mrwong

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield. Warren Buffett My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people's. Oscar Wilde The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. Albert Einstein

I suggest you invest a bit of money and talk to a fiscal advisor. If you are successful, and lucky, you will have this "problem" every year.

drop him like a bad habit. if you start like this, imagine how you will feel down the road...

Keep up the good work Nils. Your efforts are appreciated!

the whole subscription system in the netherlands is a scam. period. as someone already said, the best thing you can do is quite your subscription the day you take it. this goes for newspapers, service companies, etc. it is a bad joke, i can't think of any other country that allows and encourages such a ridiculous system. you need a dedicated computer system just to track these things. perhaps dutch people may be built this way, but the rest of us are not. if anything it makes me not take services from a company if they force me to have automatic extensions and it is my responsibility to cancel in the fifteen minute period that i am allowed to cancel. stand up, revolt against this practice that does you no good.

i think that the biggest problem for a commercial person is not the sales discussion, it is finding qualified leads. of course a really good salesman can sell snow to an eskimo.

some random thoughts. presentation is (almost) everything, however... don't underestimate the technical effort that would be involved. there is a major difference between having a nice designed site, and having the required functionality. i'd rather have a poorly designed site which has a proper datamodel and business logic behind it, than a nice looking site with no decent backend. you can always make a new look and feel, but a proper technical implementation needs to be considered from the beginning, certainly if you want to roll out with localized versions across europe. as you are a designer, perhaps you can provide us with some links so we can see some of your work? have you considered partnering with an existing social software venture that works but is poorly designed? is there a business model in social software? not to mention that it is a very crowded field already. plus we will see social networking functionality become integrated in software applications and services such as outlook, yahoo, google, etc.. is this what you are thinking: http://www.plazes.com/ good luck with your venture.

welcome to the marketing department: two drink minimum!

sorry for the english. i think you should talk to your fiscal advisor about the possibilities. if you have a bv that could qualify for such a hypotheek, then you must have an advisor who can help you in this matter. one thing worth considering: there is a general rule that banks apply which is that will finance for 60% of the executiewaarde (80% of taxatie) which means that you would roughly have to come up with 50% of the price yourself. plus the associated costs. they will make exceptions to the rule, but you have to find the right type of bank (like a hypotheek bank), or have a good account manager who will fight for you. and of course solid books and a good outlook. if you buy the house in prive, and you are not going to invest all the profit into the new house (hypotheek), you have less tax advantages. but cash in hand is always worth having. hope this helps.

ok, then in that case i say keep it simple as possible. if you are writing it for yourself, then you are an educated audience so there is no need for a lot of fluff. i don't think it is easy (or wise) to write a detailed business plan, put it on the shelf, and just simply update it in a few months/years. at least in my experience it does not work that way, things change, the company grows (or shrinks), the market changes, the opportunites and threats change. times change. if you want yet another outline for a complete business plan: Summary Business concept Current situation Key success factors Financial situation/needs Vision Vision statement Milestones Market analysis The overall market Changes in the market Market segments Target market and customers Customer characteristics Customer needs Customer buying decisions Competitive analysis Industry overview Nature of competition Changes in the industry Primary competitors Competitive products/services Opportunities Threats and risks Strategy Key competitive capabilities Key competitive weaknesses Strategy Implementing strategy Products/services Product/service description Positioning of products/services Competitive evaluation of products/services Future products/services Marketing and sales Marketing strategy Sales tactics Advertising Promotions/incentives Publicity Trade shows Operations Key personnel Organizational structure Human resources plan Product/service delivery Customer service/support Facilities Creating the financials of the business plan Assumptions and comments Starting balance sheet Profit-and-loss projection Cash flow projection Balance sheet projection Ratios and analyses have fun, keep it simple: what are your goals in the coming period, how will you measure them, why are you writing a plan (and make sure this is answered in the plan you write). no more than 2 a4 sheets.

depends why you are writing the plan... are you writing it for internal use? are you writing it for your bank or for investors? sometimes you want to stress different messages depending your intended audience. investors and banks look at figures and care less about the underlying technology. and they do not like to fund investment.

guerilla marketing Definition Unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources. Coined by Jay Conrad Levinson, guerilla marketing is more about matching wits than matching budgets. Guerilla marketing can be as different from traditional marketing as guerilla warfare is from traditional warfare. Rather than marching their marketing dollars forth like infantry divisions, guerilla marketers snipe away with their marketing resources for maximum impact.

go to google and type in a search for: weapons of mass destruction look at the first link in the results. that is clever marketing.

Volgens mij is de momentenplanner een beetje dood. De aankomende belangrijke gebeurtenissen zijn inmiddels verleden tijd. :P De tien aankomende Momenten uit Momentplanner.com. 16-09-2003 Hans Holbeintentoonstelling Den Haag tentoonstelling/beurs 21-09-2003 Erwin Olaf Groninger Museum tentoonstelling/beurs 10-10-2003 WK Rugby Mannen Australië sport 11-10-2003 Herfstvakantie regio noord/ midden Noord- en midden Nederland 12-10-2003 WK Baseball Havanna, Cuba sport 13-10-2003 Tennis Masters Series (m) Madrid, Spanje sport 16-10-2003 Woon & lifestylebeurs van het Noorden Martini Plaza Groningen tentoonstelling/beurs 17-10-2003 AutoMotorSport 2003 Prins Bernardhoeve Zuidlaren tentoonstelling/beurs 18-10-2003 Herfstvakantie regio zuid 18-10-2003 Herfstvakantie, regio Zuid if you would join momentplanner, you get to see extra information about the events. with the extra information provided, you would be able to see that the start dates from these events past, however the events themselves are still running. there is certainly room for improvement on how the information is presented to non-members. hope that helps...

here is an article about this very subject with some useful links: http://www.emerce.nl/archives/nieuws/Technology/15229.html