Quote:
Originally Posted by Shap
No matter how big or small if you are interested in your business surviving through 2010 the first step you have to take is START TREATING IT LIKE A BUSINESS!!!! It sounds easy but most people don't even do that. Give yourself a fighting chance  |
From my perspective as a female owner who's been in the industry for more yrs than I care to admit; I see how such a huge majority of male owners/webmasters (and this industry is most definetly a boys club) get caught up and distracted by the "lifestyle", so that all business fundamentals and logic go flying out the door. I know quite a few extremely talented and sharp guys, industry vets who've been in the industry longer than I have, but have never been able to push their companies above the point of mediocrity because they're in it for the lifestyle. Or as I like to call it, shitting-where-you-eat. Honestly, I feel bad for you men as you're genetically engineered to go completely dumb everytime you see ass, tits or pussy.
Shap-that thread you posted a couple of years ago here about the business fundamentals you attribute to your success with Twisty's really inspired me...I've been meaning to tell you. I think what hit me on the head was your call to owners to go back to focusing on developing a quality product. This was when the xsell shit was ramping up again and there was a mass migration to jump on the bandwagon. For a minute there was some fast, easy $ that was able to be made, so it's easy to see why there's been such a shift in the industry.
You probably don't remember this, but you and Mrs. Shap were one of my first content clients I met at my first avn about 8 yrs ago, when you were buying licensed content for your non-exclusive sites pre-twisty's. You placed my first bulk dvd licensing+custom encoding order. Of course my co bungled up the encoding due to lack of experience..but I'll never forget how you reamed me, even after we replaced the few corrupted/missing files. I remember thinking you were slightly on the OCD side lol, but you demanded perfection and set a high standard for customer service and product quality that I knew I wanted my company to deliver. Not to say you are the only client to break my balls, as a content provider in this industry I think eating shit is apart of my job description..but I became OCD about quality control after that because I was completely embarrassed; I knew you were right.
The fundamental rules I've applied to the development and growth of my company are;
#1. It costs less to keep a returning client than it does to acquire a new one (marketing 101). #2. Listen to your consumer base and develop a quality product at a competitive pricing that's of value to the consumer. (also marketing 101). Over the years, I've been able to maintain a min. yr over yr growth rate of 15+%, even as a little shit can content provider-and capture my market share (admittedly, as tiny as it is) based on this mantra. I certainly haven't blown up $ wise, like I've seen so many of my clients blow up over the years, but as long as I can sustain positive growth I'm satisfied. I wish that some of my colleagues would take as much pride in their companies as I do; we're not lazy, smut pornographers anymore. It's time we got back to creating innovative media, marketing and technology.