10 Essential Lessons From Business With People

Over the past few years, I have started different businesses with fellow entrepreneurs.

All these businesses and ‘partnerships’ brought me new lessons and today’s post reflects on the Big Lessons these business journeys have provided.

But first some distinctions:

Partnership: A business owned and run by two or more partners.

Joint venture: It is temporary in nature and is terminated as soon as the venture is completed.

Shareholders: An owner of shares in a company – usually a limited company and shareholdings need not be equal.

Selecting a Business Partner Wisely

Business Partnerships are not unlike marriages – the separation (the divorce) can be very painful. 

"So just like choosing a life partner, choose your business partners carefully".

I am regularly amazed at just how casually people end up in business together.

Most people would not marry someone without some serious getting to know them time. Yet, I find people who have barely met going into business with each other – especially in today’s digital marketplace.

Is your potential partner a positive happy person? How do they react under pressure? Are they the kind of person who is vengeful and vindictive? Beware of anyone who boasts about getting ‘one over’ in a previous business dealing – because chances are one day it will be you that they will want to get ‘one over’.

OK they may have a skill or money that the business needs but if you can’t get on or respect each other it is going to be challenging for both of you.

Before reading this list I should say this is not Legal Advice – it is some key lessons from a personal perspective – hire and pay a professional for advice.

Additionally one thing I see a lot of is individuals referring to each other as partners – when no legal partnership agreement exists. Beware of this term – in some parts of the world if a true partnership exists you could be responsible for the debts of your partner.

OK, on to the main points:

1) 50% of something big, is better than 100% of nothing

You could argue that none of the businesses I created with partners would have ever happened, if I didn’t give up some ownership share and control.

2) It’s less stressful when you share responsibility.

This is especially good if say one of you is the writer / creative type and the other is say more technical.

3) Most people will choose what they want to do, not what is best.

This is a BIG one – all growing businesses have challenges – the road to the top is not a straight up arrow and there will be things that don’t go as planned. It is in those times that people often retreat into their comfort zone and do the things they like doing rather than the things that need doing. They fail to prioritize and if you don’t watch out the business will fail.

As Drew Houston (the founder of Dropbox) says:

"It’s OK to have growing pains, as long as you’re prioritizing correctly and working to address them. Every company looks messy from the inside."

4) Greed at some point usually takes over.

Strangely the more successful the business is the more reluctant some partners can be to share. This is why it is essential everyone knows their roles / responsibilities. For example in some ‘deals’ one individual may have the idea and put up the cash and thereafter have very little ‘work’ involvement while the other partner would on the surface appear to be working harder and sooner or later may forget it was the other partner who put up the cash / had the idea. As I say. it is essential to have an agreement on different roles clear and out in the open from the start.

5) Sometimes you have to admit defeat.

Give it your best shot – know in your heart you did your best but if for whatever reason it is not working out sometimes it best to cut your loses and move on.

6) Don’t rush to make any decisions.

But on the other hand don’t take days and weeks over something – but in my experience ‘sleeping on it’ (taking 24hrs) over a major decision can often be the wisest choice. Whatever you do – don’t make big decisions when feeling angry.

7. Everything needs to be in writing

All the important stuff needs to be in writing – make it a habit to record all major discussions and outcomes of discussions. Should there be a misunderstanding later – you can always refer back.

8) Open communication is paramount.

I can’t help my business partners solve problems if they don’t tell me about them. I can forgive people messing up, what is not acceptable, is hiding from it. Tell your business partner everything.

As Marcus Lemonis, – the “business turnaround king” and star of CNBC’s prime time reality series The Profit is quoted:

“If you guys can’t communicate as business partners, you can’t be in business together. If you can’t tell him what’s wrong, then you shouldn’t be in business together”

9) Communicate on the phone and in person.

I hardly ever get anything achieved over email. You often end up playing email tag, resolving things slowly, waiting for replies. (But of course once something has been decided – confirm in writing / email)

One person I use to be in business with, would often ‘forget’ what he agreed to. Every time he ended up owing me money, he would make it a point that I had to prove that we ever had an agreement. Everything we ever did was done on a handshake, which admittedly was a silly thing to do, but I get excited about my ideas and just want to push forward with them quickly. Hopefully I’m done making this mistake.

What amused me about this example is, everything was in my name, the domain, hosting, merchant and so on. He only ever had a problem with our verbal agreements when he had any control over what we were doing. See number 4.

I never had a problem with anyone when business is conducted face to face. It’s when you allow them to hide away, they see the opportunity to be dishonest.

10. Crazy people can be hard to spot.

People will tell you what they think you want to hear. They will paint the picture that they are happy, smart, sane and willing to work there ass off. Never go into business with mean people. Never go into business with people who must always be right!

In conclusion – it is important to be realistic in all business relationships. Of course with good due diligence you minimize the chances of failure – but sometimes it just doesn’t work out.

Our ability to handle failure and move on / start again is ultimately one of the most important success traits for an Entrepreneur.

I should also say Thank You to all my business partnerships – even the ones that didn’t work out. We are always learning..

And finally a great quote from John D. Rockefeller:

"A friendship founded on business is a good deal better than a business founded on friendship."

How to Create A Facebook Account

With Facebook having over a billion users and counting, it’s likely that plenty of your friends and family members already have a Facebook profile. It’s free and easy to join them, and only takes a few moments.  

Like most social networking sites, Facebook asks each potential user to create a user profile before they can join. This can contain as little or as much information as you want, although there are some mandatory details.  

Once you’ve created your profile, you can also adjust the privacy settings to specify which details you want to be made public  

You’ll need:  

• a computer with an internet connection
• an email account set up and ready to send and receive emails.

Follow these step-by-step instructions to join Facebook : 

Step 1: Go to the Facebook website. Under ‘Sign Up’, you will see several boxes that require information such as your name and email address.

Step 2: Both the gender and date of birth boxes have information in drop-down lists. Click an arrow to display a list where you can click on the data that matches your personal details.

When you’ve filled in all your details and entered your password, click the green Sign Up button.

Step 3: Facebook will now open your profile and ask you a series of questions to help you get started. ‘Step 1′ is designed to help you link up with friends who are already using Facebook.  

To do this, insert the email address that you used to create your profile (if it’s a webmail address such as Gmail) in the box provided and then click Find friends. Facebook will access your email contacts, match them up with existing Facebook users and make the latter your ‘friends’. 

If you don’t want to do this now or would prefer to do it manually, click Skip this step.  

Step 4: The next step – ‘Step 2′ – is intended to help you build your profile. Remember, people may be searching for Facebook users not just by name but also by school, university or employer. If you’ve decided to use Facebook to renew acquaintances, this information could prove invaluable in helping people find you.  

If you do want to provide this information, complete the boxes and click Save & Continue. However, if you decide that you’d rather not do this now, click Skip.

Step 5: The third step will ask you to add a ‘profile picture’. You can either click Upload a photo to install an existing photograph that you’ve saved on your computer or one that can be accessed from it or –  if you have a webcam that takes still images – you could click Take a photo.

Many people choose to use a picture of something other than themselves for their profile – for instance, a cartoon character or a photo of their children or a favourite pet. If you’d rather have nothing, click Skip. If you add a photo, remember to click Save & Continue when you have finished.

Enter your password again on the next page.

Step 6: This is the last step before you’re ready to start your Facebook adventure! 

Your brand new Facebook profile page will open with a bar at the top. Click the Go to your email button.

This will open your email inbox where you’ll find an email from Facebook containing a hyperlink. Click on this to verify that you’re the person who created the new profile.

You’ll then be logged into Facebook, ready to experience all that it has to offer.

Done!

How to Set Email On iPhone

So you’ve bought a brand new iPhone and want to connect your email account? Thankfully, Apple has made it a relatively simple and pain free task, but here’s our step-by-step guide just to make sure you get everything set up exactly how you want it.

You’ll need:

• An Apple iPhone
• An email account

Note: This guide was written for an iPhone 4 and 5, however the process is very similar for all iPhones.

Follow these step-by-step instructions to set-up your email on your iPhone:

Step 1: Tap the Settings app on your iPhone screen.

Step 2: Scroll down and tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

Step 3: Tap Add Account...

Step 4: You will now be taken to a screen with a number of email provider logos on it. Tap the name of the company who provides your email service. For this tutorial, we will set up a Gmail account.

Step 5: A page with an empty form will appear. Fill in the empty text fields with your name, your email address (XXXXXX@gmail.com, in this example) and your email account password.

The Description field will automatically default to your email address, but you can change this to something more descriptive, like My Gmail, for example. Press the ‘Next’ button in the top right-hand corner of your iPhone screen when you have entered all of your information.

Step 6: As well as connecting, or syncing, your mail, you can now also choose to add your Google Calendar and Notes. Slide the toggle switch to ‘ON’ for any service you would like to access on your phone and tap Save in the top right-hand corner of your iPhone screen.

And you’re done. Just tap the Mail icon on your iPhone homescreen and you will be able to read and write emails from the account you just connected.

How to Send An Email

Email is a great way of getting information to others quickly and easily. Being able to send messages to friends and family at the touch of a button keeps you up to date no matter where in the world you are.

The following steps show you how to send an email using a Gmail account. However, many email accounts or applications follow a similar process for creating and sending a new message.

You’ll need:

• a computer with active internet connection
• an email account set up and ready to send and receive emails.

Follow these step-by-step instructions to send an email:

Step 1: Log in to your Gmail account so that you are on the dashboard (main page) of your mail account.

Step 2: Click Compose.

Step 3: A new blank email window will open up. In the ‘To’ box, type in the email address of the recipient.

Step 4: You might want to include someone else in your email to ‘keep them in the loop’. You can do this by clicking Cc or Bcc, which will open another field. ‘Cc’ means ‘carbon copy’ and ‘Bcc’ means ‘blind carbon copy’. Adding an email address to the ‘Cc’ field means that that person will receive a copy of the email and all the other recipients will see their email address. If an email address is put into the 'Bcc’ field, the person will get a copy of the email but no other recipient will see that address.

If you are sending the same email to lots of different people, it’s a good idea to put all the email addresses in the ‘Bcc’ field to keep your ‘mailing list’ confidential. That way, there’s no chance that it could fall into the hands of a spammer or hacker.

Step 5: The subject field allows you to give the recipient an idea of the topic of your email, like a heading. You don’t have to put anything in the subject box, but it can help when viewing and sorting email.

Step 6: Email text can be formatted in a similar way to text in a word document. You can change the font style, colour and size using the formatting icons. You can also create bullet points and check the spelling of your email. Choose your formatting from the menu shown.

Step 7: Type your message in the main body field of your email.

Step 8: When you’re happy with your email, click the blue Send button at the bottom of the compose window.

Step 9: The email you’ve sent will now be stored in the ‘Sent Mail’ folder on your Gmail dashboard. You may have to run your mouse pointer over the Inbox folder link to see the other folders.

Step 10: You may start an email but then decide to come back to it later rather then sending it straightaway. Gmail saves your drafts automatically. So you can simply close the email and the unfinished email will be saved to your ‘Drafts’ folder.  When you decide that you’re ready to send it, you can retrieve it from the ‘Drafts’ folder by clicking Drafts and then clicking the correct item in the ‘Drafts’ folder list. Finish the email and click Send as normal.

How to Create A Gmail Account

'Google mail' or ‘Gmail‘ is a web-based email account in which emails are stored on the internet rather than on your computer. Internet email can be a flexible option as you can access emails from any computer that has internet access – for example, at internet cafés – anywhere in the world.

In this guide, we’re going to show you how to get started with email by creating an account in Gmail.

Note: We are using Chrome as our browser, however other browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox will look similar.

You’ll need a computer with internet access.

Follow these step-by-step instructions to create a Gmail account:

Step 1: Open up your internet browser and go to the Google home page: http://www.google.com.

Step 2: Click on Gmail at the top right corner of the page.

Step 3: You’ll now be in the ‘Sign in’ section. As you don’t have a Google account yet, you need to create one. Click Create an account.

Step 4: To set up your new account, Google needs some information about you – first, your first and last names. The ‘choose your username’ is the unique email address that you wish to use, which will be placed before ‘@gmail.com’. Because it needs to be unique, Google may have to check the availability of any name that you decide on to make sure that no one already has it. Type an email name into the ‘choose your username’ box and then fill out the rest of your information. You will need to ensure that the ‘I agree to the Google terms of service and Privacy Policy’ is ticked. Then click next step.

Step 5: If the email name that you requested in is not available, you’ll get a message saying that somebody already has that username and offering you some alternatives. You can decide to accept one of the alternatives or type in another name and check its availability once more. You will have to complete some of the other boxes again. You may have to do this a few times. Once you finalise your email address, it’s a good idea to make a note of it so that you can refer to it until you remember it.

Step 6: You’ll need to come up with a password so that you can log in securely to your account. Google may explain that you should try one with at least 8 characters long to be secure. Use letters and numbers to make the password more secure and difficult to guess. You’ll need to re-enter your password to ensure that it’s you choosing it and not a hacker’s (ro)bot. This is why it also asks you to insert two random words at the bottom of the page – this is a CAPTCHA code. You can skip this step if you don’t want to type in the CAPTCHA code but you will need to verify via a mobile phone if you don’t.

Step 7: Once you have completed this page fully, clicking Next Step will take you to the Create Profile Page. If you don’t wish to have a picture on the web, click Next Step to complete setting up your email. If you do, Click on Add Profile Photo and find a photo to add. Then click Next Step.

Step 8: You will now have set up your account. You can go straight to your inbox and get started, or you can set up a photo to show as your profile picture.

Click on Add a photo to upload a photo and select a photo.

Or click on Next Step to go to your inbox and get started.

40 Beautiful Coffee Arts

Coffee or Latte art consists of the pouring of steamed milk into a shot of espresso generating a pattern or design on the surface.

Latte art is a hot topic and there are even several competitions around the world showcasing this unique form of art.

This article shows 40 beautiful – and certainly delicious – coffee designs that will make you drool…