finding Monsuun | est. 2005

The following 10 bullets were posted on a great blog (Found+READ) that I frequent quite…frequently and help to serve as a helpful guide and reminder for me as redPear grows and pushes its way steadily upward.

1) Confirm your customer constituency before you start.
An idea is worth nothing on its own. (Unless you are the founder of Hotmail who did get $10M just for his idea.) An idea with a business plan is still worth nothing. (Make that less than nothing, because you’ve just spent 3 weeks slaving away at it in a library while your friends were in the beer garden.) Developing your idea for an imaginary group of people will never work. Make sure you have a customer base. Confirm that your idea solves a problem of one of your close personal friends, or someone you know, before you even start.

2) Assume competition is already out there
Since ideas are cheap and easy to come by, assume there are at least five competitors already working on yours. And assume they have a 6 month start on you. Depressing eh? Sure, but preparing yourself this way will help you.

3) Flawless execution comes from consistency
How to be flawless? Be consistent. Work for at least 10 hours a day, every day. There is a hell of a lot of work to be done if you are to gain the first-mover advantage. If you have reservations about working this much, you probably have reservations about your idea. And start early every morning. Each hour you delay is an hour lost – forever. If you are working with a partner or team, you all start at that time. And “starting” means working on the business idea, answering emails, not chitter-chatter. When in doubt, begin the day with something easy like talking about what you want to get out of the day.

4) Divide and conquer the workload
Teams are great. Being part of one gives you a chance to bond and bounce ideas around. But what do we remember about ideas? They’re cheap and a lot of work needs to be done to turn your idea into something you can show investors. So separate your duties – sure you are a new company and there are commonalities to be discussed – but give each person a unique responsibility. Don’t duplicate work for the benefit of team building.

5) Start producing from day one.
Evolution provides us with a great example of how small, incremental improvements results in a more successful system. Don’t be a creationist: make sure everything you do takes you further up the value chain, and away from types who just wave their ideas around. If you were an angel investor, would you rather invest in a team with really good power point on their idea, or a team with a working demo?

6) Mimic people you admire.
Sometimes you won’t know how to best use your time; what task to prioritize over all the others at a given time. Here’s a trick I use when I’m struggling: Think of someone in your industry whose work you admire – how would they be using their time? Mimic them.

7) Schedule breaks for yourself
Your friends will miss you. Tell yourself, that you will work for the next 2 weeks straight and then take a Saturday off, or a long weekend away somewhere. Founding is lonely. Get out. But not just for yourself, do it for the business, too. Beer is free at most industry events. Go, drink the free beer and network. Tell people about your idea. Chances are they will say “Oh like company xyz is doing.” Adjust your focus and go back to work with a clear head.

Avoid part-timers and those who hesitate
How do you choose you team? Take whoever starts contributing to the project soonest, and promise them stock. Avoid anyone who says, “I’d love to be involved but…” These are the same people who float ideas but never do anything. Having some working full time and others part time means mixed commitment levels, which don’t work. All quit your soul-destroying day jobs! There’s nothing like knowing that “this is it” to focus the mind.

9) Over-communicate.
Ensure that your team knows what’s expected of them. Consistent 9AM starts, and clearly-stated deliverables should be first on the list. But we all need repetition. It’s only by hammering away at a message that people will get it – why do you think brand managers create more than one billboard for an ad campaign?

10) Skip the b-plan in lieu of a profit & loss model
Your strategy will probably change many times before you finish a business plan. Save time by modelling everything on a spreadsheet. Make the bottom-line justify your business rather than the other way around. If you’ve really thought through your spreadsheet, writing the business plan will be a doddle. Caveat: if you must write a b-plan remember that a good business plan doesn’t make a good business. Say what needs to be said and get on with turning the idea into something of value.

That’s it. Incorporate these rules and habits and you’ll be on your way to executing better (if not flawlessly), in your startup – and you might not need so much good luck to be successful.

Yes, that’s right, after almost one year’s hiatus, Shared Expression (or a close equivalent) is returning to the Valley of the Sun. We will open our home for a potluck-style dinner (BYOEverything to share) at 6pm this Friday, June 29 and our time will transition as the night goes on into a worshipful gathering of Christ followers. Sans agenda, we just plan to eat, commune and worship together as believers and to take our guidance for the evening from Him.
The gathering will repeat every month on the third Friday, this month is unique, and I hope to see those who still read this blog (and any others that live in the Valley) at our house on Friday.

Brandon and I stayed at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort for our fourth Anniversary. This years theme was fruit and so these were the gifts we got each other. The resort had a great summer special, if anyone is looking to get away for the night. Brandon and I used just about every amenity they offered. We had a great time!

This is Colin’s second play date with Daniel. Daniel is almost 2 weeks older than Colin. His mom, Christy, is a friend from high school. They both enjoyed wiggling next to each other and Colin enjoyed watching a flying baby.

The two following quotes (posted on my friend, JJ’s, blog) adequately sum up what Andrea and I have been doing with regards to our explorations of Church over the last two years. We are in the margins and its nice to know that others recognize the need to cast of insecurity and to explore the new culture around us and to figure out how the Church will look and interact with it in the future.

“When the forms of an old culture are dying, the new culture is created by a few people who are not afraid to be insecure.”
- Rudolph Bruno

“Future Christianity is generating itself from the lives of those who have fled to the margins.”
- Sister Wendy Beckett

In May we went to the Smith cabin. We spent tons of time on the porch and we also hiked up to “The Rocks”. Two of our friends, Travis and Liz, came up one night to relax with us. We had a great time! I’m sure you will be seeing lots of pics from this place.

Colin went swimming for the first time on Father’s Day. Bath times are his favorite part of the day and so you can only imagine what he thought of my brother and sister in-law’s swimming pool that was bath water temperature.

Colin did a great job getting his pictures taken. We couldn’t have asked for a better baby. Check out his one month pics. Click on any of these here to go to his web album.

Yes, that’s right, redPear now has a toll-free number. So, if you are visiting your aunt in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, and you get the hankerin’ to call redPear support, you can now dial 1-866-686-PEAR.

By the way, I hear the weather is great in Wisconsin right now.