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Spiritual Business Companions - Mitchell Tsai

Welcome to an educational blog supporting fellow entrepreneurs in "sustainable abundance", "healthy employee growth", and other ethical business practices. (1) US micro-businesses [Starting a business with $50-$500.] (2) Part-time or startup businesses [$20,000 - $100,000 annual revenue] (3) "Lifestyle companies" [$200,000 - $5 million] (4) Small growth companies [$10 million - $50 million] (5) Larger firms and multinationals interested in connecting with "long tail" companies.


"Personalized Newspapers for Organizations": From Facebook to FriendFeed to the future.May 9
Imagine if your organization had a continuously-updated collection of "10-10,000 personal newspapers" about all your people.

What would be the management & communication possibilities?

DATE: Fri 7:26 AM PT

Facebook randomly picks actions/activities of your friends and creates daily NewsFeeds for others. It's a curiosity, but the randomness is not useful working on real-life projects. I found Facebook's NewsFeed more helpful when I had 10 friends, but with 200+ friends, aggh!

Facebook's Mini-Feed is a newspaper of all your actions (ones you choose to make public). More useful.

I can view someone's Facebook Mini-Feed and see what they've been doing for the past day or week. I can drill-down in a specific area (e.g. "Status stories", "Relationship stories", "Photo stories", etc...)

NOTE: For security, some of us "older types" on Facebook don't post anything to Mini-Feed. :-)

Paul Buchheit, Bret Taylor, Sanjeev Singh, Jim Norris, and their te













7 Ways to use LinkedIn for Business ProfessionalsMay 7
I began using LinkedIn seriously in Nov 2007, so here's some personal tips from the past 5 months.

DRAFT: Tue 5/6/08 6:17 pm
Rushed because Cathryn Hrudicka has a meeting tomorrow where she's presenting.

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*** (0) Sign up for LinkedIn & Connect to "Ron Bates", an "open networker" who accepts all invitations. ***
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His 40,000+ 1st-level contacts will become your 2nd-level contacts.
His 1-3 million (?) 2nd-level contacts will become your 3rd-level contacts.

This allows you to try the features of LinkedIn more easily (without paying $240/yr to see everyone).

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*** (1) LinkedIn has become my first choice for Creating Business Dossiers for negotiations & possible business contacts. ***
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My choice of search engines when creating dossiers on people (in the order I use them) is:
(A) LinkedIn (20-25% of my college classmates are here - Harvard 1982-90)
(B) Pipl - Uses the "deep web" to research people (phone numbers, ancestry.com, birth/death records, marriage)
(C) Spock (beta) - Finds people's photos & extracts keywords from webpa


















Finding Technology News: Is FriendFeed the new Google or Citeseer?May 7
Over the past two weeks, I've found my behavior changing. This is a good thing!

DRAFT: Tue 10:30 AM PT Only have 15 min to write...

*** (1) FriendFeed (NOT Google) is where I'm now typing my searches when researching a technology article. ***

Before when I found an article intriguing, I would type the title of the article into Google. This would give me other people who had linked to the article, or were discussing the topic.

No more. FriendFeed is providing a window into the artistic process of insightful journalists (aka bloggers) and dedicated news junkies.

*** (2) How do I search now? ***

Say I have an article like "FriendFeed Tips: Do You Use All The Great Features of Friend Feed", and I want to find out more.

(A) Type article title into FriendFeed search box with "who: everyone".

- Look up & down the timeline.
- Who first brought this article into the FriendFeed community? What is their background? What sources do they use (e.g. what else might I be reading?)
- Which discussions seem the most interesting? Or most likely to become interesting? (e.g. saved by Robert Scoble or Louis Gray)

*** (3) Use "comment" or "like" to create a "personal newspaper" to revisit the conversation in 2-24+ hours. ***

I started doing this about 2 days before Robert Scoble's wonderful article on participation & discovery.

NOTE: Don't be too aggressi























Are bi-directional friend links of Facebook and LinkedIn passé? FriendFeed and Twitter use uni-directional "fan" links.May 3
FriendFeed and LinkedIn demonstrate the power of uni-directional "fan" links, also used by Facebook for public personas (and musicians, bloggers, and politicans so popular that they hit Facebook's 4,999 friend technical limit).

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*** Note 1 (of 4): Why? 10,000 people can make a "fan" or "following" link to you, but you have the power/choice to link to only 50 people and keep your life manageable. ***
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I'm a newbie to online social networks, having only two contacts on LinkedIn from Oct 2004 to Nov 2007, just because two close friends badgered me with invitations. Turns out, they weren't even heavy users of online social networks. :-)

I only started using Facebook in July 2007 because I wanted to send some African dance photos to a cute lady in Australia. :-)

Then I shifted to Tribe.Net where most of my Burning Man and dancing friends are.

Finally, I tried LinkedIn in Nov 2007. Bingo, 20-25% of my Harvard college 1982-1990 friends were there! I've been having a blast speaking with friends from 20-25 years ago. Last week, out of the blue, I got a LinkedIn invitation from a high school buddy I haven't seen in 26 years. Go, LinkedIn, you rock!

The future of













Describe your business in 7 words (or less)April 25
UPDATED: Wed 5/7/08 2 PM PT

The scenario I like to give entrepreneurs is
a) You are stuck in elevator with Bill Gates or Melinda Gates, who's in a conversation.
b) Can you give Bill/Melinda your business card with "7 words" on the back, and attract their attention?

What will make Bill/Melinda?
1) Ask you for a 15-sec pitch
2) Then ask you for a 60-sec description
3) ...and for a few minutes off the elevator
4) ...and lunch the next week

Your chances of getting LOTS of FREE ADVICE from people who charge $1,000+/hr....is much better when they don't feel like they have to "do work" in order to help you; e.g.

[in 5 seconds] "My idea is X. Can you help connect me with Person-Y and Organization-Z? No, sorry to bother you."

Practice this 5 second approach at networking events.

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*** MULTIPLE SETS of 7 WORDS ***
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The "7 words" may depend on who you're pitching -
Stakeholders, Stockholders, Customers, VCs, Funders, Tech, Media, Bloggers, Possible employees, Possible Business Associates, Family, Public

It's a combination of marketing & technology showing insight into your products & insight into your audience (Customers, Possible Employees, etc...)

In the new Twitter world, pitch your stuff in 140 chars (