Archive for the ‘General Business’ Category

If you don’t know who Gary Vaynerchuck is, he should really check him out. He’s the frantic voice (and face) behind the wildly popular video-blog wine Library TV, where he reviews both expensive and inexpensive wines with a flair only he can bring (he calls it bringing the ‘thunder’). More than a great Continue Reading »

Want to save some time? Try back flipping into your jeans!

In my last post, I talked about taking some time each morning to gather yourself before the day (and to plan it out). I stick by what I said – about how it helps to make a to-do list (and a not-to-do list). But those work best when you have too much energy, and too much motivation. What if you’re struggling with either of these? What if you have trouble getting going, or you have trouble figuring out what to get going on?

Well then, I have some more morning advice Continue Reading »

In my last post, I wrote that God is right… that Sunday is best taken as a day off. Well, I don’t know exactly who to give credit to on this one, but I’ve discovered something else about taking time off. Namely, that you should take some each morning. What do I mean?

Well, I think most people start work by launching right into the task that feels the biggest or the most-pressing. This might be effective in getting that task done, but once it is, what next? Do you have a plan for the rest of the day? An ordered list of what you’d like to get done? A list of what you’d like to avoid? Well, probably not. After the first task is done, you probably feel unclear about exactly what to do next, and in what order. You probably Continue Reading »

I’m in no way religious or anything, but I’ve got to give props to my bro G.O.D. on this - take a break on Sunday!

As entrepreneurs, we are often caught in our own business, it becomes an integral part of our life at which we work in it and think about it all the time. We get so consummed by it emotionally to the point at which we cannot see it clearly from an outside perspective.

Since 2 weeks ago, I tried this new weekly schedule, Continue Reading »

Unless you have been hiding in a cave, you should know that Microsoft is trying to acquire Yahoo and all the dramas that went along with it (i.e. Yahoo declining the offer and Mircosoft turn “hostile”, Yahoo looking for deals from private equities and other media companies like News Corp., Google bringing up the whole anti-trust thing again in revenge for when Microsoft protested against Google’s acquistion of Double Click…)

Since opinions, speculations, & suggestions are ALL OVER the internet and paper about this ordeal, I thought I would chim in and give my 2 cents.

Is this a surpise?

Hardly, it has been widely speculated that Microsoft is looking to acquire Yahoo since 4th Quarter last year. In fact, in Merrill Lynch’s “Top 10 Internet Themes for 1H’08″ report, it has been mentioned and speculated. Seriously, for Microsoft to even stand a chance Continue Reading »

If not, you should.

New year is a great time for busy entrepreneurs like us to really sit down, think about what we did this past year with our business, set goals for the new year, and create a roadmap to get there.

In 2008, our company main objective is to create a better customer experience, by adding a full time phone support staff and toll-free support no. on all our websites. We’ll also refine our refund and shipping policies to give our customer stronger protection and more flexibility in returning products to us.

We’re launching two ecommerce sites (ShopBeads.com and GolfIsEasy.com) in late January, and may look into 1-2 more towards June. Our target this year Continue Reading »

Its that time of the year when you should be sending Christmas cards or emails to people or organizations that are associated with your business. This includies your vendors, suppliers, partners, employees, and customers. So this brings us to one question - should we say “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas”?

For those of you reading who’re not from the US, you’d probably ask, “Why would anyone say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas?” Well, in the US, there’s something called “Political Correctness”, so apparently if you say Merry Christmas, it implies something about Christ and Christianity so people from other religion may be offended…

So in business settings, especially if you do business in the US, what should you say?

Well, I personally use “Happy Holidays” just in case, but really I dont think it matter that much… do people really get offended so easily? Do you really want to do business with people who are SO particular about irrelevant things?

Tell me what you think!

Technorati Tags: Christmas, ecommerce, internet marketing, business,

I just acquired a website yesterday called Mom101.com; the site is brand new without much traffic, but it has a really nice domain name to go along with it, a lot of work was put in setting up affiliate products, plus I have a niche baby gifts store at BabyGiftsUnique.com so I gave it a shot.

I am going to rebuild it with a new template, forum, social network, and blog in the coming weeks, monetize it better by rearrange the ads and find JV deals, and hopefully it’ll grow to a certain point before I sell it (or not if it does really well). Hopefully it’ll do well enough to compete with established mom social networking sites like CafeMom or OpMom.

Ok, I know I’m not exactly the mom type but we’ll make it work. We’ll soon add a lot of parenting advice, baby care tips, and mom resources on the site, so if you’re a new mom, definitely stay tuned and let me know your feedback.

Technorati Tags: website acquisition, internet marketing, Houston startups, Mom101.com, Cafe Mom,

I went to the Information Technology and Web 2.0 Forum at Jones School of Business yesterday held by Rice Alliance. It has been a while since I’ve been back to Rice (ok maybe not, I was there for homecoming last week), but it felt kind of weird going back.

Anyhow, back to the forum. It was GREAT. We heard five web 2.0 companies present their detailed business model, countless elevator pitches by startups, and feedback from a panel of VCs.

It was my first time to the forum (I was tempted to go last year but didn’t) and I was thrilled to find out there are so many like minded people in the Houston community. In a way, it reiterates and confirms what you’re doing and it was fun talking to other entrepreneurs, capital guys, and vendors about each other’s business.

Two ventures that captured my mind the most is IdeaTango.com and OpMom.com; both of which are niche social networking site with great potential, both spokeperson was very nice (Lisa Lylod & Carrie Pacini) and I’m interested to see the development of those two companies in the next 12 months.

Another guy that I remembered the most is Blair Garrou, Managing Director from DFJ Mercury (a VC) - he seems to have a really good understanding of the web 2.0 industry and provided a lot of insights in the final session. I immediately try to add him on Linkedin this morning and found out that he has over 300 contacts - wow.

I also learned about this open house event for entreprenuers to network called Open Coffee Club and coincidently, its right down the street from where I’m staying right now (Groundz Coffee on Bagby), so you bet I’ll be there next week.

Anyhow, it was a great event and props for Rice Alliance, Jones School, and all those that were involved. Hopefully, I’ll be able to go next year if I am at Houston.

Technorati Tags: venture capital, internet marketing, Houston startups, Rice University, Rice Alliance,

Many of the clients that I work with are small business owners, and most of them work at home or started out working from home. One of the biggest question they usually have is - can I outsource everything so I can work at home?

The short answer to that is yes, but you don’t want to.

I do believe that with all the modern ditigal technology, i.e. Skype, online meeting chatrooms, VOIP phones, sharepoints, emails, Blackberry … you can literally run your business through a virtual environment. You can even do pretty well with it - its not uncommon to hear people who work from home who brings in over $300-400K a year.

If that’s ok with you, then thats fine. But if you trully want to build a multi-million dollar enterprise, there’re things that you just cannot outsource. Emails and online chatting can never subsitute the level of interaction when you see the other person face to face. Management is so much easier when you can see your employees and discuss things face to face.

From a personal standpoint, if you just work from home, like I did for 1.5 years after college, you lost your touch and connection with others. Your life becomes mundane and you lose conversation topics when chatting with your friends who work in corporate or other entrepreneurs who have their office and are constantly out there networking.

The success of anything lies in “showing up”, so get OUT of your home office, get a real office and build a multi-million enterprise!

Technorati Tags: outsourcing, internet marketing, building business, work from home,