Adobe Photoshop PDF - Successful Startup 101

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Volum e 1 , Issue 8,S e p .20 14
TH E Q U EST FO R TH E
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Busting the Lean Startup Myth
-by Howard Tullman
Tips from the Startup Fundraising
Playbook -by Nathan Beckord
80 Ways to Find Your Next Big Startup Idea
-by Thomas Oppong
Entrepreneur, Fire Thyself
-by Kerrie MacPherson
5 Podcasts Every Small Business Owner
Should Consider Listening To -by Rob Marsh
2 Startup Expenses You Should Never
Shortcut -by AJ Agrawal
5 Ways for Bootstrapped Startups to Get
Through the First Year -by Zach Cutler
Why Startups Sell For Millions with
No Business Model -by Dev Aujla
What Does It Mean To Lead With Trust?
-by Randy Conley
9 Lessons From a 10-Time Startup Failure
-by Eric T. Wagner
The 14 Steps Needed to Recruit Your
Early Startup Team - by Paul Ruderman
3 Ways to Use Social Media to Align
Your Team -by Andre Lavoie
Entrepreneurs! Take a Break: It Can Help
Your Business -by Cristopher Ramirez
The Three Bandits of Change Leadership
-by Jim Haudan
How Good Management Stifles Breakthrough
Innovation -by Markus Lorenz
Small Business Tips from a Successful
Entrepreneur -by Lyve Alexis Pleshette
Think You Know What Venture Capitalists Look
For In New Start-Ups? Think Again-by Patrick Hanlon
How to Make Your Product Look Sexy on
Facebook -by Aaron Lee
Why You Should Never Give Up On
Your Dreams -by Adriana Langford
The Quest for the “Easy” Startup
by Tabitha Jean Naylor
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Busting the Lean-Startup Myth
By Howard Tullman
If your minimum viable product doesn’t have some meat to it, you’re going to fail. Here are three
things to watch out for.
One of the greatest TV commercials of all time featured a crotchety old Chicago woman (Clara Peller)
whose plaintive 3-word inquiry (“Where’s the beef?”) became not just a huge advertising home run for
Wendy’s but a national catch phrase. Every comedian, late-night television host, news commentator, and
politician seized on the expression and couldn’t use it enough.
“Where’s the beef?” is a question that’s still worth
asking today, specifically at those many startups that
have jumped aboard the latest and greatest craze-”lean” everything. That’s because, when it comes to
“lean,” the same question applies: Where, exactly, is
the beef?
Is There “V” in Your “MVP”?
I find myself thinking fondly of Clara’s
pronouncement whenever I have to sit through
another bogus business review session where
someone with the bare bones of an idea is trying
to convince a group of otherwise intelligent
investors that there’s a real business opportunity
buried beneath all the B.S., and that (a) all the
shortcomings of the story being spun and (b) all the
gaps in the gospel aren’t actually problems at all.
They’re not bugs, oversights, or misses; they’re the
intentional result of trying to be “lean” and trying to
launch “something” (not to say, “anything”) to get
the ball rolling.
I’m not sure when it got to be OK to try to do the least
work possible in developing something that you are
seriously trying to do well, but maybe I missed a memo
or two. But when people tell me that it’s the minimum
viable product (MVP), not the meat of the matter, that
actually counts I remember that Clara knew better. This
entire lean startup movement not only misleads and
misdirects people into building mediocre products and
potential services, it’s also much more of a curse than
a cure.
We’re encouraging an entire generation of young
entrepreneurs to rush things out to prospective
customers--to throw a bunch of stuff against the
wall and see what sticks. In the old days, people
thought this was a good way to test to see if the
spaghetti was al dente, but it actually wasn’t. Pasta
that sticks to the wall is most likely overcooked and
too gummy to taste good.
Like so many other things in life, there’s no simple
shortcut or quick way to do these things right. It
takes time and craft and patience to build things
that will matter and last. “Quick and dirty and out
the door” sucks as a strategy for successful startups.
Maybe you can never be too thin or too rich, but a
startup can clearly be too lean. The ultimate goal isn’t
to build skinny start-ups, it’s to build smart ones.
I understand that it would be naïve to delay your
launch until you thought you had every single detail
exactly right. We know that even the experts can
completely overlook glaring interface flaws or other
obvious omissions that the simplest novice user will
see right off the bat. And it’s equally arrogant to
assume that you can’t learn a single thing from the
marketplace or your users. But that’s a different issue. As I see it, there’s a basic flaw in the common
understanding of the “lean startup” concept, and
then there are three main problems with the way
most young entrepreneurs are trying to adopt and
implement it.
The Basic Flaw
Even the best MVP won’t succeed without an MVA.
An MVA is a Minimum Viable Audience (that’s my
simple shorthand for a bunch of potential buyers).
Long before you start creating your product, crafting
your code, and designing your UI you need to find
out if anyone gives a damn about your idea and
your proposed solution. This isn’t easy work.
You have to actually get off your butt and
get out into the field and find and talk to
actual people--not your co-founders
or your folks--about what you’re
hoping to do.
You have to find actual
problems that are generating
real pain for a large number
of people. You have to
determine whether those
people recognize the
problem, appreciate the
pain, are willing to admit
that they have the problem,
and are willing to pay for a
solution. Then you might have
a fighting chance to define and
build a viable solution.
You have to also recognize
that: (a) there’s an infinite
demand for the unavailable
(anyone can say they’ll buy
something that you don’t have for
sale); and (b) the easiest way for a buyer to get
you to leave them alone is to say “Yes” and “Come see me
when your product is ready,” and then show you the door.
Problem 1: They Won’t Care
If you haven’t done your homework and identified the right
pain points and the right target customers, you might as well
take a hike because no one wants the cure for no known
disease; no one is going to invest in solutions in search of
problems; and you’ll end up building and wasting a lot of time
on the greatest software never sold. The way you start the
process determines where you end up, and these businesses
are hard enough even for the people who do all the proper
research, preparation, and planning. A goal without a plan is
just a daydream on someone else’s dime.
Problem 2: They Won’t Suffer
The idea that you can dump some partially-baked
solution on your first prospects and they will then help
you figure things out is another pipe dream. Trying
to make your first users into your last beta testers is
a waste of everyone’s time because smart users want
simple solutions that work right out of the box, not
more problems. And it doesn’t really matter what
the problems are (implementation, training, support,
stability, or security) because they’re all just more noise
and aggravation that busy people don’t need. We are
quick to try and even to adopt things that work for us,
but we’re much quicker to dump stuff that doesn’t. And
while there is an obvious trade-off between the degree
of the customer’s pain and the customer’s otherwise
heightened expectations, in the end no solution that
simply swaps one set of problems for another is going to
get out of the gate. Problem 3: They Won’t Wait
As the Heads & Shoulders people say, you don’t get
a second chance today to make a first impression.
Customers won’t (and don’t) wait for you to figure things
out; if your first attempt falls flat you can bet that they
won’t let you come back. It’s ridiculously easy to burn
your bridges and impossibly hard to rebuild them when
there are fast followers and copycats galore standing by,
watching your mistakes. Customers don’t want stories or
excuses; they want workable solutions.
The Right Way
There is a right way to do this and it’s pretty simple. Do
your homework and find an important unmet market
need. Recruit the right early users who are invested (by
virtue of their own desires) in your success. Build your
MVP to their specifications and with their input and buyin. And then prepare to enter the perpetual iteration
loop.
Launch, Measure, Modify, Re-Launch and Repeat the
Process ad nauseam.
Successful solutions today are all the same: moments
of mad creativity followed by months of maddening
maintenance. Continually raising the bar and improving
your offerings is the only way to stay in the game.
About the Author
Howard Tullman is the CEO of 1871 in Chicago where,
at the moment, 260 digital startups are building their
businesses every day. He is also the general managing
partner of G2T3V, LLC and Chicago High Tech Investors
– both early-stage venture funds; a member of Mayor
Emanuel’s ChicagoNEXT Innovation Council; and
Governor Quinn’s Illinois Innovation Council. He is an
adviser to many technology businesses, a published hor
and an adjunct professor at the Kellogg Graduate School
of Management. Connect @tullman.
* This article originally appeared on Inc.com
Tips from the Startup Fundraising
Playbook
By Nathan Beckord
I’ve been considering raising a seed round for my startup Foundersuite. So, to
have recently been in the market for capital.
1. Mine AngelList and
CrunchBase to Build a List
of Investor Targets
I’m a big fan of AngelList, and whenever I need
to build a dataset of target investors, it’s the
homepage, navigate to the “People” tab and
use the “Role” header to select the relevant
type of investor (seed, angel, VC, etc.). Next,
“e-commerce,” “Digital Media” etc.). Pick out
names of people you’ve heard good things
about, or who clearly get the space, then add
them to a spreadsheet or dedicated CRM
product.
approach comes from Dan Martell in an answer
on his Clarity site. To paraphrase, he states,
“Find other people [on CrunchBase] who have
raised money and ask them who they got it
a list of all similar companies that successfully
raised money. Next, cold email the CEO/
Founder and ask to schedule a call with them
for advice. Finally, as you develop a rapport
with them, consider asking who their investors
are and if they’d be willing to make an intro. 2. Aim for the Double
Opt-In Intro
Richard Goodrum, COO of RaceYourself. The
best intros come from warm referrals, but
instead of asking your referrer to simply make
she
or he would like to take it. For example, send a
personalized email to your connector asking for
an intro to Ben Horowitz, and instead of making
your note to Ben, asking him if he’d like to take
the opportunity.
Generally speaking, people dislike intros
being “forced” on them; it creates awkward
social pressure if they’re really not interested.
Further, if they do say they’d like to take the
intro, they’ve already said “yes” once and may
be more predisposed to liking the deal. It’s a
3. Create Time Pressure
Y Combinator alumni Shehzad Daredia, who
recently closed a round for his startup bop.fm:
high-reward way to take that one step further is
that the VC is probably not well-equipped to
make a decision fast enough to meet your
a process to go through, so I understand if you
playful challenge to one VC resulted in them
$2 million – is that fast enough for you?’”
About the Author
Nathan Beckord is co-founder
and CEO of Foundersuite, a San
Francisco-based developer of
software tools for entrepreneurs,
including an Investor CRM for
managing the fundraising
process.
TechCrunch.
80 Ways to Find Your Next
Big Startup Idea
By Thomas Oppong
You want to build the next big thing? The good news is that it’s not beyond your skills and capabilities if you truly believe
you have something great to offer the world. The bad news is that most people don’t get to do it because they make the
mistake of trying to solve a problem no one has.
The following quote by Steve Jobs is perhaps one of the greatest quotes that can inspire the creative genius in you.
Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is – everything around you that you
call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it,
you can build your own things that other people can use. The minute that you understand that you can poke
life and actually something will, you know if you push in, something will pop out the other side, that you can
change it, you can mold it.–Steve Jobs
Paul Graham sums it all in this short quote about what to create.
The very best startup ideas tend to have three things in common: they’re something the founders
themselves want, that they themselves can build, and that few others realize are worth doing. -Paul
Graham
These are the 80 ways to find your next big idea.
01. Ask yourself how is the current product too complicated?
What simple little thing could you do to just make it simpler.
02. Ask again-why it doesn’t work better and how to resolve the
03.
problem.
Don’t wait for a brilliant, paradigm-shifting, disruptive idea,
find a real problem people have and solve it.
04. Look for market gaps in the trail of successful concepts. You
will likely need fewer resources to launch a market gap plug.
05. What are the biggest challenges your colleagues at work face?
06. Go shopping for a few hours and listen to other shoppers talk
about products, complain about processes, and just gab.
07. Look for problems that matches your skill set.
08. Find an industry or situation where the customer is getting
frustrated on price and the customer experience is poor.
09. Think about combining two products into one.
10. What tasks take up the most time during your day?
11.Explore something completely foreign to you. The freedom
from preconceptions will give you some unique insights.
12. Get people commenting and giving feedback feedback about
every possible idea you have.
13. Look for problems not ideas.
14. Go to a startup weekend in your city or near you.
15. What inefficiencies do you notice in your
daily routine work.
16. Ask yourself: what abilities do you care about
or want to enhance?
17. Live in the future and build what people will
need.
18. Look out for cues when reading books or
when taking a walk, in the bus, on the train,
subway etc.
19. A great start up idea is one you’ll be able to
grow continuously. Think long-term.
20. Get your best friends together, complain
about life problems, brainstorm solutions,
talk it out, and write everything down.
21. Organize a Meetup or find a meetup to share
ideas.
22. Many of the great businesses of the next
decade will be about making information
about our behaviors more visible.-Evan
Williams
23. Don’t think about just one niche, stay open to
ideas from all industries.
24. Think of something that everyone does with
their friends and make it public.
25. Identify tasks that take time/waste your time.
26.
Ask yourself what was impossible, or
unnecessary a few years ago but with
technology is possible today.
27. What activity do you dread the most in a
given day?
28. Ask random people that you meet what the
biggest annoyances in their lives and jobs are.
29. When you encounter a problem think
through all the possible ways of resolving it.
30. Know about different disciplines, and have
broad knowledge. Innovation often comes from
crossbreeding different disciplines.
31. Ask yourself why it hasn’t been improved in the
way you think would work.
32. What frustrates you most about a product, in
that frustration is an idea.
41. Ideas with no long term value generally fail. Look
for what will still be relevant tomorrow.
42. Transform a situation where people are isolated
or lonely by connecting them in a novel way.
43. Find an active forum. Make it easier for someone
(or a group) to do something they’re talking
about doing there, it could be your next startup
33. Stay away from TechCrunch or Mashable and
44. Make use of your favorite to-do app consistently and
34. Put yourself in a new state of mind. Get out of
solve a problem you are personally facing.
45. Take a different route home.
46. Look for markets that are not sufficiently served.
47. Think about the most normal, expected solution
around you, a mental flexibility to entertain odd
possibilities
48. When you see something that annoys you, think
that habit constantly.
49. Talk about your ideas with friends. Get feedback.
look outside the box
your demography.
35. It’s hard to make a good product if it doesn’t
37. Maintain a sense of curiosity in the world
38. Being creative is a habit you get into, maintain
39. Search yourself and look for problems you have
yourself.
40. Don’t think up startup ideas. Notice them.
write down your ideas the instant they come to you.
to a problem would be, and then try to imagine
the opposite.
about how to solve it.
Tweak and repeat.
50. Be in-the-know about breaking trends.
51. Look at the most commonly searched phrases on
Google trends.
52. Look through the customer service sections
of websites and find out what people are
complaining about.
53. Find product review forums and read about
customer frustration about products.
54. Listen when other people complain. Gather
it by listening when people tell you what’s
ruining their day.
62. Spend time with successful people in your
network and talk about the same issues. Each
will have a slightly different way of thinking
about things.
63. Create a Twitter list. Add influential users
whose ideas can inspire great ideas.
64. You can also go deeper by tracking registered
patents. Innovative products are constantly
being protected.
55. Bring an existing idea to a different platform.
56. Study your employer’s business process and
65. The key to problem spotting is to capture
57. Spend time reading about other companies
66. Take a service or approach applied to one
build upon it. i.e. improve it.
and their customer pain points
58. Build something you need in your company,
chances are others need it too. Think Yammer.
59. Copy business-model ideas from another
country that have yet to be imported
60. Taking a trip to a totally different environment
is always a great way to spot interesting ideas.
61. Try things: Experiment with everything. You’ll
find things you like and things you don’t like.
a long list of problems before you start
considering possible solutions.
market, and apply it to another. Cotap is the
Whatsapp for business.
67. Take a task that seems tedious and currently
requires humans and automate it.
69. Ask yourself if it’s a product you will personally
use.
70. Take a single category out of the many offered
by tech giants like eBay or Amazon and make
it a simple niche business.
71. Pair up people who don’t normally
work together and give them room for
brainstorm.
72. The big guys leave a tremendous
amount of opportunity on the table.
Look for that niche.
73. Think about your skills and whether
they might be useful in a new area.
74. Find a category lacking recent
innovations. Identify markets that
haven’t had many recent innovations.
75. Talk to buyers in a niche and consider
sending an online survey to potential
customers to learn about their needs
and interests.
76. Look into how entrepreneurs are
combining social networking with the
growing interest in mobile apps.
77. Commit time to specific observation
sessions where you stimulate your brain
into thinking differently.
78. Surf the Web differently. Search for
terms in other industries. Read on
creative thinking.
79. Always be curious and never stop
looking for answers.
80. Don’t do things better; do things
differently.
About the Author
Thomas Oppong is the
founder @Alltopstartups.
You can reach him at
thomas at alltopstartups
dot com. Connect with
him on Twitter, Facebook,
Google+, LinkedIn and
Instagram
Entrepreneur, Fire Thyself
By Kerrie MacPherson
When entrepreneurs first start their businesses,
they are usually involved in everything: running
operations, keeping the books, and making sales
calls. But as a company grows, one of the smartest
things an owner can do is to fire herself from role
after role. Letting go of anything critical to business
outcomes is a challenge, but successful entrepreneurs
have all learned to replace themselves – and serial
entrepreneurs even develop it as a skill.
Why be in a hurry to hand off important work? By
building a team to handle operational responsibilities,
entrepreneurs can find more time to focus on strategic
priorities and even bigger goals.
In the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women
program I sponsor, which is designed to recognize
high-potential businesses and help their women
founders scale them, teaching this process is a
priority. “You can’t micromanage your way to
growth,” says Dr. Mary Jo Gorman, founder and
CEO of Advanced ICU Care, which provides highquality critical care to patients in intensive care
units. A member of the 2011 North American
class of Entrepreneurial Winning Women, Gorman
says, “This is more than delegating. This is about
building a team that allows you to not think so
much about the day-to-day, and a team that comes
to you with new ideas.”
Gorman’s comment connects well with three warning
signs we tell entrepreneurs to heed. You are probably
spending too much time working in your business,
and not enough on it, if you:
1. Begin to get overwhelmed with small details of office management, which takes your attention away from
the big picture.
2. Find yourself with no one to challenge your thinking, because you’re the only one with all the answers.
3. Are not challenging yourself on a regular basis.
“The whole transition from working in the business to working on the business means letting go of what you’re
comfortable doing,” says Gorman. “You always need to be thinking big and challenging yourself.”
What should you do if you want to transition from being a small one-person band to the leader of a high-growth
business? Consider these six tips as you begin the process
of building your team – and firing yourself:
Decide what will be for your hands
only: Your time and attention should be
reserved for those few things that only you
can accomplish. For many entrepreneurs, this
means focusing on the most valuable sales
and marketing opportunities — meeting with
key prospects and building markets for your
product or service. If you, too, need to focus on
being the face of the company, then tap into
others for help with the rest.
1
Hire ahead: Hire people who can grow with the
company. If you hire someone who can
perform a task required today, but nothing
more, you will won’t have the talent needed
for the next phase of growth.. “You usually
don’t have time to do on-the-job training,”
Gorman advises. Make sure the people you
hire understand the company’s goals and
where you want to take the business over
the next three to five years.
4
Focus on growth: Once you’ve brought in
others to handle the tasks you don’t need
to perform directly, such as bookkeeping
and managing the office, allow yourself to
focus more intently on the keys to growing
the business. And by the way, there may
also be growth-oriented activities, such as
consulting services, that you will discover
can and should be managed by others.
Manage expectations: Be careful not to give
employees inflated titles. Entrepreneurs
are often inclined to give a new hire an
executive title, such as vice president,
in lieu of a high salary or an equity stake
in the company. But if the person is not
equal to the demands of that role in a
larger company, then your growth will
force you to bring in someone above him
or her. Why set yourself up for conflict
that may distract you from the bigger
picture?
Set the tone: As you delegate to others, set clear
goals and responsibilities for each new
position from the beginning, and make sure
each person you hire understands them.
Otherwise, you may find yourself spending
too much time managing people instead of
the next stage of growth.
Find advisors who will keep you
thinking: Consider setting up an advisory
board to help you secure talent and
determine the overall structure and strategy
of your business. You need others to infuse
new thinking and to help you figure out how
to delegate your responsibilities.
2
3
5
6
Tactics like these have helped many of the entrepreneurs in the Entrepreneurial Winning Women program build
excellent organizations – teams of people who share their entrepreneurial frames of mind and their vision and
energy for growing their businesses. At the same time, these entrepreneurs have learned to make strategic use
of tools such as business reporting to get a better handle on the state of their companies and determine the best
path forward. By stepping outside the day-to-day, they were not only able to grow their revenues and create jobs
but also to build a valued team of colleagues who share in the responsibilities and rewards of their ventures.
About the Author
Kerrie MacPherson is a principal at Ernst & Young LLP and executive sponsor of its Entrepreneurial Winning
Women program. She has served on EY’s Gender Equity Task Force, is an active leader in its Professional Women’s
Network, and is the Diversity and Inclusiveness Champion in the Financial Services Office Advisory Practice.
* This article originally appeared on The Harvard Business Review.
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5 Podcasts Every Small Business Owner
Should Consider Listening To
By Rob Marsh
W
e know. You don’t have time for this. It’s yet another thing to add to the
already long list of stuff you do every day. Hold on a minute and hear us out.
Building a new business or keeping your existing business running smoothly is
tough. It takes a lot of time, effort, and money. And often it feels like you’re all
alone on your journey. That’s where the podcasts come in.
There are about a half dozen small business podcasts that share new ideas, strategies, and ways to solve
problems. Most of them are created by small business owners like you who want to share their experiences.
We’ve found that when we take the time to listen to 2-3 podcasts a week, we almost never fail to come up
with a new idea we want to try.
We’re not recommending that you block out an hour a day to listen to podcasts. But there are smart
ways to fit a podcast into your already busy day—do you have a commute? Turn off the radio and listen
to a podcast instead. Taking a break for lunch? Grab your iPod and head phones. On the treadmill at the
gym? Turn off CNN and grab a podcast. By repurposing just a couple of hours a week, you can find time
to add these valuable resources to your day.
So what podcasts do we like best?
Start-ups for the Rest of Us:
This is a fantastic podcast presented by Rob
Walling and Mike Taber who talk about their
own experiences with the start-ups they’re
running. There’s a lot of good stuff in these
shows and we highly recommend them.
TechZing:
This podcast is an informal chat show hosted
by Justin Vincent and Jason Roberts. Each week
they do one interview show and a second
discussion show. It’s a little techy, but if you have
a software business, you may want to check it
out.
Seth Godin’s Start-Up School:
We’ve mentioned this podcast before. It isn’t
a traditional podcast, but rather a recording of
marketing guru Seth Godin sharing his thoughts
on start-ups with a group of small business
owners. It’s motivational but it will get you
thinking about your business, or rather what you
might do differently to improve.
Monday Morning Memo:
If you’re not familiar with Roy Williams, the
Wizard of Ads, you are missing out. This short
weekly podcast offers up ideas that will not just
get you thinking, but innovating. Mr. Williams
shares anecdotes, ideas, and other wisdom
about business and marketing that is easy to
devour (each one is about 5 minutes) and put
into action. It is occasionally promotional (Mr.
Williams runs an advertising school for business
owners) but it’s worth putting up with the
promotions to get the ideas.
SEO 101:
This podcast from Ross Dunn and John Carcutt is
very tactical, but if you advertise your business
online, it’s well worth the time. Unfortunately, it
is a Webmaster Radio production, so there are
a lot of annoying ads throughout the show, but
the information is very valuable if you do SEO.
There are several other SEO oriented podcasts
that are also good. Check the Apple iTunes Store
for a bunch of others.
Those should keep you busy with plenty of ideas
and stuff to think about. If that’s not enough, check
out the TED talks podcast (actually there are about
20 iTunes U courses), the Harvard Business Review
Ideacast, and Founder’s Talk, all of which are both
entertaining and thought provoking.
Try adding a podcast to your week. Check out
the iTunes store for others that might fit in with
what you are building. And let us know if there
are other podcasts worth adding to our list.
About the Author
This article was written by Rob Marsh and originally posted on the Logomaker blog.
2 STARTUP EXPeNses YOU SHOULD
NeVeR SHORTCUT
By AJ Agrawal
You won’t feel the pain until it’s too late. Your startup will be catching fire and then all a
sudden everything will come to a screeching halt. This is what happens when you take
shortcuts with important expenses.
With that said, there are two costs you should never try to cut or sidestep: legal and
accounting. Too many startups neglect these expenses when they start their companies.
Over time, it ends up becoming their worst nightmare. Here’s how can make sure you
have your legal and accounting in order.
Get a lawyer
As soon as you start your company, you need
to start looking for a lawyer. I’ve seen many
entrepreneurs try to shortcut this by printing
documents they find on the Internet. Most times,
it ends up being a disaster. As you continue down
this path, you’ll start trying to make major contract
edits yourself. By the time you get a lawyer, you’ll
have to go back, pay a fortune, and fix all your
damage.
Instead, find a lawyer who has experience in
startups. When we started Alumnify, we didn’t have
enough funds to afford a lawyer. So, we gave up a
few shares of our company for deferred legal fees
until we raised our seed round. This is a great way for
you to make sure your legal work is in order without
using all your initial cash.
If you do go this route, make sure you are
checking in on how your lawyer is billing you.
Some will try adding extra hours because they
are getting paid in deferred fees. Make sure you
set expectations of what you’re looking for up
front and get an estimated price before getting
into the actual deal. The last thing you want is to
close your next round of funding and give it all to
your legal counsel.
Now let’s say you borrowed money from your
friend and two months later he asks to see where
his money was spent. Would it be fair for you to
say, “I don’t know” to him? Of course not. That
would raise major concerns. That is part of the
reason you need to be a stickler when it comes to
the books. Eventually, you’ll go through intense
audits. The longer you go to get your accounting
right, the worse those audits will be for you.
Another reason not to shortcut accounting is that if
you don’t know where your money is being spent,
you don’t know your burn rate. And if you don’t
know your burn rate, you don’t know how long
your runway is. Finally, if you don’t know how long
Never take money
without paperwork
When you start your company, many times you’ll
begin by taking money from friends and family. Your
best friend will hear your pitch, trust in you, and
then hand you over a check. Understand that many
investors you bring in from the friends and family
round will not know about the paperwork. In other
cases, your early investors will say they trust you and
they don’t need to sign anything. While that’s a nice
gesture, you’re the one who’s going to pay the price in
the long run. Once you raise money from a seasoned
investor, they’re going to expect paperwork for every
previous dollar you took in. If you don’t have that and
can’t get it in place, kiss the investment goodbye.
Use QuickBooks or get an
accountant
Here’s a way to think about raising money that will
help you whenever you start looking for investment.
When you take money from an investor, think of it as
loan. You have to pay that money back, with interest.
It doesn’t matter whether you take money for equity
or as a convertible note; someone is trusting you
with their funds.
your runway is, you’ll have no idea when you’re
going to be out of business. Not knowing this
information makes it impossible to lead a company
effectively.
If you haven’t done so already, start getting used
to QuickBooks. Your other option is to hire an
accountant. Many entrepreneurs think doing the
latter will cost too much money. In reality, you
can find someone to do basic accounting for you
for a few hundred dollars a month. If that’s out
of your budget, try doing an equity deal. Keep in
mind that accountants are less likely to take an
equity deal than lawyers or employees. Either way,
put something in place early, or you’ll have major
consequences down the line.
About the Author
AJ Agrawal is an entrepreneur, writer, and speaker. He is the CEO and co-founder of Alumnify Inc.
5 Ways for Bootstrapped
Startups to Get Through
the First Year
By Zach Cutler
In the eyes of an investor, a bootstrapped
startup that has proven stable and successful
within the first year is powerful. It not only
raises confidence in the product and the
leadership behind it, but also indicates that
any invested money will likely not be thrown
away.
Ultimately, when it comes to working with
investors, it’s important to prove that a
startup and the people behind it not only know
how to spend money, but know how to bring
in additional money.
To successfully bootstrap a company in its first
year, it’s important to consider a few things:
1. Cut the nonessentials and focus
on immediate needs.
There is nothing more important to startup
success than the talent that makes it all possible.
Avoid any unnecessary expenses, such as office
overhead or “frills,” to free up money to invest in
better talent.
Virtual offices will allow team members to work
together from anywhere in the world and are
extremely cost-effective. Ultimately, cutting
costs wherever possible will more likely enable
worthwhile investment in a larger team, which
will be the catalyst to growth for the company.
2. Focus on two types of talent:
engineering and marketing.
An innovative and savvy engineer knows the ins
and outs of mobile apps and understands what
users truly want and need. An intelligent and driven
marketing professional understands the market and
how to reach the desired target audience.
With these two power talents working side
by side, any product has a good chance to be
successful.
3. Don’t cut corners.
Investors need to know the business and
its leadership are stable and legit, so do
everything by the book. Once they get
involved, investors will want to see paperwork,
as well as profits and losses and balance sheet
reports right off the bat. This should be a
priority from day one.
Find an accountant and purchase good
accounting software to ensure that records
are clear and corners are not cut. This will also
allow for extra time to tend to other important
matters within the startup.
4. Cover the legalities before it’s
too late.
It’s critical to ensure the product or app is
covered and that there are no loopholes that
would allow someone to steal its name or
intellectual property once it takes off.
During the planning phases, when speaking to
potential investors, partners, or developers, it’s
also wise to use a confidentiality agreement to
ensure everything stays within the four walls.
Additionally, copyright any sketches, mockups
or documentation of the product during
development stages.
5. Utilize freelance consultants.
Skilled freelance consultants offer additional
niche talent only when it’s needed. Build and
keep a solid list of trusted and intelligent
freelancers who can be utilized when the time
is right. With the extra cash flow freelancers
provide, startups have more ability to hire the
best full-time staff needed for success.
It’s no secret that the first year for a
bootstrapped startup will have many highs and
lows. Despite the uncertainty and exhilaration
that comes with those highs and lows, it’s
important to stay focused on what’s needed to
get to the next step.
Eventually, those steps will likely lead to talking
with investors to get the startup to the next
level. Cutting no corners from the very first day,
bringing on the best talent and preparing for
failure and success will prove to an investor that
the product and those behind it have what it
takes to succeed.
About the Author
Zach Cutler is an entrepreneur and founder and CEO of Cutler, a tech PR agency in New York and Tel Aviv. An
avid tech enthusiast and angel investor, Cutler specializes in crafting social and traditional PR campaigns to
help tech startups thrive. He can be reached at [email protected].
* This article originally appeared on Entrepreneur.
Why Startups Sell For Millions
with No Business Model
By Dev Aujla
For the last three years I have been immersed in the
startup world. Many of my friends work for startup
companies, I’ve written a book that covered many
startups that trend towards the social good spectrum,
and I have been recruiting and working for many of the
companies myself, here in New York.
During this time, I felt like I was missing something-some major point that everyone else understood but
me. I wondered what purpose all of these startup
served, and wrestled with understanding how so many
of these businesses could be sold for millions, or even
billions of dollars, when most made little to no profit and
lacked concrete business models.
I kept quiet about my questions, afraid to admit that I just
didn’t get. When I shared my feeling with close friends I
boiled it down to an impression that it must simply be all
pretend. It must be one of those ideas that will eventually
self-correct and everyone will then realize they have been
believing in a fake shared reality. It was a philosophical
response that I obviously didn’t share with many.
Then, I had the chance to work with a 50+ billion dollar
company on a short term consultancy and I heard the board
members and C-suite employees talk about acquiring and
investing extensively in these small, profitless startups, as well
as the venture capital funds that fund them. I finally got it: It’s
all about research and development.
It isn’t pretend at all. It is a simple value proposition that
doesn’t rely on the companies having a business model
but rather relies on the knowledge they learned. It is
outsourced research and development. All these calls
to “disrupt” industries at the end of the day is different
language for what used to be called R+D.
Let’s look at it more closely. It would cost a large car
company, for example, $100 million dollars to research
and develop the best new LED light bulb themselves.
For the record, this isn’t an obscene amount of money
within the scope of a multi-billion dollar company.
Then you have a VC firm that has a look at the industry
and notices that it costs this manufacturing company
$100 million to do this R+D work, and they figure out how
they can do it cheaper. How? They put $25 million into a
whole portfolio of LED light companies. Let’s say one of
those companies develop the best new LED bulb, in which
case the business can be sold to the car company for $75
million, and the car company still saved $25 million they
would have spent if they did the R+D in house. Of course
the numbers are made up but you get the idea.
Large companies buy VC-backed start-ups without real
ways to make money for three reasons:
To Learn Something
The cheapest and only way for big corporations
to learn everything they can about their industry
and to inform their future investments is to invest
in startups that are at the forefront of research
and innovation in their field. The same way we
as individuals would go to University to gain
access to and absorb information, big companies
gain an immense amount of knowledge from
groundbreaking startups. Often they will buy
companies only for the learning in order to inform
future investments. It can also be as a way of laying
the groundwork so they can investigate if they want
to start building a product pipeline in this new area.
To Fill Their Product Pipeline
Companies need a steady stream of new potential
products to sell or integrate into their core
products. Although most of these acquisitions
won’t end up being used, a few will make it
through the funnel and become real, sellable
products. For internet companies this product
pipeline looks like new ways to acquire users,
and new ways to monetize markets. For car
companies it would look like LED light bulbs.
To Acquire the Team
This is a form of corporate headhunting and
simple way for big companies to “recruit” new
talent and get them working in house.
Of course every start up hopes to be that
magical unicorn that becomes big enough
themselves to start buying other companies
or investing in research and development but
for most... it’s definitely not pretend. It is just
outsourced R+D.
If you want to build a company
and sell it maybe it is time to do what the VC’s do
and analyze where you can provide value as an
outsourced R+D department and get hustling.
About the Author
Dev Aujla runs Catalog, an agency which provides strategic advisory and recruiting services to companies that
make money and do good. He is also the founder of DreamNow, a charitable organization which has helped over
50 thousand young people organize and start community projects.
Special Spotlight Feature:
Leadership, Management and
Making Your Startup A Success
What Does It Mean To Lead
With Trust
By Randy Conley
I’m convinced that leadership is much more about who you are than what you do. As such,
there is nothing that speaks more to the quality of your character and leadership than the
amount of trust people place in you.
But what does it mean to lead with trust? The presentation below, far from being a complete
treatise on the subject, lays the foundation of leading with trust. I would love for you to leave a
comment to add your thoughts on what leading with trust means to you.
About the Author
Randy Conley is the Vice President of Client Services and Trust Practice Leader at The Ken
Blanchard Companies (www.kenblanchard.com). You can read his blog, Leading with Trust, at
http://leadingwithtrust.com and follow him on Twitter @RandyConley.
Connect with us for even more
great startup information
9 Lessons from a 10-Time Startup Failure
By Eric T. Wagner
“
Nine out of ten businesses fail; so I came up with a foolproof plan — create ten
businesses.”— Robert Kiyosaki
Well spoken by Kiyosaki.
But what’s it like to live through 10 failed startups
and still come out with a 3 million dollar company?
Meet Kurt Theobald, Co-Founder and CEO of Classy
Llama.
Yes — Theobald started 10 businesses over the
span of 5 years. Each one a failed mess. But herein
lies the beauty from ashes — he nailed it on his
11th try.
Now ranked at #454 on Inc’s Top 500 Fastest
Growing Companies in the U.S. for 2013,
Theobald’s latest creation (with the help of cofounder Erik Hansen and a team of 23) is on target
to reach $3 million in revenue this year.
As luck would have it, Theobald and I were able
to sit down for a 60 minute rapid-fire chat where I
did everything I could to extract the secrets of his
success.
Pull up a chair and take notes, because Theobald
reveals 9 valuable lessons you can take to the bank
today, which I now gift to you:
Lesson 1: Opportunistic
vs. Strategic Entrepreneur:
One Of These Is Fatal
Look up ‘shiny object syndrome’ in an older
dictionary, up pops a picture of Theobald. He had
the disease and it wasn’t pretty.
Lesson? Nail first, scale second. Nathan Furr and
Paul Ahlstrom drive this home hard in their book
‘Nail It, Then Scale It’. Do this in the wrong order
and you’ll drive off a 500-ft cliff.
Lesson 4: Know Who You
Are
“That was really just a big mistake on my part.
If it looked interesting, I’d pursue it. It was just
like whatever came my way. Just chased multiple
opportunities and never was strategic about any of
it. That in itself led to many failures.”
You’re either an entrepreneur or you’re not. Period.
No half-way point. No being a ‘little bit’ pregnant.
The entrepreneurs who recognize who they are
at their core are most likely to figure it out and
succeed in the long run.
Lesson? Act strategic. Don’t just chase every
opportunity walking by in a pretty skirt. Understand
your core competencies, your ‘North Star’ purpose
and learn what ‘opportunity discernment’ means.
Theobald explained it this way: “I wrote two things
in my journal: One, when I fall, I am getting up. Every
single time. And two; I get up because it’s who I am
as an entrepreneur. Therefore to not get up is to
betray who I am. And so that’s what kept me going
through all the failure. You can’t stop. You don’t
really have a choice because if you choose that then
you might as well sacrifice your whole life.”
Lesson 2: Fail Fast… But
Not Too Fast
Sweeping the startup world is the mantra ‘fail fast’.
And yes — this is sound advice for every startup.
But is there a case when it can go too far?
Ten failures in 5 years — I’ll let Theobald tell you: “It
may not be entirely redeemable to let go so fast. I’m
an impatient person and it’s a leading weakness. I’m
very quick to let go — sometimes too fast to let go.
Sometimes the most successful entrepreneurs will stick
with it, try from different angles and then it eventually
takes off. They stick it out and get the formula right.”
Lesson? Yes — take on the ‘fail fast’ approach. But
balance it with tenacity and dogged determination.
You don’t want to be the miner who stops digging 6
inches away from the vein of gold.
Lesson 3: Find Your
Formula
Every successful business on the face of the planet
has this in common: they’ve figured out their
‘secret sauce’ and are now scaling it. But you can’t
scale until you find your formula first.
Theobald on one of his 10 failures: “By the time
it came to close, there wasn’t enough revenue to
sustain the (business) model. It just wasn’t viable
and the formula wasn’t right at a fundamental
level. It wasn’t too long after that I went and filed
personal bankruptcy.”
Lesson? Write it down. If you truly believe you’re
an entrepreneur, commit right now to that as your
identity. Claim it and live by it. I did when I was 14.
You may think I’m a writer, but I’m an entrepreneur.
Period. And I never quit.
Lesson 5: You Must Have A
Deeper Why
Simon Sinek nails this in his infamous TED Talk
speech. If you’ve never listened to this thing, do so
after finishing this article.
Theobald; “I believe the most successful
entrepreneurs have a deeper why. They have
a deeper purpose for what they’re doing. The
most contemporary and best example I can think
of is Steve Jobs who came back (to Apple) with
no ownership and taking only a dollar for his
salary. Just because he cared about delivering
greatness. He just wanted to be insanely great
and make a dent in the world. That mentality
is what changed things for me. It’s the key
difference between exceptionally successful
entrepreneurs and marginally successful
entrepreneurs.”
Lesson? Dig deep and find the deeper why. If you’re
just in this for the collateral benefits of possible
wealth, freedom and independence, I predict an
eventual train wreck for you.
Lesson 6: It’s Not About
You
Grasp the meaning behind the deeper why? If yes —
then you’ll automatically recognize entrepreneurship
is not about you.
Theobald explains it this way: “When you chase
opportunities, it’s all about you trying to get
something for yourself. I started experiencing success
when I made a significant shift in my thinking. My
role changed from looking out for myself to focusing
on making other people successful. This mindset
generated significantly different results.”
Lesson? Jump 180 degrees to the other side. Stand in
the shoes of your _______ . (Yes — fill it in. Customer.
Team member. Supplier. Partner. Whoever.) Let
your focus be on making them successful. Internet
entrepreneur Jeff Walker calls it spreading the
‘abundance juice’. Do it and you’ll never once have to
worry about your own well-being.
Lesson 7: To Really
Crush It; You Must Cede
Control
Want the real secret to success? Empower others,
support their success while giving up control. ‘What?
Give up control? No way. This is my baby and I own
it. I control it. Besides, I fled my job because I was
sick of not having control.’
Theobald counters with this; “Control is a dangerous
thing. You actually gain more control by giving up
control. You want to share it with others and allow
them part of that stake in making decisions and
moving forward. You are simply not smart enough to
be successful on your own.”
Lesson? Empower others by giving up some control.
The only real element you should control in your
business is the vision, purpose (deeper why) and
core values.
Lesson 8: Focus On
Effectiveness Instead Of
Your ‘Rake’
Yes — you need to be profitable. Yes — you need to
generate coin. But by solely focusing on your rake
(read: moolah); you miss the bigger opportunity.
Theobald put it like this; “When you become more
effective, it’s characterized as increasing the size of
the whole pie so your slice is bigger. Leveraging the
goods you been given and submitting yourself to
others and team, your rake will actually be better
in the end. So focus on being effective, and not so
much on what your ultimate rake is because you’ll be
much further down the road.”
Lesson? Stop thinking of your own wallet. Again, it’s
not about you. Focus on how to empower others,
cede control and in the process, focus your time and
energy on being effective in those areas. The result?
You eat a much bigger piece of pie.
Lesson 9: You’re Doing It
Wrong…
Theobald also wrote a book named ‘Finding Truth
At The Bottom’. He shot me a copy and I’ll wrap this
thing up with my favorite quote from the book. The
context is a guy who struggles mightily, but keeps
doing things the same way. His wise mentor pretty
much socks it to him straight in this quote:
“Nothing’s going to give if you keep doing the
same thing you’ve been doing. If you keep
banging your head against the concrete wall,
the wall doesn’t suddenly give way. Instead,
you end up knocking yourself out. You need to
pick a different approach.”
I’ve just extracted and delivered 9 things from
Theobald you can look to change in your own
business. Don’t just read it. Take action and fix
what’s broken. Otherwise, you’re unconscious and
slumped at the bottom of the concrete wall with
no one to blame but yourself.
Don’t let this be you.
About the Author
I am a life-long entrepreneur
and startup expert living in
Sisters, Oregon and I am the
Founder and CEO of Mighty Wise
Academy: A Virtual Academy
For Entrepreneurship. I am also a mentor
and advisor for multiple startup companies.
If you’d like to learn what it really takes to
become a successful entrepreneur, you can
connect with me here >>.
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By Paul Ruderma
By far the hardest and most exasperating part
of launching a successful startup is recruiting
an all-star team. At first, it will seem near
impossible. Part of it is simple math: There is
a limited number of truly exceptional people
out there. Of those people, only a small
percentage will have the skills, experience,
drive and character that you are looking for.
And of those people, only a fraction will fit
personality-wise with you and your early team.
To find your all-stars, so much has to go right.
Every ounce of persistence you can muster up
is essential to giving you a chance at finding
your dream team. To find the people who’ve
joined me and are now the core of UpdateZen,
I went through quite a journey (and 84
interviews). At times exhilarating and inspiring,
and at other times frustrating and energysucking, and full of more ups and downs than
you can possibly imagine.
That said, I seem to have cracked the code and
lived to tell. So in the interest of helping others
recruit exceptional early teams, I’m going to
document here how I did it. It is part art and
part science, but fully replicable.
This guide below assumes you are a founder of
a startup, you’re bootstrapping as best you can,
you don’t have unlimited resources to pay 25%
recruiting fees, you won’t settle for B players, and
you know what you’re looking for. If so, read on.
1. HAVE A CLEAR VISION FOR WHAT
YOUR COMPANY WILL LOOK LIKE
Know what you want your company
to look like once you fill all the early
positions you’ve earmarked as essential.
2. KNOW YOUR NON-NEGOTIABLES.
Have an unmistakable sense for what
each position requires. I needed two
full-stack developers (one iOS-focused
and one web-focused), one designer,
and eventually one marketer. I needed
people near Montclair, NJ (or NYC) with
unimpeachable character.
about the kind of person and talent
you are looking for. The more specific
you are, the more likely that you will
(a) attract top candidates who feel they
are a fit for your unique startup, and (b)
disincentivize ill-fitting candidates from
applying and thereby wasting their and
your time.
5. LOOK AT LINKEDIN PROFILES.
Require candidates to send you their
LinkedIn profiles, not resumes. Resumes
are dry, static documents. A good
LinkedIn profile contains everything a
resume does, and then some, including
written references from past/current
colleagues, their number of LinkedIn
connections, their photo in a suit or
backwards baseball cap getting drunk
with their buddies in a bar.
3. CLEAR YOUR DESK.
Once you’ve decided you’re ready to hire
for a position, clear your desk of everything
else you think you have to take on, so
that you are free to commit 90% of your
waking hours to searching, networking
and recruiting for that position. You cannot
recruit key early positions in your “free
time.” First of all, you have no free time.
Secondly, it will take every ounce of your
being to go from here to hire!
4. WRITE A WELL-WRITTEN JOB
DESCRIPTION.
Write an EXCEPTIONALLY articulate,
unique, and distinguishing Job
Description. Be as specific as you can
6. REQUIRE CANDIDATES TO SUBMIT
PERSONALIZED COVER EMAILS
Have them explain why your startup
interests them and why they are the
best candidate for the job. If they
don’t take the time to write this
personalized cover email, don’t even
look at their LinkedIn profile. They’re
not serious. And they probably can’t
write.
7. NETWORK ON LINKEDIN.
Search and network extensively on LinkedIn.
Send well-crafted and short LinkedIn InMails
to your ideal candidates regardless whether
(a) you have a personal connection to them,
or (b) they claim to be “looking” for new
opportunities. Everyone’s available for the right
opportunity.
8. USE RECRUITERS INTELLIGENTLY.
Recruiters can be your best friend, or they
can suck up your time and take all the
money you don’t have. Find great ones and
convince them to take far less than 25%
in the interest of receiving lots of new job
postings as you grow. I negotiated a flat fee
of $8000 with several great recruiters.
9. FLOOD THE MARKET WITH
OUTREACH.
I post job descriptions everywhere that is
even remotely relevant… wherever a great
candidate might go. Angel List. LinkedIn.
Monster. Dice. Hired.com. Employment
Crossing. Craigslist. Dribbble. Behance.
Stackoverflow. You NEVER know where your
eventual candidate might be, so plant your
seeds in many places. And of course, ask
your network. All you need is that ONE great
candidate. I found Stefan, my brilliant web
developer, on a tiny site called Startuphire.
com.
10. WORK QUICKLY.
Review each interested candidate’s profile
instantly. The great people get snatched up
quickly.
your vision, your team, and yourself, then
this part should be a breeze.
12. CONDUCT YOUR INITIAL INTERVIEW
VIA VIDEO.
No audio-only calls. A 30-minute video call is
all you need to figure out if it’s worth setting
up an in-person interview.
13. CALL REFERENCES.
This is not a formaility. Conduct 2-3
reference calls. DO THIS! You can obtain
phenomenal “color” on the candidate — how
they optimally work, what makes them tick,
what challenges they need to overcome,
what they are better at than anyone
else, how much did their colleagues like
them, and most importantly, what kind of
character and integrity does the candidate
have?
14. SOMETIMES A DONE DEAL JUST
AIN’T A DONE DEAL.
You may get pretty deep into the process
of finding, interviewing, recruiting, selling,
offering, hiring and starting a new person…
and then BAM, it just doesn’t work out. It
happens sometimes. Get angry and get over
it. Hit the recruiting “pavement” the next
morning with new energy!
And that’s it! No, hiring an early team of A players is
not easy, and it ain’t for the faint of heart. But yes, it is
possible and there’s even a method to the madness.
The most important thing… persist! Never give up.
11. REFINE YOUR PITCH.
About the Author
You need to SELL these great candidates.
Just like you’re going to sell your early
customers. If you believe in your product,
Paul Ruderman is the Founder of UpdateZen, a
simple status reporting solution for executives,
managers and business owners.
3 Ways to Use Social Media
to Align Your Team
By Andre Lavoie
Can social media really be utilized to help companies align and engage their employees? It sure can.
According to the 2014 Social Recruitment Monitor Survey by Maximum EMG, companies from a wide
variety of industries are using social media as a way to provide real-time information to customers
and employees.
Social media is becoming an increasingly important medium for organizations of all sizes to keep
employees aligned and engaged. It is also a key factor in achieving internal transparency.
Here are some ways to utilize social media to better align organizations and teams:
1. Keep employees updated on
all company news and customer
interactions.
One of the benefits of having an active social-media
presence is the ability to engage and interact with a
desired audience. This is not only helpful in marketing
your company externally, but also when used to align
internal teams and entire organizations.
Leaders should encourage everyone on their teams to
follow, like or connect with the company’s social-media
channels. This way, employees can stay updated on
company news or customer conversations that may not
warrant a mention in a meeting or newsletter.
It’s also important to let employees know they can,
and should, contribute to these conversations. Doing
so reflects positively on the company when potential
recruits or customers see that the people behind the
company truly support it.
2. Recognize employees doing
great things on social media.
Recognition is an important factor to employee
alignment, and social media can be an effective way to
spread the word about great work employees are doing.
Taking the time to not only recognize an employee
for their efforts, but also share it with the public is
significant. Use content that encourages comments
and make sure to tag the employee so all of their
network sees the post.
Before moving forward with any of this, check with the
employee and make sure they are comfortable with
public recognition. Some employees will prefer a more
internal tactic, which should always be respected.
3. Remain transparent and lenient
on social-media guidelines.
Giving employees the opportunity to become brand
advocates for the company can help the company reach an
extremely expansive audience. However, this also opens up
the company to more vulnerabilities and potential issues.
Instead of providing strict rules and guidelines for
employees, lead by example. Remain honest and
transparent internally about what is being and will be
said on social media. Ask that employees respect this and
explain why some things are withheld so they understand
why they must remain quiet on certain topics.
Transparency provides extremely strong alignment
between employees and their employers and allows
social media to be a much more powerful tool that
truly impacts a company’s bottom line.
About the Author
Andre Lavoie is the CEO of ClearCompany, the first
talent-alignment platform that aims to bridge the gap
between talent management and business strategy by
contextualizing employees’ work around a company’s
vision and goals.
* This article originally appeared on Entrepreneur.
ENTRePReNeURS! TAKe A BReAK:
IT CAN HeLP YOUR BUSiNeSS
By Cristopher Ramirez
We, as entrepreneurs, know that in order to grow our businesses we have to work tirelessly, not only in
the beginning but always. And when we love what we do it doesn’t seem like work, but this workaholic
attitude is cool when it is controlled. Excess can be dangerous, for your health and your business.y
I’m not talking about taking a full time vacation for a week or so. I mean during your workweek, schedule
a few minutes a day to just relax and clear your mind.
I know, the idea of having less time to do the work of a day can be a little stressful, but see it in a positive
way, it can make you focus in the real work that has to be done. Better efficiency.
But also, taking a break entails great benefits, here’s a list of some of them:
1. Recover from work:
The first benefit is the obvious one. Taking a break helps
to regain strengths and focus. I highly recommend taking
a nap, maybe not every day but on those days when you
are feeling more exhausted. In a few days you will feel
the difference. If you don’t believe I invite to read this
article about napping.
2. Isolating the really
important things to do:
When you take a break, you can focus on the really
important things. Analyzing what’s best for your business
and the tasks you have to be doing. Than after that little
break you can focus on all those things, making you feel
your work was way more productive.
3. Remember things that
you haven’t done:
There are tasks that sometimes we forget to do,
more often than you think. Maybe buy something,
pay something, send an email or even make a call
at certain hour. Taking a break makes your mind
clear, it’s like when you go to bed at night and then
you just remember everything you had to do, but
without the inconvenience of “it’s already night!”
4. Opportunity to keep in
touch:
Disconnected from all the work, you have the
opportunity to make some calls or send a text to
your friends you haven’t seen, to call your family or
whoever you miss and want to call. To maintain your
relationships when you become an entrepreneur is
sometimes hard, but always try to keep in touch with
the people that have always been there for you.
5. Finding new ideas:
This happens to me a lot, doesn’t matter if I’m taking
a break or enjoying my weekend, there’s always a new
idea that pops up onto my head. To be honest not always
the idea has something to do with work, but the few
ideas that pops out have helped me in changing my
business model and create more value to my customers.
Taking a break allows your brain to generate new ideas
and new concepts can at the
end can benefit your business
a lot more than keep working
non-stop.
Taking a break, it sounds
counterproductive but really
it isn’t. It has great benefits
for you (health, focus, helps
maintain relationships) and
your business (gets work done,
help creating more value). The
next time you’re working like
there is no tomorrow and you feel a little sleepy or
exhausted remember these 5 benefits and don’t feel
guilty after.
About the Author
Cristopher Ramírez is a Mexican entrepreneur
and small business investor. Passionate writer in
entrepreneurship and motivation articles for local
papers, college magazine and the blog he funded. He
is also the author of Imperio Emprendedor. You can
follow him in Twitter. * This article originally appeared on Under30CEO.com
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The Three Bandits
of Change Leadership
By Jim Haudan
Successful businesses are constantly changing. They’re introducing new offerings
based on customer demand, making product updates to improve their bottom line,
expanding into new markets, promoting employees and more. But unfortunately
not everyone is always ready to adapt. In fact, for every supporter of change, leaders
will be challenged by those who are resistant or scared to embrace the new, the
unknown. And because of the disharmony caused by the change-adverse, the
leadership, and possibly the whole organization, is put at risk for failure.
Why? Three change bandits – “The Other Guy,” “Adversity,” and
“Discomfort” – can be viewed as keeping even the best-intentioned
leaders from being successful. It is important to consider that
change is not a left-brain rational act, but a right-brain emotional
choice. The ability to lead and influence change is based on
how we feel and how we make others feel. It is these feelings
and how we process them that ultimately allow for successful
change leadership. So taking the Three Bandits of Change
Leadership head-on is a critical component to successfully leading
a team, or an organization, through a change that will result in a
better business for all.
What are the change bandits doing to cause problems for the
leaders of change? They’re feeding on the emotional conclusions
that the “other guy” needs to change, “adversity” should be avoided,
and “discomfort” is incompetence in disguise. Here is a more
in-depth look at each.
1. THE OTHER GUY
His voice of fear and limitations can easily change a
mindset focused on being better to one consumed with
being bitter. “The other guy did this to me.” “The other
guy needs to go first before I can do anything.” “The
other guy is keeping me from being successful.”
A number of years ago, I worked with a psychologist
and business coach who started working in prisons.
He spoke to prisoners one on one, asking them the
same question: How did you get here? In each cell, the
prisoner would say, “It wasn’t me; it was the other guy.”
They told him elaborate stories – “my friends took me
along,” “my cousin looks just like me, and they got the
wrong guy,” or “I had a terrible lawyer and was never
defended properly.” The coach quickly concluded if we
caught this illusive “other guy,” we could empty our
prisons. When he began working in corporate America,
he conducted interviews with executives on what was
holding back their performance. Amazingly, the “other
guy” showed up here too. Operations said Marketing
and Sales were selling things they couldn’t produce,
and Marketing claimed that operating processes were
so complex that it took extraordinary human effort
to get ordinary results. The notes from the interviews
captured beliefs like, “the other guy’s new structure doesn’t set us up for success,” “the other guy
doesn’t hold people accountable,” “the other guy needs to go first,” “the other guy doesn’t listen,”
and “his ‘send’ button is stuck, and his ‘receive’ button is broken.” This “other guy” syndrome causes
us to give away control of our future to others; the Other Guy Bandit must be sent off before he
derails any change effort. When we keep control within ourselves, we can achieve our goals.
2. ADVERSITY
The #1 roadblock to change is not addressing the areas of conflict or
adversity that are critical to success. I’ve found that teams have extreme
difficulty separating issues from individuals and stepping into the areas
they fear may offend others. This is especially true the higher you go in an
organization where adversity-laced conflict is talked about in the hall or at
the bar, instead of as a team that must change to truly address the challenge.
Research shows that adversity is one of the most critical ingredients for
personal and team growth. As adversity and conflict go away, people stop
growing and begin a slow decline in capability. The goal is to hug adversity
and embrace conflict to promote true change leadership.
3. DISCOMFORT
You can’t lead if you are comfortable.
Humility, vulnerability, and discomfort are
the traits of change leadership. So how do
we get comfortable with discomfort and
realize that feeling like a dumbass can be the example
of leading change? The secret is to create a new mindset
that helps people feel and know they should not flee the
discomfort, but see it as a sign of genuine leadership.
Hug the indignity. Celebrate the clumsy. And remember
the mindset that change is beginning again.
All three bandits – the “Other Guy,” “Adversity,” and
“Discomfort” – must all be addressed in order to build
and create a business for the future that is compelling
and worth the risk.
About the Author
Jim Haudan is a different kind of CEO, with a passion that goes beyond leading Root to success. For more than 20
years, he has been helping organizations unleash hidden potential by fully engaging their people to deliver on
the strategies of the business. With his background as a coach, it’s not a stretch that the company Jim co-founded
focuses on tapping employees’ discretionary efforts – the kind that produces winning results.
Jim is a frequent speaker on leadership alignment, strategy execution, employee engagement, business
transformation, change management, and accelerated learning. He has spoken at TEDx BGSU, the Conference
Board events, and numerous client meetings. He also contributes regularly to business publications and blogs. He
lives in Sylvania with his wife, Michelle. They have three children, Brad, Brooke, and Blake. When he’s not traveling
the globe visiting clients, he enjoys relaxing with his family at their lake cottage, golfing, fishing, photography, and
attending Jimmy Buffett concerts.
How Good Management Stifles
Breakthrough Innovation
By Markus Lorenz
We hear a lot these days about how big
companies fail to innovate, but the truth is
more complicated. A lot of companies excel
at developing better products, yet these
improvements are incremental. They’re not
the breakthrough offerings that can jumpstart growth and profitability. And companies’
success at cranking out these enhancements
hampers them from getting better at the
radical projects.
that efficiency-minded project managers are
inadvertently discouraging the explorations –
and therefore the learning – that make radical
ideas practical.
If you closely analyze unsuccessful attempts at
developing breakthrough products, perhaps
the most common trouble you find is not one
of the usual suspects, such as lack of topmanagement commitment. Instead, you’ll see
Textbooks on innovation advised them to
allow some flexibility in the phase-gates. Yet
control-minded project managers have tended
to chart strongly linear paths that discourage
distractions – depriving their teams of the
There’s a history behind this problem.
Frustrated by inefficient R&D, companies in
the 1980s started applying standard projectmanagement techniques such as phase-gates
and key performance indicators.
agility and openness needed for new thinking.
As development teams became more productive
and their initiatives more predictable, incremental
improvements soared, project managers got
promoted – and radical innovation declined.
Companies soon began spending less and less
time on breakthrough ideas. At BCG we’ve found
that radical projects nowadays account for roughly
10% of an average company’s innovation portfolio,
down from twice that in the early 1990s. (Josh
Lerner cites the narrow focus of corporate R&D in
his October HBR piece on corporate venturing.)
The lesson is clear. It’s not enough for executives
to proclaim their commitment to innovation,
develop an innovation mind-set, or even put more
money into breakthroughs. Companies also need
to make changes at the ground level.
They can start by treating radical projects
differently, but it isn’t enough to just let these
teams loose. Without some discipline, initiatives
will become money pits, or nervous project
managers will fall back on their conventional
habits of control.
The solution is for project managers to devote
less effort to predicting and directing innovation,
and more effort to managing the inevitable
uncertainties. They should worry less about the
schedule and more about ways to reduce risk – by
partnering with outside companies, say, or getting
advance commitments from customers. Or they
can invest in multiple options for the marketplace,
rather than rushing through a single big bet.
They should certainly expand the key performance
indicators to include vital insights on technology or
customers, so that a worthwhile project can keep
going even if it is far from a serviceable prototype.
“
But like venture firms, they need to terminate
projects that exceed a predetermined “affordable
loss.” (For more on the framework BCG has
developed, see this paper.)
Take, for example, a photo-technology company
my colleagues and I worked with. Digital printing
promised to greatly expand the designs of
ceramics, furniture, and other nonpaper products,
and the company hoped to pioneer the sale of
industrial printers in these sectors. Its first printer
was a dud, so the company rethought its efforts,
creating a new development team that included
marketing people as well as engineers. With this
broadened perspective – and the time to explore
how customers would actually use this new
technology – the team realized that usage would
vary greatly across industries. The project manager
recognized the insight and secured funding to
develop multiple kinds of printheads and other
functionality. Those steps improved the likelihood
of marketplace acceptance, and the resulting
printer quickly won over buyers.
The combination of flexible techniques and a
manager who tolerates uncertainty created
something that’s increasingly rare and valuable
these days: a radically new product that creates a
whole new market space.
About the Author
Markus Lorenz is a partner and
managing director in the Munich office
of the Boston Consulting Group.
* This article originally appeared on the
Harvard Business Review.
Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.
- Joshua J. Marine
”
Small Business Tips from
a Successful Entrepreneur
By Lyve Alexis Pleshette
Ruth Ellen Miller, Co-Founder
and President of NoUVIR Lighting
www.nouvir.com based in Delaware, is
a successful entrepreneur who saw her
business grow out of her living room to
become a million dollar enterprise.
Nouvir Lighting is a manufacturer of fiber
optic lighting, producing pure-white
fiber-optic light capable of minimizing
photochemical damage. Nouvir’s lighting
systems are used in museums including
historic documents and memorabilia
such as Thomas Jefferson’s handwritten
draft of the Declaration of Independence
to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg
Address, from the Bill of Rights to
The Louisiana Purchase, the Magna
Carta and hundreds of other priceless
documents. Through Ruth Ellen’s
leadership, Nouvir Lighting has become
a booming business that embodies her
passion and creativity.
As a testament to her contribution
in the community and her business
success, the Small Business
Administration named Ruth Ellen as the
Small Business Person of the Year for
the State of Delaware in May 2000.
imitate or copy us, because we planned
big. The cash for the new computers
was planned. We added a new building
to make NoUVIR more responsive to
customers; produce better products,
and create a better quality of life. The
cost of the new building was planned,
and it was completed right on budget.”
2. Start Small.
“Live tactically on rabbits, while
planning strategically to hunt
elephants. Small sales build a company.
Tiny offices, obsolete equipment, used
furniture; temporary employees, small
production spaces, etc. let you put
dollars towards more important things
like R&D that help you grow.”
“Those small sales of one fiber optic
lighting system have grown into lighting
whole galleries and floors. The tiny single
ad is now a modest ad campaign. We
continue to work on a small scale, prove it,
keep the process efficient and then grow
according to the plan into bigger things.”
Here are her tips to would-be
entrepreneurs, particularly small
business manufacturers:
3. Don’t Borrow.
1. Plan Big.
“There is no trouble in spending extra
if there is a need to correct something.
I have the financial freedom to give
a customer little extra something
extra as a customer service. Many big
companies can’t say that.”
“Entrepreneurs need to plan the
manufacturing and marketing of
profitable, proprietary products; not
generic, me-too, low-bid business. Plan
how you will market, how you will grow,
how you will advertise and where you
will be a year from now, three years
and five years from now. Keep your goal
worthy and in sight.”
“NoUVIR has 16 U.S. Patents protecting
its proprietary products. Our fiber optic
lighting has unmatched performance
and is superior in technology. We
win any head-to-head contest with
any competitor no matter how big a
conglomerate we face. They cannot
“Monitor cash flow so your profits build
your new building, not your bank’s.”
About the Author
Lyve Alexis Pleshette is a writer for
PowerHomebiz.com. She writes
on various topics pertaining home
businesses, from startup to managing
a home-based business. For a step-bystep guide to starting a business, order
the downloadable ebook “Checklist
for Starting a Small Business” from
PowerHomebiz.com
Think You Know What Venture Capitalists
Look For In New Start-Ups? Think Again
By Patrick Hanlon
Everyone talks about how entrepreneurs and
innovators get their famous “aha!” moments.
new investment in the Imoji app, all their financial
research was boiled down into a human moment.
But no one really talks about when the VCs who
fund them get their big idea to finance fledgling
entrepreneurs with the capital that turns ideas into
industry and headlines.
“My 5-year old daughter wanted to play with
Imoji rather than have her bedtime story,” laughs
Chien.
Silicon Valley venture capitalist Chi-Hua Chien
has had a long career investing in Silicon Valley
companies including Spotify, Twitter, and Facebook.
When his firm Goodwater Capital was looking at a
Not every investment is so close to home.
Eurie Kim is a principal at Forerunner Ventures, the
company that has helped bring us Warby Parker,
Bonobos and Birchbox.
“Often, we see several similar ideas come to us all
around the same time. Sometimes it’s two or three
of the same general concept, sometimes even five
or six,” says Kim.
“We are always doing our own research to explore
categories and themes we think are interesting
and have pain points that, if addressed, could
open up big new market opportunities. But the
‘aha!’ moment happens when a founder comes in
to pitch and every aspect of their approach seems
to addresses all question marks in our minds.
“Every time we invest, it’s a ‘zing’ moment,”
Kim continues. “The stars seem to align with a
stellar team that has great chemistry and relevant
experience, a unique brand that has potential
to inspire consumers, a differentiated product
that stands to disrupt existing options—and that
unmistakable connection we feel when we just
have to be in business with someone.”
“I think back to 1994,” says Stuart Rudick of
Mindfull Investors. “When Sky Dayton had the idea
of creating an Internet service provider. (I didn’t
know what an ISP was at that moment.) I said ‘no’
during the first round of investment.
“My ‘aha!’ moment was when he came back three
months later and showed me the growth of the
business—which was 3X what he showed me the
first time,” says Rudick. “He was getting traction,
the number of users, and he had beat what his
projections were.”
The company back in 1994, of course, was called
Earthlink.
Rudick’s latest pick is Atheer Labs. Atheer has
technology imbedded in glasswear for augmented
reality. The Atheer software development kit
allows developers to create fully immersive and
interactive 3D enterprise apps on the Android
platform.
“When I saw the power and ability to do it
in real life and real applications in medical,
entertainment, auto industry,” says Rudick, “it
really made me think this is something that will
truly change our lives.”
What venture partners look for is part economics,
part science, and part gut instinct. Generally, every
firm begins with a robust decision framework that
includes key ingredients.
The founder is passionate about their idea.
They have past experience that makes them credible.
The world is dying for their idea, even if they don’t know it yet.
The founder has an unfair advantage.
FOMO. The investor has a fear of missing out on something big.
And finally, what will the exit be? When does the investor get their money back—hopefully
several times the size of their original investment.
It is the purpose of all brands—especially those in the fledgling, start-up stage—to surround themselves with a
community of fans. At first, that community lives on the inside, the nucleus of founder(s) and Employee #2. Over
time, the tenets of community expand, spread, and embrace the world at large. In order for the brand to survive
and become a Brand (capital B), the essentials of community must be communicated, differentiated, and spread
across a diverse set of media from packaging, point of purchase, out-of-home, experience, home page, social
media and (yes) the pitch deck.
The beliefs of the Brand must seep into the world of venture capitalism where, hopefully, the idea is transformed
from another meaningless pitch, into a product enriched with enough purpose and meaning for someone to click
the “Like” button.
Mark Goldstein of Camiolog has funded dozens of Silicon Valley ventures. He admits that while the business
fundamentals must be in place, sometimes that “aha!”
moment is already staring you in the face.
An instance. A few years ago, Goldstein found himself
sitting in a bar. The bar was full, but he noticed
something peculiar. “I looked up,” he says, “and no one
was talking. Instead, everyone was on their cell phone.
So I dove in and funded only mobile-first companies!”
In the end, it boils down to basics. “We assess the
potential opportunity,” says Eric Kim of Goodwater.
“And the rate of return for investors.”
And sometimes, the VCs just don’t get it. Example. Neil
Young’s high resolution music ecosystem Pono was
turned down by VCs, so Young turned to his millions
of fans. His subsequent crowdfunding campaign raised
$20 million on a $50 million valuation.
Effectively giving VCs an entirely different kind of
“aha!” moment.
About the Author
Patrick Hanlon is ceo and founder
of THINKTOPIA® and one of the leading
branding practitioners in the world. His
book Primal Branding: Create Zealots
For Your Brand, Your Company And
Your Future (Simon & Schuster, 2006),
is recommended by YouTube, the largest social engagement platform on the
planet. His new book The Social Code helps startup (and
grown up) entrepreneurs and companies of all sizes
understand how to create a community of fans who are
so passionate about your success, they are willing to
create it themselves.
* This article originally ran on Forbes.com
HOW TO MAKE YOUR PRODUCT
LOOK SEXY ON FACEBOOK
By Aaron Lee
Do you want to learn how to spice up your product and make it sexy on Facebook?
To be honest with you, I’ve heard it all before. People have told me that their products are too
boring or that they work in an industry that’s not interesting enough to be on Facebook.
I, on the other hand, believe that any business can be on Facebook.
A little creativity is what it takes to make it work. I’ve seen countless unique pages —everything
from swimming pool accessories to poultry products, and even a horse farm — that have built
great communities on Facebook simply because their competitors are not represented there.
You can do this too!
1. Show what it represents.
What is your product to you and to your customers?
Other than simply solving your customers’ problem, you could show them what
your product represents.
For companies like GoPro, it’s all about “the adventure.” For others’ pages it’s about
fun, freedom, love, God, etc.
Quest Nutrition hopes their product will represent clean eating and a healthy
lifestyle. To reinforce this idea, they constantly share photos of fans who have
worked hard to lose weight, and they’ve had great success in doing so.
2. Dress it up.
I only have one tip in this area and that is to get out of the studio! A professional product photo with a white
background is pretty. It’s great if you’re selling it on your website, but if you do that on Facebook, it’s just not sexy.
Take your product, take yourself, get out of the studio, and capture your product it in a different environment. Now
that makes it sexy!
Just take a look at how sexy these pretzels are.
3. Have some fun.
4. Show the ways you can use it.
If it fits the tone that you want to convey on
Facebook, go and have fun. You’re not required to
be professional all the time. Many businesses limit
themselves here by being too professional and
they forget that social networks like Facebook are
very personal.
How do you use your products? Instead of simply
posting and trying to sell based on the product’s
specifications, demonstrate to your fans the ways
that they can use your products.
A few simple ideas:
Add a meme to your brand
Share a joke
Show fun people working in your company
Facebook is a great platform for this type
of sharing: you can make a step- by-step
infographic, a video tutorial or simply a daily or
weekly tip.
One of the best examples that I’ve seen came from
Duck Tape. Duck Tape! Who would have guessed
adhesives could be so compelling on Facebook?
Not me!
5. Customers
There’s nothing sexier than having your customers do the selling
for you. You can do this by getting your fans to send photos of
them with your products.
Ask them to share a photo with you by submitting it through an
app, comments section, or even on Instagram through the use of
a hashtag. Share the best couple of photos and reward your fans.
I love how Quest Nutrition does this on Facebook. For me Quest
Nutrition ticks all the boxes for really marketing on Facebook.
6. Make it current
The trick to using current events in your
Facebook marketing is to predict what current
events will be relevant to your fans. An easy
example would be events like the Super Bowl,
but others could be more niche, like the Teen
Choice Awards. For Fitness enthusiasts there
are events like the Crossfit games.
Know what your fans love, and then use it as a
topic to engage with them. You could even have
a subtle product placement inside the visuals
that you use. It doesn’t have to be too direct.
7. Show the human side
This last one is perhaps the most important,
and will connect everything mentioned above.
Showing the human side of the business will
make your product sexy because it makes
your page more memorable, especially when
compared to the thousands of other pages
constantly bombarding their fans with ads and
corporate messages.
You can do this by showing what happens at
your workplace. Perhaps give your fans an idea
of the people that run your daily operations.
Summing up!
To really succeed in this space, you have to
be honest and, most importantly, be yourself.
The best practices are fine, but allowing your
unique personality to show through is what will
really help distinguish you from the pack.
It’s your turn. I would love to hear your
thoughts on how you would make your product
look sexier on Facebook.
About the Author
Aaron Lee is the Grand Master of
Customer Delight at Post Planner, a
platform that makes it easy to increase
Facebook engagement. During his free
time, he shares his fun adventures at
AskAaronLee.com.
Trust
Why You
Should
Never Give
Up On Your
Dreams
By Adriana Langford
A
utumn is the season where we reap the benefits of
the seeds that we planted in the spring according
to the great philosopher Jim Rohn. I wanted to
touch base with the entrepreneurial community on why
you should never, ever, give up on your dreams.
Last Labor day as many of us celebrated American
workers with family and friends or looked upon the
upcoming new season with regret or disappointment for
the things we want to achieve or feel that we should have
already achieved, Diana Nyad, a 64 year old endurance
swimmer became the first swimmer to cross the 110 mile
journey from Cuba to Key west without the protection of
a shark cage. This was Ms. Nyad’s fifth attempt to reach
her goal in 35 years and she finally made it.
After Ms. Nyad completed her journey, she gave us three
simple but powerful messages that I want to share with
you to show you how this applies to us as individuals as
well as entrepreneurs, myself included. Diana’s three
messages were:
1
We should never, ever
give up
Think of all the situations that you have been
through, how bad you fought for the dream
you wanted the most, and most importantly for
those of you that are still struggling to reach
their destination this is not the time to quit. Ms.
Nyad tried this five times and each time before
there was an obstacle in her way. Storms, stinging
jellyfish, and terrifying sharks. I can’t think of one
person in my life that would do what she did, can
you? You could be that person.
2
You are never too old
to chase your dreams
Whether you’re 35 or 53 chances are deep down
inside there is something burning you on the
inside. Maybe this goal is something you dreamed
of doing twenty years ago . It could be the dream
of working for yourself or the dream of finally
getting that MBA title that you may not even need
but want to have it make you feel complete. Ms.
Nyad showed us all that it’s really never too late.
All you need is perseverance and determination to
succeed.
3
It looks like a
solitary sport, but
it takes a team
This lesson was actually my favorite.
I confess! It’s my favorite because I’m
running a company, as are many of you,
and we both know that doing it ourselves is just a
crock of you know what. If it weren’t for my team
I honestly don’t know how I would do it. A wellbalanced team makes all the difference.
If you are running your business alone this really
applies to you. Think about all of the things
you would be able to achieve if you developed
your A team. After so many attempts Ms. Nyad
knew what she had to do and whom she had to
consult to make this journey a success. On one
occasion she had a severe asthma attack that
stopped her journey, which prompted her to
call a pulmonologist. After being severely stung
by a swarm of jellyfish, she called in a jellyfish
expert. Sharks are usually an absolute menace so
she called in shark divers. After each lesson she
learned exactly whom she needed to succeed and
you must do the same.
We are living in an age where anything is possible,
including the outrageous dreams you have in
your head. So today as we reflect on Diana Nyad’s
successful journey, I want you to continue telling
yourself, IT’S POSSIBLE!
About the Author
Adriana Langford is The Chic
Entrepreneur Coach. Founder
and executive editor at
www.shelovesmarketing.com
and creator of the Marketing
makeover toolbox. Adriana
teaches women entrepreneurs
how to makeover their
marketing to attract their
ideal clients to live their ideal
lifestyles.
THE QUESt FOR tHE
“EASY” StARtUP
Tabitha Jean Naylor
If you’ve ever played video games, you have heard the word quest
on a regular basis. You are often completing quests in order to save
the princess or find the missing dragon. If you haven’t noticed, these
adventures are not real.
The ‘easy’ startup is also a fantasy.
For some reason, there are many myths that are involved with running
a startup. Who thinks these fantasies up and spreads them around like
wildfire? Nobody knows. Often these rumors are started by those who
have never experienced running their own business. These myths are
also created by those who assume they know the answers to running a
startup.
The truth is, many people have dreams of beginning a startup but
are too afraid to move on it. Moving past your fear is the first step to
beginning a startup.
Before you truly begin, you must learn the truth behind many of the
myths that follow an ‘easy’ startup.
If your startup fails,
you’ve failed.
For some reason, people associate failure
with two ideas: that your product must not
be worth purchasing or that you should quit
altogether. This is absolutely incorrect.
Many successful startups have failed
numerous times. If you need proof, look
at one of the cofounders of Paypal – he
launched 4 startups; 3 failed and one did
“okay”.
Failure is more of a state of mind than
anything else. Yes, it means that something
needs to be changed because you did not
reach success, but success is also not a
journey. Many people need to fail to learn
and grow, because failure teaches lessons.
If you’re facing a failure with your startup,
find out why – what needs to be changed?
What areas of your startup were successful?
There are many questions you can ask
yourself to turn these negative issues into
positive opportunities.
Expectations: Expect to fail. Failure will
allow you to alter your business in ways that
will eventually benefit your company in the
future and open the doors for success when
you come out for round 2. If your startup
is successful from the get go, work hard to
ensure that it continues to thrive.
A new product will
obviously mean immediate
customers.
Unless you’re lucky enough to have a TV
infomercial that advertises your product line,
immediate customers is definitely a fantasy.
Just because you have created something
great does not mean customers are going to
flock to your business. In fact, many people may
not even know – or care – about your business.
Passion will keep your
business alive.
Whatever services or products you are trying
to sell are irrelevant; even if it’s something that
has never hit the market before. Unless it is an
absolutely breakthrough in science, it needs to
be properly marketed and given a purpose.
Did you know that passion doesn’t actually run
your business? It is extremely important to be
passionate about your company and brand. You
must care about your products and what you’re
going to be giving back to the public, yes, but it is
not what is going to keep your business thriving.
Customers need to be given a reason to care about
your product and know that it serves a purpose for
them that no other product can serve.
Expectations: You’re going to spend a lot
of time marketing and advertising through
social media and be reliant on word of
mouth, including your own, to spread
the news about your business. Even after
you’ve spent hours and hours marketing,
customers are still going to be far and few.
It may be months before you begin to see a
rise in customers, so don’t get discouraged.
Passion is not going to sell or market your
product. It isn’t going to spread the word
through friends and family. Once your products
have been sampled or used, the excitement in
customers may sell your product to others, but it
is not passion that will get it there.
Many startup founders get distracted with their
passion because they believe that their product is
good enough to sell itself. While it is vital to having
faith in your own products, you must be able to see
your products from the customer’s point of view.
Expectations: You have to allow yourself to see
things from an outside perspective. Being able to
accept criticism and make changes is what is going
to help keep your business going. If you’re too
passionate about your services or products, it may
be detrimental to your company. The dreams you
have of succeeding and selling an unbelievable
product should not trump your intelligence or
attention to details. Every product has flaws –
don’t let your vision blind you from seeing them.
If you don’t know, get a
cofounder who does.
It’s obvious you cannot do it all. While being the
jack of all trades is ideal, it’s often unrealistic.
Getting a cofounder can help reduce some of
your workload, but if you’re getting one for
the wrong reasons, your startup may still fail.
Because you aren’t familiar with the technical
details of running a startup is not reason enough
to find a cofounder to help your business.
You may be asking yourself why you need to know
something if you have a cofounder who knows already.
Expectations: You should have some knowledge in
every aspect of your startup. There will obviously
be large holes in your knowledge because some
business areas require a lot of education, such as
software programming or the financials, but having
some knowledge in each department is helpful. This
can provide you with some insight as to what is going
on in your business; this way, you aren’t completely
oblivious if something happens. If your cofounder is
busy or out of town, you must be able to step up to
the plate and know who to call if something breaks or
what the next step to take is to find a solution.
A good business plan is
the key to success.
For some reason, people in general think having
a plan is the best solution to avoiding chaos.
Then, when something goes awry you can panic
and have absolutely no idea what to do next.
Yes, a business plan can help lay things out and
begin a startup successfully. Depending what
kind of business you’re starting, a plan can help
you maintain a guideline as to how things are
supposed to be done or what your prediction
may be for the future.
Expectations: Stay realistic and remember:
a business plan is simply full of predictions.
The future can never be known even if you do
everything in your power to control it. Expect
your business plan to be a guideline rather than
something that is set in stone. Things can always go
in different directions and creating a new business
plan every time something changes is absurd.
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