If you need to finance technology purchases for your business give Microsoft Financing a look over. Microsoft will finance purchases outside of just Microsoft products.

I recieved a Microsoft partner email about a contest going on for parners by Microsoft Financing. I wanted to share the link to Microsoft Financing in case you have never heard of the program.

Antecdotally, I have a friend who made some very large server purchases recently. He was approved very quickly, had very good terms, and the entire transaction was smooth and seamless. If you require debt financing for purchases for your small business, definately give Microsoft Financing a look.

You’ll need to find a Microsoft Financing Partner to take advantage.

There’s a lot of new technologies breaking on to the scene, especially in the Web 2.0 arena. The press and publicity seems to go to many horizontal players. While these groups have large broad impact, like traditional businesses they can’t serve every niche effectively. A horizontal approach gives you the center of the bell curve, but there are always outliers that have a lot of revenue potential. Look for under served verticals that you can address.

Here’s some examples of recent horizontal players:

1. Facebook, MySpace for horizontal social networking
2. Twitter, Pownce for horizontal micro-blogging
3. YouTube, Revver for horizontal video sharing
4. Google, Yahoo for horizontal search
5. Flickr for horizontal photo sharing
6. Scribd for horizontal document sharing
7. Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon for horizontal bookmarking and site discovery
8. Digg, Reddit for horizontal blog discovery
9. Wikipedia for horizontal information archiving

And I’m sure you can name many others.

With players applying this Web 2.0 community based concept to so many horizontals, it begs two questions for the entrepreneur. One, are there any horizontals left without established players? And two, are there any vertical that are under served by these general, horizontal solutions?

Interesting, I think that there are still large opportunities in the vertical segments. Most of the services listed above do not have broad appeal outside of the technophiles who are in the know. There are millions of consumer and business Internet users who have never heard of some of these companies and services but who can get value.

My suggestion, find an under served vertical, maybe something you already know intimately and see if any of these new technologies can fit. Ask, can I use this for that?

This is a philosophical discussion. In fact, switching barriers are one of the points that are argued during the open vs. closed information debate. Open-ness encourages trial of products and services while closed-ness encourages brand loyalty. As developers and entrepreneurs we have to look at out our philosophical view on information (our software, products, and services) and come to resolution with our business goals.

I was inspired by a comment I got on my post about Microsoft, Linux, and being professionally pidgeon-holed. The commenter brought up the point of “lock-in” when using Microsoft.

I agreed, and responded that people, like myself, are willing to be “locked-in” if the product or service provides some value, real or imagined. For example, look at the recent iPhone distaste about the AT&T contract. Look at the iPod and DRM. Look at your car and any modifications you purchase. Look at your gym membership. Though they create artificial ways of locking you in, all those products and services continue to flourish!
Corporations look to lock you in and create switching barriers to keep you loyal. They do it with termination fees (such as gym memberships), with investments in proprietary equipment (such as digital gadgets), by holding your data hostage (such as iPod/iTunes).

As entrepreneurs and developers we need to make these decisions all the time, do we use proprietary protocols or open standards? Do we use a third party proprietary software because it’s cheaper and faster? Do we follow our philosophical views and stay away from closed software and standards? Do we make it difficult for customers to switch?

Switching barriers are an important part of the competitive landscape. Look for barriers that you can create and figure out how to break down the barriers of your competition. Think hard when developing your business or your software, what barriers are you willing to create? What barriers will your customers tolerate?

There are a lot of ideas floating around for starting a company. It can be difficult to tell if an idea is a “good” one. Are all the dominos in line? Is the idea compelling? Does the idea have a chance in the current market?

Ideas are difficult to evaluate and predict. Sometimes we have an idea that sounds great, but doesn’t pass muster when put to the test after the initial emotional response has passed. Some ideas we pass on because they sound uninteresting, but it turns out someone else executed them successfully.

In this post I’ll try and give some ideas about ideas. How can we evaluate an idea with a level of objectivity? A level of consistency?

I’ve met with many technology and business people in the Sacramento and Silicon Valley regions who are looking to develop an industry changing technology or even just create a few million dollar company for the recurring personal income. Both hi-tech and non.

I’ve heard great ideas, mediocre ideas, and just terrible ideas. I’ve heard ideas that sound extremely great on face value, but don’t seem to pan out as businesses. And that’s the hardest part, the idea that seems perfect on inception but for various reasons doesn’t fly during execution.

People sometimes fall in love with an idea on an emotional basis and there can be a disconnect from reality. For example, the entrepreneur that wanted to build a craigslist competitor… but cloning the site and offering no value add.

It’s easy to get caught in a trap and fall in love with a very bad idea. That seemingly great idea that you dedicate time and resources to but turns out to be bumpkin. It happens to the best of us.

To combat this, I’ve come up with a set of questions that you need to answer about your idea. They’re questions I’ll ask to myself and to the entrepreneur before I get involved in a project or business. And definately questions I’ll ask before bringing in other contacts and resources.

The questions fall into a matrix. We need to know about the Environment and the Culture surrounding various categories. The primary categories being Product Offering, Target Market, and Capital Requirements.

What does that mean? Environment and Culture?

The Environment is more or less the tangible, real facts, statistics, information, and details about the category. The Culture is more or less the intangible perceptions, behaviors, viewpoits, or meta information about the category.

What follows is a matrix of questions that are important to answer when thinking through an idea. There are no correct answers. This is a general guide, a starting point. The questions aren’t set in stone, come up with more of your own for each cell. After thinking, answering, and analyzing ask yourself if the idea is a good one.

My final word of advice is that ideas are fluid. The idea you start with is never usually your successful one. Let the idea adapt to new information, keep evaluating your ideas as information becomes available, and don’t be afraid of change.

Good luck with the idea hunt! And if you’d like any feedback on your ideas or business I’m always available by email.

So, startups are hard, scary, and statistically doomed to fail or underperform. But what is it that makes the experience worth while whether you succeed or fail financially? What is it that gives you the best chance at success? Well, it’s LOVE!

Here’s the lovingly way to approach your startup venture, whether it’s been started-up or not.

1. Love yourself. So I say the most important thing is to love yourself. You have to go in positively, confidently, with personal conviction and drive, and with an outlook that you’re doing this for you and not for any external reasons like fame and wealth (not that you shouldn’t expect and want those things, but they can’t be the only things). When you love yourself it saves your mental health, it draws in other people, employees, customers, investors, and it keeps you focused while getting bombarded with everybody’s 2 cents… figure out how to take those 2 cents times a few million people a month and that’s not a bad revenue stream. :) Love yourself, it’s contagious.
2. Love people. “People are your greatest asset.” I think I’ve read that in a few dozen business books. Well, at the end of the day it’s people who are going to keep you growing strong. Your partners, employees, investors, bankers, attorneys, and customers. People like to be loved. Love people and you set yourself up to be loved. Do it through positive interactions, through compliments and gestures, through bonuses and team bonding. Every small way you can find to love people the more you will get in return. And the most important part to loving people… be sincere.
3. Love technology. We’re talking tech ventures here. Find a technology, application, or problem you love. Use the technology, create the application, or solve the problem. Create a product or service that you adore. If you love what you do, if you love what you’re offering is, and if you love the technology you will stave off burn out and increase your longevity. If you build a product you love, it gives your customers a chance to love it to. Why would I use your product or service if you, the creator, don’t love it yourself? Keep loving technology, it’s what got us started in the first place.
4. Love life. So while this is at the end, this is definitely not the least important aspect. Why do we start startups? Why do we embark on these venture adventures? Hopefully it’s because we love it and want to find a fulfillment out of it. Hopefully it’s because we want a better quality of life. Hopefully it’s because we want to make some positive mark. During it all, remember to love life. Remember that life isn’t just work and work is not your only adventure. Keep perspective on yourself, on your family and friends, and on the world at large. There are lots of things to love about life, and creating an imbalance of work is all to easy. Love what you work on, but be sure to not deprive the rest of your life… it needs love to.

And, maybe these lovely rules apply to any professional life: employee, volunteer, intern, or other. Maybe they work in other industries. It’s just more pronounced in the high stress hi-tech startup world.

My advice, look at this list often for some perspective. Maybe write down the things that are important to you, work related or not. Look at this list and your list at least once a month. It’s so easy to get sucked into the startup world that it can be hard to see that you’ve sacraficed too much… too much because you forgot about the things you do love and the things you should love.

Good luck with the adventure!