Home Wealth Project

Managers work to get their employees to do what they did yesterday, but a little faster and a little cheaper.

Leaders, on the other hand, know where they’d like to go, but understand that they can’t get there without their tribe, without giving those they lead the tools to make something happen.

Managers want authority. Leaders take responsibility.

We need both. But we have to be careful not to confuse them. And it helps to remember that leaders are scarce and thus more valuable.

View full post on Seth’s Blog

Between, Difference, Leadership, Management

How To Make A Difference.

Oct 11th

Posted by Home Wealth Project in Home Biz Opportunities

Unlock The Secrets Of Successful Classroom Teaching.
How To Make A Difference.

Difference

Will the Early Stage Innovation Program Make a Difference?

Apr 26th

2 comments

The Small Business Administration (SBA) recently announced the start of the Early Stage Innovation Fund, a program that will provide $200 million per year in equity funding “over the next five years,” to “early-stage companies [that] face difficult challenges accessing capital, particularly those without the necessary assets or cash flow for traditional bank funding.”

Ray Leach of Jump Start America argued that the new fund will dramatically increase the amount of capital available to the founders of high potential companies. I disagree. The program’s expected impact, when measured in terms of incremental increase in available capital, companies funded, or jobs created will be very small.

Leach says that the new program will provide “incremental funding that … is … almost 10% of the total capital invested by risk investors in 2010…. [and] 28% of all the seed and early-stage capital invested last year.” I believe that these numbers overestimate the likely impact of the program for three reasons.

First, the SBA Early Stage Innovation Fund calls for a 1:1 match of government and private sector funds. But it is unlikely to achieve such a match. Private sector investors often apply for matching funds by pledging money they would have invested in the absence of the match. As a result, matching programs often increase available capital only by the amount of the incremental government funding and not by the amount of incremental funding plus the private sector match. (If you think that Leach is right and I am wrong about how private sector investors will behave, then you should double the numbers I show below to estimate the impact of the program.)

Second, Leach compares the $1 billion Early Stage Innovation Fund to annual equity investments in high potential ventures. However, the SBA is committing $1 billion over a five year period. Therefore, we need to compare the $1 billion fund to the amount of capital provided by investors over a similar time period to estimate the amount of incremental money the new program provides.

Third, Leach doesn’t consider angel investors when he estimates the size of the market for financing high potential ventures. But angels invest a similar amount of money in high potential companies as venture capitalists, and account for the lion’s share of seed and start-up stage funding.

If we include the money invested by business angels and compare the new funding to the size of the equity capital market over the same time period, we see that the amount of additional equity capital provided by the SBA program is very small. According to the University of New Hampshire’s Center for Venture Research (CVR) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), angel investors put $105.4 billion into young companies from 2006-2010. The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) reports that venture capitalists invested $124.1 billion in young companies over the same time frame. Therefore, the SBA program increases the size of the high potential venture equity capital market by 0.4 percent.

The NVCA estimates that $6.7 billion of venture capital went to seed and start-up stage ventures over the last five years and the CVR calculates that $40.3 billion of angel money was invested in businesses at these stages. Thus, even if all of the money from the new SBA program goes to seed and start-up stage ventures, the size of the early stage equity capital market for high potential ventures would increase by 2.1 percent.

The Early Stage Investment Program will provide financing to a very small number of businesses. The average venture capital deal was $6.7 million last year and the average seed or start-up stage venture capital deal in 2009 (the latest year for which data are available) was $5.2 million, according to NVCA figures. At that investment size, the new SBA program would add 30 venture capital deals or 39 seed or start-up stage venture capital deals per year across the entire country. And that’s if we assume that the new funds don’t increase the size of the average deal. The numbers are a little better if we look at angel deals. Given the average angel deal size of $337,000 reported by the CVR and the NSF, we would get an additional 593 new angel deals per year from the new program.

To give you a sense of the size of the increase we are talking about, the United States has 366 metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) – places like Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Arizona, and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida. If all the SBA money went into angel deals, then the new SBA program would add funding for a little more than three angel-backed companies every two years in the average metropolitan area.

The direct job creation effects here will also be very small. Analysis by the NSF and the CVR indicates that every additional $130,000 invested by business angels leads to one more job at an angel-backed company. That means that the new SBA program should create 1,538 jobs per year – or about 4.2 jobs per year in the average MSA. Keep in mind that this is the number of new jobs that would be generated in an economy that the Census Bureau estimated created more than 14 million new jobs between March 2008 and March 2009, when the economy was in a deep recession.

While I’m glad that people are talking about the new SBA programs, I think the discussion needs to be more critical. Rather than just cheerleading administration efforts, we should carefully examine the expected impact of the programs being introduced.

Will the Early Stage Innovation Program Make a Difference?

View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

Difference, Early, innovation, program, stage

The difference between blueberries and apples

Apr 5th

Posted by Home Wealth Project in Marketing Tips

(one bad blueberry spoils the whole bunch)

If you serve yourself blueberries by the handful, you won’t be able to inspect each one. And so just one rotten blueberry can ruin the entire bowl of cereal.

An apple is different. It’s hand picked. Pick the wrong one and it’s not such a big deal, you can just pick another.

If you sell apples, then, the goal is to make the great ones great, really great. If you’re in the blueberry business, on the other hand, the goal is to eliminate defects.

An artist who works on matters of personal taste, then, can afford to go to the edges… in fact, she must. Let the buyer choose! Books and paintings and houses are apples.

The manufacturer of fungible items, on the other hand, embraces six sigma, because recovering from a failure is expensive (and it’s your fault). Sutures are blueberries.

View full post on Seth’s Blog

Apple's, Between, blueberries, Difference

QR Codes, Barcodes and RFID: What’s the Difference?

Feb 21st

This series is commissioned by UPS.

QR Codes, barcodes and RFID (radio frequency identification) are all systems for conveying large amounts of data in a small format. They offer speed, labor savings and cost savings, among other benefits. But there are distinct differences between all 3 — and differences in the purposes they are best suited for.

QR CODES

A recent trend among small businesses is the growing use of QR codes. QR codes (pictured below) are similar in one sense to bar codes, in that they contain information which can be read by a QR code reader.

QR codes can be scanned and read by a camera-equipped smartphone when you’ve downloaded a scanner app, such as i-nigma for the iPhone. What this means is that the average person can now de-code (read) a QR code, without special equipment. You could walk into a place of business, see a QR code on an item, scan it with your smartphone, and immediately have access to a lot of information electronically.

QR Code

QR codes have been around for years. But in the last 12 months I’ve seen usage skyrocket among entrepreneurs as mobile usages has grown. QR Codes are well suited for marketing purposes, among other uses. For example, now it is becoming more common to receive business cards with QR Codes on them. That way, you get access to a lot more information than can fit on a small card. For instance, you might hand out business cards at an event containing a QR code that leads people to a Web page with a special offer for attendees. Or the QR Code on a business card might contain a V-card (digital business card) that you can save without having to manually input the card information.

Or you might give out schwag such as a coffee mug, imprinted with a QR code where someone can find out more information about your company. Or how about imprinting a QR Code on one of those pop-up banners when exhibiting at your next trade show? Attendees can scan your company’s information by holding their smartphones up to the banner — so you don’t have to shell out for expensive printed materials and they don’t have to lug all that heavy paper home on the plane.

It’s not hard to generate a QR code. You can create one for free online. In fact, the Google URL shortener automatically creates one for a Web page each time a URL is shortened. The QR code image above is one I created using the Google URL shortener and it took me all of 2 seconds to create.

QR Codes have infinite uses in small businesses, especially for marketing, now that everybody on the planet seems to walk around glued to a smartphone. For more information, I urge you to read How QR Codes Can Grow Your Business or download the QR Code Marketing Kit from Sunrise Signs.

BARCODES

Barcodes have been around for decades. They are versatile with a large variety of uses — especially in retail and manufacturing settings, and in transport and shipping.

We’re used to seeing the common barcode printed on packaging at the grocery store or in other retail outlets, when items are passed over the barcode reader at the checkout counter to ring up a sale. Barcodes not only are valuable at the point of sale, but also for managing inventory and raw materials internally, so that you know what you have in stock.

Barcodes have become common in shipping, to enable greater accuracy and speed in getting packages delivered. And barcodes are used to manage large filing systems, library books, and a host of other purposes where large numbers of items need to be tracked efficiently.

Barcodes are relatively inexpensive, and help drive speed, efficiency and profitability. For ideas about how barcodes can be used, read my earlier article: Using Barcodes to Manage Inventory Returns.

RFID

RFID (radio frequency identification) has likewise been around for decades. However, RFID tends to require more technological hand-holding. RFID involves applying RFID tags to items or boxes or pallets. Tags vary greatly in size, shape and capabilities, but one example is pictured below. The tag with its small antenna emits a radio frequency signal that is picked up and read by a special wireless RFID reader, conveying information from the tag about the item it is affixed to.

RFID Tag

RFID is adaptable to many of the same uses that barcodes are good for. But RFID is especially useful in situations where vast quantities of goods must be moved or tracked, or where tracking of item-specific information is necessary. RFID has been mandated by some customers, such as Wal-Mart and the Department of Defense, to track the vast quantities of items they require in their supply chains and to supply much more detailed information. In such situations, RFID maybe able to do it more quickly, effectively and efficiently than barcodes.

I know I’ll get blasted for saying it again, but I firmly believe it to be true: many small businesses are not ready for RFID. True, RFID systems have improved, becoming easier and faster to implement than even a few years ago, with more accuracy and less cost. But for many small businesses RFID would be overkill. Small businesses may find barcodes more within their budgets and within their people resources to implement and manage. For more, read RFID or Barcodes: Which Are Better for Small Businesses?

CONCLUSION

RFID, barcodes and QR Codes all have their place for different purposes and under different circumstances. As with most technology, the cost to acquire and use it keeps coming down with each passing year. All 3 of these data management systems also have gotten much easier to implement in the past few years. So there’s no excuse for not using technology to operate your business more efficiently and effectively — it’s just a question of which technology is better for your needs and your budget.

QR Codes, Barcodes and RFID: What’s the Difference?

View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

Barcodes, Codes, Difference, RFID, What’s

VeriSign Trust Seal: Can it Make a Difference in Online Shopping?

Feb 1st

Trust is a huge part of getting a customer to buy from your website. Many customers have been educated on the value of a “trust” endorsement and that secure padlock symbol that tells them their transaction won’t be hacked. This post explores the new VeriSign trust seal program and provides general tips to help improve your e-commerce efforts.

This post is for any small business owner who runs a shopping cart or online store and discovers shopping cart abandonment (people exit just before buying) in their analytics application. It could be that your security protocols do not inspire enough trust. Sometimes a badge/banner like the one below can help win a customer’s trust.

Will your customers have the confidence to click?

The news reports are filled with virus warnings, phishing scams, fake sites and identity theft. All this news has a direct impact on your marketing and sales efforts. It makes consumers leery of all websites and reluctant to enter private or financial data on a site they don’t know well.

According to different studies and research, small businesses (and large businesses) can struggle with creating shopping cart confidence among consumers. You can read similar data from the 2006 eMarketer report here (still relevant info) and at Consumer Reports‘ “Guide to Online Security.” Trust seals can be one way to improve the shopping experience and help consumers complete their purchase in your store. Five things a small business owner can do to inspire trust and confidence include:

Highlight your security and privacy policy (often connected to an About Us page)
Showcase association and professional memberships (usually in the form of badges or certificates)
Most e-commerce platforms today come with secure online transactions – emphasize the fact that your site offers encryption, SSL, and similar aspects.
Provide iron-clad customer guarantees to inspire confidence and this is also a good time to mention positive reviews and testimonials.
Have a strong customer service process so that you are responding to inquiries in an efficient manner.

What’s the difference between SSL (Secure Socket Layer) and a Trust Seal?

You have probably seen SSL symbols or the common padlock symbol when you’re in an online store. SSL is the most prevalent form of securing a website transaction. You can buy a Secure Socket Layer certificate from a “certificate authority” which verifies information about you and your business. Your website server, during a secure transaction, then communicates with the certificate authority and it acknowledges that you are indeed a verified and trusted business. The difference with a trust seal, by VeriSign, and others, is that a seal is more of a marketing badge of approval. It is seen in more places, meaning it shows up in search results and on pages where you can’t use or don’t need the full SSL technology. If you are not collecting confidential, private information, you probably don’t need to buy a SSL certificate, but a trust seal might prove useful.

What I liked about the VeriSign trust seal program

It can help guide customers to your site. Seal-in-Search, a very cool feature from VeriSign, shows that you have been endorsed–and it appears directly on the search results page, which could increase website traffic dramatically. I couldn’t find examples in Google, but shopping specific search engines reportedly show various trust seals to help you determine which online stores are safe.
They conduct a daily review of your Website to help protect it from being blacklisted by search engines and to make sure you are not infecting your customers’ computers when they browse your Web site.
It demonstrates your commitment to customer relationships. It is more than just a badge saying you were a “Top 10 Online Store” by some random award or list; Each month you are spending money to validate your site in a proven authentication process by a credible third party.

Many website owners see online sales stagnate or drop and don’t know why. Once you study your analytics to see where a consumer is abandoning a purchase, you can determine if a trust seal would help. With a new 60-day free trial, VeriSign offers an affordable way for a small business to test what is and isn’t working in their e-commerce process. This author recommends that you make sure you have your analytics working well and study it before you start the 60-day trial so you can avoid using a valuable free trial period for debugging analytics and reporting.

Learn more about VeriSign for Small Business.

VeriSign Trust Seal: Can it Make a Difference in Online Shopping?

View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

Difference, Online, Seal, Shopping, trust, VeriSign

What’s the Difference Between Men and Women Entrepreneurs? Apparently, Not Much

Oct 27th

1 comment

There’s been a lot of heat generated in the blogosphere lately about the shortage of women entrepreneurs in technology and what’s behind this problem—or if it truly is a problem, or if it even exists. While many experts were weighing in on the differences between male and female startup founders, one expert decided to investigate.

Former entrepreneur-turned-academic Vivek Wadhwa, who blogs regularly on TechCrunch, and his team analyzed the backgrounds of 652 founders of tech industry startups, as well as 549 founders of companies in other fast-growing industries. “Our research focused on successful startups—those that had made it out of the garage, had employees, and were actually generating revenue,” writes Wadhwa on TechCrunch. Here’s what they found:

The average age of a successful tech startup founder is 39; for other high-growth companies, it was 40. Overall, company founders were typically married; had two or more children; had six to 10 years of work experience.

That explodes some myths about tech startup founders in general (they’re not all college students or single twentysomething men), but Wadhwa also wanted to take a closer look at male vs. female founders. He enlisted Joanne Cohoon of the National Council of Women in Technology (NCWIT), whose analysts assessed the data. The result? There was almost no difference between men and women company founders.

Both had an equally strong passion to build wealth.
Both started their companies to capitalize on business ideas.
Both enjoyed the culture of startups.
Both were tired of working for a boss.
Both had a long-standing desire to own their own businesses.
Their average ages at startup were the same.
Men and women were equally likely to have children at home when they started their businesses. (However, men were more likely to be married.)

One difference: Wadhwa found that women got slightly more funding than did men from business partners. (You can read the full results in Are Successful Women Entrepreneurs Different from Men?)

Now, while Wadhwa didn’t find differences between male and female tech founders, he does emphasize that there is a real shortage of women entering technology. “The imbalance between the sexes … is increasing over time,” he writes. Among the discouraging realities: The percentage of computer science students who are female has dropped from 37 percent in 1985 to 19 percent today; just 1 percent of high-tech startups have a woman as CEO.

How can this change? Wadhwa shares some ideas on TechCrunch, but I’d love to hear yours as well.