Multiple topics

TOPIC 1.
Marty Fahncke, an outstanding direct-response marketer, finally convinced me to join with him as he launches http://www.learnfrompaulallen.com. I guess he really couldn\’t have done it without me. Our first conference call, where I will answer questions from listeners about internet marketing and other entrepreneurial topics, will be held on Thursday, September 7th at 1 pm MST. This is a free conference call, so register now for one of the limited spaces.

Please don\’t think because I\’m doing this that I know everything or that I wouldn\’t rather be learning from someone else. I view this whole conference call experience as a group learning experience. Like my brainstorm lunches, I love the questions entrepreneurs ask and the answers that everyone else at the lunches give. We all can learn from one another.

TOPIC 2.
In the last week, I\’ve been promoting the Provo Labs Academy, where we provide office space and internet marketing training to startup companies for as little as $200 per month.

We\’ve had nearly 30 inquiries so far, and two individuals who want to promote the Academy for commission. A large local newspaper wants to do a story about the Academy. And the city has been showing a lot of support. Economic development activity, according to Governor Huntsman, drives everything else by providing funds for education and transportation. Provo City really supports entrepreneurial activity. I am thankful for all they are doing to support the Academy.

Before we spend tens of thousands of dollars on furniture, equipment, and phones, I decided to create a little online survey for all of our possible tenants. It took me about 20 minutes to write 4 survey questions after signing up for freeonlinesurveys.com. It\’s an okay tool. Does anyone out there use something else that they like even more?

Once we get feedback from the possible tenants on their phone and computer needs, then we\’ll make the necessary purchases. It is so nice to have email and the web to attract customers and then find out when they want.

My favorite experience in finding out customer needs was at MyFamily.com where as VP Marketing I wrote many surveys every week (sometimes several in a single day) and got thousands of responses every day from our active users. I loved finding out what my customers liked, disliked, and wanted us to do next.

TOPIC 3.
The FundingUtah.com speedpitching event at Thanksgiving Point yesterday was superb. Out of the 10 companies that pitched, Simplifile was rated the best pitch by the investors there. But there were several other excellent ones as well, including more than one company that was profitable. One of my favorites is a company that had its first profitable month in August after 18 months in business. None of the six founders have ever been paid. They are all working to create future equity value. Hopefully they\’ll get funding so they can eventually pay themselves, but I am very inspired by a team of entrepreneurs who can build a great company simply because they don\’t take any salaries.

If all startups did that, I bet nearly 100% of them would survive.

TOPIC 4.
I\’m speaking at the Provo Orem Chamber of Commerce lunch on Friday. I think I\’ll talk a lot about how startups can become worth a lot if the founding team will defer all of their compensation.

I\’m listening to an audio book called the Portable MBA or something like that. It claims that companies that incorporate stay in business for at least 8 years 50% of the time. 25% of them are still run by the original entrepreneur. 25% of them are run by someone else.

I guess the really bad statistics about business failure might take into account companies that never incorporate. Maybe they were never really a serious business in the first place.

The author also says that 4 of 5 venture funded companies are still alive after 5 years.

TOPIC 5.
I accidentally posted this blog without a title. Makes me wonder how all the RSS readers out there will handle it? And how will it show up in MyYahoo, which usually links from the title of a blog post to the blog site.

So I\’ve updated the post and it now has a (lame) title. But does anyone know what happens out there if people post without titles?