Ouch! Dow tumbles 777 points today

posted by Ian Wyatt | September 29, 2008

I don't have much to say other than that today was a terrible day for investors. Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 777 points, a record one day point loss for the benchmark index. The U.S. House of Representatives voted down a $700 billion bailout package being pushed by the Bush administration.

Not much else to say other than this is an incredibly challenging environment. Action is clearly required, and the disappointment of investors was evident in today's market action. Like it or not, the U.S. economy faces a liquidity crisis which is unlikely to be resolved in a timely manner without government intervention. The free marketer in me says "leave the market alone." However, the realist in me says "we need action, and we need it now."

Have we hit rock bottom? Or is more bad news on the way? For a couple months now, investors including me have thought we've hit rock bottom time and time again. Is this actual the end to the decline? Perhaps. But I have trouble believing we are going to have a fast turnaround to the prosperous times. It feels to me like we may hover in this unpleasent bottom for a while.

We shall see what happens in the market tomorrow. While this blog wasn't intended to be a commentary on the market, I think the recent events in the capital markets and stock market highlight some serious challenges to our economy which are having a profound negative impact on small businesses and entrepreneurs throughout the country.

Business Breakthroughs and Adventures

posted by Ian Wyatt | September 26, 2008

Posted in Entreprneur's Organization | Comments

Earlier this week at an Entrepreneur's Organization event in Washington DC, Cameron Herold introduced me to Yanik Silver. Yanik is built a successful online business (InstantSalesLetters.com) and more recently started an events business targeting entrepreneurs.

His newest company, Maverick Business Adventures, creates world class events for adventure and risk seeking entrepreneurs. The company's events combine once in a lifetime experiences with learning and experience sharing.

While speaking with Yanik, he said that most of his business breakthroughs don't come from time with others within his same industry. But rather that he is much more likely to achieve a breakthrough by spending time with a commercial real estate developer whose ideas and experiences will be new and different than his. This makes a lot of sense, and I think it is one of the things that makes Entrepreneur's Organization worthwhile for so many members. It isn't about learning from those who have done exactly what I have done before. Rather, the benefit comes from outside perspectives of those who are in different businesses and have varied experiences that I can draw upon (and vice versa).

Through Maverick Business Adventures, it appears that Yanik is providing entrepreneurs and CEOs with the opportunity to share great experiences and business ideas with other over achievers who like to combine work with fun. The 2009 calendar is posted on the web site, with some really cool events lined up for the next year, including the Olympic games in Lake Placid, Baja racing and super bowl party in Mexico, exotic and classic car road trip from NYC to Montreal with F1 race driving school, or diving with Great White Sharks and enjoying wine in northern California.

I hear the events are amazing, and plan to make it my goal in 2009 to attend one of these Maverick events.

Focus On Things Within My Control

posted by Ian Wyatt | September 25, 2008

Posted in Work Life Balance | Comments

In business, as in life, I've learned the importance of focusing on those things that are within my control.

Last night I was speaking with my fiancée Carrie and she told me that the Weather.com forecast calls for cold weather and a chance of rain on our fast approaching wedding day, October 4. She and I are, not surprisingly, concerned about the weather on our big day, since rescheduling the event isn't really an option. (I checked Accuweather when I got home, which forecasts sunny weather with clouds on the same day).

Later in the evening over beers and snacks with my good friend Brandon at the Black Squirrel in Adams Morgan (Washington DC), we were talking about the turmoil in the economy and the stock market, and what that means for my business. I told him these are challenging times for lots of businesses, ours included. And that we've seen a slow down in advertising and subscription sales as a result of the volatility and uncertainty in the market and our economy. We talked about how these events make now a particularly inconvenient time for me to be out of the office for four weeks for my wedding and honeymoon. But when is a convenient time for a one month break? I actually think now is a good time to be away, since things are unlikely to improve much in the coming weeks. Its not as though we're in the midst of an important partnership opportunity or have big advertising prospects lining up to give us lots of new business, which might require my time and attention.

I have given some thought to both of these very different conversations about very different personal and business situations. And I realized that the key take away and reason I don't feel anxious about either situation is because I choose to focus on those things that remain within my control. I can't control the weather on October 4, nor can I control the stock market or economy. But I can control many things in my personal life and business life in order to be prepared for the good, the bad, and the ugly.

If it rains on our wedding day, it will remain one of the most amazing and memorable days of my life. And if the challenges in the stock market and economy continue through October (which I have every reason to believe is the case), my business will still be standing and making forward progress in spite of the challenges. We have an amazing group of employees led by a seasoned leadership team, and I know they will continue to make forward progress even in this difficult economic environment.

As I've grown as an adult, in my personal life and entrepreneurial pursuits, I have become more focused on those things in my life that can be controlled, and tried to spend as little time possible worrying about those outside of my control. I think it simply makes life more relaxing and enjoyable.

Painted Picture: Business Financial Publishing 2011

posted by Ian Wyatt | September 23, 2008

Posted in Entreprneur's Organization, Business Financial Publishing, Painted Picture | Comments

The best way to ensure that dreams become reality is to take the vision from our minds and share it with people. The following vision, what I call my Painted Picture, is a vivid mental image of what Business Financial Publishing will look like, feel like, and act like by December 31, 2011. The goal of this document and process is to share my vision for the company’s future with our leadership team, employees, advertisers, partners, and customers. By sharing this vision, together we can turn this dream into a reality.

Our Business

We are in the business of building an engaged online audience through our websites, blogs, seminars, online videos, newsletters, and e-letters. Our target audience is individuals with compelling demographics who have a tendency to buy products online. We capitalize on the aging baby boomer population by developing online content products that appeal to their interests in the areas of wealth and health, with topics including personal finance, investments, healthy living, anti-aging, and wealth creation. We monetize our audience through advertising sponsorships, direct product sales, and product partnerships. Our audience depends upon us to deliver investment ideas that outperform the market, business opportunities that will exceed their expectations, and insights and tips about health and wellness that will improve their well-being.

We have expanded with successful divisions in the health and wellness, and small business / opportunity seekers markets, diversifying our revenue streams and helping propel the overall growth of the company. Our products include interactive newsletters, membership websites, webinars, home study courses, and live events.

We have re-branded our company as a diversified new media Internet company, with a new name that encompasses our expansion in areas outside of the investment information market. Business Financial Publishing remains a division of our new company, and all employees are now part of our larger organization, creating additional growth opportunities for everyone within the company. We have additional divisions and operating companies in the areas of health and wellness, and small business and opportunity seekers. Our company is recognized as a highly credible diversified media company, participating and presenting regularly at events including Specialized Information Publishers Association, Direct Marketing Association, Mequoda, Marketing Sherpa, and Financial Publishers Association.

We are successful in part due to our rapid product development, and diverse product offerings that allow us to market different products based upon market fluctuations, and the changing interests of our audience.

Knowing Our Audience

Our audience is the aging baby boomers and those within 25 years of retirement. Baby boomers are in their 50s and 60s and are in the middle to upper middle class, and are nearing retirement. They don’t expect Social Security to pay for their retirement, and are concerned about their finances in retirement. Most of them haven’t saved enough, and may have to cut back expenses in retirement, continue working past age 65, or develop alternative sources of income. They seek sound investment advice and wealth-generating opportunities. They are also concerned about their health, diet, and general wellness. They are familiar with the Internet, and most have been online for +10 years. They are comfortable buying products online from credible sources and trusted brands.

It’s All about People

People make our business successful. Our employees are passionate about their work, and motivated to work hard to build and grow this company, and seek professional growth opportunities within our organization. We retain our best employees through great benefits, flexible schedules, competitive compensation, and outstanding bonus and profit sharing plans that allow them to share in the financial success of our company. Through group interviews and Topgrading, we’re able to find the best people for our job openings. We hire smart people who have a track record of success, and have a formal new employee orientation program that aims to help them understand who we are. With every potential hire, we ask ourselves "will this person raise the bar at our company?" Our employees have good work / life balance, and excel both in and out of the office. They consider it a privilege to work for our company.

Our leadership team includes a full time Chief Operating Officer, who runs the day to day operations of our company. Our leadership team is complemented and advised by our formal board of advisors, which provides needed outside insights, advice, and guidance. We meet with them individually, and also hold an annual meeting that includes employees, the leadership team, and the board of advisors.

Education & Training

We hire the best employees possible, and continue to invest in their education and training in order to keep them at the top of their game. The company encourages ongoing training and development, and pays for employee training. Our supervisors work with employees to find meaningful, high impact learning opportunities. Employees share their takeaways from training at our weekly education luncheon series.

Guru Driven Business

Consumers prefer to buy products from people and brands they know and trust. With health and wealth information, this is particularly true. Gurus are a core part of our success. We have successfully developed gurus out of achieving employees and from world renowned experts to help us build our business. We have been successful by approaching even those people who we think might be too big, or too well known to work with us. These gurus become the face and voice of our various products, developing personal connections with our audience through newsletters, video webinars, teleconferences, and live events. We aggressively promote our gurus through media appearances, speaking engagements at conferences and industry events, and print and online public relations activities.

The Numbers

We have successfully expanded outside of the individual investor market, and provide valuable information to our audience related to other topics of interest. Revenues from the financial / investment market are 65% of total revenues, growing at 15% annually for the last three years. We have greater transparency in the financial numbers, sharing more comprehensive P&L statements with our staff on an as-needed basis. Advertising continues to represent the majority of our revenues, and we’ve been successful in growing our product / service sales to one-third of our total sales. The company is highly profitable, and we share our success with our employees through our management by objective (MBO) program, 401k, profit sharing, and stock option / ownership plan.

Multiple Locations & Remote Work Options

With offices in Washington DC and Burlington VT, we can offer employees an urban or country work environment. Our employees travel between locations as business demands. Every employee tries to visit the other office at least once a year to interact with colleagues in the other office. Our dual locations offer employees two distinct work / life environment options. While the DC market offers us many more potential employees, we have found qualified people in Vermont seeking employment in our growth industry. Our offices are state of the art, and the environments are avant-garde. We also offer remote / work from home options for proven employees and top talent that we are unable to find locally. This flexibility allows us to hire the best, regardless of location.

Metrics & Accountability Driven Culture

Our business is driven by the numbers. We use numbers and metrics to monitor performance and improve every day. Michael Dell said, "I want to improve our business by 1% every week. Compounded interest is my friend." Like Dell, we seek small incremental improvements every day, knowing that combined, these small improvements will have a profound positive impact on our business.

Throughout our offices, we publicly display our timelines, project status, priorities, goals and progress. Our company "dashboard" displays key performance metrics that are updated throughout the day on LCD screens.

Meeting rhythms are a core of our success. Our regular meeting schedule fosters effective communication company wide, between departments and individuals. Our routine of meetings keeps everyone on the same page, and allows ideas to flow bottom-up, and top-down. Our meeting rhythm includes a daily all company huddle, weekly department and leadership team meetings, and weekly one-on-one meetings. Our meetings are effectively run, starting on time, and ending early. Every meeting has an agenda, which is shared with participants in advance.

International Expansion

Developing countries such as China and India are changing the world. They have large and growing populations of middle class, who are seeking information related to their health and wealth, similar to our U.S. audience. These markets are huge. We have successfully entered one international market, and we are preparing to enter a second international market.

New Products and R&D (Rip-off and Duplicate)

Our successes are embraced by rewarding and recognizing those responsible, and by investing greater resources in these and similar projects with the greatest likelihood for success. We cut our losses quickly. "Successes teach you nothing; failures teach you everything." We don’t dwell on the past or place blame, but instead embrace our failures as learning experiences and move on to the next great opportunity. We encourage our employees to take risks, and realize that if everything we did proved successful, that we’re not risking enough. Nothing risked, nothing gained.

At the same time we recognize that our success doesn’t entirely depend on the development of our own unique ideas. We closely study those companies that are achieving success in our market and others, and we steal smart. We learn from the successes and failures of others. By taking the best ideas from many competitors in the marketplace, and making refinements and incremental improvements in a quick and efficient manner, we are able to limit downside risks and costs, giving us an edge over our larger competitors.

Technology Focus

Technology is an important aspect of our business, and we invest capital and human resources in the systems that power our business. We recognize that there are many aspects of our business that are out of our control, including competition, the economy, and consumer spending. We know that technology is something that we can control, and by over-investing in this important aspect of our business, we can stay ahead of the curve and avoid challenges that result in lower sales for the company. We have built out an internal technology team in our Operations department with more than one full-time people to focus on the core technology needs of our company (servers and infrastructure, email delivery, e-commerce and fulfillment, etc.), and they are complemented by talented consultants.

Success

Success is having a lot of fun while doing something you love. Our company thrives because our employees view their work as more than a job. They understand and support the company’s growth objectives, and play a significant role in helping define our direction and plans for the future. We are accountable to one another and the organization. Our opportunistic view of the world allows us to see the glass as half-full, and pursue opportunities that might be overlooked by others. We aim to create and build products that contribute to rapid revenue growth, and healthy profit margins. Our audience, clients, advertisers, and partners love doing business with us and enjoy the experience provided by our employees.

Painted Picture: a 3-year vision of the future

posted by Ian Wyatt | September 21, 2008

Posted in Entreprneur's Organization, Painted Picture | Comments

I had never heard of a Painted Picture until earlier this year while attending the Entrepreneur's Organization / MIT Masters in Entrepreneurship Program.

One of my favorite speakers at this years program (my second year) was Cameron Herold, founder of Backpocket COO. Cameron is the former COO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, a high growth company in the fragmented, unsexy junk removal business. With the help of Cameron's leadership, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? grew sales from $2 million to $105 million in six years. Not only did the franchise company expand rapidly, but it became known as a leading employer in Canada by building a world class culture (if 1-800-GOT-JUNK? can turn a junk removal business into a cool, hip company, nobody can have the excuse that their business / industry doesn't allow for "cool"). Cameron spent four days with us at the EO / MIT program, and I had lots of opportunities to pick his brain outside of the normal class presentations.

One idea I picked up from Cameron and 1-800-GOT-JUNK? was the Painted Picture. The Painted Picture is designed to be a three year dream plan for my company and the future state of our business. This plan aims to discuss the WHAT, not the HOW. Our strategic plan is written after painting the picture of the future, and the strategic plan defines the HOW aspects of the plan. Cameron suggests leaning into the future and dreaming about what the business could be, and what it should be. The three year time frame is designed to be far enough in the future to be able to dream big, while being not so far away that the plan seems unachievable (not a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, or BHAG, per Jim Collins).

It is the entrepreneur's job to dream a vision for the company, and put this down on paper as the Painted Picture. However, it is not the job of the entrepreneur to make it come true - this is the job of everyone within the company. It takes more than one person with a dream for the company to turn that dream into a reality. Cameron encourages the sharing of the Painted Picture with everyone. Obviously the company's employees need to understand and buy in to the 3-year vision for the company in order to take actions to move the company forward toward its goals. He also suggests posting the plan publicly, and sharing it with customers, clients, and prospective employees. Because the Painted Picture doesn't share the HOW aspects of the business, there is little that can be stolen from the plan even if it got into the hands of one of our competitors.

Brian Scudamore, founder of 1-800-GOT-JUNK? painted his first company picture in 1998 at a time when sales were flat at $1.5 million and he was trying to figure out how to grow his business. In his Painted Picture, Brian outlined his 3-year goals for the company, and shared his vision for the company. The goals outlined were aggressive, but not unachievable. The document focused not only on goals, but also what the company would look like, act like, and feel like at that future point in time.

Later this month, Business Financial Publishing will reveal our Painted Picture for 2011. After sharing this dream with our employees next week, I'll post my 3-year vision for our company to our company's web site and this blog.

Cameron will be speaking to the Entrepreneur's Organization Washington DC chapter this week, and I'm sure I'll leave with lots of great new ideas to help grow our company and build a world class organization in the coming years.

Historic Week on Wall Street

posted by Ian Wyatt | September 19, 2008

Posted in Financial Markets | Comments

The Dow is up almost 400 points in today's trading, and could make this the fourth day in one week when the Dow posted moves of greater than 400 points, with two up days, and two down days. The volatility has been simply amazing.

The rally today was sparked by the action taken by the U.S. government including the Treasury and Securities and Exchange Commission. The Treasury committed $50 billion to insure money market accounts, and increased lending to banks. Additionally, the SEC announced a ban on short selling of 799 financial stocks, limiting the ability of investors to place bets on a company's stock price decline.

This will go down as a historical week in the history of financial markets, with the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, government bailout of AIG, and today's monumental actions to stabilize the financial markets and banking system.

The government clearly was reading the writing on the wall, and saw the US financial system collapse unfolding right before our eyes. One could make the argument that the events of the last week could have led to another financial system collapse on par with that of 1929, one that I believe everyone would want to avoid at any and all costs. From a personal standpoint, I'm pleased to see some green in my investments today and an end to the bleeding.

However, I think it is good to ask whether or not this action was in fact needed. Is it the job of the US taxpayer to bail out the banks? I would like to think in our free markets, this is not the job of the feds. If my business hits hard times, will the government be there for me and my employees (I seriously doubt it). However, I believe many taxpayers would be happy to trade a bailout in exchange for avoiding a failure of the financial systems and a deep and long recession.

As one of my financial advisors said to me on the phone this morning regarding the short selling restriction, "its as though the free market system wasn't working, and so the government decided to change the rules."

Short term, the government's historical actions appear to have calmed the financial markets. And this will be good for businesses both large and small that depend on access to capital in order to fund operations and fuel future growth. However, longer term, I am uncertain whether the actions this week were the right ones for the long term success, stability, and independence of our financial markets.

Bloomberg: Paulson, Bernanke Expand U.S. Power to Rescue Markets
AP: Stocks soar as officials confirm gov't rescue plan

Twitter for Business

posted by Ian Wyatt | September 17, 2008

Posted in New Media | Comments

Social networking site Twitter has been on the up and up, with currently more than two million users. While Twitter's business model remains in question by Silicon Valley outsiders (and perhaps insiders alike, although the company has raised $20 million in venture capital), the question arises as to whether this startup will prove a helpful tool to businesses.

Since learning about Twitter from Jason Pontin, editor and chief of the MIT Technology Review, while attending the Entrepreneur's Organization Masters in Entrepreneurship Program at MIT in May, I've been playing around with the micro blogging site on my own and for fun (if you're not already doing so, you can "follow" me on Twitter by clicking here). It can be quite addictive, and I find myself sending short (less than 140 characters) updates answering the question, "What are you doing?"

While I find Twitter to be lots of fun, my fiancée sometimes finds my distraction to be annoying; particularly when I feel compelled to update my network of 27 followers that the braised lamb shank I just ate was amazing, or of my spotting of a bear crossing the road (which was actually pretty cool).

One of the questions I began thinking about was whether there is an application for Twitter in my business - investment content for individual investors. While Twitter may be a small medium of communication today (compared with email, for example), I believe its popularity is likely to grow. After all, Twitter is really just an interface for web and SMS communications. And if we can get in on the ground floor of "tweeting" about the financial markets, that might put us in a good position down the road, allowing us to capture an active audience of younger people who are interested in investing.

We set out to give it a try with our Small Cap Investor web site. Our editor-in chief (Bob) and assistant editor (Crystal) jumped on the opportunity and have been tweeting away. Our Twitter user SmallCapTweets post 8 - 12 updates on small cap stocks throughout the day (today has been a killer, with the small cap Russell 2000 down nearly 5%).

The good thing is that it isn't very time intensive, since the messages are short, and we're just summarizing highlights from small cap stocks throughout the day. The bad news is, our following is really limited (10 followers). Granted, we've done no marketing. We plan to integrate our feed directly into our web site in the coming weeks, and to begin to encourage our audience of +150,000 e-mail newsletter subscribers to also signup to follow us on Twitter.

I'm not sure we'll ever make money directly as a result of our Twitter feed. And we're not alone: MIT Technology Review, CNN, MSNBC, and Forbes are all active on Twitter, and not making a dime (as far as I can tell).

But I really view Twitter as being an extension of our communications with our audience - yet another way to reach out and connect with them and build a relationship in the digital age. Down the road, this perhaps becomes a way for us to send stock trade alerts to paying subscribers or to promote new products or special discounts to our users.

However, right now we're just having fun.

Business Financial Publishing #185 on 2008 Inc. 500 list of fastest private cos.

posted by Ian Wyatt | September 14, 2008

Posted in Business Financial Publishing | Comments (1)

I've been bragging about this for a few weeks now, and think its also worth posting here.

I highly recommend picking up the September issue of Inc. Magazine, or visiting the Inc. 500 / Inc. 5000 web site. The September Inc. 500 issue is my favorite of the year, and I look forward to it every year. The issue focuses on the fastest growth private companies in the U.S., ranked by revenue growth. Inside the magazine, you'll find great features on many amazing companies that are demonstrating that the American dream is alive and well, and thriving even in a challenging economy. This year I'm particularly proud due to my company's inclusion in the 2008 rankings (you'll find us on page 190 of the magazine).

My company was named #185 on the Inc. Magazine 2008 Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing privately held companies in the United States. We also ranked #2 in the Media Industry (although I'm not sure why we were placed in this category, since the majority of our revenues comes from advertising), and #16 in the Washington DC area. Our sales growth during the three year qualifying period (2005 - 2007) was 1,303%.

I'm so proud of the company we've been able to build since founding Business Financial Publishing in 2001. None of this would have been possible without the help and support of my family, friends, and colleagues. I believe this is a huge honor and wonderful recognition of our success over the years. More on the Inc. 500 later...

Why Blog? And Why Now?

posted by Ian Wyatt | September 10, 2008

Posted in Vermont Living | Comments (1)

I’ve been thinking about this question the past couple weeks, as I have worked with our designer and web developer in preperation of the launch of this blog. But even as I worked on getting this setup, I continued to ask myself, why do I want to start blogging? Why now? And what will I actually write about?

I know I’m a little late to the game of blogging. So much so that Jason Calcanis, renowned blogger and founder of Weblogs (acquired by Google) not only created a company which was largely responsible for the creation and popularity of blogs, but that in July of this year he "retired" from blogging.

I joined Facebook just a couple months ago, and for the last few weeks have become active on Twitter. As the CEO of a new media company, it may be surprising that I’m so late to the blog game. My excuse? I’ve been busy building a high growth company, and this has been my focus in recent years, not building my social network. However, more recently I’ve began realizing that my blog could prove to be a useful business and personal communication tool.

As an entrepreneur and small business owner, I am constantly working to improve and grow my company, and build a world class organization. My company has been my passion over the years, and I love learning from other entrepreneurs through the Entrepreneur’s Organization and other groups and events. I equally enjoy sharing the ideas I hear and those I’m implementing in my company, and believe the blog format will be an ideal forum.

At the same time, I’m trying to improve my work-life balance and avoid the workaholic tendencies that I’ve been prone to in the past. With my wedding less than three weeks away (October 4, 2008), I recognize the importance of life outside of the office and the need for balance, and am making this a priority.

I plan to blog on a number of topics, including entrepreneurship and building a high growth company, creating and maintaining good work-life balance, the financial markets and investment ideas, and personal travel. I hope this blog proves to be an interesting read for family, friends, colleagues, clients, business partners, and readers of my publications.

Hence the name of this blog, Entrepreneur + Life. Simply put, I’ll be blogging about life as an entrepreneur and my personal life.

Friends know that since buying a house in the Green Mountains of Vermont last year, I've been spending a significant amount of time in the state where going green has been the hip thing to do for decades. The photo at the top of this site is from our home. Throughout the seasons, I plan to update this with new photos from my surroundings. I've found that I do some of my best thinking, problem solving, and dreaming about the future from this picturesque surrounding where I have created my home with my fiancée, Carrie.

Enjoy the blog, and please check back frequently.

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