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The 4 Universal Approaches to Entrepreneurship

by Paul Joseph July 29, 2011 Featured

In an increasingly homogenized world, entrepreneurship is being defined by a common set of global principles. Although, what we discuss today, in not how to achieve entrepreneurial success in a global village; we attempt to understand the universal principles that make any entrepreneurship successful, no matter where in the world you are. Learn to recognize an opportunity A successful entrepreneur is one who sees a gap in demand and supply or one who thinks he can supply the best in a market crowded with supplies. The 2010 Forbes Richest Man in the World, is an entrepreneur who pounced on an opportunity. An immigrant in Mexico, Carlos Slim Helú started off with a dry foods store, made money from his real estate investments and then went on to grab the government-run Mexican Telecom Business when it was being privatized in the 1990s. Today, he’s valued at $53.5 Billion, ahead of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, who, incidentally, also made their riches by learning to recognize opportunities. There are entrepreneurial lessons to come out of the British Royal Wedding too. Catherine Middleton’s mother, Carol Middleton, a stay-at-home mom noticed a huge opportunity in the Kids Party segment in the 70s. The wife of a flight dispatcher, she set up a hugely successful home business that made the family wealthy, propelling them into social circles that would eventually lead to the Royal union. The company, Party Pieces, is currently valued at 30 million pounds. Have you learned to recognize an opportunity yet? Recognize the potential of your idea If you haven’t seen ‘The Social Network’, you’re probably detained in Guantanamo. If you’ve seen it, you’ll definitely remember the bit where Sean Parker talks to Mark Zuckerberg about Roy Raymond. The Stanford Business School grad who wanted to buy lingerie for his wife, was too embarrassed to buy it in a mall where everybody could see him and came up with the idea for Victoria’s Secret, a high-end lingerie store, where men could buy lingerie without feeling like perverts. Unfortunately, he sold his company, and jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge a few years after. While introducing Mark to Victoria’s Secret models, Sean makes his point to the future billionaire – recognize the potential of your business idea. Universally, if there’s one thing that sets successful entrepreneurs apart from would-have-been success stories is this simple skill to know where an idea can take you. Roy Raymond sold the company he created for 5 million and died when it was worth 500 in a few years, because he failed to recognize the potential of his brainchild. Sean Parker received 7% of Facebook’s stock and is worth $924 million, when he didn’t even come up with the idea. His networth is the result of his genius in being able to recognize the potential of Mark’s idea. Stay Foolish, Stay Motivated If you look at some of the biggest entrepreneurial success stories of our time – Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Amazon, Google, etc. – these were all begun by crazy guys, dropping out of college, setting up small businesses in garages and setting out to do ridiculous things like compiling the entire data of the internet and writing algorithms to make it easy to sift through this data. But these were men who stayed motivated and stayed foolish. Jeff Bezos started Amazon after a comfortable stint as Vice President at a well-paying Computer Science job. Indeed, not all IT Czars became billionaires at 25! He kept the fire in his belly alive and thought of the Amazon business plan on a cross country drive from New York to Seattle. After working in the plush offices of Wall Street, he risked it all for setting up a company in his garage. Present day billionaire entrepreneurs who started from scratch follow the simple universal approach to entrepreneurship, they stay foolish and motivated, which Steve Jobs put so beautifully in his Stanford graduation speech to deafening applause. These entrepreneurs have defined what it takes to be successful – all you have to do is have enough belief in yourself and continue to put in the effort and work it takes. These guys wouldn’t be at the top of their game, if they weren’t constantly motivating themselves. Follow your passion Jerry Seinfeld is an inspiration to all those artist-entrepreneurs out there. Whether, you’re a writer, a painter or a stand-up comic, Seinfeld shows you that if you’re really good at what you do, there’s no need to trade money for following your passion. Currently valued at $800 Million, Seinfeld retired from television more than a decade ago but continues to rake in the moolah by syndicating his show, Seinfeld. After landing a small role in an HBO series, in the 80s, Seinfeld was fired over creative differences, showing streaks of a classic entrepreneur who doesn’t get along with people. Let’s not forget Steve Jobs was fired from the company he created! He went on to create a pilot for Seinfeld, along with Larry David, and sold the show to NBC. He refused to extend the show by another season, even for 5 million per episode, or take up a Hollywood career after the show ended and instead he continued to be a stand-up comic, making more millions through his shows. The four approaches to entrepreneurship described above are so universal in nature that they can be applied to any business, in any part of the world. They are simple as philosophies, strong as ideas and enduring as steps to entrepreneurial success. Preetam Kaushik is a freelance writer/independent columnist and an avid blogger. He is a web 2.0 expert and writing consultant serving a wide array of clients. Read more about Preetam here .

Tagged as: amazon, british, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, facebook, family, game, kids, real-estate, success, time, wedding

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Young Entrepreneur Interview: Costin Tuculescu of AnyMeeting.com

by Paul Joseph July 26, 2011 Featured

How do you make money by giving something away? Just ask the subject of today’s interview, Costin Tuculescu. Costin, a software engineer by education, is a serial entrepreneur whose passion lies in creating new technologies, finding solutions to technology problems, and producing new, exciting products and services. His latest venture is a full-featured web conferencing application, called AnyMeeting.com , which costs users nothing. Through bootstrapping, and eventually angel funding, Costin has grown the ad-supported business from an idea to a leading provider of online conferencing solutions, with nearly 40,000 users worldwide. With that kind of experience, you’ll want to read what this young entrepreneur has to say! Enjoy the interview! AnyMeeting.com is a great tool that offers a lot of functionality at no cost. For those of our readers who aren’t familiar with the company, can you tell us a little about your business model? Our goal is to make web conferencing as accessible as email for small businesses. In order for this to happen, it needs to be free and easy to use. AnyMeeting is ad supported, which allows us to offer such a great service completely for free. AnyMeeting allows small business users to easily meet with anyone in the world at anytime for free, saving them time and money. You’re competing with some well-established webinar/meeting companies. How did you know your model would be able to stand up to the competition? As a whole, the web conferencing and webinar industry is growing at about 20% a year. The current economic conditions have accelerated the growth as companies have been cutting travel expenses. There is also a significant portion of the small business market that has never used web conferencing due to the high cost of service. A significant portion of our current users represent this segment. AnyMeeting offers for free what other service providers charge thousands of dollars per year for. For example, if you wanted to host webinars for 200 people, it would cost approximately $4,000 per year with a provider such as GoToMeeting or WebEx. You can do the same webinars with AnyMeeting, completely for free. A free service is an excellent choice for anyone, from new users and small business who want to start giving webinars and having online meetings, to the advanced user looking to cut expenses. While the price of web conferencing services is going down, nothing as feature rich as our service is being offered for free so, we know there is a market for our service. Another differentiator between us and the big service providers is that our platform doesn’t need any downloads, installs or setups for your audience. It’s completely browser based. You’ve added close to 40,000 users since launching in 2010. How did you do that? Which advertising methods have worked well for you? We’ve been very successful in our attracting new users through search engine marketing and social media. Referrals have also been a great source of growth for us. Our users are so pleased with AnyMeeting that they tell lots of their friends and colleagues about us. In a survey to our users, over 65% responded they have recommended us at least once, with 49% stating they have recommended us more than once. We’re big fans of SEO. Once you’re properly optimized and come up organically in search results, you’re gold, so that’s why we’re constantly working on it. SEM as well — Google AdWords and Microsoft Bing offer good ROI for our type of service. We’re also looking to create relationships with associations that reach our target market — small businesses that are just starting out. They don’t really know if it’s worth paying for a webinar service, so, they are open to trying us out first. Reaching out to those specific verticals and online marketing have been our two main business tools that we use to grow our user base. What has been the biggest business challenge you’ve had to face, and how did you overcome it? One of the biggest challenges for any start-up is building the team. So far, I’ve been very fortunate to grow the company with the right people on board. However, finding the talented people that have the mentality of, “okay, we have to do whatever it takes to grow the company” and who share your vision, is one of the most challenging things because you’re not going to just put out an ad and find those people. It’s an ongoing process of networking and reaching out to your network, going to mixers and kind of putting the word out there. It’s an ongoing process to build, and continue to motivate the right team. What three pieces of advice do you have for young entrepreneurs interested in starting their first business? #1 – Plan out what you want to get out of this business? Is it going to be a lifestyle business where you make a good living to support yourself and your family, or are you going to be the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs? Deciding on what you’re looking to get out of it, and in what time frame, will help you set up the right goals, milestones, etc. #2 – Surround yourself with smart people that are good at what they do and you enjoy being around. Since you’re going to be putting in 10-12 hour days, you need to make sure that you’re spending that time with the right people, all working together for one common goal – to be successful. #3 — Work your butt off. For YoungEntrepreneur readers, starting your own company is your chance to get ahead of everyone else, and it takes hard work to become successful. Realize that this venture is going to take the next X years of your life, and that you’re committed to its success. The only way to make that happen is to work your butt off. How do you personally define success? Very simply, to me, success means exceeding expectations.

Tagged as: business-ideas, entrepreneur interview, family, Featured, life, microsoft, startup, user

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Young Entrepreneur Interview: Costin Tuculescu of AnyMeeting.com

by Paul Joseph July 26, 2011 Featured

Tagged as: business, business-ideas, entrepreneur, family, Featured, marketing, microsoft, online marketing, price, small-business, success, user

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How Showing Vulnerability Makes You A Better Blogger

by Paul Joseph July 11, 2011 Featured

I have an ongoing fascination with how technology has changed the way we do business and affects how we connect and communicate, and this fascination was peaked after reading Yaro’s last article . Having only started my adventure into this online world in the last two years, I’m always learning so much from reading the articles posted here. As I spend time on this blog, and the more I see of the connection between Yaro and the readers, I get to see how Yaro models running a successful business in the new economy. Today’s economy is a technology-based economy. It’s constantly evolving through the Internet, nanotechnologies, information and telecommunication technology and bionics. I’d like to share with you my observations of some of the elements I see that make up a successful model. They’re elements that are often unspoken, yet crucial to success in today’s hyper-connected world. These elements are: Blurring the lines between business and the rest of your life Transparency The Gift of Vulnerability and Connection I couldn’t think of a more succinct way to say, “blurring the lines between business and the rest of your life” but I think you get the idea. I’m referring to the ever-present element in business nowadays where your customers want to know more about you, they want to know who you are beyond just the business persona . This isn’t something new. When you think about it, humans once lived in small, local communities and traded with people within these small communities. Everyone did know a lot about the people they did business with. There were no clear lines between business and every other part of life. This served a very handy function, because you were able to gauge the level of integrity and value of a person in business by observing and interacting with them outside of their business persona. (Rural communities are still like this; I grew up in one and I’m currently writing this blog post from a property in rural Australia where I’m looking after my brother’s animals whilst the family are away.) Transparency The blurring of the lines between your business persona and who you are in other areas of life is a crucial element in today’s economy because it’s needed to build trust and create connection . What this does essentially is create more transparency and allows your customers to have a personal experience of you in your personal life, which helps them gauge the level of your integrity and authenticity. Even more importantly, it facilitates our primary need for human interaction and relatedness. Today’s economy is global and runs largely online, so your clients can’t get a good sense of who you are outside of business unless you share it with them. Most of us have a common preconception that people will put on certain “appearances” if they want to be perceived in a particular way. This isn’t an unfounded belief, it’s precisely how we often behave. So we’re wired to be somewhat distrustful and sceptical about other people’s business personas, because we know they’re not necessarily a complete representation of who they are. This is why it’s so important to allow your customers to see more of you than just your business persona, because it’s those aspects of the rest of your life that will create the greatest level of trust and connection between you and your clients . I read Yaro’s recent post , and was amazed and touched at how many people responded to his very open appraisal of what’s been happening in his personal life lately. Yaro’s article gives a great example of how to walk the line between remaining professional yet still communicate with others in an open and candid way that facilitates a greater sense of connectedness and relatedness . And reading peoples comments shows how much this is valued by his audience. Of course, transparency doesn’t mean sharing the most intimate details of your personal life with your clients. Even in the days when humans lived in small local communities, this didn’t happen unless you were married to the town gossip who would broadcast the family secrets daily : / Transparency simply means sharing some of who you are in your personal life, including and especially the challenging experiences, so that clients can have a greater sense of connection and relatedness to you. The Gift Of Vulnerability I say “ especially the challenging experiences” because it’s those experiences that show others our vulnerability . If you want to know what creates connection more than anything else, it’s showing some vulnerability. Again, I don’t mean becoming a bleeding heart that pours out its troubles endlessly. Simply showing others that you have real struggles and challenges in life and things are not always perfect is one of the greatest gifts of humanity you can give, and it has a powerful impact on others. Social media, like Twitter , Facebook and YouTube and blogging are the most commonly used channels of communication that blur the boundaries of business and life. All of them are highly effective if you know how to balance being professional whilst still sharing openly and authentically from other areas of your life. Living in small local communities has morphed into living online in communities we’ve chosen. The online communities we choose create the space for us to have a variety of interactions and connections; much of it comes down to fulfilling our primary human need for connection and relatedness. It’s a different version of connecting and communicating, but essentially serves the same function. The intricacies of human connection go a lot further than this. There’s a great TED talk by a research professor named Brene Brown if you want to look into it more. The main thing to remember as a blogger, is that you have a gift you can give your audience that will have a far greater impact on their perception of you than anything else you say. This is your ability to share aspects of your life (like personal challenges and difficulties) that facilitate a level of connection that we rarely give ourselves permission to experience. And the rarity of this in life is part of what makes it so appreciated. Cheers, Neroli. Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: book, business, family, internet, life, online, perception

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How to Become an Idea Machine

by Paul Joseph July 8, 2011 Featured

“I think and therefore I am” said Descartes. A modern day successful entrepreneur might as well say “I think and therefore my business thrives.” Entrepreneurship thrives on ideas. Ideas are the fuel that drives business, the lifeline in times of crisis and the basis of entrepreneurship itself. Importantly, good ideas are incredibly hard to come by. Where as bad ones abound. So how can you generate great ideas for your business? And the right ones too? It’s an Ideas Factory Out There First of all, to know what you can do differently, you have to know what exists. Knowledge and information greatly powers your capacity to think innovatively. Often, entrepreneurs are great at obsessing over every single news snippet related to their business, but they ignore other areas of interest that they may have had in their lives. For instance, if you’ve set up a Social Media Marketing business, what are the chances that you’re reading about theatre or art, or music? Keeping abreast with information and interests can greatly help you with idea generation and innovation. A great example of this would be Steve Jobs. In his Stanford Graduation speech, he talks about dropping out of college and attending classes that purely interested him. He talks about his interest in Calligraphy, and how that interest led to the creation of beautiful font options in the Personal Computer. It is just a small example of how, a little, ‘by the way’ interest led to an idea that rules how we type on our computers in today’s world. Write Them Down – They’re Important There are many complicated idea generation techniques out there, like Mindmapping and the Ishikawa Diagram technique. Try them and if they work for you, that’s great. But the chances are they will be mere stimulants. If you focus on being well-rounded, pursuing interests outside your business, while also passionately pursuing your business interests, you’ll never lack ideas. In fact, you’ll have so many ideas that you will not remember them or you will just not have the time to implement them. The best idea generation tip is to not forget or lose good ideas. Make a list and review them whenever you’re consciously working towards generating new ideas. The likelihood is that you can build on an existing good idea you might have had months ago, and make it a great one. Get Out of the Idea Often, when you’re an integral part of your business, there are view points you’re completely missing. If you’re sitting in front of your desk and trying to figure out what the customer wants it’s going to be harder to come up with a great idea. Going out there and interacting with customers, getting out of the situation and actually putting yourself in your client’s shoes can help you understand what they really want. With great insights, great ideas are born. Sometimes, getting out, also means distancing yourself from your business. When was the last time you took a day off from not thinking about your business? It may not always be possible to take a holiday, but how about going for a movie, spending time with your family or just re-reading your favorite novel and giving your brains time to recharge. Taking a break helps your subconscious mind ruminate over ideas and present them to you when you’re ready. What are Great Ideas for? An entrepreneur must routinely look at different ideas and analyze them. Not just business ideas, marketing or promotion ideas, but little innovations that businesses make, say to cut costs or motivate employees to think big, their hiring practices and so on. A deep understanding of what makes ideas great will not just help you with generating better and better ideas, but it will help you evaluate your own ideas better. If you’re not naturally inclined to a fascination with great ideas and innovation, develop that obsession. Read about how Bill Gates started Microsoft and about how Pixar does such great work. Understand how Google’s 20% percent project time for its employees has helped generate some of the greatest ideas in tech history. Analyze how Music Record execs create millions worth of record selling artists. The world abounds with great ideas, start following them, chase some of your own, and soon your business life will be full of wonderful ideas. Giving it Time & Chipping Away at it The truth is that out of 100 ideas, 1 might be half-decent. Great ideas are hard to come by, but by consistently chasing them, you make idea generation a part of your personality. Some of the biggest innovators of our time have personality types that can be defined as ‘idea-chasing’, which involves constantly thinking about the next big thing. The best part is that this thinking seems to come naturally to them, and the motive is not always profit. Often, it’s about creating something absolutely innovative and mind-blowing. Take Richard Branson’s Flight to Space, for instance. Agrees, that an idea like that needs billions of dollars to bring to life, but there are hundreds of billionaire entrepreneurs who are merely chasing more billions. It is the innovative entrepreneur like Richard Branson, who wanted to offer something different that came up with it and in the process, makes more billions than the rest. Innovative businessman didn’t become star thinkers overnight. But they chased great ideas constantly. They chipped away at it, like it was what they were born to do. Give it time, chip away at generating great ideas, take it easy, get out of the box occasionally but persistently chase ideas and you will start generating good ideas on a daily basis. Idea generation is the first step to innovation, and innovation is the key to a successful business. So do what it takes, to get those great ideas! Preetam Kaushik is a freelance writer/independent columnist and an avid blogger. He is a web 2.0 expert and writing consultant serving a wide array of clients. Read more about Preetam here .

Tagged as: business psychology, business-ideas, client, entrepreneur, family, ideas, personality, space

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“Married to Bharat Matrimony and married through Bharat Matrimony”: Murugavel at Chennai RRT

by Paul Joseph June 26, 2011 Featured

“Be humble and don’t get carried away by success” If life were as predictable as day and night, would it be interesting? Murugavel Janakiraman, the first one to go to high school in his family, just took what came his way and then built something he liked with passion and ultimately took care of signposts that signalled at every turn of his business to become a success that he inspires a… (Visit Yourstory.in for full news, other content, and much more!)

Tagged as: content, family, frontpage, yourstory-in

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Ten Quotes from Entrepreneurs Looking to Fail

by Paul Joseph June 20, 2011 Featured

Every entrepreneur needs to be honest about their strengths and weaknesses, and realistic about their reasons for choosing the startup route. For any entrepreneur, even the best business opportunities, if entered for the wrong reasons, will likely fail. Some of these reasons seem obvious, so forgive me for restating, but I still hear them too often. Statistics show that at least 50% of new startups fail within five years, and many of the survivors eventually fail. If you don’t want to be part of these statistics, consider all the alternatives to starting your own business, especially if you have one of the following perspectives: 1. “I’m tired of working hard and being so stressed all the time.” Starting and growing a business is more work and more stress than any employee role should be. Perhaps you need to look carefully at the reasons for your weariness and stress at work. Health and personal problems don’t go away when you start a business. 2. “It’s my hobby anyway, so why not make it my business?” The problem here is that most hobbies cost money rather than make money. Just because you love doing it doesn’t mean anyone will love paying for it. 3. “I’m desperate, since I can’t find a job that suits me.” With the current recession, jobs are indeed hard to find. But don’t forget that businesses are failing at a higher rate as well. Desperate people don’t make good entrepreneurs, and probably don’t have the resources or fortitude to start a business. 4. “My family has always been in business, so it’s in my genes.” Good entrepreneurs do seem to have certain innate qualities, but it’s not clear that these qualities are automatically passed to offspring. If your passions are elsewhere, don’t try running the family business. 5. “I’ve inherited some money and starting a business should be a good investment.” You can’t start a business without capital, but having capital doesn’t mean you can start one. Learning is expensive and risky. It’s less risky to invest your windfall in someone with a proven business record, or put the money in the bank. 6. “I have some extra time, and I need a second income.” Being an entrepreneur is not a part-time job. A business startup is actually a second expense more than a second income. For supplementary income, you would be better served to take a part-time job with an existing company. 7. “I hate having a boss, and just being an employee.” Don’t start a business for a power trip. When you become a business owner, your customers, suppliers, creditors, partners and a lot of other people will become your new “bosses”. These people may be harder to please than your boss at the office today. 8. “All my friends own hot businesses and seem to be doing well.” You shouldn’t believe all the hype, or all the things said in social circles. Definitely don’t jump into trendy businesses you don’t know just to be popular. Even good friends tend to forget talking about the years of hard work and sacrifice, in favor of recent success. 9. “I’d like to be rich, so I’ll start a business.” Starting a business with a dream of riches is certain disappointment. There is no evidence that entrepreneurs make more money, on the average, than other professionals. There is much evidence that the risks of failure are higher on the business owner side. 10. “My primary goal is to contribute something to society.” This is laudable, but more effectively addressed after you have built a successful company, not before. If changing the world is your main motivation and money is not a concern, then do it, without allowing the building of a company to slow you down. For anyone with entrepreneurial aspirations, I recommend you start by networking with peer business people and organizations before you commit to a startup of your own. Ask questions and do everything you can to make sure you are tackling the right business for the right reasons. Your entrepreneurial life depends on it. Martin Zwilling is the founder and chief executive officer of Startup Professionals, a company that provides products and services to start-up founders and small business owners. Read more about Marty here .

Tagged as: business, business savvy, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, family, friends, money, small-business, time

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Ramona Saboo, Forty Red Bangles, Organic, handmade & natural products from India

by Paul Joseph June 7, 2011 Featured

Ramona Saboo, Director of Forty Red Bangles(FRB), who hails from Australia has a fascinating story to tell. Her journey began from Melbourne, where she met her husband, the eldest son of a traditional Rajasthan family in India, and then she found herself in Jodhpur, being enthralled by the nuances of the family life in Rajasthan. She travelled throughout this overwhelming nation and finally… (Visit Yourstory.in for full news, other content, and much more!)

Tagged as: australia, family, india, other-content, yourstory-in

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Boy Mogul’s Business is a Model for Success

by Paul Joseph June 3, 2011 Featured

Has your website crashed from too much traffic lately? It has if your name is Hart Main, a 13 year-old boy who recently started Mancans (scented candles for guys) in the family kitchen. Hart claims the idea came to him in the form of a question (“Why don’t they make candles with smells guys would like?”) which he posed when his sister started selling a line of “girly scented” candles. In a matter of months, the answer to that question has become a business gone viral. Although he never imagined it, Hart Main’s manly start-up has become a model for small business success. Here are 5 lessons any budding entrepreneur can learn from a 13 year-old boy with an idea and the desire to make it happen. 1. Find a need and meet it: When he jokingly asked, “Why don’t they make scented candles for guys?” Hart had identified a need. Although you could say that the kid got lucky, the truth is that he made his own luck by having the insight to ask the question in the first place. The world abounds with unfulfilled needs just waiting for the right questions to be asked. Like Hart discovered, some of those needs exist within an already established marketplace, i.e. scented candles. By adopting an inquisitive attitude you stand a good chance of identifying specific needs. The challenge then lies in developing products or services that will meet those needs in the most relevant way possible.

Tagged as: attention, become an entrepreneur, business, entrepreneur, environment, family, market, social, time

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How to Not Have to Eat a Horse

by Paul Joseph May 13, 2011 Featured

Businesses are a lot like nursery rhymes. For every over-worked, shoe-dwelling old woman, there’s another who’s prepared to eat cats, dogs, and horses (whole, presumably) in order to catch a fly. Apparently this second old lady didn’t hear that honey is the thing you need to catch flies. Strange as it may sound, there’s a business lesson to be learned from the old woman who swallowed a fly, though. Namely, if your solution to a problem (any problem, from customer acquisition, to which hand dryer to install in the rest rooms) is purely reactive, you’ll end up like the old woman: Dead, of course. Once upon a time in Redmond … When I read that Microsoft had narrowly beaten Google and Facebook to Skype , for the bargain price of $8.5 billion, my first instinct was that neither Google nor Facebook need Skype, and that they were just in the bidding to push up the price Microsoft was going to end up paying. It sounded to me like Microsoft thought they were going to be left behind – that the opportunity cost of not buying Skype would be tens of billions of dollars – and so they swallowed the spider to catch the fly. I don’t know why. I’m sure that Gates and Ballmer will let us know in time. If Microsoft’s motivation in buying Skype was an expensive game of keep-away with Facebook and Google, it may be one of the costliest errors in the computing era. But to say that only large businesses make this kind of mistake would be a grave insult to the thousands of small business owners who make this same mistake every year. Whether it’s a poorly researched software solution, or short-sighted mis-investment in company vehicle maintenance, or remodeling the conference room months before the company decides to move premises, small businesses definitely know how to keep up with the Joneses. And sure, these are all easy to spot in hindsight, but if you think about it, they’re not too much harder to spot in the moment. How to Not Have to Eat a Horse Document the ROI and cost/benefit analysis of every purchase you make. Not kidding about that. You should also explore multiple alternative solutions, not just competing versions of the same solution. Even if the documentation is on the back of a napkin, the simple act of examining how this expenditure will help you improve customer experience, or make your company more efficient, will make you a more informed buyer. If your business is moving too fast for you to step back and take a look at how to fix a problem, that’s your problem. If the issue you’re trying to solve is out of your area of expertise, ask an expert. Paying $400 for an hour of IT consulting and $200 for a new network storage device is a better investment than the $200 upgrade you think will take care of your server problem. You’re not an expert, and when your fix doesn’t work and snowballs into $1000 of hardware and software changes and three days of lost productivity from two of your employees, the cost runs to five figures. And it’s not just purchases, it’s investments of time and resources, too. Before you assign resources to develop video podcasts for your Website, ask if you need podcasts. Just because your main competitor is doing it doesn’t mean they’re doing it well, or even that it’s having a noticeable effect on their revenue. Living Happily Ever After… If you feel like you should invest in something, invest in patience. It’s unlikely that one of your competitors is going to be an early adopter of some ground-breaking technology that takes away all your customers. Be patient, look at your business, and if you need to reinvent it from the ground up, do that. You wouldn’t hope to build a race car by bolting together the best parts of exciting looking vehicles over a three year period. In the same way, tacking the latest must-have project or application to your business will make your product cumbersome, and unintuitive. And then you’ll be left wondering if those magic beans would have actually been a good trade for the family cow after all. Duncan Connor is a freelance writer for www.Company.com. Read more about Duncan here .

Tagged as: business savvy, entrepreneur, facebook, family, microsoft, opportunity, skype, small-business, strategy, success

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