Step 1: The Brainstorm

How you develop the perfect name is fairly subjective. Consider what’s important to you and your business; what’s the first thing you want a customer to think about with regard to your business? It’s best to brainstorm a dozen or so potential names. Poll your family and friends, and be sure to include your target demographic in this informal focus group. It’s also not uncommon for a business owner to sometimes miss an awkward pun or double meaning (case in point: a nail salon called Get Nailed).

A descriptive name helps frame your company better than a generic one. For example, Speedy Electronics vs. Speedy. Adding this qualifier lets potential customers instantly know what you’re about. But don’t box yourself in with too-detailed a description; you might end up expanding your offerings down the road.

Read the whole article at Mashable.

Q: Because of the lower cost of starting companies, are venture capitalists necessary anymore?

A: Yes, but venture capital is a better fit for some startups than for others. UpStart’s clients tend to be early stage founders. Most of them need to build teams and products, and prove the dogs will eat their dog food before they raise significant capital. Of those, I’d recommend VC if the companies are in high growth areas (e.g. consumer internet), have teams with proven track records and strong networks, and need access to dry-powder for follow-on rounds.

Read the full interview at American Express Business.

Shaky cam strikes again! Too much coffee this morning, or not enough? I’m not sure. But I think you can still clearly see how fantastic this handmade furniture is, by Brian Boggs and company. The barstools Brian shows us in this video are exquisite. They are an interesting juxtaposition of hard edged precision geometry and deliberately visible hand work. And freakishly comfortable.

We really enjoyed our time in the shop today and for a furniture nerd like me it’s hard to not start dreaming up things to make after being around all that creativity and craftsmanship, and tools (covet covet).

Visit BrianBoggsChairs.com for more info.

“I— Am— Sil-ho-uette Man, In-ter-view-ing peo-ple as fast as I can…”

First time I’ve used the Flip camera in the conference room at the new office. Now I know. Don’t sit in front of the windows, too much backlight. I had a great meeting with Eric and Trevor at Lab Escape. They are from a software company, based in Asheville, that makes “heat map” products.

“Lab Escape provides information visualization solutions for businesses seeking to better understand their data. Our products include our Tree Map, which shows trends and highlights anomalies, and our Data Map SDK, which provides support for building your own data maps.”

It’s an interesting business with several big name clients. I’m not sure how much I’m allowed to say beyond that but when I say big I mean el grande. So if you’re wrestling with great gobs of data, trying to make sense of it all, check out their heat map software.

Heat maps can help you visualize:

“Sales Performance
Risk Management
Market Share Analysis
Asset Management
Market Basket Analysis
Network Monitoring
Investment Performance
Budget Analysis
Portfolio Management
Performance Tracking
Trend Detection
Opportunity Analysis”

That’s all for now.

Yesterday I met with Renee Owen, Executive Director at Rainbow Mountain Children’s School. This is a great, small private school in west Asheville. They serve kids from preschool through eighth grade. I have firsthand experience with school because both of my kids have been students there, and it’s been a good experience. The school has developed a fantastic community of students, parents and faculty.

If you’re looking for a private school in Asheville find more about Rainbow at RMCS.org.

The Hoffman brothers, Damien and Derek, remind me of my last real job. I used to work for the media company The Motley Fool (Fool.com) before moving to Asheville. The Fool also covers the stock market and other financial matters, and was founded by brothers Tom and David Gardner.

The Hoffmans are the new, new media guys in this category and I admire their DIY-get-it-done work ethic. You too can grow your site traffic massively in a few short months using their simple approach: work your ass off, create great original content, and develop relationships everywhere you can.

Stay on top of the stock market, trading and investing with WallStCheatSheet.com.

Oh man. It’s hard to keep a straight face when the interviewee is wearing a giant dog head. Say hello to Jack Carrier, founder of DogTagArt.com. I am a huge fan of “crowdsourcing” and that’s exactly the house that Jack’s built. If you’re familiar with Threadless.com, the very popular t-shirt site, then you have an idea what’s going on here. Artists submit designs for custom dog tags that anyone can order. There’s more to it than that so I suggest you check out the site yourself.

One of my favorites says “I love squirrels.”

Visit DogTagArt.com to see tons of custom dog tags.

If I sound mellow in this one it’s because A) I had a huge, and awesome, dinner at Sunny Point Cafe in west Asheville, and B) it’s a little past my bed time. This video is almost 10 minutes but if you’re interested in using Google Apps in your small business I think you’ll find it worth your time. If you don’t, check your warranty.

“Sites” are really easy to set up, and you don’t need any technical skills at all. If you can follow simple directions you can build some wicked cool tools in no time. My favorites are the “Filing Cabinet” and “Lists” pages. Those things alone make it worth the set up time. Yes, you can just Google Docs to share most things, but with a “Filing Cabinet” page you upload anything, including, say, a graphic for company letterhead.

One thing I didn’t mention is the URL for sites is uh… not so memorable:

http://sites.google.com/a/yourdomain.com/

This can be changed to something like:

http://intranet.yourdomain.com/

But that gets a little technical. It’s not hard but you do need to have access to your web hosting control panel, and know how to make some tweaks. I may cover that in another video.

Play around with it, and if you get stuck on something don’t hesitate to give me a shout.

Curses! I got caught up taking of other business yesterday and broke my streak of daily posts M-F. Better late than never, heeeeeerrrre’s Marcie McGrath from Balloon Fairy Magic.

If you want to spice up an event with a balloon artist or magic show contact Marcie.

BalloonFairyMagic.com

Who’s up next for one of the ambush interviews? Tell me about your business.

Yesterday I met with Carl Donovan of Conservation Pros. They are a building performance contractor specializing in retrofitting solutions to existing buildings and homes. From their site:

Your home is wasting tons of your money. The US Department of Energy has proven that the average American household wastes as much as 50% of its energy dollars through duct leaks, building envelope leaks, outdated systems and deferred maintenance.

That’s more than just wasted money, it’s also wasted energy. As we’re all aware, that energy is getting more and more scarce and is creating an enviromental dilemma that currently has no known solution.

We can help.

Contact them for everything from duct sealing to a complete green renovation.