We want to talk to as many people about the big (or small) ideas swirling in their heads as possible but sometimes they shoot themselves in the foot before we even get a chance to get started.

I could fill a book with things one could do to make us say

Thanks, but no thanks.

to an idea they’d like us to work on; I’ll start with this post.

One of the quicker ways for people to disqualify themselves are demands to sign legal documents that completely defy logic. Following is an e-mail we received recently and a concrete example of what not to do. Other than removing all the names from the text this is the e-mail verbatim.

Who wouldn’t want to jump at the chance of legally binding themselves to somebody they don’t know just to get the opportunity to submit a proposal for a chance to work on an iPhone app of some unknown functionality, followed by a few dozen more after we see how the first one does?

Here are a few lessons to be learned from this e-mail

1. We are not incentivized by the amount of work you are going to bring our way. We are incentivized by getting a chance to work on world changing ideas.
2. We would be happy to stop out at your office and bring the entire team to talk, however we’ll need a bit more than 24 hours notice. Currently the BitMethod team is six strong (Amanda included) and it takes some juggling on the calendar to find a time where all six of us are available at the same time. As an alternative if you are in a hurry you are more than welcome to stop by our office to talk (we have beer in the fridge).
3. Non-Compete: The nature of our business creates an extremely hard to navigate gray area in terms of non-compete agreements. A lot of work we do overlaps with projects we’ve already worked on in the past and will work on in the future. It would be impossible for us both financially and in terms of time it would consume to have to navigate this minefield were we agreeable to signing non-compete agreements. We’d much rather have relationships that are based on trust and mutual respect than having to buy our lawyer (sorry Sam) a new Jet Ski every time one of those comes around to bite us in the ass.
4. Non-Disclosure: We are not opposed to and have signed non-disclosure agreements in the past, however there needs to be a very compelling reason and the agreement needs to be very specific to the situation for us to sign one. If we don’t know what you will discuss with us and it’s one of the requirements for us to sit down and talk, we will generally decline to sign one. If you have a generic idea we’ve already heard from two others within the last three weeks, we will generally decline to sign one. Our general policy, whether a non-disclosure agreement is in force or not, is to not discuss anything we are currently working on or are in talks about with anyone that isn’t part of our company or directly part of the work being performed.

We are big believers in legal documents, they ritualize and preserve for posterity a mutually beneficial verbal promise the two parties have made to each other. If we have no way of quantifying mutual benefit chances are pretty good we are not signing a legally binding document with you.

If you find yourself wondering what the best way to protect your great idea is and it truly is a great idea, instead of demanding we sign meaningless documents before you will talk to us, you can talk to the greatest patent lawyer in the world, we’ll be happy to make the introduction.

I went bowling last week, but that’s not what this post is about. This is about how, as an industry, bowling alleys confuse the hell out of people with too many options and wholly unremarkable “promotions”.

Bowling isn’t a regular hobby of mine, so I hopped online to do some research about the alleys in Des Moines. Our fair city had no shortage of places to look into. Unfortunately, those same alleys had no shortage of specials, deals, hours, pricing matrices, league nights, combos, packs, buy-one-get-ones, punch cards and untold other options and oddities I didn’t have the brain power to absorb. Setting aside generally terrible UX and design choices that would be right at home on Geocities, it was still a very unpleasant experience trying to plan an outing for myself and a few friends.

Let’s say you’re planning a hot date and want to do Cosmic Bowling (or glow-in-the-dark, or Galaxy, or Blackout, or Blacklight—I won’t even dare to get into the industry’s lexicon issues). Air Lanes draws your attention to this convenient schedule for “Glow-In-The-Dark” Galaxy Bowling (quotes theirs) –

Monday -Thursday: 9:30 pm – 12:00 am
Friday: 6:00 pm – 2:00 am
Saturday: 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm & 8:30 pm – 2:00 am
Sunday: 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm & 8:30 pm – 12:30 am

Good luck committing that to memory. An anamoly? Hardly. From Val Lanes:

Thunder Alley Glow Bowling: $4.75 per person per game 9:30pm-Midnight on Fridays and Saturdays

Okay, a little better, but 9:30? Wouldn’t nine or ten be simpler? Why Friday and Saturday but not Sunday? Or Thursday—a night that many folks treat like the weekend?

Plaza Lanes offers “Lazer Glow Bowling”:

Friday & Saturday 11:30 PM to 2:00 AM only $15 per person for 2.5 hours of unlimited bowling and shoes (regularly $4.29 per game).

How long does a game of bowling take? I just went bowling and I don’t know. I can tell you it varies greatly depending on the number of players and the number of beers. Is $15 a good deal? Is it still a good deal if you roll in at 12:30? It makes even less sense when you compare it to the onslaught of information containing their other hours and deals:

(Click for big.)

Yeesh.

I could go on and on, but the short story is: the typical bowling alley is using an overly complicated, overly nuanced, and impossible to memorize set of prices, hours, and specials. It’s hard to understand and it’s hardly exciting. Look at this cra-a-a-zy deal (sarcasm) from Merle Hay Lanes:

$5.00 Per person receives a half hour of bowling and shoes.
Want to bowl longer?
An extra hour is just $5.00!!

Jesus H. Christ, hold me back! $5 for a half hour?! That’s…a good price? Maybe? I don’t even have a frame of reference.

I’m reminded of a great bit from Seth Godin about being remarkable (I think it’s in Free Prize Inside). A restaurant deciding to stay open an hour later is unremarkable—literally. It’s hardly worth remarking upon. But deciding to be open 24 hours? That’s different. That’s remarkable.

These bowling alleys have the same problem. They shift hours and prices 30 minutes and 30 cents at a time as if it’s going to ignite some sort of magic price/time/supply-and-demand-based frenzy. I don’t have any data on it, but my instincts tell me that most casual bowlers just stumble into whatever deal/price/hours are going on at the time.

When my lottery ticket hits and I get to open up Scott Lanes, here’s how we’ll do business:

1. We’ll be open the same hours every single day of the week.
2. We will determine the least popular night of the week and have league night that night – if at all. If possible, we’ll leave lanes open during league night anyway so that nobody has to care.
3. We will not charge for shoes. Ever. We don’t charge to rent balls, so we’re not charging to rent shoes.
4. We will, at any given time, choose one promotion to run and promote the everliving hell out of it. The promotion will not be based on the price of bowling and shifting numbers up or down fifty cents or a dollar. Instead, it will focus on something remarkable such as live entertainment, giveaways, theme nights, or the stuff we really make margin on: beer and munchies.
5. If the easiest way to explain something is to use a matrix, we’re not going to do it.
6. We’ll have free popcorn. Customers will love it. It will be salty as hell. You will buy lots of expensive sugar water because of this free popcorn.

I know how much a movie ticket is going to run me, and I’m rarely surprised by the price of beer or the closing time of my neighborhood haunts. Choice is can be good, but simplicity is better. Don’t sacrifice the latter for the former.

I am late.

Let me rephrase that: I often arrive late to things that I shouldn’t be late to. However, one of my biggest pet peeves is when other people are late (meetings, appointments, even project or task deadlines). You can see how this makes me a hypocrite.

I am especially cognisant of this shortcoming because I have the word “Operating” in between Chief and Officer in my job title. I am the one person in the organization that can’t be late to things, that can’t miss deadlines, the one person that needs to be the gold standard at the company when it comes to punctuality. I am also the one person that needs to be able to call out the constantly tardy person.

There are only three real reasons for being late:

1. You are a jackass.
2. Greediness
3. A simple mistake or misunderstanding

If you are constantly late because you don’t want to arrive five or ten minutes early to an appointment or because you can’t be bothered to keep a calendar then you fall into the jackass category. Stop it.

My problem generally falls under Greediness. I’m way too optimistic about the things that go on my calendar. A lot of times I like to pack my calendar with everything that is currently on my plate thinking:

I can take care of the 6 clients that have outstanding issues of various degrees of difficulty and are spread all around town tomorrow, NOOO PROBLEM. Also I am going to give myself 10 minutes in between appointments because that is plenty of time to drive across town.

Here is what I pledge I will do going forward to fix my shortcoming:

I, Igor Dobrosavljević, as the COO of BitMethod pledge to be less greedy with my calendar and be overtly pessimistic about how long an appointment will take. If it looks like I am going to be late to an appointment I will notify all the affected parties at least 15 to 30 minutes before our meeting is supposed to take place about my tardiness and will ask to reschedule should I not be able to make it to an appointment in a reasonable time frame.

I expect, nay ask, to be called out if I am being an inconsiderate prick and repeatedly disrespect others with my tardiness.

I will return the favor.

If you find yourself being late more often than you’re comfortable with, honestly ask yourself which one of the three problems you’re having. Maybe you’d like to take a pledge, too.

1 comments

Announcing the Better Business Beatdown (#bbbdsm) – an open-source series of idiotic challenges between Des Moines area businesses. We’re creating the template and issuing the first challenge in hopes that other businesses will join in. Feel free to snag the layout below and issue your own challenges – including back to us!

We thought this up on Friday afternoon (there may have been beer involved) and we’re launching it today. BitMethod has received a lot virtual awards from Silicon Valley blogs like ReadWriteWeb and TechCrunch, but we’re really craving some solid, atom-filled hardware to stick on our shelves. How better to acquire said hardware than buy trophies, design contests we know we can win, and win them?

In brainstorming competitors, one name quickly rose to the top: RAYGUN. With their bold proclamation of “Greatest Store in the Universe”, we felt that they would be unwilling – nay, unable – to walk away from a challenge.

Following is our challenge to Raygun in the Better Business Beatdown.

Better Business Beatdown Challenge (#bbbdsm)

CHALLENGER: BitMethod, a mobile and web application development company

CHALLENGING: Raygun, an East Village t-shirt shop and self-proclaimed “Greatest Store in the Universe”

CONTEST: Mario Kart Wii, 4-player Team Race.

RULES: 150CC Class, 12 Races, Normal * CPU, Balanced Items, Random Courses

VICTORY CONDITIONS: Winner will be determined automatically by points within the game.

TIME AND PLACE: Wednesday, August 4th, 8:00pm at Impromptu Studio 300 SW 5th Street

AWARD: Hand-cobbled-together Des Moines Mario Kart Trophy

DESCRIPTION: Our two best Mario Kart Wii players will challenge your two best Mario Kart Wii players in a game we know (well, think) we can win to score some sweet hardware. 12 races of shell slinging, lightning blasting, Kart slamming racing action.

CONSIDERATIONS: Our Wii is open to your competitors for practice anytime during Impromptu Studio’s business hours

ACCEPTANCE: If accepted, drop us a note with your best posturing and smacktalk on the RAYGUN blog. Intimidate us…if you can. If the date/time/conditions are unacceptable, you may initiate negotioations by emailing dan@bitmethod.com.

3 comments

To some bosses, conflict is a dirty word – something to be avoided at all costs. I’ve developed a different view of conflict and its purpose, and it’s all thanks to the first boss I ever had.

When I was a young lad I worked as a stock boy at the local grocery store. Tom was the store manager. Over time, he grew to depend on me to get a vast array of things done in a timely manner. I loved the responsibility and really enjoyed having Tom as a boss. Having taken on so much responsibility, I decided one day that a raise was in order. I marched into Tom’s office and asked for one. Things got heated during our discussion and he eventually gave me a very firm no. As I went to leave, Tom could tell that I was angry and upset with him. He proceeded to tell me something I still remember to this day. He said…

“Dan, I liked you yesterday, last week, and last month. And though we may not like each other very much right now, I’m still going to like you tomorrow and I hope that you’ll do the same.”

Tom understood the importance of allowing conflict (the event) to happen in order to prevent conflict (the state-of-being) from living on. We talked, we argued, and it was done. No passive aggressiveness, no “I’ll look into it”. A healthy discussion with a healthy attitude. It increased my respect for Tom and made me feel even more comfortable working with him after that.

I take this view of conflict into a lot of things we do here at BitMethod – design reviews are a great example. We put everything on the table and let the best opinions rise to the top. When it comes time for a client to see the work, team BitMethod is on the same page. I didn’t get the raise, and I still thought I deserved it, but Tom’s handling of the situation kept me from being in constant conflict with him.