The Cheap Revolution

To launch or not to launch? Three reasons to launch now

Should I launch my Web site now or wait until I'm better prepared?"

I've heard the same question from a couple of different Internet entrepreneurs recently. Traditional wisdom would say that you should not launch until you are absolutely prepared to make a big splash.  After all, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.   Get your brand right, get your system right - and, only then, after you've tightened all the screws and double-checked all of your lists, should you launch your new site.

I believe traditional wisdom is wrong.

I think you are better served creating a Web site, a blog, a forum, whatever - to engage your community ASAP when starting your business.  Obviously, you have to have a clue of what you are putting up there... but just.  The clue is all you need.  The market will provide the rest while you continue to build your business plan and operations behind the scenes.

There are a few key differences between Internet Startups and traditional, geographically based businesses.  Take a look and see if you agree: 

Top 20 Entrepreneurial Quotes

I recently read a quote that inspired me and thought, "Why not share it with others?" I've also collected a list of quotes from entrepreneurs and other quotes that are relevant to entrepreneurship. Skip and I included our own at the bottom of the post. I hope one of these quotes inspires you as well.

1. I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work - Thomas Edison, inventor and scientist
2. The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary - Vidal Sassoon, entrepreneur
3. Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won't, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can't - A student in Warren G. Tracy's class, entrepreneur (Thanks Daniel!)
4. The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning - to create a product or service to make the world a better place - Guy Kawasaki, entrepreneur, investor, author
5. Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph; a beginning, a struggle and a victory - Mahatma Gandhi, political and spiritual leader
6. Failure defeats losers, failure inspires winners - Robert T. Kiyosaki, author, entrepreneur, investor
7. Entrepreneurs average 3.8 failures before final success. What sets the successful ones apart is their amazing persistence - Lisa M. Amos
8. Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life - John F. Kennedy, U.S. President
9. In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable - Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. President
10. The greatest reward in becoming a millionaire is not the amount of money that you earn. It is the kind of person that you have to become to become a millionaire in the first place - Jim Rohn
11. Some people dream of great accomplishments, while others stay awake and do them - Anonymous
12. Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make - Donald Trump, real estate and entertainment mogul 
13. The entrepreneur in us sees opportunities everywhere we look, but many people see only problems everywhere they look. The entrepreneur in us is more concerned with discriminating between opportunities than he or she is with failing to see the opportunities - Michael Gerber, author, entrepreneur
14. An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he'll quickly learn how to chew it - Roy Ash, co-founder of Litton Industries
15. The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer - Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese's
16. I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful - Warren Buffet, investor and billionaire
17. I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others... I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent - Thomas Edison, inventor and scientist
18. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover - Mark Twain, author
19. There is a tide in the affairs of men
    Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
    Omitted, all the voyage of their life
    Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
    On such a full sea are now afloat;
    And we must take the current when it serves,
    Or lose the ventures before us - William Shakespeare, author
20. Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration - Thomas Edison, inventor and scientist

Here are our quotes: 

Being an entrepreneur is a lot like playing poker - you can fold, limp in, or go for it - Yasmine Mustafa

If you kick it around enough, it starts to look like a ball - Skip Shuda

What's your favorite quote?

Update: Help us reach a 1,000 diggs by clicking here. Also, check out the comments for additional quotes.

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Must-Read Books for Entrepreneurs

By: Yasmine

Top 12 Books for Entrepreneurs

There's no doubt that knowledge is power and the books below are a must read for those starting their own online business. In fact, these books have been selected exclusively for Internet startups. They're divided into two categories – those for startups in the concept stage and for those startups in launch mode. With Christmas around the corner, they also make great gifts! Note: These are in no particular order.

Concept Stage:

1. The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki - Guy Kawasaki is a Silicon Valley icon who knows how to start businesses. His "pitch deck" format has become a staple in most Team and a Dream engagements. He also talks about the rough road of dealing with Venture Capitalists.
2. Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore - How do you identify your early markets and your earliest customers? How do you get to that market quickly and grow to a "real company"? This book provides the roadmap.
3. Good To Great by Jim Collins - The home of the Sweet Spot Analysis used in many Team and a Dream conversations. Jim Collins calls it the HedgeHog Principal. Find out why some companies have continuing growth and some don't. What is it that makes them different? Based on 5 years and thousands of manhours of research.
4. Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey - Covey details seven habits, if implemented, help people improve themselves. These habits can also help entrepreneurs deal with the unstable and unpredictable world of startups.
5. The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman - Important reading for anyone wanting a good overview of how the world is changing in dramatic ways. Globalization is here. You decide what to make of it.
6. Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston - A look into the minds of the founders of Apple, PayPal, Flickr and many more as they tell in their own words what life is like hour after hour behind the keyboard, developing technologies and bringing them into market.

Launch Stage:

1. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell - Eye popping insights into viral marketing, the world of cool and why some things catch on and others don't.
2. Artful Making by Lee Devin and Robert Austin - What managers need to know about how software teams work. Taking lessons from the theatre and other art venues, authors Rob Austin and Lee Devin drive home some important ideas of working in a more creative way, while still making deadlines.
3. The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida - Big trends book on how a new breed of the knowledge worker is coming into its own. 
4. The Flight of the Creative Class by Richard Florida - Why America needs to be wary of the cultures it creates for today's knowledge workers. We want to encourage creative people and growth of cultures around them. Instead, we are chasing them from our shores.
5. A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink - Left brain and right brain will combine to create the ideal worker of tomorrow. Dan Pink outlines some terrific ideas on how to get your creative side in gear for today and tomorrow's business world.
6. Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson - Find out how to achieve successful marketing results using non-traditional marketing tactics to make your company stand out.

Honorable mentions go to The Long Tail by Chris Anderson and Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. No time to read? Pick up an audiobook version and listen to it in your car - you'll save some trees as well!

Are there any other books you would recommend? If so, let us know by posting a comment below.

By: Yasmine

SEOmoz's SEO Expert Quiz

How well do you know SEO? Enough to do it yourself instead of hiring someone to do for you? To find out, take this SEO quiz by SEOmoz. It's 75 questions and should take about a half hour. See how you rank and then decide whether or not you can do it yourself or if you need to hire a professional!

Previous SEO posts:
"25+ Free (and Useful) SEO Tools"
"Does SEO work? See for yourself!"

By: Yasmine

A Millionaire in One Hour

Do you think you have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur? Play The Millionaire Maker Game and prove it!

This newly released game was created by Loral Langemeir, a corporate coach and wealth strategist, and is based on her book "The Millionaire Maker Book: Act, Think, and Make Money the Way the Wealthy Do."

The game allows you to attempt to build your net worth as a business owner and takes you through the daily ups and downs of being a real-life entrepreneur. As the site states "kiss your W-2 job goodbye and live the life you want to live, not have to live. Model your dream business after a successful mentor's. Buy a six-unit apartment building. Purchase a share of an oil well. Get sued by a disgruntled employee. Like real life for an entrepreneur, the game is filled with opportunities and challenges."

The purpose of the game is to have the highest net worth by acquiring assets and making strategic business decisions – all in just 60 minutes. It's expensive to try, the board game sells for $179 on the site and there isn't currently an online version (Update: see comments for discounted rate). However, you can register on the site for the chance to play in person at a Barnes & Noble near you.

On a different note, there is something to be learned here on the way this product is being marketed. This is what I usually see with a new product > website > SEO (maybe). What's interesting about the way this product is being marketed is the buzz they're generating with their product. They did this by partnering with Barnes & Noble, a well-known bookstore, and holding live sessions where people get the opportunity to play in person with others. No longer was this being marketed by themselves, it was now a dual effort. It was also different, and these type of events and contests generate great word-of-mouth.

Another great tactic they use are the choice of prizes they give away. They're wealth building educational materials and training sessions, some of which include a) One year of millionaire coaching and mentoring with Loral's Big Table b) Admission to a Wealth Acceleration Coaching or Cash Machine Workshop c) and a complimentary one-on-one Action Strategy Session. Not only are these relevant to the game, they're also cross-selling at the same time by giving away services they normally offer. What can you do in your startup that's similar?

In addition, I saw they also have a blog. It's actually the first entry that appears in search engines when you search for the game. No surprise there - blogs are loved by search engines because of their fresh content. Blogs are also great ways to promote your product/service.

What I also liked about their website is the opt-in box they had for collecting e-mails. This is a great way to build up your listserv and promote your product continuously. Coming out with a new version? Send them a newsletter and so on. However, I would have preferred to see the opt-in box above the fold, i.e. on the top half of the screen. Adding this is a must have on new web sites as well. If your website is about to launch and all you have is a homepage for the time being, take advantage of the empty space and add one in as well.

Finally, the game dominates the first page of Google's search results in different ways. The most noteworthy is the free public release sites. There are a number out there you can take advantage of - the most popular being PRweb.com (Stay tuned for our Do-It-Yourself PR post, coming soon). Sometimes the press releases you write yourself (or someone you hire) get picked up by others and soon your product/service is marketing itself (case in point - what I'm doing!).

I hope these ideas/lessons can help you with your own startup!

By: Yasmine

Do-It-Yourself Logo Design

We first mentioned that Entrepreneur.com offers logo design through a partnership with LogoYes in September 2007, see "Cheap Resources from Entrepreneur.com". LogoYes has since added a new interactive feature that allows you to design a logo in five easy steps. Here's how it works:

1. First, you choose your image – High-Tech, Bold, or Flair. If you're not sure which suits you best, there's a description on each as well as an Image Calculator (see the picture below for an illustration).
2. Next, choose your Industry from 30 different options.
3. Icons of different symbols you can use to incorporate into your logo will appear. These can be pictures, numbers, or abstracts.
4. Type in your company name and tagline (optional). Based on the image you chose in the first step, a list of fonts are suggested for you. If you'd like to explore additional fonts, an array of options are also available. 

The last step allows you to play with the layout of your logo. This includes the symbol you chose, the company name and the tagline. In addition to testing out different positions for each, you can rotate, flip, scale, or zoom in and out of the screen. You can also try out different color variations for each component of your logo. Once your satisfied with your choices, click next to see a preview of the logo you designed. You can then either try to duplicate it yourself or you can purchase it for $99. Here's my attempt at redesigning our Cheap Revolution Logo. What do you think?

As a side note, these kind of fun and interactive features can bring a lot of traffic to your web site. Burger King recently scored big with their "Simpsonize Yourself" campaign. Their tool allows "The Simpsons" fans to upload pictures of themselves and see what they would look like as their favorite cartoon characters. In it's first three days, the site received more than 16 million hits and visitors were spending about 12 minutes on the site at a time. What can you do with your site to draw the same pull?

By: Yasmine

Free E-book: I Hate My Website!

Entrepreneur Magazine is giving away copies of their downloadable e-book, I Hate My Website!: 10 Easy Ways to Improve Your Website, Plus 9 Things Never To Do. Sponsored by Microsoft Live, this e-book includes tips, techniques, and tools to help you design an effective and engaging Web site, generate more Web site traffic, maximize search engine results, provide a more secure online experience, and much more.

This 54-page e-book, a $19.95 value, has a great flip factor – it's nicely organized with plenty of charts and pictures to help illustrate the ideas discussed. It's not just for those looking to improve their website, it's a great resource for those building a website as well. Get yours today!

By: Yasmine