Random Considerations for New Entrepreneurs

Some hands-on how to’s

I was researching Entrepreneurship programs at many of our glorious institutions of higher learning in a quest to identify potential associates. I came across an advertisement for Entrepreneurship classes. It described what studies would be included and how the classes would be structured. And like most college offerings, the ad also mentioned the “Job Fair” and Employer Recruiting efforts.

What stood out in that ad to me was why a entrepreneurial-minded student would sign up for classes in Entrepreneurship when one of the highlights of the class was a “Job Fair”? Probably because the Department Head has never been an entrepreneur and doesn’t understand that these students are studying entrepreneurship to avoid getting a job.

All new entrepreneurs should understand that according to Government statistics, 85% of all new traditional small business ventures fail.

My first start-up opened in 1979. This was “old school”. There was no formalized training available per se. But I was confident of my success because I had chosen a niche that excited me and one with only six competitors selling a much needed product in the “Oil Patch” across the whole of the US and Canada. The product was highly specialized and thus relatively sophisticated. It was generally perceived that it was nearly impossible to satisfy the need. But with a little education, I realized that it was not what I knew or didn’t know as much as it was about the network of players (domestic and foreign) that could be pieced together to make the whole work.

My focused on the industry served was intense and I was actually writing business not solicited. Business owners were flocking because of word-of-mouth advertising. My business grow as the economy surged and retreated again and again and again. I watch as a substantial amount of my profits erode when one year, when the government laid claim to 80% of them in income taxes. That was a planning error I would never make again.

Then, seemingly without warning, the price of oil dropped to $15 per barrel when the whole of the industry was budgeting operations at $45 per barrel. The lay-offs were instantaneous and off the charts in scale of numbers. I remember I was in Calgary, Alberta reading the newspaper headlines that announced over 200,000 employees laid off across a dozen companies in one week. It is the nature of that sub-economy. It is aptly named “boom or bust”

When new entrepreneurs work their business, the challenge is the “RIDE” , not the “WIN”. If one is only in business for the “WIN”, it is likely that business will fail. In a “WIN” environment, the focus is on the “sprint”, not the “marathon”. The “ride”, on the other hand, is focused on the marathon and will teach the entrepreneur about business in ways that cannot be written in a textbook nor that can be garnered in a “sprint” . The “ride” teaches about “the good, the bad and the ugly” personalities of your customers, suppliers and associates as well as how to engage them at a personal level in their world.

Plan the work and work the plan. I’ve always believed that an entrepreneur’s business plan should be written to reflect business cycles. For instance, if your selling cycle is 30 days, then your business plan might be a rolling 90 day plan that reflects increasing revenues each 30 days. Once you establish that the plan works to your satisfaction, increase the goals within the plan by 100% and work it again. In other words “stretched duplication” should lead to success.

Many believe that pushing back against the resistance of day-to-day living tones the muscles of character. If that is true, then entrepreneurship builds the muscles of character. It’s like working on your six-pack, the “How-To” blueprints are everywhere. But those winners have dug deep and have found the Passion and Intestinal Fortitude to meet the challenge.

For most entrepreneurs, “Believing” something can “be” and learning to “Stretch” one self to get there is the solution. By doing increasingly more increasingly better, over longer hours and investing more capital to keep moving the business forward is another giant challenge. But that’s the nature of Entrepreneurship. Don’t ever under-capitalize in the commitment of “Doing what it takes”, the “Time required to do it” or the “Funding requirements surrounding it”. Each of these areas will require a stretch far out of one’s comfort zone and through “Believing” it can be done. The human spirit has not limit! The entrepreneur will find a way!

A frequent challenge for the new entrepreneur is the confusion about profit allocation. The entrepreneur’s business plan must assign specific levels of profit for tax liabilities, reinvestment into the business, owner compensation, etc. In the early stages, the heavy end of that balance should be reinvestment into the business and here many fail because they won’t or can’t due to previous and conflicting commitments. It is wise, therefore, to seek up-front and ongoing advice from accounting and other financial professionals in this regard to gain real-world perspective.

Every new entrepreneur will need to tell their story. The presentation of that story should be concise and consistent, with minor adjusting only to reflect the audience in the room at the moment of delivery. There are significant advantages to keeping the presentation simple. I believe the biggest reason is whoever tells their story accurately and concisely the most number of times wins! The next most important reason is because you will want YOUR STORY repeated by others…so, simplicity wins.

From the moment your business is conceived, your company’s story must be told to your target audience as often as possible. Never, never, never, never, never, never over-embellish reality in presentations. Success will be driven by under-embellishment in presentation followed by over-delivery in product, service and relationship.

Your story is your face to the world stage. If story-telling is not one of your strong suits, I implore you to outsource creative talent for this effort and interview many and interview well for the task at hand. Many such individuals will come to you with pre-packaged plans. You and your business may not fit that approach. Look for steak not sizzle. If the creative individual you chose is not focused on you and your business, that person is the wrong choice.

More and more advertising is now delivered online. And, because it’s “noisy” out there, your exposure must be in multiples per second 24/7 and on multiple platforms. The methodology of story-telling will vary by platform. For instance if you are using Social Media, what works on Twitter may not work at all on Pinterest; will not work on Facebook; will not work on Tumblr, etc. The audience demographic can be different for each and audience members are visiting those sites for different reasons.

You can PUSH your story on you customers as the traditional Madison Avenue agencies are accustomed to, or you can PULL your customers to you. Historically, the norm in advertising has been PUSHING, the likes of what you see on TV, in print publications, etc! Today however, I believe you must engage the target at a personal level and PULL them in. You will be engaging buyers one by one.

In 2014, mostly because of technological advances, it is critical that new entrepreneurs understand just how noisy it is out there from a story-telling perspective. Because of access to the internet, the volume of marketing content being produced and delivered every second of every day is mind boggling and nearly incalculable. So, the value of “Context” has never been more crucial. Remember, everyone is trying to tell their story better and faster with and without words just to be noticed. Then, if noticed, they must be perceived by their target to “sincerely care” more about the person who will make the decision at a personal level than anyone else telling stories.

Telling stories in image form allows the experiencer to view it as they scroll through their smart-devices but still images will only receive 2 to 3 seconds of viewing. So the image must be captivating so as to slow the viewer down and must tell the story at an emotional level the same time. The same is true of videos. They too must be captivating and still tell the story, but in 3 to 6 seconds.

All dealings with buyers must be sincere to build strong relationships. Based upon my six decades of experiencing sincerity, I believe that women tend toward a propensity to emote more naturally than men; something that appears to be DNA driven. Thus, they may have an edge in the “sincerity” department. This does not mean than men are not sincere or cannot be perceived as sincere, but they usually work harder to achieve the same level of sincerity perception as women.

In dealings with personalities encountered, the sincerity must be “real” to be completely effective! How that sincerity is expressed will be the result of research because the entrepreneur needs to focus the sincerity on what is important to the personal side of your target, i.e. family, sport, classic automobiles, etc. Remember, the research is to discover the emotional hot buttons to push! There will be times when the research has been taken as far as it can be. The entrepreneur will plan the presentation and execute exquisitely but the buyer will still say “NO” for reasons known only to them…this time.

One secret is “Always Take Action”. Keep moving forward regardless of the “NO’s”. Understand the “No” or the “Yes” for what they are, a 0 or a 1. You are keeping analytic score for the purpose of tuning your presentation. There is nothing personal about numbers. So don’t attach any personal emotion to the “No” or the “Yes”.

It would probably be wise to build a “NO” file and a “YES” file. Debrief your buyers (ever-so-gently) asking questions around the “NO” and the “YES”. After more presentation attempts over time and analysis you should be able to build a relatively predictable model for your presentations. School yourself on the categories of the “NO’s” and “YES’s” then build your presentations and your responses to questions and objections underpinned by that education.

Like our 11th through 19th century ancestors learned, entrepreneurs can’t just ‘hunt”, they will also need to “farm”. Most businesses will ultimately rely on a certain amount of repeat business and additional sources of extraneous business from existing customers. How well your build your relationships with customers, how complete you knowledge base is in customer files and how well you “farm” your customers looking for additional repeat sales or new sales opportunities on an ongoing basis can make or break a given fiscal year plan.

Please, don’t forget to ask for the business. In the words spoken by The Great One-Wayne Gretzky, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”!

Lastly, do what you “like” so you will like “what” you do! Your passion and perseverance shine through when you do.