I plan to add a lot of info on my experiences with a 3D printer.
I’ve also added a new page, see menu at top, where I’ll post some pictures of my prints.
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Let’s see if the SPAM stopped
Okay, this is a test post after a long pause.
Testing, 1, 2, 3… Do we get a 1,000 SPAM messages after this post?
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SPAM – Not the good kind
Due to an incredible increase in SPAM posts over the past couple weeks, over 8,000, I’ve disabled commenting for a while.
Back after a bit to see if they stop trying to post.
Have a great New Year.
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Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) WAEA Conference
I recently attended this conference, which was held in Long Beach, CA, in September of this year.
It was a great experience to meet up with old friends and associates that I haven’t seen in a number of years. The WAEA conference focuses on Commercial Air Transport aircraft, like those flown by United Airlines, Southwest or Singapore Airlines. And most of my activity these past few years has been with Business Jets and VVIP aircraft. The conference in that arena is the National Business Aircraft Association (NBAA) conference. But I digress…
One of the amazing players to come out of this year’s WAEA conference was Lumexis. They started out around 7 years ago with an idea to make an InFlight Entertainment (IFE) system that was truly revolutionary rather than evolutionary. Well, they have finally succeeded.
Lumexis IFE in panel representing seats
At previous shows they had models and a few operational pieces but this year they stole the show with a full 273 seats operating HDTV at each and every seat. All for about 3,000 to 4,000 pounds pounds less than a traditional IFE system. This has the potential to save airlines gazillions of dollars in fuel costs over traditional systems.
Many Lumexis IFE in panels representing seats
What does this mean for you the weary traveler, more room under the seat for your legs and carry-on bag, an amazing selection of hi-resolution video content and other options to pass the time away while jetting to your destination.
Lumexis sign
Oh, and AVOD stands for Audio/Video On-Demand. Which means you can watch whatever you want, whenever you want.
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Top Pot Doughnuts
This is a slight departure from my regular topics but not too far off track, just stay with it.
I recently received a coupon in the mail for a free doughnut, with the purchase of a beverage. It was from a doughnut shop that I had never heard of before, Top Pot Doughnuts.
Well, I have been known to enjoy a doughnut on occasion so I decided to go and check them out. After all, a free doughnut was involved.
Before going, I checked out their web site and then headed on over to downtown Bellevue. The place was in a good location and looked very inviting. The inside of their place was very large, it looked more like a large Starbucks than any doughnut shop I had ever been in. And yes they served a pretty darn good coffee and had a wide assortment of other beverages.
I presented my coupon and ordered fruit… an apple fritter… It’s made with apples so… fruit, it’s good for you. I also ordered a beverage of course… Well I have to say, the doughnut was fabulous and I highly recommend them. Check out the above link to their web site, they have locations outside of Bellevue as well in Seattle and Mill Creek. We’ll definitely go back and try some other treats soon.
But that isn’t the reason for this post.
The reason is, as I was talking with them I found out they had been in that location for about two (2) years. Two years! I had never heard of them before. How can a place like that be so close and I had never heard of them before?
FREE! That coupon for a FREE doughnut is what caught my eye, and my taste buds. Now, did they lose any money on that FREE transaction? Nope. They made plenty. I purchased a beverage, and the person I was with had a beverage and a snack from their ‘healthy” offerings. And I’ll be back to buy more. So no, that FREE doughnut made them a lot of money.
The point being, that sometimes offering something for FREE can end up turning quite a profit. But FREE has to be done tastefully…
So think about what it is that you offer: coaching sessions, products, artistic design, computer repair, whatever it is, I’m sure there is some facet that can be tweaked to attract the eye of more clients. A little brain storming can always yield creative ideas on how to stand out from the crowd. Or of course you could always offer coupons for free doughnuts…
Best of luck.
RORY
Posted in General, Sales / Marketing
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To succeed in business you need: teamwork, ingenuity, pride and selflessness.
Businesses can learn a lot from the US Military.
While some may believe that open thought and ingenuity doesn’t exist in the military and that enlisted personnel just jump to the commands of their officers, that outdated notion can’t be further from the truth. When in the middle of nowhere, with a failed piece of equipment, you need incredible ingenuity to keep the mission, and your team, alive.
One such example is from being in the US Navy, on a Guided Missile Destroyer, in the South China Sea. Our navigation radar went dead and after troubleshooting I found that a resistor had failed. (A resistor is an electronics component that restricts the flow of electrical current in a circuit.) Without this part, the radar wouldn’t operate and we were effectively sailing blind. A warship without a working navigation radar, is not a good thing.
Well, this particular resistor was about an inch and a half in diameter and over a foot long. A very high power but low resistance device. Not the kind of part you keep in ships stores, and being in the middle of the South China Sea, you can’t even run to a depot station to see if they have one in stock.
Well, did we just moan about not having the part? Did we just drop anchor and wait for someone to come by and give us a tow? NO and NO.
What we did was to creatively think about the problem and came up with a solution. We took a bunch of standard incandescent light bulbs, wired them together, and improvised something that would look to the electrical circuit in the radar as if it was a replacement resistor. It worked and allowed us to not only successfully complete our mission but to also stay on schedule for the rest of the deployment.
Beyond the formal and highly technical skills learned in military schools, you are also instilled with the drive and desire to “get the job done” and a “can-do” attitude. You do whatever it takes, you help out whomever and wherever you can, as success of the mission it paramount.
Teamwork, ingenuity, pride, selflessness, these are the traits that are characteristic of our military men and women. These are also traits that businesses need to succeed.
Do the people in your company have these traits? Do they operate as a team? Do they find creative ways to solve problems? Are they proud of the work they do? Do they put the needs of the team ahead of their own? Proper leadership can make all the difference in the world.
What situations have you seen in your career where these attributes played a role in your success? Or, did the lack of these attributes contribute to failure?
RORY
Engineering Prototypes and Clear Communication
Engineering Prototypes and Clear Communication
When in the development stage of a new product you are going to want to make some prototypes to ensure form, fit and function are what was expected. You are also going to want to ensure cost targets are met.
What you do not want to do is inflate the costs because of artificial design constraints. For example, I’m aware of one program where an electronics box was given certain size constraints and the engineers told to “fit” all of the electronics inside this envelope. That’s fine so far, this happens all the time.
Unfortunately, the very short height of this box meant a non-standard electrical part needed to be fabricated and used and so a custom part was purchased for this application. Driving the part cost from about a dollar for a standard part to over $50 for the custom part. Which turned out to be about one-fourth of the target cost of the entire unit. But instead of engineering raising a red flag that the budget was now way overblown, they continued on with the design.
Had they informed the Project Manager they would have found out that the height restriction was just a “goal” and not a “hard and fast” requirement. In this case the height difference was less than one-quarter of an inch, and increasing the box height would have easily been approved.
What was missing here was clear communication, actually “any” communication, between departments other than talk of ‘schedule”. While schedule is the driving force behind many new product introductions, it should not be the only constraint. And ‘all” of the people in the company, in every department, need to be empowered to make suggestions and let their voices be heard without fear of being hammered down.
What was missing here was a lack of leadership and personal empowerment to ensure clear communication was established and that everyone was working as a “team” toward the same goal. Each of the different disciplines operating in “silos” is a recipe for disaster.
Have you had any similar experiences? Let’s hear about them.
RORY
~~~~~
Posted in Program / Project Management, Technical
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Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning is accomplished by many entrepreneurs at an unconscious level. However, if you want to grow your business in a meaningful way, this process needs to be formalized.
So what is Strategic Planning? Strategic Planning gives you a direction and a target for your company over the next “x” years. This is typically over a 3-5 year period but I have seen them as short as one year and as long as 100 years. With the 1 year plan being very detailed and the 100 year plan being a bit on the vague side. Your business decisions should be in line with achieving the goals set forth in your Strategic Plan.
While the Strategic Plan should include many elements of your Business Plan, such as the SWOT and PEST analysis, the core of your Strategic Plan should answer these three questions:
- What is the current situation or condition of your company?
- What is your goal/target/objective for the future state of your company?
- What are the things that need to happen to achieve your goals?
A very important aspect of the Strategic Plan is that is does NOT go into excruciating detail about how to implement the plan. Those aspects are detailed in individual Tactical Plans that are generated to implement the strategy.
A VERY simplified example: say you are working from home and want to move into an outside office. The basic essence of your plan would be:
- Working at home in a home office.
- Monthly Sales are currently xxxx
- Monthly Expenses are currently yyyyy
- Monthly Profit of zzzzzz
- Home office occupies xxx sq ft
- Unable to meet with clients at home
- There are many distractions at home, including x, y, z.
- There is not enough space for xxxxxxx
- In 12 months be renting/leasing external office space.
- Location will be xxxxxxx
- Amount of sq ft will be at least xxx sq ft
- Street traffic will be yyyyyyyyy
- Cost per sq ft will be zzzzzzzz
- Increase sales by $2,000 per month.
- Move into another vertical market space
- Generate passive income
- Increase sales to existing customers
- Obtain new customers
This 3rd bullet is then expanded on in much greater detail within Tactical Plans generated for each of the sub-bullets.
Your Strategic Plan will most likely have far more than only one goal. Perhaps in the example above about the home office some other goals could be:
- Be in the top 10 companies in sales volume for my product/service in the city of xyz.
- Hire two assistants
- Lower the Cost of Sales to less than 5% of the service/product sales price
- Etc., Etc., Etc
The Strategic Plan is the tool you use to focus on WHERE you want your company to be in x years.
As times change, so to should your Strategic Plan.
RORY
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Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning is accomplished by many entrepreneurs at an unconscious level. However, if you want to grow your business in a meaningful way, this process needs to be formalized.
So what is Strategic Planning? Strategic Planning gives you a direction and a target for your company over the next “x” years. This is typically over a 3-5 year period but I have seen them as short as one year and as long as 100 years. With the 1 year plan being very detailed and the 100 year plan being a bit on the vague side. Your business decisions should be in line with achieving the goals set forth in your Strategic Plan.
While the Strategic Plan should include many elements of your Business Plan, such as the SWOTPEST and analysis, the core of your Strategic Plan should answer these three questions:
· What is the current situation or condition of your company?
· What is your goal/target/objective for the future state of your company?
· What are the things that need to happen to achieve your goals?
A very important aspect of the Strategic PlanimplementTactical Plans is that is does NOT go into excruciating detail about how to the plan. Those aspects are detailed in individual that are generated to implement the strategy.
A VERY simplified example: say you are working from home and want to move into an outside office. The basic essence of your plan would be:
· Working at home in a home office.
o Monthly Sales are currently xxxx
o Monthly Expenses are currently yyyyy
o Monthly Profit of zzzzzz
o Home office occupies xxx sq ft
o Unable to meet with clients at home
o There are many distractions at home, including x, y, z.
o The is not enough space for xxxxxxx
· In 12 months be renting/leasing external office space.
o Location will be xxxxxxx
o Amount of sq ft will be at least xxx sq ft
o Street traffic will be yyyyyyyyy
o Cost per sq ft will be zzzzzzzz
· Increase sales by $2,000 per month.
o Move into another vertical market space
o Generate passive income
o Increase sales to existing customers
o Obtain new customers
This 3rdTactical Plans bullet is then expanded on in much greater detail within generated for each of the sub-bullets.
Your Strategic Plan will most likely have far more than only one goal. Perhaps in the example above about the home office some other goals could be:
· Be in the top 10 companies in sales volume for my product/service in the city of xyz.
· Hire two assistants
· Lower the Cost of Sales to less than 5% of the service/product sales price
· Etc., Etc., Etc
The Strategic Plan is the tool you use to focus on WHERE you want your company to be in x years.
As times change, so to should your Strategic Plan.
Marketing Plans
Last time I talked about general Business Plans and the need to get something in writing. Today I’d like to expand that theme and talk about Marketing Plans.
So what is a Marketing Plan? A Marketing Plan details what it is you are selling, what market sectors you are selling to, whom you want to sell it to and what kind of market share can you expect.
After writing the various bits of your plan, the order that you present it should be something like what follows. Keep in mind that some people prefer different orders or flows to the data. No one way is correct for everyone, if you feel something should be presented in a different order than I have it that’s okay. Every company I have written these plans for tweaks it to their own style.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This is where you summarize all of the details that you write first. This should be the very last section that you write.
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Here is where you describe, in a fair amount of detail, what exactly it is you are selling. Tell what it is, what it looks like, how it works, how it is superior to similar products/services, etc.
SWOT ANALYSIS (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
Strengths and Weaknesses are internal while Opportunities and Threats are external.
PEST ANALYSIS (Political, Economic, Social and Technical)
Political, Economic & Social are external items while Technical can be internal or external.
MARKET SIZE
Here is where you talk about the overall size of the total market, not what you expect to sell into that market. If you are targeting different markets than they are all listed here.
MARKET DETAILS
This is the “meat” of your Marketing Plan. Describe the markets, the customers, why they would want your product, the pricing models, percent of sales in each sector, how you will find clients, the market trends, your advantages and disadvantages, barriers to entry for anyone wishing to pursue this market, sample of companies that you are targeting, etc.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Here is where you list your primary competitors and how you will address them in the marketplace. Sometimes it is more applicable to put this information under each market if you are selling into different market sectors.
MARKET STRATEGY
Here you talk about branding, pricing strategy, product/service distribution, promotions and ad campaigns, etc.
APPENDIX
The last section is the appendix and it is where you insert details such as where your market information came from, insert reports, white papers, government studies, etc.
Posted in General, Planning, Sales / Marketing
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Business Plans
No matter how small the business, every business needs a business plan.
It doesn’t need to be elaborate or consume 1,000 hours to create. A plan on a napkin is better than no plan at all. Then all of your business decisions should be according to the plan.
Start with the basics:
- What is the market you are serving?
- Who are your customers?
- What are you providing? A product, service or both?
- What are your projected expenses?
- What are your projected revenues?
With this very basic information you can get a good feel for if you are on target with your advertising, monthly sales, monthly expenses, your purchasing decisions, etc.
Just get these basic items “written down”, yes you may have them in your head but writing them down gives clarity and substance to the vision you have for your business. You can always flesh it out if you like with more details and information, which will be helpful should your business need a loan. But for now, just start with the basics and see if it doesn’t help move you forward.
Also keep in mind that Business Plans are not cut in stone. As the market needs change, or your needs change, you change the plan as necessary. That isn’t to say you change things on a whim, but if major forces dictate a change in plan then change the plan.
Other plans you may wish to consider are: Marketing/Sales Plans, Strategic Plans, Operating Plans, Etc. There is a lot of planning that needs to be done to “successfully” run a business. It doesn’t have to be complex, just a sentence or two to capture your thought process and so you and others can refer to it later.
Now go out there and sell millions!