My name is Brian L. Hill, and I deliver More From Less. The BLHill Report is your road map for achieving better results while reducing wasted time and expense. [ Learn More ]

Applying the scientific method to the art of entrepreneurship, and more…

Last week, my family and I took a much-needed vacation up the coast of California to the Bay area. We had a great time with lots of walking, a little bit of rain, great food, great beer, and few worries. Here are some of the most important updates since the last edition of The BLHill Report went out:

How to Build a Successful, Innovative and Sustainable Business

I just finished reading The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. While the book has the name “startup” in the title it is not just for new companies – it applies to any company that is seeking growth. (And if your business isn’t seeking growth, perhaps it is time for a change…)

In the book, Ries applies the scientific method to the art of entrepreneurship and introduces new ways of looking at business success. Many companies begin, and continue to exist, with inaccurate assumptions about what customers want and are willing to pay for. Value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. In other words, only the customer will determine whether or not they want your next great idea. So the key, according to Ries, is to get a “minimum viable product” into the hands of the customer as soon as possible, and to learn as much as possible from the process. In fact, Ries advocates that “validated learning” is even more important for a startup than profit. In the Lean Startup methodology, the goal isn’t to produce the best product, make the most money or achieve the highest customer satisfaction – the goal is to learn how to become a successful, innovative and sustainable business.

I highly encourage reading my full post on the subject: The Scientific Approach to Building a Successful, Innovative and Sustainable Business – The Lean Startup.

The Construction Consulting Business Startup Kit

Speaking of startups, over at AEC Forensics, I wrote a couple of articles that may be of interest to those in the construction consulting field. In Using an iPad for construction defect investigations, I describe some of the tools and techniques I used to replace a clipboard full of paperwork (not to mention the binders of materials I have to carry in my vehicle) with my iPad. I have written about this subject since the iPad first came out, but this was the first time I had an opportunity to actually use one in the field on an actual project.

My friend Rob Mathewson has developed an innovative product that I think would be the perfect tool for a construction consulting firm for managing photos. The article is called, Geedra: Photo Data Management for the A/E/C Industry. Mathewson and his team designed this product from the ground up as an intuitive, carefully designed and feature-rich tool for managing, sorting, filtering, tagging, and sharing images from construction projects – whether during construction, or as part of a post-construction dispute or claims management process. Geedra is a web-based photo-driven database that uses Amazon’s robust cloud services platform. A number of construction consulting firms I know of have spent anywhere from $30,000 to over $800,000 to develop proprietary applications that could easily be replaced, at least in part, by a product such as Geedra.

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