Small Business Blog, Smart Marketing, Entrepreneurship | Innoventive: Henrik Joreteg

This blog's content has been moved to Joreteg.com

2008-12-22T11:26:00.001-08:00

I simply don't have enough time to maintain several different blogs. I have consolidated the content from this blog to my personal website: http://www.joreteg.com

Naming a Business

2008-04-07T22:02:00.000-07:00

In the old days a business name wasn't considered so important. No overpaid creative geniuses were brought in to create a thrilling name like "General Motors."

But, I assure you that since then, GM has paid big money to consulting firms to create names for their brands and vehicles.

A Chicago-based consulting company called NameLab does nothing but come up with product and company names (www.namelab.com). A few of their more well known creations include: Olive Garden, Acura, CompUSA, LUXOR (LV casino), AutoZone.

So, what do they have to say about what makes a good name? They use all types of fancy language to describe their naming strategy. After sorting through it and adding a few thoughts of my own here are my "take-home" points:

1. Names derive much of their meaning from experiences with similar products or services. For example, if is started a website called schmoogle, you would doubtlessly begin forming associations with the search giant. Therefore, you'll want to ensure that similar sounding names/brands carry positive connotations. You'll also want to be careful with associating too closely with another brand, if they ruin their reputation, it could drag your brand down with it. I wouldn't recommend naming an accounting firm anything that starts with "EN" or ends in "RON".

2. Unlike advertising that describes attributes or adjectives of the product, the product name is much more definitive. The name is the "subject" of the sentence. It doesn't just tell us what the product does, it tells us what it is. Therefore, don't pick a name that "describes" your product or company. Instead, let your name be something that can stand on it's own merit. Be inventive, create a brand new word.

3. Function matters. NameLab analyzes a name for its "speech stream visibility", which is the probability that a word will be recognized in a normal spoken stream of English speech. Think "iPod" or "Google" or "Yahoo!" These names all contain distinctive sounds that make them POP in a normal conversation. The same is true for "Notational Visibility", which is the probability that a word will stand out from a typed text, such as a newspaper column. Again, think about the naming convention Apple has used in putting a small letter "i" in front of all their product names. They don't follow conventional capitalization rules. There's a reason it's written as iPod instead of Ipod. "iPod" is far more unusual, hence it's more noticeable and memorable.

Mentors

2008-04-06T01:40:00.000-07:00

Starting a business is tough. Many businesses can take 5 years to really get their footing. If you're going to commit several years of your life to building a business, you want to be sure that what you have is viable. Truth is, even if you have a viable model, there are going to be times when you won't believe that it is.

I learned a huge lesson this last week.

GET A MENTOR!

They say the number one reason businesses fail is undercapitalization. I disagree. If entrepreneurs sought qualified advice, they would know that they need more money to pull it off. The real reason for failure is that they think they don't need advice!

This week I contacted an acquaintance whom I didn't know so well. He goes to my church and he's friends with my wife's dad. I've spoken to him a few times and he knew that I was working on some "business related to real estate." All I knew about him was that he started a medical equipment business many years ago that has been very successful.

I wrote him an email. I expressed my frustration with the lack of qualified advice and just asked him if he'd be willing to sit down with me for a few minutes. I wanted to hear about his experiences with getting his business going and get some feedback on what I was doing with mine.

It was one of the most encouraging meetings of my life. He has been where I am. He worked hard and diligently on what seemed to be a worthwhile venture (like I'm doing), and he's now a very successful man with a 20-employee business. In our meeting he did a lot of listening and offered some great insights. He could also relate to the personal and family challenges that come along with making a commitment to starting a business.

We decided to stay in touch and we've been emailing since.

My only regret is that I didn't contact him sooner!

Entrepreneurs are by definition "do-it-your-selfers." However, I'm realizing, that this stubborn "I can do it all myself" attitude is often a hindrance to their own success.

Take the time to seek well-qualified advice. If you ask humbly and graciously many people who have been through it will be happy to help. It's well worth the effort.

Make them see! Giving meaningful presentations.

2008-02-11T16:21:00.000-08:00

Today will forever change how I approach giving a presentation.

This morning I had the most successful presentation of my life. It wasn't because it was a big audience or because I wowed them with my wit. It was a short, simple presentation about HouseFLIX to approximately 35 real estate agents at their office. No big deal. But, everybody followed along completely, they understood and connected with what I said, and Travis got a slew of new customers as a result.

I changed my normal presentation strategy in 2 ways. I hope I never forget them.

First, I stripped it down to the most simple message I could give and still be coherent. (My entire presentation took up 4 slides. There was 1 concept per slide.)

Second, was how I involved the audience, here's where I want to elaborate...

Presenting is about communication. It's not about what you say as the presenter, it's all about what the audience hears and understands.

It's possible to give a brilliant, eloquent and totally useless speech. People do it all the time. Those types of speeches may leave audience impressed with the presenter's intelligence. But, unless the audience understood his message and can still remember it 2 weeks later. HE FAILED.

Most presentations focus on facts. People simply go and rattle off a bunch of information and statistics. If presented well, it might be interesting at the time, but most people don't remember those stats 5 or 10 minutes later (Much less 5 or 10 days).

A better technique is to tell a story. Good stories create "knowledge gaps" where a few important pieces of information are missing and the audience stays focused to satisfy their curiosity. This improves recollection, but it's still not great.

The ultimate communication technique, even beyond story telling is when you can put your audience in the story. When you can get your audience to use their own imaginations to visualize a situation that you paint for them, it triggers all sorts of senses, emotions and responses in people's brains. Studies suggest that when people visualize a situation, their brain goes through nearly the same things it would if they actually experienced it! As you can imagine, this dramatically increases recollection.

I began the presentation with a slide of a young, wealthy, professional-looking couple staring at the audience with an intense, critical look on their faces. Then I painted a picture for the audience including names and occupations of the couple in the picture. I told them to imagine that they were in the middle of a listing presentation with this couple. Then "as the gentleman in the picture" I asked them a very difficult, probing question about how they would market their home on the Internet. I kept probing them and providing details to make sure they would feel the situation and the stress of being put on the spot. Then I offered an alternative answer and told them to imagine answering the question in that way. Once again, hoping they would feel the confidence of being able to provide such a positive, confident answer to the fictional character's tough question.

They were riveted. It was incredible. It was a situation they had all experienced. It played on fears that they could all relate to. Then it gave them the solution that resolved the situation. They were totally "there" in that situation.

We then reinforced the same message by having the picture of the same couple on the brochure that we handed them. Essentially, it was almost like an outline of the presentation. It was the best response we've ever received. The visualization technique seems to be really powerful.

Competition

2008-02-07T19:27:00.000-08:00

How do you handle competition in a new industry? If you're one of the first in a new and appealing market, you're doubtlessly going to experience imitators. It shouldn't be discouraging. If anything, it's a compliment. We're experiencing that at HouseFLIX.

It means we're doing something right and something worth copying and that's a good thing.

We don't feel immediately threatened by any of our competitors, but a problem occurs if enough new emergents appear and there are no clear leaders. Because, then it becomes a proven and attractive new market for a bigger company with far greater resources. If there are no clear leaders, then they'll design their own system and cherry-pick the best strategy rather than buy anyone out. That's no good for any of the smaller players.

The big companies experience similar situations all the time. Look at Microsoft's offer to buy Yahoo. They decided that they have to merge resources in order to give Google a worthy competitor in the online advertising industry.

Perhaps smaller companies have to learn to do the same.

Expected Outcomes

2008-01-14T07:07:00.000-08:00

Despite calculated actions and contingency plans it's amazing how often the outcome of our efforts differs from how we imagine it. We're by no means consistent, no matter what lengths we go to to produce consistent results.

That can be de-motivating for some, but on further exploration you realize it's not a big deal. In fact, if you stop to think about the number of contingencies involved in a given effort, it's amazing that we can produce any semblance of consistency.

Imagine a basketball player taking a shot during an NBA game. Even a super star like Kobe Bryant will miss his shot 56% of the time. Typically a 56% failing rate is nothing to get very excited about. If you fail more than half the times you try something that's anything but consistent.

What goes into those odds? How was Kobe being guarded, was he wide open, was he doing a layup or a 3 pointer, was he fresh off the bench, was he tired, did he have any nagging injuries, were his hands too sweaty, did he have a clear view of the hoop, was he squared up, did he get enough sleep the night before, did he eat his wheaties... you get my point.

If you think about it there are always going to be lots contingencies that affect the consistency of the outcomes. The only think worth sweating about is the consistency of your efforts. I believe that if you can manage a consistent focused effort in the direction you want to go, eventually, you'll get the outcome you're looking for.

Thoreau said it best:

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Your Online Reputation

2007-12-18T21:56:00.000-08:00

If someone "Googles" your name what will they learn about you? And...do you have any control over what they see?

You may have more control than you realize.

When I Google "Henrik Joreteg" my professional profile on LinkedIn.com is the first search result. This includes all the professional details about me. It's a lot like posting your resume. There are also references and recommendations that add credibility to what is written in my profile and there are links to my business (HouseFLIX.com) and to this blog.

This blog happens to be the second Google search result which will again, hopefully give a better view of who I am and serve to further increase my credibility.

By publishing a blog and posting a profile on LinkedIn you can dramatically increase the quality and accuracy of information that is available about you on the Internet.

Sticky Ideas

2007-12-04T21:03:00.000-08:00

Why is it that some arguably worthless, incorrect, ideas such as urban legends spread like wild-fire while other far more intelligent and worthy ideas don't get anywhere.

They're not "sticky!" Companies spend so much time trying to say things that are descriptive or include all the messages they want to broadcast, but they often fail to spend the time tweaking the presentation of the idea to make it interesting... to make it stick.

That's what the book "Made to Stick", by Chip Heath and Dan Heath is all about. It's about deconstructing what makes ideas sticky.

The book gives the example of a man who worked for a non-profit group that educates the public about nutrition. His organization discovered that a typical medium sized bag of movie popcorn contains 37 grams of saturated fat. So what?!?!

In reality 37 grams is a tremendously unhealthy amount to consume in one sitting.

This man's job was to turn that statistic into a captivating story. The typical numeric explanation or graph would not have made much of a stir. The line he came up with was:

"A medium-sized 'butter' popcorn at a typical neighborhood movie theater contains more artery-clogging fat than a bacon-and-eggs breakfast, a Big Mac and fries for lunch, and a steak dinner with all the trimmings - COMBINED!"

The story was a sensation! It made the front pages of USA Today, the LA Times, and The Washington Post's Style section. It was featured on all kinds of news casts and the end result was a noticeable drop in popcorn sales and ultimately several major theater chains changed the type of oil they used!

The idea stuck! It's a fairly uninteresting stat, but it was crafted into a very "sticky" idea. That's the crux of effective marketing. Build a captivating idea, focus on how it needs to be presented, and take the time to make it "sticky".

The book concludes that sticky ideas generally need to have these characteristics:

1. Simplicity
2. Unexpectedness
3. Concreteness
4. Credibility (real or implied)
5. Emotions
6. Stories

The authors expand on this significantly. But that's the gist of it. It's a compelling concept.

The Big Wheel

2007-11-04T11:38:00.000-08:00

Jim Collins, the author of "Good to Great" presents an analogy that I found to be extremely useful in explaining the phenomenon of extraordinary business growth.

He says that there are not really all that many true overnight successes. The reason we view them that way is because when the publicly visible upswing occurs it can be very dramatic. But, if we study what caused the successes, which is exactly what Jim Collins did, we often find that there were months, if not years of preparation leading up to that "overnight success".

Collins explains it as a giant, heavy, wheel that is mounted on a center post. Imagine it like a big merry-go-round weighing many tons.

Something heavy has a tremendous amount of inertia. It's impossible to spin it with a single hard push or even lots of individual pushes every now and then. More than anything else, consistent pushing is required to get it spinning.

Getting the business model articulated may be one long push, then making the right partnerships is another one, getting the right technology working for you can be another one, getting a key clients may come next, getting a bit of external funding, increasing market awareness, refining product offerings... you get the idea. All these things are pushes. Together they can get the wheel started in the right direction. It may be slow, but you just have to keep pushing and pushing. Soon it may be spinning at 1 revolution per minute, then 2, then 5, then 20...

Now, momentum is on your side. Steady pushing is still required, but each push now has greater impact and it starts to go... and go... and go. When it spins, and I mean really spins, it would take some really big set backs to even slow it down. You can then use smaller motors to keep pushing on your behalf. The whole goal is to just keep pushing. You just crank and crack.

At that point, you may get the media to tune in, and they may be there to watch you go from 20 revolutions per minute to 1000 rpm. From their perspective it will all have happened very quickly, without all that much effort. Well, they don't know about the thousands of pushes the company made before the media started paying attention. It all started long before that with one single push followed by thousands of others.

Seeing incredible results requires consistency more than anything else. I've been pushing my company HouseFLIX for almost two years now and now we're finally seeing inertia working for us rather than against us. There's no way it would have even been spinning at all if I were the only one pushing. I've got several committed people working to make it happen. Together we're seeing that big wheel turn.

Thoughts on Machiavelli

2007-10-25T23:38:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli. One of his more common themes is "the end justifies the means." Seemingly, no matter what means necessary. So it's not very politically correct to say the least.

I had heard lots of bits and pieces about him because his theories are often referenced in various news articles and business books. I was just curious what it was all about and it's a relatively short little book, so I figured I'd read it.

A few thoughts...

The book is essentially a handbook for the head of a country, emperors, kings, or any other "prince" as he refers to them as.

By handbook, I mean, handbook on the acquisition and use of power. The principles he defines have practical application in almost any other situation dealing with power and authority. Some can be seen played out in our democratic politics and business structures of today. So it makes for an interesting read.

Since this blog is about business, I'll try to keep my comments inline. How does any of this fit into business?

He strongly discourages the use of mercenaries (foreign soldiers who are paid to fight in your army). Mercenaries seem great until they're truly tested. When the battle gets tough, their loyalties are with their own, not with their hired boss. Also, in the cases where they are successful in battle on your behalf, you are endebted to them and they may keep the conquered lands for themselves.

This is akin to outsourcing in today's businesses. It's not fair interpret that to mean that all outsourcing is bad. However, in other ares of the book Machiavelli says that the primary occupation of a prince is "war." So it makes sense to translate that to outsource your primary occupation or business function is not good. Businesses need to understand what their primary business is, and where their "value-added" happens. If that central function is outsourced, then they're just asking to eliminate themselves from the chain of power. Well, one could say for example that a company like Apple who outsources most of their manufacturing to China is breaking that rule. The assumption there is that they're a manufacturer... but they're NOT. Their primary business function is design. There are efficiencies to be gained from outsourcing. But, business have to clearly understand what business they're in, and be sure to keep that function "in-house."

Machiavelli understood the rallying power of setting out to accomplish great things. He mentions that in order to become an esteemed prince one should "embark on great enterprises and give rare proofs of his ability." He understood the concept of people wanting to ally with people who are setting out to do something big. People love worthy causes and big projects where they feel they can contribute.

Machiavelli also reaffirms my previous post about the power of surprise and the story-telling that occurs as a result. He says to "resort to unusual and distinctive acts in civil matters... when someone does something extraordinarily good or bad in civic life, he should reward or punish him in a manner that will arouse considerable comment." Providing a story worth telling is a powerful way to disseminate information.

One last point I want to mention is what he says about how the strength of a principality should be measured. To summarize, he says that a principality needs sufficient power and resources to stand on their own when the need arises, or whether they will always require the protection of others. This could be translated to business that they need adequate funding and resources to get through the tough times. For start-ups, this means having the resources necessary to get through the launch phase.

Those are some lessons from Machiavelli that have practical application to businesses.

Balance

2007-10-19T18:09:00.000-07:00

Work v. Personal Life.

It's not simple. I have a tendency to overwork myself to the point where my work becomes ineffective. It is typically better for me to take a short break and start again thank to just keep pushing. If it were not for my awesome wife reminding me to stop...I'd work from 7am to midnight every day.

Sometimes you have to stop long enough to remember why you're working. It's great that I enjoy my work. But when my balance is off I become too one-dimensional. The interesting thing is that the imbalance ultimately hurts my business. Being too focused mitigates my creativity, makes me far less personable, and severely limits my social life.

If you look at that list you realize that each of those qualities are essential for operating a business:

Creativity - Essential for innovation.

Being Personable - Business is about personal connections.

Social Life - Meeting new people expands your vision and exposes you to people with talents and knowledge that could help you in your business life.

I'm not saying that you the only reason you take a break is to help your business. I just think it's cool that it ends up working that way.

Without finding that balance, you've got nothing worth working for.

The power of... SURPRISE!!!

2007-10-17T18:41:00.000-07:00

In his book "The Starbucks Experience" author Joseph A. Michelli talks about the power of the unexpected. It really hit me, because it's so blatantly obvious when you think about it.

As a business owner, making good on your promises is a good place to start. But, if you really want to set yourself apart, venture into the realm of the unexpected.

Popcorn, peanuts and molasses are not what made "Cracker Jack" a household name. It was the surprise!

You see, nobody tells their friends about getting ordinary service. Because IT'S BORING! You tell your friends about the stuff that blindsides you. The crazier it was the more people are gonna hear about it. Those are the items that make up conversation.

Any brand conscious company wants word-of-mouth advertising because as consumers we are completely inundated with bogus, outrageous advertising claims. We need not look further than the junk mail we throw away every day. That's why a trusted friend's recommendation is more effective than a hundred TV ads.

So, what's the secret to a successful "word-of-mouth campaign" (if there even is such a thing)? It's not rocket science, you purposely and consistently do things that are both unexpected and positive.

The more outrageous, the better! You may have heard the story of the customer who successfully returned a car tire to Nordstroms, or they guy who took a hacksaw to his new Craftsman crescent wrench in the parking lot at Sears only to walk back in and exchange it for a brand new one without a word of complaint.

See, these stories were so extraordinary that I'm sitting here writing about them years after they happened.

Surprise your customers and you'll give them something to talk about.

Personal Productivity

2007-10-09T22:34:00.000-07:00

David Allen, the energetic-screwball-genius behind "Getting Things Done" has one of the simplest approaches to accomplishing goals that's so simple, it borders on stupid.

Imagine this, complex tasks, can be broken down into simple tasks.

What does that mean? Well, let's say I want to learn how to speak French. If I were to put "Learn French" on my To-do list. It would never happen. In the middle of my hectic day I would look at that item and go... "yeah right!" and skip it.

But, if I'm really serious about wanting to learn French I should take the time to deconstruct the final goal into simple tasks. That processing is what allows me to fill my to-do list with doable, manageable, understandable tasks that ultimately lead me to my final goal.

Only simplified tasks should make it onto your To-do list if you expect your list to be of any use to you. To-do items need a specific action, such as "read and learn 10 new vocab words from www.learnfrench.com". Then, when you look at your to-do list, you don't have to process how you're going to go about learning French. You'll just perform the pre-planned actions necessary to reach your goal.

Tasks, should be just that. Simple tasks, "Learn French" is not a task it's a goal. Goals have their place, but the To-do list is not it. If you make the mistake of putting goals on your to-do list odds are that you feel like an unproductive loser when months pass and you can't check them off.

For your own sanity, sense of accomplishment, and happiness keep your task list stupidly simple.

FREE Stanford Education

2007-08-05T21:31:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in my previous post. Stanford has an incredible podcast series that they call the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series. It's a series of guest lectures by an all-star cast that only a school like Stanford could put together.

It's well worth the time spent. Learn from the best, for free.

Making choices based on fear

2007-08-05T21:01:00.000-07:00

A trusted business adviser mentioned something interesting. So many people make life decisions out of fear. Fear of the unknown and fear of losing what they have (even if it's only mediocre). It would be interesting to see what would happen if people started making decisions based on what they want instead of simply avoiding what they don't want.

I heard a twist on this from Stanford's entrepreneurial thought leaders podcast series. A venture capitalist was quoted as saying, that the single strongest determinant of success in new businesses is not the quality of the idea. It's the faith, and persistence of the entrepreneur. In fact he said "I'd rather fund an OK idea that the entrepreneur truly is sold on, than a great idea proposed with partial belief of the entrepreneur."

The reasoning was simple. Even great ideas will hit major road blocks and the persistence and belief of the entrepreneur is what determines how that road block is handled... and often the survival of the business.

I would imagine that one of the main differences that separates entrepreneurs
from the masses. Making decisions based on what they want instead of fear is what gives them the strength and persistence necessary to push through the challenges.

What About Content Quality?

2007-07-30T07:12:00.000-07:00

With the advent of mass self-publishing on the web what will be done with all that useless content that is created. There's a beautiful freedom of speech aspect of self-publishing, but to be quite honest, there's a lot of relatively worthless content on the web.

There's not a whole lot of content validation. I feel there are opportunities for entrepreneurs who can find ways to validate and qualify user-submitted information. Mozilla corporation, the makers of Firefox are a perfect example. Granted, they are not necessarily trying to make money. They say that they are motivated by the concept of an 'open web'. But their model is unique in that the code and features of Firefox is all created by a huge network of programmers who are lending their talents to the cause. They have a system for qualifying and validating the content submitted and as a result they've created one of the most popular browsers in the world.

Rather than simply proliferating content for content's sake, those who find ways to do quality control and provide clear, useful information will, in my opinion have a good shot at success.

Introduction

2007-07-29T22:56:00.000-07:00

There's already too many blogs out there where people are spouting off their personal opinions as facts and hiding behind masks of anonymity while claiming expertise in areas they know little about.

In hopes of providing a contrast, I'm no expert, my name is Henrik Joreteg, a 24 year old entrepreneur and 40% owner of my startup company HouseFLIX.com. This blog will chronicle my thoughts and experiences relating to the challenges of starting a business in the very volatile economic environment we live in.