"KILROY WAS HERE..."

I have added the location widget to the site. You could now follow my steps around the globe...

Haven't We Been Here Before (from the album, Kilroy Was Here) by Styx.

Here is an excerpt from Scott Kirsner's article, Foursquare: The 21st century's version of 'Killroy was here'?:

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you're clearly not a Foursquare user...yet. The mobile phone software and accompanying Web site turn your daily peregrinations into a competition: every time you venture somewhere (your neighborhood Dunkin' Donuts, or the Boston Garden), you use the Foursquare app or mobile Web site to "check in," getting credit for being there. The person who has checked in the most at a particular location becomes the mayor - at least until someone else shows up more often and steals the title.

It's a way of virtually tagging your regular hang-outs. Foursquare also enables you to see which other users have checked in at a place you frequent, or leave comments and recommendations: try the mac-and-cheese at John Harvard's, even though it's pricey, suggests one Foursquare user. (Boston.com, January 28, 2010.)

I recently helped Susanne Erlandson at Hillye of Sweden with putting her business on the geolocation map and I will soon have a workshop with Tommy Brandt of Visteon Corporation.

MYNEWSDESK AND THE FUTURE OF PR

I recently attended an event ("New media landscape. New PR.") arranged by MyNewsDesk. It is interesting to see how the company is embracing the new media. From the pressroom:

The News Exchange Site

MyNewsdesk makes it faster and easier for companies, journalists, bloggers and opinion leaders to gain relevant exposure - on their own terms. As the world's first company news exchange site, it matches interested users with relevant content, such as press releases, videos, images and other content - all instantly search-engine optimized and automatically published on social media platforms such as Twitter, Flickr and Slideshare.

I recommend you to follow Kristofer Björkman's Twitter feed and PR 2.0 blog, if you are interested in citizen journalism. Book tip: The Fall of PR & the Rise of Advertising by Stefan Engeseth of Detective Marketing.

SWOT, MISSION, MANTRA AND VISION

I have now read the first chapter, Concept Kick Start. The authors, Tim Berry and Sabrina Parsons, are presenting the material in a great way. I like the layout of the book and it is very easy to read, take notes in the margins, and you have an informative online tools section at the end of the chapter.

Image Source: Figure 1-1: Defining Your Business Identity, Page 11, Chapter 1: Concept Kickstart, 3 Weeks to Startup by Tim Berry and Sabrina Parsons.

After we have defined our business identity, I think it is time to do a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis. Homework for next time is to learn about the Principle of Displacement (mentioned under Takes Notes! on page 15) related to the business world, write down the mission statement, the mantra phrase, the vision statement and to chew Bill Cosby's statement:

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone.

One reason to do the above things is to avoid the "scammers" that I describe in my post, Time for a Small Business Safety Network? John Jantsch has said it with eloquence:

When you properly target your clients, you will discover that you no longer have to work with jerks. (Duct Tape Marketing, Chapter 1, Identify Your Ideal Client.)

STARTUP DAY 1: BUSINESS PLANNING SOFTWARE

Palle Frid Svensson and I met on Sunday and discussed how to tackle the documentation of the creation of the business plan as we go along during this new exciting journey. We decided to start out with the TeaParty.nu site and then look into the Chai 'n Java concept.

We started to go through the time table for week 1 on page 3 in 3 Weeks to Startup. From the book:

The main idea. Is there a there there? Does anybody need (or want) what you intend to sell? is there a market? How big is it? How will you focus? Do you have a strategy, or are you just going to do everything for everybody?

As homework, we will follow figure 1-1 on page 11: Defining Your Business Identity and cover the three parts: You, What You Sell and To Whom.

At the end of the meeting, we checked out Bplans and Palo Alto Software and discussed if we should get both the business plan and the marketing plan software (powered by Duct Tape Marketing) at the same time, or if we should start out with the business plan software.

Reading material: A Business Plan Doubles Your Chances for Success, Says a New Survey by Rieva Lesonsky.

BUSINESS PLAN

I will start a blog post series on August 1, describing the creation of a business plan for our new tea project called TeaParty.nu ("nu" is "now" in Swedish) and future tea & coffee business, Chai 'n Java. I will publish a new post every day for circa one month, following the "high-speed guide to starting a business" (3 Weeks to Startup) by Tim Berry and Sabrina Parsons.

All Business Plans Are Wrong.