So what can you do to get live sales reporting?

Using RFID technology and a detector at the store front (which can be a small unit) you could tell when your stock left the store, hook that up to a 3G device and you can get live sales reporting.

Which would make things much more interesting.  Simple technology, someone please do it, or if it exists implement.

His key point, is that there is a huge amount of friction in spreading an idea via books, with digital the friction to becoming a fan is very very low.

It all starts when we discover something, just like a band, we get a few tidbits, suddenly we’re nodding our head, I like it!

20 years ago you would then seek out another book or record to get more of the good stuff. Unfortunately you might have to backorder or wait 9 months till the next album came out.

Now though it’s more instant you can peruse a back catalog within a few hours; read a series of ebooks, download all the albums off iTunes, read a years worth of blogs. You can go from interest to raving fan with (again) very little friction.

So Seth, I understand why, you’re right ideas can spread much much easier online.

Or talking that to another analogy, those that learn to read faster, get more attention & reward, so get better.  Those that can’t don’t get the same benefit.

Or those that are born earlier in the year and start school earlier, (generalising) are physically bigger than their classmates, so perform better at sports.  As such they get more attention, more training etc.

Gladwell in short argues in Outliers, people that squeeze this effect and become those outliers (or run with the effect and get there faster).

I was reminded of this in a recent Radiolab podcast, whereby Gladwell was questioning the idea of a ‘child genius’ – what is the relevance of a 7 year old being able to read like a 9 year old, none really? Should we reward them as much?

Food for thought.

–

Inspired by Outliers, Radiolab and a recent study in NZ analysing the effect of the brain drain on high academic performers which suggested high academic results equated to real world success…which really is like the 7 year old reading like a 9 year old, your really marginally ahead of your peers – what real world significance does that have?

Who wants to be cheaper?

Who wants to attract customers that want cheaper?

Who wants to motivate staff that we’re doing this to be cheaper?

It’s a losing battle… please do not ever ever say your better because you’re cheaper, say your better because you deliver magnitudes times more value, robust support, innovative technology, improving your customers life, increasing their status… the list goes on but you get the point.

I tend to agree, thanks to The IceHouse along with a group of entrepreneurs we got to sit down with Kevin Roberts CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi worldwide (but thankfully a kiwi!) and talk marketing.

His point comes from a study of 10,000 or so companies and what differentiates the high performers from the pack.  Those that organise like a family, hard working team, caring yet pushing (who pushes us more than our families) outperform the rest.

And nothing is more demanding than a family… what better way to get the most out of your people.

[He also noted, families do change, grow, separations do happen, new family units form.]

“In retail sales, a bait and switch is a form of fraud in which the party putting forth the fraud lures in customers by advertising a product or service at an unprofitably low price, then reveals to potential customers that the advertised good is not available but that a substitute is. This use of this term has extended to similar situations outside of the marketing sense.”

The world is far too transparent now, people will expose these techniques faster than lightening.  However if you’re reading this you probably don’t have this attitude, however I do urge, to check how you manage expectations – you may be doing this… unintentionally.

The ability to accept that no you don’t know the answer, but you can (and will) find out the answers are much more valuable than ‘knowing everything’.

The ability to leave your ego at the door, accept when your wrong (but to also fight when you’re right) is amazing.

The ability to kill ideas today but realise they may be relevant tomorrow.

Are all excellent abilities to have (and strive for).  If you can master those it makes you incredibly employable, very attractive and well positioned in a creative knowledge economy.

–

[ps it also means we'd love to have you on board at Young & Shand: positions are opening all the time (especially for the right people) so do please get in contact if you believe you have something to offer.]

I jot down the date and notes during the day, each and every day, I’ve been doing it for a number of years now… (probably 6-8 years).  I used to use pad and keep that on me, but journals last the time.

Last week I actually finished my second journal for the year, and are now on the third.  Yay!

You see it keeps a nice history by day of what you were up to, places for sketches & ideas and is very handy to wind back the clock and see the key takeaways from each meeting (or what you were doing on a specific day).

I’m often referring back to meetings 6, 7 months ago, using my Google Calendar as a reference to check when I met someone.

So grab one today, make it a habit to carry it everywhere with you and jot down pertinent notes, I bet you do it anyway but just aren’t keeping it in a centralised location.

—

Extra: If you are already using a journal, what’s the best story you have from using it? I’d be keen to hear them.

In time

In knowledge

In mistakes

In resting

In goofing around

We don’t waste time, we should invest it.

[A riff from the endless stream of entrepreneurs I run into, who invest in everything, not spend]

“business models are, at heart, stories that explain how enterprises work”

And isn’t that so true? Business models: a (hopefully) compelling & engaging story of how your business functions.

[They go on to say, strategy, is how you deal with competition].

Great book – pick it up if you can.

On a recent visit to New Zealand (yay!) I was lucky enough (thanks to the Results.com!) to sit down with him and talk business.  Of which I am really grateful for (thanks guys!).

I’ve shared the YouTube videos below, they’re absolute gold, and gold for everyone.

In effect we’re all in sales, we need people on our side (in personal & professional modes) to help us get going from community work to business, if you have the time please have a listen I’m sure you’ll either get value out of it today if not in the future.

Part 1:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr80VqfSpLE

Part 2:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO4vEiwDgpY

Part 3:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLi3eTphlXE

Part 4:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRLa0XMrp0U

Thanks again to Results.com & Jack Daly for giving up his precious (and very expensive) time -- legends.

Old Point, Reason, Example, Point.

It’s very basic, it’s hitting those basics which makes it effective.

And also hard, as instinctively you want to wow through whizz bang, way out there stuff, however if you have a choice between the two, stick to the basics.

—

[Just my notes on reflecting some of the better speakers I've seen over the years]

I’d love your feedback, so give it a watch (and yes iTunes/MP3 versions are on the way) and let me know what you think.

This Week in Digital Marketing #1: We can’t help but talk about Facebook from Ben Young on Vimeo.

Getting out of the way so that things can happen organically.

YOU (the business owner, founder, director) are in 9/10 cases the bottleneck, so stick to these three criteria: do it, delay or delegate… (and there are many spins of those three).

(In most cases though – it’s delegate!)

Trust your people and let the business grow without you holding it back….

Note: this of course applies to anyone achieving something, anywhere, anytime (not just business owners).

“Shorten the release cycle and still get great features in front of users when they are ready, Make the schedule more predictable and easier to scope, Reduce the pressure on engineering to “make” a release”

In short, to get ideas out the door in a more consistent manner.

That’s an incredibly iterative process though, every 6 weeks is a tough schedule however it makes so much sense, if you’re always wrong, you want to keep iterating and getting less wrong.

Also each iteration is a step ahead of the competition, and these steps happen every 6 weeks, who would want to compete with that?

“… there were many rumours circulating about the doings of a digger named Fox, who was said to have “struck it rich” somewhere in the Otago interior. Fox had, indeed, found gold on the Arrow on 9 October 1862. He managed to keep the location of his discovery quiet for a short time, but persistent rumours of a rich “strike” attracted many diggers to the area. In November a further discovery in the Shotover Valley (near Queenstown) confirmed the existence of the Wakatipu field and by December there were 3,000 diggers working the two rivers. A month later there were 6,400 diggers in the district and several shanty towns had sprung into being.”

Whenever a new opportunity opens up, there are a quick few who exploit it, then word gets out of the amazing find and it’s a gold rush.

It’s hot, everyones chasing it, have you heard how much gold they got?!

Reality is that by the time the Gold Rush is happening the realistic chance of you reaping the rumoured rewards are tiny.  Best to recognise a Gold Rush for what it is, the masses catching up with the innovators.

We all know that retail space that can't hold a business, it's a clothing shop, it's a book shop then it's a bakery.

No matter what nothing seems to stick.

There are many reasons for it but the key one I ask myself, are they built for profit?

I pondered this as I saw a car yard selling cars for $1990 and $2660 - a wide range of low priced cars.  How can they possibly make a sustainable profit on that? Sure if they get the cars and put a 100% markup on each of them margins seem good.  Yet they still need volume to sustain a business, 2 cars a week would maybe cover the living costs of the owner.  What if they can't reach that?

Sure enough, I drive past a few weeks later, no stock shifted, I don't think they will be around for long.  Have you actually looked at your model, are you built for profit? Or are you just subsidising your time...