What Have The Sharks Taught Me?

In my previous post, Valuable Lessons From The Shark Tank Sharks, I discussed important pieces of advice Daymond John and Barbara Corcoran have said about business plans. John said branding and marketing were the most important aspects of a successful business plan, but Corcoran believes the investor pitch is the most important aspect.

Currently I am creating a business plan for my courses at Full Sail University. When I came across my marketing section, I thought of John’s words of wisdom. I analyzed which pieces of marketing would best fit my company, rather than going all in to the traditional forms. In my company’s case, I have a very specific target market. I know who I am trying to sell to, so it is better for my company to spend lots of money on certain marketing tasks. Traditional forms of marketing, like radio advertisements, flyers, and television advertisements don’t work well with my company. The world doesn’t need to know about it, just my targeted clientele.

John also mentions standing out from all of the other businesses. When developing my company, I knew I wanted to do something that wasn’t readily available in my current location, Orlando, Florida. Creating a business that is directed at a specific industry and has limited to no competition is a huge advantage. As John put it, my company stands out from all of the other businesses.

Corcoran’s piece of advice hasn’t come in to play yet, but as I enter my final course at Full Sail University, I will be able to use her tip. She advised presenting your pitch to someone who will give you an honest answer because then you can go back and make necessary changes. This is so true. Many times people take the safe way out and go with what’s comfortable, but when they present, they’re in an uncomfortable situation and are not prepared for preceding question and answers. There’s a saying in sports, practice how you play. For your investor pitch, practice how the situation may turn out. Practice with someone who makes you nervous and gives you honest feedback.

Since I’ll be presenting in my final month, I know I have friends who are blunt, even if it hurts. They are my best option when practicing my pitch. They are not afraid to tear apart the weaknesses in my pitch, but I know it will only make it better.

Valuable Lessons from the Shark Tank Sharks

According to Brian Morris of getbusymedia.com, “there are 27+ million small businesses in the U.S.” (2011). A critical component in order to join the ranks of successful small businesses is to create a business plan to attract investors. But what is it an investor looks for?

The ABC television series Shark Tank is a great example of investors looking for a potentially successful business plan. After the people present their plan, the sharks critique and either offer money, or deny the people seeking money. Two sharks to look to for advice when creating a business plan are Daymond John and Barbara Corcoran.

John is the founder and CEO of FUBU fashion. He got his start in New York City, selling his own version of tie-top hats for a more reasonable price. John and a friend grew the business to include hockey jersey’s, sweatshirts, and t-shirts with the FUBU (For Us, By Us) logo emblazoned on them. During a promotional shoot, John used friend LL Cool J as a model. Upon seeing the potential in his bold colored sportswear, he attended a Las Vegas trade show where he returned to New York with $300,000 worth in orders. Not long after, Macy’s picked up John’s fashion line, placing it with the ranks of Tommy Hilfiger and Donna Karan New York. Currently, John invests in other’s companies and speaks about his experience and knowledge on television programs (Shark Tank, n.d.).

In a blog written by Steven Burhoe he writes, “According to John, branding is the most important part of a successful business plan. The plan should be focused, and the business should be able to be marketed in a way that makes it stand out from all of the other similar businesses (Ribitzky, 2010). Even if you plan on doing something that has already been done, a great marketing plan and good branding can make for a successful business” (n.d.).

Branding is important for a business plan because your target audience, the people buying your product or service, need to be able to associate with what you’re selling. It needs to stick in their minds so they’ll remember the product or service and come back for more. As stated by John above, branding distinguishes your business from others.

Another shark to learn from is Barbara Corcoran. Corcoran grew up with low grads through high school and college while accumulating 20 jobs by 23. On her last venture, she borrowed $1000 from her boyfriend for a real estate company that, over 25 years, grew to $5 billion (Shark Tank, n.d.).

In an interview with mixergy.com, Corcoran reveals her advice for entrepreneurs: “never go to their family and friends to practice on. Because they’re going to tell them they’re the greatest. You know what you ought to do? You ought to go to your brother-in-law that you can’t stand, let him tear you to shreds on your pitch. Because whether you’re going to Shark Tank, or whether you’re going to some other angel investment group to get your cash, you’re going to be questioned on what’s weak–not what’s great about your presentation, but what doesn’t add up, what doesn’t quite click as making sense. You really want someone who’s critical of you to listen to you, before you do the real deal” (2011).

First impressions are everything. You want not only your written business plan to be flawless, but you also want your presentation perfect. Whether it’s Shark Tank or an investor pitch in your hometown, you want them to buy into you so they’re more confident buying into your business.

The sharks of Shark Tank can teach us valuable lessons about what we should and shouldn’t do with business plans. They have years of experience creating their business, as well as investing in others business. Shark Tank airs Fridays at 8pm/7 central.

Resources:
Mixergy.com. 2011. Retrieved from http://mixergy.com/barbara-corcoran-shark-interview/

Shark Tank: Daymond John. n.d. Retrieved from http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank/bio/daymond-john/276281

Shark Tank: Barbara Corcoran. n.d. Retrieved from http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank/bio/barbara-corcoran/276269

Small Business Stats For Small Business Week 2011. 2011. Retrieved from http://www.getbusymedia.com/small-business-stats/

The Shark Tank Crew. n.d. Retrieved from http://bpexpertviews.blogspot.com/

Justin Timberlake Wants to Revive Myspace

Myspace has been around since 2003. At that time it was the new, innovative way of talking to friends. Now, in 2011, social media platforms have expanded with technology and knocked Myspace out of the competition. Myspace tried to redefine itself as an entertainment site, but it was too late. With more useful sites like Reverbnation and Facebook apps, there was no need to continue with Myspace.

Recently, Justin Timberlake, former N Sync heartthrob turned actor, has become part owner of Myspace. He bought News Corps share of Myspace because he feels he can save the dying social site. "There’s a need for a place where fans can go to interact with their favorite entertainers, listen to music, watch videos, share and discover cool stuff and just connect ... MySpace has the potential to be that place," Timberlake said in an article by BET (2011).

So how could JT revive Myspace? According to Johnny Wright, Timberlake’s manager, JT wants to turn Myspace into a talent finder. Wright was quoted by the Associated Press saying, “"Whether it becomes a talent competition or something like that, those are things that we will still flesh out" (Kaufman, 2011).

Most people have deleted their Mysapce accounts, believing Myspace would fade out eventually. Facebook took the place of Myspace, providing an expansive outlet for not only social networking, but also games and other apps. Now, Google+ is giving Facebook competition, further pushing Myspace from people’s minds. I respect JT’s effort to revive Myspace, but I don’t believe it can be done.

There is so much competition to find new talent. Between free sites, such as Reverbnation and Purevolume, it’s easy to research independent artists. People like the thrill of feeling like they have discovered new talent. Creating a competition online is just bringing the overflow of talent competitions from TV to online. Plus, music festivals, such as Warped Tour, hold their own competition for independent talent to win a chance to play their local date.

Timberlake plan’s to announce his ideas for Myspace on August 17. I’m curious as to what he decides for the site and how he’ll infuse new life into this social media platform.

Resources:
http://www.bet.com/news/music/2011/06/30/justin-timberlake-becomes-part-owner-of-myspace.html
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1666784/justin-timberlake-myspace-talent-competition.jhtml

Google Plus Adds Value To Music Promotion

Everybody is familiar with a company named Google.  A well-known search engine, its name is infamous for searching anything you could ever want to know. Google is not just a search engine though. They are expanding into social media and possibly showing inadequacies of the popular powerhouse Facebook. This short video gives a glance into the social media platform Google Plus that is currently in the testing phase:

According to hypebot.com, Google Plus will provide several features that will differ from Facebook:

Hypebot.com

Each of these features seems promising. Google Circles sounds like life will be easier searching for and condensing friends. As said in the video, “sometimes its not relevant to talk about certain things with certain people.” Different aspects of your life are now subdivided as you see fit, supplying more privacy and relaying information directly to those who need to know. Another feature to note, Google Hangout, helps solve the issue of groups and group chats. Who isn’t sick of being added to groups they just don’t care about and the emails that go with them after a stranger updates? Plus, it solves the issues with Skype. You talk to who you want, not some stranger who searched your location. Finally Group Huddle eliminates Facebook Instant Chat. If you’re not at your computer, the message goes to your inbox, clogging it with large amounts of small talk. With Huddle, since you can pull exactly who you want from the list or grab a circle, you’re getting information from who you want quickly and efficiently.

Google Plus seems like an innovative idea, restoring a level of privacy, but still remaining interactive. The features organize social media in order to sift out the clutter and useless information. This also seems like a strong social media business platform. The user remains professional and what has been posted to a cluttered wall will not offend the employer or business professional. Facebook has always acted as a casual site for people to let loose and post anything and everything. If you’re friends, you see what has been posted. You try to be friends and the invites pending, you get some access to what that person does. Google Plus revives professionalism in this social media platform design. You can turn on different aspects of yourself to relevant groups, saving face and impressions.

How does this affect the music industry? Circles will help solve the issue of transparency with fans. Artists can group their fans into a broad circle or subdivide people all the way down to City. Adding the feature of Google Hangout provides the transparency fans adore, face-to-face chat time with their beloved artist. This could take video chatting to a whole new level because multiple fans can interact with each other as well. Also, Group Huddle based off of fan circles could be a great promotional tactic per city. Fans could get special opportunities such as, “First person to respond to BLANK question gets a meet and greet with X band.” Promotions can be tailored to cities now, while others don’t have to be bogged down with information that doesn’t affect them.

The downside to all of this is that it will be on Google. As said by my classmate Jalesia Offer, “I don’t want all of my stuff on Google.” Condensing everything may leave you limited from other options. The Internet is constantly changing and new programs are being developed and released rapidly. Maybe Google will get this right or maybe someone else will create the next best thing.

References:

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2011/06/goolge-takes-on-facebook-with-google.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FDqMf+%28hypebot%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwnJ5Bl4kLI&feature=player_embedded

How Grounded Is Cloud Computing Really?

Cloud computing is on the rise and I, like most, have trouble imagining a tangible medium like a cloud that can store my information safely. It’s hard to imagine a giant hard drive in the sky that collects billions of people’s information, yet that’s what’s implied with cloud computing.

To think of it differently, cloud computing isn’t really a giant, hard drive living in a puffy cloud, but alludes to consumers creating content, downloading content, uploading content onto another company’s server. We as consumer therefore save more room on our personal hard drives. Also, it provides back-up files in case our home computers crash. Simply, it’s like an external hard drive shared by the world, yet you can only access your content and not anyone else’s.

Next the question of security arises: if this “external hard drive” is shared by everybody, how protected am I really? There are smart people in the world who love to hack things; can they get access to my personal information? After reading “Demystifying Cloud Computing For Consumers,” they make a point that cloud-computing services like Amazon have a clause about security (2011). The article doesn’t answer the question, and I don’t feel like they can. Only the services using cloud computing (Apple, Google, Amazon) can answer security questions. There’s always a risk using personal information on the Internet, it’s a fact. As long as the cloud companies are doing their best to protect their customers, that’s all that consumers can ask for.

The brand that Apple’s trying to create with cloud computing left me feeling like my information was going someplace mysterious as I looked toward the sky. The explanation of iCloud seemed too high tech. Yet, the concept is more grounded than it sounds. The whole vision of the cloud keeps people in suspense, yet Apple’s always been great about that. Apple is known for their “out-of-the-box,” innovative technology. So continuing to call their product iCloud holds true to Apple. The other cloud companies, Amazon and Google, haven’t pushed cloud computing in people’s faces, but have still made their presence with this new technology known. They have a chance to ground people’s association with cloud computing so consumers aren’t frightened to send their information out. In reality, the information isn’t going out into a space with no boundaries, but to a tangible place controlled by Amazon, Apple, and Google.

For more information visit:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-06-22-cloud-consumer-apple-google_n.htm

J.K. Rowling Takes Control Of Her E-books

The collection of Harry Potter novels have been out for several years now, and July 2011 will bring the final movie in series, concluding the reign of Harry. J.K. Rowling isn’t giving up her beloved Harry just yet. On July 31, Pottermore will come to life.

Rowling chose July 31, because that’s Harry’s birthday. Pottermore is a website that will hold more content Potter fans haven’t read. It will also let Rowling keep control over her eBooks. Since eBooks became popular, Rowling refused to release digital versions of her novels. Finally, as the movies have all but wrapped up, she adds some final excitement into they Harry hype. She refused to go the traditional distribution route, so Amazon was out. Yet, the eBooks, even though exclusive to Pottermore, are compatible with any eReader. Also, the website will add new life to the stories (which all seven books will be on the site), and be fully interactive with the reader.

On the Pottermore website, Rowling leaves a teaser video, giving thanks to her loyal readership and fans who continue to write to her and love her work. Even though the release date is July 31, the website will not but fully open to the public until October. But some lucky few will get to experience the website early. Just how isn’t revealed on the site. If interested, you can still submit your email address to get a registration notification.

Since deciding to release ebooks, it was a wise choice by Rowling. If she didn’t, she would have been seen as an author stuck in the past. Also, with her timing, it was now or never. Releasing Pottermore around the final movie installment is great to supply more hype, not jus to the movie, but it’s an extension of the monopoly moving into a new medium. If Rowling had released Pottermore later than the final movie, there wouldn’t have been as big of an impact with fans. There doesn’t seem to be a huge impact now either, but this is the last chance to really hype the world of Hogwarts to readers. Creating eBooks sooner, like at the onset of eReaders, would have had more impact because Rowling would have been current with the times. She’ll still get tons of downloads from millions of loyal fans, but people are just about moved on from the series, engaging in new novels.

For more information visit:

http://www.pottermore.com/

http://media.theage.com.au/entertainment/red-carpet/jk-rowling-unveils-pottermore-2449251.html