Hugh MacLeod posted “Random Thoughts on Being an Entrepreneur” earlier this week. I’ve picked the best five and added some of my own comments 4. Once you become an entrepreneur, you find the company of non-entrepreneurs a lot harder to be around. You’ve seen things they haven’t; the wavelengths alter, it’s that simple. There are different perspectives […]
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As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on thinking about your business goals for 2007, it’s also worthwhile to look at your own motivations and needs. In an extending interview in Fast Company “Are You Deciding On Purpose,” Richard Leider advises that you ask yourself two key questions: What do you want? How will you know
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Thinking About Your Business Goals We went through a brief planning exercise with our clients, and some prospective clients, that several found useful. Since it’s not too late to do some planning for 2007, here are a few questions that should answer on a single piece of paper (perhaps even a 3×5 card you can
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Here are three ways for building credibility. Referrals A referral is an introduction to a prospect with an endorsement. A referral allows you to borrow credibility from a trusted third party. They spring from shared success with your customers or former co-workers, someone who knows your potential and can vouch for you or your team’s
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Ser Hou Kuang & Sean Murphy Granted US Patent #7162706 B2 for “Method for Analyzing and Validating Clock Integration Properties in Circuit Systems” on January 9, 2007. Abstract: A method for analyzing and validating clock integration properties in a circuit design is disclosed. A database of timing points that are clocked cell elements of the
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Here’s a good blog post on website content. How Can 10 Simple Articles Change Your Life? In his post Chris Pearson, recounts a story about a friend who creates a website (nothing fancy) but has wonderful content (10 articles). He kills his competition with his content. If you are selling your expertise, try promoting yourself
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We did an end of year de-briefing session an concluded that that the following changes had a things that had a positive effect on our business in 2006. Adding a logo to Business Cards Backgrounder (now in about SKMurphy, Inc. page) Improving Our Website Blogging LinkedIn Contacts Bootstrapper’s Breakfast “12 Books for the Busy CEO” Talk
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Last night, I attended the January Silicon Valley New Tech Meetup. For those of you who do not know the format of these gatherings, it is very simple. Each group of presenters is allowed five minutes to pitch their offering and then the crowd is allocated five minutes to ask questions. The first presenters were the founders
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Eight quotes by Paul Saffo on how technology is re-shaping organization design and strategic thinking in both commercial and military realms.
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“People Manage People, Tools Manage Data” is a very good rule of thumb for guiding your sales and implementation efforts for a new system. People Manage People, Tools Manage Data This was a principle for systems design suggested in a talk I heard 15-20 years ago. I can no longer remember the speaker’s name but
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Jon Winokur has published a number of good books, including “The Portable Curmudgeon” and “Advice to Writers,” and was interviewed September 2006 by Guy Kawasaki, which prompted me to add his most recent, “Encyclopedia Neurotica” to my Amazon cart (where books can linger for months or years). I was frankly a little disappointed, but found
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Here are our 2007 New Year’s resolutions. Theresa plans to improve her public speaking, Francis wants to develop a better understanding of theories of entrepreneurship, and Sean hopes to develop a more positive outlook.
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Peter Bakonyvari, VP Sales at JPMorgan SymPro, explains the practical realities of building a sales team: In particular firing a sales person.
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In “Iterating Towards Bethlehem” Michael Sippey addressed making the shift as a product manager. from packaged software to hosted services.
Iterating Towards Bethlehem: Michael Sippey at SVPMA 8/2/2006 Read More »
Gone are the days of annual release cycle. For many companies, weekly releases are the new standard. Picking the best software release cycle impacts your customers, team, and management. At this roundtable discussion we will exchange tips and gotchas. Provide a look at the impact on business models, teams and product development. Tuesday October 30
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Finding More Customers Every business owner asks “How do I Find More Customers? How can I get the phone to ring?” Is your New Year’s Resolution to develop a plan to grow your business? Now is the time to get started. SKMurphy offers a three hour Getting More Customers workshop where you develop a one-page
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I was interviewed in June 2006 by Barbara Cass, Volunteer Director for the SDForum, the final text appeared in the July/August 2006 newsletter (see page 15 of the PDF version). I have updated it here to add links for many of the referenced works and the quotes. KV Rao and I did a one year
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Theresa heard a radio interview with Barry Moltz in 2003 and suggested that I get his book. In December 2003 I purchased a copy of You Need to Be a Little Crazy and when it arrived from Amazon I put it on my to-be-read pile where it languished until early this morning when I read
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“Plus Minus People” make a strong initial impression but once you start working with them (or you hire them) you realize that they have a negative impact on the team.
I had lunch today at El Cerrito with an old friend from college who has done a number of successful startups. We talked of old classmates, children, the energy we had in our twenties, his new son, and my new granddaughter. And we talked about what it was like to do a startup. He left
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