What’s Next?

This must have been the most confusing time of my life. A decision to move on is not an easy one. Friends, colleagues and relatives kept advising me to take a vacation. But for me, a vacation is something you go to from a workplace, and get back from, to a workplace. If it’s from nothing to nothing, then it’s probably not a vacation. And for me especially: I need to be constantly busy.

So I started by listing all possible future plans. All those ideas I’ve been shoving under the bed, hiding in the drawer. Every urge that was swept aside. I let my passions carry me to better places, called my imagination free and came up with at least one or two really good ideas every day, and probably some weird and not so great ideas too.

In the meantime my ever so clean and organized study became messy. Really messy. Tons of papers, notes, post its, receipts, notebooks, business cards from all over the world, pens and pencils, reading glasses, a broken netbook that needs backing up before sending it to be fixed. A long long list of things to do that keeps getting longer. On my desktop tens of incomplete blog posts, started just like this one, but never ripened to be presented in public. Another list that is not really getting shorter of people to call, schedule meetings, bring up to date.

I respond to event invitations, but rarely gather enough energy to go. What will I say? What shouldn’t I say?

I need time to heal, apparently.

Saying goodbye after almost 2 years isn’t simple.

It’s as complicated as finding the next focus at least.

Success? What is it?

Amidst all the attention and hard work I almost forgot to be excited about the launch of my very own startup. I didn’t dwell on what it means, or what it might bring, on terms such as success and failure. Until yesterday, when I received a very surprising phone call.

A TV researcher was on the line. She told me of a TV series they are just beginning to produce, that will attempt to explore the question of success, what is it and how to achieve it.

How or why did she land on my phone line I have no idea. She mentioned being referred to me, but wasn’t quite sure if she should be talking to me as a representative of the successful female, or about motherhood, or education, or entrepreneurship.

Am I successful? I asked myself. Is there really an absolute “successful” definition?

I think people are rarely an absolute success. They could be more successful here and less successful there. When we talk about successful people we usually add another description – like, a successful business man, a successful artist, a successful student.

To make it even more confusing the TV researcher mentioned that the “Success” series is produced following a previous production of a series discussing “Happiness”.

Success and happiness are entangled and interdependent, yet in the western society we often let financial criteria interfere.

So I asked my kids what is success? My daughter said success is achieving things you want, goal by goal. My son said success is when you achieve happiness. The little one just said I hope I will succeed in saving wildlife.

I guess it’s all of those, really. Each goal I achieve makes me feel successful and happy. Each achievement makes me hungry for the next goal. Happiness can be a goal in itself, with different ways to achieve it.

And success in school? Well that’s a whole separate discussion.

Free Online Account? Trust No One.

Ning deciding to gradually terminate their free service came as a serious shock to many of their users, especially those who established various free social networks based on the its platform.

If you are not familiar with it – Ning is offering a platform for quick and easy creation of social networks.

It seemed like Ning’s free service should have lasted forever: you open a network, recruit between tens to the hundreds and sometimes even thousands of members to your network, Ning plant ads on the network’s pages. Revenue goes to Ning.

However, since it’s totally free to create, not all the networks could bear profits. Some networks were created and then forsaken. It’s been sitting there for 2-3 years. Some photos, some blogs, poems, personal pages of 84 members, generating no real income as there are no visitors. However, this network costs. Someone has to maintain the data. It is stored somewhere. It’s taking space, resources.

Less then an hour after Ning has made their announcement the net was flooded with offers for backups, migrations and alternatives to the Ning platform, for educators or for any one. But the Network is now tainted for ever.

Trust no one!

What was accepted and perceived as a Free For Ever service – is not free any more. And if Ning can do it, why not Facebook, or Twitter? Or Gmail?

Leaving the business consideration aside for a moment what really bothers me is the question -what made them do it and why now? Is it the beginning of the content explosion?

I know several people who opened more than a single Facebook account. The most common reason is losing the password, but I know kids who opened several accounts so they can send themselves Farmville gifts, or people who opened separate accounts for connecting with family and connecting with business associates. Each account consumes system resources. Abandoned accounts don’t generate income. And double accounts, sometimes hosting double feeds or photos, take up a lot more space then the revenue they can generate.

And in the meantime we are all reading and writing and referencing and cross referencing and I see how the volume of contents keeps growing infinitely. In a presentation I watched recently the speaker revered about how our grandchildren will be able to share details from our lives in a much more vivid way then we can share our parents’, because all of this information is going to be stored online forever.

Really?

For free??

If only there were 34 hours a day…

In less then 30 minutes I will be out the door again, on my way to the violin lesson with my 7.5 year old son. It’s raining outside, and windy, and cold. I would rather stay at home. But to be perfectly honest – the weather is not the reason. The reason is that I have so little time to work.

I feel like running against the wind. Got so many errands and driving assignments there’s barely no time left for continuous undisturbed work. With no other choices I find myself trying to catch up at night, sometimes staying up until 1AM. These are good quiet hours that allow me to read huge amounts of material. But these are slow hours for writing and really not the time for conversations at all.

I have to admit that being a mother AND an entrepreneur is, let’s put it delicately, challenging. I want to be there for my kids, I want to take a part in their lives, I want to play with them, read with them… I also want to live my own life and find time to do some sports, to meet with friends, watch TV. Taking on entrepreneurship is what changes it to super-juggling. Entrepreneurship requires more hours then a day has to offer. I’m in a serious deficit.

Is this why there aren’t so many mother-entrepreneurs?

Yet, I am not ready to give any of it up. To make things even worse – I think I have discovered my calling over the last several months. I feel so passionately about education I just know I have to get involved and start doing things. Well… I actually started to. More news would follow.

Two ideas at the cost of one

March broke of with a set of terrible storms. Winds, rain and very cold for this area. It went down to 9c degrees. I didn’t feel like going out at all. But on Monday having pre registered to attend the ISOC and GamesIS convention I have decided to ignore the storm and just do it.

And a good thing I did. Heard some interesting talks. Met interesting people. Some were contacts I have been meaning to meet for a chat for a very long time. So finally we had the chance to do it.

I met a colleague who asked me why I came. I said I like these events because they usually get the wheels going. It’s always a push, no matter where you are. He was surprised. In his view this was too much an official venue. You need some letting go, some nonsense atmosphere, don’t you?

Well, apparently, I don’t. Not that I mind doing the unofficial events too, but I was really happy when at the end of the day I knew I had a new idea for a startup, and I also knew what is the next step on my current startup idea.

Of course, this has some good sides and some bad sides. I almost dared to think that perhaps I should avoid such inspiring events so that I don’t get distracted and can keep on my track, my current startup idea. Why did I have to get this diversion now? I was almost sorry.

But then, having a new idea is exciting. So you can’t stay “sorry” for very long.

So, now what?

Who will invest in startups in 2009?

While working on the script for a demo to present my startup venture, I am approaching the dreaded point where I will need to get other people’s money to advance my vision. In other words: fish for investors.

‘Investors’ are like a dirty word nowadays. When talking to other entrepreneurs the word “investors” or “investment” is whispered. As if by saying it out loud the dream will crumble and disappear.

The gloom projections for 2009, based on the sad financial events at the closure of 2008, add to a global pessimist atmosphere. The “realists” I meet say to me, nodding their heads, “well… a startup venture?? Now??? This is really not the time, you know??”

Well, what can I say, it’s now that I have this idea, and not later. True, I assume the competition will be fierce and the chances of landing that deserved funding are lesser this year. But that does not mean that by putting my project on hold for two years I will be able to promote the idea faster or safer then.

So I am back to my desk. Following the financial news and learning of the financial figures. I am trying to adopt my message to current times and events and see if I can find that path into some investors’ hearts.

*Click to Play Money by Pink Floyd

That question popping

Business partnership is a lot like a marriage. I have made that observation in my earlier posts. I decided to look for a partner for my startup idea because I felt that in order to advance I need complementing skills. However, pretty early during that search I understood that it won’t work. You can’t just post an ad “wanted – partner” the same way you are looking for an office manager. I dropped the whole search and decided to walk as long as I can by myself.

It is rare to find a business “kindred spirit”, but recently it felt like I did. Exchanging thoughts and ideas felt like we were feeding each other. I thought a partnership is the way to go. We can both reach higher and faster, each with her own startup idea, if we work together.

So I popped the question. She feels the same way about our cooperation but the way from here to anything that looks or smells like partnership is a long long way.

For a couple of days I was really excited, like in most beginnings. But at the same time, beginnings can be threatening. Each of us has her own idea to promote, her own startup to kick forward. It’s not going to be a joint venture, it could, at best, be a sisterhood, where each of us helps the other fill in the blanks. No sisterhood business model exists that I know of. Are we going to set off a new thing?

Can we really create a model of mutual professional assistance (none of us can afford to pay for the other one’s services), based on trust and camaraderie and shared vision in the better world we are going to create with our startups idea??

The Startup Experts Pattern – choices.

As one of my readers pointed out there are not enough cross references between the percentages I presented in my previous post. I get the cross references from reading each and every questionnaire filled. But the software doesn’t analyze the connections between choice on question 1 and choice on question 6 for instance.

Sometimes I read a filled questionnaire and I am saying to myself – here is someone I would love to work with. On other cases I can tell here is someone whose path will most likely won’t cross mine.

What I find most exciting are knowledgeable people. They may or may not have formal education, but you can grasp how much they know from the replies they choose. Sometimes the hint is in the experience section. But more often they remind you of Plato’s “This I know – that I know nothing.” Open to learn from anyone, anywhere, anything. These are the most interesting people to work with. Working with such people results in the sum of parts being greater than the whole.

Here is an example to one who I’d like to meet, whether I’d work with him or not.
The young CEO, who has a lot of formal education and extensive experience, who stated he did and will do all strategic planning on his own, and under opinion on consultants chose “didn’t find the answers to my needs”.
I find this choice intriguing. He could have said “I don’t need it”. But his choice stated that there is something missing. I am not sure he had put his finger on it: not sure what might be out there for him, he is still open to the thought that some outsource might pop up with an interesting addition to the self resources this CEO has. Makes me wonder about brainstorming with him. Hmm…

The Startup Experts Pattern

A couple on months ago I initiated a survey, aimed at learning my own market – the market of startups and hi-tech entrepreneurs and their approach to contracting expert help.

I would like to share the current results on the startup pattern survey. An updated summary will be published when I have more responses. If you didn’t fill it yet go to:
http://www.yourpinion.net/The_Startup_Experts_Pattern

Here is a summary of the initial results, in percentages:

Who participated?
66% entrepreneurs who answered are from the Internet and media industry.
10% Enterprise software
10% Life Sciences
3% wireless/mobile

41%- are in the idea stage/initial development/bootstrapping.
28% are looking for seed money.
14% are after a first round investment.

55% have a founding team only
14% of the companies have 10-25 employees.
10% have up to 5 employees.

72% of the participating entrepreneurs are males.
24% are females.
The rest didn’t fill in this detail.

52% are between 25-35 years old.
38% are 35-45
7% are 45-55.

Education –
41% have business experience and 34.5% have startup experience.
38% hold a BA, 31% hold an MBA and 13.8% are engineers.

Title:
35% describe themselves as entrepreneurs
21% as CEOs
17% as serial entrepreneurs
10% as VP Marketing or Business Development.
Only 3% – CTOs

Location – nearly 45% didn’t select a location.
21% are from the Sharon area
14% are located in Gush Dan
10% are not in Israel
3% are in the north of Israel
0% in from the south.

The pattern:
Only 65% have a business plan and/or executive summary.
55% have a also a marketing plan
24% have a communications scheme or branding strategy in addition
24% don’t have any of the above.

59% said they did their business plan/executive summary/marketing plan on their own.
27% used the help of a business consultant
24% used a lawyer
24% used a graphic artist or studio
21% used internal resources
14% used a marketing consultant
7% used a communications strategist

To the question which resources you assume you may use in the future for strategic plans:
55% said they can do it on their own
44% said they will use graphic artists or studios
41% said they will use a business consultant
38% said they will use a marketing consultant
31% said they will use a lawyer
28% said they will use an accountant
17% said they will try a branding consultant or firm
17% said they will need a copywriter
17% said they will manage strategic plans using internal resources
14% said they will use a communications strategist
10% said they will use an outsourced project manager.

What outsources will you use if you had no budget limitations?
65% – a strategic consultant
59% – SEO search engine optimization
55% – PR
55% – web marketing specialist
51% marketing consultant
52% – graphics studio
52% – branding firm
45% – copywriter
45% – research and information specialist
35% – Communication strategist
24% – naming expert

Opinion regarding hiring professional consultants or outsources:
38% – can’t afford it
17% – prefer to do it in house
17% – are concerned because of legal/patent/secrecy issues
7% didn’t find outsourced answer to their needs.

Preferred method of contracting help:
52% – agree on a project’s budget
14% – hire employees
10% – get full time partners
7% – agree on an monthly retainer fee
7% – agree on a reduced fee plus equity or options
3% – pay an hourly rate

The sequence: getting back to work

Getting back from a vacation when you are an independent consultant is something else. You pick up at your pace. Men have a different pace than women. In the women’s paces you need to count some family paces too. Meaning, a woman business owner is responsible for getting her whole family back on track. The man will simply kiss good bye and get into his office, for as much over time as needed to get to his full speed.

Getting back in August is even trickier. It seems like half the world is on vacation. Companies, institutions, government entities – are all out of the office. This is perhaps a better time to return, because you can really build it up slowly. But it is the worst time to be back if you want to pick up at exactly the same speed you left. Frustration seeps in your mind each time another phone call remains unanswered.

But honestly, this quiet zone forced on you is not a bad thing. It is the best time to review your business plans, your communications schemes, do the web site update, schedule events, go over the long long list of to do items.

One of the more important things to accept is that your real getting back from a vacation will happen when the rest of the world returns. That usually happens in September. So take a deep breath and be happy for the relaxed pace of getting back to work. You will have the rest of the year to be stressed.

Vacation Can Happen!

I don’t have to submit a vacation request to my employer. I am an independent consultant, after all. I can come and go as I please. Last year I had heavy doubts before I dared to take some time off during the summer with the family. This year it was a little easier.

I still worry about taking a vacation without jeopardizing my one-person-show business. The same questions keep popping into my head about when to stop and then how to restart. But the summer has its own pace and a vacation seems to be a part of it.
Seeking approval I discussed this topic on the DEI (Digital Eve Israel) list last year. Got reassurances all around. Some suggested using blackberry or a laptop, other suggested a complete relax, provided I don’t leave a project in its course. Last year was OK: I finished a project just before going and got back days before the beginning of the new school year, marker of new projects beginnings.

So here is a quick reminder why a vacation can happen even when you are a sole proprietor:
-The fact is that I am a marketing and communications consultant. I am not solving global warming. The world won’t end if I’m gone a week or even two.
-I must inform clients and contacts in time, finalize projects before the vacation. Plan the schedule so it won’t interfere with significant clients’ events. Go for August, most people all over the world are going for August anyway. How significant can anything done on August be?
-I try not to start new projects until after my getaway. And tell everybody. Set a vacation response for my email.

Go for it.
Rest.
I just want to turn off my brain and stop the ongoing convincing. The summer is slower anyway. Let’s look for a totally different environment. An internet connection is preferable – but I am setting myself in a vacation mode. No emergencies. I want all the family to relax into a non-emergencies atmosphere. Enjoy each other’s enjoyment. Fill your lungs with air and water your eyes with fresh sites.

Next: getting back.

The lone consultant

Being a consultant can sometimes be really, really lonely. And this is true even on the busiest days.

As I write this I am sitting in my office, at home. A small fridge is tempting me, but I can stay glued to my chair for hours, unless I have meetings outside. I got back to work today. Obviously, a busy day. I had one early meeting out of the office, many phone calls to return, email messages and social networks I need to keep alive. All this while I need to complete another proposal and finalize another project. Had to create a small power point. Update an excel sheet….

Just before 14:00 my 10 year old got back from school. This was an opportunity to see another human face and also have lunch. I don’t always use this opportunity. Sometimes the 16:00 deadline, when I need to go pick up my youngest from the nursery school, is too intimidating and I use every last minute I have in my study. Sometimes, I continue even after I get the kid home, when he is only too happy to play peacefully in his room.

It’s not an easy thing, to be a sole consultant. It has some advantages, like: No traffic to the office. No office politics. I run my own timetable – and can be flexible when necessary. I don’t have to take every project landing on my table. I can say “no”.

But there are faults too, like: there is no “work day” or “work hours” or “office time”. The office is at home so there is no escape and no real method to disconnect for hours. Without colleagues, partners or help – availability is a requirement. And without a boss that defines deadlines or demands or a company framework – I need to create the structure by myself and the motivation. I feel especially lonely when I need someone to brainstorm with.

So I thought of various options for strategic alliances. My services can complement those of graphic studios who offer visual branding, various web services companies who offer anything from site development to SEO and web marketing. I can join hands with advertising companies or PR firms as well as other consultants.

But then I found out that Israel isn’t a place for real collaboration. It seems every man fends for himself. Some do not want to encourage cooperation because they fear their alliance may turn out to be a competitor. Some find it a difficult sale: It’s hard enough to convince a client of your own value, why should I bother with someone else’s value? The fact that the joint value may actually be a lot higher is often ignored.

I still think that alliance is the way to go. This is one of the reasons for my vigorous networking. I need someone to talk to, to brainstorm with, and to throw my ideas at. I need someone who will keep me alert and laughing and provide that social and professional camaraderie that will maintain my sanity as a consultant.

There is also one other need. I discovered that I really don’t like the sale process. The whole bonding-presenting-proposal-closing circle is not it for me. However I am in love with the project process. I love every minute of analysis, decrypting the correct strategy, finding the name, the answer, the solution, creating a new business directions. I love it!

Clearly, to succeed, my consulting business would need to align with a professional who can complement my skills. Be the sales mensch, while I get into the details, and still be a partner enough to brainstorm with. But where can I find such a partner and how can I know if this can really make a fine partnership?

Quoting an entrepreneur…

Internet entrepreneurship is a tricky thing. You really can’s say what will work and why. All this talk about a bubble really isn’t relevant to the actual businesses. Some may flourish in spite of a bubble, and others may hang their failure on a so called bubble.

Bubble or no bubble, here is an inspiring bubble: quotes!
My friend and colleague, and an inspiring serial entrepreneur, Maya Elhalal launched quotesdaddy.com earlier this month. I think its potential might be unpredictable.

The site offers an endless number of quotes of famous people. Quotes are friendly, inspiring, amusing, easy entertainment. They can serve as a useful tool of expression and communications. Speech writers use quotes a lot. Students can use quotes in their papers. Quotes can be used as a reference; one can lean on a quote of a famous person or celebrity, while writing a letter, a message or request.

While searching the site you immediately run across a favorite quote. What will you do with it? Copy and paste? Where to? Obviously, the option of saving it under your user name on the web site is welcome. And so you register, an immediate simple registration, which assures the Quotesdaddy site that you are going to be a returning customer.

Researches may show that quotes appeal to older and wiser web users. Scholars will enjoy it and other people who do not find quotes intimidating or overshadowing. Let’s just say it is not the usual hang about for teens who are still searching for their own voice. But, here is a different prospective on the subject: teens enjoy quoting each other and their teachers. Tag it under fun or funny. These are not the same type of quotes, but what it you could save your own collection of quotes too? And choose who to share it with? Over the years you can enjoy the growth and maturing of your collection of quotes. Not to mention creating your own quotes, quoting yourself…

Brainstorming with my daughter

I love brainstorming. This is really one of the best ways to achieve results. I encourage brainstorming in all levels of the organization, for many types of questions or problems. Being a self employed independent consultant I don’t have co-workers to brainstorm with, but I often brainstorm with my clients or with other, third parties, involved in the service rendered.

When it comes to my startup-idea, I didn’t really know who I can brainstorm with. I don’t have any partners, yet. Surely enough no co-workers. My husband, chief brainstormer, doesn’t posses enough knowledge of this industry to help here. It’s been staring me in the face for so long, that I don’t understand how only last night I realized it:

My 13 year old daughter is the best brainstormer for this project! She has been the chief inspiration for the project, so why not brainstorm with her?

For the past several weeks I have been the coolest mom ever for my kids, while I introduced them every other day to a new web site with games, networking or virtual worlds. I collected their impressions, and sometimes their friends’ impressions, like a spontaneous, accessible, focus group. Based on these impressions and my own research I started to create a document describing the system I am planning to create. But something was missing all this time.

Yesterday, while she was dragging me to work out, walking around the neighborhood streets, I asked her if she would like to hear what I am working on. While I started to describe the project she contributed her feedback, which evolved into ideas. My concept is different from all major sites so you have to be a flexible and creative thinker.

I was impressed by her ability to think marketing, communications and to suggest technical features. Like a good brainstorming session it evolved to a ping-pong. Her being a 13 year old girl, without any hi-tech experience, only contributed.

When we got home we both concluded that it was a very good workout…

The Client from Hell (2)

Well, that’s what happens when you don’t follow your instincts.

I could smell it was going to be a client from hell, but let my guards off when he begged me to work on this project for him. This never happened to me before and it was slightly embarrassing.

They tried to bargain off my expenses and I said that’s where I draw the line and if it doesn’t work for you – that’s OK. But so do I (…not work for you). Then the CEO phoned me and said that his envoy “doesn’t understand these small things…” and of course he wouldn’t mind paying the expenses”, and talked me into taking this job.

To tell you the truth, I was flattered. I know I am good at what I do, but it’s always a pleasure to feel needed.

So I began working with him. Right at the beginning I realized that the payment isn’t going to be the worst thing here. What the client wanted wasn’t a whole new name for his business, according to a professional positioning and branding analysis. What he wanted is a consultant to confirm that he can do this. He recruited all tools he had to prove me wrong, including his friends from around the globe…

I must wonder, why would he look for a consultant at all? I mean; there are plenty of ways to go about doing naming for your company. Prices range is incredible. You can find web sites and software to generate weird names for free and go for a “Do-It-Yourself” process. You can hire a copywriter to suggest invented words for 300$ or a naming company to do a complete positioning-branding-naming-legal trademark process for more than $100,000 (ask Dov Moran) and there are plenty of options in between.

I thought that if this client has decided to address a professional namer, and insisted on hiring me after I was ready to let him go – he values the professional input he may get.

Instead it felt like a sour face reaction to any suggestion I made. This has blocked the possibility of any true dialog, that must develop between the client and the service provider.

I don’t want to end a project with a dissatisfied client. It’s a rule. This has caused some projects of mine to prolong over unreasonable length of time. However, I guess it’s time I realized, that I can’t win them all. Certainly not those who felt like they are going to be a client from hell right at the start.

So here 2 new rules:

One – trust your instincts and two – you don’t have to win them all.