Jason Cronkhite’s Blog

The Top 5 Things Start-ups Should Focus On

// March 15th, 2010 // Comments // Tips & Tools

As a battle-tested entrepreneur, I’ve come to realize the hard way that there are a few things that are most important when building a new company.  There are so many things to do that really are distractions until you stabilize the company and everything else can be shelved for later.

Here’s my Top 5:

1. Figure Out Your OSS (Optimal Selling Strategy) - If you cannot generate sales you do not have a business.  To me this is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing for a new company to figure out and it does not always come easy.  You have to get very clear on what the true value is of your product or service and how it really benefits your prospective customer.  I recommend that you have some objective advisors that can help you get this right - it can mean all the difference in the world to growing and becoming a company.
2. Focus On Solving The Problem - You must create an environment for yourself and others to enable the ability to really lock down and focus on solving the problems of your customers and getting things done that move you closer everyday to generating sales.
3. Cash Flow - limit expenses, if what you are considering buying, signing up for, etc., does not lead to the end goal of generating revenue you don’t need.  Make it a policy that before anything is purchased that you must get a co-founders or someone else you trust to help you make an objective decision to buy or pass.
4. Measure, Measure, Measure - track everything you do with some type of metric, goal and timebound date to achieving or evaluating the task.
5. Balance Your Life - To many entrepreneurs get sucked into the business consuming their entire life.  In order to be effective and productive you must have a release.  Watch this great video on the importance of play “The Big Buddha Baba Rule”.

What do you think?

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Can Social Media Really Make A Difference For Businesses?

// June 22nd, 2009 // Comments // Social Media Marketing, Thought Leadership

Right now many companies large and small are exploring the idea of social media.  Many are unsure about how to develop a strategy.  They don’t know where to start or who to trust.  Moreover, what empirical evidence can a business turn to help it determine the value of building a social media strategy?  Well, these are questions and concerns that I plan to address here.

Last week I raised the question, “How do you systemize social media”?  In terms of process and daily practice, I was hoping to spark a  conversation to understand and uncover other practitioners methods and systems of use.  Little did I know it would create a deeper conversation on a more strategic level.

If you click on the link above you’ll see embeded in the post a conversation stream that took place.  What I learned from a few social media colleagues is that in order for social media to make a difference in businesses, social media at a high level must first be understood.  With out understanding the value proposition of social media at a leadership level, a business or businesses will be hard pressed to allow a socialized media culture to be adopted inside the organization.

Say what?  Social media can only make a difference in a business if the company from top to bottom understands and believes in the value of such a dynamic culture shift.  THIS IS A VERY BIG DEAL!

“SOCIAL MEDIA REQUIRES A CULTURE & MIND SET SHIFT”

That is a very BOLD statement but, for social media to really make a difference for an organization it is an ABSOLUTE REQUIREMENT.  Why is this the case?

It is required because most business were not built on the fact that everyone, no matter what you’re title or position, has the power and opportunitiy to make significant things happen because of the power of the internet.  Everyone in the organization, has the power to produce content and build a following.  People’s voices are the new currency that drives the influence to exchange.

If you’re a company of 10, then you most likely have 10 able promoters and content creators on your team.  Now consider this, “It is estimated that the average person knows about 250 people. And each of those people knows, in turn, another 250 or so people. This means that for each new person you meet, you gain access to a potential pool of 62,500 people separated from you by just two degrees!” – Buzzy Gordon.

Don’t you think the ability to potentially influence approximately 625,000 people is pretty powerful for a small business?  I do.

Now, of course, influencing that many people to actually make a purchase is far fethched but influencing just a small percentage of that group of warm connections by practicing social media makes for a pretty compelling business case.  Would’nt you agree?

To accomplish this though requires leadership to adopt a culture of transparency and expression for the good of its customers and employees.  Giving up control and truly leading is what is required here.  And, leading with an educated understanding is a big step to social media making an impact on a business.  In a future post I’ll show you an example of how social media activities are just starting benefit me.

CONSIDER THIS VIDEO AS A 1ST STEP TO UNDERSTANDING

(Note:  A collaborative team I am working with are in the early stages of developing a resource to help companies understand and use social media.  This video is part of recommended material to be reviewed).

Now that you have a better understanding of how social media might benefit your business, in a future post I’ll show you an example of how social media activities are just starting to benefit me.  Do you have any questions that I might be able to help answer?

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People Do Business, Tools Don’t: How Do You Systemize Social Media?

// June 18th, 2009 // Comments // #TwitterTalks, Social Media Marketing

I’ve been thinking about some of the things we’ve been discussing on building43 — A community for people fanatical about the Internet — and things that have been bubbling up for a while in other spheres of conversation.

We, as a western business culture, seem to be really caught up and infatuated with the amount of tools we use, not excluding me.  I’m a gadget junkie and tool freak!  I have so many accounts for different web applications and services it’s crazy.  There is so much out there to experiment with and test.  Part of me thinks there is a level of unproductivity because of this behavior another part me thinks there is a lot to learn through experimentation with these tools and technologies.  What do you think?

Well, I read a great post on ProBlogger this week by Nick Thacker called 5 Ways To ‘Systemize’ your Blogging.  It really rang home with me as it is part of the practice I advise clients to take in developing their content strategy.  I admit I need to practice better what I preach with my new blog here.  Why is the this relevant to People Do Business, Tools Don’t?

People are the lifeblood of any business.  People do the work.  People work with customers - people.  People manage people.  People make the plans and people take action or don’t.

Tools on the otherhand — computuers, phones, web applications — are levers to facilitate and increase productivity of people.  Productivity can be measured a number of ways based on what your job is right?

So, what I’ve been thinking about is - how are social media and internet tools making us more productive and getting business done.  How are we selecting the tools we decided to use for business?  How could you and I take the advice Nick gave and apply it to Social Media Marketing?

This is a question that I think should be discussed in collaboration with others as it is a problem that I think many businesses are struggling with today.  How do you systemize the practice of social media?

Please share your thoughts as I would love to put together a collaborative document or “Best Practices” Starter-kit for Social Media or something to help businesses get over the change threshold.  I am going to start working on how to ‘Systemize’ my own Social Media practices and will report back later.

Last, thank you Nick for a great post - you really got me thinking and acting.

>>>> UPDATE:  I’m bringing the conversation that we had today on this topic today on Friend Feed <<<<

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