Mar

16

MBA Book List

Filed Under Business Ideas, Resources, Principles, etc.

Here’s a list of personal MBA books that I’m posting so that I make sure I read all the ones I haven’t already. Josh Kaufman: Inside My Bald Head: The Josh Kaufman “Personal MBA” Program

Mar

16

Stanford MBA Seth Godin on the MBA

Filed Under Business Ideas, Resources, Principles, etc., Education and Love for Learning

Apparently, Seth Godin, famous for permission marketing, thinks that dedicated reading of 30-40 books and real life experience is more valuable than an MBA. I personally turned down an internship and PhD program and more from Penn State in order to work on FamilyLearn and get real life experience. Hopefully, Seth’s right and I’m learning more this path than I could have the other. I don’t suppose I’ll ever never know. Seth does know (for him at least) because he did both. Whichever path one takes, I believe a life-long love of learning is more important than anything else.

Mar

11

Alexa Ranking Doesn’t Say Much

Filed Under Search Engine Marketing, Technology

I have a MAC and a PC. On the PC, I use IE to use the email newsletter manager for FamilyLearn. I have Alexa installed. Last week FamilyLearn’s Alexa rankings shot up by a half million. During the week, we rearched the top 140,000. It was the week that I was editing newsletters. As soon as I stopped, the ranking started dropping until it’s down to 459,000 right at the moment.

This inspite of the fact our traffic has been booming over the last two months. I know that we have more traffic this week than last because I’ve been watching the logs. It doesn’t seem like many in the family history industry use the Alexa toolbar. I don’t know if that’s the case in other industries, but Alexa isn’t reflecting FamilyLearn’s growth very well. I realize that this is a rank against other traffic, but I’m skeptical about trusting the results for family history users. I’m guessing only the most technical or business minded even care about the Alexa toolbar.

Mar

10

Eyetrack III – What You Most Need to Know

Filed Under Technology

New report out that has immediate implications for web designers.
Eyetrack III – What You Most Need to Know

Mar

10

Creative Memories by Cheryl Lightle

Filed Under Business Ideas, Resources, Principles, etc., Favorite Books, Free Book Summary - Online

Last night I researched network marketing and direct selling on the Internet and then went to the library to pick up a half a dozen books. I was the very first to check out Creative Memories: The 10 Timeless Principles Behind the Company that Pioneered the Scrapbooking Industry from the Provo Library. They hadn’t even placed it on the shelf. I felt a connection to the book before I even read it last night and this afternoon. Cheryl Lightle and Rhonda Anderson truly had a vision for doing something good for the world. Their mission sounded so similar to FamilyLearn. Starting in 1987 with 2 consultants and no formalized compensation plan, they pioneered the scrap book industry and in 2005 they plan to generate 1/2 billion in sales.

Here’s the book captured:

Purpose: What principles were behind Creative Memories’ success?

Central Message:

  1. Operate from least to most.
  2. Embrace the abundance mentality.
  3. Keep the promise.
  4. Make it easy.
  5. Communicate clearly and concisely.
  6. Protect the relationship.
  7. Respect personal choices.
  8. Go for the good of the whole.
  9. Don’t knee jerk.
  10. Ensure sustainability.

Before I give an overview of these, read the beginning of their mission statement:

Creative Memories believes in and teaches the importance of Preserving the Past, Enriching the Present, and Inspiring Hope for the Future.

Sound like the FamilyLearn mission? Because we are a business of people just as they are, I had a lot to learn from Cheryl in this book. Now for an overview for my future reference.

  1. Operate from least to most. Cheryl talked mostly about transitioning to technology after 1996. Their first attempt was a total failure and left a bad taste in the consultants mouth for the Internet. They learned to introduce changes slowly and give people time to respond. They really fought the temptation to overhire during the growth of the 1990s and tried to outsource everything. They didn’t want to fire people later.
  2. Embrace the abundance mentality. Don’t spend you’re time fretting about the competition! Just make yourself better than the day before. Competition means more recognition in the Industry (of course there was no industry when this company began).
  3. Keep the promise. Simply doing what you and your mission and your guiding principles say that you’ll do. At Creative Memories, they have scientists who test and develop new products so that they will be archival quality. They define very carefully what archival quality means. Interestingly, they are 100 % ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) and proud of it. The employee ownership inspires success in the company. They have a “Great Performance” for each person in the organization that defines what the employee-owner can do to ensure the performance of the big picture of the entire company, of the department and of the team. The employees are also encouraged to work on their own albums to have passion for what they are doing.
  4. Make it easy. First for consultants to do business with the company, second for customers to do business with consultants and third for employee-owners to perform their job responsibilities. (Interesting that the consultant precedes the customer in this principle) For example, (1) they still spend lots of time on fax and phone orders because not all consultants like the Internet or feel comfortable with it. (2) They changed the packaging just to make it easier for consultants to dispose of it. (3) Resource One is a project to get the consultants onesies for their customers so that they don’t have to break open entire sets. This is not very profitable and a lot of work for the company, but it helps the consultants. (4) BusinessMate is a downline and business management software that they developed especially for team leaders.
  5. Communicate clearly and concisely. They explain “why.” They expect clear, concise and frequent communication that expect to be perfect, but they’ll accept excellence.
  6. Protect the relationship. This is very important to a direct sales organization. The business is built in relationships. Us, Not Us and THEM In the beginning they sold albums in retail while they were trying to define the business. They soon realized that they had to make a final decision about whether they’d be direct sales or not. It was self-defeating to compete with their distribution channel. This is a decision that we face right now. NOTE: customers make decisions to buy based on the following: (1) If they are treated with respect – 70 percent, (2) If they feel they are under no pressure to buy – 65 percent, (3) If they believe the returns policy and process is fair, (4) If they feel they receive outstanding service – 58 percent. All people related.
  7. Respect personal choices. This is important and most manifest in the way the compensate and give bonuses. Today, I read in an presentation encouraging golden handcuffs. The term bothered me a bit but I thought I understood the concept. Make more financial reasons over time that the top people will stay with the organization and continue selling it. Creative Memories doesn’t do golden handcuffs because they prescribe a lifestyle and the company feels that consultants and employee-owners should choose their own lifestyle. I like their style. I learned they use a UniLevel compensation model as described in this presentation.
  8. Go for the good of the whole. Sometimes, like when they discontinued their teal binder and many consultants complained, you have to do what’s best for the whole even if it’s difficult. In the case of the teal album, the discontinuance made room for the consultants to have more room in their inventory for more popular products. Only a few thousand out of 60,000 consultants were affected by the move. Give charitably where it will help the most people.
  9. Don’t knee jerk. They struggled with this in the beginning as a growing organization. Changes influenced all the consultants and they couldn’t make them too sudden or too often. However, when you make a strategic change with specific objectives in mind, you need to let it runs its course (sometimes taking over a year) to see if it produces the desired effect. Don’t go back on a change prematurely.
  10. Ensure sustainability. They have employee-owners work for other direct sales companies to understand and empathize with the consultants. They have executives be Creative Memories consultants to catch the vision themselves. These are good ideas. She also spoke of preparing the company to pass the torch.

Interesting things I noted in the book:

Mar

5

Speed Reading

Filed Under General

Speed reading is the concept of reading as fast as you can see and
think rather than as fast as you can say the words in your mind. I’ve
been trying to get back into it lately and my words per minute have
jumped from about 360 to 630. I’d like to break 2000 one day. I think
the shackles of subvocalizing words are holding me down and I’ve never
really taught my brain to read without it.

Here’s the best book on speed reading that I’m using to strengthen my skills:
Break
Through Rapid Reading

I’ve been working on it just this week. Not a bad return on investment.

Mar

4

My First Email Post

Filed Under General

I’m just trying out the WordPress 1.5 email posting capability. This is
really going to come in handy.

Mar

4

Aunt Lillian’s Unforgettable Biography

Filed Under Genealogy to Family History to FamilyLearn, Technology

Two things I love about this post. First, the Unforgettable Biography my Dad made for my aunt turned out beautifully (image on the right). She was really touched by it. I think this may be one of the most important products we’ve yet created at FamilyLearn. Here is all the content in her book. Second, I made it using Photon, a new software that allows you to make posts to WordPress using iPhoto. Aunt Lillian's Unforgettable Biography

Mar

3

Yes – A way to handle spam with wordpress

Filed Under Technology

Finally, WordPress 1.5 does what I need to handle comment spam easily. As you can tell, my blog looks different. WordPress is moving forward by leaps and bounds. Good job WordPress Team.

Feb

18

Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki

Filed Under Business Ideas, Resources, Principles, etc., Favorite Books, Free Book Summary - Online

I’ve just finished another book I’m adding to my list of favorites. The Art of The Start by Guy Kawasaki. Guy gets right to the point of what really matters and he’s entertaining.
For example, his chapters end with FAQs and his final FAQ of the final chapter was:
Q. People are always asking me for my expert advice, but it’s interfering with my ability to get my current job done. What should I do?
A. Write a book and tell everyone to buy it.

I laughed and laughed imagining how many ask him for advice.

Well, here’s my attempt at a capture and reference for the future:

Purpose:
How do I get a start up going?

Central Message:
Simply define what it is you’re doing (in less than 10 words) and focus, focus, focus on those things that will propel it forward and cut out anything that won’t. Most importantly, start doing.

Validations:
The art of starting
Things that matter:

  1. Make meaning – make the world a better place with your product or service.
  2. Make mantra – forget mission statements and take your meaning and make mantra out of it.
  3. Get going – create and sell your product or service and don’t spend time on business plans, writing and pitching.
  4. Define your business model – create a sustainable business model that’s already been proven.
  5. Weave a mat (milestones, assumptions and tasks) – for staying on track when everything goes nuts, which it will.

Excercise: If FamilyLearn didn’t exist the world would be worse off because of family stories lost.
Mantra: The heart of life.
Business Excercise:

  1. Calculate your monthly costs to operate your organization.
  2. Calculate the gross profit of each unit of your product.
  3. Divide the results of step 1 by the results of step 2.
  4. Ask a few women if they think you have a chance of selling that many units. If they don’t, you don’t have a business model.

LOL, hilarious but so true.

Most important milestones:

Assumptions:

Major tasks (not as critical as milstones):

The art of positioning:

What do you do?
FamilyLearn: We help you record and share family stories. (dry, but it’s what we do. I’m sure there’s a better way to say it)

Niche thyself!
Make a name that can be a verb. Google it.
FamilyLearn it. Ok, we blew that one, but oh well.


Don’t start into an auto-biography! Sorry Paul, you were one of my first victims on that one. I’m learning.
10/20/30 Rule
10 slides
20 minutes
30 pt font text

Guy gives a great presentation format:

TO INVESTORS
Slide 1: Title and contact stuff
Slide 2: Pain/ Problem
Slide 3: Solution
Slide 4: Business model
Slide 5: Secret sauce or magic in your product or service
Slide 6: Marketing and sales – how to market without breaking the bank?
Slide 7: Competition
Slide 8: Management team
Slide 9: Financial projections and key metrics
Slide 10: Current status, Accomplishments to date, Timeline, and Use of Funds

TO CUSTOMERS
Slide 1: Title and contact stuff
Slide 2: Pain/ Problem
Slide 3: Solution
Slide 4: Current customers, clarity on the value
Slide 5: Secret sauce or magic in your product or service
Slide 6: Demo
Slide 7: Competition – why you’re good
Slide 8: Management team – make them feel comfortable buying with a start up
Slide 9: Trial period or test installation

TO PARTNERS
Slide 1: Title and contact stuff
Slide 2: Pain/ Problem
Slide 3: Solution
Slide 4: Partnership model
Slide 5: Secret sauce or magic in your product or service
Slide 6: Demo
Slide 7: Competition (optional)
Slide 8: Management team
Slide 9: Next steps

Upon starting, ask:
“How much time may I have?”
“What are the most important things I can communicate to you?” (do as much of this in advance as possible)
“May I quickly go through the presentation and handle questions at the end? However, please feel free to interrupt me if you need to.”

Let them fantasize about the potential of your product or service.
Shut up and take notes, summarize, regurgitate and follow up!

Pitch constantly. Rewrite constantly.

The art of writing a business plan:
You have to have a plan. Focus on the executive summary. Pitch, then plan. Make it just like your pitch.
1. Clean, no more than 20 pages. Less is more.
2. One person should write the entire plan.
3. A staple, no fancy stuff.
4. Financial projections to two pages.
5. Key metrics.
6. Assumptions that drive your financial projections.

The art of bootstrapping:
Manage for cash flow, not profitability. Choose an auto-persuasive product.
Build a bottom up forcast. Each salesperson can make ten sales per day, there are 240 working days…
Ship, then test. Get it to the market.
Forget the proven team and go with energy and inexperience that believes in what you’re doing.
Start as a service business.
Focus on function, not form.
Pick your battles. Make money from your magic. Margins!
Go direct. Stay close to the customer. No multi-tiered stuff. You have to sell, not fill demand.
Position against the leader.
Take the “red pill.” Reality checks. Honesty with yourself.
Get a morpheus. Realist in the organization.
Understaff and outsource.
Build a board.
Sweat the big stuff. Pay for the stuff that matters rather than saving pennies.
Execute.

The art of recruiting:
Hire “A” players.
Hire “infected people”
Ignore irrelevant.
Use all your tools. Board, connections, etc.
Wait to compensate.
Double check your intuition. Would you avoid them when shopping?
Reference check. If they send you to a desk of a secretary, bad sign.

Applications:

Value:
“The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.” –Samuel Johnson
Successful businesses and being good to the world are not opposing forces.
“There are few joys greater than helping others.” –Guy
Interesting note, he speaks in the last chapter of theories where there are different “classes” in Heaven.
I wonder if he was thinking of the 3 Degrees of Glory as one of those theories? Maybe I’ll ask him.


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