Archive for Social Media
Before you start your business, know what your business model is
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Now here is a crazy thought! How about knowing how your going to make money before starting a business? Crazy right? I mean what does making money have to do with business?
And that is why the majority of start-ups become finish-downs.
I know, I know. Just build it for the sake of building it and see what happens. That’s great if you don’t need the money and have a lot of time on your hands, but if you are going to start a business you best know how you are going to make money.
Now before we go into some of the different ways to make money I think it is first important to see that you have multiple ways of making money. If you are going to be putting blood, sweat & tears into something make sure you have many avenues of success while still maintaining focus on your core business. Note: When you launch your company you don’t need to launch every revenue stream, just make sure you have a few as you grow.
The easiest example of this is a Restaurant. A retaurant can have the following revenue streams:
- The basic: People coming in and eating in
- Take Out
- In house catering/parties
- Catering in other locations
- Selling Packaged food through other locations
- Selling a specific product commercially (ie: Our Special Bar-B-Q Sauce)
- Party Planning Service
- Gift Baskets
- Frozen Pizzas
See what I mean? Now mostly I would like to focus on internet businesses since I think it is pretty obvious what your business model is when you are running a retail outlet of any kind, but online we have been brought up with the idea that it is a numbers game and as long as you have a lot of “eye balls” you can figure out the rest later. Now that is a great thought and if you became an internet sensation like Twitter, then that’s great, but for the 99.9999% of the rest of internet start-ups you really need to have a clear business model in order to raise funds and of course to succeed.
Now the problem I have with the “eye balls” theory is that the main business model that people are shooting for is an advertising model and that is a very dangerous place to be for many reasons; the fist being that if advertising revenue dollars were to suddenly drop, so will your revenue. I know of many companies that have gone under in the current recession specifically because the ad revenue dropped by more than 50%. If your going to build a business, build it on a need, something that people want and not something that you are going to annoy them with. That’s just my opinion.
A recent article on Mashable titled “5 Business Models for Social Media Startups” points out some of the main ways to earn money online and can even be used for non social media startups. Let me know what you think!
http://mashable.com/2009/07/14/social-media-business-models/
Guy Kawasaki on 10 ways to use LinkedIN to find a job
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More and more people are using Social Media to help find a job and this is a great idea. I am unsure of the stats, but I once read that the vast majority of job openings don’t get listed, but get filled from current employees.
Besides the fact that this makes a lot of sense, it does tell you that if you are looking for a job, you have a better chance to use your network to find a job then by answering a classified ad.
The most obvious Social Network website to use is LinkedIN since this network focuses on being a business network.
Guy Kawasaki wrote a great post called “10 Ways to use LinkedIn to Find a Job“. As always Guy is right on and it is a must read.
A lot of times finding a job is about who you know, especially in Israel! That being said it would seem that the more people you know (or the more people who know you), the easier it will be to find a job. So go ahead, make yourself known! Start a blog, get involved in social networking, attend networking events! Do whatever it takes to get yourself known. Even better, become an expert in the field you represent! Write an ebook about the topic you love most in your industry, write articles to magazines, websites, and newspapers. Keep writing and keep posting until you are known as an expert in your field. Look out for events and offer to speak at them.
Yeah I know, public speaking is one of mans greatest fears:
The
fear of public speaking is always listed as one of the top three
American phobias (way above the fear of death, which is usually rated
as the seventh most common phobia). The comedian Jerry Seinfeld
observed, “Most of us would rather be in the casket than giving the
eulogy.”
That being said there are many ways to get yourself out there. In this Mashable post called "How to build the Ultimate Social Media Resume", Mashable looks at 6 different ways to build a social media resume and get yourself out there.
So don't just sit back and wait for it to happen, you need to be proactive and go out and make it happen! I believe I have mentioned before, but it is worth mentioning again. Be different! Don't send out the same boring CV that everyone else is snding in. Make it different! Use video! Send it in a Gold Plated envelope with a signature required. Even if they ask you to send in your CV dont! Give them what they really want, but don't know how to ask for! Give them a winning person, someone who shows creativity, someone that will make their company proud! Don't be like everyone else since 99.9% of everyone else also won't be getting the job!
