Sharing Start-Up Advice

Women’s Entrepreneur Event – Sharing Start-Up Advice

At the Entrepreneur Center’s Women’s Coffee Series, I was interviewed by Beth Chase, CEO of C3 Consulting. Women entrepreneurs and those considering starting a business asked some interesting questions during and after the session. Below are my favorites, along with my answers.

Q. The vast majority of start-ups fail in the first five years. As the founder and president of Lovell Communications, when did you feel like you could relax and know your business was going to make it?

A. This is our 25th anniversary, and sometimes I still wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. But at the end of our fifth year, I was so happy to be “over the hump” that I had stood on my desk and had my photo taken. I knew the odds, and it was time to celebrate.



Q. How would you describe your leadership style?

A. Evolving. It’s important to lead by example, but I think it’s really critical for leaders to constantly learn and evolve, because the nature and the needs of the workforce change. Frankly, in my youth I was probably too impatient and fiery. I think I have finally figured out a way to back off a little without “losing my edge.”

Q. What’s your greatest fear?

A. Losing my edge.

Q. What are you most proud of as it relates to the business you started?

A. Many times people have used one word to describe the talent we have at Lovell Communications, and I am most proud of that word. The word is, “smart.” I love that brand.

We had a good time at the meeting sponsored by the Entrepreneur Center; the meetings are monthly and open to anyone. For a schedule of speakers call the EC or review their website. They have some cool stuff over there.

by Paula Lovell 

The 3 Jobs Your Start up Should Outsource

The 3 Jobs Your Startup Should Outsource

If you’re running an early-stage startup, chances are there are some knowledge gaps in your core team. You may be strong on the technical side or a product whiz, but what about financial strategy, administration, HR? Are you prepared to manage the day-to-day of your startup, from recruiting new talent to bookkeeping to financial planning?

If you have a knowledge gap within the ecosystem of your organization, you need to fill it. But your in-house startup team needs to focus on developing your products and service, creating partnerships, and earning revenue. Your internal resources should be focused on your core competencies, not on these side tasks.

So, what should you do? Outsource — to professional consultants or groups.

The best plan is to outsource whatever services you can so as to save on the highest business costs of all — staffing costs — while getting the support you need and the assurance that these functions are being taken care of by professionals.

Specifically, you can outsource the following 3 functions:

1. CFO: If your company has closed a seed round of funding or is earning more than $250K per year, you need a CFO to handle your financial strategy and run your accounting team. Even if you’re not yet funded or earning significant revenue, you may still be in need of CFO services. For example, if you’re in high-growth mode or have a lot of activity or expenses, you definitely need a financial professional to oversee your financials.

Depending on your needs, a consulting CFO may be able to help with financial projections, cash forecasts, operating budgets, financial plans, pricing, reporting, debt management, M&A, equity and debt negotiations and liquidations. Overall, CFOs help you with business planning, providing your business plan with essential rigor. Your business is creating a product or service; finance is not your business. Look for a professional CFO who has experience working with startups.

2. Accountant: If your financial status doesn’t warrant hiring a CFO, you still need financial support; at the very least, you’ll need help with your day-to-day accounting and regulatory compliance. Outsourcing your bookkeeping to the right firm will give you the support you need for cash management, AP/AR, financial close and taxes.

You can also hire a consulting group to provide accounting support on a project basis. So, whether you need help with audit preparation or generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), your accounting partner can give your accounting issues the attention they need — so you can focus on other things.

3. Human Resources: Any entrepreneur can attest to the fact that HR can be a total time suck. From recruiting to managing personnel issues, from compensation to benefits, from payroll to employee policies and procedures, human resources management can take over your entire schedule. And HR costs include much more than wages — all HR functions, while non-revenue driving, have an associated cost. Outsourcing your HR functions is definitely a cost as well, but when you calculate it out per employee (and figure on the invaluable savings of staying in compliance) it becomes clear that this is a necessary business cost.

While your company is in its early stages, it’s essential to get support, but only as you need it. To outsource doesn’t mean you just hand over a function and forget about it. You’ll still want to be apprised of all aspects of your startup; hiring the right consulting groups will insure that you stay informed.

Remember, you don’t outsource to make a service disappear; you outsource to reduce your cost structure and keep your internal resources focused on your business. When you outsource necessary functions on an as-needed basis, you can concentrate your internal team efforts where they are most needed: growth. And the companies you hire will help you stay on track as your company grows to the next level.

Set a New Company Up for Success in 5 Ways

Set a New Company Up for Success in 5 Ways

Starting your own business forces you to face your limitations, test out every idea in the real world and accept that sometimes what looked great on paper can be downright difficult to execute. But if you can, you should try your hardest to land an early success. After all, doing so can help boost your credibility, encourage potential investors and give you some money to build other businesses down the road.

So the question is, what can you do to encourage a more successful outcome? Here are five ways to set up your new venture for success:

1. Set low expectations. You may believe that your new product will change the face of the industry, and it very well might. But if you start talking up those expectations even a moderate success won’t measure up. By starting with a conservative approach, a modest success will be noticed and you will be perceived as even smarter than you are.

2. Start local. By developing and testing your idea or product in a local environment, you have substantial advantages from the start. Marketing and distribution costs will be much lower. Your most powerful network — that is, people you know — will be engaged, and you can do any polishing you need to do before spending big bucks on an untried process in a larger market. It’s also easier to get publicity locally, and, with luck, the buzz will spread as your company expands.

3. Grab low-hanging fruit. Pretty much every product or service has at least one super-strong potential buying group. Focus your efforts on that group with everything you’ve got. Market, distribute and support them, and, chances are, your sales will soar. That win will encourage you to expand to more difficult buyer groups. The other advantage to this approach isn’t particularly fun to acknowledge, however. If the low-hanging fruit doesn’t drop into your hand the way you expected, maybe there are problems with your business that you haven’t foreseen. You can find that out before you do a full market push.

4. Start with a single, likely client. Suppose your product would be a great fit for a variety of retailers such as Costco, Sam’s Club, Walmart and Target. It might be tempting to go after all of them at once, hoping that one will pop. This choice scatters your energy, and, if you fail, you have nowhere to go. Instead, choose only one possibility; the one you think is most likely to say yes. Visit the stores, determining where your product would belong and how much shelf space would be needed. Research their customer base and determine which customers would be the most interested and why. Consider options such as Costco’s road shows where you don’t get permanent space but instead have a week to sell what you can — moving from one location to another. Put together a presentation that shows you did your homework. Your chances of a yes are improved by this approach, and, if the answer is no, find out why and use that feedback to hone your presentation to selection No. 2.

5. Partner with another successful firm. Suppose a complementary and not competing company has the visibility and attention you want for your company. See if you can come up with a temporary partnership that will allow you to benefit from their strengths. For example, if your company offers a revolutionary knee brace for runners, talk to a local shop that caters to that group about offering a presentation on your new product. Consider giving the shop owner 50 percent of your sales dollars. It may be a wash for you in terms of revenue, but you’ve gotten your product in front of real customers.

BY ADAM TOREN

13 Tips for Starting Up in a New Industry

13 Tips for Starting Up in a New Industry

Don't be afraid to explore foreign territory. We asked successful young entrepreneurs for their most poignant pieces of advice for founders starting up in an unfamiliar industry.


The Young Entrepreneur Council asked 13 successful young entrepreneurs for their best tips for starting a new business in an unfamiliar industry. Here are their best answers.

1. Don't Be Afraid to Ask Questions

If you're new to an industry, don't cower at networking events or do the "smile-and-nod" when you're speaking to someone with deep industry expertise. Instead, use every interaction as an opportunity to learn. People will be excited to answer your questions--while you may worry that your queries will come off as ignorant, most likely, the other person will interpret them as engaged interest! --Doreen Bloch, Poshly

2. Study Top Direct Response Advertisers

Find the top direct response advertisers--the companies spending money every month--in your industry and study their ad copy. Respond to the ads and document their entire sales process. The top advertisers have already figured out the best method(s) to generate leads and sales and maximize lifetime value, so start with what's working for them.
--Phil Frost, Main Street ROI

3. Find a Mentor

A mentor is pretty much your most powerful asset in any new industry. By finding a mentor willing to work with you, you can learn from their mistakes, accelerate your growth using their knowledge, insight and strategies, and get pre-qualified introductions to big players in your space.
--Travis Steffen, WorkoutBOX

4. Leverage your Fresh Perspective

Get rid of all preconceived notions and fully immerse yourself in every aspect of the industry to gain a true understanding of the market and opportunities. Take advantage of the fact that you're not biased and that you bring a fresh perspective and viewpoint, potentially providing you with a strong competitive advantage. --John Berkowitz, Yodle

5. Talk to Customers and Partners Every day

In any start-up, you don't know what you don't know. This is especially true when you're entering an unfamiliar industry. Get started through research, studying the compeition and talking to mentors. But in order to refine your business and make sure that you are providing great value, you must chat with your customers every day. Figure out their greatest pain points and deliver against them. --Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches

6. Presume Ignorance

If you're starting up in an unfamiliar industry, do not presume that you know the answers. In fact, assume the opposite and open yourself up to learning. Talk to as many people in the industry as possible, ask lots of questions, get to know key players and connectors, and marinate in this new knowledge.
--David Ehrenberg, Early Growth Financial Services

7. Reconsider Whether It's the Right Industry

There are pros to tackling an industry you're unfamiliar with (fresh perspective, for example), but mostly, it's cons. Without an understanding of how an industry works, who matters in the space, and what competition already exists, succeeding in entrepreneurship just becomes more impossible (though, hey, don't let that stop you!). --Derek Flanzraich, Greatist

8. Attend a Trade Show...

There is usually a national or international trade show or conference in every industry, where the "who's who" all gather in one place. This is an event that you should be at. You'll have the chance to learn the lay of the land, meet hundreds of people in person and learn about what's new in your industry. It's also a great place to form new partnerships. Bring lots of business cards! --Luke Burgis, ActivPrayer

9...And Meet Your Match There!

Go to a trade show or networking event of the industry and notice who seems to have a strong presence, who knows everyone, and who is everyone talking about. Become friendly and close with that person, if they will let you. You can cut off a lot of trial and error time with the expert guidance!
--Andrew Bachman, Scambook.com

10. Hire a Trustworthy Lawyer

A few years ago I started my first business after over 10 years of working for non-profits. I found myself so lost. I was signing documents and agreeing to things left and right. Because I didn't have my own personal lawyer or legal team advising me, I agreed to some of the dumbest terms in the history of the world and it eventually came back to bite me in the ass. I'll never do that again. --Shaun King, HopeMob

11. The Devil Is in the Details

Make sure that you try and plan as much as you can, but don't let it get you so bogged down that you don't actually do something. Know that there will be something you miss, accept that, and move forward.
--Jordan Guernsey, Molding Box

12. Learn Why Others Have Failed

People naturally want to emulate success by analyzing successful business models, but I think it's more important to learn from companies that failed. There can be thousands of factors that contribute to business success, but when a business fails, it's often easy to pinpoint the the reasons...and avoid making the same mistakes yourself.
--Nick Reese, Elite Health Blends

13. Accept Help from the Experienced

Reach out to your advisors. They want to help you in your new adventure, and it is your responsibility to let them.
--Caroline Ghosn, The Levo League

Business Start up Common mistakes and how to avoid them

Business Start up Common mistakes and how to avoid them

Overview

Launching a small business can be risky and success is not always guaranteed. Businesses are most vulnerable to failure during the early years of trading, with 20 per cent of new businesses folding within their first year and 50 per cent within their first three years.

These figures should not scare you off, but should prepare you for some of the challenges entrepreneurs face when starting a business. With hard work and an awareness of the issues, a new business can be a great success.

This guide looks at the most common mistakes new business owners make and, more importantly, how you can avoid them. It also shows you how to improve the chances of your business idea succeeding.Poor or inadequate market research

Research and planning are vital to ensure that your business idea is viable and that your pricing is both competitive in your market place and provides an adequate return.

A common misconception is that entrepreneurs who have failed simply lacked sufficient funding or did not put the right team in place. However, many fail because they have not spent enough time researching their business idea and its viability in the market.
Lack of in-depth market research

Lack of proper market research is one of the key problems for new businesses. It's easy to get carried away with a business idea and set up a business without testing its viability.

It is also important to consider what your audience or customer needs are and to use market research to test them, and to then factor feedback into any products or services you are designing.
Keeping your business ideas to yourself

Failing to share your business ideas with people you trust means that you will miss out on objective feedback.

Brainstorm with colleagues to give you valuable perspective. Note down any good ideas you get from brainstorming and use them when developing your business.

For more information, see our guide on how toresearch and develop your business ideas .

Asking potential customers what they think of your plans or allowing them to examine a prototype can be invaluable. It can help you discover whether your product offers a solution to customers' problems or something new and unique that they would purchase. Positive feedback will give you the confidence to proceed and could help you attract investment funding. On the other hand, negative feedback will alert you to the need to rethink your plans and could help you avoid wasting time and money on a product that will not sell.

If you want to keep your ideas confidential, consider using a non-disclosure agreement, also known as a confidentiality agreement. This is a legal contract between you and another party not to disclose information you have shared for a specific purpose.
Not knowing your clients or marketplace

If you do not complete adequate research, you are in danger of selling to the wrong people or of not understanding your marketplace. To avoid this:
use information, such as free government data or your own network of contacts
carry out field research to explore customers' profiles and discover buying trends
swap ideas with people in the same sector

46 Ways to Start a Business With No Money

46 Ways to Start a Business With No Money

Most people who want to start their own business don’t have a ton of money laying around and it’s probably one the most common questions I get emailed about: How can I get started without a lot of cash?

Well I’ve put together a list below of the best ideas I’ve heard and personally used. I hope you find it useful!

The three basic strategies to starting a business without much money are:


Delay the normal “business starting” activities like incorporating, hiring, renting office or retail space, etc until AFTER your business has started earning money. This is known as bootstrapping.


Doing everything yourself and spending your personal time instead of hiring an expert. (Takes longer but costs less.)


Using some neat tricks and little known deals below.
Start With The Easy Stuff: Eliminate Expenses


Don’t rent an office! - work from home. Or better yet work from the best free office with locations everywhere: Starbucks. If you need to meet with a client and are worried about seeming small time without an office, don’t be. Just meet them at a restaurant for a lunch meeting. This is what people with the nicest offices do anyway.


Don’t hire any employees! - do it all yourself until you have some $ coming in the door.


Don’t hire lawyers, technical people, graphic designers, or assistants (see below)
Legal Stuff and Incorporating


Get a free lawyer and legal advice from the mentors at Score.org


Find a website with a similar legal document and modify it to your needs


An LLC is probably the best business structure, but don’t worry about incorporating until you’re earning money, just do a sole proprietorship, you can always incorporate later (you can get it setup with the IRS in just a few minutes by calling them at 800-829-4933)


Learn how to do your own financial statements for your business in Excel instead of hiring a CPA or bookkeeper (again you can do this after you’re making money)


Take a Quickbooks class at your local community college
Make a website for your business


Don’t pay a premium for a top end domain name, there are plenty of good ones left


Test out your ideas by writing to a blog, you’ll get feedback on what people like and don’t like


Get a free business website at www.wordpress.com or tumblr.com. It won’t be your own domain (it will be something like yourbusiness.wordpress.com) but…


When you’re ready to have your own domain, register it at domain.com and add this as a custom domain to your Wordpress or Tumblr site.


Get a professional website design for free with a wordpress theme that you can install with a few clicks (no programming knowledge needed)
Getting a Logo
Don’t hire a fancy graphic designer. At least not yet. Use LogoYes to create your own logo (or at least get ideas that you can recreate on your own for free)
Accepting Credit Cards


Don’t bother with a full merchant account to start off with, they are complicated, come with monthly feeds, and require programming expertise. Instead try a simpler (and much cheaper) solution like Google Checkout or Paypal


For a more professional look and a complete shopping cart for only $5/month use E-Junkie, its great and I use it on this site


If you have lots of physical products, try a Yahoo Store
Starting a service business where you consult, coach, teach, etc


Create several pages on your wordpress site: one for your experience, testimonials, rates, availability, etc


Pick a domain name with your #1 keyword in it! (Assuming it isn’t a very competitive keyword you’ll rank on the first page of google within a month or two for that keyword which means customers!) here’s some more info and an example
Creating Info Products


Use an ebook template like these from Eben Pagan


For print books, self publish it at www.lulu.com and use print on demand (they don’t print a single book until someone buys it which means you have zero up front cost for inventory!)


Use a $20 webcam or digital camera to create educational video products


Use camtasia ( $200 for PC) or iShowU ($20 for Mac) to record your screen and make great videos like this one. Or record powerpoints and do the voiceover to make great educational products. Update: even cheaper useScreenToaster.


Use a mac to edit your videos (iMovie is free) and you can even produce DVD’s
Before investing in a retail location…


Go to a local fair or festival and rent a booth to see if anyone buys your product. Talk to potential customers and get feedback.


Try selling it on ebay
Always be learning about business


Go to a meetup.com groups in your city related to business/entrepreneurship


Read all the best business books by getting them from the library


Get 3 of the top 10 books on building wealth for free in PDF


Make friends with other entrepreneurs and share material


Install the stumble upon toolbar and choose business/entrepreneurship as one of your interests to find all the best videos and talks out there (this is literally like going to a free semester of business school, you get to see all the best speakers and thinkers of our time, and those of the past)


Read blogs like this one in google reader
Marketing, free website traffic, and getting your first customer


Get 250 full-color business cards for free to hand out to people you meet


Post an offer on craigslist


Post videos on youtube with links to your website


Post the same video to all video sharing sites (Google Video, Yahoo Video, MySpace, Revver, etc) at once withTubeMogul (this is some of the best free marketing you can do)


Generate leads by offering an incentive on your website for people to give you their contact info (some incentives that work well: Top 10 reports like the top 10 myths about…the top 10 thing you should know before…etc, videos, audio interviews, one page cheat sheets, free ebooks)


Write a good article and send it to more popular websites (include your byline at the bottom). This is also known as doing guest posts and is the #1 thing I used to grow this blog when it first started out.


Learn how to use google adwords and spend $10 and see if it brings in at least $10 (if so keep going!)


If you can’t afford to get links from expensive directories like Yahoo ($299) use Directory Submitter to get links from hundreds of smaller directories for free


Pick a good domain name with your keywords in the domain (use hyphens if necessary). This will help you rank in Google for that keyword and get visitors to your website.


Do some basic on page SEO


Research what keywords will bring you the most traffic (and are least competitive) with keyword discovery,Wordtracker’s Free Service, and (probably the best option) WordTrackers free trial of their full service (just have to remember to cancel within 7 days to not get charged!)


See which keywords are likely to bring buyers (instead of tire kickers)


Get more incoming links to your site by creating a Squidoo page (these rank very high in the search engines for some reason!)


Send an email to everyone in your email program’s contact list with a short friendly note letting them know you are starting a business and ask if they could forward it to just one or two people who might be interested. Offer something free for the first 10 people. This has an exponential effect because it not only reaches who you know, but everyone who knows who you know (an order of magnitude bigger group of people.)