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Search results

  1. Jon L

    Scary AI

    OFF-TOPIC 
    I ran across an article on Wired today that talked about Facebook's AI research. Facebook wants help from actual humans to validate the accuracy of its AI. You can participate in one of two ways: 1) Create sentences designed to fool the AI and 2) Validate results from the AI as either correct...
  2. Jon L

    WordPress Development & Support Service for marketing agencies: progress thread

    MARKETING 
    I've been doing custom software over the past number of years, but haven't gotten over that 'hump' to where I can get out of scramble mode. I've been making somewhere between $5000 and $15,000 a month profit. Its my sole source of income for a family of four in Seattle, which is not a cheap...
  3. Jon L

    Productocracy: Microsoft Flight Simulator

    OFF-TOPIC 
    I've been a flight simulator 'pilot' ever since my parents bought a Commodore 64 sometime around 1984. Over time, as computer graphics improved, Microsoft improved the quality of the sim. Things progressed until around 2010, when they abandoned the product. At that point, the simulator was...
  4. Jon L

    Example of a great leader: Gen Todd Semonite, US Army Corps of Engineers

    PEOPLE 
    @Andy Black asked me to move this into a new thread. I ran across this General on google and thought he was an amazing leader. One of my favorite things he said, and I paraphrase: "This is a complex situation, and we need to not create complex solutions to it. Anything we do has to be dead...
  5. Jon L

    POS developers?

    I've developed an order taking and inventory system for an underserved niche. I'm planning to integrate payment processing into it and then sell it to other clients in this niche. I realize that this is a pretty specialized question, but you all are pretty cool, so you might know the answer...
  6. Jon L

    How to improve your concentration 5 or 10 minutes at a time

    MINDSET 
    I've struggled with lack of concentration ability all my life. A few times a year, I can get into a zone where I'll concentrate for several hours at a time. Those episodes are amazing. They're addictive, and they left me wanting more. They are also quite difficult for me to achieve...
  7. Jon L

    Cold Calling - Am I doing this wrong?

    HOT! MARKETING 
    I own a small company with a team overseas that builds custom software for businesses. I've made enough to pay for the expenses of a family of four, in an expensive city, but not much more. The reason I haven't made more is that my sales skills have been lacking. That's changed, though, and...
  8. Jon L

    Should I go to college? An answer from a Berkeley professor.

    This is the best answer I've seen on the topic, and has a lot of applications outside of the school realm, too. The entire answer is worth reading, but here's the key point for me: You can learn a lot in school, but some people can learn faster on their own. Let me repeat one of my favorite...
  9. Jon L

    Great movie for business owners: "Joy"

    I'm a typical guy. If the main character in a movie doesn't have the ability to dodge the bullets of a thousand bad guys while single-handedly killing half of them with a quick twist of their necks, its not my kind of movie. With that in mind, my wife invited me to watch the movie "Joy" with...
  10. Jon L

    How to sell stuff on Craigslist ... can't find that thread

    ok, so I feel like a bit of an idiot, and I never post threads like this, but I've spent 45 minutes looking for these threads (there are two), and I can't find them anywhere. My wife is looking at buying and selling on Craigslist. There are two threads I'm thinking about that talk about that...
  11. Jon L

    The Robots are Coming

    EXECUTION 
    I'm going to admit, up front, that I stole @SinisterLex 's title from his blog: https://apollyonsfavor.com/robots-are-coming/ Its excellent, and well worth the read. (as are all the other articles on his site) Now, to my question: What are these robots going to do when they get here? And...
  12. Jon L

    Fastland Forum Rep Bank and actual profits

    MJ made a comment where he said that Rep Bank generally correlates with actual profits in the real world. I'm finding that to be true in a surprising way: In my actual business this last year, I've made a number of incremental improvements all over the place - from adwords and landing pages to...
  13. Jon L

    Proper sales funnel for a service business

    MARKETING 
    I'm trying to set up a sales funnel that would help us properly track our deals. I want to be able to glance at it and know how we're doing as a business. I set one up a while back and what I found with it was that people were advancing very quickly through the first couple stages and then...
  14. Jon L

    A simple sales letter that works for me

    MARKETING 
    I've gone through a lot of different types of sales letters. I've paid people to write them for me. I've written some myself. They've gone out to a variety of different people. I've hit upon one that is working for me in my business that I'd like to share. I'm hoping that you can either...
  15. Jon L

    When do I need a lawyer?

    EXECUTION 
    I run a custom business software company, and we're growing. We're quoting a project that will be around $50k, and we're likely to get it. Normally, I don't even use a contract (most orders are sub $10k, and I work quite closely with my clients...no one cares about ownership of the software I...
  16. Jon L

    Can you recommend a good website host?

    HOT! MARKETING 
    I currently use Hostmonster, and they've pissed me off one last time. There have been other issues, but the most annoying is that they lock you in to a 3 year contract without really telling you, and then at the end of the three years, they raise the price you pay by 2-3 times, also without...
  17. Jon L

    What should my gross margin be for a custom software company?

    I have a custom software business that is now, finally, growing. I've hired a sales rep and an assistant. I'm also going to switch from me doing all of the development work to hiring out all of the dev work, and me doing project management. Eventually, I will hire out PM as well. So, my...
  18. Jon L

    Should I keep watching TV?

    HOT! MINDSET 
    I've noticed a number of the more successful people in here don't watch much TV. I watch 2-3 hours a day - after the kids go to bed (I actually watch Netflix & Hulu). Pros of watching tv: 1) its relaxing, nice way to wind down the day/zone out Cons: 1) wastes time 2) It almost 'drives' me to...
  19. Jon L

    What should I say on a cold call to corporate controllers?

    MARKETING 
    I run a small custom software business (me + an assistant and a couple contract developers on occasion). I write software that makes businesses run more efficiently. Here are a few examples of past projects: 1) Automation of payroll calculation, saving payroll clerk 15 hours of work every two...
  20. Jon L

    Help me change my negative mindset

    MINDSET 
    I have a mindset that brings me down when something I try doesn't work. I immediately assume some combination of the following: 1) I'm not good enough 2) Something I said, or the way I said it, or something about me made ______ not work 3) I might as well just give up now because I'm not going...
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