Thew New ABCs of Growing Your Business: Entrepreneurial Lessons Learned
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BlogHer The ABCs of Growing Your Business Elisa Camahort Page, BlogHer Co-founder and COO @ElisaC
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Ten years of entrepreneurial lessons from the co-founder of a grassroots movement turned mainstream media network. including: What too look for in a co-founder and how to understand the mindset of people who might give you money to grow your business.
Transcript of Thew New ABCs of Growing Your Business: Entrepreneurial Lessons Learned
BlogHer
The ABCs of Growing Your Business
Elisa Camahort Page, BlogHer Co-founder and COO @ElisaC
BlogHer Photo credit: BlogHer ’13
BlogHer is an unstoppable community, network, and media company, where more than 100 million engaged, influential, info-savvy (mostly) women come to seek and share opinions and advice.
Who is BlogHer
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BlogHer 3 3
1. Bloggers making money
2. The new ABCs of funding
3. Who’s doing it?
4. Why people give you money
5. No one gives you money because…
6. Figuring out what you want
7. My top lessons learned
AGENDA .
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1a. Making money ONLINE
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Examples:
Advertising: CPM, CPA, CPC
Affiliate relationships
Sponsorship
Subscription/Productization
It’s a NUMBERS game
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1b. Making money BECAUSE OF online
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Examples:
Consulting
Freelance and Publishing
Brand Ambassadorships
Speaking gigs
It’s an INFLUENCE game
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2a. THE NEW ABCs
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A: Angel investors
B: Bootstrapping and Bartering
C: Crowdfunding
D: Debt
F: Friends & Family
G: Grants
I: Incubators & Accelerators
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2b. THE NEW ABCs
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L: “Lifestyle Business”
M: Multiple Income Streams
N: Non-Profit vs. For-Profit
P: Preferences
R: REVENUE!
V: Venture Capital (VC)
Y: YOU are a sales person now
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KATHRYN FINNEY: is the founder of The Budget Fashionista, a highly- influential fashion blog, but has become the leader of a movement by founding Digital Undivided.
HER DIFFERENTIATION: Kathryn saw a gap in African American women start-up founders, and decided to fill that pipeline. Because it’s good business. Like BlogHer, it is a mission-based, for-profit company! Photo Credit: Tanzie Johnson
Kathryn Finney – Digital Undivided
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ELISE BAUER is the creator of Simply Recipes, one of the most popular and highly-trafficked food blogs, reaching more than 8 million unique visitors each month.
HER DIFFERENTIATION: It’s in the name: Simply Recipes, and amazing SEO, and community ethos combine to create the #1 food blog on the Internet
Photo credit: Ree Drummond
Elise Bauer – Simply Recipes
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MONIQUE KILGORE, the creator of Divas Can Cook, has more than 1 million monthly page views and 235K YouTube subscribers.
HER DIFFERENTIATION: Monique focuses on video, with each of her videos reaching tens of thousands of viewers. Are you creating video yet?
Monique Kilgore– Divas Can Cook
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Diane Cu – White on Rice Couple
Diane Cu along with partner Todd Porter, is a professional photographer, food stylist, and cookbook author, making a living doing all of the above, but crediting their blog for taking them this far.
HER DIFFERENTIATION:
Sticking to her guns on the value of her work, but also sticking to an authentic believe in abundance.
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4. WHY PEOPLE GIVE YOU MONEY
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• People give money to people
• Because you have pent-up demand
• Because you need to scale
• Because you know how you’ll *spend* the money!
• For new products, hiring and markets
• To MAKE money
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5. NO ONE WILL GIVE YOU MONEY BECAUSE*…
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• You’re tired
• You want to hire people to off-load tasks from yourself
• You want to do a better job of everything you’re already doing
• You’re soooooo close to where you want to be
*OK, maybe your mom and dad will
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6a. FIGURING OUT WHAT YOU WANT
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Who do you want to be beholden to?
Yourself
Family
Customers/Users/Partners
Employees
Investors
Bankers
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6b. FIGURING OUT WHAT YOU WANT
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How hot is the fire in your belly?
Will it kill you if someone beats you?
Do you believe you are delivering something no one else can or will?
Are you willing to work hard, no, make that really really hard?
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7a. MY TOP LESSONS LEARNED
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CO-FOUNDERS ROCK
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7a. MY TOP LESSONS LEARNED
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CO-FOUNDERS ROCK
What to look for in a partner:
Complementary skills
Able to have the tough conversations, not just the fun and easy ones
Carrying the weight equally
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7b. MY TOP LESSONS LEARNED
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BUILD YOUR NETWORK
Affinity Groups AND individuals
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7c. MY TOP LESSONS LEARNED
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THINK IN “THIN SLICES”
Thin slices of attention
Thin slice mentoring
THINK MVP FOR LIFE
Minimum Viable “Product”, as applied to you, and the bar you set to ask, to offer, to put yourself out there
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7d. MY TOP LESSONS LEARNED
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PRIORITIZE:
PEOPLE
TERMS
VALUATION
In that order.
Source: CATERINA FAKE, FLICKR, HUNCH AND FINDERY CO-FOUNDER
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7e. MY TOP LESSONS LEARNED
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MONEY DOESN’T BUY HAPPINESS, BUT IT DOES BUY FREEDOM
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7f. MY TOP LESSONS LEARNED
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ASK YOURSELF:
What is the WORST that could happen?
ANSWER THE QUESTION:
In detail
MAKE YOUR FEAR CONCRETE, NOT ABSTRACT
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Most Powerful People in New Media
America’s Most Promising Startups
2011 Award Winning Women
Elisa Camahort Page @ElisaC
Thank you.
