I find the use of a mind map as a great tool to add to the entrepreneurial tool-belt.  It allows you to “brain-dump” in a relatively organized manner while giving you a graphical representation of idea relationships, an additional dimension to your ideas.  It is not the “ultimate” tool (one probably doesn’t exist) but one I find very useful.  It plays a stage in the planning and strategy portion of my mind and allows me to organize the “chaos” that rolls around in my head (at least a good attempt at it). I then can translate and communicate the thoughts however necessary.

I currently use a free open-source program called MindMap (see here).  It is simple, easy to navigate, easy to understand, and offers the ability to use it how you want to.  Of course, it’s also free! Which is nice, especially for the bootstrapper.  I currently use the 0.90 rc3 beta and have had no problems or glitches so far.  I then am able to translate the mind maps to business plans, strategy papers, blog posts, or simply send them anywhere as a PDF or whatever I want.

If you have any solutions that you like more, let me know!

A recent video on TED illuminates a point that a colleague and I have shared on multiple occasions, including a podcast called “My Business World”.  The new model of business productivity, often referred to as ROWE (results oriented work environment).  The concept is, essentially, to  allow employees to do whatever they want, as long as the work gets done.  Studies and experience are showing an increase in productivity and personal morale.  The intrinsic value of getting something done with the opportunity to control one’s schedule and action plans is a bigger motivator than increases in pay, bonuses or other direct reward/punishment models of the past.  It has been explored and compared to Tim Ferriss’ work with 4 hour work week here.  The big motivator appears to be the fact that people can define their “ideal” lifestyle today and not in waiting for the elusive day of retirement, all while working and being productive, contributing to the economy.

Dan (in the video) also speaks of variations of this that I find quite interesting and extremely valuable form an innovation standpoint.  Innovation is typically a matter of “captured chaotic response”, that is, in the course of living/working, we tend to stumble upon ideas, answers, problems, solutions, etc.  The process of capturing this chaos and ordering it for reproduction is innovation. Many companies, particularly in the tech industry, have implemented innovation strategies that offer a percentage of time or a day or week to work on anything you want.  Google is likely the most well known with their 80/20 rule, 20% of time is spent on any ideas outside of normal work.  This 20% has produced 50% or more of Google’s innovations as Dan tells it.  The natural chaos of individual human endeavor and thought creates substantially more innovation than the ordered workings of any company and that is seen in 80/20-like planning.

These are powerful aspects of the new motivating business model.  It is important to understand the trade-off in emphasis.  Instead of heavy focus and discipline regarding time, meetings, and such, a substantial focus and discipline must be placed on the results, and improvement of them (hence results-only work environment).  This is basically the only indicator of proper performance and further reward/punishment may exist around this metric alone.  Obviously if you are not getting the results required, you likely won’t stick around.

As a business or in defining your business, take a look at information regarding these new models and see if you can implement them for enhanced productivity and improved morale.  It may even be a cost saver as monetary reward is less necessary.  Any additional resources on these concepts? successes or failures?

I recently read a post by Kelly Spors of “Independent Street”, a WSJ Blog regarding the difference between small business owners and entrepreneurs. It is interesting as they are often treated as virtually synonymous terms when, in reality, their a some key distinctions. There are some valuable reasons to understanding these distinctions. First, and likely most importantly, you can decide which you are in order to more fully achieve your desired end versus being clouded by misinterpreted information and tips meant for the other type. Second, this provides a better clarity for consultants, coaches, other entrepreneurs and business owners, in suggesting direction and measuring results. Economically speaking, these two types have a different effect on growth, job creation, stability, etc.

The post refers to this as the key distinction:

entrepreneurs are those people who generate new revolutionary ideas, bringing them to the marketplace. Their ideas are innovative, making our society more efficient and often helping spur the U.S. economy by evolving into high-growth firms.

Once these dynamic “entrepreneurs” create one idea, they often move onto the next.

Small-business owners, by contrast, start a business and once they grow it big enough to support themselves and their families, they have no intentions of growing this much more.

From a research standpoint, this distinction will provide for more effective and applicable findings as their influence upon society differs.  As for influential advice, this distinction will allow the individual to seek information regarding their specific desires (i.e. growing a stable small business vs. exploding multiple ventures one after another).  As Kelly poses the question, so will I, with my own twist of course:

Do you want to be an entrepreneur or small business owner?

I tend to cater to both, especially the newly formed small business as they follow similar paths in the beginning…

I recently posted this video at billybush.net here but liked it enough, I figured I better share it here on Business|BB as well.  I’m a sucker for innovation, especially that of the “entrepreneurial” sort, which most innovation is…

I have been running with an MSi Wind for a while now (6 months or so) and must say that I’m sold! I love the netbook far more than my ol’ laptop (and the laptop even was a tablet, which I miss on rare occasion). At first, I was wary of losing the laptop so I claimed the Wind as my 3rd option (desktop, laptop, netbook). Once I started using it however, I never used the laptop again. I have been operating largely in the “cloud” for some time, utilizing web apps for nearly everything. This decreased the necessity for much computing power and any that I do need, I reserve for use on the powerhouse desktop, (which has 4 monitors for further productivity. We’ll talk about that at another time…). So why do I like it?

The portability is phenomenal and comes in handy for each meeting I have, carrying it from room to room.

Battery life is exceptionally better than my last laptop (battery needed replaced anyway). It is the best I’ve used.

Extra RAM! One concern I had was multitasking with it but was consoled by the additional slot making 2gig of ram after the addition of a chip. The Wind was one of the only netbooks I found that had that extra slot.

I am running Windows 7 on it and it just plugs along like a trooper! The most robust apps I run would include MS Office Suite and the like. Most of my apps anymore are web-based, however. I sync most files through Microsoft LiveMesh (a sweet service that is little known, another post will share more) which makes it even more convenient, not having to remember to sync files manually, or where the most recent version is.

The 10″ screen is adequate and balanced (portability vs visibility).  This doesn’t mean it never feels cramped but what can you expect?

Just to make it more my own, I added a skin of Jackson Pollock’s 1949 painting, number 1, customized from SkinIt.

Affordable… I paid $400 with the RAM upgrade.

Gripes:

The latches that hold the battery connected broke quickly (little flimsy plastic things) so I rigged it with velcro. It works well now although not aesthetically award winning.

Occasionally the wireless adapter is not recognized and must be reset but not too often does it happen.

Overall, good times with my netbook.  The Netbook is a great tool for any entrepreneur as an additional comp or for those not needing substantial computing power.   They come in much more affordable than any laptops or desktops making them even better for bootstrappers.