When to Pull the Plug on a Start-Up

As a panelist today at an entrepreneurial forum I was asked a very interesting question by a member of the audience, “how do you know when it is the right time to pull the plug?” Not only a timely question given the current market conditions, but a great question that any entrepreneur should consider fairly early on in the development of a new company.

Too Little Value

If you have ever attended a business plan seminar, an elevator pitch class or  a forum on how to pitch your company to investors you will realize a common theme exists – your ideas is providing a solution to what problem? Another way to describe this concept is what value do you provide to your target audience? Generally this concept is held in high regard – except in the world of the Internet business.

Start with the End in Mind

 There was a great article a few weeks ago in the Harvard Business Review by David I. Collis, Michael G. Rukstad titled (Can You Say What Your Strategy Is? ).  The article highlights that “most executives cannot articulate the objective, scope, and advantage to their business in a simple statement.  If they can’t, neither can anyone else.”

So how does an organization develop a successful and clear strategy?  With the end in mind.  Not a literal end but a place in the future no less than three years and no more than five years away.  Anything less than three years does not provide enough time to deal with the real challenges and changes that will be needed to be successful.  Anything more than five becomes un-grounded in reality because there is so much evolution in the marketplace driven by the advance of technology.

Everyone is part of the marketing team

It is interesting to gauge the response from people when asked what type of media company they are – most respond they are in some other business, some give a confused answer and some just stare blankly thinking it is a trick question.

Every organization is (or will be) a media company.  Thinking you are not is similar to people in the 1990s who did not embrace technology and dismissed the Internet as something that is not part of their business.  Do you know anyone who would say that now?

SEO Strategy, the Basic Concept

Several blogs over the last year have highlighted strategies related to SEO and improving results.  What is interesting is that most of these are written from a technical point of view speaking to issues that are strategic in nature and have to do with much broader issues of marketing and consumer relevance.

The issues impacting the media landscape (media defined very broadly) are profound and most organizations appear to be framing the conversation about this evolution through their own historical frame of reference.  The future of media is not every advertising agency, PR firm, newspaper and TV station developing a “digital group” or an “interactive practice”.  The future – every organization is a media company – directly or in most cases indirectly through partnership (conversation for a later blog).

At the simplest conceptual level, organizations need to step back and without bias think about three things.  Who is their audience, what is relevant to their lives and how is my organization relevant to their lives.  OK,maybe one more – what is the narrative that will connect these people with my brand.  All of the technical vehicles can then be reviewed to determine the appropriate balance of marketing, the digital strategy and the development of media (content) for that niche’.

Focusing on the SEO issues in the context of purchasing ads more effectively is important, but ultimately should not be the core of a digital strategy.  Relevance is the driver and an issue focused approach – both to be addressed in a later blog.