I’m CEO Bitch!!
David Fincher fans would guess what this blog is gonna be about from the title itself!
In the movie “The Social Network”, Sean Parker advices Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, to be half an hour late for a business meeting, ignore all the talks and finaly say “Fuck you”.
Man that’s what i call as an ATTITUDE! Some people might get me wrong, let me get this straight!
Every start-up needs a capital initially, to get that capital some people even sell their ideas to a big investor and lose their identity. I don’t want to be such a CEO when i come up with my start-up. Never want to be a SELL-OUT in my life.
This blog is also inspired from an event i attended in a symposium and thanks to two S seniors :)
Ways to make your start-up YOUR brain child and CAPITAL free:
MAN — MAN Marketing
Many would be ware of this concept of man to man marketing after the big players like Amway used this strategy and failed. This concept is based on simple rule — Divert the advertising expenses as commissions to marketing persons.
You definitely don’t need Katrina Kaif or Sharukh khan to market an educational start-up. So the thousands you reserved for them can be divided to many hundreds and that can be used as commissions. This is the best way of endorsing any product. You can have an eye-eye contact with the buyer and if he is satistied with you work he would definitely recommend it to others for free. In this way you can save many bucks.
A Man who has a clear knowledge about a product is the best person to endorse any product than all these Ads. Once you resort to man to man marketing, it is very easy to collect feedback and there is always a better chance of improvising your product.
BRAND value
Never venture into a field where there is already a heck lot of big players, your chance of survival is very less than the chance of Bieber winning a Grammy(:P).
Big time players ventured into the industry when there were no stricter rules and there were many ways of acting SMART(some call it cheat).
Being an Entrepreneur, you should never CHEAT but you should be SMART, both these terms are just separated by a small line
What is Smartness? Dhirubhai earned in silver coins while working in Turkey, He while returning to India didn’t exchange the coins for amount, instead he melted those metals and sold them as silver plates, because at that time in India, the price of a silver plate was 10 times higher than the exchange rate of a Turkey dollar
This is what is called as being SMART and he built a very large empire with those funds!
So even while naming your product choose the smart way than the orthodox way.
For Exmaple : Say you are gonna come up with a motobike, name it as APPATHA Or AMMACHI on the lines of APACHE. Who knows your bike might sell out big times in rural parts of Tamil Nadu just for the name. And every kid in the town calling out their Grand parents aloud are your advertisers.
note : Father’s mother is called APPATHA , Mother’s Father is called AMMACHI
You can even modify the tag line to fit in this context:
While Tvs tags Apache with this line “Racing DNA unleashed”
You can tag line your bike as AMMACHI — Cultural DNA Unleashed
COMPARE AND MARKET
Market your products by comparing them with a leading craze.
Suppose you are marketing construction bricks, compare your brick with the Iphone and say this “Even I phone breaks but not our Brick”.
CAUTION: Never compare your brick with Nokia products, you might fail the challenge (:D).
This is why Korean mobiles succeeded in Indian markets, they had names likes NOKLA, SAMSONG, KONY ERRICSSON. People who don’t have much knowledge in the field of mobile easily fall as a prey.
If you are starting a company in the software field call it as “Macrosoft” or “Moon Micro systems”
It is a known fact even our government copies interesting concepts from other Countries! We are all aware of the Sub-urban trains and MRTS station sign boards. Any guesses from where it is copied??
LONDON UNDERGROUND
Getting inspired by a thing and copying it is in our bloodline :-!
COLLABORATE WITH ANOTHER — START UP
Never collaborate with a big player, there is every chance of idea theft. Always collaborate with another start-up so that you can both watch your backs.
Split up the manufacturing of goods. Let the other star-up produce whatever he is good at and you prodcue whatever you are good at, combine them and then sell them.
When two best things combine it wouldn’t be a failure for sure :)
At the same time, whenever you attack the ego of another start-up you may end up making him as one of your fierce competitors.Once Enzo Ferrari insulted a tractor company owner and he went on to make LAMBORGHINI cars (HOLY SHIT).
TARGET THE CHILDREN COMMUNITY
You come up with anything that gives enthusiasm to the Children group, you are a winner. Once the children like it they would automatically pester their parents to buy it in huge numbers.
Come up with a Real time Counter Strike game involving lasers instead of creating an application that has a check on children activities, the former was proposed as an idea for start-up by another team in the event i attended.
Attract the consumers through your products and not by your brand ambassadors, if you do so people would only remember your ad song and not what your product is about.
Never go down to anybody, never bend down your back!
Stand by your point at any cost, never to let your Intiative to be disturbed by another person who has no idea what you are up to.
Sean Parker made the biggest contribution to Facebook by removing “The” but he also brought in lot of troubles by removing Edwardo Saverin . So its better to stay alone than to stay in Bad Company.
Be a Punk and stand up to all Bitches!
“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”
Disclaimer : Just my thoughts on how to improve your start-up plans, but its up to you whether to follow or not.
******Ideas and advice are subject to market risk. Please read the offer document carefully before utilizing it (:P)*******
P.S Thanks to the IDC holidays! A blog after three long months :) Feels Refreshing!
