Innovation and Entrepreneurship
by Paul Mobley, MBA
From the category archives:
I’m torn right now between two different strategies. One says that you should bunker down and try to simply wait out the storm. The problem is that by building the walls and trying not to get hurt you might just miss out on the opportunities that will save you. Another strategy says now is the [...]
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Today we welcomed a new President. He won with a message of hope and change. Hope is always important but even more so when there is a lot of fear or discontent. Change is based on the view that the status quo is broken and that something drastically different is required to get things accomplished. [...]
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urbanspoon is an entrepreneurial success story that is worth talking about instead of all this fear mongering stuff (that I’m guilty of too). It’s a company that is lead by three guys Ethan, Adam, and Patrick. From what I can tell back in November 2006 they landed on the concept of collecting information about local [...]
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More than ever right now results matter. The people who keep their jobs or stay in business are ones that get results. If you’ve got results then you have less fear right now. The opposite of results is a story. Don’t get me wrong… I love a great story. They’re necessary to connect with a [...]
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Nicky Senyard wrote a wonderful article for Website Magazine. She said, “In a community, relationships come before sales. Business, in other words, is not the first order of business. Leveraging communities is a great way to boost sales, but you actually have to become a respected and trusted member before you can tap into that [...]
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One of the most common things people do is focus on themselves then try to maximize their income by various marketing tactics. These could be the old status quo way of doing things in your industry or the latest “Web 2.0″ marketing tricks. Now is the right time to rethink your business model. Where is [...]
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There is a lot of fear and confusion right now. This is often made worse by the media. What is the cure for this sickness? CONNECT WITH REAL PEOPLE. A dear friend of mine, Kurt Daradics, is one of the social catalysts who has been critical to my success in business. He, along with some [...]
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Do you know how much actual income is derived from your business? In real estate many investors have never sat down to see how much their property actually makes for them. To see how strong the business is you should first ignore financing, income taxes, and depreciation and find out the net operating income after [...]
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My wife and I were flying to Anchorage, Alaska as I wrote this post. She requested that we upgrade our tickets from coach to first class. I agreed, not because we feel entitled but because she is pregnant and a 1:12 bathroom to passenger ratio in the first class cabin is a “necessity”. Honestly, I [...]
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Doesn’t this so eloquently capture how we are all feeling about the current state of the financial markets? It would be even better if the Economist actually had published this cover. With these types of spoofs floating around the internet it’s clear that the market(s) have changed!! You’ll most likely have to make changes to [...]
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Some say that greed caused the markets to over price assets. Greed causes you to take on too much risk and ignore rational strategy and conservative business models. Fear is actually stronger than both rational thought and greed. Fear leads to undervaluation and emotional transactions. How will the current market madness imapact your business? Who [...]
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We’re in an amazing time right now. Some have said that this is once in a lifetime economic event. It’s scary when Fortune 500 companies and governments (like the State of CA) are struggling to get financing and having major consequences as a result. What does that mean for small business owners who even in [...]
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There is a lot of talk these days about the economy being in a “down-turn”. However, this may or maynot impact you directly. The reality is that the macroeconomic trends might not match with your microeconomic situation. One example that is in the news right now is the company that makes Sarah Palin’s glasses. They’ve [...]
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Let’s start with a really good idea. One that I hope is successful financially although there are some major risks. Pandora started as an idea called the music genome project and has become an internet radio service. [We] set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling [...]
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In this difficult economic time you’ve got to be on the look for ways to be more profitable. In a recent conversation with a co-owner of Preferred Pack I learned about one of their innovative products that has been proven to increase productivity 18%. The best part is that it’s actually inexpensive. For a modest [...]
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Social networking sites have become a public way of displaying your sphere of influence. Networking and word of mouth have been around since commerce began. The biggest mistake that small business owners often make is to only network “up”. This means that you’re trying to connect with other people in your industry that are more [...]
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I was talking with a sports agent recently and was reminded how may micro-businesses there are out there. They’re built around the success and talents of one or a few individuals. These include athletes, musicians, artists, celebrities, etc. These people need the same things that are required for small business success: they need good advisers [...]
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Living in California it is easy to think that business (and life) moves as fast in other parts of the country. It can be even more drastic in other countries. I realized that the rules of the game are different as I spent weeks in Hawaii and Alaska this summer. In both places I had [...]
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They say that projects can be done Fast, Cheap, and/or with Good Quality, you can have any of these two, but not all three. Unless the market requires that you move fast, there is something to be said for slow and good. If you give yourself more time to think about a problem it’s not [...]
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Last week I had an urgent need to create a new entity. Normally it would take a few days or weeks to get anything accomplished. But with a good team and an urgent deadline we were able to get it done within three hours. To make things happen you have to have a relationship established [...]
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For an innovation to be successful it needs the support of all areas of the company. This often requires a leader to pull together resources and champion the project (including allowing other people to take credit). Innovation is a team sport. Also, the act of collaboration not only makes the innovation more likely to succeed [...]
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