Stop The Censorship - SOPA = CRAPA!

If you haven't heard of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) - then listen up, people!
It's basically a bill (you can read it for yourself here) that allows any intellectual property holder to shut down any website's online advertising and block credit card payments - all without the need for that whole "due process of law" thingie getting in the way.

It works sort of like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's (DMCA) "takedown notices". You know - the ones where someone can claim copyright on a YouTube video and they pull it?

In this case, if this thing passes (and it looks like it very well might), the people who own the intellectual property only have to file some "specific facts" (yeah, really - that's what it says) to back up their claim that a site stole their property - and the payment and ad networks have five days to cutoff all contact with the accused site.

Well at least they can't take the site down completely... right?

Right!

BUT - they don't have to - because then the US Federal Government will have the right to file an injunction against any site with a hearing with a judge. If it gets the injunction, the US Government has the right to block all US access to said site - at the DNS level!

It also means that search engines have to be careful - because they could get into trouble because they have the duty to prevent the site in question "from being served as a direct hypertext link."

Let's not forget all the ad networks and payment processors that also have a duty to cut the site off.

Oh yeah, and there's one more thing: Internet service providers and payment processors can simply block access to sites based solely on the belief that the site(s) are "dedicated to the theft of US property". Oh, and the ISPs and payment folks can't be sued, either.

Nice.

Listen, I'm no fan of priracy in any form - whether the intellectual property owner is American or not. It is a big problem. It is a legitimate problem. However, censorship legislation is NOT the answer. There are definitely "rogue" sites out there that are making money from what amounts to "stolen [IP] goods". Fine, go after them. Shut them down.

It's bad enough that ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement) can seize domains at will and have, in fact, wrongly shut down 84,000 subdomains of mooo.com just last year.

One can only imagine the chaos and confusion, incorrect claims of ownership, cost, complexity, and general cluster this bill would cause.



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How Social Media Is Working For Small Business [INFOGRAPHIC]

If you're in business - chances are good that you're a "small" business - and you're in good company. According to the 2008 US Census data it's estimated that there are about 27,281,452 businesses - of which 21,351,320 (78%!) are "Nonemployer" businesses.

Yeah, I never really heard that term before, either.

Here's how the Census folks define a "Nonemployer" business:

Most nonemployers are self-employed individuals operating very small unincorporated businesses, which may or may not be the owner's principal source of income.

They go on to say:

Nonemployers account for a majority of all business establishments, but average less than 4 percent of all sales or receipts.

Oh, yeah, on top of that  and ANOTHER 4,661,829 have 9 or fewer employees. That means 95% of all businesses have less than 9 employees.

That's a serious number of folks.

If you're in the upper 5% - you can skip the infographic below - otherwise - stop reading this and fire up your Facebook account!



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Is There A Tech "Bubble" Or Not? [INFOGRAPHIC]

With the recent high-profile tech IPO offerings (LinkedIn, Netflix, OpenTable) and the recent rumors of high-profile tech companies IPOs on the horizon (Facebook, Twitter, EventBrite) - it's beginning to look a lot like 1999 to me. The valuation of LinkedIn was just.. well crazy. The initial stock price was $45 per share - giving the company a valuation of about $4.5 billion. The stock price is now around $105 per share - that means that LinkedIn has a valuation of about $6.4 billion.

DOH! For LinkedIn? Really?

Here's a great infographic for comparing the great bubble to how things are shaping up today:

Business Cards In A Social Media World

For years, I've always had business cards. Some of them cool, some of them bland, some of them nicely printed on thick stock, some of them over sized, some of them 2 color, some full color. I've also received thousands of other people's business cards over the years. Some of them I kept, most of them I didn't.

The Credit Card Entrepreneur

Conventional wisdom would suggest that and economic depression (we're way beyond recession here, folks) is the worst time to start a business.

I, for one, would strongly disagree. And so would FedEx. And Burger King. And IBM. And about two dozen more "household names" that were all founded during economic downturns. I think that now is a terrific time to start a business (or expand the one you already have).

Why? Well, we're at a unique place in history.

Any "normal" economic downturn forces businesses and people to do one thing that they normally don't do: examine where they are going and stop doing the things that are stupid and waste time and money. They "get back to the basics" and focus on things that are important to them.

For individuals - it too often also means that they've grabbed their seat cushion because the "unlikely event of a water landing" has happened to them in terms of their career. They have to focus on the skills that they have that are not only "marketable" or "hireable" but that will actually add value to whomever will toss them money so they can live.

For businesses (the ones that are not stuck in an ostrich pose with their heads in the ground and asses in the air) - it also represents a prime opportunity for them to examine the same thing - where do they add value to THEIR customers? Do they? If not - then it's time to join the ranks of the deadpooled companies and stop doing whatever it is they're doing.

This renewed focus on adding value, and I would argue, just STOPPING all the "activity" that seems to consume our lives - can gently lead people to view things in different, radical, potentially life-changing ways. In the "downtime" of waiting in the unemployment line or waiting for the Dice.com site to load - there can be moments of clarity that can lead to great things - in terms of monetary success as well as lifestyle adjustments.

In this way - recessions, depressions, wars, and other catastrophic events are the same. They cause people and companies to focus.

But of course focus isn't enough. If you focus long enough, hard enough, and you put yourself in the place of others (either the poor schmoe who's out of work or the poor schmoe who is left to do 8 people's work and not get a raise for the next 3 years) - that's where the intersection of needs, wants, desires, opportunity and desperation collide into "the idea."

But, of course, the "idea" isn't enough in and of itself. There's that whole pesky implementation "thing." That's where the technological advances of the modern age really come into play.

Never before in history have we had the ability to start an international business where we don't have to stock product, don't have to have a shipping department, don't need to buy computers or software, and don't need to hire people to answer phones in order to make money selling stuff.

All we need is a credit card and the the unique knowledge that we possess on how to add value to someone, somewhere.

All the other functions of what it would take to start a "real" business can be purchased, rented, and consumed via a single computer, a browser, and Internet access.

The barriers to entry in the "new" business world - the "utility" parts needed to run a business - have already been virtualized (or are getting there). You can rent hardware, software, have companies handle your phones, faxes, shipping, warehousing, product creation, order processing, payment processing, order fulfillment, customer service, technical support, marketing, promotions and advertising.

The thing that hasn't (and can't) be virtualized - is the VALUE that you bring to the table and the RELATIONSHIPS you have with friends, customers, colleagues and fellow business owners. Everyone is in the same boat in these times. Everyone has a certain skill set, business process knowledge and/or a set of experiences that are unique to them.

There's never been a better time to figure out the value you can add - and then come up with a plan on how to share that value with the people that need it. People will pay you for the value you add - even in a down economy.

The key is to get focused... and get started!

Don't Throw The Baby Out

Most executives in most companies are really freaked out right now. It sucks to be the leader of a company right now - and it sucks to be the head of departments - because the buck's gotta' stop somewhere. In this case, crap flow UP hill.

The economy is in full meltdown mode, and lots of people are losing lots of sleep - and are self-medicating with booze (at least someone is making money in the downturn!).

It's easy to get caught up in the general panic and malaise - and therefore lots of people are reacting to what others are reacting to - not the realities of the day. The herd mentality is ruling the average business person rather than the facts - and it's kind of pissing me off.

I'm all for cutting costs and watching expenses. I'm all for trimming the "dead wood" of non-producers out of the workforce. I'm all for delaying "luxury" purchases until the smoke clears out a bit. I'm all about watching travel and entertainment expenses and cutting marketing programs that don't produce tangible results.

However, I'm totally against just cutting for cutting sake. Some companies are just going absolutely nuts - cutting 20% to 50% of their staff; stopping all marketing; etc. They are "cutting to the bone" in order to go into "survival mode."

In fact, Sequoia capital came out early and hard - as documented in the Om Malik blog basically telling all of their portfolio companies that "Cutting deeper is the formula to survive, and this is an era of survival of the quickest."

As a result, a bunch of their companies shed anywhere from 30% to 50% of their staff - even though they were (are) cash-rich. Maybe in those cases it was a case of hiring some "fluff" people or just the giddy feeling for an upstart entrepreneur that you don't have to do everything absolutely by yourself anymore... I don't know.

In any case - you have to carefully weight the "costs" associated with cuts in terms of your current sales, current customers - as well as what it will do to your chances of thriving when (not if!) the economy returns to its "full glory."

In the spirit of not throwing the baby out with the bath water - here's some questions for you to ponder if you're thinking about massive cuts in your company:

• If you just up and layoff a bunch of people - what will that signal to your current customers?
• What about people that are evaluating your product for possible purchase - how will they view massive cuts?
• How long will it take you to replace that person/function when things get going again?
• Can you really afford to stop all your marketing? What will happen in 6 months when the current flow of leads dries up?
• How will you continue to make enough money to keep even your "reduced" company going?
• How will you mitigate the inevitable drop in productivity and morale with the people you don't cut?

Sure - there's the herd mentality and things are clenched up at the moment. And, it very well be that there are cuts you could make (and SHOULD make). Just be sure that you're not throwing out the future of your company - and something you've worked very hard at (and invested your retirement in) for a number of years - over a short term panic in the marketplace.

Hopefully, the "sliver lining" in this economic mess is that we'll have stronger, smarter, healthier companies come out as a result of these difficult decisions and (sometimes brutal) cost cutting.