The Need For Software Localization Still Prevails

By Ernst Gemassmer

With the pervasiveness of the Internet, the world is smaller. The good news is that the reach of your new software application is instantly worldwide, and the bad news is that most people still prefer to work in their own native language. That means that you need to face the issues of translation and localization sooner rather than later.

Despite all the hype and free tools, there still is not ‘an app for that.’ Whether your new software is ‘in the cloud,’ an online download, or distributed on a CD through various direct and indirect distribution channels, the process of localization is still a time consuming, manually intensive, and expensive effort.

In case you think that American English is sufficient, remember that the command of the English language differs widely from country to country. Irrespective of fluency in English, most people still prefer to work in their own native language. Thus, localization is not only desirable, but essential to gain and keep market share in specific countries.

In my experience, there are many considerations which are critical to the productivity and success of this effort. These include the following:

1. Plan for international from the beginning. Even though it usually makes sense from a marketing perspective for a startup to stage software rollout to various locales, it makes no sense to design and implement your application that way. All implementation should be done in Unicode, with user interface, currency, date formats, and database considerations for all the languages required.

2. Begin parallel translation early. It may seem less expensive to wait until all your screen layouts, online help, and written manuals are ‘final’ before arranging for translation, but the reality is just the opposite. Late translation will uncover design issues that are expensive to fix, and the inherent time delays and testing can set back delivery up to six months. Even though this process might require some re-work, a sizeable reduction in localization time can be expected. Note that this will require close and trusted cooperation between engineering/development and each localization group.

3. Optimize the costs of localization. The cost of localization can vary widely, depending on the approach taken. Assuming that your company has an internal localization coordinator, who has personal contacts with localization firms in different countries, the direct cost of localizing into a single language could still be up to $50,000. However, if you utilize an outside firm to handle the entire process, the cost will be significantly higher. My advice is to select and work directly with a localization group in each selected country, avoiding middlemen.

4. Prior experience is critical. For a startup, find an international partner, or hire a new team member who has don it before. As your company grows, this person should reside at corporate headquarters and report solid line to the head of international operations. In addition this person should report, dotted line, to product development or engineering. Ensure that the localization person is a good and patient communicator and is fully accepted by the engineering/development group.

5. Measure the return versus the investment. There are literally hundreds of interesting locales in the world for every application, but not every one is a real market opportunity. Do your homework on potential, and then track the results, both with respect to incremental sales, as well as the costs of localization and maintenance.

There are many other pitfalls of poor localization practices, including high maintenance costs and costly delays in reaching attractive markets. Also, you must remember that localization costs are up-front costs, which must be fully funded before any incremental sales revenues.

I have personally implemented the above recommendations repeatedly. The most successful project resulted in release of localized products for all the major languages in Europe a few years ago within four weeks of US product introductions.

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Today’s article is presented by one of the founders of our Startup Professionals team, Ernst H. Gemassmer. He resides on the West Coast, and has long helped entrepreneurs there, as well as providing turn-around assistance as interim CEO, and International coaching. You can contact him directly at ernst@startupprofessionals.com .

Ten Myths About Innovation – Startups Beware

Most people think innovation is all about ideas, when in fact it is more about delivery, people, and process. Entrepreneurs looking to innovate need to understand the execution challenge if they expect their startup to carve out a profitable niche in the marketplace, and keep innovating to build and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Everyone thinks they know how to make innovation happen, but I can’t find much real research on the subject. At the same time, myths about innovation are commonplace in business. Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble, in their new book “The Other Side of Innovation: Solving the Execution Challenge” have done some real research on this subject over the past ten years.

Their book takes you step-by-step through the innovation execution process, and also outlines the ten most common myths about innovation, which I think are particularly instructive:

1. Innovation is all about ideas. While it is true that you can’t get started without an idea, the importance of the Big Hunt is vastly overrated. Ideas are only beginnings. Without the necessary focus, discipline, and resources on execution, nothing happens.

2. A great leader never fails at innovation. When in comes to innovation, there is nothing simple about execution. The inherent conflicts between innovation and ongoing operations are simply too fundamental and too powerful for one person to tackle alone.

3. Effective innovation leaders are subversives fighting the system. Effective innovation leaders are not necessarily the biggest risk takers, mavericks, and rebels. The primary virtue of an effective innovation leader is humility. What you want is integration with real world operations, not an undisciplined and chaotic mess.

4. Everyone can be an innovator. Ideation is everyone’s job, as are small improvements in each employee’s direct sphere of responsibility. Yet most team members don’t have the bandwidth or interest to do their existing job, and well as address major innovations.

5. Real innovation happens bottoms-up. Innovation initiatives of any appreciable scale require a formal, intentional resource commitment. That requires the focus and resources from top executives to sustain, even initiate, relevant efforts.

6. Innovation can be embedded inside an established organization. Some forms of innovation can be imbedded, like continuous product improvement, but discontinuous innovation is basically incompatible with ongoing operations.

7. Initiating innovation requires wholesale organizational change. Innovation requires only targeted change. The first principle is to do no harm to existing operations. A common approach that works is to use dedicated teams to structure innovative efforts.

8. Innovation can only happen in skunk works. Innovation should not be isolated from ongoing operations. There must be engagement between the two. Nearly every worthwhile innovation initiative needs to leverage existing assets and capabilities.

9. Innovation is unmanageable chaos. Unfortunately, best practices for generating ideas have almost nothing to do with best practices for moving them forward. Innovation must be closely and carefully managed, during the 99% of the journey that is execution.

10. Only startups can innovate. Luckily for entrepreneurs, many large companies are convinced that they must leave innovation to startups. Yet research suggests that many of the world’s biggest problems can only be solved by large, established corporations.

Everyone agrees that he goal of innovation is positive change, to make someone or something better. Entrepreneurs need it to start, and established companies need it to survive. The front end of innovation, or “ideating” is the energizing and glamorous part. Execution seems like behind-the-scenes dirty work. But without the reality of execution, big ideas go nowhere, even in startups.

Marty Zwilling

Don Estridge, IBM PC Father, Startup Role Model

My introduction to startups really came when I first worked in IBM with Philip Donald Estridge back in 1981. Known as Don Estridge, he led development of the original IBM Personal Computer, and thus is known as "father of the IBM PC". He’s gone now, but I still remember him fondly.

He and Bill Lowe somehow managed to convince then CEO Frank Cary to give them a dozen engineers, a small budget, and a few months, to set up a small skunk-works called Entry Level Systems in Boca Raton, Florida, to develop a low-cost personal computer (code name “Acorn”). This was to compete against increasingly popular offerings from the likes of Apple Computer, Commodore International, and Radio Shack.

He was an engineer, so his first act was to buy one of each of these computers, and disassemble them in his office (a practice frowned on in IBM at the time – due to lawsuits). He then brought in the engineers and challenged them to do better in each of the functional areas, or find a cheaper solution with parts off the shelf. That was pure Don Estridge – always challenging the team to push beyond their comfort zone.

IBM had traditionally done all its own vertical technology development, so this outside vendor thing broke all the rules. He went to vendors for common hardware parts, went to outside software developers for the operating system and application software, and acted as an independent business unit. This caused great consternation within IBM at the time, but ultimately set the standard against which all IBM technology had to compete.

These changes enabled his team to develop and announce the IBM PC in 12 months -- at that time faster than any other hardware product in IBM's history. Estridge also then published the specifications of the IBM PC, allowing a booming third-party aftermarket hardware business to take advantage of the machine's expansion card slots.

The startup process and the importance of founders with a vision and energy hasn’t changed much in the last 30 years, but the technology has improved by orders of magnitude. Here are a few PC-related examples:

• CPU speed was 4.77 mHz, now 3.0 GHz dual processors, a factor of at least 1000x
• Minimum memory shipped increased from 16K to 2G, a factor of 125000x
• Disk space was a floppy disk holding 160K, now hard disk of 500GB, a factor of 3000x
• Telecommunications speed of 300 bps to 1.6 Mbps, a factor of 5000x

As with many successful entrepreneurs, Don Estridge was a humble man, who was actually embarrassed by the size of his office, as his stature and rank grew in IBM. It is said that Steve Jobs offered Estridge a multi-million dollar job as president of Apple Computers, which he turned down. He had an excellent relationship with Bill Gates, who probably extended him a similar opportunity, but Don was too proud of his IBM heritage.

His leadership dramatically changed both IBM and the computer industry, resulting in a vast increase in the number of personal computers sold and bought, thus creating an entire industry of hardware manufacturers of IBM PCs. He immediately was asked by top executives to apply that leadership to the mainstream business of IBM mainframes.

Unfortunately, before very long he was killed in the tragic crash of Delta 191 at DFW airport (wind shear), along with his wife, Mary Ann, on August 2, 1985, so we will never know what additional legacies he might have left.

But like every true leader, he left a great legacy with everyone he worked with, a conviction that anything is possible in business if you believe in it and work hard. He was a role model we can all aspire to, and rare true entrepreneur.

Marty Zwilling

Nine Ways to Work Less and Do More In Your Startup

The universal challenge of every startup founder is to get everything done that needs to get done, and still have a life. Even outside of business, everyone wants to accomplish more, while working less. I’ve been a student of these techniques for some time, but recently I saw a great summary that seems to pull all the key principles together.

Stever Robbins, known on the Internet as the Get-It-Done Guy, just published his book “9 Steps to Work Less and Do More,” which outlines his strategies. These are not aimed specifically at entrepreneurs, but certainly can be applied there as follows:

1. Living on purpose. Figure out what’s really important to you as an entrepreneur. For most, it’s following a passion to show customers your better solution. Live your lifestyle, do what you love, and identify your top priorities. Then you will get things done, and it won’t even seem like work.

2. Stop procrastinating. Procrastination is a killer when it comes to being effective. One of the best ways to stop procrastinating is to break things down into small chunks, using tiny steps to move forward. Break time into pieces. When there’s an end in sight, it’s a lot easier to get down to business.

3. Conquer technology. Cellphones, laptops, and other electronic devices are supposed to give users additional freedom, but far too often, they create time traps. Separate yourself from technology on a regular schedule to not allow a machine’s interruptions to set your day’s agenda.

4. Beat distractions to cultivate focus. You need to set boundaries and say “no”; to stop multitasking; and to find ways to group similar tasks or similar contents. Don’t forget to delegate to other team members, and don’t be tempted by the current “crisis” to postpone the important tasks of strategy decisions and monitoring the progress of the business.

5. Stay organized. Many people confuse ‘organized’ with ‘neat.’ In fact, organized means a place for everything and everything in its place. When you stumble over something that doesn’t have a place, either throw it away or make a place for it. If you don’t have any more room, throw something away – don’t rent a storage unit.

6. Stop wasting time. Work is whatever you need to do that most matches your business goals as they are today. Use the 80/20 Rule to pick and then complete those taks. Stop trying to do things perfectly. “Good enough” is the antidote to perfectionism. Make faster decisions by limiting the options you consider.

7. Optimize. Stop doing what isn’t working so you’ll have the time to optimize the rest of what you do. Some of the best ways to optimize include using team feedback to identify blind spots that could be limiting effectiveness; recognizing when it’s time to call in an expert to get the job done; and listening to your own advice.

8. Build stronger relationships. Build a network of contacts to allow you to harness the power of others’ strengths. Superficial relationships don’t help. Giving is the best and quickest way to strengthen a relationship. Conflict takes energy to sustain, so work to prevent conflicts from arising, and work to end conflicts quickly that do arise.

9. Leverage. Use technology thoughtfully to automate things that take a lot of time, thus gaining leverage. Reuse things rather than re-inventing them. The most valuable computer function in business is “cut and paste.” These days, on the Internet you can find samples of every document and contract you will ever need, so use them.

With each of these steps, you will reclaim more control of your business and your life. You will find yourself honing in on the things that actually move the startup forward and make you happy, and learning the skills you need to resist the rest. You too can be a get-it-done guy.

Marty Zwilling

Friends and Family: Largest Startup Funding Source

By Adam Hoeksema

According to a report distributed by the Angel Capital Education Foundation, total startup funding from venture capital funds, state funds, and angel investors totals approximately $20.8 billion annually. Surprisingly, friends and family contributed nearly three times the amount of capital to thousands of startups each year. With approximately $60 billion in startup funding coming from friends and family, entrepreneurs must consider this as an option as they seek to launch new businesses.

Money issues between friends and family can ruin relationships. Due to the risk involved with investing in a startup, if you are requesting investment from friends and family, be sure to consider these five steps before you begin the capital raising process:

1. Prepare a pitch. Just because you are requesting investment from your mom or a group of your college buddies doesn’t give you an excuse to be unprofessional. Take this opportunity and the potential risk taken by your investor seriously. Do your homework, and prepare a professional, persuasive and passionate presentation. You want your friends and family to buy into your vision, not just hand over some cash because they feel obligated or pressured.

2. Have a game plan. When you are seeking angel investment or venture capital investment, you will need a strong business plan, but do you really need a business plan for your friends and family? Instead, you might consider a vision, strategy, and tactics plan. You will start by developing a vision for the future of your business, then strategies to reach your vision, and finally day-to-day tactics to accomplish your strategies. For example, assume that you have a vision of becoming the leading online retailer of picture frames. One strategy may be to utilize search engine traffic to bring in customers. Finally, you will develop tactics such as building quality links to your website through social media and professional article writing to boost your rankings in the search engines.

3. Have an exit strategy. Angel investors and venture capitalists want to know how you intend to grow their investment. They want to know when and how you intend to repay them, with interest. Your friends and family should be no different. Although you want to disclose the fact that investing in a startup is risky, you should also outline a detailed strategy for the investor to exit profitably. Maybe you will structure the capital as a high interest loan, or maybe they will own a percentage of the business and be repaid through the profits. No matter the structure, you should have a detailed plan for repayment.

4. Consider making it official. Depending on the size of the investment you may consider hiring a lawyer to file the necessary paperwork to make everything official. Obviously this will give the investor peace of mind, and it should help you in the future as you seek angel investment. Making it official gives you credibility for future rounds of investment. Remember to use judgment though, if your buddy is going to invest $10,000, and the legal fees amount to $2,500, you may want to resort to a firm handshake.

5. Follow through. Again, investing in a startup is risky, and your friends and family probably know that, but they should expect to earn a return on their investment. Don’t view this capital as a gift, instead follow through with what you promised. If things don’t go exactly as planned, be sure to communicate regularly so that they know what to expect. If at all possible, follow through. If you fail to deliver as promised you risk your entire relationship and your ability to raise capital in the future.

As you seek capital for your startup don’t neglect the $60 billion opportunity represented by friends and family, but tread carefully as you risk something far greater than the failure of your business--your relationships.

Today's guest blog is by Adam Hoeksema, founder of the ExecutivePlan. Adam is the author of a blog that primarily assists entrepreneurs in the process of writing powerful executive summaries, preparing elevator pitches, and hurdling the many obstacles encountered during the startup phase of a business. His blog is http://www.theexecutiveplan.com .

Questions To Ask Yourself Before You Ask For Money

The first question most people seem to ask when contemplating a new startup is where they will get the money. That’s certainly a valid question, but all the money in the world won’t make your business a success if you hate what you are doing, and you aren’t prepared to do the job. I suggest that there are several other questions even more important than the money one.

The best way to assure the success of your startup is to do something you love, as opposed to something that will make you a lot of money. Of course, all these things and many more are critical, so it’s important that you keep your priorities straight. Here are the right questions to ask yourself, in the right order, before asking others about money:

1. Do you understand and aspire to entrepreneur lifestyle? Being a startup founder is not a job, but a lifestyle, like getting married versus staying single. In fact, it’s more like being single, since founders usually have no one to lean on, no one to make decisions for them, no one to blame, and no vision to follow but their own.

2. Do you have a passion for your idea and business opportunity? There is no joy in starting a business, if you can’t stand the people, business climate, or the day-to-day responsibilities of the job. Some people relate to service businesses, while others are more comfortable with manufacturing or construction.

3. What type of business startup best fits your mentality? Beyond the traditional new product or service model, you can always buy an existing business, purchase a franchise, join a multi-level marketing (MLM) company, or simply go out on your own as a consultant. Each of these has their unique challenges and payback. Ask around.

4. What level of experience and training do you have for this business? Be wary of stepping into an unknown business area, just because it looks easy or promises a big return. The real secrets of any business are not in textbooks, and you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet. Experience is the best teacher.

5. Do you have real self-confidence and self-discipline? Starting a business is hard work and will require sacrifices. You will be operating independently, making all the decisions, and shouldering all the responsibility. Will you be able to persevere and build your new venture into a success?

6. Do you have a viable plan? If you haven’t yet written down a business plan, you probably have no idea how much money you really need, or even if the opportunity is real. I believe the process of writing the plan is more valuable than the result, because it forces you to think through all the elements, and make sure they fit together and fit you.

7. How much money do you really need? From your plan, calculate the absolute minimum amount you need to make your plan work, and then buffer it by 50%. Consider the non-cash alternatives, like offering equity instead of cash and bartering for services. Fundraising is extremely difficult, which is why most entrepreneurs do bootstrapping.

If you have made it this far, it’s fair to now start asking people where and when you can find the money you need (if any). Professionals will tell you that the sequence is friends and family first, angel investors second, and only then venture capital. Each of these has a cost in time an effort.

The process for all of these is networking (not email blasts or cold-calling investors). Start with the local Chamber of Commerce, industry associations, or investor seminars. Just attending doesn't work. Use your entrepreneurial spirit to start some exchanges and relationships that can lead to your next step.

Starting a business is a marathon, so do your preparation and training before you ask for that bottle of water. Finding money is tough, but it’s not the hardest part. The hardest part is to do it all while enjoying the journey. Get busy, and have fun.

Marty Zwilling

Entrepreneurs: See Paranoia As An Opportunity

Even though 1984 passed uneventfully over 25 years ago, there is still a large population out there worried about George Orwell, and the animals taking over the farm. Why is everyone so paranoid these days? My plea to entrepreneurs and startups is to recognize it as an opportunity, and go the extra mile to make people comfortable rather than paranoid.

I must be the only one who believes that most of the “watching” in the real world, and on the Internet, is done by businesses to help you find what you want, protect you, and improve your experience, rather than invade your privacy.

I certainly agree that just like in the real world, consumers have to assume that there are always groups on the Internet, as well as down the street, trying to rip you off, so stay out of bad neighborhoods, and keep your wits about you at all times. Internet users need to start watching out for themselves, like looking both ways before you cross the street.

In addition, there is a real business opportunity here for startups. I know companies who collect sensitive data from consumers all the time, and still seem to keep a squeaky clean image (Amazon.com, Ebay), and others who are always a bit suspect, or have been hit hard by their mistakes.

The opportunity is to take advantage of the new power and tools on the Internet. Here are a few specifics on how to be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem:

• Put a personal face and address on your site; don’t hide behind an “info” email address.
• Make your company visible, reachable and responsive through social networks.
• Market your solution and user benefits, not the mysterious technology behind it.
• Use video and audio, rather than jargon, abbreviations, and computer lingo on your site.
• Make navigation simple and consistent, with abundant online help

The good news is that, if your company does it right, it might be another Amazon. There seems to be an insatiable demand from consumers for a better shopping experience, meaning they will pay a premium to a company that can present them a better match in products to their interests, without jeopardizing their good name.

In support of this, despite qualms, consumers seem very quick these days to provide more personal data to get something they want. Young people naively enter their pictures and personal data for fun on social networking sites, ignoring constant feedback from the media that these are bad practices.

The bad news for startups is that your company can lose big if it’s caught in the middle. Last year, Heartland Payment Systems may have compromised tens of millions of credit and debit card transactions, causing a big run on its stock. A few years ago, PayPal was hit by a scam to get the personal information of its users, and some feel it hasn’t really recovered since.

Sometimes the problem cause is that startups forget the technical standards and quality processes that every Internet rollout must follow to reduce the risk. Don’t take shortcuts on these. I see lots of new software put together on a shoestring as a “proof of concept” – but then gets rolled out to customers “asis” due to lack of time or money to “harden” the product.

What I learned from a panel discussion a while back, sponsored by an association of lawyers, is that lawyers don’t have any answers, and are all too quick to fan the flames of fear and paranoia. They merely highlighted consumer privacy rights, with much hand-wringing about big bad companies that are capturing shopping habits without consumer knowledge on the Internet.

A better approach is to use your marketing power to tell people that you can now ring their cell phone in front of their favorite store for a special sale, and allow them to “opt in,” rather than surprising them with your new technology. Few people are paranoid about something they want and expect. That’s just good business.

Marty Zwilling