Red Koala Canvas Co. and FastPivot.com–Hard at Work!
May 24th, 2008
The FastPivot team is so very excited to be a part of the Yahoo! Seeds for Success program with Finding What Matters” (FWM) and Abby of the Red Koala Canvas Company.
When co-founder Keith Enloe and I started Ydesigns.com in 1988 we recognized the internet as a great ‘leveler’ with the power to help build a business around your lifestyle. When we started Ydesigns.com eBay was only three and Yahoo! hadn’t yet entered the store hosting business. We liked the concept of helping people ‘make money while they slept!’
I remember fondly the days creating AvalonGarden.com. Although Keith and I created it, Avalon was run by a team consisting exclusively of stay-at-home moms led by his wife. Our goals were the following:
Leverage time and the flexibility–what better resource than the internet
Provide fun and fulfilling work for our network of moms and their friends
Help create income while living a balanced life.
The premise was simple: design your life around family, home and things that are important without sacrificing an income. Now, running a larger enterprise, I recognize balance every time I swing past it. This opportunity with Abby and FWM is a great reminder for me personally to continue to ‘return to center.’ Suffice it to say, the online market is more competitive now than it was then. I’m happy to say that, though much has changed, some things do remain the same.
Before we defined what the Red Koala Canvas Company brand or design is all about, I challenged Abby to consider two related but distinct things by asking some simple questions:
“What business is Red Koala in?” Custom printing? Home furnishings? Unique and personalized canvas products?
“What does it do in the market no one else is doing? Why does it exist?”
The first was considerably easier to answer than the second. There are lots of business segments from which to choose from as a startup. However, creating something truly unique, distinctive and memorable relates to a concept called a value proposition.
“A customer value proposition consists of the sum total of benefits which a vendor promises that a customer will receive in return for the customer’s associated payment (or other value-transfer).”
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_proposition
MarketingExperiments.com simply states:
Value Proposition: Why should a customer buy from them rather than from their competitors?
from http://www.marketingexperiments.com/improving-website-conversion/landing-page-assessment.html
So, yes we will help establish and define the Red Koala brand! Yes, we will build a beautiful web-store that will ‘pop!’ Yes it will have cool functionality! But ultimately if we do all those things and neglect the value proposition and product mix, they are all just ‘window dressing.’ So we are working with Abby to help clearly look at her product offering and mix in this early stage to help her gain momentum quickly.
Although I’m writing this initial post, expect to hear more from the women on our designated FastPivot team. I am especially proud of this all female team of uniquely talented programmers, artists and strategists that make a difference every day for our clients. They will be leading Abby and Red Koala through a great process that will help create the Red Koala brand and provide a foundation to build upon for years to come.
More soon!
Matthew Ledford, President & CoFounder FastPivot.com
