Measuring 2008 Goals

It is that time a year again. Where we look at what we did and what do we want to get done next year.

A couple of key things we gone done this year:

  • Refine Business Dashboard
  • Develop speaker page with audio for our website
  • Expanded our network of consultant to off-load support activities
  • Developed “Engineering Your Sales Process” workshop
  • Added 3 new partners: Athol Foden, Steve Moore, and Pete Tormey
  • Added third Bootstrappers Breakfast in Milpitas at the Omega Restaurant
  • Grew mailing list by 64%
  • Completed our second workbook “Getting More Customers”

Some areas where we fell short:

  • Develop Startup Stages Idea – we make a good start for this, but fell short of where we want to take this. Stay tuned for more.
  • First Office” series. This will move to 2009 Goals.
  • Looking back over our business dashboard. We have a couple things we need to improve
    • Followup after a talk or other event
    • Quote more work
    • Give more talks

Here’s Jerry Kaplan’s “Five Biggest Mistakes That Entrepreneurs Make” at Stanford’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Speaker Series. It an interesting talk with good points about our goals. Summary:

  1. Unclear goals.
  2. Trying to prove that you’re smart (ego gratification) vs. building a team and building a company.
  3. Too much focus on control instead of creating value.
  4. Hiring a friend vs. best person for the job: hiring folks you like vs. folks you need.
  5. Lack of succession plan (hanging on too long): you have to let go of your children once they are grown, you have to let go of your startup when it’s grown beyond your capabilities.

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