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Start-up Strategy, Team-Building Advice or Insight

by Charger14
7 replies
I am putting together the 'tech' side of a new biz and am looking for some general advice from the pros here.


One overview is that we'll make 12 entities 'famous' over the course of a six day event. Week after week.


So, we'll need to generate 12 wordpress blogs, 12 twitter, facebook, youtube and g+ pages, and at least 36 short videos per week.


All of the videos and the written content provided by the clients will be cross-posted and linked and should be driven out into the four corners of the earth.


Each of the various properties/sites will need a pop-up capture page along with a funnel and a newsletter ready to load and fire.


Question: How many strong men will it take to tote this boat?


How would you go about the process of building this team--is it easier to try to combine the talents of two or three local companies or to try to build our own from WF and fiverr and other talent pools?


What kind of person--or what kind of credentials--would be needed to run this operation--in other words, if I was looking to allocate this part of the project to another person, what would be that person's primary current 'title'? 'Lord of the Internet'? 'The Man'?


Is that too vague? Not vague enough?


Thanks for any insight.
#advice #insight #startup #strategy #teambuilding
  • Profile picture of the author Chris-
    If it were me I'd be looking for an experienced manager who has succeeded in a similar task before. I would want them to formulate the strategy and keep a close eye on how it is working in practice. For the actual work, I'd get it outsourced, because they is typically cheaper and more flexible than having fixed relationships with employees, at least at the start. I'd want the experienced manager to be a partner, i.e. to receive a share of the profits, rather than employing a business to do that job who get paid whether they produce any real results or not.

    I watched a TV program a while ago on making a video go viral, and they said that there are companies who specialize in putting interesting videos onto the most influential blogs. So that would be part of the strategy, as would social networking as you say, and I'd also consider article syndication or guest blogging (which are similar) as part of the strategy.

    Chris
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    • Profile picture of the author Charger14
      Originally Posted by Chris- View Post

      If it were me I'd be looking for an experienced manager who has succeeded in a similar task before. I would want them to formulate the strategy and keep a close eye on how it is working in practice. For the actual work, I'd get it outsourced, because they is typically cheaper and more flexible than having fixed relationships with employees, at least at the start. I'd want the experienced manager to be a partner, i.e. to receive a share of the profits, rather than employing a business to do that job who get paid whether they produce any real results or not.

      I watched a TV program a while ago on making a video go viral, and they said that there are companies who specialize in putting interesting videos onto the most influential blogs. So that would be part of the strategy, as would social networking as you say, and I'd also consider article syndication or guest blogging (which are similar) as part of the strategy.

      Chris


      Hey Chris,

      Thanks for the great reply.

      One consideration for me is that I would love to have an 'office ' here where I live for this ongoing project and the charity foundation it will support.

      I know that outsourcing would be less expensive, at least initially, but part of the credo of the project itself is to pay the best for the best. Best talent, best energy...best people.

      The leader of this segment of the project, let's call it the 'TDC Impact Studio' portion, will be absolutely a full partner, at mid-high six figures out of the gate.

      I also think that if you start looking for the brightest SEO guys and the wizards at each of their crafts, you can easily 'overpay' them, recruit them, and build a family structure from day one.

      The only thing I want clients to do is one blog, one email, and three tweets a day. And we'll take care of all the rest. And, yes...we'll outsource the tweets...el oh el

      Doesn't it seem like you would have a few different templates of both the videos and all the web properties? Just plug in headers and logos and colors and fonts and clips and pics as the branding progressed?

      An expansion would necessarily occur as the marketing continued after the 'event' concluded...just would need more bodies, probably. Really, though, in the end ,it would be the Media Director(?)'s decision on how much to outsource past the top couple of levels--as long as utter perfection was the result, always and forever. (insert smiley)


      'Making videos go viral'...that is EXACTLY what I'm talking about

      /
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  • Profile picture of the author IgniteFeed
    Hey, Okay, I nearly have an MBA and been involved withseveral startups. There are some fundamentals YOU MUST HAVE. Understand the initial costs (variable/fixed) is number one (even an educated estimate) - once you know your cost for delivery then you can look at going market rate. Look at competitors to judge revenue. You goona have to develop some strategc competence should you really succeed.
    .
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    • Profile picture of the author Charger14
      Originally Posted by IgniteFeed View Post

      Hey, Okay, I nearly have an MBA and been involved withseveral startups. There are some fundamentals YOU MUST HAVE. Understand the initial costs (variable/fixed) is number one (even an educated estimate) - once you know your cost for delivery then you can look at going market rate. Look at competitors to judge revenue. You goona have to develop some strategc competence should you really succeed.
      .

      Thanks, IF.

      I've also had a bit of start-up experience in various industries and I agree--without question, one must account for initial costs--as well as other, ongoing costs-- when budgeting for staffing concerns.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris-
    Hi Charger, glad you liked my comments

    My point about having a PARTNER, was that most marketing and promotion and SEO type services get paid a fixed fee, so it doesn't really matter to them much whether what they do actually MAKES YOU MONEY or not. But if the person directing those efforts is a partner of your company they only make money when your company makes money, thus they need to actually do something which makes money, for real, not just sounds good in theory.

    Most businesses paying someone else for SEO are not really tracking exactly what difference the SEO makes, especially on the long-term, so can often be paying more than the profit that work actually generates.

    I have a similar project to yours in some ways, and am very wary of paying someone to do something whether or not it actually produces real results for my project. A lot of businesses don't seem to think that matters, and seem happy to just spend money on something like SEO, just because everyone else is, without really understanding what it does and how much money exactly it is contributing to the business. Maybe that's part of the reason that 93% of businesses fail


    Chris
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    • Profile picture of the author Charger14
      Originally Posted by Chris- View Post

      Hi Charger, glad you liked my comments

      My point about having a PARTNER, was that most marketing and promotion and SEO type services get paid a fixed fee, so it doesn't really matter to them much whether what they do actually MAKES YOU MONEY or not. But if the person directing those efforts is a partner of your company they only make money when your company makes money, thus they need to actually do something which makes money, for real, not just sounds good in theory.

      Most businesses paying someone else for SEO are not really tracking exactly what difference the SEO makes, especially on the long-term, so can often be paying more than the profit that work actually generates.

      I have a similar project to yours in some ways, and am very wary of paying someone to do something whether or not it actually produces real results for my project. A lot of businesses don't seem to think that matters, and seem happy to just spend money on something like SEO, just because everyone else is, without really understanding what it does and how much money exactly it is contributing to the business. Maybe that's part of the reason that 93% of businesses fail


      Chris

      Absolutely--the measurables on SEO seem murky at best.

      I could outsource all of it but am trying to use the entire project as a way to build up the home team--to hire and train and graduate Americans in order to help return us to where we belong. So I won't mind paying more to bring talent into the fold.

      My sense is that properly positioned and linked videos should drive traffic to the various home sites, and if all properties include proper info-gathering methods, and all properties within the company y as a whole are intra-linked properly, it should create the necessary forward momentum. It really doesn't take too much additional 'traffic' of any kind to drive most businesses from marginal to profitable. And here we are much more focused on individuals as the 'product', not products.

      As such, the desired end-result of most of these branding projects is increased visibility for landing speaking engagements--another source of revenue for the company.

      My overall theory, which I have proven out before on other projects, is that by building a true family of the company, you can create an environment where innovation and excellence becomes a foregone conclusion--when fear of 'making a mistake' or 'wasting time' is eliminated, and the payscale is generous, talented people are unleashed to do what they do best. Often the most talented people on the payroll are the youngest or least well-paid, but simply acknowledging that fact out loud can create an attitude and environment of delirious innovation.

      As a bonus, this manner of treating our people like gold can create a cult-like sense of loyalty, so that when the shit hits the fan--and it will--we are ready to go to war as a unit. Literally.

      el oh el.

      Sort of.

      we should probably commiserate at some point outside of this thread, no? I'll PM you my info.

      How would one recruit the guy to build that department? This obvious and overt attempt to do just that has been met with deafening silence, present company excluded. I can't even think of how to write the ad...


      .
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris-
    Interesting stuff . . . I see your passion and interest in having an environment for excellence . . . I agree that that's a very good thing to do. I read a book recently on why some companies succeed, and it said that one of the things which matters most is not the plan or product (or even having any kind of plan or product) but getting the right people involved and the wrong people out. I agree with that approach !

    Have you had a look around the JV forum on this site? There are some people there who might fit what you're looking for . . . some people who are saying that they are very successful, and wanting to help others who have something worthwhile but don't have all the factors to make it succeed. Someone like that might be able to advise you on how to find what you're looking for, or even recommend someone they know etc.

    Hope that helps

    Chris
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