Category: Business admin

The passion of Jamie Oliver

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Jamie has been coined as many things over the past few years including; jamie-2.jpgjamie-2.jpg

 

celebrity chef                                                       jamie-2.jpg

gastronomist

media personality

health & wellness lobbyist

social-preneur

Here’s another description to consider: Genuinely passionate person.  

He’s doing something he loves and believes in. He’s not faking it and there are no tricks.

 

We simply know this intuitively when we see him cook, eat and hear him talk. He exudes passion about food and everything to do with it. On top of this he uses his gift for good, such as his project Jamie’s School dinners, which you can check out by clicking here.

Here’s some quotes from Jamie himself:

I’ve seen kids with lunchboxes that contain half eaten McDonalds, a packet of crisps, and a can of red bull. That just makes me want to weep. That’s just like giving them a line of coke.”

“I’ll being doing school dinners for the next 10 years, if not th rest of my life”

“My view is that we’re all pretty spoilt now….but I think the best luxury in life comes from experience and knowledge, and I think that food and cooking are among the most important things out there for us to learn.”

 

Result: He’s respected. He’s in demand. He’s a business. He’s a brand.

 

Kudos Jamie.

Top 100 business blogs

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

It’s nice to be recognised for a consistent effort occassionally. As can be seen below Startup blog makes the top 100 business blogs – number 82.

Honestly, I’d still do it if no one was reading – because it’s worth doing.

  1. Business Opportunities Weblog T: 12 A: 16,213
  2. Copy Blogger T: 36 A: 7,825
  3. Seth Godin T: 47 A: 10,314
  4. MicroPersuasion T: 169 A: 33,643
  5. How To Change The World T: 180 A: 14,709
  6. Duct Tape Marketing T: 215 A: 31,714
  7. Freelance Switch T: 312 A: 10,638
  8. A VC T: 1,226 A: 27,737
  9. Rough Type T: 1,253 A: 69,429
  10. Successful Blog T: 1,432 A: 44,935
  11. Small Business Canada T: 1,517 A: N/A
  12. David Allen, Getting Things Done T: 1,549 A: 53,592
  13. Springwise T: 1,913 A: 23,858
  14. Small Biz Trends T: 2,155 A: 63,364
  15. Fast Company T: 2,310 A: 12,141
  16. Instigator Blog T: 2,477 A: 58,816
  17. Occam’s Razor T: 2,548 A: 45,541
  18. Smart Wealthy Rich T: 2,879 A: 79,415
  19. eMoms At Home T: 3,443 A: 27,125
  20. Escape from Cubicle Nation T: 3,467 A: 202,751
  21. The Marketing Technology Blog T: 3,496 A: 47,038
  22. Business Pundit T: 3,724 A: 114,669
  23. The Engaging Brand T: 4,404 A: 433,644
  24. Influential Marketing Blog T: 4,779 A: 98,886
  25. Drew McLellan – The Marketing Minute T: 4,820 A: 129,669
  26. The Digerati Life T: 4,873 A: 53,353
  27. Success From The Nest T: 4,908 A: 95,008
  28. Business Blog Consulting T: 5,186 A:237,901
  29. Church Of The Customer T: 5,576 A: 250,201
  30. Todd And T: 5,643 A: 161, 019
  31. Net Business Blog T: 5,936 A: 36,107
  32. Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing T: 6,583 A: 92,784
  33. Bootstrapper T: 7,497 A: 50,304
  34. About.com Entrepreneurs T: 7,797 A: N/A
  35. Blogtrepreneur T: 7,897 A: 53,011
  36. Branding & Marketing T: 8,200 A: 710,326
  37. Simplenomics T: 10,252 A:288,753
  38. Freelance Folder T: 10,543 A: 63,590
  39. HELLO, My Name Is Blog T: 11,395 A: 422,218
  40. Self Made Minds T: 11,704 A: 39,719
  41. Sox First T: 12,894 A: 994,161
  42. Young Go Getter T: 14,239 A: 45,373
  43. Trust Matters T: 15,462 A: 58,403
  44. Small Biz Survival T: A: 18,074 A: 875,069
  45. The Personal MBA T: 19,207 A: 142,649
  46. The Entrepreneurial Mind T: 21,958, A: 155,166
  47. Blog Business World T: 23,025 A: 252,405
  48. Working At Home On The Internet T: 23,247 A: 423,900
  49. Biz Informer T: 24,631 A: 904,745
  50. EmpowerWomenNow T: 25,837 A: 117,085
  51. Biz Plan Hacks T: 27,048 A: 1,335,732
  52. CreateBusinessGrowth T: 32,949 A:197,290
  53. Business Opportunities and Ideas T: 33,205 A: 282,805
  54. The KISS Business T: 35,496 A: 621,082
  55. Startup Spark T: 35,747 A: 386,949
  56. Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing Blog T: 41,092 A: 467,418
  57. MindPetals T: 41,714 A: 128,487
  58. Marketing Deviant T: 43,764 A: 281,072
  59. Go Big Network T: 44,842 A: 25,303
  60. Cool Business Ideas T: 49,679 A: 187,126
  61. Neville’s Financial Blog T: 52,048 A: 140,296
  62. Atlantic Canada’s Small Business Blog :T 52,589 A: 795,253
  63. College Startup T: 53,143 A: 184,398
  64. Reflections Of A Biz Driven Life T: 79,365 A: 361,398
  65. Branding Blog T: 93,462 A: 1,110,518
  66. Carnival Of The Capitalists T: 93,462 A: 1,897,375
  67. Young Entrepreneur T: 104,933 A: 26,491
  68. Marketing Genius T: 132,066 A: 2,222,119
  69. Better For Business T: 137,774 A: 590,797
  70. The Small Business Blog T: 140,824 A: 577,490
  71. Focused Mind T: 162,356 A: 520,971
  72. Small Business Tips T: 166,367 A: 74,005
  73. Lifes Perspective T: 194,358 A: 179,801
  74. Business Opportunities Blog T: 199,700 A: 832,678
  75. The Savvy Entrepreneur T: 224,227 A: 391,147
  76. Egg Marketing Blog T: 231,062 A: 740,867
  77. The Franchise King Blog T: 273,240 A: 520,732
  78. Small Business Entrepreneur T: 317,977 A: 883,094
  79. The Great Startup Game T: 331,293 A: 421,492
  80. Work At Home Start Up Guide T: 345,597 A: 1,190,178
  81. Dorm Room Biz T: 360,865 A: 957,072
  82. Startup Blog T: 377,609 A: 2,552,189
  83. Open Innovators T: 395,824 A: 1,230,257
  84. Get Entrepreneurial T: 437,475 A: 446,085
  85. Bplans Blog T: 437,475 A: 1,373,525
  86. Stuff4Restaurants T: 461,534 A: 298,982
  87. Canadian Entrepreneur T: 484,461 A: 237,901
  88. Strategize T: 487,964 A: 2,856,731
  89. The Marketing Spot T: 587,893 A: 2,550,840
  90. The Ravings Of A Mad Entrepreneurial Scientist T: 587,893 A: 566,836
  91. More Than We Know T: 871,446 A: 2,964,420
  92. Solo Entrepreneur T: 1,212,405 A: 471,491
  93. Stuff4Business T: 1,391,575 A: 298,982
  94. Consultant Journal T: 4,262,598 A: 667,342
  95. Startup Addict Musings T: 4,446,976 A: 1,03390,690
  96. Edith Yeung T: 8,911,336 A: 125,290
  97. Boostrap Me T: 8,911,336 A: 550,348
  98. The Selling Sherpa T: Not Listed A: 772,292
  99. BizzBangBuzz T: Not Listed A: 1,484,797
  100. The Freestyle Entrepreneur T: Not Listed A: 1,519,518

Business valuations & Facebook

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

The recent deal where Microsoft took a 1.6% stake in Facebook for $US240 Million valued the company at $US15 Billion.

 

Here’s some numbers:

  • Facebook has a revenue of approx $100m per annum. 

  • Although profit is currently undisclosed, even a generous 50% profit on sales margin would result in a diminutive profit of $50 million.

  • This would result in a PE ratio of 300 times!

  • Which means, it will take Microsoft 300 years to pay back their investment.

Start up blog view: This could be the most ridiculous sale price anyone has ever paid for a company.

Has everyone forgotten about these start up web 1.0 heroes of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s:

kozmo.com

Global crossing

Worldcom

govWorks.com

eToys

Boo.com

Pets.com

theGlobe.com

Where Investment banks and reputable companies such as Microsoft paid exorbitant  prices for many now non-existent companies with zillions of page views, sessions and ‘potential’?

It’s different this time, right?

At some point in our journey we all have to value a business. So we must remember the following:

When selling: Potential, emotion and short memories can get you a great price

When buying: Forget ‘potential’ and focus on ‘current’ earnings and investment payback period.

Bonus conspiracy theory: Microsoft really bought the personal information of the 42 million active Facebook members.

The 5% rule

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Five percent of the people we meet simply like to be difficult. They can’t be sold to, convinced, enlightened, managed or taken on any kind of journey. They might be customers, consumers, buyers, retailers, developers, employees, colleagues or anyone in our start up value chain.

Words to describe these people often include:

Obstinate

Arrogant

Rude

Apathetic

Dismissive

(insert negative adjective here)

No change in approach will change this fact. We didn’t make a mistake, we weren’t unprepared. It just is. We need to accept it and move.

Success is about people and numbers.

What we need to be aware of is if the 5% grows and becomes 10% or even 20% of people….. then it’s time consider whether we are on the wrong side of the 5% rule.

Crazy John

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Yesterday a great Australian entrepreneur ‘Crazy’ John Ilhan passed away. I won’t replicate the many newspaper articles about his life or fortune. You can Google him to see all of that. What I will point out is the many personal qualities he was documented as having:

 

Self belief

Highly motivated

Family man

Big ideas

Philanthropic

Risk taker

Failed quick, failed often

Bootstrapper

Game changer

PR machine

Knew how to dance with gorillas

– Telstra in his case. (topic of coming blog entry)

crazy-john.jpg

At the age of 41, it reminds us of the most important thing of all – our health.

Blog Action Day – my 2 cents…

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

This is a modified ‘repost’ from the early days of Startup blog. But it’s here to read again because I personally feel it is the truth underneath the climate change story.

 

Climate change is regarded by many as the biggest problem facing the global community.  It’s an issue that is unlikely to be resolved any time soon due to the fact the climate change isn’t the problem. It’s actually the symptom. The problem is excessive consumption.

 

Shopping trolley

Everything we do (consume) happens to emit greenhouse gases. Driving, eating, buying, mining and buildings all consume energy and resources being manufactured, delivered and used.  Governments and corporations are unlikely to encourage reduced consumption because apparently, growth is good.

 

Buying tree to offset carbon gas emissions isn’t enough.

 

Consider, then espouse.