Archive for entrepreneurs in Israel
How to Be Super-Valuable to Your Customers. My wife taught me this…
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- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
My wife taught me this lesson a few years ago: “If you want to help me, ask me what would be most helpful!”
Uh, oh. It was no longer up to me to choose dishes, bedtime or picking up a floor full of toys. But you know what, we’re both happier since!
The same simple truth applies to business.
If you want to be valuable to your customers, don’t tell them what their favorite color should be. Equally important: Don’t decide for your employees how they can best help your customers! As obvious as this sounds, we mess this one up all the time.
My friend and colleague Dr. Guido Quelle, member of the Million Dollar Consultant® Hall of Fame recently discovered something interesting. Research conducted by his Dortmund, Germany based firm, Mandat Managementberatung GmbH, showed that this behavior is way too common.
When you design and institute a process, it obviously makes sense to get input from those who will be affected by it. Yet nearly 60% of survey respondents reported that internal or external customers of new processes provided little (50%) or no (8%) input! They simply weren’t asked. Only 12% of respondents reported that “Desired outcomes of processes are coordinated fully with internal and external customers.”
We all know this. So why do we do it?
We do it to avoid discomfort, conflict or some other feared problem. Or we “don’t have time” and want to move fast.
Almost always we’re trading away a small delay or discomfort today for a bigger problem tomorrow.
———–
Here’s a useful exercise for your next staff meeting. Ask everyone to write down three areas where, individually or collectively, you are creating problems that can be avoided and / or are laying the foundation for big problems in the future by taking the easy road today.
Overwhelming! Last chance to register for the Seminar!
Posted by: | CommentsI am so excited! It is going to be an amazing seminar and I hope you can all make it! Listed to this podcast below for last minute details! (Yes I created this podcast for free and I will show you how!)
So far I have 138 Websites I am dying to share with you! Listen now!
Israel 61
Start-ups come in all shapes and sizes. Most are for profit companies trying to make a living while others are non-profit start-ups trying to make the world a better place.
Then there is something just a wee bit larger and probably more difficult and that is starting up an actual country or state. That is no easy task for anyone.
I just watched a powerful DVD put out by Rabbi Berel Wein’s Jewish Destiny organization as part of their Faith & Fate series. This one was called “The Miracle of Israel” focusing on the years 1945-1948.
It just under two hours this amazing presentation showed the Jewish People from right after the Holocaust to the founding of the State of Israel. They did a remarkable job of showing how much the odds were against the State to even get started and once they did get started to even survive their first year of existence. The world and the odds were against them from the beginning.
Imagine enduring the holocaust and then having no where else to go. No one wants you and the British will only let 1500 Jews a month get into “Palestine”. Then the world finally feels guilty enough to allow the Jews to have their own home land and for the first time in almost 2000 years the Jews finally come home. They are week and exhausted and the land was not exactly the metroplois that it is today to say the least. Yet the Start-up Founders of the State of Israel relaised that they had no place else to go and so had no choice but to succeed.
61 years later we can look back at this start-up with tremendous pride. There are books written and the amazing success in almost every area of Israeli life and this post is not about all the achievements that are well known and documneted elsewhere. But since this is a magazine about being an entrepreneur in Israel, we should look at the two biggest factors that made Israel such a success; and if you can apply these two things to your start-up then for sure you will succeed.
1. Backs against the wall – as mentioned above there was no where else to go and their lives were literraly on the line. Is that how you feel about your start-up?
2. A Promise from G-D and daily miracles – This is probably the best way to success, if you can get the Creator of the world to promise you that you will succeed and if G-D will perform the crazy amount of miracles that has been shown to Israel every day since it’s inception, then you too will succeed with your start-up.
Happy Birthday Israel, lets hope we can finally get out of beta.
Starting before you start, is it ever too early?
Posted by: | CommentsOk, so you have started formulating your idea for a start-up, but you are not yet ready to announce it to the world. Is there anything you should start doing now so that when you do launch you are not starting from scratch?
The short answer is Yes.
Unless your domain name is going to give away massive secrets about what your start-up is you should already create a page for it so that it will start to get indexed in the search engines. Even better would be to start a blog and add a post every day. Should only take you about 10 minutes a day to write something, just make sure it is unique content and related to what your start-up is all about.
You may even want to talk about the process you are doing to start your company. I find it very interesting to read how someone takes an idea and works it through launching a company. Not only will it be fun for you to look back on, but it can also be very helpful for others starting businesses as well.
You should also start positioning yourself as an expert in your field. For Example: If your Israeli Start-up is about manufacturing a new and gourmet Hummus, then start writing articles about the art of creating a good Hummus. Send out recipes to different Israeli publications and blogs. Create a video of a delicious dish based around Hummus and always have your articles, videos, and posts link back to your website.
This way when you do launch you will already have some viewers and relationships with the press that you can utilize to have a successful launch.
You also should make sure you are using Social Networking to create a fan base or to spread your network. Make sure you have a LinkedIN account and that you are on Facebook and Twitter. Click on this link to see how to start using Facebook to get noticed.
It is never to early to start generating some buzz. You should be careful with releasing any information about your start-up before you are ready to let the world know about it, but as you feel comfrotable with releasing more information, you should let all your friends and fans know by using everything written above.
Drive: What you need to succeed in business in Israel or to be a successful entrepreneur
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Do you want to make a difference? Do you have what it takes? All of us have ideas, some of them even great or life changing ideas. But what stops you from acting on them? What makes one person successful and another one sit on his/her dreams for years? The answer is “Drive”.
What drives you? What keeps you from sleeping at night and anxious to get up in the morning? Do you love what you do? If not then your probably not doing it as well as you could. If not, why not? If not, make a change.
When someone is driven there is no stopping them. When it comes to being a successful entrepreneur you need to have drive and passion about your idea or it will always remain just that; an idea.
Aish HaTorah started a section on there site called Heroes of Israel.
It is very inspiring to see what normal people can accomplish when they are driven. Do you want to know what “drive” is? Watch these videos, be inspired, and then go out and change the world!
Why of why do banks in Israel charge you for depositing large amouns of cash?
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This is something that has always irked me. Banks in Israel (and in the world for that matter) charges you if you deposit a larger then normal sum. In the case of my bank it’s 10,000 NIS (about $2500.00). Sure I get 50% off of my bank fees, and sure it ends up being just a couple of bucks, but it’s the point of it that kills me. Banks thrive on money. When they take our money they are able to lend it out at higher interest rates. So one would think that the more money you put in, the happier the banks would be and they would perhaps give you a gift for depositing large amounts of money and not tax you for it! It’s not like the tellers are working harder. The money counting machines take perhaps 2-3 seconds longer max and printing out the reciept is the same amounf of effort no matter how many zeros are on it. So why charge us?
Whenever I hear about a new start-up, one of the first things I look for is what is the Revenue Model. The second thing I do is make sure that the revenue model is not based on Advertising. Often trying to find a sustainable revenue model puts a damper on the excitement of starting a new business, but remember that the key word here is "business" and without revenue you may have a nice hobby, but it aint no business!
Now while it is possible to earn significant revenue from advertising once you have hundreds of thousands or more of daily users, that should not be your sole revenue model but you should consider it as icing on the cake. Also, it is ok when you are a start-up to temporarily use advertising to bring in some cash, but it should not be your long term revenue goal.
So is it ok to start a web application or another web 2.0 project just for fun and worry about revenue later? Sure you could, and should! As long as you are not expecting it to pay any of your bills, you look at it as a hobby, and you don't expect anyone to invest in it. I don't want to put a damper on innovation and if you have an idea that you would love to bring to the world, I say go for it! But don't call it a business start-up. Perhaps an internet start-up would be more apprapo, but then again when people hear internet start-up they are also thinking it is a business.
Just call it "This Good idea I'm working on".
Sometimes a great idea really takes off even with no revenue model in site. For example; Twitter. (You can follow me on Twitter here).
Twitter is a great idea, but when it was started and still till today, they are not sure exactly how to monetize it. And even when they do, I'm sure it will be advertising based, but you never know.
But Twitter is the exception to the norm. The one in a million, the lucky few! You can't build a start-up hoping you are going to end up like Twitter.
The good thing about when you become so huge as Twitter is, you can find other smart people that are more than happy to help you out with a revenue model. See this post below and check out the links to read the whole article published by AlleyInsider.com where they suggest 11 different revenue models for Twitter. They actually ran a contest asking all of their thousands of readers to suggest a twitter revenue model and they bost the results here:
Deadline for entry into our Create Twitter's Revenue Model contest
is up and we thought we'd share some of the best entries. We haven't
decided on a winner yet, so check them out and let us know what you
think.
We'll consider your feedback before we choose a winner. When we do
pick one, we'll re-post that person's plan and resumé here. We'll allso
email both to Twitter CEO Ev Williams, whom we hear is busy building a
business staff at the startup.
Start Here or skip ahead:
- Twitter Coupons
- Twitter SMS, Branding, and SEO
- Twitter Split Into Three
- Twitter Contextual Ads
- Twitter Corporate Accounts, More Market Research
- Twitter As Craigslist
- Twitter Premium Developers Platform
- Twitter Suggested Ads To Re-Tweet
- Twitter SMS Advertising
- Twitter Premium Accounts, Contextual Ads, Search Ads, Virtual Goods, Affiliate Marketing
I literally can’t pass this place with out stopping to buy a Shawarma
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Israel: In Israel, shawarma (Hebrew: ???????) is a very popular street food and is offered in meat restaurants. Originally introduced by native Arab and Jewish residents as well as Jews who immigrated from Arab countries,
the dish has become ubiquitous amongst nearly all of the country's
ethnic communities. Often the rotating skewer is placed at the front of
the fast-food stand, exposed to the street, so that patrons can view
the preparation process. Shawarma is served in a pita or a lafa and is
usually eaten with salad, hummus or french fries. In Jerusalem, the lafa is called 'esh tanur'. One of the condiments in demand is Amba. [1][2]
The Above is from Wikipedia on the Shawarma entry.
Every time I pass this gas station I pull over to but what is to me the best Shawarma in Israel. My love affair with Shawarma began with my post High-School yeshiva years when I attended Neveh Tzion in Tel-Stone. In those days the Shawarma of choice came from a place called Massov Burger at the Tachana Merkazit in Jerusalem. There was nothing like an Aish Tanoor filled with steaming lamb Shawarma, fried onions, Baba-Ganush, Chumas, Pickles & chips. Exspecially compared to Yeshiva food (when I wasn't the cook). Those were some of the best meals of my life.
This Gas Station on Route 4 brings back those memories. Such fond memories to the point where I can't drive by unless I buy one. Even if I'm not hungry I will buy one for lunch or dinner the next day. It's a good thing I don't pass by on my way to work 
Truth is I only average driving by about once every 6 weeks so it's not like a sick obsession and I would never drive there just for getting a Shawarma, but to me and I'm sure to many other out there it is some of the best Shawarma in Israel. Some of the things I like most about there are:
- They are open passed 1:00am every night
- You can be in and out in under 4 minutes even when busy
- They stuff it up good with everything you can want
- They have a big bowl of fried onions ready to put in
- They give you little containers, as many as you need, to fill with pickles, techina, onions and Amba sauce
- The price if pretty good
- The Shaarma tastes awesome!
There was one time I actuyally drove by and didn't stop in and that was because my wife was with me and we were on our way home from a wedding. Now coming home from a wedding where I stuffed myself does not break the rule of purchasing a Shawarma for the next day, but the face my wife gave me was enough to "accidentally" miss the turning point.
How about your business? What do you do to make it a must stop in or a must buy?
War in Gaza + Former Gush Katif Residents + JobKatif = creative job solutions
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JobKatif is an innovative and inspiring non-profit organization that was created as a way to create and find job for former members of Gush Katif that were expelled from their homes in the Disengagement. There was and unfortunately still is a need to find Jobs for those who needed to start from scratch after their communities were destroyed. With the current war in GAZA and the general situation with the Global economy, there is a need to be innovative. JobKatif is being innovative as seen in this post below:
all of you who contributed! And it was multiplied by 4x by a generous
donor, so JobKatif did even better! Below read about its latest
wonderful project:
At JobKatif we are conducting business in unusual times. So we are conducting business unusually.
As you know, JobKatif is focused on providing employment solutions for
the former residents of Gush Katif. But who can work when there are
sirens going off every few minutes? Who can work when staff members are
being called up to the army? Who can work when your son, who grew up in
Gush Katif, and knows the terrain was sent to the front lines? And who
can think about getting a job when you are scared for your life and the
life of your neighbors.
So instead of business as ususal, we are going to have fun. Lots and
lots of fun. And we are going to help the people of Gush Katif do what
they do best?. care about the Jewish people. During Operation Cast
Lead, JobKatif has begun Operation Joy and Light. JobKatif has
requisitioned a van which will be taking entertainers to visit small
communities under fire and provide joy and respite to the children.
Both the van driver and the entertainers are from Gush Katif. And many
of them have been helped by JobKatif. So far we have lined up jumping
castles, karaoke, puppet theatre, magicians, balloon games and Jewish
telepathy.
In addition to Operation Joy and Light, which will provide work for
entertainers from Gush Katif and happiness to children from the South -
our counselors are continuing to offer support to families and we are
continuing to help Gush Katif families find alternative housing as
needed.
Visit JobKatif to Donate Today!
Help us bring respite and joy to the people of the South. Remember,
repentance, prayer and charity annul evil decrees. Go out and do a
kindness for another person. If you haven't yet donated to our $4 to $1
matching campaign, please do so now. Please pass this on to your
friends Finally, continue to keep the people of Gush Katif, the people
of the South and all of our valiant soldiers in your prayers.
In friendship,
Judy Lowy
Executive Director, JobKatif
While this idea may not make millions, I love the innovation and the never give up attitude. I strongly suggest that anyone that wants to help out should support this group and give donations. Kol HaKavod!
