20 things NOT to do before starting up

A debated post from from Dane Carlson. I appreciate the efforts by Dane for Startups and would like you to visit him here.

Too often, many would-be entrepreneurs spend all of their time planning their corporate structure, getting all of the necessary permits, licenses, bank accounts, and doing all of the other minutiae of business before they actually figure out whether or not they actually have a product or service that someone will pay for.

I advise everyone that asks me, and some that don't, not to quit their day job until they have actually gone out, talked to potential buyers and had someone they didn't already know pay for their product or service. Nine times out of ten, what you originally thought was going to be a big hit in the marketplace is a dud, and you have to go back and rework your product. If you spend all of your savings establishing your corporate presence, you won't have any money left to pay yourself when you have to go back to the drawing board.

In addition to not quitting your day job, here's my list of twenty things not to do before starting a business:

1. Don't quit your day job.
2. Don't incorporate. Seventy five percent of all businesses are sole proprietorships, and they already make money.
3. Don't get a bank account. Your personal banking account will work just fine if someone wants to write you a check, or if you need to pay for something.
4. Don't rent an office. Work from home. It won't require a first, last and security deposit. Plus, it's tax deductible.
5. Don't hire an attorney. What's an attorney going to tell that you didn't already know, or couldn't figure out on Nolo or in a good bookstore? There are only two times to call an attorney: if you're in jail, or if someone else's attorney contacts you.
6. Don't hire an accountant. Quickbooks Simple Start will get you going.
7. Don't get a loan. To get a loan from anyone, even your family, will require that you do too many items on this list. And besides, if you get a loan, you know work for the bank — not for yourself.
8. Don't hire anyone. Don't hire someone if you can do it yourself. For everything else, use contractors and give them 1099.
9. Don't get a business license. I'm not advocating that anyone cheat the government. Once you can sell your product/service, go out immediately and get all of the necessary business licenses and permits in your jurisdiction.
10. Don't try to patent anything. It takes 1.5 to 2.5 years to get a patent. Who knows what the market will look like then.
11. Don't design a logo. You are your own brand, you don't need a logo.
12. Don't waste time picking a business name. As a sole proprietor, you already have a business name: your own!
13. Don't advertise. Advertising costs money, and takes time to perfect. Selling takes only you.
14. Don't buy office supplies. If you need a pencil, get one out of the kitchen or your son's backpack. You are working from home, aren't you?
15. Don't buy any equipment. Outsource everything. Fedex Kinkos can handle all of your printing, and instead of splurging on a postal meter head down the post office. Need something big? Rent it! If it's not something you can rent by the day, maybe there's another local business with one. Can you rent it during their off hours in the middle of the night?
16. Don't try to find a partner. What do you need a parter for? Capital? Don't take loans. Need someone with some sales experience? If you the inventor of your product/service can't sell it — no one will be able to.
17. Don't join the Chamber of Commerce. Chambers of Commerce have great mixers where you can meet and network with other local business people. Right now, you don't need to network, you need to sell! Plus, you can always go as a visitor.
18. Don't tell all of your friends about the business that you're going to start someday soon. Every minute that you spend telling someone you love about your future business is one less minute you have to either try to find someone to buy your product/service or to refine it. Plus, everyone knows an "entrepreneur" that is all talk and no action: don't be one yourself.
19. Don't write a business plan. Sure you need to know what you're going to do and how you're going to make money, but don't waste time formatting it into a structured plan.
20. Don't get a business telephone number or mailing address.You have a cellphone, use it. If someone needs to mail you something, have them send it to your house. You're working there, remember.

If you have comments on this, click here to have a direct link to Dane Carlson's website.

Networking

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How to Network

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

You've probably heard the phrase "It's not what you know, it's who you know." In today's interconnected society, that rings true more than ever. Your talents, abilities, and experience will never take you anywhere if nobody knows you exist. In order to get what you want out of life, you need to be resourceful. Your fellow human beings are a vast resource.

Steps

1. Break your stereotypes about networking. If you're reading this article, you're probably familiar with the benefits of networking, but you've avoided doing it for a variety of reasons.
   
   • Networking can seem insincere, pretentious, or even manipulative. And if that's what you're thinking, you're probably right... about some of it. There will always be people who judge others based on image and titles, but there are also people who want to build genuine, mutually beneficial relationships. When you're networking, you're going to have to sift through the people you don't want to know to get to the people you do want to know. That's just an essential part of networking, but the good news is that with practice, you'll get better at spotting the people worth knowing.
     
   • You might think you're too shy or self-conscious to schmooze. Networking does require a degree of boldness, but with the advent of social networking sites, you can get to find others with similar interests and goals without being in a room full of people. Also, people who are shy and self-conscious tend to be a lot more open and talkative when they're doing or talking about something they're deeply interested in. If you find people who are just as obsessed with birding, origami, or manga as you are, then you'll have a much easier time establishing connections.
     
   • Networking takes time and effort. Unless you're an extroverted person who thoroughly enjoys schmoozing, it can be exhausting. Why bother? Well, one way to think of it is to imagine how much time and frustration you would save if anything you wanted or needed was just one or two phone calls away. Ultimately, a network can be an investment, with benefits that outweigh the costs.[1] You just need to stick with it and watch it grow.
     
   
   
2. Build your social network. If you hate small talk, this will be the hardest part, but you'll improve with practice. The key is to smile and take a genuine interest in other people's lives.
   
   • Strengthen your existing connections. Getting in touch with old friends, distant relatives, and people you went to school with can be a good stepping stone because you're reaching out, but you're not approaching complete strangers.[2] Give them a phone call or send them an e-mail to find out where they are and what they're doing. Tell them what you're up to.
     
   • Pursue interests and activities that mean a lot to you. The Internet has made this a whole lot easier. Check forums, listings, classifieds, and Internet mailing lists (known as "listservs") for local events or meetings that are likely to attract people with similar interests or passions.
     
   • Go to work-related conferences. Print out business cards and give out as many as you can. Ask the people you meet for their business cards, and write any details about them on the back once you have a moment to spare.
     
   
   
3. Find out who knows whom. When you're talking to people, find out what they do for a living and for fun, as well as what their spouse or significant other, nearby family members, and close friends do for work and recreation, too. It may be helpful to make note of this in your address book so you don't lose track of who does what.
   
   • Example: You meet Mary at a book club meeting and you find out that her cousin is an expert windsurfer. A few months later, your niece reveals to you that one of her life's goals is to go windsurfing. Instead of scratching your head and thinking "I know somebody mentioned windsurfing recently but I can't remember who..." you look at your address book, find "windsurfing cousin" written next to Mary's name, call her up and ask her if her cousin is available to give your niece a private lesson, that you want to give that to her as a birthday gift. Mary says "Sure!" and convinces her cousin to give you a discount. Your niece is thrilled. A month later, your car breaks down, and you remember that your niece's boyfriend is an aspiring auto mechanic...
     
   • Find the extroverts. As you continue to network, you'll find that some people are much better at it than you are - they already know everyone! You'll stand to benefit from getting to know such people first because they can introduce you to others who share your interests or goals. In other words, if you're an introvert, find an extrovert who can "set you up".
     
   
   
4. Invite people out. Going out for lunch, beer, drinks, or coffee is usually good for catching up casually. You can also invite people to do things related to your interests. If you met someone at a caving club, why don't you ask them to check out a new cave with you? The objective here is to establish a connection beyond your initial meeting. Preferably, this should be one-on-one.
   
5. Be generous. Since you're looking to create mutually beneficial relationships, a good way to kick start this is by thinking of ways in which you can help others. It's not all about contacts, job offers, and loans; you can offer compliments, good listening skills, and other less tangible (but valuable) gestures of kindness and generosity.[3] As long as you're sincere, you're establishing good relations with people and opening channels for mutual benefit. The girl who was crying on your shoulder last month might get you the job of your dreams next month. You never know, so place your bets on good karma. What goes around, comes around.
   
6. Follow up. Don't get someone's business card or e-mail address and forget about it. Find a way to stay in touch. Maintain your network. Whenever you find an article that might be of interest to them, for instance, send it on their way. If you hear about a negative event (a tornado, a riot, an electrical blackout) that happened in their vicinity, call them and make sure they're fine. Keep track of everyone's birthday and mark them on a calendar; be sure to send birthday cards to everyone you know, along with a nice note to let them know you haven't forgotten about them, and that you don't want them to forget about you.
   
7. Tap into your network. The next time you need something (a job, a date, a hiking partner) cast a wide net and see what happens. Make a few phone calls or send out an e-mail describing your situation in a friendly tone: "Hey, I'm in a bit of a pinch. I have these concert tickets for Saturday and I haven't been able to find someone to go with me. Since this is a band I love, I'd like to go with someone I know I'll have fun with. Do you know of anyone who might enjoy it with me?"
   
   • Don't ever apologize when asking for a favor or help. It can signal a lack of confidence and professionalism.[4] There's nothing to be sorry about--you're just seeing if anyone happens to be in a position to help you; you're not making demands, or forcing people to do anything that they don't want to do.
     
   
   
8. Use the Internet. Let's face it, not all of us are living in cities like New York or Los Angeles where it's easier to find someone of interest and get in touch with them personally. Social Networking has evolved over the years to become a business networking tool as well. The internet and online networking have essentially reduced distances between people to zero so that we can not only network outside of our hometown, but also from coast to coast and globally. Develop some online contacts whom you might be interested in networking with. Search for journals and professional organizations online and and use resources such as CareerCritique to find out more about the people who do certain jobs and their work life.
   

Tips

• Start small. Don't sign up for 12 meetings in one month. A sustained effort over the long run is better than making a one-time big effort and then burning out. Remember that networking requires maintenance, so don't bite off more than you can chew.
  
• It always helps to look approachable and be charming.
  
• Can't find a local club or group relating to your interests or career? Start one!
  
• You can make great contacts with politicians and their aides by volunteering in an election or being involved with their party outside of election time.
  
• Use every Internet tool at your disposal to build your social network in real life. Instant messaging applications, for instance, are sometimes better than phone calls. Internet is very useful to meet and keep contact with a very large amount of people worldwide.
  

Warnings

• If you've never networked, it'll be hard at first. Very hard. But over time, it'll get easier. Eventually you'll learn how to start a conversation with a complete stranger in a way that feels comfortable and acceptable to you.
  
• Watch out for parasites - people who'll pump you for favors and never try to help you in return. When you find one attached to you (and if you're generous, you will) turn them down as politely as you can: "No, I'm sorry, I can't do that tomorrow. I've got plans." If they try to make you feel guilty, feign an excuse to get out of the conversation and make yourself scarce to them. Don't lose your temper or act cold because that'll give them something negative to say about you when they're talking to others, like "Oh, yes I know James, he once called me a leech..." - don't let this happen to you.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Network at a Conference
  
• How to Create a Homeschool Network from Scratch
  
• How to Build a New Social Network as a Young Professional
  
• How to Have a Great Conversation
  
• How to Build a Social Life as a Senior Citizen
  
• How to Start a Social Club
  

Sources and Citations

1. ↑ http://www.businesspundit.com/how-to-network-for-introverts/


2. ↑ http://www.cio.com/article/164300


3. ↑ http://www.cio.com/article/164300


4. ↑ http://www.cio.com/article/164300

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Network. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

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Meetings about meetings

Credits for this post to Seth Godin 

Do you have one? Some folks are going to eight hours of meeting a day. At Ford, they used to have meetings to prepare for meetings, just to be sure everyone had their story straight.

If you're serious about solving your meeting problem, getting things done and saving time, try this for one week. If it doesn't work, I'll be happy to give you a full refund.

• Understand that all problems are not the same. So why are your meetings? Does every issue deserve an hour? Why is there a default length?
  
• Schedule meetings in increments of five minutes. Require that the meeting organizer have a truly great reason to need more than four increments of realtime face time.
  
• Require preparation. Give people things to read or do before the meeting, and if they don't, kick them out.
  
• Remove all the chairs from the conference room. I'm serious.
  
• If someone is more than two minutes later than the last person to the meeting, they have to pay a fine of $10 to the coffee fund.
  
• Bring an egg timer to the meeting. When it goes off, you're done. Not your fault, it's the timer's.
  
• The organizer of the meeting is required to send a short email summary, with action items, to every attendee within ten minutes of the end of the meeting.
  
• Create a public space (either a big piece of poster board or a simple online page) that allows attendees to rate meetings and their organizers on a scale of 1 to 5 in terms of usefulness. Just a simple box where everyone can write a number. Watch what happens.
  
• If you're not adding value to a meeting, leave. You can always read the summary later.
  

This is all marketing. It's a show, one that lets your team know you're treating meetings differently now.

Neta Abhineta

Did people who devised or created the words Neta (Leader/Politician) and Abhineta (Actor) in Sanskrit (and thus in most Indian languages which have roots in Sanskrit) already know about filmstars joining politics? These words seem to have been there since ages - when you might not have actors and politics mixed up (may be!). Or is it that politics and acting are inherently the same as far as acting is concerned? 

Secondly, how much trust do people have on actors who have entered the playground of politics? (How much trust do people have on politicians anyways?)

With the political situation in India warming up due to the upcoming elections, and the likes of Sanjay Dutt and Chiranjeev in the rinks, we have good shows to observe. While Sanjay Dutt is with a known party, Chiranjeev is an independent candidate (independent candidates are better from work point of view but very dangerous in political horse tradings - they can side anyone!) I am not sure if folks like Shatrughan Sinha and Shabana Azmi have made much difference as politicians (in fact their movies are more appreciated than their work as Netas).

Seems Neta and AbhiNeta are the same right from the time these words were created!!

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Top Three Difficulties of Working from Home

Credits for this article to Victor Rodrigues, www.greatdad.com. For the original article, click here.

While working from home brings benefits like family time, sometimes these very benefits can turn into difficulties. Here is a list of the top three difficulties faced by home entrepreneurs: 

1. Work-Life Balance 
While your work-from-home idea stemmed from your desire to balance your work and family life, working from home can tilt the balance completely towards family obligations. Attending to household chores is a full time job. If you include all these chores in your work-from-home life, you'll soon find your business crowded out. Ask any housewife, household chores never end. Organize help to take care of your household chores. The help could even come from your older kids. 

2. Lack of Workspace 
Working from home allows you to create your own comfort zone. If you have a big house, you can easily designate one room to be your workplace. If there are bigger kids, you can easily keep this room out of bounds by locking it. The problem comes if you live in a small apartment with no spare room for your workspace. You would then set up your workspace either in your bedroom, living room, or in the hallway. With bigger kids, it would be very difficult to keep your workspace protected. Setting up a system of locks and cabinets might help you resolve this issue until you move into a bigger house. 

3. Not Being Taken Seriously 
Working from home gives you the freedom to interact with people you choose. However, a home business would not instill the kind of confidence that an organization in the same business inspires. People may not take you seriously because many tend to consider home businesses as little hobbies. Home business owners should therefore project a professional business image. This can be done with the help of a professional looking website, business cards, and other arrangements associated with regular businesses. 

Use the Comments section below to share your tips, views, or experiences with other dads.

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Starting up with friends

Mistakes with friends are not things you can handle easily. Here is an article that shows some good points: click here.

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Entrepreneurship in Hard Times

Thanks and credits to proforozco.com. For Original Article, click here. 

Dr. Kanwal Rekhi’s innovations provided the foundations for the Internet. His start-up company, Excelan, developed and sold the computer hardware that allowed distributed computing to flourish, helping to usher in the age of the network. Dr Rekhi eventually sold Excelan to Novell and then eventually became a venture capitalist, helping to fund more than 50 companies in Silicon Valley. Six of them went public.

Michigan Technological University had the honor of hosting this very distinguished alum. Dr. Rekhi received his masters in electrical engineering in 1969 from Michigan Technological University.

I had the unique pleasure of hosting Dr. Rekhi in my Entrepreneurship class. I also attended his lecture on “Entrepreneurship in Hard Times” on March 4, 2009. Dr. Rekhi gave an amazing an inspiring speech. During this speech he spoke about the virtues of bucking the trend, and starting your own business during tubulent times.

These are Dr. Rekhi’s top 10 traits for an entrepreneur. They readily apply to anyone who aspires to innovate:

Top Traits of an Entrepreneur

1.    Intellectual honesty. Brutal honesty. You can never fall in love with your business. If you do, you will fail to make the hard but necessary decisions.

2.    Humility.

3.    Accountability to yourself and your team. You ultimately have to be able to say that you accomplished something or that you did not. If not, why not? You cannot ever blame others. If you fail, it is on your shoulders — no excuses. If there is no accountability at the top, others below also will not feel accountable.

4.    Fairness. You have to be able to make sure the rewards are proportional.

5.    Economics. You have to be able to determine values and prioritize these values. The highest value-added issues get prioritized. You also have to understand the fundamentals related to costs and margins.

6.    Expertise. You have to be an expert when it comes to your customer and competition.  Although you also have to quickly become a generalist. You don’t have enough money when you start out to hire specialists.

7.    Execution intelligence. Investors pay a premium for this rare skill. For every great idea that you have, there are 10 very smart people with the same idea. What will make the difference is the ability to execute. Ideas are a dime a dozen.

8.    Leadership. When times are tough, pull everybody up. Inspire others to look beyond today. When times are good, keep everybody grounded; don’t get too exuberant.

9.    Self-reliance. Entrepreneurs do not need any approval. This comes from within. Also, there is little daily satisfaction; success comes in the long run.

10.    Confidence. Success loops are long, so you need to be confident and patient to reap your rewards.

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A scene from the Court

This is the perception of a journalist from outside India, about the way justice is meted out in Indian courts, for cases of the order of magnitude of 'Satyam, Raju, etc..'! Click here..

CEOs and their teams

A discussion about the CEOs and their teams. The author is Tony Scott. Click here for the original article.

Where angels fear to 'trade'

India: Where Angels Fear to Trade (click here) discusses the seed investment problem and offers a solution, perhaps the most pragmatic solution under current circumstances.
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