Business Advice for Creative People

clipped from christinekane.com 1 – Learn how to say no. 2 – People don’t need to know how you feel about everything. 3 – Most people assume you know what you’re doing. Let them. 4 – Find your values and live by them. 5 – Segment intend. 6 – Bathe in Seth Godin. Then rinse. And repeat. 7 – Create a business alter ego. 8 – Grok good customer service. 9 – Learn how to think. 10 – Never send an email when you are emotional. 11 – Never do ANYTHING when you are emotional. 12 – Be clear up front with anyone you hire 13 – Focus on what you want. 14 – Get very very very clear before you do your finances 15 – Only YOU get to decide if “You’ll Never Work in this Town Again!”

Scams: This is no Microsoft “Receivables” Department

I got a letter from Microsoft the other day, i opened and read it, it said they were suckers.

[Update: I actually did owe Microsoft some money. There is no scam, it is just Microsoft's odd way of submitting an invoice for their XBox Live subscriptions. So disregard what is below.]

Actually, this looks like a pretty good scam, just NOT from Microsoft. The way it seems to work is this: a bogus company named Microsoft Receivables sends out a realistic letter which claims you owe money, in my case for a MSN account. You either blindly pay or call to question and in doing so, confirm their address information and phone number for you, as well as give them a chance to rinse your wallet through some other sales pitch.

When I called, the young male operator picked up immediately, which should be suspicious for a company entitled “Microsoft Receivables” in this day and age of phone trees and holding patterns. He asked for my account number right away, which I told him I didn’t have, even though it was right in front of me. He quickly and suspiciously asked how I got that number. I said “Thanks” and hung up.

I’d give this scam a 0 for effectiveness, they blew some postage and got nada, but a 6 for creativity. The addresses don’t match which is bad, but the “Make checks payable to” says Microsoft, which is pretty realistic.

Has 37 signals lost its street cred?

Trend or outlier?

clipped from www.douglaskarr.com While reading the 37 Signals blog over the last year, I’ve noticed that the tone of the blog has changed dramatically, becoming more judgmental and finite rather than inquisitive and exploratory.

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!