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<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://epaper.communityserver.com/utility/FeedStylesheets/rss.xsl" media="screen"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"><channel><title>epaperchase founders blog</title><link>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/default.aspx</link><description>On this blog you&amp;#39;ll find news about epaperchase, helpful tips, and various thoughts about our business philosphy.</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><generator>CommunityServer 2007.1 (Build: 20910.1126)</generator><item><title>Names That Stick: 10 Ideas to Consider When Naming Your Small Business</title><link>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/07/20/names-that-stick-10-ideas-to-consider-when-naming-your-business.aspx</link><pubDate>Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:52:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">86c0c071-f29d-489a-9a00-196ad9d922fa:78</guid><dc:creator>jstackepaper</dc:creator><slash:comments>1</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=78</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/07/20/names-that-stick-10-ideas-to-consider-when-naming-your-business.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/WindowsLiveWriter/Namingyourbusiness_71DE/Wrong_Way_Chinese_Food_2.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="border-top-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;margin:0px 15px 5px 0px;border-right-width:0px;" height="149" alt="Wrong_Way_Chinese_Food" src="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/WindowsLiveWriter/Namingyourbusiness_71DE/Wrong_Way_Chinese_Food_thumb.jpg" width="197" align="left" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; I am an infrequent contributor to &lt;a href="http://answers.yahoo.com/" target="_blank"&gt;Yahoo Answers&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp; If you are able to get past the teen posts, I think it can be an extremely valuable tool.&amp;nbsp; I think of it as free research - not only to check my sanity by answering questions but to get some feedback on various ideas.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Last week, someone asked for &lt;u&gt;business name ideas&lt;/u&gt;.&amp;nbsp; They were starting up an appliance repair and wanted an answer in one day (what, only one day?).&amp;nbsp; It gave me a little start.&amp;nbsp; Can it be that simple?&amp;nbsp; Some of the most popular companies have names that don&amp;#39;t make any sense and then others, well, they&amp;#39;re dead on:&amp;nbsp; &lt;a href="http://www.digg.com" target="_blank"&gt;Digg&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://www.yahoo.com" target="_blank"&gt;Yahoo&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://www.oracle.com" target="_blank"&gt;Oracle&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://www.hubspot.com" target="_blank"&gt;Hubspot&lt;/a&gt;, etc.&amp;nbsp; What about &lt;a href="http://boston.craigslist.org/" target="_blank"&gt;Craigslist&lt;/a&gt;?&amp;nbsp; Maybe not but it is a list?&amp;nbsp; How about Dr. Pooh&amp;#39;s Pet Center (near Atlanta)?&amp;nbsp; Do you need a web presence?&amp;nbsp; The exercise just got more complicated.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Here are some things you might consider - &lt;strong&gt;note - there are no rules, its your business&lt;/strong&gt; - you should have fun!&amp;nbsp; It still will be up to you to do everything else no matter how good or bad your name sounds!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;The Yellow Pages Concept:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; If you have a local business, name it so where it will appear first second or third in the yellow pages.&amp;nbsp; AAAAA++ Appliance Repair, etc.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Yes, yellow pages are still used.  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Established Locale Name:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; For example, New England Appliance Experts would root this business in an geography and perhaps potential customers a sense that the business has been around a long time.&amp;nbsp; This might give a sense of history to the customer.&amp;nbsp; Who was the most famous person in town?  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Align To Target Customers:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; Old Fogey repair might resonate with seniors, #3E might resonate with Stock Car fans, etc).  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dialing Names:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; You might base it on how someone might remember you when they dial you up: 800-Dea-dfrig  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Domain Naming:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; Deadfrig.com, get it, its available right now!  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Current Trend Names:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; Obama&amp;#39;s Appliance Service OPEC Repairs Sustainable Appliance Repair (Remember that Obama might not get elected though.&amp;nbsp; Also, what happens when the trend goes out of vogue and you&amp;#39;re still around?)  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Length:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; 11 letters or less. Strange but true. Preferably an odd number.&amp;nbsp; There are many opinions here but if you&amp;#39;re doing a domain as well, keep it SHORT.  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Techie naming:&lt;/strong&gt; LR1 Appliance (tends to upset folks and kill a large part of your demographic)&amp;nbsp; Geek Squad makes sense though.  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fun Names:&lt;/strong&gt; The Wives Always Call Us Guys.&amp;nbsp; &amp;#39;nuf said.  &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Value-based:&lt;/strong&gt; TruSt Appliance Repair, Fast Solid Repairs, All Brands Repairs.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt; &lt;p&gt;Other thoughts:&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Can you do a play on words?&amp;nbsp; I think you can sometimes and other times, it doesn&amp;#39;t work. A friend of mine named his business with a &amp;quot;new&amp;quot; word that rhymed with explosion.&amp;nbsp; It just didn&amp;#39;t fly; however, some might overlook a name when they&amp;#39;re looking for something specific.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; I saw one blog that gave advice about naming called essortment.&amp;nbsp; Hmmm.&amp;nbsp; What were they thinking?&amp;nbsp; They suggested using latin roots to convey an idea.&amp;nbsp; Hmmm.  &lt;li&gt;You&amp;#39;ll be making a significant investment in your name.&amp;nbsp; I probably wouldn&amp;#39;t create it without getting opinions and without solid reasons why you&amp;#39;ve named it as such.&amp;nbsp; &lt;li&gt;Its ok to have multiple meanings.&amp;nbsp; (see below.)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p&gt;(Rong Hua is in Racine, Wisconsin.&amp;nbsp; I had a good laugh but was not motivated enough to find out what they were trying to convey.&amp;nbsp; Perhaps it was meant to be thought about after you get a block away?)&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;(What about &lt;a href="http://www.epaperchase.com/" target="_blank"&gt;epaperchase?&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp; The movie epaperchase was about the tension a college student experienced when finding a new love on campus while still trying to get good grades.&amp;nbsp; I think business owners are torn between doing what they love and their books.&amp;nbsp; You might have to think about it but the name has double and triple meanings.)&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Got any great names that stick?&amp;nbsp; Any other ideas that have worked for you?&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; How about two names?&amp;nbsp; One for the web and one for the street?&amp;nbsp; Would that work?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src="http://epaper.communityserver.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=78" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/supercharge+your+business/default.aspx">supercharge your business</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Small+Business+Management/default.aspx">Small Business Management</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Good+Advice/default.aspx">Good Advice</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/small+business/default.aspx">small business</category></item><item><title>5 Diesel-Saving Tips for Small Contractors</title><link>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/07/15/5-things-small-contractors-can-do-to-cope-with-rising-gas-prices.aspx</link><pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:01:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">86c0c071-f29d-489a-9a00-196ad9d922fa:70</guid><dc:creator>jstackepaper</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=70</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/07/15/5-things-small-contractors-can-do-to-cope-with-rising-gas-prices.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;a href="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/WindowsLiveWriter/5ThingsSmallContractorsCanDoToCopeWithRi_7097/Ford%20Truck_2.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="BORDER-RIGHT:0px;BORDER-TOP:0px;MARGIN:0px 5px 5px 0px;BORDER-LEFT:0px;BORDER-BOTTOM:0px;" height="179" alt="Ford Truck" src="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/WindowsLiveWriter/5ThingsSmallContractorsCanDoToCopeWithRi_7097/Ford%20Truck_thumb.jpg" width="244" align="left" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; After putting $65 into my gas tank yesterday (the 2000 equivalent of a tank of gas and dinner with my wife), I thought I would call a few folks and ask them for creative ways to save gas for their business.&amp;nbsp; Each of them has more than one truck they use for business and all of them use diesel.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No more idling&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;nbsp; Don&amp;#39;t start the engine and then let it sit.&amp;nbsp; Start it and within the next minute or so, get on your way.&amp;nbsp; The warm cab in the wintertime?&amp;nbsp; Forget about it.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; One contractor said that employees that are caught idling are fined $10 on payday.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Charge the customer mileage from your location to theirs&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;nbsp; Don&amp;#39;t just say that if you&amp;#39;re in a particular town or city.&amp;nbsp; Divide the town or city up into quadrants if it is larger than 20 square miles.&amp;nbsp; Some might say this is pennies saved and pound foolish.&amp;nbsp; Everyone I spoke to yesterday said that over a year, it matters.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Unload unnecessary equipment - &lt;/strong&gt;Jeff, a friend of mine who does excavation used to carry a huge toolbox in the back of his truck.&amp;nbsp; The box alone weighed 200 lbs and the tools inside, another 200.&amp;nbsp; He leaves it at the shop, along with the welder.&amp;nbsp; He says he&amp;#39;s weighed the odds of leaving stuff at home and Murphy&amp;#39;s Law doesn&amp;#39;t seem to apply.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No more leaving the jobsite for lunch - &lt;/strong&gt;Jeff doesn&amp;#39;t let his guys leave the jobsite for lunch anymore.&amp;nbsp; He says his guys now save money by bringing a sack lunch or starve.&amp;nbsp; He saves at least $10 a day and his guys don&amp;#39;t add project risk by getting stuck in traffic or running personal errands.&amp;nbsp; If one of his workers knows they have to leave, they better bring their car to the jobsite - and be back on time or get docked.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Consider getting storage tanks at the shop - &lt;/strong&gt;There are all sorts of considerations here such as increased insurance costs, employee pilfering but over the long haul, you might save trips to the gas station and have a hedge against increased costs.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;What else can contractors and small businesses do to save petrodollars?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src="http://epaper.communityserver.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=70" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Good+Advice/default.aspx">Good Advice</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Save+Money/default.aspx">Save Money</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/geen/default.aspx">geen</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/small+business/default.aspx">small business</category></item><item><title>Dilemma For Every Business- When Do You Get To Have Fun?</title><link>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/06/25/the-dilemma-for-every-business-when-do-you-get-to-have-fun.aspx</link><pubDate>Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:01:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">86c0c071-f29d-489a-9a00-196ad9d922fa:64</guid><dc:creator>jstackepaper</dc:creator><slash:comments>11</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=64</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/06/25/the-dilemma-for-every-business-when-do-you-get-to-have-fun.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/WindowsLiveWriter/TheDilemmaForEveryBusinessWhenDoYouGetTo_795C/What%20To%20Do_4.png"&gt;&lt;img style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH:0px;BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH:0px;BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH:0px;BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH:0px;" height="164" alt="What To Do" src="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/WindowsLiveWriter/TheDilemmaForEveryBusinessWhenDoYouGetTo_795C/What%20To%20Do_thumb_1.png" width="240" align="left" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; This short piece will do one of two things:&amp;nbsp; Be fun for you and start you thinking about your business in a different way or be more stressful because you&amp;#39;re thinking about your business in a different way.&amp;nbsp; The original title of this post was &amp;quot;Founders Dilemma:&amp;nbsp; What to Do and When&amp;quot; until I started looking at my own business and the discussions I have had with others.&amp;nbsp; My thoughts, after peeling back quite a few layers and going back to previous discussions led me to the following question:&amp;nbsp; &lt;strong&gt;When Do You Get To Have Fun?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Did you remember that you were supposed to have fun today?&amp;nbsp; Didn&amp;#39;t you put that on your calendar?&amp;nbsp; Did you forget? If you are truly an entrepreneur, your answer better ALWAYS or make it fun ALWAYS or know which parts aren&amp;#39;t fun for you and slog through them or hire them to be done.&amp;nbsp; Alternatively, make them fun intentionally.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;First, I better qualify that fun might be substituted for &amp;quot;enjoy.&amp;quot;&amp;nbsp; &amp;quot;I don&amp;#39;t mind&amp;quot; might apply to activities that are sitting on the fence between delegate and enjoy.&amp;nbsp; I built this business because I did not like and did not have any fun at (well, hated would not be to &amp;quot;light&amp;quot; a phrase) one thing - expense tracking.&amp;nbsp; Ok, shameless plug, please read on.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Here are some things that I continually have to revisit:&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Things are easier when we are having fun. (Establishing the right frame of mind.) 
&lt;li&gt;You can have fun but still be serious.&amp;nbsp; (I think any business can be fun.) 
&lt;li&gt;Self-induced pressure is not fun.&amp;nbsp; Change the plan or my attitude so it doesn&amp;#39;t feel like pressure.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Deciding to have fun might not even be a conscious choice.&amp;nbsp; For others (like me), I had to organize my thoughts to understand it.&amp;nbsp; I really had to think about it.&amp;nbsp; Crazy, I know.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Everyone knows this part - the three essential things you need in business:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A problem that you are solving 
&lt;li&gt;A customer 
&lt;li&gt;A solution and the ability to deliver it&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;#39;re a contractor, you are solving an existing problem, you&amp;#39;ve gotten some training, you&amp;#39;re looking for a customer, and with a deposit and some tools, you should be able to deliver.&amp;nbsp; If you&amp;#39;re a software company, hopefully you have talked with customers and you&amp;#39;ve built some software.&amp;nbsp; It&amp;#39;s likely than you&amp;#39;ll add more features to respond to the competition or keep ahead of it.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To deliver any of the essential requirements, you have to work or build up the following business areas:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Funding and Finances 
&lt;li&gt;Messages (Marketing, positioning, etc)&amp;nbsp; 
&lt;li&gt;Build Your Offering (At least describe what you do) 
&lt;li&gt;Get Customers (Ibid) 
&lt;li&gt;Deliver Your Offering&amp;nbsp; (Self Explanatory) 
&lt;li&gt;Infrastructure (You have to have some kind of structure behind what you deliver or you can&amp;#39;t deliver it.) 
&lt;li&gt;Support Offering (Do you stand behind what you&amp;#39;ve done?&amp;nbsp; What if there are unanticipated problems?) 
&lt;li&gt;Planning&amp;nbsp; (Did you think about any of the above listed items?&amp;nbsp; That&amp;#39;s the beginning of planning.)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#39;ve found that &lt;strong&gt;each business area has different modifiers or variables&lt;/strong&gt;:&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Timing:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; What to focus on and when, which is driven mostly by ability and resources but also partly by maturity &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maturity&lt;/strong&gt;:&amp;nbsp; What will work for now, what helps build the business, what supports the business and the customer now and later, what can the customer handle now or later &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ability:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; Do we have the resources (time, cash, materials, knowledge, people) to do something now &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;One area&amp;#39;s relationship to another business area:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; We can&amp;#39;t talk to customers yet, we don&amp;#39;t have the right message.&amp;nbsp; We can&amp;#39;t deliver since we don&amp;#39;t have enough customers, etc.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;How does this matter when you&amp;#39;re having fun?&amp;nbsp; Having your own business is all about self-induced pressure and the (endorphins it creates)- in fact if you don&amp;#39;t feel it, perhaps you&amp;#39;re not stretching your boundaries enough.&amp;nbsp; For some, pressure isn&amp;#39;t fun.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For me, the fun is figuring out how to &lt;u&gt;change the relationship&lt;/u&gt; between any given business area and its particular modifier.&amp;nbsp; For example, can we afford to add this function and if we do, how do we support it?&amp;nbsp; Does it make sales more fun by making things easier?&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Maybe not but it might affect the timing of when we can deliver something or the sales cycle.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Understanding the maturity of any given situation relates to how you may deal with the problem.&amp;nbsp; Knowing you can or cannot deliver and when you might deliver might reduce the pressure.&amp;nbsp; Is the market ready?&amp;nbsp; Pushing time seems to be something we all do.&amp;nbsp; Knowing when its the right time for something very likely has to do with maturity and that&amp;nbsp; business item&amp;#39;s dependency on something else.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you have problem with your business, perhaps you can take a look at the drivers, think about doing something in the middle - between your vision of what it should be that you want to do and what you can do now.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Lastly, I have this notion that &lt;strong&gt;you can build in the fun in the very beginning.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; In other words, add it as one of the business areas or add it as a modifier.&amp;nbsp; I have fun in my head.&amp;nbsp; Its a simple thing really.&amp;nbsp; I have fun thinking about the silliest notions of how something should be and then try to get more serious about it (wistfully thinking about the silly part.)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You might consider some of these crazy examples:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Is talking to customers on the phone an unpleasant task for you?&amp;nbsp; What would make it fun?&amp;nbsp; Think of the person you&amp;#39;re calling sitting next to you in a bar or at a picnic table or wearing your favorite sports team&amp;#39;s jersey.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Is Funding and Finance difficult for you?&amp;nbsp; Go get some monopoly money and add zeros to the numbers.&amp;nbsp; Make piles of what you owe and don&amp;#39;t owe.&amp;nbsp; Set some goals for when you can rip up some of the money that represents debt.&amp;nbsp; Rip up some now to see how it feels.&amp;nbsp; If it makes you feel better, burn some of it.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Is marketing the worse part or the least fun for you?&amp;nbsp; Develop silly messages first.&amp;nbsp; For example, a masseuse might say something like &amp;quot;We let you relax so much it&amp;#39;s almost illegal.&amp;quot;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dreading a conversation with a customer who is dissatisfied with you?&amp;nbsp; Send them a birthday cake.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Do you have any things that make your company more fun on a daily basis?&amp;nbsp; How do you build it into the equation?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src="http://epaper.communityserver.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=64" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/supercharge+your+business/default.aspx">supercharge your business</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Priorities/default.aspx">Priorities</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Fun/default.aspx">Fun</category></item><item><title>Elevator Speeches that Work - The Platinum Rule</title><link>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/06/19/elevator-speeches-that-work-the-platinum-rule.aspx</link><pubDate>Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:36:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">86c0c071-f29d-489a-9a00-196ad9d922fa:61</guid><dc:creator>jstackepaper</dc:creator><slash:comments>5</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=61</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/06/19/elevator-speeches-that-work-the-platinum-rule.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;p align="justify"&gt;Person in Elevator:&amp;nbsp; &amp;quot;I see you are wearing shoes today (or some innocuous opener).&amp;nbsp; What do you do for a living?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;Me, looking down at my feet:&amp;nbsp; &amp;quot;Close call on that one.&amp;nbsp; I usually forget something!&amp;nbsp; I have a software company that provides incredible value for small business owners. You?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;Person A in Elevator (who used the shoe line as an opener):&amp;nbsp; &amp;quot;Great chatting with you.&amp;nbsp; Have a nice day.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;Person B in Elevator (who was really interested in what you do and he makes it his business to network):&amp;nbsp; &amp;quot;How do you help small businesses?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;Me:&amp;nbsp; &amp;quot;Thanks for asking!&amp;nbsp; We have a wonderfully simple web service that helps people save time and headaches by tracking their business expenses.&amp;nbsp; What&amp;#39;s more, we have a great community of people doing it.&amp;nbsp; What business are you in?&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;We&amp;#39;re all smart enough to know what an elevator speech is.&amp;nbsp; Business experts instruct us to boil down your marketing messages into one succinct statement about what you do or what your business does.&amp;nbsp; I disagree completely.&amp;nbsp; One all purpose statement does not cut it and never will.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;What&amp;#39;s one statement going to do for you?&amp;nbsp; I purposefully lead someone into asking another question.&amp;nbsp; If they don&amp;#39;t ask, they weren&amp;#39;t interested and were just being polite to &amp;quot;pass their time&amp;quot; - not yours....&amp;nbsp; If they do ask, they are one of the following:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;div class="style9" align="justify"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Respectful since you did ask it in a way that created a question&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;div class="style9" align="justify"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Genuinely interested in what you do and your leader intrigued them&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;div class="style9" align="justify"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Loves talking business and will talk with anyone&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;According to Ruth Sheets, &lt;a href="http://www.ducksinarowconsulting.com/" target="_blank"&gt;Ducks In A Row Consulting&lt;/a&gt;, &amp;quot;the key to the elevator speech is the target audience&amp;quot; and I agree with her!&amp;nbsp; If you don&amp;#39;t know your business, you haven&amp;#39;t practiced in the mirror or during long drives enough or you&amp;#39;re still trying to figure that out!&amp;nbsp; Secondly, have your elevator speech to specifically address a variety of people.&amp;nbsp; Find out early who you are talking to!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;Here&amp;#39;s my logic:&amp;nbsp; Since you are invested in what you do, you have an obligation to squeeze out as much mileage during a conversation while still being polite and civil.&amp;nbsp; You have a problem if you don&amp;#39;t know who you&amp;#39;re talking with.&amp;nbsp; Your message might not convey enough for the person to act in their own best interest.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here is the platinum rule (not the golden one*):&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; You&amp;#39;re not saying something for your benefit - you&amp;#39;re saying it for theirs.&amp;nbsp; You&amp;#39;re saying something so that they can form a conclusion and you&amp;#39;re obligated (as a vested party) to show them the path to an affirmative decision about both you, your company and your product or service.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;The following messages are oriented towards each potential audiences.&amp;nbsp; For each, there is something they&amp;#39;re looking for.&amp;nbsp; If you don&amp;#39;t know, give a generic elevator speech and ask them what their audience might be looking for.&amp;nbsp; (Below, I&amp;#39;m using what I know - my business - but you&amp;#39;ll get the point.) &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table class="style10" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0" class="style10"&gt;

&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:60.75pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Audience&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:110pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p style="WIDTH:191px;"&gt;Answer&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:123pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;"&gt;Strategy&lt;br /&gt;/Their triggers&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:63pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;"&gt;Person in the elevator you don&amp;#39;t know - yet!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:110pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p style="WIDTH:187px;LINE-HEIGHT:normal;"&gt;Statement: &amp;quot;I have a web services company that provides incredible value for small businesses. You?&amp;quot;&amp;nbsp; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Answer with a high level that doesn&amp;#39;t say exactly say what you do.&amp;nbsp; Create a question.&amp;nbsp; If they are interested, you get a chance to say more than ten words.&amp;nbsp; If they ask, be sure to ask what they do as well!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:123pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;"&gt;Strategy:&amp;nbsp; Lead them into finding out more.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Triggers:&amp;nbsp; incredible value, small business interest - everyone loves a success story!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:64.5pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;"&gt;VC or Funder&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:110pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p style="WIDTH:184px;LINE-HEIGHT:normal;"&gt;Statement: &lt;/span&gt;This is a big one.&amp;nbsp; &amp;quot;epaperchase is a partner-led Quicken with unique features for small businesses who are focused on their business and not on their books.&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;About 15 words.&amp;nbsp; Some say &lt;/span&gt;&amp;lt; an and vision a&amp;gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:123pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;"&gt;Strategy:&amp;nbsp; Let them fit your company into what they do but creates a question with &amp;quot;unique features.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Triggers: Quicken-like gives them the analogy and you&amp;#39;ve stated the business value for small businesses.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:66pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;"&gt;Potential Partner&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:110pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p style="WIDTH:182px;LINE-HEIGHT:normal;"&gt;Statement: &lt;/span&gt;epaperchase is a web-based expense tracking business that&amp;#39;s easy and inexpensive for partners to get into.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:123pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p style="LINE-HEIGHT:normal;"&gt;Strategy:&amp;nbsp; Partners are looking for extra revenue or income without a big investment in time and money.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Triggers: Easy and inexpensive&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:66.75pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Local Banker&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:110pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p style="WIDTH:177px;"&gt;Statement: epaperchase is a fantastic business to help your customers get organized!&amp;nbsp; Our partners help small businesses by scanning and recording expenses.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:123pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Strategy:&amp;nbsp; Banks look to businesses to be organized and stable.&amp;nbsp; They hate messes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Triggers:&amp;nbsp; Expense mgt, compliance&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:68.25pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Potential Small Business Customers for our partners&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:110pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p style="WIDTH:175px;"&gt;Statement: Do you know how people either like to mow their lawn or hire it done?&amp;nbsp; We&amp;#39;re that for your expenses.&amp;nbsp; We have partners who like to record and scan your expenses inexpensively.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:123pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Strategy: Simple to understand&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Triggers:&amp;nbsp; Giving someone a choice.&amp;nbsp; Frequently small business owners feel boxed in and are forced to do their expenses.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:69pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mom&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:110pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p style="WIDTH:171px;"&gt;Statement:&amp;nbsp; Do you know how I&amp;#39;ve had a variety of positions and responsibilities?&amp;nbsp; This is the culmination of all of them.&amp;nbsp; (She inevitably says &amp;quot;Good Luck. Want something to eat?&amp;quot;)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td class="" style="PADDING-RIGHT:0.75pt;PADDING-LEFT:0.75pt;PADDING-BOTTOM:0.75pt;WIDTH:123pt;PADDING-TOP:0.75pt;"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Strategy:&amp;nbsp; You never have to work hard to make Mom proud.&amp;nbsp; Just let her know you&amp;#39;re trying!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Triggers:&amp;nbsp; This is it Mom!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;If you&amp;#39;re looking at a new audience, test your message with them and be honest in saying you&amp;#39;re just getting started.&amp;nbsp; How do they perceive your value?&amp;nbsp; How do you want them to perceive your value?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;Last thing:&amp;nbsp; Why the platinum rule and not the golden one?&amp;nbsp; I&amp;#39;m convinced that you&amp;#39;re acting in your own self-interests when you&amp;#39;re acting on behalf of other.&amp;nbsp; Give the other person the benefit of having formed a positive conclusion about your business and you!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tell me your elevator speech!&amp;nbsp; I&amp;#39;d love to hear it!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src="http://epaper.communityserver.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=61" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/supercharge+your+business/default.aspx">supercharge your business</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Good+Advice/default.aspx">Good Advice</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/small+business/default.aspx">small business</category></item><item><title>Be Marginal To Be Green (this really works.)</title><link>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/06/12/be-marginal-to-be-green-this-really-works.aspx</link><pubDate>Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:22:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">86c0c071-f29d-489a-9a00-196ad9d922fa:50</guid><dc:creator>jstackepaper</dc:creator><slash:comments>589</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=50</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/06/12/be-marginal-to-be-green-this-really-works.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;a href="http://epaper.communityserver.com/controlpanel/blogs/$image[7].png"&gt;&lt;img style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH:0px;BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH:0px;BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH:0px;MARGIN:0px 15px 10px 0px;BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH:0px;" height="216" alt="image" src="http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/greenblog/StateHouseblog.jpg" width="134" align="left" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;Change your page margins to save trees and increase carbon offsets. On &lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.npr.org/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;NPR&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt; today, Terry Gross interviewed 4th Graders from Attrium Grade School in Watertown about their green project. These kids are quite a bit smarter than us, showing us a simple concept can go a long long way: The kids, interviewed in the &lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/greenblog/2008/05/a_small_margin_change.html" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;Boston Globe a month ago&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;, calculated that in the US alone, we can save 6,156,000 trees per year if we just reduced our margins when printing. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;The great part is they took action with their findings by gaining agreement from the City of Watertown, Massachusetts to reduce their page margins. Shortly after, the children took their idea to cities of Cambridge and Malden as well as legislators from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Their orginal goal was taking the message out to the whole world (let&amp;#39;s see if we can do that here!)&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;I had to pause a bit to think about this.&amp;nbsp; This week, I went to the &lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.enterprise2conf.com/" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;Enterprise 2.0 Conference&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt; held at the Westin Waterfront in Boston.&amp;nbsp; It was a good, but small show and it probably only killed 30 or 40 healthy pines.&amp;nbsp; But why not give out business cards with URLs?&amp;nbsp; Everyone is connected, how about saving a few hundred trees by prohibiting printed brochures or printed materials?&amp;nbsp; (My dog Bubba got a little stuffed monkey.&amp;nbsp; That&amp;#39;s ok, isn&amp;#39;t it?)&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;If you&amp;#39;re curious - here&amp;#39;s &lt;strong&gt;my math&lt;/strong&gt; assuming you change from 1/2 inch to 1/4 inch top, bottom, left and right hand margins. You &lt;strong&gt;save 6.667% of a single sheet of paper.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp; In other words, for &lt;strong&gt;every fifteen pages of changed margins, you will have saved over one page.&lt;/strong&gt; For every ream of paper, 33 pages.&amp;nbsp; (75 square inches of available paper before and 80 square inches after, you&amp;#39;ve saved 5 square inches of paper.).&amp;nbsp; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;Here are more ideas:&amp;nbsp; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;1.&amp;nbsp; Use alternative paper sources like rapid growing bamboo or willow.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;2.&amp;nbsp; Write to your city to do this with all documents.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;3.&amp;nbsp; Print this at the bottom of every PDF:&amp;nbsp; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;a href="http://epaper.communityserver.com/controlpanel/blogs/$image[8].png"&gt;&lt;img style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH:0px;BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH:0px;BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH:0px;BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH:0px;" height="31" alt="image" src="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/green.jpg" width="37" align="left" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;font size="2"&gt;When printing, please consider our environment&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;Lastly, somehow, editors and lawyers think they need their margins.&amp;nbsp; Someone needs to figure out a way to help them (in more ways than one!)&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;(Thanks to my friend Suzy at &lt;/font&gt;&lt;a href="http://epaper.communityserver.com/controlpanel/blogs/www.polycom.com" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;Polycom&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt; for this one!)&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;font size="2"&gt;Got any others?&amp;nbsp; How do we help lawyers and editors?&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src="http://epaper.communityserver.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=50" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Save+Money/default.aspx">Save Money</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Working+Green/default.aspx">Working Green</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/NPR/default.aspx">NPR</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Margins/default.aspx">Margins</category></item><item><title>20 Minute Blog Post:  What can you do in 20 minutes?</title><link>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/06/02/20-minute-blog-post-what-can-you-do-in-20-minutes.aspx</link><pubDate>Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:39:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">86c0c071-f29d-489a-9a00-196ad9d922fa:48</guid><dc:creator>jstackepaper</dc:creator><slash:comments>3</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=48</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/06/02/20-minute-blog-post-what-can-you-do-in-20-minutes.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;p align="justify"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;img style="margin:0px 15px 0px 0px;" height="138" alt="UW Madison 4x100 Anchor By Mark Sadowski - Creative Commons - Flickr" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/44/142009175_281d0a1d96.jpg?v=0" width="206" align="left" /&gt; I decided to write this post in 20 minutes - not only to find out how much I can get done but also to find out in that time but find out if I am able to completely focus on one job and get it done well.&amp;nbsp; What can you get done for your business in 20 undisturbed minutes?&amp;nbsp; Focusing on what my blog is about, I thought I would try it and now, I&amp;#39;m almost wasting time.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p align="justify"&gt;Here&amp;#39;s my list of things you can do in twenty minutes including this blog post: &lt;p align="justify"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;div align="justify"&gt;Call two customers and catch up.&amp;nbsp; I&amp;#39;ll start the conversation out with &amp;quot;I only have a few minutes but I thought I would call.&amp;quot;&amp;nbsp; That bound to give us both to a sense of urgency (it also makes my friend or acquaintance wonder if that is too long or too short.)&amp;nbsp; The sense of urgency comes because you don&amp;#39;t want to embarrass yourself that you ran over.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;div align="justify"&gt;Research a new way to market.&amp;nbsp; I&amp;#39;m not going to spend all day on this, only 20 minutes.&amp;nbsp; If I don&amp;#39;t find anything, its definitely research.&amp;nbsp; If I score an idea, then its off to seeing if they might work for me.&amp;nbsp; (That might require me using #1.)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;div align="justify"&gt;Identify a way to increase your reach at a customer.&amp;nbsp; This is a tall order.&amp;nbsp; If you&amp;#39;re not doing #1 at all, don&amp;#39;t expect them to say anything that will help you get close to them.&amp;nbsp; Pick one customer, focus on them first.&amp;nbsp; If you do talk to them, ask them for ways that you can help them.&amp;nbsp; Don&amp;#39;t make them do all the work - lead them in a conversation to start the dialog - perhaps it is &amp;quot;How do you thank your customers?&amp;nbsp; How do you show thanks?&amp;nbsp; Do they get random notes, cards, letters, information in their field that might be helpful?&amp;quot;&amp;nbsp; Lead them to having a closer relationship.&amp;nbsp; Do that by adding value to your existing one.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;div align="justify"&gt;Review what you spent last month in travel.&amp;nbsp; This might tell you something about your habits.&amp;nbsp; If you&amp;#39;re lucky, you got a customer to pay for it.&amp;nbsp; If not, maybe you&amp;#39;re looking for a way to save money.&amp;nbsp; Did you book early enough?&amp;nbsp; Were there alternatives to getting there?&amp;nbsp; If it was your first time, would you stay at the same hotel again?&amp;nbsp; Did you get your frequent fliers recorded?&amp;nbsp; Did you get any traction out of buying your customer dinner?&amp;nbsp; (We don&amp;#39;t always do this because we&amp;#39;re nice, right?)&amp;nbsp; &lt;em&gt;Outlook popped up with an email from my brother...&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;div align="justify"&gt;Develop a list of the top ten customers that you&amp;#39;re most likely to keep and write down one or two reasons why?&amp;nbsp; Were you more successful at those customers?&amp;nbsp; Did they like your work the best?&amp;nbsp; Which ones were the most hassle?&amp;nbsp; Would you repeat anything?&amp;nbsp; Would you avoid anything?&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;div align="justify"&gt;Develop a list of your next ten customers?&amp;nbsp; If you haven&amp;#39;t identified them, perhaps you can identify the types of customers they are.&amp;nbsp; You can can build a vision of your future company this way.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;em&gt;The phone rang...&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;div align="justify"&gt;Envision the next customer engagement.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Think about the entire process from you selling the job to you thanking the customer on your way out the door.&amp;nbsp; What was different about that than real life?&amp;nbsp; I find that I leave one or two problems at the door on this one!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;div align="justify"&gt;Think of one thing that you can do either today or tomorrow to promote your business.&amp;nbsp; Chart it out and do it.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt; &lt;p align="justify"&gt;Three minutes left....proofing....time&amp;#39;s up, I think I did ok and I truly hope I helped someone!&amp;nbsp; If not, I think I gave myself some ideas!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p align="justify"&gt;Last item - find an appropriate graphic - that&amp;#39;s the big time sink...never done in 20....&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p align="justify"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src="http://epaper.communityserver.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=48" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Blogging/default.aspx">Blogging</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/supercharge+your+business/default.aspx">supercharge your business</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Small+Business+Management/default.aspx">Small Business Management</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Helpful+Tips/default.aspx">Helpful Tips</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Good+Advice/default.aspx">Good Advice</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Advice/default.aspx">Advice</category></item><item><title>Trust is All - Steven Covey's 4 Core Principles To Building It</title><link>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/05/26/Trust_5F00_is_5F00_All_5F00_Steven_5F00_Covey_5F00_s_5F00_4_5F00_Core_5F00_Principles_5F00_To_5F00_Building.aspx</link><pubDate>Mon, 26 May 2008 15:37:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">86c0c071-f29d-489a-9a00-196ad9d922fa:46</guid><dc:creator>jstackepaper</dc:creator><slash:comments>6</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=46</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/05/26/Trust_5F00_is_5F00_All_5F00_Steven_5F00_Covey_5F00_s_5F00_4_5F00_Core_5F00_Principles_5F00_To_5F00_Building.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a title="Trust is Very Complex, Can You Systematically Build It?" href="http://thing/"&gt;&lt;img style="BORDER-RIGHT:0px;BORDER-TOP:0px;BORDER-LEFT:0px;WIDTH:192px;BORDER-BOTTOM:0px;HEIGHT:210px;" height="171" alt="Trusting Yourself To Be Trusted" src="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/j0426542.jpg" width="136" align="left" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; Whether you are a space shuttle inspector, helping your child with your homework, building software, or recording expenses for a customer, trust is all.&amp;nbsp; Trust is normally implied once you have agreed to do something for someone.&amp;nbsp; Getting to a state of trust is sometimes the tricky part.&amp;nbsp; Even trickier is identifying exactly what you trust in the person you are presently asking for trust!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Trust might take time if someone doesn&amp;#39;t know you or your business.&amp;nbsp; When I was 19, I worked in a factory on an assembly line.&amp;nbsp; I desperately wanted an office job.&amp;nbsp; I knew someone within the plant had openings chasing parts.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; He didn&amp;#39;t know anything about me and at that time, I didn&amp;#39;t have much of a resume.&amp;nbsp; The only way I could prove to him that I could be trusted was to sit outside his office door and show my face - every day.&amp;nbsp; It demonstrated to him I was persistent.&amp;nbsp; That was enough for him to give me a try.&amp;nbsp; I didn&amp;#39;t know about trust then but I&amp;#39;m certain my &amp;quot;intent&amp;quot; by showing up a great deal and my integrity for being there every day until he hired me helped me.&amp;nbsp; That job opened my eyes to a whole world I hadn&amp;#39;t seen before and I was lucky to have the job. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Steven Covey, author of The Speed of Trust states that there are four elements or cores to establishing credibility and trust:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Integrity&lt;/strong&gt; - Walking your talk.&amp;nbsp; You&amp;#39;ve lived down the street from someone for years and they have always admired your garden.&amp;nbsp; Would they trust your gardening advice?&amp;nbsp; Absolutely!&amp;nbsp; You&amp;#39;ve built integrity by growing a beautiful garden every year.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Intent&lt;/strong&gt; - Making your purpose clear (which might include making your motivations clear to those you are dealing with.)&amp;nbsp; &amp;quot;Having one more garden in the neighborhood makes this place all the more special.&amp;nbsp; I would be happy to help.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Capabilities&lt;/strong&gt; - Are you able to so what you say you&amp;#39;re going to do?&amp;nbsp; You&amp;#39;ve have a wonderful garden and you&amp;#39;ve given out advice to many.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Results&lt;/strong&gt; - The interesting thing about results are that they&amp;#39;re bi-directional.&amp;nbsp; You&amp;#39;re going to state what you do and very important, the person receiving whatever it is that you&amp;#39;re going to do needs to understand what it is you&amp;#39;re doing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Is this a process or do certain things happen at different times?&amp;nbsp; You might have to deliver results before you get integrity.&amp;nbsp; You might have to build on one service before you have the capability of doing another.&amp;nbsp; What is your intent?&amp;nbsp; Sometimes the monetary aspect is implied when you have a company.&amp;nbsp; Your intent is to make money.&amp;nbsp; Perhaps, your intent is to send your kids to college.&amp;nbsp; That&amp;#39;s very worthy and it also reflect your integrity.&amp;nbsp; How about &amp;quot;the money takes care of itself&amp;quot; if your customer is satisfied. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mr. Covey speaks about the speed of trust.&amp;nbsp; Establishing the core elements comes over time.&amp;nbsp; The sooner you are able to establish the four core elements, you are likely able to get more customers, get more business with the same customers, and extend your network.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Trust is very complex.&amp;nbsp; Some things in one area may bleed into others and this, in turn, may affect someone&amp;#39;s ability to trust you (rational or not).&amp;nbsp; For example, having a relative that committed a financial crime might affect your ability to gain trust when applying at a bank.&amp;nbsp; You never know what forms an opinion.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Lastly, trust is conditional and specific but it generally follows the above listed core principles.&amp;nbsp; You might not trust an artist friend who has no concept of time get you to the airport.&amp;nbsp; (They might have been inspired to work at all hours into the night and then turn off the alarm clock.)&amp;nbsp; They might intend on getting you there but fall down when it comes to capability!&amp;nbsp; You would very likely trust them to recommend how to arrange your pictures!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A little bit about trusting epaperchase:&amp;nbsp; Through many interviews with CPAs and accountants as well as many self-employed people, we offer enough features to get the job done.&amp;nbsp; Our integrity is in our references and our backgrounds.&amp;nbsp; It is our intent to offer an excellent service that is a benefit to our partner&amp;#39;s customers and to our partners.&amp;nbsp; Having delivered many web-based services before, we&amp;#39;re clearly capable, and if you&amp;#39;re interested in results, become a partner!&amp;nbsp; Try us for yourself!&amp;nbsp; You won&amp;#39;t be disappointed!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src="http://epaper.communityserver.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=46" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Small+Business+Management/default.aspx">Small Business Management</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Growth/default.aspx">Growth</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Advice/default.aspx">Advice</category></item><item><title>3 Good Reasons Not to Like Tchaikovsky's Dance of The Sugar Plum Fairies</title><link>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/05/18/3-good-reasons-not-to-like-tchaikovsky-s-dance-of-the-sugar-plumb-fairies.aspx</link><pubDate>Sun, 18 May 2008 23:04:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">86c0c071-f29d-489a-9a00-196ad9d922fa:41</guid><dc:creator>jstackepaper</dc:creator><slash:comments>868</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=41</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/05/18/3-good-reasons-not-to-like-tchaikovsky-s-dance-of-the-sugar-plumb-fairies.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;p align="justify"&gt;If you haven&amp;#39;t had to call the IRS recently, their hold music is Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies by Tchaikovsky.&amp;nbsp; This wonderful, dreamy music plays over and over again.&amp;nbsp; I&amp;#39;ll say that this experience alone is a great reason why you might not want to call the IRS but I&amp;#39;ll give you more very good reasons.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;A while back, Mikey, my contractor friend, got behind on taxes.&amp;nbsp; If you&amp;#39;re are anything like Mikey, here&amp;#39;s what you might experience:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;You fall behind making payments on your taxes.&amp;nbsp; You don&amp;#39;t have the money to just write a check so you set up a payment schedule.&amp;nbsp; (It might be wise to mention that you&amp;#39;re going to be getting lots and lots of white envelopes filled with statements - literally every month about now, perhaps even a little registered mail!)&amp;nbsp; During the process of setting up the payment, an IRS employee will be asking you about literally every bank account you have.&amp;nbsp; In case you thought they didn&amp;#39;t know, well, they already do.&amp;nbsp; I think this is called a &amp;quot;veracity check.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;Unfortunately, while these automatic payments are being made, don&amp;#39;t forget that you have to stay current.&amp;nbsp; Here&amp;#39;s the reason why:&amp;nbsp; If you don&amp;#39;t stay current, and you lapse into another year of being behind, your automatic payments &amp;quot;automatically cancel&amp;quot; and uh oh, you have to start the whole process all over again - reapplying for a payment program (likely at a higher payment amount.)&amp;nbsp; Whoops, almost forgot one thing:&amp;nbsp; Until you have re-established your automatic payments again, you get to listen to the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies over and over and over again.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="justify"&gt;My three reasons:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;div align="justify"&gt;Only you care about your time, don&amp;#39;t expect the IRS to.&amp;nbsp; They have a job to do.&amp;nbsp; You are guaranteed to listen to the &amp;quot;fairies&amp;quot; a few times.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;div align="justify"&gt;Once you fall behind, you have to work twice as hard to catch up.&amp;nbsp; The &amp;quot;fairies&amp;quot; really only play a minor role.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;div align="justify"&gt;Once you hear it a few times, you can&amp;#39;t get the darned song out of your head for at least 24 hours!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;img src="http://epaper.communityserver.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=41" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Good+Advice/default.aspx">Good Advice</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/IRS/default.aspx">IRS</category></item><item><title>Five Things Small Business Owners Can Do To Make More Money</title><link>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/05/10/five-things-small-business-owners-can-do-to-make-more-money.aspx</link><pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2008 23:56:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">86c0c071-f29d-489a-9a00-196ad9d922fa:38</guid><dc:creator>jstackepaper</dc:creator><slash:comments>7</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=38</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/05/10/five-things-small-business-owners-can-do-to-make-more-money.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;p&gt;Here are five things as a small business owner you can try so that you can key your eye on the prize.&amp;nbsp; I found them to be very helpful.&amp;nbsp; I hope you do too! 
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Stop focus stealers in their tracks:&lt;/strong&gt; Every day, small business owners are faced with focus stealers: Friends and family calling, solicitations, interesting things to read that don&amp;#39;t matter, the Internet, chat, personal bill paying, shopping, etc. I have a little sign that says &amp;quot;Does this make me money?&amp;quot; located in my office.&amp;nbsp; I use it as well as other things as visual cues to get me back on the playing field.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Segment Your Time:&lt;/strong&gt; Set at least one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon that you don&amp;#39;t take or give phone calls. The same might work for Internet use.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Use that time to get work done - either making money by doing what you do (your primary service offering) or by promoting future income.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Leverage Your Network:&lt;/strong&gt; Spend one half hour calling people who might lead you to more business each day. They might have new leads. Spend one hour per week calling old customers. They too might have new leads. Get out to at least one networking event per month.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; I go to three different events each month on a fairly regular basis.&amp;nbsp; The people there keep me sharp, ask me tough questions that I have to answer, and allows me to get my business name out in the public eye.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Have a mentor/Be a mentor:&lt;/strong&gt; Spend a lunch with someone who knows your business. Let them know how you are doing. Get their feedback on how to improve your business.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Be a mentor.&amp;nbsp; You might find some things you never realized reflected right back at you! I have three different businesses I help now and my friends know me to be as helpful as I can in their business.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Kill A Challenger:&lt;/strong&gt; Each month, find one thing to solve and put it behind you!&amp;nbsp; Me, I find that I have a tough time killing personal habits that affect my business but one by one, I&amp;#39;m eliminating them.&amp;nbsp; Rome wasn&amp;#39;t built in a year!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;#39;ve got other things you do like this, please comment!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src="http://epaper.communityserver.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=38" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Small+Business+Management/default.aspx">Small Business Management</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Helpful+Tips/default.aspx">Helpful Tips</category></item><item><title>We're getting CLOSER!!!</title><link>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/04/23/we-re-getting-closer.aspx</link><pubDate>Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:03:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">86c0c071-f29d-489a-9a00-196ad9d922fa:22</guid><dc:creator>jstackepaper</dc:creator><slash:comments>1</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=22</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/04/23/we-re-getting-closer.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;p&gt;The software is in &amp;quot;alpha&amp;quot; for some, beta for others.&amp;nbsp; While others don&amp;#39;t make this distinction, I do.&amp;nbsp; Its in alpha for the developers and beta for the users.&amp;nbsp; The beta will be more publically available when we&amp;#39;re a little more confident that everything is working.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Our network and backup process is working.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Folks are reviewing our materials (marketing) and the training materials are being completed now.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Stay tuned!&amp;nbsp; We&amp;#39;ll open up a bit more within one month.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src="http://epaper.communityserver.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=22" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Status/default.aspx">Status</category></item><item><title>We're here!</title><link>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/01/27/we-re-here.aspx</link><pubDate>Sat, 26 Jan 2008 21:25:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">86c0c071-f29d-489a-9a00-196ad9d922fa:5</guid><dc:creator>jstackepaper</dc:creator><slash:comments>1</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=5</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/2008/01/27/we-re-here.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;p&gt;In preparation for a full release, we&amp;#39;ve started our community site.&amp;nbsp; The cover page says it all!&amp;nbsp; We hope to work closely with our partners and their customers to allow increase their profitability, quality, and reach.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Thanks for joining us!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;img src="http://epaper.communityserver.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=5" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/supercharge+your+business/default.aspx">supercharge your business</category><category domain="http://epaper.communityserver.com/blogs/founders/archive/tags/Welcome/default.aspx">Welcome</category></item></channel></rss>