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Good luck to all of the entrepreneurs!

Andrew Farquharson
Managing director
InCube Ventures
Menlo Park, California

Entrepreneurial Living

As a small-business owner, I certainly understand the siren call of work when there's always more to do than hours in the day, but I find it hard to hold Bruce Moeller as a role model for how it should be done ["The Way I Work: Bruce Moeller," July]. Moeller's entire life revolves around his business, at the expense of his health and his family. Plus, Moeller's insistence that he be the hub of all business activity means he is not delegating and developing subordinates. Such a structure becomes less sustainable as a business continues to grow.

Donna Gordon
Owner
Investment Resources
Lee's Summit, Missouri

I hope "The Way I Work" will be a regular feature. I've read this one three times already. I really appreciate and respect Bruce Moeller for telling his story. It takes courage and confidence to open up and share your life in such a manner. Thanks to him, we can understand ourselves better and grow as entrepreneurs and professionals.

Gonzalo Marquez
Project manager
Chiquita Brands International
Miami

Bruce Moeller's decision to put his family second concerned me. One challenge I'd love to be without is caring for people who have wrecked their lives searching for a way to fill the void left by an absentee father.

Nik Korba
Assistant pastor
Miami Vineyard Community Church
Miami

What Went Wrong

In Norm Brodsky's final article in his series about the sale of his business, he mentioned a blog entry I posted on my firm's website, calling it a "scathing criticism" of choices he made during the transaction ["The Offer, Part Nine," July]. Readers can judge for themselves whether or not I was harsh (northshore-capital.com/blog). I stand by my assertions that Brodsky's columns did more harm than good, not only with respect to his own company's sale but also to his readers' understanding of how to manage a transaction.

His articles provided a case study of what not to do. The proof of this is that he failed to accomplish what many owners in the document management business have successfully done--selling a business at a great valuation. Selling a company isn't easy, and not all deals close. Readers who follow in Brodsky's footsteps are doomed to experience the same fate.

Mike West
Managing partner
NorthShore Capital Advisors
Knoxville, Tennessee

Syntax Problems

I have two comments about the July issue. First of all, what editor Jane Berentson wrote about Mike Hofman seemed inappropriate [Editor's Letter, July]. "Mike's not only a valued Inc. editor, he's a total charmer," she wrote, "and if the truth be told, maybe this is the real reason I find myself in his office so often." Are you kidding me? Can you imagine what would happen to a male editor writing such a thing about a female colleague?

Second, I thought the final elevator pitch that Elevator Speech crafted for uControl was problematic ["You Know What Your Company Does. Can You Explain It in 30 Seconds?" July]. Elevator Speech said the security company should begin its pitch by saying, "We bring home security out of the closet and onto the Web." But if uControl's target customer does not have a home security system in his closet, he won't have a clue what uControl is talking about. The real conversation opener is another phrase that came up in the course of their talks: "We give you peace of mind." When the target asks, "How?" uControl can reply, "By providing you with the means to monitor what is happening in your house over the phone or on the Web."

Bruce A. Hurwitz
Principal
Brucehurwitz.com
Cliffside Park, New Jersey

To alert us to an error, send an e-mail to corrections@inc.com. To submit a letter, write to mail@inc.com or Inc. Letters, 7 World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007-2195. Letters may be edited for space and style. Submission constitutes permission to use.

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