Business Tips

Analysis Paralysis: What to Do When You Have No Idea What to Do

Posted by Erin Blaskie on Aug 24, 2011 in Business Tips, How-To, Marketing | 5 comments

I just hung up the phone with a client of mine who was struggling to come up with the approach and branding ideas for his new website.  He was scared to pull the trigger on the branding aspect as he was not entirely confident on how to communicate his message.  He was also nervous about creating a website that targeted one particular target market in case he could support others.

We talked through a game plan and I felt that it was one of those things that had to be shared.  A lot of entrepreneurs struggle when it comes to nailing down their message.  As someone who is on the implementation side of these projects a lot, I see entrepreneurs get scared about launching their websites, starting their business and putting themselves out there.  Often, that fear gets in the way of creating something amazing and in a few cases, causes the entrepreneur to pull their project back altogether and freeze up.

So, what do you do when you have no idea what to do?

How to Irritate Legit Beta Testers

Posted by Erin Blaskie on Jun 24, 2011 in Business Tips, How-To, Internet Marketing, Social Media | 2 comments

I can’t stand when companies dangle a carrot out to their beta testers.

“Promote-our-thing-that-you-don’t-know-anything-about-yet-and-we’ll-let-you-in-earrrrly!”  Yeah.  No.  How about you read the e-mail addresses of the people signing up for your beta, check them out and then if they look legit and like someone who might be an early adopter, influencer or someone who can REALLY help test out your product, invite them?

Asking someone to promote your wares before they even know what it is, for the chance to get “bumped up in the line-up”, is just icky.

That’s like asking the people in line at the Tkts booth in New York City to call their friends, let them know about the sweet Broadway show that you’re going to (that you’ve never seen) and in exchange, you MIGHT get bumped up to the front.  But it’s actually worse than that because at least in the Tkts line, you can actually see how far from the front you are so it might be worth it… but in beta test on the Internet land, it’s really just a cheap “market my junk fo’ free” ploy, because you really don’t know how far from the front you are.

So yeah, if you’re doing this for your beta test period, please stop.  If you’re considering doing this for your beta test period, please don’t.

(For my screenshot example, I lovingly erased the name of the guilty party because that’s not how I roll… I don’t like calling out people on the Internet unless they REALLY deserve to be called out.  If you can figure out who the guilty party is, spare them the finger pointing because, well, it’s just the nice thing to do.  If you ARE the guilty party reading this, sorry… but someone had to tell you!)

Young Entrepreneur? Why You Want to Listen to Pete Cashmore’s Advice

Posted by Erin Blaskie on Jun 23, 2011 in blog, Business Tips, MSN's Business on Main Articles | 0 comments

When I stumbled across an article about Pete Cashmore on Business on Main, I realized that he had quite a bit of solid advice for a young entrepreneur.

Before I get to that advice, let me first introduce Pete to you… you know, in case you’ve been living under some giant boulder of a rock.

This intro is taken from the Business on Main interview with Pete himself:

Pete Cashmore carries a quiet sense of urgency wherever he goes, despite his easygoing demeanor. As founder of the influential technology blog Mashable, the 25-year-old has been labeled everything from a tech wunderkind to one of the U.K.’s “Britons of the Year” in 2010. But the accolades do not impress him. Cashmore sees success as an ever-moving target, which drives his compulsion to be “on top of everything all the time.”

Growing up in the rural village of Aberdeen, Scotland, the self-described geek was a sickly child who befriended the Internet as a bedside companion. Missing too much high school to graduate with his peers, he earned his diploma two years later — an early example, he says, of his tendency to be “ridiculously persistent.”

Intrigued by the Web and its democratizing power, Cashmore opted out of college and launched Mashable at 19. He started the blog in an effort to decipher technology for a mainstream audience in 2005. Today the 44-employee company, with offices in New York and San Francisco, draws more than 12.5 million unique visitors to its site every month.

During the interview, Pete gives great advice:

Tip for young ‘treps: There’s an advantage to having a certain degree of naivete about the challenges and the way things were before, so you can build something in a completely different way.

It was this particular piece of advice that most resonated with me.

One of the things that people say the most often to me is: “Erin, you seem so fearless!  You just put stuff out to the world and you don’t seem held back” and I can see how Pete’s reflection on a young entrepreneur’s naivete is in alignment with that perception people have of me.  When you don’t know what could potentially trip you up, you aren’t held back by it.  When you are young, you also have fewer instances of failure in your life (generally speaking) so you don’t feel held back or defeated by that failure.

If people approached business with less “tactics” and “how-to’s”, they might find that they actually come up with better, faster, easier, quicker, more exciting solutions for business.  Those people, the ones thinking outside of the box, will create memorable and meaningful experiences for their target audience.  The people that do things the “same old way” might be successful but they will never be extraordinary.

There was a lot more that I took away from the interview with Pete but that was definitely a highlight.  You can read the entire interview with Pete Cashmore on the Business on Main website here.

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My blog is part of an online influencer network for Business on Main.  I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis.

The 30 Essential Entrepreneur Resources (& Giveaway!)

Posted by Erin Blaskie on Jun 17, 2011 in Business Tips, MSN's Business on Main Articles | 7 comments

As entrepreneurs, we strive to find the absolute best resources for use in our businesses.  When I came across the blog post, “The 25 Essential Entrepreneur Resources“, I knew that I had a few of my own to add.  Here is my shortened list of five essential entrepreneur resources (you can read the other 25 over at the Business on Main website!)

Young Entrepreneur Council – While I may be biased because I am a contributing member to the YEC, this site truly is one of my top resources for entrepreneurs.  Don’t let the “young” part fool you… there is valuable information here for both the young and the seasoned professional.  YEC also just recently launched YEC.org which is the first help desk for young entrepreneurs.

Freshbooks – Although this isn’t a resource in the sense of finding valuable sources of information, it is going to help your business… and your bottom line.  Freshbooks is THE simplest and most effective invoicing and time tracking tool for entrepreneurs.  It is scalable and very user friendly.  You can send quotes and invoices as well as use the tool to track your time spent on projects.  One word = amazing.

Web Collaboration – Every entrepreneur needs a fantastic project management tool.  This resource will help you organize your projects, get clear on your deadlines and power the backend of your business.  The best part?  The software was designed by a completely amazing, down to earth and approachable company.  Highly recommend!

MailChimp – My absolute FAVORITE e-mail marketing program on the face of the Earth.  Not only does MailChimp provide you with fun little messages every single time you do something… you also get awesome e-mail deliverability, social media integration and a way to truly get to know your subscribers.  Plus, their free account is fantastically generous!

Lastly, Dropbox.  This is the second time this week that I am recommending them via a blog post but it is because they are AWESOME.  Imagine having access to your files wherever you are… regardless of the computer you are on… and from your mobile devices.  Dropbox makes all of that happen with their reasonably priced service!  They are a must-have for any entrepreneur but particularly, those who want to safely store files and access them often.

The Giveaway!

I knew that you, one of my blog readers, might also have a resource to add to the list so your contributions are welcome!  In fact, not only are they welcome… with every contribution you make to this list, you’ll be automatically entered to win a $25 Kiva gift card!

Here’s how to enter…

Simply review the blog post over on the Business on Main website and in the comments section, leave a comment with YOUR recommended, essential resource.  Next Friday, June 24th, I’ll choose one winner from the commenters to win the $25 Kiva gift card.

What is Kiva? Kiva.org is an organization that helps entrepreneurs, like you and I, invest micro-loans in businesses around the world.  Businesses that may not have easy access to funding.  By helping out a third-world business, we help grow and strengthen their economy and we help create more opportunity in a place where little exists.

So, take a moment to pop over to the “25 Essential Entrepreneur Resources“ post and add your own essential resource!

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My blog is part of an online influencer network for Business on Main. I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis. However, all opinions are 100% mine.

How to Launch an iPhone / iPad App from @Guardly & @TweetAgora

Posted by Erin Blaskie on May 30, 2011 in Business Tips, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Web & Technology | 2 comments

Launching iPhone and iPad apps is something that a lot of people are doing these days.  I was super curious about the process so instead of going off and figuring it out myself (which would mean programming an app which is WAY above my skill set), I decided to ask the experts.

This post will be one of a few interviews on the subject.  I hope you enjoy them and find them helpful in the iPhone / iPad launch process as well as in the marketing process of your app.

Enjoy!

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This interview is with Bretton MacLean, the uber genius behind TweetAgora and Guardly.  Make sure to check them both out!  And no… he did not pay me to call him an uber genius

1. What is the name of the app you’ve launched / re-released and tell us a bit about it?

I’ve designed and been involved in launching 2 iPhone apps: TweetAgora and Guardly.

TweetAgora is a Twitter client that solves 3 problems: too much information, not enough information, and not enough time. It lets you filter tweets and hone in on whatever you need. You can learn more about it at http://TweetAgora.com.

Guardly is a personal safety service that lets you instantly alert & connect with friends, family, and authorities during an emergency. Guardly’s website can be found at http://Guardly.com.

2. How long, from start to finish, did the launch process take?

TweetAgora took about 8 months to build from start to finish; we started it as a part-time project, and working with Twitter’s API wasn’t always easy! Guardly took about 5 months, full-time. Mark Pavlidis was my development partner in both ventures, so Guardly benefited from the workflows we refined while building TweetAgora.

3. What was the biggest marketing challenge you faced in launching your app?

In the case of TweetAgora, the challenge has been getting noticed in the sea of other Twitter clients. Despite being the first (and best!) Twitter filtering app for the iPhone, there’s still a lot of competition.

The challenge with Guardly is getting people to understand how it works, and why it’s worth $99.99 a year to invest in their personal safety. Guardly is the app you don’t think about until you absolutely need it, but in the event of an emergency it could be a lifesaver.

4. Looking back, what were a few things that you would do differently in the marketing and release of your app?

In retrospect, I wish we’d been able to release TweetAgora a month earlier. Last year we went to San Francisco for the Twitter developer’s conference, and were fortunate enough to get a front-page interview on Mashable and the opportunity to present the app to everyone in attendance. Unfortunately, the app wasn’t out yet. We got a lot of great coverage, but it was ultimately wasted because all that traffic had nowhere to go.

Guardly was released just a month ago and has been doing quite well in terms of coverage and downloads. Where TweetAgora was just bootstrapped by two of us, Guardly is a venture-backed company that recently hired an experienced VP of Marketing. Marketing an app is a full-time job, not just something a designer and developer can easily do in their spare cycles.

5. What were a few things that you felt worked, in terms of the marketing for your app launch / re-release, just as you had planned?

Since TweetAgora is a Twitter app, and Twitter is basically one big word-of-mouth channel, we knew that a lot our exposure was going to come from there. People who use TweetAgora tend to really like it, and they’ve been great about recommending it to others.

We travelled to Palm Springs to launch Guardly at the DEMO conference, a highly respected event for announcing new tech products. We got lots of positive buzz and coverage, which was exactly why we chose to debut at DEMO!

6. Did you have reviewers for your app prior to it being launched? If so, how did you go about finding these reviewers?

We didn’t have any real pre-launch reviews for TweetAgora, because we didn’t want to potentially waste coverage by showing people an app they couldn’t buy yet. In hindsight that was probably a mistake; tech sites love getting exclusives on new apps, so we should have established a better pre-launch strategy.

As a result of our launch at DEMO, Guardly had lots of pre-launch reviews (all very positive).

7. Did you implement any traditional marketing (press kits, press releases, etc.) for your app launch or did you stay strictly online?

Our only ‘offline’ marketing for TweetAgora was handing out lots of stickers. Everything else was online – mostly through engagement on Twitter.

With Guardly we’ve used traditional press kits and press releases in addition to our online efforts.

8. What advice would you give to someone who is looking to market their upcoming iPhone app?

There are around 400,000 apps on the app store, so if you want to get noticed you really need to have a marketing plan. Reach out to as many related media outlets as possible, have a launch party, and try to come up with creative ways to get the word out. You should also think about how you can maintain momentum after the initial launch buzz has died down.

9. Where can people learn more about your app / studio / company?

The best way to learn more about TweetAgora and Guardly is to download them from the App Store! Both apps use a freemium model so you can try before you buy. Of course there’s also http://TweetAgora.com and http://Guardly.com.

10. (Just for fun) What is one iPhone app, aside from your own, that you are totally addicted to?

If I’m looking for a little mindless fun break, my most recent addiction is Tiny Wings!

Jaded: Adventures in Business Ownership

Posted by Erin Blaskie on Apr 8, 2011 in Business Tips | 10 comments

Author’s note –> This post has a fore-story (is that even a word?!) but I promise it gets to a good business lesson a little later on… just bear with me because this is a post I’ve been meaning to write for awhile.

Another author’s note –> If you like the posts that are all frilly, fun and filled with “success tips”, skip this one and wait until I’m inspired to do that kind of post.  This one is more focused on the darker side of business ownership.

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In the past few months, I’ve been on a maternity hiatus.  Waking up every day and getting to spend the entire day playing with my daughter, teaching her things and getting drooled on has made my life feel complete.

It has also made me begin to look at other things completely differently because once you step back from something long enough, you can really look at it objectively.

Take business ownership, for example.

Seven years ago, I launched my first company at the age of 21.  I was young, eager, excited and inspired to do great things in the world.  I had professional goals and I had revenue goals.  I had a vision of what success looked like.  I had years and years stretched out before me.

My start into this land of business was an amazing one.  I had excellent clients who appreciated my work, I had people searching me out (instead of having to market to them) and the economy, at the time, was booming.  It felt fabulous and I felt like I was on top of the world.

(Even writing this I feel like I am spouting off the beginning of a sales page and really, I want to punch myself in the face.)

The clients I was working with were people I had admired.  People whose sites I had previously stumbled upon or been referred to and I looked at them and thought, “Oh man… I need to work with them some day!”  Their business models were those that I wanted to emulate and setup so I could see how they ticked inside.

Business ownership and being an entrepreneur seemed all too good to be true… until the layers of the entrepreneur onion began to peel off in a way that truly did make my eyes water.

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I began to have behind the scenes access to these businesses I had so admired in the past.  I began to see that they didn’t walk their talk at all.  A lot of it was smoke and mirrors.

There was the business and marketing coach who couldn’t fill their own programs which therefore led to internal team issues as the blame of failure had to be placed somewhere (and it certainly wasn’t going to fall on their own lap)…

The millionaire coach who was struggling to pay her mortgage on her newly purchased mansion and was in tears about it nearly every day.

There was the business coach for women who had to dip into her children’s education fund to pay for things in the business and who decided to let me go after I told her it wasn’t a good idea…

There were the law of attraction coaches who were super negative behind the scenes… the relationship experts who had rocky marriages and who treated their team poorly… and there were the money coaches who never paid their bills on time.

Not only were some of the entrepreneurs not who they claimed to be, they were also making claims and doing things that caused my jaw to drop…

People who claimed to be earning a certain amount weren’t.

People who said their programs were nearly full or who claimed to have only “x” number of seats left weren’t telling the truth.

People would rack up hours with their virtual assistants (us) and stiff them with the bill claiming that they, “Never really liked the work anyway and doesn’t that justify non-payment of services and if not, I’m going to go and tell all of my friends stories of how shitty your services were because don’t you know how social media works?!”

Sigh.

Now, you might be sitting there thinking, “Well Erin… seriously?!  Did you REALLY think that everyone in marketing was telling the truth?  Did you REALLY think the cobbler’s children had pretty little shoes?”  Well… yeah.  I kind of did.

I thought that people were still human… even when separated by computer screens.  Humans who had compassion, respect, were polite, told the truth and were who they said they were.

Needless to say, seven years in and I find myself a bit jaded about business ownership.

I’m not saying that I’m going to up and close my business tomorrow — that is not the case.  We are lucky to have a handful of really, really amazing clients.  Clients that stand by us through the “new client learning curve” and clients who totally get how to delegate and work with a team and clients who respect our work.

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But, in a post that might seem just downright depressing, here is the silver lining:

We all have the ability to do better and build businesses doing the most authentic thing(s) we can do for ourselves.

It’s just going to take a bit of creativity and a pair of nice, sturdy blinders.  We are all born with the ability to be successful.  You just need to figure out what success looks like to YOU and use that as the guide to get you where you want to be.

So, I challenge you to the following:

• Ditch the comparison vortex… you know what I’m talking about… the hours you spend looking at everybody else’s business but your own.
• Realize that while you might wish you were so-and-so or have a business like them, YOU are amazing and the other person just might be sugar coating a wee bit to help make that next sale.
• Stop using the methods and tactics and NEXT-BEST-THINGS! that everyone out there is telling you to… if you hate sending spammy e-mails all the time, don’t!  Instead, send messages of value and heartfelt outreach so you can CONNECT instead of SELL.
• Be authentic.  Be authentic.  Be authentic. Yep, I realize you might be sick and tired of the idea and of the word “authentic” but seriously, be your awesome self because no one else can.
• Get really, really clear on who you want to work with so you can find clients that PAY you for what you are worth and for your services, so that you get work that you LOVE to do and so you can stand behind their businesses 100%.
• Don’t buy into everything out there and get sidetracked from reaching YOUR goals. I promise you that the most successful companies out there did not become successful by reading a $47 e-book or buying into a $100,000 coaching program.  I PROMISE.

In the meantime, I’m going to work on becoming un-jaded about business.

I’m going to work really, really hard to attract in only those clients that my team and I are inspired to work alongside.

I’m going to say YES to the things I love to do and want to do and say NO to the things I don’t want to do because my time is valuable and I need to respect that.

I’m also going to search out more business owners who are doing what they love and who are walking their talk both in the public and behind the scenes.  When I meet them, I’m going to connect with them and surround myself with other awesome and inspiring business owners.

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If you are reading this post and have ideas on how I can turn my jademobile around and be reminded of those early days in business ownership, lemme know in the comments below!

Lastly… if you find yourself also jaded or overwhelmed by what you thought business was and what it really is, make a list of ways you’re going to try to change your outlook on it.  Want to be even braver?  Share the list below.