Banks aren’t winning any kind of business popularity contests. Between their high rates and fees, to the terrible service, to a general perceived lack of trustworthiness, banking has become the industry that we all love to hate, and for good reason; when a company charged with stewarding your money starts demanding fees and issuing service […]
If anyone knows how to launch a superstar blog on the cheap, it’s Brian Clark. He never took venture capital, or raised any kind of funds. In fact, the entire Copyblogger empire was started as a one-man-show with about a thousand bucks of design and hosting fees. He grew the audience, he listened to what
People don’t like change. This is true in general, and it’s even truer when it’s about something we use every day. That’s why email isn’t the easiest space to break into. We haven’t been using it for all that long (although it’s hard to remember “the time before” isn’t it?), and a lot of people
There are trends in almost everything. Clothes, values, television, the terrible music kids listen to these days… and in baked goods, too! Yes, that’s right, even desserts as iconic as the wedding cake get a little nervous when a new, sweet young thing comes to town and gets all the attention. But that sweet little
After their first year of operation, Freshbooks had a grand total of 6 customers. Less than a decade later, they’re servicing over 4.5 million happy customers. Want to know how they did it? So did I. That’s why I reached out to Saul Colt, their “Head of Magic” (that’s his real title!). Over the course of 25
Old Spice had a problem. Their customers weren’t leaving them for a competitor, cutting back on luxuries, or trying home-made alternatives to aftershave. They were, quite literally, dying off. Yep, that’s right. Old Spice had such extreme customer loyalty and branding power that their customers used their aftershaves – and other products – right into
Sometimes an idea is too new, and the world just isn’t ready for it yet. But other times, the right idea at the right time can cause an industry to explode. Well, it doesn’t explode overnight, exactly, but every new company trying out a new idea has the potential to be absolutely astounding. Pinterest. Twitter.
What’s the secret of the success of Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook? Platforms. They took a single business model and evolved it in dozens of different directions. Rather than fighting for market *share*, they all did a fantastic job of *exploding* their market *size*. Talk about business model innovation! And you don’t have to be
For 13 years something has hung on top of my desk, right where I can see it. It’s a certificate recognizing my contributions as part of the Microsoft Regional Director Program, an honorary position was conferred to me based on my contributions to the geek community. Do you have something like this? Maybe it’s a
Facebook grew from around 1 million users to over 845 million in 7 years. Amazon.com grew in five years to 10 times the annual sales of Walmart, Target, and Buy.com combined (not to mention that Walmart and Target – together, have had about 150 years of growth to get there). When it comes to growth
