LooseSuits

Aside from the industry, it also depends on the culture and physical environment of the office.

Productivity wise -- Any kind of odor, be it perfume or a cooked meal, in an open environment can be highly distracting.
Additionally, the decor of a place of business lends itself to the productivity of employees. Given that, it should be considered likewise that the personal "decor" of the employees will also work for or against you in a similar regard.

Regarding promotability -- Proper respect for your client or potential client is also something to consider. For instance, if you're a design firm who's primary client is an investment bank and there's a lot of face time at your place or theirs, you'd want to dress appropriately for no other reason than to at least you "get it" in terms of their culture and needs.

Here's what instantly jumps out to me. You want more interaction and audience participation, yet the participation you are getting is hidden behind a story link, or restricted by a register or login command or placed in very small text under a comparatively big "Comment" button off to the side. Honestly, there doesn't really seem to be a big, open invite there for the user to have any incentive to put in the time to participate -- there's no open invite, no apparent ROI, no warmth, no apparent community in this "home grown" area.

If you want community participation in this, then bring that aspect of it front and center, don't hide it behind buttons and "login to post" commands.

The one thing I like to do, which might be helpful to you, is think how this website would come off if it were real. If HomeGrown Music were a festival, for instance, how would the current design and "rules" come off with actual people? If you had a session or area to discuss show reviews, how well would it come off to force willing participants to register before someone handed them a mike to express their comments to the room?

If you want participation, then show them you want their participation, and that you trust them enough, up front, to accept their thoughts to put it front and center.

Hope that was helpful.

Emotional experience is a major part of a home purchase. When my wife and I were considering our purchase 12 years ago, our biggest consideration was not really on the money crunching front, but more along the lines of a hassle and error free build.

All we had heard from friends who had new construction was how frustrating the experience was for them in dealing with the builder. We did our research based on that, and then also looked around at the types of communities they built in, and then also the long-term outlook of the part of town we were wanting to move to.

What we probably didnt consider as much as we should have, was where WE would be years down the road, and how our needs and desires would change as we started and raised a family, and their agendas in parts of town not always convenient to our address.

Financially, we made a great decision, our home value has almost doubled in 12 years. Closet space wise (thanks to over generous grandparents spoiling our children), and multi-story wise, and "need a bigger garage" wise though...

To answer the "could they get your business back" question -- yes, and I'm happy to recommend them as a builder.

As for your decision, arguably only you'll know for sure. But I would bet that your true answer to that will come some years down the road as your house, family and neighborhood "settle in" and as your neighbors rotate in and out a few times, and the number crunching of today gives way to the home maintenance and repair issues of tomorrow, long after your grace period with the builder is over and done.

Having said all that, I join the other in congratulating you on your purchase.

Every industry is different, I agree. I know energy traders who, by regulation, required to take 5 consecutive days off and forbidden to have any contact w/ the company during that time.

Sure all companies have their busy season, but I think that further explains why there's the option to rollover a certain amount of days.

460M does seem like a lot on the one hand. On the flipside though, given most professional people get 2 - 3 weeks, 3 days rolled over isn't really that alarming.

I'm kinda skeptical of that "3 days left on the table". Three days probably falls within most companies rollover policy. I would reason that people (especially families w/children) schedule bits of vacation time around differing schedules and thus will usually have some days leftover after all is said or done. I'd give that more credance than too stressed to leave and stay gone kind of situation.

Good list. One additional that I find should be asked and usually isn't, especially in things creative, is "hobby or business venture?"

I agree w/Publicenergy. Right now the iPhone seems to still be at that awkward stage where it's trying too hard to be noticed, liked and taken seriously by adults. The problem I see with the "enterprise iPhone" is that surely those phones would be limited in the apps employees would be allowed to purchase or download (like games), and I would doubt that enterprise phones would be allowed full access to MobileMe. So it still isn't the ultimate solution for users to have a limited feature corporate sponsored iPhone, or for the enterprise to have a full-featured iPhone for its users.

On the positive side for Apple, most of the new college recruits coming in to the enterprise today were born in 1986. This, of course, means their formulative years (the mid 90's) were spent on the web and in the period of resurgence of Apple. So it's not completely bleak for Apple. However, as again pointed out by publicenergy, the other players aren't going to sit back on their ass. I'd say the business phone industry will get interesting in the coming years, but I'm not ready to award Apple the knockout in this fight just yet.

Facebook in Real Life

hat tip [airbag]

When I was but a wee little lad (well, teen / young adult) I had all good intentions of becoming an architect. A lot of time was spent behind big drafting tables - yes, this was the day of the old school before computers were on every desktop)

I loved it,because you could stand and create, or sit on the stool, or lean aginst the stool, or any combination.

I too think it's easier to think and clear your head when you can stand and move around.

Ikea used to have a desk that raised and lowered via s small motor. I had considered buying one, that is until I saw the +500 price tag. Perhaps there might be some of those old school drafting tables on ebay or something.

messiful.com

Coutesy of my three year-old daughter who figures that must be the opposite of beautiful.

On the domain value, yeh I figured that much...I just want to know how rich.

You might've well have asked us how long a string is or engaged us in the exercise of applying a brand name to that thing over there that none of us have seen nor experienced.

Here's my question...given that pizza.com was just sold for a couple of million...is there anyway to guage the market value of a domain name alone? Meaning just the domain, not the brand that might've been behind the domain before it went up for sale.

Those sound like nice things to do, but not necessarily "motivating".

Motivation comes when people catch the vision and see the possibilities clearly. When they can feel the energy driving it forward and can share your passion in making it happen. Motivation happens when your purpose for working truly fits their purpose for living.

Movies, picnics and such are a nice occasional benefit which can work to keep everyone aligned, but not a primary tool of motivating.

Well, I guess you could look in to any one of the offerings in the contextual ads that your post prompted here.

Yeh, I know about their $6.99 transfers, but there's something about GoDaddy that just makes me think "err...there must be someone else". I just don't gel with their whole schtick. Two years at $6.99 sounds like a great deal, until you want to pull out and take your domain elsewhere.

That might be unfair, but it's the perception I get.

You run an ad agency, right? I've worked in the ad business and with account managers, and like you, have been around the block a few times.

From my experience with agencies, I've found that most account managers are highly driven, self absorbed divas which will promise a client all kinds of things without consulting the creative department once, to even see if what they're promising is even technically or financially feasible.

It's just all about the draw.

For the small agency I worked for, the owner sounded a lot like you describe yourself -- stressing in every Monday morning staff the how, when, why and how of handling accounts. He didn't do it in an effort to be a know-it-all by any measure, in fact, he was an easy to get along with, grandpa type guy who cared about deeply his employees and his clients.

But, I think that was the major issue -- he was holding on too tight.

As Ozone has suggested, I too think you have a two-edged situation to deal with. First, I would suggest you back off on the step-by-step manuals and training sessions. Doing all this, I believe, in some ways makes you accountable to them, you need to reverse that.

Secondly, I too think you have a disconnect between the dreams of glory by your marketing people, and your actual clientelle. Maybe it's time to look at some of your clients and see which ones need to go. It could be that the pruning of the vine might be the move you need to motivate the marketing staff.

Finally, if you're not already, I would have your creative and marketing folks have regular meetings -- without you or any administrative people in attendance. Let your creatives sit in on and take a role in the account meetings. Encourage your marketing folks to listen to and appreciate what kind of effort it takes to deliver a client vision creatively speaking.

I've worked on all sides of the agency fence, and I still stand in disbelief how little communication goes on between creative and marketing, technology and creatives, marketing and administration...

Perhaps it might be worth your while to get a business analyst who understands all aspects of your business, to bridget the communication gap.

Of course, I state all this from my experiences in the industry, not the assumption that you are or are not doing any of this already.

I sent you a P/M cause I'm feeling 9rules generous tonight. As you're reading it, think about your main theme for 9rules -- quality loves company.

Why not? Space is space, whether it be on a beach towel in Tampa (say) or a coffee cup, or the trunk of a taxi. It's not the space, or the place where that space is that matters -- it's rather how it's used. My point is that I don't think the spaces used online are being used effectively at all.

Online ads, in my opinion, are ruled too much by algorithms and cost formulas and analytics...too much left brain being crammed in to the right brained space and practically crushing it out of existence.

Ad networks need to stop worrying about what's happening on the backend for a while and start concentrating on the frontal experience.

The one thing I find that is really overwhelming in online ads is the lack of creativity. After a while, they all look the same. I mean, seriously, blur your eyes on any page in 9rules (or any ad supported website) and everything just blands together in one big blah.

With all the multimedia power we have at our fingertips, and all the 'creatives' floating around all the social networks, you'd think they could get together, borrow some ideas from offline ads and come up with some cool, relevant, enjoyable, and not detrimental to the experience, advertising.

Contextual references don't sell me. Pictures of your product doesn't sell me. Glossy 2.0 icons of your product don't sell me, and non-intrusive text ads don't sell me.

What sells me? Looking like you gave a damn in your efforts to sell me.

Honestly, I've been there only a couple of times, never used it once. I might know a couple of people, maybe, who use it occasionally.

I'm with Tyme on this one. Put your stuff on one, capture that audience and they'll spread you around. It's not like video community 1 members never visit video community 2.

Maybe you can use multiple channels, but putting the same video on each of them, I think, looks like you're (anyone) trying too hard to be noticed. I would put it in the same category as businesses who are overly concerned with SEO..."if we get enough of the keywords out there, then people will come to us." No, make your stuff good and word will get around. Same with video, make it good and people will share it on their own.

Or another way to look at it...how many thousands of videos are on YouTube which were never intentionally created for YouTube (ie music videos and movie clips)?

Michael, back in the day, everyone I knew had a website with a black background and at least one happy little animated gif rainbow and an email address like "yessirthatsmybaby24@aol.com".

None of them do that anymore.

I just came across this quote from Chris Rock in a recent edition of Rolling Stone,

Music kind of sucks. Nobody’s into being a musician. Everybody’s getting their mogul on. You’ve been so infiltrated by this corporate mentality that all the time you’d spend getting great songs together, you’re busy doing nine other things that have nothing to do with art. You know how shitty Stevie Wonder’s songs would have been if he had to run a fuckin’ clothing company and a cologne line?
("Rolling Stone", Issue 1039, November 15, 2007, page 157)

I think this draws an interesting analogy to what FaceBook is going through right now. As Rock is alluding to with rappers, FaceBook has forgotten the music which made them famous (school-aged kids) and is instead more interested in "getting their mogul on" with the advertising and the privacy issues and over-inflated market valuations...blah blah blah.

I don't think you'd find too many people argue against the music industry being dead too. Once you start losing interest in the one who brought you to the dance, it all starts going downhill quickly.

"But what did AOL start off as? It's one of the first social networks..."

Beyond that, they were the effin gateway to the net! All that power and potential 15 years ago, and we get what amounts to an entertainment gossip blog and one of the several IM clients out there...excuse me while I yawn.

Yeh, they're still a powerful company with millions of dollars, but to look at where they were and where they're going, compared to where Google is sitting and where they're going, I see AOL taking major steps toward the grave.

Facebook too is moving in the wrong direction. What made them a powerhouse was the exclusivity to school-aged kids. Now they're open to everyone, and this once "safe" bastion of kids now has their parents and sales people and advertisers and marketers and potential employers and even celebrities posting as characters to promote in upcoming works, all playing in their room.

When I was a kid, having all that adult clutter and phoniness in my safe area was totally lame.

I would imagine that by 2010, someone will come up with a site that doesn't require you to sell your life over to a database and still allow you to connect with your friends on a more deep level than sharing music, photos and connections (real and imagined).

And once that happens, Facebook will be joining AOL in the cemetery of yesteryear.

Well, I pretty much put everything up on the Pats being upset by Miami...

So I'll wager all of what I have left after the game.

How's that, Sparky?

neostream.com

Tyme hit it on the nail. Like it or not, Arrington is the "household name" most associate with web-based technology. Arrington has become the go to person, the one everybody seeks out, for that niche.

You have an opportunity to become that "go to" person everyone seeks out as well, you just need to find (and advertise) in the right niche.

Wonder what that could be.

We've talked about this before...go with what you know, bro.

I think you frame the situation too tightly here Paul. Just because you might be in a "follower" role, doesn't necessarily mean you can't influence direction or vision. In fact, I think the true leaders seek out people who will influence them toward betterment by questioning things in a respectful manner.

Making it known how "stupid" something is demeaning. Sitting around like a wallflower with your mouth shut is just as useless.

Trust is a major part of any team effort. If you ain't got that, then you just need to remove yourself from the situation.

I think whether you're looking to take on a job, career, freelance client, new hobby, friendship, spouse...whatever, it all boils down to your ROI or return on investment.

Honestly, it doesn't matter what influences us as it does what influences you. What are looking for at this stage of your life?

Your job search won't get any easier by seeking the influences of others, you've got to really think about what's important to you in the long run. What, when it's all said and done for you and your life here, will make you say "that was time well spent".

He's hired to an entry-level position and then 6 months later he's managing 60 people, with a salary that's not much better than what he started with? No, this is not a normal business practice.

The bigger question is why is he still there? If John's rapid escalation into management was credible (from the standpoint of his abilities) then he could take that anywhere and be better off.

Company loyalty credibility? In IT? What about his own credibility when he tells someone else he manages 60 people making a minimum wage plus 7.5% for cost of living?

Ozone, sorry I dont have any pics of it online. Maybe I'll do that when I once again get dedicated to Flickr.

There's a lot of prep work that goes into getting the stain to stick. For us, there was about a whole days worth of scraping up paint overspray and vacuuming with an industrial wet / dry vac.

The slab has to be pretreated with an acid that worked to "open the pours" of the concrete, so the stain would adhere. Of course, that all had to be vacuumed up as well.

We were initially discouraged after seeing the construction markings spray painted in black all over the concrete, thinking all that would bleed through the stain -- it didn't though.

We went with a dark gunmetal gray and a rust red. We initially tried spraying it on by using a small pesticide pressure sprayer, but that didn't give a good balanced mixture of colors. Instead we just grabbed some sponges and did a sponge paint type application.

I decided against using any type of sealer, because I like how rustic and worn it came out looking. It scars up a bit rolling chairs and stuff across it, but I think it adds to the character -- besides, it's concrete...another coat of stain and it's like new.

If you're looking at this from a cost efficiency of keeping your home cool, you could consider skipping out on carpeting.

The study in my home is typically the warmest room in the house. This past summer we stripped out the carpet and stained the bare concrete foundation. It's amazing how much cooler the room is now -- even on the hottest of Texas afternoons.

To me, it sounds as though your biggest concern is convincing your cautious wife.

I would think probably the biggest "hurdle" you'll have to overcome is how you explain walking away from government retirement (x years of age + y years of employment = 65?)

I think Gnorb has a good plan. Sock away what extra money you can, live lighter and work harder. To take an idea from the book "Good to Great" take this time to make some sacrifices in order to dedicate strength to putting some hefty pushes on the giant flywheel (your side business). It'll eventually get to a point of gaining enough momentum to spin on it's own.

Both you and your wife will know when that magic point is, and giving up the fulltime government gig (and everything good that provides) will be easier for both of you.