The Art of the Very Small Start: Part 2

Promotion

The internet is responsible for the paradigm shift of power from big name manufacturers to mini-product entrepreneurs.

The internet has allowed almost pin-point advertising and promotion to target users. This allows the “small fishes” to apply Niche Guerilla Marketing strategies more efficient than ever.

One of the interesting aspects of the internet is the power of web communities. That’s why myspace.com was worth so much to News Corp.

The lynchpin of Crowdsourcing, web communities, are a bottom up approach to building your business. Focusing on creating a community buzz is extremely relevant in today’s modern internet marketing strategies.

Many companies don’t get it, but digital business today all have strong web communities which further allows the companies to have an intimate knowledge of their prospective buyers. Other benefits include test marketing of new products are virtually free!

This leads me to talk about that “other” community, the blogging community. Blog marketing or viral marketing is done best when it’s genuine. As an example when iPoor was posted on my blog, the “link love” I received was amazing. It even got me a slot in the Sydney Morning Herald’s Domain section on new and notable products. My product moved from internet into a real life publication.

Nothing beats Viral Marketing, and did I mention it’s free?

Place or Distribution

I like to complete my discussion with the 5th “P” which is place or distribution. In other words how on earth are you going to get your product to your customer?

Also if you recall in the “Product” section, we selected products that were small, easy to sourced and handle? Well the main impact of this in “The Art of the small start” is the cost of inventory and distribution. We need ensure that we reduce inventory cost as much as possible.

From Guy Kawasaki’s great post on the tactical implementation of the Long Tail he describes succinctly:

Near-zero inventory carrying costs. If you plan to sell a few units of lots of things it can’t cost you much to keep those things in inventory. This is separate from the cost of production. It might cost Ferrari a lot of money to make cars, but if it will consign them to you for free, what do you care?

Actually, you do care: there’s warehouse space, insurance, and shrinkage. Even digital content like music, movies, ringtones, and photographs require bandwidth and storage. Not only must the product be cheap to make, it must be cheap to keep in inventory.

In our case as we are selling tangible products, there will always be somekind of inventory. For me I did a limited run of 100 Pieces of iPoor T-Shirts that when delivered only takes up about 3 Feet by 1.5 Feet high stack. Perfect for tucking under my son’s cot!

One down side though in “The Art of the Small Start” is you will have to man handle every single piece of inventory you sell. You will need to lick every single stamp, and seal every single padded envelope or box. Nobody said it will be easy, but if you are like me, I enjoyed every single step of the process.

I wish you all the best in setting up your “Small Start” in entrepreneurship! The best part is I now have funds to roll into my next venture. The best things in life come in small packages!

If you have any more questions, please do not hesitate to leave a comment or email me. I’m no expert but I love to share and swap stories.

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