BizThoughts

Naming a business can be as hard as naming a baby. Well, maybe not AS hard. But it's still pretty damn hard.

I've been reading Seth Godin's Small is the New Big and came across his collection of riffs on business naming. Fortunately, he blogged about these as well, from as far back as 2003. (Hey, did he just grab blog posts to make his book??)

Here's what Godin recommends:

1. A name that is too descriptive could be too limiting. The less it has to do with your industry, the better. International Postal Consultants is too limiting. Starbucks, Nike, & Apple are good.
2. Use real English words. Axelon & Altus are bad. Jet Blue, Ambient & Amazon are good.
3. Make sure it's easy to spell and pronounce. Prius is a bad name because it can be tricky for some people to spell and pronounce.
4. Don't obsess over getting a short name just so you can have a short domain name.
5. Add a descriptive tagline. Like "Lemonpie, the easy way to learn scuba".
6. A name should be unique enough to appear in a web search without a lot of competitors and flexible enough to gain a secondary meaning if you wish to expand your brand.
7. If you're creating a whole new product or service, give it a whole new name, not an incremental one. Sneakers is better than athletic shoe.
8. If you have lots of products and services, come up with a clear naming hierarchy, so customers can understand your offerings. Honda, Honda Civic, and Honda Accord are good. Apple, Apple iPod, and Apple Powerbook are bad, because the "i" prefix isn't consistent or defensible.
9. Names with generic words like Central, Land, or World are meaningless. They add no value and are difficult to defend.

Godin's blog posts:

• Naming a business - June 21, 2003
• The new rules of naming - October 16, 2005
• Being brave with names - June 1, 2006
• Sloppy naming - July 9, 2007
• A dumb branding strategy - March 27, 2008

So you want to write a book, huh?

A few friends of mine are interested in writing non-fiction books. I myself am also an aspiring author and would love to pen something when I retire, though I haven't decided if I want to do fiction, non-fiction, or both.

In the meantime, to help all of us along, I threw together this guide for aspiring non-fiction writers.

1. Write one chapter

   Start out by writing one chapter. It doesn't necessarily have to be the first chapter—any chapter will do. This will be a representation of what your book could be. It doesn't even have to be perfect—editors will help you polish your book later. Doing this will also jump start you into action.

   If it helps, write an outline for your entire book too. For non-fiction books especially, this tends to help. Your outline can lay out all the chapters, sections, sub-sections, whatever. It can also help you structure your research and any interviewing you may want to do.

   One formula I've seen work in contemporary books like Tipping Point, Blink, Freakonomics, Emotional Intelligence, Social Intelligence, Wisdom of Crowds, Fooled By Randomness, The World Is Flat, etc, is:

   • Start the chapter with an anecdote. The personal, "human" angle draws people in.
   • Go into the guts of the theory, the whats, hows, whys, etc.
   • Back up the guts with any data & research studies/reports you've found.

   You can pick up a book like Blink and read the first chapter to get a feel for how it's structured. That will give you a good idea of how to organize a chapter. It's a contemporary formula that seems to work for the mainstream audience right now.

   If you find yourself in a flow and want to write more than one chapter, go for it.

2. Find an agent

   This part is kind of tedious. You'll need to look through a combination of books & websites. On the web, there is WritersNet.

   Bookwise, there is Writer's Market and Literary Marketplace, both of which you can flip through in a bookstore. The Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents is also a good guide on selecting the right agent.

   Basically, you want an agent who does books similar to yours. Try to avoid agents that charge you a fee if possible, unless that agent seems to really kick ass. Make a list of 15-20 agents.

3. Write a query letter

   Next, you'll need to write a short letter to each agent. This letter serves as a hook to catch them and reel them in. Just make sure you avoid cliches and ending your sentences with prepositions. You can find some good outlines for query letters online.

4. Send out query letters

   Send out your query letters to all 15-20 agents you've found. Some agents will request specific items, like sample chapters or a synopsis/outline/proposal/etc. Tailor your submission to each agent with the items requested.

   If one asks for a sample chapter, just send him/her one, even if you've written more. What you want to do is to give the agent a representation of what your book could be. Agents don't care to read your entire manuscript right now. They'll have editors to do that later.

5. Wait then follow-up

   Remember, you only need 1 agent to say Yes to you. Expect many rejections. That's just part of the biz. As you wait, go forward and write more chapters.

   Give yourself a month, then follow up with each agent politely. If they still don't respond, then assume they've passed on your book. After two months, if you've still gotten no acceptances, start at step #2 again and find another 20 agents.

   I've read stories about how some writers plaster their walls with rejection letters. Even popular authors could warm themselves all winter with a fireplace and these letters. So don't lose heart. The name of the game here is tenacity and perseverance. You've come too far to quit now!

   There are lots of good online guides that describe the proces of finding an agent. About.com has a good one—just ignore the part where this guide says you need a finished manuscript; that's not true anymore.

6. Work with your literary agent

   Once you've secured an agent, he/she will walk you through the rest of the book publication process, like finding a publisher, getting an advance, and getting editors to help with your writing. Be respectful of your agent, but remember that they're working for you, not the other way around. They make money if you make money; you're their boss.

If it sounds daunting, it is and it isn't. I have a few friends who are published. They described the hardest part as doing all the writing and research. And it'll be worth it once you're on Oprah! (Make sure you jump onto her couch too.)

Good luck! Don't forget to thank me in your credits!

Now for some Friday Fun. This just in from the fabulously accurate and oh-so-informative news source, The Onion:

Due in large part to the encouragement of her so-called friends, 34-year-old Karen Sabin quit her steady job to make and sell homemade gourmet dog biscuits out of her home, the former hospital receptionist told reporters Monday.

It's a heroic story of a small-town girl finding her entrepreneurial passion with the encouragement of her friends.

Sabin said she arrived at the idea of producing gourmet dog biscuits in May, not through careful market research, but through a discussion with [her friend Angie] Anderton.

Who needs market research when you have friends like Anderton?

In the past three weeks, Sabin has given out nearly 60 dog biscuits and sold almost twice that many, all to friends. By conservative estimates, unless she experiences a 4,000 percent increase in sales, Sabin will be forced out of business before the end of the year.

A 4,000% increase really isn't that much. It's like 4%, but with 3 zeroes behind it. When you look at it that way, it's not so bad.

We all could learn from brave entrepreneurial Sabin here. Got an idea and some encouraging friends? It doesn't matter if the idea sucks or not. Quit your job and start at it!

Props to: Eric Rodriguez

Every so often, I come across a quote that hits me smack in the forehead. Ouch!

I've been reading Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow by Chip Conley and when I hit Part Four, I went, "Ouch!"

In the introduction of Part Four, Conley includes this quote from Abraham Maslow:

The difference between the great and good societies and the regressing, deteriorating societies is largely in terms of the entrepreneurial opportunity and the number of such people in the society. I think everyone would agree that the most valuable 100 people to bring into a deteriorating society would be not 100 chemists, or politicians, or professors, or engineers, but rather 100 entrepreneurs.

If you're an entrepreneur, know that you have the grand opportunity to improve society and make a real impact on our everyday lives.

Why are you still there? You know you want to quit, yet you're still hanging around. Is it for the money? The free snacks? Or perhaps you're a glutton for punishment.

Within the technology & Internet industries, it's become normal to jump around a bit. So when do you know it's time to jump? If most of this list applies to you… then jump!

1. Most of your coworkers don't wash their hands after using the bathroom (especially after a number 2)
2. The company cafeteria is skimping so much that you suddenly notice all the cats in the neighborhood are gone
3. Your company is doing so poorly that you're embarrassed to tell people where you work
4. You fantasize about a meteor striking your company headquarters, just so they'd have to shut down and give you a few days off
5. There's a personal stash of alcohol/pot/cocaine in your desk for those extra-hard days
6. You bring novels or magazines with you into the bathroom and read read read
7. You're so bored that you spend most of your day playing games on Facebook or watching free South Park episodes
8. You only attend the meetings with free food; every other meeting, you skip with the excuse, "I'm too busy"
9. You've gotten really, really good at foosball
10. You start posting Dilbert cartoons all over your cube

It's time to quit! You know it!

Just so I could relive my college days, I attended Stanford's Conference on Entrepreneurship yesterday. The conference was just a one-day event within Stanford's Entrepreneurship Week from February 22 - 29. (You have one more day left!)

One of the sessions I attended was Professor Jeff Pfeffer's "Top Ten Mistakes that Entrepreneurs Make". Pfeffer is a professor of Organizational Behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Judging from the packed classroom, he's also a popular professor. With good reason too, it seemed. His lecture was pretty funny and engaging, with stories and personal anecdotes sprinkled throughout.

Though I jotted down a ton of chicken scratch, I was able to get Pfeffer's top ten mistakes that entrepreneurs make:

1. Too much CEO ego.
2. Too little regard for the self-esteem needs of others.
3. Too much time, attention, & emphasis on "strategy" & analysis, and not enough time on "execution."
4. Too little emphasis on the importance of people & culture.
5. Too much belief in the saving grace of "miracle" technologies & "big brains," particularly in high-tech fields.
6. Too much emphasis on budgets & financial controls; not enough attention to customer satisfaction and employee attraction & engagement
7. Not enough attention to and knowledge of competition & competitors, including tracking their sales & market share
8. Too much emphasis on individual performance and too little attention to context & situation within which that individual performance occurs.
9. Excessive reliance on financial incentives for alignment, motivation, & communication.
10. Not enough consideration of or attention to underlying assumptions & feedback effects.

This is just a quick recap; he had a ton more information. I hope he doesn't mind my posting these notes. I would guess not, since attending his lectures is an experience mere notes could never convey.

If you attended Entrepreneurship Week too, what did you think of the other sessions?

Ah yes, the real estate fix and flip. What better way to make bank than by buying a cheap fixer-upper, fixing it, and selling it for a tidy profit?

But you know that already. What you may not know is that you can do this with web sites too. Yea. Web sites.

Here's a quick overview. The formula is somewhat similar to fixing and flipping traditional real estate. The word "property" is interchangeable here; it could mean a house or a web site. Both are essentially real estate properties. One just exists on land while the other exists on the Internet.

1. Evaluate the property

   Assess it's current value (pageviews, unique visitors, search engine rankings, market strength, revenues, expenses, etc) and potential for growth (new market opportunities, ways to increase visitors, ways to increase search engine rankings, ways to increase revenue streams, etc). Unlike traditional real estate, there aren't many fees involved in purchasing a web site. There are only transition costs, such as getting access to their servers and related accounts.

2. Purchase the property

   Sites like the SitePoint Marketplace (the largest place for buying and selling websites currently) and VentureBoard allow you to browse what's for sale and offer a bid. Just like in traditional real estate, hot properties get scooped up fast.

3. Fix the property

   This can involve a wide range of activities, depending on your expertise and the property you purchased. Some may just need a boost in search engine rankings (which is where SEO and SEM come into play). Others need more innovative marketing techniques (like SMM or viral marketing). You can also do things to increase revenues (raise site fees, add additional revenue generators, etc), decrease expenses (lower server or content acquisition costs, etc), or increase quality traffic (better marketing, customer retention techniques, etc). Hopefully you had an idea of what to do before you purchased the property.

4. Flip the property

   Put it right back on the SitePoint Marketplace or VentureBoard.

There's a ton of stuff that goes into properly evaluating and fixing a web property. Similar to traditional real estate, there's even a whole industry around teaching you how to do that. Mind boggling. And potentially quite profitable too, if you want to get into it. Even though the barriers to entry are low (any ole' shmuck can do it, even you!), it's still a relatively young industry and may have room for more players.

So what are you waiting for? Go fix and flip!

Need to set up your business entity? Fortunately there are a number of online services to help you with this now. Quite a number, in fact.

How can you chose the right online business incorporation service then?

Here's what I did. First, I found a bunch of them through simple Google (GOOG) searches. Then I decided to sort them by their Alexa rankings. (I also did a quick comparison against their Compete rankings.)

Why? Because I wasn't able to find any articles comparing these services to help me make an informed decision. Therefore, I figured a basic popularity rating is better than nothing. Maybe a service that's popular would have slightly better offerings and customer service—or at least have enough customers to teach them how to run a quality business.

Is that really true? Hardly, but eh, it was better than nothing.

The search results and rankings produced this list:

1. Incorporate.com
2. MyCorporation
3. BizFilings
4. DirectIncorporation
5. IncNow.com
6. Active Filings
7. DelawareInc.com
8. IncorporateTime.com
9. Form-A-Corp
10. The Incorporation Company

The top four sites ranked high on both Alexa and Compete. Below that and the rankings were quite different. This list is sorted by Alexa rankings only.

Then I looked at the top six. I originally examined just the top four, but decided to go +2 for more variety. Scientific? Hardly.

Incorporate.com

For a Delaware LLC, prices range from $99 - $199 with what appears to be a limited-time discount, or $149 - $399 normally.

MyCorporation

Since this is owned by Intuit (INTU)—creator of Quicken, QuickBooks, and TurboTax—I assume they have a fair amount of business knowledge. For a Delaware LLC, prices range from $288 - $488.

BizFilings

Advertised heavily in entrepreneurial publications, they offer a lot of useful articles and tips on business incorporation. For a Delaware LLC, prices range from $99 - 329.

DirectIncorporation

Though their site isn't much to look at, they seem to have quite a few free extras. For any state and entity type, prices range from $139 - 288.

IncNow.com

They also own the domain name corporation.com, so they could be ranking high simply because of effective SEO. These guys only offer business incorporation services for Delaware. For any entity type, prices range from $189 - $598.

Active Filings

Also not much to look at, they seem to be on the more expensive side. For a Delaware LLC, prices range from $289 - $589.

It would seem to me that MyCorporation, BizFilings, or DirectIncorporation seem to be as good a pick as any. Disclaimer: I am involved with businesses that have used BizFilings and DirectIncorporation. Since MyCorporation is from Intuit, I'd consider using them too, though they're a bit pricey. Incorporate.com could be a fair budget choice as well.

Another disclaimer: There are obvious problems with this method of selecting an online business incorporation service. For one, this favors sites that have good SEO resources. There could be a great service that's not listed on the Google search results. This also doesn't compare actual quality factors—or define what those quality factors are. Unfortunately, business incorporation isn't a common multiple-use service, so few people would be in a position to do an in-depth comparison. However, if anyone has any anecdotes or experiences about these services, I'd love to hear about them. Perhaps this could be the start of such a comparison.

UPDATE 3/14/2008: Corrected entries for Incorporate.com and IncNow.com. Removed my error in stating that corporation.com redirects to incorporate.com; it actually redirects to incnow.com. Thanks for the correction, Frank!