Do you have poor expense hygene? Do you have a stack of receipts that haven't been tidied up? This product has saved me: www.Shoeboxed.com. Shoeboxed is an amazing product. So handy - you just scan every receipt when you buy something on the go using your mobile phone. Or if you buy something on your mobile or your PC - just send the receipt in by email. At the end of the month, all you do is run through the list of receipts - ensure that Shoeboxed system coded them properly and there you go. You can run your expense report as a spreadsheet, a nicely organised PDF or import it directly into your bookkeeping tool. Expenses goes from a painful process to a simple, easy one.

Shameless Self-Promotion

Some exciting news! One of our new ventures just one a prize!!

Our interactive gameshow format - where we link a mobile phone to a TV show has just won an award for best new children's show in Finland where we first produced it.

http://www.kultainentv.fi/tiedotteet.php

Golden TV award from domestic TV programs and performers

The second time in the TV Golden Gala was awarded for the best program in Finland, as well as the star performers. Television industry leaders celebrated the award-winning programs on Sunday, 11 january restaurant Freda 51: Code. The public had the opportunity to follow a direct broadcast on MTV3 channel.

The golden-TV competition, participated in the 2008 during a domestic-produced television programs. TV and media sector broadly representative jury chose from among the year's best programs for 10 different categories. The public had the opportunity to vote for the best male and female performers, as well as the best domestic television program. The competition organized by a Finnish audio-visual producers - SATU ry.

"The jury's work was a great track, because the programs, there was a clear orientation and the lively debate. The competition winners have included great new entrants as well as the duration of favorites widely different channels, "said SATU Association's Executive Stiina Valley.
Golden TV winners:

Golden TV Awards in 13 categories were distributed as follows:

1. Entertainment and Music Program:

Dance Star Kanssa
Production: Zodiak Television Ltd / Broadcasters
Executive Producer: Jane Besmond, Saku Tuominen
Instructor: Niko Nykänen
Screenwriter: Hanna Tiusanen
Channel: MTV3, the corresponding producer Sari Valtanen

2. Comedy Program:

Ketonen & Myllyrinne
Production: Production Ltd. coruscate
Producer: Ilmo Laevuo
Instructor: Mikko Mattila
Käsikirjoittajat: Kari Ketonen, Ville Myllyrinne
Channel: Sub, a subscription Maaretta Tukiainen

3. Lifestyle Program:

Strömsö
Channel: YLE FST5
Production: Svenska YLE / Facts, producer Johanna Sten Back

4. Reality Program:

Hospital
Production: Moskito Television Ltd.
Executive Producer: Tarja Ahava, Topi Salo, Roope Lehtinen
Producers: Pauliina Koutala, Anna Perho
Instructor: Tomi Yli-Suvanto
Suppliers: Nanna Ripattila-fire Gripen, Ninni Rokosa, Virpi Aaltonen
Channel: Nelonen, producer Tea Panula

5. Talk show / talk show:

Levengood Finland
Channel: YLE TV1
Production: YLE Culture, producer Jouko Salo Korpimäki
Director: Helena Kokko

6. Drama Program:

Rarely available
Production: Production House Ltd
Executive Producer: Liisa Akimof
Director: Veikko Aaltonen
Screenwriter: Johanna Hartikainen
Channel: YLE TV1, a subscription Harri Virtanen

7. Game show:

Fiksumpi than school
Production: Solar Television Ltd.
Executive Producer: Petteri Ahomaa
Producer: Martti Sivonen
Instructor: Niko Nykänen
Channel: MTV3, producer Hanna Myller

8. Children's Program:

Birgitta Ursäkta!?
Production: Ab Sveng.com Production Ltd..
Executive Producer: Jan-Olof Lathes
Director: Walter Söderlund
Käsikirjoittajat: Ted Forsström, Kaj High-aho
Channel: YLE FST5, producer Petra Holm

9. News and the program:

Incorrect, Tuomas Enbuske
Production: Van Der Media Ltd.
Executive Producer: Minna von Reiche
Producer: Jarkko Luoma
Instructor: Erkko Lyytinen
Reporters: Anna Perho, Riku Siivonen
Channel: YLE TV1, a subscription Ari Ylä-Anttila

10. Multimedia 360 degrees:

Operation Monday
Production: Nordisk FilmTV
Executive Producer: Antti Väisänen
Producer: Mirtta Salonen
Screenwriter and director: Jack Pyylampi
Channel: Nelonen, the corresponding producer Tea Panula
Nelonen Media, operaatiomaa.fi concept: the producer Juha Hätönen

Bootstrapping Tools

I am going to start to keep a running list of ways to do things that could cost a fortune, but can be done for very little when you are starting up a company.

Ever since the dot.com era, young entrepreneurs seem to believe that the only way they will be able to achieve lift-off of their company is using venture capital.  In fact, the vast majority of successful startups don't use VC financing - certainly not in their early stages. 

Marketing & Branding

Logos.  It is so easy to spend a fortune developing a logo.  Sometimes, rightly so.  However, for a startup, you need something that is nice, remarkable even.  But you can survive if it is not yet an icon. 

Rather than paying a design agency a lot of money to come up with a limited set of ideas - Crowdsourcing design ideas is an incredibly effective way to go.

99designs.com is such a site.   You can get a number of designers working on your logo needs for free, then you pick the best of the bunch and work with them to completion at a budget you can manage very carefully.

Googlising the world and other sources of venture ideas and opportunities

I am always trying to find fresh ways to look at the world and to identify opportunities for my ventures. One of my favorite sources is reading what smart forward-looking people are talking about or writing about. I use their views on the way things could unfold to better define a venture idea or to help push an existing idea further forward and make it more specific yet.

These are a few people who I think provide great raw materials.

Jeff Jarvis is a talented writer, blogger (its worth reading his Buzzmachine blog) and academic. He has just written a new book "What Would Google Do?" that should provide some fantastic ideas about what happens if you apply Google's business model in other industries. As he says "The idea: I try to reverse-engineer the success of the fastest growing company in the history of the world, the one company that truly understands how to succeed in the internet age, and then take those lessons and apply them to a number of industries, companies, and institutions, from carmakers to restaurants to universities to government." Many interesting new venture ideas embedded in there I am sure.

Thomas Friedman recently wrote about a similar idea - what would happen if Steve Jobs took over the American Car Manufacturing business. What would the iCar look like? Reading through his latest book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, as well as his previous book, the World is Flat is a great source of ideas on where there are emerging opportunities in the world linked to changing demands on energy consumption and living patterns.

Malcom Gladwell's books are full of ideas. I found Tipping Point, Blink, and now Outliers to be fascinating and motivating reading.

From Blink alone I developed two business ideas that I launched. One idea came from him talking about a fantastic music testing business called Promosquad. Check out the site and you will find a place where you can listen to and give your opinion about new music. I loved the idea of using crowdsourcing to help identify strong new musical talent, and I saw ways to apply this in the publishing world. On the back of that idea I launched Rapport, an on-line book concept and book cover testing venture that has had some fantastic successes helping publishers make reader-informed decisions about what covers and blurbs will best market a book.

I'd be interested to know what other books you have found are good ones for stimulating ideas and fresh takes on how the world is changing.

An exciting moment – our innovative product nominated for an award!

One of the things that I miss as an entrepreneur is that you never really get feedback. You typically don't get feedback from your peers. Reviews are not really part of the daily business when your team is busy just trying to ensure the venture is successful!

So perhaps that is why it is very satisfying when you can have a moment of vanity and celebrate someone else saying something that you are doing is good. Of course, the best way is when people are willing to pay your business large fees or end users are adopting the product or service.

Today we got the other kind of celebration – our business was nominated for an award – TV Show of the Year. Granted this is only in Finland, but that is where we have piloted a new concept of linking mobile phones to a programme. And it seems that people have liked it. We're excited to take this concept further, so a nice way to see some recognition. Here is a link to our nomination – now fingers crossed! http://www.kultainentv.fi/finalistit.php.

 

Social Venture Competition - The Power of Us: Re-Imagine Media

Ashoka, one of the leaders in the universe of social ventures, has launched a new social venture competition.  

www.changemakers.net

They are taking a very unusual approach to their competition - every entry is "open source" with a discussion of each project idea done transparently.  

If you are feeling motivated - this is a perfect time to enter the competition.  There is one running now - would be unfolding during the early stages of NBV.  If you win, it could provide $25,000 to get a new venture moving forward.

Worth a look!

Books on networking

There are innumerable books on networking. As with any business book, I find the best thing to do is read them quickly and pull out the nuggets that are helpful to you.

These are two books that had some useful nuggets for me recently.

Despite the title of Never Eat Alone - Keith Ferrazzi has some useful ideas on how to build momentum for your career and your business developing and leveraging your contacts. For those of you who are expert at this, you won't learn much. For those of you who are developing this skill, you may find his ideas helpful.




A new book by two INSEAD professors. Haven't read it yet - but I like what they are writing about in their blog so I think that the book is probably worth a read. Will let you know. Have ordered copy for my return to London next week.