Posts tagged selling
Boulder Startup Week 2013: what we did.
May 18th
First of all we are not exactly a start up. We are more an old school OG Boulder entrepreneurial company. That is to say Brad Feld and David Cohen didn’t invent the entrepreneurial movement here in Boulder. They joined it in the 90s and capitalized on it. Yes they are modern day Gurus, but Boulder has 100’s of gurus. Boulder’s entreperurship started in the late 1800s during the Colorado Gold rush and it never stopped.
So old timer tech entrepreneurs look at Feld , Cohen and Polis with some bemusement. They’ve seen it all before. This new hippy feel good neo communist business start up scene was really started by Moe Segal and the natural foods biz heads of the 1960s and 70’s. One CU business professor scoffed at the notion of Start Ups. ” Most of it is junk” he said. ” One or 2 out of 100 will be swallowed up by the VCs and make it to market but the other 98 will fail. So this is nothing new and Brad Feld is not that special.” he said.
And this is where I’d like to pick up. So what did we at Boulder Channel 1 do during this years Boulder Start Up Week. ?
We kept working that’s what we did. Part of our work was to send out sales reps to various event s to see where there was an opportunity to make some money by selling our services. What?? yep. We were looking for advertising clients, We were not looking for funding an angel or a VC. But we were looking to deal. We were selling. Overtly and not so overtly. We were looking for one $20,000 client for a year. One advertiser who needed banner ads, video, sm, pr, design, a show series, a web site and who wanted consumers from Boulder to buy their goods. We were on the hunt. We set a goal and went after it. That’s what start Up Week Boulder meant to us. No bullshit. No drinking. No fucking around. No chasing millionaires. Just hard work. Sales.
Did we land anyone. Yep we did. Two. we made $40,000 bucks this week off of Boulder Start Up week from two companies who wanted our services….. who needed our service… and who did not want to be dicked around by a bunch of drunks who are playing at business.
There is a lesson here for those of you who want to be serious business people. ( We have been successfully in business since 1975 here in Boulder. Like everyone else who digs this city, it only keeps getting better) We live in Utopia and we don’t take it for granted. We are truly blessed
What do we do to give back to Boulder?? We have been here for a long long time. We are established and have roots. we give cash to 30 different Boulder charities who help feed and clothe people. We produce videos for free for any non profit. We don’t charge non profits. We mentor homeless techies who need a hand up. We mentor kids of impoverished families.
Jann Scott is the CEO of Channel 1 Networks
CU Business Review: Colorado’s becoming “beverage”-can capital
Oct 15th
More than 92 billion aluminum beverage cans were sold in the U.S. in 2011 reflecting a decline in annual sales — particularly among standard 12-ounce cans — since the industry’s peak five years prior.
But a number of Colorado companies, including Ball Corp., are well positioned to tap new markets in the evolving industry. Ball employs more than 3,000 workers statewide, and packaging accounts for 90 percent of the company’s sales.
“Beverage industry employment is growing faster than manufacturing employment and total employment in the state and is outperforming beverage manufacturing employment nationally,” said Richard Wobbekind, editor of the quarterly Colorado Business Review.
According to the latest edition of the review, published by the Business Research Division of the Leeds School of Business, the U.S. beverage can market remains quite healthy with a unit share of just over 40 percent.
Experts attribute the sales decline of 12-ounce cans to weak economic growth, which has consumers “trading down” to less expensive products, among other factors.
By contrast, demand for specialty can sizes grew at a robust rate of approximately 15 percent last year. From the 5.5-ounce mini-can to the 32-ounce jumbo can, brand owners are leveraging the unique sizes and shapes of the beverage cans to drive differentiation in the market.
One well-known specialty package from Ball is the Alumi-Tek bottle, or aluminum pint. Brewers have enjoyed great success with the bottles, which offer re-closable caps. Craft beers and wines have increasingly found their way into aluminum cans. Even water sold in cans has grown more than 30 percent since 2008.
“The current decrease in the U.S. beverage can market is more a sign of progress than one of decline as the industry shifts away from reliance on just the 12-ounce can,” says Jim Peterson, vice president of marketing and corporate affairs for Ball Corp. “Ball is expanding into new products and capabilities to meet demand.”
Peterson cites more than $175 million in investment across the U.S., including $60 million in Colorado for a new specialty can line in the company’s Golden, Colo., facility and a nearly $5 million expansion of its package research and development operations in Westminster, Colo.
Colorado beverage makers also benefit from state laws that support self-distribution, allowing young brands and small producers to go to market. New Belgium Brewing of Fort Collins, Colo., America’s third-largest craft brewery, started selling beer out of the back of a station wagon.
The Business Research Division of CU-Boulder’s Leeds School of Business conducts Colorado-focused economic and marketing studies, collaborating with faculty researchers, government entities, business leaders, nonprofit organizations and students. For more information visit http://leeds.colorado.edu/brd#coloradobusinessreview.