James Tuckerman, Editor-In-Chief, Anthill Magazine

Every edition of Anthill Magazine invariably features an interview (or two) with a big name Australian entrepreneur or thought leader from a country abroad.

For this week’s instalment in our ongoing Magazine 2.0 Experiment, we’d like you, dear reader, to name an entrepreneur that you personally would like to interview and we’ll do our best to set up a meeting.

The outcomes of your interview will be published in Anthill Magazine’s Dec/Jan edition.

Here’s what you need to do… Sell it to us by leaving a comment below. Why this person? How are they interesting? What controversial or elucidating views do you hope to elicit? Then, if you haven’t already, make sure you register for the Experiment (click here). Easy.

1. Leave a comment below
2. Register (unless you’ve done that already)

Aside from putting ideas in our head for future editions (a good reason to comment, even if you don’t want to take part), your suggestion could well result in a personal meet and greet with the entrepreneur of your recommendation.

We’ll select the most compelling (according to our own keen, sometimes bloated, sense of newsworthiness), then do our best to hook up an interview between you and your suggested target.

If you would like to test your skills, get your name in Anthill and be handed a gift-wrapped opportunity to meet a leading entrepreneur of your choice, post your comments below (and then register for the Experiment).

James Tuckerman, Editor-In-Chief, Anthill Magazine

I posed this question earlier this year when we offered to run a blog series on the ‘black art’ of business valuation.

Our readers responded with gushing enthusiasm. I responded with a trip to the hospital.

Unfortunately, a highly disruptive spinal injury thwarted our attempts to address this important topic.

Here’s what I initially proposed, way back in May…

“Over the next new few weeks, I plan to review five different aspects of valuing a private company. And, of course, I’ll be seeking your comments and observations along the way… Therefore, if you are interested in the value of your business, or if you are interested in the potential value of your business opportunity, read on. If you are an expert in this area, please join the conversation and help inform our readers.”

Of course, as history reveals, I never got around to publishing my second post.

Today is your chance to pick up where I left off.

As part of our Magazine 2.0 Experiment, I have two new propositions:

Firstly, I’m asking you (dear reader) to provide your ‘top tip’ on the topic of business valuation.

Simply leave a comment below, with your name and URL. The best will be published as part of a story on this topic in our Dec/Jan edition.

Secondly, if this is your area of expertise and if you have more to say than simply providing a tip, I’m inviting you to contribute an article topic (and, later, an article).

I’m interested in any aspect of business valuation that can be addressed in under 600 words (the average length of an Anthill article).

So… if you would like to provide a ‘tip’, simply leave your comment below. If you would like to suggest/contribute an article, please also leave us a comment below.

Here are some terms and topics to get you thinking…

Liquidity Event, Hurdle Rate, Pre-Money Value, Post-Money Value

Comparable Method of Valuation
Discounted Cashflow Method of Valuation
Profit Multiple Method of Valuation
Strategic Buyer Method of Valuation

If you have any further suggestions, please don’t be shy, as together we attempt to explore the ‘black art’ of business valuation. 

James Tuckerman, Editor-In-Chief, Anthill Magazine

The most important thing to get right when producing a consumer magazine is also the hardest.

I’m talking about the cover.

Aside from pleasing subscribers, the cover artwork largely determines whether any particular edition will be a success or a flop on the newsstands. Some of our favourite editions were retail disasters, simply because of their covers (such as Jul/Aug 2004 and Jun/Jul 2005).

That’s why it’s the first aspect of the magazine we embark on.

It’s also why the first real post in this Magazine 2.0 Experiment will be all about the thought process that goes into the cover artwork.

And, of course, we’ll be calling on you, our readers, to help us create an awesome, eye-grabbing, memorable, articulate and visually intelligent concept (with proper attributions for the idea that we ultimately publish).

First… We need a cover topic.

This shouldn’t be a problem.

I think we all know what the cover topic will be about (ie. Magazine 2.0).

Second… We brainstorm visual schema.

A schema is a collection of generic properties of a concept or category. What the!?

Quite simply, schemas are words or, in this case, images that consist of lots of pre-recorded information stored in our memories.

When I tell you that my favourite fruits are pomelos, you might raise an eyebrow, understandably confused. When I go on to tell you that a pomelo is simply a supersized grapefruit, I don’t need to say anything else. You know what I mean. You can visualise it. “Grapefruit” is my verbal schema.

Schemas help people communicate efficiently. By relying on existing memories, a clever visual schema reduces the need for explanations. For example, when I show you a briefcase, you think of business. That’s one complex explanation solved.

The trick to a good cover concept is to come up with a clever twist on a common visual schema.

To get an idea of what I’m talking about, click here.

You’ll be introduced to every cover we have ever produced.

Third… Develop cover tags.

Sometimes a bold statement can beat a clever visual schema, such as “SHIfT HAPPENS” or “NEED A VENTURE CAPITALIST?“. If an idea is better communicated in words, that’s the path we often take.

But, of course, the clever evolution is to then wrap these cover tags (ie. words) around other visual themes to reflect the context or meaning of the words.

Once again, check out past covers. You’ll see that some cover tags that simply jump off the page.

Fourth… Revisit ground rules.

Over time, we’ve developed our own ground rules. We’ve learnt from our failures and successes.

For example, human heads (the stock and trade of the business magazine industry) have never worked for us. If the person looks like a dweeb or wallflower, some readers won’t relate to that person (ie. we lose a sale). If our cover ’star’ is a spunk or supermodel, other readers won’t relate (ie. we lose a sale). The same can be said about age and gender.

Check out Jun/Jul 2006. Johana Wotjalik’s story was trademark Anthill: interesting and inspiring. But her head shot, cleverly placed on her bottled water product, did not sell magazines (to our surprise).

Also, we’ve found that overly complex covers again seem to have a negative effect on retail sales.

Why? Because the average retail consumer spends less than a second glancing at each cover. Therefore, the cover must command attention immediately. Then, it must articulate what the story is about (always a problem with a magazine called ‘Anthill’).

To get this right we apply what we call ‘the postage stamp test’. Simply put, we shrink the cover concept to the size of a postage stamp on a computer monitor. If the image then doesn’t grab our attention and communicate the message, we’ve over-thunk it.

Check out Jun/Jul 2005. One of our favourite editions, featuring a very clever illustration highlighting the competing plays of the world leading search engines, a flop because it was too complex.

Therefore…

If Magazine 2.0 is our topic, the hot tip is to start thinking about visual representations of the concept that are simple and elegant, that capitalise on people’s existing understanding of ‘Web 2.0′ or on the meaning of the concept as it applies to magazines.

If that’s too difficult, perhaps consider cover tags that can be manipulated visually to further emphasise their meaning.

While it’s important to try not to over-complicate an idea, one golden rule prevails: There is no such thing as a bad idea in a brainstorm. Because bad ideas help the brain identify good ideas.

If you have what you think is a mediocre idea, post it anyway.

You may just ignite a killer concept from another Anthillian.

Lastly, we don’t propose to announce which cover idea (if any) that we ultimately intend to publish. Quite simply, that would give our competitors the chance to trump us and, besides, there’s nothing nicer than a pleasant surprise.

However, we will name those helpful souls who contributed the most through their comments below, including the author of any ‘killer concept’ that we decide to use.

So… If polema means grapefruit, any takers on a schema for ‘Magazine 2.0′?

James Tuckerman, Editor-In-Chief, Anthill Magazine

Here’s our audacious goal…

Over coming weeks, we intend to produce the world’s first entirely reader-generated business magazine.

We’ll be asking you, our readers, to suggest the people we profile.
We’ll be asking you to nominate the questions we ask.
We’ll be asking you to share your business stories through case studies.
We’ll be asking you to share your expertise through opinion pieces and columns.

We make no promises. We may not pull it off.

But we’re going to do our darnedest to do as we do best - turn conventional business practices on their head.

Of course, there’ll be some rules (and we might have to make up some extra rules as we go along).

1. If you’d like to be involved, click here and fill out our form. That way, we’ll know who to contact, how to contact you and, best of all, how to attribute your contribution(s).
2. Of course, we’ll be deeming your participation in this exercise as consent for us to use your comments for publication, permission for us to sub-edit and as a demonstration that you have agreed to our Terms & Conditions.

Our promise to you is that we’ll try to keep up our end of the bargain as best we can, without compromising the quality of Anthill Magazine (or getting sued). So… are you in?

If so, click here and register and/or make a suggestion below.