If you were launching a new web application/site/project, how would you get the word out about it to the early adopters? The budget is not constrained, but ROI will be measured.
Month: September 2005
Seven Founding Sins
To me, the most exciting (and most perilous) times in a company’s life-cycle are the early first stages when it is just getting off the ground. The company’s founder(s) role is an essential one which carriers many risks for missteps. So I’ve compiled what I’ve learned to be the Seven Founding Sins – common mistakes which often divert entrepreneurs off the path towards success.
Technorati tags: founders, startup, equity, failure, leadership
Measure Everything
I use the “measure and watch everything of significance” rule religiously at The Go Daddy Group. Today, we are one of the very few companies (in fact I know of no other company that does this) that prepares a detailed daily profit and loss snapshot, of the prior day’s business, for each of our operating companies and for each of our significant products. The benefits this has provided us have been tremendous.
Technorati tags: business, measurement, management
BusinessPundit: A Blog About Business
Entrepreneurship is sometimes glorified like some weird cult, but the truth is that most companies don’t start the way people think they do. There is only one way to get money for an idea. If you have successfully built and sold a good sized company, and have an idea in a similar field that you are putting some of your own money into, you may be able to get some funding based on your past success. But barring that, here are the “real” ways companies get started. I’ve probably forgotten some, so feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments.
Technorati tags: entrepreneurship, funding, startup
Gamblers are a Superstitious Bunch
Griffiths surveyed 412 bingo players to find that 4% reported having a lucky friend, 5% a lucky night of the week, 6% a lucky mascot (such as a rabbit’s foot), 13% lucky and unlucky numbers and 21% a lucky seat they would prefer to sit in.
Amazingly, 29% reported that they believed changing to a lucky bingo pen, or “dobber”, was a common strategy to reverse a losing streak. These beliefs are based on “illusory correlations” between random events and gambling success, says Griffiths.
Technorati tags: statistics, luck, gambling, superstitions
Where Did All the Baby Boys Go?
Now nearly twice as many girls as boys are being born in the Aamjiwnaang community, who live next door to the Sarnia-Lambton Chemical Valley complex in Ontario, Canada.
…
The proportion of male births began falling around 1993, says Constanze Mackenzie of the University of Ottawa. And the ratio has become more skewed since then. Between 1999 and 2003, the community saw just 46 boys born compared to 86 girls.
Technorati tags: science, statistics, toxins
The Dead Elephant in the Middle of the Room
Dave Gray (via Bill Keaggy):
Many times in the corporate world, you will find yourself facing the “dead elephant in the middle of the room.”
This is the issue that everyone is aware of, but somehow nobody mentions. It could be emotionally charged; it could feel too big to confront; it could be that nobody is comfortable bringing it up. If you are a manager, it might very well be that you are the only one who doesn’t see it.
The Sales Learning Curve
Mark Leslie (via Pelle):
When we apply the MLC [Manufacturing Learning Curve] to sales, we come to the following conclusion: The time it takes to achieve cash flow breakeven is reasonably independent of sales force staffing. It is, instead, entirely dependent on how well and how quickly the entire organization learns what it takes to sell the product or service while incorporating customer feedback into the product itself. Because the entire organization has to come up to speed, hiring a large initial sales staff does not speed up the time to breakeven, it simply consumes cash more quickly.
GDP != National Well-Being
In New Orleans a tremendous amount of money will be expended on getting us back to where we were before. The same people will be living in substantially the same housing and working in substantially the same office buildings and yet $billions will have been spent to pump out water and shore up foundations. In New York at least $10 billion will be spent on rebuilding the World Trade Center site. It might be a little nicer than what was there on September 10, 2001 but functionally will be similar in terms of office space square footage. This $10 billion will be recorded as an addition to GDP but it won’t have the same positive impact the World Trade Center remaining standing and $10 billion of entirely new office space constructed in growing regions of the U.S.
Technorati tags: economics
Bosses are Bureaucratic, Unfair and Inconsistent, Say Workers
Nic Paton (via David V. Lorenzo):
Most workers reckon that their bosses are excessively bureaucratic, blame people wrongly and are inconsistent when it comes to making decisions, according to a damning report.
Technorati tags: management
Ken Dyck 