Should you white label?

White labelling your product might sound like a great way to have a second revenue stream and make some fast cash, but it is hard, a big distraction and often just means you’re not strong enough yet.

Ideas in no particular order:

Focus – If you want to be a direct to customer business AND a white label business when you’re a startup you are going to find it very very very hard. It’s two different businesses. Different customers, different products, different marketing, different all round. White label is a great business model – so if you want to do it, do it, but close down your direct to customer business and focus on White Label.

Not ready – often times when you speak to potential customers early in your life as a business they will ask if you white label. What they are really saying is “You’ve got a good base idea here, but our brand is stronger than your product and our skills can finish it off.” That’s fine, it just means that customer is not ready for you yet. Don’t bust your gut to look after them because most likely they still won’t be happy. When someone wants a white label product they expect it to really work. Most likely you’re not going to be able to give them this and you’ll spend a lot of time trying to keep it going.

Scale – white labelling can get you a small number of large customers, but often not a large number of customers. Make sure you’ve got your market worked out and pricing else you might sell yourself into a corner.

Customer contact – you also lose contact with the users. There is now someone between you and the daily usage. This is harder earlier on when you’re still concocting your magic and need lots of good feedback.

Brand – you’re brand is now a behind the scenes brand, not an in-front brand. That’s fine, lots of great companies are like this, but just be aware.

Got any good/bad white label stories to share?

Mick: “There is definitely a vision worth pursuing there, but the fact that we don’t know the first step says to me that we need to do more focused exploring. We can’t build it and hope.”

Founder: “Yes, we really have never known what our starting point is. What our X-Factor is?”

Mick: “Mmm, I’m not sure it’s an X-factor. That says that it’s one thing that when we add it in makes the difference. I think it’s more the right mix. There are 1,000′s of variables with any idea. There is no one right combination, but lots of wrong ones.”

It really made me think about the sequence of a startup. Here are some options.

1. Think about something, work on it and never launch it because it’s never perfect.
2. Build something, get an average response, try to grow it, have an average business.
3. Build something, get an average response, change the mix, get an average response (or worse), change the mix, get an average response (keep going until…), change the mix, get a great response, try and grow it, have a great business.

Clearly I’m cheering for option number 3, but the key point is ‘change the mix’, not ‘add in a new feature’. More features just add more complexity making it harder for customers to like you and makes you slower to move.

WDYT?

If you need venture capital to shift your startup into its next fast-growth phase then Innovation Bay’s upcoming Angel Dinner in Sydney might be for you.

If you are interested in coming to the dinner, have funds to invest or represent a company that is looking to invest in early stage companies, you should contact the Innovation Bay team on info@innovationbay.com.

“From the last 5 dinners over $6m in funding has been raised as a direct consequence of companies pitching at the dinner.  The dinner enables entrepreneurs to pitch in a supportive environment, in front of an audience of technology experienced angel investors and advisors”, say Ian Gardiner and Phaedon Stough, Innovation Bay co-founders.

1. What: Innovation Bay Angel Dinner
2. When: September 21st 2010
3. Location: Table for Twenty in Surry Hills, Sydney
4. What do I have to do? Submit a 90 second video elevator pitch in any video format and send to info@innovationbay.com
5. Application Deadline: 5 pm, Tuesday 14th September 2010
6. Full details: www.innovationbay.com

See you there!

How does it work? When wordle scans your online content, it tracks the most frequently used words (and makes these really big) to the least commonly occurring words. The result is a compelling infographic you can use to see re-occurring themes and keywords in your content. This is great for market research (surveys, interviews) and to gauge sentiment on forums, blogs, twitter streams – wherever content appears! Check out the Wordle gallery for inspiration.

Here are some examples from our website.

Pollenizer.com

Bigger better full size here. From this wordle graph, we can see Pollenzier talks about partners and founders (“co-founders”) and about building businesses that get clicks (“vistors”) and customers (“traffic”) and money in the bank (“results”) because of a unique (“different”) idea.

Our most recent blog entries wordled

Bigger better full size here. What stands out? We like to talk about ourselves (not surpising) but we talk a lot about startups, ideas, business, time and founders.

Try using wordle.net or any other free word cloud tool you find online and instantly learn your business’s keywords and messaging. You could apply this idea to comparing newspaper headlines or political party’s platforms or send your sweetheart a picture message about how you feel. Have fun!

Just discovered: Industrial design magazine and community, Core77. Here are two fun stories tagged under ‘object-culture’ (you get the drift) to give you a taste  of what these guys think about: Early User-Interface Designs and the QWERTY keyboard and I read therefore I roll .

Reading now: Rework by 37 Signals founders Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson and Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur. Just for fun: Fever Of The Bone by Val McDermid (who writes the murder-strewn British TV series, Wire In The Blood).

Skimmed through: Monocle Magazine on start-ups; The Economist (special edition on creativity and innovation in the Tiger and ‘BRIC’ economies), and The Harvard Business Review on leadership in the “age of transparency” and getting caught in the “acceleration trap“.

Listened to: Future Tense on ABC Radio National. Favourite stories included an interview with (author and technology columnist at  The Daily Beast) Douglas Rushkoff about online marketplaces, virtual communities and web businesses; and some contemplative thoughts from ‘radical’ Californian cafe owner Sal Bednarz on why he switches off the cafe’s WiFi when the weekend arrives.

Now, dear reader, it’s your turn.

Sam from Blurb.com next to Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House

It’s fun and challenging working with clients in different time zones, so it is good for the relationship when you can catch up in person. Samantha Howe (pictured) from Blurb visited Sydney in March to spend time with the Pollenizer Blurboz team; attend Blurb sponsored events; and catch-up with Blurb’s partners. I interviewed Samantha Howe, Marketing Account Manager (Global Partnerships and Business Development) for the Pollenizer blog.

What is Blurb?

“Blurb is an online print-on-demand creative publishing platform which enables anyone to creatively express their individuality through a professional coffee-table quality book.”

Who is Blurb for?

“Blurb is for everyone! It’s your content in a printable book form. It is your poetry, your design, your writing, your photography.”

Why is Blurb so cool?

“We never say we’re cool but others do. I think it’s because our platform is creative and accessible and there are no boundaries. Blurb.com has worked hard to remove barriers to making a book. We’re passionate about enabling people to see their work published in a book.”

Blurb.com at 2010 Semi-Permanent Sydney Design Conference

What is Pollenizer doing for Blurb?

“Pollenizer is our eyes, ears and voice in Australia and New Zealand. This means the team is actively ‘seeding’ the market, talking about Blurb.com with cultural and creative influencers and organisations, and creating opportunities for Blurb.com in the marketplace.”

Tell us about the range of books in the Blurb bookstore.

“Blurb.com prints a book every 10 seconds. We have over 40,000 titles in our online bookstore. We see all kinds of books – photographs of dogs in bow ties to artist exhibitions to stunning graphical illustration, photography and brand books.  Everyone uses our platform for different purposes: as a business tool, agency creds book, writing fiction, photo books, fund-raising. Some titles do raise our eyebrows. As long as the content is not illegal there’s a market for it.”

Billy Blue Design School Students at Blurb.com Presentation

What have you been doing while you have been in Australia?

The team and I went to Semi-Permanent Creative Conference in Sydney as a sponsor and exhibitor.We spoke to creative professionals and students about Blurb.com can be used for portfolios, story-telling, brand books and more.

During this week we hang out with Blurb partner Art Whats On; caught up with potential partners; and met with local Blurb Nation designers.

I then flew to Fremantle in WA for the launch of month-long photography festival, Foto Freo, where Blurb was a sponsor and I did Magnum Workshop presentations. While we were in town, we ran a meet up for our WA Blurb bookmakers. Over 80 people squeeze into a small Fremantle bar to talk about book-making, share stories and show-off their books.

Melbourne was the last stop to to visit partner Red Bubble and cool global utility bag brand Crumpler.

I’m running a Web Business Focus workshop for $80 on March 17.

I’ve done more than 35 focus workshops for clients over the past two years and I love doing them. We take a big vision and find out where our starting focus is and it lets us get started in a lean, agile way with a reasonable budget.

A lot of smaller startups haven’t had the budget to pay for one on one workshops, so some suggested a multi-person workshop. I’ve done these at BarCamps and BootupCamps and got good feedback, so I thought we’d do it. Here is the details;

Web Business Focus with Mick Liubinskas

Get 2010 in focus!

Do you run a start up that needs focus or have a great web business idea that you want to explore – then register for Pollenizer’s Focus Workshop run by Mick ‘Mr Focus’ Luibinskas, Pollenizer Co-founder, Chief Marketing Officer and serial entrepreneur.

What we’ll cover:

1. Why is focus and agility so important?
2. What is your core value and driver?
3. How to find your customer?
4. How to make the experience valuable, fast?
5. How to get people to your site?
6. How to make sure people come back?
7. How to get people to bring their friends or refer more business?
8. How to get people to share your content to the world?
9. How to build a roadmap?

What’s your investment?

• Three hours for one night
• Pre-workshop: complete a one page strategy summary
• $80 per person

In this interactive workshop you will find your busines focus. The purpose of the workshop is to help every participant find and/or refine their business focus for 2010. Over two hours we will cover the business, the product, the market, the customer acquisition strategy and communications using Pollenizer’s focus methodology.

In the last hour, you can ask questions and share your ideas with other participants.

Pollenizer’s marketing team will assist you with planning, to bounce ideas and support you in this process. We have helped over 30 web businesses find their marketing focus.

Join us for a enjoyable and challenging evening and kick off 2010 with brutal focus!

About Mick: http://www.pollenizer.com/about/our-team/mick-liubinskas/

Register Here for April

1. Patience – it takes time. It doesn’t happen instantly. Somethings do, like a click, or a visit or reading a tagline, but real engagement and commitment takes time. Same with habits. For them to become a part of your life, and not just something you occasionally, intentionally do, allow plenty of time. You can’t ‘cram’ customer development.
2. Repetition – linked to above, but importantly different. It’s not a smooth, linear experience. Ever. The customer will always have to do a few things over and over again before they form the habit. Before it becomes normal.
3. Unprogram – it is rare that something valuable isn’t already being fulfilled some other way. Even if it’s just a use of time, it’s still a substitute. But that’s good. It’s much much easier (though still hard) to get a customer to switch to you, than it is to get them to adopt a new thing for new value. Reality is though, that you have to get them to unlearn the old solution/habit and learn yours. That’s not easy. People call it switching cost, but it’s not a once off transaction. Inertia is against you.
4. Distractions – habit forming doesn’t happen in a vacuum. 1,000 other things are happening at the same time. You have to be aware of the realities and work with them. Customer development is the same, it’s not a lab where you control the elements. Everyone is busy. And unless you are food, water or sex, it’s unlikely you’re going to command immediate and significant investment.
5. Variance – “You’re unique, just like everyone else”. It’s true though, every single situation is different and here lies the focus challenge. You need to focus on a small segment and a simple value creation point but you need to allow room in there for the persons own life, needs and timing to ferment into a commitment. Habits are the same. That’s why time management tools have to be rigidly rubbery.

I’m sure there are a few more. What do you think?

What’s a Jelly? A Jelly is when people come together to share an office for a day. We’re providing the desks, wireless internet and excellent coffee up the road. All you need to bring is your work for the day, and an openness to meeting new people.

What are the benefits? You can share your knowledge and learn from others. And sometimes a change of scenery is all you need for a burst of inspiration.

Pollenizer Jelly Details:

Where: Suite 1, 65-67 Foveaux St, Surry Hills NSW 2010

When: This Thursday 19th November, anytime from 9am

RSVP: here

For more info on Jelly, check out the website

If you have even a passing interest then I recommend checking out some of the events! Some of my picks for the week are:

• Mon – Networking Drinks at the Ivy in the city, 6pm-8pm
• Tue – Speed Networking at Australian Technology Park, 4pm-4.30pm
• Wed – Product Development Meetup at Surry Hills  8.30am-10am
• Thur – Open Coffee at Allianz in the City, 8.30am-9.30am
• Fri – Pitchfest at the Powerhouse Museum, 4pm-5pm
• Sat – BarCamp Unconference at Australian Technology Park, 9.30am-5pm

Check out the full event listing here for many more events across Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane. Full details on the week at Unleashing Ideas.