Adventure or Crisis?

I was just saying the other day that I have a hard time deciding which posts belong in what blogs I write these days.
This one is clearly economy related.
You also may not want to hear it.

Oh good, you're reading!
If you think that you can "console" yourself with: But the economy sucks and everyone is having a hard time.
Think again. Literally:
THINK AGAIN

How is it that "even in this economy" you're most likely still going to stores and buying stuff and paying for services? Because you believe they have value to you. We live in a capitalist society that, for better or worse, attaches monetary value to almost everything. You know, the commercial that goes something like, "box seats at Yankee Stadium, $500, four hot dogs, $20, the look on your kids face, priceless."

The last part is what people seem to be more interested in today. The experience. The look on your kid's face, the feeling that you get, the "experiential" part of what you're purchasing. So why do folks buy a lot of stuff online still? Two reasons I believe:

The kind of store that they would buy this in doesn't exist where they live.
The kind of store that they would buy this in doesn't have an experience that excites them.

Back to the value thing.

If you think that everyone is doing really badly then why is the latest technology still selling? How is it that we even KNOW what's popular? People are talking about it. Why? It's cool, it's new, it's really really good or it keeps getting better.

These are all keys to long term success for your business:
Quality of product AND experience.

I know that what I've said here is a gross generalization in many ways, but I'm here to kick your butt about accepting "the ways things are" as a way to operate in your head or in your company. Work harder! Throw more passion at what you're doing.

I knew a fella who wrote for an Outdoors magazine. He said: When you're going through it, it's a crisis. When you tell the story of it, that's when it becomes your adventure.

Why don't you begin your adventure now?

Midstream Turn About

Yes, you wrote your business plan, things are moving along and....
Oh no! Everything's changed again!
Ah yes. It has, it will and it must.
What you do right now is crucial. Let's talk.

Sometimes our initial business model has...flaws. It may address what you think the scenario of your marketplace is, but no. It's just not right. What does that mean?

• You're probably just like everyone else in the beginning
• You should re-brainstorm your whole business idea and see if there are other ways you could deliver the same product or service.
• You may have just found a new niche market that you'll want to take advantage of.
• It's time to dig a little deeper because there may be a "secret" that you don't know about what you're doing.
• You should get a grip and stop thinking about quitting your idea. It probably just needs an adjustment.

Often, we have a rather narrow idea of what our business is supposed to be. These ideas are formed by our experience in that market, perhaps working for someone else. They could be concepts formed that are void of some things you just couldn't have known. Trade secrets.

Instead of focusing on what seems in the moment to be a "dashed dream", just take a breathe, re-adjust a little, do more research and keep an open mind. The business that is meant to work for you, the business model that will succeed is there. You just have to uncover it.

You may feel a little bruised by the rock you just slammed against in that river, but give yourself a minute and you'll be just fine.

What is it Again?

image by Kevin Zim

The question that I find myself asking people a lot lately and gets asked of me in return is:

What is this?
What is this thing you have that you want to sell to people?
What is the reason you feel compelled to do this?
What makes this important to others?
What do you have that no one else has?
What are you bringing to this table of commerce?

I deal in ideas more than objects. Ideas are still things. When ideas stop being things, like the flow of so much information, it starts to get abstract. New rules apply. It all gets way more complicated. Except for this:

What do you value?
What do others value?

Nothing changes because we're in the "Information Age". We still mean that we need to find a way to quantify things. There are enumerable ways to quantify this ether in which we communicate our ideas. Don't let it get the best of you. The clicks, the impressions, the bytes.

There are mathematicians who understand things we cannot see. Too complex for the rest of us. That doesn't mean those things don't exist, but our ability to grab those concepts or not is very much the basis of our ability to function and succeed with our business. How long ago was the dot com crash? And still, especially in marketing and social media we are getting lost again in vague notions that we are banking on to build our businesses.

Sometimes we need to hire and trust people who understand things that we cannot. Just make sure that from time to time, you ask yourself those basic "what" questions. Keep the spirit of those questions alive when you're talking SEO, or numbers with a CFO. It's still stuff. Hopefully it's stuff that you really care about, are even passionate about. That's what makes you an entrepreneur. No one's making you do this. Remember the passion. Keep that with you.

The Security of a Paycheck...

image by Tyson Crosbie

...NOT!
Is that what we're learning in this recession? It's been at least 20 years since I read about the nature of the "Modern" business world. Our country is still suffering from the non-education of our workers. A person learns a job and the incentive to pick up new skills can be nil. It's been said that the responsibility of the Employer in today's business world is to give their employee the opportunity to have a job for "some period" of time. The responsibility of the individual is to learn as many new skills as possible to jettison them into the next job.

Even though this was stated as the new world of business some decades ago, it clearly has not been adopted in many failing industries. So, when I ask people what they have to lose by striking out on their own, they talk about that paycheck security, or that Health Insurance security.

At this time when we have been debating the heck out of the current state of healthcare, I was recently interviewed by BusinessWeek about just this topic. If you're not starting your dream business because of needing health insurance, we really do have a crisis. This is something that I've heard very little debate about. Considering the fact that our government touts our ability to innovate and the power of the Entrepreneur, this surprises me.

Inasmuch as I don't really like posting rants, this one is a long time coming, people! To say that you see the future is all about the Entrepreneur is just great, if you give us the incentives to do our thing. The New York Times sees yet another trend, the Accidental Entrepreneur. Given the right support from mentors like myself and our society, there may still be an upside to the downturn in our economy.

Here's hoping!

How am I Different?

I spend hours talking to my clients about one of the basics of Marketing: Differentiating. I ask how they are different than other people who seem to be doing the same stuff.

15 years ago when I started working as a consultant, I really didn't think very much about that for myself. My main focus at that time was setting up financial systems and processes for very small companies and I didn't have much competition in my market.

Now, as a business mentor I have plenty of competition. I started this blog as a way for you to all get to know me. I ramped up my social media marketing and published articles elsewhere as well. In all this flurry of activity, I've been following many other folks who market themselves under this or a similar label. As I've ready their advice and watched their approach, it's been hard for me to pin down exactly what it is about me that's different. I was, like my clients, in that moment, unable to see the forest for the trees.

When posting a comment on small biz on Linkedin, it came to me: I've come from a family of entrepreneurs. It's all I've really ever known!

Many professionals enter the world of consulting after leaving the corporate world. That, for the most part is my competition. I have in fact worked in the corporate world, as a GM, CFO, CEO, all on a contract basis. The "lure of the paycheck" has never really worked on me. It's taken me quite a long time and many conversations for me to realize because from childhood, my vision of the world was shaped by the entrepreneurial lifestyle.

My first business at around age 7 was to collect wildflowers and make miniature arrangements and sell them door to door in my neighborhood. I remember this clear as day, but honestly cannot explain it given my self proclaimed identity as an introvert. (Uh, until recently...)

My first "real job" at 17 was helping this woman, who had been away from her brownstone for 10 years, renting to grad students. I keept her cool and calm and sorted through 10 years of her life and organized a sale. It was exciting and I felt like I was using all my abilities. When I headed off to college late that Summer, it was confusing in comparison. It seemed to unfocused to me.

So here I am, all these years later, telling you a bit more about how I might be able to figure out your situation and help you along the sometimes rocky road of small business. I'm not matching it to a certain business model or "ideal". Instead, I'm finding a way for you to do what you want to do and have it support you. It's what I know, down to my bones.

Shall I be corny for a moment? Your dreams are my business. Bring them to me and let's see what we can do.

Not Your Mother's Career Counselor

www.imageabstraction.com

When, if ever did you go to your first Career Counselor? After High School? During a mid-life crisis? After college? Chances are, there has been someone along the way with some opinions about what your life's work should be. They might have given you tests or asked questions and in the end, they were looking for a box to put you and your skill set into.

"Life's Work" is now an outdated concept for many of us. There will be many times we change what we do, how we do it and who we do it for. My last post was about the lifestyle connected to different professions. That's one example of some of the points that don't get covered in some career counseling.

I like to start all my new folks out with this question: What do you want your perfect day to look and feel like?

It's a kind of reverse engineering. Instead of asking a series of questions about what you're good at, I'd rather know what you'd like to do, day to day. Because when it comes down to it, you may love the "idea" of doing something, but the collection of tasks that make up that job really don't interest you.

Are you a musician who loves to be on stage but hates to practice? Are you a musician who loves to play in their bedroom but hates the stage? Ok, so that's an easy one. I love textile design, went to school in my late 20's to study it. I got my degree from Parson's School of Design, went out and started looking for a job. I was told it was going to be tough and not much pay. I really thought I was ready. I was training with professionals in the field! Two days into my first job I felt like I was in hell. A kind of hell I didn't even know existed.

I can laugh about it now, but at the time I was seriously doubting my sanity. No one asked me if I could work with no direction in a sweatshop-like environment using a set of skills I never actually learned in school. Oh, and for pennies. I've taken what I learned at Parson's and have used it a million times over in other ways. I have no regrets, except perhaps taking a tour of a studio with one of my instructors.

That experience has really shaped the questions I ask as a small business consultant. It's about all the moments that make up your day. As they say, it's more about the journey than the destination. Put yourself back in the sandbox, as it were, and ask yourself.

Taking off

Painting by Angelia's Art

There are several metaphors that can used to describe the life-cycle of a business, but the two that come to mind involve "rebirth" as in a cat with nine lives, or reincarnation. But first, let's go through the stages that lead up to that rebirth:

A Sparkle in Someone's Eye
This is known as the "dream" state in which everything and nothing is possible. It's a thought. If you do something about it, you get to the next stage.

Pregnancy
All your ideas are "gestating" and it's the start of your business. You have taken some first steps, like writing a business plan or talking to people or maybe even thinking about a name.

Labor
This is when you know WHEN your business will start but you have very little idea of how it will all get done. It's "hurry up and wait", it's reading all the "what to expect" books but knowing that it's going to all be a surprise when you really start doing business.

Birth
Well, all the "heavy lifting" of the labor ends, the first day is over, the opening party is over and you have this small being that is now alive and needs to be cared for. It is your business. It cries your name in the night and is relentless in the attention needed to keep it alive.

Infancy
There's steady growth, things are changing everyday but your business still needs constant attention. Perhaps you've taken your first bit of time away from it since you started. Hired a "sitter" for your first night out. This is often the time when it becomes abundantly clear as to whether you can really work with a partner if you have one. Maybe you need to bring in more help?

Childhood
This is the somewhat predictable early growth stages that you've heard about. There are days when you love you business and days when you think you'll not come back from lunch. Ah, then you remember it's YOUR business.

Adolescence
A period of defiance in kids, in a business it could be the time when your vendors and customers and all that has been in place from the start, are not. The steadiness you got a little used to has ceased to be. You are now experiencing "growing pains" as you try and bring more folks into your business in some way. Perhaps you've outgrown your current technology? It seems like you need to throw a lot of money at the situation but it may not be the most responsible response.

Adulthood
Ah, you've seen most all of it. You've done most all of it. You have a confidence in what you're doing and how you're doing it. Sometimes you do get a run for your money from the new kids on the block. There's the re-education that you need to do to keep yourself on top of things.

Aging
Now the question is: Can you can truly keep up? You've been doing this a long time and your long range plans have not necessarily accounted for things like just being a bit tired of what you're doing. This time it's more than a "mid-life crisis". This time it's a matter of thinking about what's next: Passing the baton or calling it a day. Calling it a life and a business and moving to the next stage.

Death
You're done

Rebirth
Maybe not. Maybe there's a way to reinvent this thing. Ah, a spark in the eye!!!

I hope you all had as much fun reading this humorous take on the business life-cycle as I did in writing it. Of course, stages and come and go several times. I'd love to hear about yours.

Patterns of Success

I found Sarai though Neighborhood Notes and thought she'd be a great interview. Sure, this sort of thing is right up my alley, but I was particularly impressed with the quality of her product. How beautifully it's executed!

Sarai Mitnick is the founder of Colette Patterns, an independent sewing pattern company focused on beautiful and timeless styles for design-oriented sewers. Her background in User Experience and design has instilled a passion for simplicity, beauty, and ease of use that is reflected throughout her company and products. She resides in Portland, OR.

Q:What kind of market research did you do before starting your business? Was it just your experience as a consumer or something else?

I actually have a background in User Experience Research, which is something like a cousin to market research, so it was really important for me to understand my potential customers' needs and context. I spoke directly to a number of sewers, designed a small survey, and read through a lot of product reviews on the web. I also relied on more traditional forms of existing market research to determine things like market size, demographics, income.

I find it really helpful to combine quantitative and qualitative research because neither can give you a complete picture by themselves. For example, market stats told me that my target market was small but growing, and what they're demographics were. From there, it became easier to find people that matched that description and actually learn about their needs in a meaningful way, and what they found lacking or missing from current offerings.

Of course, if you're working on something you're passionate about, your own experience will always be a factor. I often find that's the best starting point for research! It's very powerful to start with a problem you have, then learn more about how it might also affect others and how you could meet those needs.

Q:What has been the easiest and alternately, the most challenging part of understanding how to start a business?

The easiest and most enjoyable for me has been adapting to working for myself. I love managing my own time and I'm very independent and self-motivated, so getting things done is never really a problem. I think I'm pretty good at the whole balancing act, although there's always room for improvement.

The most challenging for me was probably figuring out where to start. There is an almost unbelievable amount of work involved in starting a small business, so much that's not apparent from the outside!There are just a lot of aspects to manage. It really helped me to write a business plan to focus my energy and come up with a coherent plan and timetable.

Q:How extensive would you eventually like your pattern line to be and what kind of timeline do you imagine for your growth?

Eventually, I'd like it to be extensive enough to cover a range of categories.I love designing, and would really like to branch out into things like outerwear, lounge wear, etc.

I'm planning for slow and steady growth. This first year is all about investing in the business and making it sustainable. My goal is not to grow the business into something huge, but to have a wonderful company that supports me and that my customers love. Right now, I'm planning for another small line for the latter part of the year, investing in some infrastructure, and seeing where it goes from there!

But How do I Get There?

photo by Erica Marshall www.muddyboots.org

For business owners who are about to hire me, this is generally where they are. Let me give you a look inside our process...

Step 1 Where are you now?

• Take a full inventory of where exactly are you in your process.
• Pull out your original business plan (hoping you have one)
• Pull out your financial statements

Step 2 Clearly define where you think you want to go.

• Make a list of changes to your current offerings
• Define what elements have not worked for you as well of those that have
  
• What are the new services or products you want to offer.

That should keep you busy for a while! Yes, those who do not learn from the past, will be doomed to repeat it. Starting with NOW before moving to TOMORROW may seem like a "no-brainer" but in our excitement to move to the next level it can be quite easy to gloss over some essential points like:

• Did I ever reach my target audience?
• Why not? Was it not the right audience?
• Was my product not priced correctly?
• Did the market change?
• Was my cost structure flawed in some way?

Sometimes I see a product or service out there that is just slightly missing its mark. Is that you? Yes, even when someone is not my client, I do find myself asking some of these questions. I can think of clients from 15 years ago that I worked with at different times in their process. I would get them up and running and then 3 years down the line I'd step in again to help get them to that next place. That "middle place" of getting to where you want to go need not look like confusion to the outside world.

Every company goes through changes and needs to re evaluate. Do it fully informed, without assumptions. This will prove to be the most essential tool in getting you to that next level.

View to an Entrepreneur-Volunteer

Lending a hand!

One of the most common questions I get from folks looking to start a career, change careers or add to their skill set is: How do I do it is I haven't done it?

Getting someone to give you the chance to learn something new, or prove yourself in a given field can be quite a challenge. The marketplace is competitive and taking a chance on someone who isn't showing their experience in a given field is more than most employers are willing to extend to a newcomer.

Volunteering is a great way to get your chops in a new field or to develop that new skill set. You may already have a degree in that area, but without "real world" experience possible employers may not give you the time of day.

Perhaps you may want to work for an employment agency or in HR. A possible connection would be any position where you are interviewing people, managing people or being a "group leader". In the business world, managing other people really puts you further up the ladder and takes you from the front desk or back office. In a non-profit, managing other volunteers is often a position you are find yourself in if you've been somewhere longer than 6 months.

This doesn't just apply to working onsite with a non-profit. If you are looking for work in website development, you probably already know that offering your skills up for free or small bucks to the kind of future clients you'd like will give you the portfolio of work to help you win those clients in the future.

It may take a while to find the perfect volunteering match, but take it from someone who's entire business was influenced by ONE volunteering experience 15 years ago, everything we do can be a learning experience. Go for it. Try some new skills of for size and help others on the way.

Some resources (not personally vetted by me)

Volunteer Match

Volunteers of America

Idealist/Action Without Borders

Change.org

ServeNet

Network For Good

1-800-Volunteer.org

Do Something

Volunteer Solutions

USAservice.org

Tipping Point

Photo/Erica Marshall www.muddyboots.org

I talk to so many people who are a tipping point in their business:
They are working as hard as they can to fulfill the needs of their customers and they're really happy that things are going well. They just don't know how to get to the next level

What that next level looks like can vary:

• Servicing more clients
• Making and selling more product
• Expanding to new markets
• Selling higher price-point items/services

It's always an educated risk to try something new, moving to the next level. Of course the key word here is Education. You need to alter your original business plan to incorporate these changes.

Let's say that you're flat-out, doing what you do. You can only make as much money as there are hours in the day. That is, if you're the only one doing the work. But, if you have someone else help, you that means that you're going to take time out to train that person to help you. How can you do that??

If you re-evaluate your work-flow, perhaps you can get someone to help you get orders out at a reasonably low cost and that may be the same person that you train to assist you. We used to have a word for this and it was apprentice.

One of the biggest reasons people do not train someone new to help them move to the next level is TIME. How can they possibly take the time to do this, when they are already so tapped out? I know it's not easy, but it needs to happen. Re-working your plan on a weekly basis, a DAILY basis is what needs to happen to get your through this time to that next level. Even if you have a service-based business, look at all the things that are eating up your time and not bringing in income. If you have someone else do those things, you have a pretty good chance of moving forward.

In our heart of hearts we often doubt if we can really pull it off. If we no longer have the excuse of time and not enough help, will be really be able to build our businesses to that next level? The weight is suddenly all on you. It can kind of be like writer's block. The writer gets a grant to work on a book for an entire year and what if nothing comes to them? What if they can't produce?

In this place of tipping point, our success very much depends on what we believe we can or cannot do. That's natural. With a sensible plan to get to that next level you have a really great chance of getting there. And, there will new next levels after that and you will know from your experience of this one that it can be done. You will remember what it was like, talk yourself down from your fears and move forward with a bit more fortitude.

Like a child, a fledgling, we can all expect growing pains, and I think that's just part of the process. Pain doesn't mean that something's wrong, it may just mean that you're growing and changing.

What's my Business Idea?, Part II

You just got laid off and you're thinking about starting your own business...

1. You don't know if working for yourself is something that fits your personality
2. You're not sure how feasible your business idea is.
3. You may not have a clear business idea.

Everything written yesterday about doing what you love still stands, but today I'll focus on a product-based business:

• What events do you go to where products are sold (e.g. fairs, conventions)?
• What products related to past jobs do you see a need for, done better?
• Have you "mined" your current connections for people who are making/doing things that interest you?
• Are you an inventor, crafts person or promoter or visionary (really!)?
• What gets your heart pounding when you talk about it?

I love that last one. So overlooked. I, myself thought for years that I had no passion for "doing something." To those who know me, that would be pretty funny. I think that perhaps I looked at other people and saw them already in business or professionals realizing their dreams, and thought that because I wasn't at that place yet, I had no passion! It's the seed, people!

If you jump really quickly into the feasibility question, you can lose some of that creative energy that you'll need to use in brainstorming ideas and possibilities. Let your mind go. Just start writing down lots of notes about what "stuff" the world wants or needs from your perspective. Write down the people you know who have "cool stuff" that really interests you and why. And write down how you see yourself in the process of creating a project.

Go dream!