Launching This Biz: Stupid Naivete and the Chance for Glory

I’ve been tossing around this business idea in various forms for about a year now. And it dawned on me a few weeks ago that, in the 12 months since I first conceived it, that’s all I’ve done: toss it around. Sure, I’ve developed a web presence, honed my writing skills a bit, and refined it a little. But ultimately, I’m only a few baby steps beyond where I was the first day. I’m ready to do something about it.

I’m not sure my business idea is going to make any money at all. I don’t even know if I’m going to find a single client. I kind of have a hunch that my target market has too shoestring-ish of an operating budget to even consider paying for the service I am developing. There is at least one sizeable, previously established organization in my area that does pretty much the same thing I want to do, and they do it for free as a nonprofit. And with the necessarily low pricing structure I think I would initially need, I certainly will not be quitting my day job on that profit anytime soon.

So why am I even investigating what could be a flop of a small business idea? Because I think it would be a blast. It could mean a lot of fun for a lot of people, and some great experience and exposure in a field I one day want to call my career. It could attract customers for businesses I have been dealing with for years. It could eventually mean a location independent lifestyle. It could be amazing.

My point is this: I may have a million reasons why something won’t work. But until I actually try it, I won’t know for sure. And it will eat at me if I don’t know. So what the heck.
Here’s to stupid naiveté and the chance for glory.

Settlers of Catan is a Better Business Game Than Monopoly

Every time I hear someone talking about Monopoly being a game that “teaches you about business,” I can’t help but disagree. While Monopoly a great game with a long history and an instantly recognizable brand, I think Settlers of Catan is a more accurate board game representation of what running a business is really like.

For those of you unfamiliar with Settlers, you can read about it here. While they are both a lot of fun, I tend to prefer Settlers, and here is the reason:

Settlers of Catan has a reduced, more realistic degree of randomness.

In a game of Monopoly, everything you have built can be completely destroyed just by accidentally landing on someone’s triple-hotel properties twice in a row (or even once, in some cases). While there is a fair amount of strategy involved in Monopoly, you accept from the beginning that there is a possibility you can be completely wiped out in 2-3 turns, and you might not be able to do a single thing about it.

While die-rolling is present in Settlers to give it a little uncertainty, the ultimate result of the game is usually not completely changed by a player having a couple of bad turns. You develop a general strategy at the beginning of the game, and hone it to a specific, long-term plan as you gain more resources and make more deals. At most, a few unfortunate rolls will force you to reevaluate your resource-trading strategy in order to make sure you maintain your success.

Monopoly is not a business game. It is a gambling game. This is fun every once in awhile, but it’s just a little grating to hear Monopoly so widely heralded as the “game that teaches you about business.”

I know Settlers of Catan has not proliferated anywhere close to the extent that a game like Monopoly has, but if you ever get the chance, play it with some friends, or on Xbox Live Arcade. It’s a blast, and quite frankly, I think it’s far more realistic from a business point of view.
I’d love to hear the thoughts of those of you who’ve played both. Do you think Monopoly’s higher stakes more accurately portray your own experiences in the business world?

Entrepreneurs: We'll Sleep When We Are Older

A week or so ago, I wrote a post in which I admitted that I work in retail at the moment. And that I am still in college. I know, publicly displaying those two things probably does not make me look like the most professional sales rep in the world. But it kept me honest, and I believe that honesty and integrity as a salesperson is more important how “big” you look. Full time retail does have some perks, specifically the ability to organize my schedule with some degree of flexibility. The only downside is that I am 100% location dependent in my day job.

I have to be physically at work when I am working.

So what? Well, that means that while I am trying to build up my little seed of a business idea into something remotely resembling a startup, I’ve got 47 hours (including transportation time) immediately cut from my available time each week. Factor in part-time school, and that brings the total to 54 hours that I don’t have to put towards my business.

The only thing I’ve really got time to cut out on any regular basis is sleep, so that’s what I’ve been doing. Bad idea? Probably health-wise. Yet at the same time, while I’m downing my 3rd shot of espresso during the work day, desperate for a much-needed jolt, desperate for a jolt and already anticipating another late night, I am excited. I’m excited that I’m building my network, turning a hobby I’ve loved for years into something that will be (hopefully) profitable, and working towards the future I envision for myself.

I’ll sleep when I’m older. I’ve got work to do now.

Get Your Sales Team Using Social Media: Customers Want to Deal With People, Not With Companies

I don’t understand why large companies create a single big Twitter account or blog that is named “@companyxyz” or “The Company XYZ Blog.” Usually these accounts end up just facilitating nothing but a long stream of advertisements and press releases, disguised in the form of tweets and blog entries. There is no hint whatsoever that an actual human being is behind these communications.

Customers don’t want to interact with companies. They want to interact with people.
Often companies are afraid to let individual employees publicly represent the brand, so a typical, misguided solution is to have a designated “Social Media Person” of whom nobody outside the organization ever knows the identity. Customers will not buy into this because they know that companies don’t help people. People help people.

Teach your salespeople, customer service reps, PR team, and anyone who has direct contact you’re your customers or the public the basics of social media. Invest in the digital communication skills of your team, and teach them how to use these mediums responsibly, but personably. Instead of one company blog, rotate the employees whose posts are featured on your blog page. Have several employees tweeting about everyday life at the company. Because nobody wants to hear what Big Company, Inc. thinks about *insert Next-Big-Industry-Trend here*. But they probably wouldn’t mind hearing what Bob from Sales thinks about what it means for them.

If your people truly are on board with your organization’s goals and passionate about what it does for its customers, you have nothing to worry about. But if you don’t trust your own people enough to excitedly represent your company on a personal level, then you have far bigger problems than social media.

3 Big Mistakes Businesses Make With Their Blogs

I can’t tell you how many businesses’ blogs are out there that were clearly only started because some “social media guru” told the owner, “Your company needs a blog! NOW!” While many types of businesses can benefit greatly from participating extensively in the blogging arena, lots of them get it completely wrong. Jeremy Griffin of Ignite Social Media even recently wrote a blog post giving detailing situations when social media is not the answer.
Here are some signs of doomed blogging strategies:
1. The bloggers do not respond to comments: Comments are there for a reason. They facilitate conversation and encourage discussion about the topics on the blog. They are a way for readers to give feedback, share opinions, and communicate with the blogger and other readers. Now, I understand that many blogs get a ridiculous amount of traffic and comments, so I don’t expect every single idiotic hater’s diatribe to be dignified with recognition. But if you are not responding to at least some of the relevant comments on your blog posts, readers (i.e. customers) will soon realize you really don’t give a damn what they have to say, and will go elsewhere.
2. The blog is purely an advertisement: This is the big offender. If your business has a “blog,” yet all it contains is an endless stream of updates about your website and testimonials about your products, potential customers will call “BS!” on you in a second. Successful blogs provide valuable, relevant content, and do it in a targeted, engaging way. Don’t get me wrong, I believe it is absolutely okay to occasionally tie yourself, your business, or your products into the bigger issues in your posts. But constantly talking about yourself and nothing else drives people away from your brand.
3. There is no visible person behind the blog: People want to communicate with other people, not companies. If you do not have regular bloggers with photos, short bios, and some actually personality, your readership and customer response will be lackluster.

What other bad blogging strategies have you seen? Is your company currently using any of these on their blog?

I Work in Retail, or Social Media Makes You As Big As You Want to Be

I work in retail.

There, I said it. I am a sales manager at the store level for a luxury home retail chain. For some reason, I excitedly tell all my friends and family what I do when they ask, but I have been very hesitant to tell complete strangers on a career website what my current industry and position actually are. Why is that?

I really like what I do. I don't plan to do it past the end of college, but it's fun and it's taught me a lot. I make pretty good money for a student. My job gives me a substantial amount of responsibility, but also gives me a lot of flexibility, too. I work a full time schedule, I have good health insurance, 2 weeks of vacation, sick pay, paid holidays and personal days, tuition reimbursement, and all the trappings of a “normal, adult” job. I have one-on-ones with my staff, biweekly management meetings, I complete sales reports and handle payroll adjustments when necessary. I do all of the things that your typical sales manager in most industries does.

So why did I not want to let this piece of my identity get out online for so long? It hit me as I was driving home from work, sipping a watered down Dr. Pepper from a Quik Trip convenience store: Retail makes me feel small. When I am participating in social media, I feel just as big as Kyle Lacy, Holly Hoffman, or Rebecca Thorman; my piece of the conversation is just as important and valued. However, when I contrast my relatively short list of credentials and accomplishments with those of the people I communicate with online, it is easy to feel dwarfed by these Gen Y giants.

As soon as I came to that realization, I was free. Free from tiptoeing around my words to sound “bigger” and “more important” than I am when I blog. Free from my own subjective self-judgment. Because that’s the beautiful part of social media: what you’ve done or haven’t done up to this point doesn’t really matter. What matters is what you are going to do now. And I’ve got big plans. Do you?

Blogging is Even More Important During Unemployment

TJ Wihera at Whys Perspective recently wrote a blog entry questioning whether Gen Y has an over sensitivity about blogging. The idea for the post was born after he witnessed a Twitter exchange in which someone scoffed at unemployed Gen Yers blogging about careers and business, and some Gen Yers then replied with offended responses. And this got me to thinking that the author of the original tweet, @AlexJMann, might not understand how blogging (and a history of it) can actually be even more important when one is unemployed. And then I thought, hey, maybe others don’t either.

So here is my short testimonial of how blogging can help you through unemployment:
· It can help you sort through your thoughts: Being unemployed, even for a short period of time, can wreak havoc on your confidence, your sense of self, and even your understanding of what your passions, strengths, and weaknesses are. Blogging provides a canvas on which you can paint your thoughts, organize them, and gain support and ideas from thousands of differing perspectives.
· It acts as a living resume: As pretty much everyone who has ever had to hunt for a job online knows, a one-page MS Word resume (and it should be ONLY one page) by itself is an incredibly tough way to impress anyone enough to call you back. However, if you have a blog to link to, recruiters can see your ideas and communication skills immediately. Additionally, regularly updated blog shows recruiters that you are actively managing your career, even in downtime. You will shine through as a superstar when compared with traditional job hunters.
· It is something consistent and positive when nothing else is: Unemployment is a scary, uncertain emotional rollercoaster. There are only so many jobs you can apply for in a day before you want to tear your hair out and scream from the lack of good news. Blogging makes you feel better because it is constructive. It exercises your critical thinking and writing skills, helps build your personal and professional networks, and is an outlet for the pent up stress inside you. Blogging during unemployment actually gives you the opportunity to publicly and honestly examine your thoughts on your work history, your industry, and your field without fear of any real backlash.

In short, I believe there is absolutely nothing wrong with blogging during periods of unemployment. I blogged through my short stint of unemployment earlier this year, and it was incredibly helpful. What are your thoughts? Does being unemployed disqualify someone from contributing to the conversation? Does a temporary lack of a job completely discredit a person’s ideas?