Tag: business

Mistakes and Failures #1: LaunchALabel.com

A possible new series about dissecting the mistakes and failures of my past, including what I learned from them …

Although I don’t like dwelling on past mistakes or failures (especially because failure doesn’t exist), there is always something that can be learned from them. I get a lot of requests for information about mistakes or failed projects from my past. They are a plenty!

The reason for that is simple: when I have an idea I believe in, I go for it.

If I believe in something I do whatever I can to take swift action. It’s important when we have an idea we’re excited about to get the ball rolling quickly, because getting started is the most difficult part of any project. Once the ball’s rolling, momentum builds, and we’re more likely to see a project through to the end.

I have enough stories on mistakes, failures, and lessons learned to create a whole series. Depending on how this goes over, and how much I enjoy dwelling on the past for a bit, I will continue it regularly.

Part of the problem with past failures is I don’t have backups/notes with me so I’m relying on memory, Google, and archive.org for help.

The Failure: LaunchALabel.com

Unfortunately, I can’t get a screen shot of the site. Here’s the archive.org link. I spent about $2,000 on design and backend aspects of this project and it looked great.

I launched LaunchALabel.com in August of 2007.

The concept was: Get 50,000 music fans to each donate $25 to a new record label that they would control. They would choose the bands, the marketing, and decide where the money would go.

50,000 x $25 = $1,250,000.

The goal was to use $1 million to sign bands and $250k to run the actual label (Just Paypal fees on the donations would’ve amounted to ~$50k). The idea was to sign 5 bands, and allocate $200k to each of them for the purposes of recording/touring/marketing.

Here’s the copy from the home page of the site:

It’s Your Label. You Choose The Bands. We Make It Happen Together.

From: Karol Gajda

If you’ve ever thought you could run a record label better than the corporations who currently control our music industry then this may be the most important Web site you’ve ever visited.

Join 50,000 like-minded music fans who want to make history. As a community you will launch a brand new record label. The World’s first Social Record Label.

  • You choose the first 5 bands the label signs to packages worth $200,000 PER band! These bands will be taken care of as they should be.
  • You will receive a copy of each of the first 5 label releases. Based on iTunes costs that’s a $49.95 value.
  • You choose the label’s name.
  • You make the decisions on tours and everything else that goes into launching and running a successful record label.

This Is Your Label.

Nobody can sway your decisions. Not me. Not any music industry “big wigs.” Nobody.

Once 50,000 music fans join for free each will be sent an official invitation to LaunchALabel.com and be asked to make a $25 donation to raise the necessary cash to rock the music industry.

From there you will start voting on label names and the first band to sign to your label.

To learn more check out our How It Works and FAQ sections.

Or click here now to join our music revolution.

Karol Gajda (that’s Carl not Carol)

Was it incredibly ambitious?

Yes.

Could it have worked?

Yes.

Did it work?

No. :)

Results

I sent out press releases, I e-mailed bloggers, I e-mailed friends, I did everything I could think of … it all resulted in ~300 free signups after a couple of months.

I did get a write-up at CMJ.com, which was pretty cool. But it was a tiny write-up and it resulted in no traffic. :)

Why It Didn’t Work

I knew going in it would be an uphill battle due to one word: skepticism.

I got a lot of e-mails from people thinking I was just going to take the money and run. Unfortunately, I didn’t know what to do to overcome this at the time.

What Should I Have Done Differently?

In other words, what should I have done to overcome skepticism and establish trust?

The obvious choice would have been to partner with someone who had a public profile.

I could have offered a nice chunk of money raised, maybe $10k-$50k, to either a celebrity or someone already well known in the music industry to join in on the project.

This would have given me instant credibility and more opportunities for press.

Closing Thoughts

I honestly believe this project could have worked. And I actually believe something similar could work well today. I’ve often thought about revamping the idea a little (100 people each donating $1,000 to sign just 1 or 2 bands).

That said, other sites have sprung up that totally blew my idea out of the water.

Enter: KickStarter.com.

KickStarter has proven that crowd-funding for artists and entrepreneurs works like gangbusters.

I’ve helped fund 3 projects so far. 2 of them musical acts.

You can following my KickStarter here if you’d like.

How Would You Have Made LaunchALabel.com A Success?

Do you have any ideas on how this project could have worked out successfully? Let’s brainstorm in the comments.

Additional Questions For You

– Do more of these kinds of articles interest you? Would you like me to create a Mistakes and Failures series? In this article I focused on one major mistake I made, but there were others as well. Do you want me to go into more detail on the mistakes?

– Do you have any stories of failed projects where you learned a thing or two? Give us a brief synopsis of the project and tell us what you learned …

11 Excuses Stopping You From Starting A Business

If you’ve been thinking about starting a business and have been giving yourself excuses let me help you …

In the 10 years I’ve been an entrepreneur I’ve heard a lot of excuses from very intelligent people as to why they haven’t started a business. While I could probably write a book filled with those excuses, let’s tackle some of the most common.

1) “I don’t have enough money.”

This could be a good excuse. If you’re trying to start a restaurant chain. Otherwise, I’m assuming you’re reading this because you want to start something mostly web-based. Which means you don’t need much money. If you can’t scrounge up a few hundred dollars to start a business then you really don’t want to start a business. Hell, Kevin Rose started Digg.com for something like $2,000! (The domain itself was $1,200.)

For more check out:

– The Absolute Beginner’s Guide To Starting A Small Online Business

– How I Created My First 6 Figure Business For $119.40

2) “I’m in too much debt.”

I’ll come right out and say it. This is the only legitimate excuse I can think of. Whenever somebody e-mails me to say they’re in a ton of debt but want to start a business my response is: “Get out of debt first.”

There is simply too much stress with debt. Add that to the stress of starting a business venture and you have a recipe for disaster.

Caveat: If you started a blog about how you’re getting out of debt that could grow into a very nice business. See GetRichSlowly.org, ManVsDebt.com, and TheSimpleDollar.com.

3) “I don’t have the right connections.”

You don’t need any. Seriously. And once you actually start your business you will naturally make connections. The truth is, starting a small web-based business is usually a solo venture. That’s not to say meeting people won’t help. It will. Tremendously. What I mean is, if you can’t make things happen yourself, then by involving other people you’ll just waste everyone’s time.

4) “I don’t have enough time.”

There is not a single excuse that gets me more fired up than this one. Because you do have time if you want it. How much free time do you think you’d have with baby triplets and a full time job? Not much, right? Yet Charley is still making things happen. No time is no excuse. Make time. I won’t tell you how, you know where you’re wasting time.

5) “I’m not sure what to do.”

This makes sense. Starting a business can be a daunting task. But again, not if you’re starting a small online based business. Here’s the secret: do something. Action begets action. Get your idea out there, get feedback, tweak, get more feedback, and keep it up! Yes, it’s true you might fail furiously, but hopefully you’ll fail fast and move on.

But this brings me to another excuse: 5b) “What do I do first?”

And the answer is the same: something, anything. Buy a domain, get web hosting, and install WordPress. Or map out the specs for the application you want created and submit it to eLance.com and Guru.com to get quotes. Do something that moves you closer to shipping.

6) “Most businesses fail, why should I bother?”

It’s true most business fail, because the owners close them. As to why you should bother, well … to be honest, if this is your reason for not starting a business you’re probably better off not starting a business. A much better way to think is to find success stories and base your own business around those successes instead of failures.

Reading autobiographies of successful entrepreneurs (and successful people in general) will help you with this. You’ll see that most people had many failures or very moderate successes before being considered truly successful.

7) “My family/spouse/friends/dog don’t support me.”

There can be two different interpretations of no support. If your family/friends/etc don’t help or encourage your business (mine never did) then that’s easy to overcome. It’s your business, support yourself.

If, on the other hand, they tell you that you’ll fail and you have no business starting a business then you need to remove them from your life. Toxic people will never support you and you shouldn’t expect them to. Additionally, keeping them around will just make your chances of success that much less likely. Remember: avoid the unhappy and unlucky.

8) “I don’t have enough education”

This excuse is usually rooted in not having an MBA or business degree of some sort. The majority of successful business owners I know either didn’t get a University degree at all or got a degree in something other than Business. As Aristotle said: “What we have to learn, we learn by doing.”

Do or don’t, the choice is yours.

9) “I don’t come from a business family.”

I’ve actually heard this one more than I can count and I don’t fully understand it. Was Michael Jordan’s father the best basketball player of his time? No, he never even made it to the NBA (and I don’t even know if the late Mr Jordan Senior played basketball at all).

The point is, you don’t need “entrepreneurship in your genes” to start a business. There isn’t a single entrepreneur in my family. Not a single one anywhere.

Might it help if you have a close family member who can show you the ropes? Yes. But it’s not necessary for someone to show you the ropes. Show yourself the ropes and you’ll understand them better.

10) “There is too much competition.”

Good! That means there is a hungry market. Much better to go into a market with competition and lots of customers than a market with no competition and no customers. With the former you can prosper, with the latter you will starve.

11) “I’m afraid”

There it is. And congratulations for admitting it. Fear is what every excuse boils down to. And you know what? You have a right to be afraid. If you don’t approach things right you can lose your ass. You can fail. You can spend hours, days, weeks, months, years building a business that could come crashing down one day. It has happened before.

But what if none of that happens? What if you don’t lose your ass? What if you succeed beyond your wildest imagination?

You’ll never know unless …

7 Exceptional Ways To Establish Trust In An Age Of Skepticism

Trust is difficult to establish and easy to lose. Here is how to be trustworthy …

Trust is difficult to establish and easy to lose.

Last week I did a very small promotion (you may not have even really noticed it) for Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Building Kit. I don’t know how well too many other affiliates did, but my results exceeded expectations. I wouldn’t be surprised if I outperformed bloggers with much larger (but not as bad ass!) fan bases than mine. (The 4,000 word Anatomy of a 4 Figure Affiliate Promotion case study will be in How To Live Anywhere.)

And the reason for that success is simple: trust.

Whether you bought the Kit or not, thank you for being here.

I really do appreciate the fact that you trust me. I work hard to keep that trust. Actually, I’m borderline obsessed with establishing and growing your trust in me.

I have big plans for the future of Ridiculously Extraordinary (speaking to high school and college students and writing a series of print books, among other things) and they won’t happen without you.

How To Establish Trust In An Age Of Skepticism

If you’re starting a business or blog or trying to establish yourself in an industry, you can guarantee your success by being trustworthy.

Here’s how:

1) Provide value.

Sometimes those words come across as empty. Or maybe just confusing. How do you provide value? At its essence, it’s simple: be a problem solver.

If you solve problems you will not only be well paid but well liked and well lived.

How do you find problems to solve? Ask, listen, and pay attention to your people.

If you’ve been here for a while you know that I never planned on monetizing this blog or creating products. This was my passion project. But after getting well over a hundred e-mails asking how to do what I do, I decided to solve the problem by creating How To Live Anywhere. That way I can still write about whatever I want to write about here, but if you’re interested in learning how to do exactly what I do you can go there.

2) State your own opinions and ideas.

There are too many people simply rehashing thoughts and ideas. And while you might think that some of my ideas aren’t necessarily unique, I do put my own spin on them. I don’t agree with everybody about everything, even many of my peers who I respect. You don’t earn trust or respect by being a pushover lapdog.

3) Help others.

It doesn’t matter if you’re interacting with someone “famous” or not, treat them well. Help them when and where you can. Yes, it does suck getting the same type of e-mail 10, 20, 100 times per day. If you have to, create stock responses, but sheesh, at least respond. If someone takes time out of their day to contact you, to pour their heart out to you, is it really so difficult to get back to them?

There are a handful of mind bogglingly successful (and busy) people I have e-mailed who personally responded with thoughtful responses. (And I’m not referring to Gary V.) If they can do it, so can you.

4) Showcase your true personality.

This goes along with state your own opinions and ideas.

Bill O’Reilly is a douchebag, but the reason he has such a devoted following is because he has personality. Sure it might be a hateful, abhorable, cantakerous personality, but it’s a personality. And lots of people connect with it. Then people like me write about it even though we don’t want him to get even more free publicity. ;)

You have a personality. It’s interesting to your right people. Make sure they can see it!

In a recent CopyBlogger article, Johnny B. Truant talks about his alter-ego. I’m not advocating copying Johnny’s approach directly because it’s difficult to pull off, but let the passion in your art, heart, and mind shine.

I liken it to a comedian who is funny in public, but just a “regular person” in private. Fans expect comedians to be “on” all the time, but they’re not. That’s not the art. The art is standing up on stage and making a room full of people forget about their problems (see what I did there?) and laugh.

Your blog, your public persona, is your stage. Dominate that stage. Trust in that stage. In return, your audience will trust that you deserve to be on that stage.

5) If you tell someone you’re going to do something, do it.

Being a man/woman of your word is the ultimate showcase of your trustworthiness. You will be forgiven if you make mistakes, or if you’re late or you realize you just can’t make something happen. But if you make failing people a habit the trust will diminish. Quickly.

6) Be cool.

You’re a leader for your audience. And you’re probably in the audience of a leader (or leaders). Treat your audience the way you want to be treated. Before taking any action think to yourself “Is this cool of me or not?”

Success does change people, whether they want to admit it or not. I’ve seen it so many times, with myself and my peers, that I know it’s true. But success is more than just a catalyst for change, success actually brings out the real you. If you come to find out the real you is a greedy sack of depression (that’s what I found out 5-6 years ago) you can take steps to change that and just be cool. (These days I’m a fun loving sack of ping pong balls!)

7) Provide value.

In the mid-90s J Yuenger, guitarist from the band White Zombie, had a monthly article in Guitar World magazine. Every month he offered advice to musicians and bands who hadn’t yet made it. One piece of advice: if you have a song that your fans love, open and close with it. Open with a bang, close with a bang. (Yes, my brain does remember everything.)

Providing value is so important I’m opening and closing this list with it.

Your business, your brand (I don’t really like that word, but it gets the point across), boils down to this …

Without trust, what are you left with?