In the Office Debate, the Home Office Wins
By Jeff Haden | March 14, 2011
If you have the choice, should you work from a home office or an outside office?
The always insightful Michael Hess recently wrote a great article, 6 Ways to Make Your Small Business Look Bigger, but I respectfully disagree with his take on a home office: “Unless your business is designed to be run from home,” he says, “get yourself an office of some kind as soon as you can justify and afford it.”
I think that approach is wrong. Of course if you meet with a number of clients a home office may not work, for business and family reasons, but in a number of industries technology makes meeting clients in your office less necessary.
Plus, the words “home office” don’t carry the same negative connotation they once did.
Let’s break down the home office debate into personal and business considerations:
The Business Case
A home office is much cheaper. For start-up or established business, paying rent, utilities, and other costs for an outside office create a significant monthly revenue threshold. Plus, while tax guidelines are fairly strict, you can deduct some portion of expenses you would have paid personally, prorating utilities, some maintenance, and even depreciating the portion of your home you use for a home office. (Keep in mind taking depreciation can make accounting and tax considerations a little more complicated when you sell your home, so look before you take the depreciation leap.)
Increased (and convenient) availability. I have clients around the world, so I often adjust my schedule to their time zones. With a home office I don’t mind phone calls during non-office hours since walking down two flights of stairs beats driving to an external office every time.
Show never equals go. A fancy space at a prestigious address may initially impress potential clients, but eventually you are judged on the quality of your products or services. If you do great work no one cares where your office is located.
Your home office can be a home-court advantage. An outside office is to a home office what an apartment is to owning a home. If you rent or lease you’re limited in the changes you can make to the space, and when your lease is up those improvements are often lost. With a home office you call the shots and the money you save on rent can go to improvements. My home office is about 1,300 square feet, has a great view of the mountains, and the office dog can hang out with me. I hate to think how much a similar commercial space would cost.
A home office is like an entrepreneurial litmus test. Many people feel they will lack self discipline and focus if they work from home. Sure, you may feel you need the motivation (and validation) that comes from having an outside office… but when your paycheck is based solely on your output motivation shouldn’t be a problem. If it is, owning your own business probably doesn’t make sense.
The Personal Case
Adds value to your home. Turning your dining room into a home office could negatively impact the value of your home, but if you re-purpose unused space, or better yet add on, you benefit personally. Plus home offices are very popular with home buyers. A local real estate agent told me at least 2/3 of her prospective home buyers list a home office as a “must have,” even if only for personal use.
It’s greener. No commute = fewer emissions.
A home office creates more family time. One person left this comment on Michael’s article: “I just didn’t have the heart to turn away my 3-year-old daughter who was excited to have daddy at home all the time.” I understand the feeling, but think about it: Home office or external office, you’re not available. The only difference is you don’t have to face the fact your daughter misses you when you work from an external office; either way, she misses you. On the other hand, time spent commuting is family time lost. If your one-way commute is twenty minutes, that’s at least 160 potential family hours gone — forever.
Is a home office appropriate for every business? Of course not. But, if you’re creative and disciplined, I think the positives far outweigh the negatives. What do you think?
Photo courtesy flickr user ReneS, CC 2.0
MY THOUGHTS
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Showing posts with label home office. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home office. Show all posts
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
PATHS TO ENTREPRENEURIAL BLISS
Three Paths to Entrepreneurial Bliss
By Donna Fenn | May 3, 2010
What makes for a blissfully happy business owner? Soaring revenues, hefty profits, and fabulous cash flow? Guess again. Srikumar Rao, author of Happiness atWork: Be Resilient, Motivated, and Successful - No Matter What (McGraw-Hill, 2010), has an entirely different perspective on success and happiness. He is probably best know for his course “Creativity and Personal Mastery“, which he has taught at Columbia Business School, and several other prestigious universities. The course is so popular and transformative that it even has its own alumni association. I recently spoke with Rao (who is one part management guru, one part philosopher, and one part swami) and asked him how his ideas might apply to entrepreneurs. Courtesy of Rao, here’s your road map to entrepreneurial bliss:
Invest in the success of your team. “No entrepreneur is ever going to succeed individually,” says Rao. “He or she has to work through a team - the customers, vendors, and other people who support what they’re doing.” But entrepreneurs have a habit of viewing people as “mechanisms” to help them achieve their goals and, says Rao, “in a subtle way it demeans the relationship.” Instead, he suggests “entrepreneurs should think ‘is there anything I can do to help that person do the best he or she is capable of doing as a human being?’ If they can stat thinking along those lines, it makes them tremendously more efficient as managers. If you want success, help everyone reach their highest potential, and your own success will be a by-product and come effortlessly.”
Emphasize process, not outcome. “Entrepreneurs all think in terms of the “if-then” model,” Rao notes. The brass ring might be a revenue goal, landing a big customer, or having enough cash to move into new offices. The trouble with focusing on outcomes, says Rao, is that they are totally beyond your control. “The point is that even if you do achieve your goals, wonderful things may or may not happen,” he says. And those wonderful things will always be replaced by something else you think you need - like an even bigger office and more customers. “But you’re not going to enjoy the journey,” cautions Rao, and that’s the one thing you can control. His advice: “Focus on outcomes only to the extent that it gives you direction. Then forget about outcomes and focus on the process.”
Be mission-focused, not me-focused. Entrepreneurs who live in a “me-focused” universe fall into the trap of evaluating everything in terms of its immediate impact on them, says Rao. If a major customer has a problem and cancels an order, or a key employee suddenly quits, it helps enormously to remind yourself of your company’s larger mission. “You need to start thinking in terms of the value that you are delivering to the world, and that has to be more important than what you want from an ego standpoint,” says Rao. “If you define what you do in functional terms, you are either burnt out or you will be burnt out soon,” he warns. And everyone, from garbage collectors to stockbrokers, can articulate a way in which they somehow make the world better. Focus on that larger mission, says Rao, and in tough times “forces that you can’t image come to your rescue. And your employees become much more engaged.”
Do Srikumar Rao’s concepts strike a chord with you? Tell us about your own path to entrepreneurial bliss.
MY THOUGHTS
You don't need to have your own business to be thinking along these lines. Successful managers/leaders are those who have the entrepreneurial spirit. These tips will work for you even if you're working for someone else.
BTW, if you're wondering what a SWAMI is, click this link - http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/swami
By Donna Fenn | May 3, 2010
What makes for a blissfully happy business owner? Soaring revenues, hefty profits, and fabulous cash flow? Guess again. Srikumar Rao, author of Happiness atWork: Be Resilient, Motivated, and Successful - No Matter What (McGraw-Hill, 2010), has an entirely different perspective on success and happiness. He is probably best know for his course “Creativity and Personal Mastery“, which he has taught at Columbia Business School, and several other prestigious universities. The course is so popular and transformative that it even has its own alumni association. I recently spoke with Rao (who is one part management guru, one part philosopher, and one part swami) and asked him how his ideas might apply to entrepreneurs. Courtesy of Rao, here’s your road map to entrepreneurial bliss:
Invest in the success of your team. “No entrepreneur is ever going to succeed individually,” says Rao. “He or she has to work through a team - the customers, vendors, and other people who support what they’re doing.” But entrepreneurs have a habit of viewing people as “mechanisms” to help them achieve their goals and, says Rao, “in a subtle way it demeans the relationship.” Instead, he suggests “entrepreneurs should think ‘is there anything I can do to help that person do the best he or she is capable of doing as a human being?’ If they can stat thinking along those lines, it makes them tremendously more efficient as managers. If you want success, help everyone reach their highest potential, and your own success will be a by-product and come effortlessly.”
Emphasize process, not outcome. “Entrepreneurs all think in terms of the “if-then” model,” Rao notes. The brass ring might be a revenue goal, landing a big customer, or having enough cash to move into new offices. The trouble with focusing on outcomes, says Rao, is that they are totally beyond your control. “The point is that even if you do achieve your goals, wonderful things may or may not happen,” he says. And those wonderful things will always be replaced by something else you think you need - like an even bigger office and more customers. “But you’re not going to enjoy the journey,” cautions Rao, and that’s the one thing you can control. His advice: “Focus on outcomes only to the extent that it gives you direction. Then forget about outcomes and focus on the process.”
Be mission-focused, not me-focused. Entrepreneurs who live in a “me-focused” universe fall into the trap of evaluating everything in terms of its immediate impact on them, says Rao. If a major customer has a problem and cancels an order, or a key employee suddenly quits, it helps enormously to remind yourself of your company’s larger mission. “You need to start thinking in terms of the value that you are delivering to the world, and that has to be more important than what you want from an ego standpoint,” says Rao. “If you define what you do in functional terms, you are either burnt out or you will be burnt out soon,” he warns. And everyone, from garbage collectors to stockbrokers, can articulate a way in which they somehow make the world better. Focus on that larger mission, says Rao, and in tough times “forces that you can’t image come to your rescue. And your employees become much more engaged.”
Do Srikumar Rao’s concepts strike a chord with you? Tell us about your own path to entrepreneurial bliss.
MY THOUGHTS
You don't need to have your own business to be thinking along these lines. Successful managers/leaders are those who have the entrepreneurial spirit. These tips will work for you even if you're working for someone else.
BTW, if you're wondering what a SWAMI is, click this link - http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/swami
Friday, April 8, 2011
BE PRODUCTIVE AT HOME
Home Office: 9 Smart Ways to Be More Productive
By Amy Levin-Epstein | Mar 21, 2011
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/career-advice/blog/on-job/home-office-9-smart-ways-to-be-more-productive/395/?tag=content;col1
Whether you’re self-employed or telecommuting, an efficient home office is critical. At the very least, designate a room (or at least a specific section of a quiet room) in your home for work. Because if you’re working in your bedroom, you’ll be thinking about the next day’s tasks while you’re trying to sleep — basically, an insomniac’s nightmare. And if you’re working in the kitchen, you’ll be reviewing the contents of the refrigerator rather than what’s on today’s agenda.
For my own home office, I’ve invested in a good laptop (backed up with Backblaze), a solid all-in-one printer and a landline, so I never suffer with static and I can record interviews. Of course, your own priorities might be different.
I asked some self-employed folks for their finest tips, and these were nine of the best. Do you have any to add?
1. Take Advantage of Technology
“I have found that the use of cloud computing resources for my home office and business is helpful. The tools [I use most] are: Evernote for keeping track of information, Manymoon for project management (links with my Google apps), Google apps like Google Documents, Google Calendar, Google Voice, Nudgemail (to keep track of To Do items that need consistent follow up), Free CRM (the most malleable customer relationship management tool on the web) and Mailchimp (for newsletters and email blasts).”
– E. Allen Knight, Ann Arbor, Mich., consultant, small business owner and professor
2. Block Out Distractions
“Buy some heavy blinds or drapes to block out sun, heat, cold and noise. If it’s a nice day outside, you can close the blinds, and you’ll be more likely to stay inside and work! Plus, it’s a great way to block outside noise from neighbors, traffic and gardeners.”
– Melanie Rembrandt, owner of Rembrandt Communications in Redondo Beach, Calif.
3. Get Good Furniture
“The biggest mistake home office workers make is buying particle board furniture from the office supply store. Search out office furniture stores instead. Real office furniture is made for work. [That could mean] a keyboard tray that’s wide enough for a keyboard and a mouse or an office chair meant for supporting you for eight or more hours, not the occasional hour or two on the weekend.”
– Kathryn Weber, freelance writer and publisher of the Red Lotus Letter E-Zine, Austin, Texas
4. Prepare Your Pets
“If you are planning an important phone interview or phone conference and you own a dog like I do, try to make arrangements to have the dog outside or in another room and shut your office door. An unexpected UPS or Fedex delivery can set the dog to barking and interrupt that call.”
– Christel K. Hall of ProWrite Public Relations, Minden, Nev.
5. Protect Your Privacy
“Keeping your business life separate from home life is not just sanity saving (a client won’t walk in on you doing aerobics to Donna Summer), but a safety concern, especially if you work online. Make sure you use a business postal address, and be careful about where you post your personal information.”
– Sarah Clachar, Healthy Marketing Ideas, Rochester, N.H.
6. Invest in a Separate Office Phone
“One of the first thing I realized that I needed to do was get a separate number for my office so that my son, who was then 5 years old, did not pick up the phone when reporters called. I still keep my line in my office as I prefer to receive calls from clients and reporters on my business line rather than my cell phone. That way I can let it go directly to voice mail if it rings after hours or on weekends.”
– Julie Phillippi-Whitney, owner, Phillippi-Whitney Communications, Cincinnati, Ohio
7. Keep Regular Hours
“Set work hours and stick to them. Do nothing but work during that time, as you would with an office job. Then when the time is up, stay away from the computer!”
– Margelit Hoffman, social media manager and strategist, Allentown, Pa.
8. Pack a Snack
“I’ve learned to always keep snacks at my desk, usually healthy ones like nuts, a granola bar, or brown rice cakes (sometimes chocolate sneaks in, too!). It’s easier for me to stay focused on work if I’m not wandering down into the main part of the house when I get hungry.”
– Susanne M. Alexander, president of Marriage Transformation LLC, Cleveland, Ohio
9. Focus on Feng Shui
“Make sure you can see the door from the place where you sit. If this is not possible, strategically position a mirror so that you can see behind you. Because we, as a species, like to feel “in the know” about our environments, this will make you feel safer and therefore more grounded, focused, and empowered.”
– Tess Whitehurst, feng shui consultant and author of Magical Housekeeping, Los Angeles, California
Got more tips for building a better home office? Please sign in below and share your thoughts. And for more career advice, follow @MWOnTheJob on Twitter.
MY THOUGHTS
It's a home office. You are literally at work. You merely changed location. The biggest challenge would be separating your business from your personal life. Especially if you're just starting. Kids (and the rest of the family, for that matter) will naturally assume that you're on vacation since you're at home.
By Amy Levin-Epstein | Mar 21, 2011
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/career-advice/blog/on-job/home-office-9-smart-ways-to-be-more-productive/395/?tag=content;col1
Whether you’re self-employed or telecommuting, an efficient home office is critical. At the very least, designate a room (or at least a specific section of a quiet room) in your home for work. Because if you’re working in your bedroom, you’ll be thinking about the next day’s tasks while you’re trying to sleep — basically, an insomniac’s nightmare. And if you’re working in the kitchen, you’ll be reviewing the contents of the refrigerator rather than what’s on today’s agenda.
For my own home office, I’ve invested in a good laptop (backed up with Backblaze), a solid all-in-one printer and a landline, so I never suffer with static and I can record interviews. Of course, your own priorities might be different.
I asked some self-employed folks for their finest tips, and these were nine of the best. Do you have any to add?
1. Take Advantage of Technology
“I have found that the use of cloud computing resources for my home office and business is helpful. The tools [I use most] are: Evernote for keeping track of information, Manymoon for project management (links with my Google apps), Google apps like Google Documents, Google Calendar, Google Voice, Nudgemail (to keep track of To Do items that need consistent follow up), Free CRM (the most malleable customer relationship management tool on the web) and Mailchimp (for newsletters and email blasts).”
– E. Allen Knight, Ann Arbor, Mich., consultant, small business owner and professor
2. Block Out Distractions
“Buy some heavy blinds or drapes to block out sun, heat, cold and noise. If it’s a nice day outside, you can close the blinds, and you’ll be more likely to stay inside and work! Plus, it’s a great way to block outside noise from neighbors, traffic and gardeners.”
– Melanie Rembrandt, owner of Rembrandt Communications in Redondo Beach, Calif.
3. Get Good Furniture
“The biggest mistake home office workers make is buying particle board furniture from the office supply store. Search out office furniture stores instead. Real office furniture is made for work. [That could mean] a keyboard tray that’s wide enough for a keyboard and a mouse or an office chair meant for supporting you for eight or more hours, not the occasional hour or two on the weekend.”
– Kathryn Weber, freelance writer and publisher of the Red Lotus Letter E-Zine, Austin, Texas
4. Prepare Your Pets
“If you are planning an important phone interview or phone conference and you own a dog like I do, try to make arrangements to have the dog outside or in another room and shut your office door. An unexpected UPS or Fedex delivery can set the dog to barking and interrupt that call.”
– Christel K. Hall of ProWrite Public Relations, Minden, Nev.
5. Protect Your Privacy
“Keeping your business life separate from home life is not just sanity saving (a client won’t walk in on you doing aerobics to Donna Summer), but a safety concern, especially if you work online. Make sure you use a business postal address, and be careful about where you post your personal information.”
– Sarah Clachar, Healthy Marketing Ideas, Rochester, N.H.
6. Invest in a Separate Office Phone
“One of the first thing I realized that I needed to do was get a separate number for my office so that my son, who was then 5 years old, did not pick up the phone when reporters called. I still keep my line in my office as I prefer to receive calls from clients and reporters on my business line rather than my cell phone. That way I can let it go directly to voice mail if it rings after hours or on weekends.”
– Julie Phillippi-Whitney, owner, Phillippi-Whitney Communications, Cincinnati, Ohio
7. Keep Regular Hours
“Set work hours and stick to them. Do nothing but work during that time, as you would with an office job. Then when the time is up, stay away from the computer!”
– Margelit Hoffman, social media manager and strategist, Allentown, Pa.
8. Pack a Snack
“I’ve learned to always keep snacks at my desk, usually healthy ones like nuts, a granola bar, or brown rice cakes (sometimes chocolate sneaks in, too!). It’s easier for me to stay focused on work if I’m not wandering down into the main part of the house when I get hungry.”
– Susanne M. Alexander, president of Marriage Transformation LLC, Cleveland, Ohio
9. Focus on Feng Shui
“Make sure you can see the door from the place where you sit. If this is not possible, strategically position a mirror so that you can see behind you. Because we, as a species, like to feel “in the know” about our environments, this will make you feel safer and therefore more grounded, focused, and empowered.”
– Tess Whitehurst, feng shui consultant and author of Magical Housekeeping, Los Angeles, California
Got more tips for building a better home office? Please sign in below and share your thoughts. And for more career advice, follow @MWOnTheJob on Twitter.
MY THOUGHTS
It's a home office. You are literally at work. You merely changed location. The biggest challenge would be separating your business from your personal life. Especially if you're just starting. Kids (and the rest of the family, for that matter) will naturally assume that you're on vacation since you're at home.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
ADVICE FOR BUDDING ENTREPRENEURS
WHAT OWNERS OF BUSINESS START-UPS SHOULD DO
from the article "Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs"
By Steve Tobak | February 11, 2011
If you’ve got your own company or are planning on starting one, there is one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty. There will be times when you think, what the hell have I done? I can’t do this!
Fortunately, in all likelihood, you’ll be wrong. But who in the world is going to tell you that, with authority, when the time comes? More to the point, who will you believe?
The funny thing about entrepreneurs is that they tend to be skeptics who don’t easily trust others. They generally keep their own counsel. So who are they going to believe, their own inner voice, or their friend or spouse who, by the way, sort of has to say, “Don’t worry; you can do it!”
You see, we overachieving, success-minded people are our own worst enemy. We’re notorious victims of self-doubt, anxiety, and self-limiting behavior that, all-too-often, results in shooting ourselves in the foot … or somewhere even worse.
For enterprising people, the whole idea of finding a mentor, a partner, or like-minded people for support and to bounce ideas around is a complex issue that represents a critical factor in their ultimate success or failure. And since I’ve got a few decades of experience with this sort of thing, here’s some …
Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs
* Get a partner
* Find an angel
* Have a sponsor
* Maintain balance
* Take baby steps
MY THOUGHTS
from what i've seen, entrepreneurs (the serious ones) spend more time working than those who work in an office. if you've just started a business or thinking of starting one,i will post the short explanations to to the 5 points in this article. wait for it.
from the article "Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs"
By Steve Tobak | February 11, 2011
If you’ve got your own company or are planning on starting one, there is one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty. There will be times when you think, what the hell have I done? I can’t do this!
Fortunately, in all likelihood, you’ll be wrong. But who in the world is going to tell you that, with authority, when the time comes? More to the point, who will you believe?
The funny thing about entrepreneurs is that they tend to be skeptics who don’t easily trust others. They generally keep their own counsel. So who are they going to believe, their own inner voice, or their friend or spouse who, by the way, sort of has to say, “Don’t worry; you can do it!”
You see, we overachieving, success-minded people are our own worst enemy. We’re notorious victims of self-doubt, anxiety, and self-limiting behavior that, all-too-often, results in shooting ourselves in the foot … or somewhere even worse.
For enterprising people, the whole idea of finding a mentor, a partner, or like-minded people for support and to bounce ideas around is a complex issue that represents a critical factor in their ultimate success or failure. And since I’ve got a few decades of experience with this sort of thing, here’s some …
Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs
* Get a partner
* Find an angel
* Have a sponsor
* Maintain balance
* Take baby steps
MY THOUGHTS
from what i've seen, entrepreneurs (the serious ones) spend more time working than those who work in an office. if you've just started a business or thinking of starting one,i will post the short explanations to to the 5 points in this article. wait for it.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Ways to Spot a $100 Million Idea
5 Ways to Spot a $100 Million Idea
By BNET Contributor | January 18, 2011
By Robert Jordan
This post has been adapted from interviews I conducted in the book, “How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America.”
One hundred-million-dollar business ideas are the stuff of legends. Usually we read about them in the context of an entrepreneur who decided to follow his passion, or a founder who just happened to be the rocket scientist of his industry. Most of the time, however, this is not where great ideas or great companies come from. I interviewed 45 company founders, each of whom started, grew, and sold a company for $100 million or more, or took their company public for $300 million or more. Here are some of their secrets.
1. Fill a need, not a passion.
It’s a myth that successful businesspeople got into their field because they cared deeply about it. Success doesn’t follow passion, it follows need. Find something that no one’s doing that somebody should do. That’s what Dick Costolo, founder of Feedburner, did when he saw that publishers had content but no way to distribute it online to subscribers and syndicators. (Google eventually acquired Feedburner for $100 million.)
Don’t get me wrong — passion is critical. But what I’ve come to believe, based on the wisdom from these 45 home-run hitters who created $41 billion from scratch, is that need trumps passion and passion trumps skill. In other words, when you’re fired up with a great mission, you’ll become passionate about it. As for skills? Once you’re jazzed up about the great idea, skills can be acquired or hired.
2. Identify your customer’s big problem.
Where there’s a meaningful problem, there’s a reason to solve it. Cardiologist Donald C. Harrison came up with the idea for his medical device company AtriCure after asking himself how he could make a novel contribution that would help his heart patients in a major way.
One thing I learned after interviewing the founders is that, in most cases, their major innovations were not rocket science. They simply saw something, often very practical, that many other people simply missed. Successful company founders tend to be truly curious, and they don’t accept the status quo as being beyond improvement.
3. Get it from your hands, not your head.
How did a guy with a degree in supercomputing end up in the trucking biz? Internet Explorer billionaire Tim Krauskopf got the idea for a transportation technologies startup, FreightZone, after he learned to drive a semi and began to experience what was involved in the trucking industry.
So often, I discovered that $100 million ideas come from doers, tinkerers, and collaborators. Rock Mackie knew Tomotherapy was a viable concept only after three of his graduate students each made separate and important discoveries. Put together, his team’s ideas resulted in a new and remarkably better CT scanning technology for treating disease.
4. Make it sellable and fixable.
Do you think you have a great idea for a new product? It’s not a great idea until you’ve gotten involved in selling it. Jim Dolan of the Dolan Company, a newspaper and media publisher, advises that selling is the quickest way to find out what’s wrong with your product idea so you can fix it quickly and move on. When Dolan bought a 107-year-old legal newspaper publisher, he quickly figured out how to turn those fine-print bankruptcy notices that other newspapers overlooked into a $100 million product. If you can’t sell it, don’t make it.
Every one of the founders I interviewed had stories about the problems they wouldn’t have discovered had they not listened to customers, colleagues, and investors in the process of pitching their product.
5. Get help developing it.
Serial entrepreneur Mahendra Vora, who’s launched more than a dozen highly successful tech companies, warns would-be entrepreneurs not to be narcissistic about their idea. Instead, develop 60 percent of your vision, put it into the hands of trusted customers, and let them help with the remaining 40 percent of the idea.
Every one of the founders failed at one time or another along their entrepreneurial journey — sometimes spectacularly — before they found that $100 million idea. As a result, they learned humility. Many of them would argue that you can’t really build a successful business without it.
Robert Jordan has been launching and growing companies and helping other entrepreneurs do the same for the past 20 years. He is author of How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America (RedFlash Press,), a collection of interviews from 45 leading founders who created $41 billion from scratch. His newest endeavors are RedFlash project implementation team, and interimCEOinterimCFO, a worldwide network of interim, contract, and project executives.
MY THOUGHTS
what? what is that need that will rake in millions? on the other hand, why would i want millions if i cannot be passionate about the means to get it? unless my passion is the millions itself. which is not. isn't it possible to create the need? wouldn't that passion be great enough to come up with an idea that will make people need your passion?
By BNET Contributor | January 18, 2011
By Robert Jordan
This post has been adapted from interviews I conducted in the book, “How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America.”
One hundred-million-dollar business ideas are the stuff of legends. Usually we read about them in the context of an entrepreneur who decided to follow his passion, or a founder who just happened to be the rocket scientist of his industry. Most of the time, however, this is not where great ideas or great companies come from. I interviewed 45 company founders, each of whom started, grew, and sold a company for $100 million or more, or took their company public for $300 million or more. Here are some of their secrets.
1. Fill a need, not a passion.
It’s a myth that successful businesspeople got into their field because they cared deeply about it. Success doesn’t follow passion, it follows need. Find something that no one’s doing that somebody should do. That’s what Dick Costolo, founder of Feedburner, did when he saw that publishers had content but no way to distribute it online to subscribers and syndicators. (Google eventually acquired Feedburner for $100 million.)
Don’t get me wrong — passion is critical. But what I’ve come to believe, based on the wisdom from these 45 home-run hitters who created $41 billion from scratch, is that need trumps passion and passion trumps skill. In other words, when you’re fired up with a great mission, you’ll become passionate about it. As for skills? Once you’re jazzed up about the great idea, skills can be acquired or hired.
2. Identify your customer’s big problem.
Where there’s a meaningful problem, there’s a reason to solve it. Cardiologist Donald C. Harrison came up with the idea for his medical device company AtriCure after asking himself how he could make a novel contribution that would help his heart patients in a major way.
One thing I learned after interviewing the founders is that, in most cases, their major innovations were not rocket science. They simply saw something, often very practical, that many other people simply missed. Successful company founders tend to be truly curious, and they don’t accept the status quo as being beyond improvement.
3. Get it from your hands, not your head.
How did a guy with a degree in supercomputing end up in the trucking biz? Internet Explorer billionaire Tim Krauskopf got the idea for a transportation technologies startup, FreightZone, after he learned to drive a semi and began to experience what was involved in the trucking industry.
So often, I discovered that $100 million ideas come from doers, tinkerers, and collaborators. Rock Mackie knew Tomotherapy was a viable concept only after three of his graduate students each made separate and important discoveries. Put together, his team’s ideas resulted in a new and remarkably better CT scanning technology for treating disease.
4. Make it sellable and fixable.
Do you think you have a great idea for a new product? It’s not a great idea until you’ve gotten involved in selling it. Jim Dolan of the Dolan Company, a newspaper and media publisher, advises that selling is the quickest way to find out what’s wrong with your product idea so you can fix it quickly and move on. When Dolan bought a 107-year-old legal newspaper publisher, he quickly figured out how to turn those fine-print bankruptcy notices that other newspapers overlooked into a $100 million product. If you can’t sell it, don’t make it.
Every one of the founders I interviewed had stories about the problems they wouldn’t have discovered had they not listened to customers, colleagues, and investors in the process of pitching their product.
5. Get help developing it.
Serial entrepreneur Mahendra Vora, who’s launched more than a dozen highly successful tech companies, warns would-be entrepreneurs not to be narcissistic about their idea. Instead, develop 60 percent of your vision, put it into the hands of trusted customers, and let them help with the remaining 40 percent of the idea.
Every one of the founders failed at one time or another along their entrepreneurial journey — sometimes spectacularly — before they found that $100 million idea. As a result, they learned humility. Many of them would argue that you can’t really build a successful business without it.
Robert Jordan has been launching and growing companies and helping other entrepreneurs do the same for the past 20 years. He is author of How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America (RedFlash Press,), a collection of interviews from 45 leading founders who created $41 billion from scratch. His newest endeavors are RedFlash project implementation team, and interimCEOinterimCFO, a worldwide network of interim, contract, and project executives.
MY THOUGHTS
what? what is that need that will rake in millions? on the other hand, why would i want millions if i cannot be passionate about the means to get it? unless my passion is the millions itself. which is not. isn't it possible to create the need? wouldn't that passion be great enough to come up with an idea that will make people need your passion?
Friday, October 29, 2010
Make a Home Office Feel Like a Real Office with Peerdrum
Make a Home Office Feel Like a Real Office with Peerdrum
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 10.22.10
Science & Technology (electronics)
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/10/make-a-home-office-feel-like-real-office.php
There is a lot to love about having people work from home. Notwithstanding some recent naysaying, it saves a lot of energy and time, and other studies show that it increases productivity. But about half of the managers in America hate the idea, because their idea of managing is watching their drones and checking their comings and goings. Their prayers are answered, thanks to Peerdrum, a new program that lets your boss metaphorically look over your shoulders while you work at home. Now you can have that same lack of privacy and empowerment at home that you remember from the good old days.
This ingenious great leap forward takes a snapshot of your screen every ten minutes and sends it to your boss, who then knows exactly what you are doing and watching. Want some privacy to do your own thing? Don't worry, you can "check out" and not send the shots to the boss. This has the added benefit that you can do what you want without worrying about taking advantage of your benevolent employer, because you won't get paid for the time you check out.
The developers put it this way in an email:
We contract remote workers exclusively and needed a better way to remotely manage their time and performance. It lets you monitor remote workers via automated screenshots and time tracking. You can see what your team is doing throughout the day so you don't need to be literally standing over their shoulders. No one likes feeling spied on, so we try to keep the power in the team's hands by allowing them to pause the monitoring whenever they want a break, which also pauses their time tracking so billing is more accurate and honest.
That is the thing I so miss from the office- that happy interaction with the boss as he stood over my shoulders and clocked my comings and goings. I just can't wait until they implement this at TreeHugger, it will be just like the old days back at the cube farm!
MY THOUGHTS
i hope this country will catch up soon enough. there are so many tasks that can be done from home. think of how much money can be saved on office space and electricity. and on personal transpo expense. i know it will work. purely performance-based. this time tracking is a very good solution.
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 10.22.10
Science & Technology (electronics)
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/10/make-a-home-office-feel-like-real-office.php
There is a lot to love about having people work from home. Notwithstanding some recent naysaying, it saves a lot of energy and time, and other studies show that it increases productivity. But about half of the managers in America hate the idea, because their idea of managing is watching their drones and checking their comings and goings. Their prayers are answered, thanks to Peerdrum, a new program that lets your boss metaphorically look over your shoulders while you work at home. Now you can have that same lack of privacy and empowerment at home that you remember from the good old days.
This ingenious great leap forward takes a snapshot of your screen every ten minutes and sends it to your boss, who then knows exactly what you are doing and watching. Want some privacy to do your own thing? Don't worry, you can "check out" and not send the shots to the boss. This has the added benefit that you can do what you want without worrying about taking advantage of your benevolent employer, because you won't get paid for the time you check out.
The developers put it this way in an email:
We contract remote workers exclusively and needed a better way to remotely manage their time and performance. It lets you monitor remote workers via automated screenshots and time tracking. You can see what your team is doing throughout the day so you don't need to be literally standing over their shoulders. No one likes feeling spied on, so we try to keep the power in the team's hands by allowing them to pause the monitoring whenever they want a break, which also pauses their time tracking so billing is more accurate and honest.
That is the thing I so miss from the office- that happy interaction with the boss as he stood over my shoulders and clocked my comings and goings. I just can't wait until they implement this at TreeHugger, it will be just like the old days back at the cube farm!
MY THOUGHTS
i hope this country will catch up soon enough. there are so many tasks that can be done from home. think of how much money can be saved on office space and electricity. and on personal transpo expense. i know it will work. purely performance-based. this time tracking is a very good solution.
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