Jim Treviling is a tough guy with a soft spot for a good deal and a
delicious meal.Slayer's Den
Dragons' Den is a new show on CBC where entrepreneurs pitch ideas to Canadian business moguls, the dragons, hoping to get an investment. Slayer's Den serves as entry point for information about the show, and information about how to start your own business.
Thursday, December 7, 2006
Businessweek suggests a few books for the budding entrepreneur. The article quotes Seth Godin founder of a company bought by yahoo as saying "Where else in the world can you find a million dollars worth of advice for $20? The power of a book to an entrepreneur is simple: It gives you a quiet place to explore what you ought to try next." This is mildly funny in my anonymous opinion. If a book was all the advice it took to make a million bucks, then there would be a lot more millionaires. Sadly I think it requires slightly more than hitting chapters or amazon. I'm not saying a book won't help - it almost certainly will - but it can't be expected to work miracles. Anyway in upcoming weeks/months look forward to book reviews of some (probably not all) of the books mentioned in the article.
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
For every great idea and new business that succeeds there are many more that will fail. On thestreet.com this week there is an article discussing "the anguish of being an entrepreneur". The article discusses a few of the typical fears of entrepreneur. They boil down to the fear of failure which makes it tough to discuss the potentially challenging situation with others. The article suggests talking to respected advisors in such cases.
Coming back to the dragon's den basis of this site, I feel this is one of the key things many of the pitches on dragon's den lacked - a serious conversation by the entrepeneur with someone experienced or with some business sense. The sending the chickens out to slaughter approach used for the show makes for alright television but it might be nice to see more professional and well-thought out ideas. Surely good ideas/pitches and good television isn't mutually exclusive?
Coming back to the dragon's den basis of this site, I feel this is one of the key things many of the pitches on dragon's den lacked - a serious conversation by the entrepeneur with someone experienced or with some business sense. The sending the chickens out to slaughter approach used for the show makes for alright television but it might be nice to see more professional and well-thought out ideas. Surely good ideas/pitches and good television isn't mutually exclusive?
One of the so called best advice for entrepreneurs is, "Get started". This is along the lines of Nike's "Just Do It", and is mainly said to people who stall on finding that perfect idea or perfect business situation, and instead, talk and discount each and every idea.
One way of motivating yourself to do something is by entering a business competition. For example, Microsoft is advertising one of its' products (Office Accounting) accompanied by a competition. The competition is called ideaWins, and in this competition, the winner receives some money (100,000) and a store front (in Mahattan for a year).
Not a bad motivator for that job idea you've always been sitting on. Maybe those two factors alone are what is missing from your current negative thoughts and lack of momentum.
I haven't really looked at the software (Office Accounting) that was released with the competition, but apparently, it is also a tool that will help you get your business idea off and running.
One way of motivating yourself to do something is by entering a business competition. For example, Microsoft is advertising one of its' products (Office Accounting) accompanied by a competition. The competition is called ideaWins, and in this competition, the winner receives some money (100,000) and a store front (in Mahattan for a year).
Not a bad motivator for that job idea you've always been sitting on. Maybe those two factors alone are what is missing from your current negative thoughts and lack of momentum.
I haven't really looked at the software (Office Accounting) that was released with the competition, but apparently, it is also a tool that will help you get your business idea off and running.
Sunday, December 3, 2006
The globe and mail discussed a venture capital summit that took place in Quebec city recently. Apparently it drew 250 people. This may not be of interest to people starting out but the article reports that Canadian VC funds have been returning 3% on average compared to 26% on average for funds in the US. The abysmal rate of return suggests a potential chicken and egg problem - the lack of return discourages investment in canadian VC funds but without sufficient investment you can't develop the VC culture that is more prevalent in the states. In the article, they discuss that this has lead to some partnering up of canadian and US funds and how long-term these funds could replace the role of government in encouraging entrepreneurship.
Friday, December 1, 2006
In Mark Cuban's blog (Owner of the Dallas Mavericks and famous entrepreneur), one of his more recent postings discusses an opportunity for local advertisers in the modern technological world.
First, Mark takes a look at the success of Google's business model, traffic monetization, which loosely defined, in terms of the Internet, is making money off web traffic. The most common form of this is Google's Adsense, which tries to put advertising links for other web pages based on the content of your own web page assuming that advertising based on content means you're interested in both.
This model has been a great success for Google and might be part of the reason why their stock currently sits around $480 with a Price to Earning ratio of only 61.01, but that's another story.
Mark, in his blog posting, takes traffic monetization from the global marketing perspective to the local perspective. The idea is that existing local media conglomerates, or new ones (the entrepreneur side) can tap into this market based on three key ideas.
Local advertising has the advantage of personal sales which means (3 advantages in different order than the blog post):
First, Mark takes a look at the success of Google's business model, traffic monetization, which loosely defined, in terms of the Internet, is making money off web traffic. The most common form of this is Google's Adsense, which tries to put advertising links for other web pages based on the content of your own web page assuming that advertising based on content means you're interested in both.
This model has been a great success for Google and might be part of the reason why their stock currently sits around $480 with a Price to Earning ratio of only 61.01, but that's another story.
Mark, in his blog posting, takes traffic monetization from the global marketing perspective to the local perspective. The idea is that existing local media conglomerates, or new ones (the entrepreneur side) can tap into this market based on three key ideas.
Local advertising has the advantage of personal sales which means (3 advantages in different order than the blog post):
- Local clicks are more valuable to certain types of companies
- Large companies might not have the expertise to use adsense
- Google doesn't have the salesperson, or more importantly the personal touch
This is where the local guy has the advantage in the marketing game. Additionally, just like Google does, the concept of adsense is to use other peoples content as your advertising medium. This increases the traffic for your advertising, but risks losing the local touch. However, there are many local content generators that can be captured, be it neighbourhood newspapers or local community websites.
The article goes on to address some other concepts to apply from Google's reign, but other than the idea that Google has gets a huge amount of advertising for free (based on $100 payout minimums).
The comment section of the blog has people who seem to like and dislike the idea. My concern is the large group of commentors who feel that the local media is dead or is dying. Good idea or bad idea? Tough to tell, but smells like opportunity.
One concern some people have is that their skills aren't amenable to a startup type operation. This article talks about a now established startup for the analysis business - or basically mathy people. For many, people who studied math aren't always seen as the most entrepreneurial etc, but the business seems to be working. Warning: The article's title is more interesting than the body and I really just used the title for a mini-rant.
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