so, I have about 5 mins to write this, so it will be short & sweet.

From the Small Business pre-day:

• event was sold out
• people told us licensing was still not up to scratch, but Eric Ligman's lessthancoffee.com site was very useful
• Much of the information for people was how to run a small business as it 1) enables us all to understand what is going on in the minds of our customers and 2) since many SBSC members are small businesses, hopefully gives them some ideas on how to be more successful as a business
• The Sloan Brothers were the highlight for me in advice (http://startupnation.com) - they said
• Got for 10% of the Watermelon, not 90% of the grape - this basically meant get funding and help to grow your business - keeping ownership of your business is more than just the number of shares - it is being there, so even if other people own 90% of the equity, you are still in charge.
• Outsource non-core skills
• Hitch your wagon to a star - eg Microsoft, but also someone local who will recommend you - so you get business by the power of recommendation from someone your customers will trust
• Harness the eye of PR - basically, PR is whatever you do for it, but use it, write it yourself or outsource, but make it have impact
• Manage your burn rate - know at all times how much cash you have and balance needs vs this
• my favourite - Know thy end game - to help you make decisions about all of the above you need to know what you want to achieve - is it to sell the business, to chair, to work until you are 90.... what is it - know this and many decisions canbe done on does it help me achieve this or not.

There were many other announcements at WPC, which can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/wwpc/materials.mspx

One other key thing that James Akrigg said to me:

"Why are we always talking to people about their pain points?  We also need to find out about their aspirations. "

This was a key thing for me.

ttfn

David