mrwong

try to avoid incasso at all costs, take preventative measures. some suggestions which may help: - contractual agreements about payment terms before you begin anything. - make sure that you deliver on what you commit to and that there are clear milestones agreed. this will avoid one reason for late payment. -from a software viewpoint: take a pay-as-you-go approach, too many developers put x man-months into a project for the client, give them the deliverables, then have to beg for their money for months (if they get it at all). - if possible, do not give the client the working application until they have met whatever payment obligations they have to you. show them the application working, but do not move it into production. again, this can be done contractually. it is the ultimate insurance of payment. - if a client burns you... do not continue to offer additional services to the client. software solutions will always need some tweaking, that is more powerful than incasso. too many developers will continue to develop and support customers on good faith who are stringing them on about payment. this means only more bills which they will not pay and lost revenues and time for your company. use support or bugs to secure late payments. - if dealing with large companies, do not start work without a purchase order number. that is the most common mistake i know of. - be understanding of your customer if you get into a late payment situation. if they are a good partner, and it is just a temporary problem they are having internally, they will appreciate your patience (but stay on top of them). - if your client happens to be in some of the same business networks that you are, having a quiet chat during an event can help. while they may be giving you a hard time, they certainly would not want mutual friends to know about their behaviour... - last but not least, mention you are an avid hunter with a rather large gun collection, love mafia movies, and spent some time as a special operations person in the covert interrogation unit.

Get creative for 2003... If you are the DGA of a holding company, but you do the majority of your activites for one of the daughter companies, you can put yourself on the loonlijst of the daughter company. No BTW or new BV's required. For 2002, simply get a BTW number and invoice the company for your salary including BTW for april - dec 2002 and do the paper shuffle. I'm not a fiscal consultant, don't shoot me if I am wrong, but this is one solution which I believe is correct and legal.

carpe diem!

agreed. if you have 30 seconds, use it wisely. one of my "elevator pitch stories"... I was working for a large company who just fired a sales manager. I was coming back from a meeting with an important customer, our CEO and my direct boss. I was in customer support (technical) at the time. They were all panicked about the situation, because the customer was not happy about not having a proper account manager, and the company having nobody to manage the sales process. They had no clue where to find the right replacement, internally there was nobody that could do the job (or so they thought). They were exhausted for ideas, but I had been think of one myself over the previous weeks. While we were being pulled over for speeding (the conversation was distracting my boss who was driving) I saw my opportunity. I turned to the CEO and said there is one obvious candidate to me. I put myself forward as the man for the job even though they had never considered me. My relation with the customer was outstanding, I knew the product technically, I was a company player, and young and hungry. During the two minutes it took for the nice policeman to fill out the forms, I went from a backseat passenger, to the new sales manager.

here are some tips how to de-motivate your employees. http://www.employer-employee.com/howtomot.htm * Create an atmosphere full of company politics. * Develop unclear expectations regarding your employees' performance. * Plan unproductive meetings for employees to attend. * Promote internal competition between employees. * Withhold information critical for employees to perform their work. * Provide criticism instead of constructive feedback. * Tolerate poor performance so your high performing employees feel taken advantage of. * Treat employees unfairly. * Underutilize the capability of your employees. i seem to have mastered most of these. i'll add a few: * promote incompetance * don't follow-through on commitments to team * do as i say, not as i do

Here is a link to an article written by Vannevar Bush in 1945. This cat was way ahead of the times. His describing the web, but 50 years before Tim Berners Lee, is amazingly accurate. http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm

i've been outed. i was indeed born in the states but my life path has brought me to the netherlands. curiously, i find myself taking on the worse traits of both cultures...

sorry to be pedantic, but... the big 4 sports in the US are baseball, american football, hockey, and basketball. only baseball and basketball do not end up in tie games, they play until there is a winner. hockey and football can be tied with no winner. the fifth major sport is this game called "soccer", where you can have a tie game as well.

a man's got to know his limitations... if you are already getting bashed about the head by a client, no need in giving him a bigger hammer. use the opportunity to admit you do not know all, but that is why you have a team and partners who work together. between your collective, you do know it all. if you don't know the answer, or have advised a client wrongly, the team will help set everything right. if that doesn't work, change the subject briefly. ask if he/she is having problems at home, or suggest they cut down their caffeine intake. they might get the hint. on the other hand, maybe you really did do something that you deserve to be abused, in which case take it with a smile, agree you are lower than low, and point out other character traits that are bad which they may have missed while insulting you (this will save time during future abuse sessions with the client and they will appreciate the ammunition you provide about yourself).

I think it depends on what you are trying to protect. For example; Business models - totally against this. How they let Amazon patent "one-click" technology (cookies anyone?) escapes me. This caused concern in the Internet world, because Amazon can threaten anyone who uses similar techniques on a web site (they have sued over this). But Jeff Bezos promised he would not pick on the small guys. (Note to self: patent the process of applying for patents) Software algorithms - very bad idea. One of the main reasons to base a software company in the Netherlands is this is can not do this (yet). Do you have any idea how many patents IBM, Siemens, and other large companies have which people are unknowingly violating every day? These patents can be handy when your competition gets too big, you can slap a patent lawsuit on them. Or how about BT claiming rights to the hyperlink, luckily losing the case. Unless you really have something that is revolutionary, I think that small companies would be better advised to use their precies monies for other activities such as client aquisition, or taking the team paintballing. If investors would like to see your ideas patented, put this in your funding requirements. If patents are valuable for the investment, then they should have no problems contributing towards the costs. If they won't you must wonder the value of such a patent. NB: In the IT world, "prior art" is not too hard to find. You may discover you went to great expense for nothing.

Networking... some random thoughts. A large liver helps - no explanation needed. Smoking can have advantages- some of the more interesting people I've met were in need of a match or cigarette, or in some cases the smokers are banned outside (and smokers always talk, even if to pass the time). Sense of humour - if an event is not panning out, people still want to enjoy themselves. If that can't be by direct business opportunities, then selling your person with a nice story and a laugh will always open doors. Do not star gaze - don't run around looking at name badges and being blatantly obvious that you are looking for opportunities to meet "made" people. This turns off a lot of people and may cost you a good opportunity with an investor or other potential partner. Learn the art of not selling - never say you are at the event looking for new clients, that is obvious as most people are there for the same reason. You can just say you are there to get a feel of the market, for the drinks, to get out of the office, you find the topics of discussion interesting, whatever... Try to remember names - this is my weakpoint, but I have mastered the art of evesdropping on an introduction to hear it again. Another technique is just admit you are crap with names which is charming if done correctly (I've had enough practice). Networking is a team sport - Besides being crap at remembering names, I am a bad opener. I have problems with just walking up to people and starting a compelling conversation. Luckily in my circle I have friends who are very good at this. Once the door is open, I'm fine. And when you have built a good network, you'll always have some friends around to help with introductions. Failing this, the bar is a great place, one where I do seem to meet people (see point 1). Go in with zero expectations - if you set too high expectations, you will always go away from an event feeling unsatisfied. Come back for more abuse - in some circles, it takes a while to be accepted. Don't get discouraged if you do not meet people. Coming back to regularly to events, you start to become a known face. People will approach you as if you belong. And I suppose at that point, you do. Be creative when talking about what you do - For example, don't say you are currently working as a petrol station attendant, you are a "Petrolium Transfer Engineer". Connect people with people - if you can't benefit from meeting someone, but know who they should meet, make the introduction.

obviously these guys want to apply such a concept, they have a vested interest in these companies. why re-build the network every time you invest in a new company. it also has another advantage for them... they can use these networks of their own start-ups to generate revenues for services provided to each other (at least on paper), which looks good for future investors. in other words, billing one venture for the benefit of another. this is also keiretsu in action. another spin on keiretsu is something the americans once coined as "coopertition", ie if you can't beat them join them (until such time you can beat them :-)

The horeca certainly took advantage. I long for the days of a Fl 12 falafel plate washed down with a Fl 2.50 pils, but now its EUR7.50 and EUR 2.00 for the same fare. (nb: that said, this does not deter us from meeting with clients in our "remote" office..)