Time2Market Business Development Coaching & Consulting

Marketing Innovation for Today's Publishing World

January has been an exciting month, with Gabriella Goddard, a UK-based Executive Coach who is part of the Time2Market team of experts, launching Gulp! in the US and visiting New York. I'm receiving my signed copy this week! I've known Gabriella for about ten years now and loved the UK version, which was fun and inspiring. I also learned some very funny expressions that stick with me today. One of those was "nut it on the head", which I'll write about later. But for now, if you need to nut your book marketing on the head (if I can actually use the expression that way), here are a few tools to help make your mark:

• Blogs
• Book trailer videos
• Podcasts
• Interactive facebook

Gulp! is a great example of marketing innovation in the publishing world, with these on-line tools in action. Check out www.gulptoday.com, and give up living passively. Your marketing campaign can take on a whole new look, integrating these digital tools.

Start up and Small Business Tips - Lessons Learned

9 small business owners share what they would have done differently starting their businesses today and the following tips result:

• create a marketing plan to promote e-commerce and build your customer base faster
• focus time and money on search engine optimization, especially if you are in a competitive market that is closely tied to on-line shopping and/or information gathering
• emphasize employee commissions as incentives to drive more business
• seize multicultural product offering and/or marketing opportunities
• consult your board of directors to sound out ideas for growth
• have a marketing and PR budget
• create a local, scalable, sales development program/model
• have a partner to work with
• get help/staff to support the business and pick up some of the work

Check out the article from Entrepreneur.com, which highlights e-commerce, real estate, health-care management, restaurant, hair care, catering, video game, and apparel retail businesses.  And, contact us, if you need to move forward fast with tips above for business growth.

International expansion – Are you prepared?

If your business is expanding internationally, look closely before you leap.  Both large and small companies sometimes underestimate the requirements and difficulty of expanding operations abroad.  Recently noted examples in the press include Google’s experiences with Orkut in Brazil, as well as the experiences of smaller firms.

Apart from understanding the business environment from a marketing perspective (e.g., business/consumer demographics, competition, etc.), examine key areas, such as:

• country specific practices and regulations relevant to your business operations and industry
• cross-border, as well as, local taxes and duties
• labor laws and practices
• foreign currency, in the context of local and global economic trends

You can read about how these factors have impacted some large and small businesses by clicking the links above.  Be sure you are prepared to create detailed market analyses and entrance plans for growth.  And, find a dedicated local person, or firm, to help establish your local presence in target markets before launch.

Leaders Shift Paradigms for Success

Last month I was looking for a leader's perspective around a few key areas that some struggle with, which include holding a vision and committing to goal achievement.  This month, I had the opportunity to hear Billie Jean King convey her story, which addressed these points very well. Her perspective shed further light on the paradigm shift that leaders need for success. From an early age, on her second day in tennis practice (!), she committed to becoming the best tennis player in the world.  She pursued and achieved top tennis rankings by the mid-70's, but her legacy includes much more which makes her stand out as a truly unique champion and leader. Her legacy includes building new professional opportunities for women in tennis, and driving a level playing field for women, i.e., equality. Throughout her career and life, Billie Jean King has moved toward, and also created, new paradigms to achieve success. 

Billie Jean King continues to live her legacy and build further success.  She shared three key learnings, which she continues to apply in her life for achievements. These three learnings can help you too!

I like Juice too...Juice Wireless and JuiceCaster that is

Qualcomm's not the only one. See Red Herring.  Great news yesterday for Juice Wireless, with the announcement of great funding partners. I like everything I've learned about Juice so far. JuiceCaster is quite interesting and the company has moved forward fast!  I'm adding Juice Wireless as my first "Showcase-able Start up", with high-energy, experienced and focused entrepreneurs leading the way.  Wishing the company and team lots of luck and will continue to watch.

Is Business Blogging for you?

Business leaders take note - an increasing number of people, from the C-level executive to staff employee, are engaging in business and personal blogging, as well as other social media activity.  This affects your business development efforts in a number of ways. It's time to plan how business blogging and social media interaction can be used for effective business development in your business. I explored this topic at the Blogher.org conference in New York this week.

WOW Experts

E-mail or call us for wireless insights. This is what others are saying about the 3GSM report...

"Excellent summary, as always. Mind if I pass it around BEA??" - Eric Burger, Deputy CTO, BEA

"Thanks for sending me another great report! You save me the wear and tear of a trip to Barcelona each year!" - Hugh Bradlow, CTO Telstra Group

"Insightful analysis, as always." - Simeon Simeonov, General Partner, Polaris Ventures

Time2Market’s TMT industry expert discussions are by appointment only. E-mail or call us at (212) 372-3256 to schedule your time for views on: the digital divide, mobile broadband evolution short and long-term, device market outlook, next generation networks and services, or emerging companies.

More excellent reviews TMT experts received...

2007 TMT Wireless Update following 3GSM

TMT Investors, Entrepreneurs and Business Management – Where will you play?

Tremendous transformation is how I would describe the wireless services market in the past 15+ years.  My work in the early to mid-90’s, for AirTouch Communications (now part of Vodafone and Verizon Wireless), included compiling the first comprehensive world market studies for the emerging company to pursue its international expansion vision.  In less then a decade, that company became a dominant world player, offering leading wireless products and services worldwide, as it successfully navigated significant change in the technology, regulatory, consumer, and competitive landscapes.

Every year we watch this and witness the ongoing evolution of the industry.  For Time2Market Telecom, Media and Technology clientele, The TMT Experts' Report is in from 3GSM in Barcelona with the 2006-2007 update, so you can understand the state of the worldwide wireless telecommunications and technology market. This update provides meaningful competitive intelligence for your product and service development, as well as market positioning. E-mail or call us to arrange a time to speak.  In the meantime, highlights from the TMT Experts' Report:
- Mobile subscribers reached 2.7 billion worldwide, year-end 2006
- 480 million new subscribers are expected in 2007, 80% of growth will be from developing markets
- 3G/WCDMA networks, 130 commercial networks operational, in 60+ countries, approx. 100 million subs
- HSDPA, 93 networks commercially launched in 51 countries
- WiMax interactive video emerging
- Mobile VoIP and SIP-based video calling making headway
- Less hype on IMS, more focus on services with or without IMS
- Ongoing debates in the walled garden pave the way for new service delivery platforms
- Mobile content, more location-based services and smartphone apps emerging, and consolidation in select mobile media spaces
- Mobile handset sales expected to exceed 1 billion in 2007 for the first time
- Interoperable IM services making progress
- Voice SMS is growing in developing markets
- Mobile TV less hype and more reality, 2006 pilots phasing into 2007 commercial deployments, DRM remains a major issue for mobile content growth.

Time2Market’s TMT industry expert discussions are by appointment only. E-mail or call us at (212)372-3256 to schedule your time for views on: the digital divide, mobile broadband evolution short and long-term, device market outlook, and next generation networks and services, or emerging companies.

Click here to view testimonials

If you did not...

get to 3GSM in Barcelona this week, some of our experts did.  If your company is operating in the telecom, media, and technology space, and you're focused on mobile communications and/or digital media, you'll need information on emerging companies, local and international competition and technology developments. E-mail or call us to schedule a time for key insights.

Scaling up - I visited Google’s New York office this past week to learn more about the company’s operations here. Lots of advertising sales activity in New York, some mobile development going on here as well, and who knows what else? We had limited time, but the bottom line is that Google, as you know, is growing fast. It was at around 7,500 employees worldwide last summer, and it is now closer to 10,000, growing to ? this year, with lots of international activity. It develops and pilots products and services over quite a number of months before full commercial release, and it was interesting to see some sample timelines.

What are your plans to scale up this year?  What new products and services will be launched, and how many people will be working with you to support development activity?