lunes, 29 de septiembre de 2008

Seis claves para vender un producto innovador.

del blog Loogic, espero que les sea útil.

Seis claves (de Antonio Matarranz) que deberían guiar nuestra estrategia para vender un producto innovador.

Innovación: lo primero en lo que ha de pensar un emprendedor. Peter Drucker dice que que las dos áreas de la empresa que son totalmente determinantes son la innovación y el marketing. Hay empresas que fracasan porque desarrollan productos o tecnologías muy innovadoras pero no son capaces de detectar la necesidad o el mercado al que dirigirlo. Por otro lado hay empresas que innovan poco pero si que son capaces de detectar las necesidades de la gente. La innovación es la fuente de crecimiento de una empresa. La innovación también supone un riesgo por los costes que produce y por las discontinuidades que se producen en los procesos.

Adopción: un nuevo producto implica un cambio y a los consumidores no les gusta en cambio. Tenemos que pensar en que el producto sea adoptado por el mercado. Es el gran olvidado a la hora de vender un producto y a la hora de desarrollar un plan de negocio. En ocasiones un producto ha de cambiar los hábitos de un usuario por lo que necesita un tiempo. La gente sobrevalora irracionalmente lo que ya tiene (entre dos y cuatro veces), por lo tanto para que adopte un nuevo producto ha de ser al menos el doble mejor. Nos resistimos al cambio. Los productos que se adoptan facilmente en el mercado han de aportar mucho valor, minimizar la resistencia al cambio, se han de poder probar antes de comprar, han de dar resultados observables, beneficios comprensibles y aprovecharse de los estándares.

Valor: el que la empresa aporta al cliente. Es un concepto que está perdiendo su significado por ser usado en exceso actualmente. Para transformar un sector una innovación ha de aportar unas ventajas que sean diez veces superiores a lo ya existente en el mercado. El valor está en los resultados que un producto ofrece a los usuarios, no en el producto en si mismo (la gente no quiere comprar taladros, lo que quiere es poder hacer agujeros). Nuestro producto ha de tener una propuesta de valor específica para cada cliente.

Solución completa: la gente no tiene “medios problemas” tiene “problemas completos” y nuestro producto ha de poder solucionarlos. La solución completa es un conjunto de productos y servicios que satisface la razón apremiante del cliente para comprarlo. El iPod sin iTunes no era una solución completa. Cuando todos los usuarios de iPod pudieron usar iTunes (usarlo en PC’s) es cuando la solución fue realmente completa y se disparó la adopción del producto.

Enfoque: no podemos tener mil frentes abiertos, mil competidores. Tenemos que enfocarnos en algo para llegar a ser líderes en un mercado. Razones para enfocarse: concentrar recursos que suelen ser escasos, conocer y abarcar mejor el mercado, desarrollar una solución específica, encontrar un adversario que sea de nuestro tamaño. La dificultad está en detectar en qué enfocarnos, para ello tenemos que detectar quién es el comprador de nuestro producto, qué problema o necesidad tienes, poderle ofrecer una solución completa y detectar los rivales que están compitiendo en ese sector.

Cambio: tanto los que tienen éxito como el que no lo tienen han de tener el cambio como una constante en su día a día.

miércoles, 24 de septiembre de 2008

Ocho clases diferentes de clientes según MC Saatchi.

del blog Liderazgo y gestión de equipos, espero que les sea útil.

Un estudio titulado “Reaccionando ante la crisis” de M&C Saatchi afirma que cada consumidor reacciona de una manera diferente ante la crisis.

El estudio distingue, según esta manera diferente de reaccionar, ocho tipos de consumidores:

1. Los seguidores de régímenes estrictos: Representa el 20% de las personas adultas y es el más numeroso. Los más radicales, su reacción ante la crisis es recortar todos sus gastos innecesarios o superfluos.
2. Los escatimadores: Representan el el 18,7% de la población. Son los que desan ahorrar pero sin renunciar a su nivel de vida. Se van de vaciones a lugares cercanos y compran en tiendas de descuento. Pueden ser el objetivo de las marcas que ofrecen productos o servicios a bajo precio.
3. Los abstemios: Representan el 9,2% de la población. Son previsores y han dejado para más adelante grandes gastos. No han dejado de gastar completamente porque se niegan a renunciar a su forma de vida pero una tele nueva, un coche nuevo, una reforma importante en casa tendran que esperar.
4. Los recortadores: Al igual que los abstemios no quieren renunciar a su nivel de vida pero compensan su presupuesto, es decir, renuncian a cenar fuera de casa para poder comprarse un sofa nuevo o deciden hacer arreglos en casa a cambio de no irse de vacaciones.
5. Los regaladores: Representan al 12% de la población adulta. Este grupo es consciente que debe recortar gastos pero les cuesta hacerlo. Se premian por el esfuerzo que hacen ahorrando en determinadas cosas con la compra de algunos regalos. Oportunidad de negocio para las tiendas de venta o alquiler de DVD´s o de comida para llevar.
6. Los justificadores: Representan el 15% de la población. Buscan una buena razón para gastar y son felices al hacerlo. Las promociones con valor añadido, ofertas limitadas o en nuevos modelos o productos es lo que más les atrae.
7. Los avestruces: Se creen que la situación financiera no les afecta y gastan como si no pasara nada.
8. Los buitres: Representan el 4% de la población. Se sienten comodos en la crisis y compran las gangas que determinados vendedores se ven obligados a realizar.

lunes, 22 de septiembre de 2008

Como tomar MALAS decisiones... los 10 pasos claves

del blog apuntes gestion, espero que les sea util.

La toma de decisiones implica, en un primer momento, elegir entre dos opciones, decidir o no decidir. Si decidimos estamos asumiendo la responsabilidad de nuestros actos y si no decidimos, aunque queramos algo, eludimos esa responsabilidad.

La decisión o no de aceptarla viene determinada por nuestro enfoque mental ya que normalmente se decide para alcanzar el éxito y se evita la decision cuando queremos eludir el fracaso.

Los errores más comunes en los procesos de la toma de decisiones son los siguientes:

1. Tomar la decisión fuera de tiempo, demasiado tarde o pronto.toma decisiones
2. Olvidar las consecuencias derivadas de la decisión y que puedan crear otros problemas.
3. Saltarse los pasos lógicos para tomar una decisión.
4. Decidir y olvidarse de hacer un seguimiento a los resultados de la decisión.
5. No establecer reglas claras de dirección.
6. Tomar una decisión porque se acabó el tiempo.
7. Parálisis del que debe tomar las decisiones.
8. Inseguridad, indefinición, falta de claridad y falta de confianza a la hora de tomar la decisión.
9. Exceso de confianza que lleva a omitir consecuencias o valorar demasiado bien las consecuencias.
10. Temores desmedidos

viernes, 19 de septiembre de 2008

Make Your Target Market Believe in YOU!

del blog Sturtup Spark, espero que les sea útil.

As a business, a brand name is often a huge concern for small business owners. How do you make your brand name stand out to your target market? Well, when it comes right down to it, regardless of your product or service, your selling yourself. You may find it difficult to see yourself as comparable to the big business beasts that shine greater in the limelight.

What you may be failing to realize is the fact that your business can offer just as much as the big guns can. Reconfigure your mind set, your really selling yourself, and if you don’t believe in yourself, who else will?

You started up a small business in order to live your dream. You have a passion for what you do and want to share that passion with your clients. You may advertise a service or a product, but what’s behind that ad is what counts. You make that service available and attainable. You are the brains behind the entire operation and you should take pride in that. If you lack pride or passion, consider reevaluating your reasons for starting up your business. Did your business take a turn you never intended it to? Is a small response rate causing you to lose your drive? You have to remember one thing — making a success of your small business takes an immeasurable amount of dedication and drive, so muster up every ounce of perseverance you originally started with and continue to push forward.

Reject the mindset that because you are a small business you are small scale and will only reap small benefits. You need to have a big vision for your company and where you’re going to take it. The bigger the vision, the bigger the rewards and you deserve the success you get in return for your hard work. The more you believe in you, the more others will too. You need to stomp on the modesty you were taught to exemplify, and learn to sell every aspect of yourself. YOU are your business and if people don’t believe you have what it takes to make it big, they won’t believe your business will do anything for them.

Once you’ve reprogrammed the way you think about yourself and your business, you’re halfway to success. You can avoid becoming part of the statistic that most small businesses fail within its first year. You have become your main selling point. You are the brand. The services or products you provide are secondary to what you can do for your client. Once your clients realize that you are an expert at what you do, their repeat business will become inevitable, which is the main goal of a business. Give clients a reason to associate your brand with you, and success is sure to follow.

miércoles, 17 de septiembre de 2008

Cinco lecciones para emprendedores

del blog desencadenado, que a su vez es de Guy Kawasaki, espero que les sea útil.

Guy Kawasaki escribe en el blog para PYMES de Sun un post en el que cuenta las cinco lecciones más importantes que ha aprendido como emprendedor. Es muy bueno, así que he decidido traducirlo. El original, aquí.
1. Céntrate en el flujo de caja

Entiendo la diferencia entre el flujo de caja y el beneficio, y no estoy recomendando que busques la falta de beneficio. Pero el dinero es lo que mantiene las puertas abiertas y paga las facturas. Los beneficios de papel basados en la contabilidad financiera no tienen más que una importancia secundaria o terciaria para una startup. Como mi madre solía decir, “las ventas lo arreglan todo.”
2. Progresa un poco cada día

Solía creer en la teoría “big-bang” del marketing: un lanzamiento fantástico que creaba tal inercia que volabas “hasta el infinito y más allá”. Ya no. Ahora mi teoría es que progresas un poco cada día; bien haciendo tu producto un poco mejor, mejorar un poco tus habilidades, o conseguir un cliente más. La razón de que la prensa escriba sobre los éxitos rápidos es que suceden pocas veces; no porque sea así como funcionan todos los negocios.
3. Prueba cosas

También solía creer que es mejor ser listo que afortunado porque si eres listo puedes pensar más que tu competencia. Ya no creo eso; pero esto no quiere decir que debas buscar un gran nivel de estupidez. Lo que digo es que la suerte es una gran parte de muchos éxitos, así que (a) no te deprimas cuando veas a un idiota triunfar; y (b) la suerte favorece a la gente que prueba cosas, que no se limita a pensar y analizar. Como dicen los chinos, “uno debe esperar mucho tiempo con la boca abierta antes de que un pato pekinés vuele hasta tu boca”.
4. Ignora a los boboxpertos

Los boboxpertos son la fatal combinación de idiotas que son expertos. O expertos que son idiotas. Cuando lanzas por primera vez un producto o servicio, te dirán que no es necesario, que no puede funcionar, o que tienes mucha competencia. Si tienes éxito, dirán que sabían que ibas a triunfar. En otras palabras, no saben un pimiento. Si crees, inténtalo. Si no crees, escucha a los boboxpertos y quédate en casita.
5. Nunca le pidas a alguien que haga algo que tú no harías

Esto vale para los clientes (”rellena estos veinticinco campos de información personal para conseguir una cuenta en nuestra web”), para los empleados (”vuela en turista a Bombay, reúnete todo el día en cuanto llegues y vuela de vuelta esa misma noche”). Si sigues este principio, casi siempre tendrás una reputación de buen servicio al cliente y empleados felices.

lunes, 15 de septiembre de 2008

Failure is No Success at All

Del blog Planning Sturtups Sories, espero que les sea útil.

Ironic: several of the companies featured in Jim Collins' business blockbuster book Good to Great have tanked. Steven Levitt has a good post on this, From Good to Great to Below Average, on Freakonomics.

Ironically, I began reading the book on the very same day that one of the eleven “good to great” companies, Fannie Mae, made the headlines of the business pages. It looks like Fannie Mae is going to need to be bailed out by the federal government. If you had bought Fannie Mae stock around the time Good to Great was published, you would have lost over 80 percent of your initial investment.

Another one of the “good to great” companies is Circuit City. You would have lost your shirt investing in Circuit City as well, which is also down 80 percent or more. Best Buy has cleaned Circuit City’s clock for the last seven or eight years.

Nine of the eleven companies remain more or less intact. Of these, Nucor is the only one that has dramatically outperformed the stock market since the book came out. Abbott Labs and Wells Fargo have done okay. Overall, a portfolio of the “good to great” companies looks like it would have underperformed the S&P 500.

He adds that the same is true of the Tom Peters book on In Search of Excellence, which was a big deal a few years ago, presenting supposed lessons from America's best-run companies; some of which have since crashed and burned.

Levitt concludes:

These business books are mostly backward-looking: what have companies done that has made them successful? The future is always hard to predict, and understanding the past is valuable; on the other hand, the implicit message of these business books is that the principles that these companies use not only have made them good in the past, but position them for continued success.

To the extent that this doesn’t actually turn out to be true, it calls into question the basic premise of these books, doesn’t it?

viernes, 12 de septiembre de 2008

When Opportunity Knocks

Del blog Only Once, espero que les sea útil.

When our friends at Habeas announced that they were exploring a sale of the company a few months back, we were intrigued. While fiercely competing in the marketplace does create some degree of tension or even mistrust between two companies, that activity also creates a lot of common ground for discussion about the market and the future.

So we are very excited today to announce that we are acquiring Habeas in a deal that is signed and should close within a couple weeks. Cutting through all the PR platitudes, here's what this deal really means for our stakeholders:

For everyone we work with, this deal means we have even more scale. More scale is a good thing. It means we can invest more in our future in everything from technical infrastructure, to product innovation, to globalization, to employee development. It's easy to be great when you're a 25 person company. It's actually quite challenging when you're a 50-100 person company. It becomes easier again, though in different ways, when you are a 200 person company with more resources.

For ISPs and filters, more scale means more and better data products to help fine tune filtering algorithms and improve member experience. It also means an even more streamlined way to reach masses of marketers and publishers.

For sender clients, we can now offer expanded service levels and access to a broader "footprint" of ISPs and filters who subscribe to our services. The consolidated company will be one step closer to providing a universal set of standards for measuring sender-focused email quality and reputation. Some of the details still need to be worked out here, so look for more specific communication from your account representative in the coming weeks. The one thing we do know at this point is that we will be maintaining both Sender Score Certified and the Habeas SafeList as separate and distinct whitelist programs indefinitely. So for now, it's business as usual.

For employees, combining the resources of the two companies means we will be in a better position to wow our clients. A bigger employee base and a larger company also means more career opportunities for all.

We have always been mindful that, even as the market leader, we have to earn "every dollar, every day" from our clients, and we have to constantly demonstrate to ISPs and filters that we are not just advocating for our sender clients but for them and their subscribers as well. None of that changes with this deal. We still have plenty of competition and are redoubling our efforts to lead the market with innovation and service levels, not just with size and scale.

Our friend Ken Magill wrote some unkind remarks about Habeas a while back. At the time, as fierce competitors with Habeas, we probably agreed with him. But as we've gotten to know Habeas better over the past few weeks, we realized what a great business the Habeas team has built in the last five years -- including: a strong customer base and partner network, innovative reputation technologies, complementary receiver and data partnerships and most importantly, an incredible team of people as fanatical about saving email as Return Path. For Return Path employees and clients, we get access to these new assets that now makes us an even stronger leader in this space. And Habeas employees and clients now have expanded access to great resources and talent from Return Path. But the big winners are the ISPs, filters, and email senders - they will l now have access to a more universal solution to deliverability and filtering accuracy.

So, to Habeas' employees, we say "Welcome to the Return Path family!" We are delighted to have you and look forward to many years of success together. As I said to my wife when we were in the middle of all the due diligence on the deal, "learning more about Habeas is a little bit like looking in one of those Fun House mirrors at a carnival - you see yourself, just looking slightly different." We will all have to work together to move to the common ground from the prior world of competing against each other, but the exciting future of the business and the industry will propel us there.

miércoles, 10 de septiembre de 2008

Unemployed to entrepreneur - don’t believe the hype

del blog startup spark, espero que les sea útil.

With the economic downturn, I’ve seen tons of people losing their jobs lately.

But what I am really surprised about is how some think that they should become ‘entrepreneurs.’

diving into entrepreneurshipI have a friend who has fallen for this. He, after losing his job, has been trying to find a way to ‘make money online’ for a while now. After all, he said, he wanted to be like me. He dreamed about freedom to set his own hours and answer to no one but the boss (himself). He also has this idea that starting a business is recession proof.

I don’t know what planet he’s come off of, but it seems my friend forgot about the days I was struggling to keep my business going.

But there’s more… he’s fallen for the hype because he has become desperate.

Even though another close friend and I handed him a couple of entrepreneurial opportunities, he decided on a multi-level marketing program with the illusion he’ll make a ton of money quickly.

Look, I am not against such programs per se, but I do realize that the people who make the most money are closer to the top - and very aggressive. It’s not his thing. He’s going to fail.

It’s sad, because he is so skilled. He could do a lot of different things, but truly isn’t cut out to be an entrepreneur.

lunes, 8 de septiembre de 2008

What You Need to Know Before Starting a Company

del blog Read Write Web, espero que les sea útil.

Often people start a company without any clear idea of what a company is. Entrepreneurs closet themselves in the garage and start writing code. While the modern tech world could not exist without obsession, artistic inspiration and crazy engineers, there's more to a startup than passion.

In this post, we explore the basics behind corporate entities, stock, financing, and the key non-technical infrastructure every company should have.

To make an idea really powerful, a startup needs to become a real company. In former days, this might have meant bureaucracy, and lots of financial and legal infrastructure. Today's tech companies are simpler, but still require a set of rules, and you need a rudimentary understanding of business law when forming a corporation.
Business Entities

There are several ways of conducting business in the United States. The most basic is a Sole proprietorship, which is essentially self-employment. A sole proprietor, such as a grocery store or restaurant, assumes full legal liability for the business, but all income is direct personal income and is taxed once.

Another form of business is a Partnership. This is a venture between several individuals who share in the profits. Partnerships, and particularly Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP), are created to address the personal liability issue with proprietorship. With LLP only one or a couple of partners assumes the legal liability.

Corporations are a separate legal entity. When a corporation is sued, in general the individuals behind it (shareholders, directors, management) are not impacted. This legal protection comes at a price - double taxation. Companies have to pay tax and only then can pay salaries and dividends to the shareholders.

In recent years, people have been incorporating in two principal ways - LLC and Inc. LLC is a limited liability corporation, a hybrid between corporation and a partnership.

LLC enjoys the legal status of a corporation, but has partnership-like taxation. It is a great way to incorporate before you know how big your company will become. The caveat with LLC is that you can't have more than a certain number of shareholders (typically around 70). For this reason, Venture Capitalists would normally not fund an LLC because it's impossible to take such a company through an IPO (Initial Public Offering).

Most tech startups end up being C-Corp or a corporation (often, you can start with LLC, then convert to a C-Corp right before raising substantial funding). A corporation is the most sophisticated business entity. It is a powerful but complex vehicle, with flexibility.
Shareholders, Directors and Management

A company starts with incorporation - a process of forming. These days it's cheap (around $300) and straightforward. You can either incorporate on your own or, better, utilise your accountant or lawyer.

You incorporate in a particular state, usually Delaware with its liberal laws and taxation policies. You don't need to live in Delaware to incorporate there, but you do need to also declare your existence to whatever state(s) you plan to operate in. The corporate laws vary substantially, so ask your lawyer and accountant about regulations in your state.

After incorporation, you issue a stock - a unit of ownership in the company. In startups before funding, there is little reason to spend time on issuing shares, because when financing comes you'll need to reissue. Easiest is to declare that you have 100 shares of common stock and divide it between the founders as agreed prior to starting a company.

There are three principal types of participants in every company - shareholders, directors and management. Shareholders, or the owners, vote and elect the board of directors, who set long-term strategic direction and appoint executive management. The management (CEO, CTO, etc) is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the company.

While you might find this 3-tier structure initially confusing, it does make sense. In large companies directors are mostly outsiders. Directors represent the interest of shareholders and hold management accountable for the performance of the company. In a large corporation, typically the CEO is also a President or Chairman of the board, but the rest are directors outside the company. For small startups, the situation is simpler. You are a shareholder, a director and a manager of your own company.
Key Documents

In a startup, you need to understand when to wear the hat of a shareholder, director or a manager. Looking at a company from the perspective of key legal documents helps you do that.

The first document is Articles of Incorporation, which declares the kind of entity, state of operation, classes of stock, and number of shares. The next is a Shareholders Agreement, which typically discusses the rights and obligations shareholders have in situations like sale of the company, sale of stock, or death of a shareholder. And Corporate Bylaws is the guide by which the board operates; it specifies who can be a director, how often meetings are held, how voting is done.

The employees of the company - e.g. CEO, VP of Design and Software Engineers - all sign an agreement. These days, employment agreements typically consist of a short offer letter and a lengthy non-competition agreement. The letter outlines the position, salary, vacation, and other benefits. The letter asks the employee to obey standard corporate rules and regulations. In addition, a lot of startups offer employees stock options - a way to earn the right to buy a stock in a company.
Legal and Finance

A first-time entrepreneur will find the legal complexity and accounting for a corporation overwhelming. It is essential to hire lawyers and financial professionals. There is a saying amoung startups and VCs that a good lawyer pays for him or herself, despite the fact that hourly fees are whopping.

There are three kinds of lawyers needed in a tech startup. A corporate lawyer drafts the basic documents and will advise on daily matters. A deal lawyer specializes in financing and sales transactions. And if you have intellectual property to protect, then you'll need an IP lawyer.

Financials of a startup can be split into daily simple things and annual complex matters. For a startup, it is ideal to get a bookkeeper - a person to take care of payroll, monthly profit and loss, and basic financial documents. You need an accounting firm for annual taxes and larger issues.

Accountants are more expensive than bookkeepers, but since you don't need to use them for daily operations, it makes sense to have an accounting firm do your annual finances. In addition to taxes the accountant will product a compilation - a summary of annual activities. After you get funding, the board of directors will ask for an audited financial statement - a full, certified financial review.
Venture Financing

To turn your idea into a big company, you will likely need to raise money. This is essentially a sale of shares to investors. A typical company goes through several financings - angel investment and then a few rounds of venture capital. The angel round is typically small, traditionally less than a million dollars and lately substantially less (thanks to YCombinator and TechStars). In the angel (or seed) round, the founders may offer 10-15% of the company in exchange for a convertible loan. Technically, this is not a direct sale of shares, but instead a right to buy shares in the next round of financing at a discount, while accruing interest.

Traditional angels are wealthy individuals, often former successful enterpreneurs and executives at large companies. Each angel might be willing to put down between 10-100K, with 25-50K being typical. So if looking to raise 500K, you would need to line up 10 or more angel investors. You can simplify it if you find a local group, for example New York Angels.

The next round of funding, called Series A, involves Venture Capitalists (VC). A venture firm is essentially a partnership that manages an investment fund. The fund raises money and invests into startups and later stage companies.

The VC world is complex and it's important to know how to navigate it.

The first rule - know what firms are right for you at what stage. The right firm will be the one that's interested in the sector you're in as well as the size of the investment. VC firms manage anywhere between $150M - $1B, with a typical tech fund being around $300M. Since the time of each partner in the firm is limited, there are only so many investments the fund can make. So, if looking for 500K, it doesn't make sense to approach VCs.

A typical Venture Firm will look to own 20 - 30% of your company over its lifetime. When the investors put money into your company, they will protect themselves in cases when the company might not do well. They will ask to create a class of preferred shares (preferred stock) that will be subject to different rules than the common stock (those you own). Preferred stock is paid first in case of an exit, and it enjoys veto rights such as precluding you to sell the company, or the opposite - forcing a sale.

It is common for a venture firm to elect a director on your board. This is the partner you are essentially working with. In early stage companies, a VC plays an instrumental role in mentoring the CEO and shaping the course of the company. As the company grows and perhaps even goes public, the VC director steps down from the board.
More Funding

Each round of funding expands the number of Venture firms at the table and results in dilution. To understand dilution, one needs to understand the mechanism by which startups raise money. Each round of funding results in additional shares being issued by the company and sold to the investors. Typically, investors are not buying shares that you already have, they are buying newly issued shares.

The money raised is not going into your pocket, it goes to the company. In some cases, when you're doing stellar, investors would be willing to buy your shares - but this is atypical. As a result of each raise, founders and employees own less percentage of the company (their number of shares remains the same, but the total number of shares increases). Prior investors are able to maintain their respective ownership by buying additional shares (this right is given via preferred stock).

Despite the fact that startups are reluctant to give up ownership to VCs, the economics actually make sense. Even though your percentage of ownership goes down, the total value of the stock is higher after the financing, because the value of each share rises. As long as the company is doing well, fund-raising makes sense and is beneficial to its employees.
Conclusion

There is a considerable amount of complexity surrounding building a company. Way more than just a great idea and elegant code is involved. But building a company, learning the intricacies, understanding the law and venture world, is fun.

Instead of being afraid of this complexity, startups need to appreciate it and embrace it. Most lawyers, accountants and investors are smart people whom you will learn from. They will help you make your startup into a real company.

As a start point, you should create an LLC and not worry about much paperwork. Once you get into investment, you'll need to change to an Inc, get a lawyer, bookkeeper and accountant, and start diving into the details discussed in this post.

There are two excellent resources to get additional material: Ask The VC - a blog maintained by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson; and Ask The Wizard - a blog by former CEO of Feedburner, Dick Costolo.

viernes, 5 de septiembre de 2008

Guia para hacer un plan de negocios básico

del blog apuntes gestion, espero que les sea útil.

Elaborar un plan de negocios es mucho más que escribir un simple documento contando lo que haces. Elaborar un plan de negocios constituye la piedra angular de tu negocio ya que puede ayudarte a ser mucho más efectivo, a enfocarte mejor en tu negocio y a reducir el riesgo de la aventura empresarial. Es también una estupenda herramienta de marketing para conseguir financiación, partners, asesores o empleados clave.

Lo más importante de hacer un plan de negocios no es el documento sino el proceso de creación ya que aporta conocimientos y valor al objetivo final de crear la empresa. Mediante el análisis tendrás que conocer los gustos del mercado, tu clientes potenciales, competencia y conocerás la esencia de lo que genera beneficios para tu negocio.

Un esquema básico para empezar con tu plan de negocios:

1. Oportunidad de mercado

* Especificar ¿Por que tu mercado necesita lo que quieres vender?
* Definir el tamaño del mercado, crecimiento, tendencias, y la información del cliente.

2. Productos y empresa

* Explica que hace tu producto y la forma en que responde las necesidades del mercado
* Detalla tu modelo de negocio, el de hoy y el del futuro.

3. Operaciones y Desarrollo

* Establece las estrategias y tácticas de lanzamiento, crecimiento y expansión.planes_de_negocios
* Detalla que hará y cuando, asignando los recursos humanos y capitales de tu start up.

4. Redes y alianzas

* Discute quienes te ayudarán a tener éxito y por que lo harán.

5. Marketing, Ventas y Distribución

* Demuestra cómo vas a ganar clientes, cerrar negociaciones y ventas y llevar tus productos al mercado.

6. Competencia

* Describe el entorno competitivo, así como tus ventajas y que te diferencia.

7. Dirección

* Demuestra porque se debería creer en ti, o en tu grupo de dirección, demuestra credibilidad.

8. Finanzas

* Muestra cómo vas a hacer dinero, tus necesidades de financiación y sus usos, y cuanto retorno generarás para tus inversores.

miércoles, 3 de septiembre de 2008

Por qué no deberías comenzar tu propio negocio o emprendimiento

del blog sturtup spark, espero que les sea útil.

I wanted to share with you what I think it takes to be an entrepreneur.

* You need to understand being an entrepreneur does not equal a steady paycheck at first (or in some cases ever). I’ve interviewed tons of successfuldo you have what it takes people who have created major companies. All have on thing in common… they had a bog dream, but realized it would be tough at first. Some actually lived in their offices, eating ramen noodles and barely scraping by. Others started their businesses while working for someone else. In any case, it ‘ain’t’ easy or fast.
* You need to be a risk taker. Most businesses fail within the first 5 years. You need to know that going in. And you need to know how you are going to deal with it, learn from it and move on.
* It’s lonely. Being an entrepreneur won’t help your social status. Let’s face it, working in a bigger businesses than you own affords you a social outlet. You may hate your co-workers, but working in a team setting has some benefits (even if it gives you someone to complain about).
* You need to be extremely organized. Ok, not extremely, but when you are you’re own boss (especially if you are working from home, which many do), you’ll find a lot to distract you from the task at hand. How you handle those distractions can make or break your business.

lunes, 1 de septiembre de 2008

7 Also-Rans as Business Obstacles

del blog Planning Startups Stories, espero que les sea útil.

I didn't intend to start a series, but this is the third. The first was my biggest obstacle in starting a business, which was followed by my biggest boost. Truth is, I was listing obstacles trying to figure out what I'd answer as the biggest, and this is the list I developed before I came up with the real answer.

So this is a list of runners-up, perhaps called also-rans, that I remember as obstacles when I started the business that became (years later) Palo Alto Software.

1. Money now vs. money later. I was consulting, but I had products. I was often torn between the consulting engagement offering money quickly, on the one hand; and the product development efforts that took short-term money but offered long-term payoff. That inability to focus, trying to serve conflicting objectives, was hard to manage.
2. Ahead of my product's time. I started doing business plan software as templates for the financial projections, written in Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Excel macro languages, in 1984. That idea didn't make money until 1995 when I was able to pull that content and add some more content into a standalone Windows application, Business Plan Pro. Ten years is a long time to wait. I was pretty stubborn.
3. Adequate is good enough. That's a quote from the late Adam Osborne, computer writer and entrepreneur, the man behind the Osborne Computer (sorry, ancient history, but for those of us who remember). I struggled a lot with how much to do before it was done. I believed in the "we sell no software before its time" idea, but that's hard.
4. Do-it-yourself. It took me a long time to understand the leverage of hiring other people to do things that I could do myself, but only -- the doing it myself -- if I had infinite time. There's a limit to doing it yourself.
5. Marketing yourself. More on that later. Not in this post.
6. Sustaining the second and third accounts. You get that one critical account and the temptation is to relax and let your marketing slide. That doesn't work. And it's tough too, because you also have to focus in on delivering great work so you never lose that most important account.
7. And the list goes on and on ...