Thursday, November 19, 2009
Setbacks
Visiting today with local entrepreneur Bruce Dew, and we were talking about the setbacks that we sometimes run into when we’re launching and growing our businesses. I told him that one of my friends likes to say he has “started 10 companies…three that were successful and seven that I don’t talk about.” Bruce gave me an equally wonderful phrase about dealing with those times when things don’t work out. As he put it: “ A set-back is a set-up for the come-back.”
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
The Elephant in Your Room
Interesting posts coming from the blog, Both Sides of the Room by Mark Suster, entrepreneur turned VC. I particularly liked his recent post on Dealing with the Elephant in the Room.
There’s an old saying that if I’m talking with you and I start the conversation by saying, “whatever you do, DO NOT think about Elephants” then you can’t help but thinking about elephants while we’re speaking. There’s a lot of truth in this adage. It’s sometimes called “The Elephant in the Room” because even when you don’t mention not to think about an Elephant there are certain issues that you just can’t stop thinking about whether they are brought up or not.
Many businesses that pitch to me have Elephant issues and I’d like to tell you how to deal with these when you’re raising venture capital. Elephant issues are those things that the VC would automatically be thinking about when you’re speaking but he/she may not immediately ask you about either for legal reasons or out of courtesy.
But the VC is thinking about the issue whether you address it or not. I’d like to separate these from skeletons in your closet which are issues that the VC would have no idea about when you’re meeting but might discover later during due diligence.
You might want to include Mark’s blog as part of your must-reading list.
There’s an old saying that if I’m talking with you and I start the conversation by saying, “whatever you do, DO NOT think about Elephants” then you can’t help but thinking about elephants while we’re speaking. There’s a lot of truth in this adage. It’s sometimes called “The Elephant in the Room” because even when you don’t mention not to think about an Elephant there are certain issues that you just can’t stop thinking about whether they are brought up or not.
Many businesses that pitch to me have Elephant issues and I’d like to tell you how to deal with these when you’re raising venture capital. Elephant issues are those things that the VC would automatically be thinking about when you’re speaking but he/she may not immediately ask you about either for legal reasons or out of courtesy.
But the VC is thinking about the issue whether you address it or not. I’d like to separate these from skeletons in your closet which are issues that the VC would have no idea about when you’re meeting but might discover later during due diligence.
You might want to include Mark’s blog as part of your must-reading list.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Entrepreneurs and the Economy
If you haven’t seen the article in the Opinion section of the Wall Street Journal today written by Carl Schramm, Robert Litan and Dane Stangler of the Kauffman Foundation, you should. The article, titled New Business, Not Small Business, Is What Creates Jobs, is a wonderful piece reminding all (especially those in Washington) of the importance that entrepreneurs play in our economy. It also has some interesting suggestions that all, even those in academia, should consider.
Facebook and the Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur from LA sent over this article by Dan Fost from the Los Angeles Times on using Facebook for your small business. From the article, which is titled Facebook Becoming Big Friend to Small Businesses:
Businesses need to go where their customers are, and increasingly these days, that's on Facebook and other social media sites, analysts say. More than 300 million people have signed up for Facebook, and half of them visit the site every day.
"Over the past two years, we've seen this increasing uptick in businesses realizing that their customers are on Facebook," said Tim Kendall, Facebook's director of monetization product marketing. "If they can create a presence in Facebook that allows customers to connect with them, it can be a way to strengthen that connection and also to find new customers.
"Plenty of other sites are also wooing small local businesses. The review site Yelp, Citysearch and a host of Yellow Pages sites are all making a push.And typically, businesses don't stick to one site such as Facebook. Instead, they spread their presence across the social media landscape, including MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn. Increasingly, these sites connect with one another so that a status update on Facebook becomes a tweet on Twitter, or a blog post could be pushed out to several sites.
Businesses need to go where their customers are, and increasingly these days, that's on Facebook and other social media sites, analysts say. More than 300 million people have signed up for Facebook, and half of them visit the site every day.
"Over the past two years, we've seen this increasing uptick in businesses realizing that their customers are on Facebook," said Tim Kendall, Facebook's director of monetization product marketing. "If they can create a presence in Facebook that allows customers to connect with them, it can be a way to strengthen that connection and also to find new customers.
"Plenty of other sites are also wooing small local businesses. The review site Yelp, Citysearch and a host of Yellow Pages sites are all making a push.And typically, businesses don't stick to one site such as Facebook. Instead, they spread their presence across the social media landscape, including MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn. Increasingly, these sites connect with one another so that a status update on Facebook becomes a tweet on Twitter, or a blog post could be pushed out to several sites.
Soda Pop!
We like to say in entrepreneurship that it’s all about the passion for your venture. After hearing John Hendricks of Discovery Channel talk recently, I’m amending that to say it’s about passion bordering on obsession that’s needed to make a business a success. Take a look at this video of an entrepreneur who is exactly that about his business.
http://videos.komando.com/2009/10/11/amazing-soda-shop/
http://videos.komando.com/2009/10/11/amazing-soda-shop/
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Tell a Story
I love stories…maybe it’s my heritage in working for Disney, or maybe it’s just because I think they are a wonderful vehicle to tell about projects or programs…better than reciting a mind-numbing list of facts and figures. To the point of storytelling, my friend Dwain Deville, just sent over this article from Business Week.
From the article:
Tell classic stories. Most reporters don't care about a tiny startup, and that's why Benioff never positioned himself as such. He told a classic David-vs.-Goliath story. "We gave the media something different. We gave them something new. We always positioned ourselves as revolutionaries. We went after the largest competitor in the industry or the industry itself. We made our story about change. We were about something new and different that was good for customers, and good for the community. We talked about the future." Although the media landscape is changing, Benioff believes there will always be a need for content. The delivery model might be changing, but exchanging and sharing stories and information remains as important as ever.
Make your own metaphors. According to Benioff, simple metaphors are a terrific way to communicate your message. "I spend a lot of time creating metaphors to explain what we do. For example, early on I explained what we did with the metaphor "salesforce.com is Amazon.com (AMZN) meets Siebel Systems." Later when we launched AppExchange we called it "the eBay (EBAY) of enterprise software." Anyone can create their own metaphors, says Benioff. "Just remember to test them before you put them out there. Try a few and run them by customers, analysts, and people in your network to make sure they work."
I’d add that even if you’re not dealing with reporters, but instead are talking to board members, funding sources, stakeholders, friends of your program, etc…stories are a powerful way to get your message across. And what’s best, if your Board members hears a story, it then becomes a story that he/she can tell and it gets your message out even further into the community. Think stories…gather them, edit them and tell them to get your message out in way that facts and figures never can.
From the article:
Tell classic stories. Most reporters don't care about a tiny startup, and that's why Benioff never positioned himself as such. He told a classic David-vs.-Goliath story. "We gave the media something different. We gave them something new. We always positioned ourselves as revolutionaries. We went after the largest competitor in the industry or the industry itself. We made our story about change. We were about something new and different that was good for customers, and good for the community. We talked about the future." Although the media landscape is changing, Benioff believes there will always be a need for content. The delivery model might be changing, but exchanging and sharing stories and information remains as important as ever.
Make your own metaphors. According to Benioff, simple metaphors are a terrific way to communicate your message. "I spend a lot of time creating metaphors to explain what we do. For example, early on I explained what we did with the metaphor "salesforce.com is Amazon.com (AMZN) meets Siebel Systems." Later when we launched AppExchange we called it "the eBay (EBAY) of enterprise software." Anyone can create their own metaphors, says Benioff. "Just remember to test them before you put them out there. Try a few and run them by customers, analysts, and people in your network to make sure they work."
I’d add that even if you’re not dealing with reporters, but instead are talking to board members, funding sources, stakeholders, friends of your program, etc…stories are a powerful way to get your message across. And what’s best, if your Board members hears a story, it then becomes a story that he/she can tell and it gets your message out even further into the community. Think stories…gather them, edit them and tell them to get your message out in way that facts and figures never can.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Women Owned Businesses
In case you haven’t heard, the number of women owned businesses are on the rise. The Center for Women’s Business Research released their latest report and as reported in a story by Mickey Meese of the NY Times, the report estimates that “eight million businesses — or 28 percent of all businesses — were owned by women, and that those businesses created or maintained 16 percent of all jobs in a range of industries like business services, personal services, retail, health care, communications and real estate.” Here is the link to the rest of the story, One in Four Businesses Calls the Owner ‘Ma’am’. You might also want to visit the Center’s website for more information on this growing sector of business.
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