Entrepreneurs

The Long Tail of Independence

by La Shawn on 10.10.07

in Entrepreneurs, Hansonblogging, Pop Culture, Technology

the long tail***Scroll down for updates***

A long and somewhat rambling post about the long tail as it pertains to independent bands.

The Internet has revolutionized retail. It’s also changed the way people work and play. To be sure, the Internet has its drawbacks, but that’s the risk of revolution. The good news is that we’ve only begun to reap the benefits of a world untethered from traditional selling, marketing, buying, and consuming.

The Long Tail

In a book I highly recommend called The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, Chris Anderson, editor of Wired magazine, wrote about a statistical model called the long tail. The head consists of best-selling products, also called “hits,” and the long tail is “non-hits,” products that sell in smaller quantities. Products in the head may sell millions per year; those in the long tail may sell only one or two a year.

According to Anderson, the culture and the economy are “increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of ‘hits’ (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail.”

For example, a large portion of online retailer Amazon.com’s book sales consists of books not found in traditional book stores. People still buy the hits, but demand for non-hits has grown, thanks to the Internet.

(Read the article that started it all and Anderson’s blog.)

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Christian Landscapers: ‘We choose not to work for homosexuals.’

by La Shawn on 11.10.06

in Entrepreneurs, Faith

landscapingUpdate II: I like this from commenter and blogger Jerry McClellan:

“You know, it is strange how so called tolerant homosexuals and their supporters want government to get out of their bedrooms, yet they want that same government to force others to not only refrain from verbally disagreeing with them but also to force them to accept their lifestyle, even by force. If you want government out of your bedrooms, then stop advertising what you do in your bedrooms in the street, on t.v. and in the classroom.”

Update (12:44): To focus the discussion a bit more, I’ll pose another question. A business seeking a license can’t refuse to serve people based on race (esp. if it does business with the government), but can that same business refuse to serve people whose lifestyles/behavior is offensive to them as Christians or violates their religious convictions?

If your answer is no, do you have a similar opinion about Muslim cab drivers who refuse to drive customers with alcohol? If pharmacists can refuse to dispense abortion pills because of religious convictions, why can’t landscaping Christians refuse to landscape on the same grounds? (No pun intended!)

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The Entrepreneurial Drive

by La Shawn on 02.13.06

in Entrepreneurs, Faith

Tannette Johnson-Elie writes about immigrants and the entrepreneurial drive, something largely absent among black Americans in inner cities:

Porter’s research, along with other recent studies, show that immigrants bring something you can’t get from a government program: work ethic and job-creation skills, and ambition coupled with the resolve to make the most of the investment others have made in them.

Johnson-Elie“They engage in businesses that most of us don’t want to engage in, like Laundromats and dry cleaners. They have a dogged determination to succeed,” said Keenan Grenell, associate provost for diversity at Marquette University.

Instead of complaining about how immigrants come here and take jobs or how they set up shops in black neighborhoods that they often don’t understand, let’s applaud them for their ambition and their willingness to do the things to help the economy that we wouldn’t do.

I’ve often marveled at the fact that immigrants are willing to venture into some of the most dangerous locales where few others would go and create successful businesses. I know few people, myself included, who are willing to take such risks or who have the motivation to work the horrendous hours – 12 to 16 hours a day – that many immigrants often put in to nourish and build their businesses.

For many decades, black folks here and across the nation have watched immigrants quietly come into our neighborhoods and dominate niches, such as dry-cleaning shops and gas stations. (Source)

Also read Johnson-Elie’s recent feature article, Immigrants create a new land of opportunity. I assume many of you know immigrants who came to America with very little but managed to achieve the American dream. And I’m sure many of you are as baffled as I am that people born and raised in this great country really believe their skin color prevents them from doing the same.

Despite my posturing and sometimes deliberately puffed-up pontificating, I’m nothing special.

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CakeLove

by La Shawn on 08.11.05

in Entrepreneurs

WBI love cake. In fact, I love cake so much, I look at people who hate cake as if they’re Martians.

“You don’t like cake?” I exclaim. “What kind of human being doesn’t like cake? Cake is so good.”

After scenes like that, I’m usually worked up enough to stop by CakeLove or Love Cafe, two stores owned and operated by Warren Brown. I secretly hope he’ll be there on days I go in to scan a myriad of choices. Will it be a $7 slice of chocolate or cheese cake, or a $3 vanilla cupcake with lemon frosting? Man, just thinking about it…but it’s only 8:30 in morning. The store’s probably not open yet anyway.

Brown has been in the store during most of my visits, but he’s usually behind the counter with a plastic cap on his head mixing dough. One time I saw him in Love Cafe sitting on one of the couches.

“Congratulations on opening a second store (Love Cafe, across the street from CakeLove). Your business is a huge success. It’s wonderful to see,” I said.

“Thanks,” Brown said, “but I certainly didn’t do it alone.”

I’d read stories about him before. What started out as a dream for a government lawyer who wrote cake recipes while riding the Metro and baked in his free time has become dramatically real. Brown’s opening a second CakeLove, his third store, in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, and he’s signed on to do a show called “Sugar Rush” for the Food Network. From the Washington Post (reg. req.):

“Sugar Rush,” which will be shown on Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m., will debut in mid-October. “Recipe for Success,” an ongoing program, airs on Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. Brown’s episode is being filmed.

Each episode of “Sugar Rush” follows Brown as he visits restaurants, pastry shops and bakeries around the country to talk with pastry chefs and chocolatiers, then returns to his kitchen to cook a recipe he’s learned from them.

Yes, yes, all that is wonderful, but there’s something missing. Warren Brown needs a blog. He’d get crazy traffic. He should hire another entrepreneur who knows blogs to help him set it up, and I know just the woman person.

If you’re ever in D.C., stop by Love Cafe or CakeLove (or both!) and sample some of Brown’s bold yet delicate confections. Your waistline will curse you, but your tongue will show you nothing but love. :)

(Hat tip: Casey Lartigue)

Related stories:

(Cross-posted on The Language Artist)

Update: T-Steel: “[H]is story of how he found a passion for baking is similar to what I’m going through right now. I’m sick of information technology (on an enterprise level) and have found a passion. Now I just have to develop it.”

John Johnson, 1918-2005

August 9, 2005

John H. Johnson, founder of Ebony and Jet magazines, staples in many black homes, died yesterday at age 87. I was in South Carolina a couple of weeks ago and read my mother’s pile of Ebony magazines. Collecting them is a habit that seems to stick. I would love to see more blacks start their [...]

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