Archive for Thoughts
Video: Business Card Spam – Chris Brogan on Business Cards
Posted by: | CommentsThis is a great video on what Chris Brogan thinks about business cards and what he does with them. Now Chris is a real people person and I had the merit to meet him a few times. He is the real deal. What he is basically saying is that throwing a business card after a speaking engagement is a lot like trying to win the lottery and he usually throws away 80% of the business cards he gets. Chris is not a mean guy and I’m sure he would not want you to take his throwing out your business card personally, but he is being realistic. There is just not enough time to go through every card and reply to each one. It’s not personal, it’s business.
Now I think we can all agree that there is a purpose to business cards and they do come in handy, but it is usually after you have met with someone and had a conversation. Just giving your card to someone in the hopes that they will look at it and be wowed enough to take action is what I like to call “Business Card Spam” and just like online spam, business card spam will be deleted. Watch the video:
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End of summer: Thoughts of an Entrepreneur
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Well today is the first day back at school for the kids and the loooong summer is coming to an end.
Growing up summers meant “No more papers no more books, no more teachers dirty looks” and it meant going to Eagle Country Day Camp, Camp Raleigh, Magen Avraham, Achva and of course swimming, Carvel, softball in the park, riding our bikes, Bar-B-Q’s, Great Adventures and hanging out with friends during the long summer days.
No worries, less rules and ignoring the summer reading list. Summers were great!
Looking through Facebook today there were tens of comments on how quiet their homes are or Thank G-d the kids are back in school or similar sentiments. As parents I’m sure our summers are not the same as we had them growing up and we try our best to give our children what our parents gave us. (I think we have it a bit harder than our parents did though)
For business owners and Entrepreneurs there is no real summer break. Sure you can take a week off if you can afford to do so, but are you ever able to just get away and disconnect? Especially in the Start-up world, you can’t ever really walk away for more than a couple of days at a time.
I can’t remember the last time I took a real vacation. Business trips to Vegas is nice, but its still business. I have been thinking about it for awhile now how would it be to totally disconnect. No internet or emails, no cell phones no work at all. I think about it, but I don’t think at this point it is a reality for me. I am still catching up on Emails from Passover break! Thank G-d I’m blessed with an amazing team at work and things are going smooth, but I still can’t just walk away even though I know the business will be fine. I am addicted to information and addicted to my company. It is on my mind the vast majority of my day every day for the last 4 years. The really good thing is that I enjoy it. The real blessing is that I love every second of it. I love talking about my company and hearing every detail about it and I love the people I get to work with and l love getting emails about it.
It’s just that every now and then I like to think about those endless worry free long summer days…
I do think this video below speaks volumes about what I wrote about above. Thanks to Dani Waxman for sending this to me.
Who Cares? That’s the first question you should ask before you launch an idea
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Time and time again it pains me to see people launch businesses, websites, events and the like and as soon as I see the announcement I shake my head and say this is not going to work. How do I know that they are going to fail and why are they going to fail? Because they forgot to answer the one question that needs to be answered.
Who cares? Just because you think it is a good idea and you think it is a service you would like does not mean that everyone or even anyone else would share your passion or even pay for it.
People today are loaded down with so much going on in their personal and professional lives that time has become the greatest commodity.
Why should they spend time getting to know your product, site or to attend your event? What makes it worth spending time with you instead of with their children?
Before launching you MUST speak with your target market. Ask them if they like your idea, product or service. Ask them if they would pay for it and if so for how much. Don’t be afraid that someone is going to “steal” your idea. They won’t. It is not so easy to just hear about an idea and then do it yourself since passion is what will make you a success and it’s hard to become passionate about someone elses idea.
So before you go out and so whatever it is your going to do, go out and ask others if they care. A lot of times you may get some great feedback on how to make your product more valuable. You can findout that people would not care about your product unless… Unless what? Well you won’t know unless you ask!
Has any of my readers succeeded because they did some research before launching or failed because they did not ask? Please place them in the comments below.
Death of a Righteous Entrepreneur; The Untimely passing of Lifsha Feldman
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Please forgive me for taking such a tremendous tragedy and talking about it in such a mundane way, but the untimely passing of such a special young women as Lifsha Feldman has affected my wife and I to the core.
And since this blog is about being an entrepreneur in Israel, I believe there is a lot we can learn from this amazing woman. Being an entrepreneur is not always about running a for-profit company, being an entrepreneur is about making a real change
A lot of times entrepreneurs get started by needing something and after not being able to find it they decide to create the need themselves.
In 1998, Lifsha and her Mother Hadassah founded the school called Meshi for
special needs children in Jerusalem after not being able to find a suitable school for Lifsha’s special needs child Ruchama. Wanting what every parent wants for their child, which is the absolute best, Lifsha opened the school to offer the very best care for special needs children in Israel and she succeeded beyond what anyone could imagine. The school today has 150 students including my own special needs child, Moishy.
Being the Father to a special needs child, I can tell you from first hand that things can become a bit complicated in trying to give your child the very best while still trying to raise your other children. My son has been in Gan Meshi for five years now and there is literally no words to describe the unbelievable comfort Gan Meshi has given us over the last five years and the peace of mind knowing that our son was getting the very best care possible in Israel.
Lifsha always made her self accessible to us and always with a smile and kind words. Lifsha cared about and took interest in everyone of her students and would always go beyond the call of duty for each one.
Driving home from the funeral with my wife we were talking about something that Moishy needed and the words out of my wifes mouth was “I’ll just call Lifsha and ask her…”. The shock has just started to settle in.
Lifsha has 10 beautiful children BA’H. Yet when her daughter was born as special needs instead of just placing her in a substandard program she took action and decided to create the luxury care taking that each child in Meshi receives. It would have been understandable if she just did nothing, if she just put her daughter in the best place available. She had other children to attend to and a home to run, but that wasn’t her. She would not take NO for an answer. She saw a need not just for her child, but for other children as well and she jumped at the opportunity to create a better place for special needs children in the heart of Jerusalem. And the school was run perfectly with the absolute best staff and with all the love and great care that each child deserves.
The school itself made having a special needs child a lot easier then having to do it alone. Sending our son to Meshi meant sending him to the best place we can send him, knowing his days will be filled with all types of therapy, classes and of course love.
Lifsha was passionate about her idea and made it into a thriving success.
Yes Lifsha has 10 children, but she has 150 more that are also in mourning.
Thank you Lifsha for created heaven on earth for our special needs children, you will be sorely missed.
The Day After – Had an amazing time!
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Yesterday was amazing! Had a really great time and it flew by so fast. The feedback has been very positive and we had more than 80 people come to the event. Did a short podcast you can listen to below. Please continue to send me feedback either via email at israpreneur@gmail.com or as a comment on this thread. Can’t wait till the next one!
Just A Thought: Running on the Treadmill and Running a Business
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Yesterday I was able to pump myself up enough to go on the treadmill. (Note To Self: something I should be doing everyday). As I was on it I was feeling pretty good about myself and as I was getting to the end of my 30 minute fast walk session I started wondering if my colleagues at work would notice a difference. And then I laughed at myself. Sure I was feeling great, but going on the treadmill once every three months? Is that something I really think would be noticable? Of course not!
But we live in the “instant gratification nation”. We want to see results instantly and if we don’t, then we lose what ever pumped up feeling we had right before. But the truth is if you want to succeed in losing weight or getting healthy you need to be both patient and consistent in order to achieve any success and the same is true when you are running or starting a business. If after you open up shop and your store is not flooded with customers you may get discouraged. “How dare the entire city not come out to my store on the first day of business!”. But that is not reality. Just like with loosing weight, to see reall success it may take many months or even years, but if you stay patient and consistent you will reach success!
