Today, I felt like I was waving a hundred-dollar bill in the air and couldn’t give it away.
I reeeeeally wanted to buy something from a small business owner today: a custom screensaver that could be offered for a Mac or PC user. One of my clients needs it as a branding piece.
We don’t have a huge budget and we don’t have a lot of time. It doesn’t have to be terribly creative. We just wanted someone who would be easy to work with and who would turn it around fast if we sent them some photos and a logo.
I don’t want to buy software. I don’t want to create a Flash movie. I don’t want to hire a designer.
We want a real person to do it.
I googled and found a bunch of shareware and software sites – but no real people. I tweeted for a recommendation and no one answered.
Have screensavers become passé? Or is there just no one in the bespoke screensaver business?
If someone already had a computer, there is screensaver production software available for $400. That and a simple website would set them up for a profitable little gig. It might be a tiny business but I could easily see it generating some steady income.
My son briefly had a business making custom yoyo strings. Yoyo fanatics loved them. The secret: special blend of fibers that you couldn’t get from a yoyo shop.
Now he splices web videos and tags them with logos for a very small fee. Clients love them. The secret: quick turn-around and he doesn’t act like Kubrick.
For years, I made and sold pearl and sterling earrings. I sold them for about $20 and customers loved them. I run into people wearing them now and they rave about how much they still love them. My secret: quality materials at a lovable price with lever back ear wires to minimize the chance of losing an earring. The lever backs didn’t cost me a lot more but they made the product so much more desirable.
What I’ve learned after 15 years years as an entrepreneur, and just as many hiring contractors, is this:
It’s the tiny things that make a huge difference.
The lever back… the live person on the phone… the straightforward offer that is reliably fulfilled.
I see lots of entrepreneurs get lost and fail because they are trying to navigate a galaxy. Sometimes the lowly pet rock IS the best place to call home. And a profitable home at that.
So what’s your tiny difference?
image credit: audreyjm529
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By Laurie Foley
I'm Laurie Foley and I help solo professionals like you discover your natural brand so that you can get clear, get noticed and get clients. Please request your free copy of The Inner Brandifesto, my popular guidebook full of brand-building exercises.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Laurie – you are singing my song!! I find this especially true when I want computer help. I JUST WANT TO TALK TO A PERSON!!! I don’t want to answer a million questions just so I can answer a question. If I knew the answers – I wouldn’t be asking the questions! Simple is so much better to start with. Choices are great – but it would be nice if the first choice was “simple approach”. Thanks Laurie – I love this post!
@Sheila – Zactly! Google is great but this need is part of what is creating interesting work for Mavens. See http://bigbrightbulb.com/hire-me/ for the most awesome Maven that I know. Thanks for your comment!
.-= Laurie Foley´s last blog ..Go Small or Go Home =-.
I totally feel you on this Laurie. I spent some serious time looking for someone to put up a simple, affordable (for us) website and got lost earlier this week. It drove me nuts. I had a list of what I wanted and questions about whether they would do the job. The phase 1 budget was under $500 and not billions later on. Jeez, I had my credit card out, sitting next to me, I was ready, willing and able to buy, but, nada! So, after a minor hissiy fit (thanks to self-coaching it was not major) I had to reschedule my search for next week-FRUSTRATION reared it’s ugly head!
@Stacy – Don’t know if you’re still looking for someone but you might want to talk to http://aliciarittenhouse.com. She’s got some great options for tight budgets. Good luck!
.-= Laurie Foley´s last blog ..Go Small or Go Home =-.
Right on Laurie.
This rings totally true for me. There is so much awesome to be found in the seemingly small stuff. The stuff that’s really not so small after all.
I recently ordered a couple of singing bowls from a really high end seller-of-bowls. I was expecting a really gorgeous experience when I opened the box holding the expensive bowls.
What I got?
Bowls that were filled with dust, wrapped in newspaper, gunked up with goo from stickers they’d take off and packing stuff that spilled out all over the floor, making a huge mess.
Granted, the bowls are beautiful.
The experience and my impression of the company? Not so much. I probably won’t buy from them again. Not just because of the opening-the-box experience, but because that experience revealed a gap in the way the talk about the bowls and the way they act about them.
Paying attention to the details really matters. You can tell a lot about how much someone loves what they do – whatever it is – by how much attention they pay to the details.
.-= Fabeku Fatunmise´s last blog ..A Game Of Go Fish =-.
@Fabeku – In contrast to when you buy even a small thing from Apple… Or go out to eat sushi… Or the way the staff always say “my pleasure” when I go through my favorite drive-through… tiny details, consistently presented.
That bowl company trashed their brand – literally!
Great to see you here – mwah!
.-= Laurie Foley´s last blog ..Go Small or Go Home =-.
Laurie, If I remember from something I read a long time ago you may have had a hard time finding a physical person to design a screen saver because people don’t use them anymore. The reason screen savers were there was because on old CRT monitors if you left it on the image could literally be burned into the screen. Therefore creating a need for screen savers. With modern monitors we don’t have that problem. Also, there is so much stuff out there about being “green” and how to stop using screen savers because they use up so much energy. Just set your monitor to turn off after 10 minutes of non-usage.
What an interesting perspective and I think you’re exactly right. There’s no demand for the screensaver product anymore, hence no real people to provide it. Such a blind spot on my part – thanks, Karen!
Laurie Foley´s last [type] ..Are You An Idea Hamster