Last month I got an idea spec’d out. I think it could be the next big thing, especially with the way the Internet is moving, IMHO. The problem is more on execution and whether I should build it. I’m sure I could sell it after spending a few months marketing it or even trying the whole raise capital route, but I have other commitments that keep me busy. Which brings in the next question, will I finish it.

This project, let’s call it BS. Project BS was mocked up and thought about to be outsourced so I would not be the weakest link. The intial focus is basic capital to build it, but the time it takes to market it is a whole another story that most entrepreneurs don’t consider. If you build it they won’t always come. Project BS can be built for a reasonable rate, but how does that affect my commitments as well as my time marketing it.

Think about it it in this way: You are offered time or money but you can only choose one, which do you choose and why?

After an awesome networking event last week – I almost want to give away the idea or see someone else crush it as it’s more of a thought than an empire. On a side note, I can’t stand people who need to find a cofounder/tech lead or need an idea for a startup. There are plenty of both in todays world. You can read a book and become a tech lead or search the internet as people give them away for free. If you need ideas let me know I have time. My problem is scale and execution, which should be almost all entrepreneurs problems. Do you know it will make money? What will be your burn rate be during the time to scale? And how will that affect your life and commitments? This basically boils down to what’s the opportunity cost? This makes me thing of my Econ classes at UVM, ugh!

Anyway, i am still not sure my plans for project BS, I know with summer I have a lot of traveling and relaxing to par take in. The focus is still on my “pay the bills” job and making amazing tshirt quilts. It’s crazy, for the first time I’m actually trying to plan out the next year of my life and stick to a plan. It’s weird ever since college I haven’t been living at the same location and this year I will be on year two, amazing. I guess it really comes down to cutting corners only delays the inevitable. It’s time to step up and crush it for 2011.

Back to the point. Should you build it? So you are thinking about your idea, but how can you prove it will be a success? Most startups fail within the first year! Why not validate your idea, but how? Start with mockups and an early adopter program. Focus on building an email list of people who would help shape this idea and spread the word when it launches. Set small goals and focus on a MVP – even if it’s just screenshots!

This brings me to my final point. There are a few ways to leverage and build a startup that can scale rapidly. I came up with four ways startup pays.

1. Sell before build – customer is investor, get credit cards and charge when launched
2. Freemiun – get people using it and building your feedback loop with hopes you can convert them to a paying customer fast
3. Tell the world why you are building it – ask community for help and get them to join in on it. Remember it’s often lonely at the top
4. Max out credit card and JFDI

With that, last but not least what do you plan to do with your idea? Will you build it, how do you test, etc. Ask yourself all the questions first and then JFDI!

I want to be more involved with business and less technology.

Think about this in terms of a computer scientist. Basically we all know that technology drives innovation, but it’s really the business that implements the technology and not necessarily the actual invent. For example, you don’t have to physical develop the code behind your startup to build a business, but it does help to know and understand the technology.

The infamous word that sticks out from college is Abstraction. You don’t need to focus on writing code using OO and MVC, but you should understand scaling and how to leverage the technology that works best for you.

This concept has been stuck in my head with everything going on and working hard is not necessarily working smarter. I want to take it to the next level and I need to cut myself out of some parts when it comes to development. It would be better for me to manage and provide documents and next steps then to actual code. Guiding a developer rather than developing it would allow me focus on building out a business.

So even if you are an expert in your field or have a strong background in iPhone app development, time might be better spent networking and building out contacts than actually building the next app. I also see a parallel with this knowledge and understanding and implementation when it comes to agencies. Sometimes the people who present aren’t the people who are working on the account.

Enjoy

So Microsoft has done well in the Operating system space and made a good chunk of change. What did they do with it? Well Bill decided to retire and become a philanthropist. He invests and spends his money on doing good. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation fights aids in addition to other world issues. So just think about all that money we spent on Windows in some way fights for Aids today.

Now imagine if Microsoft focused on this while building their business. Set 1% of revenue to go towards fighting aids or any world issue…Would people be more willing to purchase a product because of it? Are socially responsible companies more sustainable? I often wonder and think what if fortune 500 companies change their focus to this and accept that greed is evil, what would happen? How much is enough? I really wish every fortune 500 company would have a mandate that their CEO’s accept $1/year pay and focus on creating value than paying all this money in salaries for companies that are killing America (e.g. Enron, every Bank I can think of…etc.)

*Side note* my buddy Larry Florio will be racing up 30 Rockefeller Center’s 66 flights of stairs to help create a world free of MS. Feel free to support him and fight for MS, I know I have Good Luck Larry!!!

Thinking back on my blog and all the up’s and downs, I realized that as much as I wanted to make those 6 or 7 figure incomes I wasn’t putting in the effort that I should. I don’t blog and when I do it normally contains typos and other grammatical errors or talks about how I don’t blog…yea pretty bad.

It’s time to get serious, very serious. I am trying to get back into blogging and I know I have said this before, but this time things are changing. I am going to set it as my top priority… well #2 spot as I have another venture that is my real passion and time commitment. I need to JFDI it and make this part of my daily life and do a 30 day challenge.

I am hoping that as much as this blog post is a wake up call to me, it should be one to YOU! YES, You!!! I bet that you have some talent or knowledge or even drive that has helped you in the past either with wealth, experience, or some type of good. It’s time to open your eyes and see the golden egg. Now there is a BIG difference from knowing how to do something and actually DOING IT! So it’s time to JFDI and get to work.

I am declaring this as the start of my 30 day challenge of blog posts. Just think about these 30 day challenge, the real challenge is not doing it once or even twice, it’s doing it consistently. That’s why it’s normally for 30 days or more!!!

So my golden egg is this blog, my thoughts, and perspective on life, liberty, and everything else I seem to live through.
What’s Your?

I know one person who I respect has a wealth of knowledge in the equestrian world. From taking care of horses, to riding them, and even breeding them
A long time ago, I tried to build that golden egg for them in the form of a social network for horse people. I did very well in terms of SEO and even taught myself a thing or two of Ruby on Rails while building it. The sad part is that it wasn’t my golden egg and I didn’t have the passion or drive. She does! So now it’s time for this person to find their golden egg (as well as the YOU reading this) and think about what hobby, knowledge, or talent can I turn into an income stream.

Having trouble thinking of things? Take a look at current business and even franchisee. It’s 2011 for crying out loud, you can do anything…

So now it’s time to JFDI it … and this blog

First off, congrats to the new graduates of 2010. You now have degree in hand, or mail (yea, UVM couldn’t print all of them for the entire Arts and Science school so I got mine in August) and starting the job hunt. Good Luck finding a job, the economy is in the tank, you have no experience and some entry level jobs are being filled by people who are way too qualified and have another degree than you.

Before I lecture or suggest a way to go about finding a job, if that’s what you want, let me tell you a little story about my first job out of school. I accepted a position at Ziff Davis Enterprise as a Project Manager, which later became a Blog Manager with a 63% raise. Come to think of it, it wasn’t really a job, it was a client. Rather then accepting the position as an employee, I was given the chance to work as a consultant. This was one of the best moves as it had some great tax advantages and got to learn a lot about business, like net 60 pay (ouch!). The 63% raise came about because of negotiation and 3 months of JFDI in the work place, it also came with telecommuting on Mondays and Fridays another nugget to try for negotiation.

Takeaway: If you do get an offer, research how to get a better offer with Salary Tutor. This is written by a close friend of mine who I have used to easily increase my consultant rate and pay.

Now let’s take a step back, this first job offer I didn’t apply to. Yes that’s right, after I got back from traveling Europe I got a phone call about an position and that my name was given to him by a friend. I had a phone interview, which was supposed to last 5 minutes but ended up going 30 and an in-person interview which turned into an offer. How? Networking! That friend, was someone I met while attending events and ended up getting a free diner out of it.

Now, before you start writing that resume or work on interview Q and A, attend a couple of Meetups and networking events in your area. Most jobs are placed by connections and not by a perfect resume. So rather than focus on writing the best resume, order some business cards with your name, phone, email, twitter?, and 3 words describing what you are about. Hand these out and work the room.

Okay, so you want a job right? Wrong! You want money, nothing greedy but something to live off. My suggestion to the recent college graduates would be to layout the following schedule.

1. Spend 1 day (Monday?) applying to jobs via the old resume/email approach. This way you can at least tell your parents your trying.
2. Spend 2 or 3 nights attending meetup or networking events in the area you are interested in. This will allow you to speak to people coming from work who may know of openings or potential hirings.
3. Now focus the rest of the time on making money online. Think about it, why spend all that time trying to find a perfect job when all you really want is money. How? For starters, read about startups

My first suggestion would be to build a online business that can scale and pay the bills. Now starting a business is not for everyone, but is blogging or wearing a shirt really a business? It can be if you JFDI. If you are going to spend 3 or 6 months looking for a job only to accept something that pays a bit more than flipping burgers, why not accept the fact that you aren’t going to make money in a job and focus on the real problem, making money. By far the best blog post to read when you are thinking about a job.

I admit, I have been there, looking for a job, it sucks! Granted I have only really worked one official job in my life and was laid off! The rest has been as a consultant for myself, but even as a consultant if you need larger clients to grow your own businesses finding them can be tough. I know for myself I wish I did even more when I was young. There is so much opportunity in todays world, even more so now. I am trying to find this for myself by getting some irons in the fire while supporting them with my consultant work, but that’s me, what about you?

What are your passions? Do you want to build a business or just want to make money? What type of lifestyle do you want? All of these questions really hit me like a ton of bricks when I read the four hour work week. I highly suggest reading it and taking a step back now and focusing on what you want than wasting X years trying to just get by.

I may not be the perfect role model as I still don’t have millions in the bank, yet. My hope is that this post inspires you and gets you to JFDI (Just Freaking Do It) and create a happy life for yourself.

The funny thing about perfection is you can actually be better if you stop shooting for it. Last Christmas I got some golf lessons and although I lost a couple of balls in the water and on the roof of a house, the best lesson I heard was don’t try for perfection. During the putting practice lesson, the golf instructor suggested to imagine a 3 foot circle around the golf hole. Focus on getting the ball within that distance from a long putt rather then going for the hole. This way even if you miss, you 2 putt your way off the green.

By focusing on not being perfect you can actually lower your score because you are accepting the 2 putt system rather then trying to perfect your putting technique where you end up normally adding 3 or 4 stokes due to distance and direction.

Applying this system to a startups, you realize that you don’t need 100 servers or even 1, you can launch on a shared hosting account. Have you heard of digg (d i double g), Did you know that Digg was launched on a shared hosting. Yes, an almost top 100 website in the US was started on a shared hosting account. So rather then focus on perfection the first go around, shoot for something close, like a decent wage to live off of and no VC money. Once you are making say, $10k a month, then focus on building that startup into a megacorportation.

Just with this philosophy of JFDI, I have been focusing on the simple steps and getting ideas out there. Remember you can’t push a rope, you can only pull it. So focus your efforts on what you can pull and worry about the millions of things that “might” happen later because some of those things will keep you from launching your ideas today.

Every time I meet a corporate CXX or dare I say (50+ year old VP) I realize that these people seem to be the ones who are making the decisions yet fail to understand today’s every changing market because they do NOT understand or even know what is out there or what the problem is. These are the same people who have FUCKED over America as a Harvard MBAs who is trying to save that extra 10 cents but doesn’t see how that 10 cents effects the entire rest of the company causing a decline in sales because that 10 cents is separating the company from the competition (like using organic eggs, they may cost more, but it’s a huge differentiator and a big reason why people buy a specific product).

Another issue that I see decision makers having is accepting change and innovation. Innovation is key and a big part for fueling companies. A lot of the companies out there (even ones that I have worked for in the past) seem to fail at accepting the changing market and fail to focus on ways to improve the future bottom line by constantly revamping the product. These companies and decision makers are just accepting a decline and maybe only focusing on slowdown the decline of a product or project and doing as little of extra work as possible.

Most business fail to realize that even if they are making money today, they may not be making the same amount of money the same way tomorrow. (ie. Google Adsense, remember those $10 clicks) Business and customers change daily, so if you are focusing on one specific niche and fail to keep up with the demand curve by innovating, then you are going to fail at some point or another. It’s the same thing when it comes to peoples expectations and future goals. Accept change and understand it’s the only constant in life. Stop settling and betting the farm that your product will sell today and tomorrow to the same person.

The key to having everyone on the same page is to set expectations and understand where everyone is coming from and what you plan to do. I see in America large business are run by people who do NOT understand this current market. People want to create a big brand awareness around their product, but do they know of the various ways to do this? The people making the decisions may say, let’s build a twitter app or an iphone app that does xyz, but these people and decision makers do not use twitter or own an iPhones. The decision makers may have read a review about an iPhone app making $1 Million dollars so they obviously think it’s the best idea since slice bread. Since they are the decision makers, and the boss in most cases, people won’t step up to the plate and say it’s a bad idea.

So maybe the next time your boss or the head of whatever who you work for says let’s do this… ask yourself, are they in the know or just staying the course.

What do you mean by platform

Almost every author who writes a book should be thinking about speaking events, book signings/tours, conferences, and more. You want to build a way to not only promote your book, your brand, and your message, but build that fan base that can connects with you everyday. How can you do this? With the use of social media. By blogging your book and “crushing it” as Gary Vaynerchuk says (Yes, I know I am a bit of a fanboy). Learn some tactics from Gary, he is all over it! Creating videos, podcasts, blogging, tweeting, and not only interacting with his current fan base but by putting more content out there so he can reach even more people.

Are You Ready?

Michael Drew asks a lot from you if you want to be NYT #1, WSJ #1, USAToday #1, etc. Why should you care? Well Michael Drew is 50 for 50 on getting books on the #1 best seller list. With a track record like this you tend to listen. The problem for most is time and commitment. How much time and commitment you ask? Let’s lay it out in a step by step plan.

The Plan

In order to test and find your audiance the seminiar spend much of the time on personas. During the seminar everyone attending took a quick personality test. Everyone got to learn all of these fun letters and what Myers Briggs can teach us about people. I am an INTJ, so I tend to be fast, logical, and competitive. The plan Michael lays out is to write to each of the major personas (NT, NF, SP, SJ).

• Write out 16 categories for each part of your book
• Write 4 topics for each of the 16 categories
• Write a blog post on each topic to each of the major personas (NT,NF,SP,SJ) a total of 256 blog posts
• Create a video and a podcast for each blog post

So with all of this you are suppose to cover one topic in-depth each week including writing to each of the 4 personas for a blog posts, a videos based, and a podcast. This process should take 64 weeks to cover 4 topics in the 16 categories. During this time you will also need to maintain a 3 to 1 ratio. For each blog, video, and podcast you post you need to write 3 comments or responses with other bloggers/people online. This will allow you to build your platform by making a name for yourself and build your network of people and distributing content.

Distribution, Distribution, Distribution

To give you some idea of how many books you need to sell to reach bestseller status: 500,000. Just to help you along the way, you should have a network of at least 300,000 people who will buy your book. How many twitter followers do you have? Facebook Friends? LinkedIn? Blog eaders? Maybe 300K? 500k? 1MM?

You need to not only create enough content but interact with your audience and join in the conversation to reach all of these people. So the question I have for you is, are you really ready to create all of this content and put in the blood, sweat, and tears to getting your book on the #1 best seller or are you just looking to create a book. One other important fact is that book publishers see less of an appeal with authors who published a book and only got 1,000 or 4,000 copies sold then the unknown author of a book he is trying to put out. Sounds kinda of backwards, but remember It’s never about the book. Focus on build your brand and platform: speaking events, conferences, seminars, blogs, podcasts, TV show appearances, and more!

History,Trends, Repeat

The old saying goes “History repeats itself”. This is something anyone who is in marketing/PR or working as a social media expert needs to hear. Times are a changing and the way we marketed a product yesterday or even today needs to change. One of the biggest lessons I took away from Book Publishing 2.0 is how every 40 years the pendulum swings from an Idealist society to a Civic society. In the course of 80 years, history repeats itself. So what does that mean for us, it means we should be studying the 1930′s, FDR, and focusing on society as a whole rather then putting ourselves first. The idea of push marketing and grabbing a bullhorn to spread your message is dying. You need to focus on pull methods where you post your message that others share and spread the word for you. Think of twitter, if you are constantly saying “buy my product” no one will follow you. If you offer interesting tweets and join the conversation you will have a huge following.

Remember the goal is not to force people to buy, but get them wanting to buy that no matter how bad the product is, get people to be passionate about your product and love it. Can anyone say Apple?

Michael constantly said, it’s never about the book. Don’t lock yourself in a room to write a book instead focus on your platform and test what works and what doesn’t. Learn from your own blog history on what people want. Remember if you want to predict the future, you only need to look at the past.

Testing

A major part of this program was testing, which is something I spend why too much time with since I am such a geek. Everything in life you need to test. Things that you expect not to work sometimes work so well you are not only shocked but rich! Other things that you think are a sure bet, well you lose the farm and everything else. So with that you need to test everything you do with your book, blog, and platform. Learn about Google Analytics, A/B testing, and how you can extract data to really understand what you need to do and leverage it!

Just F$%& Do It!

The last step that I don’t think was emphasized enough was getting it done. Seeing a pile of work ahead of you and knowing that even under the best of conditions it’s a 64 week plan is very intimidating. The thing that I really enjoyed about this seminar is that everyone there kept saying here is the plan, it’s up to your timeframe on when you want to accomplish it. This is so true in life and a great way to view projects. You need to put in the time to get the results you want. Some people it will take a year, others 5 years, and maybe some an entire lifetime, it’s up to you on the timeframe…the plan is right in-front of you.

I really want to thank Michael Drew, Dave Young, Chris Maddock, Mark Effinger, and Will Braunstein for an amazing seminar of Book Publishing 2.0! I highly recommend it, especially for anyone looking to write a book!

Key Points when Starting Your own Lemonade Stand

Supplies
Get Stuff for Cheap but high quality. With any business overhead is
tough, so focus on having a high margin and be sure to use
environmentally friendly cups. Remember Going Green can also make you
green. Use this to your advantage when selling your lemonade.

Marketing
Remember it’s about getting the word out as fast as possible. Leverage
online marketing for offline results. Focus on posting fliers on local community boards online such as Craigslist as well as offline such as
the Train station.

Location, Location, Location
If you want to make the most bang for your buck, focus on time and
location. Set up your stand near a park where a baseball or soccer
game is happening. Also look at setting up your stand on a busy
street, but be sure to use signs to attract customers. If your
location is not working, act fast and change it!

Good Luck!

To help you digest this video, let’s think about it. You have this idea, which spawns off a bunch of other ideas, but after an hour of writing these ideas you really have NOTHING. A great example of going from idea to taking action was a great brunch meeting I had with Jim Hopkinson. The meeting mainly talked about one project, but during this talk spawned off a bunch of ideas and how you need not only an idea, but execution. This whole meeting just kept reminding me of the video and the need to get $%&T DONE! Just remember the nike slogan, just do it! Well rather then doing nothing with the idea we ended up taking the idea and creating a basic website that could now get easily updated using WordPress and go from an idea to a shell.

One thing that I have realized with projects is you need to focus on building shells. What are shells, shells are the basic structure you need to go from idea to prototype as fast as possible. Think about a shell as creating the smallest piece of an ideas to get others to either use it or understand what it is you are doing. Once the shell is built and live, you can constaly launch, iterate, launch, iterate, and go from a crapy version to a premium product.

So while rewatching the video I realize I am now that other guy who is on his next version of a product rather then dreaming about all those people clapping for ME!

So the point of all of this is that you need to get ideas out of your head and into the world, remember it’s the execution multiplier that makes the big bucks, do it!

I know personally I am trying to take more and more action each day to improve my passive income. I have too many ideas a minute and too many projects that are collecting dust to keep me from taking action. So each morning I write a list of 3 goals for the day that I need to get done. These goals can be as simple as creating a blog posts to something as complex as a WordPress theme.

Remember, taking action is hard. Like Thomas Edison, “one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration”. So break an idea/project into small chunks and start with just the “shell” the smallest piece of an idea and launch, iterate, launch, iterate…