As my CPA friend has told me time and again “sales cure a multitude of ills’. I couldn’t agree more. If there was ever a time when sales was the answer, its now. Banks are being stingy, customers are more selective, competition is fierce. I’m not a huge fan of a lot of conferences and conventions, but when Mercato Partners holds a conference on sales, I’m there. Why? Because they (and their speakers) know what they are talking about. The proof is in the pudding, or in their case, the ROI. Mercato is invested in some of the fastest growing (sales growth) companies in the West. Alan Hall, their founder, started MarketStar out of his home and it now generates over $10 Billion in annual revenue for it’s clients like HP, BlackBerry, and more. If your company needs sales, needs profits, wants to grow and wants to survive, then you should attend. I’ll be there, let’s meet at the conference. Here is a link to sign up, it’s money well spent.
FundingUniverse is on a tear. I will be posting periodically with various positions we will be hiring for. Feel free to email me – alex AT fundinguniverse DOT COM. We offer a really cool place to work, great benefits, a stable and successful company, with a fun group of nice people to be around. Sounds decent enough, eh? Here are some of the details:
Senior PHP Developer
PAY: $60,000 – $80,000 DOE
Description:
Lead a team of developers building an exciting new site from the ground up. Plan, track, and develop along with the team during sprints.
Experience:
3 years minimum PHP 5 experience
OOP expertise
Experience with PHP frameworks (Kohana, Code Igniter, Cake)
MYSQL, with experience planning and deploying databases
Solid UI skills
HTML/CSS/Jquery experience
Experience prototyping and planning large consumer web apps
Rapid development (SCRUM) experience preferred
Bachelor’s in computer science, information systems or other technical degree a plus
Well, that didn’t take long. Shortly after TechCrunch predicted that TwitJump would be acquired by Twitter in 2010 a virtual firestorm of activity ensued. I received a number of term sheets from some very strong companies. I’m thrilled with the result. It will be fun to formally announce it next week. TwitJump will have some INCREDIBLE new features rolling out under the new ownership. Watch for updates. In the meantime, it’s kind of crazy that an idea I had 8 months ago was sold this past week. It’s fun being an entrepreneur and these types of experiences are why we/I do it I guess. I couldn’t be happier with the result.
Next big thing? FundingUniverse. We are well on our way to breaking $100MM in sales and changing the entire landscape for small businesses. Well beyond funding, we are building a platform to help all stages of business with a variety of needs. I love what we do as I mentioned in a previous post.
Stay tuned for more exciting stuff 
A business I started, www.TwitJump.com, has been predicted by TechCrunch to be purchased by Twitter in 2010. I am incredibly flattered that TwitJump is included by TechCrunch in this short list of five companies. If nothing else, it solidifies TwitJump as a highly valuable tool for Twitter. What do you think, should I sell this business to Twitter in 2010? Read the article here:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/03/top-ten-digital-deals-2010/
‘Tis the Season for New Year’s Resolutions (NYR)! I have read a lot on Twitter and Facebook. Change this, improve that, do this differently, experience this or that, etc. Another underlying them is the “won’t let bad people in my life, will focus on positive stuff, removing those that drag me down, etc.”. While all of these are great pursuits and worthy efforts, most will fall short. Why? Because if you set goals once a year, you are likely to follow thru on them just as often. It takes consistent, regular effort to make, maintain and achieve your goals. In addition, it takes, in my opinion, a much more granular approach to goal setting and achieving and NYR are just goals, right?
I liken NYR to something my Dad often talked about with me. Leadership was his favorite subject and one he knew quite a bit about as a Leadership Mentor for over 40 years. He mentored some of the best and brightest CEO’s in the region and had great stories to tell. Along with that, he would often talk to me about what Leadership training and mentoring really meant to him. He said it ‘wasn’t’ the quick fix weekend seminars, the NY Times Best Seller book on tape, the package of DVD’s and manuals, or the big rah-rah weeklong go find yourself types of corporate adventures. My Dad thought they were useful, and helpful, but had only a very short term impact on an individual. They were meant to augment a much more detailed plan. He thought, and I agree, that the way to find true change was to work on it daily/weekly/monthly for years at a time. No quick fix, no weekend rah-rah’s. Just a detailed plan, executed often, analyzed periodically, measured, and then reset for the next round. This is NOT what NYR are in their truest definitions.
So, with that in mind, I’d like to suggest you reconsider trading your NYR in exchange for detailed, regular (one a month, or once a quarter at most) goal setting with plans on how to get there, accountability steps along the way, reconciliation of goals at stated times (month/quarter) and then a reset/adjustment for the next time period. In my opinion, this is MUCH more effective. You want to achieve your NYR goals, right? Consider trying this method as an alternative to the annual ritual of ‘set and forget’. Being good at anything takes practice, and practice by definition is something that happens more then once. So practice your NYR at regular intervals, with the check-in methods described, and see if you have a better year with regard to achieving your stated goals.
I am not even close to the most successful person I know. However, I have had pretty good luck at setting and accomplishing goals for myself each year. I’d attribute it to my shunning of the NYR tradition. What I do happens all year round, no one day to turn it on or off. I think that is a big contributor to my reasonable sucess (reasonable = doesn’t happen all the time). Do you want to try it? Let me know how it is going if so. OR, do you think I am off base missing this long time tradition? Either way, I am going to continue doing it my way, because it generally works for me. And I guess that is what really matters. Do what works for you.
I’ll be there January 7, 8 and 9. Please email me: alex AT fundinguniverse DOT com if you are interested in potentially getting together to talk business in Las Vegas next week. Should be an interesting show, I’ve got some good meetings scheduled but am always looking for more.
Our family is actively pursuing adoption. We would really appreciate it if you would keep us in mind if you know of anyone that is pregnant and might be considering adoption. Please spread the word, although keep our names confidential at this time. Email me – alex@theentrepreneursblog.com if you’d like to connect us with anyone. Thanks so much in advance for helping us add to our family. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!
I was contacted by Steve at techlifemashup to do an interview with him about my career as an entrepreneur. he’s a great guy and I appreciated the opportunity. Here is a link to the interview. Thanks again Steve.
http://www.techlifemashup.com/2009/12/interview-with-serial-entrepreneur-alex-lawrence/
Tags: Entrepreneur
Those that work with me likely tire of my reference to MO’. He (or she as the case may be) can be a good friend or a difficult enemy to a business. MO’ is short for MO-MENTUM and I believe it is a significant factor in winning and losing at business. It’s a simple concept really and I’m sure others have referred to it elsewhere. Regardless, I have always looked at it as an important indicator as to how my companies are operating. How? By definition really.
The scientific definition of Momentum is:
A vector quantity (i.e. it has both magnitude and direction) that expresses the relation of the velocity of a body, wave, field, or other physical system, to its energy. The direction of the momentum of a single object indicates the direction of its motion. Momentum is a conserved quantity, it remains constant unless acted upon by an outside force.
That is a somewhat complicated way to say that if something big is moving in a direction, it is easier to keep it moving in that direction. Conversely, if it stops, and gets pushed back in another direction, the same theory applies. It’s tough to stop either way. Hopefully you can see where this applies to business. If your company is pushing a heavy object (it’s product, service, revenues, expenses, etc.) downhill, the speed will increase and it will be tougher to stop. That’s a good thing if you are headed down the right hill, with the right object. Suppose you are headed down the wrong hill, with the wrong object. With each passing moment, the speed increases and the direction becomes more difficult to change.
With that in mind – what is MO’ doing for you? Taking you in the right direction? Or do you need to put some weight behind an energy shift? I can tell you from experience that Momentum is a lot easier to manage when you are keeping it on a defined track as opposed to starting it down a new one. That means that if your business is experiencing positive sales, decreasing expenses, improved attitudes or other positive things, make sure you keep your foot on the gas and push MO’ faster. It can be tempting to sit back and let the ride carry you down the hill. That’s dangerous though. MO’ can shift on you like a bump in the road, and without the proper speed, you’ll be sent off track and now you are barrelling down the wrong direction. BRAKES!!!!!
Where is your business at? Are you pushing back and redirecting? Are you hitting the gas and increasing your speed? It’s probably one or the other, because MO’ doesn’t like to sit still for long.
I found this post in some old archives tonight. I thought perhaps it was timely to bring it back with RSL winning the MSL cup tonight. As I recall, there were several readers who disagreed with me. While winning the MSL cup doesn’t mean I am totally right, it does certainly help my argument. What are your updated thoughts? I believe this was from an old post several years ago…
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If Real leaves Salt Lake and is sold to another city outside of Utah, it will be a drag on the State. Perhaps there will be an 11th hour deal to take the team to downtown Salt Lake or into Utah County. Either one of those is a better option then losing the team. Here is why:
- Utah has the Jazz, but that is pretty much it. Although I don’t watch or like professional soccer that much, I realize a lot of other people do. Besides, the more entertainment options the better and a professional soccer stadium is another venue for concerts and such.
- I don’t know if I think Dave Checketts is the greatest guy in the world, but I can guarantee you he and his financial backers have more financial knowledge then the Mayor of Salt Lake County. I can also guarantee you that they will have a lot more money to lose in the deal then the County would. With that in mind, I will always trust private enterprise and entrepreneurs before I will trust the government or politicians.
- The whole thing wreaks of bad politics to me. It sure sounded like they had a deal a few months ago. Ground breaking ceremonies, public pat on the backs and atta-boys made it seem like the deal was done. Now that a private company evaluated the deal and said it didn’t pencil, the Mayor says it would be “irresponsible” to invest the money. Really? The decision to invest seems like it should be viewed thru a bigger lense then the results of one third party report. Besides, according to the newspaper this morning, the third party reported a $7M shortfall which Checketts offered to cover himself – so if it is going to break even now, or better, why wouldn’t the county keep the deal?
- Salt Lake looks like a strange place to a lot of people outside of the State. Sure, we have Sundance, we did the Olympics right and everyone loves our snow and Moab. But for the most part, people think Utah is a weird state. I couldn’t disagree with them more, but unfortunately it is what it is. The fact that we can’t keep a major league soccer franchise does not help our reputation. A lot of smart, talented people are really into soccer and having a franchise here gave them a team to cheer for and an opportunity to find more culture here in SLC.
- It will be good for the city. It will make money. I think it will be a financial success and a good investment. Of all the CRAP that tax dollars are wasted on, a nice stadium that will house a professional sports team and great entertainment events (backed by a team of successful entertainment and sports executives) sounds like a good idea to me
What do you think??? I am curious what others feel about the direction the stadium might go…
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