The BBB — a reliable organization or a farse?

January 30, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The BBB has been around for a long time and is in business to find “bad” businesses who do bad thing to their customers and expose the evil things that these bad businesses do. However, what happens in reality, the BBB helps angry customers slander legitimate companies who simply didn’t give the customer what they had wanted regardless of what the terms of the agreement were. The BBB doesn’t care about what is right or wrong, nor do they consider published company policies in handling claims. The BBB only considers how the customer feels no matter how logical or illogical.

We have many complaints because we don’t give people their money back if they purchased something from us and then changed their mind. My policies page clearly states that we do NOT give money back unless you purchased in error and got back to us within 24 hours. Once you have made a purchase from us, after 24 hours, the project is yours. If you don’t like it, perhaps you should write a complaint about yourself. I am not willing to entertain this type of nonsense unless I rewrite my policies. I also don’t want customers walking all over us buying, returning, buying and returning at great cost to our limited labor resources and patience.

BBB doesn’t care at all about what is fair. They are a one-sided organization that only cares about the customer, how they feel, what they want, and that’s about it. A legitimate Better Business Bureau would have a two-sided view as to whether business is being conducted fairly. They should look to see if one side is unfair to the other. If the customer is unfair to the business, the BBB backs the customer in its crusade to undermine the reputation of respectable and helpful businesses that do a lot for the public. It just doesn’t seem fair, and it is very clear that their only purpose in existence is to gang up on people without any respect to legitimacy of reason.

Getting Social Media advice from a cat

January 30, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged , | Leave a comment

We all know how intelligent cats are. They would show us their intelligence more often if they weren’t so busy with their busy napping schedule. But, did you know that cats are good at marketing? It makes sense. Marketing is like a tiger chasing gazelles in the plains of Africa. All of the same skills apply. You have to be good at watching, timing, strategy, and pouncing. You can learn a lot from watching a cat.

Identifying your target audience
Cats identify their target audience by using their powers of observation. They sit and study the market behind a camouphlage of tall grass. This is exactly what you should do as a marketer. Just go to a place with some tall grass, and bring it into your office next to the computer to get you in the mood. For social media marketing, some people choose followers, and others choose sources of followers. If you choose your followers one by one, you will spend all day on a few. As a marketer, you need to follow tens of thousands of people on social media. So, find particular sources of followers that will give you the highest quality of follower. In cat terms, find the best large field(s) or expanse(s) where your lunch likes to graze. If one large field is not good on a particular day, you have researched other ones, so you have a constant supply of social media gazelles to prey upon.

Licking Your Paws
It is important to take a nap after some hunting. Reflect on the activities of the day, and give your other cat friends a kiss. Down time is very important when you are a cat!

Sitting & Watching
Identifying your target audience requires a lot of sitting and watching. My rule is that if you retweet from a particular account and those tweets are popular on your account, their followers will be compatible with your account too. You might have to experiment with a few dozen accounts to find the right accounts to feed off of. But, knowing which accounts to feed off of at a particular time is another skill you need to learn from your cat friends. Basically, you want to find the account with the slowest running gazelles if that makes sense. Easy pickings. You want to start finding members that comment on your favorite account or share posts. They will be the most active if you bring them over to your account. Active accounts have the juiciest meat too as you will soon find out. Once you have eaten all of the accounts that are active and the most relevant to you, go to some semi-relevant accounts and get some active people there. Even an active member from a completely general category might be more valuable to you than a dead-beat in your exact industry.

Sharing Your Catch
Remember, cats are very sharing, especially with their baby kitties. Sharing also takes lots of watching as well which is a skill that cats excel at. Some people just browse around and share stuff. This is not a good approach. You need to first decide what category of post you want to share . If you want to post ten shares or posts per day, you should decide how many of each category you should post. I like to post one or two industry specific posts per day. Then, I like to do semi-relevant posts. Finally, I do many posts of common interest to try to expand my fan base. If I decide to post a photo of a cat (which works very well) I’ll look at 40 cat photos, and pick the best one. I don’t like to be too choosy, otherwise there won’t be any choices for next time. But, I don’t like to pick the first cat I see either. I pick the best of 40, and I generally get 20-100 likes if I post it on a large group. The other guys who just pick the second or third cat they see average only a pawfull of clicks.

Napping
After a busy day doing cat-style marketing, it’s time for a nap. Nighty night!

Do you work more productively from 1am to 5am?

January 30, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Leave a comment

I have a friend who wakes up every day at 2am and works feverishly. He claims he gets his best work done in the wee hours of the night. I do exactly what my friend does except those early morning hours are before I go to bed. In the old days I used to meditate in those hours. I hate my sleep schedule because I wake up late in the day after more than half of the day is over. It makes it hard to do phone calls. But, on the other hand, I do my best work after midnight when the atmosphere is calm and there are no disturbances.

Keep in mind that disturbances include more than phone calls, emails, knocks on your door and noise from outdoors. The atmosphere has other types of interferences that are more meta-physical. When people are awake they create small particles with their thoughts which I call thought-trons. These particles are not formed so much as people sleep. It is more peaceful then because nobody is using their cell phones, lights, or thinking except in their dreams.

So, maybe it is time for a lifestle change. Maybe it is time to stay up later or get up early and do your focused work when others are sleeping. Want to be #1? You have to be different and excel where others fail, be awake while others are sleeping, and be alert while others are checking their text messages!

Why is it so hard to buy a good business?

January 30, 2015 by admin
Categories: Management | Leave a comment

Personally, I prefer to create my own businesses. But, I operate on a micro scale. That way I understand the business from top to bottom, have experimented and grown with the business. Investors on the other hand don’t want to build anything. They analyze and buy, but most of all, they say, “No!”

Very few businesses make good profits. Discretionary cash flow is another serious issue which involves earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Some fudge their numbers here which is why you need to be very seasoned to survive as an investor — seasoned in catching frauds!

Intangible assets are something that sellers don’t always understand fully. Trademarks, patents, secrets and just plain having people who trust you & vice versa can be a company’s most vital assets. On the other hand, it might be hard to define a value that an investor would respect for such un-assessable assets.

The commitment and passion of the owner is another factor that investor’s can’t ignore. My business is successful because I micromanage everything just to the right point. I know all of the processes and I’m an expert at all of them except for programming which I outsource to people who normally do not meet deadlines… ever… How would an investor survive in a small business that’s survival rests in the hands of its loving owners?

Personally, I feel that you should not invest in any business you don’t completely understand. Warren Buffet agrees with me on this. He goes to the extreme of not being willing to buy much stock in a company he doesn’t completely understand. This world we live in of buying selling, not being committed to anything is just crazy. In my opinion, buy a car and keep it until it dies. Create your own business and keep it until you retire or die.

On another note, if you want to create a BPO with the intention of selling it five years later and getting rich, it might be hard to find a buyer. Few people know how to handle a BPO. Your only real options might be large companies in the same industry that you are in. But, why would they want to buy your operation when you are not operating on the same standards that they are? Think about it from the buyers perspective and then you’ll see the brilliance of my create and hold for life strategy.

Good judgement comes from experience; Experience comes from bad judgement

January 29, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Hmmm. Yet another quote that uses circular logic which is the only type of logic that I enjoy. I guess the only reason the elderly have good judgment is that they have been burned so many times that they learned. Sure you can teach children right from wrong, but until they have a few really bad experience and suffer some really real consequences that they feel, they might never learn.

I remember the old days when I wanted to make money fast. I worked hard on my paper route and lawn mowing business. I saved up money and purchased a penny stock. It went out of business a few years later and I lost everything. It was after that experience I decided to be a lot more cautious about investing. Now, I have a very stable portfolio of stocks that are mostly the same that Warren Buffet owns. Sure, none of them are fast growth stocks, but they are stable, and I made a little money from them too.

In my business, I have learned a lot too. When I started many years ago, I thought that you just set up certain functions and they maintain themselves. I put a bunch of people on a directory and thought that I had a directory. I didn’t realize that I would have to continue giving 3000 free listings every year for the rest of my life which is very time consuming. What I did was to add 4000 all at once, and then do nothing for two years until the total head count on the directory got really low. Now, I have a monthly system of putting new people on the directory in the beginning of each month. My behavior now demonstrates my realistic and good judgement which arose from being an idiot in the past and learning from my mistakes.

But, what about your business? Do you learn from your mistakes or are you oblivious and keep making the same mistakes over and over without realizing? Try to learn from your bad judgment and refine your decision making skills as that is what defines a good business person. If you have made twenty wrong turns in the past, and now know the right place to turn, you are a business person. If your correct turn changes over time and you adapt swiftly to the change, then you are a real business person who understands that change is constant.

Just remember — the difference between a successful business person and a very successful business person is that the very successful one compares a much larger number of options and says “no” a higher percentage of the time!

How do female CEO’s rise to the top?

January 29, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Success | Leave a comment

Ambitious girls who hope to get ahead in business are often advised to take a particular path: Get a degree from the most prestigious college possible, and then get an MBA from a selective business school Finally, get a job from a higher level consulting firm or investment bank. From there it will be easier to be into the more prestigious positions and gain more influence and responsibility.

In real life, there is a very limited supply of big jobs. There are not that many large corporations out there and not that many three million per year CEO jobs out there either. Sure, it’s great if you can get one, but you will be competing against millions of others with exactly the same goal which puts you in a compromising position.

Surprisingly, most of the ladies running Fortune 500 companies did not hopt on the fast track right away. Many took modest jobs from the companies that they currently run — they simply worked their way up the ladder. Starting out in the mail room or as a customer support representative or intern might be the best way to get ahead. That way your skills and work ethic will be known to others in higher positions which is something a college degree just can’t convey.

Another interesting fact is that many of the women who are now CEOs have been working for the same company for decades. They did not job hop. As someone who runs a small business, I see how most people who work for me either slack off, quit, or argue a lot. It is virtually impossible for someone working for me to rise to a higher position in my micro-company unless they learn the ropes over the years and gain my good graces. If there were just one person who would just be steady and hard working for me, they would earn $100,000 per year, and that is without a college degree. They don’t even need to be that talented. I trust people who stick around and deliver consistent results, not some flashy newcomer with a fancy resume. I personally am a CEO of my micro-company. I only have a handful of people working for me. However, I average $150,000 per year just because I stick with it and try to master all of the skills that I need to. My education is nothing impressive as I have only a college degree in Chinese language and literature and no formal business training. Yes, the weekend classes in feng-shui helped me too — but, in mystical ways. It is no surprise to me that the women who got ahead stayed with the same company for years — like a marriage. Steady is definitely the way to get ahead in my book. But, try explaining that to millenials.

It takes longer for a woman to rise to the top in corporate America. For what reason I can’t say. But, the vast majority of them were promoted as long-term insiders while less than half of the men got to the top the same way.

Ambition is a fundamental difference between men and women. Women in their 20’s tend to be more patient with the idea of being at the bottom and working hard for an unappreciative boss while men are in a breakneck race to get ahead. I remember when I was in my 20’s. My male impatience hurt me more than anything else. I made rash decisions which were unwise as I look back into time. But, when women enter their mid-thirties, they often go through a midlife crisis. They lose their drive while men are just getting going. And then when women hit their mid-fifties menopause hits in and they lose even more focus and drive. I have seen this happen to so many women. As a youngster, I bought into all of the feminist ideology — I had no choice as I grew up in liberal Massachusetts. But, as an adult, I see how male biology and psychology is significantly different from women and that they are not our equals. They are no lesser than us, just designed for a different purpose — one that feminists will never accept in their quest to erase their femininity and become imitation men. Feminists are sexists as they don’t accept or respect the role that God game them as women — but, don’t tell them that I said that otherwise they’ll get upset and come after me!

Lastly, the women at the top rarely graduated from prestigious schools. They simply proved themselves in an evolving career path that led to the top. It doesn’t surprise me as my own personal career path as a man was not benefitted at all by anything I learned in school. Everything that I know that is valuable I learned from hard work, experience, and learning new things on the job over extended periods of time. Mastery doesn’t come overnight, and neither does being a CEO unless you start your own company and can be CEO on day 1 (which is what I did.)

How good are your analytics for your BPO company?

January 28, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Analytics, BPO | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Many companies specialize in analytics while others don’t know what that means. But, how good are your analytics for running your own business?

Call centers have many metrics and analytics to keep track of how long people wait on hold, how long calls take, if disputes can be resolved in one call, and more.

Large companies have analytics for inventory, systems integration, testing, and more. The result is more streamlined manufacturing at lower costs which translates into increased productivity.

But, what can your company do to use analytics? There are many things to keep track of at a BPO. Here are some that I thought of.

1. How long did you know a client before they became a client?
2. How many times did you interact with someone before they became a client?
3. How many people you interact with by email, phone or otherwise become clients?
4. How many clients who stopped using your service did so because service was slow or mistakes were made?
5. What are the fluctuations in labor use at your company week by week over a period of time?
That will help you determine how much extra labor you need.

6. What is your typical employee turnover rate.
7. How much training do you need to give an employee to get them to a particular level of competency?
8. What “special” requests do clients have? (or do you ignore this like most other BPO’s?)
9. Which of your employees have repeat clients and which lose you clients repeatedly?
10. What do the employees who stay say about your company vs. the ones who quit?

That’s all for now. Perhaps you can think of some other analytics.

Hiring difficult personality types

January 28, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Leadership, Management | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

There are many personality types out there. But, dealing with them in the business world is just not easy. If you have a small company, you might not have easy access to the cream of the crop as they prefer to work for Google or other big companies with stellar reputations. So, how do you survive? You need to decide if you want to hire difficult people or not.

But, there are different types of difficult people. You might be able to handle some of them, but not others.

The mediocre type
Some people don’t argue much. They just do their work in a mediocre way. They don’t care if they made a mistake, and if they have to take the day off at a critical time, that is your problem, not theirs. They will be uncooperative about returning phone calls or about doing anything that you are not forcing them to do. In a sense, the mediocre type are sort of like adults with the psychology of American 13 year olds. Personally, I don’t like the mediocre type, because their performance is too pathetic to justify a normal paycheck in my opinion. Also, they dull my enthusiasm for work which is another factor which you should consider. If you work with underachievers, they will lower your standards without saying a word.

The complainer
Every company has one of these. They complain about everything. If you are nice to them on Monday, they will complain that you weren’t nice on Tuesday. If they didn’t get a bonus they complain. If they get a bad customer they complain. If someone does good work, I will tolerate a lot of complaining. But, complaining can bring you down. See if you can master the art of handling a complainer. Try to get them to see the good side of their job. Compare their situation to someone’s that is much worse. The Dalai Lama uses this technique to teach happiness by the way (not that I read Dalai Lama’s literature.)

The egomaniac
Some people are just into themselves. I had a friend who was like this. Some people say that egotists are not good team players, but that is not necessarily the case. Egotists in the long run care about coming out on top themselves, and not about your operation even if they seem to be cooperating. On the other hand, nobody cares about the success of an entrepreneur except the entrepreneur him/herself! Other egotists put everyone else down. It can be a pain to listen to this. But, on the other hand, they might make useful and legitimate statements about faults in others that you overlooked. So, don’t fear the egomaniac. Just try to understand their psychology and learn how to deal with them.

The backstabber
Unfortunately, the backstabbling type don’t usually wear a sign on themselves announcing to the world who they are. Backstabbers are a problem. Some of them only threaten you but don’t actually do anything. Others tell horrible things about you to your clients. Some try to steal a position from someone else who works from you. There are many things a backstabber will try to do including telling you things that will raise your blood pressure on a regular basis. In my personal opinion, backstabbers are not ideal people to work with. Try finding someone who just does their work without all the drama!

The secretive type
Some people are not bad workers, but don’t get back to you, don’t follow through and keep you in the dark. The problem is that if they didn’t actually do critical work on time, you will not know about it. The secretive type needs to know how important their work is in the bigger picture and that following through and communicating are required. Penalize them with small penalties and offer bonuses if you can adapt their behavior. Otherwise, I would not put a secretive person in any position where their bad habits can damage your business’ performance.

The follower
From a boss’ point of view, the follower looks like the perfect employee. However, they have some very deceptive flaws that you might be completely unaware of. Particularly if you are an Indian boss who hates being questioned! The follower just goes along with what you say, doesn’t question you, doesn’t rock the boat, and doesn’t come up with much that is innovative either. The problem with these types is that if they see a huge problem, they might not warn you or try to find problems to solve the problem. If there is a way to get the company far ahead, they will be more interested in just keeping the show moving along than trying to innovate to capitalize on a new opportunity. I have a good friend who is the following type. He maintains order, but nothing around him ever improves in his business or personal life. Sometimes you need an employee who lets you know when something happens that is noteworthy that could be an opportunity or crisis. On a brighter note, the other types of employees on my list will probably not inform you of serious issues either — except for the backstabber since they want to scare you!

Summary
In real life it is often not possible to find perfect employees. So, if you decide to work with problem types, find a way to calculate how expensive their flaws are in terms of lost productivity. Without that analytic you could go out of business! Never pay a problem worker more than they are worth. But, on a brighter note, if you find a good employee, perhaps consider paying them handsomely as they are a rare commodity in any of the companies that I have associated with!

Choosing company names that create an impression or tell a story

January 28, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Innovation, Startups | Tagged , | Leave a comment

When we start our first business, we are in a huge hurry to choose our business name. What we don’t realize is that our business name in a sense defines us. We also don’t know where that name will be in thirty years. For all we know there could be one thousand people working for us by that time in an international company.

Many companies choose their names based on the founders. Levi-Strauss was founded by some German Jews who headed out west to make their fortune. They didn’t make it panning for gold, but by selling denim jeans to those who did. Law firms are often named after the founders such as Silverman & Beckman. But, then there other companies that name themselves based on geographic information such as Pune BPO Ltd. for example (I just made that one up.) Then, there are other names that use strange terms like Yahoo and Google who turned out to be amazingly successful.

Amazon did well with their business. Their business name conjures up images of dense forests, piranhas, and adventures! And then there are car names that name themselves after words in foreign languages like Toyota Corolla. You could name your company after Ethiopian royalty with the name Sheba (which is also a cat name — meao!) You could name a company after a Native American Tribe like Zuni. Or just come up with something weird.

The point is that a well thought out company name gives you an extra edge in your business. It can give you image, intruigue, recognition and more. It is critical to compare thousands of well researched names before you pick your final name. The problem is that most business creators just pick a handful of names, ask their friends and family, and then ultimately choose one. Then, later on their change their mind. Take naming your business seriously as the rewards for doing a good job are fantastic!

Is working for someone else a nightmare where you aren’t in control?

January 28, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Leave a comment

I am an entrepreneur or self-employed person. The terminology is not important, but the reasoning as to why I am self-employed does matter. When I worked for others, I felt completely out of control. I worked for people who were mean, abusive, and who gave me no instruction as to how to do my job. If I did something they didn’t like I found out loud and clear after the fact, but not before.

Then, there were other jobs where I was expected to underperform. The employers were city governments in California where my teaching was supposed to be “dumbed down” so that nobody would learn. The minute I started actually trying to teach people English as a Second Language in a more intense way where students got more engaged I got called into the head office and was given a lecture. “Use the book we gave you.” Yes, that was the book where the students fell asleep and so did I. Snore…

There were other jobs where I did a good job but was bussed around like a slave, and was paid slave wages. How can anyone be satisfied in life when you make almost no money, get no work satisfaction and are treated like a slave? There must be a solution. It is called being self-employed.

As a self-employed person, the nightmare of slavery is replaced by a new nightmare. The nightmare of having steady clientele. It is really not that hard after you have mastered the art of getting clients, understanding how long they will stick around, and knowing why they like or dislike your service. The trick is to always have more clients than you know how to deal with. That way you’ll have enough cash coming in at all times which means the end of the cash crunch nightmare. You might have a new nightmare though — the not having enough time for yourself nightmare.

Time management is something which I am continuously trying to master, and with limited success. The problem is that once I find an efficient way to do one task, I use the free time to do something else, and am once again “too busy.” Prioritizing and creating routines helps, but in the long run, I feel I don’t have my life refined yet. But, on a brighter note, my feelings of helplessness have been diminished due to the fact that I am in control of most of my life. And whatever I’m not in control of, I’m sure Donald Trump, Bernie ior Hillary will figure something out that will help. That way if something goes wrong, I can blame it on politics.

However, there is a final point I want to make which will get you to really think. If you work for someone else, but have mastered your skills to a point that few others will ever attain, you have control over your boss. Your boss cannot easily fire you without a huge risk and probably a huge loss in long term business. You can use your superior skills to have leverage over your boss. I am in this position — in reverse which is why I understand the situation. It is the old scenario of the brewery owner vs. the brewmaster. The brewmaster has more power, because only he has mastered the art of creating the product. Additionally, these days especially, sticking to the same job year after year gives you tremendous leverage. Few employees these days last more than eighteen months. If you are steady, skilled and reliable, the boss can’t easily fire you. You can use that to have leverage.

To sum it up, whether you work for someone else or yourself, it is your superior skills, reliability, and collection of multiple skills that give you power. If you are one of these people who say, “I only like doing such and such” you might have trouble getting ahead. Those who get ahead do what needs to be done masterfully whether they like it or not!

Does wearing the leather jacket help?

January 28, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Are you projecting your company image correctly?
Maybe yes, maybe no. The way you portray yourself, affects how people see your company. But, let’s take a personal example about how I project myself when I’m out shopping or getting a bite to eat and correlate the two.

Is it me, or the jacket I always ask?
Recently, the weather here in Los Angeles got a little chilly. My regular worn out light sports jacket just isn’t warm enough and it looks like hell. So, I have been wearing my old leather jacket. Old leather looks cool, but old sports jackets look unappealing. Since I have been wearing my older jacket, women have been starting conversations with me left and right. I have come to the conclusion that several things help to attract women:

(1) Being Italian (or looking like a Paisano) If you’re Indian, then looking like Sanjay Dutt or Sharukh Khan will be the equivalent.
(2) Working out a lot
(3) Talking about foodie topics
(4) Acting like you are too cool to care
(5) Wearing a leather jacket

If you don’t believe me, ask the Brooklyn born comedian Andrew Dice Clay — he swears by his leather jacket. It turned him from a dribbling wimp into a chauvinistic over-confidant cool guy in a matter of weeks.

I understand that my readers are half in India or other countries where a leather jacket is simply and article of clothing. But, in America, a leather jacket makes you cool. A leather jacket makes you tough. A leather jacket attracts the chicks (girls.)

Projecting confidence in your business
Are you doing something in your business that projects the image of an awkward under-confident guy that nobody wants to hire? I always am aware of how “dribbly” a lot of Indians sound on the phone. But, people in other countries don’t sound that great either. Americans are by far the best on the phone, but are usually seriously lacking in any technical skills which is a huge problems. The key here is to avoid sounding weak and incompetent like many people at BPO companies do. You need to work on your speaking skills, conversation skills, interaction skills, and confidence. How to gain confidence is something you have to figure out for yourself, but more interacting will probably help — a LOT more, and with coaching.

What else can you do you might ask?
There are many things you could consider. But, what I recommend is to wear a leather jacket, and try to be cool like the Fonz in Happy Days or some other cool character in the movies who wears a leather jacket. This might help your outsourcing business more than you think. After all, if you were hiring a software company, do you want a bunch of dribbly nerds, or someone who is solid and can get the job done?

Boulder is an amazing startup hub

January 28, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Startups | Tagged | Leave a comment

If you want me to identify the coolest little city in the United States, it would be Boulder, CO. Boulder is filled with young, hip, energetic, and healthy people filled with ideas and a desire to make things happen. Boulder is a University town, but is also a vibrant startup hub and IT mini-hub in the United States. Venture capitalists have their eye on Boulder for opportunities, but I have my eye on Boulder because I think it’s a cool place. I actually spent a night in Boulder on two occasions. It is so healthy there and I slept like a baby and enjoyed coffee in a jam jar the next day!

Boulder is a small and vibrant community that’s enthusiastic about technology. It combines small town warmth with fast paced industries normally found in the Silicon Valley or Boston. You’re right there forty-five minutes from Denver which is one of the biggest cities in the Western half of the U.S. But, you’re also only minute from hiking trails in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. In Boulder, you can enjoy the hip University town culture of eclectic restaurants from around the globe, but then enter the culture of skiing and hippy culture up in the mountains while having lunch at a Nepali restaurant.

It is always interesting to me how Swiss and Nepali immigrants to the United States often prefer Colorado. I guess the air is too thick for them down at sea level.

Boulder also has a much lower cost of living than other IT hubs. However, since more people want to live in Boulder than there are jobs, costs are not cheap by any measure in this city of 100,000 residents.

TechStars co-founder Brad Feld feels that Boulder has an incredibly open collaborative startup community. It makes me want to hop on over there and get to know these folks if they’re not too busy working. It’s fun when you can feel excitement in the air. Others have noted that Boulder has the “give before you get” mentality where the locals are very willing to help anyone without expectation of getting anything back. That is exactly the type of attitude you need to succeed, because success is all about being the best giver!

Some of the interesting startups of the area include:
Epic Playground which tracks video stats across different websites
FlixMaster which makes entreprise-focused videos and editing easier.
Gnip focuses on social analytics
Mocavo tracks your ancestors and genealogy in a similar way to Ancestry.com
Precog lets people ask very sophisticated questions from their data

There are many other startup enterprises in Boulder. I hope I have given you a taste of what Boulder is like. If I were you, I would just drive on over. It would take me two and a half days of driving to get there, but it is worth it just to soak in the energy that the locals have about entrepreneurship. I am an entrepreneur and feel lonely in Los Angeles. I won’t be lonely in Boulder though.

On a final note. What did they call Boulder before it grew up… Pebble?