Cool Birthday gift: star in your own comic book!

Would this be a good 50th or 60th or 70th Birthday present? A graphic novel based on the life of the Birthday Boy or Girl.

- the gift giver supplies a selection of photographs + stories from the person's life
- scan the images and a graphic designer assembles the comic using these photos and some other pre-prepared images/backgrounds.

You'd need to keep the style of artwork relatively abstract so that it's not inaccurate, for example in terms of the layout of the person's town or home etc. Also, because it' be pretty labor intensive for the graphic designer/illustrator, you'd have to charge a nice high price tag!

Any talented comic strip artists out there interested in giving it a try with me? So far this website looks free: http://www.birthdaycomic.com

What do you think of this business idea?
	Brilliant idea!
	Has potential
	Not so hot
	Doomed to failure!
pollcode.com free polls

.....................
(c) 2007. The small print: All business ideas and website URLs first cited in this blog are copyright. Please email me if you would like to collaborate on developing these business ideas or purchasing these URLs.

Crap business ideas: Identify them! Avoid them!

Generally speaking: what's a good way to evaulate business ideas?

Fabrice Grinda, a 31-year-old entrepreneur who once sold a company (Zingy) for $80 million once admitted that he steals brilliant internet ideas from USA and bring them to Latin America or Europe or vice versa. He 'throws stuff at the wall and see if it sticks. And if it fails, it fails.'

His series of business selection criteria when deciding which company to go into are as follows (and he does make the point that these are personal and based on his own skillset:

1. Is this a billion dollar market option?
2. Is this a valid and understood business model from the start? Do you know how much you’re going to charge? Do you know what your gross and net margins are
3. Is this a biz that doesn’t require more than 5 – 15 million dollars in series A funding, more than $2 M in seed money coz if it s more than that then its probably not for a start up.
4. Is it scaleable?
5. Is it something I want to do (coz it needs to be fun)
6. Is it something that’s at no risk or little risk if there’s intermediation or market repression from suppliers or customers? Don’t be involved in a biz where there's a risk of disintermediation!
7. is it something that’s part of a growing market?

His blog
www.FabriceGrinda.com

Screw internet dating websites! I need a friend!

Ever thought that? I've heard people remark on how difficult they sometimes find it to make friends in New York. Particularly if you're a busy person, meeting new people can be difficult.

Especially on a platonic basis.

Is there grounds for a friendship website? A speed dating version for friendship. Does such a thing exist? I'd call it:

www.speedfriending.com

or

www.speedfriend.com

Let me know if you konw of such a thing. If not, maybe it needs to exist...

Add your thoughts on this in a comment or email me.

The Creative Process and Martin Amis

Martin Amis was once asked why he gave one of his characters a fat cigar and he said “Anything that hangs around in my mind for a while gets in , purely on the strength of that. I think , ´What´s this doing in my mind? It must resonate with some experience´.”

Office worker killed by Excel spreadsheet !

When you get that frazzled feeling and feel like you are being overwhelmed and cannot meet deadlines, follow these Top Ten Office Drone tips:

1. Delegate!

2. Adjust/re-negotiate deadlines to give yourself more room!

3. Send quick emails to people asking for their input on things so that without realizing it, they are doing some of the gruntwork for you!

4. Write "Awaiting your response on this" at the end of every email so you are covered and you cannot do further on this until they get back to you (ie now THEY're the ones holding the project up)!

5. Never respond too quickly to something or you'll find that the next email already gets sent back pushing you to do the next stage. Now the ball is back in your court and you're the botleneck, 'holding things up'. If you get something completed unexpectedly early before a deadline, sit on it and don't send it out until the deadline approacheth. If you send it off too early (eager-beaver-like), you'll find other people have time to make some criticisms/suggestions and hand it back to you to re-work all over again.

6. At meetings, shut up. Don't venture bright new ideas or you'll find you're the one assigned to 'look into that some more'.

7. Ask yourself 'Is the job repecting you as much as you're respecting the job'?

8. If you have to cherry pick the things to focus on, always answer the bosses emails/requests first! After that, choose the things that will boost your resume's value eg. recently I have let some vague, potential clients' calls unreturned coz I was concentrating on trying to land a project with a major client: one of the Big Four. If I pull this off, you can betcha bottom dollar it will be appearing on my resume one year from now.

9. Don't worry excessively about lists always being a round number. It doesn't have to be a magic number of 5 or 7 or "10 things you should know about your cat"

10. There's no number 10. See number 9.

Storytelling: how to mash up an ancient skill

I propose a giant grid, something mashed up with Google maps or something. The website visitor can click on a street corner and add their own personal story or anecdote. Something similar to this already exists on the internet where the map indicates the bar or store or sightseeing attraction with a little info about it. I think there's also rock and roll history...yes...that's it. Now I remember, For example, it'll show the Blue Ribbon Bakery in teh West Village and there'll be pop up information that Jimmi Hendrix used to buy his fresh bread there. (If you know the website, please add a comment linking to it as I cannot for the life of me track it down on the internet)

I'm proposing something a lot more personal, something very texty and anecdotal. I think it'd give people a real behind-the-scenes look at teh city. People could post stories about where they met and hooked up with some guy or gal or their new york horror stories ("This is the corner where my friend Billy and me were mugged. Three guys came up to us with knives and one of them even had their girlfriend there and she was almost as aggressive as the guys. I just gave them everything and ran down Seventh Avenue! Billy was 100 metres ahead of me!")

Obviously this wouldn't have to be limited to New York. Every major city in the world could have one. Call it...

http://www.citymatrixstories.com

...or

http://www.matrixofstories.com

...or something.

What do you think? What would the business model be? How do you suggest it would be possible to make money from something like that?

Email me!

Riots break out as crowds fight to rent violin

Wanna practise playing the fiddle?

I bought my violin (plus bow) second hand from Sam Ash for 300 plus something dollars about one and a half years ago. I'm learning Irish fiddle tunes on it myself. While I'm not using it (like right now for a week or so) I'd be happy to rent it out for someone to use. It'll give you a chance to fool around with it. See if you like it or not. It's from Ars music and made in the Czech Republic (see sepia colored photo attached to this ad). It comes in a hard cover carrying case along with bow and rosin and a mute.

The fair rate I'm asking is: $10 per day, money to be paid in advance. Minimum number of days = 2, maximum is 2 weeks (because I don't wanna get TOTALLY out of practice!). As a deposit I'm asking $50, just in case you break all my strings or something. The deposit will be returned once you return the violin to me in the same condition you received it.

In order to ensure you don't disappear with it forever, I'll need to see your driver's licence and you'll have to swear on your great great great Grandmother's grave that you'll return it.

If we meet and you seem sketchy eg. you are wearing a mask and have tatoos on your neck and are called "Louie", I'll probably change my mind. Ha ha. This is nothing against anyone called Louie. Some of my best friends are called Louie. Hoo hoo hoo.

Note: this fiddle does NOT come with the dancing highland lassies.

Is there potential for renting other things out on a temporary basis? What do you have at home that's unused right now or for the weekend, but you'd be prepared to rent it out to make some money? A computer? A scanner? A guitar or piano? Your apartment? Or maybe just a room in your apartment? A space in your car when you drive from New York to Washington next Tuesday. Whatever!

Add it as a comment, along with your city and zip code and what price you are asking for the rental of whatever the hell it is. Include your email address or telephone number if you want. I'm open to any further comments on this. Email me your ideas on how to grow this into a profitable business.

What do you think of this business idea?
	Brilliant idea!
	Has potential
	Not so hot
	Doomed to failure!
pollcode.com free polls

.................

UPDATE: 2009 July

Just came across an interesting website which offers the capability to loan and borrow like this and earn money from it. Check out: www.loanables.com

Seems to mostly be for power tools, which is indeed a great example of something you might use once for a project and then not ever need again. Any of the users there are seem to be primarily based in Texas. Practically nothing at all listed for New York!

Except for a newly-posted listing, that is.

A violin! ;-)

The Perfect Book

If you could buy The Perfect Book that would seem to have been written just for you...

1. What would it be about? (eg. a book about how to meet the ideal partner? a humorous book that makes you laugh? a guide to making money? a book that changes your perspective on life?)

2. What would its title be? (eg. "How to meet your Prince Charming", "Turn $1 into $10,000 in 6 months or your dollar back", "10 big ideas that will change your life")

3. What might be another cool title of a book that you'd be very interested in?

I'm thinking of commissioning an eBook to be written so I'm interested to hear what it is people just like YOU would like to read! Please shoot me a quick email. A sentence or two will do, even just a few keywords.

It's Business Baby! Interviews with business people

Here's another cool business idea that I'd like to roll out.

I'm looking for some chatty and talkative people who would like to be featured on my new blog. I'd like to record a 20 minute interview between us, transcribe that and post it to the blog. I hope also to make a downloadable podcast from the recording so that the blog visitor can either listen to the audio or just read it. Obviously it'll be great promotion for you and we'll have a link back to your website.

There's nothing much yet to see at the blog but here's the URL:

http://itsbusinessbaby.blogspot.com/

Email me what your business is (incl. website), a few sentences about why your business (regardless of whether it's your own or you are working for someone else) is interesting enough to be featured. Include your telephone number please. I'm looking for some interesting anecdotal material here, more than just "my-product-will-change-your-life-blah-de-blah". The end interview we come up with should be either E or E: entertaining or educational.

Add your comment or email me at mouseloveselephant at yahoo dot com

Make your own Audiobook!

Elsewhere on this blog, I noted the business idea of offering customers the service of converting a book they own into audio. I actually tested this out on the New York version of
www.craigslist.org
to see what response there was. Here was the ad I placed:


.............................................................

Perfect gift: convert that Special Someone’s favorite book into audio



Enjoy ‘reading’ your favorite novel again by listening to it on your iPod. We will convert your book of choice into audiobook format for your personal aural pleasure and enjoyment. Relax, close your eyes and unwind ...



...while you listen to your personally recorded book. Tune out as you listen to your favorite author while traveling by subway or car. For the more voracious reader, this is also the perfect way to catch up on that backlog of books you just haven’t had time to read yet. Makes a wonderful gift!

Book length and prices:

1 – 100 pages = $5
101 – 200 pages = $10
201 – 300 pages = $15
301 – 400 pages = $20
401 – 500 pages = $25
501 pages and above = $30

Additional cost: $3.85 packaging + shipping.

How it works? We mail you a protective bag, you use it to mail us your book, we make the recording and mail you back both your book and your new CD containing the recorded MP3s. (You may also download your MP3 files from our website where we will store them)

Email us the following details...

Your name:
Your address:
Your telephone number:
Book title:
Number of pages:

...and we will be in contact almost immediately with details on how to proceed.

.............................................................

The result? A grand total of ...guess how many enquiries.......go on, guess beofre you scroll down!!.......










....have you guessed a number?..........













.....are you ready?..........














....was it ten enquiries?..........








or five?










or fifty three??
















No it was.......







(wait for it)

















....absolutely none.

Which kind of amazed me. I mean I didn't think it was SUCH a terrible idea! Other research on the internet revealed that perhaps others were thinking in the same way.

OK, here's what others had to say on this topic:

"I have been lurking in this forum for a long time and really appreciate the professional advise given out.

well i have this idea for an application, however i am not sure whether there is any market for it. The application i have in mind is to allow you to specify files or web pages to convert the contents to speech (via speech API) and into a mp3 file. so the mp3 file can be synchronised to portable mp3 players for you to enjoy on the road.

would anyone want such a product? Toh Yen Cheng
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Ask these guys if they make any money of their text to mp3 application: http://www.nextup.com/TextAloud
or these guys: http://www.tomdownload.com/audio_mp3/music_creation/visual_text_speech_mp3.htm Patric J
Thursday, April 06, 2006
If it converted the text to clear, understandable speach then it could be a valuable application. I have a lot of notes in Word or text files and it would be really handy to be able to convert them to mp3's so I could review them via audio while I am driving. I would buy it given a reasonable price. ps
Thursday, April 06, 2006
I would say no, there isn't really a market.

Firstly, there are far too many tools that do this both well and free. You'll struggle to compete in this marketplace.

The other problem is that, unless you're thinking of doing some really heavy duty R&D, then computer generated speech is almost universally annoying. It doesn't flow like human speech, and listening to it for any length of time really jars. For vital information, people are willing to listen, but no one will listen for entertainment. Graham Thorpe
Thursday, April 06, 2006
When I first downloaded some podcasts, I found it more difficult and slower to listen to them (passively), than reading their transcripts (actively) and skimming over parts if necessary.

Other people might have other differences.

So in a nutshell, for me, a speech-to-text application would be better. What you are proposing is a text-to-speech application (it's not that they don't exist yet, but don't let that stop you), and there may well be a market for that, too. Philipp Schumann
Thursday, April 06, 2006
thanks graham and ps. will take into consideration both of your view point. seems like the natural speech output will be the feature that kills or make the product fly.

the heavy duty RND is another concern indeed. all in all thanks. Toh Yen Cheng
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Try using Acrobat Reader to read aloud a few documents. If you (and perhaps a few friends/relatives) can stand listening to more than a paragraph, then perhaps there is a market. My thesis advisor wanted to listen to my thesis introduction before a meeting and tried using Acrobat to read it aloud. Suffice to say he didn't get past the first page.

Personally, I find it too monotonous, and with too many mistakes ("co-presence" became "company presence") to be easy to listen too. A good idea in theory, but I don't think the technology is there yet. Jamie Lawrence
Thursday, April 06, 2006
As many people have pointed out, in practical use it doesn't work as good as it sounds in theory. However, you asked if there is a market and I believe there could be. For one thing there are thousands of blind people who every day use screen readers. Those same people may very well want to hear things while disconnected from their computer. Also I think you can sell it to the impulse buyers who believe it will help them more then it can. And some people may be able to tolerate text readers more then ones on this board. Phil
Thursday, April 06, 2006
I've already written such an app (for personal use -- haven't released it) where it's like a combination of Web Whacker and a text-to-speech app and a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book... I use it every day on my (long) commute with my mp3 player -- it's terrific.

However, it DOES drive everyone else nuts who hears it! The robot voice can easily grate on your nerves if you're not used to it... anon
Thursday, April 06, 2006
The theory behind it sounds interesting, and I would love to see the source code (actually, what I would really love to see is the hacks you would have implemented to get around non-standard or 'unexpected' pages HTML/CSS/whatever), but I don't think I would have any interest in this as a consumer.

How about centering the approach of this as something targetting people who are deaf or otherwise incapable of 'standard' browsing. Andrey Butov
Thursday, April 06, 2006
"How about centering the approach of this as something targetting people who are deaf or otherwise incapable of 'standard' browsing."

The deaf market would probably not be the best target audience for audio software ;) Smart A$$
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Is there a market for this program? I don't like that question.

The new question should be:

If you create a program like this, will it generate interest within some group's worldview?

The answer then is always "Yes", because there are a billion worldviews out there. If someone says "no", they have a very narrow worldview - which is unfortuneate. The odds that you won't sell even one are pretty unlikely.

I think what people are really asking when they ask "does this program have a market?" is, "if I create this program will thousands of people show up instantly and start buying the program so that I can live off of it forever?"

Well, any business requires elbow grease and time. Don't bank on being the overnight millionaire.

So to say that it won't work because there is competition, free or not, is just bad advice. I can go on for quite a while why competition means nothing when it comes to your individual sales.

It's safe to assume there is always a "market". But how much work will you do to sell a significant number of copies to that market?

If something out there is free, and a corporation wants it, they will opt for the "for sale" version of the program quite often. Creating a supported, paid version of a free application can actually be a good idea.

Anyway, yes, text to audio can sell, and converting it to MP3 would be nice. Can you get to the core of this though? Converting text to audio. Then, if that's an API or service of some kind, can it be applied to any style of software application or any developer's need?

For example, I need a system where a client can type in a description to a web page, that text is converted to audio, and can instantly be played on their site that I host. Or, some of my ebook vendors would like a quick and dirty way to convert their books to audio and put on CD so they can sell an audio version that buyers can listen to in their cars. Ben Mc
Thursday, April 06, 2006
It sounds like Talkr http://talkr.com/ does pretty much what you are thinking about doing. I interviewd Chris Brooks, the creator of Talkr (http://perlcast.com/2005/08/21/interview-with-chris-brooks/). From what I understand, this type of business is working okay for him. Josh McAdams
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Thanks ben for the thoughts. difference or 'getting' it or not does shows through. josh thanks for the link. talkr's result for voice is really great. Toh Yen Cheng
Thursday, April 06, 2006
There's a winamp plug-in that did this a few years ago with the Windows speech API. It sucked from the natural voice perspective but was a big hit due to it's (accidental) comedic timing; the pause and emphasis made any text document incredibly hilarious.

The problem with the OP's idea is that text has an internal voice that humans quickly decipher and adopt while reading; a machine code never do this. Take Mark Twain: you start to read his works with the voice of the characters - a computer would sound like gobbley-gook. Mark D.
Friday, April 07, 2006
Is there a market? If you manage to transfer text into a pleasant voice that you can't differentiate from a trained speaker, a voice that is absolute real and live, you will be a billionaire. There're endless applications. Ben
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Hi all,
just an update. I've checked out the AT&T TTS engine. sounds definitely great. www.wizzardsoftware.com .

i would see the cost of the licence as an barrier to entry. would i be right on this? but there will be the fear of having the most important component of my application being made by another company.

i guess the only thing that i could make my application stand out from the rest would be the GUI and hopefully ease of use. that is if i decide to pursue this any further.

thanks everyone. Toh Yen Cheng
Sunday, April 09, 2006
What about leaving the task of converting the text into speech to human beings? Conceivably, you could pay someone peanuts to read it out loud and save it as a digital file. Also, another benefit of this is that a human eye can scan the page and find the important content....Amazon's mturk service comes to mind... Andrew Cheung
Monday, April 10, 2006
This topic is archived. No further replies will be accepted.




What do you think? Is it a turkey of an idea? Add a comment or email me at mouseloveselephant at yahoo dot com

Compartmentalize your life/business and save yourself

You have to compartmentalize in order to fend off danger or threat. Imagine all your friends know each other. You know that they know each other becease as you met new people, you have always introduced the new people to your group. One day you do a terrible thing and people hear about it. Very quickly, all your friends know about it. Try as you might to rectify the situation, no one believes your side of the story. Because you have not compartmentalized your friends, you have now lost every single one of them. Your friendship capital was all in one basket. Imagine now if you had compartmentalized your friends. You would have your arty set, your business set, your colleagues, your wild party boozing people. Damage to one group would not mean damage to the entire group. Compartmentalizing your people is always a good idea.





I remember when I did one-on-one training with clients in Germany. None of them knew each other. If they did, they might have cross compared prices and discovered that I had different price models going with each of them. United, they might have been able to exert some pressure over me as regards price setting. Divided, they didn’t have this knowledge and, although I liked the social idea of having all my clients come to a party at my place, I was reluctant to hand this power over to them. Compartmentalizing your people is always a good idea.

Take 33% and grow it. Keep everything else safe, but take 33% and grow it. It might be more. Or less. When it grows to a certain amount, split it and start growing it again until it gets too big again. That is compartmentalizing your investment. Managing your risk.

To what extent do you compartmentalize your business or your life in order to protect yourself? Add a comment or email me.

LIFE 101 class: online elearning for individual development

There shoud be a giant database of self-accessible materials so that a person can improve their entire LIFE. Einheitliche holistic classes where a person signs up like for a sports studio but instead of working on their body they work on their personality. Like group therapy but these are not sick people, not deficicnt, instead there is an atmosphere of goal setting and getting ahead.



There will be split off classes for people to get their finances in order, to get their relationshisp in order, to get their heads in order, to provide career guidance, to get life coaching. Physical exercise is also a part of these classes. Essentially it’s like having an Anthony Robbins associate except much much cheaper. It’s like psychotherapy but much cheaper. These classes bring meaning to the masses. Members pay a subscription in order to attend the classes and to ‘stay healthy’ mentally, physically, spiritually, financially.

Finance 101
Setting up a business 101

In what way do these classes differentiate themselves from going to such a course in another school?

Could offer all the above via eLearning!

eLearning for dealing with a death.
eLearning for breaking up
eLearning for getting out of debt
eLearning for career guidance

What do you think? Does such a database exist alreay? Are you interested in working with me to create one? Add a comment below or email me.

What do you think of this business idea?
	Brilliant idea!
	Has potential
	Not so hot
	Doomed to failure!
pollcode.com free polls

The Permission Trap

I'm not sure how to quote correctly with out infringing on copyright (maybe someone can clue me in?), but this is a great quote from Kiva.org...

“Many of us, when starting an organization, can fall into the permission trap. There are a series of steps you can traditionally take to get a social enterprise, or any venture, off the ground. There are seminars, conferences, incubators, fellowships and foundations. This leads to trap that is easy to fall into: the process of asking for permission to be an entrepreneur can be inherently anti-entrepreneurial.”

Kiva is cool because they allow you to donate small amounts of money to small business people in developing countries! Check them out.
www.kiva.org

What do you think? Have you as an entrepreneur ever suffered from Analysis-Paralysis?


Add a comment here or email me at mouseloveselephant at yahoo dot com

Serial Entrepreneur: a TV documentary

What’s the goal?


In order for any venture to succeed it needs to begin with a clearly defined goal. My goal would be to ultimately arrive at the end of a twelve month period with twelve sustainable start-ups plus a highly watchable documentary series intended for television. Airing the series would generate a lot of visibility for the stable of companies. Even throughout the filming of the documentary, there is huge potential for free PR and media coverage. Entrepreneurs and internet start-ups seem once again to be becoming the darlings of the media

Why the title ‘Serial Entrepreneur’?



- because it refers to the series of companies being founded.
- because it plays on the idea of a TV series.
- because it has obvious associations with a term like ‘serial killer’ which could also be interpreted as referring to the psychotic speed with which each of these companies must be set up. The TV series will bear this idea out, that this is a group of highly motivated young people with little time, working in a ‘fast and dirty’ way. The driving philosophy will be ‘we don’t have to get it right first time, we just have to get it going’.

The domain name for the website will be www.serialentrepreneur.com

Serial Entrepreneur will be the mother brand of the resulting twelve businesses. Each company will be a serious and viable business in its own right and independent of its more ‘sensational’ TV origins.

At that website, there will initially be 12 empty slots corresponding to each month of the year. The slots are only filled as each episode of the series airs, week by week for 12 weeks. Each program to air weekly and each company to be added to the appropriate month on the website only after each episode has been shown, thus encouraging repeated visits to the website. The screenshot below gives an idea of the layout (and the icons that can be clicked on to go to the website of that new company):

What will the twelve companies be?
There are some possible approaches to this: to allow the people involved to brainstorm and generate the business concepts themselves.

Alternatively, to agree on the 12 in advance. Below I list some business concepts that I have earmarked as having potential:



- Pandatext: a company that uses SMS technology to send daily text messages that teach English (or any language). While in Germany I conducted market research into this over a 28 day period with a focus group of about 20 people and the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. Time constraints while relocating to New York prevented me from investigating this business idea further.

- myAudio: a company that produces audio recordings of any book or text the user has in his/her possession. The phenomenal success of the ubiquitous iPod and the increasing interest in audiobooks indicates market potential for people having their favorite books recorded. The audiobook is created using the voices of actors. It is delivered inexpensively to the customer via the internet (each chapter is one MP3 file) or burned onto CD Rom and mailed. The fact that the customer already owns the book and is having it recorded for their own personal use means that no intellectual property is being infringed upon.

- World Rep: a company that sustains a network of ‘agents’ in every city and country in the world whose time may be hired out on an hourly basis in order to complete certain tasks in that particular city/country. Such tasks might include purchasing something, selling something, videoing or photographing something, acting as a courier to deliver something. Imagine someone in America who will be relocating to France. They could arrange for someone to go on their behalf to a certain street and video the neighborhood for the customer.

etc.


What is this going to cost?


Funding
gathering volunteers who will work with me in exchange for a share of the equity in each business I set-up
- 13 domain names in total

How will the documentary series be made?

Someone to film a documentary of me as I open a series of twelve new start-up businesses over the course of a year. My business concept is idea is to begin as an army of one, attracting and gathering volunteers who will work with me in exchange for a share of the equity in each business I set-up, month by month. I'll be pushing to attract media coverage too of this event but you would have exclusive filming rights. Interested?

Your input or criticism is welcome. What do you think? Is there a TV station out there that would buy into the idea of such a documentary? Would you buy into it? Would you join in? Add a comment here or email me at the email address listed elsewhere on this page

What do you think of this business idea?
	Brilliant idea!
	Has potential
	Not so hot
	Doomed to failure!
pollcode.com free polls

Employees required. No initiative necessary !

(Pulse optional)

I'm fairly sure that we could negotiate these agents down to 20% commission for referrals. It would make business sense to push this further with my colleagues. But as someone with the "employee" mentality and a very busy employee, I don't have any incentive to follow up on this.

In fact, I have a disincentive to do it. Investigating this further would cost me valuable time (which I don't have available) and take away resourcesI have at my disposal to do other things. Ultimatelyit would allow our company (ie. someone else) to growtheir wealth. I wouldn't grow my wealth, unlessthrough kudos or some self-promotion. Ergo I can'tfollow up on what's essentially a good idea.

How should a successful and smart business owner act to prevent something like the above taking place? Whatkind of system or tool would help him to catch thewonderful ideas that spring from the creativeimaginations of his employees or colleagues in a spider's web for later investigation rather than allow them to fall on infertile soil? There needs to be a way to throw out an idea and know it'll be stored and evaluated instead of fighting to have it assigned to someone (with the resentment that might generate from an overburdened co-worker). A think tank. An ideas box. With the option to submit ideas anonymously if you like.We need a way to slot the projected revenue or saving (both the same really...call it 'money benefit', nahtoost aid, call it 'gift', a 'windfall' since it was hanging there all along and just needed to be dislodged (like the discovery of JIT in Japan where re-examining the old accounting assumptions suddenly freed up huge sums of money as if from nowhere; the discovered money, revealed money) into a list ofpriorities of good ideas. To see which forces its way to the top category of "Definitely One to be FollowedUp". How could this ladder work? How can we calculate the benefit? Financially? Other intangible elements?Goodwill towards employees or stakeholders or customers? How can the cost of just about ANY actionbe measured in advance to determine the cost to the org? That seems to me to be vital: that anorganisation should know exactly what each hour of each employee's time costs (salary, health benefits,costs of not having them do their routine operationalwork etc) and be able to quickly evaluate where best to assign them. In fact, that can at least be measured. The more difficult problem is to measure the estimated benefit that is assumed to be balancing on the other side of the scale, though when all is saidand done it may be revealed to have been a complete waste of time ad therefore a loss-maker. What we needis a magic ball than simply gives plays with themassive amounts of data it is collecting and can spitout a yes or no answer as to whether to proceed or not.Do we need computer programs that allow us to quickly weigh the pros and cons of every small step?




Literally the smallest, seemingly insignificant things. Do I sharpen this pencil now or wait until it's really blunt and dulled? Should all pencils be banned in this org as timewasting? Should we outsource the pencil sharpening to a 'desk attendant' who comes around and tops up supplies ofpaper clips, checks staplers are full, that printers and photocopiers have enough paper? If you combinedall the minutes that the office working people in one country spend searching for stationery, for rubber bands or glue stick, then how many minutes would you be talking about? Thousands? Millions?

How many minutes do we spend in vain searching for a document on their hard disk drive either because someone else has stored it according to a mental system that we either do not understand (because it's (a) above our comprehension or, more often, (b) very stupid) or because we cannot ourselves remember what storage system we were using when we decided the criteria we used in deciding where to put it.

Staff training on "how to categorize and file' could save an org a lot of money in terms of employee minutes frittered away. There is a strong case here for 'enforcing' or at the very least encouraging similar systems. In this case it's a similar system of storage. Let's widen it to "similar systems of setting up your computer" should be enforced. Some organizations already do this eg. we all must adhere to the standard format of verdana 10 and the email signature set up 'just so'. All employees should be forced to learn the keyboard shortcuts, how to cut and paste unformatted my sister's own reaction when I told her about it: "Thanks! That's something that'd been driving me mad for years!") Becoming scientific about such things, rather than leaving them to the whims of each personality or character is how to build a strong organization. But does it kill creativity? Or does it actually allow it more? How can such 'mechanization' of the org take place without it leading to a disillusioned, despondent workforce, who are perfectly capable of thinking for themselves but lack the authority to do so? Because not taking such routes of mechanization, as cold as they may seem, might lead to the company's eventual demise. In other words, perhaps the company can't afford NOT to enforce such mechanization!

How would you measure the 'revealed money' that results from the "use the keyboard shortcuts" rule above?

BENEFITS OF TAKING THIS ACTION COSTS OF TAKING THISACTION

0.25 seconds saved per keystroke saved = $18,000

Goodwill feeling of training with colleagues (scale of 1 - 10)

Hourly cost of the trainer Hourly cost of the staff (user should be able to enter this as hourly or daily or annual salary)

Costs of staff being trained and not performing their operational duties

Overheads: rent, light, heat

Intangible costs:Resentful workforce (provide helpful Qs to help you determine this on a scale of 1 - 10).How are labour relations at the moment?How open is your staff to change on a scale of 1 - 10?(provide helpful Qs to help you determine this)

Is now a good time to implement change in general?

Is now a good time to implement this change?

Cost of mistakes being made as a result of implementing this change = $ XXXCost of brainstorming, measuring, calculating,estimating all this data and the criteria that allfactor into this table = $ XXXRESULT: + $18,000 per annum

The example above is easily calculated because the duration of a keystroke can be measured. Consider instead a vaguer and amorphous project.



Like whether to develop a new product or not and that over a six month period or imagine a 5 year long project. Very difficult to know what to measure, what not, and whether things will creep out of control, thus makin gall calculations irrelevant. (Although with a spreadsheet of course the calculation could simply bere-done again)Maybe we need a system that allows that measurement to be done quickly. Guidelines.

But there are surely always organizations out ther ewho have done what we have done. How can organizations share valuable knowledge without revealing their identity and also without divulging secrets to their competitors?

How could you force an organization t ogive instead of taking, taking, taking once inside such a communal sharing space. Once any step or idea can be evaluated, it can easily be seen which ones bring large rewards and which are simply good ideas but not worth implementing (or at least not now). Promising the employee 10% to 50% of any resulting benefit. Praise!

CATEGORIES
Implement now!
Definitely One to be Followed Up
Investigate further
Implement at a later stage
Scrap it

(what downsides? That employees see how much moneytheir ocmpany s making? That they realsie the value of their own actions and that this might overly empower them? They would bcome more skilled negotiators when discussing their next raise, being able to point at the dollar value they have contributed to the org)

What do you think? How can such ideas be harnessed? Add a comment here or email me at mouseloveselephant at yahoo dot com

Read all about it! Mouse loves Elephant! Bizarre love biangle!

Welcome to my blog.

This blog will document my attempts to generate wealth, both on the internet and maybe off it too. What do you think of the blog name? Exploitative, I know. I googled to see what are the top 10 most popular searched for terms. They turned out to be: Google Sex paris hilton yahoo ebay eminem Britney spears Skin care.

Then I ignored my findings and went for somethign more visual. But you know what? Thanks anyway, Paris.







What I'd like to do is come up with an idea like this one from Brian Eno (a smart and interesting guy who I revere). It retails for like 32 dollahs and he'll probably make a ton of money from this. Turn on your speakers (so you can hear the music and his voice as he describes it) and click here. Every time you click on it, it generates new images. I can't stop clicking on it! Aargh! Brilliant!
http://www.77millionpaintings.com/

Let's collaborate. Email me your ideas about how you and I can work together to make money.

What follows is a test of keywords. Please ginore: free video resume, video resume, video portfolios, free video portfolio, video jobs, video jobn, video job barods, free resume, digital resume, resume casting, modeling resume, modeling portfolio, photography resume, photography portfolio, acting portfolio, actors resume, casting resume, animation portfolio, graphic design resume, graphic artist portfolio, asrtist portfolio, design resume, fashion design resume, design portfolio, fashion design portfolio, creative portfolio, creative resume, cool jobs, solcial networking, social career, career, job, employment, job search,sales resume, video, online video, flash video, upload video, youtube video, myspace video, stickam video, videoegg,job hunting, cool jobs, band bios, video biography, videography, movie directors, movie producer,free video resume, video resume, video portfolios, free video portfolio, video jobs, video jobn, video job barods, free resume, digital resume, resume casting, modeling resume, modeling portfolio, photography resume, photography portfolio, acting portfolio, actors resume, casting resume, animation portfolio, graphic design resume, graphic artist portfolio, asrtist portfolio, design resume, fashion design resume, design portfolio, fashion design portfolio, creative portfolio, creative resume, cool jobs, solcial networking, social career, career, job, employment, job search,sales resume, video, online video, flash video, upload video, youtube video, myspace video, stickam video, videoegg,job hunting, cool jobs, band bios, video biography, videography, movie directors, movie producer,free video resume, video resume, video portfolios, free video portfolio, video jobs, video jobn, video job barods, free resume, digital resume, resume casting, modeling resume, modeling portfolio, photography resume, photography portfolio, acting portfolio, actors resume, casting resume, animation portfolio, graphic design resume, graphic artist portfolio, asrtist portfolio, design resume, fashion design resume, design portfolio, fashion design portfolio, creative portfolio, creative resume, cool jobs, solcial networking, social career, career, job, employment, job search,sales resume, video, online video, flash video, upload video, youtube video, myspace video, stickam video, videoegg,job hunting, cool jobs, band bios, video biography, videography, movie directors, movie producer,free video resume, video resume, video portfolios, free video portfolio, video jobs, video jobn, video job barods, free resume, digital resume, resume casting, modeling resume, modeling portfolio, photography resume, photography portfolio, acting portfolio, actors resume, casting resume, animation portfolio, graphic design resume, graphic artist portfolio, asrtist portfolio, design resume, fashion design resume, design portfolio, fashion design portfolio, creative portfolio, creative resume, cool jobs, solcial networking, social career, career, job, employment, job search,sales resume, video, online video, flash video, upload video, youtube video, myspace video, stickam video, videoegg,job hunting, cool jobs, band bios, video biography, videography, movie directors, movie producer,free video resume, video resume, video portfolios, free video portfolio, video jobs, video jobn, video job barods, free resume, digital resume, resume casting, modeling resume, modeling portfolio, photography resume, photography portfolio, acting portfolio, actors resume, casting resume, animation portfolio, graphic design resume, graphic artist portfolio, asrtist portfolio, design resume, fashion design resume, design portfolio, fashion design portfolio, creative portfolio, creative resume, cool jobs, solcial networking, social career, career, job, employment, job search,sales resume, video, online video, flash video, upload video, youtube video, myspace video, stickam video, videoegg,job hunting, cool jobs, band bios, video biography, videography, movie directors, movie producer,free video resume, video resume, video portfolios, free video portfolio, video jobs, video jobs, video job barods, free resume, digital resume, resume casting, modeling resume, modeling portfolio, photography resume, photography portfolio, acting portfolio, actors resume, casting resume, animation portfolio, graphic design resume, graphic artist portfolio, asrtist portfolio, design resume, fashion design resume, design portfolio, fashion design portfolio, creative portfolio, creative resume, cool jobs, solcial networking, social career, career, job, employment, job search,sales resume, video, online video, flash video, upload video, youtube video, myspace video, stickam video, videoegg,job hunting, cool jobs, band bios, video biography, videography, movie directors, movie producer,free video resume, video resume, video portfolios, free video portfolio, video jobs, video jobn, video job barods, free resume, digital resume, resume casting, modeling resume, modeling portfolio, photography resume, photography portfolio, acting portfolio, actors resume, casting resume, animation portfolio, graphic design resume, graphic artist portfolio, asrtist portfolio, design resume, fashion design resume, design portfolio, fashion design portfolio, creative portfolio, creative resume, cool jobs, solcial networking, social career, career, job, employment, job search,sales resume, video, online video, flash video, upload video, youtube video, myspace video, stickam video, videoegg,job hunting, cool jobs, band bios, video biography, videography, movie directors, movie producer,free video resume, video resume, video portfolios, free video portfolio, video jobs, video jobn, video job barods, free resume, digital resume, resume casting, modeling resume, modeling portfolio, photography resume, photography portfolio, acting portfolio, actors resume, casting resume, animation portfolio, graphic design resume, graphic artist portfolio, asrtist portfolio, design resume, fashion design resume, design portfolio, fashion design portfolio, creative portfolio, creative resume, cool jobs, solcial networking, social career, career, job, employment, job search,sales resume, video, online video, flash video, upload video, youtube video, myspace video, stickam video, videoegg,job hunting, cool jobs, band bios, video biography, videography, movie directors, movie producer,free video resume, video resume, video portfolios, free video portfolio, video jobs, video jobn, video job barods, free resume, digital resume, resume casting, modeling resume, modeling portfolio, photography resume, photography portfolio, acting portfolio, actors resume, casting resume, animation portfolio, graphic design resume, graphic artist portfolio, asrtist portfolio, design resume, fashion design resume, design portfolio, fashion design portfolio, creative portfolio, creative resume, cool jobs, solcial networking, social career, career, job, employment, job search,sales resume, video, online video, flash video, upload video, youtube video, myspace video, stickam video, videoegg,job hunting, cool jobs, band bios, video biography, videography, movie directors, movie producer,free video resume, video resume, video portfolios, free video portfolio, video jobs, video jobn, video job barods, free resume, digital resume, resume casting, modeling resume, modeling portfolio, photography resume, photography portfolio, acting portfolio, actors resume, casting resume, animation portfolio, graphic design resume, graphic artist portfolio, asrtist portfolio, design resume, fashion design resume, design portfolio, fashion design portfolio, creative portfolio, creative resume, cool jobs, solcial networking, social career, career, job, employment, job search,sales resume, video, online video, flash video, upload video, youtube video, myspace video, stickam video, videoegg,job hunting, cool jobs, band bios, video biography, videography, movie directors, movie producer