Find a want and fill it

"The most common mistake entrepreneurs make as they develop their ideas is they take an inward view. Instead of exploring what people may need, they focus on what they themselves want to do. It’s a simple trap. A common mistake. And it’s deadly." Rob Spiegel

Truth is, follow this “find a need and fill it” advice and you are inviting commodity pricing.

Think about it…

People NEED to get their roof repaired … but they WANT on-time, courteous service, clean workers and a guarantee their roof won’t leak again.

People NEED a computer network set up … but they WANT someone who understands their business, will suggest things to make it run smoother before a breakdown prompts it, and won’t make them feel stupid by talking geek to them.
People NEED to have a cavity filled … but they WANT to look good and have a pain-free experience in a friendly office with warm people.

People price shop for what they need, and even that makes them grumpy.

People pay premium prices for what they want, and they love it.
Go to an Apple Store. Play marketing anthropologist. Really observe the people. You’ll “get it” in less than an hour.
Service business, retail business, business-to-business, whatever your business… if your business struggles with commodity pricing or if you have to “justify” your price more than once in a blue moon … betcha an iPhone (ahem, another example) you are focusing on what your customers or clients need, and aren’t paying attention to what they want. And that makes them begin to not want you.

Forget find a need and fill it.
Find a want, touch your market … and lead a movement.

Cashflow Quadrant: Robert Toru Kiyosaki

Have you read the Cashflow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki? Get yourself a copy right away its a must read!

In the last three months I read three books this been the third and I tell you, its one thing to be an employee in one sense, and to be an investor in another. In-fact it’s a book whose time had come in recognizing where i am coming from and where i want to go. This is the rich dad's guide to financial freedom.

Robert Kiyosaki is an American investor, businessman, self-help author and motivational speaker, best known for his Rich Dad Poor Dad series of motivational books and other material published under the Rich Dad brand. In Cashflow Quantrant he vividly explains the different money types of people and how we can go about becoming a different type if we so desire.

In his book the Cashflow Quadrant he specifies where our primary source of income comes from. There is the Employee who works for income; there are the Self-employed who work for themselves for income; there is the Businessperson who gets income from his businesses and then there is the Investor whose money works for him and brings him more income. There might be some confusion as to the difference between the Self-employed and a Business person and Robert Kiyosaki states it thus: "...true B's can leave their business for a year or more and return to find their businesses more profitable and running better than when they left it." So the Businessperson develops systems and the Self-employed are the system.

Does this diagram say something about you?

Robert Kiyosaki goes on to explain the seven levels of investors in the world. They are:

Those with nothing to invest. They spend everything they get or more than they get.

Borrowers. They borrow from one creditor to pay another.

Savers. These people put aside money regularly to consume later and they pay cash for everything.

"Smart" investors. These investors know that they must invest. There is three categories in here: A - I can't be bothered; B - Cynic: They know why investment won't work; C - The Gambler: They "invest" because it is the smart thing to do, but they don't bother with the details and often end up gambling on these investments.

Long-term investors. They are actively involved in their own investment decisions and are aware of the tax consequences of their investments. They are not big-time investors but know where they are going in the long term.

Sophisticated investors. These are the people that can afford 'riskier' investments because they have good money habits and a solid financial base. They are clear on their own principles and rules of investments.

Capitalists. These are the people that use other people's money and other people's time and create their own investments.

As you become a better investor you move up in these levels till the stage where you can call yourself a capitalist. In terms of the quadrants, a level six will be a businessperson that sells the business as an investment.

I say it's time to get smarter with Robert Toru Kiyosaki. it's time to get smarter with your money. 

Source: http://www.woopidoo.com/biography/robert-kiyosaki/index.htm

Camera: Digital or Film?

A variety of digital cameras

In our earlier write up on "headache printing digital photos" we highlighted three simple steps to getting better prints for your digital photos: 1. Printer settings 2. Resolution of image and 3. Paper quality. Today is about digital cameras over film, and both pros and cons of digital cameras. Digital cameras offer many conveniences that you cannot get with film. Digicamguides.com affirms digital cameras offer more flexibility than film cameras, but require some computer savvy to use. Here is how:

Pros of Digital Cameras
Instant Feedback: Right after you take a photograph with a digital camera, you can see the photo you just took displayed. No more worrying if you got the shot or not, no more portraits of people with their eyes closed. Take the shot and see. If you don't like what you see, take another.

No Film: Digital cameras store photographs digitally, using removable cards. You can purchase a single photo storage card that will allow you to take about 360 photographs. That's 15 rolls of film, if a roll is 24 photos! Most of these cards are about the size of a postage stamp or a stick of gum. What would you rather carry with you on your next vacation? A stick of gum, or 15 rolls of film?

No Prints: Store all the photos you take on your computer and only print the ones you really like. You'll never have to bay for badly exposed photos again.

Volume: With digital cameras this is not a problem. You can take as many shots as you want as well as deleting them.

Portability: Many digital cameras are designed to be extremely portable. Since they don't need space to accommodate film, they can be very compact and lightweight. 

Easy Sharing: Digital cameras are a great way to share photographs with friends and family who do not live nearby.

Drawbacks to Digital Cameras
Complexity: Digital cameras are small computers that take photographs. Even the fairly simple ones come with many buttons, menus, options and settings. Camera manufacturers like to boast that their camera has more features than their competitor's. More features means controls that you will have to learn.

Home Computer: The idea behind digital photography is that you can take thousands of photographs, review them on your computer first and then decide what you want to print.

Computing Power: Photographs created by digital cameras create large computer files. If you have a small hard drive, you will fill it up in an instant. A slow computer can make the process of viewing photos frustrating.

Fast Internet Connection: The easiest way to share your photos with others is to upload them to the Internet. Uploading digital photos can be a slow and time-consuming process.

Cost: Digital cameras store photographs on small removable cards. You still have to pay the initial card cost.

Battery Life: If you own a film camera now, you may have had to change the batteries once in 5 years. Digital camera batteries will be drained in a week if you take lots of photos. Rechargeable batteries are a necessity.

Today professional photographers are switching from their older film-fed cameras to newer, higher quality and better working digital SLR cameras. Such digital SLR cameras are actually changing the way the world of photography works forever, and in a good way. 

Great Photography Tips

Interested in learning photography techniques? Read on. Whether its fashion photography, sports photography, wedding photography, travel photography, stock photography, studio lighting, or even digital darkroom, these insight from Kodak.com covers the basics of photography you might want to learn about. 

1. Look your subject in the eye 

Direct eye contact can be as engaging in a picture as it is in real life. When taking a picture of someone, hold the camera at the person's eye level to unleash the power of those magnetic gazes and mesmerizing smiles. For children, that means stooping to their level. And your subject need not always stare at the camera. All by itself that eye level angle will create a personal and inviting feeling that pulls you into the picture.

2. Use a plain background
A plain background shows off the subject you are photographing. When you look through the camera viewfinder, force yourself to study the area surrounding your subject. Make sure no poles grow from the head of your favorite niece and that no cars seem to dangle from her ears.

3. Use flash outdoors
Bright sun can create unattractive deep facial shadows. Eliminate the shadows by using your flash to lighten the face. When taking people pictures on sunny days, turn your flash on. You may have a choice of fill-flash mode or full-flash mode. If the person is within five feet, use the fill-flash mode; beyond five feet, the full-power mode may be required. With a digital camera, use the picture display panel to review the results. On cloudy days, use the camera's fill-flash mode if it has one. The flash will brighten up people's faces and make them stand out. Also take a picture without the flash, because the soft light of overcast days sometimes gives quite pleasing results by itself.

4. Move in close
If your subject is smaller than a car, take a step or two closer before taking the picture and zoom in on your subject. Your goal is to fill the picture area with the subject you are photographing. Up close you can reveal telling details, like a sprinkle of freckles or an arched eyebrow. But don't get too close or your pictures will be blurry. The closest focusing distance for most cameras is about three feet, or about one step away from your camera. If you get closer than the closest focusing distance of your camera (see your manual to be sure), your pictures will be blurry.

5. Move it from the middle
Center-stage is a great place for a performer to be. However, the middle of your picture is not the best place for your subject. Bring your picture to life by simply moving your subject away from the middle of your picture. Start by playing tick-tack-toe with subject position. Imagine a tick-tack-toe grid in your viewfinder. Now place your important subject at one of the intersections of lines. You'll need to lock the focus if you have an auto-focus camera because most of them focus on whatever is in the center of the viewfinder.

6. Lock the focus
If your subject is not in the center of the picture, you need to lock the focus to create a sharp picture. Most auto-focus cameras focus on whatever is in the center of the picture. But to improve pictures, you will often want to move the subject away from the center of the picture. If you don't want a blurred picture, you'll need to first lock the focus with the subject in the middle and then recompose the picture so the subject is away from the middle. Usually you can lock the focus in three steps. First, center the subject and press and hold the shutter button halfway down. Second, reposition your camera (while still holding the shutter button) so the subject is away from the center. And third, finish by pressing the shutter button all the way down to take the picture.

7. Know your flash's range
The number one flash mistake is taking pictures beyond the flash's range. Why is this a mistake? Because pictures taken beyond the maximum flash range will be too dark. For many cameras, the maximum flash range is less than fifteen feet—about five steps away. What is your camera's flash range? Look it up in your camera manual. Can't find it? Then don't take a chance. Position yourself so subjects are no farther than ten feet away. Film users can extend the flash range by using Kodak Max versatility or versatility plus film.

8. Watch the light 

Next to the subject, the most important part of every picture is the light. It affects the appearance of everything you photograph. On a great-grandmother, bright sunlight from the side can enhance wrinkles. But the soft light of a cloudy day can subdue those same wrinkles. Don't like the light on your subject? Then move yourself or your subject. For landscapes, try to take pictures early or late in the day when the light is orangish and rakes across the land

9. Take some vertical pictures 

Is your camera vertically challenged? It is if you never turn it sideways to take a vertical picture. All sorts of things look better in a vertical picture. From a lighthouse near a cliff to the Eiffel Tower to your four-year-old niece jumping in a puddle. So next time out, make a conscious effort to turn your camera sideways and take some vertical pictures.

10. Be a picture director 

Take control of your picture-taking and watch your pictures dramatically improve. Become a picture director, not just a passive picture-taker. A picture director takes charge. A picture director picks the location. A picture director adds props. A picture director arranges people.

Take charge of your pictures and win your own best picture awards.

Source http://www.kodak.com; http://www.digitalslrcameras360.com/

Panoramic Photography

Panoramic photos were the realm of the professional with the time and funds to create gorgeous super wide angle shots. In the digital age, it’s not only simple to create panoramic images on your home computer, it has become increasingly easier thanks to advances in software. 

Beautiful Tokyo at night

This is a technique of photography, using specialized equipment or software, that captures images with elongated fields of view. It is sometimes known as wide format photography. The term has also been applied to a photograph that is cropped to a relatively wide aspect ratio. While there is no formal division between "wide-angle" and "panoramic" photography, "wide angle" normally refers to a type of lens, but this lens type does not necessarily image a panorama. An image made with an ultra wide angle fisheye lens covering the normal film frame of 1:1.33 is not automatically considered to be a panorama.

Taking panaromas can be fun. Find yourself a nice scene, and work along the bits you want , in rows or columns. Most software wants about 20% overlap at each side. The software should help fix exposure variations for you, but it will help a lot to avoid wide variations in brightness. Take care to hold the camera still and level - a tripod will help greatly, but a steady hand can work just fine. If you do have a digital camera, review the images before leaving the scene!  

Panoramic Tokyo by night

Try and avoid things being very close to the camera - this will make any camera movement between shots VERY obvious, and ruin the results. Remember to rotate around the camera position, not just turn in a circle holding the camera. Unless you have a VERY good flash, avoid this when taking panoramas - any unevenness will be VERY obvious in the blended images. Windy days can cause problems, as trees, flags, and other things bend in the wind and change position. I was pleasantly surprised that ripples on water do not seem to have this problem - both the packages I have used can make effective joins on water, without obvious blurring or other soft image effect.

It's a shame to spoil a sequence of 24 images because your finger was over the lens for 1 of them! If you really want that photo, try taking two complete sets of images - perhaps with different overlap areas. This is particularly recommended if circumstances are difficult, e.g. bad light, long exposures, many moving people. Experience it.