Christopher_Thiem

Amplify your Business

by Christopher Thiem

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Table of Contents 4. Foreword 7. Introduction 12. Chapter 1 17. Chapter 2 26. Conclusion

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Dedicated to Adam, Ron, the creators of this awesome product.

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Foreword

When you think of a soda can, your brain doesn’t think of much besides the aluminium being melted down into another can. But what if a company did something different with these used soda cans. Say, put a speaker in it? Shown by the can on the left, Trash Amps started out by making soda can’s into speakers in their garage and have taken off from there.

I have always been a music lover and this combination of recycling and music interesting me enough to write this book about it. I believe their creativity should be more commonplace and people should think more like the founders of Trash Amps, Adam and Ron. They see an empty soda can, not as a piece of trash, but a canvas for a variety of new products.

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Throughout the house the Trash Amps logo is pasted onto almost everything you can think of. Even this trash can is rocking the cool Trash Amps graffiti art. It’s an interesting logo that shows the company’s creative side.

Also, anyone that walks through the house gets a taste of all this Trash Amps advertising!

This infectious way of thinking has led them to think of other items this way also. For instance they are now making a speaker in a Chinese take-out box. Hopefully we will see more companies coming soon that will take on this creative aspect to their products as I think that is what people will soon be buying primarily.

The paper in this book is primarily about creating a small business in the current economy and the struggles they face, however, Trash Amps gets its fair share of the spotlight, as I cite its success in a number of reasons and examples. The purpose of my paper is to let people know that creating a small business can be very rewarding, but also presents a challenge. This is what we all a high risk, high reward field, and it is one that many people have decided to delve into.

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For only fifty dollars you can customize your very own Trash Amps speaker complete with the speaker system, can of your choice, grill, and packaging system. What a deal, right?

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Introduction

In a world of multi-billion dollar corporations, starting a new company can seem like an overwhelming and seemingly impossible task. However, today there are over 28 million small businesses in the US, which outnumber large corporation more than one thousand times. This can shed some light on the why small businesses are at the heart if economic growth and why many young people just out of college are choosing to start them. One company in particular, Trash Amps, has caught my attention. They are a recently opened small business that has a creative and original idea. Putting a speaker in a soda can. They have already sold their first batch of “Trash Amps� and are now looking to expand into large scale production and assembly line manufacturing. The story of starting a small business can sometimes be of hardships and troubles, but for Trash Amps the benefits seem to be outweighing the deterrents. So why are they successful and what makes a successful small business?

Does it have more to do with the idea, the management or the company itself?

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What a messy workstation!

The Trash Amps business model isn’t a very defined one, so there have to be some inferences that are made. For instance, I know that there are a minimal number of employees at the company, so I can assume that each of them makes a large percentage of the total profit, if any.

Comparing this to the percentile of profit an employee in a large company makes, from that standpoint we could interpret that employees of large business make less money.

However, we must remember that large business makes thousands of times more money than a small business so in reality the money small business employees pocket every year is less than that of an employee of the same expertise in a larger business. Why is this? This is simply because large businesses have more benefits for their employees so even if two identical people were working for a small and large business and getting the same salary, the one working in the large corporation would pocket more money at the end of the year. So the next logical question would be why would anyone go through the effort of creating and running a small business if they would get paid more money and go through less work if they just went to work for a large corporation? While personal decisions and creativity come into play, I think the main reason people start small businesses is the possibility of great financial success.

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In creating the Trash Amps, a lot of work goes into each one. While Adam and Ron are secretive about exactly how the Trash Amps are created, from their garage it can be assumed that a lot of work is put into their constuction. Now that the process is being moved to China it will become more streamlined, but during the first batch of Trash Amps, each one was hand-made and tested, showing the dedication these two put into their products. They are often out here thinking and creating new and interesting ideas.

For instance, the zipper, the helicopter, and the personal computer were some of the most successful inventions of small businesses. The most widely known of these ideas, the personal computer, was the basis of two of the biggest companies in the world, Apple and Microsoft. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were the founders of both these companies respectively and when the idea exploded they because fabulously wealthy men. This prospect enchants new college graduates that want these riches themselves. In the modern world the economic incentive is one of the strongest there is.

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Chapter 1:

What makes a successful small business?

Starting a small business is a challenge. Many start-ups never get off the ground and many that do reach the business stage fail within the first year. In the past few years the rate of new starts-ups has been actually decreasing due to rising competition in the field. However, small business employment is increasing which shows that the field is on the rise. In fact, small businesses now make up more than half the total sales in the United States. All this helps back the fact that small business is a field that is expanding, improving and changing. So, how can one enter this hit-or-miss section of the economy and have a better chance of a home run?

One easy way to keep your small business thriving is to stay true to your company model. In the early stages, it is much too complicated and confusing to be switching products, ideas, and methods so stick with what you know. Trash Amps has stuck to their product of a speaker in a soda can, their ideal of a company based around recycling, and their method of creating the speaker throughout the entire process.

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The different grills available for placement on your very own Trash Amp. There are a variety of colors and designs that can be placed on the Trash Amp. 14

Now that the company is taking steps towards become larger, they can afford to change their process and now assemble their product in China to increase profits as well as decrease waste materials. Wait, making products in China is more eco-friendly than making them in the US? Doesn’t that go against the normal thought of China being all large factories with huge plumes of smoke coming out? In fact, it’s almost the opposite. The production of Trash Amps in China will be done with all recycled plastic and because of that they already waste less than Adam and Ron did when they were handmaking the product. This is because Adam and Ron had to buy all of the plastic new, which was actually more harmful to the environment than using recycled plastic in China. This will keep the company true it its ideals as well as give them more profits.

Another thing that Trash Amps emulates that all small busniess should take note of is that fact that they know their customer. When they had a booth at Valley Fair Mall in Santa Clara, they were personally selling their speakers to the customers and were able to listen face-to-face to all of the suggestions that were offered to them. Also, the fact that the owners of the company were there selling their own product made people more willing to come up and ask them questions about the speakers, simply because they would be more knowledgeable than a random employee. Knowing your first customers can be a vital opportunity to see what direction your company could take off towards.

Last but not least you have to know your competition. This is one of the main reasons companies lose money and interest of the people, simple because another company’s ideas are more intriguing or better priced. A company has to find a reason why a consumer would want to buy their product more than their competitors. For example, Trash Amps uses their creativity as a reason why people should buy their product. Does a really sound that much better than an Apple iHome or a BeatsAudio Headset? Probably not, but the fact that the speaker is in your favorite soda can and not some normal looking sound device, that is the angel Trash Amps uses to attract their customers. Every company needs an angle to attempt to outsell their competitors, and the one who finds the best angle will find the most customers showing up at their door.

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Chapter 2 Creators and Classifications

Where do the ideas for small businesses come from? Who has the good ideas and who acts on them? In fact, almost anyone can have an idea to start off a small business. In over 70% of all the small businesses, one person owns and operates the entire company. This shows that it was their creative idea or goal to start the company and they have acted on it to become the head of their business. These could be anyone, but recently the dominant demographic that has been starting these companies are the newly graduated college students. This makes sense because it is these people that are recently out of school and looking for an occupation in which they could make a living. I know that many of the most successful companies became small businesses when their founders were very young. They had a new and creative idea and they acted on it.

So why should someone create a small business? What causes someone to make their own business instead of working for one that is already proven successful? It’s a much higher risk of failure if you start or own business than it is if you work at a large corporation. While many don’t want to admit it, lots of small businesses these days start because people cannot find a job. Because of this they work for the only person that will hire them. These small business have a bad record of going under fairly quickly and the rarely expand past more than one or two employees.

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This is the bread and butter of Trash Amps. This laser was how they created all of their amazing designs for their product. The laser is connected to a computer and the pattern is programmed into the laser. When the laser is fired up, it automatically cuts the pattern into the material and makes the exact same lines everytime. The logo of the product and the magnetic grills that stick on the top are made this way.

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Microsoft was founded when Bill Gates was a sophomore in college and he realized that Altair, the first “personal computer” for do-it-yourself hobbyists, could take off into the thriving and trillion dollar industry it is today. I classify this type of small business as the “Idea-centered business.” Companies in this classification build their infrastructure on the basis of their flagship product, their money-maker invention. Trash Amps is a good example of this type of company. They have created an interesting product and the entirety of their business is centered around the sale of that product.

The garage in which Trash Amps was created is a very messy area, but the mess is not meaningless. Hidden among the rubbish is a lot of materials that went into the production of Trash Amps. Then this pocture you can see lots of wood peices as well as a saw in the bottom left corner.

Some of these wood peices are leftover from production, and of course like an garage, some of them are just junk. The blue laser in the background, as previously mentioned, is where all the magic happens in creating Trash Amps.

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Another type of small business is a service based business.

These are usually companies that do utility work such as garden work or services inside your house like cleaning. These small businesses are usually local competition to the large chain companies.

They don’t do anything creative persay, just offer a more local feel for your consuming. Take Spots Pizza, a pizza place in downtown Los Altos. Spots is a locally owned restaurant and there are only two Spots Pizza restaurants in existence. How do they compete with the larger pizza companies like Round Table and Pizza Hut? A large part of their success is that they integrate members of their community as workers. In the beginning of the hiring process of any new restaurant, the manager looks for employees that live in the area. This in turn will make the new restaurant popular, as the employees are telling their friends they should come eat at the restaurant. In the example of Spots Pizza, many of the employees are high school students and these high school students attract their friends to eat at Spots. This in turn makes more and more people eat at Spots until it has a good customer base and can make a nice profit. This paid off for Spots as it just recently opened its second location, an obvious sign that the company is growing.

Before all manufacture moved to China, creating a Trash Amp required Adam and Ron to do a lot of work. Look at all the tools that are located around their house.

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In our interview with Adam he felt at home inside his messy garage, the Trash Amp logo being a frequent symbol around here. We were hear for quite some time as he is a big talker. During our interview he started with the creation of the product and took us through its history up to the present. QWWOne thing that caught our attention was the recent move of the product to be manufactured in China. He argued that it is actually more economically friendly to create the product in China because they don’t have to individually order all of the parts, which cuts down on packaging. He also informed us that they requested the company us only recycled plastics in creating the product, which is different than the original batch because they used new materials when they were making Trash Amps at home.

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Conclusion

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Trash Amps as a company may become a huge success, growing into a billion dollar company, however, odds are it will do decently then be overtaken by a new better idea. Very rarely does an idea become so popular that it shapes entire industries. Small businesses come and go and new ideas are thought of every day, some of which could and are transferred into businesses. Successful ones, like Spots Pizza and Trash Amps, have a good business model and have found success. Other companies who seem to flounder can trace their problems back to the foundation on the company itself and what they stand for.

In creating a small business, steps have to be taken in order to make your small business a success. Good customer service is vital to the survival of your company because that is what keeps customers interested. Without good customer service at the beginning of a company there can be no success for it later on. Another important part of creating a new company is knowing your competitors. If your product is not better than your competitors product in some way, no one will want to buy your product over the more advanced version your competition is making. Anyone can have an idea worthy of a small business, but only certain people will act on these ideas. The normal demographic for people creating this startup is newly graduated college students who are looking for work, but anyone can decide to create a business around their idea. In a modern world were large businesses control a large portion of the economy, it can be easy to overlook the small businesses and their role, but they play just a large a part, if not larger, as their counterparts.

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Bibliography “SMALL BUSINESS FACTS.” SMALL BUSINESS FACTS. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2013. <http://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/opadhome/mtdpweb/sbfacts. htm>.

“Microsoft Fast Facts: 1975.” Microsoft Fast Facts: 1975. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2013.

“Follow These 10 Steps to Starting a Business | SBA.gov.” Follow These 10 Steps to Starting a Business | SBA.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2013. <http://www. sba.gov/content/follow-these-steps-starting-business>.

“18 Amazing Facts About Small Businesses In America.” Business Insider. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2013.

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