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Christmas in July – 10 Free Startup Ideas

July 14, 2011 by · 5 Comments

counting days....

Our team at MediaLeaf is pretty small, so there are many, many ideas that we have that we know we’ll never get to. I figured I would do a public service post and just give 10 of these ideas away. These ideas are completely free and up for grabs. Some of them may have even been already attempted, but there isn’t any implementation popular enough for me to know about it. These are in no particular order.

  • Positive news aggregator. 99% (just my gut feel) of the news reported is negative. Positive news is a nice niche market.
  • Visual marketing email design app. The key here would be that designs could be exported to major email service providers.
  • In-depth email marketing analytics. Major email providers provide some basic analytics, but detailed reporting and A/B analysis could be extremely helpful.
  • Mobile app to take a daily picture of yourself. Would be able to show slideshows, flipbook-style animations of how you change over time. App would send notifications to remind you to take a daily picture.
  • Generic social profiles. Portable, pre-populated social network profiles for fictitious users. Useful for dev purposes on new social sites.
  • Hyper-local shopping. Mobile app to visually browse/search inventory at stores as you walk by. Promotions can help catch passers-by.
  • 3rd generation business directory. Aimed at online B2B companies. Would require being recommended by X number of users before being listed. Kind of like a curated list of popular B2B apps.
  • Weekly meal planner. Mobile app that would allow you to enter your favorite meals and help you decide how to plan your week’s meals.
  • Email reminder service. Would let you schedule recurring tasks to be emailed to you on a periodic basis. Would allow snoozing and reminding of tasks. Create recurring tasks simply by sending an email. Like followup.cc for recurring tasks.
  • Social media marketing conversation topics. Could be a private, paid mailing list. Each week would feature X number of conversation topics and advice.

Thoughts?

What do you think about the ideas listed? Interested in trying one or more of them? Have any others to add to the list?

Disclaimer: I bear no responsibility for the quality or viability of these ideas. It’s likely that a lot of people will see these same ideas, so if you see one you like then you should move on it quickly.

Image Credit: zophonias on Flickr

Filed Under: Blogging, CEO, Misc, Social, Tips and Tools · Tagged With: , , , ,

Beginning CustDev for Bootstrappers

July 6, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Google Master Plan (frame 3)

Customer development is well-published topic, so I won’t spend time defining it or rehashing it’s benefits. This post is all about how to get started with custdev in a bootstrapped environment. Custdev can be used in any business environment, but it’s particularly useful for bootstrapped companies, where budgets are usually tighter. Also, it’s best to use the customer development process when starting on a new business or product, as opposed to trying to add it in later in the product development cycle.

In a nutshell, the goal of customer development is to help get you to a product that appeals to customers in a decent-sized market. You accomplish this by constantly validating your assumptions about your new product and making changes when those assumptions fall apart.

First Steps

If you’re considering bringing a new product to market then customer development is going to be your best friend (or your worst enemy, depending on the results). Before you spend any time actually developing your product you should start the process of validating it. The validation process itself is pretty simple. The methods depend on how your new product relates to your existing products.

1. Related Products. If your new idea is a product related to an existing product that you have then you already likely have a built-in base of customers who could quickly validate your idea. Try to setup in-person meetings or phone calls with a few of those customers. Tell them about your new product and see if they are interested. Test their interest by asking them to start paying for the product then and there.

2. Completely New Market. If the product is in a new market then you’ll need to rely on the more traditional customer development methodology. Create a simple PPC campaign with a landing page that directs users to a mailing list. The number of entries to the mailing list is a rough approximation of the potential for the idea. Try to conduct interviews with the mailing list members and validate your idea.

Review Your Learnings

Are you getting the interest in your new product that you expected? If not, it may be time to pivot. Use the learnings from your interviews to make adjustments. If there is no interest at all in your product then this is a good time to cut your losses and let the idea die. If you decide to pivot then you should start from scratch with steps 1 and 2 above and validate the new solution.

If you did get some serious interest in your product then you should move ahead and start creating prototypes. Conduct another round of interviews and demos for the prototype. From there you can revise the prototype or move full-on into production.

This is a simplified approach to customer development. I whole-heartedly recommend you read some of the following books to get a more complete understanding of the process. Comments welcome!

Resources

What is Customer Development by Eric Ries

The Four Steps to the Epiphany (Affiliate Link) by Steve Blank

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development: A cheat sheet to The Four Steps to the Epiphany (Affiliate Link) by Patrick Vlaskovits

Image Credit: jurvetson on Flickr

Filed Under: Bootstrapping, CustDev, Features, LeanStartup, Tips and Tools · Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How To Setup Your Own Short URL

June 22, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

TLD's

I recently setup my very own short url, jimla.st, for shortening all of the links that I share on Twitter. Plus, it has the added benefit of automatically tracking the number of clicks my links get. Here’s a quick rundown of how to setup your own custom short url.

1. Take a look at the available TLD’s. You need to look through the list of available top level domains (TLD’s) to see what the options are. Some of the more popular ones recently are .ly, .me, and .in. Most of the TLD’s that would be suitable for a vanity short url are actually country code domains. Here’s a full list of the country code domains.

2. Pick your url. Using the list of available TLD’s you can start thinking about what url might make sense for you. For me, I just picked my Twitter username. Maybe you can your company name, remove all the vowels, and come up with something. The possibilities are endless.

3. Register your URL. The registration process for the domain is going to vary by TLD. Some of them are accessible through Godaddy, other’s have to be registered through the country’s preferred registrar. I chose a .st domain, which was registered through nic.st.

4. Configure your new url through bit.ly. I love bit.ly. It’s the url shortener of choice. Now they give you the ability to use your own custom short url on top of the bit.ly platform. All you have to do is point the A record for your new domain to bit.ly. Done and done.

That’s it. Using a custom short url let’s you give the links you share a little personality, plus it has to help push forward your own brand in some small way.

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How To Make Money Online, Realistically

June 16, 2011 by · 3 Comments

working away from the house today

One of the most common questions that I’ve received over the last 10-12 years is “How can I make some money online?”. Apparently a common perception is that making money online is easy, something like taking 10 surveys daily and getting paid $60k/year. I always have to temper their optimism and say that it’s actually really difficult and a tremendous amount of work.

Making your living from online businesses is not really any different from brick-and-mortar businesses. You can only get as much out of your business as you put into it. If you are willing to work more, not less, on your online business then you can make a living. Anyone can. It just takes dedication and finding something to do that interests you.

Most online companies will fall into one of the following categories. The trick is to find something that you’re passionate about and build a business model around that.

Selling Physical or Digital Products

Selling products online or even selling information can be very lucrative. Selling physical goods online can give you access to a much larger market than you would have locally, but shipping and distribution concerns have to be addressed. Software-as-a-service companies and companies that just sell access to information would also fall into this realm.

Examples

  • Making custom children’s clothes and selling them through Etsy
  • A site that provides exclusive access to people that you can ask for advice (lawyers, doctors, business owners, whatever)

Selling Advertising

The world is full of bloggers and other free websites that make their living by selling advertising space on the site. In order to be able to sell ads you typically need a decent amount of traffic focused around one industry or theme to be attractive to advertisers. You can also use a tool like Google’s Adsense to automatically add advertisements to your site, but, again, you’ll need decent amounts of traffic to make any money. Gary Vaynerchuk‘s Crush It! is an invaluable resource for inspiring you to sell ads for your fledgling blog.

Examples

  • Free website that tracks satellite locations
  • Blog about steak and the love of red meat

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the process of helping other companies sell their goods for a commission. For example, if you had a blog that reviews books on a daily basis then you could provide links to the products on Amazon and get paid a commission whenever one of your readers make a purchase through Amazon. There are countless ways to utilize affiliate relationships profitably.

Examples

  • Site that reviews ski equipment and has affiliate links to retailers
  • Monitor Twitter looking to help users with questions about specific tech products

Freelancing and the Online Service Industry

There is a constant growing need for independent professionals to assist with growing businesses, particularly in regard to helping small business optimize their online presence.

Examples

  • Web designers
  • Search engine marketing
  • Search engine PPC management

Virtual Assistant, Research, Working For Others

There are lots of possibilities of doing part-time and contract work for other companies online. You can check out sites like Elance and oDesk to see what kind of contract work is out there. Virtual assistants, who basically just do whatever a business owner needs (as long as it can be done online), are a growing market.

Beware Everything Else

There’s a lot of misinformation out there from companies looking to take advantage of people who want to work from home, so you have to really understand what you’re buying into if you ever consider any programs like that. Few, if any, of the work at home programs that you see provide any real benefit and are just designed to take your money.

What tips do you have for starting an online business or working from home? Is this a question that you’ve received a lot? How do you respond? Comments welcome!

Photo credit blakespot on Flickr

Filed Under: Misc, Tips and Tools · Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

My Blogging Workflow

June 6, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

I thought it may be of some interest to other bloggers to know how I’ve been managing my blogging workflow and how it’s evolved since I started blogging back in February.

Wordpress

I use WordPress (with the Genesis WordPress platform) on my own domain, so I have full control of my site and the WP install. The first thing that I did was to install a few plugins that I find invaluable for helping me manage the plethora of partially written posts that I have. I use the Edit Flow plugin for several features: extra post statuses, a great calendar, and several other options for the editorial process. Edit Flow has replaced Editorial Calendar for me because Editorial Calendar became rather buggy after WP 3.1.

Here is my typical workflow:

  1. Choose a topic and save it as a pitch. I usually just put my idea as the post title and enter any additional thoughts in the post itself. This helps me quickly pick out articles I want to continue with as I browse through my list of pitches. I save the articles as a Pitch (from Edit Flow) instead of a draft so that I can keep them separate.
  2. Write article. When I get around to actually writing an article I change the status to Draft. This is also when I revise the post title match up more closely with where the post is heading now that text is finally being added.
  3. Add image. I typically only add one image to each post, and it’s usually just placed at the top of the post. It’s unusually difficult to find good images under a Creative Commons license to use in my blog posts. (There’s definitely room here for a new startup to solve this problem. There’s a freebie idea for you.) I currently use CompFight.com to search for images on Flickr. The interface is simply better for finding appropriate images than Flickr itself.
  4. Add metadata. This is the time to choose categories, enter tags, SEO data, excerpts, etc. Genesis does a good job of integrating the SEO fields (post title, post description, etc.) right in the post page, so it’s a standard part of my workflow now.
  5. Scheduling. Once everything else is finalized I will look through the calendar generated by Edit Flow to see when my post should go out. I try to base my scheduling based on the immediacy of the content (is it related to something in the news?), how many posts I’ve done on similar topics recently, etc. I try to mix up my topics and the types of posts I’m putting out as much as possible.

The workflow hasn’t changed much since the beginning except for the Edit Flow plugin. I realized early on that I need to have more statuses available than WordPress was giving me. There are several options out there for adding more statuses or creating custom ones, but the total package available with Edit Flow made it a clear choice for me.

What is your blogging workflow like? Is there something obvious that I’m missing or something that could help me? Comments welcome!

Filed Under: Blogging, Tips and Tools · Tagged With: , , , , ,

10 Reasons Gmail Is The Ultimate Communications Tool

May 30, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

GmailIn my humble opinion Gmail is the greatest web application ever created. It’s simplicity and power is unmatched. Gmail transformed the already pervasive email platform into a true powerhouse. It revolutionized how we thought about email and the enhancements it ushered in are still as useful as ever. Here are my top 10 reasons (in no particular order) that Gmail is not only the best email client in the world, but also the best means of communication.

1. Search – This was one of the key reasons that Gmail really took off in the mid-2000′s. Previous attempts at email search were slow and clunky. Google’s excellent search system changed all that.

2. Labels – Ah, labels. I never liked folders. Folders was a way to treat individual emails like files, not messages. I message can have many contexts, and being able to assign multiple labels is a good way to manage that. Try filing your emails in multiple folders and you’ll quickly realize the value of labels.

3. Chat/Video Chat/SMS – Building chat functionality into Gmail was something that I didn’t *get* immediately. It took me a little while to figure out how the two things are related, but having the searchable archives of chats finally made it click for me.

4. Priority Organization – The newest addition to the list is squarely aimed at helping power users tame their ever-expanding inboxes. If you will take the time to teach Gmail what messages matter the most to you then it will do a remarkable job of making sure those are the ones you see first.

5. Threading - Threading changed the way email works fundamentally. No longer were messages unrelated, single-point communications. Threading them together really cemented the idea that a string of emails is really a conversation and should be treated as such. Treat the conversation as an entity, not the individual messages.

6. Gmail Labs – The Gmail team never sleeps. Gmail Labs is constantly rolling out new features, tweaks, behaviors, and more. Simple things such as changing where your signature is placed to canned messages can be configured in Labs. These are features that are experimental but stable. We’ve now seen a couple of Labs features move into the core Gmail product itself.

7. Add on Followup.cc – I’ve written about Followup.cc before. Never worry about remembering anything ever again.

8. Built-in Contacts – Gmail’s contact system works seamlessly across email and my iPhone contacts. Having one centralized contact list is a major problem solver and timesaver.

9. Mobile Access – Much of Gmail’s development over the last 2-3 years has been in the mobile space. Email is increasingly becoming a mobile task as opposed to a desktop task, and Gmail is doing as good a job as anyone. The Gmail mobile web app works great and is optimized for a variety of platforms. The searching capabilities of the mobile web app give it an advantage over the iPhone Mail app.

10. IMAP – Using the IMAP protocol for Gmail access allows all of your devices/computers to see the same thing. Pretty standard in the email landscape today, but still important.

With email, voice, and IM integrated Gmail is a pretty complete communications package. I would gladly pay $100/year for Gmail, but I’m glad it’s free. What are your Gmail power-user tips?

Filed Under: Tips and Tools · Tagged With: , , , ,

Why Square is the Most Disruptive Startup Ever

May 27, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Square

Square is the current darling of the tech news world, and for good reason. It’s a revolutionary take on an existing market that has the potential to transform the way we think about credit card payments and merchant accounts. Gone are the days of comparing merchant accounts based on monthly fees, interchange charges, and countless other unintelligible fees. The most recent Square update now gives store owners the ability to replace cash registers with iPads running the Square app.

The future of Square could not be brighter. There are so many directions that the company can go in that it will never be able to cover them all. I expect that over the next 2-3 years we will an entire ecosystem of apps built around Square, just like we saw with Twitter. You’ll start seeing industry specific add-ons (gas stations, anyone?) and an online payments integration. So, so much potential. For all these reasons I believe that Square is the most disruptive startup ever created.

I believe that the term “disruptive” is very overused at this point. Having startup contests that have “disrupt” in the name is a little much, considering that almost none of the startups created are actually disruptive thinking. A truly disruptive company, like Square, changes how an industry operates. I don’t see Twitter, Facebook, or the like as disruptive because they essentially created new markets. Square isn’t creating a new market, they are completing redefining what it means to be a payment processing company.

I sincerely hope that Square doesn’t get purchased by Visa, First Data, or any other major player in the credit card industry. We need a company like Square to be out there changing the game and making credit card payments better for everyone, customer and seller.

What are your thoughts on Square and truly disruptive startups? Do you see a potential ecosystem of Square add-ons in the coming years?

Filed Under: Features, Misc, Tips and Tools · Tagged With: , , , , , ,

What’s With the Weak, Unoriginal Startups

May 26, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Casino Royale

Scanning TechCrunch recently feels like reading the same articles over and over. “MyCoolStartup is Groupon/Zynga/Open Table for Teeth Whitening/Salons/Car Service”. There are 2 reasons that startups like this annoy and disappoint me.

First, ideas like this just seem unoriginal to me. I don’t like the idea of framing your idea in terms of others that have already been done. If that’s how you have to explain your idea then you’re in trouble already. I realize that framing your idea in these terms is common for coming up with your pitch to VC’s. I, however, don’t care about VC’s, so that reasoning is lost on me.

Secondly, startups like these are basically like playing slot machines. You put a bunch of hot startups on one wheel, a bunch of industries on another, and pull the lever to randomly choose one from each. Then all you have to do is come up with a name for your “GroupMe for Golfers” startup. The problem is that these startups are typically so specialized that they are doomed to failure. Instead of being the Open Table for tennis court reservations I’d rather Open Table. Small ideas typically lead to small successes. Think bigger – don’t lock yourself into one industry or market segment.

This isn’t a condemnation of individual startups or their founders. I am all for picking an idea and going for it; I just don’t like to see startup founders set their sights too low.

Filed Under: CEO, Tips and Tools · Tagged With: , ,

Firing Unprofitable Customers Is Your Job

May 19, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

You're Fired!

Not all customers are created equal and each customer has a different cost associated with them. The costs can be any number of things: cost of materials, work effort required, system resources, customer support burden, and so on. You have to keep all of those things in mind when evaluating your customers and when you’re looking to reduce costs. A CEO should be obligated to review profitability per customer and fire customers that are consistently, intractably, unprofitable. If there’s no way to monetize the customer further then they should be let go.

It is quite possible to have customers that are unprofitable, even in a web-based business. Here’s an example. Suppose you’re a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company and that your only operating costs directly affected by the customer are your manpower (for customer support) and processing expense. If your top pricepoint is an unlimited pricepoint then a customer can burden your system by using an abnormally large amount of resources (lots and lots of data, for example).

2 Options for Firing a Customer

1. Tell the customer. This is usually going to be the best method for firing customers, but it may not always be the right way to go. It’s always the best from a customer dignity standpoint.

2. Don’t tell the customer. If telling the customer what’s happening can hurt your business image then you shouldn’t do it. As an example, if you are a service provider that relies on performance and capacity then you don’t want to publicize to the world that there are some customers that you can’t handle profitably. The negative publicity around your core values can be devastating. In these cases it’s best to just let the customer know that their account has been closed, or given them a date that it will be closed.

This is topic that doesn’t get talked about a lot, but it should. A company is in no way obligated to accept every customer that walks through the door or clicks a signup button. There is a lot of profitability to be gained from pruning away unprofitable customers occasionally.

Do you or have you fired unprofitable customers? How do you communicate it to them? Comments welcome!

Filed Under: CEO, Tips and Tools · Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Finance For Bootstrappers – Part 2

May 12, 2011 by · 1 Comment

$20,000

This is the second post in a series about Finance for Bootstrapped Companies.

One of my favorite posts until now was the original Finance for Bootstrappers post. I decided to make the topic into a series of posts because it’s such a broad and expansive topic that it couldn’t be adequately touched on in a single post. In fact, it should probably be it’s own blog. So there’s an idea of any aspiring bloggers. On with the tips…

Businesses Have Budgets Too

I whole-heartedly believe in the value of a budget for your business. Having a budget gives you an initial idea of just how much money you can spend before the month starts. Without a budget it’s entirely too probable that you’ll end up spending more than you make at some point, and once you do that it’s hard to get back into the black.

Your budget should include absolutely all income and expenses that you realize in a month. If there is an entry in your checking account then it should be in your budget as well.

You also have to understand that a budget is a monthly task and the results will differ each month. No two months are the same. Incomes will vary each month, even if slightly, due to accounts payable terms, holidays, etc. The same goes for expenses.

When it comes to budgeting (and business finance in general) I really rely on the advice of Dave Ramsey. His thoughts on personal finance translate very well to business situations as well.

Have Some Savings Available For Emergencies

Emergencies and unexpected expenses do come up, so you have to be prepared for them as best you can. You should have a money market account, separate from your main checking account(s), that you accrue emergency savings in. Even if you can only accumulate a couple hundred bucks a week then it’s worth it.

I advise putting it in a money market account simply because you will earn some small amount of interest. You shouldn’t put it in a non-liquid account or invest it in stocks because it may not be readily available should an emergency arise. If you want to do business investing then you should have another account just for that purpose.

Stay tuned for the next entry in this series. What business finance and financial management tips do you have? Do you have an emergency account for your company?

 

Filed Under: Bootstrapping, Tips and Tools · Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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