iTunes 64 bits

I’m now in London with my family. I will stay in London for two weeks. After that I will head back to my home country “Kuwait” which I haven’t been there for more than a year.I found a site that had a solution that helped me  install iTunes for my laptop running  windows 7 64 bits. I had a problem installing it before , because the main website did not provide the right 64 bits  file. Here is the link and have fun : http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1037 .  Once the file is download and installed, do an upgrade to the earlier version.I did all that and its working now. Now I can get my old apps. This is my second iphone (3gs) my first one was a 3g which was ruined when it fell in the water Both of them were given to me as a gift.  My wife bought me the first , and my parents bought me the second one . I’m thankful to both.

I will give you a link of very good and useful iPhones apps for London city:  The Ultimate London iPhone App Review List – The Top 19 London Apps for iPhone !

Tags: iPhone, iPhone apps, iTunes 64 bits, Kuwait, Kuwaiti Blog, London, online entrepreneur tools, windows 7

Do you have any business question ?

“he who is afraid of asking, is afraid of learning”

I found a helpful online website that can be used to ask or find business questions. Its called Startups ! Its really a good spot for entrepreneurs, business students and whoever interested to know about tips, tools, HOWOTs, advice, .. etc. Its like a free consultation. It saves you time and effort and it allows you to share experiences with people all over the world. Just throw your question in their website, by email or using Twitter. It also has a cool feature- a dictionary. So for example if you don’t understand a jargon or a business term just type it in the dictionary and you will get the meaning. The world now is making life easy and simple for learners and entrepreneurs. Everything is being linked and shared via social media that allows many minds to participate. I remember years ago when such information were hard to find or costly. However, I’m not saying that you should follow or accept every advice you get, because everyone has the freedom to say and express whatever they think its right. This can be risky for beginners or learners as they can not distinguish between right or wrong. But its still valuable for some one who is seeking different opinions, brainstorming new ideas or getting familiar with a new field or industry. The voting system up there can give you a hint of the hottest topics and probably somehow reliable answers.  Startups also provides a service that allows you to choose who you want to answer your questions. So in that way you can overcome the fear of getting bad advice. I’m not sure whether or not they have experts in there, but you never know. Its a nice spot to meet like-minded entrepreneurs and possibly building a team and connections. Posting there can also help experts and bloggers who write about business increase their website traffic, improve marketing and building a brand and a name.

P.S. Please note that I choose tools randomly that I believe they have value to entrepreneurs and small business owners. However those websites belong to organizations that I don’t have any contact or contract with them. That does not mean that they are perfect or bad , It depends on readers to judge and choose. The technology is always evolving and improving, so some of these tools is, can or will be obsolete. I welcome advice, comment or criticism. We are all learning.

Tags: business consulting kuwait, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurial resources, Entrepreneurial Tools, Entrepreneurship, online entrepreneur tools, startup kuwait

How to get out of your comfort zone !

I watched a clip by Bob Parsons the owner of Godaddy.com and I really enjoyed it and learned from it. I highly recommend that you watch it by clicking on the image or the link below:

How to get out of your comfort zone !

Tags: self development

Entrepreneurs’choice: risk or status quo ?

How well can entrepreneurs do if they take or don’t take risk? What can affect their decision making? Is it their experience ?Is it emotions?  what about the quality of decision making ? do they always make the right decisions?  How can an entrepreneurs improve their decision making ? Is it ok to make mistakes ? In this post I will focus on risk taking and status quo bias. The rest of questions posed earlier regarding the quality and improvement of decision making will be discussed in another post.

What does status quo mean ?

In marketing and economic psychology researchers use the term “status quo bias”. What does it mean anyway? It means (for entrepreneurs) to accept,do or follow the same choices that have been done or chosen before without changing anything. Entrepreneurs have been studied in research whether they fall under this phenomenon (status quo bias) or not. Well it appears that there are all types. Some small business owners prefer the status quo and don’t like to take risk (risk averse), while others take risk. The degree of risk also varies.Studies showed that small business entrepreneurs take more risk than big business owners or bankers. Entrepreneurs are also known of their use of heuristics and rely on their experience which researchers consider a type of status quo because they rely on their past experience. So in order for the entrepreneur to be status quo-free he/she must always be opened to new ideas and be willing to share with fresh minds.

What makes entrepreneurs take risk ?

Entrepreneurs are always optimists and enthusiastic  to explore and discover new opportunities, find new technologies, to expand and grow & to be creative and build innovation. Sometime entrepreneurs appear to be over confident in their decision making , but confidence can be useful in some occasions.

Is it ok to make mistakes ?

“ A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new ” Albert Einstein.

The entrepreneurial tip of the day: Learn to take risk but above all, master the craft of managing risk.

Tags: Arab Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurial resources, Entrepreneurial Tools, Kuwaiti Entrepreneur, online entrepreneur tools, risk taking, status quo bias

Academic Entrepreneurship

Q: Can you become an entrepreneur if you are an academic ?

A: Yes

I have read some academic articles that focus on the role of academic brains in commercial enterprises. The level of academic varies starting from undergraduate to PhDs and professors. They gave many examples of different industries such as IT, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, etc. There were many questions raised by those researchers such as the skill of academic entrepreneurs, the motive behind joining the business world and my question would be how well did they do ? because being entrepreneur requires different skills and mental framework than being an academic. How did they manage to spin-off from the scientific world to entrepreneurial world?.

In this article I’m focusing on the skills part only, by showing that academics can posses high talents when it comes to problem solving and analyzing. Most of entrepreneurs in the street got the spirit but lack the analytical skills. Academics on the other hand, do not have that problem due to their experience in research.

Obviously Katalin Balázs the author of  “Academic Entrepreneurs and their Role in ‘Knowledge’ Transfer“ argues that the main skill they posses is the transfer of  knowledge to the small business they establish or participate in. The sample that she covered was Eastern and central Europe such as Hungary, so we can not be certain about the rest of academics in the world. However, we can learn something from it when it comes to understanding common skills that academics can offer for the business community.The author also  classified knowledge into subsets and skills :

“

. knowledge of knowledge
· knowledge of people (informal contacts)
· organisational knowledge
· market, partners, firms (who’s who)
· technical knowledge (history of particular pieces of equipment)

”

The above categories according to the author are the type of knowledge that can be transferred from entrepreneurial academics to the business. However , I’m not sure about the people and the market knowledge, because these information are acquired mostly by some one who is deep in the street-market and not just by being at the university only.

As a student at Bangor business school , I like the ‘entrepreneurship’ program that Bangor University offers for young students to prepare them take a future ‘entrepreneur’ job rather than prepare them mentally to pursue a job like what most universities do.

The entrepreneurial tool of the day is : Education.  Whether you get an academic degree, read books or attend seminars. They are all important for you if you seek success  and improvement in life and business. That does not mean that if you are an academic you are done. There are many types of skills that have to be learned that you do not find at universities. Life is a big school and we shall all continuously be life-long students.

Tags: academic entrepreneurship, Bangor university, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurial Tools, Entrepreneurship

Business Network Part: 2

In my last article Business Network , I talked about an entrepreneurial tool that an entrepreneur can use to build his/her own team or establish a network of business partners. Enternships: a new startup- still beta that specializes in helping entrepreneurs build their teams. Companies  post positions that they require or seek. Individuals post their skills and talents they possess in the website. Then they will be hooked if they are matched. Enternships covers  wide geographical networks including Africa,  Europe, India, Latin America, Middle East, UK and USA.

The good thing about Enternships is that  it offers entrepreneurs a huge advantage in hooking up with new startups that might have a promising potential in the future. It also offers new opportunities for individuals who are seeking to improve their experience in new ventures.

Tags: Business Network, Business Team, Enternships, Entrepreneurial resources, Entrepreneurial Tools, Networking, online entrepreneur tools

Entrepreneurship Day

I did not know that there is an “Entrepreneurship Day” or such a day exists until I found “WED”-World Entrepreneurship Day. I find the name very creative. WED was founded in April 17th  2009. So this year is year two- happy birthday and I missed it. WED is simply an idea to gather creative entrepreneurial minds around the world to meet yearly. The aim as WED puts it : Inspiration, connection & enlightenment. Well to be honest the number of companies and entrepreneurs who attended this year was astonishing. The quality of speeches and programs that they offer is really good. I also like what WED does. They offer a variety of entrepreneurial tools and videos that are beneficial which you can find them in the resources section. I am also impressed of the sessions they provide for “ideas brainstorming” and their use of creative techniques. I will talk about some of the techniques in the near future.

I have seen many similar ideas or concepts to WED (with different look) every where in the world. Most of them share the same objectives. Any one who wants to establish a business whether small, big or home based should have a look and try to participate in similar events. The experience that will be gained is priceless. I myself have attended few in the past in other countries and I’m looking forward to attend more in the future. It’s always good to mix with like-mind people. Knowledge is very essential especially in the business world. The more knowledgeable you are in the field that interests you, the bigger the chances that you will succeed and you will add more value to your customers. I wish you all happy birthday .

Tags: Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurial resources, Entrepreneurial Tools, Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Day, home based businesses, online entrepreneur tools

Iceland Volcano Opportunities

Many businesses and entrepreneurs got affected badly in this current natural disaster the ” Iceland Volcano”. Airplanes around the world lost enormous money due to not flying . Business deals, imports and exports were halted. Countries were governed remotely. The Norwegian prime minster ran his government while he was in USA using his iPad.  The flip side of that scenario is others started to make a fortune out of the current incidence. For example, ferries are in a big demand, and I’m sure many other enterprises benefited as well. SO what I’m saying here, is problems create opportunities for the prepared minded.

Lonely Planet – the tourism guides company, offered and still offering travelers who  use iPhone, to download 13 European guides from Apple store for free.  Those guides-apps were not free before the Iceland eruption. The offer is valid until tomorrow- Thursday April 22nd.  I find this a great way to help travelers who got stuck in Europe (because it is the most affected continent from Iceland volcano) to manage or even survive. It is also an oblique way to increase Lonely Planet’s reputation and maybe its profits in the future.

To get those guides, go to Apple store through your iPhone or your computer’s iTunes and type Lonely Planet. You should get the following countries:

1. Amsterdam
2. Barcelona
3. Berlin
4. Budapest
5. Copenhagen
6. Istanbul
7. London
8. Moscow
9. Munich
10. Paris
11. Rome
12. Stockholm
13. Vienna

Governments also played a big role. For example, The Kuwaiti government did not hesitate to help its stuck citizens in Europe to pay for their accommodation until they  get back to Kuwait.  I’m sure other government did the same as well. The Crisis teaches us something and we must learn from it. Opportunities always present themselves in the time of problems, and those who are prepared mentally shall see them.

Tags: Entrepreneur, Icland Volcano, iPhone, iPhone apps, Kuwait IceLand Volcano, obliquity

Make money tweeting

In my article Monetizing Twitter ideas Part 2 , I explained how advertisers can use others Twitter’s accounts (tweeters) to market their products. The flip side now is : YOU can be the tweeter and therefore can earn money. It’s a simple process , all you need is a 1 month old Twitter account at the minimum and there you go. Just allow Sponsored Tweets to connect to your Twitter account and your are set. Sponsored Tweets will suggest an estimate for your charge per tweet, but its up to you to decide. You can do some searching by looking at how much other tweeters charge or by asking people who have experience. Have fun !

To read more about my online articles ,please follow me on  Twitter

Tags: Make money, make money online, Sponsored Tweets, Twitter

Simply, how does it happened (financial crisis) ?

Let’s take some interesting examples of the main crisis that happened in the US before 2007 which related in someway to the recent financial crisis:

1- The Great Depression (1929): It was granddaddy, longest and most extensive crisis in the US history. Many sectors suffered during this crisis, mostly the stock market. Experts have not agreed on the exact reasoning behind it; there are differences in analysts’ view. One of the strongest views emphasized that the crisis started as normal; however, Federal Reserve policies contracted the money supply which caused the situation to be exacerbated. The idea of Fannie and Freddie started after this depression, which has a strong impact on the 2007 crisis.

2- The Dot-com Bubble “I.T Bubble” (2001-2002): At that period of time, many people were attracted to the technology companies because of the great improvement and accomplishment they achieved year after year, especially when Google came on the scene in 1999-2000 and achieved fast and great technology improvements and gained huge profits. As a result, people tend to buy companies’ stocks that have dot-com at the end of its name, as believing of the technology strong future. Later on, it is reality that markets correct prices sooner or later, and the dot-com bubble burst to cause an open fall in the stock market especially in the technology stocks. The related issue of this crisis to the 2007 crisis is that Federal Reserve had reduced the interest rate as a helpful way to stop more loss, which attracted many big investors to invest their money in the US market after that year.

3- Sub-prime Crisis “Mortgage Crisis” (2007): After termination The Dot-Com Bubble and making a substantial improvement in US market, and because of the decrease in interest rate many countries, like China and the oil-exporting countries in the Middle-East, invested their money in the US market and banks. As a result, US banks got a large amount of liquidity from leading depositors who were expecting fair value from the US market. Later on, and as a result of more drop in the interest rate in 2003, a new phenomenon appeared on the scene when banks found it a brilliant opportunity for investing that huge amount of money by giving sub-prime mortgages to borrowers. Banks thought it was a less risky option with high return. Unfortunately, banks were unconcerned about the quality of the customers because most of them do not meet standard criteria for acceptable credit quality, such as credit history, repayments ability or good income.

Later, when banks found out that they hold mortgages more than liquid money they started to move in securitization order by classifying these mortgages to three levels, AAA, BBB, CCC, and sell them as assets to mortgage companies, like Fannie and Freddie, who own almost 90% of the US’s secondary mortgages. Mortgage companies started to sell these assets in the market as securities, but as a safe side they covered them in the large insurance companies, like AIG. Because of the government-sponsored enterprise, like Fannie and Freddie, sub-prime mortgages grew from $173 billion in 2001 to reach $665 billion in 2005 which indicates that the mortgage bubble is going to explode one day. At that moment two issues should be considered, in one hand, banks were still giving more easy mortgages-loans which cause houses price to continue rising. In the other hand, sub-prime borrower credit scores also raised causing many borrowers to experience difficulties in repayment, however, because houses prices were still valuable they found it an opportune time to sell their houses and pay their loans back.

This environment led many houses for sale which cause the houses prices to slow down, and then turned to negative in many states. Later on, more borrowers became unable to meet their mortgage repayments because of the raise in the interest rate from 1% in June 2003 to 5.25% in June 2006; furthermore, they discovered that their loans are much more expensive than their houses prices and it does not make any sense to continue paying their loans, they decided to stop paying their loans and return their houses to the banks, which causes banks to be shifted from easily available credit to tight credit which caused the situation to be worse, because many businesses defected for lack of liquidity, so they started to sell their assets in the stock market cheaply to obtain liquidity, and that causes an open fall in the US stock market. Also, deterioration of real estate prices and borrowers defaults in repayment caused a huge negative impact on many sectors, like mortgage companies, insurance companies, banks and holders of mortgage securities.

Finally, we should acknowledge that there is no single entity to blame in this crisis, because those problems were like dominoes each one has an impact on the other. Even experts have different views, some blamed Federal Reserve policies, others blamed the government-sponsored enterprise which encouraged banks to provide more mortgages loans, and some said it because the greed of banks to increase their profits rapidly. In this stage, it is regrettable to note that banks were acting with confidence because they had always believed in the following statement “If anything happened the government will be there to catch us, because if we go down the country goes down!”, and this is what exactly happened later.

Tags: Credit Crisis, Credit Crunch, Finance, Global Economic Crisis, Global Financial Crisis, Mortgage Crisis