cameron peron

Start-up businesses in the United States have a 90% chance of failing.  That means that you have a 10% chance of succeeding, at least on the first go.

Few people can get it right the first time.  It’s more about reinventing different aspects of the business multiple times before hitting it just right.  It could mean:

• Piloting a new business model
• Readjusting the focus on the target audience
• Refining the messaging to reach a specific target audience
• Acting on short term opportunities that leverage a strategic client or connection.

Just because the odds are against doesn’t mean that you can’t compete.  It could take at 10 times before you can beat the statistics in order to generate measurable results (ie benchmarked KPI, traffic, ROI, conversions, etc.).

It also means that you shouldn’t give up just because the first push didn’t work out.  It takes constant testing, measurement and calculated risk taking to get it make it just right.

Zionistic?  Maybe.  Herzl said this about forming a Jewish state in the Middle East.  The political aspect of this line is important for some (both admired and despised).  Personally, I really admire these words strictly for their application in business.

If you’re an entrepreneur, in business development or sales, then you already know that each day requires refining your approach in order to take both you and your business  to the next step.  Finding that inner strength to compete, create and learn is part of it, but it’s execution that transforms dreams on the back of a napkin into a reality.   How can this quote be applied?

Make a decision that your objective is going to be achieved. Calling someone for a sale, demo or partnership?  Make that critical decision before you pick up the phone or open an email will help boost confidence and more importantly uncover issues in your game that need to be addressed in advance.

Create an environment around yourself that fosters focus.  This is so key.  It’s easy to get distracted with easy access to entertainment, friends and news.  Checking Facebook, email or SMSs every few minutes distracts from getting things done.  Not getting it done = unhappy person.  Change this picture by creating an environment with triggered times to check email and phone calls.  Another key issue that has changed my life is eating a diet that helps your body perform at it’s maximum.  For instance cutting out unneeded carbs at lunch with a salad will get you back in the game faster rather than sitting out for another 30-45 mins.

Refuse to accept any limitation or disconnect in getting things done. Discouragement isn’t a bad thing.  When understood correctly, discouragement is your environment’s repose telling you to do things differently.  Adapt to your immediate and external environment, and refuse to accept poor results from yourself.  When getting blocked from your objective, reverse engineer the process and understand how to change the approach.

In deep in a early stage start-up?  Trying to take your current business to the next step?  If you want to turn your ideas from coffee shop discussions into results it’s all about determination and a willingness to learn that will transform both you and your business.

What happens once you’ve made it to the top?  Is there only one way to go?  It must be lonely up there, especially for early stage founders that build multi-million dollar businesses from ideas on a napkin.

A few thoughts on the symptoms of companies entering murky water when guided by the helm of a strong personalities.

Getting too personal. Strong personality of early stage founders can have a strong impact on the success of a company.  Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs are excellent examples of using their personalities to drive their businesses from start-up to game changers.   Sometimes the personal lives of the man-in-charge can seriously jeopardize an entire business – like taking down so called ‘problem elephants’ and broadcasting to the world via your company’s blog.   Definitely not the player’s move.  Getting to personal once you think you’re on top makes easy pickings for competitors to exploit arrogance for critical weaknesses.

Difficulty in transitioning control. Some companies need their founders to leave, others bring their founders back to help get their business back on course.  It goes both ways.  Yahoo did it once with success when Jerry Yang came back, but once the company needed serious operational insight over start-up driven creativity the transition of Jerry’s exit cost the company dearly, dropping down stock prices in 2008 to unprecedented levels.

Ignoring birth defects in the business model.  A fast as a business can explode with success they can easily topple over.  I was shocked on my last visit to the US to see either closed down or lack of video rental stores.  Even more surprising is Blockbuster’s lack unwillingness to adapt to their customers needs to invest in online business channels.  With the vast resources in people, cash, retail outlets and management expertise it seem unimaginable that a company’s upper management would ignore the obvious.

It’s easy to say this from far away, the real challenge is putting this into practice.

Also known as git ‘er done or git-r-done.  There’s even a wikipedia entry on the subject.

Gettin’ it done is key to executing early stage projects and the milestones that power them.  It might sound ridiculous, but it tends to make sense when ever day tasks seem to distract or defer.

After living abroad for 6 years, I never really thought how relevant these words were until watching the Discovery docudrama ‘Gold Rush Alaska’.  These guys are far from an internet/mobile start up, but they are trying to achieve the impossible in a limited time frame and with very limited resources.

Get ‘er done deconstructed:

1. Focus. Above all staying focused on key milestones, both those of your project and those of your own.
2. Breaking ambiguous tasks into simpler objectives not just tasks.  Reverse engineer the steps you believe it would take to get your pending task complete.  Make these steps action oriented will help you to ensure it gets prioritized and executed, and above all keep your tasks connected to the milestones.
3. Eliminating or deferring tasks that don’t connect with your milestones.  Tasks can easily eat up time especially when they aren’t measured or checked in relation to your milestones.  Move the rest to a lower priority and check your milestones to see how they can be incorporated over time.

Gettin’ it done becomes more a lifestyle than just a expression.

Cracking mobile advertising is a real challenge.

I know many companies (big and small) that are investing millions in buying media, application development and display advertising.

The real question is when will it pay off? What will it take to deliver real value, build a focused audience and grow with a mobile user over time?

No one has found the magic formula yet. But just maybe these guys have. Reward based advertising isn’t exactly new, a few players have already entered this space with similar business models

What’s nice here is the bridge from the virtual currency space, venture backing and validation from the big names in social and the virtual currency space.   The right combination of targeted advertising, rewards and large brand advertisers might be a complete game changer.