Moments of Clarity

Welcome Aboard: Attorney Rush Nigut Leverages The Mitchell Group's Interactive Learning Environment Platform to Bring More Value to Clients and Profession

Attorney Rush Nigut is the latest professional to adopt the Interactive Learning Environment (ILE) platform from The Mitchell Group. 

The online software platform provides the perfect medium for attorneys, associations, marketers, freelancers, consultants, business coaches, and any other information based business professional to extend their reach globally. 

We believe the ILE "Creates Time" because it enables professionals to move beyond the "billable hours" syndrome.  You can only be one place at a time.  If you're traveling 150 days or more per year...how exactly do you intend to grow your business?  You must move beyond where YOU can be...and add a global 24x7 medium that extends your reach while you sleep.  The ILE platform is that medium.

As today's business climate challenges grow in scope and magnitude...how will you be different?

If you're one of twenty or more relevant professional associations that companies may join, what will make you more relevant than the next?  Would providing an "Online University" for your members with training courses on "How to become more findable on the Internet" be the deciding factor that builds your membership by 25% next year vs. remaining stagnate?

The ILE platform lends itself to paid or free course offerings or a combination of both.  We leverage both models at RentalMetrics by offering a limited selection of course materials FREE and a full access option for $97/month.  Sign up for a free trial and see for yourself.

If you like the multimedia you see and hear inside the RentalMetrics ILE and think, "Hey but I can't do that," never fear.  We can help you with that too whether it's a video presentation, audio engineering, professional custom music, or voice over work. 

If you'd like to have your very own membership site and begin replicating yourself globally, email me.  The possibilities are endless.

Co-Office Shared Space Coming to Des Moines?

found out about Impromptu Studio.  The idea of course is not new but certainly lacking here in the metro. 

In the concept's own words: (links added by me or rather my new friend technology Zemanta)

Impromptu Studio will be Des Moines' Premiere Coworking Office for Shared Workspaces. Office residents will enjoy all of the comforts of a regular office without the "pain" of living in cubeland. We take care of the office and it's amenities. You take care of your business while gaining many potential interoffice connections with business owners just like you.

We see Iowa's brain drain as a serious problem and are offering up Impromptu Studio as one part of the solution.  Young professionals can grow their own business by tapping into the resources we offer. Young professionals no longer have big obstacles in joining the social and business community, a reason that many young people leave now.  Social interaction and networking opportunities that have young people are moving out of Iowa can be found within our environment.                                

Impromptu Studio aims to foster local business connections and interactions.  Our members   will also have a diverse pool of services to offer each other. This dual pronged approach of community integration allows our members to become acquainted at multiple levels with individuals and businesses that can help them succeed for the years that follow.

There's an upcoming informational meeting at noon(12pm) on Friday, June 6, 2008 at East Village Books. You can RSVP for the event and get directions at http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/759222/.

Let's wish Daniel Shipton et al luck with this project.  I know plenty of us who are interested.

RentalMetrics Press Release Goes Global

I recently posted about our official public unveiling of the RentalMetrics Interactive Learning Environment.  Well nothing says "launch" like a press release hitting the trade publications around the world.  Here we are in Rental Equipment Register's weekly online newsletter which hit this morning.

Over the next couple of weeks, I hope to see the release get picked up in lots of places to spread the word. 

Our service can be summed up the following way:

Subscribing to RentalMetrics is like hiring a team of analysts, researchers, marketing wizards, statistical gurus, and a hall of fame coach to attack the business problems that cause pain at your construction/equipment rental company. 

The team's recommendations, plans, and strategies are presented in ways that really hit home using audio, video, and screencasts.  There's a good bit of video conferencing and interactive LIVE QA sessions via webcast too.

The team is available 24 hours a day every day.  They don't require desks, wear suits, or ask for vacation.  They're self driven, motivated, don't need  supervision, and pay their own cell phone bills.

Team members don't require sleep, are available anywhere in the world, and work for very modest wages.

Do you need a team like this?  Hire them or try them out.

RentalMetrics Interactive Learning Environment Goes Live

It's been 8 months in the works.  Countless thousands of hours have gone into its creation.  Now, RentalMetrics has officially launched its Interactive Learning Environment (ILE). 

To sign up for a the free trial and poke around, visit http://signup.rentalmetrics.com.  Select the FREE TRIAL subscription.

The business can best be described as "Insourced E-Learning for the Construction and Equipment Rental Sectors".  It's a virtual online consultant.  So...no suits...no flights...expensive dinners.  Just fantastic content delivered in rich media formats (audio, video, screen casts, etc.). 

We're providing the resources, tools, analysis for every equipment rental company to have the kind of personnel firepower to execute technology solution deployments (and get the most out of them) like their well resourced larger cousins.  Of course the big guys will find quite a bit to use as well.  I'm guessing our Marketing & Promotions category will get some attention from the larger companies since they're still contemplating "that whole blog thing" or this new "social media revolution".  We'll see.

The bottom line is that we're open for business.  Most of my readers are probably not associated w/the Construction Equipment Rental sector.  However, if you're a consultant, business coach, or just operate any kind of "Information Based Business", think about how this Interactive Learning Environment platform could work for you.

How would you like to offer your clients rich content for sale?  Maybe you could offer your intellectual property to the world...while you sleep?  Have you ever woken up to new sales and new bank deposits each morning?  Maybe it is time to stop traveling so much and remove your income cap because you're "maxed out".

Lucky for you we built the platform for RentalMetrics so anyone can use it.  If you want to get global overnight, shoot me an email and I'll share more details.  I'd like to put out a special thank you to Andy Brudtkuhl and Paul Gratton for making all of this happen behind the scenes. 

Here's a video tour of the site in case you're interested.  Until we meet again. 

Agile Non-Development

I got the call last Friday afternoon from another highly respected destination site in the IT world asking my permission to do an expose on my "Confessions" book.  I decided in that moment that the book deserved its own website where I would:

1. Aggregate a list of subscribers that may enjoy future e-books I write or that may enjoy the expanded version of "Confessions" in the works.
2. Brand the e-book accordingly since before, it was merely linked on a page at my corporate website at RentalMetrics.
3. Provide a survey so readers could offer their feedback on the book and opinions on its expansion worthiness.

I emailed my technology guy and said, "Hey, I'm going to design a static web page with an opt in form built in, can you put it up and host it for me?"  (Sure no problem). 

I began with the usual suspects:  Google page creator, MSFT Publisher, Dream Weaver, NVU, then MSFT Word.  I was leveraging templates and trying to edit them in the WYSIWYG editors but ended up frustrated and flummoxed....as always. 

Then I accessed that part of my brain that I'd tucked away for safekeeping.   It's the part that uses Typepad for EVERYTHING I do (on my own) on the web.  The next 4 hours were a flurry of keystrokes and configuration and I had:

1. Purchased a domain and mapped it to my newly created typepad blog site.
2. Chosen a template and using TypePad's "pages" function, created a "static home page" that will always show when you hit the site (vs. the always updated blog posts).
3. Created an opt-in auto responder in Aweber.  That little gem of a software application is the best auto-renewing $20 I spend a month. This includes 2 follow up messages that get sent at a pre-determined interval, etc.
4. Created custom "thank you" pages on the blog site (again...all easily created in typepad.
5. Added some "right nav" content by sharing some of the TypeLists I have on other blogs here.
6. Configured/laid out the content blocks.
7. Made navigation links to pages in the right navigation at the top right including an Author Bio page (scraped from my company site at RentalMetrics)
8. Created a survey in Wufoo and had embedded this into a page.
9. Used Feedburner to create easy subscribability and pleasant RSS feeds including "Feed flare" to become more easily linkable.

Effectively, within 4 hours I'd created the full circle marketing and PR destination hub for my e-book on my own.  Now, this will not wow anyone in tech circles. In fact, it may seem rather Luddite.  However, for the entrepreneur, consultant, solo-preneur, small business...this power should NOT be underestimated.  A few simple skills will save you big bucks and big headaches (and be more effective than any generic site will be for you). 

This site is findable, link-able, comment-able, sign-up-able, pleasure-able, and functional-(able :)

It cost me exactly 4 hours on a Saturday and since I already use the hosted applications in all of my other businesses, there was zero out of pocket, only opportunity cost.

Invest little bit of your brain power in some simple techniques to build your own sites and for goodness sake, use a BLOG platform to do it!  Blog platforms come chock full of widgets and nifty little code bits that make your site go from zero to hero in minutes.  Well, at least 240 of them.

That's Agile. 

www.enterpriseconfessions.com

Gateway Market - Opening in West Des Moines after others FAIL

I wrote about my struggles with The Marketplace at Jordan Creek when it was still in business some time ago.
Now the thriving Gateway Market (Woodland/MLK) is opening a West Des Moines location sometime in June down near Art Dinkin in the Village at Ponderosa development.  So when it opens, go experience great customer service, the right sized selection, and then stop by and say hi to Art.

Enterprise Confessions e-book gets its own site

My Confessions of an Ex-Enterprise Salesperson e-book is still generating a lot of interest and buzz out there in some pretty exciting IT circles.  So much so, that the book has now earned its own site at:

www.enterpriseconfessions.com

If you're in the business of buying, selling, researching, or recommending solutions for your business...PLEASE grab a copy of the book.  It's informative, fun, and will leave you armed with tools to defeat even the most stunning suited software schlepper!

Analysts, Economists, and Statisticians

I just listened to an analyst call that I downloaded electronically from October of last year.  I completely forgot about it back then and was amused to hear the very respected team discussing how they see oil moving down to the $70 range in the next 6 months because of some very academically sound reasons.

Good call.

This experience just reminded me that no matter what anyone says about business, the economy, or current conditions...it's up to YOU to do something for yourself.  Don't let whatever is happening out there "group-think yourself into the toilet".   

Most people that prognosticate on the future are guaranteed only one thing...incorrectness. 

Getting great recorded interview quality using Skype

Over at RentalMetrics...we believe we've turned a corner with regard to quality of audio production...not to mention our screen casting production.  We've figured out how to successfully use skype to execute digital interviews:  we use the studio microphone in the office and the caller calls in using our "skype in" phone number. 

We use a great piece of software called "CallBurner" that records the conversation.  Both sides of the call (me and the inbound caller) are recorded on separate channels allowing for great editing options (we use Audacity which is free also).  If the caller and I talk over each other, we can fix that is post production by simply moving tracks around. 

We've also raised the bar on the video screen casts (We're now using the free CamStudio).  It seems that after investing maybe 40 hours in learning and tweaking, we've found the right settings and resolution to make things look very appealing.

We're also now using Viddler to host our videos.  Much better quality and flexibility than YouTube or Google Video.  We can even make video's "private" for example if they're related to specific clients or part of our subscription service.

I say "We" when I really mean Paul.  Paul has tirelessly futzed with things and has become a great producer.  I keep telling him that if we're not careful, RentalMetrics will get asked to execute on social media/marketing projects for companies in our industry.  That wouldn't be so bad :)

Bottom Line
Here's the latest and certainly greatest Product Showcase on an industry leading Fleet Management GPS Solution.  Please watch it and let us know what you think.

A clear indicator of being on the right track

I'm learning some lessons as I move along the "new company continuum" with RentalMetrics.

1. As firms find out about your business  (read your website/blog) and begin to understand what you're doing...they write posts on similar topics as you.  The message:  We get it too.
2. Those same firms begin posting on how their methods of doing business or presenting their message are distinctly different than yours "out of the blue".  The message:  We're threatened by what you do.

Competition is a fantastic and driving force behind capitalism and I'm diving yet deeper into the mix each day.  I've learned good lessons from some very smart and successful people.  Most have simply put their head down and done good things for their customers over and over again vs. worrying too much about what companies a-z are talking about. Being the best has a way of sorting out the competition for you.

Central Iowa Funding Sources - Do You Agree? If Yes, Please Call Me

This piece in the WSJ illustrates my evangelism. 
"The 100 Page Start-Up Plan---Don't Bother", by Kelly Spors

Key quotes:

"It doesn't take a year of planning to figure out whether someone is going to buy your product," says William Bygrave, a Babson College entrepreneurship professor. "All you have to do is start selling it."

Traditionally, when a business plan has been essential is when a start-up is pitched to potential investors. But even that's changing. Many venture capitalists and angel investors now say an effective 10-minute slide presentation or executive summary can be more effective than a full-blown written plan.

Investors often base their decision to invest on their trust in the people running the business as much as the idea itself.

"The most important thing they should do is create a prototype" of their product, Mr. Kawasaki says. "Spend your time creating prototypes, not plans." 

(Doug's emphasis added)

This is not to say that planning is not a requirement.  Rather, planning should be done in the context of reality and tangible prototyping. 

I'm guessing that the average time from getting on the "Hey I'd like some money" circuit right now to a cleared check is over 12 months in Central Iowa.  That needs to change. 

Great Advice for Business Owner's Who's Company Is Their Nest Egg

I bet less than 5% of small-to-medium business owners plan according the advise in this WSJ piece.  I've seen businesses like this go from golden egg to stinky rotten real quick leaving only a creek to paddle up only...there's no paddle if you know what I'm saying.

Get To Know.....Me

Today, the Des Moines Register published a "You Should Get To Know" about your humble author and RentalMetrics.

If you'd care to help their web stats...please click the link to the piece.

From Flyover to Tech Hotspot: How Global Warming Has Shifted the Where of Cool

Let's assume for a moment that global warming is happening on some scale, man-made or otherwise. 

**FOR IMMEDIATE FICTITIOUS RELEASE** February 15, 2008

Global warming today has been credited with making the Midwest "cool".    Now that the Western half of the U.S. and the Northeast are plagued with the inability to reliably produce electricity and severe drought...places like Iowa have become highly desirable.  An unnamed Iowa legislator said under the condition of anonymity that, "It's about time that global calamity worked in our favor.  I'm not sure if global warming is real or not...but for now, I'm loving it."

It's been almost a year now since Google (GOOG) announced that it was building a data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa.  Now we  find that Microsoft (MSFT) is getting close to deciding on an Iowa location for a similar data center operation. Local and state governing bodies are scrambling to put together incentive packages that sweeten the deal.  It seems that Iowa has become cool.  Or more accurately, Iowa is hot.

Iowa's Paris Hilton "hot" stems from its abundant water and ability to produce massive amounts of electricity.   "Look, we know that the public thinks that we're bending over for Microsoft, and we are," said a confidential city source.  "But look, we have rain, snow, and land free of aging hippies so we can build more electrical plants.  Those few key elements put us in a great position  to get on the news...and that's what we need to do.  Hi mom."

So it seems that for now, Global Warming has turned Iowa into the technology and biofuel capital of the world.  For these humble Midwesterners, used to news coverage only every 4 years, time are a changin'.  Now everyone seems to want a little piece of their globally warmed pie. 

**

Please Listen Iowa Venture Capital-Angel Investor Community!

A piece just appeared in BusinessWeek discussing the odds of getting funding from Venture Capital organizations.  Things aren't too promising, perhaps 1 in 100 plans get funded.  The odds get worse when you get into fly over country. (yes..where we live)

Location counts, too. California is home to 41% of the companies VCs funded last year. An additional 13% were in New England. If you're not in a medical or tech sector and you're not located in a hotspot like Silicon Valley or Boston's Route 128 corridor, your chances of getting VC funding are virtually nil, Shane says.

Let's look at Iowa for a moment.  We have very smart people here.  We also have quite a few tech start ups happening around the state.  I've met plenty of these people and they're just as smart as the folks out west.  So what's the problem?

Is it that Iowan business ideas are horrible and unfundable?
Are we but simple farmers that don't understand the big city?
Are we less intelligent than those on the coasts?
Do we have so few high net worth individuals that there is no such thing as Angel investing?

The answer is no to all of the above.

The problem we face is that the Iowa investment community is not well organized, is risk averse, is hamstrung by a state government that wants to take credit for economic development successes, and has little appetite to do anything first.

1. Show me a fund in Iowa (state or otherwise) that has a quick and painless pitch funnel system that hears plans weekly...or even monthly.   Can I submit the plan or form on line in 10 minutes? 
2. Show me a fund that has "quick grants" for $25k-$100k for prototype or concept development with no strings attached.  It's called RISK capital for a reason...it's not "pretty much a sure thing because 10 other people have been successful at this capital".
3. Show me where all the plans that "didn't make the cut with the current state/local funded accelerator programs" go.  I bet there are some real gems out there rotting because schedules were full.
4. Show me how I can qualify for Iowa state money without employing a state "paperwork filler outer".

Organize.  Collaborate.  Fund.  Tap into the expertise that's here.  The side effect will be achieving the goal of stemming the famous Iowa brain drain.  If you want people to stay here, you need to give them a reason to passionately work 80 hours per week and not care about the fact that it's 8.3 degrees outside.  You need wages to come up.  You need RISK capital to flow here.  You need success stories to emerge that don't have Pappajohn or a state funded business accelerator name tattooed on their backs .

I'll be happy to post revisions to this post when someone proves me incorrect or too bold.  This post is a call to action Iowa angel investors.  If you need someone to organize you, I accept the challenge.  Call me.
515.309.1531

UPDATE -  We now have a name for you.  It's Central Iowa Angels (CIA) (www.centraliowaangels.com)

New direct flights out of Des Moines

It was nice to see that DSM has a direct flight to LAX soon.  That's big for trips to Hawaii or cruises that leave from San Pedro, etc.  Too bad it's United but we can't be choosy.  If they offer the flight early heading west bound...it will be possible to get to LA in time for a meeting same day.

Continental has also come up with a non-stop from DSM to Cleveland.  Now my parents have a direct shot...and no hassles. 

Two air travel victories in one day.  What will I do?

The Middle Class Squeeze Myth

I've been an offender...I must admit.  I've said, "The Middle Class is Disappearing" and getting "Squeezed".  Intuitively, it made sense to parrot the pundits with all of the doom and gloom in the news.

Take a look however at this little video put together by the Wall Street Journal.  It stars Drew Carey and it's a fun and economically sound examination of what the Middle Class is really going through today...and how it can afford so much stuff.

This video will at least challenge your ideas about how bad off the Middle Class really is.  What is the definition of middle class anyway now? 

What seems more plausible is that the expectations of the middle class have risen so much during the last 10 years.  Not too long ago, an "average TV" for the house, maybe 27" or 32" if you were really doing well sold for $300-$600.  Now the minimum entry point is 42"inch plasma...and those have just come down to about $1k.  Regular TV? No way.  The entry point of the HD plans on any service is now about $60/month.  "But I've got the HDTV...I deserve to see the programs at their best right?

I could go on ad nauseum but think about your parents for a moment.  Mine are 57.  My family was archetypal middle class.  The first new car they bought was in 1984 (age 34).  Dad was a union butcher.  Mom stayed home.  We took a vacation every other year after about the age of 12 that usually involved driving immense distances and sleeping at rest stops.  My mom mostly cooked and eating out was a treat.

Today, it's a very different picture.  Is the Middle Class really being squeezed or is it that some just don't have more credit available to them to keep up with the Joneses?

Podcast audience growth substantial

Are you using Podcasting in your marketing mix? eMarketer predicts solid growth in Podcasting as a medium.

eMarketer estimates that the total US podcast audience reached 18.5 million in 2007.  Furthermore, that audience will increase by 251% to 65 million in 2012. And of those listeners, 25 million will be “active” users who tune in at least once a week.

I'm leveraging Podcasts on the RentalMetrics site and in its Independent Learning Environment consulting portal.  We're trying to deliver our message in unique and sticky ways that support our brand.  We're also big believers that content isn't always an 8AM-5PM product.  Podcasting delivers content on your clients time frame...not yours.  We think that's good.

Here's our latest "RedMeat" podcast from RentalMetrics below.  We're exploring new Podcast hosting/streaming methods as well.  Today we used Podbean.

Powered by Podbean.com

Use of Video in Company Promotion

Are you using video/rich media in your web/marketing/PR/media execution (notice I didn't say plan) for 2008?  I have turned the corner and have just gone live with my new firm's "Porch Pitch" (Like an elevator pitch but smaller).  The company is RentalMetrics.  Take a look and see if you "get what we do".  If not, it's back to the video drawing board :)

Special thanks to Mike Sansone for pushing/coaching/exposing we business bloggers to the power of the uncomfortable new technologies that await us when we try.  Double secret probation thanks to Chris Punke at Focal Point.  Chris is the uber video studio production genius that makes me look like I'm standing in front of tractors and such using chroma key technology (green screen).  I'd highly recommend both gentlemen who can make some magic for your business.  More thanks to Paul Gratton for key production support.

The High Deductible Plan with a Health Savings Account (HSA)

Most folks I meet don't know the first thing about a high deductible health care plan with a Health Savings Account.  There are a few misconceptions out there too.  I'm going to share my experience with this type of health care plan.  I'm certain that I'll gloss over some details and such so please correct me if I've misstated a fact.

1. This is an individual plan.  No more "what if my company does X, Y, or Z.  It's yours.  As a self-employed person, you have complete control.  That's good.
2. A "high deductible plan" still offers good coverage for the stuff you'd expect (accidents, disease, transplants, etc.)...however you're responsible for paying more (up to your deductible amount per year) as medical issues arise.
3. Premiums for high deductible plans are often very reasonable.  I'm actually below $300 for my entire family plan now.
4. You can get a deductible as low as $3k for a family. 
5. The Health Savings Account component of this system is where you stash money to pay for bills that arise...like a visit to the doctor , a physical, a broken arm, a case of the mumps, etc.
6. The amount you put into the HSA is counted as PRE-TAX money as far as the IRS is concerned.  In other words, you put in $3k and at the end of the year, you take $3k off the top of your income as though it went into an IRA or 401K, etc.  Depending on your tax bracket...this can make the cost of this money far cheaper than $3k.
7. If you don't spend the money each year, it remains for you, earning interest and available to pay whatever medical bills you may need to pay.  The HSA is NOT like a flexible spending account  (FSA) that must be used up annually. 
8. Your deductible is the upper limit of your responsibility.  If you pay out that much, you don't pay after that threshold is reached.
9. When you visit the doctor, you don't pay a co-pay typically.  You receive a bill that is "discounted" according to the insurance rules.  Let's say an $80 doctor visit becomes $48....then you pay $48 with your HSA.
10. Your HSA typically has great options like a VISA/DEBIT card to pay on the spot for prescriptions.  If your doctor takes VISA as well, then you can send back the bill with the payment information included. 
11. If you use a company called Health Equity for your HSA account management, you'll get a whole host of great features and benefits.  These guys have really taken the HSA to the next level.  Don't short change yourself by using any old bank's HSA.  Health Equity has gotten is right.  You have complete on line management of the account.  It really puts you in control. 
12. If you do the math, a $3k deductible ($250/mo) + my premium ($300)/mo = $550/month.  If we don't visit the doctor for 3 months...my net health care cost during that quarter was $900...and I've "pocketed" $750...and that same $750 comes off the top of my income at tax time. 
13. There are certain rules that apply to these accounts and I'm pretty certain that employers cannot pay the premiums for employees...but there are ways employers can help.  Ask your attorney/tax man/financial planner/insurance agent about those.  I don't fit one of those job descriptions (thus people generally like me).

If you'd like to know more about these plans or get specific, I'll refer you to the good folks that took care of me.  If your questions are answerable by me...I'll do my best.

I highly recommend that you explore this option if you're self-employed...or looking to become self-employed.  There's NO reason to pay your $800+ per month COBRA bill while you launch your new venture...when you can take a proactive and self-directed path with your family's health care insurance needs.   

This is really the first step we can take towards some kind of re-do on the health care debacle we face now.  It puts REAL dollar amounts on services that YOU the insured SEE.  You find out that an MRI that took 30 minutes was $700...and you are going to pay $350 of that. These services don't just magically get done because you have insurance.  EVERYONE is paying for them and that's why premiums are going up at something like 12% per year! 

Take control.  Ask questions.  Do the math. 

Failure...One Step Closer To Success

I respect Mark Cuban immensely.  He gets it.  He takes risks.  He's not afraid to fail. (He's not afraid to ballroom dance). Of course the crowd might say, "Oh yeah sure...if I had a billion dollars laying around I'd take risks too".  But Cuban didn't hit the lottery or just "get lucky".  He worked hard.  Bombed.  Tried.

At the end of the day, this quote sums it up best. 

The point of all this is that it doesn't matter how many times you fail. It doesn't matter how many times you almost get it right. No one is going to know or care about your failures, and either should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you because...

All that matters in business is that you get it right once.

Then everyone can tell you how lucky you are.

Read this set of posts and you'll appreciate his story and see how close it is to yours.   We typically know about the one time someone got it right and assume it was "lucky".  Bad move. 

I had breakfast with Meg Whitman...Ebay's CEO this morning

Alright, I wasn't alone. The Technology Association of Iowa put together a breakfast at the Embassy Club downtown where Mrs. Whitman spoke.  It was a nice and intimate setting with about 60 people. 

We got to hear some nice factoids about Ebay.  For example, did you know that:

1. Ebay took 1 round of funding for $2.5 mil.  That's it.  They've been profitable for most of their existence and took the round to hire good people and get more cred.  Nice.  The founder gave up about 35% for that funding.  Next to GOOG, this is the most profitable venture deal in history it seems.
2. The original code for Ebay was developed over a labor day weekend by a dude. 
3. The first item sold was a broken laser pointer.  The founder sold it for $15.00.  He had purchased it new for $20.00.  "Hey I've got something here" lights went off.
4. Today, 40% of Ebay's business is fixed price (BUY NOW) vs. auction.
5. Ebay will do $18billion in automobile transactions this year.  They had no idea autos would ever sell on Ebay.
6. Whitman tried to buy PayPal a few times.  Each time she scoffed at the large sums that PayPal wanted.  First it was $500mil. She countered with $300 mil.  PayPal said no.  In the end, PayPal said $1.5 billion....and she said yes.  She takes credit for the "mistake" of waiting too long to buy PayPal.  That wait cost them an extra billion.
7. Ebay encourages mistakes.  Excellent.
8. PayPal will be using Skype to create a Western Union style disrupter where people can send money across the world via PayPal.
9. Ebay/PayPal is getting into micro-lending.
10. Whitman believes fully that you should hire ahead of the curve...and put people in place that will be over qualified now...but will see the business come to them as it explodes.

Perhaps the greatest thing I heard this morning was Meg Whitman's assertion that, "The price of inaction is greater than the price of making a mistake".  Remember that.

This was a great way to start the day.  It's very encouraging when a Harvard educated billionaire CEO's thinking is pretty much aligned with the way you think about business and technology. 

Her markets to watch in the future....Pork Bellies and Orange Juice futures.  Just kidding. 

Blackberry Pearl 8100: Wow did they get this right!

Perhaps you read my recent post on how to unlock your Blackberry Pearl 8100...with AT&T's help!  Or, perhaps you're considering which phone you'd like to buy.  Let me encourage you to purchase the Pearl for the following reasons.

1. It's quad-band gsm for max global usage (if you ever intend to use a phone overseas...this is a must)
2. It's the most business friendly phone I've ever encountered.  It's the ONLY phone...let me repeat ONLY phone that has ever been able to simply open a .WAV file out of the box.  I get my voice mails from my office Vonage line delivered to my email (and thus my phone).  One click and I'm listening to the voice mail on my Pearl.  Not so with ANY windows mobile device I owned (various PDA style windows mobile phones, Q, etc.  I'm sure the windows phones will open the file with some kind of patch or download...but I'm not interested in playing.
3. Google now makes a "Google Synch" tool that automatically synchs your google calendar w/the native blackberry calendar.  Nice.  This seems new but is just excellent.
4. The entire suite of GOOGLE mobile apps works flawlessly on the phone.
5. The phone is very business savvy with the ability to copy and paste and move between applications.  windows mobile phones were always very clunky at doing what I thought was a windows thing. 
6. The phone seems to send/receive/construct voice memos and MMS messages better than I ever could with my Q phone. 
7. They've crammed a QWERTY keyboard into a much smaller keypad.  Bottom line.  It's weird at first but the software figures out what you're doing and makes sense of it all.  Trust me.  Just type the words you want and after a few weeks, about 98% of what you want to come out...does.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out the keypad and notice the lack of all those little thumb buttons. 

The Blackberry Pearl 8100 is just a great device and provides a powerful business tool for those that who need it...all tucked into a nice little form factor that still fits in the pocket.

Chronic Symptoms of Outsourced Call and Chat Centers

I'm a huge fan of "chat with a live person right now" buttons on websites.  I just love the ability to solve problems when I'm encountering them.  I'm far more likely to buy from a firm that offers this option (Qwest just got my business after a 45 minute plus chat session building my bundled services package with a very capable person with a real personality.)

Enter my chat session today with OfficeDepot.com.  I just received a $20 coupon of a purchase of $100 or more.  I tried to use it buying a $99.99 item.  Oops.  Invalid.  Since they probably don't have items priced at $99.98, I'd like to see them bend the rules and put in a $.01 web rule that bumps the deal so I can use the coupon...but that's another topic.

I added another item, a $40 MP3 player.  Still no coupon acceptance.  The error message kept telling me that I was at $99.99 and thus couldn't use it.  I started a live chat session, during which time I figured out my own error.  The fine print says NO ELECTRONICS so the website was correct...it was just rejecting me in an unclear way.

The person on the other end of the chat just didn't grasp that I had discovered the issue and rectified it on my own...never utilizing a drip of human interaction...rather attempting to stay on the scripted path.  Oh well.

Remember firms...LIVE CHAT doesn't give you the excuse to skimp on the experience.

Here's the transcript.

 

Agent21 has entered the session.
doug: no matter what i do, my coupon code will not work. my order is $139.98 but it keeps erroring and telling me that my order is $99.99 (because the first time i tried, it was under $100) but I added an item..now somehow this thing is cookied or whatever and i cannot complete my purchase using the coupon.
Agent21: Thank you for contacting the Office Depot online assistance team, my name is Janice and I have been assigned to your query.
Agent21: May I have the coupon code?
doug: 31543480
doug: u know what...i can't believe it...but i think it's not good on MP3 players...and thus the denial.
doug: hard to believe but true.
Agent21: This coupon excludes technology item, .
doug: i'll buy a $.02 cent pencil to make it work i guess.
doug: :)
Agent21: May I know whether you have added any technology item in your cart?
doug: yes an mp3 player.
doug: sansa
doug: that's why it' not working correct.
doug: i read the fine
doug: print
doug: it would be helpful to note that on the website if a customer makes a mistake like that...but so it goes.
Agent21: I am sorry, then you cannot use this coupon this coupon to this item.
Agent21: Is there anything else I can assist you with?
doug: no thanks.

Unlocking GSM Cell Phones: ATT Blackberry Pearl 8100

In days gone by it was nearly impossible to get AT&T (Cingular) to unlock a phone for you.  Unlocking of course means that you can use your quad-band GSM cell phone on the other global networks you may encounter while traveling abroad by purchasing local SIM cards.  Rates on these SIMS can be very low (sub $.10/min) and include a local phone number. Also, inbound calls are free of charge.

Of course this has always been something AT&T did NOT want to happen because they'd miss out on their often usurious international rates.  Rates have been coming down and $.99/min is not uncommon these days but you'll pay $.99/min inbound and outbound while likely paying some sort of monthly fee to get the rate down to that level. 

But I have great news.  I've just received my UNLOCK CODE and instructions on how to activate it on my Blackberry Pearl 8100 from AT&T's customer service department with one simple call to 611!

I asked the guys at the local store and they said, "We can't do it, but customer service will handle that for you".  I was shocked to even hear that much support.  Imagine my surprise when  I call, I ask, I get. 

Bravo AT&T.  I'm more loyal now that ever.  You know odds are, that if I'm traveling for a short period of time, I'll probably STILL use your service/SIM and pay you the rates you ask for.  I'm simply into have the option to do otherwise. 

No more paying $20 for a code from someone on ebay.  Have at it y'all.

Who will own your personal information cloud?

Here's some non-technical, peripheral understanding only, commentary on what I think is happening to the state of personal information management.

Like many of you, I'm a bit hesitant to let my entire life be run under the GOOGleplex.  Honestly, these guys are owning our lives, only so they can monetize it for the benefit of their shareholders.  (I use more and more of their services too).  But they get it.  They get that the ultimate destiny of computing is that users will simply "jack into the net" using a device.  They also get that "life is one big filing cabinet" and that today's computing world doesn't really create efficiencies when it comes to finding things, re-finding things, noting what's actually important, and doing so without unnecessary replication or time waste.  Don't you have things saved on hard drives, remote hosted environments, laptops, cds, dvds, usb keys, portable devices...and gasp...paper?

William Jones in his new book (not a business buzz book...a real meaty academic book) called, "Keeping Found Things Found" talks about a PSI (personal space of information), i.e. the mega life filing cabinet with no end.  Like Jones, Google understands that the required space and computing power to search, tag and manage all of the "stuff" life throws at one today are simply too great to "own".  Heck GOOG is even building its own network of bandwidth, power, and perhaps wireless infrastructure.  They know the drill.

GOOG also gets that this big personal filing cabinet in the sky should be a universal safe source of information that we allow others to have access to.   The recent Google Open Social announcements seem to indicate that they're headed this direction. Although we're far from that today.  Thankfully, GOOG still breaks things out into products so we don't get overwhelmed (reader, notebook, gmail, docs, blogger) just yet.

Is it really efficient to create 200+ profiles on social networking, travel, wiki, hosted application, portal, blogging,  and shopping sites?  Why don't we own our own medical records and simply allow our new doctor to hop into that file using an ultra secure API or biometric access medium?  I'm sure we'd all be better off creating one master profile with all of our preferences and frequent flier numbers, etc. inside.

The computing/software world is not ready for this reality. But when it is, should we give the power of owning and securing our life to a company like Google that is simply monetizing it for their gain along the way?  Should the GOOG machine be able to troll our medical records, buying habits, and stored documents for targeted ads delivered to your googlephone let's say?  (They already do most of this).  In the most extreme example, the google machine could read your recently updated medical records that contain the diagnoses that you have 3 months to live, then begin pummeling your phone and other mediums you've subscribed to with funeral home, attorney, and financial planner ads. Think that's over the top? You gave permission when you accepted the user agreement that you never read.)

But who else out there will construct this world for us if not GOOG?  I'd lay some money on Amazon. 

Although Amazon appears to be a shopping site to the average consumer, they've been working on search technology and an open platform for some time now.  Today we  find that Amazon has released an open database platform.  Hum, are things taking shape?  They have a trusted brand and have built a massive IT infrastructure. 

Since I've embraced this idea of the universal filing cabinet, I find it harder to put value on the "pieces" of the solution that ask me to house bookmarks, documents, and notes.  Why should I social bookmark at X different places when I can bookmark to my own personal filing cabinet...then choose to "socialize" those? Why should I store a contract in a contact record in salesforce.com...when I'd have to search within salesforce.com to find it again someday?  In fact, why should I use Salesforce.com to manage contacts?  Why don't programs simply access my "life's phone book" and let me do what I want with it?  It seems everyday that I'm confronted with "where to save or bookmark or store" things in their proper context.  I keep resorting to Google products to accomplish this and that generally worries me for the long term.   (Mainly due to mobility vs. functionality)

I want to own my life's information and let you see what I want you all to see.  I want to type this entry into my text editor screen...then select "post to blog"...then select which one (personal, business, etc.), what tags I want, etc.  You may say that I can do this already..and I can...but this blog entry is stored on TypePad's servers not in my PSI. 

I'm willing to pay for this.....if for no other reason that to disallow GOOG from charging others for ads that feed on my life's work like algorithmic parasites.

I'm sure the digerati out there have some other start up going that support the "new new" model.  Perhaps it's the World Beam.  Want to be blown away?  Read the article and see the future. 

 

What's your goal?

Back in the dot com bubble era, goals were mostly to:

1. scale
2. get big
3. land venture capital
4. work for yourself or a start up
5. hire as many people as possible
6. get rich quick
7. sell out
8. move on to the new new thing

In the post bubble era, goals seemingly switched to:

1. survive
2. work for someone else to mitigate risk
3. work for old school enterprises
4. get real

In today's world, goals have  changed yet again

1. work for yourself
2. build more of a lifestyle business that supports your life versus ruling it
3. don't hire anyone if you can avoid it
4. outsource stuff that sucks (for you...for the receiver of the outsource job it probably doesn't suck)
5. tell the venture capital guys that you don't need them
6. work at a job that gives you the flexibility to do what self-employed people do

I'm curious to see what high school teachers and undergraduate college professors would say if I asked, "Do any of your students believe that they'll be getting a job when they've graduated?" 

Recession or Depression?

Have you ever heard that saying, "When your friend losses their job, it's a recession.  When you lose your job, it's a depression".  I was scraping some ice today and my neighbor was outside scraping too.  He's never home at this time of the day.  I struck up a conversation and it turns out, he was canned after 8 years last week for "restructuring reasons" as his company "plans for an employee buyout of the owner".

Merry Christmas.  If you catch yourself using the argument that being an employee is less risky than being self employed...stifle it.

Hottest New Marketing Strategy For the Social Media Era: Kitchen Magnets

In our current world of facebooking your twitterlog and burning your flickrmeme, I find it very refreshing that the only marketing effort a few local businesses I deal with undertake....is delivering me a new kitchen magnet each year. 

I buy firewood from "The Woodman" (no extra charge for the attached little calendar) and I call the same garage door fixer guys if I have issues.

Don't underestimate the power of simplicity, a handshake, and magnetism.

Now go Fark a Widget.

Is the Wii Shortage Manufactured?

I had some great conversations today with many of the Des Moines bloganostra about the Wii, my ordeal in obtaining one, and how exciting it is to play.  Most that I chatted with believe the shortage to be by design, to prop up the mystique of the brand, etc.

Here's some insight from the Wall Street Journal on this topic.  It may have to do with cultural and business values of "not over extending" and "focusing on cash flow and keeping inventories down".  How odd to hear talk of intentional restraint in business.  What would U.S. shareholders say about such blasphemy?

Shining example of customer service and branding: Jared, The Galleria of Jewelry

My wife has been to a few jewelry stores looking for a new "screw on earring back thingy" that keeps the diamond stud deals securely in place.  (Earrings were purchased at Costco's little jewelry section).  Each store simply said, "No sorry, you need to go back to the place where you got them and get a new thingy".  I've always found this odd since they sell similar stuff but I digress.

Fruitless for months, we decided to visit Jared at Jordan Creek.  We were immediately greeted by Stephanie who asked us how she could be of service.  Once we told her that we wanted this little problem solved (and effectively that we weren't going to be buying a $5k ring that day), she solicited assistance from Arnold, another associate immediately.   Stephanie then offered us coffee, cappuccino, water, etc.  Shortly thereafter, Arnold returned with new back thingy installed and sent us on our way...free of charge.  Here are my first impressions, often the only ones that will matter.

1. Jared cares and is in it for the long haul with their customers (and potential ones).
2. Jared doesn't have people that shuttle you off to the "they're not buying anything so give them less service land" so prevalent (it seems) today.
3. Jared has a kid play area so they don't mind you bringing your little ones around.
4. Jared's brand promises are absolutely kept and executed upon when you visit the store.

Great job Jared.  In closing, let me tell you that my barometer of service excellence is my wife.  As we left the store, she said, "Well I guess we know where we'll be buying all of our jewelry from now on."  That's the kind of instant loyalty that you want...and you've got it from us.

Blogging can help you OWN a search term: Geographic Arbitrage

When you have passion for something, and blog about it, you just may author a definitive post defining that topic. 

Just recently, GOOGLE search results for "Geographic Arbitrage" have yielded me 1st and 6th place results.  The milestone that makes me most proud, is that I've surpassed the links from FORBES magazine, who's publisher...and author Rich Karlgaard, gave me the term in the first place in his book, Life2.0:  Finding the Where of Your Happiness. This book played a major part in my decision to execute geographic arbitrage in 2005.

In the last month, I've been linked to in various articles by some great writers.  This morning, I noticed traffic coming from this piece by uber author and blogger Anya Kamenetz

Her site and book are called Generation Debt

What's even more amazing to me is that I've been linked right next to author Tim Ferriss (The 4-Hour Work Week) one of my favorite works.  Ferriss is a big advocate of Geographic Arbitrage...or Taking a position of monetary power like cashing in a coastal house and moving to a more affordable area, working remotely with your larger coastal income while living somewhere inexpensive, or using currency differences to live like a king in foreign lands, etc.

Takeaway
Let this be an example to all business bloggers out there just getting started.  Are you ready to offer the world the defining post or two on a topic that you're passionate about?  Writing with regularity and passion may grant you "Pole Position"...and along with it, many more unique visitors, potential new customers, and implied authority that propel your business to its next level.

Beyond funny video, "Here Comes Another Bubble"

OK.  Please turn up the speakers and enjoy.  I must admit this is the funniest thing I've seen in a while.  Set to the music of Billy Joel's "We didn't start the fire"...we're treated to a fantastic diversion into the web 2.0 tech bubble mania by the folks at Richter Scales.  You'll love this if you've been in the tech sector through bubble number one.

A Self Employed Look At GOOG apps vs. MSFT Office

I use Google's gmail and calendar exclusively, their everywhere availability and mobile friendliness gives me no desire to look elsewhere...other than down at my blackberry pearl.  My family/associates can view and add events to my calendar and generally, the thing just works.  Gmail is an interesting adaptation of email but it's quite capable and allows consolidation of my nearly 10 domain specific email addresses from various businesses/presences.

Outlook on the other hand has become a unwieldy behemoth trying to snatch key pieces of other  greattools/technologies to maintain its status the place where corporate cubical dwellers rot.  Sure most programs have a plugin for it or integrate with it somehow (click here to add this to your outlook calendar)...but in its effort to remain on top, it has bloated up with crap and sharing calendars was never quite easy enough.

However, I've tried to use google docs/presentation and I'm sorry to say it's good enough for cranking out basic text in a hassle free environment...but I find myself moving back to Word and PPT (I have office 2007) for their great new features, templates, tools, etc. An amateur like me that's trying to crank out professional looking stuff with compressed time lines needs a single source tool to get the job done.  MSFT has accomplished this with Word and PowerPoint in the 2007 suite.

I know that GOOG is not trying to be MSFT with its tools...but are they only trying to capture the XX% that only use bold and italics in their documents?  I along with myriad solo-preneurs cannot afford to be so bland and lifeless with content.  Good work MSFT.

Next post in this series:  "Hasta La Vista.  Hola Mac"

Absolutely Wii-Licious

I decided about a month ago that the Wii was the gift that would give our family some fun time together without the TV (so to speak).  I can't believe how brilliantly the Wii has captured such a wide demographic swath.  I would NEVER consider the XBOX or Playstation because honestly, I'm just not a gamer and I don't want to waste time "getting to level 28 and achieving GodMode" or whatever you call it these days.

However, my belief about the Wii is that my entire family including 2 sub-5 year olds will be able to go bowling together , play golf together, and generally just have fun together on less complicated "short term" games.  I find this so fascinating...that the other game boxes probably have simple games, etc...yet I have no intent on getting them whatsoever.

The Nintendo folks have done a marvelous job positioning this game box and the complete sell out all over the globe is a testament to that.  It seems that I and the rest of the world want one this XMAS.  I'm on the hunt and will probably end up lining up outside a store somewhere in the next few weeks. 

Some local outlets got inventory today but it did require staking out a spot to get one.  Oh well, I'll stay on the hunt and stay in awe of the Wii-Licious job of branding/marketing/positioning that Nintendo has done.

Bravo!

Missed Branding and Business Growth Opportunities: Health Clubs

I just sent a suggestion into my preferred Athletic Club here in Des Moines, Aspen Athletic Club, because they have a link soliciting such things on their site.  I began thinking a bit more about the subject and developed a list of things health clubs might want to consider.  Ironically, I found a piece this AM called Bonding at the Bench Press that discusses the social aspects of working out that are being embraced by some clubs.

1. Cultivate a "Dream Team" of client liaisons.  I've watched no less than 50 "potential sales" (prospects being walked through the gym) go right on by while the sales person simply points out features.  "We have a pool, and floaty things, and ........." I've actually wanted to speak up and say, "Hi there sir, I'm really enjoying my triathlon training here and Chad is the best, Chad meet _________".  But I don't.  They just don't encourage that kind of interaction.  I think the sales person would whisk the client away.  Build a team of people slowly that are social dynamos and willing to reach out.  Provide them some form of incentive.  I know for sure that this behavior would affect my decision about where to plunk down my mon