Jul 21st 10
Posted by ikebarnes in Business
If you want to start a business not because of money but for the thrill of being an entrepreneur you should start here. Visit http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html. Paul Graham is a genius in his own right and by reading his essays you get an opportunity to dissect his brain and learn from his experiences.
After you finish reading, leave me a comment and let me know what you’ve learned and how your going to apply it. Also, if you can’t find the time to read these essays, then you should think twice about starting your own business.
Jul 18th 10
Posted by ikebarnes in Business
I sometimes find it difficult to focus on a single project at a time. I get pulled in so many different directions that focusing on a single task becomes my only task.
The way I get over this on most days is by breaking all of my projects into individual task and then prioritize them from most to least important. Then I prioritize the overall projects and select no more than five task to accomplish a day. This way I only get important things done. I also add a time estimate to each task so that I can choose task that I have time for.
Jul 14th 10
Posted by ikebarnes in Business
If you want to start a business where you aren’t necessarily a member of the market, you must do market research via surveys, focus groups, and questionnaires to fully grasp the market. Once you receive and analyze this feedback, build a prototype and get early adopters to use your product. Make sure that you stay in contact with the early adopters via emails, newsletters, or blog post so that they can continue to communicate with you as you make changes.
Apr 10th 10
Posted by ikebarnes in Business
I was looking out the window at my friends place and i noticed something profound. This guy was walking with a handful of flyers on a windy day. He stumbled and all of the flyers went flying out of his hand. My first thought was man that’s going to take him a long time to pick up. As soon as i said that to myself, three bystanders took off to aid him. Each person stayed around until every flyer was returned to the owners hands.
The first thing this incident made me realize was that people are willing to help others without compensation as long as they know there is an end in sight. Second, if the task is clearly defined and doesn’t require any critical thinking skills, people are eager to give moments of their time to complete it. Third, if you ask people for help most probably won’t help, they will just keep walking by but a few good hearted people will.
Dont be afraid to ask for help but make sure that the task is clearly defined that you need help with.
Mar 31st 10
Posted by ikebarnes in Business
Most of people from our environment grow up lost because they are surrounded by people that are lost. In more privileged neighborhoods, the kids grew up wanting to be like their parents or other family members so they just follow their foot steps and they end up just as successful or more. Since we didn’t have any direct successful role models in our area, we follow the stuff we see on TV, music, and movies and try to emulate them. In the past those were the only forms of communication we had with the outside world.
Now with the advancements on the internet, we have an opportunity to follow the lives of other successful people. When we were growing up people told us to make goals but most of our goals didn’t seem like they were possible to achieve because we didn’t know anyone else who had accomplished them. I realize now that it’s easier to figure out who you want to be than trying to figure out what you want to do. What I mean is find a person that’s successful and make a plan to become them or better. This makes things easier because you can follow their exact footsteps or blueprint to become what they are. Who do you want to be?
You may have a problem with doing this because you feel like you don’t know how to find information on people. The best resource that I have found to read about successful people is Wikipedia or contacting that person directly. Most successful people are available you just have to ask them specific questions.
Aug 29th 09
Posted by ikebarnes in Business
While I was watching Kobe doing work the Spike Lee documentary, I noticed something that Kobe said that made me realize basketball and networking are very similar activities. Kobe said “If I miss three shots I think to myself the 4th will have to go in and if I miss again the 5th will certainly go in”.
This is a similar strategy on how a person should network. If you contact a person and they don’t respond on the first three trys then you must believe they will on the fourth. You may think, isn’t that stalking? The answer is in the business world no it’s called persistance. Every person worth networking with has a busy schedule and if they don’t remember that you called, it’s not on purpose they are just busy.
One strategy I use is to make sure I contact people in multiple ways. Raising then odds in my favor that they remember I contacted them. What strategies do you use?
