Goals ⯀  

As 2017 nears its finish, businesses everywhere should start tightening up their end of the year goals. Setting new challenges for your business is a great way to prepare for future success.

 Ideas  

In a turn-it-on-it's-head business strategy, Tesla CEO Elon Musk just announced that all of the company's patents will be available and they will not pursue legal action to anyone that uses them.  Could this be the boost that the will push the electric car into the mainstream?

Anyone familiar with the culture of most high-tech companies will be familiar with the belief in creating and hoarding patents in a type of corporate brinkmanship.  Now Tesla CEO Elon Musk is breaking another convention by open sourcing all of the company's patents, making its inventions available for anyone who wants to use them. Will this finally be the tool to open up electric vehicles?

"Too often these days [patents] serve merely to stifle progress, entrench the positions of giant corporations and enrich those in the legal profession, rather than the actual inventors."

In a blog post titled "All Our Patent Are Belong To You" published on Tesla's site, Musk writes that "Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport. If we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property landmines behind us to inhibit others, we are acting in a manner contrary to that goal."

Regarding Tesla patents http://t.co/gGBWoInh6C
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 12, 2014

Musk writes:

When I started out with my first company, Zip2, I thought patents were a good thing and worked hard to obtain them. And maybe they were good long ago, but too often these days they serve merely to stifle progress, entrench the positions of giant corporations and enrich those in the legal profession, rather than the actual inventors. After Zip2, when I realized that receiving a patent really just meant that you bought a lottery ticket to a lawsuit, I avoided them whenever possible. 

At Tesla, however, we felt compelled to create patents out of concern that the big car companies would copy our technology and then use their massive manufacturing, sales and marketing power to overwhelm Tesla. We couldn’t have been more wrong. The unfortunate reality is the opposite: electric car programs (or programs for any vehicle that doesn’t burn hydrocarbons) at the major manufacturers are small to non-existent, constituting an average of far less than 1% of their total vehicle sales.

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"If we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property landmines behind us to inhibit others," writes Musk, who also heads SpaceX, "We are acting in a manner contrary to that goal. Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology."

Musk believes that Tesla, other companies making electric cars, and the world would all benefit from a common, rapidly-evolving technology platform. "We believe that applying the open source philosophy to our patents will strengthen rather than diminish Tesla’s position in this regard," he writes.

Perhaps the news isn't so surprising, given the fact that Musk recently gave away what might be another billion dollar business idea in the Hyperloop concept.

Time will tell if the strategy works; both for Tesla and for the environment. It is also unclear if SpaceX, Solar City and Musk's other ventures will follow this path.


SOURCE  Tesla

By 33rd Square

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 Entrepreneurship  

Opening your first business to the public is a very exciting time indeed. It probably seems like a long time has passed since the first vague idea about becoming your own boss crossed your mind.

Opening your first business to the public is a very exciting time indeed. It probably seems like a long time has passed since the first vague idea about becoming your own boss crossed your mind.

Then came all of the planning and calculating to see if the whole idea was feasible or whether it was doomed to be a flop. Soon enough things started to take shape in your mind, and on paper, until the day came when the leap had to be made, or the idea cancelled. If you got this far then you obviously took the leap and have been suffering with butterflies in your stomach and extreme excitement ever since.

Your opening day is on the horizon, and it needs to be a day to remember for both you and your customers, so what is the best way to do it?

Your opening day is on the horizon, and it needs to be a day to remember for both you and your customers, so what is the best way to do it?

There is probably a budget to be adhered to, and it will need to be spent wisely. This is a business after all, and the opening day is about raising its profile. So, with that in mind, let’s explore some of your options.

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Advertising

Before people can attend your opening day, they must know about it. Advertising is a painful, but necessary expense that has to be carried. Make full use of social media where advertising can be targeted with surprising accuracy. Fewer people read the papers or notice the adverts in them these days but if you can persuade them to do an editorial on you it will be valuable.

Sale

One of the most popular methods of attracting people to your business is to hold an opening day sale. Before the day arrives, be sure that all of your goods and literature are professionally displayed in products from gpxgroup.com or another point of sale display specialist supplier. This is the one day when your business is brand new and must look its best.

Celebrity

Hiring a celebrity to cut the ribbon to your business is probably the best way to draw a big crowd. Think about the people that the celebrity would draw. Ken Barlow (Bill Roach) may draw and older crowd but Harry Styles would attract young ladies by the thousand. Which would you prefer to visit your new hair design salon, for example? Hiring a celebrity will be an expensive choice but it will receive recognition in the local papers and, hopefully, on the television and radio news. The power of publicity should never be underestimated.

Food

Prepare plenty of nibbles for your new potential customers and distribute them by waiters moving through the crowds. Don’t overdo it though, or people will stay too long. Once they have seen what you have to offer in the business there is no point encouraging them to hang around unless you wish them to sign up for something.

Drink

There is no reason to waste money on top Champagne. Cheap plonk will do; very few people know the difference once it is out of the bottle anyway. Don’t drink too much yourself as you need a clear head for drumming up business at every opportunity.

The main thing is to enjoy your opening day, by getting this far you have earned it. In the blink of an eye, you will be arranging something to mark the first anniversary of the business. That will be a far more relaxed occasion.

Top Image Source - Flickr

By 33rd Square

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