New (final?) version of "Connect to Win" just posted on http://www.johnwren.com/  My intention is to print it in booklet form, start distributing it at all IDEA Cafe Startup Workshops and at talks I give on the same topic to service clubs, chambers of commerce, and neighborhood associations between now and the 2012 Colorado Caucuses.

John Wren

This week I published "Connect to Win" (click here to see it) on the Denver Post's Your Hub.

The final version of this, perhaps expanded to a book, will become the handbook for the Small Business Chamber of Commerce, once it has moved from virtual to real, with a board of directors, an office and staff, recognition by the IRS as a 501C3, and a budget. Our mission: To strengthen the grassroots in business and politics by helping local chambers of commerce to offer IDEA Café Startup Workshops and Franklin Circle Peer Advisory Groups to their members. If you’d like to help, contact me at (303)861-1447 or John@JohnWren.com. Thanks! John

I've revised the article in the Statesman Newspaper that was published last fall (see link below) and made it into a 4-page booklet for anyone starting in a new direction with their work. If you'd like a copy email me at John@JohnWren.com

I'm also going to submit the revised text to Denver newspapers again. My hope is that people who are new to Colorado or just new to Colorado politics will start getting more involved prior to the 2012 Colorado Caucuses.

The current issue of the Colorado Stateman newspaper has my advice for citizens trying to decide what to do next, I think the same 5 points apply to anyone trying to decide what to do next with their career, those starting in a new direction with their career, a new project, or a new business. See http://www.coloradostatesman.com/guest_columns

I'm forming a new Franklin Circle for entrepreneurs, business owners, and creative managers. If you'd like more information and an invitation to our first meeting contact me at John@JohnWren.com or (303)861-1447.

Why do we need startups? How many startups are enough? Will we ever not need any more new businesses?

Years ago I heard Kenneth Boulding, perhaps the most famous economist to ever teach at the University of Colorado, give his answer to this question.

"The problem is the economists pie chart," he said. "There is no pie. There is just a bunch of damned little tarts."

Large businesses and labor unions will always exist because of economies of scale. But eventually these large organzations get better and better at doing the wrong thing. As technology changes, new opportunities are created.

What's your tart?

Most successful businesses start with an Aha! moment. If you want help finding yours, attend the free, open Denver IDEA Cafe some Friday afternoon, or call me right now and let's talk on the telephone about how I might be helpful to you. Call me at (303)861-1447. John Wren

I don't agree with everything in 37Signal's new book Rework, but I agree with what they say about business planning:

Unless you’re a fortune- teller, long- term business planning
is a fantasy. There are just too many factors that are
out of your hands: market conditions, competitors, customers,
the economy, etc. Writing a plan makes you feel
in control of things you can’t actually control.
Why don’t we just call plans what they really are:
guesses. Start referring to your business plans as business
guesses, your financial plans as financial guesses, and
your strategic plans as strategic guesses. Now you can
stop worrying about them as much. They just aren’t
worth the stress.
When you turn guesses into plans, you enter a danger
zone. Plans let the past drive the future. They put
blinders on you. “This is where we’re going because,
well, that’s where we said we were going.” And that’s the
problem: Plans are inconsistent with improvisation.
And you have to be able to improvise. You have to
be able to pick up opportunities that come along. Sometimes
you need to say, “We’re going in a new direction
because that’s what makes sense today.”
The timing of long- range plans is screwed up too.
You have the most information when you’re doing
something, not before you’ve done it. Yet when do you
write a plan? Usually it’s before you’ve even begun.
That’s the worst time to make a big decision.