Anyway, I came across a great Blog post by Scot of Birddog about a B2B ‘entrepreneur’ dismissing social marketing online and I had to laugh. Not only at Scot’s engaging writing style (I like it a lot – even the tone and the fruity language), but at the idiocy of an entrepreneur for dismissing certain routes of marketing that have evolved, thanks to the web.

Okay, so social media marketing is new, it’s different. And, a lot of people (especially marketers and business owners) are struggling with the concept that you can’t shout any more. It’s not a new concept though. Seth Godin’s been talking about Permission Marketing for ten years now and I am sure there were people before that. Interruption marketing and advertising just doesn’t deliver what it used to.

I can only guess that the same people who have problems with the evolution now are similar to the people who had problems when TV came along?

Technology – The Game Changer

Technology has changed so much about interaction and business in general. Ask my mum, and she’ll tell you how bad that is: That ‘we don’t interact with each other like we used to’. I tell her how I had a conversation with someone in Canada today via video conferencing and how I have actually done business on the ‘waste of time’ that Twitter and Facebook is.

Every business needs to adapt to technology especially as people have more control than ever to do things themselves. Ask my Accountant.

Marketing What?

In defence of the Entrepreneur in the post, I can only guess that he must have been in the meeting because he is successful with, or without, marketing. Some people get along just fine without actively creating marketing campaigns and brands, so who am I to question?

Twist that on it’s head and this is where social marketing becomes a bit of a ball-ache for me in terms of activity – There must a business model behind the marketing.

Many CEOs and Entrepreneurs (and I used the term lightly) on Twitter are typing in their bedrooms creating small revenues if they are lucky – it’s kind of obvious. The more someone shouts about their entrepreneurial prowess, the more I tend to doubt them. They are marketing when they have nothing of value to sell. What’s more, it’s in a very crowded and noisy space – ‘Social’ media marketing is becoming like interruption marketing – an advertising medium. With one exception – the punter can switch you off in a click.

We all need to start somewhere, I know that myself, But, to leverage social marketing to actually grow revenue (and I’m not talking about some get rich quick scheme that has worked for one person and doesn’t for everyone else that ‘buys’ into it) – that is the trick. To market and to sell your business proposition without pissing people off – it’s a fine balance.

[As I am writing this, my email has pinged to tell me Adstand is now following me on Twitter - thanks for backing up my argument and no I won't be following you back.]

Business analysts have warned that a worrying number of small firms — typically service companies in the business to business sector — are relying on income from one or two main clients.

It is a sad fact that this traps many small businesses and being in the position of running a B2B service company, it’s very tempting to service the 80/20 rule to the extreme.

And, as the article suggests, I too have seen companies go bust pretty quickly after they lose one of the big eggs in their basket. But, what about taking it one step further?

What about creating different business models around (or within) your core services that could supplement your revenue? Not so many as to lose focus on your main income stream, but enough to balance your income.

Balanced Revenue Streams

I’m playing with an idea based around my love of the web, marketing and creative to develop some online properties that will give our business two distinct benefits:

1. Additional potential income from a different area of the money map than our traditional day-to-day work fo B2B, ie. niche consumer markets on a global scale.
2. Probably more important, additional group learning as an organisation. The more we know about e-commerce and Twitter APIs, etc. the more we can develop strategic ideas for our B2B corporate clients.

I can honestly say that some of the most compelling online marketing case studies I have in the past few years are from projects where I have had Carte Blanche, mainly my own personal projects. I’ve had failures (in as much as they haven’t created sustainable revenue) and I have learned from these with ideas that have been mapped onto client work. This has enabled me to have substance to any advice I give.

On a general note, just because a business gets into a ‘routine’ of work, doesn’t mean it should stop being entrepreneurial. One of the most entrepreneurial (intrepreneurial) companies that keeps getting my attention at the moment is IBM. Say no more.

When we first started The Escape 11 years ago, CVs and letters from designers looking for jobs were clever and eye-catching. In fact, me and my business partner still refer to a CV from 1999, which still sticks in my mind! Not so much anymore though. A quick PDF with very little thought doesn’t really float my creative boat.

And, the amount of times I have relations, friends or clients trying to sell their siblings or friend’s siblings to me for employment is not even worth counting anymore. But a recent event has inspired me to pass on some advice.

The thing is, colleges don’t tend to prepare students for the commercial world of design. Students come in expecting to have a week or two to do a creative job (like they had when doing their homework) compared to the half day or day you may get when someone is paying you by the hour.

And, when it comes to attitude, I find it hard to understand how some of these people expect to just walk into a job in design. I’m not sure why many young people have expectations that are slightly different from the reality:

• Knowing how a design agency works, including pay scales and levels. It seems many people don’t want to start at the bottom.
• How ‘good’ they think they are, especially students who have been bigged up at college.
• How relevant their portfolio and skill-set is to a commercial design agency. This also includes knowing how a computer (usually a Mac) works at a basic level.

I guess a lot depends on how much a person wants a job. Which leads me to a guy called John.

John studied design and then struggled to get a job at an agency and eventually ended up working in a retail outlet to pay the bills. Sound familiar?

He then approached a design agency and asked if he could work one day a week for free to get some agency experience. Turns out he was really rather good, as well as being polite and presentable, and in terms of attitude – his actions were speaking louder than any CV.

John starts his full-time job as a Junior Designer at The Escape in April.

One thing I am ‘always’ good at is seeing ‘big picture’ and having a bloody good guess at where something may be going. For instance, about five years ago, I suggested that our design business had to develop because the web would expedite a drop in the requirement for printed products. It has. Also, in October 2007, we started planning for a recession that came in 2008.

Both of these suggestions now seem ridiculously obvious and maybe they were so at the time and as I am half way through an excellent book called The Black Swan – about predictability (or impossibility at predicting) – I would suggest that both ideas were lucky guesses to some extent.

Other examples of long-term thinking have been free ‘gift’ projects I’ve done at The Escape with a view to elevating our profile, which in turn has turned into paying work. This process creates a pipeline of business that’s worthwhile, but it takes a hell of a long time to turn to cash and only about 20% of these projects evolve into business. That said, when it comes down to return on investment – the plan works.

So, I can fool myself into thinking I am good at long term planning.

But, one thing that is becoming more and more apparent is my lack of being more ‘pushy’ (for want of a better word) – of closing the sale, or of making the hard business decision sooner rather than later.

I’m not talking about becoming agressive. I’m talking about taking action sooner and doing short term planning.

Luckily, my business partner complements my current skillset in this paradigm, but, coming back to honesty with myself – it’s an area that needs a bit of focus. The great thing about working with someone who is very good at ‘short-term’, I’ve got someone to copy.

One of the books that influenced the way I see income is Rich Dad, Poor Dad and although I don’t buy into the band wagon sales machine that the Rich Dad, Poor Dad empire has become, it was a seminal book for me in understanding how to spread risk, create income streams from assets and leverage during the good times.

I would suggest that I haven’t quite mastered the whole ideology yet, because I still work in a job and I don’t have a large enough portfolio of assets to support my income. But, that day will come soon although I may keep the day job all the same.

Many people are already doing this on a micro scale. In fact, many people I follow on Twitter make extra income from alternative methods on top of their day job. Think Ebayers, Bloggers and affiliates.

If, like Rich Dad Poor Dad suggests, you can leverage up to the point of owning assets that deliver passive income, this is even better – you won’t even need a job. I am sure there are thousands of property developers ready and waiting (if they can borrow the money) ready to dive back in the property market when the time is right, the same money they took out of the market a couple of years ago if they were smart enough.

The flipside is of course the westernised way of wanting better and more when we do get our hands on money.  We tend to spend too much, more than we need. Another book that got me thinking at the time (and I hope I get this reference right from memory) is The Richest Man In Babylon, which talks about saving 10% of your income no matter what for investment.

I once, and it was more by accident than design, managed to earn the equivalent of a years salary on an investment of £0 on an investment of two years, although this was at at time when banks were lending money. It opened my eyes wide. They are still opened wide, looking for a the next deal that will deliver the same.

But, over the past couple of years, my mind has changed completely to the point where I actually think that we all need to be entrepreneurs.

Take the dictionary definition of the word entrepreneur:

a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.

Risk: The largest stumbling block I tend to hear from people about entrepreneurship is their comfort when it comes to taking risk themselves. But, when you think about businesses , careers and jobs these days, even long and established brands (Woolworths, etc.), surely it’s a risk working for anyone?

I am 38 years old and I am a director of a digital agency. But, when I was at school in the eighties, because I was good at maths,  I was pushed down the the route of being an accountant – a nice ‘safe’ career. The job I do now didn’t even exist then and I’d argue whether it will even exist in 20 years to come.

We all need to start looking after ourselves when it comes to earning money. Entrepreneurship will continue to grow to the point where many more individuals become micro-business owners themselves. E-bay has generated thousands, as have affiliate networks online… millions of small businesses with one employee.

There is only one person in control of your destiny and it’s not me, I’m too busy sorting myself out.