Entrepreneur and small business resource certification

The Wisconsin Entrepreneurs' Network (WEN) is a good organization in my state, working to focus resources where they are most needed in the world of entrepreneurship in Wisconsin.

I'm thankful to have recently received certification from WEN as a resource provider for our Wisconsin entrepreneurs and look forward to making a contribution to our new startups and small enterprises wherever I can.

Thanks WEN!


My resource page at Wisconsin Entrepreneurs' Network

Barbarians at the gate

Is this a bad time to start your own enterprise?

Are there things that could go wrong? Did you see the stock market last month? What if there's a recession, or interest rates wig out, or what if consumer confidence drops, or what if...?

My daughter and I went to a film festival debate/seminar a couple years ago that included Philip Gourevitch, one of my favorite writers (The New Yorker) and now Editor of The Paris Review. Mr. Gourevitch's writing about Africa is especially worth searching out.

Someone asked him about his fear of going forward given the chaos of the world.

He responded in a very unexpected and creative way, I thought. He said this:

"Barbarians have always been at the gate.

Barbarians will always be at the gate.

You just need to do what you do."

Both of my grandfathers started their own businesses. My Dad started his own business and my Mom worked for tech startups before that word was remotely fashionable. Computers in refrigerators stuff.

They all did it in times of significant chaos. My last start up (a manufacturing company) was launched right into the teeth the largest downturn in manufacturing since the Great Depression.

Times are always chaotic, for ever and ever, amen.

People have been creating new enterprises in times of apparent disorder and danger for millennia.

Guess what? Remember the opening question, 'Is this a bad time to risk starting your own enterprise?' The answer is, thankfully, yes.

If times are bad, then you have ready access to the key raw material for all startups… problems. If you can provide a real solution to a real problem, opportunity is limitless.

In a global economy this big, and this integrated (and this is just the start of the start of global integration), you can plug your new enterprise in easier than has ever been possible in the history of the world.

Your enterprise can be for-profit, non-profit, social entrepreneurship, screaming-cool high tech sprint, or a beautiful, slow-mo boomer launch. I don't care. If you want to create an enterprise to support yourself and build some sustainability into your life, the time is now.

This era will be looked back on as the renaissance age of entrepreneurship, and it's just beginning.

You need to refine your contribution to the industry, or the markets you know best and where you have the authority and the skills to compete.

Then you need to put one foot in front of the other no matter the seeming dangers.

Are there barbarians at the gate? I don’t care what neighborhood you live in anywhere on the globe, the answer has been, is, and always will be, yes.

Can you create some measure of control over the outcome? Yes.

Is this a bad time to start an enterprise?

Only if you don’t try.


Wiki Philip Gourevitch

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, Mr. Gourevitch's great book on the Rwanda genocide.

StumbleUpon

I've been using StumbleUpon for a while now and find it a great way to focus and wander at the same time.

You can choose the subject areas that most interest you. Then, using the toolbar you install in your browser, you can click through to 'stumble' on sites other users have found, within the subject areas you've specified. Nice stuff. Entrepreneurship category is good. Please click my StumbleUpon link if you find this site helpful and help me grow my reader base. Thanks!

StumbleUpon

Real startups vs branch outlets. The glitz factor.

A little piece of economic data from the US Census Dept. did not make the Madison, WI papers. It's probably because the business press in my town is smugly admiring the press releases from our biotech, nanotech and high tech start ups and wondering why the rest of the state can't get it.

Well, a very good biz reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel caught that Census economic data as it went by, and got it on page one above the fold in the business section of their paper on Friday, Aug. 17.

Rick Romell did the analysis and found that our Wisconsin entrepreneurial climate may look good on paper, but it's wallpaper for what's happening with real economic development at the entrepreneur level.

The meta numbers say we're gaining jobs and big establishments are locating here in numbers above the national average. Big establishments meaning branch stores of firms headquartered elsewhere.

For the local entrepreneur, the situation is much different as Rick Romell parses out the numbers. In fact, we're tied for the eighth worst spot in the US for new entrepreneurship with the likes of Alabama, Mississippi and Nebraska.

Worse, Wisconsin ranked fourth worst in the US for birth rates of new businesses.

There seems to be an inverse relationship as Rick Romell has identified it. We're low on the start up numbers, but better on our ability to keep them alive. Playing it safe seems to be the model.

One gentleman who is well respected in this field, David Ward of Northstar Economics, is quoted as saying the lagging pace of business creation in WIsconsin is "a persistent, nagging problem" that has been discussed in several economic summits. "But it's hard to move that number," he said.

The reality on the ground at the individual startup level, where I work, is that there is a huge increase in the number of people turning toward entrepreneurship to support themselves and their goals in Wisconsin (this is the same with residents of most states in the US, and it seems most every other country in the world).

Yet the entrepreneurship support systems and the people behind them just aren't getting it. They love to tout entrepreneurship but are content to encourage jobs at branch outlets of big box stores. Sure those jobs count, but that's not entrepreneurship. Perhaps that's just the nature of the bureaucracy beast.

There was a very significant economic development report released recently called the M7 Report. It looked at the 7 counties around Milwaukee and South East WI and came to the conclusion that this area needed to change from being "the machine shop to the world" to the "design shop to the world". Hell yes.

If ever there was a clarion call for entrepreneurship, it's this kind of report. Get the tools into the hands of smart, hard working people with new approaches and new ideas. It's the same with all the other areas of the state and the country for that matter.

Unfortunately, the follow up and execution from these reports doesn't look to the street level. Official solutions providers tend to work at the meta level. Entry level startups with the potential for modest gains get trampled for glitzier headline-ready projects.

Starting up small, micro-funded startups is a messy, unglamorous process. The official support systems barely even notice these kinds of enterprises. It's much easier to count other, related numbers and declare success.

Mr. Ward from Northstar notes, "It's hard to move that (startup) number".

Yes, it is when our support systems are tripping over themselves to attract branch office stores and glossy high tech startups, while leaving the rest of us as something discussed as problems at economic summits.

This isn't a Wisconsin thing. It's typical across the US. As I talk to my startup friends and clients across the country, getting anyone's attention for smaller scale, micro financed, individual or family based startups is like selling foot odor.

The response is, "Somebody should do something about that, but it's not my job."

Isn't it about time we stopped fretting about this at economic summits and made it someone's job?


You can read Rick Romell's article here. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article original can be purchased for $2.95 here. Search for Romell and take Rick's story dated August 17, 2007

Boomer entrepreneur opportunity

I'm in contact with folks setting up a pilot for a really cool sounding TV show.

It's going to be geared toward boomer entrepreneur couples that are considering, or are in the early stages of leaping from their prior lives into the world of entrepreneurship.

As many of you know, I've got something of a specialty beginning to emerge with boomer entrepreneurs. The producers of this show have asked me to suggest additional candidates. They are doing casting for the show right now.

Here's how they describe who they are looking for:

"Have you always wondered how wonderful life could be if you started that business, took that hobby more seriously or changed your career? Is there anything you always said you'd do once your kids got older?"

"For many people in their 40’s and 50’s, the time has come to restructure their life and do something they’ve always dreamed of…….it could be anything from owning a Bed & Breakfast to running a Scuba Diving School in the Caribbean."

"Our show, “Life Begins at 40” will give a husband and wife team an opportunity to Road Test their Dreams."

Please send me an eMail if you're a reader that matches this description. It looks like a great opportunity and a lot of fun!

And by all means you're not alone. Dr. Gene Cohen, M.D., PH.D. who is a scientist and researcher at George Washington University discussed the huge trend of adults taking on new challenges and discovering new meaning in their lives in the Jan 16, 2006 issue of Newsweek.

In an article titled, "The Myth of the Midlife Crisis", Dr. Cohen said only about 10% of the people in midlife that he studies describe this time as a crisis.

"Far more say they're filled with a new sense of quest and personal discovery. 'I'm looking forward to pursuing the career I always wanted,' one 49-year-old woman told me. 'I'm tired of just working on other people's visions, rather than my own, even if I have to start on a smaller scale.'"

C'mon my boomer friends. You know you want to make this leap. Here's the nudge you've been looking for!

Send me an eMail to nominate yourself and your idea for the show.

Newsweek article on boomer brains and what we can do with them

Dr. Cohen is also the founding director of the Center on Aging, Health & Humanities at George Washington University Medical Center. This article is adapted from "The Mature Mind: The Positive Power of the Aging Brain." It's now out in paperback, and you can read more about it at Amazon.com

Small biz outsourcing - when, who, what, how.

I read a good blog by Pamela Slim called "Escape From Cubicle Nation".

Her subtitle is "How to go from corporate prisoner to thriving entrepreneur."

I find Ms. Slim's positions on entrepreneurship to be well reasoned and realistic. She accurately describes the step by step approach it takes to start new enterprises, which is a breath of fresh air amid the blowing winds of you-can-get-rich-quickly nonsense typical of most startup writing. She also has a really nice, personal writing style that makes her subjects easy to approach.

Ms. Slim posted a great piece this week (Aug. 28, '07) called, "It takes a village to raise a one-person business."

She opens with an idea that all of us working in entrepreneurship can identify with. "Some entrepreneurs have a hard time asking for help, preferring to do everything themselves, from computer software and hardware installation to billing to licking stamps."

Following that opening, Ms. Slim breaks out the key areas entrepreneurs need to think about when considering outsourcing solutions.

- When to use an outside resource
- Who to use
- What to use
- How to use

I especially liked the subset of info under 'Who to use', because it's an area that bugs me. Ms Slim herself has good credentials for advising startups. What I often see among clients and startup friends is the over-reliance of entrepreneurs on government support programs staffed by people with little or no relevant history or results as startup entrepreneurs

When looking for entrepreneurial advice, Ms. Slim recommends judging the provider by the following criteria:

-Expertise
-Experience
-Results
-Rapport

I recommend reading the full text of this specific post, and all of Pamela Slim's good writing over at "Escape From Cubicle Nation"

It takes a village to raise a one-person business, by Pamela Slim

Getting Things Done.Direct link to micro enterprise certificate

Have you read David Allen's great book called Getting Things Done? The shorthand is GTD.

I realize now that I've been tracking this wonderful book as I've put together the new online courses I'll be teaching through the WI Technical College System next month.

The official link to these courses along with the description of the Micro Enterprise Certificate you can earn is posted below.

These courses are a GTD map for what to do first, what to do next, what to do after that, etc. to effectively create and launch your own small enterprise.

The order of march is a bit surprising, and not typically what you find in the biz books, but I've used these techniques successfully many times myself, and I'm using them right now to successfully launch a number of new businesses for my clients.

Think of these courses as a smart, fast, 'Getting Things Done' map for self-enterprise.

See you online!

Micro Enterprise courses taught through WCTC

10 things to do when naming your new enterprise

If your new biz is some kind of gotta-have-it, Web 2.0 breakthrough, it really won't matter what you name your enterprise (my hat's off to Wufoo.com).

If, on the other hand, you'll be among the 99.99% of us that will need to convince our potential customer base that our new biz has merit and value for them, I've found that you have to start selling your proposition immediately. This starts with the name of your enterprise.

It's the first thing your potential customers hear. I recommend you weave what you do into the name. Be subtle or not, just get your value proposition stated so that the target audience gets it and wants to hear more.

I apply this test to all kinds of enterprises... for profit, non-profit, social entrepreneurs, everyone.

My ex business partner Mary just told me about a GREAT name along these lines, called Bag, Borrow or Steal, the name of a new firm that rents designer handbags. It's fast, funny, hip, and gets the value proposition into the first moments of contact.

So, here's a short 10 step test I take clients through when naming their new biz:

1. Make the name say what your enterprise does. Use subtlety, humor, in-your-face shock or drama, but get the value proposition stated in your name.

2. Check that the domain name is available before you name your biz. You need a domain name equal to the name of your biz. Period. It's not as daunting as you think. Unexpected word combinations that describe your project will be laying around.

3. Make sure the name is legally available in your state. Most states have the name registration done through the Secretary of State or their Dept. of Financial Institutions, etc. You need the legal name as well as the domain name. Do these in parallel and do this quickly. When you find you have availability for both, and you REALLY like the name, jump on it.

4. Search the name online and see how many direct and closely related hits you get. If it's going to take you generations to climb the search rankings with a generic name, consider something more specific. I've had clients show up within 2 weeks at the very top of Google searches just because they named their enterprises wisely.

5. Say it out loud to see if you REALLY want to introduce yourself with that name, as in, "Hi, I'm Helen from Jumbledoodle Widgets". You're going to be (hopefully!) saying this a lot, so make sure you like the way it sounds to you and gets your meaning across quickly to your potential customers.

6. Answer a pretend phone call with that name in mind to see if it works for you, as in "Good Morning, Unsightly Undershirts, this is Bill"

7. Type out the name inside the space of a business card (2" x 3.5") to see if it fits, as in "AAA Articulated Angles and Architectural Anomalies of Albuquerque, LLC". Anything left for a URL or a phone number?

8. Put your new name into an elevator pitch, even if the content of th pitch isn't in place yet. Can you live with that name in that venue? "Hi. Scientific Sausage Products makes the best hot dogs for kids parties ever created." Hmmm. Perhaps reconsider if that's the market. What about, "Wacky Wieners will make parties so weird and so fun, that every kid in attendance will remember it 30 years from now."

9. Type up an imaginary eMail signature using your proposed name. Do you like the way that works?

10. Does the name attract attention in a press release. All small enterprises rely on guerilla marketing (link below). You need to snatch the interest of people who are being pitched more than you can realize. "Acme Products announces new flavors" does not hold a candle to "Flavor Explosions breaks Richter scale with new taste treat".

These are good tests. I do them with each start up for myself and for clients. Importantly, it helps set me up with a name I can be proud of and speak confidently about as I launch it into the world.

That confidence is priceless for a startup.

Choose well, and go get 'em friend.

Bag, Borrow or Steal

Guerilla marketing

Marketing startups

I've been helping a new client launch his enterprise. It's one of those situations where the marketing possibilities are almost endless.

What I was having trouble expressing is that, especially for bootstrapped startups, too many possible markets is a problem.

My friend was having trouble getting his head around my suggestions that we ignore most of those possibilities for now and focus on the art of the possible (which, by the way, are code words for cash flow)

Then I remembered a great quote from Bill Cosby that made my point better than any business book or management theory could ever do.

Here is Dr. Bill Cosby's approach to success..

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."

wiki Bill Cosby

ReadyMade Magazine

I went to a business gathering last week. There were people from many types of businesses visiting for their monthly meeting.

There were about 10 people at the table I was at. As an icebreaker the host asked us to introduce ourselves to one another and tell everyone what your favorite magazine or periodical is.

As we moved around the table with these introductions, the magazine choices kept getting more financially heavy and more glacial in the entrepreneur sense. All the usual subjects, Barrons, Financial Times, stock market stuff.

I was getting a little nervous as my turn approached. I like to thumb through these and they sometimes have good, applicable stuff, but that's not the rule, at least for startup firms.

I thought about faking an interest in some dense financial journal, but couldn't bring myself to it. I blurted out, "You should see ReadyMade. These young people have got it going on. They're reusing, recycling, not buying into the same old-same old, and making the world a much better place. Not only that, they've got a rockin' web site."

My new business acquaintances nodded gravely, looked away, and after a few moments, the next guy said, "My favorite is The CFO Journal..."

I really do like ReadyMade. Their tag line is, "Instructions For Everyday Life." Another good tag line could be, "Great sources of new business ideas every month."

I quoted a cool piece from ReadyMade when I first started these posts, because I wanted to make the point that this writing was not about financial density but intelligent, good work, done in smart new ways by interesting people following their dreams.

Every issue of ReadyMade illustrates a wide variety of items that they show you how to create inexpensively. I always see several ideas in every issue that could be turned into a new enterprise.

I've got a long list of favorite magazines, to be sure, but ReadyMade is well entrenched there. I've got a secret hunch that a few of the fuddy duddies at my business table went home and asked their kids about it.

ReadMade Magazine