For me entrepreneurship is about starting something brand new and building it. For others it could be buying an existing business or becoming a franchisee. Today we’re going to talk about the latter. Odds are that you patronize quite a few franchises. Franchising is a cool model because it gives local businesspeople the opportunity to tap into an already successful network and brand. The only issue is that strong communication between the franchise and its franchisees is essential to the health of the brand. FranConnect is a Reston, VA based company that offers Franchise Management Systems. These are software solutions that “allow franchise organizations to manage all aspects of their operations including Sales, Marketing, Financial Data Collection and Analysis, Royalty Invoicing and Automated Funds Transfer” and much much more.
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I’m pretty obsessed with my dog. I never thought I’d be like this, but I’m really careful about who I let take care of him. It’s so easy for an inexperienced dog handler to mess up his training or get into a dangerous situation. We haven’t needed a dog walker because I work from home, but if we did use one, I’d want one who will be responsible and keep up our training (walks are a key time for training). Worthee is a Chicago, IL based company that can help me find this kind of person. They aim to deliver “reliable, trustworthy, best-in-class service day in and day out, 24x7x365” for clients and their dogs. A year ago I would have thought that it was overkill to have a professionally trained dog walker, but now I’m not so sure.
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I am an outdoorsman. I fish, I hunt, and try to spend as much time in the wilderness as I can. Ok, that’s not completely true. I tend to stay in hotels/motels on my fishing trips, but I know a lot of people prefer to camp on those kinds of trips. It always seemed to me like a lot of work and equipment for a little more time outdoors; however, for many camping is the main event. In my mind that means sleeping in a tent, but I guess it can also mean sleeping in an RV. The people who prefer the latter definition are likely customers of Camping World. The Bowling Green, KY based company is “the camping and recreational vehicle enthusiast’s one-stop-shop for everything they need to enjoy living in and traveling in their RV.” Camping may be in the name, but it seems to be all about the RV lifestyle.
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There are generally two ways to market to people. You can build your own audience, or you can rent somebody else’s audience. That’s why a lot of companies are built around building audiences to rent to other businesses. FierceMarkets is a perfect example. They are a Washington, DC based company that specializes in business-to-business media, publications, and marketing. The end goal is to “connect companies with the right audience and ensure each campaign generates the highest possible return on investment.”
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I don’t go to the theater very often, but when I do I usually enjoy it. There’s something pretty cool about seeing someone become a completely different character right before your eyes. As we spend more and more time looking at screens of all sizes, it’s important to remember our “theatrical traditions.” That’s what American Conservatory Theater is all about. They are a San Francisco, CA based non-profit that “embraces its responsibility to conserve, renew, and reinvent the rich theatrical traditions that are our collective legacy, while exploring new artistic forms and new communities.”
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A few years ago I got a lot of free stuff from Bonobos and Gilt Groupe by referring people. It was certainly out of self interest, but it’s hard not to refer a product or service that you love when they’re giving both referrers and referees free stuff. Referral marketing is tremendously effective, but it can be hard to implement a system that works. Extole is a San Francisco, CA based company that specializes in helping “brands acquire new customers at scale by rewarding existing customers.” Why build out your own software to reward customer referrals when you can use Extole’s platform instead?
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When I was a little kid, I’d visit construction sites with my dad, the architect. I absolutely loved it, but at some point I lost interest in the construction industry. For me building things online seemed more interesting than building homes and offices. If you disagree, you might want to check out Hanley Wood. They are based in Washington, DC, and they are “the premier media, event, information and strategic marketing services company serving the residential and commercial design and construction industries.” For nearly 40 years they have been the go to source for “builders, remodelers, residential and commercial architects, multifamily and public-works executives, and materials dealers and distributors.”
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We all have at least one friend who has a brilliant idea for an app or website, but no way of building it. They think that if they can just find some geek to develop it for “equity,” they’ll be instant millionaires. Building a digital business isn’t even close to that easy, and marketing/business talent is just as important as tech talent. Most people who want to start a company on the web need to either figure out how to do it themselves or pay a lot of money (not equity) to get someone to build it for them. Even then, most agencies are designed to help clients later in the game. That’s not true with Digital Intent. They’re a Chicago, IL based business that helps “clients identify products customers will pay for, design compelling user experiences to make customers happy, and rapidly build high performance products that scale.”
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Last night was a disappointment for everybody except diehard Seahawks fans. I went to a friend’s house where the food and company were excellent, but we couldn’t get excited about the game, and the commercials were totally underwhelming. It seems that most of the big brands avoided funny and outrageous and went for emotional. Those types of ads don’t usually resonate with me, but the Budweiser ad with the puppy and Clydesdales really got me–and pretty much everyone else who saw it. The agency behind the ad is Anomaly. They’re based in New York, NY, and they blur “the borders between providing traditional marketing services and working as a business development partner.”
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A few decades ago chicken wings were essentially a throw away. This year Americans will eat 1.25 billion chicken wings… for the Super Bowl. The prices are actually down significantly from last year, but the longterm trend is up and to the right. Chicken wing popularity really seemed to take off when the Buffalo Bills went to four straight Super Bowls and shined a spotlight on the city’s culinary speciality. It continued with the growth of a national restaurant chain centered around the wing. Buffalo Wild Wings was actually founded in 1982 (by a guy who moved away from Buffalo, NY and couldn’t find buffalo wings), but it took a while for the Minneapolis, MN based company to go public and grow to 925 locations. In fact, the company’s growth seems to mirror the growth in popularity of the buffalo wing.
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A few weeks ago in my post about the Doorways to Dreams Fund, I said that state run lotteries are probably one of the worst things that our governments have done to us (and I actually won $2,000 on a scratch off ticket once). Whether I’m right or wrong, people like to play–it brings excitement to their lives. If you’re going to play, you might as well do it right. Shoutz can help you do that. They’re an Austin, TX and Kansas City, KS based “technology company dedicated to making lotteries more convenient, engaging and rewarding.” They can’t put the odds in your favor, but I guess they can help you get more out of every ticket that you buy.
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Last week we talked about brand experiences. They can happen at any scale, but typically bigger brands want to create bigger experiences. The battle for mindshare is only getting fiercer, and that means companies are going all out to get people to pay attention to them. TV, radio, and online are great channels, but it’s hard to beat in person. That’s exactly what Sparks specializes in. They are a Philadelphia, PA based agency that “creates dyanmic brand experiences anywhere in the world a customer engages with your brand.” They’re operating at the highest level and working with the biggest brands–names like Google, LG, the New York Times, Motorola, Dropbox, and HP.
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I’ve always thought that it was weird that big companies use one agency for advertising on tv, another for PR, another for interactive, and probably three more for other types of marketing. We’re seeing more and more “integrated” agencies, but what that means depends on the agency. Tierney is a Philadelphia, PA based agency that does advertising, PR, media, interactive, crisis management, and branding. Their tagline is “Divisions, yes. Divided, no.” They’ve been doing it this way for a long time, so it’s not like they slapped a bunch of independent pieces together and called it integrated.
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About two months ago an organization that I’m a member of organized a letter writing campaign to prevent permits from being issued to allow fracking in an environmentally sensitive and recreationally (and economically) important area. The group is fly fishing focused, so it’s not the most tech savvy bunch. But we were able to spread the word quickly enough to get what we were asking for. Social media makes action like this much easier, but it can be hard to organize. Amicus is a New York, NY based company that turns a “nonprofit’s supporters into fundraisers and advocates.” They claim they can triple the effectiveness of outreach and fundraising efforts.
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Think about one of your favorite brands. Your fond memories are most likely based on experiences. Maybe it’s a time when you used the company’s product or the feeling when you walk into one of their stores. Advertising can make you think about those experiences, but it can’t recreate them. Experiential marketing is a field that is all about getting you to experience the brand instead of getting you to think about the brand. That’s what Escalate is all about. They’re a New York, NY based experiential and word of mouth marketing agency that escalates “customer relationships to the point of brand advocacy, with measurable results.”
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Have you ever sat around and waited for a phone call? It sucks. Believe it or not, there are a lot of businesses in which you sit around and wait for customers to call you. A plumber is a great example, but there are much more sophisticated businesses that have the same problem. They can invest in marketing that drives more calls, but why do that when you can invest online and track every step of the conversion/sales process? Because people who pick up the phone are often much better leads than people who inquire online. That’s why Invoca is bringing online analytics to phone calls. They are based in Santa Barbara, CA, and their “inbound call marketing tools empower you to generate better leads, higher conversions, smarter spends and greater revenue.”
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The health and wellness industry is massive, and it just seems to keep growing. There are a lot of really smart business people who are playing a big part in the growth, but there are also a ton of people in the industry who would rather not concern themselves with businessy stuff. The kind of people who open yoga studios, salons, and spas usually aren’t in it for the money–they just want to make a living pursuing their passions. Unfortunately, running a business usually requires… running a business. MINDBODY is a San Luis Obispo, CA based company that believes that “small business owners deserve the time to do what they love.” Pursuing that belief has made them “the largest cloud-based software provider in the health, wellness and beauty industries.”
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Remember when the only way to interact with a brand was to call the 1-800 number on the side of their packaging? If you complained they might send you some free product or a coupon, but it would probably take 8-72 weeks to arrive. Technology is bringing brands and their audiences closer and closer together. This is generally a good thing, but only if the brands do it right. Mass Relevance aims “to inspire brands to involve their audience.” The Austin, TX based company does this by offering a platform and products that “help your brand become an integrated part of your customers’ lives, anywhere they are.”
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I pretty much shut down if I have to deal with paper documents. Luckily, in my line of business, almost everything happens online. While at one time I thought it might be a good idea for me to pursue law as a career option, I’m really glad I didn’t. Dealing with all of those documents–even if they were digitized–would drive me nuts. The good news for lawyers that kCura makes things a little more manageable. They’re a Chicago, IL based company that “develops web-based e-discovery applications for managing large volumes of electronic evidence during litigation or investigations.” The software is called Relativity, and it’s a web-based app that makes managing evidence way easier.
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I ran into a few issues in pre-school. The first was when a kid bit me, and then I started biting other kids. They almost kicked me out. Then I got into an argument with a teacher because I insisted that a square was rectangle, my parents got called in… and they had to correct the teacher on her geometry. I don’t remember learning much in those years, but I’m sure it was an important time for my educational development. Parents seem to take early childhood education much more seriously these days. That probably explains the growth of The Learning Experience. They are a Boca Raton, FL based company that aims “to provide the tools and the environment that will give every child the opportunity to develop to their greatest potential.” They don’t use the term “day care” much on the corporate site, but I that’s what their local centers (locations in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Illinois, Ohio, Colorado, and Virginia) seem to call it.
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There’s no doubt that health and fitness are the most popular categories for New Year’s resolutions, but many people also want to improve themselves in the areas of education, finance, and careers. It seems easy at first–if you make better decisions, you’ll be better–but good decision making can be really hard. Tree.com is a company that aims to be the place “where good decisions start.” The Charlotte, NC based company operates a portfolio of brands and businesses that can help you whether you’re “buying or selling a home, financing a new car, sending a child to college or shopping around for a new credit card.”
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I’ve been on vacation in Aruba for the past 10 days or so, and I’ve gone fishing every day. The fishing has been decent, but I’ve also see all kinds of wildlife from pelicans and sea turtles to eels and frigate birds. It’s amazing how much life a marine environment can support and what you can learn just from experiencing the ecosystem. This need not be formal education, but it can be. The Chincoteague Bay Field Station is a Wallops Island, VA based non-profit that makes a marine environment academic by providing “outstanding multi-disciplinary, educational and research opportunities that celebrate the rich natural, cultural, economic, and technological resources of the mid-Atlantic Coastal region through field-based and hands-on learning, often in affiliation with multiple public and private partners.”
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There are a lot of advertising and marketing agencies out there. Some are huge and part of even huger conglomerates, and others are small and independent. They all have different strengths, weaknesses, and specialities, but in the end they all share a common goal: to drive attention towards brands with the hope of getting them to take a specific action (usually buying something). Hiebing is on the smaller side. They are a Madison, WI based integrated marketing and advertising agency “with a keen focus on the target market and the cartwheeling curiosity of a bright-eyed first grader.” Hiebing has been around for 30 years, is employee owned (~50 employees), and does about $50 million in billings annually.
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Job seekers see way more terrible stock photos than the average person. Whether you’re on a corporate careers site or a career advice blog, you’ve probably seen way too many images of perfectly “diverse” groups of people in ugly suits shaking hands and looking all business-like. I have no idea why people think it’s a good idea to use these photographs, but they do. Real brands need real photographs for their marketing materials, and that requires hiring professionals like Industrial Color. They are a Los Angeles, CA, New York, NY, and Miami, FL based company that offers “digital still and video capture, post-production, color and video editing services, high-speed file transfer, online image management, archive and file storage.” It’s everything that big-time clients need to get the perfect image or video for delivering a specific message.
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My New Year’s Eve has been the same for the past 9 years. I’ve never celebrated in a big city, but from what I hear, it’s awesome… until you realize it’s 2 AM, 12 degrees, and you’re a long way from your nice warm bed. You made the smart decision to leave your car at home, but now what? Everybody in the city is trying to get home at the same time, and every cab that drives seems to be full. You’ll probably die of hypothermia before you can hail a cab, so you might as well use an app to find a ride. Uber can get you a black car or a cab, but their “surge pricing” will make it hurt. If there’s a time to try Lyft, it’s tonight (though Lyft has its own surge pricing called “Prime Time Tips”). They are a San Francisco, CA based company that offers “on-demand ridesharing” in nearly 20 cities across the country. They call it “your friend with a car.”
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Weather matters. We make all kinds of decisions based on what’s happening outside, and they often affect how we spend money. I’m in Aruba right now, so it’s pretty much guaranteed to be mid 80s, partly cloudy, and windy. My New Year’s plans are set, but if I was back in Chicago, the 15-degree high might keep me from doing something that I’d do if it was 20 degrees warmer. Skymosity realizes this, which is why the San Rafael, CA based company has developed a weather marketing platform that “transforms big weather data into actionable wins for marketers.” While many marketers use seasonal weather changes as part of their campaigns, very few are reacting to the weather as it happens.
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There’s no question that social media is important for businesses of all kinds, but it’s a relatively new channel that offers an uncertain return on investment. Most of my investment in social media marketing has been a flop, but I know that plenty of other brands have had major success. Companies that are investing in social need to do so wisely, and that often means getting professional help. Optimal “is the leading social advertising and analytics platform, with offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York, Chicago, and London.” They started in 2008 when social really began to take off, and since then “have managed and optimized over 100 billion impressions for advertisers and agencies.”
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I got my wife an Airport Express for Christmas. I’m not the typical male idiot portrayed on many American sitcoms–it was a good gift idea. The whole point was that I could hook up our wireless network to the fifteen-year-old wired speaker system that came with our apartment. The speakers were working when I started (I had the radio playing in all of the rooms), but after three hours of frustration, I ended up with the music from my iPhone playing in one room, and no music whatsoever in any of the other rooms. I’m going to have to find a way to fix this, and I think Sonos might be the answer. They are a Santa Barbara, CA and Cambridge, MA based company that set out in 2002 “to reinvent home audio for the digital age.” Their products certainly look a lot better than the circa 1997 sound system that my landlord left behind.
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Yesterday we talked about how living in a big city after college can give you access to all kinds of organizations that will help you meet people in places that you want to be. Some, like yesterday’s CUP, are geared towards broader audiences of professionals, while others, like today’s The New York Academy of Sciences, have a more specific focus. The aforementioned organization is a New York, NY based “international, nonprofit membership organization working to advance scientific knowledge, mobilize science to address major global challenges, and increase the number of scientifically informed individuals in society.” It’s coming up on two centuries of existence, and today they boast more than 20,000 members worldwide.
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One cool thing about living in a major city after you graduate college is that it’s easy to get involved with groups of people with similar interests. This is obviously great for your social life, but it can also help your career. Meeting people who are in the places that you want to be is always good. The Council of Urban Professionals is not only a way to do that–it’s also a way to do good in your community. They are a New York, NY based non-profit that “molds diverse business and civic leaders, and empowers them to exert influence, achieve their individual goals and create collective impact through a range of programs and initiatives.” It started in a living room with 62 young urban professionals (that’s a big living room!), and now the organization has well over 5,000 members.
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