moved...

my blog has moved to http://mward317.wordpress.com

Preorder You Shirt!

The RPM'S Light Rail Pub Crawl is only a few days away!

Preorder your shirt today!

Carrotmob... the Power of the Consumer, Powers the world

Came across this blog today with the below video. Carrotmob is an organization designed to use the buying power of mass consumers to urge major corporate companies to become "green". Check out the video...

It's something we've all thought about. I'm glad to see someone doing it. You can help change corporations to make a change... check out the Carrotmob Blog.

MUW

DISCOVER customer service - NOT!

I recently had gone through my finances and made all my payments to my creditors. I later found that the payment to my DISCOVER CARD did not go through. So, I resent the payment, and paid the late payment fee of $35. When I finished my payment I saw a button at the bottom of receipt form to request a credit of a charge or fee. I click on it and it gave a simple form to select what I believe had happened, when I had tried to make a payment, and how the payment was made. Mind you this form had dropdown selections which leads me to believe that it happens often enough that they have a standard for the form.

In response to my inquiry I received this message in my DISCOVER account inbox:

Re: Credit Request: Missing Payment [#1487009]

From Discover Card Customer Service Date Received: 12/11/2008 08:35 AM

Thank you for taking the time to contact us about a payment you attempted. I understand how frustrating it can be when a payment does not post as expected. An online payment may not be credited to your Discover Card Account if the entire payment process is not completed properly. To complete an online payment, please follow these steps:

1. Choose one of the following three payment options listed on the blank check: - Minimum Payment (will show the Minimum amount due) - Last Statement Balance (will show statement balance) - Other Amount (you choose the amount)
2. Verify your bank information at the bottom of the check.
3. Click the "Continue with Current Posting Date" or "Revise Payment Posting Date" button.
4. If you have chosen to revise the posting date choose a new posting date from the calendar displayed, and click "Continue."
5. Review your payment information.
6. Click on the "Submit" button. You should see a confirmation number, verifying that the payment will be processed.

Online payments made before 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time will be credited to your Account the same day, while payments made after that time will be credited the next day. Please remember that a payment may not be viewable in the Account Center for an additional 24 to 48 hours after it posts to your Account. I appreciate your business and the opportunity to be of service.

Thank you for choosing to use Discover Card.

Sincerely,

Wendy

DISCOVER, CASHBACK BONUS and the other trademarks, logos and service marks used in this e-mail are the trademarks of Discover Financial Services or their respective third-party owners.

I found this to be pretty awful customer service. Not only does the message not address my questions, but it is also assuming that I'm an idiot and don't know how to use their website. I've been a client for the last year and a half and made previous payments online, so I find this email to be irrelevant. This was such a horrible display of service that I wrote back :)

Wendy,

I know this is not your fault, but I would like to let you know in hopes you may pass this along to your superior.

I find your message insulting. Your information on how to make a payment online I'm sure is helpful for some people. However your message did not address my inquiry about the credit of a late payment charge. Most appalling is the fact that when DISCOVER wants money from me they are willing to call my phone and remind me. However, when I contact DISCOVER about a possible error in the online payment feature I receive in response a “how-to” message in my account inbox. You did not event bother to send it to my personal email, which you have on file.

Overall I have been a good, little DISCOVER client. I've made payments promptly and never caused much of a ruckus. Your impersonal and illusive attempt to address my inquiry is degrading. It is obvious that efficiency has overtaken customer service.

I hope you all get lumps of coal in your stockings.

Merlin U Ward
###.###.####
******.****@gmail.com

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Merlin U Ward

Christmas Movie Marathon!

Who's interested in doing a movie marathon on Christmas Day?

Typically movies that come out on Christmas day are horror, but this year 3 movies come out that actually look great! Check out the trailers...

The Spirit
Bedtime Stories
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The marathon starts around mid-day Christmas day and the schedule is flexible! So, whether you want to get away from your family, want to bring your family, or your family isn't in town; come and join the movie madness!

Let me know if you're interested to finalize the marathon schedule!

The Flu can go shove it!!

So it happened... I got sick. I managed to stay healthy for over 2 years with no serious virus/illness, but it finally happened. The last 2 days have been spent "sleeping it off," or as I like to call it... "wasting my time!" Don't get me wrong. I understand I need to rest, drink lots of fluids, and eat when possible. I just forgot how hard it was to force it especially when I when I have so much on my mind. It's been a real slap in the face. To me getting sick is like binding my hands to my feet and telling me to walk down a flight of stairs at gunpoint. Nearly impossible without breaking your face and very nerve-wracking.

It started out as back pain, which I thought was from too much time spent on a friend's couch. That quickly changed to body pains and really killer headache. Most who know me know that I'm not one to pop pills when the first signs up pain show up. Unfortunately I gave in when the pain was finally so bad I could not even "sleep it off." I decided some ibuprofen would be necessary. With no medical training and thanks to the collective opinion of some friends, I have decided this illness is the flu. Special thanks to Rhonda for suggesting Tylenol Sinus.

Today, Tuesday, I felt well enough to make it to an important meeting for RPM'S. I had my 3 bottles of fluids and took some drugs before I left the house. I barely made it. By the time I got home I was dizzy with pain again. At least I got something accomplished. Tomorrow, I have a few more meetings, which I will make even if I die halfway through. I promise I won't breathe on anyone too hard.


Stay well my friends!

MUW

Who Is Your Ideal Business Partner?

A question perhaps not asked enough. You may not even put a lot of thought into this question. You should. I've talked with lawyers and seasoned entrepreneurs and the business breakup horror stories always link back to a bad partnership. So, it holds true, that cliche saying that I mention from time to time. Business is People. The Club E Network understands this and thats why we ask it in your profile. But how do you go about finding this "ideal" business partner?

I came across a blog by a fellow named David Alison who has a blog on blogger.com. He came up with a pretty good list of the Do's and Don'ts of finding a business partner. The summarized version is below... For the full version click here

"The Do's and Don'ts List

Here is my list of the things you will want to do, and not do, when picking a partner to start a business with:

DO: Choose someone that compliments your skills.

DON'T: Choose a partner because you really like them.

DO: Choose a partner that has connections.

DON'T: Choose someone that has different goals.

DO: Define how you resolve disagreement up front.

DON'T: Worry about offending a potential partner.

DO: Check references.

DON'T: Compromise on the issue of ethics."

I've expereince many of these first hand. I luckily fell into great business partnerships with both my businesses. The logic David Alsion offers it correct. But I felt there was still something missing. So here are a few more Do's and Don'ts to add to the list.

DO: Communicate all the time about everything.
Be sure your parter is someone you can talk to about everything and that you both communicate well with one another. This may intersect with "Define how you resolve disagreement up front" and that is the point. Especially in a start-up, covering issues twice is never a bad thing. The worst thing that could happen is that both you and your partner forget something, even the smallest detail. Then you get sideswiped with a problem that takes you away from the big picture and current operations.

DON'T: Forget about the past.
During your first "interview" with your potential partner make sure you know what they've been doing up to that point. It's only fair that you know their history and work ethic from past business relationships. You, of course, need to pony up the skeleton's too.

DO: Just hang out with your partner.
A business partner is not just for business. They're people too and you need to make sure you can connect with them on that level. Take some time to kick back and relax with your potential business partner. When you're working together, the daily grind can sometimes put a lot of tension on your relationship. It's always healthy and fun to grab a beer and "dream" together on the big picture away from the office. So, make sure your potential partner is someone you can do that with.

DON'T: Leave structure to build itself.
Once you decide to work together, be sure you and your partner map out exactly all the process you need to work together. That includes, decision making, disagreement resolutions, and fiscal responsibilities. A very detailed operating agreement will cover all the in's and out's of your working relationship. It's a dirty job, but get it out of the way in the beginning and make sure you both agree to it whole heartedly.

Some may say they don't need or want a business partner. I say you can't do everything by yourself. These Do's and Don'ts apply even if you are working with a strategic partner who has no equity in your busines. All your relationships with business people, at any level, can cause your business to fail. Work with people you like and trust and you know will be there to see you succeed.

Merlin U Ward, young social entrepreneur and co-founder of the Club E Network .

Club E Speaker, Kimber Lanning

Kimber is one of the most outstanding and hip entrepreneurs you'll meet. Right away she's someone who you know loves to rock out and stick it to the man. At tonight's Club E Phoenix event I had the privilege of meeting her before she went up to speak. She blew me away with her passion!

Kimber lives, breathes, and loves entrepreneurship. She started her first business Stinkweeds , a local record store in downtown Phoenix at the age of 19! A few years later she banned together with local artists and musicians to create Modified Arts , a concert venue for local bands and gallery for artists. And now, they're both still going strong and making an impact in the community.

This is really the essences of her passion; Bringing together the community to create better business and people. She's a big advocate of small and local business working together to not get stomped out by the big corps. She wants us to make the community more fun and bringing the culture back to Phoenix. Kimber is actively engaging the community and legislators to fight for small business. Since Modified started, the downtown area (especially near Roosevelt) is a great place to hang out. That's the way Kimber likes it.

She has also started a non-profit called Local First Arizona , which highlights and supports local business and for a better economy. Its the organization that aligns with Kimber's vision of a united small business community. Take some time to go downtown and check out what the community has done. A perfect chance to do so is First Fridays .

You missed a great and passionate speaker if you couldn't come out tonight. Don't miss the next one!

Present Yourself

Don't you hate it when you're talking with someone and all of the sudden you realize their eyes are glazed over and they haven't heard the last 3 sentences you said? That gut wrenching feeling of "Oh crap, I'm a rambling idiot." It's that careful balance of communication of give a little, take a little. As entrepreneurs we have a tendency to get really excited about our business and when we talk about it, we go on forever! I know I do!

Basically what it comes down to is knowing your audience and what they want to hear. Everyone can be interested in what you're talking about, as long as you cater it to peek their personal interests and values. This also plays into elevator pitches. This is much easier said than done. Anyone who has tried to craft a 30 second elevator pitch knows this.

I recently read one of my favorite blogs, Presentation Zen . This blog covers how to present your business, create investor pitches, etc. This specific entry caught my attention and gave me that "Ah ha!" realization of how to address this conversational issue.

This blog entry talks about the careful balance of depth and width (or scope) of your presentation. You can really only go one of the two directions. Either you go into detail of one specific aspect, or cover all aspects to the very minimal of degrees. That funny glazed over look that people get comes from either sharing way too much about something they don't understand or care about, or covering too broad of information for them to handle.

This principle plays into just about every conversation you have, whether business or personal. Even in academics. Think about what the education system does in a class. They usually cover a broad scope of information, but then never touches on the details. Its a completely unspecialized system of education and leaves a lot of room for misinterpretation and loss of information. I definitely experienced this in my business classes. It was a constant push of information with no room for questioning or clarification.

Now consider going out on the town. When I meet a new person they inevitably ask me that question that gets them an earful. "What do you do?" This always gets me smiling, because I know they're about to fall off their chair. But now, I think I finally have a tactic to share my passion and have it be well received. I have my hands in a lot of things, and as so will start with a broad coverage of what I do. They'll let me know what they're interested in and I can go into depth on that.

I often times try to drive conversation too much. I'm excited about what I do! I've always known its important to leave room for some pull. Let there be questions - especially when it comes to investor pitches. I recently had to craft a presentation for my company RPM'S and had to makes that tough choice of exclusion. What do I leave out? Everything is important! But realizing my audience I crafted something that I felt they would understand and want to hear about the most.

This takes practice, and its better to start now rather than later. If you're just getting into a start up start creating presentations for investor and clients. Pretend your friends are your audience and practice your presentation. Go to networking events and practice different pitches. When the time comes for a real presentation you'll be primed.

Whopper Freakout!

One of our members blogged about this on their personal blog, but I thought it was too awesome not to share.

Just for one day, one Burger King discontinued their Whopper to see what would happen. The literally took it away, and didn't offer it. I'm not much for fast food, but I do see this as a great experiment in customer loyalty.

http://www.whopperfreakout.com

Watch the video and listen to what people are saying. They're quoting the slogan, upset about the brand change. Most importantly their pissed to see a different chain's burger.

This brings up an important note. Is your business' brand this powerful? Do your customer come to you for something they can't get anywhere else - despite the price? What makes you unique, and why people buy into you is very important information you should know.

Don't forget that!

PS: I totally just participated in viral marketing for Burger King :(

Art and Entrepreneurship

Many people will say that to be a true entrepreneur you have to work on your business not in it. That means as a business owner you have the ability to step away from the business and its can still run without you. Otherwise you end up becoming, what Michael Gerber calls, a technician having an entrepreneurial seizure – you’re the main cog that makes your business go, and without you it falls apart.

So what does this mean for the people who are their business? The movie stars, stand-up comedians and artists? Well, in my mind, entrepreneurship is about systems and innovation. So if you are your business but have developed systems to market and sell yourself or your work in a unique fashion, then you’re still an entrepreneur in my book.

This is a great example. Phil Hansen , is an artist with a unique twist. His art is created and marketed in very unique ways. For instance his piece called “A Moment” where he ask people to call him and tell him a story that changed their life. He then picked out a piece of that story and wrote in on a canvas. With the combination of stories he created a picture.

One of my favorites is “Bruce,” Hansen literally Karate Chopped his canvas to make a picture of Bruce Lee.

He records his sessions to show how the art was made, and then offers them for sale via his website. This is an awesome viral marketing strategy and an excellent way to get the word out. You gotta love YouTube!

Junior Achievement & Club E

Over the holiday weekend the Club E team got together for a little project. Club E has sponsored a shop of Junior Achievement's Biztown. A great little virtual city where young students (5th and 6th graders) get to try out their newly acquired business skills. JA teaches them through a specialized curriculum for business essentials.

The Biztown consists of shops in a city with the specific purpose to test these skills real time. One of which Club E has sponsored. Its spectacular to see these little chillin's making "real" business happen. Club E couldn't help but show them what Entrepreneurship is all about.

As part of our shop Club E is presenting a short video of the young Club E entrepreneurs sharing their passions for business. A little inspiration for the next gen entrepreneurs!

Kevin Pringles - The Big Picture

Corey Kossack - A Few Pointers

LeeAnn Dobbs - Business Has Purpose

Appreciate Today, Succeed Tomorrow

I spent all of yesterday (November 8^th) with the greatest people I know at the 2^nd Annual Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference. I had a great talk with Lon Safko about balancing ones life during lunch. Its something we all know. We have to be able to keep ourselves healthy and social no matter how busy business gets. Sometimes we even have to force ourselves to take time away from business and spend it with family and friends. His advice could not have come at a better time.

Shortly after our discussion during the afternoon keynote speaker at the conference I received this email…

If you hadn’t already guessed, it’s an obituary. My grandfather on my biological father’s side died on Monday, November 5^th. I was fairly close with this part of my family. Every year I visit Germany I would take the time to go see my grandparents, and spend a day or two with them. Eventually he also got an email account so I could keep in touch during my time here in Arizona. When I received this email I was shocked. It was unexpected news. I realized that they very moment I had a choice of how I would let this affect my day.

My grandfather was always very supportive of me. No matter what I was doing or where I was going he would wish me the best. He was proud to know that I was following my dreams ever since I was a little kid, and supported me in everything I did. It was at this very moment I considered my situation. I was sitting in a room full of people sharing their passion for entrepreneurship, something I believe in as well. I knew at that moment if my grandfather knew what I was doing that it would make him proud.

I decided to continue my dad as I had intended to from the time I woke up. I found new purpose for my being there through his passing away. Not only would I fulfill my day by sharing my passions with 250 other people, but at heart give my grandfather one last thing to be proud of. I did not get to spend time with him in his final days, and have not yet received word of how he passed. But in his passing found new strength and purpose, and with that purpose celebrated my grandfather’s life.

I didn’t tell anyone what news I had received that day. In fact, this is the first time my any of partners or friends would have even heard about it. I decided to keep it to myself until I had more time to reflect. Even in tragedy comes opportunity; an opportunity to reflect on your own life and purpose.

It’s important that even with our need to succeed and achieve great things that we remember we’re human and alive. We cannot lose focus on what we do and how we do it. There is much more to life that money, power, and success. Keeping ourselves balanced between success and living is crucial for entrepreneurs (and everyone else). Take your time to appreciate the things you have today, before you run off to succeed tomorrow.

2nd Annual Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference, and then some...

What’s better than getting up at 5AM to hang out with your best friends, and the greatest entrepreneurs in the valley for an ENTIRE day? Nothing. I can’t think of anything I wanted to do more than help my friends run one of the coolest conferences to ever be held in Arizona.

I got up in the early morning after a long night of meeting with my partners to pick up Seth Adamson, a new Club Entrepreneur intern, and head over to the Marriott Hotel. On the way Seth was telling me about his entrepreneurial dreams and how excited he was to be a part of our group. We couldn’t be more excited to have him; he’s a great guy and really has the passion and spirit of an entrepreneur.

Upon arriving at the conference we helped finish up with the setup. Then the people started rolling in. This is always my favorite part. I get to hang back and greet some of the coolest people I know. We had our regulars showed up, all good friends, and then a bunch more from all different businesses. We had VC’s, radio stars, film producers, innovators and inventors… the works!

After the morning keynotes by Pat Sullivan, Founder of ACT and SalesLogix, and
Marc Canter, CEO of Broadband Mechanics (both great presentations!) it was time to start the tracks. As expected, most people waited about 10 minutes into the sessions to network outside in the hallway. Everyone was chatting about business, dreams, and new deals. That pretty much happened the entire day. The afternoon keynote by Dan Morrison, Co-Founder and CEO of ITtoolbox was excellent. His company was recently acquired so he had some great stuff to say about his experience with that. Lunch was great, and the afternoon sessions rocked. I got a lot of great feedback from our guests. The ending keynotes by Corey Kossack, Ingrid Vanderveldt, and Michael Gerber were the best (I might be biased). They really demonstrated what it meant to be an entrepreneur and how it feels from the inside out. It was a wonderful talk on the mindsets and lifestyles of the entrepreneur.

Right after the conference it was time to gather the whole team together and head over to the Junior Achievement grand opening of BizTown. Club Entrepreneur sponsored a shop in their mock city – If you don’t know what Junior Achievement is then you’re missing out. Go there and get a tour from Marilyn Raigel. She’ll blow you away with the happenings there. It’s a great space for Club E to be. – Unfortunately we were a little late to our own ribbon cutting (hey, we’re entrepreneurs not clock makers), but we were still able to get a 2^nd chance photo op. We had a few of our members join us, too. Jamie Forseth (who by the way was there on time to appear in the first photo of the ribbon cutting, thanks Jamie for stepping in!) and Justine Matthew a longtime member from way back in the day.

After chatting with Marilyn for a while the gang headed to the Hyatt Hotel to let loose for a while. Ingrid also had an interview with a great guy about a new hydrogen fuel he has created. (His name fails me right now, but I’m sure someone will correct me) The evening was a great chance for us to just hang out. Liz Fischer from HBMG, the website developers for the network, was in town to get a little face-time with the Club E team. They’re based out of Texas, and until yesterday we hadn’t ever seen her in person. It amazing we’ve been working together for over a month now and never hung out. But I’m glad we got the chance. The team is becoming an even more closely knit group as the days pass and I’m looking forward to the months to come. Its time to rock out and really start turning out some stuff for our members, so stay tuned!

Embracing change...

Its something Entrepreneurs are very familiar with. We're not afraid to take risks, put our neck out on the line and make something happen. Often it even involves disrupting our everyday patterns of life. But embracing change doesn't just stop there. An Entrepreneur also has to embrace the fact that their business will take on a life of its own and evolve by itself. It may even become something entirely different than what we had expected. Take the story of the toothpick for example:

A Brief History of the Toothpick - By Henry Petroski

Club Entrepreneur Denver has got it!

The fire, the passion, the vision, the juice! Just a few words used to describe the Denver Club Entrepreneur crowd by Michael Gerber. He just struck the tip of the iceberg. Denver not only has great business people in their community, but some of the most passionate, driven, and energizing people I’ve met. Above all, they understood right away what Club Entrepreneur was about, and were willing to take us in with open arms.

As the crowd grew, I spoke with everyone I possibly could and saw what Ingrid Vanderveldt calls “The Aha Moment” strike the crowd like a bolt of lightning. People instantly grasped the idea that Club E was not just about networking. It is about changing the world of business. They wanted it, and knew that their lives would not be the same. Well folks… They’ve got it!

When I say “it” I don’t just mean that Club E is in town. I’m talking about them having the desire to make changes you want in the world a reality. Just in the short time I spent with the Denver people I knew we had a great city on our side. I’ll be honest – we were scared. The entire Club Entrepreneur team was unsure that there were others out there that felt as strongly about entrepreneurship as we did. For a long time, Club Entrepreneur was just in Phoenix. Open source entrepreneurship was our way of life and we simply organized to spread the word. Denver showed us that we weren’t alone. There are others that want to live their dreams, and understand you have to open up to achieve them.

I see great potentional in Denver. They have a remarkable president, Jonas Olmsted, and an excellent community for Club Entrepreneur to thrive in. They’ll bring their friends and their business partners. They’ll bring the aspiring students to mingle with the seasoned entrepreneurs to ask the questions and build better business. They will come together to bring about change in Denver and finally unite in their very own Club Entrepreneur.

Business is people

People are still just people. Sometimes they only act in their best interests. Its true, you rarely can do everything on your own, but when you choose people to work with, be sure you trust them. When you become more popular in the business community, and your business starts hitting the "big time" you'll be approached with a lot of offers. Hopefully by this point you have partners you trust and know well enough that you can work flawlessly with them. The new offers that come to you need to be well evaluated. Above all, be sure what is offered can be delivered.

It may even be that old partnerships or offers have a bitter taste in their mouth over your success. Rumors may spread, people might start voicing opinions. Just remember there are two sides to the tale.

Even the greats have had bad partnerships. They've had to let people go they thought were good for the company and in a few instances were even pushed out by the others, like Steve Jobs in Apple. In any case its important that your people are your people. Ones you have a good relationships with, trust, and can build something great with.

Just in the experience I've had (which could be considered short - although with a steep learning curve) I've seen many come and go. I've seen bridges burnt and new relationships turn out not to be what they appeared. I've seen offers pop up that were really just tools to get that particular person a little further up through someone else's established success. This doesn't neccessarily surprise me. People are people, and act as so. Perhaps my expectation that everyone has an agenda is what has kept me so understanding. I know others want success just as bad as I do, and sometimes are willing to do whatever it takes to get it. In my eyes, as long as those agendas are in line with mine, and their actions are legitimate, we're a happy couple.

I've said it many times before, but I'm going to say it again because it is so very true. I work with one of the best teams ever put together! I have some of the best advisers and mentors I could ask for. I have dedicated partners and the best friends in the world... Granted, we all have our faults and made mistakes, but our strengths compliment our weaknesses and we learn from one another. We've grown, built and created together, as a team and family. I cannot express via blog how grateful I am to have them in my life and involved in what I do.

I'd like to list you all, but I have a feeling you're already smiling because you know you're one of them. So to you, I say "Thank You!"

Callwave: The New Voicemail

I found this company through Robert Scoble's blog: Scobleizer. He interviewed the VP of Business Development for Callwave, Josh Fraser, for his show. I watched the video and went straight to the site to sign up!

Callwave is an online, third party, voice mail service that replaces your service provider's voicemail box. Through a simple activation process you can have your voicemails txted and/or emailed to you. Callwave uses voice recognition software that translates your voicemails to text and sends out the main part (gist) of a voicemail message to your phone. In the demo video you'll also see that Callwave allows you to listen to voicemails as they are being left, answer calls online, or have them forwarded to another phone line of your choice. You can also access all the messages via the web, and archive them. From the online site you can also txt responses, and call people back. Callwave is currently offering the service for free while in beta. I've mentioned it a few people already and their are having a blast with it!

This is a great tool and is very useful for those who don't like calling their voicemail boxes. I took a full tour of the software and put it to the test. First, its no surprise that this service is not perfect (they are of course in the beta stage). For my first message I had a friend of mine call and leave a quick blurb.

She stated: "I dont know what it's made of, probably some kind of fabric. Is that enough talking for you? Uh-huh... bye Merlin."

The txt I received did not represent the service well.

It was, " ...nato probably some kind of yeah Rick set it off tossing 4 years - fall is always a 4 oops Maryland."

Granted, she did not speak clearly, and the voice recognition seems to have trouble understanding my name (it hardly ever comes through correctly). The second test was a message left by myself and came out just fine. I found that as long as the person speaks clearly the software doesn't make many mistakes. However, most of the messages I receive do not have the caller's name when they announce who is calling in the voicemail. That is one of the issues I found with their "gist" messaging. I would prefer to have the whole message txt to me, or at least the name of the person.

The emails you receive will display the name of the person the phone line is billed to (seen below); much like Caller ID. For those of us with extensive contact lists there seems to be no way of importing your phone contacts into the Callwave system. It looks like you have to import them manually if you want them online.

The online texting portion of the software works very well, and I have had no trouble listening to my voicemails on the website. The beta is limited in that it does not feature all the options in the demo video - which was rather disappointing. There are desktop widgets available as well. One for Google, Yahoo!, Apple, and Windows Vista. I didn't take the opportunity to test these - I don't use Google or Yahoo! home, don't have a Mac, and no Vista. I have read the reviews, and some cellphone providers seemed to have charged customers for replacing their voicemail service. However, I use Verizon and haven't seen any change in my billing (I suspect that its a problem connected to the widget).

For a free beta version Callwave is awesome! It is a very helpful tool, even when it doesn't translate everything correctly. There are always kinks with a software debut, but don't let that stop you. Give them a try! I'm excited to see where they go with all the feedback, and look forward to following their progress.

3 Stories from Steve Jobs

I admire this guy for a number of reasons. This is a great video of him telling his own story.



"...The only way to do great work, is to love what you do..."

You Do It! - Remote DVR Player

This is a new section I would like to add to my blog. I'm calling it "You Do It!" for now but I'm open for suggestion. Here I will post business ideas I've come up with or talk about with fellow Entrepreneurs. A few bloggers do this already, Seth Godin for one, but he's not the only dreamer in the world. Since I don't have the time do these business ideas myself I thought, in the spirit of Open Source Entrepreneurship, I will share them with you in hopes that "You Do It!". So here it goes:

I don't watch a lot of television. Mainly because most of the programs don't interest me and I don't like watching commercials. You say, "Well get a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) system. That solves both problems, you record what you like, and fast forward through the commercials!" Yes, but that leaves me with a third problem: I'm hardly ever home. I'm mostly at the office, or out at a meeting, and in between those at Starbucks working on a few emails and such. However, I do take a break every now and then to relax my noggin'. I usually check out my surroundings and people watch (I love to people watch). But, if I could, I would watch my favorite TV show.

So here is what I'm proposing. Create a web-based system that allows people to upload all their DVR recordings to a website, which they can access anywhere via an internet connection on their laptop. A remote web-based DVR Player. That way, people can set up their DVR to record at home and access it's information virtually anywhere. Better yet, allow them to upload a few "favorites" to stream to their phones. Now everyone can watch a show while they wait in line too!

Some of this technology already exists, but it has not been implemented or put together in this way. V-Cast from Verizon Wireless allows you to watch shows. Unfortunately the service is limited and searching is kind of a pain. It was also recently announce that Sprint is in contract with Comcast and Cox to allow you to program your DVR with your phone. I believe they also want to implement watching your DVR programs via your phone. AT&T and Verizon are already moving up behind them. But lets face it, a phone screen is small, even if you have a PDA or iPhone. You want to watch on your 17" laptop.

The market is ready, people use the web more an more for daily entertainment. For instance the ESPN Insider, where you can watch "special clips" and interviews, and Youtube.com (even those could be put on this service). The technology is available or can at least be altered for this system. If this isn't already in the works it should be. With our "on the go" mentality's we need a service that is on the fly and available at any moment.