This article previously featured in the Weekend section of The Tribune on December 2.
What makes a business a success – and
what can you do to help make your business a success? This week's
podcasts dive into the world of entrepreneurs to find out what they
have learned along the way.
Angie Hicks, creator of Angie's List
How I Built This
How I Built This is an NPR show hosted
by Guy Raz – looking back at businesses in discussion with the
entrepreneurs who built them to find out how they got to where they
are now.
The latest show is an absolute peach.
You've heard of Angie's List, more than likely, a review service that
started out with recommendations about contractors over the phone and
is now a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Angie Hicks, the founder of the
business, is such a refreshing guest to listen to – she talks
disarmingly about the experience of starting out, from having to
overcome her introvert nature to go knock on doors to drum up
subscribers, through to when the company expanded to having a second
phone and that was literally just a second phone in the same office,
leaving her sometimes sitting on the floor with a phone in either
hand and no hold button in sight.
From her talk, you can see how the
company evolved from its early days where people would simply ring
her up from a recommendation to the moment of transition when they
set up their first website and realised that's where so many sign-ups
were coming from and starting to move to the point of people being
able to leave their own reviews.
She also talks about the harder times
in the business when it was urged that they downsize, but she asked
the question of whether people knew how hard it was to lay someone
off, and determined to get through it without cutbacks. She did.
It's a great show, and really inspiring
to hear someone's success story, and the hurdles they had to clear
along the way.
Good Life Project
Emily McDowell is a writer, illustrator
and entrepreneur who quit advertising to launch her own greeting card
business providing cards that reflect real-life relationships. It
became a multi-million dollar business, and she joins host Jonathan
Fields to discuss the path of her career – and the unexpected turns
it took along the way.
She moved to California and felt
instantly connected to the area, joining a free magazine that she
says to this day was her favourite job – but which crashed and
burned because it had no business model. But the defining moment of
that time was when, in her mid-20s, she was diagnosed with cancer.
She was thankful for the medical
insurance that she had – needing a million dollars in treatment but
only having to pay $4,000 – and having an incredibly understanding
employer. However, the way in which cancer affected her relationships
with people around her and how people distanced themselves because of
not being able to deal with what she was going through really struck
her intensely.
Once she recovered, she didn't know
what she wanted to do – and drifted a little, falling into a
jewelry-making business, then advertising, before the idea for her
card business bubbled to the surface.
It's a lengthy interview, full of lots
of personal detail, but it's a little unfocused to listen to. It's
the kind of thing that would make a great article afterwards once you
cut out the meandering parts, but as a listen, it feels as if the
host could be more involved to direct the conversation.
At an hour and a quarter, it feels like
it could be tighter, sharper and perhaps half the length – but
McDowell is still an enthralling listen as she recalls a path that
might have caused many to stumble rather than soar.
Website; http://www.goodlifeproject.com
The Business of Art
Russell Nohelty is a podcaster on a
mission. He is in charge of a small press, Wannabe Press, and The
Business of Art is about getting the job done. Whatever it takes to
achieve the goal of getting the product in front of people is what he
discusses on the show. The latest episode is all about Kickstarter
and how to use it to generate the funds for publishing – in this
case, comics.
The show is a recording of the Palm
Springs Comic Con panel about using Kickstarter, and for anyone
involved, it's a knowledge bomb ready to go off and splatter useful
advice all over the place.
Whether it's factoring in international
postage, changes in postage, trolls who pledge money only to pull it
at the last minute to try to make your campaign fail – there's a
ton of useful stuff in here for anyone who has used that platform.
Beyond that, there's useful marketing
advice, such as the deals publishers strike with book shops for
display stand placement inside the store, and advice on contracts
with creators, and what creators should challenge in a standard deal.
There are shows you listen to where you
think people are waffling along and don't really know what they're
talking about – Nohelty and his fellow panelists absolutely know
what they're talking about. For anyone in the field, it's an
excellent listen.
Website: http://thebusinessofart.us
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