Author: CBPS

Peter Mehit is co-founder and Managing Partner of Custom Business Planning and Solutions, a business consulting firm that provides problem solving, planning and process help. He has worked from private equity to the Fortune 100 at all stages. He can be reached at pmehit@wbpllc.com or at 800-741-8444.

Speaking With Russian Entrepreneurs | Peter Mehit

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Sirgut-1

Last Friday, we had the honor to speak with a room full of entrepreneurs in Surgut, Siberia via teleconference. The conference was set up by Michelle Skiljian of the Inland Empire Women’s Center and Dr. Tapie Rhom, an IT professor at CSUSB along with the help of many others. We filed into  the tele-learning center at Cal State San Bernardino for a 7:00pm start. The tele bridge started late because the participants on the Russian end had to fight a snow storm to get to the venue. The crowd was slow to build but after about twenty minutes there were fifty or so participants involved in the conversation with about 15 Southern California business owners.

They aren’t all that different than us, except they have higher expectations for what America does for it’s start up nation. Most of their questions centered on sources of capital (with an interesting sidebar about support for parolees), the kinds of businesses we start here and, in particular, the kinds of businesses women are getting into. The Russian audience was majority women and the only three business owners that spoke were women. They explained the split of business owners in Russia 85-15% male, with the majority of women owning care giving or service businesses.

Continue reading “Speaking With Russian Entrepreneurs | Peter Mehit” →

Big Brother – Facebook Style

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My friend Ben Hillman is an animator and graphic artist who has his own firm in New York. He possesses an acerbic wit and very definite political opinions. When he learned that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerman was a proponent of (and investor in) the Keystone Pipeline and drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Reserve, he developed a little graphic to display his ire:

fuckzuck blank

Ben posted this on his wall on Facebook. Shortly thereafter (less than a minute) I saw the post and shared it on my wall. It appeared on my wall for less than one minute. There was a page refresh and then it was gone. It was also removed from Ben’s wall as well. 

The take away is this: Everything you post is being monitored by Facebook in real time. You have no privacy. They will censor your political and social opinions.

Finally, Mark Zuckerberg is a thin skinned douchebag.

For some interesting reading on the same subject, click here.

The censor of the graphic is mine. We’re trying to run a relatively PG blog here. For the actual, uncensored NSFW graphic, click here – Ed.

Crutch Phrase | Urban Dictionary

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April 29: Crutch phrase

An overworked figure of speech, such as, inter alia, “at the end of the day,” or “it is what is,” or “thinking outside the box,” or “leverage our resources.” Crutchphrases are a common refuge of speakers who have difficulty articulating ideas or concepts without reflexively using jargon and cliché. Often relied upon by powerpoint-user speakers who simply repeat what is already printed on the Powerpoint slide.

The use of a crutchphrase is often an open admission of an unwillingness or inability to think, let alone use language effectively.

“At the end of the day,” the speaker droned, “we have to think out of the box if we are to successfully leverage our resources.” Note the split infinitive.

“But,” protested a listener, “you’re not making any sense at all, you’re just babbling a bunch of crutch phrases!”

“It is what it is,” replied the speaker, retreating to the safe territory of a crutch phrase. 

Every presentation I pray I don’t fall prey to these, easy, useless words. It’s  so hard to stay fresh – Ed.

3 Ways to Survive the Coming Social Bust | SmallBusinessNewz

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Compared to the last boom/bust technology cycle that culminated with the dot com crash of 2000, the social-era combatants are in an even more precarious position. Back then, the engine of the expansion was e-commerce, which at least generated revenue (although clearly not at ROI sufficient to save Pets.com, Webvan.com, Boo.com and legions of other online ghosts). Last time, success and failure was driven as much by expense control as revenue generation, and the huge influx of public market financing through IPOs allowed start-up companies to essentially trade dollars back and forth in a giant shell game.

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You’re Not Doing It Right – Indulge in Cheap Insurance!

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Cheap

What are the advertisers trying to say here? You’ll be happy while your house is burning because you have cheap insurance? That’s some good insurance, right there. Either that or the garage was full of marijuana and it took them a while to escape.

I mean, nothing says ‘photo opportunity’ like all of your worldly possessions going up in a house fire.

Spearphishing: The dirty email trick favored by the nastiest hackers – Technology on NBCNews.com

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speargun_euro2You probably know to watch out for phishing attempts — broad, massive email efforts to get you to hand over personal financial information like a credit card number or to click on a website link that could allow malware to steal information from your computer. Theyre usually riddled with spelling errors and terrible formatting. Spearphishing is subtler, because its aimed at intelligence gathering. It “often takes the form of key personnel inside an organization being emailed a malicious file,” Graham Cluley of Sophos Security told NBC News Tuesday.

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