Sorry for the delayed absence guys (yes, I'm still alive). I've been working like a maniac on my latest startup (which is going to be released soon), but I'll be posting regularly again from now on.

With startups there's an endemic barrier to entry that can deter just about anyone, and it's important to fight it off. The most depressing (and yet natural) of them all is as follows:

Your idea seems perfect, but you eventually realize that nobody wants to buy it

Before you throw the idea/work in the trash compactor, try to refine it first. I could throw out a lot of different examples to illustrate how, but the easiest one is Play-Doh. If you're a cinefile, you'll note that this story was recently told in the movie 'How do you know' (which was a waste of time by the way).

The short version of Play-Doh: It was created as a wallpaper cleaner. It wasn't doing so hot. They realized that people were using it as pliable clay instead. So they marketed it as such, and it all worked out.

Interestingly, this cyclical repositioning/refining technique appears in almost every successful business to some degree.

There's an important book that most entrepreneurs I've met have all read called Founders At Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days (You can get it by clicking here). The book details how so many businesses have had to shift their focus, and this is what ultimately made them successful.

One of the many examples in the book is PayPal. PayPal basically started as a method of transferring money between two wireless devices. This was their 'idea'. While the idea was cute, it wasn't especially profitable. Thus, the idea was refined, and it ended up taking the form of third party company that assists with transfers online. It's now a titan of the online world.

There are countless other examples in the book of companies that have followed the same cyclical repositioning path. The book is basically a collection of case studies from successful businesses.

This technique of:

1. Release the product
2. Collect feedback
3. Refine (make changes)
4. Repeat

is at the heart of being an entrepreneur. This is the framework you must follow. You need to fail in order to succeed. Here's a variation of the cycle, which is employed by the vast majority of entrepreneurs who fail:

1. Release the product
2. Ignore feedback
3. Wait out the storm (do nothing)
4. Try to advertise more
5. Go down with the ship

The goal of your startup should be continuous refinement/improvement of the product. This technique has become so important, that there's actually a second book that is dedicated entirely to this concept. It's called Getting to Plan B: Breaking Through to a better business model (Get it by clicking here). The book is written by John Mullins, and Randy Komisar (who most know from Stanford University's Entrepreneurial Thought Leader podcasts). The book basically ascertains that your business is almost definitely going to fail in its early stages, and that's fine. In fact, that's natural. Only once you've failed can you start to refine the product and reposition it accordingly.

If you follow this type of framework, you'll find yourself much less stressed by early signs of failure in your business. If you go in with the mindset that you're going to need to adjust on the fly, you won't panic when the initial reaction to your business sucks. You'll automatically only worry when you need to; in this case, you only need to worry if you can't reposition the product for success. Only at this point should you be looking to dispose of the idea like it was last week's leftovers.

So don't be afraid of failing. In fact, embrace the need; The Need to Fail.

Just make sure you build off it and come back with a better product.

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Yes, your business can learn a lot from a band whose members play on stage in their Halloween masks. Find out what it is, without being subjected to their awful "music"


How Slipknot stands out from the million other bands with no talent

Slipknot's musical style is not for everyone. In fact, it's for a very tiny percentage of people. Their music is loud, contains plenty of screaming, and is downright frightening. Their live shows look like a rave in Hell. But lots of other bands make music that sounds identical; so what makes Slipknot a huge success, and similar bands nobodies? Simple: They make themselves stand out with fantastic branding


A simple trip to the costume store = Branding genius
Unlike other bands with no talent, Slipknot's members all wear memorable, one of a kind costumes on stage. The costumes are Halloween masks, that look like props from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie. To be honest, it was hard to find any that were appropriate for this story; they were all grotesque. But that's the point. The more disturbing, the better as far as Slipknot cares. Their masks are genuinely frightening, and they ensure that the band is remembered by anyone that sees them. It's branding genius, and it has elevated them from 'just another loud band' into a huge commercial success


The "scary mask" strategy's success throughout history
Slipknot is not the first band to incite interest through props. Black Sabbath had almost no success when they first formed a band. But they underwent a dark makeover; they realized that people enjoyed paying money to be scared by scary movies. The took this idea, and ported it over to the music world. They reached stardom by looking frightening on stage, while using dark lyrics to build a massive audience. They became a "scary" band when nobody else was. Obviously, this distinguished them from the other bands that looked relatively plain by comparison

Kiss was actually failing miserably on their music alone when they started out. But after initial failure, they turned things around. How? Gene Simmons started to get people talking about his on stage stunts. Among them were spitting blood on stage (yogurt with food coloring), and breathing fire. Kiss developed a reputation as a great live band, and their sales took off

Have you noticed the recurring theme?

1. Consumers don't really care for the band
2. Band becomes memorable by becoming "scary"
3. Band becomes successful

It's fascinating that the music is not the biggest reason behind each bands' success; the branding is. The theatrics, costumes, and explosions, are what turned Black Sabbath's and Kiss's fortune. They didn't grow in talent. They simply changed their appearance, style, and target audience. This adaption turned them into music giants. Slipknot was smart enough to distinguish themselves with masks since the beginning. Like Black Sabbath and Kiss, their unique image contributed to their success at least as much as their actual music did


How you can apply similar tactics
Your company needs to stand out from the millions of other "bands" that you compete against. Let's face it: there's usually not a big difference between web design companies, or roofing companies, or whatever it is that your business sells. Similarly, there's not a big difference between loud bands that spend all their time screaming about how enjoyable Hell would be. The key is differentiating your company from the pack.

You need to be creative in how you execute your differentiation strategy. On a feature level (the lowest level), you should be able to fill in the following sentence: "We're the only company that provides _______". If you can fill in the blank with a meaningful answer, you can differentiate yourself on a low level. You can bubble this sentence up through the different levels of your business, until you reach the presentation layer (your website, or store front). Modify the sentence accordingly for each level. At the top level, the sentence might read: "We're the only website that provides ________", or "We're the only store with a _________ appearance". As you make the different elements of your business memorable, you can begin to carve out a brand

For optimal success, you need to get people talking about your product. Slipknot uses Halloween masks to achieve this; Black Sabbath used scary music; Kiss used spitting blood and fire breathing. What will your business do to get people talking about it? This is where your creativity comes into play. You need to spark people's interest; you need to drum up buzz. You need to become your industry's Slipknot

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Everyone loves Victoria's Secret; women love it, and men probably love it more. The company became a powerhouse, and it used these 2 strategies to get there. Your business should use them too.

1. Give your audience a reason to be interested in your company

Victoria's Secret throws a massive made for TV event each year, right before the Christmas shopping season(not a coincidence). But this is actually nothing new; your local shopping mall tries to get your attention right before Christmas too (look no further than the 'Santa Clause' that they bring in, who looks nothing like Santa Clause). The difference between the two, is that Victoria's Secret actually generates excitement.

Victoria's Secret uses their show to grab the interest of both male and female shoppers. What might seem like an hour long spectacle, is really just an elaborate hour-long advertisement of their latest inventory. Men gobble it up because it has Adriana Lima walking around in her underwear; women love it, because they might get some fashion ideas. It's a win-win, and Victoria's Secret knows that lots of couples are watching it together; they know that the words "oooh, I want that" are going to be uttered by girlfriends around the world. They use the show to create a buzz around their product so efficiently, that you don't even realize you're watching an hour long advertisement (and for many men, re-watching it several times).

Your business can apply similar tactics (no, I don't mean having your employees march around in their underwear on a webcam). Like Victoria's Secret, you need to provide compelling content to your audience that will get them talking. Obviously it's hard to top a bunch of supermodels strutting in lingerie while Seal tries to resurrect his career in the background; but if you can create excellent content, you will get people talking about your business. Use social media marketing to help your content generate buzz. Create enough buzz, and you'll create interest in your company, which leads to more sales. The more people that know your business, and trust what you have to say, the more sales you are going to make. Give your audience a reason to be interested in you


2. Make it easy for your customers to help themselves

While shopping with my girlfriend in Seattle last week, I came across a Victoria's Secret store in the mall. In the front of the store however was not what you'd expect. Staring me right in the face were actually Men's clothes (I believe it was the 'For Him' collection). Why would they put Men's clothes in the prime real estate out front? Simple: They know that women are going to walk to the back of the store anyways, to look around. Women enjoy shopping more than men. They really don't mind heading into the store to check it out. For many guys however, we could care less about entering the store, let alone walking to the back to look around. They know that if they want my attention, they'd better make it easy for me to see what they're offering. Victoria's Secret isn't the only store to use this tactic; in fact, most stores do (check out Banana Republic next time you walk by). Clothing stores realize that they have a much smaller window of time to capture the attention of Men, so they go right after them. By doing this, I became aware of the 'For Him' apparel at Victoria' Secret (no, I didn't buy any of it). If it had been hidden in the back, I never would have known that it existed,

Your business needs to implement this tactic too. Make it easy for your audience to help themselves. If your business sells shoes, make sure it's ridiculously easy for users to find what they're looking for. If I want to see all the white shoes on your website, it should be easy for me to do so. I shouldn't have to go through page after page searching; if I have to dig through your site to find them, then you've basically done the equivalent of stuffing your 'For Him' section at the back of the store. I'm not going to look there; I'm going to keep walking. Be like Victoria's Secret, and make it easy for your customers to help themselves

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Your website is a double-edged sword: it can help you or it can cut you. Here are some surefire things to do if you'd rather sink your business than grow it.

1. Bombard your customers with corporate talk about how great your company is
In reality, nobody gives a damn about your company's mission statement, or your dedication to perfection. Guess what: Everyone else's website says the same thing. Your website needs to actually provide value to your customer. Give them something that's worth their time for visiting your website. This might be in the form of useful information, or a set of resources they didn't know about. Don't just give them a fancy logo, corporate slogan, and pages of your personal achievements. They don't care for it.


2. Use as much Flash Animation as possible
If there's one thing your visitors will love to do, it's wait 30 seconds for your cool Flash animation to load. Then once it loads, they'll be blown away by the animated leaves that blow over your logo, to reveal your cool company name. Nobody cares for this. You have less than 3 seconds to impress a customer (not 30). If your poindexter computer guy insists on using Flash, get a new guy (or scare the first one straight with pictures of girls). Another awesome feature of Flash is that search engines can't read the text inside it, which means it has no idea what you're talking about. If it can't understand your text, it won't index it, and this will cost you visitors. Other than all the negatives above, Flash is fantastic!


3. Insist on collecting each visitor's contact information through annoying pop-up adds
Does anyone enjoy having to continually close these pop-up windows? This is almost like an immunization to ensure that your site doesn't contract the success virus. Avoid it like Jenny McCarthy would.


4. Use a font/background combination that nobody can read
Nothing goes better on a white background than light gray text right? Visitors love straining their eyes, or having to highlight the text to read it. This is a great way to get rid of potential customers as quickly as possible. If you feel like keeping your visitors, use a strong contrast (black text on white, white text on black, etc). This saves your visitor's eyes (and temper)


5. Hide your links so that nobody can find them
Visitors love to inspect every pixel of the screen to find your links right? Of course not. So make sure your menus and links are easy to find, and easy to read. Keep a menu bar in a static position (don't move it around). If you want your visitors to view more than one page of your site, make sure they can find the rest of it

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