commbasics

A business plan competition is getting going in San Joaquin County this month, jointly sponsored by the San Joaquin Delta College Small Business Development Center and a new investment group called the San Joaquin Angels. I'm going to be writing more about this very unusual group, but I wanted to get the news out about this particular event. The competition, called the SJ Challenge (SJ for San Joaquin), is open to inventors, programmers, tinkerers, early stage companies and entrepreneurs in and around San Joaquin County. Two winners will be chosen to share $20,000 in cash and services (full disclosure: I have donated two hours of consulting time). Applications can be entered at http://www.sjchallenge.com with a deadline of February 19. The applications will be reviewed by the group and first cut winners will be invited to present to the group on March 10. Those passing that level will be invited back for the final round on March 31. If you've got an idea that could make a buck...

Last week I did a seminar on social media for people that are about as far from the technology world as you might be able to get... evangelical pastors.  It was the most receptive audience for I've ever had for my schpiel.  Just amazing.

This article in Mashable  give dynamite reasons for NOT doing social media.  If you don't have time to read the whole article, let me sum up.  If your customers already hate you... If your product sucks... If you want to see your investment in social media show a profit inside, say three months... If you want to run the program on the cheap, and ... If you prefer to have low-level people manage the social media program... ...then you probably want to avoid getting involved in social media.

David Meerman Scott is one of the social media gurus I follow.  His focus is primarily on consumer level marketing and isn't always on track with what I concentrate on, but he still has good stuff to say.  Today he popped up with a portion of a podcast where he rants about ROI.   It's worth a listen.

Reed Business International continues culling US operations Reed shut down three publications in the US this week, including Video Business and Industrial Distribution. It's even cutting back on direct mail operations. Various reports call this part of an ongoing process of the UK-based corporation to divest itself of US publications.

I've been having a Facebook discussion on what the future holds for the world.  I'm pretty optimistic, which is interesting because 11 years ago I said we would be in deep do-do in 10 years, and now I'm saying something else.  I think we are on the verge of something pretty earthshakingly good.  But on the other side I've got a entrepreneur, a mortgage broker and a newspaper publisher saying I'm crazy, which is what the same kind of people told me 10 years ago when I said we were heading into some serious trouble.  So I thought I'd lay out my predictions for the next decade that will actually begin in the last year of our current decade. We have all been involved in some serious national and international navel gazing in trying to figure out how the world economy got to be the way it is today.  We want to blame governments, banks, Al Qaida, American consumers, Chinese industrialists, Donald Trump, Al Gore, etc.  In truth all of...

For my first post of the new year I'm looking at reports from journalists (remember them?) and analysts predicting nothing short of chaos for the semi world this coming year. On the one hand, everyone is in agreement that the industry will be in growth mode, but on the other, they are also saying the industry is not prepared to grow. No one has a plan for an economic turnaround and in spite of every indicator to the contrary, their collective heads are firmly jammed... in the sand. Fabs like TSMC, UMC, Global Foundries and the rest are at capacity, China fabs are starting to tank and companies with fabs are shutting down operation, right at a time when additional capacity is required. No one is buying capital equipment and equipment manufacturers are looking to consolidate, making technology advancements for the next level rare. And the venture capital world, which is supposed to be the spark plug for innovation, is still pouring money into gaming, cloud computing and alternative...