Save money with smart spending habits that will lower costs and ultimately lead to bigger profits and higher earnings for your small business.
SME Pals is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more.
What grumpy cat can teach you about creating a million dollar income
In case you haven't already heard, there's a little kitty out there with feline dwarfism that earns more than you do.
Grumpy cat, according to Wikipedia, seems to be raking in millions of dollars, and this might strike you as odd given how difficult it is to start a successful enterprise these days.
I thought it would be interesting to examine the grumpy cat phenomenon, and explore the reasons it has become viable overnight so that we can apply those lessons to our own lives, ventures and startups.
The grumpy cat meme
Grumpy cat (actually called Tardar sauce) first became famous when her owner (Tabatha Bundesen) posted her pic on Reddit. The kitty's appearance caused such a stir that it led to additional posting and pics to prove the original was authentic (i.e. not photoshopped).
Popularity
Grumpy cat went viral, and then superviral as people began to share their own versions of the meme. I've even done it. My girlfriend loves grumpy cat, so I made my own valentine's card sporting a pic of Tardar:
Cover
Inside
Ok, so I probably shouldn't give up my day job. But, the point is that being a cultural icon that can readily be used, morphed and shared is arguably the primary reason that Tardar is so popular (well, that and being super cute).
Revenue
So how do you take a kitty that everyone loves and turn it into a million dollars?
Grumpy cat's Facebook page is approaching nearly 4 million likes. That's publicity you can't buy.
T-shirts and mugs sporting everyone's favorite feline are sold from the website. Toys and other merchandise are also available. There's even an iced coffee called Grumppuccino available.
As Tardar's popularity grows, so the potential to generate more revenue from existing channels, and to explore new channels grows. I suspect that a cartoon TV series can't be too far off.
So what lessons can we learn and apply in our own lives?
Lessons from Grumpy cat
Hearing how this lovable kitty has become a one-way money making freight train might leave a bitter taste in the mouths of many entrepreneurs.
I, for example, am currently in the process of bringing a new route optimization product to market. It requires an understanding of NP-hard (that's non-deterministic polynomial hard) problems, and their solutions.
Said solutions need to use heuristic methods of solving these problems because of their complexity - I developed my own hybrid solution that utilizes elements of ACO (Ant Colony Optimization) and genetic algorithms to provide good solutions quickly.
UPS is doing the same thing, investing over $30 million over the next five years. We'll beat UPS to market (although they are developing the system for their own internal use), but there are other tech rivals out there.
That's harder than posting a picture of my kitty.
But, for anyone willing to learn, this particular success story has some fantastic lessons. Here's what I think all entrepreneurs should take from this...
1. The market leads
I guess this is arguably the most important takeaway for me.
CNET called Grumpy Cat the undisputed "biggest star" of SXSW Interactive over Elon Musk, Al Gore, and Neil Gaiman.
There's no point in asking what kind of a world we live in when a cute kitty with feline dwarfism steals the show from someone like Elon Musk (who's impact on our world is nothing short of staggering).
From a business perspective, the market doesn't care what you think, the market cares about whatever it cares about. If you are going to be successful, find a way to meet a demand. Simple as that.
2. Opportunity is all around you
Some people luck out, and find themselves in a position to capitalize on an opportunity that they haven't necessarily created themselves.
When Tabatha posted Tardar's pic on Reddit, she couldn't have planned for this runaway success to happen, right? No-one could. For most people, something like this won't happen. But, instead of lamenting the success of grumpy cat, look harder for opportunities in your own life.
The more you become proactive in your own life, and the more you seek opportunity, the more it will find you.
3. Opportunity wears many disguises
I think a problem that many people have is that they have a specific idea about the type of opportunity that they want to pursue. Life will always throw opportunity your way, the tricky part is to recognize it for what it is, and grab onto it.
No-one grows up saying they want to become a success by posting a pic of their kitty online. But it happened, because instead of leaving Reddit and the other social networks to their own devices, the Bundesens took full advantage of the opportunity.
4. Never underestimate the power of publicity
I recently attended the final round of a tech startup incubator's funding program. The ideas i saw were pretty good, and at least a few of them had real potential.
But, without exception, all of the entrepreneurs in charge recognized that marketing and promotions were their biggest challenges. It's a favorite saying of mine that "no matter what industry you are in, the business you are in is marketing".
Grumpy cat has caught the imagination of so many people. Millions of fans are engaged with the brand. No matter what niche you are in, if you can't convince people to like and engage with you, success will prove elusive.
5. Keep it simple
Making money and being successful doesn't require a degree in rocket science. It doesn't require an MBA from Harvard. People with those qualifications will end up working for your organization once it is profitable.
There is absolutely nothing earth shattering in the way grumpy cat has become viable. Their kitty started attracting fans and followers, so they started selling stuff to those people.
Unless it is your passion to work on super complex problems, don't. Find something you love doing (because this will make it easy for you to dedicate the time required to start up). Do it in a way that other people will respond to.
So those are my 5 most important business takeaways from the adorable grumpy cat. What other lessons do you think we can derive from this story?
Share your thoughts in the comments.
Use the best business software and services to help start and grow your company quickly and efficiently - with the least cost.
Think of the Internet economy as a farmer’s field full of little green plants. Each plant represents a business, and the stuff that makes them grow is traffic (just like rain makes real plants grow).
Now, imagine that in between the rain clouds and our fledgling plants, there is a huge funnel that collects the rain and pours it over the field. Let’s call this funnel Google.
Google’s job is to make sure that all the sprouts get a fair share of water (provided they are of good quality), and that any weeds that are harmful to the ecosystem aren’t watered. All day long Google funnels rain onto various different plants in order to help them grow.
Fiverr is an online marketplace offering a huge range of services (from the sublime to the ridiculous) that startups can utilize, for only five dollars.
If you're wondering what service could possibly offer any value for only $5, then you are in exactly the same boat I was.
Most of the services (called gigs) that are available on fiverr are probably not even worth the five bucks they charge. But, if you are willing to dig a bit deeper, there are a few gems that can save you a lot of time and money.
Organic search traffic from Google is so valuable that many businesses come to rely on it as their primary source of income.
And while it may seem that the sun will never set on high converting organic traffic from the search giant, you might want to think about what would happen to your enterprise if the flow dried up.
I've experienced both the frustration and despair of losing Google traffic to an unknown and unexplained penalty (only large, important businesses get the information they need to recover in a matter of days or weeks), but have also seen how other companies have thrived without Google entirely.
Among their top 3 challenges, according to most business leaders, is the ability to keep pace with new technology - like the cloud.
Being able to understand what new technology offers and how to use it to increase productivity and maintain competitiveness is not easy, because technology moves moves faster than our ability to keep up.
Small businesses, in this regard, have a distinct advantage over larger ones, and we might well be entering an age where small companies start out-competing big ones because of technology.
The SBA (Small Business Administration) is a United States government department tasked with supporting and nurtur
A cash flow statement usually includes money flowing in and out of a company, but this article is full of ideas and tips to get more money flowing in.
Because cash is king for all entrepreneurs, SME/SMBs, and home based ventures, it is crucial that you can generate as much revenue as possible, as early as possible.
This article will look at a very simple sales forecast and provide plenty of great sales strategies, ideas and advice for you to incorporate into your own plans.
Being an entrepreneur is something that should be encouraged and nurtured in everyone from an early age - especially in a country like the U.S. where the economy relies on small business.
Every school and university should offer a range of courses designed to empower young people to take an idea and turn it into a profitable enterprise, with confidence and competence.
Sadly, most educational institutes seem intent on sticking to dry, academic curricula that might teach young minds how to think, but don't prepare them for the harsh realities of the real world.
Crowdfunding is a relatively novel way for startups and entrepreneurs to raise money to support their fledgling companies - and sometimes it actually works.
Isn't it frustrating that some people just seem to have that entrepreneurial knack - business opportunities just seem to go their way again and again?
Despite spending most of my time working on my own startups, I find myself drawn to reading about what other people are up to, or making use of - whether it
