Category: Before March 1st 2011

** Originally published on www.theentrepreneurnotes.com**
One of the interesting things in employment, that most Entrepreneurs and Business Owners forget, is your employee satisfaction, many times you forget that it is not the salary or the extra perks you think can’t afford, it is the little things.


You read about places like Google and Oracle, where their employees are pampered, and think it is impossible for you as an small business owner or entrepreneur to match them; and in a way it is true, but you are looking at the problem from the wrong perspective. Your employees satisfaction are directly related with their productivity, a happy employee will stay later, will put more effort in their job, will walk the extra mile barefoot, an unhappy one, not so much.
Do you think, that you need to spend millions, to make this people happy, let me prove you wrong for a moment. Have you think on Pizza Fridays, Good Free Coffee, Cold Water on the Summer, one Friday afternoon off after a good month?
As a Small Business Owner and Entrepreneur, your resources are limited, but that doesn’t mean that your motivation need to be too, it has been proven on many studies that it is one of the most expensive things on your business is a employee that leave and the consequent need to train the new one. The problem with many entrepreneurs and small business owners is that they try to get this employee back after he cross the line, after he is ready to leave. The problem is that without realizing that after that employee cross that line, it is a matter of time, yes more money will make him or her reconsidering the offer, but the decision is made, employees leave their job because dissatisfaction, and after all those things that bother you as an employee are out, no one can hide them again anymore.
But again, how expensive is to show thanks, to show that you appreciate your team, offer pizza once in a while, and make your employee feel that the job they do, make your business better?
Again most entrepreneurs and small business owners thinks, that it is really expensive, without realizing that at the time this employee quits, you are going to offer them all that money and more.
Stop for a moment, and reflect on this, how much cost you to bring lunch this friday for the whole company? How much is going to cost you to send a thank you note on August 30th to all your employees for the effort on the difficult month? How much is their productivity and happiness affecting your bottom line? Do you think pizza is expensive, an unhappy good employee is thousand times more expensive, yes the one that it is unhappy, but the job is good enough, and again, if that employee had not cross the line yet, trust me, a cheap thanks, a little of attention and make them feel special will go a great way on reel him back, and get that productivity back. If your employee cross the line, sorry, their is no return, after you cross the no return point, no one can reel you back.
What are you going to do to bring productivity up? How much is the cost on list productivity versus the pizza tis friday?

** Originally published on www.theentrepreneurnotes.com**



Social Media is an interesting animal, you go to Facebook, Linkedin, Twiiter or Friendfeed and can connect to many people in the world, more importantly if you are an entrepreneur you can even connect with your customers, suppliers and vendors. Risky business, no question about it. Social Media is like a bull, and you are in Pamplona streets, doesn’t matter if you are ignoring the bull, you are in the streets anyways, eventually you will need to run.
One of the problems with Social Media, is that the distinction between personal and professional is blurry, if you get out in the open with Social Media, people will find your company, your person, and tied them together, no more distinction between my day job and my life after work.
In my case, among other things, I write, but I am also a Sales Manager, doesn’t matter how good or bad is our Social Media involvement, eventually people tied them both, eventually, people find both feeds, eventually, people learn that your baby did not allow you to sleep and that you are happy for a great deal you just sign, unless, you decided to hide from the Bull.
Close your Twiiter, close your Facebook, close your linked in account, or embrace them, show the real you, take the risk, and get ready to run, because, with Social Media as well as the people in Pamplona during the Bull days, or you run, or you will need to confront that Bull one on one.
Are you ignoring Social Media? The bull? Are your shoes tied?

** Originally published on www.theentrepreneurnotes.com**


I have been always impress how people get stuck, trust me sometimes I get stuck too, but I try to pay attention and move on, some people simply can’t, they are unable to make a decision and even after a decision is made, they come back, and begin the process again. Life move too fast to be slowing down, make the decision, and move on, if need it after implementation, move back adjust and move on again, but do not stop, do not get stuck.

I understand, make decisions is one of the most difficult things people do, but you need to learn to make them and move on, the risk of stopping by is too high, and most likely by the time you finally make the decision the original set of premises has change and you need to go to square one, in the mean time, the people that can take decisions, are far, they have move on, evaluate, adjust, reevaluate and won the race.
Got a sour moment at work, move on, leave the job, or move on, but you cannot just stuck yourselves in the same situation, got a sour moment with a client, leave the account or move on, while you are getting stuck, your competition is eating your lunch, while you are stuck complaining about the difficult of the moment, the sad it was, or the unfair, people is moving.
Move on!, stop bringing the unfair, the sadness, the difficulty, stop trying to get even, stop loosing your life. If you are not growing you are dying, if you are stuck, guess what, you are dying.
I can rant the next paragraphs about the economy, how your sales had come down, how upper management project makes no sense, how it is hard for me to write this, about how terribly my grammar was on that email to my costumer, yes that email for the important deal, I can even write about how tough had been the last eight months of the years, how low sales are, how bad is everything, well thanks for sharing, now Move on!
Thanks for sharing, thanks for stopping by. Go to the comments now, leave your rant, after that Move On! Thanks for stopping by!

** Originally published on www.theentrepreneurnotes.com**

Sometimes you just let life go, don’ push forward, don’t push back, just go were life gets you, you get yourself in stand by. While many people consider this stage something temporal, people is not aware of the risks that this stand by state of mind has for them, they just loose the fuel on their backs, and even though the ideas continue flowing the actions did not show up, after they try to move, they discover that would have been easier to keep moving than begin again, not only that, they found themselves on a desperation stage. Otherwise why do you think they begin moving again.
Entrepreneur suffer from this, stop pushing for sales, and begin expecting for them to go, stop creating new messages for marketing, because the great one is coming, or start getting into many new adventures that the focus gets diluted.
I am not saying that as an Entrepreneur you can’t have more than one activity, I am saying that unless you are moving forward, yes actually moving forward, on all of them, all that you re doing is going around and around in the same circle, if your business is not growing, is dying.
Entrepreneurs, freeze out of fear, stop trying to sell the product, stop trying to bring a new marketing ideas, stop trying to bring more money, or simply money out of the adventure they are in or they begin placing their focus on other adventures, that are going to save the day. The problem with that in many occasions just create a bigger problem that the problem they originally had.
Success is measure in actions, if you are not moving, you are failing, if you are not selling more you fail, if you have no new marketing ideas, you fail, if your actions are not clearly moving forward the adventure, you fail. I am not saying that the best thing sometimes people can do is close a chapter and let it go, even some adventures that are in cruise control, can be let go, but understand that if they do not grow they will die.
Entrepreneurs, tend to suffer from this, some people call it the shinning object syndrome, the entrepreneur will follow the shinier object, sometimes without measuring the consequences.
How can you as an Entrepreneur can avoid this, well I promise that a soon as I discover I will write about it, for now I am keeping a list of active actions, projects and initiatives, and set the important tasks that I need to move forward, and I am sure that I am not embarking any new adventures, until some of this activities can be on cruise control, handed to someone that keep it growing, or that I am simply willing to let go. In the mean time, this plate is full, I appreciate you are sharing your shinning object, but please keep it away, we are working in here, no shinning objects allowed.
How are you avoiding the shinning objects, and keep your actions moving you forward to your objectives?

** Originally Published on www.theentrepreneurnotes.com**
Years ago, I learn to set filters to help me manage my inbox, on those days I was on the over 250 emails daily and honestly was impossible for me to keep up otherwise, I honestly do not had the time to touch any email more than once. I have been keeping my inbox in zero since the end of 2003, I was managing 7 inboxes, and getting inbox zero  every 24 to 48 hours.
The trick for me was priority, and learn to filter stuff. At that time I was working on Outlook, today I work on a Mac, but my filter setup is the same, even that I do not have the same volume I use to have, I have learn that filters can save you an incredible amount of time.
I set filter got high priority mails, my boss, my top costumers, emails that I am CCd that do not come from the previous categories, (trust me if the boss or the top costumer CCd me, I want to read it). Each one of this filters move my emails to folders I work first, the rest of the emails keep on the inbox for a review.
After I clean those emails, I continue to moving to the next step, I have filters for ezines and subscriptions, that go to another folder, a low priority one.
After all this pre-clasification is done, the amount of noise get really identify, if it is noise, I just create a rule, to get that email directly in the trash, I do not even try to unsubscribe, in my experience, that imply another set of emails that I am not interested in read, a rule that move it to the trash is more more effective.
This help me get those spam emails, some of them self inflicting spam, but spam at the end of the day, move out my view and allow me to keep with my life, trust me, after I got rid of those, there is no much noise left, the time to set up each filter less than 5 minutes, the improvement in productivity, hours.
Now If I can get my iphone to learn those rules…

** Originally Published on www.theentrepreneurnotes.com**

When I read my first book on productivity, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey (http://www.amazon.com/Habits-Highly-Effective-People/dp/0743269519/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247861976&sr=8-1) I had no understanding on the need to be productive, nor did I understood the importance of productivity, I read it because someone recommend me the book, and told me that the book will have the opportunity to influence my life and change it forever. That person was right, and I am grateful for that.
Since then I have read many books on productivity,I have learn a lot about productivity over the years, have learn to appreciate productivity, have been on times more or less productive, and have understand the reason why I am productive, and the reason I strive for productivity, including, increase my quality of life.
When I began reading about productivity, I did not understood the value or the cost of productivity, forget about the fact, that I though I could afford to be unproductive. Sadly people don’t know how expensive is to be unproductive, people think that being productive is too much work, and maybe they are right, but the cost of being unproductive is so high that only a few people can afford it.
After you get to certain level on your professional career or your business, but specially in your business, time is the only asset you can never get back, and learn to use that time wisely is the only way to improve. Spend the time and resources need it to learn about productivity and be highly productive, is a cost you cannot afford not to spend, learn your peak times, your valleys, the time that the best you can do is close your eyes for 15 minutes, the time that go into a meeting is simply a bad idea, learn how to maximize the little time you have is more essential that anything else. For this reason people look into GTD Systems, TimeDesign, 7 Habits of the Highly Effective People, and many more, is to learn to manage time, and learn to identify how to maximize the little time we have, to learn to reduce the unproductive time cost.
The problem with productivity is that people do not understand it, people think to be productive is too much work and too expensive, they think they are too busy to be productive, the hidden cost of being unproductively is hiding from them, they think they are too busy to stop and think, from people that just have no understanding and knowledge about productivity at all, I often ask myself, how can they afford not to be productive, I know I can’t.
I am amaze by the people that measure their time in hours. If you are measuring your time in hours, you better be invoicing per hour, otherwise, you are loosing your time. I am not saying every job should be billed by hour, but if your job is to produce the biggest output per hour, you need to find ways to maximize those hours, not to measure them.
Last week, I was working with someone without a computer, when I ask about some information that I need they told me that their technician was fixing their computer, in shock, I ask since when, he had 2 days waiting for it. I was in shock, this person cost per hour will buy a new laptop, the expenses of two days down, I really don’t want to see that invoice, and he has no clue about that invoice, I even ask why he did not have a backup machine, the answer, I do not need it, my computer is a really good one.
In 2007 my laptop died on a friday afternoon, with a really important presentation on Monday, with a costumer outside of the office. I went a bough a new computer, that friday afternoon, I did not had the time to fix it, I went an got a $399 netbook and was up and running in less than 2 hours. Later I fix my laptop, I simply did not have the time to fix that and I could not afford not to have a computer to do my job. There are times that the best you can do, is let things go, there is no need to push for a lost cause.
The problem when you can’t understand that time is your most important resource, is that you can waste it, you will waste it.
Over the years I have developed a Do Not Do List, and I have talk about it before (http://theentrepreneurnotes.com/2009/07/08/the-do-not-do-list/) more than anything to avoid mistakes I have made in the past, like came to the office after a 12 hour trip. What I was thinking?,correctly I was not thinking, I was to tired for that, but I went to the office and sit there for ninety minutes, looking at the screen, trying to do the expense report, the only thing my brain was able to do after that plane trip. I waste 90 minutes that I will have never get back.
You need to let the trees go, and see the forest, if the computer die, stop focusing on the computer down and focus on how you will get back a soon as possible, worry about details later.
Do you have a more important resource than time? What is your story, on a time waster situation and how you bounce back.

That was the question in a discussion with an entrepreneur this morning. This person was questioning how much he needed to risk, his finances, his family, his reputation. What if I fail? My answer was: What if you succeed?
The Entrepreneur route is scary, security is a dream; as it is in a non-entrepreneurial situation. You are writing your own check, conscious or not. The problem again is not the risk, the problem is on risk management.
Your entrepreneurship can be in many things, from shoemaker, to designer , to writer, and any combination of these and many other things. I have friends that cook, design, are marketers, writers, pilots, artists, it doesn’t matter, they are all entrepreneurs, they are building their dream. The problem is entrepreneurship will take a big chunk of time, energy, attention, finances and reputation, and many times all these elements bring the insecurities out, when you are not seeing the results you are expecting, you get frustrated, fear grows, and doubt begins to block the vision. At this time you start considering, how much are you willing to risk?
This morning I read a quote by David Eddings, and even though he was talking about writing, it applies so well to entrepreneurship:
A writer’s apprenticeship usually involves writing a million words (which are then discarded) before he’s almost ready to begin.
David Eddings
After reading this, I smiled, and discovered that Eddings could have been talking about entrepreneurship as well; read the following now:
Entrepreneurship apprenticeship usually involves a million steps (which are then discarded) before he’s almost ready to begin.
I am a writer, I have wanted to be a writer since I was 14 years old, but that was not socially accepted by my family and the people around me (most of them at least) and the people that were willing to support me were the ones that people around me called the weird ones, and you do not want to be associate with them.
By the time I was in my twenties, I sent my writer to a witness protection program, and I created a lawyer out of him. When the lawyer began writing again, I panicked and ran to protect myself, before people could find out about it, so I sent my writer to get an MBA.
Mission accomplished, I hid the writer so well, that it took him 10 years to find his way out, without fear, out of the hole.
I am again, at that time in my life, when  I am looking to making the hard decision, send my writer to the witness protection program again, or set him free, let it be, let him out, let him shine.
The problem is, how much do I need to risk in order to let my writer out of the witness protection program?
Writers, entrepreneurs and sales people suffer from the same problem, it is called insecurity. I have yet to meet any of these three kinds of people that do not doubt every morning of their abilities. When you combine the three of them, they make an insecurity bomb. Welcome to my world.
Are you willing to risk everything for that dream? If you are not, then send your entrepreneur to the witness protection program, make out of him anything else; but if you are going to take your entrepreneur out of there, you need to understand that people will judge you, people will be afraid of what you are doing, in many cases, more afraid that you will discover their own witness protection program than what you are doing. People will tell you that you are crazy and should follow a so-called normal life, in other words, send your entrepreneur, or writer, or designer, or artist, to the witness protection program, hide it well and be what they call responsible.
How much are you willing to risk? Are you willing to risk everything? Are you willing to take yourself out of the Witness Relocation Program?

** Originally published on www.theentrepreneurnotes.com**
Coming from “Proverbios y Cantares XXIX” from Antonio Machado (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Machado) was as true in 1900’s as it is today in the 2000’s. The meaning in English from Betty Jean Craige, University of Georgia (http://www.cha.uga.edu/bjc/machado.htm) is: “wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking.” Even to finish in a stronger way, this poem end up saying: Wanderer, there is no road– Only wakes upon the sea.
The question is if you are a Wanderer or not? The reality is you are a Wonderer if you like it or not, if you accept it or not, you are making the road, since there is no road and at the end of the day it is only wakes upon the sea. In 2004 people start talking about “like hacking” in 2008 people start talking about “life design’. I honestly do not know who came with the term, but the reality is life design is the precise definition of this 1900’s poem. The problem is that we get into the rat-race, and we are unable to see we are the rat, we can see our friends exploit, we can see out family in the race, but we are unable to see our long tail, we get so focus in our own race that we are unable to stop and see that we are not moving.
I have decided to step down from the wheel, no, I will not be able to get out of the wheel today, but I am writing the escape plan from the wheel, do you remember, have ever read: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Hayworth_and_Shawshank_Redemption ) or watch the movie Shawshank Redemption (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shawshank_Redemption) took Andy Dufresne some preparation time, as well as find the right tools, like the Rita Hayworth Poster, but his goal was on, he prepare the escape, was not a one day activity, but the goal was set, and the hope of be free was enough.
How many times you are sitting in your cubicle or office thinking on what you should be doing, playing golf, having a wine business, or just reading. Work as I learned as a kid is dead, I am not dreaming in spend the rest of my life working in a desk, or at least not in this desk.
Again this is my declaration of Escape, I am declaring that I am stepping out of the wheel, I am simplifying my life, I am hanging the Rat costume.

This morning I read an interesting post from @ckfio on her blog http://sanityafineline.com/?p=94, out of frustration, she was talking about priorities.
I have won and lost this priority game many times, it’s like playing chess, pay too much attention to any of your pieces, and you will be checkmated too soon. I remember years ago a great friend that loves to play chess lost the game every-time he lost the queen; as soon as he lost the queen, he lost his confidence, and it was easy to beat him. His priority was to save his queen, mine (while playing against him) was to take the his queen, winning the game became secondary.
The priority game works in a very similar way. If you are unable to see the whole chess game, you are most likely going to loose. My priority is to write, I am a writer. Among other things, I have a Sales Manager job; but my priority is to write, to improve in the technique. At my Sales Manager Job, the priority is to sell, they do not care that I am a writer, they do not care about my priority, they need me to sell; it is upto me to define the rules, and find a way to win at both games.
The problem is, you can’t define the rules while you are trying to push and force priorities, you need to stop, regroup, analyze and set the rules, then you can enjoy the game. While playing chess with my friend, the rule was simple, take the queen. After that was done, winning the game with whatever you had left. In life there is more than the queen, it’s like playing Kasparov style, against 15 to 20 people at the same time.
How do you define those priorities?
In my case, I use a software called MindManager from a company called Mindjet (www.mindjet.com), I have many maps that allow me to help and guide me through the priorities of the day and all the the important stuff. I also use  my calendar that allows me to define the free time I have in the day (free to do vs meeting time, I mean), and my lists per contexts. But the most important tool is setting up the time to think, the first priority for me is to make sure I stop and think. Someone asked me, when do I get the time to think, my response is simple, I make thinking a daily priority, ust like taking a shower, rushing my teeth, feeding the dogs, working and many others, I have learned that if I do not stop and think, I will loose the game.
Every morning I begin my day by making sure that I stop. I make coffee, clean my inbox, read all my next actions (tasks) (at the time of writing this, my tasks are more than 250), open Mindjet MindManager (My Dashboard File), and stop. The first thing to check is what are the things that will die if I do not do today, my next actions, one by one and and complete the list I created (up to 10 items).
Now I have a guide. If by 10 am I got a ball of fire thrown at me (it has happened many times before) I just need to evaluate that ball of fire against 10 things, not 250; it makes a big difference, trust me.
In order to win the priority game, you need to define the rules, it is impossible to win a game that you do not know the rules of. While playing chess, all the movements are defined, all the things you can and can not do are established. Thanks to this, someone can win the game against the other person. If you do not define the priorities, you will never win, you will always have more things to do than the time you have to finish things, you will always have more things to do than the time of the day. There is always a ball of fire coming your way, the big question is, how do you respond to all those, keep your cool and move forward. The only way I know how to do that, the only way I have to win the priority game, is define the rules, stop, regroup and rethink. Even then, I have lost my fare share of games, but trust me, I am a more difficult opponent that my friend. If you took my queen, I know how to play the horse, the tower and the pawn.
Are you playing the priority game to win, or are you just loosing the queen and the game on the same move?

** Originally published on www.theentrepreneurnotes.com **

We finally saw it this morning, Sony, who for years had made the small and portable machines (for high-end executives) decided to bring a netbook into the picture. The new Sony W marks an important moment in the netbook timeline, the almost impossible happened, Sony joined the race. For more info you can go and read on this link: http://jkontherun.com/2009/07/07/netbooks-finally-exist-sony-vaio-w-to-hit-for-499/
Around September 2000 I ditched my desktop; I saw no reason to have it anymore. I used word, excel, powerpoint (now I like pages, numbers and keynote more) internet, email, and a couple of light resources applications. I did not need a really fast and powerful machine. At that time I decided to settle for an Orange iBook, ditched the desktop and moved to one computer and a palm. That set-up worked great with many new machines, Mac and Windows, and I always had a Palm (or Treo or iPhone) and one Laptop.
On 2008, on the verge of things getting busier and complicated (I was using PCs at the time, I had left Mac behind) I went back to multiple machines, set an Exchange Server up (to keep email, notes, contacts and calendars in sync) and set the files to sync between the different machines. I had a big and powerful laptop that acted as a desktop, connected to a second monitor, and in my office, that machine never left the desk, and a Tablet PC, that was the mobile laptop. I had an HP Tablet with an extended battery. I was able to work without charging the battery for more than 12 hours; a perfect portable machine. When the netbooks started to hit the market, I went and got one, those perfect little machines where going to help and improve the system. I went and got myself one, set it up, included it into my system and I now had a computer with me always (in addition to my iPhone). Four months later I bough a Mac.
At the beginning of 2009, I went back to the one machine (laptop) one palm (iPhone) configuration that serve me well, can you blame it on the netbook? the desktop? the tablet? (or laptop?)
The reality is that the system was too complex. I wear many hats: entrepreneur, sales manager, writer, podcaster, family guy,father, husband, son; and all these computers and complicated synchronization issues were slowing me down. After spending some time thinking of my favorite thinking tool Mindjet MindManager (www.mindjet.com) (and by the way, my maps used to sync in all those machines) I began thinking of the bottleneck. As an entrepreneur we need to always be in search of the bottleneck, the problem. In the book “The Goal’ by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox (http://www.amazon.com/Goal-Process-Ongoing-Improvement/dp/0884271781/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246986197&sr=8-1) the main character is explaining theory of constrains trough the novel, and explaining the concept of the bottleneck, the book clearly states that the system can only go, as fast as the bottleneck.
I have played with many netbooks and desktops, but I found that mostly they slow my workflow down. They become the bottleneck; and based on the principles of The Goal, they will set the speed of the rest of my system. I do not think that a netbook, as we know them today, will be a final solution. I typed for years on my Palm with the foldable keyboard, did the job, but it was not the best solution.
I established some years ago, that my play environment and my production environment would not mix. I use a Mac with an iPhone; I have another laptop to play with, if anything goes wrong on the play laptop, I fix it at the first available time.
Going back to the topic, the problem with desktops, laptops and netbooks is simply a bottleneck issue. I know people that use different combinations of these, desktop only, laptop only, personal-work computers, and many different others. I even have a good friend that had a laptop just for write, nothing else, the question is where is your bottleneck.
Again it all comes back to your workflow and your work style. In my case, I use one laptop and one iPhone. If changes in the future force me to change this structure, I will pay attention to the bottlenecks, but for now I do not see a netbook on my near future, the concept as it is today it is just a big bottleneck to my workflow.
Have you ever considered a netbook? Have you ever stoped and evaluated the bottlenecks in your process? Are you using a desktop and find that you cannot access to your information on the go? Lets open the discussion.