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Entrepreneurship

Want to Leave a Great Legacy? Create an Ownership Mindset

by Guest Writter
written by Guest Writter
Scot Hunsaker, Author, Heroic Ownership

As business owners and leaders, we touch hundreds of lives. It is a tremendous privilege and awesome responsibility. We know the risks of creating and molding something. In spite of our success, we live each day in some amount of dread or fear that what we envision might fail.

That thought may sound something like this: What if this thing I’m making, which requires all of my time, energy, and resources, fails? And once your business gets off the ground, the fear of failure doesn’t go away. It just evolves into: Now that we are successful, how will I keep it that way? 

But here’s another critical question that we need to be asking ourselves as well: What happens to all of this and the people who helped build it when I go away someday?

To me, the answer to that question is crystal clear. We owe it to ourselves and to the families of the people who have joined with us in our endeavors to make a sincere effort to set up our companies to achieve the highest level of success even after we leave or die. We can do this not because it is easy or comfortable, but because that is what the others who have joined us in our journey deserve.

Most entrepreneurs are so busy doing the day to day things that, even with the best of intentions, it doesn’t happen. The numbers tell a sobering story born out of procrastination, or perhaps fear:

  • 66% of companies fold when the current leadership leaves.
  • 80% of business owners intend to sell the firm to family members or employees, only 13% complete the transaction.
  • 20% of business owners sell to a third party.
  • 50% of owners expect they will hand down the business to family members, yet in reality this happens only 15% of the time.
  • 30% of owners believe they will sell to their employees; this happens only 5% of the time.
  • 20% of owners believe they will sell to competitors, or that outsiders will purchase the company.

These percentages reflect the real-world outcomes. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Ownership Thinking

The best way that I have found to achieve this is through the creation of ownership thinking and opportunity for every person who emerges as a leader. If business owners chose to invest in their teams where would that take them? What happens when we create a leadership team that can carry on the organization when someday we choose not to come into the office every day?

Ownership thinking means your goal as a business owner is to nurture your employees and the people around you so that they can build out a skill set that allows them to make good decisions. Allowing people to innovate and improve upon your original design makes the company more agile. I can tell you from experience that if your business is to survive in the future, it will not be through a process that honors your legacy. It will be because someone revamped it and took it in an entirely new direction.

This isn’t to say that the machine of your business does not matter. However, as we’ve witnessed over and over in our work with business owners, those machines cannot create a legacy solely on their own, because they cannot change on their own. Humans are what bring innovation to machines, not the other way around. Humans are the only component of that equation with the capability to respond creatively when the landscape changes.

Creating Leaders Creates Value, Which Creates Legacy

By creating a leadership team with an ownership mindset, you can step outside of the company, and it will continue to run without needing your skills and leadership for it to survive and thrive.

It is no small coincidence that this also increases the value of your organization in the eyes of a third party. Someone else coming in who has interest in possibly purchasing your business is going to immediately understand that the business is worth more if it has been built with longevity in mind. Value increases if potential buyers know they don’t have to have the owner peering over their shoulder for five years. If you know that people are more important than the machine, then that transfer of institutional knowledge and business savvy will have already occurred.

As a leader, you have the option to structure your company so that it is about the people who run it, rather than the machine they run. The people around you will be able to feel the difference. And they will learn to trust you more deeply, which further opens up your options as a leader. As this process unfolds, your leadership team will self‐identify and tell you who they are.

Effective leadership is about managing change: anticipating it, reacting to it, moving through it, adapting to it. Navigating all of those elements of change successfully requires you to have built out a team of people you trust. The potential to do something great with your business machine will always depend on how it relates to the people who run it. When those tools work together in tandem with your leadership team, you are empowering your legacy to continue long after you are no longer around to protect its fate.

About the Author

Scot Hunsaker is the former CEO and owner of Counsilman-Hunsaker Aquatic Design.

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Entrepreneurship

Silicon Valley’s mystique isn’t being exported

by Ray Zinn
written by Ray Zinn

Silicon Valley’s aura is unique. Try though they might, other localities have yet to replicate it and likely never will.

In The Valley where I helped drive the semiconductor industry, we thrive on doing, and every vector of activity is based on doing things big. Nobody in the Silicon Valley technology world dreams of starting anything less than a global business. A good starting point for us is a million customers or users. Changing the world is considered the norm. In a word, Silicon Valley’s culture is geared to the exceptional.

Biases abound

Everyone is led by their biases, and in Silicon Valley, biases abound. What underlies the Silicon Valley mystique is a collection of well-integrated biases toward action.

Bias for disruption: Small, incremental changes are fine, but Silicon Valley prefers wholesale change. This is reflected in our entrepreneurs, our daily language, and our venture capital choices. The phrase status quo is only used negatively in Silicon Valley.

Bias for flying fast: Though I prefer investing in entrepreneurs seeking to create enduring companies, Silicon Valley prefers starting fast, ramping up faster, and selling out once the product concept is proven. This attracts venture capitalist who also have short horizons.

Bias for brains, not egos: In Silicon Valley, the best idea wins. This generates an egalitarian environment largely free of egos. Pride is replaced with patriation, collaboration, and a constant focus on the end-game.

Bias for global: From our semiconductor origins, Silicon Valley recognized that we were changing the world. The Internet has brought the cost of changing the world down to start-up affordability. Few venture capital pitches in Silicon Valley include business plans with mere regional or national aspirations.

Bias for bucks: Capitalism is a good word in Silicon Valley. With this is a bias for acquiring capital to disrupt technology and life as we know it. Taking investment money, making money, and then giving away our billions are considered saintly, not evil.

Cultures migrate, but are rarely exported

Herein is why no other city has replicated the Silicon Valley mystique.

What drives us is mainly cultural. Our local culture has self-assembled over the last 60 years. Our collective biases for risk taking, coopetition and disruption are interwoven into our people. What we think, whom we dine with, what risks we consider worth taking, even our local language evolved to support our biases for disruptively changing the world. It is an integrated culture, and like most cultures, it does not travel well.

Think about regional cultures in the United States. The warm hospitality of the Old South cannot be found above the Mason-Dixon line. Nor can the overly tolerant ethos of San Francisco be found in The Middle. Cultures can migrate, but it is a slow and sloppy march in the best of circumstances.

Silicon Valley’s integrated culture is less likely to find roots elsewhere. One aspect or another may be adopted in Austin, Portland or the Research Triangle, but the entire set of biases and the support systems that feed them cannot simply find new homes as a unit. Yet without each of these elements, what Silicon Valley does on a daily basis cannot be replicated. As long as our unique set of biases and abilities stays here, then Silicon Valley’s mystique will remain unique.

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EntrepreneurshipSmall Business

From A Crazy Idea To A Million Dollar Business In 60 Countries

by Guest Writter
written by Guest Writter
Michael Stausholm, Founder & CEO, Sprout

It all started with an idea from a group of students at MIT in  Boston back in 2012. When they got the challenge of developing ”the sustainable office article of the future”, they came up with the idea of a plantable pencil with a capsule of seeds in the end. When the pencil is planted, the capsule dissolves and sprout into herbs, vegetables or flowers.

When I saw the idea on the crowdfundingsite Kickstarter.com, I thought it was a fun idea but I also saw an invention with great potential because of its uniqueness and simple way of illustrating what sustainability is about. The idea is that you write down your pencil and then you give it a new life by planting it instead of throwing it away.

Today I am the main shareholder of Sprout and I own all the patents and rights of the Sprout pencils and color pencils. We have offices in Copenhagen and Boston, and we sell more than 500,000 pencils a month to over 60 countries. The major part of our clients are businesses and organizations that get their logo engraved and use the pencils as green giveaways for customers and business partners. The Sprout pencil has shown to be a perfect icebreaker when it comes to telling the world about what you do in terms of environment and CSR.

As CEO and founder of Sprout, I would like to share my learnings from the last three years; from the startup until today where Sprout is a million dollar business with a team of 18 people, not counting the production and packaging teams in both Europe and the US.

Looking back and summarizing what has led to our success, I would like to point out these five tips that I hope can inspire others with dreams about taking their idea or business to the next level.

1. The team – not the idea

People often think that the good idea is the main reason why a company has success. But this is not true. You can have lots of good ideas, but if you don´t have a team to back them up and execute in a smart manner, then the ideas are worth nothing. One of the things that I have spent hours on when Sprout started to grow is hiring people. Finding the right candidates with the right attitude and skills has been vital in the initial phase of building up a startup. I have read through all the resumés and personally interviewed all the candidates for a given job in Sprout. The most important thing when finding the right person is the mindset. Since we are a startup with a passion for recycling and sustainability, you must show some interest in these topics. But more importantly; you must be a team player and willing to help across the board at all times. I have been packaging pencils myself for our webshop at Christmas and so has everyone else in the team. Having a supportive team around you is crucial and my job is to make sure that everyone feels some kind of ownership of the success that we are experiencing in Sprout. If your employees are successful, so is your business. Most important is the sentence I learned from another Danish entrepreneur : ”Always hire slow, but fire fast”. Meaning you should always be careful when hiring, but never hesitate if you realise you have made a mistake.

2. Passion – not money

This sounds like a cliché, but in my experience money alone cannot drive you to success. Of course making money motivates and makes you go that extra mile to achieve your goals. But if it had not been for my passion, then I would have given up more than once; especially in the beginning when times were tough and I worked for months and months without getting paid. My passion has always been in the fields of corporate sustainability. From 1993 to 2006 I lived 14 years in Indonesia where I worked most of my time as a consultant helping big companies like Nike and Wal-Mart towards a more sustainable apparel production. I have always felt great satisfaction when I could see that I made a difference, even if it was just a humble contribution to make this planet a better place. The passion for taking care of our environment and thinking in more ecofriendly ways is still what motivates me when I wake up in the morning. And no, we cannot save the planet just by planting pencil stubs, but we CAN make people a bit more conscious about how and what they consume. So; never let money be the driver, always go with your passion. Then the money will follow

3. Believe – don´t listen

When I first started up Sprout, everyone around me was saying: “oh what a neat idea, but it can never be big business”. Even my best friend told me to give it up and find me a paid job after the first six months when I had no salary and was struggling to provide for my self and my son. At that moment it felt tempting to listen, but I had an inner belief in this project that I just could not ignore. So I decided to carry on and give everything I could for a period of another six months and fortunately things started to work out really well. If you believe in something then go ahead and don’t let people stop you no matter how realistic or convincing they might sound. That friend is today an investor and invested millions in the business. Always believe in yourself and what you do. If you don’t, no one else will.

4. Storytelling – not product

Today it is hard to stick out on products and prices – the competition in most markets is very tough. Instead try to focus on your storytelling. People buy dreams, stories and feelings – not only products. At Sprout we don´t just sell pencils. We sell symbols of sustainability. We sell the good feeling that you get when you buy something that you know is 100% biodegradable and produced under decent working conditions. We sell the pride of giving a product a new life and growing your own plants. Storytelling has been a number one tool for us since the very beginning and it is because of all the good stories we tell that thousands of bloggers and media around the world have written about us.

5. Go international

Think international, not just local. We started out in Denmark where I come from and where our main office is located. Denmark is a rich country but it has a very small population with only 5,5 million people thus the market is very limited. I soon realized that Denmark would be a test market in order to go international. If something works out really well in one country, it can often work out in other markets too. Today only 5 percent of our sales has to do with Denmark; our biggest markets are Italy, US, Germany, UK and France. In the US we opened up an office in Boston where we currently have 4 people. To successfully enter the American market, it is important for us to have a local team with the right contacts and a knowledge about how Americans think and act which can be quite different from Europeans.

About the Author

Key areas of experience, passion and expertise :

Responsible sourcing.

Sustainable, green and environmentally friendly business and products

Sustainable sourcing and procurement

Sales & marketing of sustainable consumer products

Independent consultant from 2006-2013 focus on responsible production and sustainable sourcing

Working and living in Asia from 1993 – 2006

Started out at AP Moller / Maersk Line as a shipping trainee.

Speaking engagements incl as example UNDP in Belorussia, and corporate speaks in Denmark

About Sprout:

Sprout is a startup founded in 2013. It is best known for its innovative plantable pencils and color pencils but it also makes plantable cards and small window boxes, Tasty Gardens, with hemp mats instead of soil to grow microgreens all year round. Sprout has clients like Disney, Bacardi, Bank of America, WWF, Marriott, Coca Cola that all get their logos engraved on the pencils and use them for green giveaways.

Sprout has offices in Copenhagen and Boston and sells more than 500.000 pencils a month to over 60 countries. See more on www.sproutworld.com

[Image courtesy of Sira Anamwong at FreeDigitalPhotos.net]

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Entrepreneurship

Three Strategies Every Entrepreneur Needs To Succeed In The U.S.

by Guest Writter
written by Guest Writter
Kris Finstad, CEO & Founder, ContentChecked

According to a report from National Venture Capital Association, in 2015 the venture capital ecosystem distributed $58.8 billion to startups across the U.S., an increase from $48.3 billion in 2014 and a clear indicator of the continued growth of the entrepreneurial market. However, penetrating the U.S. market is a challenge in and of itself due to the sheer size, population and the growing number of startups flocking to the states. Statistics have shown that only 10 percent of startups launching in the U.S. are successful. This daunting truth can be attributed to a variety of reasons including culture clashes, differences in business practices, and the competitiveness of the startup scene.

For many foreign entrepreneurs, myself included, moving operations to the U.S. is an integral step in securing capital and scaling a venture. However, although the road to a successful startup can be bumpy, it is not impossible. So, for any foreign entrepreneurs longing for that elusive U.S. capital, the following tips may help secure your company’s success.

1. Build A Solid Ecosystem

Investors want to see that a startup has the know-how and a proven team behind its idea. Hiring a team of engineers won’t cut it. A startup needs to have the brainpower to put together a business plan and strong knowledge of the industry and market it serves. It’s imperative to build a network of mentors, partners, and consultants that round out the team, but don’t be too hasty when looking for business partners. While navigating this arena, it’s important to not lose sight or compromise the company’s core values and practices. Having those major components covered will attract money, instill confidence in investors, and further elevate the company’s reputation.

2. Attracting Talent: Create An Appealing Environment (But Don’t Ditch Your Roots)

While it’s important to assimilate to U.S. culture when seeking investment, do hang on to aspects of your native culture that can be beneficial in a business and work environment. Upon moving to the U.S., keeping hold of my Scandinavian tendency to treat employees in a more familial and amicable way made for a much more tight knit work atmosphere. This allowed me to really vet all employees thoroughly and recognize a team player committed to executing the company goals. Identifying the right local team that fits within the defined company strategy and goals will be instrumental in finding success.

3. Stop Micromanaging And Learn To Juggle

While staying abreast of the daily internal and external communications is important, micromanaging staff will only hurt productivity. The CEO is responsible for the day-to-day management decisions and implementation of the company’s long term and short-term goals. It’s important to remember these roles. The minutiae of internal communication and managing employees should fall on the shoulders of trusted higher-level management. A CEO’s time and energy, in the early stages of startup or seed round, needs to be directed to securing funds. Learning to delineate tasks and trust management will not only instill confidence in employees, but will keep things running smoothly. Of course, a CEO’s counsel will be needed a majority of the time, but stifling management by constantly interfering will create an air of doubt.

There is no way you can predict the outcome of a U.S. launch, even if a company is already established overseas. The U.S. market is far more complicated, and much more appealing to venture capitalists, making the investment pool extremely competitive. Charting a clear course with precise milestones – understanding exactly who, what, when, where, and how you’ll be making business decisions will attract a talented team and catch an investor’s attention.

About the Author

Kris Finstad is the Founder, CEO, President and Director of Los Angeles based corporation Content Checked Holdings Inc. (OTCQB:CNCK) (ContentChecked). Since 2014, ContentChecked has served as a fast, reliable, and efficient  mobile application that helps consumers make empowered purchasing decisions in accordance with their dietary preferences. He is Co-founder of CheckContent AS, Norway, a Scandinavian branch of the food allergy application company. Kris has also co-founded and funded several startups in the technology, real estate and the bio-tech fields and holds several board member positions with various organizations.

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Entrepreneurship

Think Big, Act Bigger: The 4 Main Ingredients of Success

by Guest Writter
written by Guest Writter
Jeffrey Hayzlett, Chairman of C-Suite Network

When I decided to write my third book, Think Big, Act Bigger, I wanted to make sure my readers would get some practical takeaways. Something they could apply to their business regardless of industry. So I decided to make it a compilation of anecdotes and real-life stories aimed at inspiring entrepreneurs.

Going in, I had an idea of what I wanted to accomplish, but writing it and hearing these stories from these c-suite leaders and entrepreneurs served as a reminder of what needs to happen in business in order to succeed. You need to have a servant’s mentality, you need to take good risks, you need to steamroll your obstacles and find a bigger pond. Here are my takeaways, which I hope will serve as your takeaways:

1. Have a servant’s mentality.

You can’t ever lose sight of getting ahead by helping others – no matter how far your career takes you. Whether you’re a CEO or a regular employee, always ask: How can I help you? What can I help you with? What can I do? Simply put, serve people, not companies. No matter what the U.S. Supreme Court says, companies are not people. Companies are what people make them. Don’t hide behind emails, submission forms and empty emails that go nowhere. If you truly value your customers, take the time to talk to them…and SERVE them.

2. Take good risks.

Entrepreneurs are risk-takers by nature. They are resilient and calm in the eye of the storm. Entrepreneurs are constantly putting themselves out there, willing to try new things – therefore taking a progressive risk, as opposed to the thrill-seeking kind. Don’t take risks just for the heck of it. You’ll go nowhere fast!

Taking a risk paid off for Domino’s Pizza. They were all about fast delivery – pizza in 30 minutes or less, or your pizza was free. They weren’t concerned about taste or quality; they just wanted to get you your pizza. But as technology changed and more people were able to discuss the brand online, Dominos realized they had a problem. Their pizza sucked, and people were talking about it. Images went viral of pizza being delivered on time, but the cheese and toppings stuck to the cardboard.

Dominos took to the airwaves and made a huge proclamation – we hear you, our pizzas suck, and we promise to improve them. And they did. When they rolled out the new campaign and new recipe, sales skyrocketed. Don’t be afraid to take a risk and never be afraid of open honest communication with your customers. You might be surprised by what you learn.

3. Steamroll obstacles.

Entrepreneurs are constantly faced with a number of unfamiliar challenges that they must navigate through. In order to conquer those obstacles, you must have the ability to tackle (and steamroll) all of these variants that will (not might) be thrown your way. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Everyone should always have a ‘big, bad wolf’ in his or her story, just don’t let it beat you. Steamrolling obstacles is the only way to get to the next level again and again. Don’t side step them, face them. You must:

  • Understand that obstacles aren’t just roadblocks. They can present opportunities to think differently
  • Don’t settle: Think beyond the questions and obstacles you have now in order to eliminate them in the future
  • Don’t get mad (or even). Just get ahead, especially when it comes to your competition

4. Find a Bigger Pond. 

There is always somebody bigger than you or getting bigger and gaining. Once you become successful in your business its time to find a bigger pond to “fish” in.  Whether you expand the pond you’re “fishing” in or move into deeper waters, you must ask yourself:

  • What’s next?
  • What do we need to do to reach our bigger goals?
  • How will our brand, services, products, technologies, and people keep standing out from the rest?

That’s the path I took. I made myself big in Sioux Falls, SD, my hometown. I found a bigger pond at the state level. Then I realized there were 49 other states I could deep-sea fish in. Regardless of which pond you end up in, always stay true to yourself. That is the balance everyone must reach: adapting your business to a different pond while never leaving your identity behind.

Not every career prepares you for life as an entrepreneur, or a small business owner; but if you do sign up, get ready to enjoy the ups and downs. It’s a hell of a ride, one with high rewards if you can adapt and roll with the punches!

About the Author

Jeffrey Hayzlett is a primetime television and radio host of C-Suite with Jeffrey Hayzlett and Executive Perspectives on C-Suite TV and All Business with Jeffrey Hayzlett on CBS on-demand radio network Play.It. Hayzlett is a global business celebrity, speaker, best-selling author, and Chairman of C-Suite Network, home of the world’s most powerful network of C-Suite leaders. Connect with Hayzlett on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ or www.hayzlett.com.

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Entrepreneurshipsales

4 Steps to Sell Anything to Anyone

by Guest Writter
written by Guest Writter
Carmit Yadin, Author, “How to BOOM B2B Sales”

You have an idea. You start a company. You develop, refine and produce your solution or product.

You stand back and take rightful pride in your creation. Now what?

You have to sell it!

For many entrepreneurs sales can seem like a daunting obstacle in their path to success. It seems like a completely different world requiring a completely different skill set than product development. There are a lot of differences, but that doesn’t make them insurmountable.

I made the transition from engineer to salesperson a few years ago. I had a thorough grasp on the technology business after working in it for over a decade, but it was a difficult transition to make, and didn’t garner me immediate success. Eventually, through observation, trial and error, and some creative thinking it came: The Four Steps that allow you to sell anything to anyone.

  1. Do your homework so you can understand your customer or anyone else you intend to sell to. Know about their roles and objectives. Have a comprehensive understanding and knowledge of your offering, whether a product, a plan or an idea. Make sure you know every possible detail about the entire situation. Don’t let a sale slip away because you didn’t know how their company functions.
  2. Learn to ask and listen. You should know how to present your ideas to your audience. The wrong presentation comes across as pushy. Learning to ask the right questions and truly listen to the answers will help you understand the needs of the people you are selling to and how the product can help them achieve their goals. Listening will help you know what matters to your customers and how to present the product or idea in a way that they will see its benefits rather than disadvantages.
  3. Forge a genuine relationship between you and your customer. To achieve this, you will need to explain things in a way they understand, and not talking to them as a salesperson. Greet and interact with them as you would with a colleague or friend, while keeping it professional. This relationship can tell you what an individual is looking for and how to address their concerns appropriately.
  4. Know which side you are on. Hint: it’s theirs. It is essential that you always keep in mind that you are working for the customer and trying to sell the product or item to them is a way of helping them meet their goals. Selling is all about convincing the customer of your ability to make them more successful and then proving it to them.

Sales doesn’t have to be scary. It only has to be a conversation. Remember, business is between people, not companies.

About the Author

Carmit Yadin is an international speaker and author helping leaders in business improve their B2B relationships and accelerate business growth. She is the author of “How to BOOM B2B Sales.” For more information visit www.carmityadin.com

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EntrepreneurshipSelf Governance

Learning to See Past the Blind Spots

by Guest Writter
written by Guest Writter
Samantha DiGennaro, Founder & CEO, DiGennaro Communications

Many entrepreneurs resist the strictures of hierarchy, and I am no exception. We want the best ideas and actions to come from anywhere and take flight. In my experience, hierarchies limit people, keeping them at prescribed levels and often times preventing them from thinking bigger or stretching beyond their comfort zones.

When I started my business in 2006, I wanted “flat,” open-ended management for our team, unrestricted by rigid reporting structures and processes. I wanted us to function with the scrappiness, flexibility, agility, and sportsmanship of the softball teams I played on throughout my school years and beyond. No single person on the field is more important than another. A team in the zone produces results that far surpass those of any one individual. If the centerfielder needs to cover second base during a routine play or the pitcher needs to line up a relay to the plate, she does so. Every person contributes in any way they can.

Unlike Mark Zuckerberg, I didn’t wear a hoodie and prowl the office with a samurai sword in DGC’s early days,but we were (and still are) similarly fun-loving, informal, highly energized, resourceful and very scrappy. We laughed loudly and often and still do. When people are bright, motivated, self-starting, accountable and entrepreneurially spirited, they can work well and effectively without a lot of stifling managerial layers.

Starting my own business was exciting, fun and scary. Any scintilla of familiarity was comforting, and I tapped friends and relatives as my first staffers to help me chart these new waters. My uncle was my business lawyer.  I paid a girlfriend who was out of work to organize all of our files and magazines. Even my mom came in on a few occasions to help set up and organize our first office.They all contributed to building a loose operational infrastructure.

As we grew, I learned that all the hierarchy and process I’d been resisting actually created some blind spots that would need to be addressed to yield ongoing growth.

Over the years, I’ve read lots of business books, many of which purport that the team that takes the company from $0 to $5 million may not possess the skills and experience to get it to $10 million and beyond. For any business to grow, it must continually invest in resources, advisors and talent with ever sharper skills and deeper experience.

Once I came to accept these realities, I began to invest in talent with new skill sets and different backgrounds that were better suited to manage the company’s long-term growth and push it further. I hired DGC’s first  president and conceded to the implementation of processes and personnel structures, which our new breed of talent desired. In other words: hierarchies.

Investment spurs growth and vice versa as noted in a 2015 survey of small business owners. Fifty-seven percent of respondents expected their companies’ revenue to grow this year, and as such, 38 percent said they planned to add staff.

As much as our teams loved not having hierarchies, they did want to know who their direct boss was. Who was evaluating their performances and providing counsel as we began working with sophisticated and savvy Fortune 500 clients? We needed a structure and titles that reflected those of our client executives who grapple with complex business challenges.

In the past nine years, I’ve learned that our growth also made our business challenges more complex, necessitating an investment in more specialized (and more expensive) legal and financial counsel.

Almost suddenly, we felt less like a start-up operation and more like a legitimate business because we had an A-team with diverse sets of skills that expanded our offering. As nice as it is to be able to hire friends and family, I learned that it’s not a sustainable business (or emotional) practice over the long term.

If you’re in the early stages of a business you started, keep in mind that we all have blind spots. Think hard about what yours might be, and talk to a trusted business advisor about how to address them over the long term. The success of your business depends on it.

 

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Entrepreneurship

Remember to have fun each day at work

by Guest Writter
written by Guest Writter
Saurabh Saxena, CEO & Founder, Holachef.com

Being an entrepreneur is a continuous learning process. Every day, I feel more enlightened than before. Startup life not only grooms you into being a seasoned businessperson, it also tests and hones your people-management skills which help in personal life too.

The most important aspect to consider for an aspiring entrepreneur is whether the business idea she/he is contemplating is what they are absolutely passionate about. ‘Follow your passion’ might sound like a clichéd line but it’s also the most difficult to live by. Often, people don’t understand where their true interest lies. Wanting to start a food business because one is a ‘foodie’ can often be a false premise to start with. Being an entrepreneur is a difficult journey. Can you stay motivated and inspired to pull it through even on bad days? That’s the real question to ask yourself over and over. Work-life balance exists outside of an entrepreneur’s world in the teething years of a startup. If you are truly devoted to your idea, you will enjoy the chaos. If not, you will be struggling each day without any creative motivation to move ahead constructively.

Often, aspiring entrepreneurs make the mistake of believing that since it’s their business idea, they know what’s best for it. It’s important to understand that while you have the vision, you would need help from a lot of people to get there. Always choose to hire people who are better than you. When building a team, look for people who have qualities and skills that you don’t have. Your team will nurture your idea and help it grow into something big under your leadership.

When turning an idea into a business plan, be aware that you might have to evolve your concept into something different than what you first started with. Be open to these changes because it will only help build a more polished product or service. Today, businesses need to keep up with the dynamic market expectations. Hence, tweaking a business plan to suit the end consumer better is always a great idea.

Keep your ears and eyes open. There’s a lot to learn out there. Connect with people who can enrich your thought process or inspire you with their stories. Being an entrepreneur gives you a lot of opportunity to reach out to people from different walks of life. Make an effort to truly absorb something of value from them.

Be patient while your idea grows into a money-making business. Don’t get disheartened with backward pushes in the initial stages. It’s only an opportunity for you to sling ahead harder. Don’t waste time on mistakes that have already been made. There will be way too many. Just learn from them and move ahead.

Set processes. Get into the habit of starting with a process blueprint for everything that you do in your startup. It will save you a lot of resources (time, being the most important) in the long run. It will also set a great foundation for your business to grow upon.

Keep your eyes at the vision at all times. Know what your ultimate vision is and stay focused on that. It will help you in decision making at every step. When faced with a difficult situation, ask yourself what will help you move closer to your vision and choose to do that. You will realize that soon you are taking all the right steps and growing faster than you expected.

Having said all this, here’s my most important advice to all entrepreneurs – remember to have fun each day at work. If you are not enjoying it, you should probably shut shop and go home. Having fun with what you do will keep you high on energy and take care of a lot of things which would seem like a burden otherwise. So no matter what’s going wrong or what challenges come your way, remember that it was you who chose to be an entrepreneur. Nobody forced you into it. Enjoy every moment of it.

[Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net]

About the Author

Saurabh Saxena is an IIT Bombay alumnus. He has been part of the startup ecosystem in India since 2006 – as an entrepreneur, as well as an angel investor. Having been on both sides, his understanding of business, strategy, scalability and profitability is seasoned and supported by his rich experience. In September 2014, Saurabh co-founded Holachef, a restaurant based in cloud. It connects top-notch chefs with foodies through a  simple online ordering service.

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Entrepreneurship

The American Entrepreneurial Spirit

by Guest Writter
written by Guest Writter
W. Gary Sitton, Author, Fire Up Your Startup and Keep it Up

In 2004, I taught a graduate class in the School of Engineering titled “Technical Startups”. There were 17 enrolled students, six of whom were international students. In 2014, I taught the same class with 25 students, twelve of whom were international. Currently in my spring 2015 class, eight out of the nine enrolled students are East Indian. Nearly all of the students in these three classes are graduate students in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering and Computer Science.

Even though the class sizes are small, and any inferences that I might make are purely anecdotal, I can’t help but wonder if the profile of each class may be an indicator of some underlying issues. For example, has there been a shift, over the years, in the proportion of American-born students as compared to international students in engineering classes? Entrepreneurship courses? Has there been a decline in American student interest in starting a company? What can be done to incentivize Americans to pursue the American Dream? Answers to these questions involve speculation, to be sure.

In this blog, I invite other faculty members who have taught entrepreneurial classes to weigh in on these questions.

The US Small Business Administration shows that 60% of all startups fail within four years; 30% fail within two years; and most alarming, only 18% of first-time startups succeed. Has our society drifted to a point where a “fear of failure” mentality causes more of our nation’s youth to “seek a job” rather than “make a job?”

Certainly, there has been an explosive growth in entrepreneurship programs at the university level over the past decade. Such courses help future entrepreneurs understand the importance of a sustainable revenue stream. They also provide students with knowledge of marketing and sales, human resources, business law, basic accounting, customer support, quality assurance, employee retention and recognition, research and development, startup funding, realistic budget preparation and the importance of metrics to assess budget-to-actual performance. However, these classes don’t necessarily teach the “entrepreneurial attitude” required of founders of startups.

Classes such as mine address these topics, but developing a “final exam” to determine how to start a successful business seems folly.  While there are many standard skills which can help a startup succeed, each business is unique unto itself. What may help is for a respected organization, such as the AICPA, to recommend a selected reading list of contemporary business books to help the startup understand the many aspects of running a successful business. Innovation incubators also have shown progress in helping startups gain a foothold. Also, entrepreneur centers associated with universities show promise. Having retired executives volunteer mentoring is also helpful.

But my main suggestion is to reach the future entrepreneur while they are young.  I suggest that we can help more businesses succeed, and improve on the 18% statistic, by encouraging young people to engage in entrepreneurism early, and to integrate entrepreneurial thinking into K-12 schools.

Instilling the entrepreneurial spirit in young people shows great promise. Getting the word out to middle and high school students is the goal of SAGE, Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship. Their mission is to “create the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders whose innovations address some of the world’s most urgent needs”. Dr. Curt DeBerg, SAGE founder, has launched programs in twenty-one countries and seven states. Dr. DeBerg and his colleagues have developed teacher workshops and school licensing initiatives to foster and grow the mission.

The fuel that fires commerce has always been the American entrepreneurial spirit.  It is quite important to explore initiatives that will encourage people to achieve the American Dream of starting your own business.

About the Author

W. Gary Sitton received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from California State University, Chico where he now teaches. His 2014 spring class was the catalyst that led Gary to write the book, Fire Up Your Startup and Keep It Up. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from University of Alberta. Sitton is also a member of a number of local boards including the Gateway Science Museum.

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Entrepreneurship

Leadership Lessons from the Entrepreneurial Trenches

by Guest Writter
written by Guest Writter
Angie Morgan, Co-founder, Lead Star

Entrepreneurialism.  When most hear that word they think excitement, adventure, and unlimited opportunities.  While true, there are other words that complete the picture: Stress, anxiety, and sleepless nights.

I’ve been an entrepreneur for 11 years.  While the journey has been worthwhile, it hasn’t been easy.  During those dark, difficult days when you wonder how you’ll make payroll, or whether the purchase order will come through, you need to rely on something to keep you going.

Fortunately for my business partner and me, we had our Marine Corps training to fall back on to help us take action when our instincts were calling our ambition into question.

Here are four lessons we learned from the entrepreneurial trenches that have helped us persevere whenever we have felt uncertain:

  • Don’t fall in love with your plan.  Business plans are great, but they’re not everything. We learned early on that while planning was important, execution was more important.  And as we took action, our environment changed.  We had to be flexible with our plan as new information presented itself.  Sometimes that meant adapting our plan; other times that meant scrapping it all together. Knowing that we didn’t have to stick to a plan was often all that we needed to respond quickly to changing market conditions.
  • Be prepared for friction. Entrepreneurs are creating something that has never existed before, which is a recipe for uncertainty. The Corps taught us that when we were forging new ground we had to plan for friction – that unknown force that might disrupt our efforts.  As a result, we’re comfortable with being uncomfortable.  Whenever we experience ambiguity, we like to remind ourselves that this is part of the job, which has an oddly calming effect.
  • If not you, then who?  Being an entrepreneur requires a tremendous amount of confidence.  After all, many people will doubt you on your entrepreneurial journey, such as clients, lenders, and – sad but true – friends and family.   But don’t be dismayed by the naysayers. While we developed our confidence in the Marine Corps, you don’t need to have worn a uniform to be confident.  You just have to believe in yourself and remind yourself frequently that if others have done it, you can, too.
  • Go all in.   Remember “Shock and Awe?” That phrase that came out of the war in Iraq?  It related to operational excellence and the intensity of focus displayed by the military.  “Shock and Awe” is a great analogy for what entrepreneurs need to do to succeed.  When starting anything new, don’t be timid … don’t put forth a half-hearted effort … and don’t hesitate with your action.  Go all in and truly commit yourself to your idea.

These lessons are tried, true and exceptionally valuable for anyone – at any stage – in their entrepreneurial venture.  If you have the courage to act on your dream, and are mentally prepared to manage the stress associated with entrepreneurship, you’re well on your way to achieving success.

About the Author

Angie Morgan is a former Marine Corps captain and co-founder of Lead Star, a nationally-recognized leadership development consulting firm.  Morgan is also the co-author of Leading from the Front: No-Excuse Leadership Tactics for Women (McGraw-Hill), which became a business bestseller.

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LeadershipSmall Business

Five common mistakes of entrepreneurs and how to avoid them

by Guest Writter
written by Guest Writter
Jenny Q. Ta, CEO, Sqeeqee
Businesses fail for all sorts of reasons: poor planning, lack of cash flow, not understanding the market, treating customers poorly and much more.
As a successful entrepreneur, author and CEO of Sqeeqee, the first-of-its-kind social networthing® site, I have found that these are the five common mistakes that entrepreneurs make:
Underestimating how much time, money and effort is needed to start a business
Starting up business takes a great deal of time, effort and money, more than most entrepreneurs realize. Whether it’s dealing with issues and problems, getting everything in place, finding the right people to work with, or something else. You can expect all of your resources and planning to be stretched.
You need to make sure that your estimates, targets and business plans are flexible. A good rule of thumb is to assume that everything you do to start up your business will take 20% – 30% more time, effort or money than you expect. Your business plans, resources and practices should reflect that.
Not researching the market and believing that people will buy your product or service
The phrase ‘If you build it, they will come’ simply does not apply in business. When people are voting with their wallets, they are only going to spend money on products and services that fulfill some sort of need. One of the main mistakes of inexperienced entrepreneurs is that they don’t do the research to establish whether a product or service is actually useful to anyone; they build it, launch it… and get no customers. This comes down to one very simple thing: market research.
Before you commit to developing a product or service, you need to validate your idea through market research. You need to identify your target audience and find out from them if what you are planning is something that they actually need and would spend money on. Don’t make the mistake of asking your friends or family; you need to ask the people that you’ll be relying on to spend their hard-earned cash on your business – your potential customers.
Not launching soon enough
You’re not going to make any money from your business until you have a product or service out there for people to buy. Many entrepreneurs get stuck in ‘analysis paralysis’ where they spend months analyzing what they should be doing; they test, tweak, iterate, test and tweak again, without making anything publicly available. While is it vital to have a good strategic plan and a way to reach your market, you shouldn’t hold off of launching because of fear, anxiety or concern that not everything is ‘perfect’.
You can avoid this by having some courage and confidence in your product and releasing something that is ‘good enough’ and relatively feature complete. You can then learn from the product, iterate over time and refine it into something amazing. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes: the best entrepreneurs learn from them. However, as the next point shows, you shouldn’t launch before you are ready.
Launching too soon
In contrast to the previous point, another common mistake is launching too early. A shoddy product or service that’s not fit for purpose will create angry customers, a bad public image and will be hard to recover from. Don’t let impatience cause you to rush into getting something onto the market as quickly as possible.
That’s why it’s important not to launch too soon. You need to make sure that what you’re building has the right balance between quality, ease of use, features and value for money. This will come from analyzing your market, testing your product out with focus groups, looking at feedback and your own internal testing.
Not listening to customers
Customers are the single most important factor in having a successful business. You ignore customers at your peril; they can provide great feedback, be advocates for your business and also add directly to your bottom line through repeat or ongoing purchases.
Treat your customers well by providing good after sales care, having effective customer service in place and letting them know what they need to do if they have any issues or problems.
In closing
Although there’s no surefire route to success in business, the mistakes above probably account for around 90% of the failures of small businesses. If you can look at each of these areas in detail and take practical steps to avoid these mistakes, you’ll have a much stronger foundation for your business, a greater chance of being a successful entrepreneur and a way to turn your business dreams into reality.

About the Author

Jenny Q. Ta is the founder and CEO of Sqeeqee, the first-of-its-kind social networthing™ site.  Launched in 2014, the site gives individuals, businesses, celebrities, politicians, and non-profit organizations the ability to monetize their profiles in unprecedented ways. 

Ms. Ta is a seasoned entrepreneur with two successful ventures to her credit.  She was the Founder and CEO of Titan Securities, a full service investment firm that she grew to more than $250 million in assets and was acquired in 2005.  Prior to founding Titan Securities she was the driving force behind Vantage Investments, a full-service broker-dealer start-up she founded in 1999 at the age of 27. 

Jenny is also an author whose book, Wall Street Cinderella, will launch in 2014 detailing her escape from Vietnam during the war and her path to success from welfare to Wall Street.   As a self-made millionaire by the time she was 27, the book will serve as a roadmap for women looking at a business career.

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Management

Entrepreneurial Lessons Learned While Pioneering a New Business

by Guest Writter
written by Guest Writter
Jeff Pintar, founder of Pintar Investment Company

Since founding Pintar Investment Company–a vertically integrated real estate services company and advisor to both institutional and individual investors, the company has experienced a tremendous amount of trying times. As its owner, I have gained insight from these experiences that may be beneficial for other entrepreneurs.

The best advice I can give to those looking to start a business, is be prepared to “fail your way to success” and build a team with a resilient mindset that will keep going despite the odds or setbacks.

Here are four other key lessons I’ve learned along the way:

1. Don’t be afraid to go against the grain

During a market downturn, businesses may get more cautious with the risks they take. This could provide a window for new startups to carve out a niche in a particular industry impacted by the downturn. Rather than holding on to strategies and business practices that have become commonplace for those in similar positions, consider going against the grain and being open to seeing new opportunities that may arise.

2. Know the business inside and out

Being a first mover in any industry requires one to create systems, policies and procedures that may not have existed before. Research from the ground up to fully understand how all aspects of the business work in unison. There will likely be many challenges and financial risks in the initial growth phase. Throughout the process, be ready to put in a lot of the “grunt work” and put your own capital at risk for what you believe in. In explosive growth industries, the pioneers always pay a bit of “dumb tax.” But if you are able to quickly course-correct and adjust your strategy, you improve chances of seeing a positive return on investment in the long-term.

3. Be flexible

One size does not fit all. To ensure that your company provides the best products and services available, remain flexible to your individual clients’ needs and continually look for new solutions the company can offer for their benefit. One suggestion may be to increase convenience in a fast-paced business environment. Consider a vertically aligned approach where, depending on each client’s unique needs, one can choose to utilize a particular type of service or tap into a full range of services from start to finish. Enabling this scalability from the inception of your business could provide a real competitive advantage.

4. Invest in your future – provide others opportunities to share and learn

A business should keep an eye out for new talent on an ongoing basis. One option that tends to be mutually beneficial is to create an active internship program, giving students an opportunity to gain insight and experience in your industry. A main goal should be to instill the core values of your business into the next generation while providing a rewarding and challenging experience for those involved.

As aspiring entrepreneurs look to expand reach and grow their businesses, they should look at challenges as lessons and new opportunities to bring much-needed solutions to a dynamic, ever-changing industry.

About the Author

Jeff Pintar is the founder of Pintar Investment Company—a residential real estate operator and advisor blending industry expertise with ongoing data collection to boost clients’ efficiency, productivity and return on investment—whose direction and vision for the organization, along with more than 22 years of experience have enabled him to successfully grow the firm into the industry leader it is today. With its advisory management approach and industry leading model, Pintar Investment Company is a category leader with national operations throughout California, Las Vegas, Georgia and Florida. For more information, visit www.pintarinvestmentcompany.com.

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About Nick Vaidya 

The Host Of The CEO Show at The CEO Magazine. A serial entrepreneur, whose previous roles include managing a multi-billion dollar product line profitability for Dell and an Executive with Razorfish. Nick’s work is influenced by his doctoral research in empiricism, a wide variety of business roles, and the study of the ancient wisdom of the Vedanta.

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