25 musts for success (Extra Credit post)

What it makes to succeed in a business? You can be brave enough and take the risk. Well, that’s good, but being brave to take the risk is not enough to succeed. A good idea is enough? Good starting capital? What is enough to improve your chances to success?

I found an article that describes 25 musts of a successful entrepreneur. And 25 is not the ultimate number. The article says, that there are many more characteristics. Here are those 25 musts:

1. Do what you enjoy.

2. Take what you do seriously.
3. Plan everything.

4. Manage money wisely.

1. The money you receive from clients in exchange for your goods and services you provide (income)

2. The money you spend on inventory, supplies, wages and other items required to keep your business operating. (expenses)

5. Ask for the sale.

6. Remember it's all about the customer.

7. Become a shameless self-promoter (without becoming obnoxious).

8. Project a positive business image.

9. Get to know your customers.

10. Level the playing field with technology.

11. Build a top-notch business team.
12. Become known as an expert.
13. Create a competitive advantage.

14. Invest in yourself.

15. Be accessible.

16. Build a rock-solid reputation.
17. Sell benefits.

18. Get involved.

19. Grab attention.
20. Master the art of negotiations.

21. Design Your workspace for success.

22. Get and stay organized.

23. Take time off.

24. Limit the number of hats you wear.

25. Follow-up constantly.

In the light of the ten strengths and weaknesses that we wrote in class before, this list gives more or less complete preview into “Do I really want to start up a company?”  One thing is for sure differentiates a true successful entrepreneur – care for customers (#9 in this list).  Isn’t this the reason #1 why apple is so successful? I believe so.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/200730

Jeff Goodwin - guest speaker

Jeff Goodwin was our guest speaker at UW Tacoma on Wednesday, May23rd. He is a serial entrepreneur. First his company he started up, he sold to CISCO. Originally, he was writing low-level drivers in assembler. Also, he programmed in Cobol. He said, he really enjoyed low-level programming, so he got a job offer during his honeymoon. He had a choice between taking another, higher-paid job, but that job was not about programming in assembler, so he took the one with assembler programming despite the fact that it was less-paid. He just loved the kind of job, so he agreed. Some time he worked there, writing drivers for various devices. Later, when he realized that he can work for himself, he started his own company, which then was acquired by CISCO.   Most of all, I liked the idea that he did not need big funds to start the company. He needed only $5000. He knew the customers, so he did not have to wait to get revenue. He already had clients. So, the starting of the company was somewhat natural process (at least it so appeared to me). He loved so much his company, so that selling it was not an easy decision. He said, you better don’t get too attached emotionally to you company, because that may stop you from selling it on time to the right buyer, and most probably loosing value.

Also, he mentioned that it is very important who do you sell the company to, because if there are employees, the new owner might or might not favor them, in the first case they can simply lose their job because of the “new boss”. Corporations buy companies for various reasons: because they want to implement the technology in their product, or because the company has some patents that the corporation needs, or simply because they want the company’s market and they might buy and close the company.

Now he is starting Lexbe.com business.

Lynette Claire - guest speaker

Lynette Claire was our guest speaker at UW Tacoma. She is a professor at UPS. She talked about creation of an Entrepreneurial Network, social network for beginning and experienced entrepreneurs. She is very determined to create the network and believes that it will be useful and succeed. She described two types of networks: cohesive and structural holes. In cohesive network, everybody knows everybody else. The information in such a network is more accurate because it can be quickly verified, as everybody knows everybody else. Also, it takes time to enter such a network because you need to know everyone. Such networks cannot grow too large due to its nature of knowing everyone. Another network type is structural holes, where new information is the prime benefit. You know one person, who knows someone else, who knows some information. So, it becomes available to you through that someone who knows someone else, who… etc. Both network types are present in my life with different groups, and like Lynette Claire said, there is benefit in both.

She also talked about the event that she was jury in, some kind of entrepreneur competition, where groups of students from different universities generated business ideas and wrote a short business plan in very short period of time. I think, the problem they had to solve was about waste. Good exercise, in my opinion, but I believe that the best comes from hard work, not from thirty minutes of brainstorming. So, the whole value of the event was to practice the process – from idea to business plan. Honestly speaking, I didn’t get much from this lecture. Sorry, Claire.

Startup.com review

Startup.com is a 2001 movie that captures birth and failure of a new media company govWorks.com. It is a documentary movie, so all the scenes are taken from real life. There are success and happy moments as well as betrayal and failure. Lots of emotions because when you watch it, you realize that they are not actors, and everything happened in real life. This is the source of the great value of this movie. It provides a glance into a company from behind the scenes. I wonder how they could capture such crucial moment that are shown on the screen. This is a great work - capturing real life as it is without being able to edit the scenario.

Not only it is fascinating, it provides a source of true information about successes and failures of a startup company, a true story, real emotions, and real everything. One can analyze the reasons of the failure and take a lesson for his/her starting company.

The idea from the very beginning was really good. Why did it fail? In my opinion, the team did not work out together. They began to split and therefore the whole business failed. Another great factor in their failure was the corporate espionage. Someone stole their information and used it against them. Kaleil should have been more cautious and think ahead of such things and take measures to prevent it. Instead, the company began to fall apart from inside. Kaleil did not find the right people to work with. The whole success depends on who you choose to work with. Instead of focusing on the company and security, they had to deal with their interpersonal problems. Also, Kaleil looks to be lacking experience in managing human resources. He is too naive and self-confident.

If I had 20 million dollars...

If you had 20 million dollars inherited from a rich uncle that you did not know about before, would you start you own company or rather invest into someone else's company? Or buy some shares from Google?

Reply with your own ideas.
Thankz.

John Dimmer - guest speaker

John Dimmer was our guest speaker on May 3rd, 2012. He is a serial entrepreneur and knows much about finances. During our lecture, he gave us plenty of financial advices. I like the overall lecture because it was very relevant and important. Even though money is not the primary goal for an entrepreneur, it is probably second after the actual idea and the joy of actually creating something new and novel. So, how do you get money to start up your company?
1. Friends and family, personal credit&debit cards.
    Ones you have come up with an idea, you are likely to need money to start producing something before you get revenue back out of it. First resource available (hopefuly) is your own money that you might have, or your family or friends. John did not recomend to start your company on your credit cards. Bad idea, but still if this is the only option, go for it. Use it.
2. Angels investors. The best option for start-ups. They look to invest relatively small amounts of money in comparison to VC's. So, it might me the best option to start with.
3. Venture Capitalists. Big money. Beware, they mught just look for information, not to invest into your "really smart idea". Only 1 or 2 percent of startups get VC money. So, do not really count on them.
4. IPO. No comments. Dont dream about it.

There are two types of investment: loan and stock. Also it can be a little bit of both.

Personaly, I would prefer to start with Angel invesment, because my idea does not require that much at start.

Ron Kornfeld - Serial Entrepreneur

Ron Kornfeld came to our class at UWT and held a lecture about entrepreneurship. He is a serial entrepreneur. He began his career long time ago when the internet was just coming to light. Ron was working on some dial-up projects that would make internet available to public. At that time, no one could thing of a reason why internet would become so vital, and nowadays no one can imagine life without it. Therefore, at that time Ron was much ahead of the time by doing things that later will become so needed. Of course, he made a bunch of money and invest them somewhere else to make even more money. He was involved with Dreambox, Tweetiator, and several other projects.

I liked what he said about start-ups, that you don't have necessarily to begin with millions of fundraised dollars. Like he said, you can start with a smaller amount; even use your credit card if no other resources are available. That's great news, because I don't have to wait for an angel or VC to invest money, but can start without such great start. This approach has its good side. You can start something small and test it on the market before risking millions.

Ron also made it very clear that business plan is very important document for both - for us and for VC's.