A post and the comments that followed on one of my favorite blogs, Marketing Hipster, really got me thinking about why so many people interested in marketing were also Grateful Dead fans. Are there really that many Deadheads out there that a post like this would draw out so many or are there a concentrated number of them that are now marketers and entrepreneurs?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that being a Deadhead actually taught me a lot about business and about being an entrepreneur. Here are some lessons learned on the road while touring with the Dead back in the good ole days of the early 90′s:

It’s ok to be different

Most of us try to blend in, but let me tell you, when you walk into a grocery store in some little town in Ohio in a patchwork dress, reeking of patchouli, and not having showered in 3 days, you don’t easily blend in. Most stared with disapproving looks, but other would stare with take me with you eyes and stop and talk for hours, wanting to know all about where we came from, where we were going, and why we did this. These are the kind of people that could become friends for life the kind of people you could call the next time you rolled through town for a place to crash for the night. As John Wesley so wisely states in his post titled 27 Lessons Learned on the Way to 3000 Visits a Day and 2200 RSS Subscribers, you’ve got to piss a few people off to build a strong following.

A strong community is powerful

Building community is a big buzz term in internet marketing these days, but the Dead were masters of building community starting way back in the 60′s. I’m not sure if they set out to do this, but it happened for sure. The Dead brand became synonymous with a lifestyle. Instead of selling one ticket to just locals for the show in their city, having a community of fanatics meant that they were selling a whole tour full of tickets to individual Heads that would stop their lives and follow them from city to city every summer.

Good marketing doesn’t need to be expensive

With nothing more than a piece of cardboard and a Sharpie marker, you can sell just as many grilled cheese sandwiches in the parking lot as someone with a flashy professionally made sign. In fact, you would probably sell more.

Package up products and services and offer discounts in bulk

One burrito for $3 or 2 for $5? No doubt the $5 sales were more prevalent. It’s easier for 2 people to come up with 5 bucks than for one person to come up with 3. (I know, $3 doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’re broke and on tour, it can be! This is a lesson in understanding your demographic!)

Give away something for free

If you’ve ever been to a Dead show, you’ve no doubt seen the double decker maroon bus driven by the Yahweh’s. This was a religious group that tried to convert hippies to come aboard. They were smart marketers. They offered free medical care in the form of band-aids, gauze, etc to anyone who got hurt on the parking lot. Once you were on the bus, you were a captive audience for the pitch. Plus, they had already taken care of you in a time of need which further enforced their message.

Be kind to other people

When you’re living on the road, being kind to other people is essential because you really do need the companionship and occasional help from other people to survive. Not all hippies are great people. Those who did bad business in the lot were ostracized by the rest of the community. If you wanted to do good business on the parking lot, you had to do right by others.

You can get by even with a sporadic income

Most people resist taking the plunge into entrepreneurship because they can’t handle the thought of not knowing when they’ll get paid next. I sold dresses and jewelry on the parking lot. Some days were good, some weren’t. At some point I ran out and literally sold the clothes out of my backpack at a show in Shoreline CA. When I set out on the road, I had no idea how I would get by, but I did. Things just have a way of working out.

Make it easy to share your content

If the Dead were still around today, they’d still be profitable even though most of the world is downloading music for free. Why? The Dead always allowed tapes of their music to be free in fact, they encouraged it! Every show had a special section for tapers and their recording equipment. They were able to record the shows as long as they only traded or gave away the tapes. As a result, most Deadheads had boxes and boxes of tapes from hundreds of different shows that they listened to non-stop, deepening the love for the band and the lifestyle even more.

It’s ok to have fun

If you’re not having fun in your life, what’s the point? When you do something you love to do, life is so much more fulfilling.

DIGG THIS NOW! IT’S EASY!

Speaking of recording equipment, sharing content, and having fun- we’re giving away a bunch of free podcasting equipment to everyone who signs up for our free RSS feed. Check out the link to see all the gear. All you have to do is sign up and send me an email at Christine@createbusinessgrowth.com letting me know that you signed up and you’re in!

Small businesses, entrepreneurs, and freelancers can’t afford to be disorganized. In order to grow a business from the ground-up, there is no time or money for time or clients lost to disorganization.

We’ve all been there. When I first began searching for project management systems, I was completely overwhelmed. The software seemed bloated, expensive, and more complicated than I needed or wanted to deal with.

However, after a good bit of trial and error, we found 2 project management systems that are perfect for managing 2 different types of projects. Both are from refreshing web 2.0 technology company 37 Signals and are simple, intuitive and affordable.

The Challenge: Multiple Projects, Multiple Project Members

The Unlimited Web Solutions team had the challenge of managing upward of 20 projects at a time, handled by as many as 8 different people. The problem was that emails would get lost between the client and all the different people who needed the information, causing bottlenecks that could lead to missed deadlines, unanswered emails, and plain and simple mass confusion.

The solution

Basecamp proved to be the ideal solution. Now everyone can communicate in one place on the Basecamp system and receive emails when updates are made. Now we never lose documents, images, or communication because they are all in one central location.

Cost:

• $24 a month for 15 active projects
• $49 a month for 35 active projects
• $99 a month for 100 active projects
• $149 a month for unlimited projects

With any of these, there is no limit to the number of people that can communicate within the projects

The Challenge: Multiple Clients, One or Two Contacts

My personal dilemma was managing the assignments for the 50+ companies that I write for. I didn’t really need the full features of Basecamp because my problem wasn’t communicating with lots of different people; it was keeping on top of all of those different assignments. I did need to share the project info with one or two freelancers, but not with the clients themselves.

The solution:

Backpack, another 37 Signals project was the resource for me. With Backpack, I can create multiple project “pages,” each that include checklists, notes, file uploads, images and more. Like with Basecamp, there is a shared calendar feature to keep everyone and every project on track.

Cost:

• Free-  5 projects
• $5 per month-  25 projects
• $9 per month- 100 projects
• $14 per month- 1000 projects

Hopefully these can help you make your business more effective. They’ve certainly worked for us!

…And why you should have gotten an A instead of that C-.
While recollecting the pain and agony of English class I realize how bad wrong my educators were at seeing the totality of educating and preparing future sales and marketing reps for the digital world that was soon approaching. Obviously they did teach me how to put together half decent sentences and grammar that at least is good enough to not to always get the green underline from Microsoft Word.

As I took the stroll down memory lane for writing and text communication I remember very strongly getting the reprimand and the classic bright red tipped felt pen marks and circles for addressing the reader by using “you”, “your” and”you’re”.

Back then, using the “you-Orentation” was a huge no-no, and I was never educated on proper times and uses for “you-Orentation”. One of the best books I have read on Copy-writing has been “The Copywriter’s Handbook: A Step-By-Step Guide to Writing Copy That Sells” Which you can Pick up at your local Barns and Noble or online of course. In my PPC, SEM, Text Ads field I have to make relevant ad copy that grabs attention right off the bat in a fraction of a second even.

One of the most effective ways of doing that is appealing to the readers interests and emotions directly. After all, one of the points your copy should answer is the classic “What’s In It For Me” question your reader is thinking, By specifically answering this using “you”, “your” or “you’re”. Just imagine if the title of this post was “Why One’s High School English Teacher Was Wrong.” Obviously not nearly as attention grabbing.

I know I couldn’t really care less about someone else’s english teacher. But by making it personal with “your” that directly addresses my situation and sparks emotions from my past experiences. So, to all of us who were at the mercy of the red pen we can now rest assured that we are now justified in knowing deep down we were always right.