Join the Funding Garage Inc. start-up team in Tucson Arizona

Funding Garage (FG) is a fast pace start-up company in Tucson Arizona looking to change the speed of innovation for the automotive industry worldwide

INTERNSHIP FG has launched its web service in September 2012 and is looking for dynamic, highly motivated go-getters to join our small team of founders for Y2013 in Tucson Arizona.

OPPORTUNITIES • Manage and develop relationships with the entire automotive ecosystem • Communicate and position FG within the automotive environment in relation to other products and the competition • Collaborate with VP of Marketing to coordinate social media campaigns and assist in the successful launch of initiatives with a positive ROI. • Manage the company's social media content pipeline including but not limited to writing stories, interviewing internal and external customers, creating blurbs, blogs, features, members highlight, event coverage.

SOCIAL MEDIA Manage the company's Facebook and Twitter account as well as the official Blog with the goal to increase market visibility and grow the fan base.

To Apply Send Your Resume to Funding Garage Inc. 310.853.3088 info@fundinggarage.com

  

The logical evolution of hotel rooms - First Thoughts

There are some common items missing today in hotel rooms that I really wish they provided, and if you travel and work on the road often like myself, you've probably thought of the same things.

I've got a company issued laptop which I like for its compact size but dislike for its small screen. Unfortunately I can't bring my docking station or my 21" monitor with me on the trip. Why couldn't hotels have 21" monitors already provided in each of the rooms so people like myself that travel with compact laptops can plug in; throw a keyboard and a mouse while you're at it.

Who watches the pay-per-view movies from the hotel television system? It's $8 a pop at some hotels. I rather rent a movie from the $1 RedBox or Blockbuster machines outside of supermarkets; however, there are no DVD players in most hotel rooms. Why not? For people with Apple products, you can store or stream movies on them, but wouldn't it be nice to plug your device right into the big flat screen TV they have in these hotel rooms?

With the rising number of consumers traveling with high tech devices that needs to stay in touch with people on the internet and wants to use their devices to keep themselves entertained, it makes logical sense for hotel rooms to adapt to the traveler's needs.

HereTryThis: Get a team of product designers together and generate a list of potential products that can be integrated into a hotel room. Gain feedback from frequent travelers and the hotel chains and derive a benefit and cost model which satisfies both parties. Sign a LTA with suppliers of potential products and hire contracting firms to install and train the hotel staff on how to use, maintain, and troubleshoot devices.

The ultimate goal is to successfully negotiate a contract with each existing hotel chains. Imagine the volume and the size of this business opportunity.

Name your hotels: Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, Doubletree, Vegas hotels, etc.,

So many ideas, where to start?

If you're like me, you've got plenty of great ideas that you want to work on, but with schedule restraint and other responsibilities, it's hard to work on all of them at the same time. The attempt of working on all of them simultaneously creates often times a wasteful environment where very little effective work gets done; not good.

What I've tried in the past is to spread out the work by hiring college interns who work for relatively inexpensively or volunteer time to learn. Doing so help me get "more" done, but a few things I learned from that experience is most (but not all) college students need to be provided direction. In other words, it's hard to give an intern a project with a broad scope and have the project be driven the same way you would if you were running it. On the flip side of the coin, I've had some stellar intern that can take an idea and run with it, and in those situation I learned to let go of the need for total control and let the creativity flow. The bottom line is, however, that even with a team of interns, I had to spend most of my time managing the business and neglected my other great ideas. I was ok with this at the time because this business idea was further ahead than the other ideas which were in its infancy.

Now that I'm back to the role of developing new ideas, I often ask myself "which of the seven (7) great ideas should I work on?" and "if I don't spend time on this idea I'm going to miss a big opportunity."

HereTryThis: First start out by sitting down with a blank piece of paper and figuring out when and how many hours in a week you can devote to idea development. Keep in mind your other responsibilities, scheduled activities, and time for relaxation. Once you've determined your availability, figure out the activities that can maximize your impact at those given hours. For example, free times during the evening hours are better suited for research and emailing key contacts. Free times during the weekend may be best suited for on-the-road market research, reaching out to your potential customers, and speaking with your potential competitors/partners.

If you break down your schedule somewhat coherently, you would realize that you've only got so much time in a week to work on a few things (that is unless your full time commitment is to develop new ideas - I want to join that team). Prioritize your idea development by plugging in your planned activities ahead of time into these available time slots. When you're out of time slots, you're out of capacity. Good luck!

What LCC Manufacturers Want Most

In my last blog post here, I speak about the challenge in working with a LCC. Today I'm going to talk about the challenge in running a business in LCC and a golden opportunity for coaching and education.

For those that are familiar with running a factory in China, you've probably noticed the sharp increase in cost of resources (energy, material, labor) in the past 4 years especially around the cities near the Pacific Ocean: Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chaozhou, Shantou, etc. Government's mandate on increase in labor cost, inflation, and many other reasons add to the fact that more and more companies can't survive where they are today when the cost of production had tripled while the consumers are still paying the same prices. The phenomenon we are seeing today is that more and more companies (large or small) are moving inland where cost of resources are still low enough to run a profitable operation. Some companies have even packed up and moved to other LCC where the situation was more desirable.

There is still an advantage in staying near the ocean; the ease of access to exporting services and seaports helps them get their products to the customers faster, it's easier for your customers to visit you (don't have to take multiple bus rides, fly in a should-have-been-retired turbo-prop, etc), amongst other great reasons. The question becomes how does a company effectively reduce cost of production, enough to gain an advantage over its competition without having to move?

HereTryThis: For those of you that are knowledgeable about lean manufacturing, 5S, and Six Sigma approach to problem solving, this is your golden opportunity to take what you know and teach it to those who really need it. In my own experience, factories in China are rarely setup with a good foundation of Design for Six Sigma. Waste (in the form of T.I.M.W.O.O.D.) can be picked up in all aspects of the operation. The problem solving technique often used to speed up production is to throw more people at it; with the last labor rates it made sense but not with today's labor standards.

To start off, put together a team of experts (willing to travelling and residing in LCC) and hire a group of educated young intellectuals from the LCC to 1) help locate companies that need this service, 2) translate the material, and 3) become the liaison to negotiate contract. As this matures, automate this process and become a service that offers training that certifies local experts that can be contracted out to many different cities to work with more clients.

Low Cost Country - First Thoughts

One of my function at work is being the suggestion box (or the punching bag) for those people who would like to vent about something, anything. Something I hear over and over again, not only in my current position but in all of my previous occupations including the experience of operating an international trading business is the rumor that outsourcing to Low Cost Countries (LCC) do not work well.

LCC makes a whole lot of sense for its "obviously" lower cost in labor, the time difference so work can get done in LCC while people are sleeping here, and companies can concentrate on developing and keeping its core competencies in-house. The pool of talent isn't terrible at the LCC either: there are plenty of people with an American education (Masters and/or PhD). I truly believe that (majority) people don't goto work each day thinking of how to sabotage the companies they work at, so why does LCC earn such a bad name?

The complaint I hear often from people are: "yes they're cheaper, but they take twice as long to do the work," or "they did the work wrong the first time, the second time, and they still didn't get it right the third time," or "I can't talk to them, they don't understand what I want." These complaints almost always has to do with the break down in communication or an expectation not satisfied (a gap), and not the fact that the work is being done outside of the company. This is not so different from the "just throw it over the wall" mentality existing inside a company. Ever point to an engineer and say "this design is all wrong" and have him reply in return "you're just not building it right." Ever point to a buyer and say "you bought the wrong parts" and have him reply in return "then you must have given me bad info."

 To me, improving the working relationship with LCC's is a golden opportunity because if you're able to figure out how to work with LCC's efficiently, you'll be ahead of your competition. Another way of saying it is, if your competition figures out how to provide an end product faster and cheaper to the customer than you, you're going to be in deep trouble.

HereTryThis: The next time you hear a complaint about working with a LCC, first understand if the complaint is objective or subjective. There is nothing you can do about subjective feedback. Objectively if a gap does actually exist, use your favorite problem solving techniques (Six Sigma DMAIC or 8-Step Practical Problem Solving) to find the rootcause and put together a plan to eliminate the gap.

Trust: The Key to Customer Satisfaction

People often ask me, "why isn't my marketing campaign working? I've spent lots of money creating advertisement material and hiring people to get the word out there, but my returns are not great." My first response to them is: "are you conducting an advertisement campaign or marketing campaign? Because it sounds more like advertising you're trying to do." What's the difference?

Seasoned marketing managers would tell you that that advertisement is an element of a successful marketing campaign, amongst other elements such as marketing feedback, research and development, consumer outreach. Traditionally, most companies (especially small businesses) would focus most of the marketing budget on advertisement via flyers, direct mailing, cold calling, door to door sales, etc. The communication only goes one-way, where content is pushed to the consumers without any means for consumer to provide feedback. It's almost like saying "I know what's best for you, just buy it." This bypasses a critical element of marketing which is consumer engagement.

People give credit to the uprising of "Web 2.0" and social networking websites/apps for bringing focus to consumer/user engagement where feedback adds valuable content to the web experience for other consumers/users (think yelp, youtube, tirerack, FB). I would argue that  the emergence of these websites and apps only helps make accessing (communicating) users or potential consumers easier.

I believe firmly that the purpose of any marketing campaign (no matter how large or small, product or services) is to gain trust from your targeted consumers. Through trust comes customer loyalty, engagement, and in the end satisfaction. The basic way of gaining trust, although it may not be intuitive for most people, is to start by listening. 

Ever get in an heating discussion with a sibling or family member where you know you're right and only care about getting what you want to say 'out?' Does this help you gain trust from the other party? It sounds very much like what I stated about traditional marketing campaign above where: "The communication only goes one-way, where content is pushed to the consumers without any means for consumer to provide feedback." 

HereTryThis: The next time you're planning for a successful marketing campaign, start by asking the question "how do I gain trust from my targeted customer?" Whether you choose to marketing yourself on the internet or not, the internet and its available tools enables you to reach out to and interact with thousands of people in a short amount of time. Good luck.

Converting the desire to spend to fuel for innovation

There are so many materialistic things in the world I would like to have; nice cars, theater style home entertainment center, the latest technology and gadgets in my hands, and the desire to have them can sometimes be overwhelming. Ever spend countless hours searching online for things that you know you shouldn't buy but really really want to? Ever hear that two contradictory voices in your head going back and forth, one telling you "yes buy it you only live once," and the other saying "no, don't waste your money." It probably doesn't help much when your friends are nodding their heads saying "do it!"

I've learned that every time I get stuck in this situation, I would always ask myself these following questions:

• "Do I really need it or do I just want it?"
• "Can I comfortably afford this under my current budget or am I eating into other funds (food, mortgage, bills)?"

Now if it's something I can justify meaning I actually need it (ex: a replacement computer for my aging machine) and that I have enough money in the banks to afford it (note: not credit cards), I would buy it; no heart burns. On the flip side it's different.

Let's just say you really want to be able to own a Ferrari F430 (MSRP $190K). If you're an average person in the US, there is no chance you would be able to afford it with your current income situation; so what do you do? Simple: take that desire for the F430 and turn it into fuel for rising above being an average person. 

HereTryThis: The next time you find yourself beginning to surf on the internet to look for things that you wish you could have, spend that time instead on coming up with innovative ways to become able to afford them. The next time you find yourself starting a conversation with your friends on how you would "love to have one of those," instead spend the time thinking of how to turn that dream into reality.