In my favorite section of the book, you will learn to remember the ‘Big Thought’ about a book. Why?  The author explains:

“Maybe someone was worried about job turnover and volatility; if you’d known Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, you could have recommended it for advice on how to be likable even in trouble times.”

As a “cat person”, I love the author’s concept called “lovecat.” The first chapter is called The Lovecat Way and is a good instruction on how to come up with an excellent new idea and run with it. In the afterword, you learn about an acronym called NSPS (Nice, smart people succeed). I think that this is the essence of love as the “killer app.”

“Here, then, is my definition of love business: the act of intelligently and sensibly sharing your intangibles with your bizpartners.

What are your intangibles? They are our knowledge, our network, and our compassion. These are the keys to true bizlove.” (Page 13)

You have now got the titles for chapter III (Network) and IV (Compassion).

Tim Sanders gives you at least six benefits for being a lovecat and he starts with how “you build an outstanding brand as a person” by using a “brand mindset” (coined by Duane Knapp) around the DREAM (Differentiation, Relevance, Esteem, Awareness, Mind’s eye) acronym.

As an avid book reader, the second chapter (Knowledge) is music for my ears. Through the book you get plenty of book tips and in the appendix you have a list of The Ten Must-Read Books for Lovecats. Tim Sanders says that books are the “complete thought-meal,” magazines are “between-meal snacks” and news media “are the equivalent of candy and soda: fun to eat, but hardly appropriate to live on.” He applies the Pareto principle as a food for thought idea: “Spend 80 percent of your time on books, and the 20 percent on articles and newspapers.” My question is: How would that classify the new media? How much time should you spend on blogs, social networks, etc.?

And now it is time for the explanation why you should buy hardcovers:

“And by books, I don’t mean just any book. I mean hardcovers. A paperback is made to be read. A hardcover is made to be studied. There’s a huge difference. I don’t read a book just to say that I’ve finished it. I read it so that when I’m done, the inside covers are filled with enough notes that I can use this book for as long as I need to.” (Page 70, paperback)

Tim Sanders has created a “practical four-step program designed to make knowledge work for you:”

1. Aggregation - How do you know which books to read?
2. Encoding – How do you consume the books in the right way?
3. Processing – How do you properly digest, “chew” and review the books?
4. Application - How do you share the knowledge you get from the books?

The application part entails four steps:

1. Learn from the consumption and digestion on how to draw the big picture from the book. You have to “own the book’s Big Thought.”
2. Do as George Constanza (Seinfeld TV show) and visualize a moment when you are adding value to the conversation by bringing up Big Thoughts from books related to the topic you are discussing.
3. Look for the right moment to insert points from your reading literature in a real-time conversation. It is similar to do an “elevator speech” to a business contact. After inserting the pointers, ask for feedback.
4. “Play doctor” and prescribe “medications” (books) to your “patients” (business contacts).

I feel strongly about this book, so you could see this blog post as a fan letter to Tim Sanders! I look forward to meeting Tim Sanders someday and check out his book libraries. I love the example with Steve Leveen of Levenger company and his fan letter to Stanley Marcus, the author of Minding the Store. I wonder if Tony Hsieh of Zappos found his calling as a merchant, in the same way as Steve Leeven.

At the end of the book (P.S. I Love You) you could read three fascinating stories, including the uplifting story, Spreading The Love: The Rosetta Story.

Do you have a story? Write it down in the comment field.

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About the Author: Martin Lindeskog is a “trader in matter & spirit” and a small business entrepreneur in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is a board member of the Swedish National Association of Purchasing and Logistics (Silf, Western Region). Martin also writes a long-standing blog called Ego.

From Small Business Trends

Love Is The Killer App – Or How to Get Ahead by Helping Others

They’re fast talkers and promise all sorts of things – and then the hammer drops . . . they ask you for an advanced fee, a consultancy payment, so they can start to, ahem “work” if you will, on your project.

Then the circus is on the road including pranksters, clowns and magicians, all wearing different “hats.” They get very “busy” for a period of time and then they start to play hide-and-seek with you and eventually (yep, you guessed it) – they disappear!  Below is an excerpt from a piece I wrote titled, “Five Lessons Learned From My Startup and Why I’d Do It Again” which includes some lessons I’ve learned so far:

“There are many external barriers. For example, we faced bureaucracy, rules, the jante law and fraudsters who seek to cheat you. I have been a bit naive, but personally I think that in the long run it is still a good idea to give people the benefit of the doubt.”

I think it’s the buyer’s responsibility to check that everything is in order (i.e. act according to the “caveat emptor” rule). But it’s important to note that the “buyer beware” rule does not include fraudulent behavior. Take this, for example, from Answers.com:

“This rule is not designed to shield sellers who engage in fraud or bad faith dealing by making false or misleading representations about the quality or condition of a particular product. It merely summarizes the concept that a purchaser must examine, judge, and test a product considered for purchase himself or herself.”

We have seen several versions of these robberies, (e.g., ponzi schemes and advance-fee fraud) come and go. During the summer period, July through August, and vacation time in Europe, you often get fake invoices and order confirmation documents from scammers. I received an “order confirmation” from a fake yellow pages directory and a phone call from telemarketer who wanted to force me to say “yes” to his questions, so he could record it as evidence for a purchase of their online directory.  Here is one key finding from Ernst & Young’s European fraud survey 2009:

“Our survey respondents believe the likelihood of fraud and corruption is set to rise further still. 55% of the respondents expect corporate fraud to increase over the next few years.”

So, what can we do to prevent future frauds from happening? Any suggestions? Well, I have been discussing it with an entrepreneur to try to set up some kind of support network for small business owners who have been victims of fraud so we can warn fellow business owners and keep them from going through the same scenario. The goal is to create something positive out of all of this negative. It’s time to learn from old mistakes and share the new experiences with others. As Friedrich Nietzsche said so eloquently:

“What does not kill me, makes me stronger.”

One idea could be to create a member forum together with one of the associations of business owners. Personally, I am thinking of joining a BNI (Business Network International) chapter in Gothenburg, Sweden. My goal is for this post to be seen as an open letter to small business owners around the world, as an attempt to start an ongoing thread and conversation on this issue, and to create a proactive defense program for the producers in the long run.

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About the Author: Martin Lindeskog is a “trader in matter & spirit” and a small business entrepreneur in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is a board member of the Swedish National Association of Purchasing and Logistics (Silf, Western Region). Martin also writes a long-standing blog called Ego.

From Small Business Trends

Time for a Small Business Safety Network?

Not being an American by birth, I must say that I had a problem understanding the full meaning of the duct tape analogy used in the book. (I’m not the only one.)

I would have liked to see a bit more story-telling regarding the name, Duct Tape, as an introduction to John Jantsch’s personal approach to the field of marketing. I got so curious after looking at the image of the Duck tape brand by Henkel Corporation on the book cover, that I had to do a search on the Internet in order to satisfy my thirst for historical background. That said, I am in hands-down agreement with Michael Gerber’s statement:

“This book is just like its namesake – Duct Tape – it’s good, incredibly smart, amazingly practical, and immensely sticky stuff. You can begin to put it to use immediately.”

The book is divided into three parts. The first seven chapters lay the foundation and describe the way to sticky marketing. The second part is focused on how to turn the stickiness into a full fledged marketing system. Chapter 14 concludes the last part, there you find out what works and learn how to say: “Let’s Roll!”

Every chapter of the book ends with some action steps in order to get going and move forward to implement the ideas into business activities. The book is filled with concrete examples of companies and an appendix with further reading material and resources linked to every chapter. It would have been great if the book had included an index with names and notes, but you could get hold of this kind of information by checking out the page for the book.

The author gives the reader a great boost at the end of chapter 4, by explaining the correlation between value and the price of your product or service. John Jantsch demonstrates the importance of offering value to the customer, in chapter 8. The hardcover edition of the book has a price of circa $25, but you get “over $450 worth of coupons and discounts on marketing tools and services inside the book.“  He also says:

“And, of course, overdeliver on the stated value. Don’t worry about giving too much away. Depending on what you have to offer, you will only enhance your status as an expert when you demonstrate, through your information products, that you do indeed know what you are talking about. The best news of all, though, is that most of those you compete with won’t offer anything like this.”

When you have established a relationship with a customer and they know, like and trust you, it is time to turn them into a “referral machine.” I must say that chapter 11, Ramp Up a Systematic Referral Machine, gave me a lot of fuel for my soul and I will look into the possibilities of speaking engagements, holding a workshop, creating a “win-win-win” situation and contacting a local chapter of the referral networking organization called BNI (Business Network International).

I want to end this review by using a quote from John on page 222 on how a blog is a natural marketing integration tool:

“From my point of view, though, one of the best reasons to have a blog is that it’s a simply one more very easy, very affordable method to connect with your prospects and integrate all of your marketing messages. Blogs also force you to write and research new content. No matter what business you think you are in, you are in the information business. Blogging creates information that can be used in a variety of ways.”

Read Duct Tape Marketing — I think you will like it.

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About the Author: Martin Lindeskog is a “trader in matter & spirit” and a small business entrepreneur in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is a board member of the Swedish National Association of Purchasing and Logistics (Silf, Western Region). Martin also writes a long-standing blog called Ego.

From Small Business Trends

Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide – A Book Review

By Martin Lindeskog

The Illusions of Entrepreneurship. The Costly Myths That Entrepreneurs, Inventors, and Policy Makers Live By is the latest book by Scott A. Shane.

After you have read Scott A. Shane’s book, The Illusions of Entrepreneurship, you are rewarded with the answers to 67 myths about entrepreneurship.

Before you start, take the entrepreneurship quiz and see how much you know. I got a score of 40% before I had read the book.

The book is divided in 10 chapters. The author starts off with debunking the myth that today’s America is the land of opportunity when it comes to entrepreneurship. According to research, he says, the self-employment rate was much higher in the beginning of 20th century compared with today’s situation. The United States of America is bottom on the list of self-employment rate compared with the other OECD countries. Turkey is number one with 30 percent of new established businesses per capita. America has a rate of about 7.

If you look on a local level, Silicon Valley is not the startup place in America. The green mountain state of Vermont is number one. [As a side note, If you are interested in "how people across America are transforming their lives by finding the where of the happiness," I recommend you to check out Rich Karlgaard's site Life 2.0. ]

In the next chapter, you get a wake-up call if you already have decided your industry to work in. Your chances for success are much higher if you choose the right industry. Some industries have dismal success ratios and you may want to avoid them.

In chapter three, you get a not-so-rosy picture on who becomes an entrepreneur. Scott Shane states that physiological factors account for much less than demographics like age, race and gender. Some may view this as a controversial viewpoint. As an example, Scott Shane’s post here at Small Business Trends, Why is the Rate of Entrepreneurship Among African Americans so Low? generated plenty of comments and the discussion got pretty heated. To cool things down a bit, I have to use a funny quote from the book:

“Therefore, if you want to become an entrepreneur, go to school — just don’t go on to get a PhD. With that much education you are likely to become a nerdy professor like me, who studies entrepreneurship instead of doing it.” [Chapter 3, Who Becomes an Entrepreneur, page 47.]

With that statement I want to conclude that this book is inspirational reading material. You get mental exercise by reading the book and you start to think in new directions. Plenty of the old myths are taken care of in an elegant way. It is reassuring to read the following paragraph:

“Starting a new business isn’t as quick, painless, linear, collective, or all-encompassing a process as our popular conception suggests. A remarkably small percentage of entrepreneurs – one third – manage to get business established within seven years of starting the process, and even then it often takes several years to do so.” (Chapter 4, What Does The Typical Start-Up Look like?, pages 77 – 78.]

Scott Shane ends the last chapter with criticizing the government’s intervention in the business field, pushing their own agenda to show the voters that they have “created” economic growth by actively promoting the establishment of new enterprises. I think we should start a debate on why policy makers encourage people to start new companies.

I want to end this book review with a great quote from the conclusion:

“We shouldn’t get rid of the start-ups. Despite the dismal story about the typical start-up portrayed in this book, getting rid of start-ups isn’t the answer. Entrepreneurship is central to the success of a capitalist economy.” [Conclusion, page 162.]

While at first glance the book may not sound like a “feel good” book that gets you fired up to go start a business, it is inspirational. It will get you thinking. You may learn some things that help you be smarter about deciding which business to start, and how to get it off the ground, so that you have the best possible chance for success. Give yourself the best shot at success by reading this book.

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About the Author: Martin Lindeskog is running his own small business in Gothenburg, Sweden, called the Blue Chip Cafe & Business Center. He is a member of the Swedish National Association of Purchasing and Logistics (Silf, Western Region). Martin also writes a long-standing blog called Ego.

From Small Business Trends

The Illusions of Entrepreneurship – A Book Review

By Martin Lindeskog

Joseph’s Marketing Blog‘s tagline says “Rants of Marketing, Business, and Daily Life.” Joseph DePalma started his blog in February by saying: “I’m probably going to turn this into somewhat of a business-experience blog.” For being in his twenties, he has lots of business experience. I got curious about his different companies, so I sent him an e-mail and asked for an description of his ventures.

Here’s some other information I can tell you: Vertora, Inc. is my main focus that everything sort of “falls back” to. It’s a brand consultancy focusing on building amazing brand experiences (focusing on customer interaction, more so than graphic design and the like.)

AerialText, Inc. is a text message advertising firm that I’m currently selling. It’s opt-in text message advertising. Currently there is no site for it because of this sale and how things are moving over.

Digital Charisma, is a web development firm I’ve had for years. it provides top notch web design and user experience – bottom line.

My favorite project, outside of brand experience consulting (which I absolutely love) is coming up. It’s called OpenBeat – it’s an internet radio center for independent music. Musicians will be able to sign up for a small annual fee, and we will promote their music on our 10 radio stations, give them a personalized artist website which we will also promote, and handle all payment processing for any CDs they wish to sell. It’s a very exciting project, and we ran into some big delays with it, but it’ll be going live in the next 2 months or so. Anyone will be able to go to the site and listen for free, and buy artist CDs right through our site. I can’t wait till it’s live. (E-mail, 07/09/05.)

From the About page: “In his spare time, Joseph writes this blog as a way to share his experience and knowledge.” Joseph DePalma seems to be very good at managing his time, running all these different companies and at the same time being an active trader on the stock market. I bet he has read something by “productivity guru” David Allen. Joseph told me that he likes to read books. His favorite book is Good to Great by Jim Collins. I read Jim Collins’s book, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, in my Organizational Leadership course. Talking about leadership of an organization, I have to recommend the book, The Blackwell Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior, edited by Edwin A. Locke. I think that chapter 10 (Motivate Performance through Empowerment, pages 144-145) by Jay A. Conger, could be of special interest to Joseph DePalma and his readers. The author is listing Richard Branson of the Virgin Group, and Jack Welch of General Electric, as two positive examples on how empowerment works. See Joseph’s reading list for books by Jack Welch and Richard Branson, and read his post, The Power of Empowerment.

The power of Joseph’s Marketing Blog is the focus on how to build a better brand through customer experiences. I want to end this review with an excerpt from Joseph’s post, Marketing is Life:

Marketing is not an afterthought. It should be integrated into the entire product or service right from the beginning. So many businesses focus on rushing to create a product or service, but never really think about the marketing behind it. (JosephDePalma.typepad.com, 05/16/05.)

From Small Business Trends

PowerBlog Review: Joseph’s Marketing Blog

I have been thinking on how the small business climate is quite different around the world. I invite the readers of this blog and fellow bloggers to comment on this post and inform about how the situation is in different countries. I have searched for information on Sweden and America. Here are some of my findings:

99.6% of the companies in Sweden could be classified as small businesses. I used the size class 01 – 06 (0 – 99 employees). The information is gathered from Statistics Sweden’s Business Register and the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Facts about Sweden’s economy 2004, page 51).

I must admit that I am a bit surprised by the high number of small businesses in Sweden. According to a 10 year old article (Is America Really Different?) in the Inc. Magazine, Europe is on the same high level as America. Here is an excerpt from John Case’s article.

Paul D. Reynolds, Paul T. Babson Professor in Entrepreneurial Studies at Babson College, in Wellesley, Mass., points out that the information we have doesn’t allow us to make easy comparisons. “The best we can say is that most industrialized nations have comparable rates of entrepreneurial activity,” he says, adding that regional variations within countries are much more dramatic than variations among countries. (Inc.com/magazine, May 1996.)

Comparing my life here in Sweden and my study and work period in America between 1997 – 2002, I think it is definitively a different business climate in Sweden than in America. It is hard to put the finger on it, but the following excerpt from an article by James C. Cooper and Kathleen Madigan (U.S.: Weak Payrolls Mask A Tightening Job Market) in Business Week will hopefully give you an indication.

The importance of the entrepreneur is also evident in recent comments from the National Federation of Independent Businesses, which represents small companies. NFIB’s surveys of its 600,000 members indicate job creation among small businesses is “much more consistent with the household survey than the payroll survey.” Corroborating that, the personal income created from proprietorships is growing at an annual rate of 10.5% so far this year, up from a 9.2% pace for all of last year and twice the pace of income from wages and salaries. (BusinessWeek.com/magazine, 06/20/05.)

I will try to find figures for Sweden, but I could bet on that Sweden has a lower rate of income created by small businesses than America.

I hope that the American sense-of-life and the entrepreneurial spirit will continue to be strong, and that small businesses will thrive in competition with bigger companies on a free market based on the ideas of laissez-faire capitalism.

From Small Business Trends

The Small Business Climate in Different Countries