Today is Blog Action Day. Happily, since this blog is about starting a business, we stand at the absolute core of what environmental action is really about, and it has to be the best new business trend going. Go green. Saving the environment is going to be very good business, today, and for a long...
(Note: I posted this on my Planning Startups Stories blog yesterday, and I’m crossposting it here because it’s so directly related to business planning. Tim) Think of it as the heart of the business, like the heart of the artichoke: it’s a group of three core concepts that can’t be separated. Market, identity, and focus....
Thanks to Stu Phillips of Soaring on Ridgelift for pointing out Fred Vogelstein’s article The Facebook revolution in the LA Times on Sunday. Fred is a great journalist and always thinks outside the box – the premise of his article is that another way to look at Facebook is as a huge database of interactions...
What Wonton Foods did seems so remarkably simple. They put different, offbeat, surprising messages in their fortune cookies. “The problem just got bigger. Think, what have you done?” says one. “It’s over your head now. Time to get some professional help,” says another. And yet with that one different slant on an old business, you’re...
Paul Williams over at Marketing Profs Daily Fix, has a fascinating post about “Service Language.” He worked on the “Green Apron Book” for Starbucks employees to make sure that they are always on the same page about customer service. I had never thought about making sure everyone in the company speaks the same “service” language,...
David Miller in Campus Entrepreneurship yesterday highlights a Business Week story Enron then MBA then Campus Entrepreneur, by Nicole Alvino, offering a good true story and some good advice. My personal favorite from the list of five is “have the tough conversations early.” That’s so true. Talk it out before there’s money or work already...
John, from Duct Tape Marketing gives some great advice on his blog on how to get in front of that journalist you are dying to have write a story on your company. It’s very practical advice, and fairly easy to follow. Stop sending endless press releases and pitching story ideas… and instead follow John’s advice:...
Most people, when setting off on a trip, will have information and directions so that they can get from point A to point B. If you are driving, most likely, these days you will have a map from MapQuest or Google Maps with point to point driving direction. If you are flying you will have...