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| Nickname: |  CraigLBatavia, IL United States |
| Website: | www.grumpy-people.com |
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CraigL
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Polls
- There seem to be many people wondering about integrity, honesty, truth in advertising, and so forth. All these are moral values and ethical principles. Yet, at the same time, few people seem to make a conscientious effort to plan out their ethical strategy to the level of their business planning and development. So here`s the question: How do YOU account for business ethics? What`s your stance on soft versus hard value, profit margins and moral obligations?
By - In another thread, the dicussion taught me that there really isn`t a formal way to determine the real market price for a product or service. "Something is worth only what someone is willing to pay."
Yes, we can formulate costs and add profit, but that`s not really going to prove anything. Only when it goes to market will people buy it or not.
Several people indicated that you have to try different numbers, and see what`s the response and reaction. ElidS mentioned using focus groups to find that "sweet spot" number.
Couldn`t we have a running topic/thread where anyone could put up a picture, perhaps use their profile space, and a description of an idea, new or in development, or still in the creative stage, and have people suggest a price? Would that be helpful to you?
- That, or it would be a text thread. A person would list their item, reference a picture or few, and ask, "What would you pay for this?" Then posters could simply state a price. It wouldn`t pre-judge the item and allow complete freedom for the "market" to set at least a range.
- Pricing is a very complicated area because of perceptions as to what you are offering and what people want. Just "value" pricing alone is a whole feild of study. Then you go into "exclusive" and you have an entirly new field of pricing. Just remember that you can lower your price more easily then raising them and less sales at higher prices can be more profitable then more sales at a lower price. Have fun with that one.
Wes - I think what this would be isn`t so much a cut-and-dried forum. It`d be a way to get a preliminary "guess-timate" of what to price something. So for example, Christina happens to have offered an image of a ring, as a photo she was proud of.
What would you pay for this ring?
The reason for the forum is to get an idea of what business-minded people would pay for the ring. We here wouldn`t only figure out what we think we`d pay, we`d also bring to the forum estimates as to what other markets might value the ring to be.
Additionally, I wouldn`t be a bit surprised if there were community members who are wholesalers, jewelry retailers, artist, and so forth, all of whom would bring a number to the same forum.
By - I`m not skilled at CSS, and have trouble using a "DIV" tag, but I get the concepts of HTML tables.
I personally like viewing a Web site where the content goes across the entire monitor. I use a 19" LCD at 1280 resolution, but lots of people use a 17" CRT, in the 800 resolution range.
The way many sites work seems to set a 900px table width (or other way of constraining the width). They leave the right edge either white, or have some generic color or graphic to fill in the background. But you quickly note that the right margin is less than the monitor edge.
Other sites also constrain the width, but put the content in the center of whatever is the monitor. On my monitor, that looks weird. There`s a huge blank left and right "column" margin.
The reason for the question is that I`d like a repeating set of links on the right-hand side of a site. But can that even work if you use a percent-of-width type of system?
- Craig,
Yes, it can work. Check out www.glish.com/css for some examples (I think the example your looking for is http://www.glish.com/css/2.asp). Jakob Nielsen (the web know-it-all) recommends designing for about 1000px wide now. Most internet users now can see that without having to scroll sideways.
Full screen pages look nice...usually but the problem is that you can`t count on browsers rendering them the same way, especially when you start dealing with people having different screen resolutions. Either your main content will end before the side bars leaving empty white space and ads (sometimes) falling down the sides, or vice versa (which isn`t as bad). - Ah...l guess I hadn`t thought about the resolution differences, just the screen size. So it sounds as if something like "tables" would still be best, where the right-hand column exists (one way or another), but the overall right margin is stopped at 900px or thereabouts?
I kinda sorta understood the code example, and saw the %-of-width. I`m supposing that width can be set in other ways than a table?
- I`m not skilled at CSS, and have trouble using a "DIV" tag, but I get the concepts of HTML tables.
CraigL, I use to do some work using tables because I understood how to use them. But as I started burning up more time updating web content, I bite the bullet and learned what I needed to about CSS. A big help for me was using a CSS editor at first. You can download a free one at www.westcv.com. They use to have a simple little tutorial that walked you through the many of the basic tools of CSS including how to use the DIV tag.
As for screen size, I really dislike using sites where you have to scroll horizontally to read the text. CSS and using percentages allow you to optimize the real estate of the viewers’ screen. - Generally tables are frowned upon as a main site design tool, as they mix content and presentation in the same code - CSS provides a means to effectively manage the layout and presentation of your entire site, and make a single change to a file that can update that entire site.
You`ll often see fixed widths on sites that rely on advertising, as those ad sizes are definitely fixed, and variable rendering of pages can create huge headaches.
So as far as the poll is concerned, it needs a third option: "it depends"
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CookieMonster`s right. If you know you`ll be scaling out to many pages, make sure you design for that in the first place. The simpler the layout, the better and the less you`ll find yourself going in and fiddling with individual pages. 
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By - There are Those Who Shall Remain Nameless who want to take over the world with coffee. We here at the United Republic of Tealand have launched an initiative to hold the Orange-Pekoe Line!
We may be a small nation, but by gosh we are a powerful nation!
- i am a coffe girl, but i love earl gray and stash`s brand of chai green tea.
Craig,
Love the coffee ... albeit, very good, strong coffee. However, being from the south, don`t take away my sweet tea either. Passionate about both. No choice for this selection on your poll. Just wanted to make this "amber" clear.
R@
- Coffee in the morning, carbonated drinks if necessary in the afternoon & evening, tea when I`m sick.
So, to get awake, I voted for coffee.
- I don`t understand coffee. How can something that smells so wonderful taste so bad??
Tea rules!
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By - I figured I`d put a little poll up there too, since this is such a controversial topic. You can vote more than once.
Pro Flash: This is one of the more sophisticated tools available to Web sites. It makes the site stand out, looks professional, and attracts attention. It makes the site different from other sites. There are really useful and important things Flash provides to almost any Web site.
Anti Flash: All it`s good for is movies. Although a movie might provide certain types of sites with something useful, it`s more of a distraction. People want to get in and get out, find what they`re looking for, and do other things.
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Okay...we know the two factions, and the arguments. So here`s a list of real benefits to using Flash. Even better would be some real-world examples where NOT having Flash really left the site empty and missing something important.
- ??
(Bias note: I don`t like Flash, wouldn`t use it, and have an open-enough mind that I`m willing to be convinced it serves some purpose other than style.)
- There`s actually some really cool applications for Flash that most people wouldn`t think of. For example, we`re making some widgets for chumby right now. So when I finally get my own chumby, my widgets will be ready to go!
I like Flash for portfolios.
And online games.
And children`s sites.
I don`t think my opinions fit in your poll! You are looking at it from a business-site standpoint. Flash is good when you are trying to make the website itself an attraction, with interactivity.
- So mostly for looks. "....trying to make the Web site itself more attractive...?"
- On the site I am about to put up, I plan on using a small flash on the splash page to enhance a short moviefeaturing my main product.
I think it makes your site just that much more professional.
- My site is almost entirely Flash. I love Flash. As an artist, it serves my
purposes for a portfolio site really well. Flash is very conducive to my
style and transferring the look of my art into a web experience. Without
it, the snowshoes would just hang there and not walk on walls. The fire
in the hearth wouldn`t burn. The deer wouldn`t stick its tongue out.
Believe it or not, those extraneous details are important to my site. Do
they help sell my posters? Do they help get me clients? I don`t really
know. But I get nothing but positive comments on those animated details
all the time. And I mean quite frequently. If my viewers enjoy the
CampSteve experience, then perhaps that enjoyment turns into
opportunity for me. It`s part of the unique way I`ve branded my site. I
couldn`t have done it without Flash. That being said, it does have its
drawbacks. And I don`t see my application of it useful for most kinds of
websites.
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By - Here`s a snippet from "Investor`s Business Daily:"
Democrats have long eyed President Bush`s tax cuts for top earners as a source of funds to cover the uninsured, save Social Security and help balance the budget.
But revenue from repealing those tax cuts isn`t nearly enough to solve one of those problems, let alone all three.
So Democrats have a new favorite source of "easy" cash: the estimated $290 billion gap between the taxes owed each year and what the IRS actually collects.
That brought up a question about things like eBay, which is related to cigarettes sold by the American Indian tribes. Congress wants to force vendors to report people who are selling a lot on places like eBay, just as they tried to force credit card companies to release data.
The cigarette issue revolved around the Indian territories being sovereign "countries." To get around it, credit companies had to report transactions made by purchasers. That led to the IRS going after unpaid tobacco taxes. Now they`re looking at something similar for online sales.
The problem, of course, is out-of-control spending by the US Government, both parties. Since they can pass their own laws, whether or not they choose to follow the balanced budget and "pay-as-you-go" limits really is irrelevant. But it sounds good, and gets politicians re-elected.
Will they be able to force eBay and other sites to relinquish financial records? At issue is "uncollected sales tax" from direct sales via online. It`s not just "unpaid" taxes in the ordinariy sense.
I`m trying to see how this could work, given that so much online commerce is international. Any thoughts?
- I think they would need to make it simple.
The tax structure for online sales is nuts right now.
- It would be to hard.. since most businesses online are ran by home business entreprenuers. and there is still no law that says you need a business permit to do business online.
- Of course they could do this with a mass subpoena of eBay`s top sellers and a cross-reference of their shipping addresses. Considering how much is shipped through the USPS on eBay (eBay invited the post master general to their last convention in Las Vegas), how difficult do you think it would be for the US Government to track shipments within the country? Not very.
Revenue recovery of unpaid income tax is a completely separate issue from internet sales tax. Besides, there is no federal sales tax, anyway. What exactly would the US government be collecting? State taxes for things shipped within the same state are one thing; what federal taxes are due on internet sales?
Unless and until the US government authorizes federal sales tax on internet sales, this is a completely irrelevant issue. And yes, those who owe the $290 billion can run but they can`t hide, and they shouldn`t. Those people are called `thiefs`, regardless of how one feels about federal spending. You owe what you owe, regardless of whether you agree with it or not.
- Revenue recovery of unpaid income tax is a completely separate issue from internet sales tax.
The Wall Street Journal makes a distinction between sales tax, and unreported sales revenues.
What they`re referencing is that a home-based seller on eBay is mostly pocketing the money they`re getting. Two tax components come into play. The one is the sales tax, and Congress isn`t looking at that in this context. The other is the unreported gross annual income.
When they talk about uncollected tax, they mean the "extra" $5,000 (for example) someone earns on eBay or off their Web site and doesn`t declare.
Of course if that income were (somehow) tracked, and if it could be proven that it came from some kind of sales activity, then the *other* issue of sales tax would come into play as well.
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By - I saw a really nice print ad (Northern Trust bank), with a headline saying "Contentment Index." It showed a bar graph for the money you have, in relation to the memories you have. I didn`t read the rest of the ad, but it got me thinking about life.
Whatever`s your age, right now how many memories do you treasure? Are they in what you think of as a good balance or ratio?
As a Baby Boomer, I grew up in that "materialistic" world, where our parents were coming out of WWII and even the Depression. They were mostly concerned with a nice home life, a car in the garage, Sunday baseball games, and peace and quiet.
That generation was maybe the last of those who elevated duty and obligation to a higher level than personal desires. Fathers had an obligation to provide for the family, while mothers had an obligation not only to have children, but to be at home to raise them. There was a strong sense of civic duty, corporate loyalty, and "The American Way."
As a result, their children---the Boomers---experienced almost nothing of any consequence, relative to serious trauma. The war in Viet Nam was a war, but it was on TV for the most part, excepting for the men and women who were there. But because it was on TV, those people became a remote set of "actors," not really part of the country. It was a sad problem.
So here we all are. Many of us turned away from that material accumulation, choosing to "do our own thing, man." ("Man" is the previous version of the word "dude," for those of you in later generations.)
Many people I grew up around had lots of money, but ended up dying alone, with few friends, and certainly without a whole lot of satisfaction in regard to their life and memories. They did what they had to do, acccumulated some fine memories here and there, but had a much larger bank account. It didn`t do much for them in the last hours.
If you were told you had about 10 hours to live, like in the movie "Meet Joe Black," how do your accounts look? Would you be satisfied that if you were to take your consciousness with you that you`d have lots to bring?
- Craig. You left out: 4. So poor you can`t afford to pay attention. So I chose Memories.
- How bad would THAT be....to not only have no money, but also no satisfying memories! Jeez.....
- RaiseCapital,
So what you`re saying is you have a balance of the memories and the money? I wonder....would it be possible to quantify such a balance. The cool thing about the ad was that it asked the question, at least. I thought I`d ask it here, on the forums.
:-)
Craig I really relate to your post. When you get to the point where the wrinkles around your eyes don`t go away when you stop smiling ... and your hair is more gray than whatever. It`s somewhat sobering even if you feel young at heart.
By - "Oh....if only I could know for sure that this decision was right!"
Do you really want to know the future? I mean *really* know it, on a regular basis, whenever you had a problem or decision, or things weren`t going the way you expected. Would you?
Lots of people, when they really think about it, would rather not know. They say it would make for a boring life. But there`s more to it than that.
Suppose you knew for sure that on Dec 12, in two years, you were absolutely going to be sitting in a new car. Wouldn`t that be great! Gosh...no more doubt, and it`s not like you knew EVERYthing all the time..right?
Now suppose next Monday you wake up, knowing that by Friday afternoon at 4pm, you`re going to be in a car collision, lose an eye and an arm, and probably have someone in your family killed.
Further suppose that only by first being in that car crash would you absolutely have the new car in two years. Nothing you could do would change anything, and there was no way possible for you to avoid that car crash and ensuing consequences.
Uncertainty about the future is more than avoiding the stress and worry. It protects us from avoiding going through bad things in order for good things to come out of them.
More importantly, when we`re fat and happy, we get comfortable, and we stop tweaking at a product or idea, trying to figure out "What`s going wrong?" Whether or not anything actually IS wrong, we keep pushing, tweaking, exploring, and working on it, making it better and better. Only because we`re worried that it`s just not good enough and THAT`s why people aren`t buying it.
What about drama, excitement, adventure, and the unknown? And what about choice itself? Suppose you decided you`re prefer not to go through the car crash. Would that mean you`d also not get the new car in two years? Probably so.
By not knowing the future, we`re given the freedom to choose our own desitny.
- hi all. great site.
- To know the future, without doubt, means to eliminate free will and choice. :-)
- Even if you know the future, there will always be doubt because you can change the course of events.
Then you won`t know the future. To know means to have no doubt.
:-)
- Right: If we knew ahead of time about pain, we`d avoid it (naturally enough). Then we`d get none of the rewards of dealing with the painful events.
Ask yourself, "What would NOT exist today, had I NOT experienced that awful thing in the past."
- I have no evidence other than anecdotal, but I`m wondering how many people are facing downward movement in their credit rating as a result of starting their own business.
From a different perspective, though, I wonder if people whose "regular job" collapsed, have been sort of driven into starting a business, but their credit rating was poor because of losing their regular employment?
I`m getting a sense that there`s an increaing gap taking place. I could make an argument that the microbusiness and startup-entrepreneurial sector is the future of the country, but that the nature of starting a business also slams into one`s credit rating.
If that`s true, and if your credit rating is as important as some would say (a pretty big "if"), then are we dealing with a contradicting dynamic? Can you start a small business in an environment where a bad credit rating prevents you from doing business?
Just curious... :-)
- I don`t know whether to choose "Not much of a change" or "No change at all, really".
(I`m just teasing Craig because I know one can`t edit the polls after posting them.)
Seriously though, I`m one of those people that hold credit to a pretty high esteem. Business hasn`t hurt my credit at all but as an artist and not say, a property developer, I`m not faced with putting money on the line much. If anything, having a business structure to my finances has probably helped me be smarter about money and thus, probably improved my credit score. - Hey, I routinely go shopping and come home at exactly the same time. :-D So why shouldn`t your credit rating be severely affected and not at all affected simultaneously? LOL!!
Nah, I know what you`re saying, and that`s another part of this potential topic. I`m often surprised at the amounts of money people have to invest in a startup, where they believe they`re on a shoestring budget. I`m evaluating it in comparison to people bootstrapping, where the "shoestring" is a huge amount. It`s relative, in other words.
So too, some businesses are product oriented and involve inventory, others are service oriented. But with all this talk nowadays about how if your credit rating tanks you may`s well suck on a hose in the garage with the car running, I dunno. Is it REALLY that critical, in all cases, all the time? Apparently not if you`re an artist. :-)
- I`d say a boutique business can have a few employees, but the main characteristic is that it isn`t intended to become "huge." It`s a way to generate a nice, comfortable income but that will involve your personal work for as long as the business continues.
A "mid-size" business with employees is a sort of traditional operation, in this context. It`s a small business, with less than 50 employees, but that includes a complete management structure. You wouldn`t be literally making your product, but would be in charge of the business. Examples might be a manufacturing plant, retail market, restaurant, and so forth. Again, this is more like a place you go to work, that doesn`t feel like part of your home.
A large-scale enterprise would have a possible future involving going public, offering national franchises, or perhaps national (or international) outlets and distribution.
I would like a boutique style business from a practical standpoint, I am the designer, developer, fabricator, marketer etc. etc. etc. but in my dreams this has evolved into a large scale enterprise beyond my expectations. Wouldn`t this be exciting..well back to dreaming.
Colleen
- Mid size for sure...
- Why the mid-size? I`m curious. I don`t particularly have any bias toward any of them, and can relate to Colleen`s having to do all the various parts herself. I thought I`d poll people just to see how come they want the size bracket. :-)
- Craig,I like the big business feel without the bureaucracy, which I find possible in mid size companies. I also like a more hands on approach, which is not to be confused with micro managing, but rather just being able to be involved. Also, I beleive it creates opportunity for department heads to "have their own business", which can lead to astonishing results. I feel more "alive" when working with a mid size as compared to a small or large......any of this making sense to you?
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By - The other day, Kathy decided to decorate the living room with one of our nautical signal flag valances. For those of us who don`t know interior decor, a "valance" is a thingamajig that hangs down over the curtains in front and sort of hides the curtain rod.
We`ve been selling these to other people for about a year, and we get lots of great feedback. But!....do we have one anywhere in our home? Um....er.....well, tell ya what...lemme get back to you on that....! :-)
So we made the flags, went out and bought a curtain rod, and hung the valance today. Hokey Spoons! It looks really cool...! But we also discovered some of the practical problems associated with hanging the curtain rod. That led to a couple of new ideas for making the product easier and better.
Do you use your own product every day? Have you found that what you thought was perfect turned out to have a few minor complications that you only discovered as you became a "user?"
- Thank goodness we don`t sell a food product! We`d be like Lucy in that episode where she`s working in the candy factory! ;-D
- There are advantages to using your own product as you just experienced. It is much easier to help your customers when you know all the little details.
I do use my own product everyday. In fact I think every product I have ever sold I use everyday. In addition to my main business I am a distributor for a line of wellness products. I fell in love with them about eight years ago and have ordered monthly ever since. I am the kind of customer I like to attract.
Mary - I voted no because I don`t "use" my product myself. I prefer not to hang my own poster art in my own home. I see enough of it as it is and I like to have others` artwork on my walls.
- Wherever I go people ask me, is that one of your bags? So now, I could never carry someone else`s bag. A lot of women have handbag collections, my collection is 99.9% Studio Cherie. The one other designer I still have is Carlos Falchi.Since bags are carried against your body, I consider them to be a very personal thing. Just try reaching your hand into a womans bag, and you will see how personal that space is! Naturally, my designs are personal to me, and time will tell how many women choose to add me to their collections.Crypton Handbags are a new category on my site, and I will be adding more bags for the Spring collection in the coming weeks.There are designs that I have tweaked after carrying the first prototype. Craig makes a good point that experiencing the product does add to the quality, if you pay attention and are willing to make changes. The credibility factor is important too.I can`t wait to see photos of the Landes nautical living room!
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By - I`m more and more getting irked by the seemingly widespread strategy of keeping product prices a total mystery.
We`re hearing all over the local radio that "Stamps.com" is the best way to avoid the utter misery of going to the Post Office. But to find out what`s going on you have to first sign up for the site.
Sure there`s a money-back guarantee, but they`re betting that after signing up you`ll either forget or love the service so much you`ll stay with them. Is that right?
It`s getting to where any time I see a site that doesn`t tell me the price right away, I just click away and never go back. I don`t CARE how useful or beneficial, fascinating or magical the product or service might be. It`s become one of my pet peeves. :-)
I understand the so-called sales logic, it just turns me off. On the other hand, I know that telemarketing generates huge amounts of money, and I hate that too. Just about everyone I talk with hates telemarketiing, and yet it`s everywhere so it must be successful.
Is that the situation with mysterious pricing? Is it just me and the people I talk with? Are we like the invisible people who like or hate TV shows, but whose opinion never seems to show up in "The Ratings?"
- No, it`s not just you. I also click away and won`t patronize sites that don`t reveal their pricing. It`s a matter of principle with me.Dale King
- What do you mean by "right away, when the customer sees the site." This sounds like prices on a homepage. Depending upon the type of site and sales pitch, that may or may not be a bad thing.
I think pricing should be transparent. If it`s an e-commerce site, prices should be part of the product pages and not on a "separate page" There is no option for this in the poll. - I think this is impossible to answer.
There`s no way for me to give someone a direct price on my website. If I posted some arbitrary amount, people wouldn`t understand why theirs was more because they don`t understand the difference in backend programming between one site and the next. I mean, I have rough numbers, like "we start at ..." but it would just never work to post every little thing in an itemized list.
I would compare it to hiring a plumber or any other service professional ... they come over, they look at what you have, and then they send you an estimate. If you approve the estimate, you hand over a check or agree to the payment terms, and the work is performed. So saying "I don`t hire plumbers who don`t post their prices" is just absurd ... what plumber is going to post the part prices of every part in inventory and keep that entire list updated regularly?
The difference between me and the plumber is that there is more than one way to build a site ... so if you are trying to fit within a certain budget, I can help you make that happen. For example, if people say they have X amount of money, we may be able to come up with a bootstrapping plan, or cut back on some of the features, or find some more cost-effective marketing, or they can take on more of the work and hire out less, or whatever else. There`s just not one size fits all when you`re trying to build a business, so there`s not one price I can post. - I was just talking about this to someone else. I go back and forth on this subject. I have my rate structure but not my actual rates on my site, on a separate page. That allows me the flexibility to lower my rate to certain clients, e.g., I have three clients right now that are below my normal rate.
What I will do is give someone my hourly rate if they contact me - no hemming and hawing - I just give them my rate. I used to be coy and try to keep that info for the consultation but when I looked at it from the other side, I decided that I would want to know.
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I like it!
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By - With the economy in a bit of a turmoil, and everyone talking about "the future," I`ve been thinking about how many steps into the future people plan. Where do we get the practice? How do we learn to juggle many variables, scenarios, probabilities, and interacting forces?
I learned to play chess as a kid, played it all the time, then sort of lost interest or got busy. But I enjoyed the game particularly because it made me think ten or so moves into the future. I had to visualize actions and reactions, but also learn how to "guess" what my opponent would most likely choose to do.
Whether it`s a human being or "stuff" you`re competing with and against, how did you learn to think ahead? How far do you tend to think ahead....days, weeks, months, years?
- We`ve got the whole spectrum of entrepreneurial spirit, here on Startup Nation. There are folks thinking about starting a business; those with an idea that`s going to really make some money; those getting a plan together, and those currently in the process.
Lots of people get a vision, see an idea for a business, and sort of gloss over the "from here to there" part of things. In maybe half the cases, folks think they`ll go get some money to fund the new idea, and they`ll mostly work on daily operations. In other instances, people figure they`ll "get a business," all in one step, then "make money" in Step 2.
With all the people here who currently are running a business, maybe it`d be helpful to get a sense of about how long does it take before this new idea brings in enough money to pay the bills and replace working for someone else?
We`ve been in business about 1-1/2 years, and we`re starting to get some regular sales each month. It`s not enough to hire employees, nor is it enough that we can say we have a full-fledged career yet. We`re not making enough to compare well with a day job. Based on trends, we`re thinking it`ll take yet another year before we can say we have regular annual revenues.
So how long can someone generally expect to project before they`ll be able to make a living completely from their new business idea? In our situation, I`m not even counting the year it took to hone the basic idea into the eventual product, work out the bugs, build a simple Web site, and "open for business" to the general public.
- I`m not sure I believe there are products that hit "immediately." It reminds me too much of the "overnight hit" bands, that took 5-10 years before they suddenly swept onto the scene. Thinking about it, I can`t seem to recall a single product that`s become a hit within 1 year of its first prototype or inspiration.....?
- My partners and I have been working on Zingerding for a year and a half. We haven`t launched the site yet so obviously we haven`t made any money. We hope to within a year of launch but of course there`s no guarantee. We`re confident though. :)
- See, that`s another thing! People figure they`ll have an idea, get a Web site, lots of people will show up, and they`ll be instantly rich.
Making the Web site is a big issue and doesn`t always happen overnight. Plus, there`s that whole "business is about making some money" thingie. :-D
- Seth Godin talks about "the Dip," where a business has passed the initial market phase, and now has to pass the mountainside of growing really big, or perhaps walking away. It`s that point where you want to or need to start handling high-volume orders, and that may not be possible. You may have to stay a boutique business forever.
But there`s another part of this, sometimes called "burnout," but I don`t think that`s an approporiate description. It`s where you`ve finally reached a leveling off point, and the business is starting to have some regular schedules. Orders are coming in, maybe slowly, but definitely and steadily.
You`re no longer scrambling to solve problems, no longer inventing new things to handle unforeseen problems. You`re working each week, and there`s almost a vague sense that perhaps you can have a real schedule. And at that point, you look into the future.
Is this what you want to be doing for the rest of your life? Is it maybe a little bit like drudge work? Sure, it`s still interesting, but it`s not adrenaline-rush exciting and panic-striking anxiety anymore, in a rollercoaster of bipolar emotions. Is this all there is?
Maybe you`re looking at outsourcing or ramping up your manufacturing and wondering how that`s going to happen. Where will the money come from? Is it even possible to have someone else make this thing? And what about a service business---can you train your replacement? Can you even train anyone to stand in for you if you`re ill or need a vacation?
Anyone going through this? :-) We`re still, and certainly passionate about having our own business, and it`s still very cool to have ongoing orders. But it`s looking almost impossible to make the next step. In the meantime, we`re feeling more like a weekly "job" now that we`ve worked out all the processes, solved most of the production problems, and gotten into a decent routine. How about you guys?
- One of the most peculiar things I`ve seen is the human ability to totally dissociate ourselves from an idea. It`s amazing, yet we do it all the time. Nowhere is it more obvious than in e-commerce, startup business development, and online selling.
If we were to use common sense, we`d know that as soon as we put up a Web site designed to sell something, we can test it by being a customer. And yet, it seems as though only a tiny percentage of people ever do this.
To me, that indicates that most people have never purchased anything, ever, at any time in their lives, from anyone. They have no concept or actual experience trying to buy something, so it makes sense that when they start a business they don`t allow for customers.
I thought I`d test my theory with this poll. :-)
- I`m asking if people have ever spent money to purchase anything at all, ever, in the course of their entire life, whether online or not.
- Yes, that`s my theory, based on looking at how so many e-commerce Web sites are designed.
- Based on what is out there, this would be something to ask..great question Craig.. and yes.. i will email you (everything is perfect btw).I love the one about being 5...very cute!! :)Erin
- I see we truly do have a wide range of members, here on Startup Nation. But, as the saying goes, you can never be too young to start a business! :-)
- I heard today that retailers are forecasting the worst holiday season in 10 years. That`s fine, but we also know that e-commerce is growing exponentially each year. With massive lines, gas prices, the hassle of malls, and everything else, more and more people seem to shop online for holiday gifts.
That favors the micro-business sector. So as banks enter jeopardy, potentially ending up nationalized, and a proposed three-quarter-TRILLION dollar bailout plan coming down the pike, will that affect average people? Or will it only affect wealthy investors and large institutions?
Is there anything in particular you can do to weather a storm, in the event one takes place? In our case, there`s not much we can do about it, other than just keep going along, hoping to pick up customers less affected by these financial problems.
- With the Federal Reserve about to print a trillion new dollars, backed by nothing other than air, I`m sure we`ll all get money. The question is what will that money actually buy. :-) We may NEED those emergency rations of jerky!
- I just had to vote "buy a bank." Very funny and yet not so funny.
But if you think about it - that is exactly what all of us productive citizens are doing. We are, by force of big brother, buying up the banks with our tax dollars. Well, those that have not already been bought by China. - CraigL,
I was just reading an article where major department stores are gearing up and advertising Christmas in September... As a matter a fact I got this email from Rackspace last month, with a huge present on the front and it read "Be ahead of your competition, be the first to sell to your clients"...
What happened to Halloween, and Thanksgiving? Most of all what happened to the Holiday spirit? What happened to us? What are we teaching the young? that in order for us to have a good Holiday season "it all comes down to presents, and materialistic items"? Where did the family gatherings go? It`s not materialistic items and presents that make the world go round, it`s "Family".
Look how far our federal reserve has gone, printing money with no value? But yet I read a newspaper heading yesterday where Bush wants to put $7-billion into the economy? How? and why ever since Bush Came into the white house, that`s all we`ve heard: 100 billion into this, 20 billion into this, and that....where is all that money? One thing I know for sure, once bush gets out of the white house, he`s going to be filthy rich along with all of his buddies.
You want to talk about a stimulus pack? Can $300.00 dollars really stimulate anything these days?
Another heading I read "China is nervous about the American Economy" Why did we open the doors to them? Why didn`t we keep all the jobs in the USA? Because these huge companies didn`t want to pay the American People, they rather go and exploit people and pay them less than the minimum wage.
Lets take HP for example: in 2003 they announced they were going to lay-off 2,300 people in Mountain View CA (that`s where they`re at) because they were going to move the plant to Malaysia or China. Now we have 2,300 people heading for Unemployment not being able to afford what they once could. 6 Months later they ship all the stuff in from Malaysia or China in to the USA, and want to sell their products perhaps to the 2,300 people they laid-off? That is wrong!
What we need to do is bring back all the American Companies back to the USA, hire Americans.and watch our economy grow NOW THAT is a "STIMULUS PACKAGE" - CraigL,
I was just reading an article where major department stores are gearing up and advertising Christmas in September... As a matter a fact I got this email from Rackspace last month, with a huge present on the front and it read "Be ahead of your competition, be the first to sell to your clients"...
What happened to Halloween, and Thanksgiving?......
America is becoming "lean and mean!" We`ve got to get more efficient, faster, and better at things. To do this, we`ve compressed the holidays into HallowThankMas (HTM, for short). It`s not that we`ve lost Halloween and Thanksgiving, it`s that they`re folded into a single holiday that lasts 4 months (September - December).
Nah....it`s just that nothing has real value anymore, in so many people`s mind. We think we have money, but with a "fiat" money system, it isn`t worth anything. It`s only worth what the government tries to tell us it`s worth---by pronouncement or fiat.
China has nothing to sell of its own, and only exports products made for other countries. If the US runs out of money, there won`t be any products to make, so China`s economy will start to stagnate. If we have no money, we can`t pay the massive debt we owe to Chinese banks. That`s why they`re worried.
I`m with Silence, above. We`re gonna buy a bank, make our own cheap money and export it to China. The money we print will be different in that the first time you use it, it falls apart. :-)
By - It`s strange. Nobody likes to discuss a future where things continue to be economically tough or might get worse. It doesn`t seem to matter whether or not analysis can help strategic positioning, it`s "bad vibes, man."
I suspect two forces at work. The one is simply denial. Nobody wants to talk about what might happen because it`s just so scary that it`s impossible to deal with.
The second is half a century of magical thinking, where "thinking positively" somehow changes the world immediately. Ergo, to even talk about negative possibilities is criminal in that it`s causing the problem itself.
Fine, if you don`t like negative vibes, then don`t read this post.
For the rest of the world, there`s no question that understanding trends and probabilities, then applying reasoned analysis is a good thing. It determines investments for the future, product lines, business tactics, directions in marketing, and solutions to changing circumstances.
We have many economic "gurus" telling us that we`re at the bottom now, and we`re experiencing a "near depression" that`s not really a depression; it`s sort of a depression but it could be a recession; it isn`t happening yet, maybe, but could happen possibly, we don`t know, we`re not sure.....who knows!
Other people, examining the underlying fundamentals of economics and a century of what turns out to be wrong thinking, don`t agree. Those would argue that we`ve built a house of cards for decades and decades, with little thought to "paying the final bill."
That bill is about to come due.
At issue isn`t the number for the Dow Jones average. Instead, it`s a supposition of what sort of economy we`re likely going to see over the next 10 years. With that in mind, we can think about strategies and ways to survive.
Additionally, if we look at an investment market that loses 75% of its value, does that mean the real world has magically lost all that value? Did the money go somewhere? Is the stock market an accurate reflection of that real world?
Finally, in a situation where publicly held corporations are collapsing, what business opportunities can we develop that don`t include those corporations? "Think Big" usually includes eventually "going public." What if that can`t happen anymore?
- WorldNetDaily.com
Stimulus-plan doubts push Dow under 8,000
Investors lack confidence in $1 trillion presidential planThe week also saw the euro decline as the dollar advanced, with the dollar closing on Friday at $1.28/euro.
The euro decline alarmed billionaire investor George Soros, who declared from Davos that the euro might not "survive," unless the European Union pushes for a global plan to deal with the toxic debt assets held by financial institutions worldwide, according to Bloomberg.
All week, Soros joined with other globalists at Davos in proclaiming a need for the United States to follow Sweden`s model in the 1990s of nationalizing banks after allowing the current private owners of the banks to take the hit for the trillions in worthless Collateralized Debt Obligations the banks hold in their portfolios.
The other theme Soros championed all week was that the world economic community needs governmental structures capable of regulating the world economy on a global basis.
In advancing this theme, Soros underscored that economic structures such as the World Trade Organization, or WTO, and the North American Free Trade Act, or NAFTA, were only the prelude to a governmental regulatory structure that ultimately will include regional, if not global, central banks and bureaucratic regulators setting the administrative rules by which "free trade" markets will operate. The dow will level out at the number of "historical commemorative" coins sold. It’s sad how Montel Williams has taken to hawking Barack Obama commemorative coins.
http://blogs.tampabay.com/media/2008/12/montel-williams.html
- Also sad that the President tells "Wall Street" this is not the time for bonuses but a time for "transparency" yet proposes a "stimulus" package that is filled with social welfare and other programs that have little at all to do with stimulating anything.Small business is typically the driver of stimulus for the economy.So, why not provide tax breaks/reductions and stimulus for small business to grow.~Roland
Have any of you given any thought to what imminent signs we might see before a panic? I`m in a secluded place but from up here, I can feel the rumblings...
Not just panic but mass panic. rioting and looting and the whole social upheaval that seems inevitable. economically, we have been "beyond" the point of no return for 10 years so here we go.. the system is getting cleaned out, more and more scams will be uncovered, and people are going to see just what has been hidden behind the golden curtain... smoke and mirrors.I knoe people can be resilient and Americans are pretty tough but, everyone has their breaking point and i wonder what might happen if everyone breaks down at once?so, what are the early indicators and are you making a plan in case of the worst?What do you think the one thing that will happen that will trigger it? something big or maybe just one small thing?I know the government and law enforcement have plans to deal with it when it happens but I just wonder if the people are.?How low can the dow go? I`m thinking 5000 to 3500. (unless someone at the top can come up with a new smoke and mirror show and make everything seem great again?
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- This is NOT a post about religion! The term "intelligent design" may imply conscious thought, but it isn`t meant to do so. It`s only a way to propose that life and existence have an interaction and meaning. It`s a way to describe the opposite of random accident.
I`m curious as to how many people, generally speaking, fully believe that regardless of our being able to comprehend a design, such a design does exist. That the universe is a symphony of harmony and disharmony.
Or how many people fully believe that existence is essentially random, with all of everything being a random set of accidents? Those accidents are entirely independent of all other events, but inform the next accident?
Just curious. :-)
- Your position is very tricky: you either looking at this from a religious point of view or a scientific point of view. There is nothing in between. So please state which position do YOU take, and perhaps you`ll get someone to respond
- No, I`m looking at this from either an organized or chaos perspective. If nobody believes anything, that`s fine. :-) I don`t particularly need to put my own decision down first. Religion has nothing to do with it at all. I`ll agree that some sort of spirituality might apply, but that would require a definition.
The reason for the question though is that it lies at the bottom of so many other aspects of life. Particularly today, with the economy. Some might say we have a down economy, presuming it`ll go up. Others might say it`s a changed economy, irrevocably changed. On what basis?
We can say that there`s a reason for the economy, or say that it`s simply a cumulative set of individually random events. Since we can`t at all prove either position, each of us simply chooses: which will it be?
Do events happen in a pattern for a reason, or do they happen randomly, with each event causing the next from moment to moment.
- Craigs`s post makes my head hurt. :(
- LOL Shawn! And here I was thinking, "YAY! If only I had time to really focus on this debate..."
I`m heading out in a few for lunch, but I will come back to this, Craig. My vote is for design and organization. Not through religion (although that is possible), but through cause and effect, through pattern theory and so on.
Looking forward to this one. *smiles*
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By - We`ve all heard about the forced bankruptcy deal the current administration put onto Chrysler. One of the key aspects was the autocratic conversion of bondholders to something like common shareholders.
Ordinarily, and by law (which means what anymore?), the bondholders are first in line to get their money back when a company goes bankrupt. Any assets sold generate the money to pay back those holding the loan notes for the company.
The Obama administration said that was ridiculous, the old way of doing business. It`s time for a Change. And so they told the bondholders to go suck eggs.
Over the past week, an organization in Indiana has been in litigation before the United States Supreme Court. The essence of the case is to prevent or stop the bankruptcy to give the bondholders a chance to cry foul. They want the company and the government to follow the rule of law.
Hah! Fat chance! This is a Time for Hope and Change.
So today, Justice Ginsburg`s temporary hold on the sale to Fiat was removed. The sale may go through, as defined in the deal.
What will that mean for the future of venture capital, investment capital, and bonds in general? What about municipal or corporate bonds as "secure" investments? How about small businesses looking for equity investors?
Do you think today`s decision will be constrained only to Chrysler, or will it have far-reaching consequences to the whole concept of financial investment?
Do you think it`s fair for the government to make a law that treats bondholders one way, allow the business world to function, then simply wipe out that law without any discussion?
- Well I think they willl make harde to get loanno persoanl experince yet.
- I think it’s important to note that these bondholders were holders of secured debt. With that being said, I think what happened at Chrysler was an unprecedented case of governmental interference with private enterprise and a complete disregard of more than a century worth of case law.
While the government’s actions can probably be justified to some extent to have benefited the greater good and helped to avert an even bigger economical crises, there can be no doubt that Chrysler’s bondholders paid the price for the company’s inability to design, create, and market a line of viable products for decades.
Since the Chrysler bondholders were largely institutional investors such as pension funds, I’m quite curious to see what would have happened had the government applied the same scenario to GM, where bondholders largely consist of GM’s retired workforce and other individual investors. Under such a scenario, these people would have lost a huge portion of their retirement funds/lifesavings, but they can still vote!
Like I said, the way the U.S. government dealt with Chrysler and GM is without precedence and if it wouldn’t have been the U.S. government, the complete disregard of secured creditors in traditional bankruptcy proceedings is rather unthinkable. Bearing this in mind, I don’t think that these two cases have an impact on the credit markets in general.
When Daimer Benz cut its losses and sold Chrysler to Cerberus, I’m still not clear what Cerberus saw in Chrysler that Daimer Benz didn’t see. Frankly, since Fiat isn’t going to contribute any capital resources other than the ability to build small cars that don’t exactly have a great reputation in Europe (FIAT = Fix It Again Tony), I wouldn’t be surprised if Fiat Chrysler continues to be a troubled carmaker with rather slim chances to recover. - Some interesting follow-up seems to indicate that long-term Treasury bonds are developing higher interest rates. Presumably, that would mean that buyers are associating more risk to what will happen to their money over 30 years. Instead of assuming that the American dollar is like gold.
In Illinois, the state is supposed to pay into various pension funds. That hasn`t been done, as the money likely was used for all sorts of personal fun and games by the politicians. Now those pension funds are unfunded, and the law mandates they must be funded.
The result, much like in Caw-lee-forn`y`uh, is that Illinois is going broke. Cities and towns within the state also are going broke. And so they`ll try to issue municipal bonds. I wonder who will buy them?
100% The Bondholders will get the shaft in bankruptcy. The chrysler bankruptcy became too political when it had nothing to do with politics.
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By _FieldCaption_My Business Interests_View
| Headline: | Author, freelance editor/writer, philosopher |
| Description: | Here it is, 2008, I`m 56 and embarking on my next career. My name`s Craig, unrelated to "Craig`s List," and I`m a writer. I`m also a philosopher, although I didn`t know that until recently. Initially, I was a professional musician (keyboards) for about 20 years, then did a stint in retail, worked as a temp, and landed as a computer guy for a local hospital. That lasted long enough for me to end up running IT for a subsidiary corporation involved in managed care, physician practices, and billing. I left to get into IT consulting, hated it, and went back to temping. With my skills in MS Office, drawing, graphics, writing, and editing, I came together with Jim Jones and wrote the "A+ Exam Cram" books, all about how to pass the CompTIA A+ certification exam. Four editions later, realizing I like getting royalties, I was decided: I’d be a writer. I have a novel I`m working on, about the next version of human beans. Then there`s a book about how to work with computer spreadsheets, and there`s this philosophy I`ve developed. New Individualism is founded on the principle concept of idealism, mixed with Ayn Rand`s Objectivism, and what I think is true. It’s a blended structure, taking from many other of history`s philosophies, and including some new ideas. Individualism holds that quality of life is the highest value, not an "also-ran" that creeps into consideration late at night. It`s a philosophy based on a direct connection between physical reality and a more complex system, organized, and fashionably referenced by such words as "intelligent design." An offshoot book I`m working on ("Phone Calls with Cassie") discusses the moral and ethical problems facing today`s teens. It`s based on a composite, loosely generated around my niece Cassandra. In the interim, while I`m putting all this writing stuff together, I do VA work, freelance writing, editing, and other content-based jobs on a contract basis. I also work with Kathy in a startup business selling personalized messages made up of Navy signal flags. |
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