Category Archives: Entrepreneur

Linked In Is For Entrepreneurs As Well

Image representing LinkedIn as depicted in Cru...
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Scott Allen runs a blog on entrepreneurs at About.com . I always find he has something valuable to say or an interesting and enlightening store to tell about entrepreneurs.  In this instance, Scott has some thoughts on LinkedIn. Scott is a self described “huge advocate of social networking and social media for entrepreneurs”, so he should know a thing or two about that subject.

Many people describe LinkedIn as the defacto resume on the Net for job seekers, which I think it probably is for higher level job seekers. Others describe it has the way to raise your profile in the corporate world, enhance your credibility, build your and put yourself out there should other opportunities come looking for you.  But Scott has a slightly different take.  In Why Entrepreneurs Should Use LinkedIn, Scot says:

“Among the hundreds of people I’ve worked with on how to use LinkedIn more effectively, I’ve found that the most common problem people have with understanding how to use LinkedIn effectively is when they try to use it like other social networking sites, or try to use it like a contact management system or other tool they’re familiar with. While it has similarities to these other tools, LinkedIn is unique in the value it provides.

I could write a book on the many different ways you can use LinkedIn to grow and enhance your business (for a sampling, see 100+ Smart Ways to Use LinkedIn). But for now, I want to answer the question, “What, fundamentally, is the unique capability of LinkedIn?” What makes it different from your contact management software? Or from other social networking sites?

Its users have adapted LinkedIn for all kinds of uses, but fundamentally, LinkedIn addresses three basic issues significantly differently than other solutions:

  1. People search. Web search engines are lousy at searching for people. Sure, there are automated biography tools like ZoomInfo which are useful, but they have challenges with people like me who have a common name, and there’s often a lot of “noise” there compared to “signal” – not nearly as concise and organized as a properly done LinkedIn profile. And in your own contact database, you only have the limited amount of data obtained (and recorded) through your interaction with them. Sure, if I know your e-mail address, I can contact you. But what most people can’t do with their contact database is answer a question like: “Who do I know who used to work for one of the big accounting firms?” Or maybe: “Do any of my friends have a background in musical theater that maybe I don’t know about?” No matter how well you think you know people, you don’t know them as well as they know themselves. I don’t know of any other solution that does this as well as LinkedIn.
  2. Keeping in touch. People change jobs these days like some people change clothes, and it becomes hard to keep track of people who are genuinely friends or business associates, but that you’re not in contact with on a regular basis. Every time you change jobs or e-mail addresses, do you contact every single person you know and tell them? And even if you do, do you think they all update it in their contact database? Once you’re connected on LinkedIn, you no longer have to keep track of that data – the person whose data it is now keeps it up-to-date, and you’ll always know how to reach them. For the millions of LinkedIn users, that’s also a huge collective savings in data maintenance. Rather than trying to keep track of several hundred people’s contact information, current employer, etc., now they all keep it up-to-date for you, and all you have to keep up-to-date is your own information.
  3. Your extended network. LinkedIn’s core value proposition is simply this: the ability to answer the question, “Who do I know who knows and can recommend somebody that.” .works at XYZ company? .is an expert in widgets? .is a good lawyer specializing in whatever my problem is? Without LinkedIn, how do you do this? You either a) pick the most likely people in your network to know that kind of person, but you may still miss them because so often those connections aren’t necessarily obvious; or b) you contact everybody you know, which starts wearing thin if you do it a lot, since 99% of the people you ask won’t be able to help. LinkedIn makes it so that you only ask the people who are likely to be able to help. It’s like being able to search not only your own contact database, but those of your friends, and their friends, and then ask for the introduction when you find the right person.I hope that helps, and I’m happy to answer any further questions anyone may have about LinkedIn.”
Scott mentions some of the other ways you can use LinkedIn… and there are many, ” but if you want to truly understand what makes LinkedIn uniquely powerful, focus on the three core capabilities above.”
And we entrereneurs need to be using these tools as much or more than those with steady….. or maybe not so steady now….. nine to five jobs.

Related on About:

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To Entrepreneur, Consider What Processes You Are Really Good At?

Seth Godin, marketer extroidinaire  and internet guru makes the case that, when trying to figure out the direction you need to go in your work life, you need to look at two things: content/domain knowledge and process.  He explains that “process refers to the emotional intelligence skills you have about managing projects, visualizing success, persuading other people of your point of view, dealing with multiple priorities etc.”

I have to admit, when I started entrepreneuring I had neither.  My father died and I was suddenly thrust into managing ranchland, mineral rights, cattle, grazing, tough as leather cowhands, and swarms of immigrants crossing over and across our land which was like the Camino Real into the States, as old as the ancient Indian trails crisscrossing the Southwest.  It was a bit disconcerting to a young woman who had just come back from the East, from Wellesley with its crew neck sweaters and circle pins, having graduated from Columbia, that egg-head paradise, a stone’s throw from the Broadway theaters, which I frequented regularly.  Yet, here I was in the South Texas sun and red dust or mud, depending on the season, wearing boots for fear of rattlesnakes and carrying firearms for fear of all else, trying to run a busines  But what’s a gal to do?  I learned.

What I did have when I started was the fearlessness of someone trained since birth to be an entrepreneur and considering risk taking as natural as breathing.  So even though I might have been put off by rattlesnakes, I assumed I could learn a business, any business, just as well as anyone else, because my father had convinced me I could.  And I did.

But I have to agree with Seth.  Perhaps the most important things I learned were high level things that I didn’t even realize at the time involved process, perhaps because my father didn’t call it that.  What he had were certain maxims that I had to learn to decode.  Statements like ” You have to be around money to make money.”  Or, go into a lucrative market, not one that’s hanging on by its fingernails.  Or, my favorite. At the age of 5 or so, my father would point to a building and ask “What’s that building worth?” The correct answer was, “As much as you can get for it.”

Those are the kind of processes that are invaluable and here’s Seth’s take on it from Seth’s Blog: What are you good at?.

“As you consider marketing yourself for your next gig, consider the difference between process and content.

Content is domain knowledge. People you know or skills you’ve developed. Playing the piano or writing copy about furniture sales. A rolodex of movers in a given industry, or your ability to compute stress ratios in your head.

Domain knowledge is important, but it’s (often) easily learnable.

Process, on the other hand, refers to the emotional intelligence skills you have about managing projects, visualizing success, persuading other people of your point of view, dealing with multiple priorities, etc. This stuff is insanely valuable and hard to learn. Unfortunately, it’s usually overlooked by headhunters and HR folks, partly because it’s hard to accredit or check off in a database.

Venture capitalists like hiring second or third time entrepreneurs because they understand process, not because they can do a spreadsheet.

As the world changes ever faster, as industries shrink and others grow, process ability is priceless. Figure out which sort of process you’re world-class at and get even better at it. Then, learn the domain… that’s what the internet is for.

One of the reasons that super-talented people become entrepreneurs is that they can put their process expertise to work in a world that often undervalues it.

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Learn How To Differentiate Brand “You”

We all have a brand.  Some of us just may not know it. And that’s not a good thing.  How are you going to shape and control your brand if you’re not even aware of it?  Or put some energy and focus into getting it right?

You know the answer to that.

You’re not.  And you should.  We all should.

And to achieve successful branding we need to be able to differentiate our brand from all the other brands out there.

Why do you think you never see Christianne Amanpour interviewing a group of, say, automakers, from Detroit? Because that’s not her brand. She’s created a name for herself in exploring and analyzing the issues behind international hot spots like the Middle East.  Or you might see her donning a burka to covertly explore tormented and male dominated society in Afghanistan.

Why do you think Martha Stewart‘s version of The Apprentice took a nose dive?  Because Martha Stewart is not usually thought of in a board room making decisions.  She’s thought of baking the best and most beautiful cherry pies.  Or picking a soft, signature color for a living room.  That’s why her association with KB Homes works.  Because people can see Martha and her expertise in that setting.  Martha Stewart may be a mogul, but people don’t perceive her that way.  Because that’s not her brand.

To examine branding a little more closely let’s take a look at food conglomerate Kraft Foods which sells hundreds of different food items in 155 countries.  Everything from A1 Steak sauce to Jello, Planters Peanuts, Velveeta and Wheat Thins.

Ok. A little further down that food chain, General Foods International is a subdivision of Kraft Foods and it produces several different flavors of instant coffee, everything from Cafe Vienna, Dark Mayan Chocolate, Hazlenut Belgian, Orange Cappuccino and Pumpkin Spice to Viennese Chocolate Cafe.  Not much chance of mistaking Dark Mayan Chocolate with Pumpkin Spice, right?

And it should be the same with each of us.  Our potential audience, customers or clientele should know instantly whether we are Dark Mayan Chocolate or Pumpkin Spice, metaphorically speaking.

For instance, I operate a number of websites, one of which is called AdvancingWomen.com.  It deals with with career and financial parity for women by electronically mentoring them so they have the tools and training to get better jobs or start their own businesses.  Occasionally we mention women running for political office, because, research shows, women legislators will pass laws more supportive of women. Fighting for equal pay would be one example.  No one on the web confuses AdvancingWomen.com with a dating site.  No one goes there for gossip or make-up tips.  We are what we are.  And people know what we are.  We may have a small slice of a large pie, but we do have a slice.  We don’t aim to gobble up the whole pie and lose even our slice in the food fight that follows.  As Esther Dyson, venture capitalist and digital guru said, “More companies die from indigestion than starvation.”  In other words, they take on too much and flame out or stumble down trying to handle it all.

So the bottom line is: Look deep inside yourself and decide who you are.  Narrow your focus.  Concentrate on that. That will be “Brand You”. Broadcast that and you will succeed.

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Infiltrate The Media To Draw Attention To Your Business

If you’re not a super star or a celebrity, or even a leader in your field….yet….then you may have to be a bit inventive and persistent to get your business noticed and mentioned by the mainstream media.

If you’re at, or near, the beginning of that long and winding road of getting yourself noticed in order to boost your business, here are a few tips that can really help you, I think.

First, the media and the reporters in it may not know who you are but they won’t care if you can help them.  Get it?  It’s part of that “What’s in it for me?” syndrome. What’s in it for them, is that they can get the information and background resources and quotes they need for an article.  What’s in it for you, is that you get your name and the name of your business mentioned, and that you are positioning yourself as an expert on your subject.  That can go a long way.  In fact, it is a ride you can take all the way to the top.

Pamela Slim in her blog, Escape From Cubicle Nation writes on this in Eight ways to get media exposure to boost your business although I’ve only picked two to talk about.  (You can go to her blog to see the rest, if you like.) Pamela  cautions: “Always respond to queries exactly as asked.  If you see a general query which asks you to include a specific email header, do that.  If not, it will probably mean that your response will not be seen, since the journalist may have email filters to sort queries. ”

So this is Pam’s take, and I agree that both of these are terrific ideas:

  • “Be a resource to your circle of clients and partners.  One of the best moves I have made is to join Help a Reporter Out (HARO), a three-times-a-day listing of press queries run by the indefatigable Peter Shankman.  I scour it religiously each time it hits my email box, respond to queries that relate to my expertise right away, and forward on those that fit friends and colleagues as well.  Some of my friends and clients have gotten press as a result which is a totally fantastic thing.  A rising tide floats all boats, and this definitely applies to your network.  Joan Stewart of The Publicity Hound also has good tips.”

There is a similar new service,  @micropr on Twitter, designed to leverage Twitter for PR professionals and journalists,  enabling journalists to communicate directly with communicators to get help with stories, share

Twitter PR Strategy
Image by ogilvyprworldwide via Flickr

pitching preferences, announce coverage changes, or solicit entries for awards and similar events. The difference between this and already popular HARO, which comes out 3 times daily is that the new @micropr is almost in real time and uses the explosively popular Twitter platform. No harm in using both.

  • “Set up a system to make it easy to respond to press queries.  I have an email template that includes a brief bio, a link to my press page, and contact information.  That way when I see a specific query, I don’t have to type in all that new information each time. In the lucky case that you are asked to provide a photo, have a good one handy on your desktop to send to reporters (I recommend both a high resolution image for print and a low resolution image for online).”

In fact the more you can get, not just your publicity, but your whole business on a system, the better off you will be.  Then you can save much of your time for the big things: the big problem, the big new presentation, the big new customer, and, with a lot of work and perseverance, the big new bank account

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Green Tech – Next Boom Or Bubble Set To Burst?

My company is located in the high tech corridor that runs between San Antonio and Austin, Texas, so I am more than a bit familiar with the wild swings and boom and bust cycles in both high tech and housing.

I was slam bang in the middle of the dot com bust of 2001, having gotten on the Net with the pioneers at the onset of Netscape and the graphical browser. I remember the wailing and the moaning.  I even remember a “friend”…… a rather cliche-ridden friend, and not such a rock solid friend, it turns out… saying: “Rather see ya than be ya.”  Even in the midst of the crash and the doom and gloom, I retorted,”Are you kidding?  A very small per cent of the people are on the Net yet.  It’s in its very earliest stages.  Bubbles are about over hype and not real profits.  The Net is the future.”

Of course, I had kept my costs low and had to make a profit.  I didn’t have a venture capitalist leaning over my shoulder and breathing down my neck saying “Capture eyeballs, forget profit.  It’s a real estate grab and a race to critical mass.”  I was slowed down by the need to build a profitable business now, not later.  And, that turned out to be a good thing.

So the question is, will green tech be the next big bubble that bursts?

Here’s how I look at it.

Business is all about cycles.  If a particular sector becomes overheated and rampant with speculation, there  naturally are going to be some wild rides.

Let me put it this way.  If you got all excited about real estate values booming and put your money down on two high dollar condos in Miami or a couple of spec houses in Phoenix, you may have to walk away from your investment with only your experience to show for it.

If, on the other hand, you bought your own home, or a rent house in Phoenix, at a reasonable price, you can just live in it, or rent it out for enough to cover the mortgage, for two or three years or most of your life.  The real estate market will recover and your investment will recoup its losses and continue to rise. All you need is time.  And, if you structure your investments or your business right, you will have time.

Time is the answer to most investments and most businesses.  Time to grow.  Time to accumulate…..assets, customers, understanding, markets. Time to ride out the downturns and take advantage of the upturns.

That’s why it’s so important to conserve your cash, and if you’re a small business or an entrepreneur, run your business with an eye towards thrift.  That will give you the ability to withstand the sometimes sudden shocks and typhoons that hit the market and your business in particular.

If you create a business that offers real value, and you are careful with your cash, you will survive and thrive.

Green business, or the green tech sector, is no different I think. It offers a lot of value and increasing efficiency for the future.  It is only at the very beginning, as the Net was in the 90′s.  It’s a good time to get in before the field becomes incredibly overcrowded.  Will it be here for the long term?  I would make a serious bet on it.  In fact, I am making some serious bets on it.  Just put on your hard hat for that inevitable fall out when the speculators have climbed too high and created an avalanche of nay sayers.  But that, too , will pass. And you will still be there to reap the rewards.

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Do You Have The Entrepreneur Temperament?

Andrew of BizLaunchBlog offers this on the entrepreneur temperament. Do you see yourself in here?  Do you see even a little of yourself in here?

Signs you’re probably an entrepreneur

  1. You business is your life and hobby
  2. You often do and then think
  3. You don’t like being told what to do
  4. You often have dreams about your business
  5. You constantly find ways to innovate everything
  6. You hate small talk
  7. You don’t REALLY read long contracts even though you say you did and recommend people should
  8. You’re very impatient
  9. You hate standing in line(queue if you’re English) to buy something
  10. You hate meetings
  11. You look forward to Mondays
  12. You have a short attention span
  13. You don’t read long emails
  14. You send out short emails and sometimes people think you’re rude
  15. You hate being told you’re wrong

If you think this is you, don’t just sit there, go out and start and business!

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Need a job? CREATE one! Personal Coaching To Help You

Need a job? CREATE one!

Simply Hired is partnering with Sramana Mitra, Forbes columnist and author of Entrepreneur Journeys, to bring you an online entrepreneurship forum. The open forum will take place on January 14th, 2009 at 11am PT/2pm ET and will center on job seekers taking their careers in their own hands by learning to create jobs now.

During the 60-minute session, Sramana Mitra will answer participant questions in real-time about all aspects of entrepreneurship including:

* forming a business idea

* finding great mentors

* funding your business idea

* mistakes to avoid

* anything else participants might ask

The session is open to everyone, however only the first 15 participants to register will have the opportunity to interact with Mitra.

The forum is free to all participants and will be run on the Dimdim Web Conferencing platform. To register for this event, go to http://entrepreneurshipforum.eventbrite.com or visit http://www.dimdim.com.

Check out the press release for more info!


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Goals – Got To Have Them

Let me tell you first what Seth Godin, marketing guru, author and blog celeb has to say about this subject: The thing about goals.

“Having goals is a pain in the neck.

If you don’t have a goal (a corporate goal, a market share goal, a personal career goal, an athletic goal…) then you can just do your best. You can take what comes. You can reprioritize on a regular basis. If you don’t have a goal, you never have to worry about missing it. If you don’t have a goal you don’t need nearly as many excuses, either.

Not having a goal lets you make a ruckus, or have more fun, or spend time doing what matters right now, which is, after all, the moment in which you are living.

The thing about goals is that living without them is a lot more fun, in the short run.

It seems to me, though, that the people who get things done, who lead, who grow and who make an impact… those people have goals.”

And I would add to that, if you don’t have a goal, you can wind up selling yourself short, leaving money on the table.

Let’s say you have a blog, a website, a brick and mortar business or a career,

Just to pluck some imaginary, hypothetical numbers out of the air, let’s say you’re making $80,000 a year. ( I know, you might be making $30,000 and I’m not feeling your pain.  Or you might be making $250,000 and I’m insulting you, not giving you enough glory and limelight. Just bear with me.  These are hypothetical numbers, ok?

I know I’ve been in situations where I was making $80,000 ( hypothetically) and vowed to make more from that particular business.  But I didn’t set a goal, so I didn’t form a detailed strategy and set out the concrete steps it would take for me to get there.  I might have made more money.  I might have gotten to 100K.  But if I didnt do the planning I would just keep on doing whatever I had been doing and not tie all my actions to specific steps to reach that goal.  Even if I reached $100K, I would never know if I could have reached $200K instead.

And wouldn’t we all have rather reached 200K instead, (or a million or whatever your hypothetical goal might be)?

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Hello Plinky! Hello Jane And Robot ! And Other Tales of Courage

Our hat is off to Jason Shellen! And to Vanessa Fox!  These two brave souls left Google to start their own companies in the midst of a recession.

They don’t talk about gutsy, they epitomize gutsy.

“Jason Shellen, resigned as Google’s manager of new business development in 2007 to launch Plinky.com, a startup that’s designed to inspire bloggers and users of social media sites. Shellen says he was getting complacent working at Google, despite the company’s domination of the Web.”

Vanessa Fox, aka, the Google Lady Webmaster, the most well-known woman among the SEO community, who helped build Webmaster Central, one of the company’s most successful projects took the leap as well. A star at Google, Rand Fishkin,  CEO of Seo Oz, in an anthem to her abilities and webmasters debt to her says:

” I don’t believe that anyone, outside of a few of Vanessa’s close friends, realize how much she’s done to help Google’s public image, their bottom line and their relations with webmasters, nor do most of us know how much Vanessa’s done to fight for webmasters internally at Google. … Webmaster Central was not only Vanessa’s department, it was her baby, her idea (right from inception), her show. If not for Vanessa, we might never have had the dedicated team of webmaster relations specialists (people like Jonathan, Amanda, Trevor, Susan & Maile). We might never have been able to send sitemaps to Google, see data about our sites (particularly the link data, for which Vanessa was always a fantastic advocate), verify ownership, select a preferred domain display or do any of the hundreds of other things that Webmaster Central enables.”

So, to Vanessa’s new company……. Hello Jane and Robot!

Most people in the high tech sector would kill to work at Google.  All that money.  All those stock options. Who could resist?  And why would you want to?

In, CNN.com’s reporting, They left the corporate cocoon to blossom, Shellen says he decided to leave Google despite a shaky economy because he wanted to force himself to change.

“Being an entrepreneur is all about risk and innovation, not timing the market,” Shellen says. “A good idea doesn’t wait for the perfect time to emerge. The ability to build something new outweighed the need for stability.”

Now there’s a person with the entrepreneurial gene.

“Shellen believes the large resources of a company can actually slow down the creative process. A person might want to invent a product, but small things like the name of the product end up being discussed in a committee.

“You don’t find that in a small company,” he says. “At my new company, Plinky, we sometimes dream things up in the morning and by the afternoon have it live on the Web. That never happens at a big company.”

In another example of taking the giant leap, “greater freedom is also what inspired Vanessa Fox to resign from her position at Google. Today, Fox is the founder of “Jane and Robot,” which helps Web site developers ensure their sites can be found by potential customers, and “Nine By Blue,” which helps businesses use online data to better understand their customers.

Fox says the challenge of creating something in an evolving space like the Internet was too great to pass up.

“As hokey as it sounds, there’s more to life than money,” she says. “As much as I loved working at Google, I am really enjoying the flexibility I have now, as well as the ability to really make a difference in the direction I choose to go in.”

If any of these comments sound remotely like something you might say, if you took the leap then Congratuations! You have the entreprerial gene.

So go for it!  Take the leap!  I salute you, too.  We hope to greet you out there launching your new business very soon. ( It certainly beats the cascading pink slips which will engulf many as gloomy economic times drag on and downwards, forcing many companies to cut back.)

In the meantime: Hello Plinky.  Hello Jane and Robot!

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Had Illusions? Been In The Entrepreneur Dip? Focus & Persist!

Probably every person who dreams of becoming an entrepreneur is looking at a bit of a rosy scenario. Life , or, in this case, success in business, through rose colored glasses.  An Illusion.

Not just about the outcome. About the process as well

THE ILLUSIONS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP : The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By makes no bones about it. Launching a business is hard work and it doesn’t happen overnight.  Businesses, like oak trees and flower gardens, take a long time to grow._
Illusions of Entrepreneurship - Best Small Business Book

Want to know how long?

10,000 hours.

Yep, that’s what it takes.

More than talent and more than luck, although those certainly help, it takes a lot of nose to the grindstone, seat of the pants to the seat of the chair, actually improving your skills every hour.

Malcolm Gladwell‘s new book Outliers makes this point, among others:

Becoming a superstar takes about 10,000 hours of hard work.

As marketing guru, author and blogger extraordinaire, Seth Godin sagely points out : Bill Gates, the Beatles, Beethoven, Bill Joy, Tiger Woods–do the math, 10,000 hours of work.

Seth Godin also mentions this is somewhat  a restatement of  his concept and book, the Dip. It’s not easy to get there.

“What really sets superstars apart from everyone else is the ability to escape dead ends quickly, while staying focused and motivated when it really counts.

 Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt-until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons. In fact, winners seek out the Dip. They realize that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it. If you can become number one in your niche, you’ll get more than your fair share of profits, glory, and long-term security.

Losers, on the other hand, fall into two basic traps. Either they fail to stick out the Dip-they get to the moment of truth and then give up-or they never even find the right Dip to conquer.

Whether you’re a graphic designer, a sales rep, an athlete, or an aspiring CEO, this fun little book will help you figure out if you’re in a Dip that’s worthy of your time, effort, and talents. If you are, The Dip will inspire you to hang tough. If not, it will help you find the courage to quit-so you can be number one at something else.”

Someone has said that every success is a transformation of an earlier failure.  So, if you don’t succeed, it’s because you quit too soon. ( I would put that right up there with another immutable tenet of success never run out of cash.  Do those two, and you will succeed.)

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