I’ve chucked in a few images to break up the text here but otherwise these helpful tips are all his!  I am hoping for many shiny pearls of wisdom from Mr Black over the coming months so watch this space….

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So you’ve decided to have your web site/business cards/logo redesigned and you’re going to hire a professional designer to do it. But how can you get the best from this strange, tieless, jeans-wearing creature?

Well, there’s no doubt that designers can be odd, and the design process can seem impenetrable and arcane.

But there is actually method in the madness and there are things you can do to help your designer create something that’ll both do what you want and suit your tastes. So here’s our quick guide to briefing a designer…

Describe Your Target Audience

Your designer needs to understand who buys your products or services since they may not be one of your customers themselves.

Quickly summarise a target audience – how much do they usually spend per person? What countries are they from?

Set the Design Aims

What do you want the design to do for your business? Do you want more customers? Fewer customers paying more per person? Do you want to look like a bigger company? A friendlier one?

Put down some aims – they’ll really help your designer fit the design to your company’s needs.

Brand Neighbourhood

You probably know a few of your competitors. In fact you may even daydream about strangling one or two of them. But they’re probably not all idiots…look for two or three of the ones who have designs you really like and give a reason why you like them.

Designers often work with customers in a lot of different sectors and may not understand your industry well, so it’ll help if you can show them who the leaders are.

The No-nos

If there are colours you really hate or companies your design must absolutely not look like at any cost, tell your designer.

Designing for someone you don’t know is a lot like buying a present for a stranger: it has to be really nice but that’s difficult if you don’t know the recipient very well.

Sack the Committee

Design is highly personal and very subjective.

Be careful who you ask to look at a design. Ask enough people and eventually you’ll find one person who really, really hates it.

Restrict your review team to the real decision makers and pass changes to your designer in batches, not one at a time.

Remember the Triangle of Truth

There are three things every client wants: they want their design cheap, they want it to be brilliant and they want it soon. Unfortunately in this universe a client can only have two out of those three at any one time.

So the design can be brilliant and cheap – but you won’t get it until doomsday.

It can be brilliant and you can have it tomorrow – if you don’t mind a bill that’d embarrass a pelican.

Or it can be cheap and you can have it right now – but it’ll look like a dog’s dinner.

The Golden Rule

Above all else, designers are by and large sensitive about their designs and they really, really want you to like them. They can be thin-skinned and sulky but you can avoid this by following one easy rule: be constructive.

Being constructive doesn’t mean pretending to like things you don’t, it means that if you do dislike something, you say so – but at the same time you supply a better idea of your own for discussion. Just saying, “don’t like it” isn’t especially helpful – say why you don’t like it and what you’d like better so the designer can address those points.

You can ask the others who help you choose a design to follow this rule too. Everyone knows a colleague who picks holes in everything for the sake of it (you know who I’m talking about) and this rule can defuse disagreements which can end in partnership-ending screaming matches.

The Money

No one likes to talk about the bill. But it’s crucial to have a realistic budget in mind and be honest with your designer about it.

Don’t turn the budget issue into a guessing game where the designer has to read your mind (or wallet), hoping not to either underprice himself or price himself out of the running. If you don’t have a lot to spend, say so. A good designer who likes your company will always find a way to do something for whatever budget you have.

Dealing with a designer should be one of the fun things you do and a lot more interesting than most tasks!

Pick a designer whose work you like or even better just a designer who you like and follow the above rules.  You’ll stand a much better chance of enjoying the process and getting a result which will do your business some real good.

Good luck!

The reason is not usually because of technology.

The reason is usually connected to the project sociology.

What does this mean?  It means people.  We are a complex conglomerate of cells and when evaluating the success of IT projects most of us need to stop thinking that we are in the high-tech business and realise that we are actually in the human communication business.

This is what I’m getting out of the first chapter of Peopleware which is about productive projects and teams in the software development industry.  The book reminds us that though we develop our products or organise our affairs using technology components, we do so via teams and projects.

The authors studied 500 project histories from real world development efforts and found:

• 15% of all projects were cancelled, postponed or the products were never used
• 25% of projects that lasted 25yrs or more failed to complete.
• For a huge majority there was not a single technological issue to explain the failure.

I haven’t been involved in as many software development projects as these guys, but their findings do not surprise me.  In my limited experience, there are usually a variety of non-tech factors, usually relating to communication and information management, that hurt IT projects.  E.g:

• Failing to communicate any changes appropriately to the rest of the project team resulting in people not ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’
• Failing to check the documents from which you are working to ensure that you are working to the correct /most recent spec or brief
• Making assumptions about what is needed and not communicating those assumptions resulting in loss of opportunity for those assumptions to be corrected
• Not having decent (or any) systems or processes in place to effectively and efficiently capture incoming information and direct the flow of information within the organisation

There are many others of course.  So if we believe that people, and not technology, are responsible for the failure of development projects, what should we do about it?  I guess the first thing would be to reflect on our deeply held views on the people we are managing. Later this week I’ll relay what Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister (the book’s authors) suggest.

TV has changed significantly since then, of course, with the creation of on-demand (iPlayer) and hard drive recording (Sky+). Both of these models have turned the entertainment paradigm on its head: shifting from a pull rather than push medium. I can watch exactly what I want, when and where I want. No longer do I have to sit around waiting for the 8pm show before watching the 9pm show. As an aspiring productivity ninja, I’ve found that TV does not feature high on my sources of procrastination anymore. In fact, when I do watch TV, I really do want to watch it.

On the other hand, a bunch of other things have filled this void of mindless entertainment, the gulitiest of which is Facebook. Described as the ‘cigarette break’ of the 21st Century, Facebook ‘solves’ a problem in-built into our brains: the need for social connection. Just like a fag break though, while you might get the fun in the short term; in the long run, it’ll be detremential to your health.

Why?

To the normal, average person, being on Facebook is for fun. Its about keeping in touch with friends and checking out fun views and links that people have sent. It’s about that bit of fun you have while watching TV, or having a tea break at work.

For the startup founder, things are a bit more lonely – a lot of the time its hard work being on your own: even when you have a small team, you’ll find that a lot of your time is spent managing people and talking to investors/clients etc. and the amount of ‘frivolous’ discussions is not as regular as your normal 9-5er.

Hence, the need for that social bond is greater than ever – especially the desire to feel part of a community that the workplace environment does not necessarily provide. (Facebook fulfils that by having a ready made community of your friends for you to broadcast to.) Now, compounded by the desire to fill the void for mindless entertainment that on-demand TV has eliminated, you get this compound effect where Facebook checking is about as bad for your productivity as TV was back in the olden days: hours and hours of mindless entertainment. To an extent, this type of entertainment is worst: because with the TV kind, at least it provides escapism (unless you’re watching Eastenders, which is just depressing). With Facebook, it is pure mindless entertainment: hours reading through reading what your friends have been upto – even though in reality you haven’t seen that friend for weeks or even months. Do you really care that they’ve posted yet another photo of their vacation/kid/farmville award?

To an extent, I’m in two minds here. On the one hand, I would encourage FB use, especially when you’re on your own and need a set of cheerleaders to help you keep going.

On the other, I find that Facebook has sucked out time that I could have spent doing other more productive things. Whether that’s the numerous blog posts that I haven’t written, or simply some time out during the day to reflect on myself or the company, I have found that Facebook is now my number 1 procrastination tool.

In startup life, there will always be a ton of things that you have to do. It is up to you to create time and carefully decide what to do with it. So if you want the support, take it. If you want the time, take that. I doubt you’ll be able to do both.

For me, I’ve realised that I value time > social (at least for the time being). So for the next month, I’m going to run a little experiment. I’m going to not use Facebook and see whether I find the extra time (that I’ve been concerned that I don’t have) with the result of seeing 1) whether my productivity improves, 2) whether I will spend more time with people physically rather than virtually, and 3) whether I feel less connected.

Would you cut Facebook out of your life? What have been the benefits and negatives? What do you think?

Also read: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19939-why-social-networks-are-sucking-up-more-of-your-time.html

Angel investing is like marriage; it is the celebration of hope over statistical reality. So the world is celebrating the marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton tomorrow and on a personal note of course it is something worth celebrating. But I have to admit that I am a complete party pooper and as a proud Republican I find the national celebration of a royal wedding depressing.

Many people do not care about it and perhaps I am worrying about the wrong thing. I just find the idea that we in the Commonwealth are still subjects rather than citizens depressing. We are supposed to show respect to members of this family purely on the basis of birth right rather than on merit.

My background is as a Sikh. A central principle of Sikhism is the utter rejection of the very cruel and barbaric caste system. The idea that your life ambitions and aspirations should be determined by accident of birth is a shocking and alien concept. People across the world are at this moment in time giving up their lives so that they can be governed by people that they elect rather than by the children of dictators.

I love the opportunities that this country has given me. I came from a very modest working class background and have not had that hold me back in any way whatsoever. However, there is the backdrop of the Royal Family which lets me know that I could never aspire to be the head of state of the country that I was born in.

Lets compare that to the USA. And it interesting to look at the USA where Donald Trump is leading the charge into questioning Obama’s Americanism (by the way I do think Trump is the perfect candidate for President as he has more experience than most of being able to declare a business bankrupt and then start out again – where the only losers are the banks and shareholders). The truth is that a black kid from the UK could not become the head of state for this country. It is also still true that a Catholic can’t become part of the succession.

It is still problematic for a Catholic to be prime minister of the UK (Tony Blair converted once he had left office). As someone who loves the entrepreneur space, I think it is wholly incompatible to believe in social mobility and the role of the crown. The principle behind the royal family is exactly the same as the principle behind the caste system.

And I concede that the problem we have in this country is that the queen has done a magnificent job as head of state.(Her first prime minister was born in 1874 (Winston Churchill) and her latest was born in 1964). So this is not an anti-queen diatribe but it really is about the principle behind it all.

So do celebrate the wedding, but please do bear in mind you are celebrating birth right over merit.

Via: Business Angel Blog

1. Leaders vs Developers – “… being a great leader is not always the same skillset as being a great developer. And neither is necessarily the same as being a great businessperson … The details-orientated, engineering mindset that development demands is also well suited to building a company, as long as this is accompanied by those empathic people skills and a willingness to learn. And in fact, the best developers areinformed, decisive, empathic, persuasive, selfless and great communicators.”

2. Be careful out there – “Even with a solid business model, the risks are large, and software entrepreneurs are disproportionately from wealthy, upper-middle-class backgrounds. (The first round of funding for new companies is often expected to be from friends and family. Could you ask yours for money to start a new venture? I wouldn’t want to.) It’s tough out there, and you’re unlikely to make money in the first few months.”

3. Know the risks and do it anyway – “I speak to a lot of developers who want financial independence from a day-to-day job, or worse, want to get rich quick, without any realistic ideas about what’s involved or the kinds of things they’ll have to do. The rewards – both emotional and monetary – are potentially great … Nonetheless, it’s not a decision to take lightly, and that’s something that I’m not sure the current set of angel incubators emphasize enough. Do it, but do it with your eyes and ears open.”

If you’re interested, you should definitely read the full article over at Ben’s blog. In addition, he’s currently busily sorting out the APIs for the first ever Scottish Culture Hackday.

Incidentally, you might want to also read the recent article by Tony Stubblebine on advice for a young entrepreneur.

Lesson 3: It’s all about the people

If after a while you find that someone is just not pulling their weight after you’ve given them opportunity after opportunity to shape up – then you’ve got to let them go.  What if you can’t find someone to replace them?  “I’d rather have a hole than an assh*le” is the quote that Reed shared to illustrate his point.

Lesson 4:  Focus on the small details

Details can make a huge difference.  Give people a reason to buy from you rather than the next guy.  Doing a thousand little things means it’s harder for competitors to figure out what exactly it is that you’re doing right and harder for them to copy you, than it would be if you worked on having one giant unique feature.  For example: rather than labelling their smoothies with a Best Before date, the folk at Innocent chose to use an Enjoy By date.  Sometimes they would throw in some ridiculous items into the list of ingredients on the label.  Food labelling is taken very seriously in the UK and they eventually got a letter from the authorities telling them to either add two plump nuns to their smoothies or remove all mention of plump nuns from the ingredients list.

Personally, I LOVE the fact that their packages contain messages hidden within the nooks and crannies of their bottles or cartons.

Lesson 5: Listening is free, and it creates value

I’m afraid I can’t remember any stories told during this segment of the talk as I was dying for the loo and also distracted by the trolleys of food being wheeled in (I know you feel me).  So I shall end this post by telling you that when I was only a wee girl I used to say “the reason we’ve got 2 ears and one mouth is because we’re supposed to listen twice as much as we talk”.  As a know-it-all adult, I find this easier said than done…

Lesson 2: Things that start small can get big; (and then small again) The founders of Innocent Drinks set a target of £6million turnover.  They reached this within the first couple years and went on to grow amazingly year after year until….2008.  Duh – duh – daaaaah….!

A combination of factors from the credit crunch and fewer purchases of smoothies to increasing costs of fruits and exchange rates working against them, gave Innocent Drinks’ turnover quite a bit of a drop that year and it knocked the team.  They sold shares to Coca Cola and took lots of bad press for that.

Oh, and they tried to distribute their smoothies through McDonalds but got criticism for that too  - one newspaper quote described the situation as “it’s like finding out your uncle is a paedophile’.  Um, hello?  Bit harsh?

During the talk Reed jokingly referred to Innocent as a ‘successful fruit distribution charity’ – lol!

But they learnt some lessons during 2008 and it seemed to be along the lines of make your main thing your main thing.  They had been distracted looking at things like organising events/ festivals etc but that year they got their focus back – and they were rewarded for it as their turnover increased in 2009 and they’ve been on an upward trajectory since.

A quote that struck me during this portion of the talk, for its simplicity and truth was something along the lines of:

“There are two fundamental qualities of successful people.  One is that they get started.  The other is that they don’t stop” and “The best way to get started…is to get started”

Lessons 3 -5 will follow in a few days…

(BTW, I tried to scribble down the facts and figures quoted during the presentation as best as I could – but it’s probably best you don’t quote this post as a reference in any university essays/coursework.  That would be silly)

Lesson 1: Have a mission that works

Reed himself makes a hobby out of collecting / identifying missions.  He says that to be successful you need to serve a simple, unifying mission.  It’s important to be clear on why you are here.

I wonder, does this sound like something you’ve heard before?  Why do people say the same thing over and over again at these events? Maybe because this lesson is TRUE and though it’s simple, it’s one that most of us find difficult to achieve!  Reed provides this as an example of a company (called Longaberger) that truly understands the reason for its existence:

These guys make baskets…(in case you needed a helpful nudge).  I love this!  Are there any similar examples in the UK?

Lessons 2 – 5 will follow over the course of the week….

How far ahead should an entrepreneur look? Nobody would advocate lack of planning but trying to cater for every future event or circumstance that is possible but cannot be predicted with certainty is exhausting.  What is the impact on productivity of such an enemy of action?

A close friend called me late last night to ask what she should do in a series of situations.  I got in a tangle as I tried to resolve various difficulties; finally I suggested: “‘why don’t you call me when that situation arises and I’ll address it then?”

There’s only so much planning and preparing you can do to ensure future successes and reduce future risks.

I find it much more effective to deal with the situation I am in at that moment.   I’ve made this a deliberate, informed, adult decision.  It’s a decision based on years of experience as a former dedicated worrier, multi-tasker, and planner extraordinaire.

Like many approaches to tackling life and business, tasks and decisions it has its limitations but the benefits to such an approach, e.g. reduction of mental stress and removal of barriers to action, are not to be taken lightly.

So why do I let others make me feel guilty about not having answers for a series of events that may or may not occur in the future due to a particular course of action I might choose to take now?  I’m not sure; but guilty I do feel.

However, this feeling is much reduced when I find respected heavyweights such as the one above expressing sentiments to support my way of thinking!  The quote at the top?  It’s Winston Churchill.