I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about names recently. Working in a team, we’ve come up with a bunch of alternatives and pretty much settled on one. On the way through though, someone asked, “how do we know when we’re ready?”

For that matter, how do you know when anything is ready? The name, the new product, the presentation, the logo, the promising member of staff being considered for promotion. Are they ready?

“When can you have the report ready?” says the client.
“Er. When do you need it?” says the consultant.

After a point, state-of-readiness is really state-of-polish. Could something or someone be better? Yes. Does it matter? That depends on the answer to another question:

• Will it do what you promised?

Almost everything could be better, but if it does the job you need it to do, and in the way that it should, then it’s time to ship.

No name is perfect but now we have one that works, it’s time to move on.

Neatly filed under Keeping Promises,Making Promises
Tags: idenity, marketing, naming

To get customers you have to get in the market, and being in the market means being in the marketing business. Where is your marketing now?

1. Are you making promises?
2. Are you making promises people will care about?
3. Are you making promises people will care about enough to pay you to fulfil?
4. Are you making promises enough people will care about enough to pay you to fulfil?
5. Are the people who care aware of the promises you make?

Most business owners worry about the number of messages when the key is making the right kind of promises.

This isn’t the art of pretty features or crunching costs per thousand names.

What value will you deliver?

Neatly filed under Making Promises
Tags: marketing

At a conference yesterday I managed to snag nine business cards. Not actually a good thing as I didn’t ask for any. I guess I stuck my had out when they were offered so I got what I deserved.

Of the nine, only one conformed to the old standard of name, job title, company contacts, logo. Not including the mandatories the word count splits like this: 0, 2, 3, 4, 5, 18, 18, 48, 52.

The 2 card – “wooden jigsaws” – nails the point of a good business card. I might not remember the name of the fella or his company, but if I ever want some wooden jigsaws I’ll know where to start. One of the 18s – not the worst – says “Benefits realisation through user involvement”, the other thirteen words don’t make it any clearer. Will I call this guy? No. Why? I don’t know when I should.

If you’re going to put some extra love on your business card, make it count.

Business cards aren’t clever, they can’t do your job for you. It’s a very rare sole who will squint their way through your printed verbiage to work out why they should remember you. If you’re not sure what to write, ask your customers – they normally have a pretty good handle on why they give you money.

Mr Jigsaw tells you what his company is up to, great. If the best you can do is just filling in the white spaces, leave it blank.

Neatly filed under Making Promises
Tags: marketing

We’ve been incubating a fantasy in my house for the past few months.

Ice cream entrepreneurs

Let’s open an ice cream shoe; somewhere in Brighton, in a few years time.

My kids are 11 and 13 so, along with their friends, represent an obvious supply of willing labour – but not yet. For now it’s fun to play with the idea, and it means we have an excuse to put in lots of very important research, testing flavours and never walking by. Best job I ever had!

It may be a fantasy but it highlights some of the man traps that often catch entrepreneurs.

• Don Quixote – an impossible dream?
• You have an idea, but innovation happens in the market – is there a need, will anybody care?
• Ok, so they care, are they prepared to pay for it?
• Does anyone know what you’re up to?
• How do we get there and where is there anyway?
• What was I supposed to be doing again?

Going down the list, it’s entirely possible that we’re tilting at windmills – it’ll never happen and it’s just a good excuse to experiment with outlandish flavours. Lot’s of people waste a lot of time and money dreaming about starting their own thing – very few get out of the drive. Assuming that’s not us, that we’ll get off our collective arse, what about the the other risks?

Is there a market? Another idea my daughter has is elbow rests – something that would swing out from under the table so she could rest her elbows without someone telling her giving her a hard time. It may be a good idea but I imagine the market is limited to one eleven year old, I could be wrong. The simple answer here is to ask. Ask your market. Do they want it?

Yes? Ok. Do they want it so much that they’re prepared to take money out of their pocket and put it into yours? Sadly, just asking this question may not give a reliable result. Sometimes you have to try it out for real. Test sell.

Get past that stage and it’s time to make the product. In order to sell it you have to tell people about it which is why ice cream vans play that jangly music. It’s no good sitting around waiting for the ‘phone to ring, marketing is the thing.

It’s around this time that the day-to-day can make you lose sight of where you’re going. The problems might be in product development, too many sales, too few sales, too many specials. None of which should be a problem for our little shop – but guaranteed they’ll be an endless stream of daily demands that blur the horizon. Keep to the plan.

The final risk is the worst. We set out to make the best ice cream in the world so how come we now spend 87% of our time sorting out muffins, coffee, biscuits, sandwiches, cheese and those little pots of marmalade made by your best friend’s aunt? Stay focused.

There’s a lot more to running a successful business – these are the biggest risks that I see from my side of the table. Assuming we can steer our way through, what will our little shop be like? Best inspiration so far is Amy’s in Austin, Texas (which you can find here).

Now that’s ice cream!

Neatly filed under Focus
Tags: ice cream, marketing, planning