Future History Lesson on bottled water

Follow Me Twitter Images-go for it

Help yourself...these have been cleaned up and resized for use as links...best of luck 

BTW...automate your tweets here....I do

To busy to Tweet

If you are on Twitter and Face book and want to save some serious time here is a couple of tips that will help you.

First off.  Why keep posting?  Well it is the ONLY way you stay visible to the very network you are building...this applies to both Facebook and Twitter.

What the %&*# do I write?  This is a tricky one, telling people you are off to feed the cat is hardly a thrilling post so you also want to keep it varied, informative and real world stuff.  I use a combination of commercially interesting data, quotes, links, funnies and actual things I am doing.

The Twitter TIP - I started using a free service to pre-load my tweets (f..K I hate that word!) anyway I preloaded all these 140 character or less posts and then plan them out over a 24 hour period (takes about 15 mins)....then for the super tricky part it automatically can be set to update my Facebook AND they are saved as drafts so I can keep using those little gems over and over (not too over and over you can't be lazy!)...I eventually signed up for the pro version which is cheap as chips anyway...it has not just saved me time but it keeps the dame thing current when I am asleep....check out the little bugger here>>

Other tips- don't post on twitter like 5 in a row...it's bloody annoying ..don't be blatantly pushing your own product..it is obvious and lame..the only thing saving this from being a FAD is that it stays interesting.

Is Twitter for Twats ?

My introduction to twitter was through general conversation with friends.  None of them had joined but all present had a solid opinion all the same...it is for twats!...BUT I am not so sure...

 

My second introduction was through my friend Andy, he is in the entrepreneurial market space and was qualified to have a valid take on the whole thing...so I joined.

To describe Twitter  is difficult but here it goes.   It is a never ending list of posts from businesses and people...some are about having a cup of tea and others about real world tips and sales etc.

The system keeps comments brief and fast moving (140 characters only), called posts.  These are either visible online or in other parts of the world as text messages.

  The word "follower" is somewhat misleading in the sense that you are not actually visibly followed unless your follower happened to be sitting there at the moment a post is made...but it does feed a part of every ones ego...hey " I have 4000 followers" or as in Ashton Kutchers case 1000,000 followers !

I can imagine describing this to my Poppa, he'd be like..."What the hell! Who's following you..you mean to say you have 180 followers!" ...he was freaked out enough when I showed him google maps, when the satellite image map was over his house he wanted me to go outside and wave at him :-)

The unwritten assumption is that if you follow someone they will generally follow you...it does not always work that way and my follower numbers is about half of the number I am following.

As a first contact point it is better than Facebook, because there is less to look at, it is simple and every Tom, Dick and Harry is not sending you a request!

Why did I join?  Well I have a product that appeals to the twitter generation and they don't happen to know about it !  

My goal is to build a social network base by adding value where I can free of charge and in return I hope to have a network of people that I can send information too and eventually increase my products profile.

The catch is I don't have time to manage all these social networking tools but they are important all the same.  

See my next blog post about saving time via automation.

Brief business model discussion

I have spent quite some time and energy looking at different business models for the global distribution of the  Hydropal filtered sports bottle.

Our business model has been designed to eliminate the “middle man”.  This is a global trend.  You will probably already know that retailers are constantly trying to  buy direct off the manufacturer, often after they have been introduced the product by a “middle man”. 

The current economic situation means this will happen more and more as margins are squeezed well below what we have been used to in the past.  Having the additional reseller level adds not just to the price but also to the complexities of managing ‘who spoke with who and when’. 

Consequently, we have a three tier distribution model, 

1. An  Agent(importer), 
2. Distributor/s and 
3. the Retailer.  

The Hydropal is a bottle full of air so it made sense to find a agent in each territory that could supply and print the bottle section in order to save of freight costs and more importantly, production lead times.  So this becomes my entry point for each territory.  

This is typically a manufacturer with little or no experience in marketing.  This matters not because the marketing is done by the next level up and by Hydropal head office.  As long as they can hold stock, turn out good product on time and stick to the plan we are happy.

The distributor or distributors.  This is where the business model gets interesting.  Every distributor that is clearly effective is going to want an exclusive.   The challenge is to offer an exclusive in the area they are good at and leave out the market segments where others are better.  This does not apply to all products, in the case of Hydropal it clearly appeals to different consumers for different reasons and we are yet to find one company that covers them all.

Finally, the retailer.  Retail is now taken over with global retailers that are busy buying up smaller independents so making the right approach is critical because if you are not in with the big boys you can miss some serious opportunities. 

It can take years to develop a rapport with head office and buyers.  It is best to find distributors with existing relationships and accounts already loaded into their system....make sure you have allowed enough margin for the retailer and their marketing levies and hard arse payment terms.

Spend time to find a business model that works for you now and in the future when volume kicks in.  The less tiers of distribution the better.  It is less complicated, it results in a cheaper retail price and affords greater control over branding.

Got an idea? ...is it commercially sound? & will it work for you?

If you are constantly thinking of better ways of doing something then your mind will be filled with little gems on a daily basis.

Choosing an idea to pursue passionately through the depths of hell to heavenly completion is another matter altogether...many ideas are thought of and then vapourised because for one reason or another it just wasn't going to work.

If you have watched the Dragons Den series then you will know how painful it is to watch some out of it dude/dudette being told that his/her idea is total crap and will never make any money...it is just horrible...try not to be that geezer or geezerette :-) 

First off...write a list of check points that each of your concepts and ideas must pass to reach the next stage.  The list must be well thought out and cover off not just commercially sensible checks but also personal factors ie if you can't travel much because of children or, on the extreme side,  drug convictions then don't get excited about an idea that needs you to be traveling...sounds simple?

Here is my list I wrote in 1993...I had no idea what it was that I was going to invent but I knew that if I had a yes next to each one of these criteria then I was onto a winner. 

• It must be a new idea or concept
• It must be able to be used by 90% of the population 
• It must be consumable, ie you have to keeping buying something to keep it working.
• It must be affordable to 90% of the population
• Target price point must sell for less than $USD10

I passed no less than 20 ideas past this list, a few were great ideas but most were average.  I was not deterred as I was after the holy grail of inventions.   The night I thought of the Hydropal concept (26 months later) I knew I was onto something...mainly because of my list.   In my mind I immediately went down my list ticking off each box and when they were all ticked I couldn't sleep...it was a pretty cool that still brings an involuntary smile to my face.

So make a list that's good for you..maybe with a little more detail than my original one (hey... I was only 22 then) and start to run some concepts passed it.

"No man can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come."

- Victor Hugo

Advice on taking advice

This is all about general advice when starting out...professional advise is a whole new ball game.

You have an idea and you don't want to tell anyone for fear of it getting copied...this is healthy paranoia and it is good to keep your ideas close to your chest...the problem is that you can only trust the people you know and unfortunately this leaves you wide open to all types of advice like these...

• People that mean well but really have no idea what to do 
• People that have some idea but want to protect you from "failure"
• People that have paranoid conspiracy theories that justify commenting on life but not living it
• People that know what they are saying but have ulterior motives
• Super conservative advice
• Super risky advice
• Extremely good advice at the right time (I hope this happens for you)
• and people that rave on and on when they've had a little drink or two (including me and most people I know)

So that covers pretty much everyone, what now?   You simply choose two people you trust, make sure you choose them because you respect their opinion...keep in mind, as your business and experience grows you should be looking for somebody you respect that knows more than you on certain subjects so your advisors will change.  

Try and get two opposites ie a conservative person and a risk taker...they don't have to know each other.

The idea is, when you need an opinion (advice) you can ask the same question of both and find a middle ground...then here's the important bit...YOU make the decision.  

Some easy rules - Never ask for advice always ask for an opinion.  Make sure you take an opinion (advice) as just that...it is not an order because as said above you make the decision and finally, always remember that the decision was made with all the information available to you at the time...so stick by it, move on and don't regret it by using 20;20 hindsight.

So it may not be an origional idea...it doesn't matter

Don't let the fear of not being first deter you...and if you are first don't let the fear of it being copied deter you either.

The original Hydropal Patent was filed on Friday the 31st of May 1995...on the following Monday the 3rd of April 1995 a guy called Jack Nohren filed a Patent for the same concept but a different way of making a filtered sports bottle, in the USA...that's three days difference across the other side of the world by a guy 50 years older than me and a completely different upbringing...I still find it incredible  (just for the record my patent covers the single best way but there is always another way).

So think about it...there are 6.7 billion people in the world so you can bet a whole pile of money that at some point somebody else has come up with the same idea as you...what makes the difference is your 100% belief you are going to make it work and the perseverance to pursue it.

What to expect from this blog...

So why would you bookmark this blog?  If you have an idea, had an idea, want an idea and need to try and learn from somebody else's mistakes then you might want to read this and even if you take away one thing that helps you then that's worth it for me and for you.

The blog posts are short and sweet.

So if your from another Country and you think NZ is a bunch of sheep and nice scenery but not much else then you are both quite right and quite mistaken.  We are leaders in technology across many different fields.  Large corporations use us as test markets for new technology products as we are very quick adopters of technology.

No matter where you come from the challenges will be similar...