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Microsoft's search engine claims users prefer it to Google. Here, we identify their strengths and weaknesses.
via http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/224639
via http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/224639
Showing posts with label Entrepreneur. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Entrepreneur. Show all posts
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Forbes: UPDATE: SEC Inspector Javert Earns $1.8 Million Interest On $78,000 Judgment
Starting from the Disco year of 1976 and running through 1982, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that James L. Douglas a/k/a James L. Cooper had offered and sold over $7.5 million of purported oil and gas program interests in at least 45 limited and general partnerships to over 300 investors. Allegedly, Douglas
via http://www.forbes.com/sites/billsinger/2012/10/13/update-sec-inspector-javert-earns-1-8-million-interest-on-78000-judgment/
via http://www.forbes.com/sites/billsinger/2012/10/13/update-sec-inspector-javert-earns-1-8-million-interest-on-78000-judgment/
Entrepreneur: 3 Hidden Security Risks for WordPress Users
The popular website development platform may be free, but it also is more vulnerable to hackers and other issues.
via http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224613
via http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224613
Friday, October 12, 2012
What My Father Taught Me about Being an Entrepreneur – Forbes
My younger brother, Brent, and I are fifteen months apart. We grew up with a father obsessed with business and real estate. Any time we passed a lot for sale my dad would take his eyes off the road and wonder aloud if the parcel was a good buy. My mom had to remind him every time he had my brother or me in the car to pay attention and not let his eyes wander. He was constantly looking for the next “big deal” in Denver’s real estate market.
Other kids would play catch with their dad but not us. The only competitive sport in our house was Monopoly. My dad, brother and I would spend long weekends in marathon games at the kitchen table. Dad would coach each of us on how to best build an empire. He’d then go off to work on Monday morning and build his.
My dad was an entrepreneur. He started in the early 1960s as a salesman of western wear shirts and jeans. By the late 1960s he owned and ran a series of clothing manufacturers. I spent summers working in the factory and weekends selling “seconds” at the flea market. When I was old enough to drive, I’d come down to the factory after school for a few hours most days. By the time I was 18 years old I’d had a master class in entrepreneurial management.
The business lessons I learned from my dad still resonate with me today. Here are a few I’ve found most helpful in my own career as an entrepreneur:
1. Take responsibility. For my dad, it meant much more than taking responsibility for your own actions, it meant protecting those who work for you as well. He would never tell a customer that an employee mistake was the cause of some mix-up. He would call the customer and take responsibility for the error and the solution.
2. Walk around the floor. My father walked around his plant a couple times every day to check in with his employees. Not just the managers, but everyone he saw. He was interested in their lives, their families and their careers. The result was unheard of loyalty. He had employees who worked for him across multiple companies for over 30 years.
3. Use technology where you can to get an edge. My first exposure to a computer was an IBM System/360 installed at my father’s office for inventory and accounting. I was probably no more than 5 years old when I played my first game of tic-tac-toe against IBM. That moment started my lifelong interest in technology.
4. Have enough self-confidence to fail. My dad’s business was not always prosperous. There were incredible successes but there was also complete failure. After any setback, he remained positive, focused and committed to learning from the failure so that the next endeavor would succeed. Importantly, true to lesson number one, he never blamed others when failure occurred.
My brother and I are now both in our mid-forties and on our second joint startup (if you don’t count the snow shoveling business we had as kids). Almost two years ago we launched Inspirato, a private, luxury destination club, after leaving our first company, Exclusive Resorts, which we started together eight years earlier. We had the same teacher and the same lessons. But we apply those lessons in different ways—each of us complementing the other. The result is, I hope, something our dad would be proud of.
I don’t believe my dad ever set out to teach my brother and me anything about business. We learned by observation. My dad was so passionate about what he was doing it just rubbed off on the two of us through osmosis.
Norton Handler died three and a half years ago. His sudden passing left a big hole in our family. Everyday I miss talking with my dad. As we run our company, I hear him in the decisions we make and the culture we build.
via What My Father Taught Me about Being an Entrepreneur – Forbes.
via http://srkgupta.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/what-my-father-taught-me-about-being-an-entrepreneur-forbes/
Thursday, October 11, 2012
9 Entrepreneurial Lessons from Amitabh Bachchan
"Struggles and uncertainties, successes and disappointments, accusations and controversies, ill health and months in hospital, all such a vivid kaleidoscope of moments, events, images simply unbelievable and unimaginable" writes Amitabh Bachchan in one of his blogs. Today the whole nation is celebrating the 70th birthday of this inspirational man who has ruled the film industry for around 40 years and still going strong.
In this long successful career of Big B, he has emerged from the trials and sufferings, a stronger person. His success story has a lot to teach entrepreneurs in establishing a great business. Like many entrepreneurs, Amitabh Bachchan had a continuous streak of 13 flop movies after the first success.
Let us see what lessons does the Shehanshah of Bollywood has in store for entrepreneurs:
Amitabh Bachchan gave 13 flop films before coming out with Zanjeer, his first hit Bollywood movie.
Lack of persistence is the primary reason why entrepreneurs fail to succeed in business. Some entrepreneurs start their business with high expectations but if their expectations are not met, they get exhausted and just when they are about to succeed; they quit. They quit when just a little more persistence should have made the difference between success and failure.
Amitabh Bachchan’s long and successful career has been tarnished by controversies, injuries and illnesses as well as financial collapse. During the shooting of ‘Coolie’, he hit his abdomen on the corner of the table leading to a rupture in his spleen causing a lot of blood loss. He was in fact, clinically died for eleven minutes. He later came out of it. Likewise, he has shown great courage and toughness which has helped him rise out of these disasters like a warrior.
It shows that Great Men may fall but will also rise higher than they were before, if they are dedicated.
This is one trait entrepreneurs cannot lack. They must take failure as it is and try again, maybe using a different approach. They should believe in their ability and stand up again.
Everyone is aware that Amitabh Bachchan is the undisputed star of Bollywood, yet the humbleness he carries is what impresses us. This trait in him can be seen in his show KBC, where he supports the chair of the contestants while they’re seated. He makes them comfortable on the hot seat.
In the same way, an entrepreneur should maintain his calmness and state of mind while dealing with his employees and customers. Whenever required, a humble entrepreneur should never feel embarrassed in completing the pending work of his juniors.
He should always treat his employees as stakeholders of his business, and not his slave.Humility is what makes you remain true to your work just as hard as you did the first day you start. It is what keeps you exploring new roles as well.
6. Big B in KBC teaches “Repetition is the essence of business”
Another noticeable thing about Amitabh Bachchan in KBC is that he keeps repeating the rules of the game for every new contestant, even though he knows them.
Similarly, an entrepreneur must understand that most business dealings and operations are repetitive in nature. Money is also made only from doing boring, repetitive jobs everyday. And, when you get that done, it comes the time for innovation.
Amitabh Bachchan has maintained his goodwill among all the Film industry people and it has helped him in his darkest days.
His relationship with politician Amar Singh is also another example of this Goodwill.
An entrepreneur must keep in mind that great careers are not made alone. They are a product of collaboration among team mates and co-workers. It is thus important to take this lesson. While it is great that you are a successful man and may have made so on your own. It is also important to maintain goodwill with all those surrounding you.
Amitabh Bachchan expressed his view about a boxing game saying, “Alone with an adversary, with nothing to defend yourself with except your own guile, strength and the will to fight. No external support and no avenues to escape. Just that roped square and the screams and encouragement from without. The outside. Never inside, never of any assistance, just words and voices. You fight alone and you fight strong. There will be voices, but no one comes in to help or hold. They sound good, but they remain distant. Demarcated and away.”
3. Always keep your promises – “Lalsingh jaan de dega magar jabaan nahin jaane dega”
Amitabh Bachchan always honoured his promise to his producer and director friends - as he rightly said in one of his films, ‘Lalsingh jaan de dega magar jabaan nahin jaane dega.’
2. Calm and Composed Amitabh Bachchan teaches “Never to Lose Control”
An entrepreneur can never succeed in business even if placed in the best economy if he doesn’t know how to be self-disciplined. Discipline starts with self control and self control is a product of a strong self imposed personal standard.
Entrepreneurs must learn from Amitabh Bachchan, who never speaks rubbish about anyone. He speaks little and speaks with calculation.
Big B always experimented with the roles he played. He tried his hands at all possible roles. Black to Nishabd to Cheeni Kam to The Last Lear to latest project, Mehrunnisa.
To succeed, an entrepreneur must regulate his impulses and have the imagination to see what the future would be like if he tried something new. He should be open to new ideas.
8 Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Entrepreneurs
What does it take to be an extraordinary entrepreneur? You know, an entrepreneur who has a vision for a business, rallies support to build it and then grows it into one of the most innovative companies in the world….what does it take to be an entrepreneur like that?
Well, I may be young but I have been an entrepreneur for over ten years. My first SEO consulting job was in high school where I built and ran a successful agency. And from there I co-founded a few software companies. Luckily for me, I was fortunate to grow up in a family of entrepreneurs, so I’ve heard a lot of great advice about what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur.
And I’ve also seen that all great entrepreneurs hold closely to a core set of beliefs. So what are those beliefs? Here are eight:
Belief #1: Make a decision and go!
This was one of the first lessons I learned when starting my first business and it was extremely hard to get used to making a decision and then taking action on that decision.
I was so afraid I was making a mistake. Since then I’ve learned that making a mistake is not a bad thing. You actually learn from those mistakes, which helps you make better decisions down the road.
You will struggle with hiring and firing people, project budgets, office space and advertising creative. When you first start off in business you will take days and even weeks to answer these questions.
This core belief actually came back to me when I lost a million dollar client. They were happy with the service I was providing, but they wanted to know what else I was going to do to take their business to the next level. I had a few ideas, but I didn’t make a decision on which idea I was going to act on. Long story short, I took too long to make a decision and I lost a $1.2 million client.
Belief #2: Show passion, not perfection
It’s a lot easier to work on a project for closed doors for years until you get it perfect and then ship, but that just won’t work these days.
Often when I talk to young entrepreneurs who are “working” on a project behind closed doors I realize they are afraid to ship because they don’t want to be ridiculed. But I always encourage them that what people don’t want a perfect product…what they want is a passionate person behind the project.
If you can show people you are passionate about creating a perfect product by releasing it, then getting feedback and iterating…then people will jump on board…especially if the product solves a real-world problem.
Don’t try to perfect anything because if you perfect something that no one wants to use, you will just end up wasting money.
At KISSmetrics we created 2 other versions of our product that are no longer live. We spent over $500,000 on the first version, trying to perfect it, instead of just getting it out there. Since then we have scrapped that product. If we used the minimal viable product approach instead of trying to create a perfect product, we probably would have saved that money.
Belief #3: Avoid the ugly baby syndrome
One thing that entrepreneurs are in the habit of doing is falling in love with their ideas…even if it is a bad idea. This is like parents who fall in love with their new baby, even though everyone knows newborns are ugly.
You need to be objective in your business, with your plan and your product. Everything on the table needs to be up for debate if you truly want to succeed.
Seek out mentors to help you, and get advice from them on a regular basis. Listen closely to what they are saying. Listen closely to what you partner is saying and more importantly your customers.
This doesn’t mean you have to surrender every idea, but sometimes you may have to make drastic changes.
The CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, tells a story about how they were going down the wrong path and brought in the founder of Costco, Jim Sinegal for advice. Jim said, “You know, I don’t want to be rude but this is exactly the wrong thing to do.”
Schultz listened, realized Sinegal was right, and shifted their strategy.
One way to protect yourself from falling in love with your idea is to train yourself to fall in love with solving people’s problems. It doesn’t matter what you create to solve their problems, but as long as you do it in a simple, easy, and ideally an affordable way, you will be fine.
Belief #4: Find the sweet spot, then scale it
Once you have reached product market fit, there will come a time when you need to figure out how to scale your product.
If you scale your product before people fall in love with it, you’ll tarnish your brand. What I mean by this is that people won’t be happy with your product so they will say negative things about it. This will cause churn, a decrease in sales, and a bad brand that will be hard to fix. Once people think negatively about your product or brand, it’s hard to change their perception… even after you fix your product.
When I first started Crazy Egg we spent thousands of dollars on marketing before we launched the product. We had a ton of churn in the beginning, as there were a lot of product issues we faced when we launched. The marketing spend had a negative ROI and if I had to do it all over again, I would scale the business once I fixed the major product problems.
Belief #5: Don’t think about taking a leap, just take it
Speaking of perfection, there is never a perfect time to become an entrepreneur. Though being young and without a family is certainly a better time than when you are older and have a family.
Once you take the leap though…you are committed. You need to quit your job and become your new business. That’s a huge risk for sure, but if you don’t take the risk what’s to encourage a partner or investor to take the risk on you?
This commitment needs to infuse everything you do…and never think of minimum amounts. Never think that you need to secure just 4 clients a month to succeed or you just need to make 200 calls before the money pours in.
That never happens. Your projections will more than likely fail. This means you need to have a mantra that says there is no failure…just wild success! So stop wasting time and take the leap.
One of the most common emails I get is from people asking if I would invest in their business idea. When I ask them how far they have gotten, most people tell me that they are still at the idea stage and don’t have the time to go further as they have a full time job. If you can’t take the leap into entrepreneurship, investors won’t fund you because it shows that you don’t believe in what you are doing if you aren’t willing to quit your job.
Belief #6: Entrepreneurship isn’t a war, it’s about solving problems and turning a profit
Some entrepreneurs treat business like it’s a war that you need to defeat and destroy your competition. But even if you can actually do that and become number one in your market, you will still fail if you aren’t turning a profit.
For instance, at KISSmetrics we don’t focus on killing our competition even though they copy our features and steal our designs, instead we focus on solving our customers’ problems and growing our revenue.
The truth is that if you can find a way to differentiate yourself from your competition in a meaningful way, your revenues will go up. Plus if you are in a new market that is big enough, it doesn’t matter what your competition is doing, as there is enough room for both of you.
Belief #7: Hire slow, fire fast
The single most critical part of running a successful business is to hire the right people…and fire the wrong ones fast.
A lot of people spend a lot of time and energy trying to select the right person based upon past performance, but I’ve often found that what you learn in an interview with somebody doesn’t equal good performance down the road.
I like to see people get their hands dirty and how they adapt to stressful situations. When I interview people, I rarly talk about what they have done or even look at their resume, instead I ask them questions related to what they would do for my company and how they’ll get that work done in a timely fashion.
And if you happen to hire a few bad people, keeping them hurts your business as it will probably do more damage then good. Mark Zuckerburg famously fired people who were loyal to him but couldn’t handle the growth. And Zappos even paid people to leave the company if things weren’t working out to make the transition easy.
Belief #8: Learn from your first, earn from your second, give back with your third
If you are a serial entrepreneur…or you’re on your first business but think you have two or three more in you…then you will likely get a lot of experience, business wisdom and wealth out of those ventures. It will take years before you get there, but if you keep at it, sooner or later you will do well.
Your first business is going to be full of mistakes and lessons learned…that’s a good thing! You can apply those lessons learned to your second where you should get it right and become successful. Then on your third business you can give back.
You can give back money to other startups but you can also give back experience and help out other entrepreneurs or volunteer for charities. Don’t ever expect anything in return, but instead just give back like your mentors did with you.
Conclusion
Now, do you have to have all of these core beliefs in place on day one as an entrepreneur, you are going to become extraordinary, right? The answer is no. The thing about starting and growing a business is that you will grow as a person yourself…and that is one of the best educations an entrepreneur can get!
So take a minute to re-read the core beliefs I shared above, then print them out…and start working on becoming the next Bill Gates or Larry Page.
What other core beliefs do you believe that extraordinary entrepreneurs have?
Monday, October 8, 2012
Startup Offers Failed Entrepreneurs A Million-Dollar Signing Bonus
It's hard to hire in tech.
How hard?
A startup called Twice is offering a $1 million cash and equity signing bonus to anyone who launched a startup through accelerator programs Y Combinator, 500 Startups, or TechStars and now needs another job.
Twice is calling it a $1 million "acqui-hire."
It's a smart move.
People who "failed" at their own startup—funded by Y Combinator, 500 Startups, TechStars, or not—are coming away with tons of useful experience Twice can benefit from.
There will probably be lots of competition for the offer.
Here's the press release from Twice:
Twice Launches $1MM Restart Fund for Top-Notch Startup Talent
Blanket Standing Offer for Any Y Combinator, 500 Startups, or TechStars Company
San Francisco, CA -- October 8, 2012 -- Twice, the first concierge-style marketplace for buying and selling secondhand fashion, today announced the launch of Restart Fund, which will offer $1MM to acquire any Y Combinator, 500 Startups, or TechStars company or similarly well-qualified team. Most Silicon Valley insiders are familiar with Start Fund, which provides $150,000 in funding to every graduating Y Combinator startup, and the name Restart Fund is a tongue-in-cheek nod to this initiative.
Since its inception nearly two years ago Start Fund has proven to be a savvy move, but it has also fueled a spurt in seed funding that has resulted in many promising teams unable to raise a Series A. And even in the best of times, popular wisdom holds that 9 out of 10 startups fail -- often due to circumstances well outside their founders’ control. The Restart Fund is a bold step toward filling this gap in the startup ecosystem--bringing top-notch engineering and design talent together to focus on a business with proven traction, a large market, and ample resources.
“Given the current state of Silicon Valley’s hiring environment, it’s a super smart move for Twice to acquire a talented team with proven execution ability but whose own products haven't found traction,” said Elad Gil, founder of Mixer Labs, former Twitter VP, and Twice investor.
Restart Fund was developed by Twice’s founders based on their personal experiences as entrepreneurs. “My co-founder Calvin and I quit our jobs at Google and began working on a micropayments business, but we were never able to hit product/market fit. We were left wondering what to do,” said Noah Ready-Campbell, CEO of Twice. “We were approached by several big companies about talent acquisitions, but we knew we still wanted to work on something that had a lot of opportunity for growth. If Restart Fund had been around, it would have been a very interesting option.”
Due to the rigorous application process, membership in a top startup accelerator is the primary criterion for an offer from Restart Fund, though acquired teams must also pass Twice’s standard hiring screens. “We were accepted into Y Combinator, so we saw firsthand the quality of our peer companies,” explained Twice CTO Calvin Young. “This happened right around the time our micropayments business was slowing down, so we ultimately chose to decline YC, but some of the best engineers I’ve ever met have gone through the program.”
This engineering strength is the primary reason Twice chose to create Restart Fund, as the operational nature of the company’s business poses significant technical challenges to overcome. “In order to take photos efficiently, for example, we’ve had to develop many custom image processing tools, and basically ended up building our own internal Instagram,” explained Mr. Young. Given that the company sells clothing, the look and feel of its site is extremely important. “In our view, designers are without question as important to the product team as engineers,” he added.
Twice closed a $4MM Series A round of funding in August led by IA Ventures with a syndicate including Felicis Ventures, Lerer Ventures, SV Angel, CrunchFund, and High Line Venture Partners.
For more information, including application details, please visit www.restartfund.com or www.liketwice.com/jobs.
8 Qualities of Fearless Entrepreneurs
National Geographic/Getty Images
"In my office, the term badass is thrown around a lot," says Dr. Shelley Provost, a partner and director of happiness of the venture incubator Lamp Post Group. "We use it to describe many things: a person's performance or accomplishments or ability to close a sale or turn a profit, or how well they ask someone out on a date--basically their overall potential for awesomeness."
These are the qualities that Provost says set true business badasses apart:
1. They say yes first--then figure out how to deliver.
Badasses are incredibly confident, with good reason. If a job is anywhere near their wheelhouse, they will find a way to get it done or die trying.
Why? They trust their own abilities, but they trust the people around them just as much.
If you're a true badass, you think there's a way to solve every problem. All you have to do is find it.
2. They think differently than everyone else.
Most business problems aren't new. Badasses tackle old problems with a variety of creative solutions.
Instead of designing a corporate newsletter that no one will read to "improve communication," a badass will create a holograph of the CEO that welcomes you to work and gives you the latest news. And a true badass would wear a flowing gown like the one in this video of a Kate Moss hologram.
Tell me that wouldn't improve communication.
3. They speak up.
When badasses have a different opinion, they share it.
But they aren't argumentative--because that would just make them asses.
4. They enthusiastically share their awesome skills.
Badasses never shy away from teaching others.
Inject energy and innovation into your teaching method, and people will flock to learn from you. High Skill + High Confidence + Sharing With Others = True Business Badass.
5. They live by their own code.
They respect authority--but not too much.
Whether their code is to be a creative force in the world, to disrupt technologies, or to challenge others to examine their lives, badasses are unwilling to compromise their principles and beliefs for the comfort or approval of others.
If you're a true badass, you answer to a power deep within you.
6. They do what others only wish they could do.
One of my favorite quotes is, "The Wright brothers never had a pilot's license." Rather than look around for permission or approval, badasses are courageous. They're initiators. They have an idea and they act.
Rather than research and dwell on and discuss a problem to death, badasses find a solution by actually doing things.
7. They never, ever, ever give up.
Malcolm Gladwell popularized the idea that it takes 10,000 hours master a complex skill.
But the real key to mastering a complex skill is grit--the ability to stick with something long enough to log those 10,000 hours.
People with grit are like antidilettantes. Rather than flit from thing to thing, gritty people pick something and stick with it. They're tenacious, dogged, persevering, and they absolutely refuse to give up.
The grittiest people don't just work longer and harder, although that is part of the equation. They keep a laser focus on their goal and say, "No, thanks," to anything that gets in their way.
8. They ignore the haters.
There are many reasons to listen to the haters: to save face, to remain comfortable, to be secure, to not look like the fool.
But as Dale Carnegie, the badass of winning friends and influencing people, said, "The person who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore."
Haters try to talk you into--or even scare you into--sticking with the status quo.
Be a true business badass. Don't listen.
Is your market actually big? Or is it a fake market?
Every entrepreneur wants to believe their product is taking on a big market. Sometimes they’re kidding themselves.
If they are making something fun, they’ll say- “we’re competing against TV! The market is huge!” If they are making something utilitarian and functional, they’ll say, “everyone wants to save time- there’s millions of people who want that!” Or worse, they’ll combine two products that have big markets – Facebook and eBay, let’s say – and think “FB is huge, and eBay is huge, so a social network for auctioneers would also be huge!”
This is lazy, fuzzy thinking.
The reason why it’s useful to target big markets is that there’s pre-built demand for your product category. This makes growth and customer acquisition much, much easier. When customers understand your product category, and then your job can be to define why it wins versus the competition, rather than educating your customers on why need it in the first place. The negative is that you have a bunch of direct competition and an already established axis for how people will evaluate your product’s desirability. But that’s OK, entrepreneurs love to compete with big, slow companies right?
The “What kind of X do you use?” test
IMHO, here’s the best test of a big market- you’d ideally be able to go to 10 customers in your market segment and ask, “what kind of X do you use?” and the majority of them would be able to answer the question directly, showing a clear grasp of what X is. If you ask people, “What kind of car do you use?” they will know. Ask a sales professional “What kind of CRM do you use?” and they will also know, even if they say “we use an excel spreadsheet.”
If they say, “huh? What’s that?” then you’re in an imaginary market. Or the kinder way to say it- you’re in a “new market,” which sounds better than to say that there’s no market for your product.
An even stronger signal is when they know the label for a product category, like “car” “CRM” “browser” “phone” rather than the functional description “get you from A to B” “track your customers” etc. This is an even stronger signal that there’s a real, established market and customers know what they want to buy. If you have to explain what the category is as part of your question, then it means they still may not get it. A further improvement is then if they know the name of the product category, can tell you about the different products, and how they compare to each other. For example, if you asked me about “fast food restaurants” I could name you a whole bunch and tell you about McDonald’s versus Taco Bell versus something else. And that opens up the opportunity to also introduce a new “healthy fast food restaurant” which could be an entrant to the market.
The electronic version to do this “What kind of X do you use test” is to use Google Keywords Tool and see if a bunch of people are searching for your category. This isn’t to help generate SEO, it’s to help validate that people even know how to talk about what you’re doing. You’ll see that, for instance, a product like “blog” has 10s of millions of searches, which means millions of people understand what a blog is.
I also wrote a more detailed post a year ago about using the Google Keywords Tool for market research, for anyone interested in additional reading.
Want to tap into something people already know they need?
Remember that the first telephones were called “speaking telegraphs” and the first cars were called “horseless carriages.” No matter how important those inventions ultimately came to be, initially they had to conform to what customers expected. Only until a few years could they establish their own product category and competitive dimensions.
The other datapoint that has to be mentioned here is Apple. They helped convince me that reinventing a category is just as important as inventing a new one- while it can be a great feeling to bring something completely new to the world, Apple showed that you can be extremely innovative by taking products like laptops, MP3 players, smartphones, music software, etc., and upgrade them so much that it unlocks a whole new category for people. So for those who think that taking on an existing product category is tantamount to cloning, just try to improve an existing product as much as Apple does, and you’ll get somewhere.
The whole point of this post is: Start sizing a market based on what your target customer understands. If they don’t understand what your product is, and how it stacks up against substitute products, be honest with yourself: You’re in a new market. This means a whole different set of strategies and tactics for how to introduce your product. Start by figuring out where you are, and the rest will be a lot easier.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
How to Prevent Your Business From Ruining Your Personal Life
image credit: UK Yahoo Groups
For entrepreneurs and small business owners, long hours can take a toll on personal relationships, leaving your partner feeling taken for granted while you focus on growing your business.
Partners will often say they knew what they were getting into but it’s really wearing them down, says Rachel Sussman, a marriage and family therapist in New York City.
Your partner may feel alienated from you, taken advantage of, or overburdened with an unfair share of daily chores. Those issues often come out in a fight as an explosion, Sussman says.
To prevent resentment from building up in the first place, you need to communicate clearly and anticipate possible problems before they happen. Entrepreneurs need to put the same amount of due diligence into their partnerships that they’re putting into their companies, Sussman says.
Related: Is Your Business Taking Over Your Marriage?
These three simple techniques can help your relationship survive tough times without adding stress to your already busy life. Here’s how:
1. Talk through busy times before they happen. When you’re starting a business or running a company, working long hours will sometimes be unavoidable. Discuss the impact that’s going to have on your partner and your life and try to come up with a solution together, Sussman says.
During an especially busy time, you may need to hire help, rearrange schedules, or ask relatives for support. In many cases, simply acknowledging and appreciating your partner’s sacrifice may be all they need.
2. Involve your partner in your business. When work is especially time consuming or stressful, involving your partner can help him or her feel more invested in your business. A mistake that a lot of people make is to shield their partners from their business problems, Sussman says. Most partners want to know what’s going on.
Talk to your partner about the highs and lows of your workday when you come home. The more your partner understands about what you’re dealing with, the better they’ll be able to support you. Just remember to ask about your partner’s day too.
Related: Do’s and Don’ts of Seeking Business Advice From a Spouse
3. Make time for your partner in small ways. Even when you’re swamped at work, you need to find ways to show you appreciate your partner. Relationships need to be fed, Sussman says. You can do that by carving out a little time in a creative way.
Send a thoughtful text at lunchtime or phone home to say goodnight before your kids go to bed. If you don’t have time for date nights, plan creative quick dates together (like a picnic lunch or a 20 minute walk) and make the most of the time you have.
Related: Pop the Question. It Will Help Your Business (Opinion)
