Category: Entrepreneurs

How to Generate Product IDEAS

by jcafesin, posted in Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurship, Small Business Marketing, startup, startups

Need an IDEA [that will likely SELL] to Startup?

Many want to be entrepreneurs, but most people lack product ideas, or can’t think of a service (or app) that isn’t already available.

For over a decade, I taught entrepreneurship at Stanford and Cal Berkeley/Haas. I designed a course to teach the process of turning an IDEA (or product in development) into an offering that SELLS, and building sustainable startups.

Below is the 1st CHALLENGE in the course. It is designed to teach the PROCESS of PROVING an IDEA will sell BEFORE (taking the time and investing the money) developing it.

CHALLENGE #1: Generating PRODUCT Ideas

If you already have an idea (or product in development), skip this CHALLENGE. Focus your learning through the process of validating your existing IDEA.

It is highly recommended that you have an idea to actualize, in order to realize the full potential of this course. The idea is less important than working the process, so don’t dwell on creating a brilliant offering, or even one that you will produce right now (if ever). Learn by engaging in the process, and you’ll be able to actualize most any idea you have now, or any that may come, by simply following the steps of the RAF Method, in order (kind of like working a math equation ;-).

Imagine creating something that solves a recurring problem. Now, come up with a basic (even vague) idea of a fix for your recurring issue…

1. THINK of at least five (5) PROBLEMS you frequently encounter, and create a document titled: “MY FREQUENT PROBLEMS.” Number each problem as shown (though your LIST does NOT need to be by priority).

Examples:

  1. Trash bags that don’t fit or stay fixed to the rim of the can.
  2. Spending an hour or more online looking for a movie you’ll actually like (since Netflix’s rec engine, as with all streaming services, only recommend the content they have).
  3. Xfinity’s internet access that keeps crashing while you’re watching the movie it just took you an hour to find.
  4. Your kids are not doing well in school.
  5. You have no one with whom to share how you really feel, and you can’t afford therapy.
  6. You get tired by 3:00p.m. and want a wake-you-up, but slow burning energy snack.
  7. You can’t get a good job without work experience. And you can’t get work experience without a job.
  8. You know it’s unhealthy for your dog to be locked inside all day, but there’s no way to let him run and play during your workday.

2. LIST [at least] five (5) SOLUTIONS to your list of problems.

Examples:

  • 1a: Trash bags made to fit a variety of can sizes, with a 3” wide rubber-band around the top.
  • 2a: An app that figures out individual preferences for movies and recommends platforms with your desired content.
  • 3a: Some issues we can’t do anything about. If Xfinity is your only internet provider (as is ours), you’re screwed.
  • 4a: Software that recognizes bottlenecks in learning, and dynamically provides content geared to what student likes or will engage with.
  • 5a: Chatbot specifically designed to engage in therapy, available when you need to talk 24/7.
  • 6a: My organic, low-fat, gluten-free, great-tasting cupcakes and scones.
  • 7a: A platform, both online and live meetups, that matches students or recent grads with corporate internships.
  • 8a: A P2P service of local, professional pet care advocates, from doggie daycare to personal pet assistants.

3. Pick ONE (1) of your SOLUTIONS. Use the solution you’ve discovered in this challenge as the IDEA you’ll validate and market for profit throughout the LSM workshops. Walking the RAF method, even with an IDEA that you’ll never actualize, teaches you the PROCESS of taking any IDEA, and PROVING it will sell BEFORE developing it.

CHALLENGE #2: Generating STARTUP Ideas

Unlike finding solutions to problems, as in CHALLENGE #1, in this exercise you will begin with what you enjoy doing. While I’d like a trash bag that stays on the can, I wouldn’t find much joy in developing this particular product, as I have no interest in plastics, rubber bands, or trash.

To endure the missteps and do-overs required in launching any business takes real tenacity, that will be challenged again and again with each disappointment. You’ll want to give up, but don’t quit! You’ll learn to iterate (or pivot as they say in the Valley).

It’s important to build your business around something you enjoy doing, a task you [generally] like to perform (whether you’re being paid or not). A job that engages, excites, will help you weather the onslaught of hardships, as you’ll be iterating on what you already enjoy doing.

1. LIST three (3) of your top interests. Be as specific as possible!

What do you love to do (or even like to do)? Are you a gamer? An athlete? Like to bake? Shop? Read? Enjoy traveling? Gardening? Crazy in-love with your dog, or cat, or parrot?

2. LIST [at least] five (5) things you like to do — activities you enjoy engaging in. Don’t worry about how profitable they may be. Just list what you enjoy doing. Note, you won’t always enjoy even tasks you generally like.* I’m a writer, and often find the writing process frustrating, but overall I love to write.

3. Come up with ONE (1) IDEA for a product or service that’s in-line with one [or more] of your interests and/or pleasures.

Examples:

  • You’re a gamer and have an IDEA for an MMOG that’s better than World of Warfare.
  • You bake the best scones on Earth, and you want the world to taste ‘em.
  • You’re a science fiction fan, and want to share your thoughts on movies, shows and other finds on an All Things SciFi podcast.
  • You’re an avid reader and want to share your thoughts on a literature review blog.
  • You love real estate and want an app that gives all the information about a property instead of the current platforms like Redfin hiding critical data.
  • You love your mom, and she need someone to take her to her doctor’s appts, shopping…etc. — Uber meets vetted and qualified (medical, financial…etc. pros) on-call personal assistant.

Use ONE (1) IDEA to actualize through the RAF Method, and create offerings of value, for profit, with a job you’ll love to do, daily.

*You won’t always get to do things you like when validating and actualizing IDEAS into products for profit. You’ll have to take on job functions you hate, but are necessary to launch and grow any business. I love to write, but I hate marketing my work!

IDEA to PRODUCT for PROFIT Webinar

by jcafesin, posted in business, careers, Developers, Engineers, Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurship, growth hacking, lean startup, marketing, Silicon Valley, Small Business Marketing, startups, STEM, Venture Capital

Eventbright Webinar: https://lnkd.in/gETT2C_S

Have a biz IDEA you think will SELL?

PROVE IT…BEFORE YOU BUILD IT, with the Productization process.

Over 500,000 startups launch in the U.S. annually. More than 90% fail from bad to no marketing.

Marketing is NOT advertising! Marketing any product or service BEGINS (or should) in product development of the IDEA. Running ads through Google or on Insta, to print and viral campaigns only happens after your IDEA has been validated—productized—as a marketable offering of value.

“IDEA to PRODUCT for PROFIT,” is a 50 minute presentation exposing a distinct pattern that leads to business failure time and again, then introduces a unique marketing paradigm to build, brand, and grow a successful business. Originally developed for the Stanford entrepreneurial community, the RAF Marketing Method is a proprietary marketing model that makes effectively marketing a business doable, in sequential, actionable steps.

This webinar is Lean Business Marketing PROCESS, a step-by-step marketing template that delivers a clear and specific path, a roadmap for consistently creating (or directing those you hired to produce) digital, print and viral campaigns that build your brand image and motivate sales. Attendees will learn how to set up a solid foundation for marketing their offerings, and branding their venture into a sustainable business.

This presentation empowers entrepreneurs, engineers to CEOs with a proven method of effectively marketing an idea, or a new or existing offering, step-by-step, into a thriving company.

Attendees will learn:

  • MBA to Marketing novice, learn Marketing PROCESS, like never before.
  • The RAF Marketing Method to avoid the three primary points of business failure.
  • Productization of your product, service, or nonprofit, into a marketable offering of value.
  • How to effectively build Brand awareness of your offerings and company.
  • Effective Multichannel marketing for branding and conversion.

10 minute Q & A follows the presentation.

Speaker Bio

Creative/Art Director Jeri Cafesin, inspired by over two decades marketing seed startups to Fortune 500s, brings practical, doable, lean Marketing PRACTICE to Silicon Valley. A MarCom specialist for over two decades, and founder of IPPglobal.org—Lean Marketing Workshops for Entrepreneurs—her marketing strategies and campaigns have helped build thriving companies that realize sustained business growth.

The Butterfly Effect

by jcafesin, posted in Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurship, growth hacking, sexism, startups

Monica Lewinsky sucked Pres. Clinton’s cock, getting George W. Bush elected, which led to the 2008 financial meltdown with the Republican’s anti-regulation policies. The real estate recession of 2009 left not only millions of people without any retirement, but my father without enough money to care for himself, compelling us to use our little savings to help him. This investment into my father’s care comes out of our kids’ college funds and will most likely affect them down the line.

My husband was freaking out when he called me from his job at a well-known Silicon Valley startup a couple months ago. He’d entered the stairwell and saw the married CEO of his company sucking face with an employee. He had a right to be upset. The CEO is putting the company, its pre-IPO stock value, and its almost 300 employees at risk by displaying his extra-marital affair publicly. His sloppy behavior can not only get him fired, but eventually, lead to the demise of the company with scandalous press chasing away customers and business associations alike. And, of course, there are his two kids and a wife at home who will suffer, possibly lifetime scars from his selfish indiscretions.

When a butterfly flaps its wings in Central Park, it does NOT cause a typhoon in India. But the Butterfly Effect is very real, and very personal, for all of us.

The CEO sucking face with his employee saw my husband in the stairwell. He called my DH into his office later that day and made excuses that he was “just comforting” his graphic designer who [ostensibly] was grieving the death of her dog. Originally hired by the CEO, my husband had never had any issues working with the man until that day in the stairwell. After that day, the CEO was his new micro-manager, and my husband, tired of the bullshit, left the company a month later.

We all engage in the Butterfly Effect in one way or another. When my DH and I fight, I’m more apt to yell at our kids, causing them to snipe at each other. Continual fighting over time may result in fierce sibling rivalry. Instead of becoming balanced, socially aware people, they grow up defensive and afraid, and become CEOs and Presidents who seek physical contact over emotional intimacy to combat their gnawing loneliness.

The Butterfly Effect is an unalterable phenomenon of the human condition, but that doesn’t mean we must be doomed by it. Our ability to perceive the future, and then adapt our behavior in response is also uniquely human, and dramatically separates us from every other life form on this planet, and one of our greatest strengths.

Had President Clinton been thinking with his brain instead of his little head, or Ms. Lewinsky had stopped to consider the possible ramifications of Bill Clinton’s solicitation, perhaps either would have made a better choice. (Why do I sight Monica? Those who cheat are culpable for their actions, but those who are party to cheating are equally culpable.)

Like a gun sitting on a table, the Butterfly Effect is neutral, but it can generate productive outcomes by simply starting from a positive position. Awareness that no man, or woman, is an island is the key to directing the Butterfly Effect to consistently positive outcomes. Every day we touch the lives of many others, whether we’re at home, on the internet, at work, or shopping at Target. Holding a door open, giving a compliment, or showing appreciation for service rendered can make someone’s day a bit better. We affect those around us, our environment locally, even globally with our consumption of resources. Choosing a Prius over an SUV, and picking the appropriate sexual partners; helping someone in need, not just during the holidays but any day improves all our lives collectively.

Be acutely aware of your connection to others, and the cascading Butterfly Effect, and it may just be the lives you touch in your hometown today will indeed lead to the cure for cancer from someone on the other side of the world tomorrow.

Marketing and Religion

by jcafesin, posted in atheism, atheists, blog, business, Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurship, growth hacking, lean startup, marketing, psychology, Religion, republicans, Silicon Valley, Small Business Marketing, startups

Do you believe in God?

Why?

Likely because your mother taught you to—marketing to you throughout your formative years the benefits of belief:

  • Community
  • Solace
  • Salvation

Your beliefs were marketed to you through holiday celebrations, and maybe Sunday school and prayer. Even if mom, and/or your dad, didn’t directly push their beliefs onto you, they likely sold your religion to you via example: crossing themselves when hopeful; saying (and believing) “thank god,” instead of giving the credit to the person or people who brought about whatever they were thankful for.

Religion is a PRODUCT. Always has been—a way for the few in power to control the masses. Christians, Jews, Muslims, all major religions have become successful, thriving businesses through MARKETING…

Read more:
https://lnkd.in/d8ZKxE77