The Business Library

In the quest to find the perfect business to start, it is often tempting to get caught up in the memes of the moment – those ideas that are currently getting all of the press coverage. The only problem with this is that sometimes these great ideas are one-hit-wonders, and chasing the bandwagon can often lead nowhere.

Seth Godin talks a lot about Purple Cows – ideas that are remarkable, and therefore are spread by word of mouth very easily. It is important, however, to realise that there is a line between a Purple Cow and a Red Herring (a gimmick, if you will).

Take The Million Dollar Homepage for example: Here we see a very remarkable idea that was picked up by the national, then international media, banded about, then copied mercilessly with little success. Aside from Alex Tew’s initial effort, I have heard no mention of any other significant pixel-advertising site. A Purple Cow? Yes. But also a one-hit wonder as a business model.

Another notable mention has to go to Andrew Fischer, a man from Omaha, Nebraska who auctioned temporary advertising space on his forehead on eBay for around £20,000. Again, this is an exceptionally remarkable idea, so much so that in the weeks that followed, there were countless attempts at copying the idea. There were even auctions for permanent tattoos on eBay, though no-other walking billboard managed to garner the sort of interest that the originator did.

There are many other examples of gimmicks that, though they might be interesting and remarkable, the business model behind them is simply not built to last.

I personally think there needs to be more shepherds than sheep.