A Long List Of Words In Our Brains That Brands Own

The average American knows about 12,000 words (though Shakespeare was said to have had known 66,000) — the best brands are ones that own the most market share of a couple of those words.

CNN owns “news” in my brain. When I think of “reggae,” it’s Bob Marley — he owns it. There’s an awesome analysis of this in Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind (they discuss the concept of ladders (product categories) in your brain with room for just a handful of rungs (brands) — it’s the primary reason I voted it one of the Top 20 Best Business Books Of All Time!).

Who cares? Well, if your business wants market share of something, you have to decide which words you are going to try to “own” in my brain.  …

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A Uniquely Honest Story Of One Entrepreneur’s “Darkness”

The cool thing about problems is when people are honest about them, tackle them and then share their “secret sauce” about how they did it. I’m proud to say that my friend Kamal Ravikant just nailed it in his latest book: Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It.

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12 Simple Outlines For Writing A Business Plan

If you need to write a business plan I recommend you start with an outline.  I found a dozen free templates and have included them below with links to dig deeper. Good luck!

1) Ongig’s Business Plan Outline

The business plan outline I wrote for Ongig (below) was geared towards raising an angel round of funding.The 3 biggest sections were Business Model, Sales & Distribution and Financials.

1. Why Should Someone Care (“The Grab” or Executive Summary)
2. Company Purpose (In one sentence: the vision/mission stuff)
3. The Problem You Are Addressing
4. The Solution You Provide
5. Why Is This Important Right Now?

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