Oh Facebook, how can I use thee?

So I tried and failed. So who cares! The idea was to use facebook communities to create conversations that would inspire my research for this project. But all I got was lame comments and nonsense. Are people just not in the mood when they're in facebook? are they more in a spectator mode? Do they just not want to think that deep?

I still believe there is hope to use online communities for research but how can we make it more relevant and compelling? Is it about

a) using more relevant types of communities? (eg. LinkedIn, Twitter, or another)
b) giving people something tangible to react to?
c) using humor to get people to participate?
d) what else!?!?!

Help me!!!!!

Keep the vision, evolve the rest: La Victoria

This is the story of a second generation business in transition and maybe we could all learn from them. Jaime Maldonado is the owner of La Victoria Bakery, a 60-year-old panaderia on 24th Street that is reinventing itself.  Authentic mexican bread is their core vision but their resilient nature has made them change to serve the new type of residents in their neighborhood. 

"We can't stop being an authentic panaderia and a kitchen, we've been doing this since the 1960's. It's just going to morph into what people want. The families that used to be here would come in and buy 50 dollars a week on tamales and basic bread. Those families are not here anymore, the people who live here spend five dollars each sporadic visit. so we need to have a paradigm shift to serve what is going to be the new type of neighborhood." 

I love it! Reminding ourselves why we are here in the first place is so basic and important. Remember the legacy that anchors you to your business and then feel free to move everything and anything that you need in order to keep that legacy alive and well. 

I wonder what made Jaime Maldonado want to pursue the change. I wonder what he was observing that made a click. I wonder how we can replicate that observation power to let other business owners figure out when it's time to change.

Do needs of men and women leaders differ?

What do you all think? Is it the same? Well, Sharon Hardary, Former Executive Director and Founder of the Center for Women's Business Research is very sure that this is true.

"I am convinced that the problem is twofold. First, you have women's own self-limiting views of themselves, their businesses and the opportunities available to them. But equally problematic are the stereotypes, perceptions and expectations of business and government leaders."

In her article from the wall street journal, she discusses how women are holding back as business owners. Clearly, women can have vision and everything it takes to run a successful business.

"Research also shows that the differences between women and men entrepreneurs begin with their own reasons for starting a business. Men tend to start businesses to be the "boss," and their aim is for their businesses to grow as big as possible. Women start businesses to be personally challenged and to integrate work and family, and they want to stay at a size where they personally can oversee all aspects of the business."

What needs to be done is a my personal favorite part of the article. It take the thoughts it to an actionable plan which could be an inspirational part for creating tools and structures created to help them be better business leaders. Change your mindset. Learn from other women. Use banks in your favor. Get advisors. Measure it all. Think even bigger.

Here are some possible futures: What if we created an online advisory network for them? Or what if we created metrics that were more relevant so they could use to validate their efforts? How could we help them to broaden their ability to think bigger?

This especially makes me want to go deeper into talking and observing women business owners because it seems like they have even more tensions present. Do you know of any women who would be inspiring to talk to? Let me know!

Thank you again Elizabeth Glenewinkel for this in-depth, thought provoking article. It's priceless! 

Young, Fun Picbox!

Two days ago I had the pleasure to interview the co-business owner of picbox, a company that rents hi-tech photo booths to social and corporate events in Mexico. Their twist, however, is that all the photos are linked into social networks like facebook, emails and so forth. "What we want is for our clients and the users to keep the event alive via personal memories and comments that bring people together even when the event is long past."
      They are in the midst of success and all their free time goes into their new baby corporation. They consider this their very young side-business as they just started three months ago while still keeping real full-time jobs to attend to. "After work, we go to our offices and we are extremely engaged and inspired. It's obviously extra time committed, this is our priority as we're just starting this project." In reality, they see this as their chance to learn, to create new offerings. And this is their first one out in their hopefully big future portfolio. "We are creating everything from scratch, it's not like there's a recipe for this type of business but when we get it working it feels like... wow! And we think we're onto something with our new version of picbox."
       Right now they have the luxury of just being two people running the show. However, they are hopeful to bring in ten part-time helpers which they are cleverly calling pic-chicks and pic-dudes. With this growth they might lose their close experiences directly in their events and might start to lose direct feedback which has been their core insightful moments to help them improve their product. They think there is hope, "what we want is a fun twist in our culture, we want everyone to be open and part of the feedback process."