• Business Survival Guide : 8 practices of a long term contractor

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    Originally posted on FreelanceSwitch According to the Webster Dictionary, a practice is: – to follow or observe habitually or customarily – to exercise or pursue as a profession, art, or occupation – to perform or do repeatedly in order to acquire skill or proficiency None of the practices below are technical for one simple reason – technically, you should already be good at what you do. After all, you are selling your services as an …

  • My Own Drummer

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    I was meandering through technorati, checking what people out there in the world have to say about us (at least those who have the courage to link back) and saw WAH(Web)Mommy expose her weirdness to the world. A little off kilter, I had almost relegated her to the OCD kookie bin, where she would be pleasantly surprised to find about half the women I have ever loved including my wife, when dear god, she called …

  • Picking The Right Idea

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    Peter & I talk all the time about which idea do you pick and run with. We love innovating and since we happen to work with the IP of a number of the world’s largest and fastest growing companies, we constantly are exposed to amazing ideas. Our problem isn’t coming up with them, it is choosing the one to stick with. I’ve always believed there are two types of entrepreneurs. Shotgun entrepreneurs take a large …

  • Startup’s Guide: The NDA Foul

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    Today I learned a lesson. It surprised me quite a bit as it counters a lot of my basic understanding of business contracts and relationships. It happened twice in one day and a little search on Google confirmed that this wasn’t some odd exception. Two successful entrepreneurs I respect and trust enormously refused to sign our NDA. At first I was confused and worried. You see I was raised on the belief that in business, …

  • The Tragic Tax Yo-yo

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    A lot of lessons I learn come from personal tragedies. I am incredibly grateful that this is not one of those. I got lucky. Quinn sat me down when I was starting and told me: Make sure you put a certain amount of your earnings aside each and every time you get paid. It is not your money, it is Uncle Sam’s. I’m not going to write a big old post on taxes. I’m just …

  • Startup’s Guide: Timing the Gold Rush (when should I jump in?)

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    When you are considering a business opportunity, one of the most important issues to really ponder is timing. You may have the very best idea on earth. It could solve a huge problem. You could have a great team with phenomenal support. But if the target audience are bank tellers, I would beg you to reconsider. Bank tellers are a dying institution. ATMs, and now online banking, are making them essentially obsolete. Peter showed me …

  • Interviewing You: the Winners

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    The time has come! We posted a challenge to our readers a few weeks ago to interview themselves. Many people responded. Peter & I read and read and laughed and cried. We got some amazing stories and wanted to bring to you a few of our favorites and pass on our congrats to the winners and the community at large. We are giving out 3 prizes. One for our favorite interview, one for the best …

  • Word of the Day: Instamacy

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    in.sta.ma.cy [in-stuh-muh-see] noun a phenomenon in which complete strangers feel a powerful connection as though they have known one another for years. a power sales approach built upon techniques such as mirroring and matching, eye contact, asking key questions and active listening, employed by master salesman around the world a common precursor to the one night stand Examples: The instamacy of the moment was so overwhelming, that I believed my new best friend when she …