Occasionally when I’m writing, I find that some of the topics that I investigate may sound cliche or generically common. I end up rationalizing my intent to write about it when I realize that even though it may be truly obvious or common sense, I witness too many people not applying the knowledge in their lives. In some cases, they are simply forgetting how valuable it might be and just need a nudge. Sometimes, we forget some of the most basic, but important, life lessons that can give us guidance for true success. Cliches are great ways to remind us of some important knowledge gained from our collective history. One of my favorite cliches is: “There’s no time like the present.” It reminds me that now is the best time, and it doesn’t attach any predefined reasoning of why it’s so. It gives me an opportunity to explore, in my own mind, why using today is such a valuable lesson.

I haven’t published an article in a few weeks because I decided to take some time off, having reached yet another rounded decade in age (a.k.a. my 30th birthday). To celebrate such a historic event, I went with a group of close friends and family to jump out of a perfectly good plane; at 15,000 feet. Rightfully so, I had several moments before the actual leap occurred, to reflect on why I’m jumping, things and events in my life, and shake in my boots. To be honest, I wasn’t frightened by the jump or falling portions of skydiving… it was the anticipation of it happening. The climb up to the atmosphere, high above the earth, in an excessively tiny and rickety plane with no straps or supports, also did not help. There were moments of my life that flashed by, reminding me that we only live once. “Take advantage of today” whispered my conscience.

Then I leaped from the cranky plane, flipped through the air, and viewed the Earth in a way that most people only see in videos. Almost instant acceleration towards the ground felt surprisingly comforting, giving me an opportunity to appreciate the opportunity given to me of being alive. My experience couldn’t possibly have been much different than the hundreds of thousands of people who have skydived since the invention of flight, but it certainly reminded me that I’m alive.

Generally, I try not to write much about my personal life, because most people these days are more interested in newsworthy content, and don’t really want to be bothered by the details of people they don’t know. In this case, my experience hurdling through the air (nearly 3 miles above the surface), gave me a swift reminder that I can’t continue to put things off for tomorrow. I wanted to correlate my life jostling event with one of the most important concepts of life and business.

In business, many of us put off our projects until they are perfected. We want the world to see a product worthy of worship in hopes that it translates to higher gross sales (and hopefully higher profitability; but that’s another topic altogether). More of us lack the confidence we need to network or close successful deals absolutely necessary for the survival of our businesses (depending on who you listen to, 70-95% of all businesses started will fail). And even most of us are frightened by the idea of presenting at conferences and general public speaking. Why are we afraid? Is it because our presentation today, may reflect on how people see us tomorrow?

Everyone will interpret the “seizing of today” differently, but it’s important to spend some time identifying what’s important to you and your business. It’s time to start conquering your fears now, and not waiting until your life has passed you by to feel regret. If you died today, would people who knew you be able to say that you’ve done everything you wanted to do?

If you believe that the worst has come to the US and world economies, then perhaps you believe the next 5 years is filled with a joyful rise in the stock market, endless consumer purchasing, extreme real estate speculation — you should stop reading this article right now. I’m not going to try to convince you otherwise!

Otherwise, if you believe that we’re in bad times, and headed for something nastier, I invite you to take this time to identify what things you need to change in your life to thrive during this time. Here are a few things you can do to help your business survive (or even start) during a period of duress:

• Spend less.
  This may sound obvious, but you need to stop spending so much. You may think you’re frugal now, but there are always things you don’t need that you keep buying. Was it necessary that you brought on all those extra consultants? Do you really believe that those fringe benefits are directly contributing to your profitability? Make some needed cuts, and start developing a “Do I really need this?” mentality.
• Start saving money.
  Cash is king in a world that is suffering. If you can manage to save up extra money now, you’ll be able to buy up assets and resources when things hit rock bottom. There won’t be much (if any) financing when everything is down! You’re going to need cash. Imagine when you have an opportunity to buy that $950,000 3-bedroom house that will eventually drop to $350,000. Or, when BMW and Mercedes starts to offer extremely steep discounts to clear their inventory because no one else is buying. If you don’t have cash when the deals come knocking, you’re missing out.
• Use lower cost alternatives to services.
  In many cases, we’ve standardized on using nothing but the best when it comes to services and products for our businesses. But there are a tremendous amount of alternatives to everything we use, many of which offer similar (if not superior) quality, but for a drastically lower cost. Seek them out, because you might just be surprised to find out that you can barter a little more with someone else.
• Bank with a reputable bank.
  Banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America will not go under. Why? Because they take on a much lower quantity of high risk debt. Seek out banks that have a track record of taking on less risk, but provide higher interest rates. If you look carefully, you’ll find banks offering 3.5% and above for savings accounts (ING Direct), and considerably more for money market accounts. Why do you have tens of thousands of dollars sitting in a traditional savings account earning less than the historical average of inflation?
• Avoid rising above FDIC limits in your accounts.
  I don’t care who you are, but putting more than $100,000 in a checking, savings, or money market account is just asking for trouble. The FDIC insures accounts up to $100,000 per account type per bank. Anything over that, you risk losing (and at a minimum, at pennies on the dollar) when the bank fails and needs to be bailed out. There are billions of dollars in accounts that go uninsured because they’re over the limits. Take the time to setup additional accounts and split your capital up across them. Like the cliche says, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”
• Always put 20% or more down when buying property.
  I know it seems appealing to buy that car for 0 down, or that piece of property for only 5% out of pocket. Unless your payments are considerably less than 20% of your monthly cash flow, you’re making a huge mistake. Should your cash flow come down, you’re going to be living in hell. Putting 20% or more down makes you truly think about what it is you are buying, and it increases your chances of financing. Some lenders are actually requiring 20% down now.
• Help others save money.
  If you build in the ability for people to save money into your products, they’ll buy your product, even during a recession or time of economic stress! Would you pay $5 for an iPhone application that helps you find the cheapest gas nearby? What if your services were all by phone and the Internet, instead of continually requiring your clients to come into your office? Perhaps you can even offer your product for 50% cheaper than your best competitor, and spin it as saving 50% to your clients.
• Telecommute more often, even with your clients.
  Work with your clients, vendors, employees, and consultants to telecommute more often. Everyone benefits. There are a few hurdles with it, but the benefits outweigh the problems. Your top performing staff will think twice about going to your competitors if you offer them perks that benefit them, but without costing you.
• Strengthen your network.
  Now is the best time to start revitalizing your network. Do it before the situation gets worse, because when times are rough, you’re going to want to lean on your network. I’d be willing to bet that most of the people in your network are not yet prepared for what is coming. This means, when that time comes, they’ll be asking you for favor, and returning them in exchange. Take the current moment to reach out to the people in your current network, and offer them a hand. Additionally, spend some time meeting new people at local business groups, on Twitter, and LinkedIn. Offer your new friends something to show your level of commitment.
• Increase your cash flow.
  Last but not least, find ways to increase your cash flow. You should be striving to grow your revenue every month. New streams of income are hiding all over the place. Put advertisements on that newsletter that you send out every month. Start a blog. Create simple side products that reuse some of what you’ve already built — a simplified version of it. Share a piece of what you’re good at in a PDF and sell it.

Many of these may seem incredibly obvious, but I’m willing to bet you don’t even try to do most of them. Give it a shot, focus on them, and see where you stand in 6 months. Come back and let us know how you did.

Sure, it starts with an idea (hopefully one that is based on solving a problem in the real world market and not just something that is ‘cool’). Very soon after, you need to start considering a million things:

Business plan, formation and legalization, tax plan, cash flow, capital investment, partnerships, financial projections, strategic partnerships, expansion of the idea, architecture, functional and technical briefs, functional and technical specs, wireframes, compositions, prototypes, implementations, marketing plan, system architecture, system and network implementation and administration, alpha and beta testing, marketing implementation, and eventually your launch!

Chances are that in the beginning it’s just you (and maybe another person) bootstrapping all of this. The reality is, most of these components are absolutely necessary, and it can seem incredibly overwhelming. The fact that many founders skip a lot of these steps is one of the main reasons startups go bust so early (take for example that many forgo the financial forecasting, and thus, have no true sense of their revenue and profitability potential). The contrary can be said as well, that because some entrepreneurs focus too much on these areas they never really get off the ground.

You need to have thought out your business well and you need to successfully launch and continue to deliver. But how can one or two people do all of this? The answer is that you need to stay balanced and not get too focused into any particular stage or topic, and you need to reach out and discover what other successful entrepreneurs have done.

• Is it really necessary that your pitch includes a 50-page business plan instead of a concise but meaningful 10-page one?
• Do you really need to understand every detail about how to erect a functional specification, or can a short set of mockup diagrams be sufficient?
• Do you really need to spend a lot of time meeting with marketing consultants, or should you just hire a firm to take it over?
• How can you fund your business, and once it’s funded, how do you manage your cash flow?
• What do I really need in my business plan? Isn’t that overkill?

These are questions that are difficult to answer, and there is no single answer that works for everyone. You could get caught up in years of researching each of these fields if you’re not careful (this is why eventually businesses hire people that specialize!). Thankfully, there are conferences and training programs that can be really helpful. There are conferences that help you network and hone in on your skills for a piece of technology that you may use (i.e. RailsConf, Oracle OpenWorld, WWDC) and then there are conferences that help you with starting a business or marketing it (i.e. START!, Seed, TechCrunch50, BlogWorld Expo).

For example, coming up on October 2nd, 2008, is a one-day conference called STARTonomics in San Francisco that could help you figure out what pieces are critical to your startup, and which ones really aren’t. The sessions are led by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. Here’s a little glimpse of some of the sessions that will be taking place during this intense day:

• Welcome to Startonomics & Startup Metrics for Pirates (AARRR!)
  Overview of conference agenda + Intro to Startonomics: how to create simple, actionable metrics to help startups make better decisions in product development & marketing.
• Product Development 101: Designing & Prototyping the DNA of a Killer App
  What does it take to plan, research, and develop a great web 2.0 application? Learn tips & best practices for setting the right process, goals, and metrics for your startup.
• Marrying Design & Development: a Match made in Heaven, not Hell
  Learn about the basic fundamentals of web design, and find out how developers and designers can work together to create great websites and applications.
• Creating & Implementing a Web 2.0 Marketing Plan
  How to design and implement an online marketing plan for acquiring users from multiple marketing channels, how to prioritize & mix channels based on stage of startup growth.
• Revenue: The Internet Wants to Be Free, but You Need to Get Paid
  Learn how to generate revenue using a variety of business models & strategies including advertising, digital goods, subscriptions, lead generation, & e-commerce.
• Funding Wisdom: What I Wish I Knew
  Forget the school of hard knocks – this is your chance to hear what 3 successful startup executives learned about the funding process, including timing considerations, types of funding, term sheets and working with investors.
• View the full list here.

This is a must-attend conference for startups working on Internet-based products! Beyond general session topics, you will be able to connect with other startups and successful entrepreneurs who can help you answer the really tough questions.

I’ll be there, soaking it all up. After the conference, I’ll write up a summary of some of the things I’ve learned from others that I think is most important for a successful startup!

A Story About A Colleague

A young entrepreneur colleague of mine has an incredible sense of drive and enthusiasm. He’s 22 years old. He’s even pretty smart, which lends to his success attributes. However, he absolutely fails at networking. He recently solicited my advice about his problem, and I wanted to share it with others in this article.

I pointed out to him that while he was good at meeting people, and great at letting people know (including me) what he was working on, he never sincerely asked his colleagues what they were working on, or how he could help. He shared with me the thought that he felt his work was more important and had a lot of excitement around it. I’m certain that many others share his position with their own projects. However, he clearly overlooked that others associate this behavior with being self-centered or uncaring. No one wants to help someone who doesn’t exhibit the ability to help in return (that’s questionably self-centered as well, but that’s beyond the purpose of this article).

While I know without a doubt that he’s not intending to be this way, a little bit of effort from now on, and he’ll experience a valuable return from his network one day.

Ways To Nurture Your Network

Many people find themselves with a large network, but no way to harness it. Here are a few ways you can nurture your network so that, eventually, it can become useful, meaningful, and profitable to you in the future.

1. Request status updates by touching base. Showing interest strengthens your relationship.

2. Share status updates with others upon their request and even when they don’t ask for it. Share it in a personal and meaningful way, and definitely not as an advertisement.

3. Be open to collaboration! You can use the help. And if you are helping a colleague, they are more likely to help you when you need it most. Working together only strengthens your initiatives and doesn’t mean you’re giving up control or ownership.

4. Find out how you can help, then do it. You’re busy and have very little time for yourself anyway, so giving a small piece can seem wasteful. Think of it like you would an investment. Chances are that you can discover small things that will help your colleague. This shows support and validation to your contact, both of which you’ll need later on.

5. As much as you think you do, you don’t know everything about everything, or even about your field, so don’t act like it. Solicit and value feedback and advice from your network. Be open to the opinions of others, even if it conflicts with your convictions.

6. Connect people in your network with each other. Once you have a strong network of people who trust and value you, one of the easiest but most important networking responsibilities is introductions and connecting other people together. For this to flourish, you will absolutely need up-to-date statuses on their needs and activities.

These steps take commitment and effort, but if you apply them, you will see fruitful returns from your networking investments.

The Lack of Conviction and Meaning

There are too many money grubbing vultures out there, some of which are destroying companies. While it is true that in a capitalistic society a business must be sure that its number one focus is to generate profit, there is a fine line with which how it can get there and still contain meaning. A company without a meaningful purpose (other than to generate revenue) is just opening itself up to being consumed by the tiresome, never-ending and cyclical road to having employee retention and customer satisfaction problems. It is almost always often the case that the management teams and investment principals of the company are the direct cause of the lack of defining and defending this meaning.

This meaning, motive, and purpose needs to be defined in the “DNA” of the business; the core root of its existence; from the very top. The business needs to be absolutely convicted of its purpose, or it will only appear as a charade that camouflages its true existence as an after thought or gimmick.

All too often, investors demand unrealistic time tables or visions, requiring drastic shifts in the priorities of the products the company builds. What begins to happen is the breakdown of the quality of the products, almost as if they’re cheating on the very nature of what their market wanted in the first place.

An Example of Conviction

Enter Mike Lee. A visionary, commonly self-referred to as “the world’s toughest programmer.” He comes from Delicious Monster fame, a company run by Wil Shipley, a no-bullshit developer. They’ve shipped one of the most well known cataloging softwares of recent day for the Mac (Delicious Library and finally, Delicious Library 2). It’s won awards. Wil was Mike’s mentor. Armed with knowledge and a dribble of fame, Mike set off to start the Silicon Valley’s next-best-company.

He stood for meaning. Design and functionality was to be merged in a harmony of utmost quality. He pitched and pleaded a team of engineers to join with him, touting his ideals and promising a company that stood for something; a paradise in the midst of the desert. They followed. Tapulous was born, and began to generate a lot of buzz for their iPhone-based business, that embraced Apple design values, and a clear message of honor that dictated no sacrifice in quality. Mike Lee began to lead his team to victory; and some victories were won by Tapulous: Tap Tap Revolution and Twinkle, two of the most popular applications on the App Store platform. The Silicon Valley gossips began to talk about this company, and the future looked good. Clients were ecstatic about the products, and employees embraced their lives at the startup.

One sad day arrived, when Mike Lee posted on his blog that he has been thrown out of the company due to irreconcilable differences with his investors. It seemed that investors wanted to churn out buggy software, software less than perfect. Mike knew that his business was built on perfection. His niche market wanted applications that were champions. After all, they’re the kind of users that are champions too. And he’d convinced his army to join him at the company based on these convictions in the first place. But his investors didn’t care about that. They wanted quick, dirty, filthy profits from the hot, hot, and hotter iPhone market.

Here’s what will happen. While the outcome of their mistake is yet to be proven true, it will backfire. Other employees will quickly defect (even though Mike publicly encouraged that they stay), and the investors and remaining management will not have the conviction and honor to attract top engineers and designers. Products will begin to suffer because cocky junior and mid-level engineers will write buggy architectures and applications, and uncommitted designers will skimp on the details needed to make the products top notch. And tight, unrealistic investor deadlines will only exacerbate this problem. Soon, they’ll be charged with sub-prime developer status, and they’ll be dropped by their niche market. They’ll join the ranks of ugly, meaningless companies who’s products will sell, but won’t win any awards.

What Mike has done is honorable. He built a company on conviction and meaning, and then stood by his declarations. In his case, he was made a martyr by his backers; sliced away for standing up for his beliefs. But he had the right idea! He built a company that everyone was talking about. A company that made amazing products. (By the way, Mike is obviously already up to something)

What You Can Do

There are a few things that you can do, that if you truly embrace will make your company absolutely remarkable. They’re very simple things too, but you have to be convicted.

1) Build a product that listens to what people want.

How can you possibly build something for someone if you don’t know what they want? Architects don’t force a design on you when you build your home!

2) Build a company that honors, appreciates, and nurtures its clients and employees.

Give your employees the equipment they need and are familiar with to be productive. If they’re designers, yes, they need 30″ cinema displays. You’ll get that extra $800 back in productivity faster than you think. Don’t over work your employees; just because they put in 80 hours doesn’t mean it’s 80 hours of productive and useful code; in fact, it’s probably junk. Respect their talents, after all, you hired them for a reason. Give them the authority they need to implement your visions, because real talent wants to be challenged and respected, they don’t just want to execute mundane and repeatable tasks all day.

Your clients are just as important. Give them the respect they deserve by listening to their gripes and complaints when they’re struggling to use your product. It’s easy to get frustrated with their negativity, but if you listen to what’s really bothering them and address their concerns, you’ll keep more of your customers. If your customers discover major bugs, acknowledge that you’re looking into the issue, and don’t wait until you’ve discovered a fix before you announce a solution like Apple does. It only serves to frustrate your customers more.

3) Build a product that stands for quality by avoiding shortcuts.

Stand for quality. Make the decision from Day 1 to never ship a product that has no intention of being remarkably perfect. Yes, ship it quickly and incrementally, but improve on it. If you’re breaking the bank to deliver a perfect product, chances are that you’ve made it too complicated! Strip it down, make it perfect, ship it. Then you can start adding additional, perfect features to make it the kind of product you’ve always wanted. But always have the intention to ship a meaningful and remarkable product. If you don’t intend to do something, it will never happen.

4) Build a company that lives and breathes moral and ethical values.

How about having a positive ecological benefit while having an economic one? What about protecting the soldiers on your staff from the vultures above? How about not over working your employees just because you think you’ll meet your deadlines faster, and instead empowering them to make great decisions?

5) Build a product that solves real problems but is also a pleasure to use.

Products can no longer survive to serve function alone. They need to be enjoyable and pleasurable to use. They should invoke emotion from their users; make people yearn to use it. They should look like pieces of visual art. They should be obvious on how to use them.

You Can Be Convicted Too!

What happened to the people who wanted to build a better product and not just make a significant number of dollars? What happened to the people who were willing to believe in a code of ethics, justice, and honor like the knights of the round table? People who want to build great products by building a great team, sustainably. What happened to the people with vision, innovative courage, and the desire to enhance people’s lives, and still make money?

These are the kinds of friends and business partners that I want. Ones with honor, compassion, conviction, and smarts. Ones that want to change the world. Ones that want to solve real problems, and add real value.

Are you building companies with conviction and meaning?