Would you Trust Him? (Danny Devito in the Roald Dahl movie Matilda, 1996)

However, even in this brave new on-line world, the old adage ‘people buy from people’ remains true. Customers want to like who they are buying from and feel that they can trust them. “People ultimately judge only one thing about you: the way the engagement makes them feel”. – Seth Godin. “People don’t buy for logical reasons. They buy for emotional reasons”. The challenge is trust is not quick and easy to gain and it cannot simply be bought.

Customers are no longer listening to the megaphone PR and marketing approach. They now prefer to research themselves and share advice with each other. PR and marketing now pays an increasingly important role as a salesperson. More than ever before PR and marketing has to develop that all important trust. However, how do you trust in a faceless message and person you don’t know.

Blogs and micro-blogging now brings a new way to understand and get to know someone. But it has to be real!! A website has to pre-sell and become a friend.  The question is: how can you trust a blogger or a company website/blog? From all that I’ve leant to become trusted, a blogger needs to be consistent, open, professional and show integrity. Honest as Seth Godin says. The only way is to be real on-line! The draw back with social media is that it takes lots of time and persistence to build social capital (as discussed by Ryan Carson). But then sales take time too – with 8% of sales people get 80 per cent of the sales because they are persistent!

However, I believe for the individual and company to gain credibility, reference points also need to come from other trusted sources. This still relies on traditional channels including independent editorial reviews, peer reviews, customer endorsements, etc. These references remain powerful in an increasingly online world because they are persistent and can be found and discovered by the new clients rather than pushed at them.

People do still buy from people but the process is changing. Blogs, mico-blogging (Twitter) and video’s bring a personal touch to marketing and PR interaction but conversations have to come from the heart. Recent case studies are now showing that Social Media Is The Major Contributor To Lead Generation. So, if you want and need sales as most of our companies do – get blogging, tweeting, videoing right now!!

Aware Monitoring’s Nick Barker & Simon Oxley accepting the New Enterprise Award
Source: Nottingham Post & Nottingham University Business School

We were greeted with a champagne reception at the wonderful historic council house in Nottingham and then enjoyed a marvelous meal. All the finalists had short video’s shown on their companies before the winners were announced. The winners and finalists were:

• Bunches Florapost scooped Nottinghamshire Company of the Year with runners-up Icon Polymer, Source BioScience and St Tropez Group.
• Nottinghamshire Small Business of the Year went to our friends Chris Scarth and David Francis from Prime Principle.  Finalists were Betterlanguages.com and Phoenix CNC Engineering.
• James Smith founding managing director of T&S Group won Nottinghamshire Young Businessperson of the Year award with runners-up Hall-Fast Industrial Supplies founder Malcolm Hall and Columbus IT managing director Mary Hunter.
• We won New Enterprise of the Year with runners-up A Star Media and Cherry Professional.
• The Business Innovation Award went to Upper Cut Productions with Challenge Consulting and Peelable Posters following through.
• Finally, John Pye & Sons won the Best use of IT and Communications beating Betterlanguages.com and Heart Internet.

Well done to the winners and finalist for all the blood, sweat and tears put into their companies. For me the event shows the outstanding innovative companies we have in the area. It was especially great to see so many web and IT related companies in the finals.  It ‘s also  interesting that companies like  Bunches Florapost are maximizing the Internet with 70% of their revenues coming through the web.

We need to thank all sponsors and British Business Awards Association for making the event happen and the Nottingham Post for pulling together the awards for the last 26 years.

In the end, my evening went onto the wee hours in the morning celebrating!!

If you not heard my startup Aware Monitoring is through to the final of a local Award competition – Nottingham Post New Enterprise of the Year 2010 Award. We’ll know this week if we’ve won.

Simon & I in the papers (click here for full article)
Source: Nottingham Post & Nottingham University Business School

I recently met David Atherton, the founder of Dabs.com, an ecommerce IT retailer. Dabs  went for a whooping 800 awards and won 200 of them! Dave said ‘they were a great low-cost form of PR and marketing.’ Most people I’ve spoken to who’ve won awards say they are worth winning because they bring:

1. Immediate press attention – The awards organisers and sponsors tend to promote the finalists and winners to the press. Its great free PR.
2. Knock-on press attention – Other publications will take attention if your company wins an award. They’ll want to write about you too!
3. Confidence – The feel good factor is extremely valuable for the founders and  employees moral. Everyone is recognised for  their hard efforts.
4. Success – Everyone wants to be a success. To be finalist or a winner shows your company is succesful, even if it’s not aways the case.
5. Credibility – Prospects and customers want to feel they can trust their suppliers. Awards seems to bring confidence in companies.

In a talk by Doug Ashby he felt that the Awards got in the way of selling to prospects and customers. Doug has won several awards before exciting well from his Mainframe hardware maintenance business. Doug felt the awards bloated the winners ego to the extent where they take their eye (focus) of their business.

A friend of mine, Adam Harris, won the IoD (Institute of Directors) Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2008. Adam said ‘that you have to put the time and effort into the application to win.’ Sounds obvious, but Adam said ‘most people leave completing the application until the last-minute and rush it.’ Like an important proposal  take your time and get the  applications right. Of course, you need a great story, a business with some strong successes and good writing skills to be noticed.

I took Dave & Adam’s advice and we’re through to  a local award final. Whether we win and it then goes to our heads (ego) is yet to be seen

UPDATE:

We won! Amazing!! It was a truly fantastic evening. We did well to win our category against stiff competition. For our ’Aware Monitoring wins Award’ company post on the win, click here and for the full Nottingham Post write-up click here.

Innovation has to build-up momentum and be developed over several or many iterations. This evolution of ideas can be within the same team, company or marketplace. It can even be ideas shared between different markets or countries. That’s the great thing about our modern economy, its survival of the fittest ideas. The key to unlock innovation is for the idea to be at the right time and in the right place.

I’m sorry, but time and time again I hear startups saving we are the next Facebook, Twitter, etc. In reality you need to know where are you in the innovation cycle – that ranges from innovation to commoditisation. Geoff Moore ‘Crossing the chasm’ is always a good book to read on this subject. The position in this innovation cycle dictates your actions, growth and timescales.

The challenge with innovation is that it takes eduction, thus the need for time. The educating of potential customers is difficult because people don’t really like change and risk. Companies, especially big ones, definitely don’t like change and risk. Education costs an awful lot of money whether with mass market consumer items or niche corporate b2b products. The marketing message needs repeating over and over and over again. First mover advantage is great but second mover can be better. Just look at Google (2nd to market) and Yahoo (1st to market) and who came of on top.

The trick is to get into a market niche on an upward curve, get running with the pack (competition) and then gradually innovate. As always it is easier to say than do!! Apple is a great example. The success they enjoy today with the iPhone popularity goes way back to 1993 with the failure of the Apple Newton. Apples’ iTunes which is intrinsically linked to the iPod and therefore the iPhone originally benefited from the downfall of Napster. These innovations have been brewing for many years and between many competitors.

The great thing about innovation is that it has unlimited possibilities. It’s brings the combination of creativity and exciting growth potential. Innovation is awesome but it takes time, money, careful listening to the market and mountains of persistence. One hit innovation wonders are rare and not the norm. All of this can be frustrating for startups because no one is in a rush except the startup and the one things startups are most short of is time.

We’ve now got our own phones, our  very own sign at the front door and permanent desks! This move is  happening just as we are looking for our 1st employee. These really are exiting times for our startup. I’ll miss the old office but it will be great to have our own space. I’ve not had my own desk since leaving employment way back in 2006.

We’ve been using The Nottingham University UNIEI incubator hotdesk facility since September 2008. The new desks are still in the same building. Nottingham University have been good to us. They’ve  supported our startup and helped us grow. I first posted about our website monitoring startup idea - ‘Our new software baby is on its way’, back in January 2009 with baby Jack-Jack imagery (The incredibles, Pixar). We’re now growing up  ;) It’s great to be moving onto the next level.

Next stop – break-even and our very own offices!!

Paul Graham said, when referring to great startup locations:

“…that’s where the experts are. Standards are higher; people are more sympathetic to what you’re doing; the kind of people you want to hire want to live there; supporting industries are there; the people you run into in chance meetings are in the same business.”

No matter where your startup is, you  are competing on a global playing field. Your product has to be world-class to survive! This means startups can start anywhere, if you are committed to competing with the best. However startups aren’t easy and they need lots of friendly help and support. This can be derived from a good location, strong local support and a willingness to travel.

Two friends of mine – Adam Bird (CTO, co-founder of Esendex) & Andy McLoughlin (Strategy Director, co-founder of Huddle) recently packed their bags for Silicon Valley. Their two successful companies are proof that tech companies can make it outside the valley. But why are they heading for the USA? The US is a very big market and customers there expect a local presents, preferably a founder and The Valley is the centre of tech in the US. Esendex and Huddle made the most of their local community eco-system and local customers before branching out to the States.

At this years SXSW Ross Kimbarovsky and Mike Samson, the founders of crowdSPRING based in Chicago said “ if you want to succeed as a startup outside the existing ecosystems in Silicon Valley, etc., then you have to invest in your local ecosystem.” Both Adam and Andy have made significant efforts and impact on their local communities. Andy/Ali setup DrinkTank and Adam started Nott Tuesday. They were focused on their local startup eco-system. These guys have also been very supportive to other startups, like ours.

Just because you are located in a startup hub like Silicon Valley or Boston it does not mean your startup will be successful. What really matters is attitude, just look at Skype from Luxembourg,  MySQL from Helsinki and Bebo from London. Startups have to make things happen wherever they are and they need to help create a support network around them – this is what really matters.

We’re now on the market for our 1st full-time developer to help take Aware Monitoring to the next level  It certainly will be an extremely exciting and dynamic place to work. Our employee numero uno will have the chance make a real difference in the company and to the world!!

Slide not included (Google’s Zürich offices)

If you are looking for an extremely exciting, challenging and rewarding role look no further! Ideally we’re looking for developers with some Django and Python experience. Its OK if these skills are in there infancy. What we really need is individuals with a solid work ethic and the desire to learn!

If you have some of the skills we need and want to find out more drop us a line at info@awaremonitoring.com.

]]> http://nickpoint.co.uk/2010/05/13/aware-monitoring-employee-number-1/feed/ 1 Nick Barker Google Office Slide http://nickpoint.co.uk/2010/05/04/getting-by-with-a-little-help-from-friends/ http://nickpoint.co.uk/2010/05/04/getting-by-with-a-little-help-from-friends/#comments Tue, 04 May 2010 10:50:57 +0000 Nick Barker http://nickpoint.co.uk/?p=3837 ]]> I’m in ore at the support we received from our friends during The Internet World exhibition. My startup, Aware Monitoring, had at booth at the show. During the three-day exhibition we were visited by other startups, press, and customers who’ve been following our progress. Thank you so much for all your support and help We really appropriate it!!

Jonathan English from Skeleton Productions

I’d especially  like to thank Jonathan from Skeleton Productions for spending an afternoon helping to man our stand. We had a real buzz with three of us working on the booth. At one point we had eight people around the stand! It’s a real shame Simon my co-founder was not there – he was busy with his wife having a baby. Alex Witkowski, a 3rd year philosophy student supplied by Model Students, did an outstanding job working with me on the booth for the three days. We wouldn’t have had such a great show without Alex’s help!

Alex Witkowski and I on the Aware Monitoring booth

Nick Walker came down from Nottingham for the show and took some great photo’s of us – thanks Nick As always it was great to see Glenn Shoosmith and Gregory Bockenstette from the awesome BookingBug who visited our stand! And finally not forgetting Josh Rathour for dropping by. I also made some great new friends and acquaintances throughout the show.

In Tommy Ahlers‘s talk he compared a startup exit  to finding love and Eden Ventures described engaging with VC’s as romance. Tommy went on to say “don’t build a startup to sell out.” I’ve heard this before – if you just focus on the money you won’t get anywhere. In the subsequent panel discussion Saul Klein of Index Ventures went onto say “Most entrepreneurs are not looking for an exit, they’re looking to create a great product and change the world in some way”.

Jason Trost reminded us how much startups are “rollacoaster of a ride” and “to be ready for the hard knocks”. He also quoted the cold fact “that 7 out of 10 startups fail”. So why are startup founders willing to throw life savings, time and a personal life at an idea. It’s because Entrepreneurs love doing what they want to do! They love the freedom to create

The startup new product pitches of the day were: Cortexica; Cutefund.com; Decibel; DriveK; GameCreds.com; Gigaboxx; Graph.me; iGlue; LinkCloud.org; Musiio; Pownum; SongHi; and Stripped Finance. Well done guys for have the passion to follow your dreams. And congratulations to Cortexica for winning over the judges and Graph.me for the audience vote. Tamlin Magee has a great write up all the pitches.

Most of these startups have spent many months, or years,  and much money building their  products. Love of startups is why the speakers,  the pitchers and several of the audience were willing to drive across Europe for this event when all the planes had stopped. Well done Mike Butcher for making it these events such a focal point for European tech startups!

In Ewan McLeod’s talk on “The disruptive opportunities for startups in mobile, and getting traction fast” he pleaded with mobile phone app startups to stop their love affair with iPhone app development and look at the market measures.   “But love is blind and lovers cannot see, the pretty follies that themselves commit; For if they could, Cupid himself would blush” (William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”). This is where the VC’s kicks in!! They have to see the reality of money or at least the potential of it. “We’re looking for exit values of $300-400million dollars” Katie Turner, Eden Ventures.

However software startups are not about the money at the beginning. They can’t be – There is no money.. only an idea, a massive loss and very few customers, if any! Employees tend to focus on monthly paychecks but startup founders have to draw their strength and measures from elsewhere. Ultimately you have to do what you really love to do. Startup founders really have to enjoy and relish the startup challenge.  “I love sales” said the charismatic and slightly wacky  Morten Lund in his entertaining talk.

Without a rush of customers throwing money at a product startup founders have to deal with the VC devil to grow  their startup and continue to create. They then have to dance to the pipers tune and move towards a liquidity event. The good news is that once a VC is onboard they’re on the entrepreneurs side, just as long as the founders are moving towards that big exit

There’s an increasingly voice in the UK/US for short or even no business plans in a startup. The fundamental idea of a business plan is to help re-risk a venture through pre-examination of a market opportunity. However we all know startups are a full-on risk scenario. There’s no escaping that. And almost as soon as the ink has dry on a plan the market has changed.

There are two distinct For and Against business plan camps. The anti camp say: “The very idea of ‘planning’ is ridiculous”, Jason Cohen; Brian Halligan argues “it’s a fool’s errand” for start-up founders to create a business plan.” And ever the counter culture, 37Signals, are anti business plans – “What’s the point of a business plan if it’s obviously a fantasy that has nothing to do with reality?”. Two guys, David Sloly and Ian Sanders, have even created a website dedicated to the annihilation of business planning.

The pro business plan campaigners say: “A strong business plan is essentially the cornerstone of your business, and yet many entrepreneurs drag their feet when it comes to writing one”, Colleen Debaise, The Wall Street Journal; “The goal is not to get a VC to read your plan.  The goal is to get a VC to invest so you can build a successful company.”; people like Tim Berry has even made an entire business our of business plans: “Think of your start-up business plan as a matter of blocks; pieces.”

Taking a look back through history including philosophers and the military the value of planning is clear: “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable”, Eisenhower; Prior Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance (time honored British Army saying); and  “Let your plans be dark and as impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”, Sun Tzu

So, why all the fuss over putting your thoughts down on a bit of paper.. It’s the time, or more precisely the waste of this precious resource which startup are so short of. Our market economic cycles are becoming increasingly rapid, especially in tech. Therefore a young company has to move  faster than ever before and excessive analysis can drain reaction time. The difficulty is acting purely from the hip or gut without much forethought brings a short-term reaction.

I think the Greek philosopher Publilius Syrus (a slave) got it right 2100 years ago when he said “It is a bad plan that admits of no modification.” They key is modification i.e. change and adaption. Like evolution – stuff changes. This point meets both  For and Against camps. A plan must change. It is not a static thing, in war or in business.

A complete lack of planning is unwise but excessive long/in-depth analyst is folly. Detailed planning only delays getting into the market and in gaining real insight (tactics) into customer needs. JFDI (Just Fricking Do It)! What really matters is having a grounded insight and measure in the core aspects of a plan within a business case. This detail fits nicely on a napkin or back of a cigarette packet