With all the talk of iPads I thought I would express my love for my favourite pad. I will no doubt be an ipad lover soon also but nothing will replace my trusty Moleskine. Yes they are over priced notebooks but hey they seem to have some kind of soul.

Moleskine have worked a genius piece of mareking and somehow managed to pursuade people, (me included) that a note or sketch in a Molesine is that much more satisfying.

Here are a selection of works from people who feel the same. THere is so much out there that this hardly scratches the surface.

If you interested then visit http://www.skineart.com for loads work

Visit http://www.moleskine.com/ for the official take.. Load s of great stuff here including history , exhibitions etc

MY MOLESKINE (NOT A WORK OF ART)

FLOSKY

GO FLYING TURTLE

OFF KILTER ART

ANNA RUSAKOVA

MATISSA

UPDATE – Thanks to Catarino for finding this…Great book summarised in a Moleskine (Original post here http://gnatgnat.com/2010/05/rework-cheat-sheet/)

Here is a really neat idea I picked up off Mike Sikorsky over in Canada when I was there. It’s real simple but as often is with simple ideas…really effective

Essentially it describes a way to test the usefulness of your own feature ideas.

Given this typical scenario.

You spot some issue with your online app.
You decide that what’s needed is a new feature
You ask your users if it would prove useful.
They think it would.
So you build it. Launch it.. and..
No one uses it…and you’ve just spent hours creating more clutter!

Brilliant

So here is a really low impact way to check whether a feature will really be appreciated. The results are a good deal more telling than asking a community directly.

1. Create a link to your new feature, (Mike used the example of testing to see if a certain video was required by just producing an image of the video player)
2. Send the link to a 404 page, server busy or the way we do it with “Like to See” question
3. Track the number of click throughs
4. If no-one clicks then don’t build…simple…time cheap but really effective

We’ve used it loads recently for lots of small potential features and has saved us a ton of time

Crowdsourcing sounds like a great idea but venturing in to the world can be a little daunting. Having used sites like crowdSpring and elance for many years and now sitting on the other side at Wooshii I thought I would post some of the things I have learned that should help you make the most of them.

1. It is all in the brief – What do you really want?

This is the classic GIGO. The better your brief the better the end result, especially in creative projects. As a good friend of mine put it… “Creatives solve problems. Unless you can define the problem then they are just trying to solve a mess”

From my own experience it doesn’t matter whether you are sourcing a coder or a graphic designer the issue is the same. Provide them with as much info (but it keep it to the point) as you can and concentrate on your outcomes not the process.

What you really want is the solution to a problem. Accurately describe that and you can’t go far wrong.

2. Leap of Faith

Taking the plunge into Crowdsourcing can be a little daunting first time round. It feels a little foreign sending your work off into the webosphere. Believe me though you will get used to it. The trick is to remind yourself of the actual low risks at play. What is the worse that could happen?

Take $300 logo project if it all went horribly wrong, (and it won’t) what do you loose? $300 at the most.

3. Give new members a chance

If you have small non critical projects that you are prepared to crowdsource then try working with new members of a platform. What do I mean? Every platform will have established users with track records that you can check. These are great for projects that you need an air of certainty too BUT they will generally cost you more or won’t pitch on smaller projects.

You will often find that new users with no track record will go the extra mile and charge you less just to get off the starting blocks on a system.

4. Consider language

In a good deal of cases language is not a problem. In others such as complex website functions, being able to communicate point can become extremely frustrating if there is a language a barrier that you have to jump first. My tips
a. Is your project language dependant, visual projects often are not but complex functions or writing projects could well be
b. Use the evidence before you to determine a user’s language capabilities. What was their pitch like?

5. Ask for specific responses in your brief.

Some of the larger sites unfortunately have users that will just pitch on anything blind, taking no time to read your brief. You need to weed these out. In some cases it is possible to ask for a specific response. For example the way I manage this is to ask all submissions to include the word “Banana” in their pitch. Simple but effective

… Points 6 -10 to follow

I find the whole NoSpec movement rather a Luddite one although I understand why they exist, (us humans hate change)

So why do I mention them?.. Well I’ve been thinking about sites like crowdSpring and our own Wooshii and it further seems to back up why I think the whole campaign is a short sighted one.

I like sales! I like seeing sales happen and the journey a customer goes on for a sale to complete. From finding a customer in the first place right through to making sure they have an awesome time and return to buy again.

The most difficult part of sales is the first step, getting a new customer. Much easier to retain a customer (as explained by my good friend @permjtovalia over at businessangelblog.com)

Attaining new clients is also expensive. It takes time, cash and effort to get that customer to come through your door and actually spend money. You have to find them or pay to have them find you and then spend time and more money converting them from an observer to a paying client.

So it struck me that crowd sourcing sites like crowdSpring and Wooshii provide you with the perfect base to build up new customers.

Take the traditional route

1.Identify new customer → cash out
2.Spend cash on marketing campaign → cash out
3.Identify warm leads → cash out
4.Qualify leads → cash out
5.Sell services → cash out
6.Convert to paying client → cash out
7.Do work ← cash in
8.Gain feedback on process ← knowledge in
9.Sell services again

Almost at every step you are expelling cash and not gaining any meaningful feedback until right at the end of the process

Now what if you were to look at a crowd sourcing site as a lead generation engine

1.View a list of fully qualified and hot leads
2.Pitch on projects → cash out
3.Gain feedback on process ← knowledge in
4.Win Project ← cash in
5.Sell services again

Follow the the second route and

• Your time to cash is reduced massively
• Your feedback is almost instant and
• you quickly attain new clients

You are only really limited by your own awesomeness. Conduct your pitching properly and you should quickly gain knowledge and insight into what makes for a good pitch.

I know from my own experience using sites like elance and freelancer that once you have found a reliable freelancer you stick with them and are often prepared to pay a premium to do so.

In short sites like these should be seen as enormous opportunity to win new business and get paid to do so. How many other lead generation methods do you know that give you cash and feedback that quickly.

Some of you may know that I work very closely with this guy, Permjot Valia on a number of projects, (he is also an investor in Wooshii)

He recently posted a really neat blog over at businessangelblog.com. The original is here but I wanted to comment on some of it here as it smack of some really great truths.

Some businesses have been having a particular hard time of it recently, (economic downturns and recessions have that effect). From downturns though comes massive opportunity and the big winners of the coming 20 years will undoubtedly be born in the coming two.

So how do you keep going as an entrepreneur when your current business has just failed or is failing? How do you find the power and inspiration to reinvent or push on through? Below are Permjots views. My view is that entrepreneurs will have some of this inherently but as I am big believer that entrepreneurship can be taught many of the suggestions below are great to reflect on. Mine are in brackets.

1. Never stop believing in yourself. Really tough at times. Over the last few years, I have had a real roller coaster of a journey with business. My self-belief took a knock – but never a dive.

2. Remember that the line between success and failure is very thin. Sometimes luck and timing does play a part in your success. My biggest success to date is Flight & Partners. Yet this business came about because of huge dollops of luck. To deny this is arrogance. But yes, lots of things happened to ensure that when the opportunity arose I was able to take advantage. But in that sense we make ourselves willing recipients of luck!

[See previous post and Steve Job's views on faith in dots that join]

3. Keep yourself fresh. I find going to the gym a real struggle and mostly I fail! But it is a proven way to keep your emotions in a good place. Other ways include reading new books, cooking something new, going out to watch a movie. Anything will do.

[For me surfing is my big equaliser. It is social and active. Exercise gives you energy and physical fitness relates directly to mental agility. Creative thought is an unconscious process and often the solution to a problem will only come when you focus your thoughts elsewhere. Surfing requires that you become completely focused on the moment and solutions to annoying problems will often present themselves mid session. ]

4. Work with great people. The best thing I learned from the F&P experience was that when you work with truly great people who are experts in their field – you get the leverage effect. Your time is the most precious resource – so spend it wisely

[Great people also inspire you to be better. I am lucky to have two great co-founders at Wooshii, (James and Sean) who both creatively and technically run circles round me. I feel a definite responsibility to ensure I am holding up my end of the deal through my work at Wooshii to ensure it is a success. Recently we added anew member to the team. He is proving to be a bit of a legend in his own particular field and this again spurs me to be better at what I do]

5. Make sure you meet your friends on a regular basis. I always feel recharged about life after a good chat with friends.

[Or if you work with them ensure you spend time out of the office. I do not believe in the "Lets not talk about businesses tonight" idea. For me most of the best ideas come out of the work place, around the kitchen table or in the pub but you need time to foster relationships and a good meal can do wonders for the next days work activities]

6. Most of all, be honest with yourself and make sure you remain enthused about your business. I do think that sometimes we feel compelled to carry on supporting something, long after we have lost its allure. If you are at this point, find someone else to run it.

[Be honest with yourself and every one round you. No one can help you if they don’t know the real situation]

7. But the best tip I would urge you to follow is to set yourself monthly resolutions. Hope springs eternal! Just like New Year resolutions lets you set aside the failures of last year – and start again, why not just do it on a monthly basis.

[A nice tip and particularly relevant for Wooshii. We try and break our targets into 3 months and then work backwards from there]

(I should say at the outset this post was inspired by Ross Kimbarovsky recent video post and in fact the last two points ring very similar)

So Wooshii has been running now for around 6 months and I thought I would share some of the lessons learned. These are personal thoughts and relate obviously to my specific case. I do think however that there are lessons in here for anyone who is thinking of starting a new business.

Here at Wooshii although we have raised a very small amount of seed capital we are really boot strapping this business. The three founders all have other business that we keep ticking over in order to keep us alive. This brings with it whole host of challenges,

Why Bootstrap?

• It gives you a chance to turn an idea into a business and thus give it some value
• There is no better market research than actually selling your service
• Your proposition is a whole load more investable in if you have already built the product, gained the patent, made some sales or built and worked with a team
• It ingrains a frugal culture and ensures that only people passionate about your business are involved
• Expensive mistakes are cheap

How to make it work

1. Do something you love – If you’re not it will it will be twice as difficult to stick at it when you’re working at 2 am for next to nothing

2. With people who are great – Great people around you will inspire, share your vision, pick you up when you are down and add to number one.

3. Pull in some early heavy weights – We raised a tiny amount of seed capital for 2 reasons. One of those was so that we had a number of heavy weight players that both gave us credibility and contacts as well as a board that reminds you this is a serious proposition

4. Work out what you can drop – Simply put something has to give, especially if you are still having to work on other projects to keep this business alive. For me it was simple I was not prepared to drop family time or surfing BUT everything else TV, crafts, evenings out, holidays has gone. (Again having a good number one helps again here)

5. Have a plan – If your business to is scalable then you cannot bootstrap forever. You will need outside funding. So have a plan. Set dates at which you will start seeking funding and targets to achieve by those dates that will make your business even more attractive.

I rarely post on my own blog unless I find something that really strikes me but today I feel unusually compelled having just read a post that I feel should be spread.

As a start it is no secret that I find it depressing the way business is portrayed by TV programs such as “The Apprentice”. Cut throat, sell your own grandmother, anything to get the deal.. that kind of bullshit. I consider the way Alan Sugar is portrayed, (I don’t know him personally) as the “Old Guard”.

Dragons Den is marginally better. It gets you analysing business in the right way and there is a good deal to be learnt from the episodes recurring themes and questions. The incessant need, however, of the Dragons to almost boost there own egos by pressing deals out of terrified entrepreneurs on TV, does my nut. Peter Jones also strikes me as being one of the old guard and never too afraid of a win-lose deal

[All this said they make for great entertainment which I guess is the point]

Today an acquaintance of mine Kieron Donoghue wrote a great post on selling one of his business successes, UKOffer. I was introduced to Kieron through a mutual friend Permjot Valia over at businessangelblog. You can check Kieron’s blog out at here.org.uk for the full story along with a profile of the guy. In short Kieron is a bit of an affiliate marketing guru but more recently has been making waves with 2 of his other services contentnow and, (in my view) a potential big hitter, sharemyplaylists.com

Budding and aspiring entrepreneurs would do well to read Kieron’s recent post. This is the new guard and by entrepreneurs publicly proclaiming methods like this hopefully some of the message will get passed onto the next generation of entrepreneurs.

It is not about how much, who wins or who has the biggest bollocks. Entrepreneurship is about leading people to create something that makes the world better, inspires change and innovates.

Viral Marketing powered by Wooshii.com

I am a big fan of crowdSPRING. I love what they do the way they do it and Ross Kimarovsky (a crowdSPRING founder) comes across as humble, approachable and hands out knowledge freely.

Ross recently wrote on his personal blog a great piece on attaining your early user base. (Actually he filmed it but hey.) One of his main points was engaging and empowering your early users.

As one of the founders of Wooshii I have been given that awesome job. I say awesome as when heading up a new company like ours engaging with your early users is just so important as it gives me a real incite into how our business should be growing and what users actually want form our service.

I was reminded of how important this all was today. I recently registered at site called magntize.com. Check it out. Other than being an interesting idea it also has one of the slickest signup processes I’ve ever used. Today I get an email from these guys.

Thanks for signing up with magntize! Your blog looks really cool. I agree that the new apple mouse is gorgeous, although my friend has one and it felt a little strange, almost too flat on my palm. Do you have one yet? Best of luck with the business stuff and keep surfing!

Don’t hesitate to touch base if you have any questions about your site. My cell number can be found via the link below

Wow! That is fantastic. Not only have they taken the time to look me up they have supplied me with a cellphone number to contact them on should I need any help. It has had the desired impact. I will be back on their site.

Awesome !

(Origanally written for Wooshii)

If i do work for a pitch then that is spec work

Well only in the sense that the more work you do the higher the chances of winning with a pitch .What makes the design industry so exceptional that we don’t have to do work before winning work? I have run and worked in many companies and I don’t know of a single instance where you don’t have to do some work in order to gain work.. that is how it does work .. (So to speak)

But sites like Wooshii are driving down the market

I totally disagree. The market is changing, shifting and the cashflow is shifting with it. It is becoming more competitive but the economics are just shifting. The same amount of money exists in the system it is now just spread differently.

But I need to live. I can’t live off what is being paid anymore.

There is no getting away from new markets and changing economies. So change your model. Markets change. Just look at the music industry. Stand still, moan and you will fail. Innovate, change, dare I say be creative and you will succeed.

I am a professional-level designer and I won’t participate in work on spec

That is fine. (Not that we draw any real distinction between you and an “amateur”. To us our users are just “creative”.)You probably have a good bunch of clients and are working with established brands. What Wooshii is all about is connecting the rising stars, the new creatives the stay at home moms, students, amateurs with people who want to tap into their talent. Our users are passionate about what they do and would do it anyway regardless of any financial reward. We want to challenge the notion that agencies and professionals hold the keys to creativity.

Is Spec Work Evil (thanks to I’m Just Creative for this)

Ask most seasoned designers or employed creatives and you will get a big meaty ‘yes’, SpecWork is evil. Ask those creatives struggling to make a living, those who have lost a job and find themselves without a personal portfolio, those just starting out or those seeking to earn a living whilst living with a illness and you are likely to get quite the opposite reply.

If you find it easy to judge those mentioned above, the ones that do participate in SpecWork as being reckless and irresponsible, then you ‘Creative Person’ need to open your eyes to the reality of the world. (see full article here)

So in a nutshell give it too me

1. Live and let live – There are different markets for different parties
2. Markets change – Change is always difficult but embrace it or be the changing force and you will surely succeed
3. Enjoy it – If you enjoy it then the cash is just a bonus
4. “No one owns design” Graham Smith (or for that matter creative thought). We just do it. We love it and people sometimes want to pay us to do it which is awesome!
5. One mans SpecWork is another mans pitch. Just do what you feel comfortable with. If what you are being asked to do makes you feel uncomfortable then don’t do it.

Ok so only a few days after I start this blog and it starts dying. Why? Well Wooshii, went live a few days ago and it’s been all hands on deck for just over 3 weeks. Firstly I have to say how awesome it has been to watch the site come together the more the pressure has risen the better the site has got and we (or rather Jim and Sean) have pulled some awesome developments out of the bag in record time. We officially launched at the Ogilvy Social Media Day, (in good company I might add)

What amazed me at the event though is how being in a project can blind you to the actual customer requirements. Being in the industry I take services like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc for granted. I understand their power and how they can be utilised to promote brands, products and services. So Wooshii seems obvious to me, a service to help you instigate conversations around your brand.

What was patently clear from the event though was that using such services is a relatively new idea to many brands…OF COURSE ! Why would they consider it until it is mainstream enough to grab there attention.

Hopefully Wooshii is simple enough to understand as we have tried not to over engineered it but it would have been easy to do so. Lets se if we are right when we get our initial feedback.

The lesson I guess is listen at the start… but keep listening, listening, and listening.