May
7
Collaborative Offices – the d.school and IDEO
Filed Under Business Ideas, Resources, Principles, etc., Education and Love for Learning, Entrepreneurship, Ideas and Thoughts | 2 Comments
Great article from fast company on the Standford d.school – ditching the cubicles and going for project based work spaces. The d.school’s grand opening was today. Thanks to Mike Levinthal’s help on Orabrush, Jeffrey and I met William Burnett in their open conference room a few weeks ago and Professor Bernard Roth gave us a tour of their building. The kinds of projects they’re working on were fascinating (pumps for under $20 to change a community for example).
The students we interviewed to help us with product design were all extremely high caliber people and product designers. Very difficult choice.
Dave Kelly, who’s a schoolmate of Mike’s, also gave us a tour of IDEO. The culture of those organizations really opened our eyes to an incredible way to set up offices. I loved how they hung their bicycles from the ceilings (sounds like the tree houses we built as kids). Thanks to Kathleen (Dave’s assistant) for helping set the interviews up for us!
We’d like to recreate something similar at the Provo Town Square or some other place with character for Orabrush. If you know of any places in the area that we could do something creative with, we’d love to know.
Mar
8
I asked many on LinkedIn.com and here on my blog to contribute ideas to improve my young aspiring entrepreneur’s chances over his toy sale a few years ago. He had decided that his project for this year would be to sell something again. We really appreciated all the ideas.
Ultimately, we talked about where to go for heavier traffic in the country and realized that most skiers heading to the Pomerelle Ski Resort pass right near our home. We requested permission from the farmer who owned the field (happened to be my uncle) and set up at the base of the Albion grade.
We started with market research. My boy called Pomerelle to ask how much they charged for hot cocoa. Mid-conversation he hung up the phone and exclaimed, “ONE DOLLAR AND FIFTY CENTS FOR ONE CUP!!”
He and I searched the Internet for good recipes and he went to town with his Mom to purchase the ingredients. The cups and lids were harder to come by as they were sold in 600 to 1000 packs on the web and would run over 100 dollars together. Too risky. Luckily, when we attended a cousin’s reception, he asked the owner of the Sweetheart Manor in Burley if he could buy a few cups. He grinned from ear to ear when he walked away with 60 cups and lids for free, a donation to young entrepreneurship.
We all decided that 3-5pm, when the night skiers were headed up and the day skiers were headed down, would be the best time to sell. As repetition would catch those who drove by repeatedly, we planned to sell for 2 hours every Saturday in February.
The signs, which were made out of silage plastic, required more work than we thought they would, but they showed up very well and were strong enough to leave outside for the month.
I was impressed with how much he grew over the four weeks. He went from standing their quietly waiting for someone else to initiate the conversation, to jumping up and down to get people’s attention as they drove by.
He also learned, after selling mostly regular chocolate cocoa, that he could get more people to purchase his Strawberry Valentines cocoa if he encouraged them by saying, “this one is my most favorite in the whole world.”
At the end of the month he made $90.59 total revenue and spent $26 on supplies, so he brought home $64.59 to split between his capital for the next sale, his savings, his mission fund and his tithing. He was thrilled, and so were my wife and I.
Nov
11
What is your favorite child entrepreneur hero story?
Filed Under Business Ideas, Resources, Principles, etc., Education and Love for Learning, Entrepreneurship, Favorite Books, Ideas and Thoughts | 1 Comment
My son has become interested in business at a very young age (he’s 6 right now) and I would like to introduce him to inspiring stories of young entrepreneurs to give him ideas.
A little background. My son, of his own accord, has successfully sold his jokes by giving 1 for free and charging a $1 for more. He set up a toy sale out by the driveway at 5. He asks questions about the difference between Walmart’s and Apple’s margins. He hires his sisters (with his Halloween candy) to do work for him to make more money. This is a greater level of interest than his Dad for his age.
I want to encourage his interests in business and need some help.
We recently read of James C. Penny (founder of J.C. Penny) who set up a watermelon stand near the fairgrounds (his Dad scolded him for taking advantage of those within the fairgrounds who paid for selling permits). We read of Orville Wright and when he partnered with his 8-year-old sister to collect scrap iron from the neighbors and sell it to the junk yard (they had a bully attach them when they took the metal to the yard). Great stories.
This morning it occurred to me that if we could read together inspiring stories of young entrepreneurs, then it would give us both ideas.
Particularly, he wants to sell something this year for a project and has discovered from his toy sale (that only earned him $0.25 because he did it on a country road with little traffic) that he needs to find something he can sell and a place with more people to sell it. He needs ideas.
So, what are your favorite child entrepreneurial stories that my son and I can share together?
- Something a famous entrepreneur did when s/he was a child (famous examples).
- Something someone close to you has done that was interesting (non-famous examples).
- Stories you’ve heard as alternatives to the lemonade or toy stand (perhaps ideas that could work for a boy who lives in the country).
- Any children who’ve created very successful enterprises.
Please answer on LinkedIn, via a trackback from a post on your blog or in the comments. We’ll both be grateful!
Sep
11
Digital Content Markets Set on Fire
Filed Under Business Ideas, Resources, Principles, etc., Entrepreneurship, Ideas and Thoughts | Leave a Comment
Mark Cuban’s recent post is extremely thought provoking and, as an avid Kindle fan/user since its launch, I believe he’s onto something for the content business. I’m saving the link here for future reference.
Sep
2
Pogopalooza Professional Big Air and Extreme Sport Awareness
Filed Under Business Ideas, Resources, Principles, etc., Entrepreneurship, Ideas and Thoughts | 1 Comment
A friend of mine from my very own Burley, Idaho, Biff Hutchison, just won the Professional Big Air competition at the Pogopalooza in Pittsburg. I’m thrilled for him.
When Paul Allen offerred to let the first 10 entrepreneurs who contact him to run a survey on his 50 million users, I took him up on it and decided to gauge the publics awareness of pogo as a sport.
Here are the results (I’m thinking these stats will look very different over the next year as I see this sport taking off).
I’ll post the final after all 1000 responses come in…
What do you know about pogo as an extreme sport? (1215 responses) September 2nd, 2009
| I want a FlyBar or other stunt pogo stick | 1% |
| I’ve heard of Pogopalooza | 4% |
| I know some punk kids who do tricks on pogo sticks | 4% |
| I don’t know anything about pogo as a sport | 90% |
| I have a family member who wants or has a pogo stick for stunts | 2% |
Here’s a plug for FamilyLink (thanks for the survey Paul!)…
If your business would like to run a targeted survey with our 50 million users, please contact info@admazing.com. We can provide hundreds of thousands of responses in a very short time period with demographic targeting.
Oct
4
Opportunity Knocks and it’s not Paulson’s $700 Billion
Filed Under Business Ideas, Resources, Principles, etc., Entrepreneurship, Freedom, Government, Politics, etc., Ideas and Thoughts | 1 Comment
Last week, as my blood boiled when I thought of the freedoms we might loose as a result of the $700 billion transfer of power to the secretary of the treasury, I found myself reading articles, trying to understand what was happening, learning whether I could make a difference. It felt like a worthwhile thing to do, after all, the future of our country was on the line.
Then I read Seth Godin’s post on looking for an opportunity to do less, which hit home for me. I decided to write and call my senators and representatives and then forget about the housing crisis. Stop reading the articles. Stop wasting my time on something I had no power over.
Instead, I spend my time on our company and my family.
In a conversation with a good friend, he spoke of how wonderful a time this is to start a company. As the job market softens it will be easier to attract good talent to your team. He recently spoke with a technical leader in a large organization. Their research suggests that their ability to hire new programmers is going to surge in two months, not because they will have more resources, but because people will be looking for the work. He also commented that competition is so worried about their our cashflow problems and margin pressure that you have a chance to really grow if you dig in and work.
It’s a marvelous time to build a business, attract talent, stay lean and provide value to society.
So, the only reading I will be doing is studying the previous financial crashes historically to understand where is the best direction to steer our business. Did you know that the movie business thrived during the Great Depression? People needed an escape during difficult times…so they went to the movies. There are silver linings on the darkest of clouds. I thank Seth for reminding me to look at mine.
Hope.
That’s what President Uchtdorf called it today. Just saying that word makes me feel better.
Jul
10
Credit Card Fees – Where do they come from?
Filed Under Education and Love for Learning, Entrepreneurship | 1 Comment
As a merchant and a customer, the credit card industry has been a difficult one for me to understand, but as a merchant, a necessary evil, and as a customer, a convenient and safe way to purchase. I recently read a clear explanation of where credit card fees come from by Braintree Financial. Thanks for the write up!
Apr
22
U.S. Marketing Genius Behind Toothpick – Charles Forster
Filed Under Education and Love for Learning, Entrepreneurship | Leave a Comment
I’ve always loved Dick Eastman’s newsletter and I invited him to dinner last Thursday when I was in Boston. He took me to the Union Oyster House, the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the U.S.
Besides great food and a great evening, I learned from Dick and from a document at the restaurant that Charles Forster from Maine was the first U.S. citizen to manufacture toothpicks. To jumpstart business, he hired Harvard Law Students to eat at the Union Oyster House (the “in” place to eat in Boston) and ask for a toothpick. When the restaurant admitted they didn’t have toothpicks, the Harvard boys were instructed to make a scene about it. After 5 or 6 Harvard boys complaining about the lack of toothpicks, the Union Oyster House placed an order. Apparently, when the oldest restaurant in town carried toothpicks, the rest of the restaurants in Boston followed suite. From Boston, toothpicks spread throughout the country. Nice marketing idea.
Apr
17
Seth Godin Speaking in Utah
Filed Under Education and Love for Learning, Entrepreneurship | Leave a Comment
I’d like to hear Seth Godin speak in Utah. If entrepreneurship or marketing or sales interests you, I’d recommend participating in this. $50 means you hear Seth speak, have a book and four books to give as gifts. Not a bad deal. Good idea Seth.
Jan
23
The Business Development Corporation of Provo holds a monthly Xcelerator Forum for local entrepreneurs. The discussion today proved useful and fascinating. During the discussions, Mark listed the gotchas that many entreprenuers overlook:
- Illegal public offerrings. Don’t have your friends or others pass around email saying that you’re trying to raise money.
- 83B Election with the IRS. If you have stockholders whose stock vests over coming years, the stockholder must file an 83B Election with the IRS within 30 days of the contract (not of when the stock vests). Otherwise, that stockholder could get nailed with taxes as a company grows. Not fun. This topic generated a lot of questions and discussion. I was glad to learn that we had handled things properly with our stockholders. Here’s a form that will create the 83B Election document for you.
- Giving an unregistered finder a commission on an offerring.
All the panelists seemed competent in their fields of expertise:
Panelists:
Mark Bonham–Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati– He called himself a Securities Lawyer. Has a lot of experience in Silicon Valley.
http://www.wsgr.com/WSGR/DBIndex.aspx?SectionName=attorneys/BIOS/416.htm
Jon C. Christiansen–TechLaw Ventures — Calls himself an IP lawyer that doesn’t do patents. Tip from Jon: post a visible policy in the company that states, “we respect the intellectual property of others.” To watch your back if your employees screw up with illegal downloads or something.
http://techlawventures.com/
Brent J. Hawkins–Bennett Tueller Johnson & Deere, P.C. — I didn’t catch what Brent’s speciality is because the conversation got too intense after Mark and Jon got started.
http://www.btjd.com/attorneys/hawkins_brent.html