Josh Anstey’s Blog

Welcome to my ‘Diary of a start-up’ series. This will be a series that will span over a period of time, and give you some insight into the business that I have started up till now. Each edition will share some information. Enjoy.

The spark and motivation
Often, an entrepreneurial spark can come from the desire or need for something else. This is what motivated my first business. Two friends and I wanted to buy a boat at the age of 13. After much discussion, and pooling our skills, knowledge, interests and passion, we founded a web design company. This was back in the late 90’s, and young entrepreneurs were still few and hard to find.

The execution
Establishing roles and positions was an incredible learning experience at such a young age. At first, we all contributed to everything. This included all attending meetings, working on projects, developing websites and creating graphics. It took a bit of time, but we eventually established that this was not the most efficient way to run our business. We then split up areas and departments that were each of our strengths. As a result, I was in charge of project management and sales. This gave me a hands-o experience of meeting people, networking, and managing the projects. Often when people contacted us, they didn’t quite know or realise our age until we arrived at meetings. Image much older executives seeing young teenagers arrive to a meeting… was always an entertaining experience at first. These first impressions were overcome when we impressed them with our knowledge, enthusiasm, commitment and dedication to provide great websites for our clients.

More to come on this in future ‘Diary of a start-up’ posts…

Lessons learnt

• Keep motivated – you don’t necessarily need something material or monetary to motivate you, but having a goal in mind is a great place to start.
• Age doesn’t matter – don’t let your age stop you from starting a business, thinking big, and achieving your goals. Don’t get intimidated by older people when meeting them. They may have more experience than you, and may at first try to put you down, but use that as motivation to impress them, show them your knowledge, passion, dedication and entrepreneurial spirit. Do this, and the tables will turn.
• Execute effectively – when establishing and building the business, make sure you execute your procedures effectively, and delegate. Trust your partners and allow them to look after a different aspect of the business. This will ensure you are more productive and efficient.

Keep your eye out for future ‘Diary of a start-up’ posts. Make sure you don’t miss them by subscribing to my blog.

I was doing a bit of netsurfing, as you do, and came across this site – Clickable.

As the website says, ‘clickable is an online solution that makes creating and managing search advertising simple and effective.’ It has a separate area targeted for advertisers or agencies which is a great way to provide different audiences with information. The product is currently in beta, but it looks like there is a bright future ahead of it. I can see this product going a long way.

Check it out: Clickable

Fast Company has released a slide show on ‘How to live like a billionaire’. It is some great motivation for those entrepreneurs that are aiming for a monetary reward. For those entrepreneurs that have different goals, it is still worth a look.

Some entrepreneurs featured include, Bill Gates - founder of Microsoft, Michael Dell - founder of Dell Computers, Jeff Bezos - Founder of Amazon.com, Richard Branson - founder of Virgin, Larry Page - co-founder of Google, and Donald Trump.

Click here to view the presentation.

I have been watching a lot of the Rugby World Cup this month, and it occurred to me that Entrepreneurs are a lot like rugby players. I know this may sound like a strange comparison, but hear me out, and you will score a try!

A team is made up of 15 players, but each being such different individuals, working towards a common goal of success and achievement. When a player receives the ball, he assesses what is ahead of him, and he makes a decision whether to pass it, kick it, or run with it. Maybe he sees a gap, maybe there is an opportunity to give it a shot and dive into it, maybe he can sidestep his way around, but no matter what, he has the try line in mind, and will do what needs to be done to achieve his goal. Being tackled is a minor hurdle that is quickly learnt from, and overcome. Through the rugby team working as individuals and a team all at the same time, they do finally reach their goal that is, success and achievement of winning the game.

How does this compare to an entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurs are like the players on the rugby team. We have a goal that we want to reach, whether that is the success of creating something, personal achievement, monetary reward, or helping to fill a void in the market. We are constantly looking for opportunities, gaps in the markets, and ways to sidestep around the obstacles and hurdles that await us.When we have that motivation, and that spirit, we decide whether to run with it and go full steam ahead or pass it and work with someone else to achieve the goal.

Entrepreneurs are constantly assessing what is up ahead of them, and when we reach an obstacle, it only motivates us more, and provides another challenge for us to overcome. Just like a rugby team, we are all individuals out there, but we do have the ability to work together to enable us all to achieve our goals. As entrepreneurs, we have the ability to asses if what is in hand has the potential to be a joint venture, or alternatively, is something where we possess the skills to see it through to the try line, score that success and achieve our goal!

Advertising is one aspect of Marketing, but it is a really interesting and exciting one. Here is a list of some great advertising sites. If you have an interest in advertising, these are sure to keep you entertained and excited. Either way, they are a great source of advertising information. This is just a short list to get you started. Ill update and add to it in the not too far future.

Have fun.

• B&T – Australia’s highest-circulating advertising, marketing and media magazine 
• Advertising Age 
• AdNews 
• Ads of the World – Advertising Archive & Community 
• Best Ads on TV – The best ads on TV 
• Advertising.com 
• The Media Federation of Australia 
• The Advertising Federation of Australia

Mobile Phones - We can’t go without them, and we expect so much from them. This provides endless opportunity for Entrepreneurs that have an interest in the mobile phone market, or even for those that don’t have an interest, yet have an idea, or can see an opportunity.

Here is an interesting article from Business 2.0 on CNNMoney.com. It provides some great food for thought for all entrepreneurs seeking an idea of endless opportunities, high potential, and even higher demand. Click here to read the article about mobile phones and the tween and teen market, and their hunger for more features and capabilities.

Any ideas of what’s next?

About a week ago I wrote an article, ‘How to design Web 2.0 logos’. Thank you to everyone for your feedback. Some feedback I got was that people wanted to see examples of Web 2.0 logos.

Here are 2 sites that will show you hundreds of great logos.

Check out Go2Web2.0, the complete Web 2.0 directory.
Also check out, Web2Logo

If you know of any other great sites, feel free to comment and post them up for others to see.

Here is a little preview of some great Web 2.0 logos that you are about to see.

This is Elcom Technology’s new logo:

This image is from the Web2Logo website.

This morning I was in a meeting at work when a colleague mentioned, ‘UPOD’. The concept over making sure that you under promise and over deliver is known to all of us, but I thought I was something important to remind all entrepreneurs.

Being entrepreneurs, we have a tendency to think and say we can do anything and everything. Don’t get me know, I agree in that, as it drives you to learn, keeps you motivated, and makes the entrepreneurial journey really exciting. The flip side is not being able to meet requirements and promises.

There is however benefit in UPOD – Under Promise, Over Deliver. Sometimes if you under promise but know that you can over deliver, you set yourself up in a really good position, and a client’s impression of you is often raised. This gives the impression that you always exceed expectation with excellence.

So what can we learn here as entrepreneurs? Evaluate each and every situation. Sometimes you can promise and commit to anything, but don’t forget that there may be just as much benefit, or even more if you UPOD.

Technorati currently tracks over 107.7 million blogs.

It is a leader in whats happening on the world wide web. What is great is that Blogs so easily allow people to publish and share their ideas and thoughts, and allowed for millions of people to read and respond to them. Technorati helps to facilitate this and build a profile.

Check out my Technorati Profile

Last week I wrote an article titled, ‘Business Cards for Beginners’. Following from that, I give you, ‘Networking with Business Cards’.

As previously mentioned, business cards provide a quick way to promote your business, and always leave a mark on the people you give them too, so you need to make sure they make a powerful impression.

Here are some tips and tricks to networking with business cards.

Always have business cards on you
It is important to always have a few business cards with you, in your wallet, your jacket pocket, your briefcase, laptop bag, in the car, on your desk, or in a special business card holder. There is nothing worse than being asked for a business card and replying that you don’t have any with you, or forgot to bring. Add it to your check list before going out – ‘Phone, wallet, keys, and business cards’. Remember: no business card = lost opportunity.

Point of conversation
Business cards can always be used as a point of conversation. It is always a starting point when you give or receive a card to leverage off the business cards design, layout, and other details.

Give them out
As mentioned above, they are a great point of conversation, but only if you are giving them out to people you meet. Always offer your business card when meeting someone new. It gives them a point of contact with you, shows you as an authority in what you are discussing if it is business related, and also provides the person with more information about where you are coming from. Be generous when giving out your business cards. They have no purpose sitting in your wallet where no-one can see them.

Start a train
When you meet someone, give them 2 or more business cards. Politely ask them to pass them on to someone they think would be interested in you or your services. This is a great way to start the networking train and get your cards around to potential clients, employers, customers and other networkers. You never know where your business card may end up.

Business Card Etiquette
When given a business card, be sure to give yours, and more importantly, take time to look at their card and really analyse it. This will show you are interested, care about and have taken note of the person you are talking to. This will make the person you are talking to feel more important, and open up to you more.

Take notes
After talking to someone, write on the back of their card what you were talking about. That way, when you email them later on, you can refer to your conversation. This will really leave a good impression, and make the person feel valued, as they know you were listening, and genuinely interested in what they were saying. This might seem like a small simple thing to do, but it’s bound to make you look good.

So remember to get those business cards out there, and to follow these networking with business card tips to networking success!