America's Secret Weapon - WOMEN Entrepreneurs

America is sitting on a secret weapon that will take genrations for competing nations like China and India to match, women entrepreneurs. Under-utilized as they are, American women are poised to capture a large percentage of a growing US economy with proper investment in education. 

Consider the competition. In both China and India girls simply aren't valued as much as boys. It's a hard cold fact. In China, according to numerous studies and cited here from the Christian Science Monitor, for ever 118 boys born, only 100 girls are recorded. 1 The situation is just as bad in India with 836 girs being born for every 1000 boys. 2 Sadly, and evidence of skewed priorities, low cost ultrasound equipment can be found in villages of both nations where clean water is still not available. 

Although similar practices have been recorded in some immigrant populations in the US, the situation here is significantly better for females. 

The woman entrepreneur is a largely untapped but growing asset in the world. For China and India, the base for this asset is dwindling. The US must recognize and capitalize on this situation and make entrepreneurial education a priority at all levels of education and facilitate inclusion of this group. Imagine doubling our entrepreneurial talent base while our competitors squander theirs. 

Full disclosure: the author with four daughters has a distinct prejudice. 

1. http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2011/0527/Rise-of-missing-girls-in-India-and-China

2. http://phys.org/news/2011-05-millions-girls-lost-abortion-india.html

Sequencing Entrepreneurial Efforts

If there's a process to entrepreneurialism, there should be a sequence. I'm attempting to depict this as a chart and have posted a draft below.

It hasn't been easy getting to this point. There are so many things to consider. And the usually argument I get in attempting this si that no one size fits all. Another argument against this is that the process is an interdependent and iterative one.

I agree, that there isn't a "one size fits all" process. But every entrepreneur lives and operates on a timeline. Our journals and datebooks are evidence of this. When planning a new venture, you have to decide where to start and what will come next.

My goal in sequencing the process is to graphically depict all the variables that must be considered in starting a new venture straight through to commercializing and beyond and show the relationship of each component. It's part of a larger work, a curriculum for entrepreneurialism.

The image here is my first attempt and I'd love to hear comments and suggestions for improving. I can send the MS Project or iTask file to anyone interested. I'd also love to see what others are doing.

Note:
The Chart is for new ventures from concept to commercialization 
The Chart does not represent duration of events, merely sequence
Many events listed may be ongoing and iterative
Click on Chart to enlarge
Detailed pdfs will be attached to each item in the chart

Thanks!

Failed Pitches - Don't Be Discouraged

You’ve invented the perfect product in your mind. But alas, it was shot down by the experts, the lawyers, the boss, your peers. Reasoning might lead you to think that it was a bad idea. The weight of so many knowledgable folks against it is evidence of that... right? Maybe. But maybe not. It’s at this point you have to do two things. First, don’t panic or despair. Next, ask yourself why did it fail? It’s the “Why” that needs to be analyzed in detail.

Analyzing the “Why” requires we must first assume that all the other guys, the nay-sayers, might be wrong. They might not be creative or intelligent enough to see the potential of what you’ve envisioned. Creativity is a rare quality. They may not possess it. There’s also human nature. Some of the downers might be jealous or more likely afraid. Afraid that you’re out-shining them, afraid your product is out of their reach. Or much more likely, creative thinking requires folks move outside their safe tried and true well tested safety zone.

Once you’ve analyzed these as potential reasons for failure, you’re free to analyze the problem in more detail. The path is a well trodden one for analysis. Is the product possible to create? Is there a market? Can the product be manufactured cheaply enough and sell at an acceptable margin? Can it be marketed to the market segment? There are tools that can be used to answer these questions. I’ve added to some to my Pinterest page here: http://pinterest.com/georgeconstance/bus-develop-strategy-tools/. Porter’s Five Forces, my favorite starting place is a great tool.  

The result of this self and product analysis will lead to more questions that experts can help with. In the ned, you should have a good handle on what the product failed, because it’s not marketable or because your fellow simians can’t take that step.  If the analysis is favorable for product development, perhaps this data can sway the less creative or less visionary. If not, move on to a group that will appreciate it or you.

Final note: The analysis is a complicated one that will nearly always require help. Seek out specialists as we do to put the pieces together. Our big picture structuring is followed by detailed work through strategic partners and hired professionals. Part of what we offer is knowing what information is needed and where to find it. 

Selling to Men or Rather Their Fears

It’s a well known fact that women rule the check book. Any marketer knows that he or she will be selling to women. Really smart companies actually hire women to do this. But there are the occasionally sales that are directed by men. And marketers should be aware. For instance, rarely is it that a woman will purchase a pickup truck or motorcycle. A fly rod? Forget about it. These are manly purchases. So what’s guiding their decision? Fear.

John Travolta in Saturday Night image not available.
See credit at end of article.

Men more often than not purchase stuff for one of two reasons, to impress their fellow Y chromosome bearing buds and to attract the double XX chromosomes. They want to look stronger, sexier, richer and whatever else makes them look alpha. The fear is not looking alpha. There’s where the marketing should focus. Rarely does a man say, “I want that ‘cause it makes me look so damned alpha”. What he will nearly always do is rule out a purchase because it might make him look less than alpha or down right girly. He’ll even state this in so many words.

So how does one market to the alpha’s fear? First, avoid playing to the alpha attributes of your product. You don’t want to be too obvious. Yeah I know there’s the really obvious Old Spice guy approach to selling to manly men. Sales in my house, in fact, have gone through the roof. But I have a wife and four daughters. And they’re buying and wearing the stuff, not me. This was a woman’s purchase. When selling male generated sales, where the man is the decision maker, play to the fear.

Using pickup trucks as an example, position the truck alongside a less manly vehicle and let the comparison do the talking. If you’re really aggressive, have your vehicle hitched to the competitors and drag it across a field. Just make sure your vehicle can actually do that. “Cause they’re gonna push, or in this case, pull right back. Men like that kind of competition. Again, make sure you can win that dangerous game.

 But what about the female influencers. Not so much of an issue here. You just have to allay that male fear again. If you can convince them that a chick is gonna dig the truck or the guy in the truck, you’re in. Again, positioning the other guys as a less than manly purchase will work. Picture a guy, let's call him Ken, in his Alfa Romeo (and skinny jeans) trying to pull a gal’s car out of a muddy ditch. Of course he can’t. But the guy in the truck shows up, let's call him GI Joe, (in boot cut denim) and walks that baby right out of the ditch. Your not selling a truck to this guy, you’re making him look so much more alpha than the guy in the Alfa.

 I love Alfa’s by the way. But I’m already married. Ciao Bella!

 Image from wikipedia page 2006-08-30 03:55 Dineshkannambadi 1776×948 (724928 bytes) Photograph taken by self (Dineshkannambadi) in July 2003 See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Paonroue.JPG

Southwest Airlines - Probably the Best Run Business on Earth

In the past month, I’ve been to New Orleans twice using three different airlines. Two of the airlines, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines departed from Hartford, Connecticut’s Bradley International and both used the same shiny new and roomy 737s.  But that’s where the similarities ended. The American Airline’s experience was miserable. Southwest on the other hand was more than pleasant. So what gives? 

Answer is a single simple one. American Airlines employees were miserable and rude. Southwest employees seemed to actually be having fun, infectious fun. I’m never flying American again. If I have to pay a premium, so be it. I’m flying Southwest. I want to have fun and not be miserable.

So I’ve identified the WHAT made the difference. But WHY is the larger business question. Why are the Southwest folks so much nicer? I checked the southwest web site and found this under the title, The Southwest Experience:

Well mission accomplished guys! But I’m still wondering how the hell do you do that in such a difficult industry for folks to work in. I called the company and talked to a service representative who told me some interesting stuff. She started with a fairly pat answer about employee centered business operations. But after being pressed a bit, she said in her opinion, she was happy at Southwest primarily because she and every other employee there was treated with respect. “Everyone is an equal at the company” she continued from pilot to baggage claim. She then gave me a number to get some employee training information and called immediately.

The Southwest representative I spoke with was extremely friendly and helpful. He told me he wanted to talk to me but was extremely busy as the company had just released its earnings report that morning and scheduled a call for later that afternoon. We scheduled a call and did talk later that day. His interview pretty much confirmed that respect for employees was critical. But he went into more details. Having great employees started with hiring great folks. They needed that "glint in the eye" to start with, he explained. After that, training the employee to serve the customer was critical. The job was providing the best experience to the customer and although there were extensive employee duties lists and guidelines employees were give great latitude to take the initiative to further that goal. They were provided the respect and trust required to go beyond the required job duties. He also added, as other employees had, that everyone from CEO to Baggage claim was on a first name basis.

In addition to respect, another word kept coming up in the conversation, "communication". Southwest works hard to include employees in all planning stages of the business and maintain open communications at all levels. And they started a employee blog to facilitate the dialogue. More importantly, they use it. Likewise they take customer input just as seriously.

Harking back to my evolutionary biology perspective, a business is an organism. All the arts have to work well together. If one part fails, the entire organization may as well. At the very least it will falter. If I was to compare Southwest Air to an organism, it would be an athlete. They just do everything right. By the way, they did turn a profit last year.

Full disclosure: I have no interest in Southwest at all. No stocks, no contracts nor relatives or friends working at the business.

Lesson here is that your employees are the foundation your business rests upon and the face of the business for the customer. There's a limit to what you can provide them in terms of pay and benefits. But respect can be supplied in limitless quantities with equally limitless results. A critical factor in providing respect is open communications.

Challenges Facing New Orleans' Entrepreneurial Market - Part One

The Entrepreneurial climate in New Orleans is no doubt a growing and exciting trend that the city has never experienced before. The BioInnovation Center and the multi-billion dollar Biomedical district in particular and a host of incubators and shared-space operators are all cause for hope in a city dubbed “The city that care forgot”. But there are some real concerns that need to be addressed before the trend can be considered that and not another feel-good fad. 

To become a mecca for high tech ventures, a city has to possess a few characteristics that attract that cut of cloth. Number one is lifestyle. To attract young energetic and entrepreneurial folks, a city needs to possess culture and entertaining venues.  New Orleans no doubt is hands down the nation’s winner in this category. But when the music stops and the tylenol kicks in, there’s some serious business concerns that need to be addressed. This brings us to number two on the entrepreneurial must haves for a city, a responsive and effective government and number three a great educational environment at all levels. Unfortunately for New orleans, numbers two and three go hand in hand. 

True, the move towards charter schools in New Orleans is an exciting move that may generate some real results. But that’s going to take a generation to deliver. The real issue facing the New Orleans entrepreneurial market is a lack of well funded universities that can attract young talent now, foster new technologies and spin off new businesses. There are only two somewhat large universities to speak of in the crescent city, Tulane University and the University of New Orleans, both are at a fraction of their pre-Katrina levels, and a handful of smaller universities. Compare this with Boston’s 60 plus well funded colleges and universities with real and effective partnerships in the for-profit world. 

Just as all the parts of product development are critical and required to work together as a single organism for success, so should all the parts of a healthy entrepreneurial market. Investment in the Biomedical District was a stellar idea. But not including significant investment in higher education at the same time was an unforgivable oversight. 

Likewise, investment in the future in the form of tax incentives for new technologies is weak at best in the state. The region got a new start after Hurricane’s Katrina and Rita. This should have been followed by radical new ideas about taxation and investment. More thoughts on that in another post later. 

So Called Entrepreneurial Experts

I’m amazed at how so called entrepreneurial experts can listen to a pitch and make a decision in an instant. I can only guess at how many really cool products will never be made because some so called expert shot down the idea and disillusioned the entrepreneur. For the most part, in my experience, the reasons for a shut down of a great idea can be attributed to either the lack of a great presentation skills by the entrepreneur or the lack of vision in the so called expert.

In the first instance, the fellow pitching the idea, might lack presentation skills. In this election year, it’s appropriate to correlate presentation skills with performance skills. A great communicator might not be the best politician. Lord knows we have lots of great presenters who turn out to be idiots in office. 

The time allotted to pitch might also be less than what’s needed to describe the product. Contrary to popular belief, the more revolutionary the concept, the less likely it can be pitched in a few sentences. This is especially true is the concept involves new markets. The co-called expert will claim they don’t see a market. What they’re saying is that they don’t see the product fitting into a market they understand.

I like to consider entrepreneurial history when considering great concepts and premature rejections. 

Imagine if wikipedia with a $9 billion valuation pitched to an entrepreneurial expert when still in the concept stage. I can see an expert asking and reasoning: “There’s too much established competition. Why wouldn’t Encyclopedia Britannica just do it themselves? You can’t compete with real authoritative data using stuff anyone can post. I can’t see the profit model”.

Consider Twitter in front of these same experts: Who cares what you’re doing at any moment, who are you?! How you gonna make money off of that?

Consider Starbucks: “Why would I buy a $1.50 cup of burnt tasting coffee when I can get a cup for $0.50 that comes with free refills”?! They’d probably add that the entrepreneur was star-STRUCK. 

On a personal note, I was completely guilty of this one. I was having a donut and coffee at a shop in an relatively affluent neighborhood when I heard a story on NPR about the new trend towards coffee shops, a kind of Viennese resurgence. It sounded interesting until I discovered the coffee would cost nearly three time as much as the donut shop across the street. I had to laugh. 30 years later, the donut shop is closed and three coffee shops have sprung up on the same block, one in the same space as the donut shop selling terrible pastries and burnt coffee with no free refills. 

My experience with the Indonique Tea & Chai Cafe was another example. The cafe was a huge success. The post Katrina internet store was a flop. I understand now that anyone can offer a quality cup of tea. Only Indonique could offer the cool ambiance and community that folks were really buying. But what entrepreneur 30 years ago would have understood this?

Inclosing, when discussing your concept with entrepreneurial experts, understand that their opinion is just that and that alone. They might be over looking what's obvious to you. But listen and consider everything. It might be you who are over-looking something. Also understand that many entrepreneurial investors can be sold on revolutionary concepts. The entrepreneur must understand what they are looking for, where the lack of understanding will be and tailor the pitch for this understanding. We’d love to help you develop that pitch and find the appropriate entrepreneur.

Thoughts on Hurricane Issac and Entrepreneurialism

This post was crated in response to a posting by IdeaVillage in New Orleans:

The Idea Village ‏@IdeaVillage

We hope everyone is safe in the aftermath of Isaac. If you have any ideas to support the entrepreneurial community, please let us know.

As a New Orleans native and long time entrepreneur, I thought I'd weigh in on the storm and entrepreneurs in the area. The first thing that comes to mind, having survived Hurricane Katrina, is priorities. Our family and loved ones are first that come to mind in a situation like a hurricane. No one is thinking about their business until that basic need to secure for their loved ones or just know that they are secure is established first. We need to care for individuals so that they can then and only then care for their businesses.

This requires something we usually take for granted, communication. In the old days, hurricane Betsy, for example, there were no cell phones. The power went out and so did the phones. Fortunately today, we have cell phones. If the towers survive and power to them remains, and it appears it did during Issac, then communication can be established. This could lead to lives saved, anxiety relieved and the prospect of a return to a focus on saving our businesses.

The only issue here was that cell phone batteries have a limited life. I resisted calling my daughter in NOLA so that she could save her battery until it was needed in the event of an emergency. With this in mind, I replied to IdeaVillage:

George Constance ‏@Georgeconstance

@IdeaVillage Recharge stations for cell phones via strategically located generators would be great. Issac was very connected could be better

A good example of what can be done was noted in Connecticut after the freak ice storm last October cast the entire state into darkness for a over a week. The local high school not only established shelter for residents, but allowed citizens access to a large number of electrical outlets for the express purpose of recharging cell phones. It would be great to see areas under threat like NOLA to establish recharge stations anywhere there's a government response team. By charging more phones, there's more communication, bettre knowledge and response time. It places part fo the response effort in to the hands of the general public. And as the internet has demonstrated, there's power in this connectivity.

I was also impressed with how my wife and I safe in CT were able to keep track of our family in New Orleans through Facebook posts. We could see how bad things were or weren't, to our relief.  The casual social tool demonstrated it had a real potential to deliver vital information on top of cute kitten photos.

Thanks to IdeaVillage for taking the lead. Can't wait to see what others suggest.

How Not To Get Killed Consulting

When it comes to business consulting, the employees are never happy. And one of these employees might include the CEO. It’s understandable, you as consultant are being brought in to correct problems created by the employees or to supplement skills they lack. Either way, they’re bound to take offense and worse yet, become defensive. 

As a paleontological consultant, I often encountered this. One several occasions, I was threatened. One client wished me dead. It was a tough industry to work in. But I needed the work and choosing life developed an approach to consulting that preserved my life, furthered my career and even flipped some adversaries into good friends. I’d like to share the approach here.

Get to the Bottom of things

This is the really tough stage. You’ll have to interview everyone including the guys who want you dead. The trick is to listen long enough to get to the root of the issue and then enlist the problem employee in the solution. This is a two stage process. After all the interviews are complete, you should have a pretty good idea about what happened. This always indicates that the problem employees were less than forthcoming and further interviews are needed. Here’s where the magic happens.

Remove the Problem

In most cases, the problem employee is more of an unlucky employee that the crap landed on. This is usually due to poor planning, lack of communications or a host of other issues. Your role at this point is to reassure the employee that they are safe and even safer by cooperating. A good approach is “Yeah you screwed up but anyone would under those circumstances”. And I like to add that, “I’m sure I can report that you, having the best interest of the company in mind were valuable in identifying and correcting this issue”. 

Remove the Employee

And then there’ always the issue of the malcontent that everyone hates coming in to work because of. This is the easiest issue to deal with. Once identified, everyone will help you build your case and onbce the bad egg is removed you’ll get invited to all the right parties and meet new clients.

An Unprejudiced View of the Real Estate Market... Kind Of

Ok so I’m not a realtor or an expert on mortgages. But taking a common sense approach to analyzing the market, free from prejudices and more importantly without an immediate vested interest in an improved market, has its advantages.

I first became seriously interested in the market and wary of it during a trip to New England nearly 10 years ago. I was encouraged by many to spend big on real estate. These advisors were heavily mortgaged but making a killing off of property they claimed “always went up”. One bragged his property values had more than doubled in ten years. 

Fortunately for me, I didn’t take the plunge and mortgage my home for a second or third one. I reasoned that salaries hadn’t doubled, nor had rents and something was going to have to give. Noting bricklayers in New Orleans buying $400,000 houses only reinforced this notion. In 2006, Sir Newton won the day.

So, post real estate crash, I’d like to take the same approach to analyzing the current “recovering” real estate market. Experts in the field, mostly realtors seeking customers and homeowners swimming in debt, point to prices increasing across the nation and shortages of homes in some areas. Detractors look to a coming surge in foreclosed properties hitting the market. Who’s right?

The situation I see is this. Thanks to decades of low interest rates and government backed loans for qualified and let’s face it less than qualified folks, the percentage of people who can afford houses actually owning one in the US has been growing for decades. Great news, yes? Great news No. Traditionally, a large percentage of home turnover is from folks trading up. There’s also second home buying using equity. And then there’s mom and dad helping finance the kids first home. The perceived recovery can’t rely on this in the current environment. Too many people lack equity. This is a huge negative. And yes there is a huge inventory of foreclosed homes coming to the market soon. On top of that, banks are making it a lot harder for anyone to qualify. True this would have been a good idea 20 years ago. But it doesn’t help us out at the moment. Want more bad news? The economy still sucks. 

Depressed? Ok, so some good news. The market may be stable for now. And prices are more in line with salaries and rents. So a purchase might be in order, if you can afford it. But don’t expect to make a killing off of it anytime soon. Maybe the grand kids will cash in and think what geniuses the old grandparents were. But if you’re looking to make a quick buck off the current market, good luck. I especially like rental property. Prices are even lower for larger complexes and rents aren’t likely to go down. If you can turn a profit early or immediately, go for it. Property values won't be an issue. 

So that's my sort of kind of unprejudiced view of the real estate market. I admit some prejudice I see myself buying some of those low priced rentals in the near future. 

Like some feedback. Please comment.

Business Intelligence, A No Brainer.

Technology Commercialization specialist is a professional best adapted to working with new products, product realignment and my favorite, startups. The profession and degree was created in response to recognition that many C-level executives failed to understand the entire product to market process and all the complex sub processes required to successfully travel the long tedious road. The fact that technology products now have life cycles of less than 18 months made a keen understanding of this all the more critical.

A recent conversation with a research business strategist at Research Edge provided me with example and desire to write this. As a Technology Commercialization expert, I was more than aware of the need for a detailed market and location analysis. But in todays very rapidly changing world, new tools are appearing daily. So fast, in fact, that many academic institutions aren’t able to keep up.  Research Edge was way ahead of me in this field and, as a technology commercialization expert, I’m putting them on top of my marketing go to list. Very impressed!

Building a great company or product is a complex business, more so today than at any time in the past. It takes experts in so many fields to align, produce, package and deliver any product or service that a solo operation is laughable. You don't go to war alone and you definitely don't want to go in blind. You need all the intelligence you get your hands on long before committing the entire operation. I mean honestly,  the commanders of Operation Endring Freedom didn't forego the satellite imagery as too expensive before sending in the troops. The risks were too high. 


The same goes for your business. And the first place to start is an alignment specialist that knows who is needed and when. 

So, adding to my dream team would be Zande+Newman for branding and Research Edge for all information gathering needs from market to location and more. The commanders of Operation Enduring Freedom ate still not available. More specialists to come.


Here's a great related video from Youtube:

Adaptive versus Pre-Adaptive Businesses

When a change occurs in the natural environment or a new species is introduced, existing species don;t have tome to adapt. It’s only the pre-adapted that survive. An individual must already possess the traits required to compete and survive.

Unlike most other species, humans have the ability to adapt. If the weather turns cold, we can’t just grow fur. There’s not enough time. But we can kill a furry beast and wear its skin. We possess this adaptability trait due to a very significant pre-adaptation, the ability to reason and to envision the future. It’s what sets apart from the beasts. 

It’s the same in business. With technology products having life cycles as short as 18 months, there’s no time to adapt to any new entrant or change in the environment. No time to develop adaptation systems. A business must be pre-adapted with the ability to turn on a dime and respond instantly to changes that couldn’t possibly be foreseen. 

In other words, an adaptable business is prepared to respond to changes as they occur. A pre-adapted business not only has this response capability built into its business model, but it also has the ability to anticipate changes that haven’t occurred and implement them itself before the competition. That is, the business must have already adapted before the change in environment occurs or before a new entrant arrives. 

The Neanderthal was adaptive, but didn’t see us coming armed with pre-adapted traits that poor old Alley Oop couldn’t respond to quickly enough. 

Lesson here is to build a business that can scan the environment now and envision what might come. This takes a great deal research, lots of academic connections and a decent R&D budget.

New Orleans Leading in Educational Reform

Unique View on Blue Ocean Strategy

Found this very interesting youtube post about Blue Ocean Strategy through Pinterest. It makes a case for innovating within an existing market as being move profitable than the very risky Blue Ocean strategy. Worth a look.


 

An Invention is NOT a Business

A common misconception I encounter with clients is that 90% of a business is the product. The product or invention is merely a seed that allows the tree or business to grow. An invention will fail to profit if not attended to like a seed sitting a desk drawer. Actually acquiring that seed is juts the beginning. Just think about the path a seed takes to becoming a tree, site selection, sunlight considerations, soil availability of water, constant pruning and more.

Considering an invention, there's Intellectual property to consider for protection. Then there's determining if there is a market. How to get to market. How to build and scale for increased sales. Who will deliver the product? How and who will market the product? Who will fund this vision?

A good MBA can run the company that eventually gets built. But getting from concept to that point requires a commercialization expert (MSTech Comm). Here's where we provide value. All the steps mentioned above and so many more need to be considered, balanced, coordinated and aligned with the market. Only then can one claim to have a business. Only then will an investor consider investing.

Charles Darwin on Small Business Investment

Continuing with my mantra, "Principles of Evolutionary Biology and Business Strategy are the same", I'd like to look at the current state of small business in the US as it relates to our current economic slump.

Natural Law:

It's no surprise that the tallest man in the world lives in China. The shortest man in the world also lives in China. The natural law that applies is the larger a population, the greater its diversity. This is a good thing as this diversity is represented by varying traits within the population. And when the external environment changes, the larger and more diverse a population, the more likely some of its members will possess traits that will allow it to successfully compete and survive. Charles Darwin actually encouraged English cattlemen to increase their herd size to create greater diversity and ensure a healthier heard.

Business Application:

So how does this apply to the business world? The world has become so very small economically. Competition is off the charts creating the business equivalent of the meteorite impact that killed off the dinosaurs. And just as diversity can help assure success within a species,  so can it in the business world. What the US needs now, more than anything, is a whole lot more small businesses that will create diversity of thought and approaches.

Typically, governments attempt to grow businesses directly through targeted investments and job creation. This is an error. The very small number of politically motivated anyway group of people can't possibly possess the cognitive power of the US entrepreneurial population. What government needs to do is remove obstacles that block this unleashing of mental power. Business growth, business diversification and jobs will follow naturally. And beware of the cool business factor. Not all jobs in the future will be technology related jobs. Focusing on a single industry or job type will lead to lower diversity, less competitive power and fewer jobs. Remember the dot com bust?

So Uncle Sam, thanks for the SBA, good move. But let's focus a little more. Increase educational funding at all levels including SBA. Lower taxes. Reduce litigation. And for heaven's sake, ask local small businesses owners what would make their lives easier. This will create a diverse business base and, in turn, jobs. Not all will make it. But that's what evolution does, selects the best to survive.

What My 11 Years Old Taught Me About Business Startegy

My 11 years old wanted a Facebook. I was dead set against it as I could see all the issues surrounding privacy and exposing my daughter to danger and told her maybe when she was older. To my surprise, she didn't react and simply asked to use the laptop. A few hopurs later, she returned with a powerpoint presentation detailing why a Facebook account was safe and appropriate.

IT WAS FREAKIN AMAZING! She addressed and mitigated every concern I had and a few I hadn't thought of. I analyzed her presentation, after setting her facebook account, from a strategy perspective and noted the following:

She focused on her facebook vision
She recognized who the decision maker was, Dad (analysis)

She gained insight into dad and anticipated concerns (anlaysis)

She devised a means of getting and holding his attention long enough to get her point across (strategy)

She addressed known and anticipated concerns (analysis, strategy and execution)
She invited feedback and additional concerns that she might address (monitoring, re-strategizing)

She got her facebook account. Mom was her first friend.

Business Strategy Trumps Great Product

The sad fact is that the best product rarely is the most successful product in the market. In fact some pretty crappy stuff outsells the best products available. Even sadder, the best product available may never make it to the customer as the inventor/owner/provider simply doesn't have a strategy to get to market and out compete the competitors.

My tea New Orleans based tea business was a great example. I initially intended to sell a vastly superior tea product to cafes around the city, replacing the God-awful stuff they sold and continue to sell. I failed completely as I didn't have a strategy to outcompete the nasty tea vendors. Lacking proper marketing skills, I was lucky enough to stumble upon a strategy that saved my amateur a$$.

Every cafe I visited agreed that my product was far better than the one they sold. But the one they sold made better sense for them for any number of reasons. Some claimed it was part of their coffee contract. Others were too busy to add yet another vendor to their list. many simply said what they had sold. Their customers didn't know the difference between good tea and lawn cuttings. That was my cue, the customer needed to be educated. I surveyed, discovered the key to success and crafted a plan to implement.

I opened a cafe to sell directly to customers. I had free tea Fridays to get attention and cups into hands. If a customer brought in a cup of the bad stuff from a competitor, I gave them a free cup on any day. Within a year the cafe was profitable and two months later my wholesale business turned a profit selling to the same cafes that slammed doors in my face. I had created a pull strategy where customers, having tried my tea in my cafe, demanded my product in their favorite coffe shops.

With our new strategy, we decided to replicate this success by establishing single cafes in numerous markets targeting our newly identified market segment. One night and one category 5 hurricane changed these plans. But the strategy was sound and we plan to reignite it soon.

My competitors had a strategy to get in and out-compete me, initially. That was a push strategy making it easy and/or cheap for the cafe owner to use them. I went with a pull strategy that made it impossible for the customer to avoid using me. Love to hear your stories of strategy to overcome obstacles.

The Importance of Early Investment in Brand Strategy

I don't often recommend other consultants. But Zande Newman is one I've followed and used for years. The post clearly articulates a fundamental issue in business strategy, considering all aspects of the strategy from the start. No component of any business stands alone nor should be left for later consideration. Branding as part of marketing, strategic partnerships, competitor evaluation and many more items contribute to a solid business strategy. Have a read.

The Importance of Early Investment in Brand Strategy

At Zande+Newman Design we often meet with entrepreneurs starting new companies and developing new products. Broadly speaking, these folks fall into one of two groups: people who have budgeted for development of a strong brand as part of their launch (these people are often serial entrepreneurs who have launched successful businesses previously), and people who are in the middle of launching their new venture and suddenly realize they are missing key tools they need to be successful.

People in this second group are often panicked. They usually have some form of a business plan but when we inquire about the resources allocated for brand strategy, brand development, and website development they often have not included line items in their budgets for these foundational items.

Too often, during our discussions we uncover deeper flaws within their business strategy that would have been unearthed during a strategic branding process.

At this point, they are often looking at our portfolio and the successes we have delivered to previous clients and the conversation turns to some variant of ‘we really need your services but our limited funding has been eaten up purchasing our building / on the contractor / developing the software . . . .’

While we can -- and often do -- find ways of delivering value to these clients, we are by definition engaged in triage rather than proactive brand building for a strong and successful business launch.

The more successful entrepreneurs understand the value delivered to their bottom line by a strategic investment in developing their brand. They include appropriate funding in their initial business plan. And, importantly, they begin the process early because they know firsthand that by working with a strong branding agency with an effective strategic branding process they will gain significant insights into their market and their product or service. 

That is to say, they understand that branding is about core business strategy -- not window dressing. It is not ‘a logo.’ It is critical positioning and communication strategy. Done well, the return on investment is tangible.

Zande+Newman Design worked with Charles Joseph and his team at Acute Medical in Dallas, TX as they developed a new way to deliver acute surgical and trauma care. Charlie knew that having a strong, professional, and credible brand was absolutely essential to successfully implementing their business plan.

The results speak volumes about why putting investment in brand strategy and brand development should be part of every early stage development cycle.

“Zande+Newman helped us to focus both our communications and our look so we could speak to multiple audiences. The result is that we’ve been able to double our revenue goals in two years, and we continue to accelerate with their help.” — Charles Josephs, Acute Medical

The take away for startups and early phase companies is that you need to be incorporating realistic investments in your brand into your business plan and doing that work as early as feasible. That will provide the greatest opportunity for development of a meaningful and honest brand that is aligned with and supports your business strategy.

Geoff Coats is the owner and chief brand strategist at Zande+Newman Design in New Orleans, LA. He is passionate about helping clients build successful businesses. Talk is cheap. Give him a call at 504.891.4526 if you want to talk about your project or music in New Orleans.

Geoff Coats

504.782.0098 mobile

Twitter: @geoffcoats

Zande+Newman Design

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504.891.4526 studio

www.zandenewman.com

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Business Strategy Graphics

I devised this graphic to show how envision strategy from a VUCA perspective. As I've attempted to state before, I believe all strategy is evolutionary and a single framework, having evolved over time, can be utilized that ALL other approaches can be paired with. It's all the same thing at a certain level. One issue I'm having here is a crucial. A well respected strategist thinks the planning and strategy boxes should be switched. I see strategy as what we intend to do and planning and process the how.

The arrows indicate how this is an interrelated and iterative process of constant input, re-evaluation and responses.

The level of responsibility can be compared to a general on the hill down to the trenches with process. Perhaps monitoring should be a much taller box as it occurs at all levels.

For a paleo perspective, I see the same physical analogy of a cave dwelling ancestor scanning new terrain from a hill top and the process developing as he and his clan descend into their new territory.

I'd really appreciate some feedback here via comment or directly at george.j.constance@gmail.com.

Pseudo-Entrepreneurs, A Tale of Commitment and Priorities

My last quarter in Northeastern University's Technology Commercialization program included an entrepreneur assessment. Throughout the short assessment, I just had to laugh at some of the obvious questions; Would you be willing to risk your savings or mortgage your home for an opportunity? Are you willing to quit your job to pursue this venture? Do you believe your new venture has excellent potential for success? Of course the answers are YES, YES and HELL YES! But I was shocked to see just how many fellow students failed to answer with an enthusiastic entrepreneurial YES. They all thought of themselves as visionaries and entrepreneurs. But when you respond that you certainly wouldn't quit your job or risk your savings to pursue your venture, then you have to scale back to visionary and forget about the entrepreneur moniker. You certainly can't expect an investor to [pony up their hard earned cash if you're willy nilly. And you can't expect your partners to take all the risks for you.

This brings us to the topic of today's post, partners. Like a marriage, a partnership is a very committed relationship. Before committing to a partner or partners, make damned sure each answers "YES" to at least the three questions in the previous paragraph. And don't stop there, actions or priorities of the partner might be another good indicator of entrepreneurial and therefore partnership qualifications. The entrepreneur will forsake the vacation for the venture, attend a graduation but then pop back into the office to contribute, make his or her daughter's ball game but answer the cell when you call. Pseudo-entrepreneurs, however, seem to take every possible excuse to not work like an entrepreneur. They'll proudly draw the line and place the venture second or third or further back in their line pf priorities.

Look, I'm not saying this is wrong. But it's not entrepreneurial. Make up your mind and don't waste my time. If you're talented but not committed, I'll take the risk and hire you later.

Organic View of Business Strategy

Currently reading "The Strategy Book" by Max McKeown. Great overview of the business strateg subject with a collection of business strategy graphics in the last section. I got the book to help align my consulting efforts. I figured a timeline of what to do when and what's next would be a great tool and template to follow with each client. But reading this book along with collaborating with talented folks in the field has reminded me of my early evolutionary biology training and something one of my professors said to me. "Out there" he said as he peered out the window and solemnly continued, "there are no species", to the shock of each student in attendance. Then he continued still staring out the window, "The species are in here" as he pointed to his head with ne finger. Very dramatic. And very insightful. The world just is. We humans cut and dice it up into little pieces that suit our needs. We decide what characteristics make a species, where one begins and one ends.

Business strategy, an evolved and evolving process is the same. It just is and we humans try to make sense of it by slicing and dicing. None of the many approaches to understanding strategy is wrong, they're just different views from different perspectives. And the approach used may vary with circumstance. The best approaches, in my opinion, are the more general, the 10,000 feet ones that include a tool kit to draw on. It's folly to lay out the tools you'll need in the order you'll need them in. Life isn't like that. You plan an approach and use the tools throughout the process. There are steps to building furniture, a hobby of mine. But when one uses a saw or hammer dons't have a pre set sequence. You grab them when needed and apply to the project.

I plan to delve a bit deeper into this as I develop my own business strategy graphics as process and tool set.

Image credit: from wikipedia, Schreiner, a joiner.

Source: de:Eygentliche Beschreibung aller Stände auff Erden, hoher und nidriger, geistlicher und weltlicher, aller Künsten, Handwercken und Händeln ..." / from Jost Amman and Hans Sachs / Frankfurt am Main / 1568 / thanks to www.digitalis.uni-koeln.de

Competition, Innovation & The Way of the Neanderthal

According to Charles Darwin, evolution is a slow gradual and continuous change resulting from inter- and intra-species competition and changes in the environment. Later theorists have coined the term Punctuated Equilibrium to address the fact that some species live quite well for extended periods of time without any noticeable change then suddenly evolve, rapidly, in response to some change in the external environment.

Homo erectus is a great example. It managed to remain fairly consistent in appearance over a broad range for over a million years. Then, with a change in environment, it rapidly diversified into new species, one giving birth eventually to ourselves. In reality, both gradual Darwinian and Punctuated Equilibrium models are at play in varying degrees. That is, poor old homo erectus had to deal with both competition form fellow homos and changes in the environment.

Again, as I always point out, there's a lesson here for business strategists. Owners of a successful product often don't have reason or the will to change. Why change course when things are going so well? I'd argue that they won't stay that way for long. If your business is in a good place, lots of others are going to want to compete with you and they will. Think Neanderthals who thrived for  a couple hundred thousand years until we showed up. The same will happen to any business, all fun and games until those damned Cro-Magnons make their way into the neighborhood.

In addition to new competitors, environmental changes happen too. Just as warm and cool glacial periods effected hominid evolution and gave rise and fall to countless species, new innovations can wreak havoc on your business as well. An example would be the print and television advertising market. They didn't see the internet coming and failed to adapt. And since they certainly weren't pre-adapted, both are probably going to go the way of the neanderthal as well.

And unless you want to go the Neanderthal route, be prepared. Management practices can help. Scan, monitor and react. Invest in research and stay current. You have to be wary of and keep ahead of not only the current or future competition for your product, but also of seismic changes that can effect your industry.

Image Credit: English: Neanderthal exhibition - 16 to 26 september 2009 - centre courrier - Annecy (France). Exhibition by scientists and plasticians, as Dick Claesen et Ludo Vermeulen, associated with Richard Neave, medical artist of Manchester University.

Human Evolution and the Business Strategy Model

As a paleontologist, I tend to see any process as a sequence of interconnected events. What's interesting to me about business strategy is how it relates to natural processes. As the graphic I crated below demonstrates, humans have really changed things. In a VUCA world (Volatile, Unpredictable, Complex and Ambiguous) humans have evolved a really cool pre-adaptive trait, reasoning abilities that allow us to adapt to changes in our environment and the the introduction of new species (Products). Our very productive economic systems are a natural progression of the system that our ancestors developed shortly before leaving the trees and the totally helplessness of non-adaptive living. 

Adaptive humans outcompete other non-adaptive species and less adaptive fellow humans (think Neanderthals) through a process that continues today in business strategy. 

This graphic is the property of George J Constance, Jr. Linking is allowed, but reproduction is any form is prohibited without written permission from George J Constance, Jr. 

and here a closer look at the Adaptive species path:

There's a lesson here for the socialist-minded. The over-riding forces of competition haven't and won't change. And our responses have evolved over millennia. They can't be discarded wholesale. Our responses follow a tried and true method of analysis, strategy, implementation, monitoring and reacting through further strategy. Failure to do so as an individual or a corporation will result in extinction.

Next time I'll attempt to relate this graphic with current business strategy models and to our cavemen ancestor's trek out of Africa.

Minimalist Office

Let's face it. Thanks to affordable computers, laptops especially, there's not much one needs in the way of office gear, furniture or equipment. My latest estimate puts it at:

A laptop fills the bill for in office and travel work and most come with built in cameras
25" monitor to avoid shuffling back and forth between documents on tiny laptop screens
A comfy chair is the item that requires most of your consideration
a desk to put the laptop on
a sound bar on your monitor for music and teleconferencing
a docking station for you cell phone
a router for access
An all in one copy printer fax scanner. And if you're truly digital, you only need it for the scanner.
soem cool chairs for guests

That's only 7-8 items. Gone are the filing cabinets and book cases of yesteryear. So long secretaries and her stuff. Everything is on the computer and backed up to your cloud.

But, if you're like me, the neat stuff is fun and can really make an office a fun place to be. Check out my Pinterest boards:

Steampunk Office at http://pinterest.com/georgeconstance/steampunk-office/

Mobile Office Gear at:  http://pinterest.com/georgeconstance/mobile-office-gear/

Home Offcie Design at: http://pinterest.com/georgeconstance/home-office-design/

Backyard Office at: http://pinterest.com/georgeconstance/backyard-office/

Music to work by at: http://pinterest.com/georgeconstance/music-to-work-by/

By the way, love to hear what music you listen to at work. Please comment!

Floundering Founders & Early Investors

Consider this scenario: You and two partners with equal ownership and voting rights  have developed a company and have finally turned a profit after two years of hard work and sweat. And its at the post announcement party that one of your partners introduces you to a principle at another business that expresses a desire to purchase your business. Great news, right? Nice to be loved. However, you know that the business, just having turned a profit, will be worth a billion times more in just a few more years. And besides, you’re now making money now and the pressure to sell is non-existent. Then the other shoe falls. The partner also tells you that he’s already agreed to sell his share of the business. As you take a sip of your champaign, you realize that if your other partner does the same, you’re a minority owner. Worse yet, if the purchaser is a competitor, he or she may only want to purchase the assets of your business and then shut you and your billion dollar valuation hopes down. At this point, unless you can convince your other partner to stick it out, you’re screwed. 

The remedy for this situation should have been addressed long before the first sale. Founder goals should have been on the table first. Things happen and a committed partner may find him or herself in financial trouble and need to sell. You could consider a no sale clause. But, it’s unrealistic and unadvised to create rules to force a partner to stay on. Who needs that hassle. They’d only borrow money against their shares and if they default, the loaning institution will be your new partner. Rules prohibiting this will only create a very irritable and unreliable perhaps even larcenous partner. 

The only option I see is a right of first purchase for all partners in the event another partner decides to bail. Terms must include a discount for partners below the offered price and a reasonable amount of time to obtain financing. 

Another item that should be included early in the business formation is the inclusion of at least one very interested advisor with the financial strength to act as the buyer or financier in the event a partner purchase should be required. This stakeholder would double as a financial advisor always keeping the business on sound financial footing from the perspective of a potential investor. It might be a good idea to offer this advisor options in exchange for performance, say monthly meeting attendance, to assure participation. As a participating insider, the transition from floundering partner to new partner with experience and commitment would also reduce time to achieve the sale and negate the impact of negative press. And finally, having more than one such advisor might be a wise move. 

Sigma Epsilon Rho Honor Society

I'd like to take a moment to ring my own bell and shout that I was initiated into Sigma Epsilon Rho Honor Society last night in Boston. Very honored. Hope to start a Hartford area chapter which will allow me to be more involved.

Capitalist View of Diversity

Never been a fan of diversity for diversity’s sake alone. Didn’t make much sense from a business perspective. But my experience with the Indonique Tea & Chai Cafe in New Orleans was an eye opener. 

We were open for nearly a year doubling customer count each month and turning a profit by month 12. But my employees and I all noted there was hardly a single black face in the crowd. In a city that’s nearly 3/4 black, this was an issue. Even with our impressive run up to profit in a less than a year, without African demographic, we were leaving a lot of money on the table. 

Then suddenly, for no apparent reason, one of my employees asked if I noticed half our customers were African American. Being me, I looked around and commented loudly, “Yeah and look at all those colored folks”, to which everyone of every color had a good laugh. A female customer, young professional black woman, near me shook her head laughing and just said “George”. I had to sit down and get her perspective on the subject. This is rarely done in real life. We’re all too damned uncomfortable with the subject. And that's a pity because her response was really enlightening.

“We didn’t know of we’d be accepted”. And before I could respond she followed her comment with an  apology for having stereotyped everyone at the cafe. She continued that there were places everyone’s been to where they weren’t accepted and was sure I’d experienced the same thing. She was right, I had, everyone has. 

“So what changed”, I asked?

“We just noticed a lot of different kinds of people in here and thought we’d try. Everyone was so nice and what I really liked was that your employees didn’t treat us or talk to us differently”. 

This was interesting stuff for me. I never gave diversity a second thought at the cafe. There was no diversity training involved, no earthy crunchy hippy talk. I looked around the cafe for clues and decided that our diversity advantage was that we just hired really nice intelligent people. No training required. Their parents did that for us. I suppose that’s one lesson to be learned here. You can’t change a cat’s stripes. Hire good people. No brainer right?

The second lesson learned was the most enlightening for me. Diversity starts with trust and has a very real business need. Gaining trust allowed me to make the “Look at all the colored people” remark without consequences. If you want to make a demographic comfortable, find a way to get them in so that you can shine. For us, a few comfortable customers through word of mouth doubled our business.

If I had to do it over again, I’d hired black college students to sit in and outside the cafe. Or maybe host events for a few traditionally black organizations. Waiting for it to happen naturally takes way too long. The word of mouth that filled our seats with every kind of customer in the city grew exponentially. And with exponential growth, you want to start early before someone else does. 

Final note: Our firm takes diversity seriously and incorporates it into every business strategy plan as a common sense approach to achieving profit.  

Customer Demand Versus Customer Product Education

A key to introducing a new product to any market is making sure the customer not only knows it's available, but what to do with the damned thing. In many cases exposure is enough, but often a new product doesn't have an obvious advantage.

It was just a few years back that my paleontologist pals saw absolutely no reason for using computers in the oil business. Index cards were just fine with them. What they failed to see was the potential of a digitized paleontological database. Nothing could sway them until a client demanded digital or no sale. The firm I worked for hired the geek, me, to digitize or die.

In this particular case, the customer saw the advantage and forced the form to adapt or die. Few businesses are this lucky. It's usually the vendor that sees the value and has to convey this value to the customer. Classic marketing proposition.



We have 17th century England and tea, chocolate and coffee to thank for modern marketing practices. Tea especially was in need of some marketing education. Prior to the introduction of tea, there wasn't much new to educate the customer about. Everyone ate the same foods that they'd been eating for generations. But this tea stuff was new. Take a look at this quote from http://www.panix.com/~kendra/tea/healthy.html

Then tea first arrived in Britain it was not advertised as a beverage, but as a medicine. In 1657 it was considered an effective treatment for gout, and in 1659 the first advertisement for tea, printed by Thomas Garraway owner of the London coffeehouse Garraway's, claimed tea would not only, "...maketh the body active and lusty" but also "...removeth the obstructions of the Spleen..." and "very good against the Stone and Gravel, cleaning the Kidneys and Uriters, being drank with Virgins Honey instead of Sugar" (Ukers 1935: 39). Garaway wanted to convince the British consumers that tea was an effective cure-all, so as to increase his trade.


Being first to market with a new product is a tremendous advantage. But keep in kind that startup funding should allot a considerable amount to understanding benefits for market segment and how to convey or educate the customer about these benefits.

For your enjoyment and a tribute to the tiny tea leaf that changed the world, I give you Professor Elemental and a "Brown Cup of Joy".


Cheers!

Green and Grey Entrepreneurs

Interesting discussion I’m following on Linkedin about “older” entrepreneurs. Part of the debate is what is an “older” for an entrepreneur. You can find it here on the Business Owners, Entrepreneurs and Startups Group.

When most of us think about entrepreneurs, the image of pizza chomping college dynamos in garages across America come to mind. But thanks to the aging of America and the fact that few older Americans can afford to retire in this really weird economy, the image has somewhat greyed. 

The reality is that the grey part of entrepreneurialism was always there. They were the financial and facilitating guys the garage bunch teamed with to actually turn their concept into a marketable product. As much as I hated hearing this a young man, I’m 53, experience is gold and essential for success. 

What’s changed today is the total disrespect for older employees. They’re being pushed out of their comfortable downstream positions in favor of younger, cheaper and more eager folks. They’ve worked the system from a downstream position for years and the damned thing has turned on them. This has created a huger angry and very talented experienced pool of folks who are considering the entrepreneurial schtick for the first time. Or at the very least being forced to consider it. This is a game changer. They’re responding by moving upstream to seize more of the pie earlier and even contributing to concepts. Grey entrepreneurs have become a force.

So how does the entrepreneur and investor seize upon this new reality? They take advantage of it is what he or she does. The edgy hoodie wearing garage group, I call them Green Entrepreneurs, are now teaming up with grey experience for a concept that is aligned with the market AND a realistic plan to get to market. One younger entrepreneur I spoke with at a Starbucks' described his slightly greying partner as a wolf is sheep’s clothing. He’s your dad one minute and a wolf when we need it. He also described him opening doors he never thought of knocking on. For investors the team brings experience and stability on top the energy of a cultural insider. 

Lesson here is to expand your network into a cross generational model that take advantage of every possible human asset available. This is what an entrepreneur does anyway, isn’t it? The result is a much more attractive proposal for the investor.


For a second take on the subject, take a look at this SLATE article:


http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2010/12/grownup_startups.html

and this one from the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-innovations/the-case-for-old-entrepreneurs/2011/12/02/gIQAulJ3KO_story.html

Giving Great Presentations

If you're on stage with a room full of folks focused on you and your not nervous then it's probably your funeral service. Everyone gets nervous. The key is to reduce the jitters and practice until you're at least a bit more comfortable. I came across this article about presenting that I found through Kenny Nguyen on Linkedin.

As usual, I;d like to add some personal observations. To get the point across use a story from your past. If you're older than twelve, you will have at l;east one incident in your life pr someone else's you know that is pertinent to the subject you're delivering. Use it.

Angel Investors to Avoid

Found this great short post "8 Angel Investors that Entrepreneurs Should Avoid"

It was posted by Jacky Wang on Linkedin. He's an avid poster of pertinent data for entrepreneurs and I encourage you to follow him on Linked in.

To this I'd like to add:

Avoid the Idiot nephew of a successful entrepreneur. That rich uncle knows his nephew is an idiot and will assume you are too.

Had a real doosey of a pseudo investor once that tried to pick up a piece of my tea business. In addition to having access to his rich uncle's fortune, he claimed to have invented the mascot and logo for a nationally known spirits company. Turned out the logo was older than him and he was merely hired to wear the darn  costume at an event.

Sadly, success draws vermin out of the walls like rotten cheese and rats. Some want a piece of something without the risk you've assumed. Some are arranging future litigation and others are delusional. And some are just scum. My favorite was a couple of guys, after hours threatening to expose me for financial wrong doing if I didn't agree to their onerous terms. I was squeaky clean and gave them the boot. These morons must assume everyone is as dirty as they are.

Moral of the post; stay clan and assume others aren't. You've sacrificed. Expect nothing less of others.

Love to hear your partner/ tag along and investor horror stories in the comments.

Paying Consultants to Secure Your Corporate Job

As a paleontological consultant I negotiate a standard deal with my clients as Mobil Oil. The contract called for a monthly check. This was viewed as necessary by the client manager as it allowed for termination when needed. A few months later, EXXON merged with Mobil and all contracts, including mine, were canceled. It would have been great to have negotiated a paid in advance contract that wouldn't be canceled as it was already paid for. This would have given me time to ingratiate myself with the new EXXON overlords. But would the signing manager had gone for that? You bet. I just needed to position the contract as in his best interest. I could have increased the fee and offered a 10% discount for payment in advance and indicated to him that prepaid programs are never canceled. It would have protected both of us.

Lesson, always think of the advantage to the business client, the value fo the work, and the value to the individual manager, in this case, the security of a program that can't be cut as it's already been paid for.

Product Alignment Marketing

There are so many components to a truly aligned product. I'd like to look at Marketing today. Without a truly integrated and well aligned marketing strategy, even the best of products will fail miserably.  To succeed, the product must be; ONE packaged to properly convey value and create desire and TWO known. This requires a knowledge of the market segment that is to be marketed to, the channels the product requires to get to market, value of strategic partners and an intimate knowledge of the means available to reach the target market. No one individual or firm can do all of this. It will require team of C-level professionals dedicated to the individual tasks and critically important a team that can function in a very interconnected way.

Here's where we introduce the good and bad news bits. The bad is that this integrated process involves a lot of time and people and a bunch of cash. There's no way around it. The good news is that aligning it all makes raising funds possible. More good news, no one invests in small businesses. The alignment process is designed to create a large profitable businesses.

If you have a great concept, reach out to us to develop it into a fundable business strategy. You focus on the concept and we handle the rest. Give us a call and we'll discuss what' needed to get you to that next level and finding the cash to tell everyone who you are and what you do.

Meanwhile, check out our favorite marketers at Zande+Newman Design in New Orleans, a world class firm run by really swell and super smart and talented folks. The site describes the value of a truly integrated marketing firm.

Links Cited: Zande+Newman Design

We Raise Funds to Pay Marketers

If you're a marketing firm, I'm sure you've come across a few really great concepts, or concepts that could be great with the right marketing behind it. However, stop me if you've heard this one, the founders just don't have the funds to hire you. And I'm willing to bet that most of these founders have asked you to work for equity.

It's a chicken and egg thing. They need the marketing to make cash to pay you but can't make the money without the marketing.

Here's where we come in. We're not afraid of risk. If the concept is a good one that fills a need, we assemble C-level teams specific to the concept to build a great fundable business strategy, often for equity alone.

Got concept? Give us a call.

SugarSync vs Amazon Cloud Drive - SugarSync Wins!

Look I'm a huge fan of Amazon.com and think they'll eventually rule the word. I love the MP3 service that allows me to buy, store on their cloud for free and play from any device anywhere. No need to register a device like iTunes required when Amazon MP3 launched. Having all my stuff; music, video and books in one place is also great. And now with Amazon Cloud Drive, I can have all my other stuff like documents available as well. I was eager to get started, but very disappointed. Syncing from the synced folder to my Amazon Cloud just didn't occur. I logged out and logged in repeatedly. Still no file. If I manually uploaded to the Cloud, it worked. I wonder of there's an option to select I'm missing. Any suggestions appreciated.

Meanwhile, I synced the same folder to SugarSync and it worked flawlessly. I also noted that there's a "Briefcase" folder on Sugarsync that will sync any folder dropped into it on every device I have synced to SugarSync. Now that's service. It's great for updating co-workers and for home use. No worries, no seat, multiple current backups at no cost.

But keep watching. Amazon is an amazing company. Expect to see updates from them.

Pinstamatic ... Very Useful Pinning Tool!

Just discovered and love this tool for pinning. With the free web based product, you can pin a web page, a quote, a calendar, Twitter profile and more as a Pinterest image. It works effortlessly and creates a beautiful pin. It's perfect for pinning an event with details or promoting a web site or blog. Marketing potential is tremendous. Want to blog about a great site or service, pin an image of the web site. Want to market an event, pin the date. Want followers on twitter, pin your profile with an appeal to follow.

Well done Pinstamatic!

http://pinstamatic.com