Flint for Dreams » business

What makes a start-up worth Investment Capital?

Paul — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 23:03:09 +0000

Whether you are an investor, entrepreneur, or both, you probably want to know what makes a start-up worth investing in. What are the key ingredients that will yield a high return on capital while making the world a better place than it was before?

According to venture capital investor Tim Draper it is:

Being a developer, or CEO, with a great team. The ability of an entrepreneur to convince other great people to work with him/her is a sign they are on to something.
Being very innovative. Are you drastically changing in things? And can you show other people are adopting it?
Going with the trend of a market that is already growing rapidly. It doesn't matter how great your team is, or how innovative your new slide rule is. Slide rules are out, and calculators/computers now dominate. If you want capital, or you want to invest, go with the trend.
Be making a lot of money, and be sure that money is well more than your current operating costs.
Entrepreneurs have to be ready to attract a team of people that can do the job better than they can. Invest in a company and people who know how to delegate, and are willing to find people or automate tasks that can do the job in a more productive way.

My own bonus point:

Be sure you even need capital. When I first started as an entrepreneur I thought a lot about funding. Formal funding gives your idea credibility and gives you social status. A lot of people told me directly or indirectly to go for funding, but this was mostly a misconception. Often you can just bootstrap, and more or less have to till you get revenue. You can build some really great businesses, particularly internet businesses, that can scale well without much capital. Venture Capitalist, Noubar Afeyan, stated that he never funds companies with too much cash, as lean companies learn how to be resourceful and successful, without much cash.

If you are an entrepreneur seeking capital, or just curious about venture capital, you can check out Draper, Fisher, Jurvetson.

Richard St. John's 8 Secrets of Success

Paul — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 00:34:11 +0000

Well, these really aren't secret, but they are good traits to keep in mind as you endeavor in any project or venture. Enjoy this TED talk, it is only 3:33 long anyway...

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefèvre

Paul — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 00:23:52 +0000

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefèvre is one of the most cited and recommended books in stock/commodities trading, and I also give my vote and commendation to the book, not just for trading and speculation, but for any business in general and possibly even personal growth.

The book is written in an autobiographical style, though it is not an autobiography. It not only gives good lessons on how to trade successfully, but also points to weaknesses in character that everyone has which can cause them to make rash decisions in their life. It also suggests that a person needs to trust themselves and put themselves in a conducive situation to succeed. No matter what avenue they take in life.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for general guidance in business or life in general. This book gives a good insight into the life of a successful business man and all the stepping stones on the way.

Devdutt Pattanaik: East vs. West -- the myths that mystify

Paul — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 02:26:18 +0000

This is a great talk about business culture, and how business does not have to be the linear: vision, mission statement, plan, and action.

100 Great Businesses and the Minds Behind Them by Emily Ross and Angus Holland

Paul — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:49:00 +0000

This is one of those magazine type books, that is in fact composed of interesting factoids and stories summarized from a sprinkling of magazine articles.

The book is somewhat inspirational, a tour of mini-biographies, and food for cocktail party talk.

The E Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber

Paul — Fri, 29 May 2009 20:17:00 +0000

This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It is good for people looking to start a business but probably more appropriate for people that have been in business for a year or two and now need some help. I believe this book is the answer to almost every problem.

In the big picture, the book is a solution to life problems. As Gerber quotes from Rollo May's Man's Search for Himself:

Freedom does not come automatically; it is achieved. And it is not gained in a single bound; it must be achieved each day...freedom is not just the matter of saying "Yes" or "No" to a specific decision: it is the power to mold and create ourselves. Freedom is the capacity, to use Nietzsche's phrase, "to become what we truly are".

And so it is that properly setting up a business is a path for freedom, not just from your business but from all aspects of your life, being in control of them, and adding value to them.

It requires using planning, testing methods, and creating innovations. Having fun in the world, and putting yourself to the challenge. Here are a few quotes I like from the book:

The entrepreneurial personality turns the most trivial condition into an exceptional opportunity. The Entrepreneur is the visionary in us. The dreamer. The energy behind every human activity. The imagination that sparks the fire of the future. The catalyst for change. The Entrepreneur lives in the future, never in the past, rarely in the present. He's happiest when left free to construct images of "what-if" and "if-when".

The managerial personality is pragmatic. Without The Manager there would be no planning, no order, no predictability...If the Entrepreneur lives in the future, The Manager lives in the past.

The Technician is the doer. "If you want it done right, do it yourself" is The Technician's credo. The Technician loves to tinker. Things are to be taken apart and put back together again. Things aren't supposed to be dreamed about, they're supposed to be done. If The Entrepreneur lives in the future and The Manager lives in the past, The Technician lives in the present. He loves the feel of things and the fact that things can get done. As long as The Technician is working, he is happy, but only on one thing at a time. He knows that two things can't get done simultaneously; only a fool would try. So he works steadily and is happiest when he is in control of the work flow.

What is value? How do we understand it? I would suggest that value is what people perceive it to be, and nothing more.

What is he really buying when he buys from you? The truth is, nobody's interested in the commodity. People buy feelings. And as the world becomes more varied, the feelings we want become more urgent, less rational, more unconscious. How your business anticipates those feelings and satisfies them is your product.

But when you live by your own rules, when you 'walk your talk,' when you live as you think, then your business will become a thing to behold.

So what could your Prototype do that would not only provide consistent value to your customers, employees, suppliers, and lenders but would provide it beyond their wildest expectations? That is the question every Entrepreneur must ask. Because it is the raison d'etre of his business!

...people have the unerring ability to forget everything they start and to be distracted by trivia.

In a television commercial, we’re told, the sale is made or lost in the first three or four seconds. In a print ad, tests have shown, 75 percent of the buying decisions are made at the headline alone. In a sales presentation, data have shown us, the sale is made or lost in the first three minutes.

Reality only exists in someone’s perceptions, attitudes, beliefs, conclusions – whatever you wish to call those positions of the mind from which all expectations arise – and nowhere else. So the famous dictum that says, “Find a need and fill it,” is inaccurate. It should say, “Find a perceived need and fill it.

Inquiry, the active solicitation of specific information, and controlled experimentation replaced the guessing, blind hope, and feverish busy work that preceded them. Innovation, Quantification, and Orchestration became the driving forces behind their efforts.

“This marketing thing isn’t nearly as complicated as I might have made it seem,” I continued. “But it’s important that you take it seriously. Because it is most often is regarded by small business owners as merely ‘good common sense.’ And I have seen more often than not that the only definition of ‘good common sense’ is ‘my opinion.’ That most small business owners, suffering as they do from what I’ve come to call ‘willful disinformation,’ simply decide what they want to do without any information at all, without any interest in what’s true, and then simply do it. Stationery designed by the local quick –printer with a logo thrown in. Colors picked by their wives. Signs designed by the local sign guy whose experience is in painting signs, not in determining what colors and shapes are psychographically correct.”

Documentation provides your people with the structure they need and with a written account of how to "get the job done" in the most efficient and effective way. It communicates to the new employees, as well as to the old, that there is a logic to the world in which they have chosen to work, that there is a technology by which results are produced. Documentation is an affirmation of order.
Again from Toffler: "...for many people, a job is crucial psychologically, over and above the paycheck. By making clear demands on their time and energy, it provides an element of structure around which the rest of their lives can be organized." *Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave, P.389 (pg 104 in E-Myth)

“Most people today are not getting what they want. Not from their jobs, not from their families, not from their religion, not from their government, and most important, not from themselves.
Something is missing in most of our lives. Part of what’s missing is purpose. Values. Worth-while standards against which our lives can be measured. Part of what’s missing is a Game Worth Playing.
What’s also missing is a sense of relationship.
People suffer in isolation from one another.
In a world without purpose, without meaningful values, what have we to share but our emptiness, the needy fragments of our superficial selves?
As a result, most of us scramble about hungrily seeking distraction, in music, in television, in people, in drugs.
And most of all we seek things.
Things to wear and things to do.
Things to fill the emptiness.
Things to shore up our eroding sense of self.
Things to which we can attach meaning, significance, life.
We’ve fast become a world of things. And most people are being buried in the profusion.
What most people need, then, is a place of community that has purpose, order, meaning.
A place in which being human is a prerequisite, but acting human is essential.
A place where the generally disorganized thinking that pervades our culture becomes organized and clearly focused on a specific worthwhile result.
A place where discipline and will become prized for what they are: the backbone of enterprise and action, of being what you are intentionally instead of accidentally.
A place that replaces the home most of us have lost.
That’s what a business can do; it can create a Game Worth Playing.”

The curtain is your Comfort Zone. And your Comfort Zone has been the false mask you put on when you were a little girl, because it was safe when your spirit was not. Your Comfort Zone has been the tight little cozy planet on which you have lived, knowing all the places to hide because it's so small. Your Comfort Zone has seized you before, Sarah, and it can seize you again, when you're least prepared for it, because it knows what it means to you. Because it knows how much you want to be comfortable. Because it know what price you are willing to pay for the comfort of being in control. The ultimate price, your life...if this new path, if living with your spirit means anything to you at all, if you truly care about it, then guard it with your life. Because Comfort overtakes us all when we're least prepared for it. Comfort makes cowards of us all.

This book is a MUST READ if you are own a small business or are thinking of starting one.

Buy from Amazon.com

The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes

Paul — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 02:20:00 +0000

I am not sure what to say about the Ultimate sales machine. I picked up the book to try get a look into the mind of a salesman. Someone who is trained to convince people to make decisions, and in effect, convince them as to what is best for them.

Chet’s main point is that whatever you do, use pigheaded discipline and determination to stick to it. This explains a lot about salesman, they are stubborn and persistent. Annoyingly so, distrustingly so.

Chet goes on to describe ways to sell yourself into mainstream media, create information and portray yourself as an expert. He even goes so far as to suggest making tapes that can almost brainwash you, recording things to yourself like “I love cold calling in the morning” with relaxing music in the background. Scary.

As a scientist, if I am a scientist, I believe in doubt and keeping an open mind, you always want to ask questions, you always want to be open to being wrong, to some other new opportunity. This is good for a soul I believe.

Sales is the opposite. In sales you focus on a goal, you consider all the ways someone can say no, and ways to counter them.

I don’t know whether or not to recommend this book. The parts about getting into the media, planning, and eliciting feedback from customers was useful, the rest was annoying, and honestly, I skimmed quite a bit of this book.

Take it for what it is, and I openly say, I don’t mind if I don’t make this sale.

Buy from Amazon.com

The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss

Paul — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 02:54:00 +0000

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss.

The four hour work week is a guide to a self-driven life. The idea of taking responsibility for and controlling your own life seems simple till you actually do it. If you had 3 million in the bank, what would you actually do? What cause would you pursue? How would you fill your days? How long before lounging around gets old?

It is a new topic, and Tim tackles it in a new style by giving a lot of references and how to. In today's information age I think it is good to see a book that points to websites and other resources that lets you explore the ideas and concepts of the book. As you apply them, you adapt and change them.

In short the key of the book says: Be self-driven and do what matters. Stop postponing your dreams and live them. I have done some of this myself and can say that the power of being in control is overwhelming and just an awesome feeling. Tim describes it as going from the passenger seat to the driver seat. Every human being has great potential to not just accomplish their dreams, but more than their dreams and this is a book that can help you get there.

Check out his website

Buy From Amazon

The Shepherd

Paul — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:35:00 +0000

Yesterday I drove to Charlotte to attend the Flavors of Carolina conference. On the way I listened to Michael Crichton's book, State of Fear, and passed cable service trucks, pick-ups, and semi-trailers which decorate the daytime U.S. highway.

The conference was being held in the Shriner Conference Center, a large one-story building located in a shopping center and festooned with two white globes on the top. Bland tile covered the floor before running into dull carpet in a cave like room made dark coming in from the sun.

People were busy setting up displays for their various food businesses. The atmosphere was the strange blend of anticipation and gravity that results from being in a large room with lots of people.

I helped my Mom set up her booth displaying business items for her bakery business Mediterranean Treats. The booth next to us belonged to Twiddle Dee Farm, and James.

James was a tall black man, young in his look and happy in his nature. After he got out of the army, he went to raising sheep.
"Was the army a good experience?" I asked.
James paused "Good and Bad." He said, then let out a laugh.
"Why sheep?"
"Well, I just couldn't go back to raising cattle, and I was looking for something new. I am a retired veteran really, but I knew I needed to do something, I would go crazy just sitting around."

I knew what James meant, and the more I talked to him, the more I fell in love with his story. How he tends and herds sheep. How he spends time out in a field. It drew me in. The retired soldier gone from the world of conflict to quietly tend his flock and become a shepherd.