creative briefing

Every now and then, my dad still likes to ask me whether I’d like to be a doctor or a lawyer, despite the fact that I’m one month away from finishing my undergrad in business. I’ve done a few things to journey away from what he would considere a ’sound decision’ in his time - the first in studying for a non-professional career, and the second and most recent in opting to not pursue a desk job, but an entrepreneurial life instead. One more ambitious surprise and I just might give him an ulcer.

Over dinner tonight, he told me that in his day, the best opportunities for young adults like me would have been in either finding a secure job with the government (which you would work for your entire life), or in investing in further education. Along with an earlier conversation over the possible future return on my $40,000 university investment with my close friend and business partner Satish, I was intrigued to consider exactly what I have gained by taking ‘the road less traveled’.

I call it ROE: Return on Entrepreneurship. It is the sum of benefits, tangible or not, that have resulted in one’s dedication and commitment to an entrepreneurial way of life. (this includes the freelancers!)

Here’s some of my ROE after 3 years and 9 months:

• I have learned the value of proper client relationship management and more importantly, how to do it
• I have met and worked with some of the most innovative and talented individuals in the realm of marketing and design
• I have seen the world from the little guy’s perspective so that I can appreciate the hard work it takes to be the bigger guy (a perspective I’ve yet to attain)
• I have grown respect for people with an eye for design and the business sense to apply it effectively in the context of marketing
• I have realized that managing people is an art, not a science
• I have learned how to run a business with nothing more than a website and some love
• I have given myself the opportunity to do something I am passionate about everyday

What’s your Return on Entrepreneurship?

When you see a .doc, you know exactly what kind of file it is, and you probably know what company is behind it. Why shouldn’t this form of brand recognition transcend into the online realm? Why should we be constrained to the .html’s and .php’s of today’s web world?

This third installment of How to brand your website’s URL continues to show you how you can and should be customizing even the slightest details of your website’s URL by using your own cutomized file extensions.

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With all this thought about home offices and creating the ultimate creative working environment, I’m suddenly reminded of the concept of House 2.0. I originally read about it at TheWebpreneur.com, who originally read about it through Amit Gupta, and was intrigued at the idea of bringing entrepreneurs, freelancers, and today’s web 2.0-ers together under one roof to live and do their thang (as they say).

It would be a fully furnished place with rooms available to rent for brilliant people to build, run, and plug their creative endeavours in the presence of other brilliant people (and it naturally comes complete with a blog to document the creative antics of the housemates).

Think of it as the web 2.0 version of Big Brother. Without all the sex and cameras. And more creativity.

Anybody interested in bringing House 2.0 to Toronto?

Five months ago I had a grueling debate with myself over what direction to take my career in. With a $40,000 piece of paper with my name on it, I was torn between taking the safe and traditional road, or the uncertain and risky (but inevitably more fun and rewarding) road. In the end, I took a leap. I jumped - eyes closed, arms flailing, and nothing but an anxious grin on my face.

I committed myself to running my business full-time.

Having never looked back since, I now plan ahead excitedly for the life of a true entrepreneur. First at bat: my home office.

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It seems like everything we do these days has to be done strategically. Take commenting, for example. Looking at John Chow’s top commentators list, this is what you see:

Notice anything? Of the 10 proud members of that exclusive list, only 2 have real names (Debo Hobo may count as an amusing third…), while the rest are strategically branded to give the maximum exposure to the commentators’ own blogs.

Do people develop commenting strategies to get to the top of these lists, or does being a top 10′er come as a convenient benefit from interacting immensely with the community? I applaud those in either category.

I don’t know about you, but when I comment, my name is Verne. Or should it be ‘creative marketing blog wants traffic’?

Update: Turns out John actually encourages this strategy! How evil. Check it out here.