Funding: I would have purchased as many credit default swaps on subprime loans as possible. That would have taken care of funding.
2. Avoid Certain Vendors: The biggest challange we have faced as a company was initially working with the wrong third-party developers. We soon corrected, but we essentially flushed money down the drain.
3. Started Blog Earlier: We’ve only been writing for a few months, and readership keeps growing. If we had only started a year ago.
4. Transportation: Not really related to KikScore, but I never would have bough that Toyota Prius. It’s not because of safety either. In fact, the last thing I worry about with my Prius is sudden acceleration. If my Prius started going 85 miles/hour, I wouldn’t just call the police, I’d call everybody.
That’s what I would do with a HTTM. How about you?
Yesterday at the International CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas, Sprint announced that they are releasing the first 4G-powered cell phone, the HTC EVO 4G, in the United States this Summer. 4G is the next generation of cell phones that all the major wireless carriers will be releasing in the 1-2 years and they are called 4G because they are supposed to be the next generation of phones able to transmit data 10 times as fast as the currently available 3G phones.
I know what you are thinking, “Big deal, sounds like another iPhone techy thing that won’t impact my business for a few years down the road.” Well, maybe…but maybe not. Up until now a lot of the really data intensive applications for cell phones have not been able to efficiently run on the existing cell phone networks so many people have only been able to use them while they are at a wi-fi hot spot or at home on their own wireless network. This 4G technology may very well change all of that. Here are a few game changing technologies and applications that these 4G phones are going to make possible in the next 3-4 months:
Video Cell Phone Calls – Not only is there an HD quality 8 mega-pixel camera on the back of the phone but there is also a 1.3 mega-pixel camera on the front of the phone so users can speak into the phone and view video while also transmitting a video of themselves to others. Video phone calls from home still haven’t really gone mainstream and video calls from current 3G phones isn’t really possibly because of data latency but this could very well bring video phone calling to the mainstream public. How would this change your business if consumers started expecting you to answer with a video phone in your store?
Google’s Goggles (Picture) Search – Google just introduced their new Google Goggles search with the new HTC EVO 4G smart phone. This new search technology for the Android operating system allows users to take pictures of objects and then the web browser on the phone automatically searches for information about the object in the picture. If you are drinking a bottle of wine and wonder what part of California the grapes are from…take a picture of the label and Google will automatically search for that information for you. This could be an extremely useful technology for small businesses to take advantage of while also driving additional traffic to their site when consumers search for their products using this new search technique.
4G Mobile Hot Spot – Another game changing technology that this new Sprint smart phone is bringing to market is the ability for up to 8 other devices to use the HTC EVO 4G phone as a wi-fi hot spot to connect to the Internet. In your car with your laptop and need to get online to check your email or the latest football scores? What would normally be impossible without a wireless modem or other device is now possible with your smart phone in your pocket!
Finally, as a follow-up to a post I made here a few months ago, I have finally decided which smart phone to purchase as my first step into this market…can you guess what it is going to be?
