Small Biz 101: No one starts with a masterpiece

Great post from RyanC and his continuning series on Small Biz.

Top Ten New Year’s Reolutions for CEO’s

Great post here.  Why you ask? I like the way it addresses each area of a growing company’s CEO responsibilities.  Nice!

links for 2005-12-26

• Alex Bosworth’s Weblog: Dynamics of Digg
  (tags: Digg web2.0)

25 Characteristics of The Ideal Startup

Sam Decker post here:

1. Defendable and differentiated
2. Competitive cost structure
3. Attractive partnership opportunities
4. Repeat customers
5. Word of mouth opportunity
6. Memorable product and name
7. Potential for PR
8. Attractive to be bought or merged
9. Scaleable staff and systems
10. Scaleable product — build once, sell many times
11. Uncomplicated
12. Focus
13. Niche market or fragmented industry
14. High velocity and large market / industry
15. High perceived value
16. Product can be accessorized – revenue synergies
17. Healthy cash flow –> margin x velocity
18. Demonstrable felt need, demand – does it hit a primal chord?
19. Business can be measured for improvement
20. Can claim leadership
21. Sales model is scaleable and predictable
22. Product evokes emotion
23. Can make big wins – big customers
24. Limited exposure to legal issues
25. Own relationship with and information about customers

Getting it Right

Ari Paparo gives a remakably candid, open, and honest overview of the mistakes his company, blink.com, made here:

So (besides the money), why did we fail and del.ico.us and the other Web 2.0 companies succeed?

I don’t think it was that we were “too early” or that we got killed when the bubble burst. I believe it all came down to product design, and to some very slight differences in approach.

A Guide to Starting Your Business

A good, comprehensive resource here:

In an attempt to reduce the number of frustrating hours searching the web for what you need, we’ve written this article to help you with the small business paperwork, the basics of accounting, and an overview of some legal considerations. The topics aren’t sexy, but they’ll get you started in the right direction if you’re tired of working for the man and want to get out on your own

(Get Yourself a Pair of) Cheap Sunglasses

Very interesting.  I’ve often wondered about this myself:

Two things are interesting about Business Pundit’s recent post on those ubiquitous, full-page, free sunglasses magazine inserts. The first is that its as rare as it is refreshing to see a smart person admit that there is something they don’t know, especially when it is in their area of expertise. The second interesting thing is the question itself. Here’s how Rob worded it:

I open up a web browser and search for free sunglasses and I find lots of sites offering them. Why? What am I missing about this business model? Some of these sites claim that they have overstock sunglasses that they would rather give away than pay to destroy. But I keep thinking that if I was a sunglass manufacturer, and year after year I was overproducing sunglasses that I had to give away for free, I would cut back on production. My best guess is that either: 1. Sunglasses really are dirt cheap to make. or 2. Once you get your free sunglasses you get a bunch of other junk mail. Does anyone see something I’m missing, or know anything about this strange business model?

Stealth Mode

There is something here that is deeply cool:

Q: So he’s Australian? And you know him from IM? Have you ever met him in meat space? Are you nuts?
A: Yes. Yes. No. Possibly. Seriously, yes Mike’s from Australia. He’s got top notch technical skills. Enough so that another startup has already copied our stealth mode page and blogged about it. That’s high praise. I’m a huge fan of Ross Mayfield and SocialText and Ross is building a distributed company where they hire where the talent is and he’s making it work. And MySQL does the same thing so basically can distribute engineering and that’s what we plan to do for this company. I’m tired of competing with Google and Yahoo for talent. Not only is it insane but its expensive. I’d much rather implement the organizational processes to support a distributed organization and then find the world’s best people (heck I already know who I want to hire for this one) and let them live where they want to. So no I haven’t met him in meat space. We’ve got a meeting planned but its gonna take a bit since I’m now unfunded and there’s a lot of travel involved. Now lest you think I am insane I’d like to point out a few things:

• I’ve known the man for 3 years.
• He’s seen me at my best and my worst
• He’s reliably stood by me in good and bad times
• You only know who your friends are when times are bad (and he’s a true friend)
• One of the people I consider one of my best friends is Apokalyptik and not only did Feedster hire him w/o ever meeting him in person but we gave him root** Apok was an IM buddy who became a Feedster contractor who became a Feedster employee and only then did I ever meet him in person. He’s one of the only two good systems administrators I’ve ever been fortunate enough to hire. So I do know a bit about hiring in the virtual fashion so while on the surface I too agree that this sounds insane on its face but its not (at least to me).

How Google Woos the Best and Brightest

Great article that looks at the Google hiring process:

A grueling process

Interviews at Google usually begin on the telephone. If successful, applicants are invited for face-to-face meetings with up to 10 people, a process described as excruciating by people who have gone through them because of the length of time it takes and the mental gymnastics necessary.

Recent job candidates described questions as being on topic, whether about software code or business. In many cases, they were asked to brainstorm and role play to show how they think. For instance, how would they market a product? Those who conduct the interviews frequently challenge applicants. Questions about algorithms, Java software and computer networking are common for applicants seeking technical positions.

It’s a slight change from Google’s early days, when Brin, the co-founder, would quiz applicants and then give them five minutes to prepare a presentation about anything complicated that he didn’t already know, according to Doug Edwards, a former Google marketing director who was subjected to such a test six years ago.

Overcoming Limiting Financial Beliefs

Steve Pavlina:

My #1 financial block was my resistance to the concept of making money very easily, almost effortlessly. I learned in childhood that money was the result of hard work. Although I received occasional gifts for holidays and birthdays, if I wanted extra money I usually had to labor for it in some way. I carried this belief with me through many years of entrepreneurship. If I wanted to make more money, my strategy always seemed to be based on hard, hard work