Lost in Kollel » seth godin

Starting a Business from the Ground Up

aaron — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:41:54 +0000

Kollel guys looking to go work don’t have the wealth of choices that are available to most American college grads entering the work force. A college grad however, has many choices. Most of them will start their careers by using their degree to get themselves a “starter job”, which they hope to use as a stepping stone in their career advancement. But some of them will use their accomplishments while in college (research, projects, associations) as a means of reaching out to investors who will fund their projects and ideas with the hope of creating a successful new business, such as the VC’s that funded Larry Page & Sergey Brin’s startup company in 1999 called Google. Not very many, though, will begin their careers by starting their own business without any financial or logistical backing whatsoever.

But us kollel guys don’t have these options available. We generally don’t have any degree to speak of, so we can’t get a traditional job that pays even a modest salary. We also don’t have the expertise and recognition that will get the interest of venture capitalists or other investors in the business. And we have much greater expenses than the population at large, so we can’t just take any entry level position which pays far less than a frum family can manage on.

And so, we are left with only one choice, and that is called bootstrapping. That means to create a new business with little or no money, and to grow that business by using only the internal cash flow that is reinvested in the business. Building a business this way requires no college degree, no angel investors, and no large business loans. The business is conceived, operated, accounted, and overseen by its owner – who doesn’t have to answer to anyone, except to satisfy his customers so they come back and bring others along with them.

Is the path to success a long and hard one? Is it tough to begin your business using a fold up table and chair, without having the “prestige” of an executive office? Aren’t most small businesses out of business within 5 years? Yes, yes, and yes.

But when you are a kollel guy looking for work – there is not much of a choice in the matter. That makes the decision to operate this way so much easier.

P.S. Here’s a great free e-book on how (and why) to be a successful bootstrapper – The Bootstrapper’s Bible, by Seth Godin.

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Increased Layoffs Provides Excellent Opportunity

aaron — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 05:54:45 +0000

As the economic downturn continues on with no end in site, many frum professionals are being laid off from their jobs – even those with many years of experience. From my informal surveys, it seems that although some of them will seek other jobs, many of them are choosing to go out on their own and try to build their own practice from within the frum community.

This translates into a massive increase of CPAs, lawyers, insurance brokers, financial planners that will all be competing for business from within the frum market. That will make business very tough for these newcomers, which means that in order to get customers, they will have to resort to spend money to market their business.

If you are clever, sharp, and have a lomdishe kup, this presents an excellent business opportunity for you. What these professionals need, more than ever, is someone who can successfully market their business to the frum community. In order for them to possibly succeed, they need to define their specialty and market that to the world. Most professionals I have met are terrible at marketing themselves.

Yes, they know how to creatively hide millions of dollars from the IRS for a wealthy client, but they don’t have a clue on how to get that person through their door. If you can come up with a plan, they will pay you handsomely for it.

There are so many books on how to do creative marketing. If this tempts you at all, I strongly urge you to head over to the bookstore and start reading. As you may know, I highly recommend Seth Godin’s books. Within a year, you can have hundreds of customers paying you very well for your services.

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Oorah Marketing 101: Upset Some (but not all) People

aaron — Wed, 20 May 2009 03:50:36 +0000

Another vital lesson that we all can learn from Oorah is to push the limits of what most people consider acceptable. They promote themselves in ways that makes many frum yeshivishe people uncomfortable. For example, they (gasp!) feature women in their CDs. They use Lipa to create a wild and rocky performance for kids all over the world to see and emulate. They give away entertainment systems as prizes. They are all over the internet. [I have heard that a certain Rosh Yeshiva commented that he is appalled by the ugly nature of the Oorah CD - and how does he know? Because he took the time to watch it!]

However, the bottom line of everything is – Oorah is unbelievably successful at what they do. And precisely the fact that makes some people angry is what makes them so appealing to others. They stir the pot, causing people to take sides – and when people have to take sides many will choose their side, and support them even more enthusiastically than before.

In business, you will never make everyone happy. But you can make some people very happy with your performance. Do something daring, edgy, even slightly reckless – you will make enemies, but you will also make ardent supporters. Boring, safe people – they don’t become the talk of the town. Be remarkable – that is one sure way to succeed.

There are things you can do for yourself that you don’t allow yourself to do because you are scared of doing them. Its time to reconsider. One can no longer afford to be boring. Get noticed by being remarkable. And the few people that will get stirred up about you – they will be your biggest asset.

I once heard from the Yeshiva World Editor that his biggest day will come when the Rabbonim get together to ban his site. Ask anyone who’s books have been banned – as soon as the bans went into effect the author gets the most attention.

Seth writes about being remarkable on his blog. And the book that tells you how can be purchased here.

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