Letters

Readers respond to our February cover story, "An American Start-Up," and Norm Brodsky's Street Smarts column "Ask Norm." Also, CEO's from the March issue get congratulated for weathering the entrepreneurial storm.

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Cabin fever translated into a blizzard of responses to our February issue. Many wrote to praise Mike Hofman's cover story, " An American Start-Up." Others followed up on Norm Brodsky's " Ask Norm" Street Smarts column with some advice of their own. CEOs in our March issue also drew kudos for weathering the entrepreneurial storm.

Regrets, I've had a few
In the March issue, staff writer Ilan Mochari asked a group of serial entrepreneurs this question: " If you had it to do all over again, what would you do differently?" This reader praised the CEOs for their astute observations.

In our consulting business, we're constantly confronted with clients who, while incredibly well intentioned and often brilliant, find it difficult to strike a balance between cultivating an extraordinary organizational culture and making the tough choices when people fail to deliver the results. That leads to the same mistakes that are described in Ilan Mochari's article: inadequate senior management, friendships that overshadow the need to hold people accountable for results (or lack of results), and the CEO or founder who continues to take on certain responsibilities well beyond the point when delegation is necessary.

What works when a company comprises 10 employees becomes obsolete with growth. Often a visionary founder can carry the executive ball for the whole team -- to a point. Then come the tough choices: fire loyalists or hire new talent to supervise them -- and deal with the fallout responsibly.

Amie J. Devero
Vice-president
Framework Consulting Inc.
Pembroke Pines, Fla.

DÉjà vu all over again
Readers continued to identify with the start-up experience of the founders of Platinum Concepts, whom senior staff writer Mike Hofman profiled in "An American Start-up," in the February issue. The company makes computer mice shaped like the heads of driver golf clubs. The two young entrepreneurs publish regular reports of their company's growing pains in a newsletter.

Talk about dÉjà vu. Reading your piece on Platinum Concepts and its Mouse- Driver was like looking in a mirror. I enjoyed it and related to it so completely that I sent John Lusk and Kyle Harrison a note telling them that their story could have been my own if they'd just swapped the names, the products, and the location. The story of old-school entrepreneurship is universal, it seems, and hits home with the rest of us who've taken the great leap.

Michael Hess
President and CEO
Roadwired
Rochester, N.Y.

Seller beware
The February CEO's Notebook article " The Fraud Bogeyman," by senior writer Susan Greco, listed some ways that small businesses can protect themselves from the cost of fraudulent transactions on their Web sites. One reader wrote to offer some additional advice.

I was shocked to read that merchants are paying such high prices -- in addition to waiting painfully long times for deposits -- for group credit-card-processing services whose security functions can be handled rather well by merchants themselves if they use some simple common sense. Since my company started selling online, in 1996, we've had only six fraudulent orders get through, accounting for less than 0.3% of our gross sales.

After being burned shortly after starting our online sales, we asked our merchant-services provider how to spot fraudulent orders in the future. She responded, "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is." Since then we've noticed three major indicators of fraud: shipping overseas (regardless of the origin of the bank that issued the card), usually with expedited delivery requested; expedited delivery in general; and poor responses from the customer, such as cancellation of an item that's not in stock or lack of concern about color. Of course, orders being shipped to countries that have no credit-card-issuing banks are high risks, too. We've caught 15 or 20 fraudulent attempts. Until there's a service that verifies charges on a by-order basis, we'll verify with the issuing bank all orders that are being shipped overseas or ones that seem too good to be true.

Andrew R. Laudenslager
President
Balazs Boxing
Allentown, Pa.

The answer man
In February, Norm Brodsky filled his column with answers to questions from advice seekers. In turn, several readers wrote in to proffer advice of their own on some of the topics he addressed: where to find mentors, how to handle difficult employees, and how to make hard work more financially rewarding.

I've just reached the ripe young age of 52, and after having been involved in 11 start-ups, I feel that I might have something to contribute to others about the entrepreneurial experience. I'd like to recommend to your letter writer Henry that he contact the Executive Committee (TEC) to find a chapter in his area. Before I became a member of TEC in Madison, Wis., three years ago, I felt very much like Henry. I had close friends whom I could call mentors, but I didn't have a group of unpaid advisers that I really could use as a sounding board.

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