When creating a business its important to define who your company is. What does it stand for, stand against and what do you want people feel when they are engaging with your business. Since, in my opinion, brand is not something you see, rather it’s something you feel. A solid brand allows the customer to experience the product rather than simply seeing a fancy logo. A brand is the magic, it’s the intangible something that connects the customer on an emotional level. Companies that have developed great brands have taken the time to figure out what it is they are actually selling. Are they selling a bar of soap, or the feeling of beauty. An ad campaign or youthful excitement. A social media website, or the sense belonging and a grass roots community. Companies such as Dove, Mango Moose Media, and Sprouter understand what it is they are actually ‘selling’ and have created brands that tell their story.
From the very beginning of Chakra, brand has been something that we have taken very seriously. Before building a business plan or sales strategy we sat down and figured out ‘who’ Chakra was and what it was we were actually selling. By investing our time into this process we were able to uncover the soul of our project and find our ‘magic’. By defining our brand everything we did had to go through our “Brand Filter” to determine whether or not what we were doing was aligned with our story. If the action was not true to our brand story we would stop and re-think our next action.
Developing a brand filter early in the startup will help your company ensure that everything thing you do is aligned with your brand. By doing this you can always have a consistent message, which will increase your genuinity and guarantee consistency in all aspects of your business.
1) Take the time to develop your brand
2) Filter everything through your brand
3) Know what makes you different
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Keeping the ball rolling
Some people dream of being rock stars. Some dream of being professional athletes. But for others becoming a successful entrepreneur trumps both. This has been the case for me. For as long as I can remember I have always dreamed of starting my own successful business. The thought of being in the drivers’ seat of something that is bigger than you fires me up and motivates me more than anything else, and I know I am not the only one.
Starting your own business is a dream for many people, although very few are able to follow through and make their dream a reality. Why? Because it’s a huge and ugly task. It requires mountain loads of planning, paper work, cold calls, number crunching, and constant criticism from others that love to shoot down your ideas. So in order to help other entrepreneurs move from the idea to startup, I am going to provide two tips on how to move your idea forward.
1) Take a Dream Break
It’s easy for entrepreneurs to get intimidated and overwhelmed by their project and sometimes lose the excitement they had about their business idea and let it slip to the back burner. This personally has been the hardest issue with me. I begin a project, start the process, hit a road bump, get frustrated, lose my excitement, and then the idea fades.
There were points in the early planning stages with Chakra where I would loose interest and progress would slow. Although this time instead of letting the idea slip, I would take a step back from the task I was involved with and just let my mind wander and dream at a high level about where I knew this project could go. By just dreaming and escaping the current issue I was facing I was able to regain my focus and excitement about the project and then logically come up with a solution to the problem I was facing. At times you can get so consumed with one silly detail and forget about the whole picture. So next time you feel like you are loosing interest and momentum, take a deep breath and reward yourself with a dream session. You will be amazed at how well the actually works!
2) Set short term manageable goals
Over the last number of years I have had loads of different business ideas, some of which I though were pretty good. I would get excited about the idea, start the business plan, and as soon as I realized the size of the project and hit my first hurdle, I would stop and convince myself the idea would never work. Although, when starting the Chakra project things were different. Instead of looking at the amount of work that needed to be done in order to bring the project to life, I would divide the project into smaller more manageable tasks. For example, in the beginning I gave myself one week to find a manufacturer, bottle supplier, and solidify an ingredient list. By giving myself these three manageable but important tasks I was able to move forward with the project and also felt like I was making ground. Once this task was completed our team moved on to the branding of our product, another step forward. Soon we were noticing that all of these small goals were resulting in major momentum for our business which provides us with further confidence and focus.
Building a business is not an easy process. It takes commitment, focus, and a ton of work. There will be times when you will get frustrated and overwhelmed with your project. When this occurs take a step back, realign yourself and develop a few small tasks that you can complete quickly to help you regain your focus and momentum.
Take Away’s
1) Believe in your idea
2) Have a dream session
3) Make short term manageable goals
Starting your own business is a dream for many people, although very few are able to follow through and make their dream a reality. Why? Because it’s a huge and ugly task. It requires mountain loads of planning, paper work, cold calls, number crunching, and constant criticism from others that love to shoot down your ideas. So in order to help other entrepreneurs move from the idea to startup, I am going to provide two tips on how to move your idea forward.
1) Take a Dream Break
It’s easy for entrepreneurs to get intimidated and overwhelmed by their project and sometimes lose the excitement they had about their business idea and let it slip to the back burner. This personally has been the hardest issue with me. I begin a project, start the process, hit a road bump, get frustrated, lose my excitement, and then the idea fades.
There were points in the early planning stages with Chakra where I would loose interest and progress would slow. Although this time instead of letting the idea slip, I would take a step back from the task I was involved with and just let my mind wander and dream at a high level about where I knew this project could go. By just dreaming and escaping the current issue I was facing I was able to regain my focus and excitement about the project and then logically come up with a solution to the problem I was facing. At times you can get so consumed with one silly detail and forget about the whole picture. So next time you feel like you are loosing interest and momentum, take a deep breath and reward yourself with a dream session. You will be amazed at how well the actually works!
2) Set short term manageable goals
Over the last number of years I have had loads of different business ideas, some of which I though were pretty good. I would get excited about the idea, start the business plan, and as soon as I realized the size of the project and hit my first hurdle, I would stop and convince myself the idea would never work. Although, when starting the Chakra project things were different. Instead of looking at the amount of work that needed to be done in order to bring the project to life, I would divide the project into smaller more manageable tasks. For example, in the beginning I gave myself one week to find a manufacturer, bottle supplier, and solidify an ingredient list. By giving myself these three manageable but important tasks I was able to move forward with the project and also felt like I was making ground. Once this task was completed our team moved on to the branding of our product, another step forward. Soon we were noticing that all of these small goals were resulting in major momentum for our business which provides us with further confidence and focus.
Building a business is not an easy process. It takes commitment, focus, and a ton of work. There will be times when you will get frustrated and overwhelmed with your project. When this occurs take a step back, realign yourself and develop a few small tasks that you can complete quickly to help you regain your focus and momentum.
Take Away’s
1) Believe in your idea
2) Have a dream session
3) Make short term manageable goals
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Finding the Pot Of Gold
After months of strategic planning, dreaming, connecting, and collaborating we have come to the point now in our business where we have to ask “how do we make this real”. How do we take these ideas from paper and grow them into the business we have spent so much time planning to build.
The quest for funding is an interesting and intimidating feeling for me as a first time entrepreneur. It’s a topic that is not taught in business school and is a foreign process to many first time entrepreneurs as it’s the first true gut check point for you and your business. You must force yourself from the safety of a business plan and convince others that your idea is good enough to deserve their money, and in today’s economy that’s no easy feat.
When planning our funding strategy we are using a bit of a concept I like to call “see what sticks”. What I mean by this is that we are pursuing many different possible funding avenues and just seeing what will work for us.
Our primary strategy is to access funding and mentorship from the Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF). The CYBF is a national charity dedicated to championing tomorrow’s entrepreneurial leaders. They do this by investing time and money in aspiring young entrepreneurs, age 18-34, who have a great business idea, but find it difficult to obtain financing or mentoring through traditional sources.
To date I have met with the people at my local CYBF chapter multiple times and they are extremely helpful in making sure you have thought through all aspects of your business. They challenge your ideas and provide you with valuable feedback on your progress. So far we have had two meetings and a third is scheduled for next week. After this meeting I am hoping that they will be able to present our idea to their board and we will be able to take one step closer to obtaining funding through this route.
Supplementing our pursuit of funding our group was presented an opportunity that we could not turn down. One of my favorite TV shows, CBC’s The Dragons Den, was in Halifax and were having open auditions. This was too cool to past up. So last Sunday my two partners made the trip down from Moncton NB and we headed down to the downtown hotel where they were holding the auditions. Prior to arriving we were expecting long lines, a dark room, and a panel of stern producers that were to act as a filter for the “Dragons”. Although to our surprise it was quite the opposite upon arriving. We walked in a small conference room where we were greeted by a smiling receptionist and the panel of one producer who was extremely relaxed and very friendly. The pitch went well and as a group we felt confident we did all we could. Now time will only tell if we get the call to “the den”.
Along with these two avenues, I have booked two other meetings with provincial funding agencies and we are scheduled to talk next week. It’s great to get out there and talk about our business! I not only feel more confident in our company, but also in my own ability to lead this company and secure a financial investment to bring this dream to life. So stay tuned for our funding updates
Don’t get me wrong I have been loving the process so far, but how sweet would it be to have a rich uncle at this point?!?
The quest for funding is an interesting and intimidating feeling for me as a first time entrepreneur. It’s a topic that is not taught in business school and is a foreign process to many first time entrepreneurs as it’s the first true gut check point for you and your business. You must force yourself from the safety of a business plan and convince others that your idea is good enough to deserve their money, and in today’s economy that’s no easy feat.
When planning our funding strategy we are using a bit of a concept I like to call “see what sticks”. What I mean by this is that we are pursuing many different possible funding avenues and just seeing what will work for us.
Our primary strategy is to access funding and mentorship from the Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF). The CYBF is a national charity dedicated to championing tomorrow’s entrepreneurial leaders. They do this by investing time and money in aspiring young entrepreneurs, age 18-34, who have a great business idea, but find it difficult to obtain financing or mentoring through traditional sources.
To date I have met with the people at my local CYBF chapter multiple times and they are extremely helpful in making sure you have thought through all aspects of your business. They challenge your ideas and provide you with valuable feedback on your progress. So far we have had two meetings and a third is scheduled for next week. After this meeting I am hoping that they will be able to present our idea to their board and we will be able to take one step closer to obtaining funding through this route.
Supplementing our pursuit of funding our group was presented an opportunity that we could not turn down. One of my favorite TV shows, CBC’s The Dragons Den, was in Halifax and were having open auditions. This was too cool to past up. So last Sunday my two partners made the trip down from Moncton NB and we headed down to the downtown hotel where they were holding the auditions. Prior to arriving we were expecting long lines, a dark room, and a panel of stern producers that were to act as a filter for the “Dragons”. Although to our surprise it was quite the opposite upon arriving. We walked in a small conference room where we were greeted by a smiling receptionist and the panel of one producer who was extremely relaxed and very friendly. The pitch went well and as a group we felt confident we did all we could. Now time will only tell if we get the call to “the den”.
Along with these two avenues, I have booked two other meetings with provincial funding agencies and we are scheduled to talk next week. It’s great to get out there and talk about our business! I not only feel more confident in our company, but also in my own ability to lead this company and secure a financial investment to bring this dream to life. So stay tuned for our funding updates
Don’t get me wrong I have been loving the process so far, but how sweet would it be to have a rich uncle at this point?!?
Times they are a changin'
For years companies have been driving truck loads of money to the front steps of advertising firms and letting them use their "creative genius" to create ground breaking ads that will cause their products to fly of the shelves and change the world.. I think its time companies rethink their strategies.As a consumer, I know that I am over whelmed everyday with the amount of ads I am exposed to. From the newspaper, news websites, bus advertising, TV, radio, etc.. the list is endless. Although I am aware the ads exist, I rarely pay attention to these adds, which leads me to feel they are partly useless. Now I understand that the subconcious mind may absorb the ads we see, although I feel this is not good enough when firms are paided MILLIONs to "sell" the product.In order for me to spend millions of dollars to sell my product, i want to make sure customers remember my company and the product I am looking to sell. In the future I feel advertising campaigns will become more of an art form rather than a useful way to sell products.Now in saying this, I feel Public relation campaigns and alternative advertising is likely to take front and center. the reason I say this is because when consumers see something out of the ordinary, whether it be a news story about the positives effects a product has, or standout adds on grocery bag, consumers are much more likely to register the message. Public relations is often over looked although it is truely one of the most valuable tools that can be used in building a brand. Remember, you cant build a brand with advertising, only maintain it.
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