Tuesday, January 5, 2010

#125 - Has the Internet changed the way new businesses are created?















The Internet can be blamed for a lot of things, like the changing media landscape, SPAM
, and that massive computer meltdown I had last week. But mostly, the Internet is to blame for the new way we are conducting business in the world today. Just think, a decade ago, everything was completely different in every marketplace! This has a lot to do with the modular way business can now be conducted with a combination of loose connections instead of a solid structure. Well-known blogger Chris Brogan said all this best in a recent post (see the link below), so I'm sharing a portion of his insight here.

Bottom line - We have all the infrastructure we need now to move quickly, grow and do things in a distributed and collaborative fashion.

Just think about it. I can set up Freshbooks to do all my invoicing, build a quick Blogger or WordPress site, use Google Docs for planning, use PayPal to take in money, and employ Twitter and Google Wave (or Socialcast) to do team planning. I can even use Batchbook to keep up with the metrics; and so it goes.

There are dozens of combinations of the above list, and it’s all there for any of us to use to achieve our dreams.

Now, let's back up a step. The web also allows us to find like minds much easier. The moment I wrote that I was thinking about the future of non-traditional college students, I had an in-box full of willing collaborators. If I told you I wanted to write a pop culture blog about women’s issues, any number of people would dive in, too. That’s the thing. We can issue a call to action much easier now.

Oh, and if you get stuck, you can find people who know the answers much more quickly. LinkedIn Answers, Twitter, and Facebook are bursting at the seams with people who would love to help.

Think. Plan. Execute. Revise.
To me, the new formula of business is: think, plan, execute, revise. It’s important to consider all the contingencies. It’s important to be prepared for what might go wrong. But the best way to find out what’s going to go wrong is to launch your new business and find the flaws through trial and error.

This is top of mind with me at the moment as I’ve just launched a new editing business in a marketplace that I don’t fully understand, with a product that I’m still developing, to a bunch of people I don’t necessarily have neatly in one place. Am I afraid? Not at all. I’ve got smart collaborators galore. We’ll figure it out as we go. Will we upset anyone along the way? Probably. Show me a business that hasn’t made a mistake, and well...you know the rest. The goal is not to make a fatal mistake.

Think. Plan. Execute. Revise.

What business are you in?
Where’s your passion right now? What business would you like to create? How will you go about building it?

Let’s talk about it. Maybe we can help each other.

Content attribution: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/how-we-make-businesses-these-days/

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6 comments:

  1. Nice post.

    Right now, I'm passionate about Grokodile. It's a tiny unknown community mashup startup (blog directory plus) that I think has some potential. Who knows.

    It certainly won't matter if it goes nowhere as it takes very little to launch a virtual business these days. And certainly, if you have any ideas, I'd be more than willing to hear about them.

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  2. That sounds very promising...where do I go to find out more, or to see your site? I'd love to contribute any way I can.

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  3. Great ideas.

    Chris Brogan posted a similar blog entry. It's pretty much identical to yours.

    http://chrisbrogan.com/how-we-make-businesses-these-days/

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  4. I'm so sorry I screwed up and left off thate attribution on my first pass with this particular post. I repaired the damage within hours, but no one seems to be seeing the corrected post. I did mean to include the fact that the central section came from Chris's blog, but I hit publish too soon, and then I just plain, forgot. When I got back on my computer this morning, I fixed it immediately! I am human after all, or so it would seem.

    If you will take the time to look at many of my posts, you'll see that I often list sources and include complementary links whe I "borrow"...and I've gone so far as to contact several bloggers in advance. All seemed quite happy that I was quoting them, as long as I referenced their work.

    I apologize if I offended anyone, especially the witty and always insightful Chris Brogan ... who I did, in fact, borrowed most of the post from, as cited at the start and linked at the end!

    Please be kind to us newbies. We are just feeling our way into this blogosphere as best we can. I promise to be so careful about the attribution in all future posts!

    Sincerely,
    Elizabeth

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  5. Aaaaw, people can really be harsh. However, great bloggers like Chris have the right to be acknowledged. No worries though, just pick yourself up and dust yourself off and chalk this up as another life's lesson. #124 ;)

    Make a checklist before publishing any post.

    Post - Dated (If applicable)? ☑
    Categorized & Tagged Properly? ☑
    Sources cited correctly? ☑ ☑ ☑

    In fact, you might even want to go back on your other posts and make sure you didn't miss others. Even your disclaimer says:

    "We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity."

    Those are mighty powerful words. ;) Stand by them.

    Good Luck!

    Sincerely,
    Amber

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  6. Amber: Thank you for that kindness and the excellent advice. This was indeed another Life Lesson learned (the hard way)and I'll be going through the archive, too. This has all been a learning experience.

    Now that I've finally finished grad school, I will have serious time to devote to the study of social media, and this blog. I was close to giving it all up yesterday, but realized that an easily corrected mistake is no reason to quit. I would even say that I am grateful to all those who felt it necessary to send the hate mail I deleted yesterday. Although seriously, I would prefer that future commenters refrain from the obscenities and personal slurs.

    The really interesting thing is that I honestly did not think that anyone was actually reading my blog. Perhaps, making a critical error and suffering a minor embarrassment was a very good thing after all. It certainly got some attention!

    Anyway, I am very grateful to you, Amber, for your professionalism, and for offering support to a fellow blogger!

    All the best,
    Elizabeth

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