I am Paul Singh

Guy Kawasaki recently put up a post asking if business plans are really necessary and it definitely deserves a read if you’re even considering heading down the path of entrepreneurship. He cites a recent Wall Street Journal article:

A study recently released by Babson College analyzed 116 businesses started by alumni who graduated between 1985 and 2003. Comparing success measures such as annual revenue, employee numbers and net income, the study found no statistical difference in success between those businesses started with formal written plans and those without them…

“What we really don’t want to do is literally spend a year or more essentially writing a business plan without knowing we have actual customers,” says William Bygrave, an entrepreneurship professor at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., who says he generally advocates “just do it.” Entrepreneurs must be nimble, and will be more apt to stick with a flawed concept they spent months drafting, he adds.

If you haven’t heard of Guy already, he’s a successful entrepreneur and now runs a VC firm — with that said, I think his thoughts on this topic are worth keeping in mind when you’re assessing how much time and effort to devote to your own business plan:

The phrase “unless a would-be entrepreneur needs to raise substantial startup capital from institutional investors or business angels, there is no compelling reason to write a detailed business plan” merits discussion. Most venture capitalists require a business plan as part of due diligence. This doesn’t mean they spend more than ten minutes reading the plan, and it certainly doesn’t mean that they believe it. A great plan won’t make a lousy idea successful, and a lousy plan won’t necessarily stop a great idea. Most of the plans that we see at Garage are too long and too detailed—to the point of reducing credibility. However, don’t draw the wrong conclusion from this study: “Analysis, planning, vision, and communication are unnecessary.” This isn’t true. What is true is that a business plan should not take on a life of its own. It is a tool—one of many that may help you get funded (or, more accurately, hinder you from getting funded if you don’t have one) and may help you get your team working as a team. But it is not an end in itself.

As a wanna-be entrepreneur with a little bit of experience under my belt now (with UpSolv and, to some extent, InfoRelay), I’ve learned that what Guy’s saying is absolutely true. Business plans don’t “prove” anything at all — but they are a tool (one of many) that can help to make sure that your ass isn’t flying completely blind in whatever it is that you do. Man, where was Guy when I was learning this stuff the hard way?!

According to the New York Times:

According to the Census Bureau’s 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States, most college freshmen in 1970 said their primary goal was to develop a meaningful life philosophy. In 2005, by contrast, most freshmen said their primary goal was to be comfortably rich.

My how times have changed.

I ran across a pretty sweet article over at Entreprenuer.com recently that details 7 business lessons that can be learn from Mr. Bond.

He (the character) is also an entrepreneur, at least in spirit. His salary comes from his Majesty’s Secret Service, but on the rare occasion a world scandal erupts, forcing his employer to drop him from payroll, he’s worked for himself until he dispatches with the bad guys and gets back in his company’s good graces. He also has a business mindset, frequently networking and making deals, to either prevent himself from getting killed or to save the world.

While all of the lessons are quite beneficial in their own respects, one of my favorites:

Business Lesson 6: Network, network, network. One of the characteristics that makes Bond the world’s greatest spy is his expertise at networking. For instance, when Pierce Brosnan’s Bond searches for the missing GoldenEye satellite weapon in GoldenEye, he starts off in St. Petersburg, using a CIA contact to meet Valentin Zukovsky, a Russian mafia leader. In exchange for an arms deal, Zukovsky sets up a meeting in a deserted graveyard in the dead of night with the head of a Russian crime organization called Janus Syndicate, who turns out to be a rogue agent turned bad guy—well, you get the picture.

And to sum it all up:

The same should be true for anyone in business. The chamber of commerce might connect you to someone at the nonprofit organization S.C.O.R.E., which might hook you up with a mentor who ends up finding you an expert in marketing who helps you increase your sales by 25 percent.

Amen, Mr. Bond.

Read the full article: 7 Business Lessons From 007

Technorati Tags: 007, business lessons, James Bond

How many times have you heard someone tell you (or someone else) that they should “never give up” and other motivational mumbo jumbo like that?

Sure, it’s nice to pump someone up by telling them that they can succeed at anything they want, but is that really the best thing to be spending your time on? In my opinion, the answer is no.

Chew on this: If you want to finish up some work and can’t seem to get it done at the office, what do you do? Do you choose to “never give up” and tough it out in the office or do you go find some other place that is more conducive to you getting your shit done? Make sense?

Bottom Line: If you’re doing something that takes your blood, sweat, and tears — and you still suck — you’re probably more suited to do something else.

Do yourself a favor and spend your time on figuring out what works (and doesn’t work) for you. Once you do that, I guarantee that you’ll make progress on whatever it is that you want to do.

I’ve cancelled my AdCenter account after less than one full month with the service.

I first got the idea to open the account after reading the WorkHappy One Month Challenge where is saw this:

Here’s the deal: Microsoft adCenter is MSN’s answer to AdWords and works essentially the same way. It’s Microsoft’s pay per click offering. You bid on keywords, adCenter charges you when people click your ad. It’s new, and Microsoft is trying to promote it. So much in fact, that they’re giving away $200 in free advertising.

As you know, I helped found UpSolv last year and I figured this was a good time to test out AdCenter (and since I’m a sucker for free money) so I quickly signed up for the account. I followed the help guides that seemed to indicate that I needed to setup a $200 campaign budget and set the end date for one calendar month. (I signed up on 12/12 so I set the end date for 1/12.) At this point, everything was fine and dandy — we started to see some clicks almost immediately. Oddly enough, the system went into a “budget pause” about 7 days later and I thought nothing of it. I figured it was trying to balance out the remaining money to help it spread the love over the one month period. I happened to look at my American Express statement 3 days ago and suddenly noticed that about $135 had been charged by AdCenter. (WTF?!) I logged back into the account to find that the “budget pause” had resumed on Jan 1, 2007 and the budget had reset to $200 again. By now, we had racked up $205 worth of charges between 1/1 and 1/5 and the system was now in a “budget pause” again.

In layman’s terms: AdCenter uses the 1st of every month as the start of a new month. Since I had opened my account on 12/12 and set the end date as 1/12, I had effectively told them to run my campaign for two months. The funny thing is, they didn’t mention this anywhere on the site!

I just spent 30 minutes on the phone with a support representative just now that told me that I should have called in sooner if I wasn’t sure how the system worked and that they were greatful for my feedback. She then proceeded to help me close my account without any further questions. Oh — and before I forget, she even told me that I technically owed a little over $5 more but that they would “round that down” for me. Gee, thanks Microsoft!

Synopsis: Stick to Google AdWords, Microsoft AdCenter sucks — or atleast their customer service does.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft AdCenter, Google AdWords, online advertising, SEO

Being an wanna-be-professional entrepreneur, I’ve attempted my share of networking over the years and learned quite a few pointers along the way. Obviously, you’re not here because you want to learn all the mistakes I made along the way — you want tips, tricks and hacks! (You lazy bastards!)

First, there are two things you need to realize:

1. No one cares about your or your business.
2. Everyone cares about themselves or their own business.

See a trend here? (Say it with me: “Yes”) So how do we get past all this and really get their attention?

1. Be curious. Everyone loves to talk about themselves. Ask questions about them, their business and anything else that will keep them talking. Don’t forget to interject a few bits about yourself either but let them be the star.
2. Be genuine. People have a funny way of figuring out when you don’t really care. Pay attention, look them in the eye, nod your head… you get the idea.

Throughout the conversation, you want to learn all you can about the other person — their motivations, their desires and/or their goals. The ultimate purpose is so you can tailor a response to show your value to their organization.

For example, when Johnny tells you that he sells widgets that make dogs glow in the dark and you want to get in on that action (whether it be as an employee or some sort of business partnership), you better be able to tell Johnny how you’re gonna make those dogs fluorescent pink with flashing neon ears! He doesn’t care what you’ve done in the past, he wants to know how you’re gonna make him some cash. Get it?

Technorati Tags: business, networking, entrepreneurship, entrepreneur

Since I’ve already asked you all to buy me something, here’s something else I want.

Vinturi: Essential Wine Aerator

I’ve forgotten my cell phone or wallet at home at least one time too many. Seriously, why didn’t I think of this before?!

Go here: The Container Store >> Doorganizer©

Slacker Manager has a pretty good article about some tips to keep in mind as we all start this new year. Remember, the goal is to work smarter, not harder!

1. Find the best way. (not necessarily the fastest or easiest, though it often is)
2. Procrascipline. Disciplined procrastination is the art of knowing why you aren’t doing something and when you might.
3. Ensure balance. Even by guerrilla methods (see: 4 hour rule and mental health day)
4. Find your place, for now. This is imperative, difficult and achievable. And you’ll do it over and over.
5. Maximize the work you love, minimize the work you hate.
6. Listen well.
7. Develop (manage) relationships.
8. Market yourself.
9. Think laterally as well as linearly.
10. Master the data. Using simple tools: Excel, SQL, etc
11. Be curious.
12. Pursue other pursuits.
13. Develop your spiritual life.
14. Read broadly.
15. Have a system (of organization).
16. Know how to decide.

Anyone else got some good tips?

Full Article: The guiding principles of the Slacker@Work

I’ve been a LinkedIn member for sometime now but haven’t really exploited the networking power that is built into the service until my recent job hunt. I can tell you from first hand experience that it really does pay to know people and tools like LinkedIn are quite useful when it comes to finding new positions (or being found for them too).

Guy Kawasaki’s blog points out an interesting factoid:

People with more than twenty connections are thirty-four times more likely to be approached with a job opportunity than people with less than five.

And if that’s not enough:

All 500 of the Fortune 500 are represented in LinkedIn. In fact, 499 of them are represented by director-level and above employees.

If you haven’t already noticed, I’ve placed a link to my LinkedIn profile on the right side of the blog. I strongly encourage you to click through and sign up for an account of your own — it only takes a few minutes and even if you gain one interview off of it (I did), it’s worth it in my book.

See more tips: Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn