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Here’s a good one I came across tonite for all you would-be entrepreneurs out there… A Couple of My Rules for Startups.

A few other tips for startups I’d add to this list…

• Spend lots of money on chairs, but cheap out on the desks (I would cite wherever I saw this recently, but I can’t remember). If you have a good chair, you can sit tight and get stuff done for hours. A cheap chair will have you whining within days. On the other hand, a desk is pretty much a desk.
• You really shouldn’t need to spend more than $50-60 per batch of business cards. Check online, there are some great, cheap printers out there.
• Save money on software, try out OpenOffice.

What’s in a name? A whole lot of importance, really. An article from Wall St Journal today called Name That Firm covers examples of a few do’s and don’ts for naming your company. The name can really play a role in predisposing people towards doing business with you (or not), so be sure to put some thought into it, and try not to settle 100% on names that come to you while you’re trashed at a bar. A few of the critical factors from my perspective:

• memorable
• can be pronounced by people in your target market
• somewhat unique/distinctive, ie. keeps you from being confused with other companies
• at least hints at what you do

Wondering about where you can gather current information on Pennsylvania mortgage rates? Then get over to MyHomeLoanMortgages.com, where they have tons of information on mortgage rates in every state. You can click through for even more detailed info on your own city. You’ll find info on local mortgage brokers and real estate agents, along with interesting tidbits such as: in PA there are currently 60,362 homes for sale! This is a handy tool for starting your buying or selling process.

Jakob Nielsen has a great new article up called Bridging the Designer–User Gap. I highly recommend this for anyone involved in product design or web development. Consider these observations from the first paragraph:

Designers are not users. Vice-presidents are not users. Users are not designers.

In other words, designers (and v-p’s) should not assume they know anything about what the user needs. Simultaneously, don’t assume that the user knows how to solve his/her own problem, either. Nielsen goes off to explain varying levels of designer/user overlap, and how this can or should impact the design process. Really thought-provoking.

There are thousands of people out there who are really into fantasy sports such as fantasy baseball. I know guys at work who spend hours and hours working on their fantasy rosters. It’s really hard — you are competing against scores of other players, and your ability to win is dependant on both your skill and your luck. Kind of like managing a team for real. So, if you really want to win your league, you need to look for an edge. And if that edge can save you time as well, so much the better.

That’s where Fantasy Sports Prophet’s Fantasy Baseball software comes in. This software is loaded with features. First off, you access it from anywhere (including work, although I’m sure no one works on their fantasy teams at the office…)! The software will rank players using predictive modeling developed by math geniuses with phd’s. It has a draft tool which helps you draft the right players for your team, as well as ongoing team roster management. The software keeps you current with what is happening to your players. See the detailed player card data available below:

Overall, this is a minor investment which not only saves you time, but can also help you win any cash reward your fantasy league provides. Even better, you can buy the software now for a special $10 off– just use promo code BMC200 when you order. Good luck with your team!

Just this weekend I finally checked out for myself this whole people-to-people lending thing you may have heard about. In a nutshell, a company named Prosper has basically created a marketplace which brings together people who want to borrow money with people who want to lend money. Typically, that function would be filled by a bank, which would layer on all kinds of overhead, thereby increasing the rates charged to the borrower and reducing the rates paid to the lender. Prosper cuts out that middleman and just fills the role of exchange.

From a marketing perspective, this is just a brilliant idea. It creates an eBay for money. One of the charms of eBay is the personal aspect of it– instead of dealing with a faceless mall, you actually deal with real people. Same on Prosper– you can communicate with the people who want to borrow or lend the money. This is giving lenders a greater sense of playing a role in the borrower’s life. Kind of like ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’-era America banking. Check out Prosper for yourself.

 I’m sure I’ll have more to say on it in the future. For example, if you want to borrow money, what are the best ways to market yourself to a community of lenders?…

2 oysters, Sheldon and Pearl, were planning to finally retire after years working down on the farm.  Pearl’s been robbed, some clown broke in and stole her jewel while she was asleep. Sheldon says “Don’t worry, I brought you some nice grains of sand. You can work on another piece”. Pearl must be really mad about the whole thing, she’s really clammed up on him. Now, in all seriousness, Gulf oysters on the halfshell are a popular treat for many people out there. But you need to be aware that there can be serious risks to consuming raw shellfish if those critters haven’t been handled properly. Ask anyone who has paid the consequences… The good news is that the Gulf Coast oyster industry has taken steps to minimize and ideally eliminate the risks involved with oysters. They have developed a number of innovative post-harvest treatment processes which involve freezing, pasteurization, or high-pressure processing. These processes can greatly reduce risks for at-risk consumers (who include those with diabetes, stomach disorders, liver disease, and more).

Wonder what journalists think about you for spamming them with every poorly-written, unremarkable press release you can think of? Then check out Angry Journalist. It’s a bitch-and-moan site for the press which, nonetheless, can give you some insights into what they are so angry about. Check out this tidbit…

I have 400 emails and my inbox is yelling at me that i am over the size limit. Don’t send me your stupid emails with this: please see attached. Please see my delete button. And what about: I am calling to see how I might go about getting press for my company. Please call me at 555-1212. Please kiss my ass. Hire someone, preferably someone who doesn’t send the first type of emails. And don’t forget to visit our web site: http://www.angryjournalist.com. Screw you. We make it up anyway.

A hilarious post at Consumerist tools on a website called complaintremover, which like the name hints, will work to get negative mentions of your company or brand pushed down in the search engines. All totally above board, I’m sure. The hilarious part comes in when they do a chat session with the site requesting a quote on getting LOLcats pushed down in the search rankings since it conflicts with their own cat fanciers website. Check it out…

First things first… you can Click Here for a Chance to Win a Nintendo® Wii™!. Everyone wants a Wii, everyone from my 3-year old nephew to yours truly. So what’s the catch? Well, this sweepstakes is being run in order to promote something. You have to register to receive information on another cool thing which you’ll probably be interested in… high speed internet… for life! Let me explain: this company called Charter appears to be auctioning off high speed internet service for life. The auction begins on March 12, and starts at just $10 (there is no reserve on the auction, but I’m sure the pridce will rise rapidly from there).  Imagine if you won that, and could dump your expensive monthly bills forever for one payment.

So here’s the question– how do you put a value on a long-term internet service offer such as this? I think you would approach it as a time-value-of-money equation. 1) Months of service you would expect to receive, 2) What you would expect that service to cost if you were paying for it monthly, and 3) Your ‘discount rate’, ie. what is the opportunity cost of your money. You would then compute the present value of all of those payments, and use that present value to establish your maximum bid price. Just by way of example, let’s say that you’d expect to receive 10 years (120 months) of service, which would otherwise cost you $80 per month, and your opportunity cost is 10% (annualized). I just ran the numbers in excel and computed that the present value in this case would be $6,053.69. So any price less than this would be a good deal (in this hypothetical example). Work out the numbers yourself and see how much YOU would pay for that deal.

In order to participate, you have to qualify for the offer based on your zip code (since you have to live somewhere where Charter offers service). If you’d like to learn more, you can check out the rules.