Social Traffic | Social Media Marketing

Paradigm shift:

I have considerable experience in managing human capital. I built an offline business called ‘Sleeping With The Enemy’ that comprised of 340 backpackers living as short to min term (6 to 8 week) customers within 14 backpacker hostels throughout Australia, at all times. At the same time, my occupants were also my cleaning and property management team who were rewarded for their work by local businesses supplying them pizzas, beer and travel through a reward program in return for us advertising them. Our audience extended to thousands of socially minded friend’s of our occupants who were all spenders, not savers, making advertising to them valuable.

This model was the first of its kind where we utilized something every backpacker has, their time; and converted it to cash by exchanging it for advertising dollars. It wasn’t the costs saved from cleaning that was profitable, but rather the sense of community that was built through this model. As I mentioned in one of my posts earlier (why listen to Simon U Ford), the occupants invested so much more into their transient homes, creating an atmosphere that could not be purchased for any amount of money. This kept our occupancies at 97% year round when the industry average was 65%. The difference to our bottom line was 22% of 340 beds @ $140 per bed, per week which was well over half a million dollars a year. This was achieved through my passionate focus on building a community. Our community living model became successful, this success increased our bottom line which moved the value of my company by millions of dollars. Does anyone reading this note believe this would have been possible had my focus been on the money? Had I built this company paying cleaners and property manager’s wages then charging advertisers for adds?

I know a similar shift in human dynamics can be applied to a business start-up’s corporate structure. I have seen first hand how value is not directly reflected in the bottom line. That priceless value is enjoyed through the culture born out of a community of individuals who are focused on reaching common goals together and who are accountable under a transparent, self-regulating hierarchy. My good friend Pierre told me the other day that he has engaged internet marketing courses for years in search of an opportunity that would lead to change in his life story. He has found it with Social Traffic because of the community we have attracted: he is excited to be working with like minded people towards a common goal, one that represents change for the better. I know Sam Adkins is the same, as I am sure all those on board feel it too.

For my mind, my dream team for a start-up under such a model would consist of as many talented people who I could attract that possess an entrepreneurial mind-set. People who are prepared to back it up by investing their own skin in the game, on deals that amount to their remuneration to be paid in stock for time, no cash. This model, if it attracted anyone, would deliver high calibre risk-takers who believe in themselves. They would be independently successful enough to have time to invest, be committed to the cause, and be prepared to risk time to achieve it. A collective, passionate focus on smart goals that represent great opportunity, by talented people, are invariably followed by success, and success in business attracts money.

This team would come with a level of commitment not achievable through any other deal, because these stakeholders would instantly become trustees, of the original start-up story. Opportunities will come to the team to conquer or squander. Under confident leadership their collective passion and commitment should reinforce each others, making the team stronger.

After the ST leadership meeting last week, I finally felt the elation I had reserved for a time when I knew a team was starting to move forward under it’s own steam. I was not prepared to allow myself to become excited until I knew the movement was more than a campaign being powered by my notes alone. I needed to know a movement had started that is being propelled by a high-calibre group of individuals who were attracted the story I started telling. A group that is becoming a team capable of taking the story, building on it, then telling it to the world, with, or without me. This is not something that is possible by employing a team on wages.

Throughout my career I have built four companies from scratch, three succeeded, one failed. My 5th is Events Listed, Social Traffic is my 6th. My greatest asset in business today is the wisdom gained through the lessons I learned in failure. I learned the same thing over and over again in success, however I saw things in failure that only failure itself could show me – and chose to turn the lessons gained into an asset.

What I know is that if successful, proven entrepreneurs get behind a story they will contribute the most value in terms of wisdom, advice and experience – they know that for every dollar taken off the table of a start-up puts the opportunity one dollar closer to running out of money. Most will invest cash into the opportunity as well as time to signal their commitment. From the very start they operate within a space where it’s absolutely clear there is no point investing more money or time if the only intention is to take money out, rather than focusing on bringing it to a cash-flow positive position. They know the only gain worth striving for is the overall success of a venture, and that any short term gain is self defeating. The more individuals that hold down key decision-making positions that own such a mindset, the greater the chance of its success. The art of start-up is the art of attracting a group of stakeholders who add more value to a story-line that what they allow to be taken out. Investing time and money into a venture with a focus on how much you can take out from the onset, is in my mind, the equivalent of going to a picnic with a group. Each taking a portion of food and drink to share with your focus being to eat and drink as much as you can, as fast as you can to get your moneys worth. You will go home full but the picnic will suck.

It’s all about the people:

Warren Buffet is a successful investor. He invests in people not companies. He doesn’t buy stock unless he knows the people involved on the board and executive teams are people who learned to do what they do within a successful business culture, and that they have sufficient skills across the board to realize their financial goals.

Companies that fail do so because the directors leading the company make bad decisions or the executives charged with rolling out those decisions were inefficient managers so failed to do it profitably. At the end of the day business comes down to people. It’s all about people.

Investors are successful people who reinvest their money; some also become directors to lead companies with their wisdom, experience, executives and staff. Next in line are the contractors, consultants and advisors. Then the lawyers – who protect the interests of all constituents. Then the chartered accountants – who account for the money. Imagine how much of investor’s money is spent managing relationships between people, preserving the integrity of agreements and understandings between people. Then there is the collaboration, communication, management, infrastructure, rent, staff transport, travel time – so they can all be managed under one roof.

It’s obvious to anyone who knows that nine out of ten new businesses fail, that talking about doing this is a hell of a lot easier than actually doing it. Decisions that determine an early start-up’s success, and ultimately write its early storyline are made by its founder. The direction larger companies (with multiple stakeholders) take at every turn, are made by the directors. Execution is carried out by the executives and their staff, whereas seed capital is made available through investors. Seed cash investors understand it’s their role to absorb any losses, brought about through directors doing a poor job, or the vision for the opportunity being misguided. Taking such risk is what these investors bring to the table so they can secure a position of enjoying the rewards of success, having not invested time or expertise working towards it.

In my experience, all success is measured proportionately to the calibre of human capital behind it. Good directors attract sophisticated investors with deep pockets and big connections, which attracts top executives, which in turn attract top staff, who end up attracting great customers.

I also believe that today’s technology is ready to enable people to work together in ways that are different; our methods transcend space and time. I know big tech companies have staff working across the globe in home offices now.

In today’s world we can attract and work with a wider collective of talent across the globe through virtual collaboration and communication technologies. We can build a new company with no infrastructure costs (to house a team in a physical building on secure, internal networks). We live in an era where a business can sell and market their goods or services to a global audience for free, if they know how to do it. We are the first business generation with the ability to call and speak to the whole world at no cost.

Big versus swift:

Talk to any employee of a multinational corporation and you will learn they are not utilizing a fraction of the hosted new tech platforms available to them, their are so many collaborative networking and digital communication technologies available at a fraction of the cost of analog and mobile phone technologies, yet a lot of these large corporations are still not utlizing them.

The corporations will tell us it’s because these platforms are not secure. The real reason is that these massive organizations cannot effect wide sweeping system changes quickly and will take years to catch on to today’s new technology, let alone next years. It all moves so quickly these days that for the time it takes large corporations to effect change, it’s all changed again.

It’s time for new business model’s to capitalize. Corporations are like big ships that take days just to take a 360 degree turn. The bigger the ship, the less the manoeuvrability it has. With new technologies changing rapidly, the economic downturn forcing a focus on consolidation, and consumer’s mistrust in big businesses – the best corporate vehicle in today’s world is a speed boat that can turn on a dime. Social Traffic Inc will be a speed boat with lot’s of power, speed and manouverability.

Today’s possibilities:

Imagine a corporation that was owned by those who added value to it in human capital, no cash investors. A story told and executed by the same people who own the company – a team drafted, filtered and voted for by shareholders who all earned their shares through investing time, sweat and tears. A team comprising of business leaders, international lawyers, chartered accountants, experts in the internet as a delivery platform, internet marketing, social media marketing, human resource management, PR and event marketing coming together under one corporate model to build a multimillion dollar company without any cash being invested.

Is it not about time for a group of people to show the world how a company can be started from nothing, through a collective of individuals investing 3 to 6 million dollars in human capital – no cash. This could not be achieved in yesterdays business world because telling the world about new goods or services was expensive if paying media corporations to syndicate the message to their captive audiences. In the new media scape , those who know how, can get their message in front of a global audience without cost.

I understand that everyone needs to feed their families, but if your entire priorities revolve around maintaining your lifestyle without risking something to build on it, then your life-story won’t grow. It’s the way most people are conditioned to think – and pessimism or a lack of belief in the vision. This conflicts with the visionaries wanting to risk change the status quo in a quest for better, and is often the reason behind partnership fall outs.

Without risk-takers life would not move forward. Those who take the greatest risk and put their livelihood, family life and careers on the line to execute change, deserve the greatest rewards for their success. Without these people, we would still be cooking on campfires in caves.

What do you think? Do you think it’s possible for the Social Traffic group to launch a new 3 million dollar business start-up through the investment of human capital alone? What do you see as being our biggest challenges?

Simon U Ford (SUF.EDBD)

Visit my “event line blogs”

Social Traffic – The book

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