Entries tagged with “Seth Godin”.
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Posted by Mitchell York under Small Business Management
Seems like software company execs are getting into the book-writing business. A few months ago, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson of 37Signals came out with Rework, a punchy book of counter-intuitive, short essays on how to get things done in your entrepreneurial business. Now comes Conquer the Chaos: How to Grow a Successful Small Business without Going Crazy by Infusionsoft executives Clate Mask and Scott Martineau. For me, Rework is a vastly better book — the founders seem much more in tune with the scrappier, bootstrapped way startups roll these days. Chaos comes from two guys who admirably mortgaged everything, endured not making payroll and dancing around the bill-collectors before things started going their way. I think their story and model of getting started was perfect five years ago, but now that there’s no one to borrow from and you can’t go into hock even if you want to, their perspective seem less relevant. Read more…
Posted by Mitchell York under Small Business Management
[Click here for 15-minute audio interview with Seth Godin.]
Whenever I make an assumption, such as: everyone knows who Seth Godin is, I’m usually wrong. Seth Godin is the best-selling author of seminal books on marketing, including Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, Meatball Sundae and many others. He writes the most-read marketing blog on the Internet at SethGodin.com. If you are a marketer, you already do, or should, read what he writes.
Now Seth has published a new book that has a much wider audience in mind than just marketers. It includes anyone who wants to have a successful career or business in this century. Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? lays out the problem of work and entrepreneurship in the 21st century, and what we can do about it. Read more…
Posted by Mitchell York under Small Business Management
Which demographic group has a lock on entrepreneurship? Is it the Gen-Y/Millennials, which has grown up with social media, group dating and an ability to leverage technology and get products launched fast? Or it the Baby Boomers, who are graduating for corporate life and taking the lessons of decades as they invest their equity in themselves? The answer is “Yes.”
The New York Times today checked in on Ernie and Maggie Doud, a middle-aged Missouri couple it had profile about two years ago. A decade ago, the Douds started a company to cure dog breath (in dogs, not people) so they could live more happily with their own mutt. They came up with a kind of doggie Altoid called “Greenies” (maybe Major League Baseball could be a customer?) and sold it to Mars Inc. in 2006 for “a small fortune.” Since then they’ve started 12 other companies. Judging from the photo of them in the Times, I’d say they’re in their mid-60s. And they look very, very happy. Read more….
Posted by Mitchell York under Interviews
Aliza Sherman is one of the true pioneers of Web marketing and journalism. She launched one of the very first Internet services companies, Cybergrrl, Inc., in the 1990s, and founded Webgrrls International, the first women’s Internet networking group that grew to over 100 chapters worldwide in its first year. Since then she has launched products and communities, written books, been a prolific public speaker and adviser in the worlds of politics, media, health care and more. She graciously took the time to answer my questions about entrepreneurship. Read more…
Posted by Mitchell York under Career Coaching
As a parent of one child a year out of college and another one heading into college, I was struck by a statistic quoted by Seth Godin that only 20 percent of 2009 college grads who applied for jobs got one. Ouch! Seth goes on to convey some great suggestions for what the unlucky 80 percent of grads can do while they wait for the world to catch up to them. Things like mastering a programming language; giving a speech a week to local organizations; self-publishing a book; writing a regular blog on a subject you care about; and a bunch more. Great ideas!
But not just for unemployed grads. I coach executives in the 40s, 50s, and 60s who are either out of work, see the writing on the wall with the current job, or might be spray painting the wall themselves just to get the hell out of corporate America. Seth’s ideas can work for them, too.
Getting outside your own head is great advice. Too often we brood on our situation instead of creating something new and re-energizing our career prospects or entrepreneurial desires. What’s one project you can start this month that will take you to a new place and get you passed where you’re currently stuck?
