Srcasm

As most of you who follow me know, I love to talk.  I can and will talk to almost anyone I come in contact with and even more than that, I love to hear new ideas.  I went to an event called bloblive put on by ideablob in Phildaelphia recently where people got to get up and share ideas that they had.  They ranged from food carts to community financed physicians and everything in between.  I thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of the presenters.  At this event, a good friend of mine spoke about her idea.

Gloria discussed the idea of “a la carte business assistant services”.  These could include doing the books, sending emails or event running customer service duty when you’re unavailable as an entrepreneur.  Check out her presentation below and her company at Red Stapler Consulting or her interview by Jonny Goldstein.

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Jing is a great example of a simple, yet powerful tool.  Its install took me no longer than 2 minutes (just next, next, next my way through it) and once setup, it’s tied to a set of hotkeys to do all that you need to do.  This bares the question –

How simple is too simple?

The proper answer is that there is no such thing as “too simple”.  Ease of use is the key to helping users and friends to adopt your product or idea.  KISS (Keep it simple, stupid) has been instilled in me since the days I was in diapers and for good reason.  Over-complicating things can lead to a product that is bloated (think Microsoft Winodws), difficult to use (think Lotus Notes) and sluggish (think iTunes).  In addition, by creating rings of fire for people to jump through, you cause a severe barrier to entry.  Why would someone take 5 steps to do something when they can take 2?

Keep this in mind when designing your products?  Time is money and your users will appreciate that you’d like to save them both.  Jing has the right idea, how about you?  What products do you feel are over-complicated?

I was involved in a very interesting conversation the other day about the different between marketing and PR.  I was always under the impression that they were very similar positions…  They both try to sell the company or product (without being a sales guy), they both educate others as to the latest and greatest news and they are both integral parts of an organization but I apparently never really separated them out the way that was necessary.

See, PR focuses on the media.  This doesn’t have to be exclusively traditional media but much of it revolves around television, newspapers and other writers.  They are also usually responsible for those organized press releases that companies put out on the wire.  As far as the marketing people, they need to be the front men/women for the business.  They should be out there shaking the hands, kissing the babies and doing what is necessary to make sure that everyone knows what the product is.

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I had a very interesting discussion with a great friend, Alex, where he pretty much called me a pain in the arse.  Not in so many words mind you but that’s what he was saying.  The reason, besides my obvious pain in the arse nature, was that I was asking too many questions and not doing enough.  His exact quote at 11:34a was:

…instead of talk about things, i do them and lead by example instead. you just havent been paying attention

He’s right.  I’ve been watching and loving what everyone does without actually paying attention.  It’s easy to gloss over the smaller points of someone’s mindset, ideas and goals and it’s even easier to simple ignore what they have to say.   They can paint the walls with their thoughts and ideas but at the end of the day, it may just be colors on a wall.

Why am I writing any of this?  I wanted to share with you another small tidbit that Alex shared with me.  Information is very important.  Research, educating yourself and learning the ins and outs of your business or idea is of the utmost but there is a difference  between being cautious (reading up on everything before you take the leap) and being diligent is that:

…The nice thing about diligence is you can do it along the way.

So I ask you this simple question.  Why?  Why haven’t you attempted your crazy idea?  Why haven’t you taken a leap of faith and jumped into the entrepeneur world?  Why haven’t you switched jobs?  Or bought that new house?  Why?  I know I am.  Next week, I plan on launching something new that might be strange, new, scary and awesome but it’ll be launched (with the help of many friends).  I’m taking that leap.

I seem to come up with ideas left and right and I think it would only be fair to put them out there for the community to mull over and possibly implement. I am opening these up to anything you would like to do with them. You owe me nothing (although if you’d like me involved I’d be more than happy to help) if you use them and I wish you the best of luck — in fact, if you roll it out, I’ll probably review and write about them on one of the many blogs I currently write for. So please, this new category on my blog will be for simply putting the information out there and starting a conversation.

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Text 2 Drink - You want that drink and you want it now.
So, during a late night drinking trip at National Mechanics with Bart (and later had Alex’s input as well), I came up with this interesting concept. There have been similar tries with regards to SMS based advertising and coupons but this takes a little bit different approach.

The idea is that bars would get a system installed. This would be a small computer (think Eee PC) and a receipt printer. When someone sits down at a table, the waiter (or waitress) would take a credit card to open a tab, would then click a button on the computer and it would print a slip with instructions and a generated serial number. The table would get this slip and the waiter would be off to the next table.

Whenever a drink was needed by the table, anyone there could simply send a text message to 37465 (DRINK) with their special ID and the type of drink they desire. This information would pop up on the special computer behind the bar, the bartender would see it, make the drink, set it up for the waiter with information about which table it goes to. This not only saves time but also allows the waiter to reduce the number of trips to each table and allows the drinker to get their next beverage that much faster.

On top of this idea could be built in a sponsorship mode. Instead of drinkers being able to order any drink, they send a text to 37465 with their special ID only and the “drink of the night” is brought to them. Think of Coors, Bud, Philadelphia Brewing Company or any others sponsoring their beer of the night. The bar gets a discount on beers and the drinkers get the savings passed on.

This service could be setup for trial with simply an iPhone at the bar and system setup with TextMarks and a simply API being built. So go ahead, what do you think? Doable or not? If so, do it.