In the spirit of http://www.lunch20.com, Lunch 2.0 is a lunch series hosted at Knoxville Overground that showcases one of the region’s hottest startups (typically having raised more than $100K) or an up-and-coming entrepreneur you can’t afford not to watch.

Will Overstreet of VoicesHeard Media, Eric Dobson of TrakLok Corporation, and Jeremy Smith of EyeHearU.com are previous guests that address five key points:

1. How they identified their market opportunity.
2. How much in funding they’ve raised or personally invested to date.
3. What their biggest challenges are.
4. Advice on sending e-mails to them with proposals to work together or for them as an employee.
5. Book recommendations and parting wisdom.

The interviews are under 10 minutes and the information is invaluable. Check it out at http://knoxvilleoverground.podbean.com and be sure to subscribe in iTunes.

Here is the video. Sorry, but you have to suffer through a brief commercial first so that Channel 10 won’t go BK.

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2009/tc20090221_571602.htm

I spent an eventful day in Oak Ridge, TN, discussing why the current economic environment is great for start-ups. Representatives from Tech 2020, UT Research Foundation, and Knoxville Overground participated in a panel discussion. Below, is a video from WBIR Channel 10 coverage of the event.

In the spirit of shameful self-promotion, I direct your attention to approximately 50 seconds from the end. Yeah, that good looking fellow is yours truly.

Here is the link to the original article/video:
http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=79189&catid=2

A fantastic video from Honda’s national campaign that builds on Honda’s corporate theme, “Power of Dreams.” Thanks to Greg Olson at Ubiquity for the head’s up via Twitter.

Follow this link to download and/or see more of these videos.
http://dreams.honda.com

As a part of the University of Tennessee MBA program, I work as a graduate assistant in the Marketing Department. Below, is some advice I compiled for Lisa Murray’s business writing class, but it is equally good advice for business owners.

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I have sent and received hundreds of thank-you notes, during my career. The good news is that it is VERY difficult for a thank-you note to leave a bad impression of the writer. Of all the notes received, I would only consider three of them as bad. Surprisingly enough, I can’t remember who sent them.

The most important part of a thank-you note is that it is personally written, addressed, stamped, and sent in a timely manner (within 24 hours.) While you shouldn’t totally disregard formatting, structure, materials, and content, they are not the key to a good note. So don’t stress out about having to conform to a set of note-writing rules, just do it.

Below, I have compiled a simple guideline to get you started. None of these are hard-and-fast rules, but they are so easy to do it would be folly to not follow them.

Materials:

• Paper: Use a fresh, clean, small note card, preferably not embossed with “Thank You” on the front. I use a simple white flat card and envelope from Crane & Co. They are more expensive than what you can get at Wal-Mart, but they set you apart from the crowd even more. The important thing is to keep it simple.
• Writing Instrument: Get a smooth pen. I like fountain pens. I use a Monteverde Invincia, but a Lamy Safari is $20 online (just google it.)
• Scratch paper: Compose, edit, and practice each note on a piece of scratch paper, rather than your expensive stationary. You want your final product to look perfect. When you get comfortable with the process, you could do away with this step.

Structure and Content:

Here is a simple thank-you note that would certainly get Ms. Jones’ attention.

Dear Ms. Jones,

Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to our class. I am eager to use the persuasive techniques you mentioned as I rewrite my resume cover letter. It was exciting to have a person of your caliber share her real-world experiences with us, and I will certainly take you up on your offer of assistance in the future.

Thank you again for your time and wisdom.

Sincerely,
Cornelius Vanderkampencoopendunkin

Here is the formula I used for this note, as adapted from Leslie Harpold’s article in “The Morning News.“ Check out the link to get a better idea of what could be written in each of the sections.

Greet the giver: Dear Ms. Jones

Express gratitude: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to our class.

Discuss use: I am eager to use the persuasive techniques you mentioned as I rewrite my resume cover letter.

Mention the Past, Allude to the Future (massage the ego): It was exciting to have a person of your caliber share her real-world experiences with us, and I will certainly take you up on your offer of assistance in the future.

Grace: Thank you again for your time and wisdom.

Regards: Sincerely, Cornelius Vanderkampencoopendunkin

Things not to do:

• Use a full size sheet of paper. This is a short note and your message will be swimming in a sea of white.
• Use your printer to address the envelope. Or worse, use an address label. The three bad notes I referenced earlier did this.
• Scribble. If your handwriting is horrible (mine was), then fix it. You’re a smart college educated person, figure it out. I downloaded some elementary school handwriting guides from the internet.
• Use a postage meter. Buy a book of Forever stamps from the post office.

Final Advice

Send a thank-you note whenever possible. Writing a note is quick and it pays big dividends.

Here are some cues that a note is in order:

When a person speaks to your class.
When you talk to a recruiter at a career fair.
When your classmate has gone above and beyond to help you with a project.
When you have received someone’s business card (this is a BIG cue)

Also, get a sturdy box to hold your note cards, envelopes, and stamps. The box should be able to withstand the rough and tumble environment of your backpack without damaging the paper. If you have the cards with you at all times, you can dash off a quick note as soon as you finish meeting with someone. The longer you wait to write a note, the more likely you are to forget.

If you remember nothing else, remember what makes a thank-you note special:

• Personally written
• Hand addressed
• Real stamp
• Sent in a timely manner (within 24-48 hours)

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If you found this information useful, you could practice your thank-you note writing skills in the comments section below.

~greg

Do you believe that:

1. You don’t need any of that formal education, since the best way to learn about business is to start one?

2. Most of the wealthiest people in the U.S. are college dropouts (Bill Gates, et al)

3. Business school is a waste of time for you since all they teach in business school is how to run someone else’s business and you need to know how to run your own.

4. You are totally prepared to start a new business. After all, you have read all the latest business books by all the leading thought leaders. Finance-Kiyosaki, Marketing-Godin, Logistics-Dell, Accounting-Well…You have a trial edition of Microsoft Money that came with your new Dell.

If you believe any (or all) of those statements, you need to subscribe to this blog immediately. It’s okay, I’ll wait.

I spent my early years as an entrepreneur believing those very things and they are all untrue. Unfortunately, most new entrepreneurs think this way and their ignorance results in bankruptcy, failed relationships, tarnished reputations, and damaged self-images, to name a few. I know because I experienced all of these and more.

Why do so many people have such a misinformed view of what it takes to start a new venture? Because each of those statements above contain a kernel of truth. For example, the best way to learn about business is to start a business. However, you should 1) have some experience running someone else’s business before you put your life-savings on the line OR 2) you should have a partner/stakeholder who has been successful in her/his own business. Will your business fail if you don’t follow this suggestion? Maybe. Maybe not. But your likelihood of success increases significantly if you do.

That’s what this blog is about. Not just revealing the pitfalls that new business owners so often encounter, but providing practical solutions I’ve learned during my 14 years as an entrepreneur. I hope to pass on to my readers a blend of practical wisdom and theory that I acquired in the school of hard knocks and through formal college learnin’.

Please pass along any questions you would like me to address.

I’ve been putting this off for several months now. Perhaps I thought the process too daunting. Maybe that something as cool and hip as a non-standard wordpress them was only for my cool, techie friends. But armed with the assurances of one @cparizman that even I could accomplish such a feat, this blog is indeed “live,” as they say.

I started this blog May 2008 on a free wordpress account. However, I found it to to be too much of a hassle to update there, so it kind of languished. Of course, my website was hosted on mobileme for quite a while too…what can I say, Apple made it easy. My hope is that with this easier interface, I’ll be able to put up content on a more regular basis.

Tomorrow, I’ll map out where I intend to take this blog and what you can expect in the future. So with that, the first of many posts to come, I bid you all goodnight.

After talking with my classmates, I found that many of them already have their own blogs and would be willing to write entries that could be reposted here. So over the next 16 months, I hope to introduce several member of the Class of 2009.

First up, Siva Sai Prassanna Chakka. Siva is from India. He studied computer science at the undergraduate and graduate levels in India. He worked for three years in hardware development before entering the MBA program here at Tennessee. His blog is located at:

http://randomseed0.blogspot.com/

Here is the link to a post Siva wrote after our first Demand Management class where we discussed whether and how Apple, Inc is a customer focused company.

http://randomseed0.blogspot.com/2008/08/apple-survival-story.html