A couple weeks ago, I returned from one of our industry's major trade shows around dinner time on a Sunday night. I sat at the table, somewhat wiped out, but still a bit exhilarated by the events of the previous three days. As I started to relate the events of trade show '09, I noticed that my oldest daughter (soon to be nine), was truly interested. She kept asking questions about different employees, different clients, the overall tenor of the show, etc. I was really impressed, and with a small tear in my eye, asked, "Would you like to run Daddy's business someday?"
"Oh, no," she said. It could have easily been "Shit! No!" After a short beat for emphasis, she said, "I'm gonna open a store called Crap & Junk."
My wife and I laughed like hell. Who would expect a nine-year-old kid to come up with that in such short order? But the unfunny part of this interlude is that she was serious. "So what are you going to sell at Crap & Junk?" I asked. "What difference does it make," she answered. "It's a really good name...I'll think of something."
And she was right. It really doesn't matter what you sell anymore; it only matters how you market it. When I returned to work the following day, I told this story to every employee in my company (that's the great thing about owning a business, you can indulge yourself that way.)
To a person, everybody said that they not only agreed with my daughter's choice (Crap & Junk vs. Dad's Company), they said they'd be very willing customers. "But she doesn't even know what she's going to sell," I protested. "So what," they collectively replied. "It's a great name and she'll probably come up with some swell crap and junk."
Which brings me to a Carrie Bradshawesque question: Does it matter what you sell as long as your marketing and branding is really good? Or is it really just about branding and marketing anyway?
Friday, April 24, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Where was the Internet When I was a Kid?
When I was attending college back a century or so ago, and my high school friends were scattered hither and yon at other temples of higher learning, we communicated largely by letters and postcards. Long distance phone calls were too expensive.
Then one of us got the bright idea to send audio cassettes back and forth so that we could, at least, hear each others' voices. Swell! Quickly, this form of communication within our small, closed audience became something of an art form, as one or the other of us would try for more audio "special effects," surprises, clips from songs, etc. It became commonplace to receive a tape back with snippets of your own previously sent tape included, juxtaposed with music clips, Cheech & Chong or Firesign Theatre excerpts and other such silliness.
It was great fun, and became almost a hobby for some of us. The process, when done right, could take hours (or even days) as one crafted a tape using nothing more than a little cassette recorder, a microphone and a record player with a some sort of pause mechanism. A lotta work!
While we were doing all this, I thought there must be a business opportunity here somewhere (the same instinct that I apply to most everything today). However, there was never enough time, or focus, to pursue it.
The other day, I came across ijustine.com, which is piloted by a young lady name Justine Ezarik out on the West Coast. I must be the last person on the planet to have tripped over her stuff, because she's prolific. she twitters, blogs, makes cute movies that she shows on YouTube...also apparently she does some modeling (and with good reason as she's very pretty). The point of all this is that a creative 24-year-old woman has been able to nuture an enterprise through her own self-generated entertainment. And it ain't hard....anybody with the ability to learn and the drive can do the same thing and garner Andy Warhol's 15 minutes of fame. And all we had were tape recorders and the U.S. mail.
Oh, where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?
Then one of us got the bright idea to send audio cassettes back and forth so that we could, at least, hear each others' voices. Swell! Quickly, this form of communication within our small, closed audience became something of an art form, as one or the other of us would try for more audio "special effects," surprises, clips from songs, etc. It became commonplace to receive a tape back with snippets of your own previously sent tape included, juxtaposed with music clips, Cheech & Chong or Firesign Theatre excerpts and other such silliness.
It was great fun, and became almost a hobby for some of us. The process, when done right, could take hours (or even days) as one crafted a tape using nothing more than a little cassette recorder, a microphone and a record player with a some sort of pause mechanism. A lotta work!
While we were doing all this, I thought there must be a business opportunity here somewhere (the same instinct that I apply to most everything today). However, there was never enough time, or focus, to pursue it.
The other day, I came across ijustine.com, which is piloted by a young lady name Justine Ezarik out on the West Coast. I must be the last person on the planet to have tripped over her stuff, because she's prolific. she twitters, blogs, makes cute movies that she shows on YouTube...also apparently she does some modeling (and with good reason as she's very pretty). The point of all this is that a creative 24-year-old woman has been able to nuture an enterprise through her own self-generated entertainment. And it ain't hard....anybody with the ability to learn and the drive can do the same thing and garner Andy Warhol's 15 minutes of fame. And all we had were tape recorders and the U.S. mail.
Oh, where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Why are we here?
Hello all...I started this blog to express ideas about business and creativity that I felt I couldn't do in the context of my current business.
My Egore. The name came from an important childhood event--the creation of Egore--a cardboard robot I built in 1965 out of old supermarket boxes, random toy parts, and my imagination. Egore himself wasn't much to look at. He basically just sat there. But I was able to create a living character out of him, and wrote about his adventures in our elementary school paper (including illustrations). It was great! It was 1965 and I was 11 years old.
Egore went back in time in one episode; he was an "007" spy in another...he always "got the girl," if you will. Kids liked to read about Egore, and I enjoyed giving them what they wanted. As Egore became more popular, his franchise grew and we needed to construct new venues to accomodate his popularity (Disneyesque, you say?) Egore actually got to participate in a school Halloween pageant! We dressed him like the Great Pumpkin. He was a media sensation.
Then we (my friend, David, and I) got the idea to hold "Egore Fairs" where kids could come and spend money to see Egore, take a picture with him, yadayada.... We set up an Egore gift shoppe, sold treats (Egore cookies) from mobile carts (red wagons, as this all took place in David's backyard). We employed our siblings to run the various concessions. It was grand! I think we made anywhere from $5-$6 per fair, and paid our sibilings about fifty cents each.
As with Huck Finn, Egore came to an inauspicious end. David's mother threw him out one miserable February afternoon when she'd simply had enough of this sagging, cardboard toy lying around the house.
Years later, I was talking about Egore to a college friend (under the right circumstances, conversations could go that way back in the 70s). She said, "Do you think the name Egore really represented EGO?" Believe or not, I hadn't.
Everything I've done since--with the exception of following the dictates of sundry employers--has sprung from the place that made Egore.
I now run a business-to-business communications company that I started in 2000, and I enjoy it enormously. I've started this blog to explore these two variables--creativity and small business--and would appreciate sharing ideas with others who can identify with what I'm saying here.
Gimme a call and tell me about Your Egore....Frank G.
My Egore. The name came from an important childhood event--the creation of Egore--a cardboard robot I built in 1965 out of old supermarket boxes, random toy parts, and my imagination. Egore himself wasn't much to look at. He basically just sat there. But I was able to create a living character out of him, and wrote about his adventures in our elementary school paper (including illustrations). It was great! It was 1965 and I was 11 years old.
Egore went back in time in one episode; he was an "007" spy in another...he always "got the girl," if you will. Kids liked to read about Egore, and I enjoyed giving them what they wanted. As Egore became more popular, his franchise grew and we needed to construct new venues to accomodate his popularity (Disneyesque, you say?) Egore actually got to participate in a school Halloween pageant! We dressed him like the Great Pumpkin. He was a media sensation.
Then we (my friend, David, and I) got the idea to hold "Egore Fairs" where kids could come and spend money to see Egore, take a picture with him, yadayada.... We set up an Egore gift shoppe, sold treats (Egore cookies) from mobile carts (red wagons, as this all took place in David's backyard). We employed our siblings to run the various concessions. It was grand! I think we made anywhere from $5-$6 per fair, and paid our sibilings about fifty cents each.
As with Huck Finn, Egore came to an inauspicious end. David's mother threw him out one miserable February afternoon when she'd simply had enough of this sagging, cardboard toy lying around the house.
Years later, I was talking about Egore to a college friend (under the right circumstances, conversations could go that way back in the 70s). She said, "Do you think the name Egore really represented EGO?" Believe or not, I hadn't.
Everything I've done since--with the exception of following the dictates of sundry employers--has sprung from the place that made Egore.
I now run a business-to-business communications company that I started in 2000, and I enjoy it enormously. I've started this blog to explore these two variables--creativity and small business--and would appreciate sharing ideas with others who can identify with what I'm saying here.
Gimme a call and tell me about Your Egore....Frank G.
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