This is the first part, swing on back next week for the follow-ups.
This past weekend was all work, don’t let anything you read below convince you otherwise. Really, really hard work. I spent two solid days of character study. 48 hours, a lot of it spent in the hot sun of Southern California, keenly noting and observing small businesses as they presented themselves to their customers. After the initial presentations, I was able to observe the direct effect of the efforts and see if the customer base grew. .And all of this was done without any PR hacks, marketting veeps or silky smooth ad campaigns with glossy videos of all the ‘cool kids’. I stood with the masses and gauged how the small businesses came across. It was hard, hard work and don’t let anything else I tell you convince you otherwise.
Where did I get this great exposure to these small businesses (some I would call early stage startups) and their audience? Where was I able to see successful small businesses stand side by side with unknowns hungry for attention? Was I at some Techcrunch 50 event, some Startup Mash Weekend or Pitch your Biz to TV meetup? Nope. I was at a music festival of course. Specifically Bamboozle Left in Irvine, California. The small businesses were the bands. There were major bands with record deals, labels, cred and history. Bands/performers that you would know even if you don’t listen to them specifically. There were some you could tell were in the middle, not yet signed to a major label, but touring around getting their name out there. And there were the early stage startup bands. Some of them were hungry (literally and figuratively I fear) with demo CDs cut on their own computers. Why is this a good lesson for the small business?
First, the customers. The customer’s first event is in line waiting to get in. You get there about 2 hours before the gates open and there is really nothing to do. The idea is to be in the front of the line to get in the gates sooner- so you can hit the early performances. Once inside the venue there were about 6 stages, music rotating throughout the day in about 30-45 minute sets. Band goes up, plays their set and repeat. As a customer, your time is limited. If Band A is playing from 2:00-2:30 and Band B is 2:20-3:00 you need to decide if and how you are going to split the time. If you arrive late to one of the bands you end up in back, not the best view and possibly miss the song you really want to hear. Arrive early for one, you get towards the front, great view, hear all the songs you want but getting out and over the the other band becomes a problem. And that is primarily the customer’s day. Moving from one stage to the next hoping to catch the bands.
This easily translates into a small business’s customers. Every customer out there is split between “bands” and “stages”. There is not an infinite amount of time and every customer eventually decides to risk the crowd surge and wait by front of the stage for Band A while missing Band B. So you wish you are Band A, right? Relying on odds the fans choose you- the no name. Besides how can you prevent this?
Let’s go back to that first customer experience of the day- the line. The big, popular bands are pretty safe in assuming that a lot of people in that line are there to see them and already spent some money on them. Great, but what about those startup bands on the smaller “side stages”? Do you think they are happy with only the “experience”of the music festival? Do you think some of them were glad “just to be invited”? Some of them are, but there was a fair number of the other ones. The other startup bands who knew, felt in their bones this was just part of the journey. They were living the rock lifestyle, but they still wanted to put food (or beer) on the table. In at least one case, they were trying to get financed to the next festival. How do I know these stories?
They were working the line! Yep- band members were moving up and down the line, actually talking with their customers. With pamphlets letting us know what stage and time. You knew they were startups because as they asked those in line, “Heard of us?” most responded “Nope.” At this point the conversations took two distinct routes. The first route- reply back something like “Oh well check us out if you want..” and move on. The second went something like this:
“Too bad- you know we rock right?” Band member. Positive, energetic
<laugh, chuckle or even a dismissive glance> “Really?”, customer
“Yeah. Who are you here to see?” Band Member
“<Popular Band>”
“That’s cool. They bring it and are pretty cool. You like that type of music?”
You get the idea. There is a short interaction. Some cases the music the band plays isn’t a match and sometimes it is. See what happened– within mere minutes, the band member has done some great market research, made a connection and earned a customer. There is a good chance, that even if that particular person isn’t they will most likely mention the band to someone who could be.
And did this translate inside the festival? This was the interesting part. My main assumption was bands of similar style and status were slated to play the same stage. So let the work begin- the hard, hard work. I decided to make note of the bands I saw while in line and headed to the stages they were playing. And what did I see? The hard work by the band in the early afternoon with the line did indeed help. The crowd showing up for the bands that worked the line was in fact larger. It did not appear to matter if the band had a MP3 player with their music or not- just walking the line and making those connections is what made the difference.
As a small business we are challenged every day to find a new customer. I think its time to imagine we are one of those struggling bands and decide how you are going get more people to your stage. In today’s world, there are a lot of ‘lines’ you can work- Twitter, blogging, Meetups and other gatherings- so get out there and find the space you are comfortable in. Tell the people your style and stage and enjoy the crowd.
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