Hello world!

I’ve been looking at several different entrepreneurial business models. And, I’ve been looking at the business practices of a “compressing” industry (real estate). When you really analyze your business and industry you have to ask yourself one question, “What is the most important factor in your business success?”

I have personal experiences in global companies and in small entrepreneurial ventures as well. I’ve never had this question answered more succinctly than this blog post from Darren Hardy. I hope this helps you determine your next business steps.

Drop me an email and let me know what you think.

Best regards,

Jim Herrera
Chief Entrepreneur

408 – 409 – 6475
jim@perceptiveinsights.com

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Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert says our beliefs about what will make us happy are often wrong — a premise he supports with intriguing research, and explains in his accessible and unexpectedly funny book, Stumbling on Happiness.

The following is his presentation at the TEDConference. I find it intriguing because I’ve often wondered why more people aren’t happy when they appear to “have it all”. Enjoy.

I’d love to meet this guy. I hope his words affect how you think about your personal life and your career.

Best to you,

Jim Herrera

Everything comes with an expiration date. Your college diploma, your knowledge and experience become dated, even your life won’t last forever. Yesterday is gone, and with it all the old rules, processes and techniques. Business is evolving at a staggering rate, and if you are not on the steamroller you will be under it.

There are hazards and opportunities in this new marketing landscape, continue to develop and learn and you can meet the challenge, and take advantages of the opportunities. The worst thing you can do as a marketer or small business owner is nothing. Don’t read books and articles on business/technology/market trends, don’t attend conferences, seminars and trade shows, don’t do your homework, and you will be quickly left behind. Squished.

We now compete in a global market, unlike any in the history of business. Knowledge and execution are the keys to the new business universe.

If you haven’t already, subscribe to some good tech and marketing publications and blogs. But be aware that nobody nowadays is really an expert, we are in unchartered waters, a place where no one has ever been (like star trek). So take information, research it, collaborate it, build your networks, partner with your competitors and keep focused.

If you need assistance I can recommend some great resources. Drop me an email. I’m here to help.

It’s America’s faux-revolutionary movement: Occupy Wall Street. I’ve been looking at interviews with Occupy participants lately, and it struck me that most of those involved are unemployed — which makes sense, as they’ve got the time to come out for protests. Complaints run the gamut from bad mortgage-lending policies to high CEO salaries to risky hedge-fund bets.

Meanwhile, some of the unemployed are going in a more productive direction — one that might actually help America get back on its feet.

They’re starting businesses.

Unlike the “Arab Spring” protests in Egypt and elsewhere by which our home-grown protest movement was inspired, Occupy Wall Street doesn’t seek to overthrow the government or oust our president. The leaderless movement has yet to stake out a single clearly defined goal. There’s a vague interest in “regaining control” of our economic and political system, but no game plan for how.

So far, Occupy Wall Street has mostly managed to negatively impact the economy by blocking sidewalks and scaring off customers for local small businesses. This isn’t really helpful.

Protesters could make better use of their time by joining the nearly 9 percent of the laid-off who’ve taken matters into their own hands and started their own business. More small businesses distributes a smaller share of power into more hands, instead of letting it concentrate in the hands of fewer large businesses.

If you really want to do something radical, help start a new community bank. The number of banks has shrunk over the past few years.

Create more funding institutions to help decentralize financial power. If you don’t have the expertise, see who you could bring together in your community to create a new lender.

Here’s one step everyone can take: If you really hate the current socio-political structure, patronize more small businesses.

I’d love to take a poll and find out how many Occupy Wall Street protesters bank at Bank of America or shop at Wal-Mart. If all the protesters walked their talk, the small-business sector would be invigorated, small-business hiring could finally start growing again, and the protestors would help achieve their goal of fighting the powers that be.

What do you think of Occupy Wall Street? Leave a comment and give us your take.