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How to win business and influence friends.  I recently finished the book “Love is the killer app” by Tim Sanders.  This is on Paul Allen’s must read list and I have wanted to read it for a long time.  I actually finished all but the last few chapters about 3 months ago.  But I finally pulled it out again and finished it up.  I can see why it is one of Paul’s favorites.  I want to summarize his ideas and provide a few of my own.

He breaks the book into a few major sections: Knowledge, network, and compassion.  The step in sharing you love in the business world you have to have a foundation of a TON of business knowledge.  There is no better place to gain this knowledge than to read a ton of business books.  He has a whole system for this including reading with a pencil and writing down every one of your ideas in the margins of the book.  Then after each chapter you write a short summary in the blank pages at the back of the book.  Stuff to refresh your memory later on if you need to look something up.  He has 4 steps to really learn the information in a book aggregation, encoding, processing, and application.  I can say that the next book I read I will do as Tim suggests.  It just makes sense.

Next he says you have to build your network.  Not just of business contacts but of real friends.  These are the people you will help with all the knowledge you gain.  He also believes in sharing contacts and hooking people up with other people in your network.  Paul is a great example of this.  He has a very large network and uses it to get business done.  Not just for himself but for others as well.  This book was written in 2002 just as LinkedIn and other social sites and tools were just taking off.  I am sure he would suggest using these new tools today.

Last is to use compassion in the business palace.  This is such a 180 from how most people see business working.  Share, teach, and love others and eventually they will do the same back. I think that this may be true.  But what is true for sure is that if you love others in business it will make life so much better!  Feel better about yourself and gain a reputation of a knowledgeable, kind business person.  That is the place to be.

The only problem with reading this book is I can’t help but think of all the times I did not share when I could have, or did not care when I should have.  This book has changed the way I see business and will work in business the rest of my life. I completely suggest reading this great book!

Just a few thoughts from me.  First of all I think that these principles are already used in volunteer organizations (like the LDS church).  Everyone wants everyone else to succeed, and everyone shares their knowledge and skills.  It only makes sense this would work in business.  Also with the recent surge in social networks and applications it is easier than ever to build your network and keep in contact with large amounts of people.  Tools like blogging, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and FriendFeed all fit into this philosophy very well.  This book today should be called “Love is the killer social network” because that is what it is (or could be).

I will close this post with Tim’s last paragraph in the book “Why do we have to wait for these moments? Why is it only during peak experiences that we offer the love? Why does it take a championship season to show emotion? Why not reach inside ourselves and, whenever and, whenever we have an appropriate urge, tap in to that love and express it. It can make a wonderful world of difference to you and to
everyone around you.”

Next books on the list “Influence, the psychology of persuasion” and “Actionable Web Analytics”.  When I am done I would be happy to share the knowledge

Here is my outline of a short presentation I did at the last Rocky Mountain Affiliate Marketing Association last week.

First you have to get yourself in an “Outsourced Mindset”. (Don’t outsource your mind!) Effectively using outsourced resources can change everything from profitability to how much you can pay for a customer.

50s, 60s, and 70s was all about building large all-in-one corporations. The 80s and 90s was about cutting costs using outsourcing. The 2000s will be about partnering with the companies that have the best specialties and the fastest growing knowledge and skill sets.

The books “The world is flat”, “the Only Sustainable Edge”, and “The 4 hour work week” are great books on outsourcing.

What can be outsourced. 2 rules + 1

1) Tasks can be clearly defined and easily communicated

2) Tasks that are time consuming and can be easily broken up

3) Also, have fun with it!

Things to think about

· Do you have short term, unrelated tasks or do you want a trained team with long term projects?

· Do you have someone to manage the tasks and provide direction? You must have good management. This is where most companies fail.

· What form of communication do you need from them (email, phone, written docs)?

· There will be frustrations!

Outsourcing- don’t forget US opportunities

• Part time specialized help (genealogists in specific area), bloggers, PR, IT, content creation, SEO, affiliate recruiting.
• Setup an “advisory panel”.
• Use customers, LinkedIn, social networks, affiliates, etc.
• Find people who are excited about what you do.
• Just ask!

Finding a company to work with

• Ask the right questions and lots of them.
• Types of skilled workers they already have. Specialties?
• Office setup and work environment. Internet connection, utilities, public transit, even health conditions can make a big difference in productivity. Ask for photos.
• Team organization and communication channels
• How are workers compensated? Understand their benefit package. Employee retention rate.
• Times outsources employees will work.
• Who will you interface with? A US manager, overseas manager, or direct with employees?
• Can you interview your workers? Is there a trial period you can use?
• Have them help you understand the differences between overseas workers and US workers.

Outsourcing tools

• Google docs – Best tools ever!
• VOIP and IM
• Source control for developers – cvs, source vault, source safe
• Bug/Task tracking systems. Used bugzilla in the past. Use OnTime now (awesome!)
• 37signals.com products (basecamp and backpack) and many open source solutions
• Amazon’s Mechanical Turk system to outsource tasks to thousands of independent workers.

Here are my notes from Paul Allen’s second class “A Crash Course in Internet Marketing”. Not that I need a crash course. But Paul asked me to attend and I have found it very interesting. Today’ class was on Paul’s favorite entrepreneurial tools and sites.

1) Check out Paul Grams Combinator, which is a successful incubator.
2) Best books to read – art of the start, emyths, Net entrepreneurs only, striking it rich.com, the game of work. I have not read any of these books. They are now on my list.
3) Find mentors who are successful in your niche and follow them. Top 500 retailers book to see who is succeeding. What did they do smart? Read their blogs, interviews in the paper or magazines. Find someone who has done it recently and well. Find a morpheus (from the matrix).
4) Best periodicals – business 2.0 by far the best. Industry standard (now out of business). Wired magazine, Popular science (I get this magazine and love it!).
5) Don’t waste time. Make the most of every single hour.
6) Checkout the 167 interviews for free npost.com. Great content!
7) Stanford educators corner. edcorner.stanford.edu/podcasts.html 94% of franchises are in business 5 years later. Good way to start a business if you have the money.
9) Use a blackberry. Scarcest resource is time. Portable email is a lifesaver. Saves 2 hours a day.
10) Mp3 player – fill with best stuff and listen to it. Paul’s brother listened to 200 audio books last year while building log beds.
11) Use linkedin to connect with people. Use it everyday, add to your network everyday. Make connections to help your business. In the last 2 weeks I have grown my network from from 50 to 75.
12) Do research on your competitors. Use the alexa.com toolbar. quantcast.com and compete.com, waybackmachine.com. www.sec.gov (Management discussion of business, earnings calls on yahoo), findarticles.com (looksmart), highbeam.com worth subscription, wall street journal, googe alerts.
13) Use Google tools, spreadsheets and docs and desktop widgets.
14) freeconferencecall.com, skype for small groups to communicate with employees.
15) vistaprint.com to get business cards. logoworks.com to get a logo. istockphoto.com. I use bigstockphoto.com as well.
16) aweber.com email list manager. We have used this on WorldVitalRecords.com for some time and it has work well. Just $20/month for up to 10,000 subscribers. 1shoppingcart.com ecommerce site with a bunch of stuff built in like commerce, email manager, and affiliate system. wikia.com, www.ning.com create your own social network. surveymonkey.com to add surveys to your site.
17) prweb, prleap.com. (strategytree.com pauls wiki on internet marketing.) We have been using prweb.com for our paid press releases. I know the my friend Janet (visit her site to learn more about press release strategies)also uses prleap.com to do her free press releases. We have used this service as well with good results.
18) Don’t forget that direct mailing still works. Especially for B2B. referenceusa.com (available at public libraries), infousa.com, melissadata, jigsaw.com
19) dnd.com credit reports on millions of small businesses. Financial reports.
20) How to find help? Guru.com, elance.com, rentacoder.com
21) Need money? prosper.com, zopa.com (UK only) get capital for a startup.
22) alibaba.com directory of all manufacturers.