My son is going to start playing t-ball this spring. It’s for 4 and 5 year olds – so they don’t keep score. They don’t track hits, errors, runs, etc. Which makes perfect sense since the point of t-ball is to learn the basics: where to stand, what it’s like when the ball is in play, what base to run to, etc. Keeping score, playing to win – these just get in the way of the purpose of t-ball.

Meanwhile, my favorite baseball team (sorry Tigers – you’re my five year old’s favorite team) the Chicago White Sox are 10-16, and only one game out of last place in their division – a division where they were expected to compete for first. The problem is their hitting. How do I know this? Well thanks to the Sun-Times and their kick-ass stats team, I know that the Sox haven’t “scored in the first three innings in 12 of the last 13 games and has scratched out all of 41 runs in the last 17 games.” Why does this matter? Because it’s the White Sox job to play AND WIN games. The owners of the team have invested substantial money in the manager, coaches and players with the purpose of winning.

So what exactly does this have to do with business? Well ask yourself – is the purpose of your business to win it all (i.e. achieve success) or is the purpose of your business to improve your skills (i.e. learn something)? Your investors and I hope you know the answer – it’s to win – to achieve success. So if you’re planning on winning – you better keep score – and not just wins and losses – but all the little stats that create wins and losses. The wins and losses follow from things like how many runs a particular pitcher gives up – and the batting average of the hitters. The success (wins, or money) follows from good work (hits, strike outs, or a fiercly effective email campaign).

Seems simple right? Except it isn’t. I’ve given advice to dozens of startups and very few of them know how many visitors their websites are getting. Few of them know how their average customer would rate them on a scale of one to ten. Ask yourself – how many emails did you send out? How many people opened them? How many visited your website? Etc. Etc. Etc. If you’re not paying attention to these fundamentals, you can’t improve your number of wins. You become a victim to your actions – not the master of your actions. This can be damned ugly. If you’re in the majors – pay attention to the score and learn how to make informed decisions to improve the score.

Are you playing in the major leagues or playing t-ball?

Here’s a quick way to tell the difference – have you been given money for your effort? Are you getting paid? I pay for my son to play t-ball – if he learns to hit – awesome. If he doesn’t at least he’ll have fun. Paul Konerko from the Sox? He gets $12,000,000 a year. He better get some hits. You should too.

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I wrote the following tips for my current batch of entrepreneurs, but thought they might have more general application here.  Email is like a hammer: it’s a great tool when used effectively, and f*ing painful when it isn’t.  Enjoy!

Email.  We use it every day.  But are we using it as effectively as we can?  Probably not, if we’re not doing the following:

1. Use Reply All: Before I came to Bizdom, I hated Reply All.  I thought all it did was clutter up my inbox.  Now? I realize it’s the reason my inbox isn’t cluttered – it’s informative.  If I’m cc’ed on an email, I want to know how the conversation is going and whether the issue’s been resolved.  When I cc someone on an email, I want them to be part of the conversation.  Maniacal use of ‘Reply All’ helps this immensely.  Do it as a matter of common practice.
2. Informative Subject Lines: There’s a reason newspapers, blogs, and various other forms of media use headlines – it lets the intended recipient know what the communication is about.  It allows them to skim the headline and prioritize.  When you recycle an old email for convenience sake, you’ve made the subject line useless.  And ultimately put your own convenience over that of the recipient, which leads me to my next point:
3. Put yourself in the shoes of the recipient: You want something from them, make it easy for them to give it to you.  You want them to read the email? Make sure the subject matches the content.  You want them to do something after they read the email? Ask.  An email with a document attached could mean “I need you to review this immediately” or “I just wanted you to have a copy of this” or “Hey look at me! I can use attachments!”  Without a direct call to action, you’re making it difficult to get the recipient to take any action, much less the action you want them to take.
4. Use a signature block: If someone wants to follow up on your email, make it easy for them to contact you.  Give them your email address, phone number, address, HAM radio call sign, whatever it takes. Signature blocks automatically added to your email achieve this in a no muss, no fuss manner.

When I was improvising, one of the big moments of self discovery I had was when I realized that everything we do onstage looks like a choice, so we should be conscious of that choice and make it a choice.  When it comes to something as mundane as sending an email, this same principle applies.  Ask yourself – what result am I trying to obtain with this action, and have I done everything to make that result obtainable. Have I given it 100%?

Some of you do this consistently and regularly, and clearly get what I’m talking about.  To you, I offer nothing but praise and encouragement.  Your efforts matter and you will be effective.

Some of you will think I’m an email maniac who’s obsessing about some minor points.   To you, I ask – faced with the choice of communicating effectively and communicating ineffectively, what would possibly justify choosing the ineffective route? Effective people take effective action – that’s what makes them effective.

In the comments, please share your email pet peeves or opportunities for excellence.

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My friend, the incomparable Margaret Hicks, has started her own business giving tours of Chicago.

A Smart Idea for a Business

It’s really a great idea for a lifestyle business.  It leverages her knowledge (she’s trained as a docent, and has done tours for other companies) and her skills (she’s funny, engaging, and smart without being smarmy).  It also leverages the natural resources available in Chicago (interesting sites, stories, and an abundant tourist population) all of which she can access at basically zero cost.  Zero cost natural resources? That’s the type of thing business dreams are made of.

A clever idea to raise money for your startup

Margaret’s really gone from being a smart cookie, to being a whole tray of steaming hot cookies made by your Nana with her fund raising strategy.  She’s having a “Help Me Build My Business” party.  For $20 her guests will get booze, beer and great food (her husband is a pro grade cook).  I was so enamored of the business idea and the fund raising idea that I kicked in $50.  And I can’t even make the party!

Why this is a clever idea

I’m a big fan of bootstrapping, but also calling in all your resources.  By having this party, she’s calling in her resources in a fun way that won’t burn out those resources.  It’s the Girl Scout Cookie Principle:  ask people for small favors and give them something great in return and you can tap those people again and again. Girl Scout Cookies raise funds for the Girl Scouts without tapping out the resource (all those aunts, uncles and people at work).  Why doesn’t it tap them out? Simple, they get a benefit above and beyond the ‘donative’ benefit and the incremental hit is so small they barely notice.  Do you remember how much you spent on Girl Scout Cookies this year? I don’t, except when I tuck my gut into the car, and next year I’ll get hit up by the same tiny Trumps for cookies and willingly fork over my moolah.  Brilliant.

It also taps into the Kid Rock Marketing Method: relentlessly promote your product to whoever will listen – particularly if those people express positive interest in the product.  If you went up to Kid Rock after one of his early shows and told him you liked his music, he’d thank you and ask you if you were coming to the next show.  If you were, he’d ask if you were bringing anyone.  If you were, he’d ask if you wanted to sell T-shirts (giving you a T-shirt in return).  Obnoxious – hell yeah.  But that’s because we live in a world where self promotion is frowned on.  Are you starting a business? Do you want it to survive, succeed and possibly grow? Are you telling people about your business?  If you answered “yes” to the first two questions, why are you answering “no” to the third question? Networking is as much about getting the word out as it is about asking for stuff.  Start getting the word out.

Margaret’s doing a great job of conceiving this business, funding it, and getting the word out to her potential supporters and evangelists in one swell foop. Check it out at ChicagoElevated.com.

Have any clever fund raising ideas? Ever been sucked up into someone else’s promotion efforts? Ever sold a Kid Rock T-Shirt? Chime in on the comments.

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Easy quick no brainers to be better than everybody else*

1. Have a kick ass email signature.

Make it easy for people to contact you.  So automatically put your email address, phone, twitter, website, etc. in your email signature.  That way, someone wants to contact you after reading your email, all the info they need is right there.  A discreet quote is fine, but not necessary.

2. Apologize for interrupting people.

Time’s short, so you may need to cut someone off and get to the chase, but do apologize and give them a chance to continue.

3. Say thanks, and please.

Extremely effective in business communications.  Someone does you a solid, thank ‘em.  Need something from someone? Be courteous enough to ask nicely.

4. Bonus Tip: Know how to end conversations.

It’s classy and clean to make it clear that the communication is over, whether that’s phone, face to face or email.

*better at everyone else at communicating, which is the key to everything. While these may seem like simple random tips, these will put you ahead of a ridiculous number of people.

What other simple things can you do that put you over the top?

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If you had a business partner, would you want them to be truthful with you or bullshit you?  If you’re in the “bullshit me, please” camp, let me know – I’ve got a great lead on a Florida swamp land investment.  If you’re in the “just tell me the truth” camp, then you’re probably like 90% of most people – and unlike 75% of the pitches I’ve seen recently.

It never ceases to amaze me that someone who’s asking you for an investment – who’s essentially asking you to become their partner, will start the relationship with an unhealthy dose of bullshit.  These snake oil salesmen act as if somehow, after the relationship is entered into, the bullshit won’t be revealed and stink up the whole deal.  Some people assume ‘fake it, ’til you make it’ is the rule to apply here. Trust me, if your ‘beta ready software’ turns out to be a sketch on the back of a bar coaster, your partner will not appreciate your moxie and aggressiveness.  And shame on you if you’re reaction to this is to claim ‘caveat emptor‘ or expect your partner should’ve caught your BS during due diligence.

3 sure signs you’re bullshitting in your pitch

1. Abuse of the royal we.

Back when I was a lawyer starting my own law practice, there were lawyers I knew who advised me to call it “Daniel A. Izzo & Associates” on the theory that it’d make my practice seem more established (on the subtheory that the fax machine was an associate of mine).  I did not follow this advice.  I was a solo practitioner.  I didn’t want to misrepresent this with a lie, however acceptable or commonplace.  I hear lots of entrepreneurs saying “We” in their pitches when they really mean “I” or “me.”  Look, if you’re a one man show, you’re a one man show.  You aren’t a “we”, you are a “me.”

2. CEO, President and Founder.

I find that most of the pitch-stage or development-stage entrepreneurs I come across, don’t really know what ‘CEO’ stands for, much less what one does.  If the company consists of you.  Or you and your three buddies, you don’t really need a CEO.  You don’t really need titles at all.  If you call yourself ‘CEO’ you’re just revealing your immaturity.  You might as well call yourself “Superman Lightning McQueen” which is what my son calls himself when he’s playing superheroes.  It has an equal basis in fact.

3. “In development” or “in process”

This one’s a bit more gray, but I often find it is used as a replacement for “I don’t know”.  For example, saying “Our business model is still in development” when you mean “I’m still figuring it out.”  ”In development” implies someone is off somewhere working on it, not that you’re still noodling it over.

Honesty is the best policy.

Yes, I seriously wrote that.  Honesty is the best policy.  People invest in people (whether that investment is time, money or other valuable resources.)   When you engage in these bits of puffery, you reveal yourself as a bullshitter, and a pretty sloppy one at that.  Don’t do it.

Have any stories of people who overrepresent themselves or other examples of signs of BS? Share them in the comments.

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This week I was a Curbside Consultant at the Launch of FastTrac to the Future, an entrepreneur development collaboration between TechTown, The Kauffman Foundation and the New Economy Initiative.  Bizdom has received grants from the New Economy Initiative and Kauffman, so we’re tangentially part of this.

The final event of the day was  a panel on ‘Entrepreneurial War Stories’.  It featured the inimitable Patrick McInnis (CEO of FatHead), Jane Sydlowski (AMI Strategies)and Randal Charlton (former CEO of Asterand).  The stories were great, as were the lessons.  At the end, the moderator asked each of the three for a couple of tips for entrepreneurs to survive and succeed as entrepreneurs.

Pat McInnis

• Control your control freak
  • relinquish control
  • don’t relinquish accountability
• Culture matters
  • you create a motivated workforce when you focus on people and help them achieve their dreams

Randal Charlton

• Money will be tight
  
  • but get going on the least amount of money you can
    
• Leverage existing resources
  
  • there’s much more in place around you than you realize

Jane Sydlowski

• Consider ‘No’ a ‘Yes’
  
  • you’ll experience more ‘no’s’ than you know
  • don’t accept ‘no’
    
• Show up for yourself
  
  • network
  • share your story with pride

Great tips one and all.

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From boingboing.net

Co-working facilities for social-hungry solo freelancers

Cool piece in Businessweek about the rising popularity of “co-working” spaces for independent, internet-age freelancers who are burnt out on working from their homes (cons: too isolating, makes you crazy, no work/life boundaries) and don’t want to just work out of Starbucks (cons: too public, not networking-conducive, laptop theft, rising price of lattes). Image above, hatfactory in dogpatch, San Francisco. Snip from story:

Over the past few years, co-working facilities—both grassroots, co-op-like versions and for-profit models—have started popping up across the country and the world, from Seattle to Copenhagen. A co-working wiki hosts pages for dozens of other cities with co-working initiatives in progress. And while the concept of shared office space is nothing new to entrepreneurs, an increasing number of them are signing on and finding that the community-building and networking benefits outweigh even the virtues of a shared fax machine.

In a recent report on the future of small business, the Silicon-Valley based Institute for the Future pegged co-working as a trend to watch over the next decade (see BusinessWeek.com, 1/31/07, “The Face of Entrepreneurship”). After co-working first took off with clusters of free-agent programmers and writers, its flexibility and low cost have also proven a good match for startups unwilling to sign a long-term lease. Because many of these facilities operate on a gym-membership model that doesn’t assign workers to specific desks, co-working is cheaper than most subleasing arrangements. And unlike traditional business incubators, co-working isn’t just for startups with high-growth potential.

The study’s lead author, Steve King, says the increasing popularity of co-working facilities reflects the rise of one-person “personal businesses” as well as a broader fluidity between virtual and real-world communities.

Link to “Where the Coffee Shop Meets the Cubicle,” by Kerry Miller. The online feature includes a neat slideshow of “co-work” spaces around the US and Canada (no photo credits, but I’ll gladly add one to this post if someone provides info!)

Update: Those of you in San Francisco may want to consider swinging by hatfactory for an open house they’re holding this Wednesday, Feb. 28:

On February 28, Wednesday, the Hat Factory Coworking space in San Francisco is throwing its doors open to welcome interested folks who want to give us a try, for free. Come and work with us during the day, from 11 AM to 5:00 PM. Bring your laptop and that manuscript, screenplay, or killer app you’ve been working on and leave the crowded, loud coffee shops behind. We’ll also be cooking a big meal starting around 5pm with free dinner served after 6pm. Come and eat with us! We’ll have a projector set up so everyone can show off their work.

(Thanks, Brad Neuberg)

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Uganda’s phone-charging station:
Cory Doctorow:

Nice Cool Tools piece about Uganda’s phone-charging entrepreneurs:

Uganda is a country coping with a severe energy crisis resulting in frequent power cuts. In addition, access to mains electricity in rural locations is limited. Given that mobile phones require power, and access to power can be unpredictable – how do people keep their mobile phones and other electrical devices charged? Last July a Nokia research team travelled to Uganda and explored this issue as part of a more in-depth study into shared phone use.

There are two forms of mobile phone battery charging services in Kampala – either offered as an additional service by phone kiosk operators or as a stand alone service. It costs 500 Ugandan Shillings (0.2 Euro) to have a battery recharged similar to the price of 2 or 3 phone calls. Whist both services appear to thrive there are a number of barriers to use: customers cannot use their phone whilst the battery is being charged; the customer risks, or perceives the risk that their battery being swapped for an inferior one; a perceived risk of phone theft – signs that suggest service providers are not responsible for loss or theft are evident.

Link

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