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MyVenturePad is now a community of more than two thousand members since its inception two years ago. First and foremost, MVP, Social Media Today and SAP would like to thank all the bloggers and MVP members for their participation in this vibrant social media peer group focused on the challenges facing small businesses. MVP has grown into an impressive community that now encompasses more than twenty two countries, and it has even made it into Paul Greenberg’s 4th edition of "CRM at the Speed of Light"! This is something that several analysts said MVP could not do, and I would like to reinforce that with something I have said before this year: “If you don’t know your market better than the analysts, you are in big trouble.”

In 2009, MVP addressed a wide range of topics important to small business, including: finances and taxes, social media marketing, good banks and bad banks, startup culture, organizational management and many more. During the latter part of the year, MVP was the place to go to learn about best practices in social media marketing. MVP posted questions on LinkedIn to small business groups to elicit feedback on what key actions SMEs would take to ride out the economic storm. MVP created eBooks to help small businesses weather the economic storm and understand what’s in the stimulus package for them. MVP also ran a several webinars that featured small business CEOs and how they leverage technology for business advantage and what they are doing to weather the storm that still rages.

What do you want from MVP in 2010?

  • Virtual events?
  • Sub communities of interest?
  • Video blogs?
  • More webinars?
  • More podcasts?
  • Best practices in social media marketing?
  • Small business research findings?
  • More eBooks?
  • Content focused on your vertical market?
  • Content focused on HR issues and people management?
  • More observations and insights from conferences?
  • Face-to-face meetings in regions?

It has indeed been a great year for MVP, and I have enjoyed sharing my startup experiences, but I can tell you honestly there is no greater satisfaction for a writer than waking up in the morning to see that hundreds have read the post. Your comments are important to us and we welcome them all!

Personality of Fish: Storms at Sea

Starting a company is like preparing for a research cruise: preparations begin a year before the departure date. As oceangoing marine biologists, we dreaded our first days at sea more than the months and weeks of equipment preparation. The nights before our cruises would be spent listening to weather forecasts, hoping the weather would not be too rough on our way out to sea. Sea conditions on the first several days dictate how long it will take to get your sea legs and get past the nausea and sea sickness that can absolutely incapacitate some people. Light seas in the first days of a cruise ease acclimation to the vessel, and sea sickness is less severe. Anyone who tells you they don’t get sea sick has never been out in a storm; everyone does, to some degree.

“Red sky at night sailor’s delight.” There is much truth to this adage, and we loved the red sunsets, which often meant several days of calm. The most poignant aspect of being on a ship in a storm is the uncertainty and the anxiety that emerges in people. It is not unlike the anxiety that a startup faces when a large competitor enters the market. The first thing you notice is the high energy created from the motion of the sea and wind. The smell of the sea completely changes and the air becomes highly oxygenated, injecting some people with a renewed sense of energy and others with a renewed sense of anxiety. People act very differently in the face of, and during, a storm, and their depth of character is immediately reflected in their actions and behavior. Again this also happens when startups encounter stiff competition and/or a large whale enters their market.

Ships take on their own personality in a storm, each ship rocking and rolling, heaving and crashing differently into wave after relentless wave. There are two kisses of death for a vessel at sea: loss of power and – worse still -- loss of steering. Without steering you are at the mercy of the waves; loss of power cripples a ship and her crew and eventually leads to the end.

Thunder storms at night are the most fun at sea, and there is nothing more brilliant, beautiful and explosive than a thunder storm at night raging over deep ocean water. The brilliance of the lighting seems like it will last forever—and then suddenly it marches off into the dark distance.

When Navy warnings are posted you are in for real trouble because wave heights could exceed 30 feet. Pounding waves, wind, rain and snow can punish each and every part of a ship and its crew, as I am sure many of you have seen on The Deadliest Catch. For the crew there is no course but to persevere, continually tie down the gear, and hang on for life. Imagine riding up and down 30 to 40 feet every thirty seconds to a minute for hours on end, the only escape being an occasional ride through a trough in the waves.

I have really enjoyed sharing my marine biology experiences with you this year and sincerely hope that you have learned something about our under-explored oceans. Until next time I wish you great selling and marketing in the millennium and happy holidays to you all.