Archive for May, 2009
We Get Letters Boy
I wrote a piece a month or so ago right in this very space a look at the new group I call Generation Broke. TM Please visit/revisit it here. The musing was plucked from a book I’ve got coming April 11 called 2011about the futurefrom McGrawHill. I was amazed that the posting prodded people to write me in droves. Letters posts and a bunch a serious f**k yous to boot!
I want to share some with you in the guise of a column. Call me lazy call me Richard. But read on….
“I am 22 years old and am working to become the exception to your rule. I graduated high school in 2002 and immediately enlisted in the United States Navy. I believe that if the people of GenB could have the discipline and sense of honor that the military instills the American workforce would witness a marked change in attitude. I is one thing missing from your article. The rolemodels and examples of greatness in our world have changed since GenX. Whereas GenX looked up to barons like Warren Buffett and emulated the fictional characters of Gordon Gekko GenB is left with media whores like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.
“Just read your piece about “Generation Broke.” You nailed it. I am a copywriter at Ogilvy here in NY and I see it every day. As a matter of fact I had been trying to come up with a title for this generation but I don’t think I can top yours. I sincerely hope that the generation behind this one endeavors to build a reputation as far from Gen B as possible.
“You’ve beautifully crystallized the thoughts and discussions my cronies and I have been having for the last few years. I find it therapeutic knowing I wasn’t the only one thinking the exact same thing. Thanks for putting into words what we’ve all been suspecting. I can’t wait to read your responses to the parents of fragile adult children who will soon be responding to your column.
“Thank you for vindicating my own suspicions and disbelief and sadness re: the generational malaise. Disregard anything you may hear about the ‘Midwestern work ethic.’ It’s all over the country.
“I have a mantra about just this exact scenario * anybody can design something that’s cool * like your buddy’s new alt/goth/neoglam/indie band’s CD cover * and make it look good. But show me what you can do with a piece of POS that the client wants to see 100 lbs. of s**t stuffed into a 5 lb. bag….then calls back at 5:30 pm for you to add another 20lbs to it by tomorrow morning….” 20year creative vet
“Some seem to think that youth is the price of entry into our business. It’s not talent is and always has been. Before unleashing your arrogance and sense of entitlement how about actually DOING something?
“I agree that my generation I am 26 certainly seems to value work less than previous ones generally and that they feel that a college degree is a rite of passage to a job and earning more money. There are some of us in the minority that do believe in quality work questioning the people above you standing up for what you believe in and working hard. But which generation has been responsible for being too nice to their children pushing education and degrees more than internships and actual jobs? I also do not subscribe to the baby boomer idea of working for 30 years to retire on a pittance and having my work define my life. I also want to actually be able to spend quality time with my children.
“You hit the nail on the head but you quit hammering too soon! Here’s another trick I learned in my twenties that those today don’t know teamwork surpasses ego especially around the office.
“The kids are all about fame and fortune but as you say they aren’t willing to do the work. They assume good connections and networking will offset doing good wellthought out work. Some of them spent half their time trying to figure out where to meet the right people at the right place and time so as to see what they could do for them. And I thought we were the “ME” generation!
“I’m a fiftysomething creative director who left the states in 1995 and currently live in Vietnam. And I’m here for a reason. It’s more fun than working in the US right now!
“Oh how I laugh at the new grads and a few other peers who as you described SO accurately who expect everything on a silver platter and are not willing to bust their ass for it. I cannot tell you how many times I have stayed up until 2 in the morning working on agency/client/probono/freelance work while the rest of my cohorts went out and partied. I do it because I know it will pay off in the end and because Sir I love what I do and had to work very hard to get where I am at now. The last thing I want is my job and dream of being a damn good Copywriter now and CD one day ripped out from under me by some portfolio school jerk with bad puns in his/her writing and cheap cologne on his/her pieced together GAP “look”/Vintage threads.
“Everything you wrote is what I experience with my coworkers everyday. Their parents do EVERYTHING for them. They are heavily in debt bar hopping shopping extravagant giftgiving just to get their parents pay off their credit cards. By the following month they are back where they were a month before. Mind you we are all career transitioning in some way while working here. However most of the time I can barely understand their logic in survival. They clearly have none only mommy and daddy. They turn down jobs because the money isn’t “enough” or the position “just sounded boring”. The funny thing is they don’t have the experience in the first place. They have the benefit of being out of school within the last 4 years. Who knew there could be such a difference among an eight year span? I am 35 they are 27 and younger. So I commend you on a sorry but accurate depiction of “the future.
“Generation Broke gets on MY nerves. We are needy. We are greedy. And WE don’t even really know what will make us happy in our professional lives.
“When we hire a lawn service instead of insisting that our sons and daughters get out the mower who’s to blame when they roll their eyes at anything that smacks of grunt work?
“Just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder perhaps the ineptitude is in the tongue of the lasher. When you stop seeing us as little brokenwinged baby birds and start expecting and treating us like adults then maybe that’s what we’ll become.
“Yes we love to party and live life to the fullest. Maybe we’ve grown up witnessing our parents focused on their careers that we’ve decided we don’t want to be constrained by our jobs like it seems they’ve become. We want to live and have fun too. P.S. Your biggest mistake in life would be believing you work for someone else.
and finally . . .
“God help us all when this book hits the shelf. If this article is indicitive of the writing in his book all Mr. Laemer offers is one thing: rancor.” TheTruthHurts their name 27
About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Richard Laermer is an authority on marketing and media a former reporter who is coauthor of Punk Marketing and writer of the new book 2011: Trendspotting. He’s CEO of New York’s RLM pr representing among others IncrediMail ThisNext Smith Nephew AirPlay Anystream Sky Films Dealighted.com and TutorVista. He was host of TLC’s cult program Taking Care of Business and speaks on trends and marketing for corporate groups. You can read Laermer on huffingtonpost.com/richardlaermer and on the mischievous but all too necessary Bad Pitch Blogbadpitch.blogspot.com
You may also find articles by Richard at TalentZoo.com.
Use Free Classified Site Get Traffic
When you acquire a website for your business or if you have something you want to sell personally the first thing you want to do is to find places where you can advertise in to get traffic. Traffic generation is key to the success of your business. Without traffic you won’t be able to much with your website. But with the right traffic you will be able to collect leads make sales get registrations conduct surveys etc.
So how do you get traffic to your site?
There are many ways to drive traffic and to cover all the methods would take a couple of volumes. So let’s just focus on one highly effective method posting classified ads. So what exactly is a classified ad?
In the offline business world we all know what classified ads look like. You see them in magazines or in newspapers. They are small little advertisements with a headline and a few short lines as the ad description. The advertiser is paying for ad space here. The more lines included in the ad the more it will cost the advertiser.
In the virtual world classified ads pretty much look the same except that you are likely to be able to post more lines in a single ad. But the best part of internet classified ads is that you may even be able to post for free. Now is this too good to be true? Why do these sites allow business owners like yourself to post for free?
The reason is simple. If you have something useful to post on the site your posting will attract potential buyers. The traffic mostly come from the search engines. When someone searches for your product or service your listing may show up in the search results and the visitor may click through and visit the classifieds site. That is free traffic for the website and free traffic for you.
Not all sites are free though. Some choose to earn their revenues through online advertising while others choose to charge a small fee for the listing. But even this fee is negligible when compared to traditional classifieds advertising.
The benefit of posting free business ads online is that you get targeted visitors. Only people who are interested in what you have to sell will see the ad and click through to your website. Targeted traffic is very important because these visitors are very interested in what you have to offer. The chances of converting them to buying customers are much higher.
If you see good results with your free business ads you may wish to consider sourcing for more sites to post your ad. Remember it doesn’t cost you a cent to post ad advertisement. You only need to put in a little bit of your time. If one website works well for you imagine having your free business ad posted in hundreds of online classifieds site.
Free classifieds are good for promoting products or services owned by individuals or businesses. Such services may even include offering expert advice or tips.
Free classified ads are a great way to give a website a head start. You can use the ads to get traffic almost instantly.
About the writer: Your Business Space to Handle and Find All Your Needs Use free classifieds to drive traffic.
Understanding Venture Capital By Investment Guru Len Mcdowall
Everyday we read about companies who have raised millions of dollars of capital to fund the growth and expansion of their business. The reality of raising these sorts of funds is much more complex than the newspapers make it out.
There are many different sources of capital obtaining it depends on many factors. It also requires careful planning the right advice and the right pitch. Whether you will get it or not also depends on what kind of business you have what stage it is at what industry its in how profitable it is how much experience you have and how the overall market is tracking.
What is Venture Capital?
The term Venture Capital means capital provided to fund a venture. Essentially venture capital and private equity mean the same thing. However there is a difference between Venture Capital and Private Equity firms. VC firms typically will look at more emerging business and industries and may get involved at an earlier stage. Private Equity firms typically like more traditional industries and tend to like mature companies with consistent cashflows.
What is a Business Angel?
‘Angel’ investors are individuals who like to get involved at the seed or start up stage of a business venture. They look for very highgrowth companies that also have synergy with their own business skills or network. Capital invested can be as little as 10000 and as much as 500000 initially. Follow on rounds may be an option also. The Angel will typically look to get their hands dirty by taking a small role going on the board or acting as a business mentor.
What is a liquidity event?
This is the event that gives the investor their money back. This is most commonly a trade sale or a public float. However sometimes the investor may get bought out by another investor or by the original owner.
Types of Capital Available…
Below are some terms that are commonly used to describe the various stages of funding:
Seed This is at the very beginning of a companys life often before any profit or sales are achieved. Sometimes its used to fund the formation of the venture and its necessary components in order to get it off the ground.
Startup This is when the business has commenced trading but it is still in its infancy. A start up business is typically only six months or a year old.
Expansion The company has sales plus an established market in a particular segment or location such as Sydney and is now requiring funding so they can expand their operations further. Sometimes the company is growing very quickly and needs to scale up in order to meet market demand.
Acquisition The company is seeking to expand by purchasing other business that are similar or synergistic in nature. The company may not have the necessary funds to do this which is where acquisition funding comes in.
MBO/MBI This stands for Management Buy Out or Management Buy In. It means exactly that. These are funds usually provided by a private equity firm or institutional bank which allow the existing management MBO or new management MBI to buy out the existing owners.
PreIPO The round of funding that precedes an IPO usually between two months and up to two years. Funds are sought in order to fund an acquisition expand or pay for listing costs. These deals are only usually available to professional investors institutional investors or high net worth individuals because the amounts involved tend to be in the millions or tens of millions.
IPO This means Initial Public Offering and is when a company goes public on an exchange such as the ASX. This is done via a prospectus document and allows mum and dad type investors to invest alongside the founders major shareholders professional investors and institutional investors. This is the most common way to raise large sums of money such as 50m or 100m.
Len McDowall Integral Capital Group 28th August 2007
www.integralcapital.com.au
About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Len McDowall was previously inaugural Chairman and Managing Partner of Bird Cameron Chartered Accountants now known as RMS Bird Cameron which employed 1000 people in 50 offices in Australia and Hong Kong. Len McDowall who established Bird Cameron’s mergers and acquisitions division has extensive experience in all facets of financial management with a particular emphasis on structuring and negotiating joint ventures and capital raisings.
Following his retirement from the accounting profession Len McDowall and his partners established the Integral Capital Group which specialises in mergers and acquisitions public floatations and capital raisings.
