Part 2 of the occasional series of overly-gimmicky blog posts that takes an iconic movie of the 1980s and tenuously ties it to a business marketing idea.

Plot Synopsis

In the 28th funniest movie of all time (official!), 3 disgraced parapsychologist professors leave academia and form a private firm providing paranormal investigations – calling themselves Ghostbusters. After some initial set backs the business takes off, they defeat the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and save the world. Obviously.

Business Analysis

When people think about Ghostbusters they think of the big climactic ending, “He slimed me” or Signorney Weaver writhing around on the bed (incidentally, this is very uncomfortable to watch with your six year old), but they tend to forget the first half of the movie is the gang sitting around with no clients, no income and lots of expenses.

After all, nuclear accelerator proton packs don’t come cheap.

But, with the success of their first ‘busting, all of a sudden there are more and more calls for their services, as the Sumerian deity Gozer tries to open an inter-dimensional doorway which will destroy the world.

And this is why businesses should be embracing social media today.

Lessons Learned

We meet a lot of clients who are definitely interested in podcasting/a blog/Facebook page/etc. Just not right now. Not with the economy the way it is. Once things pick up. And so on, and so on.

Did Venkman, Spengler and Co think like that?

No way!

They were prepared. So when Zuul threatened, Ghostbusters were already primed and ready to go. In fact more people were hired to help with the workload. They had their infrastructure in place, TV ads were already promoting their slogan – “We’re Ready to Believe You” – and, most importantly, they had a huge head start over any potential competition.

So, in this increasingly tortuous analogy, their Ghost Containment Grid is your social media involvement and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man is a booming economy. If you’re prepared, and your competition isn’t, you can be a Ghostbuster.

We all know the financial situation is, um, less than perfect right now, and advertising/marketing dollars are tight – but things will pick up sooner or later. The beauty of social media marketing is that it is free-to-cheap. You can find someone to do some of the work for you (ahem), or spend a little time and do it yourself.

Start building your Facebook Group now and by the time Happy Days Are Here Again, you’ll probably find you have a good following of people ready to work with you. Jump into monitoring Twitter before your competition even knows what it is and pinch some business from right underneath them. Just remember that there is no time like the present.

In the truly timeless words or Dr Peter Venkman, “I love this plan! I’m excited to be a part of it! Let’s do it!”

The first part of a series of altogether essential tips for business, marketing and life – as gleaned from iconic movies of the 1980s…

Bullied underdog Daniel LaRusso learns karate from wise, old Okinawan Mr Miyagi, defeats the evil Cobra Kai, wins the tournament and gets the girl, all the while teaching us everything we’d ever need to know about car waxing/fence painting techniques.

Business Analysis

The median expected salary for a typical janitor in the United States is $23,820. Mr Miyagi is not a typical janitor. He is perhaps the world’s worst janitor.

Look at the state of this pool which is under his ‘care’:

Let’s be honest, he’s going to be lucky to get minimum wage with a poor job like that. So he’s making $8/hour in California right now.

Karate lessons, however, run from about $75-$200/month for weekly 45 minute sessions. Let’s split the difference and say $135. There is obviously the demand for lessons in the area, we see around 20 kids at the Cobra Kai dojo, plus plenty more at the tournament.

With Miyagi’s exceptional skills (he takes Daniel from no-hoper to champion in a month) he could easily attract 50 kids a week, 5 classes of 10 kids a day.

So, he’s working just 45 minutes a day, plus set up time, so maybe an hour, and pulling in $81,000/year.

That’s over $300/hour.

Mr Miyagi may be a great Sensei, but he is a terrible business man, and knows nothing of Ricardo’s Law of Comparative Advantage.

The Lesson Learned?

Time and again we meet with businesses and find that the person put in charge of managing the pay per click campaigns for a company is simply the person who is most competent with a computer.

He may have no experience with marketing or Internet advertising at all, but he’s the guy in the office everyone looks to for help with email problems, or booking tickets online or whatever. You know, the ‘computer guy’ that every office has. And PPC is just another computer-thing, right?

No, in this case you’re being a Miyagi-janitor instead of a Miyagi-teacher.

If you’re in real estate, sell houses. Run a restaurant? Get cooking!

Do what you’re best at and you’ll have the money to pay someone else to the other stuff. Everyone wins.

Just like Daniel-san.