The Carnival of Entrepreneurship heads to Washington

The Carnival of Entrepreneurship has moved onto the east coach of the USA this week and is being very ably hosted by Jack Yoest.

Jack has assembled an array of 7 entrepreneurial posts with a real international flavour (including a post from yours truly heading up the list – thanks Jack!).  I love the way that Jack has personalised the posts by collecting images of each of the authors.  It gives the carnival some real personality.

The posts that stand out in this group for me include -

Rick Spence’s advice on delivering criticism or critique
Scott Allen’s discussion on redefining project completion (I must admit that there have been times that this little entrepreneur has been guilty of some of the examples provided)
Tom MacMahon gives a good reminder that if you are an entrepreneur (or actually pursuing most other things) success comes down to persistence.

Next week the Carnival of Entrepreneurship spins around the world again and heads back to Australia. It is being hosted by my fellow Aussie and avid blogger Martin Neumann.

Golden Rules Part 2 – My List

In November last year I posted about an Business 2.0 article on the "golden rules" of 30 business visionaries.  Back then I challenged the readers of this blog to review what their own golden rules were.

Phil Gerbyshak took up my challenge and posted his own list of golden rules.  He then proceeded to ask what mine were!  I was so very busy with the lead up to Christmas and the holidays that I managed to put Phil off by saying I would think about it and post my musings.  Well Phil, it has been almost 3 months and I have finally had the space and time to give this some good thought.

• Be real - authenticity allows you to not worry about who sees you when and where, because you are just showing up as you.  If you have one version of you professionally and one personally sooner or later things are going to get confused.
• Speak up – speak with honesty, speak openly, speak with heart, speak your truth.
• Have a focus and a purpose – mindless meandering for the sake of being busy doesn’t really help anyone.
• Tempo giusto – there is a right speed for everything (and that doesn’t mean just flat out or dead stop).  The best of business, life and enjoyment doesn’t come from always being the fastest.  Sometimes there is a need for another pace.  (inspired by Carl Honore’s In Praise of Slow)
• Take time to be aware – Awareness leads to better choices, and better choices lead to better outcomes.
• Live your values – it makes each day richer.
• Surround yourself with people you love – Never turn down the opportunity to hang out with friends, family or colleagues that you genuinely enjoy being with.  There are never enough chances do it.

So there you go a short list of my major golden rules.  Again I will ask – what are yours?

Thanks for the prompting Phil!

The Carnival Arrives Down Under – Carnival of Entrepreneurship #3

Roll up, roll up !!  Welcome to the 3rd edition of the Carnival of Entrepreneurship.  The carnival has travelled far over the past week.  From Anita Campbell’s stella hosting last week it has moved westward across the USA, crossed the Pacific Ocean and landed here in Sydney, Australia.  Now if I was hiring a team to move a live carnival (not just a virtual one) half-way across the world then I would want to make sure that there was at least one entrepreneur on hand.  That sort of move would definitely call our entrepreneurial big picture thinking and visionary qualitites (not to mention the ability to work all night).

This week there was such interest in the carnival that I had the opportunity to select from the posts available.  Here are the 7 that touched a cord for me.

First off let me start with our host from last week.  Anita Campbell at Small Business Trends raises a point that hits home for me in a thought-provoking post from the weekend. You know all those Web 2.0 startups that everyone is excited about?
Well, if we didn’t have an open access Internet, few of those new
companies would get off the ground.  As a woman who worked in the technology & telco sector for 14 years I understand all too well how easy it is to put technology barriers up for small business.  Now as an entrepreneur I have taken advantage of all the benefits that cheaper technology have brought.  But for how long.

With many entrepreneurs looking for ways to become more memorable, Derek Andrews from Marketing Mania brings us a very interesting example of how a Cape Breton candy shop created a memorable experience for
its customers. It has even lead to these customers being actively involved in promoting the
business. But Derek also asks the question "how could they do the same for their website visitors?"  My question to you is what do you clients find memorable about you?

Time and again one of the most common challenges that I see entrepreneurs facing is the lack of time.  Personally I believe that time management is an oxymoron.  Jim Estill believes that if you understand the rules of time then you will be more likely able to harness it for you benefit.  Jim has created a list of the 12 Rules of Time and recently posted it on his blog.  12 Rules wow!  My hope is that if I get the procrastination under control there will only be 11 to worry about.

Chris Brunner, from The Small Business Buzz (and a future host of this travelling carnival) has posted a very practical piece of advice if you are one of those entrepreneurs who are looking to sell your business at some stage. His post "Add Value to Your Business" is a timely reminder
that if you want someone to hand over the big bucks when you sell your
business, then you had better get started now doing the extra things that will make it attractive to the buyer.

The last couple of days has found me thinking about my Board of Advisors, thanks to Anthony Cerminaro from BigBangBuzz.  Anthony offers to us the point that Advisory Board advantages raise legal issues.  He also offers steps on how we can minimise the risks, and even presents some additional resource links.  I think I have a call to make with my advisors.

Now onto the word of the day – bootstrapping. Ahh bootstrapping …. a word capable of bringing on fond memories and night terrors to many an entrepreneur.  This week Benjamin Yoskovitz brings us a reminder of the Things to Remember When You Are Bootstrapping Your Start-Up.  He presents 9 very important points for any business to remember (whether you are bootstrapping it or not).  In particular I agree with #8 Benjamin – the number of times that I have shared with my fellow business start-ups that whether they like it or not there are still things they have to do (do you think anyone would notice my filing pile if I left it another day or two).  His blog I Got News For You gets my notable mention award this week; a very funny look at life as a start-up.  This definitely gets added to my BlogRoll.

And speaking of bootstrapping, as entrepreneurs most of us have had the challenge of raising
awareness of who we are and what we have to offer on a shoestring (or boot lace).
That is why Jack Yoest’s post "10 Steps of Marketing With No Money — Then Sell Out"
provided me with both big smile and some great ideas.  In particular I
love point #1 – you just gotta love a party!  If you read this post an don’t walk away with one idea for increasing your marketing without blowing your budget, then you are not being creative enough. (In fact the carnival is
back on the road to the east coast of the USA this week and will land
with Jack for the next edition).

Well there you are, 7 posts from 7 entrepreneurs that have been helpful enough to share advice that will hopefully grow your business. 

If I can just put my techo hat on for a minute I want to make a request/suggestion.  If you are taking the time to write a blog, and if you are looking at gaining exposure for your blog through carnivals like this, then I suggest that you make sure your blog has the ability to accept trackbacks. If you don’t know what the heck I am talking about or don’t know how, then get a hold of your favour tech-head and ask for some help.  (Ask?  Yes Ask!  That get entrepreneurial skill ))

Thank you for taking some of your valuable entrepreneurial time and reading this carnival.  Now GET BACK TO WORK!

Until next time, love your work!
Leah

The Rebirth of E-Books?

Even though there are thousands of them being published each year, the humble old e-book just doesn’t seem to have engendered the broad level of support that the pundits had been predicting.

Personally I love the flexibility and immediacy of e-books – enter my details, hand over the money and bam! there it is on your computer.  But then there is the eye-strain and ungainliness of reading it on the screen, etc.

Maybe that is about to be a thing of the past.

Sony have released their Sony Portable Reader System (the PRS-500 for those that just love model names with a collection of random letters and numbers).

The important stuff (don’t worry too much about the technical specs – women don’t really care about them anyway) is -

• it will hold approximately 80 books in the one place, and you can add around another 270 with a small memory stick that just slids in.  WOW 350 books in one place and all searchable.  For a person like me that often has several books on the go at one time that will just mean more decision-making on which one I want to read.
• the display is an off-white colour so that it is easy on the eyes.
• and speaking of eyes, you can enlarge the print by up to 200% (so you don’t have to give your age away by holding it at arms length to focus on it without your glasses).
• The battery is good for 7,500 page turns (and recharges in around 4 hours).
• And it doesn’t just hold ebooks – it can also be used for your personal documents or even as a portable photo album (just so you can bore everyone silly with the lastest pictures of your little darlings).

The bad news is that it is not available until the Northern Spring/Southern Autumn.  I, for one, will be lining up to get me hands on one as early as possible.  Not just beacuse it is the latest piece of technology of course (that won’t be me, would it).  This is actually a piece of technology that serves a purpose!

My question for you now is …… with people looking for e-books to put on their Readers, do you have plans to create and sell some at your business?

There’s a New Carnival in Town

2006 is heralding the creation, and re-invention, of many tools, resources and forums for the small business owner and soloist – so hang onto your hats because it will be a busy year.

Kicking off the year on a new note is the Carnival of Entrepreneurship.  Started by Scott Allen, this carnival was motivated by the long-running Carnival of the Capitalists but is focused more on small business and entrepreneurs, rather than just business in general.  Each week the carnival will highlight 7 blog posts on entrepreneurship and, following carnival tradition, will be hosted by another blogger.

The currently the Carnival of Entrepreneurship is visiting with Anita Campbell at Small Business Trends.  Anita has done a great job of highlighting an interesting list of posts.  I will be looking to step up to her standard when Working Solo takes on the role of carnival master on Thursday this week.  Make sure you drop by and have a look.