Should you innovate?

It seems like everyone should be running around innovating. It’s a good thing, right?

However, there’s really not much incentive. Let’s say you take a lot of money and you spend it on R&D. You do a bunch of market research, talk to some existing customers, and start developing some prototypes. Then, after a few years, the idea fails.

The ROI on your investment? Zero. Zip. Zilch.

Or, let’s consider another path. You take a lot of money and you spend it on R&D. You do a bunch of market research, talk to some existing customers, and start developing some prototypes. Then, after a few years, you become a huge success.

Then what? People start copying your idea.

The ROI on your investment? Small at first and then smaller. Why does it get smaller? Because people start copying your idea and cutting into your market share and profits.

Heads I win, tails you lose.

One solution to the situation is not to innovate. I’m going to ignore that because it’s the wrong answer.

Another solution is enforcement of intellectual property. By either using copyright, patents, or trademarks, you can protect a part or all of your invention for a period of time. Then, ideally, you could recoup some money for the length of the legal document. This only works for large companies with deep pockets. Small companies don’t have the money to enforce the patent issue.

Eli Whitney, the inventor and patent holder of the cotton gin, was eventually forced out of business due to filing lawsuits against knock-offs and competitors. This is a perfect example of how a revolutionary invention forced the inventor out of business. Doesn’t seem right, does it?

Why innovate then? Because it should be your goal to change the world. Don’t settle for mediocre. It’s rewarding to participate in something bigger than yourself. When you reach retirement age, you want to look back and say that you’ve contributed to changing the world.

Of course, there are economic and strategic reasons to innovate. I’ll talk about those next.

But I can tell you this, it’s not as exciting as changing the world.

Inc. article on business luck

Great read.

Lucky or Smart

The downfall of shortcuts – social proof

Continuing off yesterday’s post on heuristics.

There are ways heuristics help us. As we mentioned yesterday, using mental shortcuts eliminates the mental overhead in processing every single minute detail and decision in our life. There are times, however, where these shortcuts lead us astray.

Take the example given yesterday. As we leave the building, we follow everyone else out the exit door. This is an example of a mental heuristic called ’social proof.’ This behavior is perfectly reasonable and thousands of people use this shortcut each day. But sometimes it leads us down a terrible path.

Social proof is discussed extensively in the book:
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials)

Riots and violent outbreaks often contain elements of social proof. In the beginning, there is mostly yelling. More people show up and the level of interaction increases. People start getting angry, waving their arms, and shaking their fists. Soon, everyone is yelling, complaining, and acting with threatening behavior. A frenzy starts in the crowd. As soon as the first person makes a single violent move, the stage is set and the remaining group acts in a similar manner. Normal, sane, calm individuals start destroying things. All because of social proof.

Financial bubbles are another example of social proof gone wild. Buying a stock causes the prices to rise, which cause more buying, which causes the prices to rise, etc.

From an evolutionary standpoint, this behavior has it’s roots in survival. In both nomadic and stationary tribes, it made sense to makes decisions based on the group’s needs. Survival then was completely different than today. Things were dangerous then. You had a greater chance of staying alive if you followed the group then if you decided to make your own decisions. So we learned to follow the crowd.

Does social proof serve us now? Yes, of course it does. It help us through the day. Only in rare circumstances do these things get out of control.

We’ll discuss another particularly nasty heuristic about pricing next.

Video on Web Stats for Musicians

All parts of the web stats session have been posted.

Web Stats for Musicians Part 1 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUZdzr-aQ5A

Web Stats for Musicians Part 2 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZOtlBQZMgs

Web Stats for Musicians Part 3 -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9P2r-KU5vY

More to come.

Press releases for Musicians

I’m finishing up the video on Press Releases for Musicians. In the meantime, I wanted to provide you with a few resources for you to review.

PRWeb.com

This is a paid press release distribution site. It provides a more comprehensive distribution than the free sites, but it does cost money. ($80 for the starting membership level.) There is, however, another reason to visit the site. They have a tutorial on writing a press release and they list releases that have already been released, which you can use as examples for writing your own.

Tutorial for writing a press release – from PRWeb.com

Press Release Examples from the the ‘Music’ category – from PRWeb.com

Enjoy. The video will be up soon.

Some of the up and coming projects in Mobile

In continuation of the posts about the special offer for Mobile and my motivation behind the offer, I’ve more to say about Mobile.

There is a significant potential for commerce in Mobile. Any local company would be wise to try and quickly grow there business here and I believe that many international companies should do the same.

Why Mobile? Why now? If you read the papers or watch the news, you’ve heard about all of the big new things that are going on in Mobile and the Gulf Coast:

•       EADS is evaluating a facility in Mobile for the KC-30 (Even though this project hasn’t happened yet, I’m still optimistic.)

•       ThyssenKrupp is building a facility in N. Mobile County ($3.7 billion, 3,700-workers)

•       Hard Rock (and other casinos) is open (or re-opening) in Biloxi

•       Nascar’s Dale Earnhardt is helping design a motorspeedway ($624 million )

•       Expansion at Austel at the Port of Mobile ($7 million expansion)

•       Berg Spiral Pipe Corporation is coming to Mobile ( $75 million  in capital investment)

•       The RSA Tower in Downtown Mobile ($132 million investment)

The list above has mostly Mobile openings, but a longer list can be created for the entire Gulf Coast. These companies are major news stories that I’m sure you are aware of.

The real opportunity for local business is related to a series of events that occur after these companies have made their announcements. That’s when the real money will start pouring into the city.

Motivation behind M Kyle Craig special offer for Mobile

This is foundational information for the upcoming M Kyle Craig special offer for Mobile post.

I’m finalizing the details for the offer and will be available soon. Before that, here’s some background.

The Internet and Web has completely changed the face of business. The introduction of email, websites, and now Web2.0  properties have been great additions to any business and provide large benefits to companies that use the tools. Today, it is much easier to reach customers directly and it is much easier to get your name out in the business world.

There is one huge aspect of the Web that is often overlooked. It’s not Twitter and it’s not Facebook, although those two services have been in the news lately. The one thing that is grossly overlooked is Search and your companies rankings. Search, for the purpose of this article, is the collective group of search engines like Google, Yahoo, Ask, and MSN. Most people don’t understand that your ranking in the search engines plays an important factor in the visibility of your company online.

I recently had a building contractor tell me that ‘People don’t search for my business through Google.’ I was able to quickly show him that, on average, there are 5,400 people who search for his service a month. And, that was a low, low estimate. I wonder if he realized that if he could have captured any of those people, he would have had a steady line of work.

In a recent survey  done by Pew Research, 49% of the people who get on the web use a search engine. At first, that number seemed low to me. However, they also found that 59% of people use email. And, I thought that everyone used email. So, with that in mind, you can easily see that Search is the second most-used service on the web, only after email.

Your customers are using search engines. Actually, they aren’t your customers until they buy from you. If you aren’t showing up in the search engines, they should be called either ‘lost money’  or ‘found money,’ depending on how soon you get in the rankings.

M Kyle Craig special offer for Mobile

M Kyle Craig special offer for Mobile

I’ve had an idea this week that I’ll be working on over the weekend. The deal is a one-time boost for local businesses who aren’t seeing the full benefits of the web.

As you know, I’m been involved in marketing and technology for some time. Over 10 years. Lately, Internet Marketing has taken up my focus. I’ve been helping companies drive more customers to their website and converting visitors from the website to a true buying customers.

Most businesses are moving to the Internet and the Web to help find new customers. They are using email marketing, website updates, and blogging to find new customers. The one question I hear most often: How can I use the web to increase my business?

To help explain this, I’ve put something together for local businesses in the area. It’s called the ‘Online Business Blueprint’. It’s a customzied online plan for increasing business from your website.

Here are the details:

I’ll do a complete analysis of your website and current online promotional activities and give you a full report on improving your online presence with at least 10 major ways to increase visitors to your site.

The package includes:

- You receive a full analysis of your website including (a) any technical issues of broken code, (b) rankings from Google, (c) search engine issues with your site

- You get information on what your competitors (up to 3) are doing online and which of their ideas you could use to get more customers

- You’ll get a customized ‘Mindmap’ that outlines the full list of Online Business sources that will improve your online activities

- You’ll get a list of the top-performing keywords and phrases that people are using to search for your product

- If you have an existing site, you’ll receive a full analysis of your web traffic and statistics and I’ll translate them into English

- You receive a report explaining this new Social Media trend and how you can start using it.

- I’ll sit down with you and explain all of the changes and what they mean for your business.

The pricing for your online blueprint is $745. With the information you have in this report, you’ll be able to dramatically increase the number of visitors to your site.

Email me for full details and information.  kyle at mkylecraig.com .

The crossover of business and technology

Testimonials

The best way to gauge your work is to review what people have said about you. Here is a list of Testimonials about my previous projects.

Link: M Kyle Craig testimonials

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