Being a sun shinning day outside I wasn’t quite sure if he was talking about the weather :) but of course he was talking in terms of the conditions and general atmosphere in Portugal to start and run a business. Here’s a brief overview of what I told him and what I think after having put some thought into it.

1. Talent

It’s hard to find and recruit good talented and ethical workers. It’s even harder to get them to stay with you in the long term. This “individualistic attitude” and aversion to risk was indeed pointed out in a report by the European Commission in 2006. Maybe the solution here is to recruit more foreigners that would like to live here?

2. Entrepreneur Support

The initiatives to support entrepreneurs pretty much boil down to strategic propaganda by the government and are extremely bureaucratic. They have to treat everyone the same way, it doesn’t matter if you’re starting a tech company or a hotdog booth.

3. Net 60/90

We have Net 60 or Net 90, payment 60 or 90 days after invoice date – the government and big corporations all seem to use this. That’s really bad for entrepreneurs because after a sale there’s still 2 to 3 months before getting any money into your account.

4. Not a big market for mergers and acquisitions

The likelihood of your business getting bought by “bigger fish” is very low. Can you list tech companies that were acquired or merged? There are no examples of successes so there is little incentive to try something like starting a startup to sell in the first years.

5. Universities are not entrepreneur oriented

The creation of startup companies is not adopted by the Universities as a priority and as a result most students finish their degree without never ever thinking about the possibility of starting their own company. It is something so remote that it is not even worth thinking about.

6. Anti-entrepreneur culture

Most of the older generations does not recognize any value in someone that takes the risk of starting a company or going self-employed. It’s simply not appreciated. A friend that runs a startup told me his mother didn’t believe he was working until she saw his name on the newspaper.

On the positive side,

1. Climate

the weather is very good. According to an article by BBC, “Its southerly latitude gives it a Mediterranean type of climate, similar to that of the state of California, but one where the summer heat is tempered by the Atlantic influence.”

2. Food

and the food is great (we were having Sushi so I don’t think this point applied very well at the time). Portuguese food varies but fresh fish and shellfish are found commonly on every menu, and the country is full of specialty seafood restaurants.

3. Taxes

Our taxes are still lower than most countries in Europe. The tax burden is at 36.2% for singles with no kids (I would say the typical entrepreneur) in Portugal, compared to e.g. 51.8% in Germany. (OECD, 2005 data)

4. Green Receipt Book

Although a plague for employees (because companies misuse them) , the green receipt book (Caderneta de Recibos Verdes) is actually a helpful measure for entrepreneurs because they allow to hire people with less costs on the first year of company operations.

5. Tourism

The climate, beaches, lifestyle and leisure activities that attract companies, researchers and students to Portugal are also the mainstay of the country’s tourism industry, which accounts for more than 10 per cent of gross domestic product.

6. Community

The amount of Hackers, Makers and Geeks in Portugal is growing and so is the number of group meetings that you can find. Many are held monthly or at least regularly.

Please note,

this is of course far from being complete, accurate or even meaningful. I was careful enough to include a few positive points to counterpart for the negative ones. I didn’t want to be accused of pessimism, a point many would have listed here as well.

For the 2011 Portuguese Presidential elections I will be supporting Fernando Nobre. Not that anyone cares but I thought I should mention it. For that reason I’ve added to my blog a small support banner linking to the campaign site.

I’ve also been thinking how I can contribute and help with the campaign, and how to enable people that are interested in helping out to do so effectively, besides the obvious sign-up for voluntary help at the campaign site.

If you have a Wordpress blog, I’ve made public a widget you can use on the sidebar of your blog to display a small image banner just like the one I’m using. It’s an easy way of showing our support and it’s very easy to install:

1. Inside the WordPress admin, go to Plugins -> Add New and search for ‘Fernando Nobre’.
2. Click ‘Install’.
3. Inside the WordPress admin, go to Appearance > Widgets, and add the ‘Apoio Fernando Nobre’ widget where you want, then save the changes.
4. That’s it!

And here’s the link to the plugin page:

• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/support-fernando-nobre/

• É mais uma atitude do que uma regra. A ideia é que as melhores ideias venham seja de quem for, e não apenas dos ‘chefes’ ou alguém acime da hierarquia.
• As pessoas no Google trabalham arduamente nos outros 80% do tempo. O querer mostrar aos colegas que se é bom e que se consegue fazer coisas boas leva muita gente a trabalhar longas horas e embora haja a cultura de trabalhar em projectos pessoais isso é feito sem detrimento para o resto dos projectos.

Google’s Process:

• Os “managers” programam pelo menos 50% do tempo, actuando mais como “tech leads” do que gestores de projecto.
• Os programadores podem trocar de equipa a qualquer altura, sem serem questionados sobre isso.
• Existe uma filosofia de nunca dizer aos programadores o que fazer.
• Os programadores são encorajados a dedicar 20% do seu tempo a trabalhar no que quiserem.
• Não há muitas reuniões. Cada programador participa no máximo em 3 reuniões por semana, incluindo um 1 para 1 com o seu lead.
• O ambiente é sossegado e as equipas pequenas (2-5 pessoas).
• Não existem Gantt charts ou calendários com tarefas agendadas nas salas.
• O almoço e jantar na empresa são grátis.

Nota: Atenção que isto são generalizações e generalizações são sempre perigosas. Como eu não sou jornalista dou-me ao luxo de escrever aqui seja o que for e a informação aqui contida deve ser lida com isso em atenção.

Adaptado de:

• http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2008/thoughts-on-googles-20-time/
• http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2006/09/good-agile-bad-agile_27.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/70/20/10_Model

If you’re on a Mac go and install 1Password, period.

No more struggling to remember all those usernames and passwords.. and it integrates beautifully with Firefox, Safari and more recently also with Google Chrome.

At least try it, seriously. I’m yet to find a person who is unhappy with this software.

If you’re on a Mac and looking for an easy and stylish to-do list software you might want to consider Things. It has a slick interface, allows you to keep items organized for different contexts (home, work, etc) and best of all (for me at least) you can very easily add tasks to it in one simple step using a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Space in my case).

With a version for the iPhone that syncs as well, this might be the productivity tool you’ve been looking for years now since you first read that wonderful (but hard to put into practice) book “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. The cons will probably be the price and it being a desktop app but maybe you can live it that?

I’ve been using it for over a month now and so far I’ve been happy with it. To be honest it hasn’t boost my productivity. These things are like buying news shoes for running: the shoes won’t do the running for you!

Para freelancers e pequenos negócios que precisem de um software para facturação, podem dar uma vista de olhos ao Invoic€xpress. Já suporta o formato SAFT-PT que desde 1 de Janeiro de 2010 é obrigatório e também facturas electrónicas, entre outras funcionalidades.

É um serviço totalmente web-based e tem um trial de 30 dias grátis para se experimentar. Após o periódo de trial, consoante o plano escolhido, paga-se uma pequena mensalidade por mês, mas é também possivel adquirir pacotes de facturas a vulso por um preço fixo (para quem não gostar de pagar mensalidades).

Fica a dica. Aproveitem e se experimentarem e gostarem digam qualquer coisa.

p.s. O Invoic€xpress é um produto da RUPEAL.

http://ineo.pt/2010/02/podcast-goncalo-quadros-critical/

Do outro lado do oceano, as histórias são bem diferentes mas também valem a pena ouvir :) Aqui fica um vídeo de um painel com 6 estudantes de Stanford que criaram empresas nos seus 20 e poucos anos.

“Six young Stanford grads and entrepreneurs — Steven Garrity, Clara Shih, Kimber Lockhart, Jeff Seibert, Josh Reeves, and Tristan Harris — share their experiences starting companies and raising capital. While being in their 20s may seem to be an obstacle to outsiders, they said they “flipped” this liability into an asset — focusing instead on their raw ability to bring innovative ideas to life. They advise all young entrepreneurs to be persistent, opportunistic, and scrappy. “

http://www.coworklisboa.pt/

“Many people strive for the freedom that working for themselves and freelancing brings. You can work odd hours in your pajamas at home, travel to exotic locals but still be on the job, not have to clock in at an office. After the initial exhilaration of being independent cools a bit, there is something missing- co-workers and the social environment that working for a company can bring. Enter Co-Working. Co-Working is an idea that independent workers still want and need social interaction and structure during working hours. Going stir crazy working in your living room? Can’t stand that Madonna remix album they keep repeating at the cafe? Want to bounce your ideas off some other geeks? Co-Working!”