Magazine Death Pool January 8, 2008
Posted by laborparty in Magazines.Tags: Budget Living, Magazine Death Pool
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Being both a journalist and a magazine junkie, I understandably have very mixed feelings about Magazine Death Pool, a highly addictive and whip-smart website that feigns to predict any number of soon-to-fold titles. Depressingly, whoever maintains the site is quite often correct, and with an odd sort of radar-like precision at that.
Clorox Buys Burt’s Bees January 6, 2008
Posted by laborparty in Corporations, Entrepreneurs.Tags: AEA Investors, Burt Shavitz, Burt's Bees, Clorox, Colgate-Palmolive, Happy Green Bee, L'Oréal, Louise Story, New York Times, Roxanne Quimby, The Body Shop, Tom's of Maine
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There’s an interesting feature in the New York Times’ Business section today about Burt’s Bees. This is the formerly homespun and formerly Maine-based personal care products company that lately seems to have become much more popular for its marketing — a sort of hippie-esque eco-consciousness — than it ever was for its actual products. Personally, I can remember when the company’s lip balms, for instance, were actually difficult to find. Now they seem to be featured on colorful endcaps in every grocery store I walk into. As it happens, there’s a reasonable explanation for all that: Burt’s Bees was acquired by Clorox this past November, if you can believe it, for the almost unbelievable sum of $913 million.
Note >> Interestingly enough, Clorox didn’t buy the Burt’s Bees company from its two founders, Roxanne Quimby and Burt Shavitz. (The bearded man in the Burt’s Bees logo is modeled after Shavitz.) Why? Because a New York-based equity firm known as AEA Investors had already beat them to it, way back in 2003. Quimby, in fact, sold 80 percent of the company to AEA for the whopping sum of $141.6 million. So naturally, after Clorox acquired AEA’s 80 percent, they went knocking on Quimby’s door for the remaining 20. They offered her $183 million. She complied.
According to the article’s author, Louise Story, “Clorox was willing to pay almost $1 billion for Burt’s Bees because big companies see big opportunities in the market for green products. From 2000 to 2007, Burt’s Bees’ annual revenue soared to $164 million from $23 million. Analysts say there is far more growth to be had by it and its competitors as consumers keep gravitating toward products that promise organic and environmental benefits.”
I found the following paragraph even more surprising: “In the last couple of years, L’Oréal paid $1.4 billion for the Body Shop and Colgate-Palmolive bought 84 percent of Tom’s of Maine, which makes natural toothpaste and deodorant, for $100 million. Clorox is also creating eco-friendly product lines of its own.”
So who knows? Maybe all this corporate buyout business will have its own happy ending. And by the way, if you’re wondering what Roxanne Quimby did with her $324.6 million, click here. [Hint: She's seems to be something of a dyed-in-the-wool entrepreneur.]
The Trials and Tribulations of the Telecommuter January 4, 2008
Posted by laborparty in New York Times, Office Supplies, Telecommunting.Tags: Design Within Reach, Knock Knock, Moss Online, New York Times, Ralph Gardner Jr., Telecommuting
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The small business section of the New York Times’ website has been running all sorts of interesting content lately, and today it’s featuring a link to a great story from the Home & Garden page about the myriad difficulties of working from home. I’ve been freelancing from a home office for a number of years now, and I’ve got to say, it’s a truly liberating feeling to see an institution as august as the Times taking the side of telecommuter.
Which isn’t to say that working from home isn’t a liberating feeling in and of itself - it certainly is. It’s also the most fun I’ve ever had in my working life, and for someone who treasures the concept of independence as much as I do, it’s definitely a working style I don’t see myself giving up anytime soon. But my experience has always shown that the type of person who works in a corporate office environment – the type of person who has probably never worked from home – isn’t really capable of understanding the unusual challenges that telecommuting tends to offer up. Which is why I wouldn’t necessarily suggest forwarding this link to fellow freelancers, but rather to friends immersed in the 9-to-5 life who seem to be curious about what it is, exactly, that all of us self-employed types do during the day. As the article’s author, Ralph Gardner Jr., writes of the freelance life: “It requires strict self-discipline and an ability to tune out spouses, children and pets. For the more sociable or emotionally needy, it can feel like house arrest, especially if the phone hasn’t rung in a while.”
Also in the Home & Garden department: A fun little feature about the importance of filling a home office with the sort of supplies and furniture that will actually inspire creativity. Seems like an obvious enough concept, but then again, it’s exactly the sort of thing that has always been a rarity in the corporate sector.
Note >> Interested in doing a spot of online office shopping yourself? Check out the ridiculously cool organization and shelving solutions at Design Within Reach, the lighting and furniture for rich people at Moss Online, or the hip and affordable office supplies at Knock Knock, which just happens to be my favorite work solutions company in the entire universe. Then hurry up and get yourself a Seth Godin action figure ($8.95 from Archie McPhee), which, according to the man himself, is fully refundable if its owner does not acquire a significantly better job within 18 months. (I suppose that means I’ll either be filing copy for the AP in Addis Ababa or stringing for the business section of the New York Times in Eastern Europe sometime during the month of July 2009. Bonus!)
Time Management for Anarchists January 3, 2008
Posted by laborparty in Blogging, Discipline, Organization.1 comment so far
I’m fairly sure I’ve posted about time management techniques and tools on this blog before, but I can say with absolute certainty that I’ve never written anything about day planners. And why would I? Seems like a boring subject, right? But the really odd thing about day planners is that every single person I know who uses one on a regular basis is not only dissatisfied by the planner they currently use, but has never found a planner they actually like. Which obviously begs the question: How can it possibly be so difficult for multi-million dollar personal organization companies like FranklinCovey and Day Runner to create the perfect planner?
I’ve been using day planners since college, and I’ve always wondered why they didn’t really work for me, either. But about a week ago, I was taking a break from work and fooling around online when I came across an incredibly well made Power Point presentation about the potential power of day planners, and now I’m not so sure the planners are actually the problem. Rather, it’s those of us who use the planners — or to put it more accurately, those of us who aren’t using the planners to their full potential — that could do with a bit of improvement.
The Power Point presentation, by the way, was created by Jim Monroe, a relatively well-know author and independent publishing champion. It can be accessed on his No Media Kings website, which is filled with all sorts of good information for DIY types. Click here to view the film, which is full of useful ideas about taking complete control of your life by documenting all the steps of your various projects in a day planner. Monroe has even lectured about time management techniques, and on his blog you’ll find a fantastic collection of notes about organization and the self-employed lifestyle.
Here’s what Monroe says about the power of self-discipline and organization, and why those two qualities are so important for the type of people who prefer to work for themselves:
I know for lots of anti-authoritarian types like myself, being organized and productive is a big challenge. People with a rebellious streak tend to be more creative and less focused, and often have an inherent dislike of structured thinking. But most ornery people I know hate having bosses most of all. ‘Cause when you think of it, what a boss does is take a cut of your labour for managing the employees. If you have a job, you’re kind of paying a boss to discipline you. Once I learned how to make my own structure, I was able to kick my expensive boss habit and work on my own.
Dan Pink to Publish Manga Graphic Novel About Business and Career Success January 2, 2008
Posted by laborparty in Books, Dan Pink.Tags: Dan Pink, Japan, manga, Marci Alboher
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Assuming you’re a fan of creative entrepreneurial types and other Young Pioneers, this definitely qualifies as breaking news: Dan Pink, the business author best known for writing the still-popular Free Agent Nation, is working on a book about career advice that will published in the form of a Japanese manga graphic novel.
For those not in the know, manga – which is actually the Japanese word for comics – is an absolute cultural steamroller in the land of the rising sun. Just about everyone in Japanese society reads manga, and because of that, nearly every social strata and subculture in the country is served by their very own manga title, if not five or ten or 20 manga titles. Take a ride on a Tokyo subway train during rush hour, and you’re likely to see dozens of salary men reading manga novels, some of them as thick as a small town’s telephone book. So while the idea of Dan Pink publishing a manga-style book about business and careers in America is certainly unusual, there wouldn’t be anything odd about it all in Japan.
According to Pink, who previously lived in Japan, and who announced his upcoming project during an interview with Marci Alboher for the New York Times, “[In Japan] you have manga graphic novels – book-length comics – covering a whole range of topics, like how to prepare for retirement or how to cook or how to find a mate. It is a whole genre, a medium analogous to television.”
Pink says his project will be “a 160-page graphic novel called ‘The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: the Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need.’” Pink also claims that readers of the graphic novel “will learn the six essential rules to a satisfying and productive career.”
The book will be available on April 1 2008; it’s already available for pre-sale on Amazon.com.
Good Humor, with an International Twist January 1, 2008
Posted by laborparty in Entrepreneurs, Food, Punk Entrepreneurs.Tags: Ben Pollock, Heartschallenger, Heartsrevolution, Leyla Safai
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I’ve only been studying entrepreneurship for a relatively short while now, but every now and again I find out about a small business that is so incredibly creative, I feel like smacking myself in the forehead for not thinking of it first. The Los Angeles-based Heartschallenger is one such business. Owned and operated by the 28-year-old Leyla Safai, Heartschallenger is probably best described as the world’s only alternative ice cream truck company.
Safai, it seems, has something of a sweet tooth for international treats. Formerly an interior designer for a hotel chain, her business began when she purchased a U.S. Mail truck and painted it cotton candy pink. Then she went shopping for product: Russian ice cream bars, organic lollipops, mochi ball treats from Japan, obscure novelty toys from Armenian delis. Heartschallenger, you might say, is essentially an international candy shop on wheels.
In the June 2007 issue of Fortune Small Business, Safai said she got the inspiration for the business “from pondering the typical ice cream trucks from my from childhood. Why did they sell only one type of product? It didn’t make sense — an American truck with no international flavors, considering all the nationalities that make up this country. I liked the idea of a shop on wheels that sold a mix of art, ice cream, and toys — an entertainment source outside a venue.”
The Heartschallenger truck has been making appearances at music and art festivals around southern California for about two years now. And this past summer, she took her mobile business to New York City with her boyfriend, a musician by the name of Ben Pollock. Pollock and Safai even have their own electro-dance band, Heartsrevolution, whose music can often be heard wafting out of the ice cream truck’s hi-fi speakers.
Naturally, Safai has big plans to take the business worldwide. Candy-colored trucks will soon be sent to Miami, London, Paris and Tokyo. And according to a recent article in The New York Observer, Heartschallenger has become so popular in Los Angeles that Safai is charging anywhere from $350 to $3,500 an hour to show up at birthday parties for Hollywood’s rich and famous. Which gives me an interesting idea: A Heartschallenger truck would certainly make a perfect addition to a YP Media party… although I imagine we’d have to land a pretty sizable ad account before that could happen. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
A Question for Book and Magazine Publishers January 1, 2008
Posted by laborparty in Books, Entrepreneurs, Punk Entrepreneurs, Zines.Tags: Big Top Distribution, Disticor, Independent Press Association, Modern Primitives, piercing, Publishers Group West, RE/Search, San Francisco, tattoos, V. Vale, Young Pioneers
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I had an interesting telephone conversation with V. Vale last night — he’s the legendary San Francisco-based publishing entrepreneur behind the RE/Search Publications book imprint, which has been documenting underground and unknown subcultures of all stripes for something like 25 years now. Before founding RE/Search, Vale launched a ground-breaking punk zine called Search & Destroy, which is still considered one of the most important cultural punk publications ever. So in other words, this guy’s no slouch when it comes to publishing, writing, cultural anthropology… and who knows what else. I was interviewing Vale for the first issue of Young Pioneers, my soon-to-be-relaunched punk-rock business magazine, which will be rolling off the printer’s wheel before you know it.
Those of you without much knowledge of the independent publishing universe may not be familiar with Vale’s name, but there’s a good chance you’d recognize the cover of Modern Primitives, one of Vale’s best-selling books — it was almost single-handedly responsible for exposing the tattooing and piercing subcultures to a mainstream audience. In fact, if you’re a twenty-something female with a navel ring, you can thank the book pictured above for more or less launching the trend you so blindly followed. Same thing for all you twenty-something guys with shitty Celtic and tribal tattoos you now regret. Personally, I’d suggest picking up a copy of the book and attempting to learn at least a little something about the various ancient traditions of body modification. Click here to pick up a copy from the RE/Search store; Vale himself will even autograph your purchase at no extra charge if you include a request in your order.
Anyway, Vale and I got to talking about the unique distribution problems faced by magazine and book publishers today. Of course, distribution has essentially always been an Achilles’ heel for independent publishers. But thanks to the fairly recent implosion of the Independent Publishers Association (IPA), and with it its wide-reaching BigTop Newsstand Services distribution arm, magazine publishers who can’t quite af
ford massive print runs and four-color print processes don’t have many small-press distro organizations to turn to.
Book publishers like Vale don’t have it any better. The recently bankrupted Publishers Group West (PGW) was essentially the BigTop of independent book publishers, and I haven’t yet talked to anyone in the industry who didn’t personally experience a hit. Vale told me he felt the pinch himself, because PGW was one of RE/Search’s biggest clients at the time. Right now, he says, RE/Search’s biggest struggle is trying to decide if they should move away from books and into video and music production, where at least the stakes are slightly lower.
So here’s my question for any pioneering publishers out there, especially any of you who may be doing things differently since the fall of PGW and the IPA: What other options, exactly, do we have?
I’m relatively well acquainted with Disticor, and from what I can tell they’re picking up the slack rather well. But I’m very curious to learn about any other tricks being employed by independent distributors these days. After all, aside from the hip-hop guys who sell CDs direct to the customer from the trunks of their cars, I really haven’t been seeing any new or interesting ideas. And since I’m only a few months away from publishing again myself, my eyes and ears are wide open to any distribution ideas, no matter how unusual or implausible. I’d love to hear from anyone…
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