Episode 10 - Guerrillapreneur News: Airbnb Gets Competition. Rover's $65M bite. China Wants You To Share Your Home-Cooked Meals and Your Bed
In Episode 10 of the Art of Waging Small Business Warfare podcast, we bring you up to speed with Guerrillapreneur News, news about the sharing, gig and circular loop economies that is expected to grow to $335B by 20205. First, we discuss Airbnb's purchase of background screening company, Trooly. Will this be a broader trend with sharing economy companies? Next, we highlight Expedia and Priceline's strategic moves to take on Airbnb in the private accommodation market. Expedia and Priceline are using their platforms to post private listings alongside hotels listings. Expedia also purchased HomeAway, a direct competitor to Airbnb. How will Airbnb respond to these threats? I discuss six potential tactics Airbnb can execute to put Expedia and Priceline back on their heels. Third, we venture back into the pet sitting segment by discussing Rover, the leading US dog sitting service. The pet sitting segment is a small but growing part of the $67 billion pet industry. Rover has several options to continue its fantastic growth rate. Fourth, I discuss the funding of insurtech startups Zego and Trov. These two companies are helping the sharing economy expand by providing transactional insurance for delivery vehicles (cars, scooters, and bikes). Fifth, we ask the question, "Is ride sharing killing the automotive industry?" A study by AlixPartners indicates that for every car dedicated to ride sharing eliminates 32 personal vehicle purchases. This is great in the short-term, but what happens when the market reaches equilibrium? We review what actions market competitors are taking and discuss how the market will evolve. Sixth, do you love to cook? If yes, you are one-step closer to becoming an entrepreneur with the help of community market place apps, HomeCook and Shmeal. HomeCook and Shmeal give individuals the ability to market home cooked meals to their neighbors. How will existing food vendors respond to this threat? We look into the future and discuss seven potential responses. Seventh, the China sharing economy provides the most interesting business models. The latest venture is a bed-sharing service. Sleeping pods are placed around China and busy business people can pop-in for a thirty-minute nap. Does this startup's strategy open up the possibility to time-share ownership of residential family homes? Finally, we discuss my second favorite startup, WeWork. WeWork's recent funding round valued the company at $21B. Will WeWork be at the forefront of the future Gig Worker recruitment process? We theorize and make predictions. In Episode 9, I interviewed brand-building guru, SarahGeorge Durham, Wix.com Ambassador and the Founder of brand building consulting firm, Three4 Corporation. SarahGeorge is a dynamic business leader and brand builder who rides a Hurley and spends her weekends as an amateur boxer. She is one of Wix.com very first US Ambassadors and in this interview; she shared ninja techniques on how to use this FREE platform to build your Guerrillapreneur brand. She shared techniques on how you can use Wix.com's Search Engine Optimization (SEO) wizard to optimal your website and get more traffic. In fact, she references a client who was able to reduce their Google Adwords spending from $600 a month to zero just by using the Wix.com SEO wizard and here is what is fascinating, THE TRAFFIC TO THE WEBSITE STAYED THE SAME. Finally, she made us aware of FREE tools that Wix.com has made available like online Chat and online bookings that customers can use to interact with its customers real-time. Using Wix.com, there is no reason why you a David cannot compete with Goliath. Please check out Episode 9 on iTunes, Podomatic, or streaming at Ceyero.com. You can also view the video version of Episode 9 on Periscope (@Guerrillapreneur), on our YouTube page (Ceyero Consulting) or at ceyero.com. Please share your feedback and ways that we can improve the...