There are four types of businesses (yes, he said four):

1. Railroads
2. Food Services
3. Hospital/Manufacturing
4. Sales
5. and two or three more that I can’t remember.

While he was completely off and I really have no idea how hospitals and manufacturing are considered the same industry, he said one thing I’ve mentioned in the past and want to reiterate again.

He grabs a student’s text book (probably a $200 text book) and tears it apart saying, “replace these pages with life lessons.” He then apologized for tearing apart the expensive book and said not to worry because this lesson is worth more than gold.  He doesn’t say replace them with business experience, but rather life lessons.

It’s so true.  Business theory plays a part in our learning process but it’s amazing the number of people I’m still meeting that have no idea that life lessons are vital to business success.  In the past I’ve placed emphasis on getting real world experience and building up that resume so you are the top candidate for whatever job you apply for.  This time I want to go beyond the scope of just business experience.  It’s about the associations you create in college or at work.  Are you staying active with your frat brothers or sorority sisters?  Are you a “member” of your local American Marketing Association Chapter because you paid a fee and filled out a registration form or are you an active, participating member not just so you can meet the right people but so you can learn how to associate with these people outside of work (sorry for the longest sentence ever)?  Do you coach a little league team?

There are a number of groups here in Des Moines that I got involved in because of some of my clients.  Were it not for them I probably would not have become involved but I was the only college student in these groups that actively participated.  Too many aspiring business leaders don’t see the benefit of creating relationships that may never matter.  They are too focused on relationships that may matter someday.  I definitely fall into this category a lot of the time.  I have a switch where I can flip on the outgoing personality when I see a potential business relationship and I can turn it off when I don’t.  This is NOT good.

Why isn’t it good?  No matter how good you are at judging character, you can never know if someone may be an important contact.  Plus, it’s not good etiquette.  Business is so much more than just business (hope that makes sense).  This is something I battle with daily because I have been indoctrinated to do a cost-benefit analysis of every situation I’m in, including, my networking activities.

To shorten up my post let me put it this way.  Go out tomorrow and make relationships that don’t matter (in a business context).  Not only is it just good  practice for you, but it will make you a better person, and as far as I’m concerned, you have to be a good person first before you can be a respectable business person.

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I was referred to Entrepreneur’s Startup Business Guides by my father.  I checked it out online and the books run a good $69 if you order them online.  Essentially what you get is a comprehensive “dummies” guide to the industry you selected.  There books cover businesses like:

• Consulting Service
• Import/Export Service
• Restaurant and Five Other Food Business
• Coaching Business

These are just a few examples.  They cover about 46 different business ideas.  The guides include different opportunities in each business line.  They offer advice, materials on regulation, and a variety of different information types.  They are by no means the onlyh resource you need to start your business.  But I 100% recommend if you are looking to start a business that they cover, you should purchase the book.  You will learn a lot more than you think you would and it will give you the foundation you need and point you in the right direction.  Check out their manuals at their Small Business Books website.

Writing whitepapers is often overlooked unless your involved in online marketing.  I get links to marketing whitpapers on a daily basis but it’s something you should definitly consider doing.

What should you include?  Well, it comes down to this.  Give them enough to contact you.  I’ve discussed this with people and they always say they would be willing to sell their whitepapers but there is no way they are going to give away free advice!  Yes, you can sell your whitepapers, but who on this planet is going to buy your whitepaper unless you’ve proven it’s going to be worth their money.

Whitepapers can help you test out your concept, refine it, and meet people that can bring you business and possibly give you some advice as well.  The consultant from the job that I mentioned above founded his firm, I believe, nearly two decades ago.  To start out, he sold/gave away whitepapers.  This built his credibility and now he deals with muli-billion dollar, international companies.  Pretty cool stuff.  I myself, have yet to complete my whitepaper.  It’s definitly easier said then done.  However, I fully understand how important it is for me to complete it and offer it for download on my website at NO COST!!!  You can disregard my opinion because I myself have not completed mine, but seriously, a whitepaper could land you a huge client.  It builds your credibility.  It makes you SOMEBODY in the online world that actually can DEMONSTRATE that you know what you’re talking about.

Let me hear from you.  How have you used whitepapers to help build your exposure and business?

We quickly began on what’s now OperationRedState.com.  I created their Facebook and Twitter guides, blogged for them, and managed their Twitter account.  The website is focused on technology training for conservative candidates.  This forced me to learn exactly what I’m doing right now.  How to use social media to brand myself.

This is not another blog post on branding through social media, but rather, how to use it to build opportunities for your future.  As a consultant I’ve now taken a new direction.  I still do research and keep companies from falling into a disaster (it’s still my primary business), but I have seen a variety of opportunities in this new direction, and you can too.

It’s inevitable.  Every industry will change due to the communication implications of social networking.  One prime example are two attorneys local to Des Moines, IA.  One I believe does business transactions and the other a patent attorney.  They are both avid bloggers, strong tweeters, real-life networkers, and are enveloped in social media.  The patent attorney even authored the book, CyberLaw.  Law has been practiced the same, more or less, for a very, very long time.  Here is an industry that has not seen significant change yet regarding the social media revolution, but it will happen thanks to attorneys like the two mentioned above.  Here is an ideal opportunity for a social media consultant to step in and do their magic.  It may take some convincing, but if you figure it out it’s a gold mine.  You can check out their blogs here.  RushOnBusiness.  Blawgit.com. They obviously already get it.  They don’t need a consultant.  But I guarantee that other firms out there will end up stumbling all over themselves trying to catch up with these guys.  That’s where you could come in.

My most recent client is in an industry with an archaic business model and social media hasn’t even knicked it.  We are preparing over the next six months, during a huge transition, to hammer his competition through the online world.  I’m not going to mention the industry or company because we are going to take them by surprise and it will take an incredbly large amount of money for his competition to catch up.  Not only am I helping him be more successful, but this is an entirely new opportunity for my consulting firm.  This is a new direction we can take to grow our business and take the industry by storm.  Hopefully three years from now we will be the standard in the industry.

For all you consultants out there, you need to look for new opportunities.  Not necessarily in social media, but definitly consider something outside your field.  During a recession, consultants are the first to be cut out of a companies budget (along with marketing .  Finding these opportunities may mean you have to look outside your current business and possibly learn something new.  One thing I’ve learned is that a good consultant can teach anything, they just have to learn it first.  You already know the hardest parts of business which actually has nothing to do with what industry you are actually in.  You know how to consult.  That’s the awesomness of consulting.  Look outside.  Learn something new.  Create your next opportunity.

Remember, there are tools out there that can help you move light-years faster than you would otherwise.  It’s essential though that you take the necessary steps and do your due diligence to ensure that you are being promoted the way you want.  Otherwise, your brand will not develop the way you planned which is often catostrophic for an organization still in the startup phase.

One of my biggest obstacles was adjusting my services such that they are marketable and can satisfy demand that’s already there.  This took many hours and lots of sleepless nights until I had what I have now brought to market.  How did I get here?  It was from building on online presence that helped me understand my target market in ways that have helped me be successful, thus far.  Here is what I did to build that exposure, on my own, in the cheapest way possible.  Take note though that doing it yourself prolongs the process which is why it is the cheaper alternative.  If you need to speed, it’ll cost you.

These are by no means a method to become an overnight success.  They are however, a way that you can create technical independance as an entrepreneur and enable yourself to decrease your long term technology costs.  The more you know, the better off you are.

• Build Your Own Website: This sounds astronomically difficult for those who are just joining the online world.  All you probably know about web design is that it “requires” programs like Dreamweaver which require technical expertise.  Well, I’m here to tell you that’s not the case.  I built my website on a wordpress platform that enables me to practically have complete control over my websites look without being fluent in HTML codes.  I use the Thesis theme from DIYThemes and it brings the most functionality I’ve seen in a website template.  The theme cost me $164 because I purchased the developers theme so I can use it on other sites that I’m building.  Normally though I think it’s only about $80 or so.  I spend about $42 annually to retain my domain and it’s alternatives.  I also spend about $5 monthly to host the site.  It took me about eight months before I finally was satisfied with it, but doing it that way saved me tons of money.  Here in Des Moines, there is a great company that offers wordpress design and they can turnover a website in no more than two weeks time with all the bells and whistles you would want.  You can check them out a CreateWowMedia.com.
• Social Networking: I’m not going to get into the whole get on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace thing.  I’ve blogged enough about that and I know everyone else has too.  There are a few things however that are overlooked.  Do demonstrate let me describe how I landed one of my biggest clients.  Approximately November of 2008 I was routinely checking LinkedIn answers.  LinkedIn is a great place for me to interact because that’s where my target market is.  So for a while I was answering some questions that I felt would help me brand my self and possibly, someday, get me business.  I answered a question regarding research that was received well.  Now fastforward to April 2009.  I get a random message through LinkedIn asking to connect in real life.  Apparently since November this individual, his CEO and one of their directors had followed my blog a little to see if I had something they needed.  Months later, I’m doing work for them on a very regular basis.  This was all 100% free aside from the costs of hosting my website and blog.
• Show Us You’re an Expert: There are few ways you can show everyone you are an expert.  The first and most necessary is through a business/personal blog.  This is vital.  This is the best place you can position yourself and sell people on what you know.  Another method I’ve seen lately but have not put into practice, is the creation of YouTube videos on a regular basis.  This one is time consuming but I know for a fact it’s paid off for many.  Go buy yourself a Flip Mino, HD, for about $229 and you’re all set.  One way I’m just starting to demonstrate this is through Slideshare.com.  I’m putting a variety of presentations together that I’m uploading to Slideshare.com.  It’s super easy, just create a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation and upload it.  Add some voice over if you want as well.  This is a phenomanal way of proving to us you are credible.

These are just a few tips on saving money but building exposure for your new business.  There are numerous companies that will help you out with this if you have the cash, and if you don’t, don’t be afraid to do it yourself.  Year-to-date, I’ve spent a total of $288 since March of 2008.  That’s a steal.

This past May I finally graduated from Drake University in Des Moines, IA in Entrepreneurial Management. I knew as graduation was approaching I had to get a job because my business is still a part time thing. I had narrowed my choices of companies I wanted to work for and companies I knew I could work for. My number one choice of course, was IBM. There consulting training programs are second to none in the world. I was also looking at possibly applying for some positions with HP and Exxon Mobile. The one company I knew I could work for was Wells Fargo Financial. All these companies are good and had a lot they could offer me at the same time. There was one problem though.

Over the past seven or eight months now, having started my own research consulting business, I have worked with small businesses and startups. Naturally, having been studying Entrepreneurial Management I was inclined to work with these types of businesses. I very quickly became enthralled in the excitement and the dynamic problems that small business bring. That’s when it started.

There were some very key things I began to do that lead me to my current job as a sales and business consultant. While they are obvious and many of you may end up thinking, “duh,” there are also those that won’t.

• Networking:  I have been actively networking during the last 18 to 24 months here in Des Moines, IA.  That’s right at the time that I transferred from the University of Iowa (Iowa City) to Drake University.  I knew I had very little time to get to know people and actively pursued opportunities through networking groups and school.
• Real World Experience:  I also knew that coming out of college, I didn’t want to be one of those recent grads that, while understanding some business theory, didn’t really have a clue how business transactions actually work on a day to day basis.  Even the experience offered through internships are often limiting due to the controlled environment most interns interact within.  That’s when I decided to start my business and learn what it was really like to manage people, deal with clients, and have hard deadlines that HAD to be kept.  Through my network and active online presence (except for the last two months, of course) I have been able to pick up a number of clients, some of which are bringing me work every week and forcing me to hire out some of the work.  This gave me experience that I know would be hard to learned anywhere else.
• Branding:  This is something most of us that are online spend a lot of time doing.  I made it a point this year to be as active as possible online.  Primarily through Linkedin (which I already pretty much had been), Twitter, and blogging.  I even joined sites like Brazen Careerist to build some more exposure through my blog and just recently joined the team at Examiner.com.  Branding myself actually helped me land one of my best clients that bring me a lot of work.

While most of these things are related to my actual business, they also helped me land my current job.  I got this job without ever interviewing, without filling out any applications, and with a business that wasn’t even hiring.  How?  It was because I did the things mentioned above.  Things you generally aren’t going to learn in college unless you take initiative.  Now, rather than being stuck in a cubicle (which isn’t necessarily bad, just not my cup of tea) I’m out interacting with small businesses on a daily basis that are experiencing the same struggles I do as an entrepreneur.

My job is with a small distribution center that owns territory that covers a significant part of Iowa.  My job is to sell salon supplies and equipment, and provide consulting services to our clients to help them grow their client base and increase their retail turnover.  It’s awesome and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.

This has been a great opportunity for me thus far and in an economy where jobs have become scarce it is vital that students and even those out of school take every opportunity they can to raise their chances of getting that spot.  Sorry for the long post, guess I’m just making up for not bloggin the past two months all at once.

An academy that offers opportunities like these will always have difficulty reaching full capacity.  Either parents/students don’t know about the school and programs, or they don’t understand what the school and programs have to offer their kids for their future.  Central used to offer a web design class but they had to kill it due to a lack of interest.  That’s a joke!  I guarantee you that in a school district with I think around seven high schools could put together a full class on web design.  However, when you’re invisible to the outside world it doesn’t matter anyways.

Fortunately for them and educational institutions worldwide, they have some very unique advantages over say, a corporation.

• Unlimited access to their market.  How many surveys were you forced to take in school?  How many newsletters were you given to take home?  Schools have practically free reign over their students in regards to information delivery, aka. marketing.
• Insanely vast amounts of historical and current data.  These schools have data covering decades of information.  Ever semester their databases are growing as more and more students enroll.  They can get any kind of information they want – email, phone numbers, maybe even social networking user names????
• Schools are supposed to be innovative.  While schools nation wide have a legacy of being behind the curve, stubborn, and work under the assumption that they do everything right, new things like social media and blogging are the essence of what education should be.

Our presentation covered a number of things but we primarily discussed SEO, blogging, content creation, and new media.  Merely hours after the presentation they had already approved and ordered three flip mino cams.  I was flabbergasted!  A school immediately moved on the recommendations of a couple of guys doing some free work and it cost them some money (the cameras, not our consulting)??? Yeah, I know!  It sounds absurd BUT IT’S TRUE!  Their marketing committee was thrilled though maybe a little afraid of changes like these but I love watching people grasp the power of the web through content creation and realize their brand power potential.

So why should schools care about developing an online brand?  Especially public schools!

School budgets are more or less based on the number of students enrolled.  There are some other factors, but meeting capacity should be the number one goal of every school, especially a “trade” type school.  More students turns into more dollars.  They are already covering their fixed cost so, each student added is huge profit for the school.  More profit/money/higher budgets equals more programs that will keep students interested in learning and help them move on to post-secondary education.

I’m thrilled, I really am.  The school is www.centralcampus.org. Hopefully soon, you can check out their website and see some drastic changes.  Until then, I implore any of you that are either students or parents of students.  Push technology development!  The world is changing and the very institutions set up to make us innovative are falling by the wayside.  Even the smallest of changes can have huge impacts.

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Anyone that has been reading on a consistent basis has seen that I change my mind a lot regarding the theme and style I use on my Wordpress website. Well, no more. I have found the greatest theme ever and once it’s been customized to my site I’ll never have to worry about other themes again. I’m switching to the Wordpress Thesis theme by DIY themes. I have been considering this for a while but I wanted to see the admin side of the site before taking the plunge. Fortunately, someone finally posted a video on YouTube that shows just that. I am hooked and hopefully by the end of May we will have a complete redesign of the website. Thanks for being patient.

Interested in the Thesis theme. Watch this video.

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Here’s a good explanation of an elevator pitch by a Canadian superhero (you should see his business cards).

The out-of-pocket insurance mandate in the stimulus package provides cheaper COBRA coverage for these displaced employees.  Rather than paying the typical 102% they only have to pay 35%.  Who pays the rest?  The business owner must cover the remaining 65% up front and can be deducted from their federal payroll taxes.

Sound like it’s not too bad, right?  The 65% is reimburced anyways as a payroll credit.  Not so true.  One thing the federal governement has demonstrated is their lack of understanding of cashflow and it’s vital role for a businesses success…especially in this market.

President Obama said, “…We’ll help folks who’ve lost their jobs through no fault of their own by providing the unemployment benefits they need and protecting the healthcare they count on.”  Unfortunately we can’t say the same for business owners.

Business owners are likely to wait weeks or more before getting these reimbursements placing unnecessary pressure on these entrepreneurs and making it difficult to grow their business in this economic climate.

Read more about it here at Entrepreneur.com.

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Now that unemployment is clearing incredibly disastrous levels we need to decide what true philanthropy is.

An acquaintence of mine was telling me the other day about a family friend of there’s that had recently passed away.  During the eulogy the eulogizer was talking about how this man took his civic responsibilities as a business owner.  Usually we hear people talk about starting non-profits, funding charity movements, donating to orphans and foster homes, etc.  Not this guy.  He was sharing how this individual created over 25,000 jobs in his lifetime.  To me, that is true philanthropy.

There is definitely a need for donations to non-profit charities.  I’m not discounting that.  However, I think giving people in all levels of society the opportunity to earn an honest wage, provide for their family, have food, shelter, and clothes is the most dignifying thing a company can do.

I’ve been reading a lot about companies that have been offering pro-bono work for their employees rather than laying them off.  As demand continues to slide (though we’ve seen some recent leaps) and labor isn’t needed law firms have been sending unneeded attorneys to provide pro-bono legal services.  There was an at home nursing care company that sent their unneeded nurses to do volunteer work at hospitals.  Of course, all of these people were still paid.  In the case of the at home care company, they actually have seen demand increase because the doctors these volunteers work with are sending them referrals because of the service they’ve provided.

Rather than laying people off, they were able to divert their work load to great things.  While this is not a literal creation of a job, as far as I’m concerned, retaining a job is just as philanthropic.

As business owners we spend our lives setting and accomplishing goals.  I think one goal we all need to sit back and consider, especially in this economic climate, is how many jobs can I create this year, next year, in the next decade, or even in you life.  Nothing is more important than human dignity and we it’s the greatest thing we can ever give back to the community.  Whether it’s a new marketing director, associate consultant, or janitor.  Work brings accomplishment.  Work brings success at any level.  Work brings dignity.  Do your part.  How many jobs will you create this year & how will you do it?  Let me know.

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Having spent 2.5 years at the University of Iowa and now 1.5 years at Drake University I have had the opportunity to see many different perspectives on education from both a public & private school.  Here is what I’ve found is wrong with our education system and what’s forced it to be this way.

• Textbooks:  That’s right, textbooks have ruined the way we are taught.  I look at like this.  Universities and schools everywhere have been using textbooks for centuries.  Those that are “experts” in their field write down what they know, usually copying formats and theories of past textbooks, and then selling them for an obscenely high price.  What’s wrong with this?  Things have changed in the last few centuries.  We are in the information age.  I can go and find all of the information in any of my textbooks online for free and it isn’t that hard to do so.  Textbooks are a crutch for the teachers/professors and students.  It holds us back because few of Gen X and most of Gen Y don’t learn this way.
• The PhD Professor:  There is nothing wrong with a professor who has gone to school to earn a Doctorates degree.  That said, there is everything wrong that Universities employ individuals with these higher degrees yet NO experience in the real world.  This is ridiculous, especially in the business school setting.  One thing I loved about the University of Iowa is that all of my entrepreneurship professors were not in fact professors.  They were retired individuals both young and old who have found great success in the business world and want to share that with the rest of us.
• Regurgitation versus Applications: When I sit back and think of all the bubble sheets I’ve filled over the last four years I think of all the time I’ve wasted cramming the night before memorizing definitions and theory concepts verbatim.  I, myself, test well.  I do well on multiple choice because often, I can deduce the correct answer.  If you asked me the question without multiple options there is no way I would ever get the answer right.  Why am I paying tuition so a teacher can only test me and my classmates on how well we regurgitate information.
• Babysitting: Seriously.  We are in college.  We do not need our hands held to guide us through to our careers.  Drake University is notorious (in my mind) for doing this.  I was a Senior at U of Iowa and transferred to Drake.  This added a semester on before I could graduate, which is okay because I was going to finish a semester early at U or Iowa.  I have been forced to take a couple entry level courses.  In these courses they tell me what I’m supposed to do to find internships, network, and prepare for my career.  Great, right?  No.  In these classes they also require me to read these stupid books that teach me nothing.  They make me go to internship fairs, career fairs, etc.  If you aren’t doing these things they are on you because in their eyes, you can’t fail.  It’s not bad to care about your students but it is ultimately the choice of the student to be successful and you can’t shove that down their throats.

These are the things I think have ruined our system, aside from the government subsidizing stupidity and artificially driving the costs of education higher; but that’s a post for another day.

Here are the things we need to change if we want this to turn around:

• Experiential Learning: Universities nation wide should have clinics in all of their schools.  Especially in a business school.  Clinics provide students the opportunity to network, build mentoring relationships, get real world experience, and earn credit at the same time.  Close the textbooks.  It will save your students money and they will learn more.
• Pull Away from Academics: This is really focused on business schools but I’m sure it applies to any degree at the University level.  Go ahead and hire individuals with higher degrees, but require real world experience.  So it may hurt your rankings because you aren’t hiring the top PhD from Harvard that’s never had a real job.  So what!  It’s about the students, not your rankings.  Bring the community into the classroom.
• Let Us Fail if We Want to Fail: Don’t waste your time babying individuals.  Even if you help them graduate and do well in college, how does this prepare them for the real world.  If I hired someone that needed this babying I would fire them in an instant, no questions asked.  Work with students, but don’t try and hold their hands.
• Test on Application: Few business people can repeat definitions.  Why should student have to?  It’s not about memorizing and regurgitating.  It’s about learning concepts and knowing how to apply them.  Essay tests and individual/group projects do this.  Don’t give us T/F, multiple choice, or matching tests.  This is stupid.  Test us on what we’ve learned.

Until these changes are universally made in the US our education system will continue to suffer and the quality of our graduating students will be decreasing at significant rates.  Some of these changes are difficult to make.  If you have questions let us know because we know steps need to be taken.  If you have a student in your home or if you are a student, demand these things from your/their professors.  Until this happens I doubt any change will be made.

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Obama has promised everything from free health care, to more jobs, to cutting taxes for 95% of America (oops, he forgot that last one in the budget).  He is opposing free market principles (that have proven they work, it’s not just theory) to rally the people.  Well, at least 60% of all voters love him.  Obama has distracted them with his right hand so they don’t see what his left hand is doing.  They don’t realize he has blown the financial future of our children.  They don’t see he is killing business in America.  They don’t see that what his right hand is offering isn’t sustainable.  They don’t see their freedoms being taken up in one foul swoop.  Where’s the ACLU now?  Why aren’t they defending our liberties?  Well, how about the fact that they are historically a socialist organization.  The people don’t see the value of the dollar dieing.  Instead they believe that short rallies in the market like last week are attributed to Him, but the fact that the rally is disappearing and the market is dieing was inherited by Bush.

Open your eyes.  Small business is suffering.  The dollar is dieing.  Our freedoms are disappearing as we speak.  Do something about it!

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Guess what the headline of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) was yesterday?  You saw it.  You heard it.  Government Forces Out Wagoner at GM! This is ridiculous!  How did we let them get so much power?  All I heard for the last 8 years is how Bush crossed the line, he’s grabbing too much power, he’s abusing his power.  Obama isn’t crossing a line, he erased the line, there is no more line.  The President of the United States DOES NOT dictate who does and does not file for bankruptcy.  He DOES NOT get to select who leads a company as CEO.  Do I think Wagoner did a good job at GM?  Heck no.  He should have been removed a long time ago, but Obama has NO RIGHT to force this.  If I were the shareholders of that company I would be filing suit against the United States of America.  I don’t know or think it would work, but I would not tolerate this kind of totalitarian crap.

We have to put an end to this.  We are giving up our freedom.  We aren’t becoming a nanny state.  We are way past that.  We are becoming a socialist dictatorship.

Am I mad about GM going bankrupt?  No, I was saying we should have let them go bankrupt BEFORE we bailed them out.  Good job Obamalosireid.  You have ruined America and wasted billions of dollars which were funded by foreign investment & the devaluation of the US dollar.  Bush started it with the first stimulus package a year ago, but his erratic spending habits and bad ideas don’t even compare to this.  Obama gave GM billions.  Congress gave GM billions.  Where is the money?  Where is the accountability?  They are leading this country worse than Wagoner was leading GM.  When will they start listening to the people?

Most of you that have read thus far are probably assuming that this is motivated purely by political bias.  Well, I am conservative and I think Obama is the worst person to lead this country, but it’s actually a business bias that drives this post/venting.  What’s my business bias?  Well, I believe in free market principles.  I and every other libertarian & conservative out there was saying not to bailout these companies and let them fail.  Why?  It’s good business.  Letting them fail within Chapter 11 would facilitate the restructuring the auto companies need to come up from the dust as successful companies.  Why did Obama ignore us?  He said we can’t sacrifice these jobs, well NOW you’re threatening bankruptcy Mr. President!  How about you just say, we were right and you were WAY OFF!  Keep your dirty, political hands off of American business because you don’t know what your doing.  You don’t know business.  Your agenda to force all Americans to only have “clean cars” will not work.  If you knew anything about business, you would know why won’t work.

Read the post below, The People’s Pottage.  You’ll see why Obama is doing this.  There is always an agenda.

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• The People’s Pottage (marginalrevolution.com)

Certainly we’d all hope to come up with the next Facebook and make boat loads of money.  The reason I’ve been thinking about this lately is because I recently saw a tweet with a link to a comprehensive list of networking sites (I use the term “comprehensive” VERY loosely) and I don’t see a single one that will ever be as big as Facebook or MySpace.

What is the paradigm shift I think we’ve all seen?  Niche Networking! If you look at any of these “comprehensive” lists how many would YOU actually use?  None? 1? 2? 5? 10?  Definitely not more than 10.  Why do I need to register with a network for sport coaches, or surfers, or “deviant” artists (whatever the heck that is)?  I don’t!  However, I definitely see the value they bring.

We all can agree social media continues to revolutionize how we communicate.  It’s absolutely incredible that there is a network for pretty much any kind of person out there.  You can’t not find at least one that fits your personality.

So how did the age of the “Facebooks” end?  Well, I can think of two things that helped cause this shift and I’m positive there are many more I just haven’t taken the time to think of them yet.  (Let me know if you do!)

• The counter-culture of America helped drive social networking into the niche phase.  Being trendy isn’t cool.  Many people don’t want to jump on the bandwagon because they’re “unique.”  Or, at least as unique as everyone else on their niche network.  This always happens though.  The counter-culture of America (which can mean a lot of things) always makes room for competition in any industry, especially ones driven by trendy teens & young adults.
• Integration.  I’d say this is the largest contributor to niche networking.  I think just about everybody has between 5 and 10 networks they could easily belong to.  While seemingly overwhelming, social media integration has made it pretty dang easy.  I can integrate Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, MyBlogLog, Diigo, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Kyte, and others into my blog/website.  This is great.  This allows me to pick what networks appeal to me and combine them into one.

There is one other shift I think may be coming.  Yesterday I got an email from Furl.  I never use Furl but registered a while back because I wanted to secure my user name (I don’t know why, but I do this all the time).  It went something like this:

“The Furl team is very pleased to announce that Furl has become part of Diigo.com. We worked hard to find Furl a home where loyal users like you could continue to benefit from best-of-breed social bookmarking and annotation tools. Hands down, Diigo.com was the winner due to its innovative approach to online research tools and knowledge sharing.”

Furl is now a part of Diigo.  This was inevitable.  While there are tons of networks out there to appeal to every John, Dick, and Jane, there is no way they are scalable into long lasting companies. The result: Consolidation.  We already saw Facebook make an offer to Twitter a few months back.  While it was rejected I would not be surprised if this trend picks up industry wide.  Why you ask?  Look at Facebook for example.  Step by step they have torn down every single wall in their way.

1. Facebook only available to Harvard
2. Facebook available to Universities in Boston area
3. Facebook available to all college students nationwide
4. Facebook available to all college students world wide
5. Facebook allows all to join
6. Facebook allows profiles to go public on search engines and more.

While these steps are about as comprehensive as the list of networks I mentioned earlier, you get the point.  These large networks are transitioning to do what niche networks do but with a lot more capital resources.  It could end up like Hungry Hippos.  You know, the game with the balls in the middle and you each have a hippo that eats the balls.  Look to Facebook, MySpace, Skyrock, and others to be very, very hungry and eat everyone up.

Again, this is just a thought.  This industry is constantly changing, and trying to predict the future is near to impossible. However, for people, organizations, and businesses that heavily utilize these tools, it’s imperative to at least try.

Check out the “comprehensive” list here if you didn’t catch it above.

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For 14 months now I’ve worked for Wells Fargo Financial Bank (WFF) on a part time basis.  I needed the money because my tuition increased by over 400% when I transferred from the University of Iowa to Drake University for my last three semesters.  The are a few good things that have happened as a result of my work there.

1. I will NEVER work in a cubicle again.  I’ve learned what life at a large company is like.  I personally know Senior VPs at WFF and THEY work in cubicles.  Granted they are larger than the ones I had sat in but seriously!  Cubicles are the bane of my existence and sticking around with WFF or working with any large company would result in eternal, personal degeneration.
2. For the last two months I have been a “flex” employee which meant I didn’t have to work at all and as a result I’ve been able to work on my business and have only worked at WFF for a total of maybe 5 hours.
3. Most importantly, I’ve learned how to build a real career and not just work at one.

From working in this environment and learning things, I’ve come up with things you should do if you want to BUILD a career and not just work in one.

• Don’t become content.  So many workers become relatively content with where they are.  Their company offers learning & development programs and great benefits.  Sounds pretty good, right?  Wrong!  These things are good but they often inadvertantly lead many (not all) workers to become satisfied with their job and promotion every now and then for a 5% raise, if that.
• Define what your goals are! To me a career is not a job in a certain industry or doing a certain thing.  A career is a means to an end.  The end may be to become a millionaire, or CEO of a Fortune 500 company.  It’s just like starting a business.  You need to know your exit strategy, or goals, in order to identify the means to get there.
• Don’t work for someone just because they are a great company.  Identify the experience you need and select work that falls in line with that.  It’s simply developing a strategy.  Strategize how you will accomplish your goals.  Be general and specific.  You don’t have to follow this strategy step by step but you do need it to plan where you are going and to help you make future decisions.
• Realize that the size of your cubicle doesn’t represent who you are. Most companies offer square footage as a way to represent their hierarchy.  There are companies out there that actually have the amount of square feet a cubicle should be for any particular position.  Often workers aren’t looking for a raise, they just want more space.
• Don’t deviate from the path. Your position may change, your strategy may change, but NEVER compromise for less.  You know what you need to do to get where you want to go.  Stick to your values, stick to the path.

Life is business and you should treat it as such.  Think “personal continuity” and work to reach your exit strategy.

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“Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were.”

David Rockefeller

“Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.”  Jack Welch

“Far too many people—especially people with great expertise in one area—are contemptuous of knowledge in other areas or believe that being bright is a substitute for knowledge.” Peter Drucker

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