When starting an enterprise, new company, new product, services, brand, etc. many entrepreneurs worry way to much about money. There are three problems with this.

1. You should not be going into business with the soul (or main) purpose of making money. Your new idea should be aimed at changing the world for the better and making Meaning for your enterprise. (Art of the Start, Guy Kawasaki)

2. Worrying about money takes you away from the most important part of your enterprise; putting your idea to action and releasing it to the world!

3. Money is always in reach if you are prepared.

Now, how can you remedy this problem and put your mind at ease? Here are just a few tips (the basics). I hope to post more in the future.

Do not confuse amenities with necessities. There are many things that new entrepreneurs think they need. Office space, top of the line equipment, custom stationary, letterheads, you name it. You don’t need it.

Some alternatives are to work from home. I still do it and love it; and yes, it is possible to do when having partners and employees. Also use equipment that is pre-owned, preferably stuff you have or can get from family so it will be cheap or even free! And last but not least, outsource your work. Many start ups make the mistake of hiring employees when freelancers will bid for your work! Until you have more than enough work to give to an employee (and are willing to do all the legalities) just search on forums, online directories, and news papers for freelance work to cover what you cannot.

Disclaimer: Don’t just trust any freelancers. Always do your due dilligence before hiring any outsource worker and even then, test them out before building trust with them. Never dive in with strangers on the internet.

It takes money to… Well, you know. It is a basic principle that you need to spend some to get a return on your investment but I want to take it a few steps further. First, you don’t really need capital to make money. My marketing budget about covers the cost of business cards and that’s all. (This doesn’t work for every type of business.) And further more, money lost can always be gained back. There will be ups and downs financially. It’s called the business cycle so don’t worry about it. Just focus on getting a great product to the people who can use it. Once you have meaning and exposure, money will come.

Venture Capital isn’t the end of the world. Yes, it is very difficult to get venture capital and then in return you have to forfit some of your earnings but if you prepare enough and can strike the right deal it will be beneficial to you. Again, if you are going in this just to make money, getting venture capital isn’t the problem in your organization.

Some quick tips to get it together (prepare for presenting to investors):

1. Make sure you have your entire business planned out to the best of your ability. This means everything from what your product is, to how people will know about it, to how your company functions.

2. Put together a simple but effective presentation. Keep it to the necessities of what makes your idea and company great. Then leave room for intrigue and questions. Be ready to answer questions.

3. Contact everyone. Anyone who has money that could help your endeavor is a potential investor. You are not limited to big investment firms who’s only goal is (you guest it) to make money.

Your business’s main focus should never be money. If you truly want to be successful focus mainly on getting a great product to the world (or market) and don’t stress the green stuff.

I put my creative tallents to work to design my company some new clean looking business cards with our new name. I recently found that clients get frustrated when I give them a business card with our old name and old website. But that’s fixed! Check it out..

I just finished reading this theoretical short story about the near future if Google were to amass to much power (power in information). Thought fiction, it is scary as hell and is something I think people should think about. If you google search my name in a few days and I am no where to be found you know this is the reason why.

A brief warning before reading.. Google was investigated by the FTC, among others, for their amassing information. Google already has many of these technologies but there is no evidence that they are using them for harm to their customer or the world. Of course if you think about it, with the amount of data they control, there wouldn’t be any evidence would there?

Click here to read Scroogled if you dare.

I just finished watching the tutorials over at the Steven Price Productions website and was very impressed. It also reminded me of a good lesson in business practice.

Some businesses like to keep all their methods a big secret like they are magicians or double agents. This is not necessary because your customers and competitors can easily find out all the ingredients you use or techniques you apply by other means. It is your personal creativity or ideas that will get and keep customers.

Even above that logic is giving away some of the tricks up your sleeve like Steven Price did over at his company website. By demonstrating in the tutorials he is bringing advantages to his customers in several ways.

1. He is bringing understanding about the process that goes into his work to his clients and potential clients. This allows them to feel more comfortable with pricing and timeframes.

2. It allows customers to see a little taste of his skill as a video developer and then their impression could lead to sales.

Doing little things like revealing how just a few of the tricks work (but not all) can lead to more and better customer relations. Think now on what you could do to show your customers a little of your style.

To see the tutorials and more cool stuff like SP.TV check out Steven Price Productions dot Com

Instead of using an RSS reader for all my blogs I have organized folders for niche blogs in business, technology, life, etc. In trying to simplify everything including my daily intake of information and time consumption I have created an essentials folder for my must read blogs. This is different for everyone but here are my lucky seven I currently have in there. They range across the spectrum of my life interest and I find them the most useful.

How to Change the World | Guy Kawasaki’s Blog

Mind Petals | The Young Entrepreneur Network

ProBlogger | Best tips on blogging

John Chow dot Com | Make money online blog

TechCrunch | Internet technology and business blog

Engadget | Very popular technology blog

zen habits | Simple life productivity

Limiting myself to the essentials in blog information through testing out which blogs give the best information will allowed me much more time to be productive during my day. Try it out for yourself if you like the concept.

Once in a while I make a mistake in business. When changing our company name, me and my business partner Jestine Chakkumcal neglected to do our due-diligence on the name Clarity Media.

Somehow we missed that Clarity Media Group is a publishing company owned by some unknown billionaire named William Randolph Hearst. I am sure no one has ever heard of this guy. He only publishes periodicals on an international level.

So anyway we made a slight tweak to the name. Now we are called Clarity Multimedia. It is early on in the name change so I think we’ll be ok. Thanks for understanding.

You can find us on www.claritymm.com

The outrage coming from Apple patrons is partially justified I think. Though I am a Steve Jobs and apple fan, I do think that dropping down the price 2 months after hitting the market by one third is a bad business move. Apple is normally excellent in keeping customers happy so this slip up may cost them some loyalty but everyone makes mistakes right? (talking to you too Microsoft and Dell!)

Apple is normally very patient in their product introductions, enhansements, and changes but to introduce the iPod touch and drop prices for the iPhone so quickly is a little shaky in my book. I am just glad I didn’t get one yet. Christmas is just around the corner thought.

One dim light in the tunnel is Apple offering all persons that have already bought one a $100 store credit to buy whatever they would like at any Apple store. It’s a small but most likely effective “sorry” to their customers because most people who have already bought the phone at $600 are most likely frequent buyers at the Apple store anyway. (Just and oppinion on that statement. Couldn’t back it up if I wanted to).

Here is Steve Job’s full explanation and apology regarding the iPhone dilemma.