Photographs

Once you have your product in production, I highly suggest getting professional photographs taken. I recently found a local photographer that was willing to do two hours of studio time for a very reasonable price. He has experience doing commercial work. I did find a photographer that has worked with national clients but to be honest, he was much more expensive. For the distribution channel, this is the best result for me. In addition, he was willing to do all the photoshopping and clean up for one of my products. Barter at its best. It gives me a lot of confidence that people are willing to do 1-2 hours of work for what for me is a nominal price. I am picking up the CD and proofs tomorrow.

When you do get photographs done, make sure you are getting full copyrights on the photographs. I have had some want to provide a "license" and maintain the copyright. This is a big mistake and be careful when you look at the contract your are signing. I had one photographer that was out of the running right away as he wanted to license the photo's of my own photographs to me. When I read the contract I was appalled.

Essentially I was accepting a license to use print and digital for "marketing" purposes and was not allowed to transfer the license without written permission from the copyright holder. You don't want to lose control of your product so be very careful and make sure when you get a bid for photo's that you specifically state you will maintain all copyrights on the product.

The Benefits of First Class

If you are an investment banker or consultant, most likely you are flying first class to your various destinations. Many people look at this as both a luxury or a frivolous waste of money. In fact most companies have policies associated with what class of flight you can purchase, whether you can upgrade and when you are allowed to fly business class. Unfortunately I think this is one of the more penny wise and pound foolish decisions a company can make.

I had the benefit of flying first class round trip on my three week trip to Hawaii. I made the most of it when I could. In fact, it was worth every penny I can see right now, and if I was in business development, even more.

Forget the fact that you can both work more efficiently in a first class seat, but arrive at your destination more rested, but just the people that you meet is in itself, the very reason to fly first class. On my four legs, there were three people I met that stand out from both a personal development as well as interesting people that a business may want to have an in with.

I met, a television producer. This gentleman was quite interesting, and I even knew one of his productions, the documentary, Carrier on PBS.

http://www.pbs.org/weta/carrier/

I met a professional photographer whose main business is going to motor sports and taking pictures of vehicles that drive on Bridgestone tires.

Both of those gentleman were interesting and may know others that can help you in the long run, but the one gentleman that was most interesting to me, was a former diplomat and ambassador to an asian nation. He is now an EVP for a asian conglomerate and has his PHD from Harvard. Interesting guy and am glad to have met him. But can you imagine the possibilities for your company?

Here is the head of business development for a major multi-national. He talked to me about the companies expansion in Russia and in asia. You have got a high level executive, without a gatekeeper in front, and you have a captive audience for a 4 hour flight. That is even better than a golf course.

I was putting him in touch with a couple colleagues, with the hope they could develope something from the relationship. Asian companies are all relationship based and you never know what could happen.

This is why investment bankers and consultants sit in first class. Not because it is posh, but because it is lucrative. First class gets you decision makers in an organization as not every executive flies on a private jet, and in fact most companies have policies around executives being on the same plane.

Next time you are in a first class seat, talk up your neighbor, you might be surprised at who they are and who they know.

The Innovators Dillema

Clayton Christensen is a Harvard Business School professor who is considered an expert in Strategy and Innovation. Some of his teachings are a must for entrepeneurs, as he makes you think of your product in different ways. Not only does he have a a PHD from Harvard, but was a Rhodes Scholar as well, and is an entrepeneur in his own right, starting two companies. One thing that really sticks out in this short video, is this idea of a consumer, hiring your product to do a job. What job is your product supposed to do?



For a longer MP3 of a talk he has given, I suggest, Capturing the Upside that he gave at the open source business conference. It can be found here:

http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail135.html

Company Logo

As I move along with my business idea, I started thinking of a company logo and/or trademark. Back in high school I used to be creative and artsy but when I look back I had a passionate art teacher that would nudge me in the right direction. Now a ton of art is done on computers and I have zero experience in designing logos.

I have looked around and there are services that will design the logo for you. They have different price points with the cheapest being a single design with three variants of the design for something like 300 dollars. Two designs with 3 variants each (6 logos) is, as you probably guessed, 600 dollars.

I think these companies would probably be great when you have an idea of what you want your logo to be like. Where these fall through is when you have no idea. I have no clue what to have for a company logo. The product is sound, but its not one that lends itself easily to a logo.

How do you do it on a shoestring then? You have local colleges that have design students? They are all looking to build out their portfolios for job interviews. You might be able to get it done for free, or for significantly less then a "professional". My friend is in design school. I told her I rather pay her to do it but she won't take cash, so I will take her to dinner then.

The great thing about it, is you have a young, ambitious person looking to fill out their portfolio. You can get them excited about your product and they invest their emotion into it as well.

"Give me guys that are poor, smart, hungry - and no feelings." Gordon Gekko, Wall Street

Target Market

Seth Godin had an interesting write up on defining your market and growing your customer base. The article talks about deeper versus wider. One thing I wish he would have addressed though, is when do you go deeper, and when do you go wider. Sometimes its not possible to go wider. Your product is a niche one, so you go deeper in those cases.

Under what circumstances would going deeper actually hurt you? If you have a broad base of customers, going deeper will only alienate a good portion of your established customer base. In this case, wouldn't it make sense to go wider?

I don't profess to get into the whole economics game but it makes me think back to elasticity of demand for your product. Wouldn't a deeper client base entail more inelastic demand, and hence a higher priced product? Of course that higher price should theoretically be offset with a lower cost of supply from being in a niche business.

My point is to be careful before you decide between deeper versus wider. In the race for more customers and more profit you do not want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

The Article is here: http://tiny.cc/Q5Eq6

Trade Shows

How do you get your idea out there? One idea is going to a trade show. Just about every industry has a trade show that you can go to. The costs can be high or low depending on the type of tradeshow and who will be attending. One tradeshow that goes on ever year is not even billed as a tradeshow. eBay Live! is for eBay buyers, sellers and those selling to those individuals. I found a great vid from The Big Idea talking about trade shows. Take a look.

Premium versus Luxury

Seth Godin has a great article on Luxury versus Premium. I personally want my products to be Premium products. Luxury products can be to much work. Not only do you have to persuade people your products offer value without any compelling difference between yours and another product (besides price), but protecting that luxury moniker is quite time consuming. eBay continually gets sued by luxury good manufacturers trying to protect their distribution channel and prices. Trademark and copywrite infringement is a huge deal. A premium product sells itself.

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