Category: Uncategorized

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.

Technorati tags: sales, learning

Philip Greenspun:

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

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

Geoff Cook:

Highschoolstartups will not help you run your babysitting business or increase sales of your lemonade stand. We will not invent silly jargon or paint on overly optimistic picture of the brutal world of e-commerce. This site is for young people serious about starting a business on the web. You will discover nuts and bolts advice, find various methods of encouraging entrepreneurship among young people, and understand how youth can actually give you an advantage as an entrepreneur.

Technorati tags: student, startup, entrepreneurship, web

Jason Fried:

So my advice to people trying to build products is this: Give people just enough to solve their own problems their own way and then get out of their way.

Technorati tags: software, entrepreneurship, interview

All Business (via David V. Lorenzo):

While it may be true that there is no place like home, it is also true that running a home business may not be as easy as it looks. Dividing your home into a suitable location for your business, while still remaining comfortable for those living in the house, will take some careful planning.

Technorati tags: homeoffice, entrepreneurship

Jeff Cornwall:

The National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship links to a new study by the Millikin Institute that ranks states on the “cost of doing business.”

Technorati tags: entrpreneurship, business

Greg Gianforte:

How do you launch a successful high-tech business? If you ask the typical MBA, they’ll give the same answer. Write a comprehensive in-depth business plan, take it to investors to secure a healthy initial round of funding, recruit the heaviest heavyweights you can, and start the PR machine cranking.

But, of course, they’d be completely wrong.

Technorati tags: bootstrapping, entrepreneurship, strategy

Jason Calacanis:

That’s what leadership is about DETAILS. As a leader you have to obsesses over the details not because you’re going to solve every problem yourself, but because you create a culture of CARING ABOUT THE DETAILS. If the CEO doesn’t care about the details why would anyone else?

Technorati tags: leadership

MindTools (via Merlin Mann):

The techniques in this chapter help you to make the best decisions possible with the information you have available. With these tools you will be able to map out the likely consequences of decisions, work out the importance of individual factors, and choose the best course of action to take.

Technorati tags: decision making, productivity