From Dimes to Dollars

It’s been another eventful 7 days! Like I explained last week, from this point on instead of spending an entire blog entry begging for recommendations, I thought it would be more useful to give a weekly recap of what has been covered the past week.

This week’s highlights:

Some excellent quotes ranging from encouragement to common sense were shared by entrepreneurial masterminds Jeffrey Zeldman, Gary Vaynerchuk, John Caples, and Tim O’Reily, whom I was fortunate enough to have my questions answered by directly thanks to Inc. Magazine.

I decided to debut a new series this week, volume I of the Beat The Clock Challenge! There wasn’t quite as much participation as I would’ve liked, but  it was certainly a difficult challenge, and this blog is still growing steadily. With a little time, I think we can get some great involvement, and perhaps a little competitiveness from week to week. If you have any good ideas for future challenges, shoot me an e-mail or message me via the Ask button on the left.

Once again, I decided to do a bit of news reporting on an issue that I believe is very important. Mark Zuckerberg’s illegal activity conducted in the past is enough to warrant possible FELONY charges. If you’re a Facebook user, you should know about the shocking actions of the man running this company. The link above gives my brief commentary and a direct link to the full article.

As a follow-up to the poll last week “Do You Consider An Internet Business Professional?”, I have posted the results in two parts. Part 1 shows the poll results and goes through much of the comments sent in by the participating respondents. In Part 2 you can read my personal response to skeptics of internet-based businesses. If you’re a skeptic yourself, let me know whether or not it changed your mind!

Finally, to finish off the week, I decided to offset some of the seriousness with a little humour courtesy of Mr. Glasbergen. His comic gives a good illustration (pun intended) of how different future generations will be due to the rapid evolution of technology.

Please consider a recommendation (direct link via highlighted keywords) if you found any of the above to be useful Tech insight, or otherwise helpful for an Entrepreneur or Startup.

As always, thank you for reading, and your feedback is both welcome and appreciated. Let’s dominate the rest of out week to become the best entrepreneurs ever!

by Ben Lopez

When I asked this question, I wasn’t looking for replies to Webster’s definition of professional.  I literally wanted people to share their gut reaction when a person says to them, “I run an internet business.”  There was no right or wrong in this poll, it was strictly one’s own personal feelings on internet business.

In Part 1 you heard from some of the participants and the reasoning behind their views, and I’m sure you’ve since formulated an opinion of your own.  I didn’t comment at the time to avoid influencing anyone, but I can now openly state that I do in fact consider online businesses to be professional.  Think of a church.  The church is the congregation, not the physical building itself.  Do you become any less a part of the church once you’ve left the building?  Of course not.  In the same way, business is business, as it still takes place between people, whether within the confines of a physical location, or electronically among people scattered throughout the world.

But as you can see from the mixed poll results and comments in Part 1, not everyone agrees with me.  In fact, I was a little surprised that there wasn’t more resistance to the notion of an internet-based business being considered ‘professional’ based on what I hear on a daily basis.  As I touched on last week, how we do business is rapidly evolving whether or not we are willing to accept this fact.  So what is it?  Why do so many refuse to regard internet businesses as on equal footing with traditional businesses, despite the market’s landscape constantly shifting, often times in favour of virtual goods and services?  Well, thats the million dollar question, isn’t it?  I could probably dedicate an entire blog to this one topic!  Though I imagine the hokey late night infomercials, Facebook’s escalating privacy concerns, and the negative press online scammers bring about are some pretty solid contributing factors.  Preconceived notions of internet CEOs sitting around in their underwear, or being socially inept probably don’t help matters, either.

Here’s another possibility to consider: what if these online businesses themselves aren’t what people are skeptical about?  What if the hesitation of acceptance actually stems from the internet itself?  After all, the internet is another world, full of everything from carrot cake recipes to instructions on making plastic explosives.  In other words, the internet is still young, and there’s still quite a bit of uncertainty, especially with more casual users.  A Verisign logo on a secure website may not provide the same assurance that a consoling, in-person meeting can offer, for instance.  But that perception alone doesn’t necessarily make either choice more safe or reliable.

I often imagine what the average business model will look like 10 years from now.  And I suppose once those 10 years have passed, I’ll begin pondering what new possibilities are on the horizon for the next decade.  Whether or not you consider internet businesses professional, I hope this poll has, at the very least, gotten you to ponder right along with me.

by Ben Lopez

This ended-up being a lot more content than I had planned, so I’ve decided to break it up into 2 parts.  Today I’ll be sharing the poll results and commentary from the respondents.  Part 2 on Monday will be my personal response and analysis.

I’d like to sincerely thank all those who participated, we got a very solid response with 15 replies in total.  As you can see from the pie chart above, the response was rather mixed.  I appreciate that no one selected answer D!

QUESTION: What are your initial thoughts when someone tells you they run an internet business?

• Answer A (20%, 3 votes):  I’m impressed.  This business owner is logically taking advantage of new technologies and applying them to emerging practices.  The potential for his internet business is equal to, if not greater than that of a traditional business model due to these new innovations.
• Answer B (20%, 3 votes): I do not take this person’s online business as seriously when compared to a traditional business model.  They do not have the same day-to-day responsibilities to uphold, and have somewhat limited potential.
• Answer C (60%,9 votes): I believe a business man or woman has equal potential in either business model, and I do not think of them as significantly different.
• Answer D (0%, 0 votes): These answers are rubbish!  Here’s one of my own!

Here are portions of several replies:  

(A) Randy M.:  

“Of course an online business is professional. Selling virtual goods is no different from selling physical goods. I would probably say that an online only business has somewhat more potential because it takes a smaller staff, less physical equipment, and there is more flexibility…I think internet is easier and can scale faster.”

(C)  Tony “The Chef” Marciante, TV Personality and Entrepreneur:

“Like any business, it’s up to the “proprietor” to make it professional or not. I believe that in the future, affiliate programs, internet marketing and all the wonderful web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies/strategies will be THE way products are sold. What about MLM? Why isn’t that thought of as “professional” sometimes? It’s about the PEOPLE and the METHODS used to promote the products…Getting a commission for a sale is nothing new, why are internet/information marketers looked at any differently?”

(C) Alan Moss, Marketing Expert and Executive at Artemesia Distillery:

“Of course it’s a professional thing to do. Frankly, it’s more alarming to see how late some of the big companies are at getting online operations set up alongside their normal businesses.”

(B) Ron Curry:

“I’m part of the internet generation, and I saw the dotcom bubble expand and then burst. If you look at why it burst, some of your question is answered. Most online businesses are not businesses at all, and provide no function or value. 

…it doesn’t necessarily mean those ventures are not profitable. I know a guy who just buys, sells and trades domains and makes hefty profit doing so. I suppose that’s some sort of hybrid between a traditional real estate business and brokerage. But in reality, he sits at home in his pajamas eating bowls of cereal.

So no, it’s not “professional” in the terms which I consider that word. Not by a long shot. Not even if you wear a suit sometimes. But it can be successful and even profitable.

I saw an article today that I thought was directly relevant:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/06/facebo… ” [Editor’s note: linked article details Facebook CEO’s juvenile antics]

(C) Jon Lopez, Founder of RFS Claymations and Affordable Aperture Photography:

“If you can get a business up and running on the internet, have a good clientele, and a user-friendly, popular business site, I would think that it’s equally successful.”

 (C) Julie:

“My reaction would be based on the type of business rather than virtual vs. real shingle. I recently learned that a friend has set up an internet business with the eventual goal of a brick and mortar retail shop, perhaps not the usual progression. I do consider both businesses to be professional.”

(C) Barbara Sisko:

“People are learning more and more about how someone running a reputable internet business should conduct themselves; and as long as you adhere to that principal, I think you can safely call yourself “professional.”“

(C) Dave Veldkamp: 

“It depends on how much you put into your business. Online selling, banking, trading etc are some really great businesses to have online. I would say yes it is professional.”

(B) Kevin Baker:

“When I think of an internet business, I think of someone in their boxer shorts processing orders as a middleman.  I know there are some great internet only businesses, but generally speaking I can’t take it very serious, and don’t consider it professional. “

(C) Phil Ricci, Co-Founder & Director of Business Development for Symfny:

“…I have had success in both arenas.  We have all been programed to believe certain things in our lives. Most people would never go into business for themselves, because they have been taught that having a good steady job is fundamental to being ‘successful’. 

Professional by definition is a: participating for gain or livelihood in an activity or field of endeavor often engaged in by amateurs <a professional golfer> b : having a particular profession as a permanent career <a professional soldier> c :engaged in by persons receiving financial return <professional football>.  In other words, you get paid for the work you do. I think that people get professional and acting professionally mixed up. There are many…who believe that if you do not have an office, wear a suit and tie, have meetings, mission statements and all that jazz, you are not to be taken seriously. There’s nothing wrong with that, but just not how I see the world. I think that most have lost the concept of ingenuity and have replaced it with this warped view of professionalism. I have personally watched more good ideas squashed in the corporate boardrooms of America than I care to discuss.”

-Check Back on Monday for Part 2!

I just wanted to post a reminder that today is the last day I’ll be accepting responses for the poll started earlier this week, “Do you consider running an internet business ‘professional’?”  

Many thanks to those who have already submitted feedback, readers have already sent over a dozen responses.  If you’d like to weigh in, leave a comment(s) here or at the original article (where there’s some very spirited arguments!).  

I will release the poll results and a personal response next week, so stay tuned, and I hope to hear from you!

Hey everyone, I’ll be doing a public opinion poll tomorrow afternoon across Tumblr and all my social media sites and I’d love for you to be a part of it! I’m hoping to get a good number of responses as a centerpiece for a new series.

The poll will be focusing on internet businesses compared to brick and mortar businesses.

If you have any thoughts you’d like to share, I hope you’ll stop back on Monday afternoon. See you then!

-Ben