Design Thinking, Sales, & Go To Market Strategies for Small Business

Last Friday I got to attend a lunchtime workshop hosted by the one and only Anthony Kuhlmann! Anthony is well known in the Brisbane startup scene but only recently launched Red Apple Consultancy.

Friday was a bit of an experiment. Not sure how it went from Anthony's perspective, but I got a fair bit out of it. Sales are probably my weakest aspect. So it's always good to learn as much as I can about this aspect of the business world.

Finally, the workshop took place in Christie Spaces. It's a co-working place I had never visited before. It was very fancy. I am currently in the process of cancelling my membership with Brisbane City Council's Brisbane Marketing, who took over my Little Tokyo Two membership. If I opt to get a new co-working space membership, I might look into Christie Space. But for now, I am sticking to QUT Foundry, which was fancy new space of its own!

End of Little Tokyo Two

I am going to keep this short because by now, the background and story of Little Tokyo Two going into voluntary liquidation has become widely known and covered. I am, of course, affected because I joined Little Tokyo Two back in January. Admittedly, I was less interested in the co-working side and more interested in the incubation services, introduction to relevant parties and support with growing my business. It was why I choose Little Tokyo Two over Fishburners and River City Labs.

Jock did get me four leads for customers. But unfortunately, I wasn’t able to convert any of them into sales. The most use I ended-up making of my membership with Little Tokyo Two was through the use of their three boardrooms for meetings. But I was beginning to make plans with Little Tokyo Two support staff to put together a workshop, plus looking to get on relevant podcasts when the news hit. I am disappointed but not surprised because, in hindsight, the writing was on the wall.

So what’s been happening? My membership was transferred to Brisbane Marketing, who are a branch of the Brisbane City Council. The Council has assured me that my membership will continue for the time being as normal. Fishburners has stepped up to provide community support services. Also, Office Hub has contacted me trying to sign me with their service to help with my move away from Little Tokyo Two.

Honestly, I am happy to go with the flow for the time being. I am still using the meeting rooms. So I’ll keep my membership going for now. My initial contract was until the end of June. So let’s see if I get to the end of my contract or if I bail out by May!

Arc Hardware Incubator

This week, I finally got to visit the Arc Hardware Incubator in Fortitude Valley. I first heard about the incubator during the Creative Tech Start-up Weekend as the equipment available at the incubator was offered to teams to develop their prototype. Given how badly the weekend went for me, I didn't get a chance to visit. So it was a nice surprise to be able to see inside while attending the Brisbane IoT Meetup. It's a very nice space.

They have made very clever use of a very narrow building that's also fairly historic. So there was a lot of things they couldn't knock down or take out. But they have still managed to put in an impressive array of equipment, labs and studios. They have,

• Multiple types of 3D Printers
• Desktop Vacuum Forming Facilities
• Desktop Laser Cutting Facilities
• Vinyl Cutting Facilities
• PCB Engraving Facilities
• Soldering Stations
• Post Processing Tools
• Assembly Equipment etc.

They also have a pretty neat event space too. I kind of wish I had hardware start-up ideas so that I would have an excuse to book some time into Arc. But alas, I don't have any hardware ideas that will let me play with the toys in Arc Incubator. What a pity!

My Startup Weekend Experience

Last weekend I took part in Brisbane's Startup Weekend 2017. I went in blind. Not only had I never attended a Startup Weekend before, but I also have never even heard of it and bought my tickets after only a cursory reading of the promotional page. The event came to my notice while the early bird ticket price was still active and I figured $60 was cheap enough for me just to go along and see what the weekend was about. I am very glad I did! Because the weekend was not only great fun, but I feel I learnt a lot about the whole Startup process and I feel more connected to the Brisbane startup scene.

I pitched Kids Exp - it got some votes but not enough!

The Weekend started Friday night when we got an introduction to the concept and asked to pitch ideas. The ideas had to be pre-prototype. It was okay if you had thought long and hard about them and even did some market research. But if you had a prototype or a minimum viable product that was already on the market, you couldn't pitch.

I pitched a modified version of the idea behind Route 17 as Kids Experience. My idea was that when you have kids, you don't have a lot of time or energy to research and plan activities to do with the kids. So even if you have a chunk of time to spend with the kids, you might just end up watching TV because you are too exhausted to think of something else. So why not make an app that helps you plan and execute activities to do with your kids, before your kids start thinking you are uncool very quickly, even if you are Batman! 

The latter was a bit of an inside joke for anyone reading the current crop of DC comics. But in retrospect, it was too much of an inside joke. Also in retrospect, the name was not great. There were something like 30 to 40 pitches, you needed something that rolled off the tongue or some other way to be memorable. If I attend another weekend and pitch again, I'll definitely pitch both an easier concept to transmit in the short time with a memorable name that sticks with you.

I still could have tried to recruit people to my idea, but I opted to join another team. One of the other ideas that struck me as good and practical was the concept of renting out your home office space. Sort of like an Airbnb for home offices. So I ended up joining Shared Space! The name was supposed to be a placeholder, but we never ended up finding another name that we liked more. So Shared Space stuck around.

Shared Space team with our first space sharer!

Shared Space Front Page

Over the weekend we first put together a Google form survey to gauge if there was a market for the idea. It turns out there was a niche for people who did experience the loneliness and isolation of working from home but were too far away from formal co-working spaces like the ones I covered in the previous post. A lot of people, it seems would appreciate a cheaper and more local option. Also, there are people who live too far from all available co-working spaces.

It was less about renting a space, and more about forming a community that would help lessen the feeling of isolation and might also help maintain focus, increasing accountability etc. However, for some people, it was about the space because either their home offices lacked amenities such as air conditioning or they just needed to go somewhere else from time to time.

Shared Space Team Making Final Pitch

I think we did good work and made a great final pitch to the judges. But we didn't place. I suspect we should have spent more time developing our business plan and also putting in some more features that helped to differentiate us from existing competitors in the space. Still, I think the idea has legs, and my team might go ahead with the concept. The lady who originally pitched the concept is sleeping on it and will decide to proceed or not soon.

For my part, I am going ahead exploring collaboration opportunities with people I met over the weekend. I had a meeting lined-up on Wednesday, but it fell through. But I have another meeting scheduled for Friday. Let's hope that goes well and I get some great collaborations coming out of the weekend.

Co-working Spaces in Brisbane

This month, I attended a meet-up at Fishburners. It is the second co-working space I have visited for a meet-up. My app marketing meet-up has been happening in the Salt Space. So I started thinking about the co-working spaces that are available in and around Brisbane. I mean, working from home is great when you are working independently or just starting-up. But a lot of people quickly discover that the isolation gets to them. Of course, co-working spaces have their pitfalls, but a carefully selected co-working space can be a great investment. Especially if it also comes with a community that promotes engagement with other users of the space.

So I decided to do a little research on the coworking spaces in Brisbane and came up with the table below, comparing the cost per month, along with highlighting if you can get a dedicated desk at the space and perhaps more importantly if there is an explicit community attached to the working space. I mean, if you put yourself out there, you'll make friends in any shared environment. But some coworking spaces, like River City Labs, explicitly promote engagement with the community.

Comparison of coworking spaces in Brisbane

Community engagement can be the most important part of joining one of these co-working spaces, but only if you are willing to put in the extra effort to be social. But I think that if you wanted if you just wanted a quiet space to work because you are sick of your home office. Th State Library's Business Studio space might just do, although the State Library is also trying to build a community around its space.

Of course, with the community, you also have to make sure it's the right community. The Coterie and Liquid Space, for example, seem to be more geared towards creative types. So tech start-ups might not get a lot of bang for their buck if they decide to rent space within those coworking spaces but would probably get more out of the community at River City Labs or Fishburners. The other way to look at it is that if you float around different co-working spaces with the various communities, it might stop you from going into your bubble and become blinkered. A lot of these spaces offer day passes and casual passes. So I would certainly advise maybe varying it up from time to time.

As for me, I am going to make an effort to work out of the State Libraries Business Studio for at least a day or two in the coming month. I love my home office, but it can only help me to work from a different location from time to time!