There is always a sense of satisfaction that can be drawn from circumventing rules and finding a way against the odds. For the last few months we've been battling with a payment form layout that was very restrictive and didn't have a very good default layout. After consulting with our suppliers' normally very helpful staff, we were told there was no work around for a core issue (being forced to take billing address details upon payment). The friction created was hampering the quality of the pages and didn't look particularly credible. The reason it was forced is that the supplied is calfornia based and in the USA it's compulsory to collect a postal address with any credit card. Perfectly justified, but a real pain in the backside here in oz. After a discussion throwing around ideas with Peter Moriarty from IT Genius we found a work around, auto fill the field with a value of null so the form parses then set all the fields to display:none and it's all sorted. So the reason I'm posting this is that there's a certain level of satisfaction and pride in putting that together. I guess I just wanted I share my nerdy victory.

According to Fast Company magazine and a study by MIT, paying people to be creative or productive is often counter productive.

The MIT study offered three levels of monetary incentive correlating to the level of success. When the system was tested against menial, mechanical tasks the incentives worked exceptionally well.

However, once even even a slight amount of cognition was needed, the larger the reward the worse the participants performed. This has been tested over and over. The findings the same, every time.

 

Now the lesson here is not to stop rewarding creative tasks financially. The idea here is to inspire you to search outside your payroll and equity holders for creative input once in a while.

Your customers are not paid to be visionary.

Get input from them. 

Ask them early in the process though and pull together the contextual information to properly evaluate their input.

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Where has your best creative input come from?

 

Have you ever seen a business pitch that was brilliant? Have you ever seen a business pitch that was incredibly interesting, creative and clever yet lacked something and left you wondering "... but why?"

All to often early stage entrepreneurs (I've definitely been guilty of this) make a crucial mistake. Entrepreneurs of all levels of experience forget once in a while, and forget to ask the market a simple set of questions.

• Is there a reason to create your product?
• Do people want your product?
• Is there a problem your product solves?

Don't go to market with a product without defining the problem you solve.

Think of it this way; why would you teach your pony to jump if nobody wants a jumping pony?

 

As a seed stage business, it is often tempting to raise money to give you business a kick start. More money means more options, right?

What experts such as Mark Suster believe, as well as myself, is that there is a fine line between enough capital and too much capital. Especially in the seed stage.

Think about it this way: Let's treat the capital as rocket fuel and your business as a rocket. 

If you add too much rocket fuel and light it up, it's going to move incredibly quickly in the direction it's aiming.

As a seed stage business you don't really know where to aim it. To use an analogy of Stuart Cook's: Your business is like a kid that doesn't know what they want to be when they grow up.

If you take large investment you will: 

• feel pressured
• lose options and agility
• end up with undervalued equity and over-dilution long-term

Not everyone needs seed capital.

 

Throughout the resources available to entrepreneurs, there is an underlying belief. Starting a business with co-founders improves your chances of success. This claim is almost invariably backed up by a statistic around the large percentage of fortune 100 companies being started by 4 or more persons.

I'm not here to debate whether starting a business with a co-founder is a good idea.

Personally, I think it depends on your working style. If having a business partner is likely to drive the growth of your business and motivate you and lead to a synergistic relationship, it's probably a wise choice. However, if you work well alone and a good at bringing in the key skill sets to drive your business' growth at the appropriate time, you may be better off alone.

What I'm here to say is that you should be VERY careful who you choose as your co-founders.

At the point of founding a company, the path for the life of the business is almost entirely decided. At this point, your share can be diluted more than at any other investment point.

As such you needs to choose very wisely the entrepreneur or entrepreneurial manager you bring on as a co-founder.

Think about these key areas:
- How much time do they have?
- How much experience do they have?
- How well do you work together?
- How much of an overlap in expertise is there?
- How much value do they bring to the table (objectively speaking)?
- Are they as passionate as you?
- Are your personalities complimentary?
- Are they in this for the long haul?

When it comes to founding the company, ensure you do it properly. Be sure to include 'divorce clauses' so that you have the right (and so do they) to regain equity if certain things happen.

These clauses prevent people from putting in little to no work and reaping an unfair reward. All within the bounds of the law.

Remember, choose your partners carefully!

Ever wanted to get to know yourself a little better? Wouldn't it be great if someone could help articulate your personality and demonstrate your strengths and weaknesses so you know where to focus. Click the like at the end of this post to take a personality test that will no doubt surprise you. Best of all, it's not a bunch of truisms that apply to everyone in one way or another. Get to know yourself a little better.

As for me, see below:

As an ISFJ, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you takes things in via your five senses in a literal, concrete fashion. Your secondary mode is external, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit into your personal value system.

ISFJs live in a world that is concrete and kind. They are truly warm and kind-hearted, and want to believe the best of people. They value harmony and cooperation, and are likely to be very sensitive to other people's feelings. People value the ISFJ for their consideration and awareness, and their ability to bring out the best in others by their firm desire to believe the best.

ISFJs have a rich inner world that is not usually obvious to observers. They constantly take in information about people and situations that is personally important to them, and store it away. This tremendous store of information is usually startlingly accurate, because the ISFJ has an exceptional memory about things that are important to their value systems. It would not be uncommon for the ISFJ to remember a particular facial expression or conversation in precise detail years after the event occured, if the situation made an impression on the ISFJ.

ISFJs have a very clear idea of the way things should be, which they strive to attain. They value security and kindness, and respect traditions and laws. They tend to believe that existing systems are there because they work. Therefore, they're not likely to buy into doing things in a new way, unless they're shown in a concrete way why its better than the established method.

ISFJs learn best by doing, rather than by reading about something in a book, or applying theory. For this reason, they are not likely to be found in fields which require a lot of conceptual analysis or theory. They value practical application. Traditional methods of higher education, which require a lot of theorizing and abstraction, are likely to be a chore for the ISFJ. The ISFJ learns a task best by being shown its practical application. Once the task is learned, and its practical importance is understood, the ISFJ will faithfully and tirelessly carry through the task to completion. The ISFJ is extremely dependable.

The ISFJ has an extremely well-developed sense of space, function, and aesthetic appeal. For that reason, they're likely to have beautifully furnished, functional homes. They make extremely good interior decorators. This special ability, combined with their sensitivity to other's feelings and desires, makes them very likely to be great gift-givers - finding the right gift which will be truly appreciated by the recipient.

More so than other types, ISFJs are extremely aware of their own internal feelings, as well as other people's feelings. They do not usually express their own feelings, keeping things inside. If they are negative feelings, they may build up inside the ISFJ until they turn into firm judgments against individuals which are difficult to unseed, once set. Many ISFJs learn to express themselves, and find outlets for their powerful emotions.

Just as the ISFJ is not likely to express their feelings, they are also not likely to let on that they know how others are feeling. However, they will speak up when they feel another individual really needs help, and in such cases they can truly help others become aware of their feelings.

The ISFJ feels a strong sense of responsibility and duty. They take their responsibilities very seriously, and can be counted on to follow through. For this reason, people naturally tend to rely on them. The ISFJ has a difficult time saying "no" when asked to do something, and may become over-burdened. In such cases, the ISFJ does not usually express their difficulties to others, because they intensely dislike conflict, and because they tend to place other people's needs over their own. The ISFJ needs to learn to identify, value, and express their own needs, if they wish to avoid becoming over-worked and taken for granted.

ISFJs need positive feedback from others. In the absence of positive feedback, or in the face of criticism, the ISFJ gets discouraged, and may even become depressed. When down on themselves or under great stress, the ISFJ begins to imagine all of the things that might go critically wrong in their life. They have strong feelings of inadequacy, and become convinced that "everything is all wrong", or "I can't do anything right".

The ISFJ is warm, generous, and dependable. They have many special gifts to offer, in their sensitivity to others, and their strong ability to keep things running smoothly. They need to remember to not be overly critical of themselves, and to give themselves some of the warmth and love which they freely dispense to others.

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Do you know me well? Is this who I am? Is this who I was?

Leave a comment and then go do the test for yourself.

The internet is the entrepreneurial catalyst that will make or break you. Thanks to the internet everything is made bigger, happens faster and is over quicker than ever before.

DateRate entrepreneurs Bryce Summerell, Carlo Del Fabbro, Gabe Hollombe & Helen Hung. Seems Australian entrepreneurship is finally getting the exposure it deserves.

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