All posts by Shamz78

Phil Knight Founder Of Nike-He ‘Just did it’!

 

 

 

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Phil Knight. A man who has been widely regarded as one of the most influential people in sports, despite the fact that he’s not an athlete or a team owner. A person who has built a $29.6 billion dollar brand, which is a household name, from scratch – Nike.

During his early years, Phil was just like most young college students – he had graduated from the University Of Oregon in 1959, with a degree in journalism and without a clue about his future prospects.

However, there were two key things that led to him founding Nike. The first was that Phil was a track runner while he was studying Journalism, and he trained under the renowned coach, Bill Bowerman. Bowerman at the time was actively trying to make better track shoes for athletes. Now, Phil wasn’t really the best athlete on the team, but that made him the best lab rat to try on the shoes made by Bowerman.

The second was the Small Business class he attended while he joined Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1960. In this class, the professor once described the characteristics of an entrepreneur, and that was when Phil had his epiphany – he realized that he had this ‘entrepreneurial mind-set’, and that that was his calling.
In this class, when he was required to write a business plan, he naturally made one on the making of athletic shoes, and his paper was titled ‘Can Japanese Sports Shoes Do to German Sports Shoes What Japanese Cameras Did to German Cameras?’. The idea behind this paper was that superior quality athletic shoes could be manufactured in Japan instead of Germany, where labour is cheaper. This was the premise behind his entrepreneurial venture, which later went on to become Nike.

So, soon after graduating from Stanford in 1962, Phil went to Japan as a part of his world tour and began putting his business plan into action. There, he met up with Mr.Onitsuka, the owner of the Tiger brand of running shoes, which was quite popular in Japan at the time. He introduced himself as the head of a then fictional company called ‘Blue Ribbon Sports’, and succeeded in getting exclusive distributer rights for Tiger shoes in the western US.

Phil had ordered shoe samples from the Onitsuka Tiger Co., which would take about a year to arrive. Meanwhile, forced by his father to get a regular desk job, Phil worked as an accountant. Once the initial shoes were shipped, he sent them over to his former coach, Bowerman, who he saw as a potential client, as Bowerman was obsessed with the idea of making better running shoes for athletes. Phil was pleasantly surprised when Bowerman not only bought the initial samples, but also decided to partner with him to formally establish Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964.

Phil and Bowerman kept exporting shoes from Japan, and Bowerman provided the product design ideas for them. In the meanwhile, Phil also continued his employment as an accountant. By 1969, sales had grown to a point where Phil would have to leave his job and hire additional staff to keep up with the burgeoning demand.

By 1971, demand had grown close to $3 million. Around that time, Blue Ribbon Sports was also having certain contract disagreements with Tiger Co, because of which it broke off from the contract, and Phil and Bowerman started designing their own shoes.

For marketing their products, Phil didn’t rely on conventional advertising. He instead, got acquainted with top athletes, and got them to try and use the Nike shoe. Through athlete endorsements, Nike sales shot up even further.

In 1972, the company got its famous ‘Swoosh’ logo, and in 1978, the company renamed itself to Nike at the suggestion of the first employee of the company, Jeff Johnson.

Phil served as the CEO of Nike till 2004, after which he resigned and remained the Chairman of the company up until 2017.

Key Success Factors To Help You Succeed In Small Business

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This post aims to provide some key success factors for a small boat wrapping company, i.e. the question we’re trying to answer is – what does the company’s success hinge on?

First, let’s try and see the type of business we’re dealing with. A boat wrapping company, such as, www.midcoast-customs.com , essentially, would be a small, fragmented, service business. Fragmented because companies such as this, would usually serve a particular region, and there could be multiple such businesses in a region. A certain business may or may not be able to dominate. And needless to say, the business provides a service, which is wrapping a boat.

Continue reading Key Success Factors To Help You Succeed In Small Business

The Downhill Spiral Of mark Zuckerberg’s Image

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Mark Zuckerberg, the co founder and CEO of dominating social media outlet Facebook, has an image problem. Not only does he have an image problem he has a big one and bad one at that! What most of us are wondering is how only 2 years ago he was once the most admired American businessman out there and one that employees & the like were proud to work alongside or for.  Everyone loves Facebook right?  I mean hours upon hours are spent by millions of people throughout the world everyday on this time consuming social media platform.  So what’s the problem and how did things start to go wrong?  Not to mention how is Zuckerberg who started as a computer programer, dealing with the multitude of bad publicity and wrath that is coming from the very people that avidly use his platform on a daily basis. We did a little digging because let’s face it, the business world is competitive and cut throat and although you may achieve great success it usually doesn’t come without quite a few uphill battles. Take Zuckerberg for example, the platform he co-founded out of his college dorm room in 2004 blew up bigger than anyone could have imaged.  Replacing smaller platforms like MySpace and garnering users from all age categories Facebook took off with no intention of slowing down to allow “normal” people like Mark to digest all the new found attention and fame.  Instead he had to roll with it even if he was not quite ready to move forward to such big heights.  The thing is, Mark Zuckerberg did take things in stride and was succeeding at it.  People liked him, they liked working for him, they liked being a part of this huge impactful platform that all of society was pretty much a member of.  So what is with all the shade that is being thrown his way now?  This is where it gets interesting!

In April of 2017 Facebook as a company, as well as Zuckerberg himself knew that his image needed some help.  In an attempt to polish and help fix his image they hired a pollster and a very expensive one at that.  What does a pollster do exactly?  They track and create surveys that basically give an idea of how different groups of Americans view someone, this someone being Mark Zuckerberg.  Six months into his job, pollster Tavis McGinn, quit.  When asked why, he said that his work with the company was supposed to aid in helping bring a positive image and essence to Facebook & Mark, like it  once had, but that it was impossible.  What does this mean?  The users who digintly use social media platforms and Facebook being the main one, have come to decide that Americans need help fighting their digital addictions and that Facebook is allowing for its users to be targeted by businesses and ads making it not about “the people” anymore but about using the Facebook platform as an undeniable ad campaign?  Is this fair to America’s consumers?  Depends on who you might ask, businesses vs. the people.  Next add in the fact that while mindlessly scrolling through Facebook ads and rants from angry citizens using the platform to vent, there are bigger issues such as racial matters, politics, and private moments of some if not all going viral every second.  Is Facebook really good for our population or just fueling the negative that we see more and more everyday in our world?  We may not have the answers to all of these questions but one thing we do know is, being an entrepreneur and succeeding in your endeavor isn’t all it’s chalked up to be no matter how you embrace it.

 

 

Entrepreneur Concepts (Pt 1)

I want to take some time to discuss entrepreneur concepts. These are ideas or concepts that are on the back of many entrepreneurs minds, and can be attributed to much of their success. I want to share these with you today to give you practical concepts that you can apply in business, or in your daily life to achieve more. By just applying one of these ideas you may see dramatic improvement in your next business venture.

Here We Go.

Path of Least Resistance – This is an ancient concept that relates to life, and everything that life encompasses. Ancients, and modern scientist have found that life grows and moves through the path of least resistance. Lighting will strike down a path with the least amount of friction. Water will move down a river in the path of least resistance, and a tree will grow upwards in the least resistant trajectory.

In modern business people have found that humans act in that same way. They make purchases, decisions, and take action on things that offer the least resistance. This has been talked about at length by many entrepreneurs, including Mark Cuban. The idea is to make things as easy as you possibly can for people to adopt. Getting a customer to adopt a new habit or behavior is predicated on making it as frictionless as possible. People do things because it’s easy and does not involve a lot os steps. Hence why Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s fought for ownership of the one click purchase. As well as why he’s launching the Dash button, a button that allows consumers to push a button at their home to order a product that will instantly be shipped to their house. Taking all the friction out of going to the store, or going on the internet to order something. This makes the process of ordering something as frictionless as possible, since they are reducing the steps needed to make a purchase. Focus on making your product or service as easy as possible to adopt, use, and purchase.  Continue reading Entrepreneur Concepts (Pt 1)

Steve Jobs & Others

I was having a really enlightening conversation with a  couple business owners this past week who’s company does pest control in Michigan, and got some great insight into what it takes to really succeed in business. I know so many of us want to own our business, but it is really crucial we understand the ingredients of a successful business, before we jump right in. According to these Michigan business owners, the path to success is different than the path many business owners typically take. They said far too often people quit early in their business because owning your own business is too difficult and they have not planned for the amount of work it would require. Second they are approaching business from a position of what’s in it for the business, and not what’s in it for the customer. By engraining a can do attitude in their employees and a service to other mentality, these two brothers have created a very successful local business in Michigan.

The owners Allan and his brother Brent came from a hard working family in a small farm town in Michigan, and said working hard was the only thing they really knew. The boys who eventually left their small farm town and spent a couple years abroad, said their work ethic and sense of family never left them, and is the roots of their current business in Michigan. Continue reading Steve Jobs & Others

Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos, pronounced bay-zos, is the CEO of one of the internets most well known sites, Amazon.com. Jeff who started his career in finance, is an interesting character to follow, and a major player in the United States economy, as well as the global economy. His company over the past couple years has generated an enormous amount attention with its overarching participation in hundreds of existing markets and has become what Bezos originally set out to create, the “sell everything store.”

Beginning as an online book retailer, because Jeff saw books as a great commodity and something that held it’s value no matter who was selling it. A book is a book, regardless if you buy it at Barnes and Noble, or you purchase it online. Amazon has obviously come to offer a lot more than just books and now offers almost any tangible product you can think of, putting every large big box store on its heels. “Evolve or die,” is a principal by which Jeff operates, and it is not Amazon that is taking over, but rather the future is taking over, and Amazon is just positioning itself appropriately. with 1 day shipping, talk about drone delivery and the new dash buttons, Amazon is quickly outpacing the competition and creating the path of least resistance for consumers and ultimately winning business left and right.  Continue reading Jeff Bezos

Will Smith

Yet another hard working entrepreneur who has made his millions from dedication to his craft. Though some of us will say his career is built on talent, Will Smith will tell you differently. It is the same message that we are hearing from most successful entrepreneurs, that they are committed and hard working not that they are necessarily talented. There are tons of talented individuals that will never realize their full potential because they never had the work ethic to fully exploit their talents. Though it may seem that certain people have “god given advantages,” it seems like the common theme for many entrepreneurs is that there is no substitute for hard work.  Continue reading Will Smith

Elon Musk

Today I want to talk about someone that most of us are becoming increasingly familiar with, Mr. Elon Musk. With a huge macro vision of the world and the future of humanity, Elon Musk is making big plays and having huge impacts on society and the economy. I am inspired to write this post because I recently was talking with the owner of a limo company in Phoenix I use often, and he was telling me he met Elon in person a few years back, and he was a force of nature. He said he was only able to speak with him for a minute or so, but that’s all it took to realize how powerful this 44 year old is. Continue reading Elon Musk

Mark Cuban

Hey guys just want to continue to offer great people and ideas to help keep the momentum going in your life an in your business. Today I want to drop a little plug for the infamous Mark Cuban and his bad ass entrepreneurial ways. As most know Mark Cuban is a billionaire with a “B” and has made history as one of the most talked about entrepreneurs. He is famous for being the cool and sought after investor in Shark Tank, and the owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Mark made his start as an entrepreneur like many couch surfing and sleeping in a one bedroom apartment with 5 guys. His humble beginnings and hard working mentality has made him one of the wealthiest men in this country. Mark got his start in software and tech, so don’t let his cool personality fool you because this guy has mad smarts. Still developing cutting edge products in the tech world, and investing in many up and coming technologies Mark is definitely someone you want to plug into. Check out one of my favorite recent interviews with him and Tai Lopez down below.

Stay thirsty & Stay Learning! Continue reading Mark Cuban

Gary Vaynerchuk

Hey guys, I want to introduce another awesome entrepreneur who can be a great inspiration to you in your personal journey. This gentlemen is the manifestation of the word hustle and will quickly change how you define it. He’ll give it to you straight, and lay down the reality of what being an entrepreneur will take.  His name is Gary Vaynerchuk and he is a social media mogul and he is changing lives with his rising media presence. I’m not part of the VaynerNation as he likes to call it, but I am gobbling up loads of value from this guy. Continue reading Gary Vaynerchuk