Investor

Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, defines an investor as "any party that makes an investment."

Check this article out and follow the "See also." The article goes on to say,

The term has taken on a specific meaning in finance to describe the particular types of people and companies that regularly purchase equity or debt securities for financial gain in exchange for funding an expanding company. Less frequently, the term is applied to parties who purchase real estate, currency, commodity derivatives, personal property, or other assets.

The term implies that a party purchases and holds assets in hopes of achieving capital gain or cash flow, not as a profession or for short-term income.

Here is an overlapping, non-exclusive list of investor types:

>Individual investors (including trusts on behalf of individuals, and umbrella companies formed for two or more to pool investment funds)

>Collectors of art, antiques, and other things of value

>Angel investors, either individually or in groups

>Venture capital funds, which serve as investment collectives on behalf of individuals, companies, pension plans, insurance reserves, or other funds.

>Investment banks

>Businesses that make investments, either directly or via a captive fund

>Investment trusts, including real estate investment trusts

>Mutual funds, hedge funds, and other funds, ownership of which may or may not be publicly traded (these funds typically pool money raised from their owner-subscribers to invest in securities)

>Sovereign wealth funds

Also, investors might be classified according to their styles. In this respect, an important distinctive investor psychology trait is risk attitude.

Too many people when they start out want money first. There are many problems with this approach, not the least important being that they start out with a negative on their bottom line. It's much better to take the long, hard way, of working your way into a business. Start small, keep expenses to a minimum, develop cash flow, then use that cash flow to fund the growth of your business.

What do you think about this? Anything grab you? Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

Balance Sheet

From Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, we have this:

In financial accounting, a balance sheet or statement of financial position is a summary of a person's or organization's balances. Assets, liabilities and ownership equity are listed as of a specific date, such as the end of its financial year. A balance sheet is often described as a snapshot of a company's financial condition. Of the four basic financial statements, the balance sheet is the only statement which applies to a single point in time.

A company balance sheet has three parts: assets, liabilities and ownership equity. The main categories of assets are usually listed first and are followed by the liabilities. The difference between the assets and the liabilities is known as equity or the net assets or the net worth of the company and according to the accounting equation, net worth must equal assets minus liabilities.

Another way to look at the same equation is that assets equals liabilities plus owner's equity. Looking at the equation in this way shows how assets were financed: either by borrowing money (liability) or by using the owner's money (owner's equity). Balance sheets are usually presented with assets in one section and liabilities and net worth in the other section with the two sections "balancing".

Records of the values of each account or line in the balance sheet are usually maintained using a system of accounting known as the double-entry bookkeeping system.

A business operating entirely in cash can measure its profits by withdrawing the entire bank balance at the end of the period, plus any cash in hand. However, many businesses are not paid immediately; they build up inventories of goods and they acquire buildings and equipment. In other words: businesses have assets and so they can not, even if they want to, immediately turn these into cash at the end of each period. Often, these businesses owe money to suppliers and to tax authorities, and the proprietors do not withdraw all their original capital and profits at the end of each period. In other words businesses also have liabilities.

Read the entire Wikipedia article and follow its links and references. Encarta also has a good article. Also google it. There's a ton of stuff to read on balance sheets. If you want to see some in action, get ahold of some annual reports.

Entrepreneurs need to know about the balance sheet. It's the standard way they'll look at their business. There's a world in the numbers on the balance sheet and what they mean. It's a world that must be paid attention. After all the passion and market analysis and support and pros and cons, it comes down to the numbers.

Does this interest you? If so, post a comment. I'd like to know.

Entrepreneurship is the lifeblood of all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com

Levels of Measurement

Wikipedia, the on-line, free encyclopedia,says:

The level of measurement of a variable in mathematics and statistics is a classification that is used to describe the nature of information contained within numbers assigned to objects and, therefore, within the variable. The levels were proposed by Stanley Smith Stevens in his 1946 article On the theory of scales of measurement. According to Stevens' theory of scales, different mathematical operations on variables are possible, depending on the level at which a variable is measured. In the paper he states "Scales are possible in the first place only because there is a certain isomorphism between what we can do with the aspects of objects and the properties of the numeral series.

According to the classification scheme, in statistics the kinds of descriptive statistics and significance tests that are appropriate depend on the level of measurement of the variables concerned

Stevens proposed four levels of measurement: nominal (also categorical or discrete); ordinal; interval; [and] ratio.

There's a lot in the Wikipedia article. Read the whole thing and google "Levels of Measurement" for a lot more.

Social Research Methods.net points out that

First, knowing the level of measurement helps you decide how to interpret the data from that variable...Second, knowing the level of measurement helps you decide what statistical analysis is appropriate on the values that were assigned. If a measure is nominal, then you know that you would never average the data values or do a t-test on the data.

Check this website out for statistical methods. It looks to be excellent.

This is important for entrepreneurs who wish to analyze data. You can only use certain kinds of measures for data which are on different scales. Statistics offer a powerful set of intellectual tools to help entrepreneurs understand their world and to analyze it.

Are you interested in this? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. For my ideas on entrepreneurial writing, go to www.kearneymusicschool.blogspot.com and for my ideas on entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog

License

From Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedi:

The verb license or grant license means to give permission. The noun license (licence in British spelling) is the document demonstrating that permission. License may be granted by a party ("licensor") to another party ("licensee") as an element of an agreement between those parties. A shorthand definition of a license is "a promise (by the licensor) not to sue (the licensee)."

Licenses are required before one can start many different kinds of businesses. In Philadelphia, you have to purchase a "Business Privelege License." I have yet to know what privelege that grants you, except the priviledge to be double-taxed. Attorneys, CPA's, Real Estate Agents, Real Estate Brokers, Insurance Professionals, Financial planners, Social Workers, and so on must obtain a license. So, before you start your business, figure out what licenses you will need, what you have to do to get one, and how much that will cost.

Does this interest you? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

Leverage

From Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia:

Leverage (or gearing) is borrowing money to supplement existing funds for investment in such a way that the potential positive or negative outcome is magnified and/or enhanced. It generally refers to using borrowed funds, or debt, so as to attempt to increase the returns to equity. Deleveraging is the action of reducing borrowings.

So if I borrow $500, sign on with a lead generation company for $20 a month, and sell a home from a lead I got from there which nets me a $7,500 commission, I've leveraged that $500 pretty effectively.

The problem enters in when you borrow too much and you don't get any result from it. Then, your stuck paying off the loan with nothing to show for it. That's why we have to evaluate clearly the investments we make and make only cost-effective ones.

What do you think? I'd like to know. Post a comment. And read the entire Wikipedia article.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

Reputation Economy

Seamus McCauley, describes the repuational economy as "people doing work for reputational rather than financial gain." (Google "Reputation Economy")

It's the new economy's attempt to replace traditional reputational systems with new ones. Social networks have become the new reputation vendors. McCauley says it's the end-result of the fact that there are more tools available but it's also related to companies rewarding with titles rather than money because they don't have much money and are unsure about raising salaries or their cheap (my interpretation) and the trend for companies to refuse to give references beyond, "yes, she worked here" for fear of being sued.

If you're interested in this, check Virtual.com and google "Reputation Economy." There's a ton of stuff out there. And post a comment. I'd like to know what you think.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my activities. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing, to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.com

Market

Tim's definition: A market is a network of buyers and sellers. Simply that, a space containing people or entities who want to buy "X" and people or entities who want to sell "X", related in some ways. No buyers, no market. No sellers no market. No products, no market.

There are lots of different kinds of markets. The stock market, very much on the minds of everybody now. But there's the oil market, food market, real estate market, clothing market, so on and so forth. A market is said to exist whenever anything wants to be sold and there are buyers who want to buy it. A broker is someone who brings together a willing seller and a willing and able buyer.

Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia says in a longer and more complicated way:

In mainstream economics, the concept of a market is any structure that allows buyers and sellers to exchange any type of goods, services and information. The exchange of goods or services for money is a transaction. Market participants consist of all the buyers and sellers of a good who influences its price. This influence is a major study of economics and has given rise to several theories and models concerning the basic market forces of supply and demand. There are two roles in markets, buyers and sellers. The market facilitates trade and enables the distribution and allocation of resources in a society. Markets allow any tradable item to be evaluated and priced. A market emerges more or less spontaneously or is constructed deliberately by human interaction in order to enable the exchange of rights (cf. ownership) of services and goods.

You might also see the word "market" mean a food store or an outside area where stuff is sold. They're all markets. A lot of markets now are virtual spaces, not actual spaces as in Medieval England.

What do you think? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. My ideas on entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com

Word of Mouth

Have you heard about this? If you haven't you've been spending a significant amount of time off in cave somewhere reading Proust or something.

Here's what Wikipedia says about it:

The passing of information by verbal means, especially recommendations, but also general information, in an informal, person-to-person manner. Word of mouth is typically considered a face-to-face spoken communication, although phone conversations, text messages sent via SMS and web dialogue, such as online profile pages, blog posts, message board threads, instant messages and emails are often now included in the definition of word of mouth. There is some overlap in meaning between word of mouth and the following: rumour, gossip, innuendo, and hearsay; however word of mouth is more commonly used to describe positive information being spread rather than negative, although this is not always the case.

Go read the Wikipedia article and google word of mouth because there are rafts of stuff on it.

It's important for us to be conscious of word of mouth (WOM) because spreading awareness about your product or service is the fastest path to growth. It means you have people out their working for you that you don't even have to pay. If news of your product spreads twice as fast as news of a competing product, everything else being equal, your sales are going to grow twice as fast as your competitors. Lots of factors enter into it but learning about what WOM is, how it's generated, and pulling the levers is an important thing for you. Faster growth, more sales, more cash, more news coverage, more investors, etc.

Any ideas on WOM? I'd like to know. Maybe we can get people talking about it. Post a comment.

My ideas on entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blotspot.com

Neuro-linguistic Programming

Neuro-linguistic programming (or NLP) is a "set of technques or strategies for enhancing communication and personal infuence." The ten principles of NLP as laid out by David Molden in NLP Business Masterclass; Skills for Realizing Human Potential (London: Prentice Hall, 2001) on p. 5, lays out 10 principles of NLP:
1) Generate new, don't repair old.
2) Feedback nourishes, failure saps energy.
3) Influence and control are gained through flexibility.
4) Resistance indicates a lack of support.
5) Intention and behavior are different.
6) People have all they need to change.
7) If it's possible for one person, it's possible for others.
8) The meaning of my communication is in the response.
9) Perception is reality.
10) I am in charge of my mind and responsible for my results.

I find NLP to be useful analyzing my own and others behavior. And there's an amazingly rich amount of insight and information in Molden's book. For the entrepreneur, it give a powerful set of tools we can use to help us become more effective and more successful.

NLP has its detractors. Scientists say there's on empirical basis for its claims. Others characterize it as voodoo psychology.

But look at the Wikipedia article. It's long and quite detailed. And Read Molden's book.

What do you think about this? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestae.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com

Permission Marketing

The idea of permission-based marketing is that you send stuff only to people who have given you permission to do so. Seth Golden is believed to have articulated this concept in his book, Permission Marketing (New York, Simon and Schuster, 1999).

Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, says

Permission marketing is a term used in marketing in general and e-marketing specifically. Marketers will ask permission before advancing to the next step in the purchasing process. For example, they ask permission to send advertisements to prospective customers. It is used by some Internet marketers, email marketers, and telephone marketers. It requires that people first "opt-in", rather than allowing people to "opt-out" only after the advertisements have been sent.

Marketers feel that this is a more efficient use of their resources because advertisements are only sent to people that are actually interested in the product. This is one technique used by marketers that have a personal marketing orientation. They feel that marketing should be done on a one-to-one basis rather than using broad aggregated concepts like market segment or target market.

In the United Kingdom, opt-in is required for email marketing, under The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. This came into force on the 11 December 2003.

There's a world of great material in the Goldin book. I'd recommend you give it a read. It may change your life. And read the links in the brief Wikipedia article.

I base all my marketing on the permission of the client. I would no more go out and get a mailing list and spam people than I would jump off the bridge to nowhere. My way you build relationships. The other way you get your emails dumped into people's trash bins and no one will respond to you. But that's just me. But, people come up to me and tell me that they like my stuff. It's part of the narrative about myself that I'm building, that I'm always respectful of people's time and attention.

What do you think? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com

Fitness Landscape

The concept of fitness and fitness landscape has been borrowed from evolutionary biology. I've extended it to mean the environment within which an entrepreneurial organization (read "organism") must compete.

Organizations are more often seen these days as biological organisms, which grow organically with little cetralized authority, than as military units, developed from some central authority. Fitness in this context refers to the health of the organization doing the competing.

You can also make an analogy to an athlete. To win, athletes have to be adapted to their fitness environment. Long-distance running requires endurance and strong legs so runners have long, strong legs and comparatively less muscular upper bodies. Swimming requires the athlete to move fast through a dense substance (water). Swimmers therefore have strong arms and shoulders and narrow waists. Basketball requires a player to score points or prevent others from doing so. Therefore, basketball players are very tall. And so on. Take a basketball player and try to make him into marathoner, and you have a problem.

Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, has a good article on it. Readers are encouraged to read that and follow the links and references.

What do you think? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschool.blogspot.com.

Relationship Marketing

Marketing relationships is in tune with the times. Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia describes it as

A form of marketing developed from direct response marketing campaigns conducted in the 1970's and 1980's which emphasizes customer retention and satisfaction, rather than a dominant focus on 'point of sale' transactions. Relationship marketing differs from other forms of marketing in that it recognizes the long term value to the firm of keeping customers, as opposed to direct or "Intrusion" marketing, which focuses upon acquisition of new clients by targeting majority demographics based upon prospective client lists.

That says it all. If you're interested in this, read the whole Wikipedia article and follow its links. Also google it because there's a lot of stuff out there.

Todd Duncan, in Killing the Sale; The 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople Make and How to Avoid Them (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004), a book I highly recommend, lists "Skimming" as mistake #9 out of ten. To Duncan, skimming is "focusing on surface profitability instead of client satisfaction." (p. 159) He rightly points out that salespeople focus all their attention on developing leads, converting them into prospects, then making presentation and closing sales. Then they forget all about them and go on to the next lead.

We were just talking about this at a party Sunday night. My client, who had put on this surprise party for his wife, paid me an amazing compliment when he said "You put a lot more effort into developing relationships than most realtors." I loved to hear that.

What do you think? I'd like to know. Am I voice crying in the wilderness here? Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com and for entrepreneurial writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

Breakeven point

Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, describes the breakeven point for a given business as:

the point at which cost or expenses and revenue are equal: there is no net loss or gain, and one has 'broken even'.

Breakeven point analysis is a useful tool for entrepreneurs in a number of ways. First, it can tell us, in the absense of other data, how much we will have to invest in a business to make it profitable. Second, if we're trying to decide among a different businesses which will be the most promising for us, we can redo the analysis for each potential business. Third, if we're trying to decide how much to charge, we can use the analysis to compare profitability at various price points.

If you want to read more about it, read the entire Wikipedia article and follow its links and references. And google breakeven point, there's a ton of stuff on it.

What do you think about this? Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blotspot.com

Consumption Chain

A consumption chain is a set of linked activities that describes how a consumer uses a product. Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian MacMillan, in The Entrepreneurial Mindset; Strategies for Continuously Creating Opportunity in an Age of Uncertainty (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, p. 94).

A consumer driving a car might count in his or her consumption chain, shopping for the car, now probably on-line, trying the car out, financing the car, taking possession of the car, driving the car, fueling the car, maintaining the car, repairing the car when needed, and disposing of the car eventually.

Each of these steps has it's own value chain associated with it when looked at it from the producer's perspective. Of course, now increasingly consumers and producers are the same.

Sketching on paper the consumption chain of a user of your product or service is a very useful thing to do. I do it about two or three times a year. Things are chaning so fast out there, you have to do it more than once a year.

Such an exercise shows you the steps the user goes through and shows you places where you can improve your service or build a whole new business. Those companies you see advertised on tv who give car owners a whole new way of shopping for cars found it out by examinging the consumption chain of car buyers and the consumption chain of sellers.

What do you think? Post a comment. I'd like to know.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing, to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.com/blog.

Value Chain

The concept of a "value chain" was first put forth by Michael Porter in Competitive Advantage (New York: Free Press, 1985) as

A set of linked activities that occur to create a product or service, beginning with the acquisition of raw materials through delivery of the final service after sale.

This quote is not from Porter, but is from Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian MacMillan, in The Entrepreneurial Mindset; Strategies for Continuously Creating Opportunity in an Age of Uncertainty (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, p. 94). Wikipedia has an article on it as well. If you want to read more about value chains, get ahold of these sources and read them and their references.

Value chains are important for entrepreneurs to know about. They offer a powerful way of analyzing our businesses by breaking down our businesses into all the steps we have to go through to get our product sold or service delivered. They also give us a way of seeing how we can enhance our services by looking at each step in the chain and see how we can enhance each step. They also hold a key to what new businesses you could create.

What do you think? Post a comment. I'd like to know what you think.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com

Richness and Reach

Tremendous advantage we have as entrepreneurs in the age of disintermediation is that we no longer have to make a trade-off between richness and reach.

Philip Evans and Thomas S. Wurster, in Blown to Bits; How the New Ecnomics of Information Transforms Strategy (Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000, pp. 23-4.), put it this way:

To the extent to which information is embedded in physical modes of delivery, a basic law governss its econimics there is a universal trade-off between richness and reach. But unbundle information from its physical carrier, and the richness/reach trade-off can blow up.

The trade off is fairly simple. 'Richness' means the quality of the information as defined by the user: accuracy, bandwidth, currency, customazation, interactivity, relevance, security, and so forth...'Reach' means the number of people who participate in the sharing of that information.

Here's what makes our time so special:

Until recently, it has been possible to share extremely rich information with a very small number of people and less rich information with a larger number, but it has been impossible to share simultaneously as much richness and reach as one would like. This trade-off is at the heart of the old economics of information.

Now we can send lengthy emails, newsletters, have detailed websites, blogs, wikis, attach video to emails, the list is mind-boggling. None of this was possible before the economics of information was detatched from the economics of things by the internet.

What do you think? Are you interested in this? I'd like to know. Post a comment. And check out the Evans and Wurster book. It's profound and insightful.

Entrepreneurshp informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.hatman.com.

Black Swan Theory

The black swan theory refers to a large-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare event beyond the realm of normal expectations.

A "black swan" is an event which has a very small probability of occurring, but if it does, has very serious consequences. We all have experied this, right? Like running stoplight in the middle of the night when there are no cars around? Passing on the right, etc. They may get us a small gain in time or convenience or in boosted ego but might end up in an accident. Put enough black swans in the room, and we're sure to have a catastrophe.

Here's what Wikpedia says about it:

The theory was described by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his 2007 book The Black Swan. Taleb regards many scientific discoveries as black swans—"undirected" and unpredicted. He gives the rise of the Internet, the personal computer, the first world war, as well as the September 11, 2001 attacks as examples of Black Swan events.

The term black swan comes from the ancient Western conception that 'All swans are white'. In that context, a black swan was a metaphor for something that could not exist. The 17th Century discovery of black swans in Australia metamorphosed the term to connote that the perceived impossibility actually came to pass. Taleb notes that John Stuart Mill first used the black swan narrative to discuss falsification.

This has implications for entrepreneurs. We're always having to make decisions, and we have to take risks. Examining situations in terms of the possible consequences of each option, it's important to look at what the likely consequences are of improbable events which, if they happened. Of course we can't run our lives by all the things that could happen. And we can't foresee every lilttle thing. But we can look at our entreprise on a daily basis and come up with contingency plans for the worst possible events and know what we would do if they did happen. For example, what if we had no sales for a year. What's the fall back?

What do you think about this? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.com.

Biological Metaphor

According to Dictionary.com, a metaphor is: "A figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in 'A mighty fortress is our God.'" It's a comparison between two things without using "like" or "as." If the quote had said, "Our God is like a mighty fortess," it would have been a simile, not really as powerful is it?

I found a piece on the Internet on the biological metaphor at www.obsolete.com/dug/Bionet.htm which gives some text, which I'll reprint here. Keep in mind there is a link to his book. The page wouldn't come up when I tried to find it. Anyway, here what he says:

A valuable conceptual break-through, in the understanding of the Internet and the World Wide Web, can come about if, instead of looking at the Internet as a communication media, we looked upon it as an information environment very similar to a biological environment.

This may seem strange, but, the modern trend in molecular biology is to treat biological processes as a form of information processing.

With this new way of looking at biology - where molecules are seen as packets of data , cells seen as miniature computers and DNA considered to be digital storage devices - the abstraction of a biological environment maps across perfectly well to the environment of the Internet.

As we shall see later, there are many remarkable similarities between the information landscape of the Internet and biological environments and when abstractions of different kinds of systems are similar it becomes perfectly valid to use one as a metaphor for the other.

From a biological perspective, the Internet, with its substance consisting of hundreds of thousands of computer, can be viewed as fertile virgin soil: a fresh environment, where organic-like structures are free to form and evolve to create a new kind of eco-system.

This is more than just a novel way to look at the Internet, the implication is that all the vast knowledge and tools developed over this last century for understanding and controlling biological forms and structures can be brought to bear in helping us to understand the exact nature of this phenomenon we call the Internet and the World Wide Web.

In particular, we can call upon the tools and conceptual models developed for understanding and explaining the complex world of evolution. We can call upon the modern developments in molecular biology: where the break-throughs which have come in understanding the processes within the human cell will give us insights into developing and using the Internet. It is strange, but true, that the research now being carried out to help us defeat the aids virus is likely to be of great value in helping us design new product for the Web.

In the world of biological landscapes, the most successful structure to have evolved has been the cell. Enclosed within its confining membrane, the cell contains a vast library of genetic instructions (DNA), together with the machinery (mitochondria, etc.) to interpret and act upon those instructions. In this way, a single cell can multiply and turn its clones into a myriad of different little factories and data processing units whose combined interactions can create complex self replicating life forms; the variety of which defies all imagination...

In the landscape of natural biology the resultant product of cell processing is a life form. In the landscape of the Internet and the World Wide Web the resultant product will be... an AVATAR.

The point for us is that the biological metaphor has produced a lot of thinking about self-organized systems. This offers a very useful set of tools to help us think about our businesses. We know about hierarchy. We want to think of how our businesses work when viewed as self-organizing systems.

Regarding metaphors, there are metaphors for our lives. Regarding the recent political campaign, Obama is organizer. He scoped out his community (country) crafted an organizational strategy and message to tie them together, and applied those organizational skills to the campaign. The right metaphor for McCain is a fighter pilot. He flew around and dropped bombs on people. That just about summed up the campaign.

What metaphor describes you? What do you think about this? Are you interested in it? Come post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com

Military and Biological Metaphors

In the olden days, the military metaphor was the only metaphor for business. Success was achieved from the top with orders directed for employees to follow, much like a military unit going into battle.

More recently, the military metaphor has had to make room for the biological metaphor which compares business organization to an organism growing organically with minimum control from the top.

Alistair Mutch, a professor in the Department of Information Management and Systems, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK, in an article abstracted on the internet, "Organization Theory and Military Metaphor: Time for a Reappraisal?"Organization, Vol. 13, No. 6, 751-769 (2006) asks if this military metaphor should be questionned. He says,

A ‘conventional’ use of military metaphor would use it to convey attributes such as hierarchical organization, vertical communication and limited autonomy. This is often used in contrast to a looser form of organization based on the metaphor of the network. However, this article argues that military practice is more complex, with examples of considerable autonomy within the constraints of central direction. It is suggested that not only might this be a more useful metaphor for many contemporary organizations, but also that simplistic uses of military metaphor divert our attention away from the functions that management hierarchies play. The discussion is embedded within a critical realist account of metaphor, arguing for both its value and the need for its further development.

So if Dr. Mutch is correct, most organizations are a mixture of hierarchy and more horizontal structures. The point for you is to recognize how much close control from the top your enterprise should need. Hierarchy is more efficient, but too much control can hurt your chances of success. L.L. Bean, for example, carefully controlled all decisions throughout his life. It produced a good company but hurt growth down the line because everything had to be decided by him. LL Bean, the company, is of course alive and well today and is very regarded as a source of high quality outdoor close and gear. But it could only grow when management passed on to more modern ideas.

What do you think of this? Are you a command and control guy or a connect and collaborationalist? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog. For entrepreneurial writing, to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

Meta-analysis

A meta-analysis is a study of studies. Say you have 15 studies you've identified that measure the market share for widgets. Instead of collecting your own data, you do an analysis of the subject using study results as your data points. It's a way of creating primary data out of secondary data.

During the recent election, you might have seen the "poll of polls." That was the networks way of "averaging" the various polls done because the results were so inconsistent. A way of clearing out the clutter.

Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia says: "In statistics, a meta-analysis combines the results of several studies that address a set of related research hypotheses." Read the entire article and follow its links. I conducted a Google search on this and found lots of stuff, too, so read them.

And post a comment. I'd like to know what you think.

You often see meta-analysis in medical research. Medical studies are often conducted with a very small number of participants, so a good meta-analysis is actually stronger than any one of the studies. But I don't think until recently that the role of informational "bubbles" or "cascades" has been sufficiently recognized. That is, 100 researchers, all of whom read each other's work, can manufacture a false consensus. But that's for another blog posting.

Entrepreneurship informs everything I do. For my entrepreneurial real estate blog, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing and publishing, to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.
In short, knowing how to do literature searches and meta-analyses is a basic entrepreneurial skill, so you had better at least learn about it.

Primary Research

Secondary research, we learned, was pulling information from extant sources. Primary research, by contrast, is collecting data that that did not exist previously. Primary research can be quantitative or qualitative. Some methods typically typically used to collect primary data are telephone surveys, mailed questionnaires, focus groups, one-on-one interviews such as mall-intercepts, and variouis forms of observational research. Some reserachers use videotaping.

Now that the internet is in full bore, there are a number of tools that can be used economically and efficiently over the internet. When I was working as a market research these were quite novel and we didn't quite know what to make of them. I still have not seen any studies, but they seem to be close at hand and easy to use.

Entrepreneurs should carefully consider whether to conduct primary research. It can be expensive and can take a long time, running the risk that when he or she gets the information back it will be out of date. Also, for it to be useful it has to be well designed and well executed. A profesionnal survey researcher should be retained, and that can run into some money.

Nonetheless, read the Wikipedia article on it, it's very short, but has some links that may be useful to you. Plus, there are terabytes of information on survey research and quantitative methods. They give you a rich set of analytical tools which you can use to study your own enterprise and with which you ought to be familiar in case there's a study you want to read.

What do you think? I'd like to know. So post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com./blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschool.blogspot.com.

Secondary Research

Secondary research is the answering of questions from existing sources. Some sources of secondary research often used are census data, health data, industry studies, research reports of various kinds.

You should look for all the secondary research you can find. The internet is an excellent source of exising data, but with every other source, data from the internet needs to be analyzed critically.

Using existing data may be tricky. Sources may be old or out of date. The research may be not specific to the area you're interested in studying or to the questions you are asking. You may not be able to tell how the data were collected, what methodology was used, and so on. You may not know how well the study was carried out. The research may be too time-consuming or expensive to analyze. But before you go doing your own research, check out what's available until you've satisfied yourself that what's out there won't serve you at least initially.

What do you think? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all of my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research explores the "quality" of a thing, the how and the why of things. It draws meaning out of text as opposed to numbers. Wikipedia, the free, on-line, encyclopedia has quite a long article on qualitative research. If you're interested in it, read the whole article and follow its references and links. Wikipedia say:

Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern human behavior. Qualitative research relies on reasons behind various aspects of behavior. Simply put, it investigates the why and how of decision making, not just what, where, and when. Hence, the need is for smaller but focused samples rather than large random samples, which qualitative research categorizes data into patterns as the primary basis for organizing and reporting results. Qualitative researchers typically rely on four methods for gathering information: (1) participation in the setting, (2) direct observation, (3) in depth interviews, and (4) analysis of documents and materials.

Qualitative research provides another rich set of analytical tools. The entrepreneur can use them to analyze his business model, customer satisfaction, and his relationhships with his suppliers and his employees. All facets of his entreprise, really.

What do you think? Are you interested in this? I'll talk more on the relationship between qualitative and quantitative research in my next post. Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing go to www.kearneymusicschoomurders.blogspot.com.

Quantitative Market Research

Quantitative research measures numbers. How many people buy widgets? How satisfied are customers with product X? What factors are most important in buying a widget? What is the market share of Ford Motor Company? So on and so forth.

From Wikipedia we have this:

Quantitative marketing research is the application of quantitative research techniques to the field of marketing. It has roots in both the positivist view of the world, and the modern marketing viewpoint that marketing is an interactive process in which both the buyer and seller reach a satisfying agreement on the "four Ps" of marketing: Product, Price, Place (location) and Promotion.

As a social research method, it typically involves the construction of questionnaires and scales. People who respond (respondents) are asked to complete the survey. Marketers use the information so obtained to understand the needs of individuals in the marketplace, and to create strategies and marketing plans.

The topic is important for entrepreneurs because it offers a rich set of analytical tools with which to analyze the entrepeneur's enterprise, and the market, and to understand industry studies and news items regarding business. If you're interested in quantitative research, read the whole article, then follow the links and references. There is a ton of stuff on it.

And post a comment. I'd like to know what you think.

Entrepreneurship informs everything I do. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

Market Research

Research is the asking and systematic answering of questions. Finding out whether you should take an umbrella with you is not conducting research. Asking and looking into the question, what factors are associated with precipitation is. The key is systematic, though looking out the window in the morning to see what you should wear is not a bad idea. It's just not research.

Market research is research related to marketing questions. From Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, we have:

Market research is the process of systematically gathering, recording and analyzing data and information about customers, competitors and the market. Its uses include to help create a business plan, launch a new product or service, fine tune existing products and services, and expand into new markets. Market research can be used to determine which portion of the population will purchase a product/service, based on variables like age, gender, location and income level.

If you're interested in this, read the whole article and follow the links. There have also been hundreds of market research textbooks written on the subject, though the recent paradigm shift in the economics of information may have made moot a lot of the information out there. So whatever you read has to be filtered through an ever more recent lens of what society is like now.

I don't recommend that entrepreneurs commission market research studies. Such studies take money, require investment in time, and may not be helpful at the end of the study because society changed while the study was being done. Gathering all the information an entreprendur can find on consumer habits and preferences and so forth is key, though. Not just commissioned market research. I'll explain in subsequent postings.

What do you think? I want to know. Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing, to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.