It’s been a while! How’ve you been? Still in business? Growing? Circling the wagons? Custer’s last stand? Hey, you got into this entrepreneur thing because you don’t fear uncertainty - don’t forget that! This is fun! You could be like all your friends, who are right now being lectured by Bill Lumbergh about their TPS reports (shudders).

I’ve been thinking a lot about the future lately - my future, your future, Earth’s future, and the future of technology.  What are things going to be like in 20 years? 50 years? 100 years? I’ve been doing some research and reading on the subject of future tech, and I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that the future is going to look like magic to us 2011 dummies.

See, in terms of technology, the future is exponential in nature, not linear.  Perhaps you have heard of Moore’s Law? Gordon Moore was a founder of IBM, and in the 1960’s he observed that the number of components in integrated circuits had doubled every year from the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958 until 1965 and predicted that the trend would continue “for at least ten years”.  Well, guess what? The trend continues to this day - it is a perfect exponential line that has not changed since 1965, and looks like this:

Moores Law

What does this mean for us?  Well, futurist Ray Kurzweil, author of “The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology” and subject of the movie “Transcendent Man” (you can and should stream it on Netflix)  says that this line of exponential growth in the power of CPU’s will at some point become so dramatic that we stupid humans can no longer keep up with it.   He calls this phenomenon “The Singularity” - the point at which machines become smarter than us.  In fact, he thinks The Singularity is fast approaching - it is less than 20 years away.

I recently attended a Fandango event called “Transcendent Man”, which was a 2 hour Q/A with a pretty incredible panel of tech leaders and futurists such as Ray Kurzweil, Dean Kamen (inventor of the Segway and robotics guru), Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Deepak Chopra, and several other amazing minds. They discussed The Singularity and its’ implications for humanity.  I left the theater needing a whole bottle of Advil and a shot of tequila. I had learned a lot - too much - in 2 hours.  Lets talk about the relevant points:

1.  HERE’S WHY I’M WRITING THIS FOR STARTUPNATION.COM!:  A lot of these inventors, entrepreneurs, and technologists are designing and developing technology that is still theoretical - in other words, the technology does not yet exist yet to build what they are designing!  Ray Kurzweil, for example, has become a multimillionaire in the last 30 years by designing products in exactly in this manner.  He invented the modern synthesizer in this way, as well as reading devices for the blind (Stevie Wonder has said that Ray has changed his life completely)

So, entrepreneurs, is your business model designed for 2011 or 2015? 2020? Are you coding for todays internet or 2014’s?  I suspect that the most wealth to be had in business ventures from here on out are going to be ventures that can most accurately predict the future and be right on top of it when it happens.

2.  Emerging technologies are amazing - and freaky - particularly in the area of nanotechnology.  Right now, scientists are programming atoms to compute as today’s circuits do.   Imagine a computer 100 times as powerful as the fastest computer in existence today that would fit inside of a red blood cell. Don’t worry - if that doesn’t work out, we’ll be building computers that small anyway. In fact, the majority of the Transcendent Man panel agree that in my lifetime (I’m 41), man will become a hybrid of man and machine.  We will all have millions of nanobots floating around our bodies, programmed to help us a) think better by assisting brain function b) keep our arteries clear of plaque, c) manufacture red or white blood cells, d) destroy cancer cells, and so on.  Let’s face it, people:  Technology is stronger than Biology.

3.  Keep an eye on 3D printing.  Right now, 3D printers can “print” out physical objects.  Dean Kamen is working on a technology that, when complete, could wipe out 50% of the worlds’ disease problems associated with polluted/bad drinking water.  Imagine shipping a 3D printer to the Sudan and telling it to print out another 3D printer, and then telling both to print out 3D printers. Then, tell the 6 printers to print out a water filtration system for a village.  This is the future of manufacturing, and its’ coming soon.

Here’s a 3D printer in action:

3D Wrench

4.  Robotics will get to the point of creating better, faster, and stronger body parts than our own.  As Dean Kamen stated (I’m paraphrasing) “Right now, we build artificial limbs for people who don’t have them. What happens when we can replace an existing part with a superior mechanical one? How many people would elect for that? I think it will be MANY”.

I think about his point often because I am a victim of severe arthritis in both of my knees and earlier this year a surgeon in Napa Valley told a robot to partially replace both of my knees.  The robot could perform the surgery better than the surgeon could and the surgery was done in less than 20 minutes.  So, now that I’m partially robotic, would I do it again?  You bet your sweet mechanical ass I would - in fact, I plan to have a robot in 2020 redo the surgery and possibly replace both my knees totally, because by then artificial knees will be stronger, faster, and better than even healthy knees.  By the way, I’ll also be able to swallow a pill which will reprogram my DNA to stop storing fat on my body and I will lean out naturally.

Believe me, I completely understand that this article raises questions:

Can we live forever?  I think we can.  I think we’ll be able to upload our consciousness into a computer and live forever.  Or, nanotechnology will be able to stop our aging process. Technically, that will be possible.  But the bigger question for me is: Do I want to live forever?
When the machines become smarter than us and we cannot intelligently keep up without them, why would they need us?  Hello, Matrix anyone? Terminator?  We’ve all seen the movies where machines are smarter and it generally doesn’t go well for the humans.  Ray Kurzweil is very optimistic that we’ll all get along, but there are others who are not.

And so on, and so forth, and holy crap I need some more Advil. PLEASE comment below with your thoughts - I’d love a good healthy conversation about all of this.

Um, have a nice day?

Kevin Harmon
CEO Red Shorts Media LLC
twitter.com/imadness
http://www.linkedin.com/in/thekevinharmon
kevin@redshortsmedia.com

It’s always a difficult process - so many of them deserve the spotlight that comes with being named a winner, that it can be very tough on our editorial team to include one and exclude another. That’s why we’ve let you pick your Top 200, and from those we’re highlighting our favorites and what makes them so exceptional and perfect as a model for other moms in business seeking success.

On that note, we’ve assembled an inspirational, downloadable ebook, Start Your Own Mom Business!, that brings together the wisdom of over 20 winners from last year’s Leading Moms in Business Ranking competition. Inside the ebook is all of the winners’ top secrets and advice to make any mom business a success story that meets or exceeds expectations. The book also brings to light the exhileration–the rush!–that moms in business experience when they blow the dust off their great idea and blow the world away with their innovative products and services.

How does worm farming + raving + poker playing = Zappos?

What everyone knows about Tony Hsieh is that he’s the Zen Master of Culture at Zappos, a wildly successful shoe website that was just sold to Amazon for $1.2 billion - not bad for 10 years work.  I think what most people don’t know is how Tony got there.  What’s great about this book is that we get an honest account of a successful entrepreneurs’ childhood, upbringing, failures, and successes - all told to us by Tony himself.

Tony didn’t just show up as CEO of Zappos out of nowhere.  In fact, he began his career as a 9-year old worm farmer.  That didn’t go so well, so he started a newsletter - that failed. By middle school he was running a mail order button business which did quite well and gave Tony all the milk money he wanted. He got a job as a computer programmer in high school, and in college he started a food business.

After college, Tony quickly realized that working for The Man wasn’t all that exciting, even if The Man was Oracle.  So, he and his buddies got together and started a small company called LinkExchange, which they sold to Microsoft less than 2 years later for $265 million. That was a LOT of milk money.

He became a start-up investor after that, investing in more than 20 companies.  One of them was a small start-up called Zappos, whose founders had this nutty idea for selling shoes in the internet.  At the time, that was a ridiculous idea - Zappos needed a drop-ship model, and most shoe companies just didn’t have the ability to do that. Shoe suppliers wouldn’t sell product to Zappos either because they weren’t a brick and mortar store.

With Zappos, Tony had lots of issues and obstacles to overcome, and it didn’t take long before Tony took Zappos under his wing full time and became CEO.

What I really love about Tony and Zappos is that it’s actually a very typical “overnight success” story that was 10 years in the making.  Several times, the Zappos team was staring at bankruptcy and failure - they were literally making decisions on a monthly basis to continue operations.   Tony and the gang simply believed that it would work, and via pig headed determination, it finally did.

The last 1/3 of the book dives into the fabled Zappos culture and, finally, what happiness really is.   Personally, I think that culture is a very hard thing to define and describe.   Tony does the best he can by allowing several members of his team to contribute to the book and describe culture in their own words, and he discusses several ideas, such as the Culture Book. Tony loves poker, and draws a lot of similarities between poker and business and culture.  He also loved the rave scene and it’s easy so see how that scene became foundation for the ideals behind the culture of Zappos years later.

I don’t know how many answers are here for readers seeking to duplicate the unique culture of Zappos in their own organizations. For me, it’s hard to answer for myself the question “Is Zappos successful because of their culture, or does Zappos have a unique culture because of their success?”  I think the only way to really answer that question is if Tony applied his culture to other things.  How cool would it be, for example, to see a Zappos Airlines? Or a Zappos lawn care service?  Personally, I think Tony could take Delivering Happiness to the ultimate level by starting a multi level marketing company with “Ambassadors of Happy” spreading happiness throughout the world with products designed to make people happier.  Wow - I said a form of “happy” four times in that last sentence, and now I’m even happier.  Just said it twice more - I’m on to something.

Tony digs into the meaning of happiness and what it is at the end of the book.  He approaches it from a scientific point of view, so if you get real excited about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Happiness as a Fractal, then you’ve come to the right place.

As an entrepreneur myself, I think the thing that Tony has shown me the most in “Delivering Happiness” is that money isn’t always going to make you happy.  When Microsoft purchased LinkExchange, they gave Tony an additional sum (millions) to just “hang out” for a year.  Guess what - that didn’t make Tony happy or fulfilled, so he actually quit and gave that money back to Microsoft.  At Oracle after college, Tony’s job was ridiculously easy and high paying for his age, and yet he walked away from it because it wasn’t fulfilling him.

“Delivering Happiness” is a good, honest account of how a failed worm farmer became the Culture King.  I really enjoyed reading it, and I think you will too.

You can read more about the Delivering Happiness movement here:

Delivering Happiness

You can buy the book here:

Buy it on Amazon

Enjoy!

Kevin

@imadness on Twitter

bye gang

The second thing I would do is to look at other businesses similar to what I’m thinking of doing and figure out what it is that I can do differently, or do better, than what my potential competition is doing. If there is no potential competition in the area or demographic that you are looking at, then you don’t have to be quite so creative. In fact, it might be better to leave some of your more creative, which usually means more costly, ideas on the back burner in case someone decides to take your idea and open business next door or down the block. If that happens, then you will have something up your sleeve that can put the competition back in its place.

Then, research! Research! Research! The web is a valuable tool and one which you can use to find out how other similar businesses are doing. Your research should identify the demographic that you will be targeting, how close is the nearest competition to where you would like to do business, and what percentage of the market share like businesses have. Your research should also answer all of the money questions, such as what will the start up costs be, what is the profit margin, how soon you can expect to start making a profit and what will the monthly expenses be for all operating expenditures. If you have a question in your mind, it should be answered, on paper and honestly. And if the answers don’t add up to a positive, then definitely reconsider the business model you are mulling over. On the other hand, if all your numbers add up to making a profit within the first six months, then you have a fantastic, wonderful, can’t fail (maybe) business model and you should pursue it.

Finally, if you cannot find investors for your business model, then you should seriously think about finding a different model to pursue. Most investors have either experience or instinct when it comes to what works and what doesn’t. You may be able to convince a bank to lend you the money, but if you can’t get at least one investor on board, it may be time to do a serious reality check and can one business model in favor of another. Listen to the investors you talk to. If you hear the same thing out of more than one mouth, chances are they are right…and you are wrong.

Choosing the right business model is critical to success. The perfect balance of heart and mind should help you to choose the most successful business model.

Employees want to do a good job. And what the boss often needs to do is get out of the way and let them perform. Of course, when I became a business owner, I fell prey to the kind of thinking that trips up so many entrepreneurs: You have to work endless hours, you have to micromanage every aspect of the business, you have to make every decision. Ack!

I don’t know if my businesses would have survived if I hadn’t come up with what I call Go Theory. (”Go” as in “just go away”.) Go Theory is not about where you go or what you do while you go away from the office. Go Theory is all about what you don’t do:

• Don’t send your employees lots of little reminders by email.
• Don’t keep checking your smart phone.
• Don’t miss the spectacular view or the interesting presentation or the quality time with friends because you were stressing out about what might be going on back at the office.

Instead, enjoy your time away. Because you’ve got great people taking care of the business while you’re gone. If that last sentence just sent a chill up your spine (“But…no one can possibly take care of my business except me!”), read on.

The first element of Go theory, its absolute essence, is hiring great people to work in your business:

• Fire quick and hire slow. Invest the time and money required to make the best choices. I don’t rely on just myself to spot the right person — I make sure that at least two other people whose opinions I respect interview the candidates.
• Hire smart. I hire people who are smarter than me.
• Pick people with a track record for doing their tasks and accomplishing their goals. You don’t want to deal with excuses.

The second element of Go theory involves what you do with those great employees once you have them:

• Give people a great place to work, including real benefits.
• Trust them to handle problems and give them room to succeed or fail.
• Get in the habit of throwing issues back to employees — otherwise, you’ll be chained to your business 24/7.
• Make your business a vibrant and healthy system and you’ll find that employees work better when you’re gone.

The third element of Go theory is at once the easiest — and the hardest:

• Give employees clear directions or goals, and leave them alone to do their jobs. A quick check-in early in the project to make sure they are on track is OK, but then…go away!

The idea is for you to work on your business instead of in your business. This forces you and your staff to create good systems that can run without you. As the CEO, you want to be useless in the day-to-day business activities so you can be proactive and reactive to markets and opportunities. Keep in mind that what puts your business ahead of the competition is not logging lots of hours at the office — it’s creativity. Ask yourself: How can you be creative if you’re spending all your time making sales calls?

Go Theory provides a lot of rewards, including a “real life” for the CEO and a stronger, healthier bottom line for the company. I find that in my absence my business thrives. Projects move forward, problems get solved, and new ideas emerge. All this — just because I learned to get out of the way and work from a beachside cafe two hours a day.

Click on the image here to view the interview or select “Play ABC Video.”

I was able to mention these winners in the quick interview:

• Haralee Weintraub’s Haralee.com
• Joe Hansen and Cristy Stewart-Harfmann’s PricelessProfiles.com, and
• Christine Perckett’s Perkett PR

I wish I could have mentioned more of you, but not to worry, we plan to “spread the love” in upcoming media opportunities!

This kind of coverage is inspiring winners to send us emails like this one from Haralee Weintraub, winner in our Boomers Back in Business category in this year’s ranking:

 Hi Rich,

Well finally I have time because I have been so busy to tell you how winning the Boomer Back in Business Category has impacted my company. In one word FANTASTIC! Since I am e-retail it could not have come at a better time, that being the Holiday season. When the story of the winners went to the MSN home page, orders were coming in on line like crazy. The phone rang with questions and we were wonderfully busy. Many men, more than normal, ordered my product for their wives and girlfriends because they read about me. I could not be happier. It is truly an honor to have this honor, which I am working on incorporating into my email signature.

Sincerely Cool,

Haralee

Haralee Weintraub
CEO Haralee.Com
Cool Garments for Hot Women

Onward, home business heroes!!!! and Congrats again!

More press to come in the days ahead!

Tell us about your business and why you started it.

I’m fascinated about beauty and elegance, and believe that fashion is a form or art that does come from within. My very first piece of SHY FIGARO (www.shyfigaro.com) was first worn by Coco, the wife of actor/legend artist Ice-T.  I recently designed an upscale casual line named TRIVIA (www.triviafashion.com).

I started designing after I saw how much money my girlfriend then spent on clothes with un-hip styles… so I thought I could design better. And I did as a joke, but I never thought I would become a fashion designer. I competed and won the state and national competition in fashion design in Anaheim, California with a jean that I designed called, “The Naughty Pants”.

But I started taking fashion designing more seriously and utilized it as a path to success to where people would see my true talents and knowledge as oppose to my skin color - after I got infuriated at my acting agents for always casting me in parts for a pimp, gangster, homeless, or a drug dealer.

How long have you had your business and what do you think is the main secret to your success?

I established my business in 2001. The main secret for my success is believing and being passionate about my products. �
What have been your most successful PR and marketing activities to increase sales and why?

I used many Internet network community sites to talk about my product, and I did a major fashion show to increase the buzz. But most of all, I advertise my own line by wearing it out in the public where people can see and feel my product and ask questions.

What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs just starting out?
Just apply my PCP rule!

1. Passionate about what you do.
2. Learn to take Criticism but don’t let it break you.
3. Use the negative to a Positive to improve.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Yes, be yourself…

Thanks for your great insights Shy! For more information about Shy’s clothing line, visit www.shyfigaro.com.

And if you’d like some free tips and advice on how to build buzz for your business, please write to me here or at www.rembrandtwrites.com. I’d love to hear from you!

We are women. Watch us Manage!

I have people ask me, usually men, how do you do it all? How do you take care of the family, and your business, and be so management oriented?  Did you study business management in college, get an MBA? No sir, I did not even finish high school. I even worked at McDonalds as the French fry girl 10 years ago, now I run a multi-million dollar company.

Shhh, my Secret!  I had to work really hard, re-train myself, be willing to admit failure, be willing to change what was not working,  and develop skills that I never knew I had.

 It is not easy! Let me tell you, however, once you have the skill set, anything is possible. Here are my 5 tips and secrets that I use EVERYDAY, to do it!

 1) Make sure you have a very clear to do list. I cannot function without it jotted down, even on a scrap paper.

2) Enlist people to can help you do these items, or that can do them for you.

3) Do not overload your schedule. I know that after I drop my kids at school, I have from 9 AM to 3:30 PM to get my things done. Because as you know, once the kids get home there is a host of activities going down i.e. dinner, homework, chores, and don’t forget you and daddy time! That is a whole other blog to write about. I have been successfully married for 20+ years, so I guess I can claim to be an authority on how to make it all work.

4) Keep your office, or home office clutter free. GET organized!

5) Set a daily schedule of the 1-2-3 + things you need to do every day. Example, take calls from 12-2PM. Make your calls form 4-5 PM, answer e-mails first thing in the morning etc…and stick to it daily. Training and conditioning ourselves is probably the hardest things to do.

I have 4 very, very busy boys, and I am a single parent during the week (hubby commutes M-F), and a life that I must maintain, outside of my business. If I cannot do that, my business will suffer. If I do not bring in money, my family will suffer! So, it is a tedious balance act between the two. You have to simplify things, do what works for you and roll with it.

If you cannot seem to get organized, hire someone to help you. Be careful who you hire however. Make sure they are credible and can really help you. You want to make sure they can listen to your wants, and needs, and can help develop a system that works for you. I once hired a gal who wanted to bring in her trademark system and make me adjust to it. It was stringent and non-flexible. Not going to happen!  Work with someone who will devise a plan and system for you, not them…

Just remember, you can do whatever you organize yourself to do!

Always Dream BIG!

Kim Babjak

Lemonade Stand 1.
At the first stand, the kids were yelling from a bench about their lemonade and how much it cost. They were so loud that people were running to get away from them!

Lemonade Stand 2.
At the second stand, there was a young boy sitting behind a pitcher of lemonade with his parents next to him. But this was no ordinary stand. No. This was professional. There was a wooden structure with an awning, graphics of lemons and a special box to place your coins for the lemonade.

Obviously, the parents went out and bought a lemonade stand for their child. I don’t know if they were trying to teach him about business or if the boy requested the stand. Who knows? After all, the boy was just sitting behind the stand while his parents chatted to customers and had a ball doing all the work. He couldn’t care less and seemed aggravated by the whole ordeal.

(On a side note, I didn’t even know they made professional lemonade stands. Am I alone, or as a kid, didn’t you just pull out whatever table you could find and decorate it with a sign?)

Lemonade Stand 3.
Anyway, I continued my walk and came across another lemonade stand. This stand consisted of a simple card table with a big sign on the front. The sign stated that it was a lemonade stand and that a cup of cool, refreshing lemonade was immediately available for only fifty cents. And there stood a pitcher of lemonade that looked very enticing in the July, afternoon heat. Then, I noticed the stand’s owner.

There was a little boy in a full on, Uncle Sam costume introducing himself to potential customers and personally pitching the benefits of his products. He was a true salesperson. And it showed. He was having a great time, and passersby bought lots of lemonade and filled his tip jar with money.

Well, this whole situation got me thinking about business. How are you promoting your products? Are you catering to the needs of your customers and pitching how you can solve their problems, or are you slamming them with messages they don’t want to hear?

How about your actual, daily activities?

Do you like what you’re doing, or are investors and partners calling the shots and actually making your business less productive and fun?

These lemonade kids broke the whole business process down very simply. If you aren’t servicing your customers or doing something you actually like to do, you’re wasting time and money.

If you are unhappy with your current business, or your sales are flat, take a moment to think about the little boy with the successful lemonade stand. By changing your promotional messaging, the way you do business or looking for another career all together, you’ll be happier and more successful. After all, it takes much more than lemons to make a successful lemonade stand work!

__________________________________

Do you need help with your public relations or SEO copywriting to help boost sales, awareness and credibility? Please write to me here or visit www.rembrandtwrites.com for some free information and your questions and comments! Thanks!

Lisa believes that the Night Helper Watch is the answer that millions of sufferers need now more than ever, since it is the only device like it in the world.  Worn like a watch, the wearer can set the alarm for multiple times during the day and night, not just once or twice, but as many times as needed. This design patented ability is important as it draws the wearer’s attention. When the alarm goes off, a special customized tune can be programmed to play. It also vibrates, while the multi-colored display lights up the watch face. The Night Helper Watch isn’t just for children and adults who suffer from Nocturnal Enuresis.

The Night Helper Watch gives back the user’s dignity, peace of mind, self sufficiency and control over bed-wetting problems. Used as a training medium, Nocturnal Enuresis can be completely eliminated. That is Lisa’s and Carl’s vision, to free sufferers from a life of worry and indignity. As a long time health care worker and a caring individual, Lisa Charleston has a strong desire to aid and support sufferers from a disturbingly frequent malady (that will become more widespread as the LIS population grows). More than seven million children are born every year and with Americans living longer than ever before the need for a real solution is now, and the answer is the Night Helper Watch Time Pieces, for both Medication Reminders and the Potty Watch system.

Two asks Lisa has of the community:
-          Marketing How To’s
-          Funding How To’s; She is currently accepting donations through paypal

EMAIL: charleston@netzero.net
WEB: www.nighthelperwatches.com
BLOG: www.nighthelper.blogspot.com/

Here is a bit from my interview with Lisa from NightHelpWatchers.com….

How do you define success?
Setting up goals and achieving them would be defining success.

How did you fund your business in the beginning?
Seeking funding help now. 

What’s the happiest moment you’ve ever had in your business?
Seeing my business reach certain goals. Websites, CAD drawings ,  product animations etc.

Do you ever think about giving up and getting a job?
Never…giving up would be to easy… You see A Dream Is Only As Big As The Dreamer, I’m A Big Dreamer!

Are you happy?
Yes, Even when days look bad I still carry a positive attitude for having positive energy helps to bring positive results.

Where will your business be in a year? In 10 years?
In many retail stores serving all the millions of users who suffers from incontinence. 

If someone who was about to start a business asked you for advice, what would you say?
Never give up no matter what the challenges may be, always seek professional advice from many sources.

What makes you get up in the morning?
Determination and the Grace of God!

Tell me about a time when what you do made a difference in someone’s life?
When many parents email me seeking advice about bed wetting  and I’m able to help.

What’s important about that to YOU?
Well knowing that I can  give a parent and a child a little comfort about bed wetting is Priceless to me!

When or how did you know that this is what you wanted to do?
I knew this business was what I wanted to do after I became disabled from a serve back injury. As they say God may close one door but he always opens up another!

What have you learned from failure?
To just get back up and start again seeking better ways to improve in my life and business.