Startup Strategy: Are You Playing the Same Old Tune?

My college-aged son played “Satin Doll” with his jazz band in a local upscale restaurant last week.  I turned to my wife and told her I played that song in a big band music group back in 1969.  The 1953 Duke Ellington song is still timeless.  But the same old tune doesn’t work for business startups.

The Digital Music News reported that nearly $15 million dollars was thrown at music startups in July bringing the year-to-date total to $143 million, Spotfly representing almost 1/4th of the total.

So far this year, about a half a dozen startup record companies have approached me to design a strategy and business plan for their new music venture.  They always have the same plan: 360 deals, sign up and write for other bands, run on a shoestring budget.

I always reply, “So, what are you going to do different than the other companies, because their business models are broken.”

I always get a blank look because they only seek to do what others have done unsuccessfully before them.  This of course allows me to do my Blue Ocean Strategy speach.  I also thrown in my bad strategy caution.

A large componet that I stress to startups is that you must focus on your consumer.  What is the consumer asking for?  What are your competators giving the consumer that they don’t want?  Are you able to create a strategy where you can extracate those things the consumer is not asking for and present a product or a service to the consumer that they are not getting from your competators?

Business consultants seem to produce the same framework for startups.  To think like those who have come before you will not turn your startup into a resounding success.   I am not saying that you should launch a startup based on some hairbrained scheme that you have not researched.  No, instead, you should make informed decisions and take calculated risks with your startup.

In addition, don’t paint only a rosy picture of your startup, but present scenarios that show breakeven, normal, and pie-in-the-sky financial projections.