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Some notes from the
New York University Conference on
Self-Employment & Entrepreneurship, April 24, 1999

The comments below are based on a presentation by Kevin O'Conner, CEO DoubleClick, Inc. at the NYU conference. In just three years, DoubleClick, an Internet advertising company, has grown from two people to 400 people in 13 countries. Here are some insights from Kevin about how to exploit technology and big markets. His talk was called "What I've Learned"

1. Solving the biggest problem with technology makes the most $.
2. Pursue what you love.
3. Hire people smarter than you are.
4. Market share rules.
5. Focus on your clients, not the money.
6. All the great ideas are not "gone."
7. Huge trends (the Internet), create huge opportunities.

"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want."
Omar T. Wasow, Founder of New York Online

The following comments are from Russ Berrie, Chairman and CEO of Russ Berrie and Company, Inc., a lifestyle gift company with revenues of $300+ million. They outline the culture at Russ Berrie and Co.

1) Get into the muck. (find out what customers really want.)
2) Nothing happens until someone sells something.
3) Deal with the facts. Don't assume.
4) Evaluate potential vs. risk when making financial decisions.
5) Develop a team.
6) Eliminate mediocrity.
7) Experiment with new ideas.
8) Negotiate everything. (Russ told a story about how he rented his first warehouse space, a garage. He expected the owner would want $50 or so to rent it. When the owner said $35, Russ exclaimed, "$35!" meaning it was a bargain. The owner, taking that as a sign of resistance, immediately dropped the price to $30.)
9) Make decisions, don't procrastinate.
10) For a business to be big, you must think small.
11) Change as the business changes. (Russ gave an example of how he decided to drop a significant number of his customers some years ago. These were customers that were not producing much revenue. He cut one-third of the sales force and started telemarketing. Profitability increased.)
12) Set goals and delegate without abdicating. Don't listen to the nay sayers. Do the research to see if there is a market for the product. Build a prototype or model. Test it. Test it. Test it. (on the potential market)

Notes from James A. DeSena, CSP salesleaders.com 800-4321-WIN