There is a difference between a house and a home.

A house is a structure, nothing more, nothing less.  To build a house requires a technical knowledge, materials and some money. There are well built houses and there are some weak ones too.  A house serves as a place to keep our stuff and protect us from the elements. But a home is different.

You can live in a house that doesn’t feel like home. To be a home, it needs to feel like a place you belong.  A place you feel at peace. Comfortable. A home reflects your personality, so it stands to reason that people like you will also like being in your home.  And even if you don’t own the house, the home is yours.

The same is true for a company, but sadly we don’t have two words to make the comparison.

A company is like a house. It’s a structure. Nothing more, nothing less. It requires technical knowledge, materials and some money to build.  There are well built companies and some weak ones too. A company serves as a place for us to work so we can earn a living, pay our bills and protect our families. But some companies are different. Some companies also feel like a home.  Some companies are more than a place to work, the people who work there feel like they belong.  They feel at peace.  Comfortable. These companies reflect the personalities of the people who work there, so it stands to reason that people who like it there are all alike.  And even if you don’t own the company, it still feels like yours.

The company that is like a house, focuses on the structure. Strategy and tactics are a way to increase sales, and money is the pursuit.  The company that feels like a home, focuses on the culture – the very thing that makes a house into a home. Strategy and tactics are a way to share that culture, that belief, with people outside the company too, and money is the result.

The funny thing is, with all these contractors out there building all these fancy houses with all the latest modern conveniences, it is the homes that are more profitable, more innovative, have the most loyal customers and employees. If there is a storm, people rally to fix the home where others abandon the house. Our houses have value, but we value our homes.

It’s a shame we don’t have a word for companies that are built like homes.  If we did, we’d probably have more of them.

http://sinekpartners.typepad.com/refocus/2010/02/house-vs-home.html

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In today’s world its extremely important that you are a master of communication and presentations have become the de facto business communication tool. if you want to grow your business is 2010, one this you have to get better is in communicating your ideas, solutions and products better.

Below one of the best presentations ever given… Steve Jobs Apple Music Event 2001-The First Ever iPod Introduction presentation… its a must see!!!

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By: Seth Godin

The platform vs. the eyeballs

This might be the most subtle yet important shift that marketers face as they deal with the reality of new media. Marketers aren’t renters, now they own.

For generations, marketers were trained to buy (actually rent) eyeballs.

A media company assembled a large amount of attention. A TV network or a magazine or even a billboard company found a place you can put an ad, and they sold you a shot at reaching their audience.

You, the marketer, don’t care about the long-term value of this audience. It’s like a rental car. You want it to be clean and shiny when you get it, you want to avoid getting in trouble when you return it, but hey, it’s a rental.

And so when we buy ads, we ask, “how big an audience” and then we design an ad with our brand in mind, not with the well-being of the media company or its audience in mind. And if we get a .1% or even a 1% response rate, we celebrate.

A trade show booth is an example of eyeball thinking. The trade show organizer assembles attendees and your job at the booth is to grab as many as you can.

Old media was not the same as old branding. Media companies built audiences and then brands rented those audiences.

Suddenly the new media comes along and the rules are different. You’re not renting an audience, you’re building one. You’re not exhibiting at a trade show, you’re starting your own trade show.

If you still ask, “how much traffic is there,” or “what’s the CPM?” you’re not getting it. Are you buying momentary attention or are you investing in a long term asset?

Now, when you buy something (that thing you used to call ‘media’), you’re not paying for eyeballs, you’re paying for a platform. A platform you can use to build your own audience, one that you can nurture, educate and ultimately convert. You’ll take care of this audience differently, measure them differently and have a different sales cycle. This isn’t natural, but it works.

Two steps: buy a platform and then fill it with people. Some examples:

Authors have traditionally relied on publishers to bring them readers. The author gives up the majority of the income and the publisher brings them the readers. But then you see someone like Frank at Post Secret who builds his own audience for his (sometimes nsfw) content. He owns a platform, it’s not something he rents. Now, using a publisher is a choice, not a necessity. Just about every successful author going forward (except for the lucky exceptions like Dan Brown) will own her own media channel. Not just authors, of course…

Consider the local real estate agent. She can spend to run ads every week in the local paper, or she can use the same money to start a legitimate media channel, a digital magazine, say, one that cheers on the school and gives the local paper a run for its money. And oh yes, the only houses listed for sale are hers. It might take a lot of work and even some money. But what does she get? A platform forever.

Traditionally, a clothing brand has to give up income and control to a retailer, since the retailer has the eyeballs. The web allows a brand like Little Miss Matched to build their own platform, their own audience and thus bypass all those gatekeepers. They invested in a product that told a story instead of investing in giving Walmart a cut. Boring products can’t do this.

Or consider the local chiropractor. He can spend money on a yellow pages ad or he can invest in a platform, creating a local running club and doing coaching for its members.

(Compare these examples with McDonald’s, a company that continues to rent eyeballs for a high price and has no real platform to speak of.)

Or consider the acquisition of Omniture by Adobe. What did Adobe pay for? I’d argue it was direct access to the right people at the leading advertisers and websites around the world. Technology isn’t so hard to copy. Permission to connect is almost impossible to achieve.

Compared to the cost of renting eyeballs, buying a platform is cheap. Filling it with people eager to hear from you… that’s the expensive part. But if you don’t invest in the platform, you’ll be at a disadvantage, now and forever. The smart way to build a brand today is to invest in the elements of the platform… the product, the technology, the websites (plural) and the systems you need to make it easy for people to show up at your very own trade show. And then embrace these people and shoot for 90% conversion, not .5%.

Like most good investments, it’s expensive and worth more than it costs.

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 By: Seth Godin

“Hop in, I’ll drive.”

Just because someone offers you a lift, doesn’t mean you have to take it.

In a joint venture or possible business arrangement, it’s reassuring when the other person offers to drive. “Leave it to me,” they might say, or, “I’m socializing this through the organization… be patient, I’ve done this before and we need to do it this way.”

Often, this is true. It’s the honest appraisal of a generous insider, someone who wants both of you to succeed.

But, just as you should never get in a car with a drunk driver, understand that the minute you let the other person drive, you’ve bought into their process. Spending three months or three years following someone off a cliff is nuts.

I’d rather disappoint you today and refuse your offer of a lift than end up with both of us having wasted hours and hours of time somewhere further down the road. No, you can’t pitch this to your husband, that’s my job. No, I won’t stand by and watch you mangle this before the board. No, we’re not going to interact with customers your way merely because it’s the only way you know.

Thanks, but I’ll drive this time.

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By: Lisa Barone

ICanHasCheezburger.com ^[1] is a site based solely off user-generated content (i.e.,  content they didn’t create) and has achieved 1 Billion pageviews in its two years of existence. The book ^[2] based off the concept was an instant New York Times bestseller and the second in the series is due out soon.

Oh, and if you’ve never seen it, icanhascheezburger.com is a site dedicated to displaying silly cat pictures that users can adorn with even sillier nonsensical captions. Yes, that was someone’s  BIG dollar idea.

Ben Huh, the guy behind the site, spoke at Search Marketing Expo ^[3] yesterday and shared with the audience ^[4] the two reasons why the site is a success.

1. It’s simple.
2. It makes people happy.

It’s genius.

I think a lot of small business owners forget to be simple. They think that in order to compete with the guy down the street that they have to be bigger and more impressive. That to be taken as seriously as the Best Buys or the Staples they need to offer a full line of products and amaze people with their sheer size. Somehow in the business world we’ve decided that size = credibility and authority. But that’s not true.

Your idea doesn’t have to be big. It has to be simple.

During yesterday’s keynote at SMX, Ben noted some other companies that have leveraged this idea of “simplicity”:

• Starbucks is the simple place between your home and your office.
• Google gave us a simple way to find information.
• Facebook make it simple to connect with our friends online.
• The Cheezburger network (which ICanHasCheezburger.com is part of) made it simple for people to be happy for a few moments of the day.

That’s what people are looking for. The Internet gave us the ability to reach millions in one shot. It changed the way a lot of businesses operated. It dared them to come up with the biggest idea they could and then market it to everyone ^[5]. That’s rarely where success is found.

Instead, find the simplest idea you can and then market it only to those people who would be interested in the service. That’s how you find a loyal community, one that will grow and become viral. It’s also how you put yourself in the position to be able to make complicated products down the road. Ben asserted in his keynote that the reason Google can stick its hand into everything and release a slew of different products today is because, for awhile, they only did one thing well. They did search. That bought them the freedom to be where they are now.

You’re not Google and you don’t have to be. Instead of trying to do more than your competitors, figure out how to simplify what their throwing extra steps into. There are a million free services out there – Google Apps, WordPress, Skype, YouTube – that have made it easier to be “simple” without a lot of overhead. Take advantage and make it simple for people to find happiness. That’s what they want. And that’s what they want you to give them.

If you want to be better than your competitors. Don’t figure out how you can one up them and add extra features to their services. Instead, strip them down. Make them easier. That’s what we’re all looking for. A way to make it easier. Whatever that “it” happens to be.

Editor’s correction note:  actually it wasn’t $1 Billion in revenue as originally noted, but 1 Billion pageviews and a multi-million dollar business, and the post has been updated accordingly.   Still – EXTREMELY impressive for such a simple idea.

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By: Dan Laron & Dave Wilens

Since we’re not Jack Daly himself, people often ask us — What do we do as sales coaches… and can we prove to be effective for them? Fair question. Especially when business today needs results like never before.
Principles first. As coaches, we put Jack’s principles and training into practice. It’s ALL about application to your situation and EXECUTION. Every business has a unique mix of market conditions, competition, leadership and staff, products & services, reputation, culture and more. But Jack’s sales principles always hold true to serve as the fuel to grow a company’s results.

PLAN (Clarity): Let’s define your end zone. What’s your objective? Your main goal? Define a clear strategy, game plan and/or sales process to achieve your desired results based on your vision, goals and problems to overcome.

ORDER (Priorities): Let’s define the key drivers of your business-the top priorities and the high-payoff activities that matter most. Get clear agreement on what’s most important and what needs to be done first and next.

ACTION (Focus): Knowing the key drivers of your business… What’s working? What’s not? What must be improved? What needs to be started? What should be stopped? We develop a fiendish focus with your team on the high-payoff activities that really drive results.

MEASURE (Accountability): There’s magic here! Success tracking of your activities and results is critical to growing your motivation and success. As coaches, our most successful clients learn to value tracking their results and want to be held accountable. Winners love to keep score!

A client recently said that the consistent accountability of our weekly coach calls directly contributed to their continuing success of growing at 2-3x their normal growth rate every month-despite the down economy. Repetition. Re-Focus. Measuring. Accountability. They push to get things done to reach their weekly goals… all driven by constructive accountability through regular follow-up. That’s how we keep score to win.

Are you getting the results you want? If you’re looking for real ways to help you survive the leaner times, if you’re looking for bigger sales results or if you want help reaching your next level of success – call Jennifer. Ask her to schedule a free call with us to review your situation to see how we might help you boost performance.

Coaching is designed to “put rubber on the road!” If you want more, call Jennifer at (888) 298-6868.

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For all those inspired entreprenurs out there. Amazingly creative and fascinating facts. Don´t miss it… It´s truly incredible.

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One life…. one dream and one great empire. These amazing perspectives on life should be an inspirational tool for us all. And even more so to always keep in mind when we feel we loose our way.

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By: Basheera Khan

Every now and again, you come across a service that promises to disrupt and change the entrepreneurial landscape for good. Buildabrand (@buildabrand) could do just that. The service provides high quality “strategically correct” branding for your startup for about the same price as domain registration, effectively bypassing what is a traditionally expensive and time-consuming process.

Answer a few questions about your business and buildabrand will provide a selection of brand identities: logos, fonts and so on. You can then apply that branding (after customising it, if you choose) to downloadable graphics, stationery, website templates and even – eventually – merchandise like pens and beach towels. You just pay for the items you order or download. The service requires no creative skills from users.

How does it work? Well, once you’ve entered a bit of information about your company at the “create” stage of the process – your “brand values” – buildabrand’s algorithm will exclude all the brands, including logos, in its extensive (and ever-growing) catalogue that aren’t appropriate or relevant and just show you the ones that are right for your business. You can choose from the selection it gives you, tweak the logo a bit – say, if you want it in a different colour – and you’re good to go.

CEO and design director Justin Champney was formerly head of brand innovation for McCann Worldgroup. Justin brings 15 years’ branding experience to the start-up, but he’s going to need every year: buildabrand must get the algorithm right, because it’s the quality of the recommendations that will determine whether buildabrand stands or falls. If Champney pulls it off, buildabrand has the potential to be one of the most disruptive elements in the start-up ecosystem for years.

buildabrand was formed in 2008 and completed a round of angel investment from a sole investor last November.

Update: a blog post from the company founder here explains a bit more about the service in response to some commenters’ questions.

We have 200 beta invitations for buildabrand for TechCrunch readers, available on a first come, first served basis. If you want one, leave a comment below. You’ll be notified when buildabrand’s open beta launches later this year.

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By: Paul Worthington

In the U.S., the average tenure for a CMO is roughly 23 months. In the U.K., it is even shorter. Al Ries states over at AdAge that of all the firms in the Fortune 1000, only 7% of the most highly paid executives have marketing in their job title, and only 15% of those same firms even have a senior level marketing position, such as CMO.

When we consider that commoditization, not just of brands, but of entire industries has never happened faster or with greater impact, we know that something is wrong. Surely marketing exists to fight such commoditization and help the business find continued competitive advantage amongst the constituency it serves? It should perhaps, but often it doesn’t actually deliver.

There are many reasons for this, including a fundamental lack of respect in many corporations, but one reason lies closer to home: specifically with how marketers have chosen to define themselves.

Ask many marketers what a marketer is and they will tell you a “communications professional.” Someone whose role is to understand the most effective way of communicating the brand, the product or the service and (increasingly) generating effective results from communications in ROI terms.

Unfortunately, the challenge when you define yourself as a communications professional is that you are also defining what you are not: Rather than shaping the offer, you shape the way the offer is communicated. Rather than defining the experience, you get to communicate the experience. Rather than driving the proposition, you get to advertise the proposition.

This somewhat self-defined role–not as a part of the business, but as a part of the communication of the business will be a key issue as we move forward. It’s becoming a basic truth that consumers are choosing to trust each other much more than they trust what brands have to say. They’re also choosing to talk about what brands are doing for them (or not doing for them) rather than what they are saying to them.

In a nutshell, marketing communications is not just becoming more fragmented and “noisy,” but fundamentally less influential–a worrying proposition for any communications professional with ROI targets to meet.

As we move forward, many marketers will need to re-think their own roles.

Fundamentally, they will need to begin thinking of themselves less as communications professionals, and more as differentiation professionals. People whose focus is on creating experiences that demonstrate difference. People who care less about the mechanics of communication, and more on connecting the unique capabilities of the corporation to the perhaps hidden needs of the consumer.

This will require marketers who can truly use both sides of their brain–on the one hand fluent in the language of business, and deeply connected to the decision-making frameworks of that business. On the other hand, fluent in the language of customer, and driving the kinds of innovations that will lead this customer.

Those marketers who can demonstrate this will not be the sometimes disposable, sometimes disconnected executives we see today, but crucial drivers of business performance and innovation–the indispensable glue that connects the consumer to the business.

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