Archive for the ‘Business Start Ups’ Category

Newer Entries »

A Silicon Valley “State of Mind”

June 20, 2012
John Hartnett - ITLG

A Silicon Valley “State of Mind”

I am just back from a really uplifting Cork Chamber breakfast where the attendees had the pleasure of listening to John Hartnett, a Limerick man who is now working and living in Silicon Valley.

He was speaking about an initiative he is involved in called ITLG (Irish Technology Leadership Group), which is all about facilitating the Irish to succeed in Silicon Valley.

While the topic was absolutely fascinating what was even more interesting was his observations about Ireland and the Irish, which he can now do quite well “as an outsider, looking in” as he put it and the differences with Silicon Valley.

He spoke about Silicon Valley not being a place but being a “State of  Mind” and after listening to him speak for half an hour you get to understand exactly what he meant even by the language he chose in his presentation and in the Q&A afterwards.

The people in Silicon Valley work with a focused intensity, everything is possible, failure is often considered as a natural step on the ladder to success, mega opportunity is better than “niche”, we need to change the game and it’s all about “out of the park” ideas ….I was enthralled!

OK, we can see the big American influence but the language, both tone and content was totally infectious.

John spoke of the Irish having natural advantages such as being smart and sociable with great story telling ability but not being so great when it came to pitching and selling – “our kids should be presenting regularly at school so standing up in front of an audience and pitching your idea should be the most natural thing in the world when it matters”  he commented.

Silicon ValleyHe spoke about the very tangible “Negativity Bubble” in Ireland that we need to lose as quick as possible .. we need to get aggressive and go after it, we need to shake things up and make positive things happen. He spoke about getting more of the successful ex-pat Irish community in the US involved in the right organisations in Ireland such as the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and the Science Council.

Not only did John make perfect sense but he gave everyone in the room a huge injection of positivity – Thank you John.

Cancel all flights …don’t let him leave the country!

What’s your State of Mind?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Note:

Colm Healy from Skelligs Chocolate gave me a great link to a “Ted” talk by Cameron Herold about “raising kids to be entrepreneurs“.

 

Tags:, , , , , ,
Posted in Business Start Ups, Ireland, Irish Economy, Marketing, Personal development, Positivity, Recession | 11 Comments »

Celebrate those individuals making it happen for themselves

May 14, 2012
Beata

Making it Happen

On our usual Sunday walk with the four legged one (Bing for those who haven’t seen previous posts!) a little poster caught my eye on the pole of a housing estate we walk through on the way to the park.

It was placed on a pole where you might expect a picture of a missing dog but when I peeped a little closer it was an advert for someone advertising their house cleaning services.

The poster was typed up with a simple cartoon graphic of a cleaning lady and housed inside a sheet of plastic to protect it from the elements and it had the contact phone number repeated on little vertical strips for those who wanted to tear them off to make an enquiry later.

I’m sure this simple poster with a clear message “A completely clean home – my cleaning services are thorough, consistent and customised. If you want to change your cleaning routine, Call me” will bring Beata the customers she is looking for.

I started thinking about Beata on the rest of my walk whoever she is.. I pictured her deciding to start her cleaning business to earn money, drafting up her posters, printing them, cutting the phone number strips, housing them in plastic covers and then walking around finding poles in the housing estates she was targeting. She had her mini campaign for her house cleaning service well thought out and there was a real honesty to how it was delivered.

Often we celebrate the big companies with the big job numbers and the vital role they are playing in our economy but we should also celebrate those out there who are digging deep, making things happen for themselves instead of sitting back and waiting on someone else or the state to look after them.

Beata and all the other startups , I Salute you!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Business Start Ups, Direct Marketing, Graphic Design, Irish Economy, Marketing, Positivity, Recession, Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

Is the Grind worth it?

February 1, 2012
Tired Runner

Is the Grind worth it?

In recent months I have posted about the importance of following your passion and also about avoiding the trap of a job that does not provide fulfilment. Isn’t there a huge personal risk in letting that happen?

I received a response to one of these posts that really moved me and it did make me think long and hard about the grind of working for yourself.

Interesting sentiments Greg. Having always run my own businesses and taken risks from the perspective “you’ll regret what you didn’t do” this is something I’ve reflected upon a lot – At one stage I left a very cushy public sector job and we then went through very tough times as the recession hit.

It’s very hard to comfortably make a good living in Ireland now – fair play to anyone who can make more than they could in the corporate world once all salaries, outgoings etc. are paid. I’ve gone back into the corporate world and am making more than I did at my business at the peak of the boom- with none of the recent stress.

At the end of the day all that matters is your ability to educate your children and give them a decent lifestyle. I would guess that that guy at Guinness slept easy at night and his kids have never wanted for anything.

If you have a true vocation it makes sense to do what you do best – and follow that path. However most small business and startups are struggling – I see people grind away for years, barely surviving – and this is not a good place to be over the long term.

When I read this I started to feel a little guilty that maybe I am being a little disrespectful with my blog posts to all of those who have tried their utmost and despite everything it just still has not worked out for them.

I’ve been reflecting on this ..

If you find a better life working for someone else then well done to you – I hope that in Fuzion we are giving our team a good life.

If you find yourself without work then I would encourage you to take control of the situation and  try to start off something for yourself. It is hard but it can be great fun (and yes…very worrying and stressful at times).

But, someone somewhere always has to be the starter..

If you try and it doesn’t work … well done, at least it was your grind.

What do you think?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Tags:, , ,
Posted in Business Planning, Business Start Ups, Positivity, Recession, Self Help, Uncategorized | 31 Comments »

True Heroes of the Irish Economy

April 7, 2011
Resilience - The Broken Man

Resilience - The Broken Man

Sometimes I try to find words to describe what I am witnessing around me and the things that inspire me.

Sometimes you are better off letting the words to those who are in the mix.

In response to my blog “Broken Man – We need him now more than ever” , which received incredible response there is one that just blew me away.

These are not my words they are his – one of those broken men who is picking himself up again..

“Speaking as what you term a “broken man” – I lost everything, dreams out of the window, in debt up to my ears – it took a couple of years to get things back on an even keel and begin to accept the loss but, having done it once, I couldn’t imagine working for someone else again. Working now on a new project with confidence having taken a knock but with my vision and determination intact……..maybe not broken, perhaps just wounded!”

Broken Man, thanks for getting up again

I salute you

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Tags:, , , , , , , ,
Posted in Business Start Ups, Irish Economy, Marketing, Self Help | 8 Comments »

Sniper Marketing

February 21, 2011

Online Marketing

Should your be more specific?

If you throw enough mud at a wall then eventually some will stick! – you have often heard that expression and when it comes to advertising and in particular at a time when most people are carefully watching their budgets. It can cause problems when it comes to justifying spend in this area.

Influenced by this very argument and also because it often makes total sense, where appropriate we encourage most of our clients to allocate some of their advertising budgets to on-line Pay Per Click advertising, or sniper marketing as we like to call it.

With some of the recent and new on-line tools it is now much easier to target your exact target audience for your product or service, just like a “sniper” would. Why advertise to everyone just to get the attention of a narrow more exact target audience?

With a combination of Google Advertising, Facebook Advertising, and even LinkedIn advertising it is possible to target your customers very specifically.

Most of these initiatives operate on a pay-per-click basis so you only pay for results, even though you can also achieve some visibility for free with those who do not click on your adverts. Just to replay that in simple terms – You only pay when someone has clicked on your advert and come to your website or facebook page. You do not pay every time your advert is shown.

To briefly explain how each of the platforms work:

Google Adwords – here you select (or bid on) keywords that when searched by a user will activate your advert. You can limit your adverts to a specific area or location. You can actually go further and specify which page on your website the user will land on when they click on your advert. Let them find exactly what they want as quickly as possible.

Facebook Advertising – This is quite different to how Google works. Here you target demographics – you can specify types of people in different areas and even with declared special interests. With adverts here you have a choice of bringing bring them to your website or your Facebook business page (this can be very effective in building followers on your page).

LinkedIn Advertising – Advertising here operates more like Facebook with the exception that the environment is much more corporate. You can target types of people, making choices about location, company size and even levels of seniority.

With all of the above options you can control your campaigns by setting daily budgets and also by limiting how much each click will cost. Google reporting in particular can provide you with very valuable information about your customers. (they are all relatively easy to set up but I would strongly advise seeking professional help setting up these campaigns as you can easily make expensive mistakes – they never refuse your money!)

To support this activity you might also consider email marketing – use an on-line email newsletter service (there are many good value options such as MailChimp and Constant Contact and for more sophisticated requirements you could try Newsweaver) to your database of contacts, reminding those who you have already developed a connection with of you and your services.

This sniper approach to marketing can work for all types of businesses as diverse as:

The Ballroom Dance teacher who can target engaged women in Cork with his adverts for dance lessons to get them ready for their first dance at their wedding (there are 1,210 of within a 20 km radius of Cork City!) – Facebook is perfect for this.

The Tax Consultant who wants to target senior executives in Ireland for specialist tax advice – this can be done by advertising on LinkedIn.

We find that on-line campaigns can work very effectively as part of an overall campaign for clients to achieve their objectives.

Could this be something that would form part of your Marketing Plan in 2011?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion Communications

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Business Start Ups, Facebook, Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Uncategorized, Web Marketing | Leave a Comment »

The Irish Bank Robber and Facebook

August 22, 2010

When the renowned Irish American bank robber, Willie Sutton was arrested having been caught after one of his many bank heists he famously gave the following response to journalists who asked him why he kept robbing banks, “Because, that’s where the money was!”

Willie Sutton, The Famous Bank Robber

Willie Sutton, also known as “Slick Willie” and “Willie the Actor” (he was a master of disguises) was born in Brooklyn in 1901 and lived till 1980. He managed to rob 100 banks in his 79 year career, spending much of this in prison after many captures. Toward the end of his life he ended up fronting an advertising campaign for a bank who were introducing card ID’s with the person’s picture on it.

Besides being a notorious bank robber his quote earned him everlasting fame as his surname is now often quoted to refer to any situation where something is clearly “obvious”. In medical circles in particular his name comes up as “Suttons Law” to describe a situation where a diagnosis is exactly that and accountants even use it when talking about Activity Based Costing, “The Willie Sutton Rule”!

In the business of Marketing & PR we often get resistance when we recommend to clients that they should be engaging pro-actively with users on Facebook. We get the arguments about not liking computers, not having enough time, that all users are youngsters and generally not knowing how to use Facebook and not seeing the relevance to them.

Worldwide users have reached 550 Million with the figure in Ireland just over 1.4 million. Of these over 700,000 are over the age of 30. Many of these are your customers!

On average people are using Facebook about 25 minutes per day. Facebook has individual users as well as many businesses who have their own “business pages” and are interacting and influencing Facebook users on a daily basis. Starbucks, the famous American chain of coffee stores have over 12 million people signed up as fans.

The next time we talk about the relevance of Facebook with a client we might just quote the famous bank robber, Willie .. after all it’s very obvious!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion Communications

Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Business Start Ups, Marketing, PR, SEO, Social Media, Uncategorized, Web Marketing | 21 Comments »

Do you always do what you are told?

July 27, 2010
Disobedient Child!

Not always doing what you are told!

Start a new business in 2010 in the middle of a recession? Are you totally out of your head, nuts, crazy?
The minute you open your mouth you will probably crumble under the weight of naysayers, who without a doubt are being genuine in their advice to you.

The fact that you are opening your mouth at all means that you have an itch that needs scratching, there is some enterprising spirit inside you that is just waiting to break out, some independent streak that makes you want to be master of your own destiny. It could be as simple as you are out of work and you just want to make things happen for yourself.

Well done, so what do you do?

As an Accountant who came away from the “darkside” and joined the world of Marketing & PR after a long period in General Management I can offer  you my tuppence worth of advice and a few do’s and don’ts .. (should I put in a disclaimer here??)

It’s a great time to start a new business because..

1.    Who else can you depend on today to put bread on your table?
2.    The smaller you are the less overheads you have – customers can get a great personal service
3.    The cost of entry is smaller than it has ever been
4.    The local agencies such as the Enterprise Boards offer Mentoring, Training and other Supports, which really help people  get on their feet
5.    With the whole new world of the Web and Social Media including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on, the small guy can actually compete with the big guy
6.    The Press love positive stories and will more than likely be happy to give you some coverage, free!
7.    You would be surprised how many people out there will give a new business a chance, everyone loves a Trier!
8.    You will love the sense of achievement from the feeling of doing it for yourself, it’s liberating
9.    Being your own boss is great
10.    It’s a whole new world, once you cross over to the other side – network with others like you!
11.    It can be great fun

On the cautionary side, which is very real ..

1.    Only do it once you are truly ready – while the cost of entry is lower than before make sure you are in a position to make a great first impression, looking the part from the very start
2.    Run your business idea by someone knowledgeable with a positive nature that you know will give you honest advice – not all ideas are great ones!
3.    Make sure your business passes the recession test – the luxury type products and services are suffering at the moment. It might be a case of wait a while for these types of businesses.
4.    Be practical – do your pessimistic financial plans and make sure you have enough cash to pull by, in particular in the early stages. That financial pressure is horrible, I’ve been there more than once ..
5.    Once you make that move you will never be able to work for someone else again!

So, did you always do what you are told?

Didn’t think so.. enjoy the ride, our economy needs you and more like you

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion Communications , Marketing & PR.
http://www.fuzion.ie

Tags:, , , , , , ,
Posted in Business Start Ups, Irish Economy, Marketing, PR, Recession, Social Media | 10 Comments »

Newer Entries »