I took this pic of this shop front / side in my local neighbourhood. It’s easy to see when you drive past.
Startup blog prize (free book) for anyone who can tell me what they do without calling the number (or knowing someone who works there / digging around).
I’m all for single minded simplicity, but if we are going to go to the effort to paint the brand and phone number, it’s also handy to have a tag line which tells people what we do.
Steve – rentoid.com
It’s oft said that opportunities in business arrive once we start looking. And startup blog agrees. It’s not really about opportunity though, it’s more about perceptive sentience, general awareness, and curiosity.
Today in Melbourne some opportunists scored big time. The weather savvy surfers got to surf in Port Phillip Bay which is usually as flat as a mill pond. For today we had weather which was as stormy as it has been it in many years…. (like the current share market?) Maybe, just maybe stormy enough for ridable surfing waves to form on the City doorstep.
Ok so it wasn’t classic surfing conditions but the waves where there (revenue ?) for those with the aforementioned qualities (perceptive sentience, general awareness, curiosity) to find.
Most surfers who live in Melbourne, which is a 75 minute drive from the closest surfing location, probably just rugged up with a hot cup of cocoa and forget about surfing in the terrible conditions (market downturn?). Well they missed out. While they didn’t seek opportunity others got a special treat and rode the fun, albeit bumpy waves.
Tomorrow, the waves will be gone.
The surfers out there today are like the kind of entrepreneurs I like to hang out with. People with a curiosity to investigate new situations. To imagine that the current conditions might present new and different opportunities. (They had to consider the wind, imagine the waves may be breaking, drive over and check it out) The type of people who have their resources (surfboard & wetsuit) on hand when chances pop up. People who don’t care that others may laugh at them surfing crappy waves in semi-polluted waters. The type of people who not only win, but have a ball doing it.
See more of these shots of the surfers here on my Twitpic page.
Steve – rentoid.com
We diversify our asset portfolios to reduce risk. To reduce the risk of a particular asset losing value, declining, getting stolen, lost, or broken. We store our assets in safes and banks and put locks on them. We even insure our assets.
If information is the new ‘asset’ – Why do we keep all our assets in only 1 or 2 devices? Just a laptop, a brain, maybe an iphone or external hard drive. Why don’t we diversify their location, or even afford them other types of protection?
Maybe they should be shared instead, and not hidden or locked up. Maybe the sharing of the asset will stimulate it’s growth. Maybe…. But there is little doubt they ought be protected.
image by Austin Kleon
words by Steve from rentoid.com
Dying |
Thriving |
Disposable |
Permanent |
Anonymous |
Identified |
Replace |
Repair |
Colleague |
Friend |
Volume |
Value |
Average |
Atypical |
Discounted |
Premium |
Ubiquitous |
Scarce / secret |
Processed |
Organic |
Spectate |
Participate |
As entrepreneurs we’re lucky to be living in a revolutionary period. A period where we can take the good from the Industrial Revolution (infrastructure & technology) and reject the bad stuff (directive attitudes & mass culture)
In relation to the lists above – startup blog strongly recommends your startup offer be placed in the right hand cloumn.
steve – rentoid.com
The 3 resources which matter for start ups and any business are listed below:
What do we need in each of these areas?
How do they interact in our area of business?
How will they change over time?
The questions about the 3 resources above should be in constant review. They remain in a constant state of flux.
If our current execution plan does not cover these areas and their interddence, then we’ve got a rocky road ahead – guaranteed.
Google images is a “good” place to find a photo or image – if we have it in mind.
Flickr is an “awesome” place for ‘creative inspiration’. When ever I’m struggling to find an image for something, and just can’t think of the best visual to do it…. I let the Flickr community do the thinking for me.
It’s a very cool way to leverage ‘semantic web’ for a visual solution. We can find visual interpretations our life experience would just never think of. Just click on the examples below and quickly scroll to see the great images we find for these words:
Sure, visuals aren’t game winning. But if we’re going to use them, they may as well be poignant and memorable. Oh yeh, be sure to use creative commons before you rip ’em.
(Irony – no visual in this post!)
Steve – founder rentoid.com
Love him or hate him, here’s another cool quote from Bono – which entrepreneurs can take with them:
“I don’t want to be in a crap band and any minute U2 become a crap band, we’re all out of here. And crap is not measured in sales, or even relevance. it’s about the sense of adventure.
Is it still there? Are you still blowing your own mind?”
Steve – founder rentoid.com