.Roaring Mouse

I recently had the good fortune to discover “Small Giants”, a book written by Bo Burlingham,  one-time executive editor at Inc. magazine. Rather than prescribe the latest “10 rules of this” or “9 effective methods of that”, Bo leads readers on an exploration of 14 different companies and how they’ve accomplished that which many corporate denizens are in constant search of – job-related success and happiness. The industries, methods and personalities that are highlighted in this book are disparate, but are all interesting, even if they don’t seem familiar. While two deli owners in Ann Arbor, MI, a tattooed punk-folk singer from Buffalo, NY and a hippie builder from California don’t appear to have anything in common on the surface, Bo Burlingham manages to weave a slender thread through every single personality and business highlighted in the book and cinches it to create a cohesive story that is entertaining, informational and inspirational.

“Small Giants” is a relatively simple read and serves as the perfect antidote for the somber mood that the business world is currently in. The book also offers hope for people who long to find ‘the perfect’ job and to those who believe they know how to do ‘it’ better than the way their companies currently do. You can read more reviews of the book at Amazon.com or visit the book’s site at Smallgiantsbook.com.

Over the weekend, I caught up with an old classmate of mine and during our conversation, he introduced me to the concept of “search funds”. A search fund is a pool of money that’s primarily used to finance the “search stage” of a business acquisition. This encompasses the following steps:

1. Identifying a business to acquire
2. Due diligence and evaluation of the target business
3. Negotiation of the deal

Search funds are structured organizationally in the same manner as a traditional investment vehicle, with one or more managing partners and several limited partners. The managing partners take the most active role in the search fund, and are responsible for all the steps described above. Limited partners are usually high net-worth individuals who provide the funding for the “search”. In a typical search fund, the limited partners are given the first right of refusal to invest in the target company once it has been identified and vetted. In practice, the majority of the invested capital is raised from the group of original limited partners.

Where search funds differ from private equity (PE) groups is in the focus of the investment. While PEs are generally viewed as “strip and flip” investors, whose goal is to maximize their investment within the shortest period of time, search funds take a longer term view of their investments. The managing partners of search funds become active managers of the acquired business and are focused on running the business much as if they started it themselves. The benefits to sellers of the business include:

1.      A possible answer to succession planning issues

2.      An exit strategy that allows them to liquidate while preserving the core tenets of the company

For the aspiring entrepreneur(s), a search funds provides the following advantages:

1.      Time to evaluate the right industry and company to match his/her/their skillsets and interests

2.      The ability to inherit a business that’s already operational and profitable instead of having to start from scratch

Currently, there are approximately 200 active search funds and most were started by business school and law school graduates. However, the concept should be intriguing for anyone who would like to own and operate their own business, but do not want to start from scratch. For more information on search funds, please check out the table and the links below:

Stanford Graduate School of Business search fund page

Interview with some search funders

I’d like to thank Andrew Matricaria at Lakeshore Capital Partners, LLC for his detailed and patient explanation of search funds.

Several  years ago, the choices for notebook PCs were somewhat limited. In general, you’d find notebooks that had display panels that spanned in size from 12″ to 15″. Anything outside of this range was unconventional, and hence, expensive. Today, though, a plethora of different display sizes has become mainstream. You’ll just as easily find an 8.9″ notebook at an online computer store as you would a 17″ system, all at prices that are significantly cheaper than they were even 3 years ago. In fact, notebooks are so affordable now that more than half of all PC sales in the US and Canada in the most recently closed calendar quarter were comprised of notebooks (55.2% in the US, to be precise). However, with choice comes confusion, and the recent entry of the ‘netbook’ category of devices into the mix complicates matters even more. Aside from working on the ThinkPad SL, I’m also the product manager on Lenovo’s IdeaPad S-series netbooks and I’d like to summarize some of the major differences between netbooks and notebooks so that you can make a more informed decision about which the right system for you is. Some of the information isn’t universally true, but it’s safe to assume that the information is valid for sub-$500 netbooks. Please feel free to ask me questions about these systems in the comments section and I’d appreciate it if you would also participate in the accompanying poll.

Virtually every successful person, be it in business, sports or entertainment, can point to one or more people who helped guide and shape her/his path to success. Even the most talented athletes or naturally savvy businesspeople need feedback and suggestions for improvement in order to achieve their true potential. While coaches are de rigueur in sports, the role isn’t nearly as pervasive in small business. I was curious about why this is so, since one can argue that on the whole, getting the right coaching in business has greater implications than in sports. As I thought about it further, I came up with reasons why some kind of business coaching or mentorship would be valuable and have listed them below.

1. A coach can help you develop skills you lack and make up for the deficiencies as you develop your ability
2. They help you to stay motivated even when times get tough
3. They force you to create an actionable business plan and make you stay focused on the plan, making you more efficient
4. You can tap into their resource network for anything from funding sources to marketing ideas
5. If you’re a sole proprietor, it’s nice to have someone who knows about your business celebrate your successes with you

While the list isn’t exhaustive, I think it captures most of the value that coaches bring to the table. I think that these reasons are good enough to justify the investment in a coach, even if the sessions are on an ‘as-needed’ basis. Do you have a business coach or have you used one in the past? Why or why not?

Today we have a guest post from David Churbuck, VP of Web Marketing for Lenovo. Take it away David

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The greatest challenge of working from home – even when one works for a global Fortune 500 corporate like Lenovo — is do-it-yourself technical support, a reality for most small business owners and freelancers who operate with out much in the way of a support staff to keep things like PCs and peripherals running at full potential.

While I certainly believe that self-support is easier on a ThinkPad platform thanks to the ThinkVantage technology suite, there are times when I manage to shoot myself in the foot or run into a glitch caused by a combination of user errors, bad computing hygiene, or plain old-fashioned unexplainable weirdness in my system.

The biggest revolution in self-support is the power of a search engine and a search on one’s issue to see if anyone else has posted, written, or complained about the same error code or general state of brokenness.

A couple weeks ago I was refreshing my system with the ThinkVantage System Update — reflashing my BIOS with a new version, pulling in and installing new device drivers, downloading the latest Vista updates — when I realized I had broken my audio capabilities. This is not a show stopper, just an inconvenience, but I knew from long experience that it would probably take me hours to identify a solution to fix the issue on my own.

Earlier this year Lenovo’s service and support team launched the Lenovo Forum, a peer to peer support community that permits people like me to ask for help on tech and customer service issues. The forums now have over 20,000 registered users and deliver a good experience in terms of quickly getting feedback from other users on common (and not-so-common) issues specific to Lenovo PCs.

Anyway, I posted my problem and gained some good advice which helped me narrow down — but not solve — my audio glitch. This experience — of “walking a mile in the customer’s shoes” — is pretty instructive to crafting our total Lenovo ownership experience, especially from the vantage point of an independent proprietor who may only have tech support when it comes from technically adept friends, Google, or local paid services like Geek Squad or a local retailer.

I’m very interested in how we can improve the customer experience for those of you who are your own IT staff. I believe our ThinkVantage Technology suite is unparalleled for keeping a system backed up, stable, and current, but only to the extent people use it. For example — my recent audio issues made me wonder if my backup strategy (or lack of one) was a recipe for heartbreak. So, first thing I did this morning was crack open a stack of new recordable CDs and burn recovery media (the installation discs that no longer ship with your system but which should be made first thing out of the box). A dozen discs later and at least now I have a viable copy of Vista and all the ThinkVantage software sitting in a drawer.

So, what can we do better to give you peace of mind when it comes to a stable and error-free computing experience? Please check out our forums when you get a chance, create an account, and by all means, create your product recovery media today.

Reading this post on the Duct Tape Marketing blog inspired me to think about how technology has not only really changed how businesses conduct their day-to-day tasks, but how it has altered the fundamental expectation of what a small business is. Gone are the days when small business = local business. Technology has allowed a geographic and temporal shift, making it easier to reach customers and collaborators who sometimes live in completely different continents and time zones.

An example that I’m personally familiar with is a small natural beauty products company that friends of mine run. One of the owners is in Los Angeles, on the West Coast of the United States. The other lives in North Carolina, on the East Coast. They collaborate using the regular tools of phone and email, but also employ VOIP to save on phone bills. Online collaboration tools from Zoho and 37 Signals allow them to share and edit documents in real time and track the progress of their projects. A company website and online advertising helps reach their customers, Paypal handles invoicing and payment, and online estimation and tracking tools from the United States Postal Service and UPS get estimates for shipping.

This has allowed them to run their business more efficiently and extend the reach of their business beyond their respective towns, enabling them to reach customers they may never have been in contact with otherwise. (As a side note, isn’t it amazing that email is now commonplace when just 15 years ago, its use was still relatively limited?)

How has technology helped you expand your business beyond the confines of your local geography? What technology products do you use to run your business more efficiently? What technologies do you wish existed to allow you to achieve your geographical expansion goals? (yes, teleporters are fair game, but you heard it here first!)

A lot of emphasis was placed on the multimedia experience that users have when they use the SL. We know that many, many small business PC users use their notebooks for more than just work. While the idea of “digital convergence” has still yet to truly realize itself, we’ve learned that the notebook is the primary source of entertainment for many people. With that in mind, we specified the SL with some pretty nifty features. The handsome speaker grille above the keyboard is more than just decorative! It hints at the multimedia potential of the SL and we made sure that the experience is not disappointing. The SL400 and SL500 have two 2W stereo speakers, while the SL300 has two 1.5W stereo speakers and all three models are specified with Intel HD audio. In my opinion, the sound for a business class notebook is outstanding! All SL machines also come with a dual array microphone, located just above the display. Skype and other VOIP users will be glad about this, as the microphones ensure that your voice input is clearly captured. Select models will come with an integrated camera – 1.3MP on the SL300 and 2MP on the SL400 and 500.

The audio control buttons are now on the left and the switches we use have enough of an actuation force that there’s no threat of accidentally depressing the audio buttons when you’re typing. Well, not unless you apply the finger pressure of King Kong when you type, that is. For those of you who need a little extra ‘oomph!’ in your graphics processing, the ThinkPad SL offers the option of an nVidia graphics card on all three SL models.

As nice as these other features are, though, probably the most exciting multimedia features on SL are the HDMI port, which comes standard on all SL systems and the optional Blu-ray rewritable drive. Match this combo up to your HDTV and your ThinkPad SL could very well be the center of your high-definition multimedia universe.

As I promised in my first post, here’s a more detailed look at the ThinkPad SL. The first thing you’ll notice about the ThinkPad SL is that it has a glossy top cover and an angular, more contemporary design. These design elements help to set the SL apart from our other ThinkPads. All SL models also come with a VibrantView glossy display, and anti-glare versions are available on SL400 and SL500. The VibrantView displays project richer, more vibrant colors and crisper images. The keyboard area of the SL is newly designed and a large speaker grille just above the top of the keyboard hints at the multimedia features of the SL. The audio control buttons have been moved to the side to make way for the grille, while the status indicator LEDs are now on the right of the keyboard. The keyboard, as I already stated, retains the legendary keyboard feel of the ThinkPad family. Another ThinkPad feature that remains a constant is the UltraNav – the trackpoint and touchpad combination. I personally am a trackpoint convert and will never go back to a touchpad if I can help it, but touchpad users will be glad to know that the SL has one.

Of course, a ThinkPad isn’t a ThinkPad unless you can rely on it, and we built the ThinkPad SL to be no exception. While the ThinkPad SL doesn’t have the magnesium top or bottom rollcages of its cousins, the SL design was subjected to and passed extremely rigorous test criteria before it left our ThinkPad development labs in Yamato, Japan. Rest assured that before all is said and done, the SL-series will live up to its billing as a ThinkPad and will definitely put to rest any perception or claim that this is just a rebadged Lenovo 3000.

In my next post, we’ll explore some of the fun elements of this business machine!

Hello everyone, my name is Brandon Hoe and I’m a product manager in the ThinkPad SL notebook group at Lenovo. It is with great joy that I present “Roaring Mouse,” Lenovo’s Small Business blog. This blog is significant to Lenovo for two reasons – it marks the launch of a completely new line of small business-focused ThinkPads and signifies Lenovo’s commitment to a dialog with small business owners everywhere. I hope that over time, I will understand your needs a little better and provide tips, tricks and solutions to help you run your business with a few less headaches. The first couple of posts will focus on what our new small business offerings are, but I aim to explore small business topics that aren’t necessarily related to PCs in the ensuing posts.

After conversations with our customers and business partners, my team and I learned that small business owners wanted us to work on a computing solution, not just a new computer. One of my friends, who owns a small business said, “I don’t need just another computer. I have other IT related issues to contend with, and just a new laptop won’t help me deal with them.” We took this feedback to heart, and worked hard to put together a computing solution that extends beyond just the hardware. Lenovo’s new Small Business thrust is made up of three components, the new ThinkPad SL, a new suite of services and a software solution that is targeted at Small Business.

To appease the gadget geeks among you, I’d like to start off by introducing Lenovo’s new ThinkPad addition, the ThinkPad SL. Lenovo currently sells millions of ThinkPads to small business customers, but a common complaint we receive from our small business customers is that although the ThinkPad is generally great, there are necessary features that are not included and unnecessary features that are. I’ve also heard from some folks who think that the design of our ‘classic’ ThinkPads is, well, a bit too ‘classic.’ What you do like is the ThinkPad’s reliability, that wonderful keyboard feel, the option of a trackpoint or touchpad and strangely enough, that the ThinkPad is black! My team and I have spent many, many hours ruminating, discussing and arguing about how to fulfill your desire for a small business ThinkPad. The challenge we set ourselves was that the new machine had to have all the hallmark ThinkPad features and some relevant new ones and that it also had to be packaged in a wrapper that would be unique and differentiated, yet be instantly recognizable as a ThinkPad. While the jury remains out on whether we’ve accomplished our goals, we do know that we’ve crafted this machine with a great amount of care and love. More on the ThinkPad SL in my next post. I hope you’ll come back to learn more about my baby!