Like Mr. Ibuka, I firmly believe that it is always best to solve your own business problems. In fact, I have never, and will never, allow my employees to visit another company to see how they are handling a particular solution. I know that if I let my employees look to other companies – particularly competitors — for solutions and ideas, that whatever solution they decide upon will be mediocre at best.
Technorati tags: problem solving, business, innovation
The idea is simple: to try and make $1m (US) by selling 1,000,000 pixels for $1 each. Hence, ‘The Million Dollar Homepage”. The main motivation for doing this is to pay for my degree studies, because I don’t like the idea of graduating with a huge student debt. I know people who are paying off student loans 15-20 years after they graduated. Not a nice thought!
The problem with trying to think in terms of “how do we get to $10 billion in revenue in 2050” is that you lose sight of the fact that your resources are very limited today. Staying focused on earning the first $50K of revenue allows you to concentrate your resources on a very well-defined short-term goal.
Technorati tags: bootstrapping, planning, marketing
Mena Trott (via Jason Fried):
So here we are — a big, small company or a small, big company. I’ve been on both sides of the table and have to say that it’s pretty nice where we are. And since the “small is better” argument is very often offered in both elegant (Signal vs. Noise) and ignorant (Generic “Being Corporate Sux!!”) ways, I thought I might contribute my reasons to why bigger can be better.
Technorati tags: startup, software, size, corporate, web2.0, design
Somehow I have no problem getting up at 4AM to make sure my boat is in the water right at sunrise, everyone knows that’s when you get the big fish.
Jumping out of bed on a Saturday morning at 5AM to take my 6-year old to hockey practice – no problem, I look forward to it.
Yet, I used to have trouble dragging my sorry butt out of bed for 7:30AM when I worked in my corporate career.
What about you?
Technorati tags: motivation
Call it the Day Two dilemma.
You have a brainstorm, wake up the next morning, and need to figure out whether the idea is actually worth pursuing — or better left under the covers.
Technorati tags: marketing, research, entrepreneurship
“There is no competition for someone who thinks it all through,” says Mr. Gerber. “Getting information isn’t difficult. Deciding you need it is crucial.”
Technorati tags: marketing, research, entrepreneurship
TRENDWATCHING.COM (via Dane Carlson):
Increasingly, consumers are participants instead of passive audience members, and this mega-trend manifests itself in a variety of ways. In fact, the more we hear about GENERATION C making money from its creations, and the more we focus on the financial rewards consumers are reaping from participating in CUSTOMER MADE projects, the more the myriad of other entrepreneurial undertakings by ordinary consumers makes sense.
Technorati tags: diy, minipreneurs, entrepreneurship, trends, opportunities
So the real question is whether a radically transparent business can make money. In order for a competitor to exploit an Open Source Business, it needs to do more than just have access to all its information, it needs to operationalize that information. That takes time, money, equipment and supplies, and some expertise. How much of an entrance barrier are those things? To a small business, they’re substantial, but for a large, multi-national corporation, not so much. But the large corporation will only be interested if there’s volume and profit in it. So the Open Source Business (OSB) can choose to do something small and unscalable, or to make very little profit, and thus keep the competitors at bay.
For that reason, I suspect that OSB isn’t for those who aspire to be millionaires. But suppose the objective of your business isn’t to make a profit, but to make a living. The OSB might work just fine.
Technorati tags: startup, opensource, business, entrepreneurship
Michael Simmons (via Dan Marques):
In my opinion, the first two mistakes that students can make with entrepreneurship are:
1. Not getting started
2. Not keeping with itHowever, what happens once you get past these? Over the years, I’ve met hundreds of committed young entrepreneur, and I’ve noticed six recurring mistakes. Below you will find my advice on how to avoid these.
Technorati tags: failure, startup, entrepreneurship
Ken Dyck 