Rev Mentor

Tips, tricks, news & commentary for Revolution developers 
Contributors
Tags


Filed under

business

 
October 20, 2009

Nook eReader: how Amazon got out-Amazon'd!

via barnesandnoble.com

Amazon has been eating Barne's & Noble's lunch for almost a decade, now. B&N have finally taken off the gloves. (Excuse the mixing of metaphors.)

How? With Barnes & Noble's Nook, an eBook reader/device. These guys did a great job on this product. It's like an iPhone and a Kindle mated and had an offspring. Click the link above to read all the details.

Killer feature: you can lend an eBook to someone! Plus: wifi, try it in a store (after Nov 30), touch-screen navigation panel...more on the site.

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   amazon   barnes & noble   business   design   device   ebook   nook   reader   reading   strategy  
Posted by Jerry Daniels 

Comments [1]

March 19, 2009

Dogbert on consulting

via shivanandpb.posterous.com

Pretty funny.

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   business   humor  
Posted by Jerry Daniels 

Comments [0]

March 13, 2009

Becoming an entrepreneur is now cool

via economist.com

This article in the Economist details the growth of cloud computing, hosted services, viable mobile computing platforms (iPhone), and academic support (even Oxford!) as the converging factors driving people into starting their own businesses.

Thanks to Hacker News for the lead on this.

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   business   news   trends  
Posted by Jerry Daniels 

Comments [0]

March 10, 2009

Getting Real gets an update

One of my fav books is being revised and going mainstream: Getting Real. The new version is being revised as I type, and Jason Fried & Co. are looking for a mainstream publisher.

What is new/better/cooler in the new version?

The new version is quite different than the original. Most of the content is new and the focus is different too. The first edition was for a web technology audience. This new version broadens the scope to small businesses and entrepreneurs of all kinds. Inventors, restauranteurs, clothing manufacturers, MBA students, IT workers, retailers, designers, artists, crafts makers, and tons of other people will all find value in the book.

So they're broadening the scope of the book and making it more relevant to the brave new world of social networking, the cloud, non-web technology companies, etc. Me likey.

If you are already an owner of Getting Real version 1.0, you will not get the update (2.0?) for free. The update is really a new book according to 37s. The title is supposed to stay the same. We'll see if it does. They may get tired of getting hit up for a free update to the original work.

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   books   business   entrepreneurs   update  
Posted by Jerry Daniels 

Comments [0]

March 5, 2009

Competing with big companies

My old friend Julie Gomoll made this great presentation about using social media to compete with much larger companies.

Using Social Media to Compete with Big Business
View more presentations from Julie Gomoll. (tags: strategy media)

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   business   strategy  
Posted by Jerry Daniels 

Comments [0]

February 9, 2009

Lesson from The Flip: Do less

One more thing that’s cool about underdoing the competition: You get to streamline your documentation.

For example, this Sony Handycam manual (PDF) has 40 pages. Compare that to the quickstart guide that comes with a Flip camera:

Wow, an instruction manual that actually gets read. Impressive. In fact, it’s almost like the instruction manual is an ad for the product. “It’s so simple this is all we have to say about it.” And I bet there’s a lot less support documentation needed too.

Related: The Flip takes 13% of the camcorder market by doing less [SvN]

via 37signals.com

True, that!

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   business   docs   less  
Posted by Jerry Daniels 

Comments [0]

February 9, 2009

if they are experts at it, they should be doing it themselves

Feb 05 2009 ∞

 

David Chang on his style of restaurants. “to make the most amazing food you can…a restuarant shouldn’t be for everybody…we don’t serve vegetarian”.

This was also interesting: “when we are at our best it’s when we don’t give a fuck (sic) about what anyone thinks…if they are experts at it, they should be doing it themselves”

Reminds me of Henry Ford’s quote: “If I had asked my customers what they wanted,” Ford said, “they would have said a faster horse.”
via n8.tumblr.com

I've seen quotes from this piece before. Worth a view. Hopefully some rubs off.

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   business   experts   style  
Posted by Jerry Daniels 

Comments [0]

February 9, 2009

Business Luck

I usually hate these "make a gazillion" articles and magazines. But this guy made a bundle just by being lucky and he admits it. Refreshing. However, he does believe a certain amount of luck in business can be created.



The money quotes:
But when people get lucky in business, they are often convinced that it is not luck at all that brought them good fortune. They believe instead that their business venture succeeded thanks to their own blinding brilliance.

The big challenge is that everyone -- the press, your shareholders, your colleagues, your significant other, and your parents -- will work hard to convince you otherwise. They will tell you, over and over again, that you are in fact a genius and should take complete credit for all the great things happening to your company. Why? Because to them, you are one of the following:

  1. A source of professional gain
  2. A source of financial gain
  3. A boss
  4. A lover
  5. Their pride and joy
You can't will yourself to find $20 on the sidewalk. But you can create a company that gets lucky more often than the average company. Indeed, there is a pseudo-scientific formula for creating business luck. The key element is this: Lucky things happen to entrepreneurs who start fundamentally innovative, morally compelling, and philosophically positive companies.

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   business   opportunity  
Posted by Jerry Daniels 

Comments [0]