An economic article worth reading

Due to a Twitter post from Chris Brogan, I read an article called “Why the Present Depression Will Be Deeper than the Great Crash of 1929“.  While I am certainly not an economist, there are a great many points made in this article that make sense, and should be considered by individuals and business owners going forward.

Many of the problems indicated in the article are reasons why MutinyWare was started and how we are commited to doing things differently.  Working off our own steam, empowerment, honesty and responsibility are keys to our philosophy of doing business.

Tags: business, economy

How we came to be Mutineers

Mutineer

One of the first things that happen when we meet new people and show them our card, or introduce our business, is a raising of an eyebrow,  a quick grin, then the question “MutinyWare??”

At which point, we launch into the why and how of the name MutinyWare.  Here are the main reasons:

• We are in a mutiny against traditional business/corporate culture and business models
• We are in a mutiny against traditional software and their associated business models

What does this mean exactly?  Are we against those giant, successful corporations? Yes and No.

Traditional business culture revolves around profit and shareholder stakes – essentially the bottom line becomes more important than anything else.  We obviously are in business to make a profit, but seriously, there is a line to be drawn.  Business should be as responsible and loyal to their customers and employees, as we expect them to be responsible and loyal to us.  Somewhere along the line, this has been forgotten.  We are building a company that will maintain these loyalties and responsibilities.  They are critical to success in our opinion, and hell, it is just the right thing to do.

There are many aspects to traditional business culture and business models that we just don’t like:

• working in cubes
• being a slave to a time clock
• regimentation
• conformity
• lack of personal responsibility
• lack of personal innovation
• focus on sales vs. product/service
• desire to hire only the best and brightest, then not let them be the best or brightest
• ignoring the individual
• office politics
• being stuck in the old ways – closed minded
• the list goes on….

As far as the mutiny against traditional software is concerned, we want to create a model where:

• Niche and industry specific software is affordable to every business, regardless of size
• Software doesn’t require further investment, as in hardware or an IT team
• Software is accessible and user friendly
• Costs are transparent and predictable

So…how did we come to be Mutineers?

Having come from a very corporate background, we quickly and emphatically laid out our goals for how our company would work.  We took into consideration all of the things that we didn’t like or agree with, what we wanted to accomplish, and keep these things always at the forefront of our mind.

We are not in business for the purpose of building it, then selling out.  Nor are we interested or have a goal of going public.  We want to keep control of MutinyWare so that it maintains the ethics and ideas that we started this company with and for.

As for the name?  Well, after reading “Made to Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath, we knew we had to have a name that stood for what we stand for, and that was a bit on the controversial side.  After many hours of brainstorming, and many potential names, MutinyWare just kinda popped up and stuck.

Tags: business, mutiny, startup

Business Vs. Personal

Here is a question to all of those people out there whose business is online, and who are involved online personally as well.  How does one separate the two?  How important is it?  Ok, so there are two questions

Business vs. Personal

My business life has been online for many years, and needless to say, so has some of my personal life.  Although I do not tend to get involved as much as many, the presence is still there.  As far as personal goes, I want to be able to be myself at some point….and as I am sure is common with everyone, being yourself, in your own skin, isn’t the persona that you use in your business.  There are always two sides to people, and most often, the two should not mix.  Or should they?

Does it impact a business or potential clients of that business to learn more about the personal side of the owners or employees?  Obviously we’re not talking sociopath tendencies here, but rather personal opinions, politics, things we like to do, etc.  How does it impact the client, or you?

For my own opinion, I love to see personal touches with the businesses I deal with.  If the people are a little on the kooky side, all the better.  But then, I am a little on the kooky side myself….takes one to know one

I would love to hear more opinions on this, from both sides of the fence.  Has the internet made business more friendly?  Has a line been crossed?  Or is it okay, as long as the two are separated?

I look forward to any comments on this!

Tags: business, online, personal, personality