I’m on a bit of a roll today. I also found this link from a VC that gives a concise view of their requirements for submitting a business idea to them for funding. I found the Elements of Sustainable Companies particularly interesting. Check out the page here.

I just found a great presentation over at SlideShare. It gives a great introduction into the different pieces of documentation for your business concept and communicating the concept to different interested parties. It also include some very pragmatic advice on getting started and some basic templates for the documents.

Check it out here.

Sometimes it’s hard to see the forest for the trees.  I was on another conference call this week with some business partners in India and it occured to me the ease with which I could collaborate with people around the globe now.  Email is obvious but there are so many other great, and quite often free, tools available to be able to communicate and collaborate.  I thought I’d give a quick rundown of the tools that I can’t live without.

• Skype.  This may be a little obvious, but I love skype.  The ease, the flexibility, the price!  There are other tools out there as well that all let you conduct voice or video calls like Google talk and Microsoft’s live messenger.  They’re all great.  For some reason I use Skype.  You can pick your own.
• Google docs is amazing.  You can write, store, share and collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, presentations and pdfs.  You should definitely check this out as it’s great to be able to be simulataneously editing a document while chatting with someone across the globe on Skype.  It’s also great because Google are continuously improving it and it’s getting better every day.
• Acrobat.com is also great.  They’re building a suite of web base document tools that you can use for collaboration.  I must admit that I don’t really use these but they do look a lot nicer than Google docs.  What I do use though is the screen sharing tool.  This thing is great and it’s free!  It allows you to share your screen with anyone who has an internet connection and a web browser.  Again there are a number of other options available but I don’t know that I’ve found any that are free.  One that comes to mind is GoToMeeting, however I don’t think this one is free.

Just a quick post.  Hope these tools are useful.  If you’ve got any others that you think are great then please feel free to post a comment.

**Update**

Just thinking after this post that you should make sure that you’re comfortable with the terms of service for any of these services.  Sometimes the owner of the service may be taking ownership of your content if you use the service.  An example of the different approaches are the google docs and google docs for google apps terms of service.  Make sure you read and understand if you’re using these tools for business (and even personal) use.

I’ve decided that I should put up a page with links to resources that I’m collecting along the way.  I’ll update it whenever I refer to something in a post.  If you think that there is anything you’d like to add or recommend, then please let me know and I’ll put it on the list.

It’s taken forever to get this post together. I’ve been busy, but I don’t think that that’s the entire reason it’s taken me so long. I’ve just struggled with getting my thoughts in order. I think getting a business partner is, for me at least, one of the most important things that can kick start your business adventures or give it a good kick in the you know where. I guess that means that you should choose carefully.

To be blunt, I’m interested in shoring up my weaknesses and sharing the load. I have plenty of flaws, just like the next person and any typical human being. As most of the readers in the early days of Ditch the Office already know me, there’s probably a few nodding heads at the moment. Anyway, let’s get into it.

Why get a partner?
These are probably pretty obvious.  Remember though, no stupid questions.  I think that getting a business partner is a good idea for the following reasons:

• Greater than the sum – corny and clichéd, I know, but it’s actually true when you can find someone to work with where you can come to a better result than either of your could come to individually. Two heads are better than one.
• Spread the workload – enough said really. Two pairs of hands are better than one. This is especially important if you’re working your day job at the same time.
• Spread the skills – Fill the gaps. I know I’m not an expert at everything. I want someone else who can balance my skills and weaknesses.
• Generate ideas – This is really important for me. I find that the ideas flow when you have someone to discuss them with.
• Motivation – You know how you’ll go running if someone is waiting for you? Same deal applies here.
• It’s fun to share – Yep, warm and fuzzy. Sharing the experience with someone else is more rewarding.

I wrote this piece and then decided to see if there were some other opinions out there.  I particularly liked the reasons for getting a business partner here.

How to get a partner?
There’s no rocket science here.  Get out there!

• Networks – Yep, speak to people about your interest. This is the way that I’ve found a few people that are interested in some self employed adventures. You’ll find them in the weirdest place – maybe even at home! Now, I’m not the world’s most effective socialite but I understand the power of networks. I’m working on getting better at networking as relationships make the world go round, not money. That just comes after (maybe).
• Entrepreneur groups – Find yourself an entrepreneur group or network. I’ve put some links at the bottom that may be of assistance.
• Perseverance – I kept looking until I found one. Pretty straightforward really. I think I’m probably annoying a lot of my friends as I’m always on the lookout for opportunities now. I’m the same with being open to trying to get stuff done with other people.

What does it mean to have one?
I’m in the throes of pursuing a few opportunities at the moment, each with a business partner or two, and I’m not going to pretend that I’ve run into all the situations. I see it this way – you’ve got to have trust and respect in any healthy relationship and this is no different. All the relationship counseling you’ve ever heard on TV with those neurotic America sitcoms applies here too.

Some other things to consider about having a partner:

• Making sure you’re both in it for the same reason or, at a minimum, for the same outcome.
• Plan for when you’re not going to be partners. I think there is something called a buy-sell agreement that is basically your exit strategy from any business endeavor with a business partner.

This is probably the area that I’m least aware of at this stage. I’m sure that I have plenty to learn. At this stage I’m only aware of some of the horror stories like bullying, unable to get your, fraud etc etc. I think that the benefits I’ve listed above are more than enough to warrant getting into it up to your neck with someone else.

And what about me?
And* good on you for asking.  I’m taking the easy way out on this one and I’ll justify it with a “everyone’s different and your personal circumstances will guide your own decisions and choices”. Soft huh? If you’ve got any form of self-awareness then you should probably be able to tell if you’ll play nice with someone else. If you’re greedy, for example, you may elect to save others from the wrath of your green streak.
Resources (I spent 23 seconds on Google)

• http://www.tie.org/
• http://www.tenonline.org/
• http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/cities/au/sydney/

*On a side note, being the English language giant that I am, I do know from my grade 8 English education that you can’t start a sentence with “And”. I find that it’s interesting to write that way sometimes and recently I heard a great piece on the use of language by Stephen Fry (British comedian and of Fry and Lawry fame – Lawry went on to be House, you know the annoying Doctor with a chip so big on his shoulder it makes him limp?). And as they say “But I digress!”. I’m sure you’re not allowed to start a sentence with “But” either.

I’m currently hard at work spending my free time trying to turn an idea for an online classifieds business that I had about 18 months ago into reality. There’s so many things to do. Even if it is a relatively straightforward idea, there’s a load of stuff to get done to get anything worth putting in front of customers or community.  All that “stuff to get done” means that I’m learning a huge amount.  Hey, I need to get content for Ditch the Office from somewhere don’t I?

One of the more fun and entertaining things we’ve done is to name the business (or product in this case).  Maybe the name is important and maybe it’s not, but it definitely not straight forward these days.  No more AAA Repairs, Geoff’s Meat’s or Linda’s Bookkeeping. Particularly with web businesses, this is (or was depending on who you talk to) the era of missing vowels.  My business partner and I came up with the name furcle.  Well, what did you expect for an online business?  I’ll post some more info on what furcle is in the not to distant future when we’ve got some more information.

I’ve recorded the recipe that my business partner and I used to get a name. Some of the tools that I’ve mentioned are Australian specific so you may need to try to find something similar in your own countries. So, without further adieu, the Business Name Recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 sheet of brand identity
• 2 heaped tablespoons of humour
• A bunch of verbs, nouns, sayings and euphemisms
• 1 Internet domain name search tool
• 1 local trademarks search tool
• 1 business name search tool
• 1 random word generator tool (optional)
• 1 workshop bowl
• A dash of creativity
• 1 teaspoon of inspiration

Method

1. Preheat your brain
2. Line a buttered baking tray with a layer of your brand identity.  This ethereal step is necessary to provide you with some guidance to the nature of the name that will reach to your customers.  What does your brand mean?
3. Break up the bunch of verbs, nouns, sayings and euphemisms into a workshop bowl, add the humour, creativity and inspiration and work them thoroughly together.  Make sure you try combinations of the bunch (like taking pieces of words an piecing them together or if you’re struggling to get some words, try some of the random word tools listed below).
4. Keep mixing and watch for a particular verb, noun, saying or ehpamism that keeps rising to the top.  Skim it and place it aside.
5. Take the skimmed item and run it through the Internet domain name search tool.  You’re looking for a match against the ubiquitous “.com” domain or your country specific domains (e.g. “.au” for australia “.co.uk” for the UK etc).  If your name passes this step then continue to the next.  If it does not then return to step 4.
6. Take the same name and check it against your local/national/international business name registries to make sure you’re going to be able to use it. If your name passes this step then continue to the next.  If it does not then return to step 4.
7. Take the same name and check it against your local/national/international trademarks registries to make sure you’re going to be able to use it.  If your name passes this step then continue to the next.  If it does not then return to step 4.
8. Once the name is passed through these tools, place it on the sheet of brand identity on the baking tray
9. Repeat steps 4 to 7 until you’re happy you have enough options to fill the sheet of brand identity.
10. Wrap the words in the sheet of brand identity and bake in your brain for a few days.  If you’re into slow cooking, them you can leave it there for up to a couple of weeks.
11. As the sheet of brand identity shrinks to fit the names, you’ll find that it fit’s better on some or others.  Take the one that is the best fit and serve!  If you have a couple, then stick it back in the brain for a few days until there’s only one left.  If that doesn’t work then just pick one.

Reference

Here’s some reference materials to help you to get the best out of the recipe:

• Popular Internet domain domain name search tools eNom, Godaddy, MelbourneIT (for .au domains)
• Australian business name registry run by ASIC.  You can also try the ABNLookup for Australian Business Number checkes
• IPAustralia – Trademark registrations database
• Here’s a random word generators on the web, and here, and here, and here.
• Google is your friend if you need to find any of the above in your local area.

Happy naming!  I hope your recipe turns out.  We’re hoping furcle does and initial taste testing with a few people says that it’s promising.

By the way.  If this is a little obtuse or confusing, them please free to contact me via the comments and maybe I can give you some further help.