Pinot the Chocolate Lab Puppy

posted by Ian Wyatt | January 20, 2009

I'm pleased to announce the latest addition to the Wyatt family - Pinot the puppy.

Pinot is 4-month old pure bred Chocolate Lab puppy who we adopted in mid-December, just before an influx of family and friends for the holidays. They say it is good for your puppy to be exposed to lots of people - something she experienced quickly. Pinot comes from a breeder in North Troy Vermont, which is basically a stones throw from the Canadian border (its actually very close to Jay Peak, for the skiers who read this blog).

Carrie and I had wanted a dog, and began contacting breeders in early December. Like most decisions we make, this one was a quick one as well - and two weeks later, we were driving home with a 3-month old puppy. Of course it wasn't planned out, so a trip to PetSmart was required to buy all the doggie gear - leash, collar, food, bowls, crate, treats, toys and gates.

We named her Pinot after our favorite wine, Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir is a difficult wine to grow, but can be outstanding if grown properly and carefully tended to. Sort of like a puppy... There has been some confusion about the name. Some people think we named her "Pee No", but the grape / wine reference usually clears things up.

We start obedience class later this month, and I think Pinot is looking forward to Carrie and me getting some training. And since everyone loves photos of puppies, click here to view the gallery photos of Pinot.

Email Inbox Zero: Managing High Volume Email

posted by Ian Wyatt | January 15, 2009

Posted in Business Financial Publishing | Comments

I was recently turned on to the concept of Inbox Zero, an efficient system for managing a high volume of email messages.

The Inbox Zero system was conceived by Merlin Mann, a well known life-hacker and blogger at 43Folders.com. Merlin developed his Inbox Zero system in order to help better deal with a high volume of email messages. Check out 43Folders.com series on Inbox Zero and watch Merlin's presentation at Google Tech Talks - it is well worth the time.

I am definately a high volume email user. In 2008, I sent over 20,000 email messages. I received several times that many emails - maybe 60,000 to 80,000 messages. Until earlier this month, this was my approach to email. Save everything, except the email spam. Don't delete messages. My email inbox was a digest of my life. And I would sort through the 20k messages that were in my inbox at any given time, sorting by date, subject line, or name in Microsoft Outlook, or searching for things via Google Desktop for the hard to find stuff. My inbox was always full, and caused lots of problems with Outlook - including frequent crashes (gotta love Microsoft products).

Inbox Zero is focused on getting me to get rid of emails, and process to zero. Processing to zero means taking action on ALL emails every time you check your email. One of the core concepts is to convert emails into actions.

Merlin outlines five potential outcomes of an email (in order of desirability):

Delete (or archive)
Delegate
Respond
Defer
Do

Some of the ideas and tips for processing emails are the following:

Do email less: check email once per hour for 10 minutes, turn off auto-check, and close your email program for periods of the day
Always empty email inbox after checking mail
Multi-tasking doesn't work - focus on email for short periods of time, not constantly throughout the day
Time and attention is limited
Email is only a medium for communication
Checking email is not enough - take action
Don't live in your email
Take email messages and turn them into actions or items to complete (i.e. a to do list)
Get out of email, and have a life

How is Inbox Zero working for me?

I began implementing Inbox Zero earlier this month. I'm not 100% there. Here is what I did to get started:

I starting my moving all old emails into a new folder named "2008". All old emails that were in my inbox, went into this folder. I then created folders based on topics (i.e. Advertising, Biz Dev, Marketing, Newsletters). And a folder named "Actions - To Do".

I then moved all previously flagged emails into the Actions - To Do email folder. And for all new mail that arrived, I processed, deleting most emails as I dealt with them. For messages that require more work than I have time for, I move them into the Actions - To Do folder. All other emails are either responded to, deleted, or filed. I use my seperate topic folders to save messages that are important that I wish to reference. Merlin recommends ONLY having an Archive folder for all emails, and NOT using folders to file messages. And my implementation of his plan differs from his recommendation.

I end every day with zero emails in my Inbox. Throughout the day, I don't always process to zero. I'm working on getting there. I'm definately loving having fewer emails in my Inbox, and proactively dealing with my emails, deleting more messages than I ever did before, and turning emails into actionable item.

2009 New Year’s Resolutions

posted by Ian Wyatt | January 6, 2009

Posted in Work Life Balance | Comments

With 2008 now behind us, and 2009 off to a busy start, I decided now is a good time to outline some of my personal and business goals and New Year's Resolutions for 2009:

Grow Business Financial Publishing subscription business
More client interaction
Write the Recovery Portfolio newsletter content
Start an online wine club
Become an active investor in Ecosandals
Release of "The Small Cap Investor" book
Make one new angel investment in a promising startup
Better organization
Top 5 priorities: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually
Read a book every month
Make Vermont home
Evening family time - avoid work
Less travel
30 minute Cardio exercise twice weekly
45 minute walk w/ Pinot the puppy daily
Drink less
Enroll in obedience classes with Pinot the puppy
Hike Camels Hump Mountain
Attend an Entrepreneur's Organization (EO) University event
Attend all Entrepreneur's Organization (EO) forum meetings

Happy Holidays

posted by Ian Wyatt | December 29, 2008

Posted in Vermont Living | Comments

Happy holidays to all friends, family, colleagues, and partners who read my blog.

2008 has been a challenging year as an individual investor and an entrepreneur leading a company that is in the financial media sector.

The extent of the housing market collapse and subprime mess caught almost everyone off guard, myself included. Like many investors, I knew that housing was overpriced (one of the reasons I held back on buying a condo in DC in recent years), and thought that prices would decline after five years of +20% annual appreciation in hot markets like Washington DC where my company is based. What I didn't realize was the widespread effect that this would ultimately have on the overall economy and the stock market. Predicting crisis like this isn't easy to do, and very few people correctly called this recession. If you're looking for some good reading on the housing crisis and the collapse of investment banks, check out "The End" by Michael Lewis in the recent issue of Conde Naste's Portfolio Magazine.

Everyone knows that media companies have been having a difficult year with pullbacks in advertising spending (even in the online channel, which represents the bulk of our business). And the fact that we're a media company in the financial / investment category makes things even more difficult, as individual investors are becoming less responsive to advertisements selling them investment services. All in all, it has been a challenging year as an entrepreneur and investor. Too bad we can't simply turn back the clock and have another 2007 all over again.

This year has been incredibly rewarding personally. Carrie and I were married in October, and have enjoyed the first few months of married life. We spent three weeks in October on honeymoon in Italy, followed by two weeks at Thanksgiving in Washington and Oregon visiting family.

Carrie and I have been having a wonderful Christmas at our home in the Green Mountains in Vermont, enjoying the holiday with my parents and sister (my brother couldn't make it home from China for the holidays). The weather has been typical of Vermont at this time of the year - cold and lots of snow, followed by warm days and rain when the temp rose to 55 degrees yesterday, melting the 18" of snow we had on the ground earlier this month. I'm a bit bummed that we didn't get out skiing when the snow was good, but hoping to hit Sugarbush later this week. We're expecting eight friends from Washington DC and Chicago for New Years at our home in Vermont.

I look forward to connecting in 2009. Happy New Year!

Teamwork results in quick launch of Trademaster video webinar

posted by Ian Wyatt | December 15, 2008

Posted in Business Financial Publishing | Comments (1)

In the investment newsletter / content industry, there has been an increased push in recent months to begin using video as a means of delivering content and marketing messages to current and prospective users. In our industry, we are targeting individual investors, typically men who are 45 - 75 years old.

Three weeks ago, I was talking with Lee, the Director of Marketing at Business Financial Publishing. Together we decided that now was the time to stop talking, and start acting on this video web seminar (also known as a webinar) opportunity. Two days before Thanksgiving, we decided to go ahead, and launch our first ever video as a marketing video webinar for our Trademaster Daily Stock Alerts Service. In less than three weeks, we have accomplished this goal with a great video seminar event titled "Stock Summit 2008: Profits After the Fall." The event will go live at 6pm eastern time today, Monday December 15. To register for the event, please visit Trademaster.tv.

This event was complicated for several reasons. We had never previously professionally produced a video. There were the issues of staging the event, developing the content for the presentation, finding a videographer, selected a video hosting service (we selected Amazon Web Services, an inexpensive cloud computing service), compressing 30 minutes of video for web format, and finding suits and ties for the participants (our work environment is usually very casual).

I am extremely impressed with the level of teamwork displayed by everyone at Business Financial Publishing in order to pull this off. It is truly amazing what a small team of people can accomplish in a very short period of time when they set their minds on a single goal. Our goal was getting this marketing video webinar done by today so that we could market our great service and generate new subscriptions for our Trademaster Daily Stock Alerts Service.

The video presentation focuses on what has been happening in the financial markets in recent months, including the decline of the stock market. Most individual investors have seen the value of their equities and investment portfolios decline by 30% - +50% in a few short months. Our surveys and interaction with subscribers indicates that they are very concerned about the value of their investments, and the future recovery of the stock market. These individual investors are looking for investment opportunities that will provide them with the ability to make money in this market today.

Our solution, which we present in this video webinar is Trademaster Daily Stock Alerts, a service that uses our proprietary system for screening and ranking +4,500 stocks each day to deliver the best stock picks to subscribers for only $49.95 per month. I won't get into the details of the service or system here - just check out the video at Trademaster.tv to get all the details.

I special thanks to several key team members who have been very involved with this promotion and event.
+ Benson for being the star of the show.
+ Bob for helping us young guys get some credibility on video and great insights into the content of the presentation for the target audience.
+ Brit for writing lots of copy to get people to register for the event, and reminding them to attend. Great copy to drive the sense of urgency.
+ Jason for helping with the research and reports to make this event possible.
+ Chris the freelance videographer for showing us what works and what does not in web video, and executing this event in a very short period of time.
+ Dan and Joshua for figuring out the technical stuff, and getting everything setup well in advance, so we didn't have to worry.
+ Lee for quarterbacking the entire event, and making this happen.
+ And to our late team that stayed at the office until 130am to get this DONE... Dan, Lee, and Chris, thanks for the hard work and dedication.

Thanks to everyone who was involved. The video looks great. This will hopefully be the first of many such video events that we will roll out in the coming months.

Team Polizeo: Alex Roy & Tim Ferriss in BMW M5 - Attempt to Break 30 Hours, NYC to LA?

posted by Ian Wyatt | December 8, 2008

Posted in | Comments (4)

This weekend I spent some time reading about Alex Roy and his record breaking car race across the United States. On October 7, 2006, Alex broke the record for the fastest cross country trip by car from New York City to Los Angeles, California in his 395 HP BMW M5 (E39). Alex and co-driver David Maher (an investment banker) crossed the country in 31 hours, 4 minutes, driving 2,800 miles at an average speed of 90.1 miles per hour.

I came across a Twitter post from Tim Ferriss, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestseller The Four Hour Work Week, related to his participation in another cross country race with Alex Roy. Tim's Twitter post turned me on to this interesting story. The Team Polizei web site reports "NY to LA. Again. Tonight. Team Polizei. Rene Villeneuve. Tim Ferriss. Stay Tuned." On Saturday, December 7, Tim Ferris posted "I'm doing the ride primarily to see the technology. He's using new tools to gather data/video/stills; think Google Maps on steroids."

Following his cross country record, Alex wrote the book The Driver. His drive was also documented by Wired Magazine, which published a great article titled "The Pedal-to-the-Metal, Totally Illegal, Cross-Country Sprint for Glory." Alex is also an executive producer of documentary filmmaker Cory Welles' 32 Hours, 7 Minutes. The documentary tells the story of the then record breaking 32 hours, 7 minute cross country trip by David Diem and Doug Turner in a Ferrari 308. The film is expected to be released in the coming months, and has been submitted to Sundance.

In August of 2008, Alex presented to Google as part of the Authors@Google in New York City. In his one-hour presentation, Alex shares the analysis of his plan to break down every detail of his recording breaking race across the United States. This great video is definitely worth watching, as are many of the other Authors@Google presentations.

I just love this story, and wanted to share it with others. The Wired article and videos are definitely worth reading and watching. As a car lover and fellow BMW M5 owner (I have a 2003, the last year of the E39, in carbon black with black leather), I think perhaps I found this story more compelling than the average reader. I've driven my BMW M5 at +110 MPH for a short period of time, but never had the opportunity or desire to remove the speed limiter chip and get above 155 MPH (the BMW M5 will do 0-62 MPH in 5.3 seconds, and reach a maximum speed of 180 MPH - it is a great car to drive, and I plan to keep mine forever).

Alex thinks that it is possible to do the same cross country race in 30 hours. Was Alex attemptinng another record breaking run with Tim Terris this past weekend? It will be interesting and fun to see if Alex or another driver is the one to accomplish this impressive goal. In the mean time, I look forward to watching the movie when its released. And I'll continue to enjoy driving my BMW M5 with DC plates on the back roads of Vermont. Unfortunately, winter has hit the northeast, so it may be a few months before I'm able to safely enjoy the country roads.

Alex and David recently presented to the New Jersey chapter of Entrepreneur's Organization, and I'm exploring the possibility of an event for the Washington DC chapter of Entrepreneur's Organization.

Wall Street Journal: the coming collectable car crash

posted by Ian Wyatt | November 26, 2008

Posted in | Comments

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal published an article titled "A Rough Ride in Collectible Cars" on the same day as my blog post about a visit to Ferrari and Lamborghini in Italy, and slowing market for collectable cars. The Wall Street Journal article points out some recent examples of the slowing market for collectable cars, including recent auctions on Monterey and the sale of actor Steve McQueen's Porsche, which sold for just over $100,000, well below the sale estimate.

If you're a car lover and interested in how the financial crisis is impacting collectable cars, this article is a great read. Click here for the Wall Street Journal article.

Maranello, Italy: Home of Ferrari and Lamborghini

posted by Ian Wyatt | November 25, 2008

Posted in Travel | Comments (1)

On our recent honeymoon to Italy, I convinced Carrie to take a couple days in Bologna. Bologna is known for its rich Italian food, some of the best in the country. You may be familiar with Bolognese pasta, which takes its name from the region.

Within a short drive are to of the best known Italian sports car companies, Ferrari in Maranello and Lamborghini in Sant'Agata Bolognese. We spent one day of our honeymoon checking out these amazing cars and the places they are designed, manufactured, and tested before being sold to the wealthy exotic car owners throughout the world.

First stop was Galleria Ferrari, the official museum of Ferrari, a 2,500 square meter exhibition for cars new and old, ranging from the old classics to the brand new models, including an extensive collection of race cars and memorabilia.

For anyone who loves sports cars, the Galleria is an amazing visit. Enzo Ferrari started the car company in 1947, focused on producing world class, 12-cylinder race cars. The company has since evolved into the epitome of Italian cars, producing great race and road cars. I've loved Ferrari since I was a teenager with car posters on my wall, and a visit to Ferrari was simply an amazing experience. Unfortunately, a factory tour is only available to current owners, which restricted us from arranging a visit (apparently Ferrari knows where every single car every produced is located, and arrangements months in advance by your local dealer are required).

Second stop was the Lamborghini museum. The museum itself was much smaller, with only about 20 cars on display, including many prototype cars which have never been produced. The history of Lamborghini is also rich, although not as in depth as Ferrari. The number of models ever produced is much smaller, as is the total number of units sold.

We were fortunate enough to be able to tag along on a factory tour for an extra 20 euros each, as a Diablo owner from the Netherlands happened to be going on his tour at the same time. The cars go through 25 assembly stations where they spend 45 minutes at each station. All are custom built, with everything from the exterior color to the stitching on the leather seats being selected by the owner. Each car goes through 150 hours of manual assembly. Current production cars include the Murciélago (~$250,000) and the less expensive Gallardo (~$150,000). The cars look amazing, with great color combinations, huge V10 and V12 engines, and impressive performance.

Outside the factory, there are roughly 25 new cars that are recently completed and being tested. While cars are tested on a factory race track, all are also driven on the roads outside Maranello, where the cars are driven to test the real driving experience of the Italian country roads.

As a kid, I always loved the Italian sports cars. A visit to these places will turn any car lower into an Italian car enthusiast and aspiring Ferrari owner. Unfortunately, they are so damn expensive.

The bad news (or good news, for aspiring owners?) is that the economy U.S. economy is bad, and the global economy is slowing quickly. Certainly the effects of the economy are weighing on new automobile sales, and the used car market must also be suffering.

In the December issue of Sports Car Market magazine, Ferrari historian, race driver, and broker reports that "six months ago we received one or two calls or emails a day from people who wanted us to help them to market and sell their Ferraris. Today we receive half a dozen calls or emails every day, and the number is growing." Another article from the November issue of the same magazine titled "Highs and Whys in Monterey" ended with "...Ferraris are not cars, but commodities, and their value is a reflection of the ever-changing economic world in which they change hands. As in all markets, it's simply a case of supply and demand. Right now, the supply is ramping up and the demand is winding down."

The case could be made for leveling if not declining prices for Italian exotics in the coming years. Think of all the Wall Street bankers or real estate millionaires who took their less than hard earned cash to purchase the latest great sports cars. Certainly, many of these individuals will be unable to afford such purchases in the coming years. And at the same time, existing owners and collectors who are getting older (and poorer) may be looking for liquidity. Selling a Ferrari or two may yield the desired cash in a difficult market.

With collector cars, specifically Ferraris, seeing their values soar in recent years, it is now surprise that they slowing global economy may be hurting sales of these exotic cars. While those truly collectable Ferraris (those in the +$1 million range, of which there are many) may remain more stable, I have to believe that the market for mid to lower end Ferraris including many models from the 70s and 80s including the Dino, Mondial, 308, 328, 348, 355, and Testerossa will be falling substantially in the coming months and years as supply outstrips demand.

I have to wonder if the bubble for collectable cars will be bursting soon after the housing market in the United States. Maybe when the stock market comes back to life and my investments recover in a decade or two, I'll look to buy a 1980s Ferrari Testerossa at a bargain price. Even if it doesn't gain in value, at least I'll have a lot of fun driving the back roads of Vermont.

More photos in the Photo Gallery.

Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Names Business Financial Publishing #66 Fastest Growing Company

posted by Ian Wyatt | November 23, 2008

Posted in Business Financial Publishing | Comments

Business Financial Publishing was recently named to the Deloitte 2008 list of the fastest growing companies. Rankings are based on percentage of fiscal year revenue growth over five years, from 2003–2007. Business Financial Publishing grew 3,791 percent during this period.

While it is nice to be recognized and receive this award based upon our past performance in the years leading up to and through 2007, I recognize that 2008 is proving to be a much more challenging year than last year. While Business Financial Publishing is unlikely to be receiving similar awards for our performance in 2008, I hope we can remember these significant achievements of our past, and lay the groundwork for similar growth and recognition in the years to come.

Click here for the Business Financial Publishing press release announcement.

Click here for more information on the Deloitte 2008 Technology Fast 500.

Sequoia Capital Presents Doom and Gloom: R.I.P Good Times

posted by Ian Wyatt | November 11, 2008

Posted in Venture Capital | Comments

Over lunch today with Daniel of the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, we were talking about Zappos and their plans to cut 8% of their workforce. Daniel mentioned that TechCrunch had posted the 56-page Powerpoint presentation that was shared with all portfolio companies of the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, a major backer of Zapos.

If you haven't seen this presentation, check it out by clicking here now (note that you can watch the presentation in full screen as well, as the images are small).

As Sequoia Capital points out, the crux of the problem is that the housing crisis is spreading rapidly to other areas of the U.S. economy, as homeowners are facing foreclosure, and even those in good standing are no longer able to borrow against the inflated value of their homes. Additionally, consumer savings has been negligible or non-existent for several years. Consumers in this country are tapped out on their lines of credit, meaning their spending is grinding to a halt. As consumer spending declines, the economy is slowing, and people are losing their jobs and unemployment is rising. Sequoia sees three significant area of its investment portfolio facing increased challenges and market contraction: advertising, e-commerce, and mobile.

Sequoia's message to portfolio company CEOs:

1) Manage what you can control (spending, growth assumptions, earnings assumptions)
2) Focus on quality
3) Lower risk
4) Reduce debt

In order to survive the downturn, companies must:

1) Must-have product
2) Established revenue model
3) Understanding of market uptake
4) Consumers' ability to pay
5) Assessment vs. competitors
6) Cash is king
7) Need for profitability

The presentation finishes "Get Real or Go Home".

Also interesting from the venture capital world is an email from well known Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) angel investor Ron Conway to his +100 portfolio companies. Click here to see that email on TechCrunch as well.

I think the major takeaway is that Silicon Valley venture capital firms continue to fear for the worst, and prepare to weather the storm. Small businesses such as ours need to continue to trim fat from the business model and get ready for a prolonged downturn in the U.S. economy. Many small and nimble firms such as ours will weather the storm and emerge as stronger growth companies on the other side. However, our business six months or one year from today is likely to look very different.

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