Archive for the 'small business' Category
Just a quick note to say that according to HuffPo’s super simple searchable list, Austin will be losing two Starbucks locations:
6403 S CONGRESS AND ACADEMY 1007 S CONGRESS AUSTIN TX
14121 MOPAC & SLAUGHTER 5000 W SLAUGHTER AUSTIN TX
Sucks, but those were shitty locations anyways.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but if you’re a blogger, you’re likely getting spammed by PR agencies. I know I am…
And so, in celebration of that fact, and hopefully, so I can make some money off the spam I receive, while also letting everyone know what the latest stupid Press Release [...]
Why it sucks to outsource your technology sometimes
Closed Published 1 year, 1 month ago in small business, sysadminJust a quick note for all of your Feedburner users (I’m talking to site owners here). For two days now, Feedburner has been sporadically throwing errors… not actually redirecting people to the sites they want to go to:
Click for larger
Sucks for the site owners, and for me. This kind of thing is why [...]
12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know
Interesting quote:
A common rule of thumb I tell people is to target their performance goals in application design and coding so that their infrastructure (not including people) is ≤10% of an application’s revenue.
Does that mean if I’m spending 5% of revenues on application infrastructure, I’m way underspending, or making more money?
Are you thinking of taking your photography to the next level, and making a business out of it? If you are, bookmark PhotoBusinessForum and excellent blog about making a run at being a professional photographer.
Note to JobSeekers: Don’t save your resume in Office 2007 format
7 Comments Published 1 year, 7 months ago in get a job, leadership + management, small businessI’ve got two job openings that I’m trying to fill:
A Sales Manager position and an Account Manager or Coordinator position (if you’re looking in Austin, shoot us your resume … contact info on those job postings - or if you can find my email address on this site (it’s on here somewhere, but I don’t [...]
Don’t make a bad deal - good advice about starting a business from Seth Godin.
New Apple Stuff in time for the Holidays
0 Comments Published 1 year, 10 months ago in macintosh, small businessI just wanted to take a moment to recommend that you buy one of the new MacBook Pro’s, a new MacBook, or a new iPod shuffle for the holidays, if you’re shopping for a geek that’s looking for a new geeky item this winter.
I have an older MacBook Pro right now, and this thing is awesome. [...]
Microchip Cufflinks - great geek gift for Christmas at $50/pair. They’ve got lots of other cools cufflinks too.
One Lucky Advertiser
1 Comment Published 2 years, 4 months ago in marketing + advertising, sales and selling, small businessMy friend Mike Orren is offering a crazy promotion to drum up some advertising dollars. And the crazy thing about it is that it just might work.
If you’re a Dallas area advertiser looking for a great way to reach people in the DFW Metroplex, you should take a look at PegasusNews and TexasGigs.com. [...]
The Five Most Common Lies in Business - An irreverant look at some of the things I’ve heard in business over the past 10 years. Totally agree with these statements. If you hear yourself saying these things, check your BS meter.
Blinksale - The Easiest Way to Send Invoices Online!
Membership has its priviledges
0 Comments Published 2 years, 4 months ago in macintosh, small businessI just became a Daring Fireball member. I did so because I hadn’t done it before, though I wanted to… just didn’t feel like John was putting out a product that was worth it as a part time job.
Now that he’s doing it full-time, I’m super excited about reading his full-time posts… and I [...]
Why Your Employees Are Losing Motivation - good read for managers and management.
This one goes out to a former boss of mine: Nine tricks buyers use to “steal” your company. Good lessons.
transparent Scott
0 Comments Published 2 years, 4 months ago in marketing + advertising, small businessThis post: Dear Mike, from Scott Johnson is a great example of transparency… which we’ve sort of stopped talking about in the blogosphere… can’t wait to see Ookles launch Scott!
The Personal MBA - great idea.
Forms, contracts, pricing guides and more
This one is for Scott Johnson: Urban Legend: 80% of Business Fail … Scott always says “Yes, I know 80% of small businesses fail” in his podcasts (which are excellent by the way)
Mac’s Moment from the WSJ - an interesting article talking about how now may be the time the Mac makes a move into more businesses… not sure I agree or disagree, but who knows. I’m linking to it because I interviewed with Chuck, who’s quoted in the first section, back when I got out of the Army some 5 or 6 years ago… cool… Chuck’s a great guy.
It’s not about the money - great little post about what kind of bonuses you should pay. I agree with this for every field except for salespeople that are highly motivated by dollars.
from Looking Busy : “It’s more important to look busy than be busy.”
Guy Kawasaki’s take on naming a company: “The Name Game”. Good read, as always.
20 Questions to Develop Your Business
Why Most VC’s Don’t Sign NDAs - from Brad Feld. Great read.
A few light links on which type of company structure to choose if you’re starting a company: What’s The Best Corporate Structure For An Early Stage Company?, and a follow up: S-Corp’s vs. LLC’s and this little gem Why the LLC is the Ruby on Rails of legal entities
Paying Yourself: From Startup and Beyond - “Determining your salary is one of the most important decisions you’ll make as a business owner. Here’s how to do it.”
What do newspapers do???? - Wake up newspapers. This is your wake up call.
The Art of Bootstrapping - required reading for anyone looking at starting a business without funding. (and probably good reading for those of you with funding too).
Caring for Your Introvert - the funny thing is I’m a sales person, which normally requires people to be pretty extroverted, and I’ve always considered myself an introvert. Good read for managers, btw. (Hat tip: Andy Bourland’s about me page)
Need Representation?
0 Comments Published 2 years, 7 months ago in marketing + advertising, publishing + content, sales and selling, small businessIf you’re building or launching a new website, and want someone to sell the ads for you (that is, to represent your site) you might want to look at this list: ABC’s of ad networks. Not 100% comprehensive by anymeans (there are plenty of niche networks out there like Active Athlete Media and the [...]
How to do what you love - one of the best essayists around, Paul Graham, teaches us how to do what we love to do. Love it Paul!
I learned something this week about pitching your business idea to an Angel: “One of the rules I’ve learned about being an entrepreneur is that you have to always be ready to pitch” from Scott’s Accomplishment of the Week post.
The Art of Innovation from Guy Kawasaki, one of those guys I’ve always wanted to call a mentor.
The Mailroom Guy
2 Comments Published 2 years, 8 months ago in leadership + management, small businessI just love our mailroom guy at my company. I just got this email from him:
Ladies and Gents:
I’m writing this note to inform you that in our constant duty to keep cost down on Fedex’s, we’ve came up wit a system although not perfect, but then again what is? that will make everybody here [...]
Starbucks Economics - I’m going to have to start ordering short cappucinos, not because I’m cheap, because I really like the little powerful versions I’ve had in more European coffee houses.
It’s all about the middle: M & M & M - “In most things it’s how you start and how you finish that seem to matter most. What I’ve come to realize is that in software development it’s all about the middle. The middle is about morale, motivation, and momentum. It’s easy to get excited when you first start something, and even easier to get excited when you’re about to launch something, but if you can’t maintain that excitement during the doldrums, then you’re in deep trouble.” Good read
Small Biz 101: Tips for Increasing Sales - Part 4 of this Small Biz series. Basics on sales, but basics are always good.
Why I Quit Entrepreneurship and Got a Real Job … and what I learned from the experience. - great post. Very insightful nuggets in there… go read it.
Corporate Weblog Policy Links
0 Comments Published 2 years, 8 months ago in leadership + management, small businessI answered a question on a listserv today about corporate weblogging policies, basically pointing the person that asked the question to a host of links either about weblog policies, or directly to some policies. Here’s a list of the links, in case you’re looking for a list of good weblog policies because you’re building [...]
The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint
0 Comments Published 2 years, 8 months ago in leadership + management, organization, sales and selling, small businessThis is definitely something I’m going to adhere to…
The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint:
“It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points.”
Why? Because it’s smart, and it works. Every presentation I’ve ever given that was more complicated than a [...]
Build to Flip = Build to Fail - must read [via xplane]
Looking at starting a company, so you can flip it to get rich? Read this: Flipping Your Startup 101
If you’ve got 10 minutes to spare this morning, you’ve got to watch these Video Outtakes from LearnFree.com. My buddy Josh used to be a video editor, and he saves these old outtakes from his first job out of college. Man I remember back when I thought he’d made it forever, because he worked at a real “dot com” and was going to have plenty of stock options. Those were the boom days. Lesson learned. In 1999, people didn’t pay for online training videos that weren’t all that good at training you. What’s really crazy is you could buy Vidbook.com for $2888 as of this morning… that’s insane knowing what once went into building that domain originally. Make sure you watch this one … it’s the funniest one, but Josh pulled it down because his grandmother might not like it … heh.
“No one starts with a masterpiece” is the latest in 37 Signals Small Biz 101 series. Go read it for more tips if you’re looking at starting your own biz (or already did and want to read some tips that might apply to you too): “Every successful business has a dirty little secret: They didn’t know if they were going to be successful when they started.”
How much to charge - Good examples of how much to charge if you’re an independant web designer, but completely accurate and applicable to other trades.
How to Ship Anything - How a small business owner built a smart shipping process to reduce labor costs… very cool.
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