Instead of starting one business at a time like serial entrepreneurs, I’m starting several businesses at the same time, in parallel. Currently I’m engaged in five different ventures at the same time, and I literally divide my work week by them: one day for each of the projects.

Parallel entrepreneurship is a relatively new concept, but I think it will gradually become more commonplace due to advances in three important areas: Technology, Networking and Globalisation.

Technology

Today (in Denmark) it’s relatively easy to start a new legal entity thanks to the digitalisation of the public administration. Applications can be filled out and sent online, and it only takes a couple of days for the registration to complete. This makes it easy for me to keep my different ventures legally separate from each other – an important factor due to the fact that most of my ventures are co-founded.

Similarly, building a company website and identity is a relatively easy task. I’m using WordPress as a backbone and I typically buy a readymade template (e.g. my RETROPEAK site that you’re currently on). You can find really cool templates on Themeforest.net and it doesn’t take long to setup.

For more complex sites, I customise an existing template (like on our MAIK website), and sometimes I even build a website from scratch (i.e. in a text editor) which obviously takes a bit longer (see our new BASTARD website for a nice example – note: won’t be launched until Friday 22nd).

Collaboration work is handled by Dropbox and Google Docs (an amazing tool for co-creation!). I use TeuxDeux (teuxdeux.com) for my daily task management, and Wunderlist (wunderlist.com) for my long term task lists. And various other apps and services help me document and share the progress of the ventures.

Networking

Like most other entrepreneurs, networking is an integral part of the way I live my life and the way I do business.

Facebook makes it easier than ever to keep track of upcoming business events like openings/receptions, talks, pecha-kuchas, networking sessions etc. and LinkedIn is a perfect way to organize and keep track of the people I meet (I love the new “note” feature in LinkedIn). I’m also using Facebook to keep up-to-date with startups – since most small startups begin with a Facebook Page rather than a company website – and with the more established brands that use Facebook as a marketing and customer care channel.

This way I’m more or less constantly exposed to a lot of new ideas and businesses, both digitally and IRL. My interface towards the world is gigantic and this empowers me and enables me to spot trends, meet the right people, discuss cutting edge ideas etc. like never before. This gives my own creativity a daily Red Bull injection and it also means, that I’m much more likely to bump into a venture proposal that I can’t refuse. And it’s partly the reason why I’m currently engaged in five different ventures

Globalisation

It’s been a while since “globalisation” was on everybody’s lips. Globalisation, I guess, is just a part of our lives now. But what globalisation means to me, is that the world has become much smaller. It’s no longer unrealistic to imagine my products being sold in Japan even though only a handful of people know our Copenhagen underground brand. And my digital products will instantly become available in most parts of the world on launch day.

Another important thing is the fact that labour is also part of the globalisation. I have yet to try out services like fiverrr.com and crowdspring.com, but it makes me feel safe to know, that if I can’t find anyone in my network willing to help me out on logo design or copywriting, it’s easy (and fairly cheap) to get help. Similar small scale outsourcing concepts are underway, and I’m positive that outsourcing will boost parallel entrepreneurship globally.

More importantly though, the prevalence of information is of key importance. If I want to find a Taiwan manufacturer of raincoats, it’s actually quite easy. I use Alibaba.com to locate a handfull of manufacturers, use my network to ask if anyone has experiences with Taiwanese production that they would want to share (over a lunch), and I use Google to find forum threads that discuss pros and cons. I might even post on Twitter or Facebook.

As my friends and family will easily confirm, I never stop thinking about and engaging in new ventures. I love discussing concepts and ideas with people, and I always seek an opportunity to be part of an exiting business venture. I hope this never changes.

For me, it’s an interesting way of focusing my creativity and idea process, since it forces me to learn about industries and product categories that I normally don’t think of. I guess, this is just a way of forcing myself to think out-of-the-box.

On a similar thread, I also enjoy discovering technology in my surroundings, that weren’t there before, and trying to track down where the technology originated from.
Try for yourself, by looking for technology in toys (WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC), supermarkets (price scanners, price tags), garden equipment (sensors becoming ubiquitous), trains and buses (NFC), cinema tickets machines (touch, voice feedback etc.)… once you start focusing on and discovering the enabling technologies in your surroundings, you’ll open up to think of possible cross-overs and come up with completely new product ideas.

How, for example, could NFC be used in the household?

A really good example of this, is the WiFi connected light bulbs – controlled by smartphones. Various projects are underway, and I’m really looking forward to seeing them come to life:

LIFX (KickStarter project): http://www.lifx.co/main/
Philips: www.meethue.com

Happy tech hunting!

Sounds simple enough? Well, it is (not exactly rocket science)…but it requires that you have a well defined goal which isn’t always that easy. It’s important to set the right goals as well, though, so be visionary but try to be realistic at the same time!
First you have to overcome some of the typical obstacles for setting your goal:

    a) thinking “how will I/this fit in with what I/we do now?”
    b) believing that the road to your goal is too difficult to follow
    c) lack of self confidence: “other people are better than me” *

* NOTE: True, there are people that are better than you, but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for you. And it especially doesn’t mean that you don’t have anything interesting to offer.

OK – got your goal set up? Great.

Now to a very important part: try to visualize your goal.
So for example if your goal is to code and release a Top10 featured iPhone app, you should be able to close your eyes and visualize your app on that Top10 list, see the star ratings and the number of positive reviews, read the “1$ for a limited time only” price tag, see the “top downloaded app” badge etc. etc. And most importantly: try to actually feel what it feels like to have accomplished exactly that.
I know it sounds a bit like something taken out of a self therapy handbook…and it probably is. But I know it works. It makes you more goal oriented.

The final step is easy: look at your options and evaluate against what will get you just at tiny bit closer to your goal – and make the right choice!

Good luck

Keep your fingers crossed!

A good example is something that has existed in web sales for a very long time: sites giving away free shipping if your purchases reaches a certain amount. I for one, find myself filling the basket until I reach the free shipping limit, and to me this proves, that it’s possible to work with incentives that motivate certain purchase behavior.
I’m sure this could be exploited in many new ways especially if combined with some of the social media services.

But I think there’s another part of ‘design for behavior change’ that could be equally exiting. It could be a great mission for product design companies to make products that have built in incentives towards the purchase (e.g. the purchase contributes to global causes, or to local community causes like a new playground) and at the same time motivates the customers to a certain new behavior through the design of the products (e.g. doing something great with your kid, getting more exercise, reduce waste or conserve energy). Of course the product should also fill a need and meet a market, but that goes without saying.

Maybe this could be a path to success for some?

For those of you reading this at work (or other places where playing a video with the sound on is not a very good idea), I’ve extracted the eight tips:

1. You gotta be yourself
2. Get active on at least the top three major social networking sites: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
3. You gotta provide awesome, awesome content
4. Be smart with your time
5. Be consistent
6. Promote others
7. Connect face-to-face with individuals
8. Thank others as much as possible

This is great stuff for those of you who are just beginning to use social media strategically.
Anyways, here’s the video – enjoy

Heads were twisted and turned, and through this creative process we came up with something fantastic!
Voilá: MAIK was born!
[pronounced "make"...I'm sure you caught that...]

Now, you would think that the domain www.maik.com is taken — which is exactly what it is. So our corporate domain will be: www.bymaik.com which is also great (six letters…it’s hard to find them smaller than that these days).

We will soon put some content on the website.

Many many thanks goes to Mathias Ambus who created our graphic identity! We owe you!

If you’re the type, like me, who likes numbers and plans (*), here are some tips from the top of my head…

Guide to creating good business cases:

• do proper market research
• find realistic market numbers
• be specific about your assumptions
• build a proper model that can be reused for future products
• build various business cases based on the model

Now, insert your business case numbers into your overall business plan:

• be specific about your different cost elements
• create a profit & loss (P&L) model
• build a cash flow model in order to track your financial situation
• create a sales model with input from your business cases

…go sell!

*) and even if you’re not, you should seriously consider reading into these things if you’re a start-up company – feel free to ask me questions using the comments feature!