Posts Tagged ‘fun facts’

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Friday Fun Facts – The "Springy" Awards

Friday, March 6th, 2009

As a small business startup we spend a great deal of time looking at and analyzing data to help us drive strategy, make adjustments, and better understand our customers. We try hard to not be robotic in our response to numbers, but rather to let them inform our decisions and our direction. Here is the sixth in a serial discussion of some of the data we look at internally…

We set a new record the other day when a project closed with a HUGE number of entries. It started me thinking… Which projects on cS in our first 10 months in business have broken new ground, crossed new frontiers, and parted new waters (um, OK maybe not parted waters…). These are certainly worthy of recognition. Wait, not just recognition – how about an award? The envelopes please…

  • To the project with the most entries: 729
  • To the project with the most comments left by a Buyer: 612
  • To the project with the most creatives participating 166
  • To the project with the highest ratio of comments to entries: 4:1
  • To the project with the largest award paid out: $4,000
  • To the project with the largest increase in an award once a project was underway: $700
  • To the project with the largest new award added once a project was underway: $500
  • To the crowdspring Creative with the most projects awarded: 48 (forgive me for using this two blog posts in a row, but this person was awarded another project since last week!)
  • To the crowdSPRING Buyer with the most projects posted: 10
  • To the single day with the most projects posted: 34
  • To the single day with the highest award total paid out: $16,525
  • To the single day with the largest number of Customer Service requests received: 99
  • To the single day with the largest number of site visits: 10,227

Now recognition and awards are all well and good, but the accomplishment that inspires us the most is the way our community has grown in a short ten months. We came out of our Beta last May with just over 200 registered users and today we have more than 21,000 Buyers and Creatives using crowdSPRING! (To save you the calculation on that one, it comes to around 70 new users per day!)

Now if only we had a little statuette to hand out. Anyone up for designing the “Springy” award?

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Posted in Awesomeness, community, crowdsourcing | 8 Comments »

Friday Fun Facts – Who are we? And, where do we come from?

Friday, February 27th, 2009

As a small business startup we spend a great deal of time looking at and analyzing data to help us drive strategy, make adjustments, and better understand our customers. We try hard to not be robotic in our response to numbers, but rather to let them inform our decisions and our direction and we believe that this is how all small businesses should use their own. Here is the fifth in a serial discussion of some of the data we look at internally, the numbers we analyze, and our strategic approach.

Last May, Ross wrote a post about the countries crowdSPRING reached and where our users were coming from. At that point in time we had been in business for a grand total of three weeks and had 1,227 registered users. We had visitors from 122 countries back then and on that day we had 1,599 visits. Well, we’ve grown a bit since then – here is some cool data(along with some neat charts) for your reading pleasure….

Here are some quick facts about our Visitors to the site:

  • As of today, our visitors come from 196 countries and every continent (except Antartica – still waiting on that one).
  • They spend an average of almost 13 minutes for each visit.
  • Our visitors speak 124 languages.
  • The top 10 countries in numbers of visitors:

    • Here are some quick facts about our Buyers:

    • crowdSPRING buyers come from 41 countries.
    • US Buyers account for about 75% of our projects to date.
    • Buyers from Belize account for 0.059% of projects to date.
    • Our busiest repeat buyer has already posted 10 projects on the site.
    • Since January 1, we have registered an average of 173 new Buyers per week.
    • As I write this, we have 4,097 Buyers registered.

    And here are some quick facts about our Creatives:

    • Creatives who have won a project come from 51 countries.
    • US Creatives account for about 51% of projects awarded to date.
    • Creatives from Paraguay account for 0.063% of projects awarded to date.
    • Our most successful creative has already been awarded 47 projects.
    • Since January 1, we have registered an average of 401 new Creatives per week.
    • As I write this, we have 15,601 Creatives registered.
    So? Where are you from? Leave a comment here to tell everyone where in the world you are and what brought you to the crowdSPRING community in the first place. Can’t wait to hear from you…

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    Posted in business, community, crowdsourcing, design, inspiration | 8 Comments »

    Friday Fun Facts – Time Management cS Style!

    Friday, February 20th, 2009

    As a small business startup we spend a great deal of time looking at and analyzing data to help us drive strategy, make adjustments, and better understand our customers. We try hard to not be robotic in our response to numbers, but rather to let them inform our decisions and our direction and we believe that this is how all small businesses should use their own. Here is the fourth in what will be a serial discussion of some of the data we look at internally, the numbers we analyze, and our strategic approach.

    Last week we discussed using crowdSPRING’s project data to help you creatives decide which projects you might choose to work on. This week we’re gonna offer up some suggestions and strategies for determining WHEN to work. I know that you guys are scattered around the world’s time zones, and I know that you each have your own scheduling imperatives. Maybe you have a full-time job outside of cS. Maybe you work nights. Maybe the new baby keeps waking you at 2am (your time, that is). In any case it is clear that there are some interesting patterns that have developed on cS which you may be able to leverage to your own benefit.

    In my observation, most of you seem to subscribe to one of two basic schools of thought. There are the “early birds,” those of you who like to jump into a new project almost as soon as it is posted. This might allow you to develop an early (and valuable) dialog with the buyer, build a relationship quickly, and iterate based on the feedback you get. Then there are the “birds of prey.” These are creatives who prefer to hang back and watch. They may pick projects based strictly on the quantity and quality of a buyers feedback. These designers will comb through the projects looking for a buyer who is clearly communicating their needs. Once they see a good one, they swoop in towards the end hoping to provide what the buyer is looking for.

    So, you ask? What does this mean to me, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you what I have learned by taking a hard look at when projects post and when they close. Let’s say you only want to work on crowdSPRING 2 days a week. Well, if you are an Early Bird, you probably want to work in the middle of the week. The first chart shows that 36% of all new projects are posted on Tuesday-Wednesday. If you are a Bird of Prey, you’ll be focused on the beginning of the week. The second chart (Project Closings) tells you that 33% of all projects close on Monday-Tuesday. In other words, no matter which group you fall into, by working just 2 days a week, you can cover 1/3 of all the projects on the site. Not bad, huh? Considering that we have been averaging over 150 open projects, that means you could have 50 to choose from on any given day.

    What about the best time of day to get to work? Well, the data is pretty clear on that, too. Projects post and close at the same time, so it only takes one chart to figure it out. The best times to submit your entries? Between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM GMT, more than 61% of all projects are posted and the same number close. This is great if you live in England and work on the site during the day. But not so good if you are in Asia and would have to work through the night. Here’s the distribution chart:

    So, that’s it. I hope that this helps you to figure out the best days and times to do your thing, creatives. In the meantime, Ross and I will continue our own personal time management strategy. It’s simple, really. Work 7 days a week, 20 hours a day, and make sure the other guy will stay awake while you fall into bed for a few hours….

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    Posted in business, design, How To, Strategy | 5 Comments »

    Friday Fun Facts – So Many Projects, So Little Time

    Friday, February 13th, 2009

    As a small business startup we spend a great deal of time looking at our data and analyzing that data to help us drive strategy, make adjustments, and better understand our customers. We try hard to not be robotic in our response to numbers, but rather to let them inform our decisions and our direction and we believe that this is how all small businesses should use their own data. Here is the third in what will be a serial discussion of some of the data we look at internally, the numbers we analyze, and our strategic approach with this data.

    This week and next I want to talk to the creatives in the room. You’re busy people, right? You have lots to do and not enough time to do it? A job, a family, your friends, and plenty of interests outside of crowdSPRING? So let’s see how I can help. Using some of our data, I have come up with some tricks that may help you to maximize your efforts. The goal is to succeed on crowdSPRING, right? Earn some money while you do what you love? This week and next I’ll share some data that could help guide your decisions about which projects to participate in and when to participate. Today, we’ll cover the “which.” We’ll look at the numbers on project awards and project participation, and hopefully help you develop your own strategy for choosing projects, using a statistical approach. Now this approach may not fit with your own decision making process, but maybe it gives a little food for thought?

    In addition to the projects you just WANT to work on – maybe because they are just cool – you might consider a couple of other factors such as, which projects pay the most? Or, which projects have lower participation so that I stand a better chance? The first question is easy, and is answered by the first chart. Web Design projects pay the most of all of the categories while logo design is closer to the median. If you strictly want the highest payout for your work, get in there and enter some great web design projects.

    Average Awards

    Average Awards

    The second question offers a different, and less common approach to choosing projects.I took a look at participation levels for each category of project and it is clear that there are projects on the site with less competition where you can jump in and really wow the buyer. Want the best odds? Easy. Just enter every Widget project that we host.

    Average Participation

    Average Participation

    Next week? We’ll take a look at “when” to participate and discuss some neat strategies for deciding the best days of the week to spend time on the site. As Jerome would say, “Bonne Chance!”

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    Posted in community, design, How To, Strategy | 1 Comment »

    Friday Fun Facts – Best Case, Worst Case, and Most Likely

    Friday, February 6th, 2009

    As a small business startup we spend a great deal of time looking at our data and analyzing that data to help us drive strategy, make adjustments, and better understand our customers. We try hard to not be robotic in our response to numbers, but rather to let them inform our decisions and our direction and we believe that this is how all small businesses should use their own data. Here is the second in what will be a serial discussion of some of the data we look at internally, the numbers we analyze, and our strategic approach with this data.

    Like all startups we began life even before we were born. What I mean is, that before crowdSPRING was a business it was an idea, a business on paper only. We worked hard for many months researching the market, writing a detailed business plan, and building a comprehensive financial model. We made projections about our business based on well-informed assumptions: about site traffic, about registered users, about projects posted, about average awards in various design categories, such as the average in logo design and web design. All startups engage in their own version of this exercise. Some might characterize the process as smoke and mirrors, but done well it is a series of well-educated, research-based, detail-justified guesstimates.

    These projections are critical to the planning process. Because, in the absence of actual data, and without projections, how can a business budget? How can a business define goals or determine strategy? And how can a business plan hires and personnel decisions? And, perhaps most important to a startup, how can a not-yet-born business justify the funding it is asking of potential investors? In order to raise funds from investors it was necessary to share with them your projections, and justify these with logical, defensible reasoning. This must be done in a methodical manner. In our case we first looked for comparable companies, collected as much historical data as we could, and used these numbers as a starting point to project our own. Second, we applied multiple scenarios to illustrate that the business could be profitable even if we found ourselves facing the worst-case.

    The process is fairly straightforward: starting with the data from comparable companies, we built a data base of traffic, registrations, and transaction value from their first 2-3 years in business. Then we discounted those numbers by 50% and plugged them into our own model. This served as our baseline or “most-likely” scenario and the foundation of our planning. Next we created two other scenarios – the “worst-case” and the “best-case.” The worst case was arrived at by discounting our assumptions by another 50%. If we could survive the worst, we knew that we would be OK. We built the best-case by removing the discounting we had applied to the assumptions. In other words we assumed that cS would perform as well as those earlier businesses had. We would generate the same site traffic, we would register the same numbers of users, and we would see transaction prices that matched those that we had seen. When we graphed these scenarios we could see clearly what it would take to achieve profitability no matter which way the winds blew and with rational logic as opposed to blue-sky hopes.

    Here’s a graph which illustrates how Best/Worst/Most Likely data would be charted visually:

    Hypothetical Breakeven Points: Best-Worst-Most Likely

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    Posted in business, community, crowdsourcing | 4 Comments »

    Friday fun facts

    Friday, January 30th, 2009

    As a small business startup we spend a great deal of time looking at our data and analyzing that data to help us drive strategy, make adjustments, and better understand our customers. We try hard to not be robotic in our response to numbers, but rather to let them inform our decisions and our direction and we believe that this is how all small businesses should use their on data. Here is the first in what will be a serial discussion of some of the data we look at internally, the numbers we analyze, and our strategic approach with this data.

    Since we launched last May, we have heard from our Creatives that they wish that  Buyers would be more generous with their feedback and comments. We took this issue seriously and started to look for ways to encourage buyers to score all entries and to leave comments for creatives.

    Our goal was to increase the average number of comments left by Buyers in every project and the strategy we chose was education. We found several points of “touch” where we were able to push information to Buyers and beginning July 24th of last year (week 30) we put some new improvements in place. First, we added a “success” page to which the Buyer is taken upon posting their project. This page is the 4th tab on the project page and remains visible to the Buyer as long as the project is open. Second, we developed specific content on how to leave high quality feedback and included it in the first notification a buyer recieves when they post their project.

    The impact was almost immediate. For the 8 weeks prior to the changes, Buyers were averaging 34.1 comments per project. Two weeks after we began providing this education, the number went to 45 comments per project, and by the end of August the number was 53 comments per project. We have continued to see the number trend upwards week over week (aside from a holiday dip) and project that the trend will continue.

    The chart shows weekly averages – note how the average for the first 10 weeks or so remained fairly flat. But roughly 2 weeks after the changes were made (just as the first wave of “educated” projects was coming to completion) the trend started to slope upwards. We believe that this is a nice illustration of how education can move the needle in a community such as ours.

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    Posted in business, How To, start-up tips, Strategy | No Comments »

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