Archive for the ‘Creativity and Ideation’ Category
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 | Written by Erik Rostad
Posted under: Bootstrapping, Creativity and Ideation, General Thoughts |
Tags: Bootstrapping, diy, diy artist, entrepreneurial artists, live nation, music industry, record labels |
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What is a DIY artist? DIY stands for Do It Yourself, and it basically means the entrepreneurial artist. The bootstrapping artist. It’s the musician who is using a laptop and a microphone to record his or her first album, using Facebook and MySpace to promote the album, and is playing at coffee houses, bars, and music venues in order to make some tip money and hopefully sell some of those self-produced albums.
The DIY artist has things both easier and harder with the proliferation of the Internet. Easier because for the cost of a basic MacBook ($999), a basic microphone ($200), and the cost of the instruments, an artist can put together a semi-decent, multi-track recording using Garageband, which comes loaded on the MacBook. The artist then has access to a host of free services (MySpace, Facebook, etc.) in which to promote themselves and their album. The harder part for the artist is distinguishing themself in this cacophony of new artists who have entered the market largely due to the lowered cost of entry.
Contrast the DIY artist with the artist of old who was discovered by a record label, was given up-front money for recording in exchange for a % of ownership in the songs (usually pretty high), paid exorbitant studio recording costs, and received widespread distribution through the label. Touring and album sales were mostly a way to pay back the record labels for the seed money they provided. The thought was that the label would give you better exposure and a small % of a lot was still more than 100% of nothing.
There is currently a big debate regarding the DIY artist and if they are actually making any money to sustain their craft. What is happening is that for many of the big record companies, their influence is rapidly waning. The big hope for the industry was that live concerts would take the place of lost album revenue. This has happened somewhat, but now Live Nation is also having its own rough patch. Live Nation is the major concert promoter and venue owner. So, with the decreasing influence of album sales and live concerts, artists are having to get more creative in their approach.
Perhaps the right answer is somewhere in between the record label-sponsored artist and the DIY artist. The artist’s skill is in writing music. They may also be skilled in Facebook promotion, but if time on Facebook takes away from the creative process of writing, then the Facebook time has not been well spent. The answer in the middle is to have a small team around the artist. As with stock options in lieu of salary, perhaps the artist can surround themselves with people willing to work on commission of album & live show sales as opposed to a straight-up salary.
Artists these days would benefit from a pro in social media, booking agents skilled in particular markets, and engineers who know what they are doing in the studio. If DIY artists can become Do It With Others artists, they have a greater chance for success than just recording albums by themselves in their basements. The key is surrounding yourself with great people.
For the music industry, this really does come down to a discussion on different views of entrepreneurship. One camp holds that everything must be in order before starting the business. You must write the business plan, have a superb website, and obtain gobs of Venture Capital money in exchange for company ownership before trying to sell your product. The other camp seeks to bootstrap their business with little starting capital so that they can keep as close to 100% ownership of their company as possible. This camp seeks inexpensive yet innovative marketing solutions.
We at The Entrepreneur School believe in the bootstrapping method. It doesn’t just work for starting a business, but can cross over to industries like the music industry.
Please share how you have bootstrapped your way to success in the music industry in the comment box below.
Tags: Bootstrapping, diy, diy artist, entrepreneurial artists, live nation, music industry, record labels | Posted under Bootstrapping, Creativity and Ideation, General Thoughts | No Comments
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 | Written by Jacob Dearolph
Posted under: Creativity and Ideation, Energy and Oil |
Tags: business idea, charity, gulf oil spill |
1 Comment
One of the concepts The Entrepreneur School teaches about creating a business idea is to look for opportunities created as a result of some change. The change could be in politics, trends, new products, etc… Even disasters open doors for entrepreneurs. Remember an entrepreneur is always looking to solve a problem or fill a need therefore change opens the door for just that.
Check this business out: OilSpillWater.com. They are selling oil spill water as a way of keeping the topic relevant for people. They are giving half of the sales dollars to different groups serving in the cleanup the oil spill. The other half goes to covering their costs. Basically they are offering something for a small “donation.”
This is a great business idea; it combines seeing opportunity in a time of difficulty, creating and maintaining awareness of the gulf oil spill, and providing funds to organizations working to help the environment. If you want to read more here’s an article by NBC Miami: South Florida Brothers Selling Oil Spill Souvenirs
Tags: business idea, charity, gulf oil spill | Posted under Creativity and Ideation, Energy and Oil | 1 Comment
Friday, April 23, 2010 | Written by Henry Chang
Posted under: Blog, Business Ownership, Creativity and Ideation, Entrepreneurship Tools, General Thoughts, Marketing, Technology |
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Has anyone ever done advertising on a cell / mobile phone?
I came across this company called foursquare which lets iPhone / Android / Blackberry users to see merchants that is around them.
Interesting concept, if anyone had any experience, please let us know!
Sunday, April 18, 2010 | Written by Jim Beach
Posted under: Creativity and Ideation, Uncategorized |
Tags: new business ideas, sleep study programs |
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I don’t sleep well. Never have. My kids sleep great; they fall asleep within 2-3 minutes of laying down in bed. They were taught to sleep using the Ezzo parenting method books. Gary Ezzo teaches how to get babies to fall asleep and how to get newborns to sleep through the night by 6 weeks old. Great stuff that I recommend to all pregnant women. By the way, pregnant couples spend so much time reading junk like What to Expect When You Are Expecting and taking classes like Lamaze. The baby is coming out regardless, and there are lots of people to help than process. These same couples spend NO time thinking about HOW to raise the kid. They buy furniture and paint rooms, but so few take a class on being a parent, or on how to get a baby to fall asleep. I cannot stress enough the great sleeping products by Gary Ezzo.
But what about us adults that have trouble sleeping? You see mattress ads all the time, but trust me, a great mattress and nice 600 count sheets still will not make you a better sleeper.
I took a sleep study last week, and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. The study itself kept me awake all night long. Better sleep has been proven to reduce blood pressure, decrease golf scores, help liver productivity, and many other benefits. The video I saw before the sleep study says that most health problems can be traced to poor sleep. And, amazingly 75% of men, or 100% of men that snore, have a sleep problem. I, of course, do not snore. My wife says I do, but she lies a lot.
So, I see a huge future in a business that helps adults sleep. Let’s start with an at-home sleep study firm……
Creativity and new business ideas should solve problems in your life. I see a business that replaces the horrible sleep study programs that exist.
Tags: new business ideas, sleep study programs | Posted under Creativity and Ideation, Uncategorized | No Comments
Thursday, March 11, 2010 | Written by Lana Kravtsova
Posted under: Creativity and Ideation, Entrepreneurship Stories |
Tags: good business idea, good to great, hedgehog principle, Jim Collins, successful business idea |
4 Comments
Note: This is a guest post by Lana Kravtsova from Daring Clarity.
How do you know which idea, project, gig, client to give a green light to and which not even bother researching further? How do you get clear on which business model, product or service are really going to make you rich, happy and fulfilled and which are going to drain your energy and suck your time leaving your soul empty and hurting.
How do you stay on purpose and say “yes” only to the right opportunities. And if you’ve been in business for any time at all, you know that it’s not the lack of opportunities or ideas but an incredible amount of them that leaves us terrified and unsure what to do next.
There is one word that will solve all of the above problems for you.
Hedgehog.
I say this word to myself each time I have a new “why don’t we do this” moment and right there and then I know what I should do. I use it with my clients when we brainstorm for new ideas. I use it with my friends who ask for advice.
Works like magic each and every time.
Let me explain.
You probably heard about the book Good to Great by brilliant Jim Collins. There is a section in the book where he talks about Hedgehog Principle.
It’s simple. It’s genius. It’s one of the best tools I know for clarity.
It’s all about the hog.
If you have a hog, you win. If you don’t have a hog, you lose.
The hedgehog principle works for personal brands, service providers, product makers. It doesn’t matter if you are a solopreneur or big fortune 500 company. You don’t even have to run a business to use a hedgehog principle.
If you need to get clear on the right vocation for you, this is the tool to use.
The hog is the intersection of the three questions:
What are you passionate about?
What can you be the best in the world at?
What drives your economic engine?
I’ll show you how to use it using my personal example and Walgreens example.
1) I am deeply passionate about life that has meaning. I am also deeply passionate about creative freedom. I truly believe that one of the best ways to lead a meaningful and creatively free life is to choose a vocation that is aligned with your Authentic Self. So I help people to align their truth (Authentic Self) with what they do in the world. Meaning and creative freedom are the end results of that.
1) Walgreens is passionate about pharmacies. Plain and simple. That’s what they do.
How do you find what you are passionate about?
Ask yourself – what would I do if I were guaranteed to succeed? What would I do for free? What would I do if I knew for sure that all of my financial needs would be met? Write down your answers.
2) I can be the best in the world at sharing my knowledge and experience I gained on the way to my truth. In other words I am really good at teaching what I learned through personal experience, books I’ve read, seminars I’ve taken on the topic. I can share my knowledge through 1-1 coaching, workshops, blogging, creating products, speaking.
Note: I might be the best in the world at many other things. I am a great cook, a great dancer, I know tons of games to play with kids and much more. But all of that is not on purpose, see #1.
I might also want to be the best in world in many other areas, but that might not be realistic or, again, not on purpose.
2) Walgreens can be the best in the world at convenient drug stores. Not any drug stores but convenient drug stores.
Questions to ask here:
What am I really good at? When do I feel incredibly useful? What do I feel I was born to do? Again, write down your answers.
3) What drives my economic engine is packaging my knowledge in various different formats.
Profit per x is the focus here. My profit per X is profit per certain unit/format of my knowledge. It might be 1-1 coaching, workshops, ebooks or any other products or services I create. To go even further, the best format right now for me to focus on is 1-1 coaching (my highest paying product) and packaging my knowledge into something that will become a passive income – books, ebooks, membership programs etc.(makes the most sense long term).
3) Walgreens economic engine is driven by profit per customer visit. Not per store, not per company, not per customer but profit per customer visit.
Questions to ask:
What are the things you can do to make a living? What makes the most economic sense to do?
That’s Hedgehog. The key is to find the intersection of all three circles or questions.
If I come across an opportunity that is not aligned with my personal Hedgehog, I don’t bother even thinking about it.
So what is your hog? Need help in finding one? Visit me at my blog at http://daringclarity.com
Friday, February 26, 2010 | Written by Erik Rostad
Posted under: Bootstrapping, Creativity and Ideation |
Tags: business idea, craigslist, low-risk entrepreneurship |
1 Comment
We at The Entrepreneur School are all about starting businesses that require little start up costs. One way to search for these types of businesses is to pay attention to what your friends, family, and colleagues are asking about, are discouraged about, or need help with and see if you can assist them for a small cut.
One need I see over and over is helping people sell things online. I come across people quite often who are cash-strapped and would be greatly assisted financially if they could sell or rent something they own. Take something as big as a house, condo, or apartment. Do you know anyone losing sleep over their inability to sell their house? Instead of trying to sell the house in a down market, why not try to rent it out and let someone else pay your mortgage? Well, there are many people who don’t know how to list their place on Craigslist or on a rental site. I have rented out my condo twice only using Craigslist.
Or what about some extra furniture. I just got married and had some furniture I needed to sell. It took very little time to sell the items on Craigslist. I recently sold an unnecessary wireless router on eBay. And I even advertise my violin playing online through Google Ads.
Do you see the business opportunity here? Pay attention to your friends and family and what they need to sell right now. Help them sell or rent something they own and take a 10 – 20% cut of the sale. No start up costs. Very little risk. A nice little addition to your income stream while you help out your family and friends.
Send me a reply comment if you need help selling or renting anything you own in the Atlanta area.
Tags: business idea, craigslist, low-risk entrepreneurship | Posted under Bootstrapping, Creativity and Ideation | 1 Comment
Tuesday, February 16, 2010 | Written by Jim Beach
Posted under: Creativity and Ideation |
Tags: creative creativity |
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Often I am asked, “What can I do to be more creative? How can I be more creative?”
Last night around 3am I was reminded by an unusual method that works. Its a cool exercise that in a month is almost guaranteed to produce a creative
result. Its a little “new age-y,” so I am almost embarrassed to suggest it. After all, new age-y stuff or any of that “Secret” stuff sounds silly to me.
Decide what you want to discover. In our case, “I want to come up with a good, new, cool business for me to start.” Every night right before bed, think about that goal for 2-3 seconds and then go to sleep. Every morning, FIRST thing, think about your dreams. Write down any thoughts to can remember about your dreams. Make it a goal to remember what your subconscious mind was working on during the night. By the end of a month, you will be remembering your dreams better and you will have dreamed a new business.
Sounds weird to me, but it has worked for me. Try it.
Tags: creative creativity | Posted under Creativity and Ideation | No Comments
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 | Written by Erik Rostad
Posted under: Creativity and Ideation, General Thoughts, International, Technology, Total Entrepreneurial Activity |
Tags: china overtaking usa patent applications, china patents, global patent applications, wipo |
No Comments
The UN recently released their report on the number of Patents applied for per country for 2009. The USA tops the list with 45,790 patent applications. This is about 54% more applications than number 2 on the list, Japan. What is surprising about the list of the top 15 countries is that 14 of them had a decrease in patent applications from 2008 to 2009 or remained relatively flat. China, on the other hand, had 29% more patent applications than the year before.
Right now, China is #5 on the list coming in with 7,946 patent applications for 2009. If China keeps up their application growth rate of 29.7% and the USA continues to decline at 11.4%, China will have more patent applications than the USA by the year 2013. This is not wholly unreasonable as China has averaged a 34% average patent application increase over the past 4 years.
Click here to see the full results, including a patent application list by country and by company. Also, the list of top 15 countries is contained at that link.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 | Written by Jim Beach
Posted under: Creativity and Ideation |
Tags: TED video |
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http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_technology.html
TED is a tech conference for big-wigs, supposedly the self-described smartest people in the world. Usually they are pretty full of themselves. But this video above is a must-see…..
Tags: TED video | Posted under Creativity and Ideation | No Comments
Thursday, January 7, 2010 | Written by Erik Rostad
Posted under: Creativity and Ideation, General Thoughts |
Tags: dentists, making people happy, pandora, patients, user radio |
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This blog goes out to the all of the dentists, doctors, and chiropractors out there. Chances are, the “Today’s Light Hits” radio station you are playing while cleaning your client’s teeth is not satiating everyone’s musical taste.
Did you know there’s a way to make your patient’s visit much more pleasant by using technology you likely already have?
Have you heard of Pandora radio? Pandora is an online radio station that caters to YOU. Pandora asks you for your favorite styles of music as well as some of your favorite artists and then creates a playlist of songs in the genres, by these artists, and also new music that has a similar style.
So when your patients come in to your office, why not ask them what style of music they prefer and even what artists they like? Type that into Pandora and Wallah!, you have just created a playlist exclusive to your client.
You already have the sound system. And you already have the computer system. Connect the two and make your patient’s life a little more enjoyable as they sit through their dreaded dental visit.
Tags: dentists, making people happy, pandora, patients, user radio | Posted under Creativity and Ideation, General Thoughts | No Comments
Saturday, January 2, 2009 | Written by Henry Chang
Posted under: Blog, Creativity and Ideation, General Thoughts |
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Are you looking for new ideas for a business? or ways to improve your existing business? I recently found this website called http://www.whynot.net and it allows people to post new ideas and then everyone would rate it good, neutral, or bad. They can also leave comments on why they think that way.
I think its a great way to find a business idea or to ask for people opinion before rolling it out.
Posted under Blog, Creativity and Ideation, General Thoughts | No Comments
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