Gable's helpful reminders
When Steve Gable of
L. G. Accessories spoke to my class this past week, he brought up some helpful stuff even HE may not have realized.
- Using his knowledge that one-third of women have sloped shoulders, he talked about how Strap-Mate was an example of the entrepreneur's requirement to "find a need and fill it." Dave Pollard takes that hoary piece of advice and expands on it particularly well.
- Lisa Gable used as her first primary money source her credit card. Now, some writers suggest that outside investors will not approach you with cash until you have shown use of the resources you already have. But I know that one of the founders of GreyPilgrim Inc. built up credit card debt of $60K on behalf of the company. So there has to be a tradeoff.
- Notice how our documents are always evolving. Sometimes we don't even create them until the need is there.
- Steve reminds us that we always need ways to know we've achieved our standards.
Labels: consulting, young entrepreneurs
Unanswered questions from The Apprentice
Donald Trump said, the day
Sam Solovey (pictured) was fired on
The Apprentice, that "negotiation is innate... negotiators are born." But the Harvard Business School (at least)
says that's not true. Whom should we believe here? (I might add that that episode, from season 1, is the one my students study. Every class really enjoys it. And they seem to readily learn lessons about
negotiation.)
I voted in a Yahoo poll for
Bill Rancic as my favorite Apprentice. But I think that
Randal Pinkett is growing on me. It may not be long before
Pinkett is everyone's favorite. :-)
Labels: rhetoric
Admiration for a strong weld
Brian Holcombe:The integrity of the welding is something that is key to cars that work: a strong weld is a safe weld, and I pride myself on
putting nice welding into my work.
Admirer Bob: Nice welding; looks like it's going to be plenty strong too.
Brian Holcombe:Thanks, Bob, when I'm finished I'm hoping I'll be able to jack the car up by the driveshaft loop.
I don't understand the significance of that last statement; only that it IS significant. :-)
Labels: engineering
Teachers Pay Teachers...?
I received this e-mail in the past week, about a new company called Teacher Synergy, Inc.:
Dear Potential Teacher-Author,
A group of teachers has developed a new model for educational publishing, one that has evolved over the past few months. Initially, we were going to review, edit and approve all submissions for our new website [this site was not yet activated as of this writing] called TEACHERSpayTEACHERS.com, a marketplace for original educational resources (lesson plans, lectures, examinations, worksheets, complete courses, thematic unit plans, projects, syllabi, etc.). What such a process does, though, is turn us into a dictator of style and substance, an idea to which we have become averse.
Therefore, we are instead creating an open marketplace that will be regulated by ratings and comments, sort of like eBay for teachers/professors and teacher-created materials. It will be ready in about six weeks. The exciting thing is that everyone (in K-12, higher and adult ed, either current, former or retired) who believes they create high quality materials can join, create a personal and professional profile, upload documents/products, write descriptions, set prices, manage their catalogs and access sales data. Essentially, you will be starting your own small businesses. The royalties rate is very high: 85%, to be paid on a quarterly basis, and teacher-authors will maintain the intellectual property rights to their work. Purchasers of products will receive instant downloads and will rate and write comments about their purchases. Eventually, the cream will rise to the top and the best teacher-authors will make the most money.
Isn't this interesting? I wrote the guy who sent the message (I don't include his address here to protect his privacy but if you want to reach him I will tell you how), and I told him this business model was of interest to me as a professional curiosity, but that I would also participate if anyone out there is interested in what I can offer. What I can offer would start with selections from
Rhetoric for Engineers.
Labels: education
Renew your commitment to customer service daily... or else!
One angry customer- can result in the loss of thousands of dollars
- can lead to thousands if not millions in lost business revenue
- can take control of your environment
- can spoil your whole day
- can get you audited by the IRS
- can get your zoning revoked, or (if you are working from home) noticed
- can put up a Web site just to flame you
- can sue you
- can cost you your job... or at least get you reprimanded
- can ruin your reputation
- will stick out more than a hundred happy ones
...and...
- can give you a precious opportunity to go above and beyond the call of duty to please them ALL.
This weekend I'm learning that a commitment to customer service must be renewed constantly -- I'm thinking daily. Usually,
I AM that angry customer, and this weekend is no exception. There are a couple of people who are about to face my wrath. But I also have dozens of customers of my own, and over the last few days I let them down. (I just learned this about five hours ago.) I thought they were the problem. After all, I'm the one with the experience, the know-how, the successful history.
But that doesn't mean my poop has stopped stinking. Come Monday, I will be swallowing my pride, and renewing my commitment to customer service -- right in front of the customers. We don't all have the ability to make a play for the customers' compassion like I do, and that's probably a good thing, as I (at least) may fail. But we all have the opportunity to reexamine ourselves, and make sure we're
providing the service they need.
Now, how am I going to do this? Well, it starts by asking each and every one (as opportunity permits) what they need, of the things I have the power to give them...
Labels: character
Problems with e-mail we may not always think about
I had a discussion with a couple of colleagues in the
TCNJ Writing Program, and the subject of
e-mail came up. I'm not the only one, or the most prolific, to have written about e-mail etiquette, but I'm also not closing the door on learning new stuff about this.
At today's [meeting] we talked about emails from students and "reasonable" levels of accessibility in the online environment (do you respond to student emails on weekends? every day? etc.). [...] Two other issues we discussed were: (1) how can we use the email environment to teach attention to audience (among other things), and (2) how can we mentor students in email etiquette.
I have always said a few words about business e-mail as part of a larger discussion of
e-commerce. But I've never thought about the simple exchange of e-mail as an opportunity for "teachable moments." Another teacher, at another university, said
In fact, at the end of last semester, one of my students confessed that what he had learned from the class was that his tone was often unintentionally abrasive and his written communication was often unclear.
We can only get this learning when we actually look at e-mail actively and critically. As I work with younger students, I have the opportunity to develop the way they look at
instant messaging as well. Heaven knows we can develop the way we handle THAT. :-)
Labels: internet
Abbreviated history of L. G. Accessories
I have shamelessly
plagiarized an
abbreviated history of L. G. Accessories (LGA), the makers of the
Strap-Mate (pictured). I got the history from Steve Gable of LGA, and I think you'll see it's a useful tool for any young entrepreneur wanting to see how a company develops, step-by-step.
Labels: consulting
A sign that IPods have too much storage space
My daughter's boyfriend introduced me to
the worst MP3 in the world. It's about a certain center for the
Houston Rockets, and it goes like this:
Yao Ming, Yao Ming Yao Ming Yao Ming, Yao Ming, Yao Ming Yao Ming Yao Ming...
...and it just goes on and on like that. If that isn't a sign that people have nothing better to do with their
IPods, I don't know what is. If I were an employer or a high-school principal, and heard this song playing in my hallways, I would outlaw IPods for it.
I prefer
Lebron James, as a
Cavs fan, though he did destroy
my high school regularly before entering the NBA. But I suppose that's neither here nor there. Isn't there a nice healthy
podcast people could be listening to instead?
Labels: diversions
The Trippy Hippie responds! Already!
Love the blog entry. Yes, I do have a PayPal account, actually 2 of them. A personal and a premier. I think rather than setting up a Yahoo store (and def not an eBay store), I'm going to build a site from scratch. My 360 was never intended to sell my stuff but I threw it up there to show some friends what I was doing. Boy, it sure has drawn a lot of attention though!
Everything I do is custom created to order so there will be no need for a checkout, per se. I do need to come up with an efficient way to communicate back and forth with people who are long distance. Not just words but the exchange of fabric patterns, photos of work in progress, etc. Fax was great to send logo proofs but I believe I'll create a simple private web page for each client while I'm working with them. I can post slide shows of fabric samples, rough sketches, work in progress, etc. Rather than a PayPal link I will send a PayPal invoice to my clients for the deposit and final payment.
I might suggest one thing here: if there's going to be a private page for each client, why not consider a wiki? Cindy and her clients (for instance) could each edit (and change) a wiki. And there are a few free wiki services out there. The latest issue of
Inc Magazine compares a few:
JotSpot,
SocialText, and
PMWiki. JotSpot has a nice price.
She could make one of her own as well.Labels: young entrepreneurs
Trippy Hippie Creations
Cindy Osborne is an old friend of the family, now billing herself as the
Trippy Hippie. (I hope this link will take you to pictures of the things she makes, such as the skirt shown above.)
Always a creative, energetic person, Cindy as been striving to keep herself in business while raising eight kids. (I couldn't do that myself. My wife and I originally felt we couldn't have more kids than we had pairs of arms to hold them.) But I think she has the goods in place to actually DO some business.
Her current drawback, and I believe she knows this, is that she hasn't set up a real Web presence, so that people can find her. This presence will most likely have to include a ready means for people to order her goods (though not necessarily full
e-commerce capability), and some testimonials apart from her blog. (This initiative is probably too new for her to have had time.)
Since she is so evidently fond of
Yahoo! 360 as a communications tool, I'm thinking that a natural place to start would
maybe be a
Yahoo! store. Though she'd have to pay $30/month for store space before any money comes in to her, and I think that's a serious drawback to many new entrepreneurs. An
eBay store appears at first glance to be more economical, at $16/month, and eBay offers 30 days free. This might be an option. Some new entrepreneurs might consider sharing a store, if they feel they don't have the cash flow early. Cindy's also gonna have to accept
PayPal, if she doesn't already -- not much getting around that. If I had stuff to sell like she does, I'd be doing exactly this stuff: creating a presence on eBay and accepting PayPal, just for starters. Then I would try to arrange reciprocal agreements with other likeminded merchants.
The good news is that she's already got some stuff to show off. I would not be surprised if it were possible for her to create to order, and that'd offer an extra advantage. But wherever she goes with it, she's got a chance to go SOMEwhere, and that's really what matters, right?
Labels: young entrepreneurs
How to get quiet people to talk?
This semester's class is a bit different from previous years. In a class of 14, only one will talk. I haven't put up much of a fight -- yet -- because when they are organized in small groups, talking about businesses they would like to, and maybe will, start, THEN they'll talk. To one another. But I need them to throw their thoughts out there for the benefit of everyone in the room. Including themselves. After all, nothing crystallizes an idea quite like speaking it aloud.
Now, how to get them to open up? Well, I CAN remind them that "class participation" is worth 20% of their final grade, and that many of them are currently failing that aspect of the class. Which means the best grade they can hope for is probably a "B-minus." That's the "stick" option. But I need some "carrot" options as well. After all, like George Carlin said,
Most people work just hard enough to not get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.
Likewise, students will at times work just hard enough to pass and be rewarded just enough to fulfill a requirement.
Anyway, here is my informal list of techniques for drawing them out:
- Remind them of their (individual) importance. We cannot all learn effectively from just one or two sources. The learning process is a community process.
- Ask leading questions. Make them feel like they know the answer, not like the answer is being fed to them. (Yeah, right. Like I KNOW the answers.)
- Play Bloom's Taxonomy: make them activate their prior knowledge. Every day something we learned long ago is called upon to enhance something we're doing now. It's up to us to recognize how to apply it.
- Don't use up all the icebreakers in the first week.
- Take advantage of brainstorming exercises.
- Take advantage of role-playing exercises.
...and of course, I have to remind myself to keep toys and candy handy. :-)
Labels: rhetoric
Pokemon: the Phenomenon that Wouldn't Die
Here is a news article that came along just when I thought the Pokemon Phenomenon was
finally about to subside. It suggests that Nintendo will open up a traveling Pokemon amusement park. It'll of course feature Pikachu (pictured, photo from AFP and published at news.yahoo.com with the article linked above).
I first bought a
Game Boy Pocket for each of my kids, so they could play
Pokemon Red and Blue, about nine years ago. They grew out of it before I did. And even they didn't grow out of it before we'd accumulated another Pocket, two
Game Boy Colors, a
Game Boy Advance, and Pokemon versions
Yellow,
Gold,
Silver,
Ruby, and
Leaf Green. OK, so that last one we bought for me. We may well have financed
Nintendo all by ourselves. LOL Question: will Pokemon EVER die?
Labels: diversions
Lorraine Allen on avoiding the "no"
Lorraine Allen (pictured) of the
Small Business Development Center addressed my students this past week. The thrust of her message was that our best chance to keep potential investors, employers and customers from saying "no" is to consider in advance their reasons for a "no" and prepare responses for those reasons:
- List in your own mind (or on paper if you must) what you have to offer, and then ask yourself to whom you should offer it.
- Be honest.
- Answer a question with a question (and thus keep the ball in their court).
- Assume you already have what you want from them (though without arrogance).
- Ask them "what do you need me to do?"
Allen recommends a book, which I unfortunately have not yet read: Ries & Trout,
Positioning: the Battle for Your Mind.
Labels: consulting
Juterphusion's latest needs
Anthony Thompson of
Juterphusion Recording Solutions is telling me that his greatest need is for someone to help him with marketing. His business is on a pace to support a few employees by the time he graduates, in a year or so. And he's been doing good things in marketing himself, though he professes no special skill there and certainly has little time to spend on it. He's
selling products through CafePress, and he has a
MySpace -- those are good things for someone in his evolutionary state, but he needs to step up his level of marketing professionalism. Maybe with some
brochures or
free business cards for starters. :-)
He tells me he's getting more work because "your attitude toward people is important." (He means his potential customers when he says "people.")
He may also at least consider taking on my son as an intern this summer. :-)
Finally, there is this:
If you can't OWN it, think about how you can GET it (some other way).
...and he is becoming a master at finding what he needs. I think his mastery at putting stuff together is really spelled out in this page from his journal. (Which is also a reminder that entrepreneurs have to keep written records, always.)
Labels: young entrepreneurs
Ryan Guitars: makes me wish I could play...
In a past life, long ago, I dated Barb Ryan of
Ryan Guitars. I was in high school then, and I knew both the clear-minded go-getter Barb, and her now husband/partner, the thoughtful artisan Kevin, who was at that time playing in a band called "Psalmistry." (No use looking them up on
Google: the name is being used by several other organizations, and none are the band I'm talking about, long since retired.)
But knowing them as I did, however long ago, I could not help but be interested when I learned they were both entrepreneurs, shipping handmade guitars to order. So besides writing Barb and finding out they were both OK -- well, better than OK, actually -- I took the online shop tour. It's pretty compelling: a cross between fine art and detail engineering. I especially like the way Ryan Guitars assumes its customers understand the guitar-making process. Maybe we don't ALL understand FULLY, but we can pick up enough to appreciate the attention to detail and their respect of sound
shop methods.
Is a custom guitar in your future? There's where to go to get it! :-)
Labels: young entrepreneurs
PS: no more brown rings?
I was in
orthodontist Karen DeSimone's office yet again yesterday (my son is about to have his braces off -- yay!). Every time I go to DeSimone's place I see something aggressive her office is doing either to promote itself, to please its customers, or both.
This time, the thing I saw was a single-cup coffee-brewer (pictured) that's being peddled by
Green Mountain Coffee. This thing was accompanied by a bucket of little self-contained mini-filters of coffee (my wife's favorite is also pictured) and tea. DeSimone's people were really proud of this thing. I mean, it only cost their office about $100-$150, depending on which model brewer they bought, and they had one happy parent after another. (It's not always fun, waiting for braces to be installed or serviced.) Happy office visitors are
word-of-mouth marketers. My guess is, that's DeSimone's gamble. :-)
Labels: office space
Stamped with the Brown Ring of Quality
I had a piece of paper at my office stamped with
the Brown Ring of Quality. I don't know what I could have done to deserve such an honor. <sniff> Anyhow, here is a copy with my son's reaction to it superimposed.
Labels: diversions
New "Engineer as Hero" Hall-of-Fame members
We'll be placing
Harrison Ford and
Jodie Foster in the
Engineer-as-Hero Hall-of-Fame, just as soon as I finally see
Flightplan and
Firewall. Each has played an engineer in a previous film, and to play those roles and do a good job is how you get in. :-)
Foster will only be the second woman in the Hall. We need more geek women in the movies! Where are they?
Labels: internet
Does TCNJers follow the history of Usenet?
Comparing the history of
TCNJers to a history of
Usenet groups such as
sci.engr (greatly accelerated):
- we start with the original group, small but committed
- discussion topics start out specific but gravitate to general, except for ads for meetings that may or may not be of general interest
- good discussions bring in more users
- occasional announcements from those who drop in just to make them
- flame wars break out but are quashed by those who want a nice group, and occasionally by group veterans who are trying to maintain a vision
- as the group grows, those interested in specific discussions break out into other groups, keeping the participation in the original group close to constant
- but most of the thoughtful people break out into the other groups
- and the original group is gradually dominated by a few "personalities" with spam on their mind or axes to grind
- the remaining thoughtful people are chased off by flame wars
- the original group becomes a polluted sandbox dominated by spam and the pronouncements of the personalities
If it's true that TCNJers follows this history, we are currently proceeding toward stage 6.
My former student Mary Anne, who's responsible for forming TCNJers, I don't think ever dreamed that she'd have a community of more than 150. On a campus of 6000, where many students are far from activist, this is significant. Some of the subscribers are potential students; a few are alumni; some participants claim their parents even occasionally look in. (Heaven forfend!) I would consider this a classic example of
word-of-mouth marketing, as Usenet once was.
Labels: internet
How Entrepreneurs engage in Mushroom Management
The way the entrepreneurs used to do "mushroom management" with me, at least, was to put off my questions and concerns with sensitive but noncommittal and ultimately meaningless statements such as the following:
- That would be great! (...as in Lumbergh -- pictured -- from Office Space)
- The meeting went very well.
- We'll take care of you.
- We'll do what's appropriate.
- We'll make sure you have what you need.
- We're talking to the right people.
Mushroom management? "Keep 'em in the dark, feed 'em
shit, and watch 'em grow!"
Nowadays, I try to ask questions that are as specific as I can make them. Make the bullshit walk! :-)
Labels: consulting
Ann on Super Bowl commercials
My old friend
Ann Sowers (pictured) watched the Super Bowl, I think just to see the commercials. I want to see the commercials myself, but not the game. I have been out of watching football ever since
"the Drive" and
"the Fumble".
Browns fans know what I'm talking about.
Ann has this to say:
I commend Dove for their stance on self-esteem. It is time that someone stands up and tells young girls that it is OK to just be themselves.
...and this...
I sure could have figured a better way of spending all that money than on a commercial with women dressed like lettuce, pickles, hamburger, and that stupid looking King.
...brief, but insightful.
Labels: consulting
The Books the NY Times Likes
Student assistant Linh retrieved
a list of books the NY Times likes. (I notice this list changes frequently, and Linh also tried to extract from the list titles most of interest to entrepreneurs, since the Times list is of business books in general.)
...I haven't yet read any of these. Maybe I oughta get on the stick.
Labels: rhetoric
The Books They Like
Here is a small sampling of the books my students read as part of learning about entrepreneurship through more-or-less guided self-discovery. I've noted books that I've read, and noted it IN CAPS when I especially liked the book.
- Kidder, The Soul of a New Machine -- READ IT
- Bunnell, Making the Cisco Connection -- READ IT
- Bunnell, The eBay Phenomenon -- read it
- Shirk & Wadia, Kitchen Table Entrepreneurs -- READ IT
- Spector, amazon.com: Get Big Fast -- READ IT
- Trump & Schwartz, The Art of the Deal
- Marriott & Brown, The Spirit to Serve Marriott's Way
- Grove, Only the Paranoid Survive
- Manes & Andrews, Gates
- Shook, The Entrepreneurs
- Henry, What it Takes
- Rancic, You're Hired -- READ IT
- Kepcher, Carolyn 101 -- read it
I'll supply more before long.
Labels: rhetoric
Toward a working definition of "value"
When student assistant Linh passed by my class last week, I asked her how she would define "value." I admit now that I asked the question in a vague way, because she asked me in turn if I was talking about
ethics. When I told her no, then she asked if I was talking about
quality. So even I was confused by this point. What the heck WAS I talking about? And I know that many people much more experienced in business than I am are hesitant to throw out a definition of the term "value" and expect others to use it.
Still, I need a working definition for my own students to use.
Entrepreneur magazine has an article by
Barry Farber with a nice simple definition:
the power of a [product] or [service] to command other goods or things in exchange [...and...] the present worth of future rights to income.
How about this?
And going a step further: I found
another article online, by Mohanbir Sawnhey of Northwestern, that gives seven characteristics of value, which I have totally
paraphrased here:
- Customers define it.
- They will not always be able to. We may have to help them to describe what it is they like, without actually telling them they like it.
- It's multidimensional. Here are just a few things my students just yesterday said might contribute to value:
- It's a trade-off. Sometimes we may have to sacrifice a little of one area -- even one of our favorites -- to give the customers more of several others.
- It's contextual. What they like may depend in part on who they are and what they're doing with our products and services.
- It's relative. What they like may depend in part on what our competitors -- known and unknown -- are doing.
- It's a mind-set. If we don't think "value" in everything we do, we are not very likely to deliver value in anything.
Labels: consulting
The Law of Finding Lost Stuff
A guy I worked with
at NASA once told me, "if you lose something, accuse someone of stealing it, and you will find it instantly." His theorem holds true for me much of the time, but it brings along its own problems: the people I most often accuse are
my wife and my daughter (whose blog address I better keep secret).
It might be better if when I lose something I
wind the horn of Rohan, and sound the horn-call of Buckland:
Awake! Fear! Fire! Foes! Awake!
Labels: diversions
Always check your work first!
Lest we forget, if we don't check our work, we get egg on our faces.
Labels: education
Pinkett and Jackson come to TCNJ: why not more said?
In the past two weeks, the most recent winner of
the Apprentice,
Dr. Randal Pinkett (left), came to TCNJ. Two days ago, the first season's runner-up,
Kwame Jackson (right), was on campus. These events were well-publicized. So why am I having so much trouble finding info on what these guys had to say? Even of my own students, only one attended one presentation -- she's an officer in
the student chapter of NABA, and said she got to spend a good deal of time just talking to Jackson while "waiting for his limo." :-) :-) :-) I would have given much to go to see either, but
my day job made it impossible. Even
Professor Kim has nothing to say on her blog. I'm both disappointed and very antsy.
On the more-or-less lighter side, I have learned that five pages on my site are ranked among TCNJ's top 200 visited pages:
Labels: young entrepreneurs
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