Angie McKaig - E-Business Consultant and Entrepreneur

Fantastic quote: "I can see the necessity of occasionally putting in some extra effort and burning the midnight oil at work for a day or two. But when "occasionally" turns to "often", when your boss stops thanking you profusely for your efforts and just treats it as norm, this is when we're all in trouble. It sets bad expectations, not just for you, for the whole industry."

"A month isn't 30 days. It's 30 todays." Liked that quote. I also liked the idea of getting rid of WE. And I've always loved the Don't Worry About Your Competition rule - it's one of the best to ensure you're innovating, not following.

Loved this line: "Most people want to hit home runs, the problem is they are afraid to fail in order to get there. As Babe Ruth proved, you can't have one without the other. "

First, cool logo and design, dude. (Totally digging his social icons.) Second, some interesting thinking here. I've had discussions (read: rants) with the hubby about similar things - while I think school rocks for teaching socialization skills, and how to learn things in general perhaps, I'd totally pick a different set of classes if I had choice over what the stepkids learn in school. Finances 101 anyone? How about Home Ec - since that seems to be something they no longer teach (wth?). And more business stuff, definitely - creative business 101 stuff, since business is something you end up doing almost everywhere - from teachers to artists to information workers to busboys, you still have to know something about business.

"It's so funny when I hear people being so protective of ideas. (People who want me to sign an NDA to tell me the simplest idea.) To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions." Wish more people got this!

"You have to have a culture where there's no bad idea and people aren't afraid to bring them up. I want the people who work with me to have very, very strong opinions. And I get really mad if I make the first argument against and they're immediately like, 'Oh yeah, maybe you're right.' That drives me nuts." Agreed.

Couldn't have said it better myself - esp. passion.

Looks like a great new book on how to embrace the "anti-big" sentiment, work the advantages of a small and more personal business; the author has 2 chapters online for free and will be sharing more as time goes on.

Great overview of what's needed to help break down the "us vs them" mentality between marketing and IT. They both fulfill massively important roles in the organization, and their goal is the same - be successful and do smart things. To balance everything, you need to work together.

Most interesting part of this post, to me, are the questions it asks. Particularly this one: "Does a Twitter link imply that you're social-media savvy...that you're happy to engage in online conversations with your readers? Are you? How does that look if your sender address is do-not-reply@?" Exactly. WHY do companies still insist on sending emails with do-not-reply addresses in the From/Reply-To field? I've never understood this. As a company you want to invite dialogue, not avoid it.

Quote: "Managers should keep in mind that ideas they have come to love because they invested their own labor in them may not be as highly valued by their coworkers – or their customers."

This doesn't have to be grand at all. You don't have to be looking for the cure for cancer. The key is that your efforts would be missed, your customers would have a sense of loss, if you stopped doing what you're doing.

Youtube has 29,000 resumes. Because of course, when you think quality... you think Youtube. Sigh. :) On the bright side, this could be my excuse to finally get a Flip.

Quote: "If multiple customers are repeatedly making the same mistake, maybe it's not a mistake on their part. Maybe it's a mistake on your part." Eeeexactly.

You know, I invariably end up feeling guilty if I explain to folks that sometimes I end up working just 30 to 32 hours a week. Particularly if they're in the US, since many companies I work with in the US don't even take national holidays off. But it is a flexibility in my life I've learned to love, it's helped my productivity and definitely my morale, and I love Jason for making me feel better about my choices.

Getty has inked a deal with Flickr to start roaming their archives on the schniff for amazing photography; photographers they like and think are saleable may be approached about licensing their images commercially. Whole new world, certainly, but it's nice to see a company that "gets" the online thing more than, well, certain other stock companies. Instead of bemoaning Flickr and denouncing it, they're using it as a resource. And why not? Bravo.

Sometimes I think some of the high profile webbies - like the folks at 37 Signals - forget that not everyone out there is about chasing the VC + millions route. But regardless, they make some good points here and the most important one of all, really: do something that will make you HAPPY. Seriously.

You know, it took me a looong time to get this as an employ-ee but it paid off big time as an employ-er. As my own priorities shift and I work hard so that I don't have to work 14 hour days or weekends or evenings too often any more, I realize the value of this all the more. Best quote: "sprinting for an ever-shifting target that keeps being 90% done for 90% of the time". Yeees.

Dude's making 40K a year in Amazon referrals from a free site that provides, arguably, a great service. Just goes to show: more than one way to make a living from the web. via Business Opportunities Weblog.

It's not even just about photo editing, but magazines in general. Rob's hit it right on the nail about what magazines do best... and why they should focus on that, rather than repurposing, repackaging or trying to be a web site.

Yes, yes, yes - Dane has invited a smart guest contributor indeed. Common sense is, in my opinion, the best business tool you can have. And the most important.

If you want people to like you, first decide who needs to hate you. In other words, BE something. Be something personally, be something in business, make your mark, stand out, and deal with the fact that doing this will mean some folks hate you. You should see some of the crap I get via email from Pampered Puppy's hate group (though I don't think they've actually formed a group - yet). Don't care. My site's not for them. This is why the God of Email invented the Trash folder.

"Previous recessions have provided big opportunities -- spawning the brand-management system, soap operas, modern cable networks, airline loyalty programs, the IBM personal computer, the iPod, Crest Whitestrips, Axe body spray..." I love marketing.

"Enterprise-level" IT sometimes has to think outside of the enterprise. Is what they're saying. Frankly I just wish we could abolish the word enterprise - it almost always means complexity, high cost, long delays, and "ideal scenario" thinking in the minds of IT planners. Geesh.

While aimed at photographers and other creatives, here's something we can benefit from applying. Part of Leslie Burns' Manuals series.

"If your start-up can only succeed by being a sweatshop, your idea is simply not good enough. Go back to the drawing board and come up with something better that can be implemented by whole people, not cogs.". Perfectly put. Go read the whole thing and then send it to twelve people you know.

Here's the thing about sales: everybody's trying to sell somebody something sometime. Even if your job isn't directly sales, odds are these are invaluable ideas you could incorporate into your daily life.

"For anyone else, if your pricing requires a call from a sales rep, it's too expensive for me right now. And I don't mean whatever your monthly/yearly subscription fees are, or the licensing cost. What I mean is that I don't run my business using the telephone. For now, it we need to talk on the phone, I'm not the right customer for you." And how. I wish more businesses understood this. Via Signals vs. Noise.

Good overview of what to look for, and lots of great screenshots. Squirrel Mail is horrifying, isn't it? Perfect example of what happens when you let a programmer design an interface. (No offense to programmers, but honestly...)

"Track your rivals. Then eat their lunch." Cool concept. I always wonder who supplies all this "traffic data" these sites use?

Better than the CNN piece itself, this page of comments from folks who haved both sold their businesses and business brokers gives some ideas on how it works, what it costs, how long it might take... and what to watch out for.