My CEO Life

Lessons Learned From Starting a New Business - Part 2

Simon — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:05:30 +0000

In the first part of this series i looked at some of the more hard core challenges i am facing in building a new business. In this entry i want to explore some other softer lessons being learned as we launch our new business. These lessons cover selection of people, the culture we want to create, our approach to working and most importantly having fun. Related posts:

Lessons Learned From Starting a New Business - Part 1 Over the last 3 months we have been setting up...
Runnning a Business on Skype Now that i have moved on from the REA Group,...
Driving Core Values Through the Business Now here is an interesting question - “How do you...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Lessons Learned From Starting a New Business - Part 1

Simon — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:25:44 +0000

Over the last 3 months we have been setting up a new business called Classified Ad Ventures (CAV). As we set up this business, we are learning and re-learning what it takes to start a new business and I thought i would share some of these lessons with you. Related posts:

Lessons Learned From Starting a New Business - Part 2 In the first part of this series i looked at...
How Do You Analyse Business Ideas? When looking at business plans and information memorandums, people are...
Tips for Those Seeking Angel Funding For much of the last 2 weeks i have been...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Classified Ad Ventures - What’s It All About?

Simon — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 15:13:38 +0000

Since my departure from the REA Group a little over 4 months ago, i have been starting a new business called Classified Ad Ventures. I am often asked what it is about so i thought i would post an overview of the business and what we are doing. Here is an overview of Classified Ad Ventures. Related posts:

Launching Property Portal Watch (in Beta of course :)) I have been very busy since leaving the REA Group...
Going Global - Organic Growth Case Study During my time as CEO of the REA Group, we...
Customer Expectation Setting One issue we came across the other day was about...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Letting People Go - the Do’s and Dont’s

Simon — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:02:05 +0000

In tough economic conditions, every business goes through a review of operations and for many of them, they will have to let some people go. I have recently gone through this with my new business and there are some salient lessons that can be learned in downsizing. Related posts:

How to Retain Great People - Part 2 I was recently asked the question “how do you attract...
Managing People Across Different Cultures During my time with the REA Group we grew the...
Part 1 - How to Attract Excellent People I was recently asked the question “how do you attract...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Runnning a Business on Skype

Simon — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 21:02:36 +0000

Now that i have moved on from the REA Group, i am setting up a new business. In the process of doing this, we have decided that we will try our hardest to use new technologies to make the business run. The first decision we took was to get right of the old telephone system and to use skype alone. The theory is simple. The business the we are setting up is global in focus and therefore we will need to be contacting people around the world on a regular basis. Everyone has a PC so this is not a problem and all we do is give each of them a head set and away we go. We are using Skype Business software that works like a dream. We now have 20 people working off it and there are no problems. Related posts:

Lessons Learned From Starting a New Business - Part 1 Over the last 3 months we have been setting up...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The Power of Trust

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:30:02 +0000

Yesterday i wrote some thoughts about the use of instant messenger in the work place and this stirred up strong debate, much of which is really around the trust we should place in our employees. Therefore following on from this i thought it would be good to explore just how much power we can gained from placing trust in people. I have found that the more i trust people to get on with their jobs the better the work environment becomes and more importantly the more that gets done. Lets explore two extremes - first is a place with strong trust and the second is one without it. Read on for more ... Related posts:

Lessons Learned From Starting a New Business - Part 2 In the first part of this series i looked at...
Do You Really Know How Happy Your Team Is? Business always conducts employee satisfaction surveys in an attempt to...
Outsourcing - Built on Trust, Understanding and Patience Outsourcing is important to many businesses however people flip flop...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

What’s Wrong with Instant Messenger?

Simon — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:40:02 +0000

There is nothing wrong with using messenger in a business. However i am hearing more and more about companies either banning or strong suggesting that employees dont use messenger and other similar applications. This got me to thinking - why? For me, banning messenger is like banning the phone or email. I guess in days gone by bosses were banning email and the internet however imagine work life today without either of these. The real reason usually lies in the trust managers have for their team. Read on ... Related posts:

Can Messenger Help Run a Business In the beginning i tossed up between allowing microsoft messenger...
The Power of Trust Yesterday i wrote some thoughts about the use of instant...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Can CEO’s Really Manage from their Desk?

Simon — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 01:42:07 +0000

I was chatting with a few folk the other day about different styles that CEO's have. Some wander around and chat, some roll up their sleeves and get deep into the hot issues, some just look at the numbers from their desk, while others cant help but micro manage. This got me to thinking, can a CEO really manage a business from his / her desk or do they really need to get out amongst the people? No related posts.

Tips for Those Seeking Angel Funding

Simon — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:47:14 +0000

For much of the last 2 weeks i have been looking at business plans - lots of them. Each and every day i am approach by someone with a new idea. They are all wanting funding, all are claiming to have something special, and all truly believe they will be massive in a few short years. The question for me is how do you find the real nuggets of gold amongst all the noise? Here are my top tips for approach an angel investor. Related posts:

Tough Market Conditions Means Businesses Have to Get Real Economic conditions aroun the world are tough. The question is...
Inman - A Great Conference Every 6 months i go to the Inman Conference in...
Education and Training - The Back Bone of the Business I recently has the following comment on my site Curious...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Tough Market Conditions Means Businesses Have to Get Real

Simon — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:33:46 +0000

Economic conditions aroun the world are tough. The question is now what is the likely impact on small businesses and more importantly those start ups that are reliant on funding to maintain their growth. To answer this question, I came across a presentation from Sequoia Capita on startups and the economic downturn. Read on for more ... Related posts:

Tips for Those Seeking Angel Funding For much of the last 2 weeks i have been...
How Do You Value a Web 2.0 Business? A reader in India has sent me a question all...
Going Global - Integration of Acquired Businesses Over the last month i have been writing a series...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.