What Are You Shipping This Week?
It’s opinion time … I was flipping through my Twitter feed when I saw Justin Jackson post this update: Start and ship something this week. — Justin Jackson (@mijustin) August 18, 2014 Which leads me to ask the question … If you had a banana gun to your head, what would you create and ship this week? Let the group know in our comments section...
read moreSharing Economy & the Uber Driver That Makes $100,000+ a Year
I was riding with Quincy yesterday, a driver for the ride-sharing service Uber, and we got to talking about his day. What he said absolutely floored me: Quincy drives Uber 7 days per week for a total of 16 hours per day Of course, this led to quite a few questions from me: You really work every day of the week? How does your body physically handle 16 hour work days? Do you have a significant other? Because I’m sure that he/she does not love your schedule 🙂 Quincy’s story surprised me so much that I actually sent a tweet from the cab: Just met an @uber driver who works 16 hour days, 7 days per week and grosses $107k+ per year #wow blog post coming — Mike Krass (@mikekrass) August 14, 2014 A tweet that was favorited by sharing economy proponent Jeremiah Owyang: Hey @jowyang you hear about Uber driver who grosses $107k+ annually? Sharing economy at its best … Link: https://t.co/xQbTzLEhwb — Mike Krass (@mikekrass) August 14, 2014 We’ll get to the sharing economy conversation later in this blog post. First, let me tell you what Quincy shared about his experience driving for Uber. Here is what Quincy told me about his decision to drive Uber: “I used to work three part-time jobs and still made half as much as I do driving Uber now” That line totally blew me away. Quincy was working at San Francisco International Airport, for Google and had a third part-time job to help pay the bills. So what happened when he started driving Uber? “Uber let’s me set my own hours. I work when I want, for however long I want and take breaks whenever I choose. Not only that, but I’m set to make 6-figures this year!” Quincy also mentioned that the money he’s earning from Uber is “absolutely addictive” “I’m getting paid for all the hard work I put in every day, and it’s all completely on my own terms. Uber gives me more freedom than any other job I’ve ever had and pays me way more than I could ever earn working two or three jobs like I used to. How can you not be in love with that?” Which made me think: How is the sharing economy changing the working class? The Sharing Economy in one infography : http://t.co/316A3GJEyT pic.twitter.com/N2mnszQlY5 — FABERNOVEL (@FABERNOVEL) July 21, 2014 Before companies like Uber and Air BnB existed, assets like your apartment or care used to be a *debit* on your expense report every month when you weren’t using them. Enter: the Sharing Economy. A term coined for companies like Uber, Lyft and Air BnB, the sharing economy is the ability to share your possessions, or assets, and turn these assets into revenue generators instead of letting them sit idly by when you aren’t using them. Which leads me to ask the question: Is Quincy’s story an early peak at how the “average joe’s” and working class people of this country will begin to change the way they pay the bills? If the answer is yes, then what will happen as middle-class jobs continue to disappear and that crowd moves up in the world to earning 6-figure salaries driving for companies like Uber or Lyft? Would love your thoughts in the comments section...
read moreKickstarter 101: How Aaron Hallerman & Lexell Watches Raised $221,000 on Kickstarter
Lately, I’ve been curious how effective Kickstarter is at raising money. I mean, if some guy named ‘Zack Danger Brown’ can raise more than $55,000 to (and I quote) “make potato salad because I’m hungry” is this really a serious platform for entrepreneurs to turn to when they need to raise funding and build a customer base? Luckily for me I know Aaron Hallerman, Founder of Lexell Watches (and most recently Vincero Watches), a childhood friend of mine who turned to Kickstarter to raise more than $221,000 for their first venture (Lexell Watches) and is at it again with Vincero Watches campaign on Kickstarter that has raised more than $123,000 to date (August 15 publish date). I chatted with Aaron earlier today asking a few tips about raising money on Kickstarter … … and his advice was so solid that I couldn’t help but share it with my readers. Here are some of the top tips that Aaron shared with me. Tip #1: Mine Your Own Network Aaron mentioned that his team wanted to avoid “spamming people” with the Lexell Watches campaign. There’s only so many times you can say “PLEASE BUY MY STUFF” before everybody gets annoyed with you With that being said, Aaron mentioned that his team tapped into their own networks and asked for really simple things such as: Share this campaign with your Facebook friends (one click share) Reach out to your network at least 30 days before your Kickstarter campaign kicks off Tip #2: Build Up Your Network Before Launching Kickstarter For the Vincero Watches campaign, Aaron noted that they spent a solid 2 months collecting email addresses of interested customers and pulled in more than 2,000 names. Learning from their first campaign with Lexell Watches, Aaron mentioned that 60 days wasn’t even enough prep time up front: they really wanted to spend more time collecting the names of those early adopters. It’s critical to build up your email database of early adopters. Those are going to be your first customers and you want as many of them as possible. Tip #3: Show, Don’t Tell Eventually, buyers are going to want to see the product. Aaron’s team spent their 60 day build up period producing product videos, taking photography and networking with journalists to show them how awesome and unique their watches were. That being said, the “SHOW, DON’T TELL” mantra comes into play here: Buyers need to connect with your product early and often! Tip #4: Prepare to Fight for Space Kickstarter has changed quote a bit in the past 6 months: It is crazy crowded and everyone is fighting for position on the homepage as well as being selected as a ‘staff pick’ Staff picks go out to millions of people on Facebook and sit on the front page of the website, giving your product tons of exposure. Prepare to fight for premium position by mining your network, contacting Kickstarter and driving as much traffic as humanly possible to the Kickstarter page. Some Closing Words of Advice Aaron mentioned a few other things that were helpful: Kickstarter tends to have much higher conversion rates that e-commerce stores and websites. Take advantage of that. Using Kickstarter comes with a 9% fee on all money raised, so make sure to budget correctly as they take a cut of...
read moreDon’t Forget to Set the Right Pace for the Pulse of Your Company
This post is part of the How to 100 article series; 100 word snippets of advice on how to grow your small business. Receive email updates the second new advice is published by clicking here It’s importance to set the pace of your companies pulse Prior to starting my own company, all I knew at work was GO! GO! GO! GO! GO! I moved fast, broke lots of things, and then moved faster to fix them again (which I always did). In the past two and a half years of running my own small business, I’ve learned a lot from an old saying: Measure twice. Cut once. Taking the time to slow down, evaluate options and then move forward confidently with the best one has been an invaluable ability to learn. Learning how to measure twice and cut once has helped me … Remember to make time for team building conversations, lunches and activities Develop a culture that rewards working smarter, not necessarily working longer or harder Set boundaries between my professional and personal life (not easy to do for an entrepreneur!) Take some time out of your busy day next week to measure twice and cut once: Promise yourself to work smarter, not harder. Enjoying this advice? Click here to receive email updates the nano-second new advice is published on the How to 100 blog. Mike Krass | CEO MKG Media Group Aside from being the CEO at MKG Media Group, Mike is a dark beer aficionado with a healthy appetite for travel and pushing personal boundaries. A proud graduate of Washington State University, Mike currently calls San Francisco home. Twitter // Google+ //...
read more4 Step Process to Maximize Business Productivity
This post is part of the How to 100 article series; 100 word snippets of advice on how to grow your small business. Receive email updates the second new advice is published by clicking here Do you know how much your time is worth? As our marketing agency closed out the calendar year, we took some time to reflect on tasks or projects that were necessary for our business to operate but quite mundane and time consuming. A few examples included: Simple data aggregation across multiple spreadsheets (i.e. copy/pasting massive amounts of data) Day-to-day bookkeeping We kept asking ourselves: Are these tasks really worth our time? Ultimately, the answer to many of our necessary but mundane and time consuming tasks was NO; they weren’t worth our undivided time and energy. Most importantly, these were not profitable ways to use our time. With that in mind, here is the exercise we went through to help maximize our time and energy: Step One: Write down all the tasks you perform over the course of the week as well as how much time it takes to complete them Step Two: Review this list the following week and circle or highlight tasks that are necessary for business operations but quite simple and mundane Step Three: Write down the process to complete the highlighted tasks so there is a clear start-to-finish instruction manual Step Four: Time to outsource. Find a part-time hire or intern in your local area or assign the work to an individual out of country. Be patient; it will take a few weeks to get the process really dialed in. Enjoying this advice? Click here to receive email updates the nano-second new advice is published on the How to 100 blog. Mike Krass | CEO MKG Media Group Aside from being the CEO at MKG Media Group, Mike is a dark beer aficionado with a healthy appetite for travel and pushing personal boundaries. A proud graduate of Washington State University, Mike currently calls San Francisco home. Twitter // Google+ //...
read more3 Steps to Explain Why Your Business Makes the World a Better Place
This post is part of the How to 100 article series; 100 word snippets of advice on how to grow your small business. Receive email updates the second new advice is published by clicking here What’s the purpose of your business? Think long and hard, down to your core: what higher calling, or purpose, does your business serve? What earth-shaking, mountain-moving problems do you try and defeat on a daily basis? What is the purpose of your businesses existence? Great examples include Google’s Glass’s ‘We want a heads up world’ and Oracle’s ‘The Internet of Everything’. The next 100 words will teach you how to differentiate yourself & discover the true purpose of your business. Step 1: What product/service do you provide? Grab a piece of paper and write down all the products/services that you provide. Don’t be shy; write ’em all down! Step 2: What problem do you solve? How do you improve the world? Think BIG PICTURE here; you aren’t an advertising strategist for a non-profit. You generate awareness (ad strategy) about ways to get clean water in third-world countries (non-profit’s mission). Step 3: How does your solution differ from competitors? Think long and hard; how are you different than competitors? Again, look at the BIG PICTURE and get a real, purpose-driven answer written down for this one. Why is the world a better place with your company in it? Props to Jeff Nedler of Polaris Brand Strategy for a thought-provoking conversation that lead to this post. Enjoying this advice? Click here to receive email updates the nano-second new advice is published on the How to 100 blog. Mike Krass | CEO MKG Media Group Aside from being the CEO at MKG Media Group, Mike is a dark beer aficionado with a healthy appetite for travel and pushing personal boundaries. A proud graduate of Washington State University, Mike currently calls San Francisco home. Twitter // Google+ //...
read moreWelcome to the How to 100: Small Business Advice for the Every Man
What is this ‘How to 100’ thing and where did I come up with it? Well, let me explain … Lately, I’ve really been itching to give back Maybe it’s the holiday season. Maybe I need something productive to do on Saturdays besides watch football. Whatever the case may be, I’ve decided to channel my energy into something productive: Sharing small business advice. Why small business advice? Just the other day I was giving a friend some advice on how to develop profiles of his most profitable types of clients so he could sort through his new client referrals with more confidence. When I got off the phone with him, I thought to myself: I give a lot of advice to other entrepreneurs & small business owners … Why don’t I ever write these things down? For every conversation I do have where I share some helpful advice on growing your business, there are a few requests to chat every week that I’m simply not able to help with because I don’t have enough time. Writing down all the tips I’ve learned about building a sustainable, profitable small business over the past 30 months would allow me to help more people. Why should you pay attention to my advice? I know I know; you’re probably wondering why to trust me in the first place. Well, you should also have some faith in my advice because … My company has worked with more than 20 clients ranging from Microsoft to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation We have increased revenue by 50x at the end of year 1 and generated 98% revenue growth again at the end of year 2 We’ve never received a single dime of funding and are continuing to focus on building a profitable, sustainable business without having to seek outside investment So what am I going to write about? I’m dubbing this series the ‘How to 100’ and will focus the majority of the content around easy how-to tips and tricks to grow your business faster. A few great examples include: How to fire all your bad clients How to increase revenue from existing clients Where to turn for help when your company is growing too fast (or not fast enough!) The real kicker: All the content I do produce will also be less than 100 words in length. Why am I providing small business advice in 100 word increments? Because I want to make it easy and effortless for you, my fellow entrepreneurs & small business owners, to learn from my mistakes and failures! My favorite business book mentions that most people write too much! Instead of getting to the point, they hammer home their points over and over and over and … well, you get the point. My goal is to get to the point, share helpful advice to grow your business and engage with other small business owners online through this series of articles. What am I personally looking to get out of this? My goals are simple: Article Comments: I’m looking to get all the feedback I possibly can on each piece of advice in the comments section of the article Comments to Shape Future Content: Not only do I want to have conversations with my readers, but I want to use suggestions in the comments...
read moreThe Fishbone Revenue Stream Theory
Do You Have Any Idea How to Project Revenue Streams for Your Company? A few years ago, I started a digital marketing agency . The managing director at my previous employer asked me the following question: Who is your ideal customer and what product or service do you sell to them? At the time, my answer to him was: I HAVE NO IDEA! Over the past two years, our agency has been able to create an answer to that question based upon what I am calling the Fishbone Revenue Stream Theory (brought to life by the crude drawing above), which simply states: Your ideal customer, product & service is based upon what you get somebody to pay you hard cash to do. When people begin acknowledging your skills and paying you money in exchange for products or services, you have identified: a) what your company is good at b) more importantly, what people will pay you to do. Using the idea of a fishbone, you can begin to split products/services off of your main base (the spine of the fish) that are profitable for your business. In the young life of a new company, nothing matters more than identifying the who you sell a particular product or service to. Questions? Comments? Mike Krass | CEO MKG Media Group Aside from being the CEO at MKG Media Group, Mike is a dark beer aficionado with a healthy appetite for travel and pushing personal boundaries. A proud graduate of Washington State University, Mike currently calls San Francisco home. Twitter // Google+ //...
read moreWhy Guest Lecturing Was One of the Best Experiences in my Life
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to guest lecture at my alma mater, Washington State University. I learned that … Lecturing sucks. Conversations are better. My guest lecture focused on how to read & analyze marketing data. These students had seen data before in the form of qualitative market research and statistics throughout their coursework, but most had never seen a data platform such as Google Analytics at work. To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure how they would react, especially as I presented this information via Google Hangouts and couldn’t physically be in the classroom. And guess what? They ate it up! I held the lecture in a more casual, conversational manner to encourage each student to speak up, ask questions and challenge my authority. And they did just that throughout the course of the lecture and the ensuing in-class data analysis activity. With that in mind, I wanted to share some of their astute questions they asked and insights they delivered, which included: Which media channel is driving the most revenue? Why? Why is [campaign x] producing revenue while the similar one next to it is not? How come [campaign z] had the most site visits but didn’t generate any revenue? Additionally, one of the students inadvertently brought up the value of brand advertising and how it influences other channels within the overall marketing funnel, a question I could never even conceive during my time in college! So what did I personally walk away with after my first instructor experience? Off the top of my head, I learned: Chose an Anchor: One student in the front of the room became my anchor, meaning anytime I heard crickets or needed to spur the class into discussion I prodded him to get the conversation rolling. Become a Student of Life: I never went to after-class events during college; never thought I had the time. But seeing these students reminded me that even though I’m not 19 years old anymore, it’s never too late to keep learning. Make time to continue the pursuit of education. Practice Makes Perfect: I’m a big fan of ‘winging it’ through presentations, but boy am I glad that I at least practiced this lecture once (should have done so 4 or 5 times). No matter how ‘spontaneously awesome’ you think you are, practice will make you a better communicator. What is your lecturing experience? Any tips I missed...
read moreWhat’s the Value of Hiring a True Professional?
Earlier this week, I posted something unusual on Facebook: An image of an inspirational quote. The image described the value of hiring a professional versus hiring an amateur. Within five minutes of posting it, the image generated: 14 likes 2 comments 1 re-share Not exactly mind blowing figures, but I normally post my weekend pictures and general nonsense on Facebook so this response took me by surprise. For reference, here is the image below: Until I went into business for myself and truly began to care about the costs & efficiencies that business owners think about on a daily basis, I didn’t understand the true value of hiring a professional as opposed to an amateur. In the two short years I have been self employed, the value I’ve received from hiring a pro include: No Hand Holding If I wanted to hold the person’s hand through the project, I’d hire an intern. It doesn’t matter to me what experience you have in the past; if I have to hold your hand through the process then I am wasting my time assisting you with the project I am paying YOU to perform. The Ability to Let Go When I trust handing off a piece of work to a true professional, I am investing in the piece of mind that the project will get done correctly the first time and I won’t need to micro-manage the individual. The Opportunity to Be Blown Away More often than not, when I provide clear instructions to a talented professional they come back with a final work product that blows my expectations out of the water. Never under-estimate the power of concise, clear instructions combined with a talented individual. What Are Your Thoughts on the Value of Hiring a True Professional? Mike Krass | CEO of MKG Media Group Aside from being the CEO at MKG Media Group, Mike is a dark beer aficionado with a healthy appetite for travel and pushing personal boundaries. A proud graduate of Washington State University, Mike currently calls San Francisco home. Twitter // Google+ //...
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