Ta da! Here’s my latest audio book review…
You can read more about the book and buy it at The Mom Writes ebook store. (for $17 which is about £11)
I also mention Prerna’s new book, Summer sanity savers for the work at home mom, which is available to pre-order now for just $3 (about £2)
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Today I’ve got something a little different for you. Usually I feature mums who start their own businesses, but in this post I’ve interviewed Alan Smith of The Story Mouse.
Alan’s business works with creative mums who work from home, which is my first reason for the interview! Alan also gives us some tips on running a business that involves both writing/illustrating children’s books and developing iPhone apps, which are ideas that I know some Business Plus Baby readers are thinking of exploring.
Over to Alan..
At The Story Mouse we love telling stories! So all our efforts go into creating interactive read-along storybook apps for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. In the main, the titles we publish are those we all grew up with from Jack & the Beanstalk to Goldilocks & the Three Bears; from The Gingerbread Man to The Three Little Pigs. These stories have stood the test of time for a reason – simply because they’re great tales which children love!
All our books operate in a choice of modes: “Read it to me” (where the pages turn automatically and the voice reads the story), or “Read it myself’ (where the voice is turned off and the child advances the pages at their own pace, effectively turning the app into a normal book). The feedback we’ve had from parents suggests this choice of modes is very popular – the former familiarises the child with the story and the latter enables them to read it for themselves, giving tremendous confidence to a young reader.
Our main Talking Books app comes with a free story too, so you can try what we have to offer without spending a single penny!
Additionally, we licence our stories to 3rd parties – if you fly long-haul on most British Airways routes you’ll find The Story Mouse in the in-flight entertainment menu (mice can fly too!).
The two people who run the business are from media and technology backgrounds. Alan has spent 20 years in broadcasting – he deals with all the content and co-ordination of authors’ and illustrators’ work; Philippe has a background in data management and computer programming – he deals with all the technical stuff!
The people without whom The Story Mouse wouldn’t exist are our authors and illustrators. They are based in all corners of the UK and work from home, sending their work via the internet to be compiled into the finished apps.
It works like this: We contact our illustrators to tell them about the next 2 or 3 titles we’re looking to publish. They then decide which story they’re most drawn to (this really brings out the fun in the illustrations because we find our illustrators come to love the characters they create!). For a 10 minute story we’d normally ask for around 20 illustrations and when these are done they’re sent to Philippe who does a bit of technical wizzardry to put them into the format Apple likes. They’re then sent to Alan who compiles the app, matching the audio with the pictures. The finished app is then submitted to Apple for their approval and a few days later it appears around the world on the App Store!
The illustrators and authors receive a monthly share of the sales based on a percentage of the revenue earned from each story. All the contributors have access to the sales figures on a daily basis so they can see how many of their stories have been sold and in which countries.
The advantages of working this way are numerous! First it means the illustrators can work at their own pace. Working from home fits in with their lifestyles too – several of our illustrators are busy mums and being creative when it suits them gives maximum flexibility. Also, it’s great that through The Story Mouse talents which might otherwise go unnoticed are finding an audience.
One of our authors, Helen Aitken has a 4 year old daughter. Helen came to us with an idea for a completely new character, Bertie the Guinea Pig. It would be an extremely tall order for an established paper-and-ink publisher to take a risk on a set of stories which are completely untested, but we saw the potential in Helen’s work so we commissioned an illustrator to work with her and now there are 4 Bertie stories available in just about every country in the world!
I’d say if you have a good idea, give it a go! Make sure you test the idea thoroughly on friends and family who will give you an honest answer. Although the barriers to entry in online publishing are low compared with traditional paper-and-ink publishing, there are still costs involved. We are lucky at The Story Mouse in that the 2 people who run the business possess the skills necessary to get the idea off the ground – technical development and content are the biggest cost areas.
We have an active Facebook page and Twitter feed. This allows us to communicate to several hundred of our customers, but the biggest influence is the App Store itself. We have been delighted to be featured in their “New and Noteworthy” section several times – this gives us Apple’s “stamp of approval” which customers like!
The sheer amount of hard work that’s gone into creating the stories! When we look back nearly 2 years to the day we decided to make our first books, an enormous amount of work has taken place. Since then we’ve expanded the catalogue, introduced animation into some titles and launched a character unique to us, Bertie the Guinea Pig.
Looking forward we’ll be adding many new stories and we are at the early stages of developing a series of educational apps which will make spelling and maths fun!
There’s more info at www.thestorymouse.com
You can see us on the App Store here: http://itunes.apple.com/app/story-mouse/id390726873?mt=8It
They say that imitation is the the sincerest form of flattery but it’s not much fun when someone is blatantly copying your business ideas. I hear frequently of mum-run businesses being copied, sometimes it’s a matter of someone being a little too inspired by another business but it can also be full-on plagiarism.
So what should you do when you find you’re being copied? Here are my tips:
1. Rise above it
I know, that’s easier said than done. But sometimes there’s not much else you can do. The great thing about starting a small business these days is that there are lots of low-cost, low risk business options available. The not-so-good thing is that in removing the barriers to entry, it’s been made easier for anyone to start a business. And that means it’s easier for you to be copied.
But just because someone copies you, it doesn’t mean that they are in any way as good as you. Or that your customers will be fooled by them, either. The chances are they’ll be a poor imitation at best, because the best person to implement your ideas is YOU. Plus you’ve got a head start on them!
2. Protect yourself
If you you have intellectual property that you’re considering protecting, you can find out more about copyright, patents and trademarks at the Intellectual Property office.
You can sometimes protect yourself in ways that don’t involve the law, too. Most of us are nice people and want to support others, so if someone asks you all about your business and how you got started, you might be happy to give them quite a bit of detail. It can come as a shock if they then use all that information to set themselves up in competition to you. Now I’m not suggesting that you should be suspicious of everyone, that’s not a pleasant way to live your life, but be careful about giving too much away about your business.
Update, 8/5/13: Having experienced a few of my own copycats recently, I’m changing my approach at helenlindop.com compared to the one I’ve used here at Business Plus Baby:
These examples are mostly going to apply to you if you’re selling training or information products, but I think it could also work for craft businesses. I know that the cake making business is swarming with copycats, some whom copy photos of cake designs and pass them off as their own. Why not put just a few photos openly on your website to show your expertise, then only make your full catalogue available to people who make contact with you? This could be an ordinary page of your website, just don’t link to it from your main site. You can make the url tricky to guess e.g. your site.com/bqthdgsgssuuj rather than yoursite.com/designs. Again, it’s not rock solid security, but at least you’re not handing your work to them on a plate. (Excuse the pun there!)
Some people are blatant copiers, others are just being cheeky or ignorant about intellectual property and what they can do with it. To deter those cheeky or ignorant types, it can pay to put watermarks on any photos of your products that you publish online. This makes it harder for them to re-publish photos of your products without the proper credit. This won’t stop the determined copier, unfortunately.
3. Strengthen your brand
One significant weapon you have against the copycats is a strong brand. You brand is much more than just a logo or colour scheme, it’s the personality of your business and how you communicate it. One of the great things about being a sole trader is that you can have a very unique and personal brand that nobody else can copy. That’s because your brand comes from YOU – and you’re an individual.
So when you’re faced with an imitator, think about what’s different and unique about your business. Then think about how you can express that more strongly in your graphics, copy, website, leaflets, customer service and even how you communicate on social media. Then get to work and spread that message far and wide so you stay ahead of your copycat.
You’re already better than them – widen the gap so they stay far behind you.
And if you’re not sure where inspiration stops and imitation begins, try this article The importance of being you in blogging, business and everything else by Prerna Malik.
If you enjoyed this post, why not make sure you stay in touch by joining my mailing list? I’ll also send you a copy of my e-book Running a business around a family: 9 steps to success.
Today I’d like to welcome guest blogger and life/business coach Grace Marshall. She’s also a rather good writer, which is why I’ve been wanting to feature her for a while now.
Enjoy!
For all those times when you bury yourself in research, in the hopes of feeling more confident. When you look to other people to make decisions for you. When you force yourself to do something you feel you ‘should’ and push aside the groan of your heart. When you sabotage your progress by second-guessing yourself.For all those times when you think, “Who am I, to think I can do this?”
I have two words. They are as much for me as they are for you.
Trust yourself.
Here’s why: Continue reading “Trust Yourself”
Today’s guest post is from Hannah Jones, who set up her own eBay shop last year and is about to teach others to do the same in her 31 Days 2 an Online Retail Business course.
You may be thinking I’m nuts to post an article about this course in the same week that I launched my own e-book Start your own online shop, but I’m not! Start Your Own Online Shop is a concise ‘how to’ guide and 31 Days 2 is a much more in depth course, so I think the two could complement each other nicely. Plus 31 Days 2 focuses in on the online marketplaces (eBay, Etsy, Amazon) whereas my ebook also looks at setting up your own website.
Over to you, Hannah!
Whether you’re still looking for the business venture which will make your family more comfortable, or thinking about ways to supplement your income to make sure you always have that extra bit of money, it’s worth considering starting an online business selling on websites like eBay, Amazon, and Etsy. I love selling online, and I could go on for days about all of the things I love about it. But, for the sake of keeping Helen’s blog readable, here are four of the big reasons why you should start an online retail business today! Continue reading “Four reasons why you should be selling things online!”
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