Purple Unicorns How a Millennial influenced an old dog

When starting a business, you wear some hats, the smaller your business often, the more hats you will wear. Many small businesses fail from not understanding how to run a business, often as they have never run a business before.

As noted by many industry leaders, including Sir Richard Branson, business advisers often give the wrong advice as they (do not), have the experience required to provide the information in the first place.

From some 20+ years, self-employed also born into the family business, you could say business is in the blood. I have watched so many local businesses come and go, even in the year and a bit that zest.ie has been open, I have witnessed a few business close down.

Foundational knowledge, the founders capabilities immediately influence what (tools), are required for starting up and maintaining forward movement.

When you launch a new business every buzzard starts circling, hell it would seem that soon as you register a business name, you details are forwarded to low brow offers. We can help you with this and that, everyone has an opinion as to how you need them.

Hard life lessons await you, 92% of startups will still gone after three years. It changes little throughout the commercial first world’s; business starts slowly moving to fail territory.

Say goodbye to your friends, family and maybe even your partner.

You will alienate most of your friends and family plus the divorce separation rate increases in self-employed. In many ways if you were to look at all the problems facing the average business owner, you may just run for the hills.

I have a saying I use called (burning), for your enterprise, it is the consuming force of living, breathing your everything is your business. Forget weekends away, sleeping in and having lazy times, every employee always has a better life-work balance. When you go into business blood sacrifice is still needed, your own, you will be making sacrifices to the business gods, and you will bleed for it.

The issue when you decided to enter the cult of business owners, many of your friends and family did not sign up. When you are in worship many expected you to be worshiping them, your priorities change; it is like having a child, all consuming.

Conviction, your centre, CORE in fitness training in my mind fits very well. You need solid conviction at your core; blinkered in your direction and sound in your premise. You are going to be pulled every which way to Sunday. Every person within your industry in a professional capacity is going to tell you, failing is a given without their help. Fear mongering within professional circles of business is ripe, and it is on the nose.

Most business is going to fail because it will be the same as every other business. If there is a trend I have noticed increasing over the years, it is price point differentiation.

I sat down at a meeting the other night, what followed was a personification of no understanding of business.

I sat and listened to this person tell me that only price matters, how (all), people are only interested in price point. This person was not uneducated, a former Garda and now taking the Bar exams. So not an ignorant person by any means. It shows though that you do not know, what you do not know. Education, study, further learning is to be encouraged. Despite if you are running and building a business, it can be advantageous to have the correct education.

As I sat and listened trying not to stop this person in their tracks and only declare a fool. I listen as he outlined their customer, a price driven and not concerned with experience or quality. We can all attract the coupon customer, drawing the bottom of the market in any sector is always easier. Although in many cases it is just not an intelligent business, and you are merely waiting to close down.

I have to thank the CPA’s within our sector, with their (business advice), they have facilitated the easier growth of our brand. One of the suggestions that CPA’s and business advisers brought in was minute modeling. When you can say to your staff member that minute you just wasted cost XYZ you have a sharp stick to poke your employees eyes out. It also facilitated what I call ‘rack and stack’, clients are back to back with no (wasted time), between clients. This removal of (customer experience), in turn, creates a service based business that is anything but, an experience.

A few friends and I have a bit of a premise that once the coupon starts the end is nigh. Although Coupons can work for some sectors overall they are the foundation of reduced business in the offer and longevity.

As a point of interest, you may notice I frame a great deal of my business writing in bricks and mortar and service based. What I find troubling is nearly every single piece I read online centred in digital business models. Granted the digital space has grown new sectors it is not the only place business is performed. In fact, you could clearly argue that traditional business is still the most common business.

Small business need help when starting up if this were not true we would not have the terrible failure rate.

Talking to a business friend the other day, what is your title Padraig he asked, this ordinarily would not perplex me, the fast answer would be a serial entrepreneur. Albeit this was not the context, as the setting rooted in two new business startups.

Zest is in her second year, stable and growing my wife at the helm; it is time for me to get busy. My wife and I hand built Zest; it is not perfect although it is genuine. I am moving from builder, painter and decorator to operations and marketing. Furthermore, it is time for my new business to start. Zest Tech and Semantic Brand are two new startups.

The other day while perusing Medium.com I came across this article. https://goo.gl/H40EaL It touched me in an unexpected way.

“How I went from underemployed waitress to the top 1% of millennials in 3 months”

Granted I am some distance away in the grave direction, from a Millennial, notwithstanding the title had done the job, consumed in reading the article I was.

Full-stack developers are purple unicorns, meaning they are extremely difficult to find. Similarly, this is the case with marketers — especially for marketers whose clients are small businesses and startups.

The marketing stack is a bit different though.

If you’re a full-stack marketer you can complete everything your client needs from start to finish. A purple marketing unicorn will be able to easily produce successful campaigns at every stage of the marketing funnel.

Given the use of Purple Unicorns is very much a Millenium favoured term, maybe not the most corporate of buzzwords although I do like the creativity. This young writer made incredible sense; it was not in the formulation of credibility, granted that too is quite smart. It was in understanding that small business need a well-rounded skill set in their toolbox.

Full-Stack Marketing, that is what Semantic Brand is. It is the anti-niche, it is the Google-centric kryptonite.

When we returned to Ireland, we made decisions that my wife’s business would come first. It had the reason for the purpose, as stage two was to open my skill set to the Irish market.

Just before the Internet was making huge waves across the globe, I had an opportunity to work with a small boutique creative house. In left an impression on my life that has been waiting to see the light of day. I have always used my skill set selfishly, in my endeavours, kept to myself as the market penetrating ability.

As I have matured, become less me focused, often finding want to help, need to show small business, there is a smarter way. A Brand has always been the way to penetrate markets. When people perform searches, on the Internet such as Google, there is a favouritism to brands, although often misunderstood.

Today brand is evolving, from a stale message, top down marketing, to grassroots, genuine and tangible. I do not want to see the perfect male or female specimen; I want to see my friends and neighbours. In business texts reference to superheroes turns my stomach.

We are not perfect, we are human, prone to frailty, bias, incorrect assumptions and often quite naive. We appreciate not being perfect although instructed, marketed, and told we need to be perfect.

Semantic Brand in its ad-hoc unfinished RAW existence symbolises our imperfect world. Every business has the wish to be the perfect business; reality is this is a goal maybe not tangible in the make-up.

A (micro), creative house, is opening in Swords, it is micro as it is currently powered by one. Over the coming months, I will be looking to engage with our creative sector still in university. A young mind was once captivated by the energy, buzz and culture of the creative house. Now it is my turn, time to incubate creativity in the just starting out, shortly I will be engaging with our institutes with an intern pack.

The Local businesses of Swords, polish your shoes, iron your shirts and be prepared to put your best foot forward. As very soon and without warning, Semantic Brand will turn up on your doorstep. Be ready, be smiling, ‘céad míle fáilte’.

Ireland is the land of opportunity, shortly you will see how to interrupt the game, stop play and have all eyes on you.

Footnote: The website for zest is in transition, it bounces between a new site being built and the old site. This is similar to Semantic Brand, if you are asking yourself why anyone would showcase unfinished sites, then it could be a good idea to send an email in. As you most likely need some help in marketing your business.

Take care, be safe and be ready as Semantic Brand plan on making some noise, in Swords, County Fingal.