Tom Taulli, author and entrepreneur, wrote a great article about the five key steps when starting a business at the Entrepreneur’s Journal this weekend.

The advice is well worth a read and there’s a bonus as he talks about our own Tim Berry’s new book, The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan.

Way too many people fail because they don’t recognize that nobody’s really good at everything. They play too close and too tight. Get help.

It’s a short read, but chock full of great information.

This is also a great opportunity to let everyone know that Tim’s book, The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan is now available at Amazon.com for purchase. Pick yours up today!

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software

Tags: business advice, entrepreneurship, Plan as you go
Posted on July 28th, 2008 | No Comments »

The people of Estonia decided they’d had enough of the garbage that littered their countryside and forests.

Instead of waiting for the government to take care of it, or turning a blind eye and hoping it would just go away, they did something about it.

50,000 people scoured fields, streets, forests and riverbanks across the country, picking up everything from tractor batteries to paint tins (see a BBC video here). Much of this junk was ferried to central dumps, often in the vehicles of volunteers.  ~Anthony D Williams

I am literally boggled by this. 50,000 people, in one day, all went out into the countryside and helped make a difference. Fantastic!

This initiative, Let’s Do It!, was organized by two entrepreneurs, Ahti Heinla from Skype and Rainer Nolvak from Delfi. The fact that this was organized by entrepreneurs doesn’t surprise me in the least. They used Google Maps to start the grassroots program to map and photograph the problem trash sites.

Neighboring Latvia, not to be outdone, decided to do a clean up as well.

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if this kind of thinking went viral?

Each country trying to out clean the other? Tens of thousands of people getting out of their houses, all to put their good intentions to work.

Imagine the next Earth Day where everyone, across the world pledged just an hour of their time that day to go out and clean up.

Now, imagine if we all actually did it.

Imagine how fantastic that would be.

‘Chelle Parmele
Palo Alto Software

Tags: entrepreneurship, green
Posted on June 19th, 2008 | No Comments »

The negative relationship between property investment and entrepreneurship is not immediately obvious. However, the recent property booms in Ireland and the U.K. (amongst others) helps to demonstrate this relationship. In recent years, both countries have experienced phenomenal growth in house prices. That is, until everything came grinding to a halt at the end of last year. [1]

The net effect of this boom has been one where the incentive to become truly entrepreneurial was significantly reduced – why try and create a new product or service if there was a guaranteed high return from property development? Similarly, from an investment point of view, why consider any other investment opportunity if there was a perceived guaranteed high return from property development?

In Ireland, the short-term results of the boom were a huge increase in people ‘getting into property’ and in the U.K. every second TV show on Channel 4 seemed to focus on property, e.g. Location Location Location, Property Ladder, A Place in the Sun and Grand Designs. Now all manner of problems are coming home to roost as the market collapses and the scale of consumer debt is becoming obvious. [2]

The Irish Government was happy to continue to fuel the boom, rezoning land for development, and cosying up to property developers [3], given how the huge property related taxes were contributing to their coffers. As David McWilliams, a leading Irish economist points out, a national focus on property is damaging as a ‘country which experiences a property boom turns in on itself. The reason for this is very simple, property cannot be traded. Bricks and mortar are tied to the land and the land is fixed and can’t be exported. Therefore, the discipline of international competition is lost.’

I would go further than this, it also destroys enterprise – there have been countless examples of successful businesses in Ireland shutting down because there is a greater return to be had from selling the property for redevelopment than continuing the business as a going concern. [4]

As someone passionate about entrepreneurship however, I take the view that every cloud has a silver lining, and that the property collapse could prove to be an excellent stimulus for entrepreneurship.

As Michael O’Leary, M.D of low cost European airline Ryanair recently claimed, “I love recessions,” he says. “Recessions are much more fun. Good times are a pain in the bum. Good times, any idiot can make money. In recessions, the good get up off their backsides and start doing the kind of sensible things that they should do all of the time. It’s good for business”. [5]

Now that ‘property development’ is no longer a safe bet, and the Irish and U.K Governments realise that the boom is over, it is likely that entrepreneurship, in its purist form, should take off once again. Those who stretched themselves with high mortgages will face stark options: sell up at a loss, or try to make ends meet. For some, second jobbing will be their only option and this will also help to fuel the passions of entrepreneurship in people. It is also hoped that the respective Governments will play their role, after all their taxation policies and planning policies have helped to fuel the boom in the first place.

Alan Gleeson
Palo Alto Software

[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7445864.stm

[2] http://www.grant-thornton.co.uk/press_room/amount_of_uk_consumer_debt_exc.aspx

[3] http://www.independent.ie/national-news/bertie-makes-his-own-pitch-for-the-banished-galway-races-tent-1393773.html

[4] http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0523/mcnamarab.html

[5] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7438315.stm

Tags: business plan, entrepreneurship, Ireland
Posted on June 12th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

This is the question that The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) in partnership with eBay wants to answer. To that end they are sponsoring a fun contest:

The 2008 National Small Business Summit, “We Are Stronger Together,” presented by the National Federation of Independent Business and eBay, brings together small business owners from around the country to meet their lawmakers face-to-face and share their experiences about how Washington , D.C. decisions affect small businesses. The Summit will focus on top small business legislative priorities, including healthcare reform efforts, and also will examine the political landscape leading into the November elections.

To enter you have to put together a video which in an original and creative way answers the question of Why Small Business Works For America. If you feel passionate about this topic - give it a shot. You stand to win 5000.00 and a trip to DC for the National Small Business Summit in June.

Tags: entrepreneurship, politics, Small Business
Posted on April 22nd, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Talking to small businesses and entrepreneurs writing business plans, I find that business owners often wish that they had no competition. Businesses usually are thinking that with no competition, the entire market for their product or service will be theirs. I don’t think that is the case - especially for newstartups that have truly innovative products and services. Here’s why:

• Competition validates your idea
  You know you have a good idea when other people are coming up with similar products or services. Competition validates the market and the fact that there are most likely customers for your new product. This also means that the costs of marketing and educating your market goes down (see my next point).
  
  
• Competition helps educate your target market
  Being first-to-market can be a huge advantage, but that also means that you will have to spend way more than the 2nd-to-market player to educate the market about your new widget, your new solution to a problem, your new approach to services. This is especially true for businesses that are extremely innovative. These first-to-market businesses will be facing customers that didn’t know that there was a solution to the their problem. These potential customers might not even know that they have a problem that can be solved in a better way. These first-to-market companies will have an uphill battle to educate consumers - an often expensive and time consuming process. The 2nd-to-market will enjoy all the benefits of an educated marketplace without the large marketing expense.
  
  
• Competition pushes you
  Businesses that have little or no competition become stagnant. Customers have few alternatives to choose from, so there is no incentive to innovate. Constant competition ensures that your marketplace continues to evolve and that your product offering continues to evolve with it.
  
  
• Competition forces focus & differentiation
  Without competition, it’s easy to lose focus on your core business and your core customers and start expanding into areas that don’t serve your best customers. Competition forces you and your business to figure out how to be different than your competition, how you can focus on your customers. In the long-term, competition will help you build a better business.
  

Focusing too much on your competition, however, is a bad thing.

• It stifles creativity
  If all you do is track your competition and do endless competitive analysis, you won’t be able to come up with original ideas. You will end up looking and acting just like your competition. Instead, make a habit of NOT visiting your competition’s website, NOT going into their store, NOT calling their sales office. Focus instead on how you can provide the best service possible and spend your time talking to your customers and not your competition.
  
  
• It keeps you from focusing on your customers
  Following your competition means that you aren’t focusing on your customers and what they want - you’re focusing on how your competition serves its customers. Instead of spending time figuring out how you can better serve the next person that walks in the door so that they become a lifetime customer, a reference, a referral source, you are becoming a copycat. When that happens, it won’t matter to a customer if they walk into your store or your competition’s because you will both be the same.
  

Every business has competition, even if it is not direct competition. There is always an alternative method to solve the problem you are solving, even if your idea and solution is revolutionary. For example, initial competition to the car was the horse and buggy (or plain old walking). Competition for the Mac’s initial foray into desktop publishing was not other computing systems, but manual cut & paste layout systems. It’s OK to have competition and in fact it is a good thing.

As you grow your business, it’s critical to understand how your customers currently solve the problem you are addressing. This will help you focus your marketing and really address your customers’ true needs.

Noah Parsons
COO, Palo Alto Software

Tags: competition, entrepreneurship
Posted on April 16th, 2008 | 1 Comment »