Born Entrepreneur - Stories, Thoughts & Analysis

lot’s of good developments in my business endeavors. Was just jamming out to the Killers “All these things that I’ve done” after I received what could be a MONUMENTAL email in my inbox for a very large retail store to carry a selection of some of our t-shirts. Not only that, but I’ve received a couple very flattering emails lately that make me feel like all my networking is really paying off. People are starting to notice that I’m out there working my butt off doing lot’s of stuff, and they’re starting to come to me for advice, and business development type situations…very cool. And then there’s the fact that I just got some great publicity in the “green issue” of Austin Monthly (i just picked it up today actually at Whole Foods)….what an honor to be featured in their mag. It feels so great to see the brand name of my company and a photo of our products in a high quality printed magazine…we’ve gotten lot’s of publicity in online publications, but it’s a totally different feeling to see it in print. This is the first time we’ve been in print since our Daily Texan article a few years ago. Pretty rock’n. What else good as happened??? Going on a business trip this weekend to my first tradeshow. Will be going to the men and women’s apparel market in Dallas with my partner. Especially exciting coming at a time like this. I’m on a high. What else? We’ve almost got our sales rep in Los Angeles up and going. We’ve shipped her business cards, and I just sent her sample tees in the mail today. Super excited to see how that turns out. But I wont’ get my hopes up too much. We have hired 4 sales reps so far and every one of them has flaked. But this particular rep is the most ed experienced we’ve dealt with and we’re paying her a monthly retainer. Excited about the possibilities! What else is good??? Ahhh, so much…what a great feeling.

And then there’s Conjunctured…my other venture. Oh my…it’s moving. We’ve completed almost entirely a business plan…submitted it to a business plan competition, and have been actively having conversations with some pretty badass potential clients. And we’re about to get some wicked office space if all goes as planned…

and then there’s my health…kick’n ass with exercise per my new experiment!

and my relationship with my amazing girlfriend is stronger than ever…it will be 3 years next month— having an amazingly supportive person standing by you all the time, good times and bad…is an amazing feeling.

sorry to get all high on my own self-promotion, but things have been tough lately, so it’s really great to see things really coming together.

Keep all the good stuff coming…

btw, just picked up a new book at the library today…I think I found it at the perfect time.

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So, Yahoo rejected the buyout by MSFT.  Interesting.  Very intrigued to see what happens to the Yahoo stock on Monday morning on the trading room floor. Will shareholders start selling their stock, or perhaps will another company (Google perhaps) make a higher bid?  Or even if Microsoft comes back in with another higher bid, that should be interesting.  Glad I purchased a few shares when I did. This could get interesting.

On another note, there is about to be spin-off created in TimeWarner.  They’re about to create a new separate company for their AOL counterpart. So, according to the book I just read on investing,  this is an excellent investment opportunity. I don’t have the extra capital to invest, but if I did I would buy a few shares of Timewarner and also AOL once it spins off into a new company. The idea behind investing in a spin-off company, is that the whole reasoning behind the spin-off is to better support the main purpose of that organization. By focusing more heavily on it, and not having to dilute focus on it to other counterparts of the business, profitability will inevitably skyrocket.

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Does that correlation exist?  At this point, I’m not totally sure.  The inspiration for this post comes from that the fact that over the past several weeks I’ve been doing multiple sets of pushups daily on a regular basis, and because I’m not exactly the most muscular guy in the room, I’ve started to notice quite obvious physical improvement. I can tell it’s working because for one, I’m able to steadily increase the number of pushups I can do, so I know I’m getting stronger. And two, I’m seeing definition in my arms and chest that I haven’t seen since my sophomore year in college when I was going to the gym on a regular basis. And keep in mind, this is all just pushups (mainly because I actually enjoy doing pushups…I always have for some reason).  Probably about just 20/day for 2 weeks. Nothing intense.
So, this where it gets interesting…

Over the past week for just a random reason (to see if I could do it, or maybe it was because I set up Joe’s Goals) I started increasing the difficulty and variety of the exercises. Started doing crunches, squats, and even ran a mile for the hell of it one day (of which I haven’t done for years…I hate running because I think it’s boring).  Here’s the thing, though.  I noticed my business productivity and personal motivation go up a little bit. I’m very aware of my internal self, so when a small amount changes, I notice it big time.  And boy did I notice. The past few days have been incredibly productive, and the best thing is that because my motivation has increased I’m doing the tasks that I’ve been avoiding for a while now, without even thinking twice. I must admit I didn’t expect this at all.

Maybe this seems like old news to you. And in fact, I think I’ve read it before somewhere.  But when you experience it first hand, it’s a bit different.

The key is determining what it is about exercising that has increased my motivation. It could be a number of things:

1. increase in testosterone (i’ve already started to research natural ways to increase testosterone to further increase motivation if this is the culprit)
2. increase in muscle tone has increases my self-confidence and thus my motivation to live life to it’s fullest
3. the presence of the workout routine increases my work routine follow-through
4. something else I’m not thinking of…

I’m going to continue the experiment for a while longer. I wonder if there’s a plateau, or if motivation just continues to go up?  As a personal productivity obsessive and avid lifehacker, this is quite exciting to me! There’s an obvious correlation between personal motivation and business success. Now, the key is finding some way to hack into that extra supply of personal motivation.

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All the buzz lately in the tech world is about the bid that Microsoft put into to buy Yahoo!.  Some people are pretty anti-deal, but I think it could be one for the record books.  I always enjoy when the internet landscape totally transforms.  Google made it transform—hell, they’ve OWNED the internet for quite some time now.  I’m not saying, “give somone else a chance.”  I’m not saying that at all.  I’m saying bring it on…because free market competition is fun and it breeds crazy innovation.  I want to see what happens to the Internet landscape when the playing field tilts a bit.

On another note, here are two points of interest for your curious individuals.

1. I posted a comment late last night and linked back to this blog on a post on a related story on CNN, “Google: Will Microsoft monopolize the Internet?” because, one, the story is interesting to me, and, two, I was curious to see how much traffic it would generate.

   So far I have received 35 hits. I suspect the hits will go up throughout the day since people will most likely read this story while they’re at work.

2. I’ve been reading a couple books on the stock market lately.  And it just so happens that the announcement for Microsoft to buy Yahoo! happened the morning after I had an active E-Trade account.  So, I figured, what the heck, so I bought a few shares of Yahoo! the morning the announcement was made as my first test into the market.  When I say a “few”, I mean 3.  Heh, 3 shares isn’t much.  But it’s fun to have watched it grow a bit as the buzz spreads.  Curious to see what it closes at today.

   Ironically, I also own some MSFT stock, of which I’ve held onto since I was 16.  Just 11 shares, though.  I’m curious to see if there’s a significant rise in MSFT if the deal goes through. In case you didn’t know, Yahoo’s stock rose 9 points the day the buyout was announced.

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So, I’ve been realized that other than holding on to some shares of Microsoft since my 16th birthday, I really know very little about the stock market—and picking winners.  I figured I’d lessen the gap of knowledge a bit by picking up a couple books on investing in the stock market.  Here’s what I learned from the first one:

You Can Be a Stock Market Genius Even if You’re Not Too Smart: Uncover the Secret Hiding Places of Stock Market Profits
by Joel Greenblatt

1. increase # of stocks to decrease risk. (seems obvious, i know…but there was this cool set of statistics mentioned the book that shows the risk going down 75% when you have 4 stocks and all the way up to something around 80 stocks.  never seen it written out in statistics like that, rather than simply saying “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”)
   
2. Buy spin-off companies.  (This is was the biggest point of the authors.  Says this is where the guaranteed cash is. There’s proven statistics on it)
3. invest in companies that might be acquired soon
4. invest in good companies that are coming out of bankruptcy.
5. invest right after corporate restructuring has been announced
6. look for cool concept stores and invest in their public parent company (if there is one)
7. the Wall Street Journal is the best source for investment news.  (I guess this makes sense given that the WSJ Online is one of the few successful subscriber based periodicals online. Now that you know what tips off a good investment you can make sense of the news.)
8. Look into investment newsletters (but it costs some cash to subscribe)
1. Outstanding Investor Digest - the best
2. The Turnaround Letter

So I’m going to start reading the financial news more, watch the announcements, etc.  Mainly looking for company spin-offs as the authors seemed so confident as money makers.  Was searching for a website or blog that specialized in making announcements like this, but have yet to find one.  My first investment may not be for a little while, but I’ve got my ETrade and Zecco accounts all ready to go.

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It does not make sense to have an advertisement that appeals to a small group of people in a mainstream location.

For example, I saw a big poster on the wall advertising a cement truck company.  When people see this, it does not apply to them.  Find out where cement truck customers go, and advertise there!  I’m not sure where that is—perhaps near a a construction site, cement supply store, industrial areas, Home Depot type places, etc.  But not just randomly in the middle of mainstream walkers!

Probably the biggest reason this is a problem is because it makes you feel as if you’re putting yourself out there—you’re advertising.  It’s this sense of “I’m working towards success!”  But in reality, putting up that ad was a waste of your time.  It will not bring you any new customers.  And no, it does NOT help build brand awareness, despite what some may say. As soon as it’s looked at by someone who’s not in your niche market, they dismiss it almost instantaneously.  It’s viewed as an interruption—spam.  In effect it may even promote negative brand awareness.

We’re not in the same kind of interruption-based advertising world we used to be. Grow up!

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Trump: How to Get Rich by Donald Trump

I just read this book in one sitting. It was a casual, fast read. I didn’t have super high expectations as the reviewers on Amazon only rated it 3/5 stars. There were a few good nuggets of wisdom, though, just as I had hoped. Here are my favorites:

Manage people tip

• “People have different ways of achieving results. I enjoy figuring out how each of my key employees excels. If people are your resource, you’d better try to learn something useful about them. Being able to do so is what makes a good manager a great one.”

Be an informed world citizen

• “Perhaps one of the reason I’ve been able to sell and rent apartments to people of so many foreign nationalities is that I’ve made an effort to understand where they’re coming from.”

Be detail oriented (I still need to work more on this one)

• “If you don’t know every aspect of what you’re doing, down to the paper clips, you’re setting yourself up for some unwelcome surprises.”

Public speaking (tailoring your speech to your audience)

• On winging a speech 5 minutes before showtime: “all in all, it was a valuable lesson in public speaking. Think about your audience first. The rest will fall into place.”
• Never read off your note cards. You can have the best written speech, but the audience will feel it’s contrived.

Comparing yourself to others’ achievements. Don’t do it.

• “Comparing ourselves to others is a waste of time. I’ve heard people say, “well, Mr. Lucky had a million dollars before he was thirty and I’ve worked just as hard as he has.” Well, Mr. Lucky has nothing to do with you, your possibilities, your success, or your failure. Don’t let anyone else be your yardstick. That’s taking power away from yourself in a big way.”

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Willie, a delivery guy from Dean Foods, comes to Mozarts Coffee in Austin TX every day at 12noon and goes through the same process. With a huge cart on wheels stacked with gallons of milk, he clumsily navigates his way down 7 stairs and then up 3 stairs. I wonder if anyone has ever thought of giving him an easier way to deal with this. It’s got to hurt his back. He looks to be in his mid 50s.

Companies have got to listen to their workers on the front line. But more importantly, the workers must know that their opinion matters that way they’ll be thinking about making things more efficient.

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Paradox goes as follows:

1. Company A buys mainstream advertising. Ex. TV advertisement
2. Competitors, Companies B & C, must spend extra money on ads to keep up with Company A. This causes an oversaturation of messages to consumers, which decreases effectiveness (and sales).
3. In response to decreased effectiveness and decreased sales, Companies A, B, & C spend more on advertising.
4. Cycle repeats.

I wonder how companies can spend their advertising budget with a bit more innovativeness and subsequently eliminate this otherwise inevitable paradox.

P.S. Happy 2008.

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