This morning I had a conversation with Andy, a professional photographer who has a day job at a major newspaper. He came by because we’re about to upgrade our image around here and we’ve hired him to take some photos.
(The pic of me on my home page is 5 years old and was, uh, taken at a department store.)
Yes, some quality photographs will definitely make all us folks here at Perry & Company look better. Long overdue. Check back in a couple of weeks and you’ll probably like what you see.
Anyway, it just so happens that during the last 6 months Andy has been dabbling in the online marketing world. He already knew of me; he’d seen a copy of my book and visited my website. He talked candidly about his first impressions: He didn’t really know who to trust and we looked like just another one of these online guys selling stuff.
He asked if everybody who does what I does plays the game the way I do.
I said, “No, there’s Seth Godin for example” and I pulled up Seth’s website. He says “Oh yeah I’ve heard of him. He’s a member of the New York City Elites, right?”
“Sure, you could say that. And Seth is totally accepted in the Big Corporate World. Bookstore books, $15,000 speaking engagements, Fortune 500 companies, all of that.” Good author too. Coined the term “Permission Marketing.”
He asks me: “Do you want to cater more to the corporate world?”
Interesting question. Um, not real sure. Most people I know who’ve done consulting in that world spent a year an a half doing research and it all got stuck in a file folder and never acted upon. All they have to show for the project is bragging rights. You spend months fighting fiefdoms and trying to ram common sense through brain-dead committees. Not something I aspire to do.
In that world, ad agencies put up lovely enticing flash websites that don’t sell a single thing, and if you want to get the business you have to get on airplanes and go to meetings and preen and posture yourself and flatter people and put on the glam image.
The entrepreneurial world, however, is a completely different planet. It’s like a bazaar where people are yelling and shouting and promoting and buying and selling and moving goods around and it’s chaos everywhere. And yes, the stuff gets sold.
If you wear a tie in that world, everyone will think you’re a “suit” and they’ll assume you don’t have any street smarts.
I tell him, “I’ve said for years that 10-30% of all e-commerce is driven by affiliates, but you’ll never, ever read that in the Wall Street Journal. Affiliates are invisible. They’re guys working in their spare bedroom with programmers in Ukraine and India and a virtual assistant in Minnesota and nobody wants to acknowledge that they exist. They broker 10 million clicks a month from their laptop computer. The world doesn’t work the way the Wall Street Journal wishes it did.
“Plus the little guys don’t even want anyone to know they exist. They want to hide in their cave and make money and they don’t want anyone else to know what they’re doing.
“I know biz-op guys who’ve split tested shorts and T-shirt against suit and tie and the shorts & T-shirt won, cuz they were selling the Internet Lifestyle. The suit and tie is what their customers are trying to escape.
“I straddle the line between those two worlds. I’m not a biz-opper and I’m not a corporate guy. I’m in between. My ideal customer is the company selling $500,000 to $5 Million per year and they’ve got somewhere between a few employees and maybe 10-20 and they do some weird nichy thing they have a hard time explaining to their next door neighbor.”
He asks me what I think about the media, and whether I want media exposure.
“Sure I like media exposure. I’ve had some great talks lately with people from the New York Times and the Financial Times of London. Sooner or later what we talk about will fit into their story. But you know, the traditional media is at war with the entrepreneurial world. They’re negative. They’re not optimistic. They resent achievement. They don’t believe in the American Dream.
“So if they don’t pay attention to us entrepreneurs, is anybody gonna be bothered or even surprised? It’s just part of the culture war.”
Andy says, “Interesting you’d say that. I work in a news room where the reporters actually believe that their point of view is “objective” and I just have to bite my lip. It irks me to no end.”
So there you have it. The suits distrust the pitchmen and the pitchmen hope they never have to go back to being a suit.
Nevertheless, I think those of us who live by our wits and eat because we sold something today…. those of us who were never jocks or prom queens and who believe copy is king and pay little attention to “image”…. can still have more awareness of the visual image we project in the world. Something I’m thinking about more. You will see a new look in the coming weeks.
I’ll let you know what difference it makes. And with a new Affiliate Manager, Content Czar and Operations Manager, there’s a lot of retooling that’s happening around here, and all of it is intended to serve you better. And above all, we will communicate with greater clarity who we are and what we do.
We do help fledgling entrepreneurs running micro-empires from their spare bedroom. And we help suits, too. Whether they want to escape the corporate squirrel cage and become a fledgling entrepreneur, or build their corporations even bigger.
Common sense works in big companies, too.
Perry Marshall
Share This Post
About the Author
Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.
He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.
16 Comments on “The chasm between corporations and entrepreneurs”
Exceptional article Perry. For me the salient point was when you said: “I straddle the line between those two worlds. I’m not a biz-opper and I’m not a corporate guy.” Thats the special niche you’ve found in the corporate-entrepreneurial chasm. I applaud you!
I also think it’s a good idea to update your photos.
i work for a small & medium enterprise, about 5 years old, as the company grew, it’s becoming more and more like a corporation and less of entrepreneurial spin. seems like a part and parcel process of growing companies. to think we only started with seo and ppc just 1 year ago.
Have you read this article about the 18 year old kid in India making $400k/year selling an ebook about parrots? It’s a great read for new internet marketers:
http://www.cringely.com/2009/03/parrot-secrets/
It’s incredible what people can do online. I’m working on some niches, and if initial testing goes well, I’m going to kick this thing into high gear.
“And above all, we will communicate with greater clarity who we are and what we do.”
And you’ll split test it too I hope . . .
Perry- Great post as are so many of the things you do. You talk about entrepreneurship as more than an avenue to making money (the struggle and ups and downs that it can be), and allude to something that I think is the essence and heart to wanting to/having to, take this path. It is the people not fitting in, the not wanting to fit in, the ones who asked the questions that made everyone in the room uncomfortable, that eventually decide they must do this. No choice.
No, the media doesn’t get it, hates it and has made it sound like such a scary, risky thing to be an entrepreneur. I think more and more people are realizing how risky and scary it can be in the corporate world.
I’ll be interested to see your new image and hear the impact (I’m sure positive) it will have.
Leslie Mock, Lifeflipper (From employee to entrepreneur)
Tim,
I don’t think a pure, simple “Google Cash” business is a real business. Sure an affiliate business is a real business if it has systems that make it more than just a promotion. A real estate brokerage is a real business even if it never develops any real estate; but it needs to be a machine that generates real estate transactions.
I talked about this on Internet Marketing This Week a few mos ago
http://www.internetmarketingthisweek.com/2009/02/14/hating-valentines-day-while-being-the-lead-rat-internet-marketing-this-week-11/
Click the play button at the far upper right of the page.
Great message. I agree with Raza. Perry, you are a good writer, and your emails are some of the best I receive. You are very direct, encouraging, and talk about how things work in the real-world, unlike most gurus who sell hopes, dreams & “air.” Thanks for keeping it real.
Brilliant!
“And above all, we will communicate with greater clarity who we are and what we do.”
Good idea! I’d pay special attention to that.
Oh! And one more thing… aren’t you the one who mentioned not too long ago that you didn’t think affiliates had “real” businesses? :)
On that subject, I will say this: an affiliate business *is* a real business, but it’s important to define what the business is. An affiliate marketer is *not* in the business of selling. An affiliate marketer is in the business of advertising. It’s exactly as if Company X hired an advertising firm, and rather than go with a flat fee, they did a percentage deal.
Affiliate marketers are advertising companies that simply have a reverse relationship from traditional advertising companies. The affiliate marketers pick their clients rather than the other way around.
Tim
Great article. I’ll just add this: I went into business with a friend of mine about ten years ago or so. We were both had entrepreneur mentalities, but I eventually realized that we had completely different end-games in mind.
My friend *wanted* to be a suit — he wanted to preen around, having “conquered the mountain” of building a huge company. He wanted to be seen as powerful and successful. He wanted the respect of his peers.
My motivation was, in some ways, the total opposite: I wanted freedom. I wanted to build a successful company, but only so I could get away *having* to work like a dog. I couldn’t care less about what others thought of me. Being wealthy and invisible was my ideal.
Both of us had the entrepreneurial blood, no doubt about it, but our self-image of how we defined success was very, very different.
There’s probably a lesson here in self-analysis and understanding what your own end-game is. It’s important to “know thyself” and know why we’re doing what we’re doing.
Your article just helped me define one of the biggest reasons I love what I do — I have my niche that is completely independent of what “they” do or say I should do. And when I want to learn more, I come to Perry Marshall who helps me improve on what I’m doing in my own way…instead of “supposed to” thinking of exactly what he or someone else does!
Well said that man.
The way the big guys act is a real concern. In fact I worry that the entire basis of capitalism could be badly harmed as a result of what’s come to pass in corporate-land culture.
Oh wait a minute. That already happened !
It’s the small guys who make the economy work. We’ll sort it out again. But let’s never forget what happened.
Nice picture Perry. God if I’d known you were so good looking I would have signed up years ago ;-)
cheers ed
BTW, I have your AdWords Guide, but can’t afford to invest in PPC just yet. I’m testing the market with a blog before I decide to turn my hobby into a full-fledged business.
I have other passions that can turn into a business also if this one doesn’t turn out as I hoped.
I can’t recall the details, but I remember you sent an email a year ago about one of your students. He was a young guy… just started an internet business and was making a killing. I wish I still had that email because when I read it I said to myself “I’m going to be just like that guy”
Raza Imam
Perry,
Your writing is amazing. If nothing else, the one thing I get from your emails is a sense of empowerment. That’s something money can’t buy.
As far as internet marketing, I’m doing the 30 Day Challenge by Ed Dale out of Australia. I’m on Day 25 and learning some good stuff. I’m an entrepreneur, and always have been a risk taker. I’m cutting my teeth right now, but I’m drawn to the internet marketing world, largely as a result of reading your emails.
Thanks,
Raza Imam
Perry, damn it all if that was not one of the most succinct articles I have ever read :-)
I love how you call it as you see/believe it. There must be a certain freedom in that.
I am one of the “fledgling entrepreneurs running micro-empires from their spare bedroom” and I appreciate you sticking up for us.
Take care…….Mike Bresee