Seven Must-Haves of Intra- and Entrepreneurial Success

Focus on What Really Matters!

In the 25 years since I arrived in the U.S. with a suitcase, $100, no fluency in English and few family ties, I’ve enjoyed entrepreneurial success both within large corporations (what I refer to as “intraprenuership”) and in early-stage, high growth-oriented (traditional entrepreneurial) ventures. Through hundreds of strategic relationships within organizations, in early-stage ventures, and in my mentoring and consulting work, I have learned much about how to start and grow ideas into strategic initiatives, the same ideas into companies, and initiatives within medium- and large organizations into their own unique business units.

What they’ve all had in common, success within as well as external to an organization, are seven fundamental guidelines – what I call the Seven (7) Must-Haves of intra- and entrepreneurial success:

1. What is your MARKET niche? Not what big hairy portion of the population might you be able to sell to, but what niche can you serve with unique value? What sliver can you truly own? To identify a market, begin with the pain. What problem are people in that market facing that is so big, the company that fills it will see immediate success? Consider Square, the real-time mobile payment system. The market demand is huge, but the incumbent players—PayPal and the big credit card companies – were caught in convoluted, outdated market approaches. A large market existed, eager for an easy, flexible, mobile alternative, and Square brought it. What solution can you offer, to what market, in order to realize your growth potential? Within an organization, that market can also be an internal “customer,” who is struggling with a challenge or sees an upside potential they can not address in their current structure, capacity, or from its current leadership.

2. What is your MAGIC—your “secret sauce”? Square made payment as mobile as a smartphone, by designing a credit card swipe device that plugs into a smart phone’s headphone jack. They leveraged an existing product fairly prevalent amongst small- and medium-sized businesses and an entrenched eco-system to their advantage. That’s magic! It’s tough to pin down, but can you find signs of pixie dust among your products, processes, or people? Within an organization, there are often underutilized assets, broken processes, wrong people in the wrong roles, or your unique lens of how to accomplish a desired outcome. That unique lens often is missed by others and can become your magic.

3. How is your MANAGEMENT? In horse racing, the pros often bet on the jockeys, as well as the horses. Investors do the same; they’ll invest in an “A” team with a “B” technology or business model, but seldom the other way around. Building a great management team is tough for a startup, especially at the on-set. If you don’t have “jockeys” with relevant contextual competencies, do the next best things: build an all-star advisory board and a strong bench of recognizable talent. It will increase your power to attract a management team with a great track record, and your proactive approach won’t go unnoticed by investors who check you out. How deep is your management team’s expertise? Within an organization, put a small, scrappy yet sharp and definitely cross-functional team together. Go get a sharp up & comer from IT, legal, or several international players to help the “Seal Team Six,” move with greater agility to “get in, get it done, and get out” than the bigger organization could imagine possible.

4. What is the MONEY potential? If your company is to succeed at both raising investment capital, breaking even, and ultimately profit-generation, your business plan must include realistic cash flow projections. Give your attention to the income side of the equation; projecting cash expenditures is easy, since you control them. Projecting sales for an early-stage venture is much more difficult. Potential investors will expect you to be able to explain your forecasts, so document every assumption. Be an idealist but equally a realist; your projections can easily be compared to industry norms. Have you thought about alternative scenarios if you don’t get the first 10 clients in the six months you’ve projected? How will you make definitive course corrections for the positive outcomes you, and they seek. Within an organization, forecast a budget and stick to it. Can’t afford to splurge early on as surprises or rainy days come for everyone and every initiative. Most executives become exasperated with cost overruns of an idea gone amuck!

5. What is your MARKETING strategy? What is your unique value proposition, and how does it establish clear competitive differentiation? What is your brand story? Social media has transformed marketing communications from a one-way channel to a crowded marketplace. The job of marketing in the 21st century is to create market gravity or pull, not to continue the last century’s endless push campaigns. You must understand with complete clarity how best to address your market niche, and what competition you face. You must be just as clear about selling tactics. How do you plan to get a positive conversation going about you, your team and your brand? Make no mistake about it – you’ll need a market strategy for an initiative within an organization as you do if you were starting a company! You must make certain that the right people understand both the desired outcome of your efforts as well as your progress toward achieving it. I’ve seen many (particularly IT) projects fail because it was “under-marketed” within the organization!

6. What MILESTONES have been met, or lie ahead? Past performance is the best indicator of future behavior; this is why the track record of your young company and its leaders are so important. But just as important is your insight into the inflection points ahead. An inflection point is a decisive shift in your relationship with the market. While we prefer positive inflection points to negative ones, either can be leveraged as an opportunity to reshuffle the deck and emerge with a winning hand. What tipping points do you foresee, and how will they affect the company? Within the organization you’ll likewise have key milestones you need to achieve, as well as those that will make or break the initiative moving forward. Become crystal clear as to both the major and the minor (supportive) milestones, communicate those clearly to both internal and external constituents, and ensure you’re hitting them each and every time. If you know you’ll miss one, communicate it early; few execs I know like missed milestones, particularly if they create ripple effect in the rest of the organization (your emergency suddenly becomes that of several other individuals, departments, or functions!!)

7. Do you have MOMENTUM? Any company is essentially a byproduct of the people it hires. Success comes from having “star athletes” who find ways to overcome obstacles and get things done, and who can attract others like them. Your business deserves talent with the ability to deal with the complexity and ambiguity of today’s business climate. You need leaders who can make course corrections ahead of need. The right team keeps the magic going. Do you have people who consistently achieve forward motion toward strategic goals? Momentum becomes the wind in your sail, within or external to the organization. Momentum becomes the good, or the bad news, others hear of your progress. Your personal, your team’s and the organization’s credibility often depends on the perceived momentum. This is definitively one situation, where no news is NOT good news! In the absence of momentum, many often make up their own minds on your progress. Don’t leave this to chance. As a mentor often reminds me, “if you don’t toot your own horn, there is no music!”

Your attention to this must-have list will pay off in the currency of strategic relationships. You will create investors, business partners, staff, and customers who go above satisfaction, past advocacy, to become true evangelists for your product, brand, and company.

Can you imagine what would happen if you spent one hour of quality time with your senior leaders, advisors, or mentors exploring each of these questions?

David Nour is an enterprise growth strategist and the thought leader on Relationship Economics® — the quantifiable value of business relationships. Nour has pioneered the phenomenon that relationships are the greatest off balance sheet asset any organizations possesses, large and small, public and private. He is the author of several best-selling books and delivers 50 global keynotes annually. Learn more at www.NourGroup.com.