Image credit: sideshowtoy.com

It was 10 years ago today I incorporated my first business. To me, it seems impossible how time has flown by so fast. I’ve been blessed with many great experiences, some hard-to-swallow lessons from colossal failures and a couple good wins.

Now, I’m elated to find myself back at my original business, focusing on two of my strongest areas… technology and membership groups. I’ve always run revenue through this company and for the past six years, it’s been very, very stable while I learned and experimented with several tech and non-tech businesses.

I’m going to keep this short as I’m spending the rest of today reflecting not on what could’ve been, but what a decade of entrepreneurship has meant to me. Then I’m going to finally write a few posts answering what I seemingly always get asked… how did you get into business and startups? We each have our own career story and my next few posts will cover some key observations during this time.

• Twitter – Some love it, others just don’t get it. I’m firmly in the first group. I find great links, have established new connections, keep myself amused and easily keep up with existing relationships. I’m going to start pulling my daily twitter posts into this blog. It won’t replace my blog, but will give you much more insight to my world and network. If you’re on Twitter, follow me and hopefully we’ll find new ways to help each other.
• Video, video & more video – For over two years, I’ve been engrossed in web video, its best uses for brands, monetization and distribution. I’ve blogged about Daily Idea and Almost Mediocre as my two video properties, but many more opportunities have arisen. We’ve launched another web show for PopCrunch (warning: explicit language). Ping me for more information or if you have ideas for web video.
• Startup work – Rob and I really changed gears with our startup and have landed our first major customer. We’re built a social platform for local media companies. Have you seen your local newspaper, tv or radio station’s web site lately? Good, then you know there’s a market.

I thank you for sticking around and it’s good to be back. Even though at times I live by my calendar and task list, this quote summed up my eighteen days of absence.

“Calendars are for careful people, not passionate ones.”
- Chuck Sigars

Flickr photo credit: Leo Reynolds

Our personalities and skill sets are at times so divergent people are surprised by how we’re such good friends. We do share a love for problem solving, have successfully created and sold our own web content and we both separately encountered business partners that didn’t quite fit. From those successes and failures we are very aware of being fair to others. Finally, we are frequently accused of working too much (little do they know we don’t find it to be “work”). There may be a few more, but none will say we’re cut from the same cloth.

Rob is the more analytical, number-crunching, patient scholar who can out-think anyone. I, on the other hand, am the high-strung, marketing-minded, obsessed with content, press-the-flesh, offline/online networker. Even all the personality tests show wildly differing profiles. So where do we connect? There is a formula to our mismatched success.

1- We define areas of control. Sometimes Rob gets the final call in a financial decision, sometimes it’s me choosing functionality of an app. Either way, the lines are established from the outset.

2- We’re focused on the same goal… building profitable ventures. When things are at an impasse, we examine how the outcomes affect the goals. When in doubt, follow the path to the goal.

3- We discuss and debate without friction. This may truly be our secret sauce. I’ve never formed a partnership where so many differing opinions can be fleshed out without feelings getting hurt or impeding progress. I cannot overstate the value of #3, it’s worth more than all our ideas combined.

Yes, there are times where it’s nice to hear an echo of your same opinion, but differing views, interests and consideration for each other are what makes us such a strong team. We think (possibly over-think) possible pitfalls, opportunities and outcomes which has better prepared us for competition.

I’ve had almost 10 other partners with differing levels of success, but my advice is ultimately about teamwork. When considering a partner in any business don’t always look for just a complimentary skill set or background. Be sure you can make it as a team. Your startup will require many more hours than you plan or expect and it’s that teamwork that will get you through the long, hard slog.

If you’re catching up, be sure to catch the first part of our talk, then head over to LinkedIn and add me as your contact. It’s the best way to keep track of my ventures and network.

Flickr photo credit: Brian McGuyan

The point I’m making is she’s a player, she’s tried it, done it (successfully) and is going at again with a very, cool startup called TBD.com. Today, they just announced their funding round by a list of rockstar investors. But this story isn’t about the money, it’s about a proven leader who is building a business to help her generation. I sat down with Robin during my Bay Area Visit and while the persona in the book was intimidating, she and her team were a joy to meet. Watch this interview and you’ll see why.

1. Hire the right people – The first place we stopped was Ledson Vineyards. After two days of wine tasting, we all agreed it was the best. Was the wine that much better? Maybe, but the staff truly made the difference. We actually went back to Ledson and bought more wine and the staff gave us free tastings. They suggested places to eat and other wineries they personally visit. With a mediocre product and a great staff, you have a fighting chance. Build a great product and a great staff and you’re set.
2. Know your USP – Every business has its unique selling proposition and wineries and startups are actually pretty similar. When tasting wine (especially lots of it) the differences become less obvious, the same can be true for startups. Most wine servers talk about the ingredients and the taste (as they see it), but taste is subjective. The good servers talked about the process it took to make such great wine and its scarcity. When a visitor comes to your site/business, quickly explain why your service/product is worth their time. As a startup, your USP should be objective (faster, bigger, etc) and avoid the speculative pitch (better design or great management team).
3. Know when to ask for the business – We quickly found the serving staff’s goal is to get you to buy wine or join their wine club (neither is cheap). Unfortunately, most servers pushed the wine club brochure in your face too early. Just because you have a captive audience doesn’t mean you put contracts on the table. The best servers and salespeople know when to ask for the signature. I don’t know a shortcut on when to ask, but as a customer we all know when it feels wrong.
4. Don’t focus on competition – Everyone has competition. If you don’t think you have any, you’re in trouble. And if you focus too much on it, you’re wasting your time. The best wineries talked about themselves and left out the competition during our visits. They talked about their labor intensive production, high quality and disregarded what others were doing. It’s healthy to keep abreast of what the “enemy” is doing, but by focusing internally you’ll see more gains than looking outside.