Business Development Topics

I was asked by someone who believes “in not reinventing the wheel if someone has already done so”. I normally agree with this statement too, Except in the case of business plans. I know from experience that business plans take huge amounts of time, and they must be written by the owner and not contracted out. What I have found is that the business plan is the place and time where the business “lives and grows” in the owners head. As the words are put onto the paper, the entire business is developed and problems with the business appear and are corrected with no cost, no liability, and no damage to the company name to customers. Problems occur with many aspects, and the common denominator is always the business owner, what bugs them, what motivates them and what they are expecting. Anyone else doing a plan would be fixing problems that they see which are unlikely to be the problems that the business owner would see. That being said, having help from someone who has done a business plan to give advice or review the plan is very beneficial.

One thing that I have noticed is that it takes a unique person to be a programmer. One of the biggest challenges is that programmers need to be able to self reward on simple things. Most people have no clue what programmers do, so the recognition from anyone are few and far between. Just something to keep in mind for anyone thinking of going into the profession.

I have a wonderful uncle Bob that I decided to ask questions of. He is retired and has a wealth of knowledge. He has a background in lots of things, and one of them was antiques. Being a pack rat myself and enjoying antiques, I asked him for his thoughts on antiques. This is an edited dialogue that we had so that I have a place to keep it, and also it may help others on the web.

I always wished that I had a crystal ball, but I’m glad I didnt. When I first started StrandWare, i often wished for a vision of the future. After about 5 years into the company, I realized that I was so blessed that I didnt have one. Had I been able to “see” the success that the future held 5 years into the future, I would have figured that there was no way I could manage that.

It is a lot like having kids. For those of you reading this without kids – you will live what I’m talking about in a few years. When you first get think about having kids (or usually you dont think about it 🙂 ), you know that your life will change, but you’re not sure exactly how. When the new bundle of joy comes into your life, you are so in awe of this tiny little creation. The baby barely moves and is just so amazing to see. They quickly find their lungs and cry quite loudly for such a small creature, but you figure it is because they need something – which is pretty much true at this age. Right away, the nurses are there to help you with bathing, changing and feeding. You leave the hospital with some basic understandings and a strong sense of connection. Then comes the times where the needs of the child come at all kinds of times through the day. Eventually, the child sleeps through the night for the first time, and you think all is great. Soon comes the first words followed by first words and all the fun of birthdays, Christmas, etc. Of course with the good times comes the stress of having them in and on all the cabinets, them testing their limits (and reflecting what they have learned with how we deal with others). School comes with the stress ofletting them go to school on their own. Then comes the “I dont want to get up” on the weekday mornings and the getting up at 6:00 am on weekend mornings when we could sleep in. You put yourself out driving them everywhere, for parties, for laundry, shopping and all kinds of things. Eventually you realize that you no longer go party anymore because there isnt time (and really, it is not as interesting anymore either). If you had a crystal ball to see everything that goes on 5 or 10 years into the future, you would not appreciate all the small things that are positive, and would be frightened at all the things that dont seem very positive.

I suspect that if people knew the future, there would be far fewer businesses operating, and a much smaller population. So, I am happy that I dont know the future.

I have the habit of underestimating my abilities and also underestimating the value of the things that I do for others. I recently have been in a very sticky situation with a group of angel investors who want to invest in a business that I’m running. Two years ago, a friend of mine gave me a really basic idea that I have evolved into a totally different product that is no longer related. He said that he wanted a piece of it, and thinking it would go nowhere, we came up with a gentleman’s agreement including a piece of gross sales. Now I need him out to get angel investment. Had I valued what I might do with the idea, I would never have agreed to the terms. I did so thinking that it would never become anything. So, I have lived another life lesson to value what I do.

After rushing through creating a brand new 40 slide presentation in one day and driving 3 hours to present it on someone else’s equipment, I learned a couple things from the experience. First, if you have video clips in there, be prepared to test it, and after you test it, shut down the powerpoint program and restart it. It appears that the video is not always rewound or something which caused it to not play. The other thing is to bring a larger version of the presentation that can be placed on a podium in front of you. When using someone else’s setup, they may put the laptop quite a distance from the microphone forcing a person to do some weird contortions to speak into the microphone and also look at the screen behind you. It is much better to have a printout that is big enough to read from a comfortable distance at the podium. The final lesson is to ensure that the presentation has been timed out and does not have too much content. I knew this one, and just ran out of time. Most of you probably already know this, and it is tips for myself for the future.