Bootstrapper

Adapted from the Bootstrapper's Bible

Understanding the mechanics of a business model is essential before
you start your business. Business models should have the following
five attributes:

1. THEY SHOULD BE PROFITABLE.
2. THEY SHOULD BE PROTECTABLE.
3. THEY SHOULD BE SELF-PRIMING.
4. THEY SHOULD BE ADJUSTABLE.
5. THERE SHOULD BE AN EXIT STRATEGY (OPTIONAL).
   

Freelancer vs. Entrepreneur:

• A freelancer sells her talents. While she may have a few employees, basically sheʼs doing a job without a boss, not running a business. Layout artists, writers, consultants, film editors, landscapers, architects, translators, and musicians are all freelancers. There is no exit strategy. There is no huge pot of gold. Just the pleasure and satisfaction of making your own hours and being your own boss.
• An entrepreneur is trying to build something bigger than herself. She takes calculated risks and focuses on growth. An entrepreneur is willing to receive little pay, work long hours, and take on great risk in exchange for the freedom to make something big, something that has real market value.
  

Four questions that related to the value chain:
1. WHO’S GOING TO BUY YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE? - Define the audience.
2. HOW MUCH ARE THEY GOING TO PAY FOR IT? - Do a value analysis to figure out what itʼs worth compared to alternatives.
3. WHERE WILL THEY FIND IT? - Determine how much of the distribution of the product you control, and what value is added by the retailers or reps you use.
4. WHAT’S THE COST OF MAKING ONE SALE? - Divide the cost of sales by the number of products youʼre going to make. Youʼve just figured out whether theyʼre worth selling.

Itʼs so much easier to sell something that people are already buying. Which leads to the second question: “What will it take to get people to switch from what they already use to what I sell?” Believe it or not, the answer is almost always not money. Usually, you need to make a product that is significantly easier or more effective. Easier to buy. Easier to use. Easier to teach other people how to use. More effective at solving the problem.A combination of more convenience, better service, aggressive pricing, and better results will make you irresistible to some people.
It wonʼt work for everyone. Some folks may never switch. But thatʼs okay. You donʼt need
everyone. Just enough to keep you busy and the cash flowing!

REDO THE MISSION STATEMENT AND THE BUSINESS PLAN EVERY THREE MONTHS
Success brings more success, and you learn as you go. I guarantee that in six months, youʼll
know so much more than you do now that youʼll realize your first business plan was naive.

Learn as you go. Change as you go. Building a business from scratch is like walking through
a maze with many, many doors. Once you open one, 100 new doors present themselves. As
you move your way through the maze, you need to stop and check your location. Look at a
map. If youʼre in the wrong place, move. But if youʼve discovered a new place, thereʼs nothing
wrong with exploiting it.

The best way to find peers is to devote several hours a week to doing favors for people.
Favors with no intent of being repaid. Do some favors for strangers and some for friends.
Whatʼs a favor? Sending someone a relevant newspaper clipping or e-mail message. Even
better, referring business to another company that can handle it better than you. Find opportunities to brag on other companies and other people you know. Youʼll be meeting sometime with someone who might need to work with them.


A 50/50 split is almost never fair…
Remember, the number one thing you have to invest is your time. And itʼs almost impossible
to guarantee that a partner is going to invest her time in the same way or with the same
impact as you.
Here are five principles to consider when you sit down and start talking about shared ownership:

1. PLAN FOR SUCCESS.
2. IDEAS AREN’T WORTH MUCH.
   Never give someone a big chunk of a business just because he had a great idea. There are
   plenty of good ideas around—free. The exception to this rule is if this person with the idea
   has a patent or a reputation that will dramatically expand the value of your business.
3. ALWAYS LEAVE BOTH SIDES AN OUT.
4. MATCH COMPENSATION WITH PERFORMANCE. An approach thatʼs worked for a lot of bootstrappers is a performance-based split. Imagine that two partners start a business. They each own 5 percent with 90 percent in a mutually owned pool. Every six months, the 90 percent is allocated by a predetermined formula for hours invested in the business or sales made, or products developed. Two years later, all 90 percent is allocated, and the partner who made the biggest contribution clearly ends up with the biggest share.
5. NEVER, CONFUSE PROFIT PARTICIPATION WITH GOVERNANCE. The biggest problem with a 50/50 split is that no one is in charge. Someone has to be in charge. So divide control of the company differently than profit participation. Make sure that, especially in the early days, one person makes decisions. If you canʼt trust your partner enough to cede this to him, or vice versa, time to find another partner or try another business.

THE FOUR MOST IMPORTANT RULES OF ADVERTISING
1. SPEND REGULARLY ON ADVERTISING.
Yes, advertising is scary. It seems like a crap shoot. You pay your money and nothing happens.
You pay your money again and nothing happens. Then, after a while, it starts to pay.
But most bootstrappers get impatient and give up too soon.
2. PERSISTENCE IS THE SECRET TO SUCCESS.
Marketers focus on two different things: reach and frequency. Reach is a measurement of
how many different people see your ad. Frequency is a measurement of how often these
people see your ad.

RULE 8: GET MENTORED.
1. PICK THE RIGHT PERSON.
2. MAKE IT EASY FOR THE MENTOR TO SAY YES AND EASY TO SAY NO.
Youʼre asking for a favor here. A big one. For that reason, you canʼt feel defeated if the mentor
doesnʼt have the time or the interest to help you. If that happens, overcome your natural
bootstrapper desire to persist, and graciously move on.
Never ask your mentor for more than advice. Donʼt ask for money. Donʼt ask for free output (like a designed ad or a written proposal).

RULE 9: OBSERVE THOSE LITTLE BIRDS THAT CLEAN THE TEETH OF VERY BIG HIPPOS
Find bigger, richer, more stable organizations. Partner with them. It gives you credibility and access and sometimes, cash flow.
Most big-company founders hate what their companies have become. They rail against the slowness, the bureaucracy, the inability to get anything done anymore. What they need is someone like you. Someone who can take on a specific task and turn company assets into
gold.
Youʼll be amazed at how easily you can license a brand name or do deals for ad space or take over projects for a big company. Occasionally, the company will pay you up front, just to maximize the chance of success.

Managing the incompleteness of communications

It was a draft from 11/15/06, got buried. Dig it out today ...
From Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game, Second Edition

People who are learning and mastering new skills pass through three quite different stages of behavior: following, detaching, and fluent.

Kent Beck, author of Extreme Programming Explained (Beck 2000), described the use of Extreme Programming (XP) using similar levels. Asked about XP and the five levels of the Software Engineering Institute's "Capability Maturity Model," he replied with XP's three levels of maturity:

1. Do everything as written.
2. After having done that, experiment with variations in the rules.
3. Eventually, don't care if you are doing XP or not.

You are Coffee! - ZT

May you never look at a cup of coffee the same way again!

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see."
"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted hat they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its richness and savored its aroma.

The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity - boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.

The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?"

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get even
better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity?

Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean? May you have enough happiness to make you
sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy.

The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make
the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling.
Live your life so at the end, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying. You might want to send this message to those people who mean something
to you; to those who have touched your life in one way or another; to those who make you smile when you really need it; to those who make you see the brighter side of things when you are really down; to those whose friendships you appreciate; to those who are so meaningful in your life.

May we all be COFFEE!

爱上一个人时的九种感情 - ZT

当你爱上对方时，应该会有这九种情感，才能算是一个真实的爱情，最起码，你应该扪心自问，将来是否有可能培养出这样的情感来，才能确保你拥有一个真的爱情。　　　
一、生理上的性冲动：　
　　当我们对一位异性产生兴趣或爱上某个异性时，希彼此有身体上的接触。在真实的爱情生活里，这种欲望是永远存在的。性冲动并不单单只是行为，它还包含了许多其它亲密的身体上接触，譬如牵手、拥抱等等，这种情感会永远都存在爱人的心里。　　　　
二、美丽的感觉：　　　
　　在有爱情的时候，我们会觉得对方最好看，即使有别的异性比你所爱的对象好看，但对你而言，他（她）才是最好看的，而且是别人无法相比的。　　　
三、亲切的感觉：　　　
　　当你真正爱上一个人，你会有一种很亲切的感觉，他让你觉的很舒服，你可以信任他、依靠他。他像是一个亲密的家人，甚至可以说，比一个家人更亲密，这是亲密加上一种温馨的感觉，就是亲爱的感觉。在这爱情国度里，他不会挑剔你的瑕疵，因为他愿意包容你所有的缺点。　　　　
四、羡慕及尊敬的感觉：　　　　
　　一个健康的爱情关系，应当有以对方为荣的感觉，我们会去欣赏对方内在和外在的条件和优点。而且对方也处处以我们为荣。如果我们能有这种感觉，不论他是成功或失败，都会使我们欣赏他的才华。　　
五、赞许的爱情：　　
　　当相爱的时候，我们喜欢夸奖对方，而且不仅是欣赏而已，还喜欢对他人夸奖对方，从夸奖对方的热诚之中，我们可以因此感到无比的快乐。
六、受到尊重的自尊：
　　一个健康的爱情关系，可以提高一个人的自尊心。让对感觉到活得更有价值，因为爱情使你觉得你有无人可比的独特性，虽然你有优点也有缺点，但是你的独特性使你受到无比的尊重，生命因此而有了价值。
七、占有欲：
　　爱情是绝对独占的，不能与人分享亲密的男女关系。所以需要以结婚来持续一份爱情，在结婚时彼此相约相许。因此在真实爱情里，互相许诺忠诚是必要的。
八、行动自由：
　　 如果个人有正当的理由，他行动的自由一定要受到尊重，才不会破坏两人之间的爱情关系。
九、深重的同情心：
　　我们对深爱的人常会有怜惜的感情，经常会为对方考虑，如果对方受到挫折，我们会非常愿意与他分担痛苦和挫折，把对方的苦当作自己的苦难一样，或者更胜于自己的苦难，因为我们愿意为对方而牺牲自己的利益。

Are you in love ? ;)

China Web Police

China Web Police
Originally uploaded by YiShuiHan.

It is quite interesting. But, hey, it is an innovation too. A virtual cop might help to clean the content of the net :)

How about adding some virtual policemen to the Second Life ?