It's not news that social media is big business at the moment, and rightly so, because it's a game changer. Consider this: if I am interested in raising awareness of my product with the type of person who barracks for Melbourne Football Club I could take the traditional route and become a club sponsor. Big bucks and a low level transparency on the impact.

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Quite regularly I get offered commission only sales work. Rarely though is it ever phrased that way. Normally it's a discussion about how exciting and lucrative the opportunity is, with a statement at the end like "we don't pay retainers though". Instead there is a discussion around "spotters fees", "trailing revenues", "your margin" or being "looked after".

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I recently met with "John" at a coffee shop where we were to discuss his business idea that involved sports sponsorship and the internet.

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My son, like many children, had his birthday around the cut-off date for entry into primary school. So my wife and I had a choice: do we send him a little earlier, or a little late? My position on the matter was: "Give me one good reason we should hold him back". And we couldn't come up with one.

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One of the things that drives me up the wall is hearing the local start up community complain that the venture capital market in Australia isn't like the US. Of course it's not, we are in Australia, a much smaller market, with a completely different culture.

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Once again Apple will export California-chic to the rest of the world. Certainly Apple is likely to carve out a "new" niche with style and an interface that just works with its new iPad.

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Just before Christmas I had one of my coffee/mentoring sessions with a vibrant young Victorian entrepreneur and an interesting question came up around how she should invoice her services.

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So after last weeks post on looking after smart but lazy people, I got some interesting feedback from a friend who's a Human Resources Manager in a national organisation with a couple of thousand employees in what seems like hundreds of locations.

 

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So last time I posted, I discussed dealing with lawyers – lessons learnt from my long lunches with a barrister/army friend.

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I once spent two weeks living inside an armoured vehicle with a guy who was destined to be a lifelong friend, despite (much to my disgust) he later became a lawyer. The week we spent together was in 1990, and since then we catch up roughly twice a year for lunch and a discussion that generally has the theme of the "whole universe is stupid except for us". You know the conversation...

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