As fun as they are, Easter is a lot more than a time for egg hunts, chocolate and various other indulgences. Whether you are a Christian or not, we should all respect that at its heart, Easter is all about love. Jesus, God incarnate, sacrificing himself for us.

Like you, I was horrified by the senseless carnage portrayed across our television this past week as suicide bombers blew themselves up in Belgium. Terrorist actions like this aren't born out of a heart of love and care but from a desire to kill and destroy. How is it that killing a mother of twin young girls queued up at the counter in the airport is justifiable? It’s not.

At the very most the terrorists could possibly argue, “They did it to us so we can do it to them”.....but when does this line reasoning become fascicle in light of the blood being spilled? Surely the sanctity of life must prevail or in the grip of hate has life become completely disposable? To justify such senseless slaughter in the name of any religion is a prevision of that religion.

At some stage the terror must stop and forgiveness asked for and given on all sides. Without forgiveness and love the world will collapse into anarchy as one offense is rewarded with another down through the generations.

There are many people in society that we should emulate as they have a loving view of life for their fell man and woman. These people serve in the armed services, police, fire departments and emergency services all around the world. They place their own lives in jeopardy because of their love and care for those in quite often desperate needs.

So at Easter this year I would encourage you to pray for those that place themselves in harm’s way. Like the heart of the true Easter story, many of them willing give their lives for others.

God bless you and your families at this time.

Michael

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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. He has also recently published his first science fiction book, Battleframe.

Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face. Due to demands on his time, Michael may be contacted by clicking here for limited consulting assignments.

There never seems to be a shortage of people wanting you to invest in their brilliant idea that is going to take the world by storm. So what do I look for in an investment opportunity?

Just to be clear, I’m not going to invest in a business where the money goes to paying off loans, scooped of the table by founders or pays off some other obligation. The purpose of investment money is to GROW the business so that it is successful…..not clean up messes.

When I invest in a venture, I’m actually investing in a person so I really listen to not just the content of the pitch but whether the person giving it really understands the value proposition. If they can’t articulate the value proposition in about 1 minute, then I become completely disinterested. I’m not deliberately being rude; I just don’t have the time for someone that hasn’t clearly thought about it themselves. It may be a good idea but a potential founder who hasn’t thought about why it is of benefit to customers is not investable.

The second thing I look for is the background of the founder and how they came up with the awesome idea. I’m wanting to hear passion in the voice and why they are going to put everything on the line to get the business up and going. Entrepreneurs tend to have a succeed at any cost mentality that allows them to push through or around any obstacles in their path. If that attitude isn’t there, then you’ve lost me.

Assuming I’m still interested I’ll request a deck. The deck needs to synthesize the entire business in about seven slides. Any more than that and you’ve lost me again…. The slides tend to be:

1.      Summary page – (eg. Including how much you are seeking for what valuation)

2.      What is the problem being solved?

3.      How is the problem going to be solved by the new business?

4.      Market size and how it is going to be reached.

5.      Potential competitors

6.      Financials / Investment

7.      The team

I want to be absolutely convinced that you’ve thought about all of the issues for the new venture. Trust me when I say that breaking the business down into a very short deck will help you really think about all of the issues. Behind each slide there should be a lot of research that you can provide me at a moment’s notice. It’s all a part of the business plan that you will execute once you’ve received the investment capital.

Whatever you do, please be realistic on the investment and valuation. I had a startup business come across my desk the other day that had an insane valuation. They had no revenue or product and were giving up 5% of the business on a $13m valuation. They were essentially value an idea and it really wasn’t that great anyway….

If the business is a going concern then whatever you do, have your financials up to date. I am never going to invest in a business where the founders have a cavalier attitude towards the books. If you are a completely new start-up, then put together a cashflow and make sure you really understand all of the assumptions underpinning the “hockey stick” retained cashflow of the business.

BTW – I’m yet to see a business plan that doesn’t have somewhere in it that it’s a sure thing and going to make millions. I can guarantee you that despite all of the care you’ve taken with the business plan you have still underestimated how much time it will take to get started.

In the cashflow I’m going to get really focused on how big a hole is being dug and also what are the assumptions that drive the cash burn. If I’m still really interested, I’ll probably dig around to see if the cashflow can be adjusted to minimise the level cash burn. From here I’ll calculate the “go/no go” point.

When someone invests in a business there are basically one of three decisions that need to be made at some point in the ventures early stages. If the business is going gangbusters then everyone is happy and congratulations are all around. If the business is going out the backdoor then the decision is simple, close it down.

The third one is a bit harder, if the business is “struggling but may make it” then it requires a LOT more thought…..and this is where businesses typically end up somewhere in the first twelve months. The business is neither thriving or dying but just limping along. These businesses tend to soak up time and sadly, it’s often better to just kill them.

If you are really after a particular investor for their skills and what else they bring to the table, you may want to offer some equity just for them being involved. I’ve done this a number of times over my business career. I’ve dramatically reduced the valuation (to almost nothing) just to get particular individuals into the business. I’ve never regretted having a smaller percentage of a large pie over a big percentage of a small one.

Please let me know any of your thoughts on this topic and if you would like further articles on how to get business investment.

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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. He has also recently published his first science fiction book, Battleframe.

Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face. Due to demands on his time, Michael may be contacted by clicking here for limited consulting assignments.

Many people feel that life is all about accumulating money, power or girls/guys. They believe that as long as you quest for these three things then they’ll be happy. Sadly, many people who attain the heights of what they believe is the epitome of success discover that happiness is nothing about any of those things at all.

A number of years ago I was at a dinner with a large group of guys at a business function. Each person around the table was trying to outdo the person next to them by telling stories about how great they were. Ultimately, the conversation degenerated into how many girls each of them had conquered and in their eyes this seemed to prove they were “real men”.

I sat quietly eating my dinner until finally someone asked me to tell them my “stories”. I explained to them that I’d been married for nearly three decades, faithful all the time and incredibly happy with my life. I wasn’t judging any of them but just stating a fact from my own life.

There was stunned silence and then almost tentatively a number of them began to ask me how I’d managed to be with the same girl all of my life. Despite the bravado, each of them was yearning for a measure of happiness that they really weren’t finding.

In my experience, if you want to find true lasting happiness in life then you need to be committed to whatever you put your hand to. In the case of my marriage, I’m absolutely committed to Roselyn. What happens when you’re really committed is that all of your own flaws get exposed. You can put a brave mask on with friends and fake it but that façade slips down when you’re relaxed at home.

A number of years ago I had a revelation. I discovered that I couldn’t change my wife at all. Only she could do that. Likewise, she couldn’t change me…..only I could. So the adventure of my life is about changing myself into a better person because I love her so much. So the focus then became on how do I improve myself for my wife.

For example, let me share with you a silly story that had a profound impact on my life. When I was first married I went down to the local store and bought some chocolate and chips for Roselyn and I to munch on while we watched a movie. Upon arriving home Roselyn looked on sadly and in resignation said, “Oh…..I thought that you knew I didn’t like that flavoured chip?”

Why was this important to me? It highlighted that I hadn’t been paying attention to Roselyn and that I really didn’t know even her most basic likes and dislikes. I then made it my mission to change myself and really pay attention to her.

Once I made this decision a strange thing happened. The more I paid attention to her the happier I became. In other words, the more I paid attention to Roselyn’s desires the more mine were met…..it was like magic! Being a relatively smart individual I quickly worked out that this principle worked in many aspects of my life.

The more I paid attention to servicing clients the more my businesses prospered. The more closely I paid attention to my business partner the better our working relationship. I’m the first to say that I’m not perfect and regularly mess it up but I am absolutely focused on my long-term goal of learning about people and changing myself. I do this because of a deep rooted desire to show love, compassion and empathy with those around me.

So happiness is not about getting something from those people around you. Happiness is all about changing yourself so that you can better serve others. I know that this sounds a little backwards but let me assure you that I’ve found it works.

Have a great weekend!

Michael

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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. He has also recently published his first science fiction book, Battleframe.

Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face. Due to demands on his time, Michael may be contacted by clicking here for limited consulting assignments.

In this video I will be chatting with Sarah about what’s to come for WhizbangsBlog. We discuss how she has been going with her most recent blogs and the overwhelming amount of positive feedback she has received.

We also touch on the upcoming webinars that will be happening in the future. We would love for you to leave a comment on this blog about any questions or topics you may want us to discuss.

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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. He has also recently published his first science fiction book, Battleframe.

Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face. Due to demands on his time, Michael may be contacted by clicking here for limited consulting assignments.

Today it hit me hard what a huge gap there is between people my age (generation Y) and the other older generations. Today I was reading through an article on DNW and stumbled across a podcast that talked about jumping on trends before they happen. It discussed buying domains that could potentially be worth a lot more in the future.

I found it very interesting and I can remember when dad started domaining, he was trying to think of catchy domains to buy that could be worth more later. It surprised me that Podcasts are even still around, but what surprised me even more was that the term ‘Vlog’ was presented as an example of a domain that had lost its value. The term vlog stands for ‘video blog’, and according to DNW is not a valuable phrase that you could potentially make money off.

That was a huge shock for me because if you ask anyone my age, they would know exactly what the term vlog means. Not only that, but I would say that vlog or vlogging is probably one of the most popular forms of video on YouTube right now.

After speaking with my dad about it, he suggested that although it may be a well-known term amongst people my age, people my age don’t have the money to buy them. This then depressed the value on the term ‘vlog’ and results in the domains being dropped by investors. Another reason the domains are dropped is because people my age may use the term on YouTube but not in a domain main, which means the domains have no traffic.

So my question to you all is, why do you think there is a lack of traffic going to domains containing the word vlog? Let me know what you think in the comments!