Well after more than 3 years of running NextStep we were approached by an American owned technology company in Shenzhen. We had been talking to Song & Wind Technologies for over a year, and it was just in the last few weeks that we came to a conclusion to seal the deal. As a part of the deal I will be advising on the launch of several of their web projects, including; Wufantuan.com (a group buying website that gets awesome lunch deals across Shanghai and Shenzhen) which we will launch next week on August 16th. We would love for you to sign up and support the new project, and at the same time get some great deals at lunch across the city!
We’re very excited about the deal and the future of NextStep. Don’t worry the NextStep Tuesday events will go on as usual, but we are looking for some new admins to help run it. So if you are interested please send an email over to info<at>nextstepdirectory.com.
So the next step for the directory will be its integration into Song & Wind’s Howtochina.com and Sourcejuice.com which is currently receiving tremendous traffic looking into China from across the world. An exact date for launch of HowtoChina has not been made, but its expected to be up and running some time later this fall. Sourcejuice.com is already up and running.
Thank you for your support over the past three years, and rest assured we will remain close to the NextStep project.
We launched NSjobz.com last week and were pleasantly surprised by the user response. Despite the fact that we are in a relatively stagnant economy, we found that more employers than potential new hires clicked over to have a look at the new site. This is very encouraging for two reasons, the first and most obvious is because we get paid for “premium” job posts (the first post is free), but more importantly for everyone else, is that there are quality jobs to be had.
At NextStep we like to partner with companies providing outstanding services. We have been talking about building a job website from scratch since the beginning back in 2007, but in this case partnering with CareerEngine made more business sense. A pool of 50,000+ resumes, and a network of sites taking postings across multiple geographic areas in China; it is the perfect fit for delivering a quality service to the NextStep community.
If you haven’t been, go check it out. If you are looking for a job, go check it out. If you are looking to hire, go post a job, and give us your feedback here or at info@nsjobz.com
And if you are wondering why we chose a “z” instead of an “s”, very simple NSjobs wasn’t available, and we wanted to stay under 6 characters, since all of our other websites are incredibly long at 16 characters. We weren’t trying to be trendy and cool, it was just the least expensive option at GoDaddy.
So NextStep co-founder, Edward Kim, is up to something new these days in New York City. Simple.PR is his newest creation and he is focusing on the power of the local web. All too often small companies; restaurants, service providers, theatres, etc are left with few if any ways of publicizing their “news”.
Typical news wires are just too big for these small fish, and a classifieds ad can get lost in the mix. Ed’s simple concept is to provide a service where “local” companies can distribute their news to “local” media. The companies need the exposure, and the media need access to stories — intersecting at Simple.PR.
Ed and his team, including the Scott Ballantyne here in Shanghai, have built the first application for the concept that connect Twitter accounts to the Simple.PR platform by incorporating a basic #pr or #simplepr to pool together all the chatter about companies and their news.
From there they will build a host of applications and services. Check out the site and show your support. The project is currently focused on the US, but there is no stopping you from using it for Shanghai and beyond.
So Ed Kim sent me a tweetpic just now of an American Airline advertisement from a New York City billboard located in lower Manhattan.
I will keep this post short and simple. The text that is difficult to read says “The most first and business class seats to LA.”
First, business class and first class is meant to be exclusive. This ad completely kills the exclusivity element of flying in plush leather seats with flight attendants waiting on your every beckoning call as you make the 5 hour flight from NYC to LAX. Second, I just flew from SFO to LAX on AA last week, and enjoyed the in-flight Wifi for $5.95. I have a new ad idea for you AA. It goes something like this “$6 - Coast-to-Coast Wifi”.
People want connectivity 24/7. AA please let them know you have it. Every airline has the “most” first class seats, not everybody has Wifi today, so use it to differentiate yourself. If an AA rep reads this, please also see to it that you put outlets at every seat so when my Macbook runs out of juice, I can plug it in and continue to get my $5.95 worth of wifi.
Please also note that NextStep has attempted on more than one occasion to get AA as an advertiser for an annual contract at a price point much lower than what it would cost to design the poor ad above and keep it posted in the outdoor advertising space in lower Manhattan for one week. It is tough to change the mind-set of dinosaurs.
So as the war rages on in the United States to fix the most broken health care system in the developed world, two American educated entrepreneurs steam ahead building the Expedia of health care portals for China, Meiloo.com. With 280,000 unique visitors just last month, Meiloo is marching to a new tune for getting the most out of the health care system.
Currently focused on elective treatments, Meiloo.com has solid revenue models through percentages of all surgeries and consultations booked through their platform. Obviously there are some potential holes here, but a good start in a $9billion a year business in China.
So the question we have to ask ourselves, will the answer to our health care issues in China, the US and across the world be answered by the best and brightest entrepreneurs who seek profit by caring for the tired, the sick, and the huddled masses? Or should we not leave it in the hands of small and big business, as we have seen the shortcomings in the US over the past thirty-five years?
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” -T.S. Eliot
The average entrepreneur will fail several times before succeeding or simply giving up and moving back into the corporate world. Contrary to popular belief, modern day starlets like Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook), did not strike it rich on their first attempt. In fact Facebook was Zuckerberg’s sixth attempt at creating a business on the web. Zuckerberg had the gut, and the time (he was still in university) to explore his ideas and business models. Unfortunately, most “entrepreneurs” do not have the gut, time, and money to wait and wait and wait until they hit it big. But, here is the thing, the luxury of time, experience, and knowledge of running a business is essential to success. There is no “Cliff’s Notes” (abbreviated readings of a novel) that can give you the tools you need from day one.
As one of the co-founders of NextStep I get an interesting perspective on the entrepreneurial drive of expatriates and a growing number of Chinese in Shanghai. There is something about China, and Shanghai in particular that drives many individuals into seeking out what it means, and more importantly what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.
You can learn how to open a business, manage a business, and even keep great books for a business, but the most basic skills that come along with being an entrepreneur are instinctual. There are one million great ideas conjured up every second, but 999,999 will most likely never make it to market, or will simply fail. The entrepreneur in the most pure sense has a gut instinct for what will and won’t work. Entrepreneurs are the drivers of change. Entrepreneurs cannot predict the future, but they help shape it. But, because we as entrepreneurs, and more broadly as human beings, cannot see into future, and if we are cognizant of the fact that the past is not a predictor of the future, than why do some entrepreneurs win, and some lose? Could it be luck?
Sometimes people do get lucky, and entrepreneurs get lucky too. Before counting on luck, a sound business must be created — the right team, business model, and market analysis needs to be made. Yet, even when the most diligent of efforts are made to capture a market, create a team, and build a go-to-market strategy are planned companies have, still do, and will continue to fail. This is where luck may be coming into play.
When I speak of luck, I am using it in a specific context, “a combination of circumstances and events operating by chance to bring good or ill to a person”. This is where we as human beings, unable to predict the future, are left unable to control what happens around us as business owners. Circumstances that are out of our control have a huge effect on what will happen to us and our businesses. It is absolutely necessary to be aware of what we don’t know, and what may or may not happen in the future. This may come across as being vague, but it is meant to be, because there is no clear cut answer.
What divides a successful entrepreneur from a failed one is his/her ability to make the right decision at the right time. Making the right decision comes from both careful analysis, and equally important, a “gut” call to implement a plan or strategy. The right timing also comes down to careful planning, but also relies heavily on chance. The question you must ask yourself is, do you have what it takes? Do you honestly believe you have the instincts and the skills to be a successful entrepreneur? If you do, welcome to the game. If you don’t, then it may be best to walk away while you are still ahead. Recall what I said at the beginning, it is only those who risk going beyond what others are willing to do that they gain the potential to see what may await them.
There will be no conclusions made here, this was simply designed to encourage discussion, please comment.
It was only a matter of time before the authorities decided to crack down on Facebook. Finally they have also become tired of the never ending event notifications, status updates discussing your “friend’s” decision to go to M1NT or Bar Rouge this weekend, and the random friend requests. In all seriousness the authorities control over the “web waves” is a cause for concern. But, let’s be honest, it is more of an annoyance than anything. Stack it on top of the typical day of blazing internet speeds, and it is sure to upset expat web users.
This is not meant to be a political post, as an outsider I do not want to delve into the internal political decisions of a soveriegn nation.
I use Facebook and Twitter everyday for both work and personal use. I try not to be “spammy” on either. Some friends take me aside and ask me not to post so much, but honestly I tell them I am posting interesting current events and business articles they should be looking at. Granted most of the people that are taking me aside, don’t really understand how to use Facebook and Twitter to effectively “share” information, but they are coming around.
Yes I do post NextStep event information, but they are good informational events, not another party on the Bund. The majority of my postings point people to great current events like this article, this article and this article (oh, wait I cannot pull the links from my Facebook profile to share with you right now…I need to start bookmarking them again on my Webdexer.com)
Across my Tweetdeck came a message, “rumors Apple puts offer up for Twitter”. Now if I were @biz stone and the gang over in Twitter-world I would be putting my company on the auction block. The hype behind twitter today is nothing less than amazing — CNN, NYTimes, celebrities–all hyping Twitter as the best thing since sliced bread.
It is great, it is informative, and it has a lot of room for growth opportunities. But remember this folks, pigs get slaughtered!
If the money is on the table and it is a fair value for the company — take it. I love taking risk, but this is like looking a gift horse in the mouth. My three reasons to sell today-
1. The hype will fade before a monetization model is produced. Have a look at Yammer.com. They have already figured out how to monetize the Twitter interface, and they have beat Twitter to the game.
2. It’s like Allstate Insurance, “Your in good hands with” Apple & Google
Celine Le Cotonnec, SYB Project Coordinator, gave a terrific presentation explaining all the legal issues that they faced and are still facing while bringing this project together.
After the event we received a very good feedback of their presentation, but what was most important to us was to know that we brought something to the Shanghai Young Bakers who had a dozen of interesting leads.
One month after the start of their training program in traditional French bakery for under-privileged Chinese young adults; Shanghai Young Bakers charity project was offered the opportunity to showcase at NEXTSTEP’s last event the hard work the team of 12 French volunteers has accomplished in the past 18 months to make this dream come true.
The number of difficulties you will have to go through and the time and energy you will have to spend when considering setting up a charity program in China as a foreign organization, especially when it comes to education matters are totally unforeseeable and countless. You can get a rough idea yes, but still whatever you enterprise you always have this feeling to progress in a grey area.
This is really really embarrassing. Today at the NextStep offices we had six US university interns brainstorming over different feature sets for the NextStep Directory. One of the key value added attributes of the NSD are the company profiles and surveys. NONE OF THE INTERNS KNEW THE COMPANY SURVEYS EXISTED! There reasoning is that after clicking on a category, the information displayed looked like most other directories so they didn’t realize they could click on each company to find out all the additional information. I was left speechless when Joe told me and asked the interns myself to make sure. This is a clear case of the ‘Curse of Knowledge’ and why its so important to get outside opinions. Hopefully, someone will read this and avoid making the same mistake.
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