Technology Ventures Summit, Feb 15-16

The Technology Ventures Summit is going on February 15th and 16th in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The first day is devoted to helping new Angel investors learn how to invest in technology startups. The second day has technology company presentations.

Three of the Center for Business Development client companies are presenting their businesses on Wednesday the 16th:

• XploSafe, LLC
• Secure Analtics
• Bluewater

If you are attending the Venture Summit and see their presentations, please let me know how they did! It is very helpful to have different people hear the presentation.

Email me at Bradr (at) Meridiantech.edu.

The value of individual data

I received the latest weekly memo from the Guthrie Chamber of Commerce this morning. In it, they described how they were at a travel show selling Guthrie as a tourist destination. During the show, they remarked "A couple of people commented they tried coming into Guthrie at the first exit by all of the car sales and salvage yards but was discouraged and turned around and went back to the highway. (that is good to know)"

Guthrie has two entrances off the main highway - the southern entrance takes a long curve up into town, the northern entrance cuts perpendicular to the town. And some people had gotten off at the southern entrance and gave up trying to get into town (which is about 3 miles max) because it did not seem as though they were getting to their destination.

The issue I want to raise about this is: "what should you do with a piece of information like this?"

You might -

• discount it, assuming most people wouldn't give up like that
• acknowledge it, but do nothing as it would cost too much
• acknowledge it, and buy a bunch of signage, get a committee together, etc

or do any number of a myriad of other solutions.

The point is: every day you will receive information like this at your location, store, business - but if every day you get information, how can you possibly act on any of it in a timely manner? You will end up being whipped from one item to the next.

A means for helping with this is for items that are not of immediate issue (there is ice in front of the door and it is slippery!) - instead of acting on the information right away, write it down in a list. At the end of the month, set aside one hour to review all the pieces of data, and sort/review according to need or importance. Then try for the next month to resolve one of the items on the list.

Returning to Guthrie - it might be easier for them to have a sign on the highway before the southern entrance that says "Downtown - take #" than to add a bunch of signs after the people get off at the southern entrance.

There is value in the data you gather for your business, but the value can only be taken advantage of if you can act on it (and then evaluate its effectiveness). Too often business owners come in to me and say "here are 17 items I need to work on in my business" - who can possibly get that many things done? Collate the data - and solve one item.

Marketing after the sale

My wife and I had the opportunity to purchase a car over the holidays. Once you have bought a car, you always have the stuff that fills the old car interior you have to move over to the new car.

If you've ever done this, you know there can be quite a bit of stuff to move. And the dealerships never seem to have any boxes around to fill.

Simple marketing opportunity: boxes printed with the dealership name. Have a stack of them in an empty office, and whenever someone comes in and buys a car, you fold them together, and help the new customer. Make the boxes white, with a cover. Or buy a stack of plastic bins like are sold for Christmas decorations. Make up labels and stick them on the side. Anything to get the dealership name out there, and make the new customer feel they were well cared for.

You could even have a local restaurant include a coupon for a meal up to $25 in the box. If people are like me, they have a pit in their stomach every time they have to sign all that paperwork - at least a nice meal will help me leave a bit less queasy.

The dealership loves you until you buy the car, then the relationship really begins. Why not keep the warmth for a bit longer.

Marketing continues even after the sale.

Coffee Time

Over the recent holidays, my wife and I visited Kansas City. Thanksgiving Thursday we before we went over to her family for the day, we stopped in the local Starbucks for coffees. The store was slammed - huge lines of people trying to get their coffees and some breakfast. I noticed that less than a block away there was a Dunn Brothers Coffee location - but it was closed.

The next day before we left, we stopped in the Dunn Brothers rather than Starbucks. I told the owner behind the counter that we were surprised he was closed Thanksgiving, especially since Starbucks was open.

He remarked that he didn't know that the Starbucks was open, and that he took three days off a year, and Thanksgiving was one of them.

I bring up this story for two reasons. First, if you are a block away from a competitor on a very busy day is it worth being closed? I do not want to minimize the fact that this small business owner gets three days off a year (and a coffee shop opens early every day), so if he were open on Thanksgiving (and Christmas), that would be one less day he is open.

Second, how could he not have checked whether his competitor was open on these days? At worst he could have passed by the shop just to see what was going on, and noticed the cars lined up at Starbucks.

Finally, here is an opportunity for a small business owner - put a sign out at the street saying fresh coffee and we are open (and do the same with early morning opening for Black Thursday, say at 4am). Then close at noon those days. I bet he would be way ahead for the overall weekend, and the marketing cost: couple signs.

Enjoy your holiday, but don't forget to pry some of those hard earned $ from your customers during the holiday season!

Two points of differentiation

Robert X. Cringely has been writing on technology for many years and his blog is often very good on what is happening tomorrow in technology and computers.

Today his latest post is about Microsoft Windows 7 phones.

I want to focus on his comment that, "the rule of thumb is you need two or more clearly superior points of differentiation in order to gain share from an underdog position in a technology market."

It seems natural that a new product in an existing market will have some cool - incredible - wow! - feature that clearly differentiates it from the other products. But is that enough? His rule of thumb says you need a second item. Why?

The first item grabs your attention - "you mean the Ultramizer 1.0 can do Xbar1?" But then you ask, "what else does it do?" If the answer is "nothing", then there is insufficient momentum to get them to change (with all the constituent difficulties in change).

The entrepreneur devotes so much of her time to the first most distinctive difference, there is not enough 'else' to make it persuasive. Her competitors can say they will add that one feature in the next release - now what?

So when you come it to discuss your new technology, don't be surprised if I ask, "what else differentiates it from the other products".

Credibility

How do you gain credibility - what makes you credible?

The best way to gain credibility is through long experience with a person. Over time, you come to trust that she will carry out what she is supposed to do, and you are willing to trust them with important items.

But if you are a startup - none of your clients or early customers have any experience with you. So how to create credibility in that situation?

Let's use an analogy: a job interview. How do you know that the person you are interviewing knows the job? How do you decide on the credibility of a candidate? If the candidate seems to know the industry, ask useful questions, can explain how things are done - in this and a myriad of ways, she demonstrates competence in the role.

Likewise, you gain credibility in your prospective customer's eye, by doing the same: asking good questions, show understanding of the industry - pay attention to the issues they are interested in. These are ways you can bank 'knowledge' credibility (credibility based on what you know).

Another way to base credibility is in 'who you know'. If Jones always trusts you to do the job, and I trust Jones, then there is a transitive relationship. This 'transitive' credibility is harder to build, since presumably there are not other customers you can refer to. But there are people who know the industry and are interested in your work. Be sure they can help you.

I will leave you to work out how you can lose credibility - but suffice to say, both lack of knowledge and lack of transitiveness cause it.

As you build your business: are you building credibility?

Use a 3x5 card

A great tip from Bill Gosnell of the Pawnee Chamber of Commerce -

"Grab a 3x5 card and one topic, such as the front entry of your business. Now list not more than 3 affordable items that would improve the appearance or functionality of what most customers deal with first...carry the card with you until all 3 items are accomplished."

Concentrating solely on overwhelming issues to handle at work often leads to paralysis. By tackling a few smaller items, you can gain momentum on the big issues. Start small. Fix the simple items.

When you are done with a card - tear it up and start another.