Gizmo’s and Social Applications…

Recently in Gizmo’s and Gadget’s we discussed social applications and how the related to the business world. The 4 major types of apps are Sharing, Collaboration, Opinion and Voting, Networking, Tazonomy. There is another type however it is a combination of the various types called a Hybrid site. Each type of site has it’s advantages depending on the intention of the user. I will focus on a few of the applications that would help myself in future business endeavor.

Linkedin is a site that helps you build professional contacts in various industries. Think of it as the business version of MySpace. I would search people that would fall within a criteria and them send them a note as well as putting them in my contact list. I like to think of these contact giving me access to a host of other professionals that they would know. Remember it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

The other site is the collaboration sites. Recently our class used a wiki to work on an assignment that required all of our input. The beauty of the wiki is that we could all work on it at the same time and not get in each other’s way. It lets multiple users work on one project. 12 minds are better than 1. A wiki can cut down the amount of time it takes to work on a project. The bonus is you get to see it all come together.

 

 

 

Yoga anyone…

Last week we met the King of flexibilty Vince Thomas founder and CEO of Billhighway.com. The company has been in existence for 8 yrs. What started out as a way of creating a system that helped his roommates pay bills on time has turned into a lucrative business. The 29 year old now runs a $500 million company. Billhighway.com is a web based financial services platform for both organizations and consumers with an emphasis on groups and peoples social matters.

The company was founded in 1999 while he was attending EMU on a baseball scholarship. He came from a family full of entrepreneurs that mostly own restaurants. Like most successful entrepreneurs do he recognized a problem and created a business to solve it. His story is one of many winding roads with many changes of direction along the way.

The lesson I received, was this precious pearl of wisdom from Vince, was being aware of when change is needed. In order to succeed you must be flexible. You must learn to recognize when you need to do something different. Many businesses go under because they won’t make necessary changes when the brutal facts are in front of them. If Vince didn’t learn that valuable lesson early he wouldn’t be telling me his success story.

From Rapping to Riches…

Rap mogul Jay-Z has been recently name the richest rapper of the year by Forbes magazine. This is based on 2006 income in which Jigga banked $34 million. Yahoo states in their article that he is the Hip-Hop Cash King. Since his debut album in 1996, Reasonable Doubt, he has always been known for his business savvy ways.

He was the co-founder of Roc-a-fella Records and the creator of Roca-wear jeans. He sold the record label in 2005 to Def Jam Record and also became president and CEO of Def Jam Records. He recently sold Roca-wear for over $50 million. He also is a minority owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team. He has endorsement deals with Budweiser, Hewlett-Packard and General Motors (where he has a patented color, Jay-Z blue).

Hova doesn’t share the spot light alone as a rapper with riches. He is joined by other big name rap heavy weights such as 50 Cent and Sean “Diddy” Combs who round out the top three spots. According to the article “Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson ranks second with an estimated $32 million. The 31-year-old rapper-businessman oversees his G-Unit record label, clothing line, ring tones and other enterprises, and has sold more than 11 million albums. Diddy , who is 37, placed third with an estimated $28 million. He has a clothing line, Sean John, and heads Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment whichs host of MTV’s “Making the Band” series.”

Obviously I am in the wrong industry. I guess I need to start working on a rap album and start my own label.

www.forbes.com

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070816/ap_on_en_mu/forbes_hip_hop_kings