Micro-corps: Rise of the Idea Architects (A New Generation of Entrepreneurs)
By John Basso
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About this ebook
Micro-Corps: Rise of the Idea Architects (A New Generation of Entrepreneurs) explores the fundamentals of starting and fostering a successful Micro-Corp in the age of the “bigger is better” business culture. John Basso, a technology and sustainability thought leader and CIO of Amadeus Consulting, shares his insight about what it takes to make a small idea flourish as an ultra-lean, ultra focused Micro-Corp. This book provides entrepreneurs with the tools and concepts necessary to work outside of traditional corporate structures by channeling their passion and augmenting their long and short term approach to produce business results within tight budgets and limited resources. Unlike small businesses, Micro-Corps leverage individual skills, focus on growing in profits rather than in size and are able to remain flexible throughout the ebb and flow of funds. Thanks to advances in the service and product industries, Idea-Architects are able to outsource much of the labor and resources needed rather than investing thousands of dollars into hiring a workforce. Though the amount of work and passion required to run a Micro-Corp is substantial, this business model has proven time and time again to not only generate substantial revenue, but to be fulfilling and provide job satisfaction to those willing to put in the effort. Based off of a series of interviews with successful Idea-Architects in a variety of fields, along with wisdom from John’s own business experience, Micro-Corps walks through the different business models, organizational approaches and productivity tactics that allow these smaller-than-small businesses to take off.
John Basso
John Basso is a veteran business technology consultant who has been leading technical teams and implementing leading-edge custom application development solutions for over 15 years. His dynamic spirit and enthusiasm have helped Amadeus Consulting build exceptionally close relationships with many long-term clients. Leadership John's demonstrated ability to manage complex custom software development programs has led to senior executive positions with several Amadeus Consulting clients from start-up through venture funding. As the Chief Technology Officer of PlanetOutdoors.com, John led the development and technical operations of a major e-commerce retailer. At Circadence, a network communication and infrastructure company, he led corporate strategy, product marketing, advertising and research. John currently sits on the board of advisors of iSatori Global Technologies, where he helped establish key processes for sustained business growth. As the Chief Strategy Officer of iSatori, John managed the technology group and the design, development and implementation of an advanced technology platform. In addition, John has extensive experience with venture capital funding and was a key contributor to equity investments deals for three different promising startup companies of over $20 million each. Experience Prior to Amadeus Consulting, John was a senior technology practice consultant for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) in Chicago, where he spent five years delivering enterprise software solutions to Fortune 500 companies. John managed large-scale projects across the U.S. and Europe, developing technical architectures to link legacy and client server systems. Family When not working on client projects, John enjoys spending time with his wife, Gina, and their 2 kids, running, hiking, scuba diving and snowboarding. John also volunteers for the FIRST Robotics Competition, helping high school science students compete at national championships. Education John was named a "Forty Under 40 Business Leader" by the Denver Business Journal in 2005. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science with Departmental Honors from Illinois State University.
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Micro-corps - John Basso
Micro-Corps
Rise of the Idea-Architects: The Next Generation of Entrepreneurs
By John Basso
Copyright 2012 John Basso
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Foreword
In the middle of the 2008 recession, as one of the leaders at Amadeus Consulting, the technology solutions company I had co-founded eighteen years ago, we were faced with two choices for survival: hunker down until the storm was over, or grow our capabilities so we would be better prepared for future fights. We chose the latter. We believed that the recession was going to be deeper and longer than anyone thought, and there would be no practical way to hide from it. We also believed that when the recession was over the marketplace would be radically different, and the old way of doing business just wouldn’t work.
That is when we started building out our service lines and broadening our foundation and that is when I tried to hire Sam to head up a new creative services department. I had worked with Sam before on other projects; he knew his stuff. Not only was he good at his craft of creative design but he had business smarts – he could work from both sides of his brain.
Sam was in the middle of multiple life events, all good, but no matter what I did I couldn’t convince him to join my company. Being persistent, really persistent, I kept after Sam, but he wouldn’t budge. Then I learned that Sam had started a new company. Sam claimed it was just an experiment but when he gave me the details I knew he was on to something. It wasn’t that I could predict the future but rather, I had seen this pattern before with other clients. Somebody had an idea that most people would laugh at because there was no way to turn their idea into a real company.
What gave it away was Sam was making $5 a day. Yes, $5 a day! I told Sam that he had made it and he was set. At that point he had no idea what I was talking about. I gave up trying to hire Sam for how could I compete with $5 a day?
What I knew that Sam didn’t yet know was that it was only a matter of time and some effort before $5 a day turned into $50 and then turned into $500 and eventually $5000+ a day. His experiment would then be his full time job. It wasn’t until a year later I consciously realized that this pattern I had seen over and over with my clients wasn’t luck but rather a different type of company – a Micro-Corp. Run by a different kind of owner – an Idea-Architect. What is a Micro-Corp? What is an Idea-Architect? Nothing less than the most exciting approach to manage a business that I have seen in the 20 years I have been working with entrepreneurs.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Small is too big
Companies are really big these days!
Back down to earth
What happened to my day?
Lack of focus
Growth in size vs. profit
Innovation or the lack of it
Creativity and quality curtailed
Chapter 2: Why bother?
Our roots
What do you really want?
A million dollar idea isn’t going to cut it – sorry
Chapter 3: What makes a good Idea-Architect?
Passion
Being persistent
Having good support from their families
Having this deep, deep desire to make something better
Enriching their own lives
A knack for not seeing failure
Not being concerned with image
The ability to create something
Flexible and confident
Chapter 4: Strategies for building a Micro-Corp
Best Fit
Routine
Fail very, very fast
Fake it
Bursting
Don’t judge other’s ideas, just your own
Focus more about the idea than the company
Practice your pitch
Failure is part of success, get used to it
You can’t afford yourself
Start learning
Don’t be greedy
Don’t be cheap
Find others like yourself
People don’t have ideas but rather people see ideas when the opportunity arises
Make space for creativity
Avoid traps
Chapter 5: Now what?
How do I start?
Who can help?
Importance of measuring success
Chapter 6: Helping Others
Appendix A: Questions and Answers
Appendix B: Factoids and sidebars
Appendix C: Acknowledgements
Appendix D: About the Author
Appendix E: Resources
References
Introduction
The idea that bigger is better
permeates business culture today. Do a search on your favorite news site for the word merger
and see for yourself. Today I did a search and several larger-than-large companies appeared at the top of the list. For example, in 2011 we saw several giant companies trying to merge – AT&T and T-Mobile just to name twoi. These are companies with billions of dollars of revenue and tens of thousands of employees. Why? On the surface there is always some sort of reason, such as reduced overhead, efficiency, consolidation, or even reduced competition. Turns out that the merger fell through by the time I was ready to go to print, but with a multi-billion dollar back out clause, this wasn’t some whimsical attempt of a merger but rather something that both companies thought was possible.
Dig deeper and you will find plenty of evidence that mergers rarely meet their stated merger objectivesii.