What was old becomes new again, and better.

I especially like writer and professor Don Tapscott. Mr. Tapscott co-authored one of my all-time favorite books, "Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything".

What I did not know until I Wikipedia'd up Mr. Tapscott is that he is also an Adjunct Professor of Management at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. I love the vision coming out of that school, led by someone I've written about earlier with great admiration, Roger Martin.

To the point: Mr. Tapscott is blogging from Davos for Business Week, and one of his posts this week really caught my eye.

We focus on a presentation by the Founder of the World Economic Forum held yearly in Davos, Switzerland, Klaus Schwab.

From Don Tapscott: " Klaus Schwab’s address to the 2009 Annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos is such a powerful document, in my view it could be the starting point for new modus operandi for the planet. As such, I’ve called it The Schwab Manifesto..."

"Schwab argues that we need to rebuild the global economy, not only based on more liquidity in the system, but also the fundamental pillars of honesty, transparency and predictability. He says we need to look at our world in a holistic, systemic way, remembering the global economy, the environment, political strife, social justice and other issues are all interconnected."

The 'Schwab Manifesto' as Mr Tapscott names it, involves 5 key points, highlighted below. The full doc is linked at the end.

The first objective is to support world governments, beginning with the G20.

"What we need now is not only to look back and conduct a thorough assessment of the systems failures and the mistakes we made but, more importantly, to look forward and mobilize all people with one mission in mind: to rebuild trust not only based on more liquidity in the system but also based on the fundamental pillars of honesty, transparency and predictability."

The second objective is to take a wholistic approach to economic development.

The third objective is to deal with global problems in a proactive way. This approach has never been more needed. A proactive vision for tomorrow requires wholistic economic development - development that reaches out to help every person and every solutions-providing organization become more economically independent. In difficult times it is easier to become reactive. Solutions don't live there. Solutions and development come from proactive steps taken with the betterment of all in mind.

Objective four, quoted directly: "The fourth objective of this Annual Meeting is to better shape the ethical value base for business, highlighting a clear differentiation between industrial and service companies that provide true value to society and those that make money through paper transactions and speculation."

"The moral reformation – not only of business but of society at large – cannot result from just the revival of fundamental principles such as solidarity or modesty. What we really need is to reflect on how we want the world to be in 10, 20 and 30 years. Over half of the people on earth are under 25 years old. How should they live when they are our age? Shaping the post-crisis world means, above all, to incorporate ecological, global and inter-generational accountability and responsibility into everything we are undertaking, individually and collectively."

Objective five. Reconstruct the global economy.

For objective 5 I'll circle back and pull a quote from one of the earlier objectives… "Entrepreneurship remains the key driver of wealth generation and the market economy is a fundamental pillar of a free and democratic society, but the market forces have to be embedded into an enhanced and globally better coordinated regulatory framework."

For entrepreneurs, this return to transparency, accountability and service to a greater good is exactly what will work to your benefit. Anyone with those approaches can successfully participate in enterprise and markets. The 'stuff' of entrepreneurship can be taught. However, the values above must be engrained and honored for real economic development to happen at the personal level for the largest number of humans on the planet.

The fact that this direction is coming out of Davos is remarkable. A call for this level of commitment to enterprise values our grandparents would love is truly hopeful. And this time around, we have transformative, empowering enterprise tools available to most of humanity that didn't even exist a couple of decades ago.

As the world turns, what was old becomes new again, and better.




Business week article with Don Tapscott's blog

Wikipedia Klaus Schwab and Davos

Wikipedia Don Tapscott

Excellent interview with Don Tapscott done by Google CEO Eric Schmit . Thanks to blogger Derek Wenmoth for this link. Derek is the Director of eLearning CORE Education Ltd, a not-for-profit educational research and development organization based in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Dean Roger Martin ("Quantifying the now and intuiting what's next.") and The Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto. blog link

The velocity of entrpreneurship. Slow down.

There was an interesting piece at CNN.com earlier this month that wrestled with the psychology of entrepreneurs.

Since it quotes some of my favorites, I'll pass that favor along and quote them here: Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway among many other things. Guy Kawasaki, earliest Apple Evangelist, among many other things. John Challenger, CEO of Challenger Gray & Christmas, among many other things. A proper nod to Steve Jobs. Challenging but compelling quotes and analysis from a Harvard Business School psychologist. A summary recommendation from a psychologist without enough credentials to cite which means she's seen most of the entrepreneur bell curve.

Let's start.

Asking Dean Kamen: What's the toughest question to ask yourself? Answer: When to quit. "It's not nearly as glamorous as people think to keep working on something and to keep hitting roadblocks and to keep going."

The following downer quote (to his credit, made while laughing) from Guy Kawasaki about false expectations:

"You need to be in denial or ignorant about the huge challenges you face. You have to believe that it wouldn't be hard for you to succeed."

Note to reader: If you put realistic expectations on your early returns and an appropriate timeline, success is not hard. Defining success in terms that are largely unattainable by small scale startups guarantees it will be risky and hard.

And then a challenging quote from Abraham Zaleznik, Harvard Business School psychology professor.

"Entrepreneurs tend to have a singular weakness that allows them to do things without checking their conscience. Juvenile delinquents act and then try to sort things out afterward. I think entrepreneurs have this tendency."

Note to self: Hmmmmm.

So let's turn to some solutions….

In the midst of midst of millions of job losses the article picks up a quote from employment firm icon John Challenger, of Challenger, Gray and Christmas: "Between 5 and 7 percent of clients at Challenger Gray and Christmas are choosing to start their own businesses. Workers are more open to starting a small business [than] in the dot-com era. I think we are in a more entrepreneurial period than we were in the '80s and '90s."

The article continues, "Recessions can be 'crucibles' for at-home start-ups 'Some of the best new businesses start in recessions because what they have really makes a difference if the market is interested in it. There's not a lot of easy money to go around, and they have to figure their way forward.'"

Note to reader: Here is your permission to consider your own startup. John Challenger is one of the most globally connected guys in the world of employment trends saying that our society is becoming more entrepreneurial right now than it was during the amazing startup boom in the recent past. Mr. Challenger also notes that it's perfectly legitimate to launch your startup from your home.

And then Guy Kawasaki on the fundamental question entrepreneurs need to be continually asking: "Great entrepreneurs do more than just fight hard to win their market share. They have vision. They ask the fundamental question, 'Wouldn't it be neat if…?'"

Note to reader: "Wouldn't it be neat if….?" Continually asking yourself this question about your enterprise is the source of all great innovation, no matter the size of your business. If you ask this question and the answer solves a specific problem, you have the core of your business plan.

On to the conclusions from the psychologist who counsels entrepreneurs: "Entrepreneurs live in the world of action (and) often need help with slowing down and thinking several steps ahead."

Note to reader: The idea of telling entrepreneurs to slow down sounds opposite of current thinking, but in reality it's not so much a command as advice from others who have done it. I'm not saying 'go slow' but rather advising, 'expect slowness'. It is absolutely inevitable with most micro-funded enterprises. It's not the destination but the journey that's important.


So, what's in this article that can be put to use?

- Start small.
- Start now.
- Don't expect immediate returns.
- Create returns that recompense your time.
- Expect to work harder and longer than you anticipate.
- Test as many markets at the least possible cost as you can.
- Expect to make many mistakes. Keep them inexpensive.
- There is often much more to learn from mistakes than successes. Watch mistakes carefully and treasure what you can learn from them.

As Dwight Eisenhower so famously said, "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." You can push numbers out into the future, but you can't plan the humans in your equations and business models (including yourself).

I would advise all new entrepreneurs entering this path to slow down. Enjoy the journey. Think as many steps ahead as you can but, as they say in drivers ed, drive within your headlights.

If you plan carefully for the immediate concerns of your startup or expansion, promise yourself hard work and a realistically slow pace, you can absolutely do this.


Original CNN article by Thom Patterson

What you will be remembered by

A pair of great new friends from Mineral Point asked me to be their guest at an economic forecasting lunch, keynoted by our Governor, Jim Doyle, and Dr. Charles L. Evans, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and a member of the Federal Open Market Committee.

Dr. Evans prefaced his remarks by saying that the theme of the day reminded him of a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young concert. It was opened by Steven Stills saying they were going to do a song by Neil Young. It would start pretty gloomy and then take everyone down from there.

In his remarks, Dr. Evans certainly channeled Neil Young.

These posts are about entrepreneurship, personal economic security, the contributions you can make, and enjoying the process.

These posts are about using your gifts to solve problems.

As I listened to Dr. Evans from the Fed talk about how difficult it will be to dig out of this mess, I kept thinking about all the meaningful ways that small scale, sustainable entrepreneurship can contribute to the solutions needed.

What would I say if I had to offer the most concise call to action I could muster to motivate these new entrepreneurs? How could I help define the roles we most need in the next economy?

Then I remembered a quote from Tom Peters (Second post in a row quoting Tom!) which fit perfectly:

"Take advantage of tough times to realize that in the long haul you will be remembered for your humanity, not your net worth."

That's the entrepreneurship I know and love. Creating solutions. Solving problems. Growing your contributions. Do that and the rest will follow.

These are awful times. Awful times will come again, as will good times and everything in between. Creating new enterprises with the goal of strengthening the communities you live in will strengthen your own humanity.

Go get it, friend


Tom Peters' site

Advice for tough times

At year's end, we get to hear many versions of 'the year end roundup'.

Most of the reviews this year are just awful, no matter what perspective the assessment is being done from. Rightly so. I've lived through many recessions and run businesses through recessions since the mid 1970s. This one came on faster and more comprehensively than anything I have ever seen.

When I talk to peers in the small business world, the talk isn't about the usual stuff; it's about how much debt they are carrying. There are bad stories everywhere, but there are also some really cool owners who smile and say, 'We've got no debt'. Their ability to get out of bed in the morning is significantly better than those hauling debt uphill. Debt has its place. A big part of this recession will be to teach our economy (yet again) to define the proper role of debt in business creation and expansion.

Another set of great ideas came across my desk in a short, succinct piece from Tom Peters called 'Advice for tough times….', dated November 17, 2008.

If you've read any of these posts from the past you'll know I'm a huge fan of Tom Peters, the author of 'In Search of Excellence' and many other classics. One of my proudest accomplishments is to have this blog linked from Tom Peters' site.

Tom's 'Advice for tough times.…' included just 6 short points which I'll post below.

"1. Excellence. Get on with doing the business you have and see it through brilliantly. Keep it simple. The devil is always in the details.

2. Opportunism -- there may be a lot of room for it -- will pay off through speed off the mark and excellence in execution.

3. Visibility. March toward the sound of the guns. MBWA (manage by walking around) People have to see who they are working for (with) and who they are dealing with.

4. Transparency. Be absolutely straight with people, especially those at the front line. [My comment: Entrepreneurs - this means being straight with YOURSELF as well. You ARE the front line.]

5. Demeanor. Banish 'gloomy' from your persona, even if it kills you! But remember, 'sunny' is pretty stupid, too. Who do you think you are kidding?

6. Paradox. Have a Positive Mental Attitude AND be ready for the worst."

As a small business person and entrepreneur who has fought through these miserable spells in the past, I can honestly and enthusiastically agree with all of these points.

To run a small business through a recession requires that you act and execute professionally. Entrepreneurship is a profession and you need to treat it accordingly.

Excellence in execution, done with brilliance and passion. March toward the sound of the guns. Bring real solutions to real problems. Truth and transparency with all stakeholders. Keep moving forward but keep your powder dry.

2009 will be a challenge. It will also offer opportunities.

If you have a small business or want to become an entrepreneur, I can't offer any better advice than Tom Peters is sharing.

If you are realistic and honest with yourself and others, you can start your own business in this miserable economy. Not only 'you can' but 'you should'. Recessions typically last 1-2 years. The times between them vary but every 3-7 years is realistic. The right kind of sustainable enterprise can give you more security now (if only in peace of mind) and in the future when this kind of mess boils up again.

Happy New Year, friend! Go get it!


Tom Peters site.

Intelligent optimists

Ode Magazine is one that can always surprise me. It bills itself as the magazine for intelligent optimists. Ode generally avoids the traps of the typical headlines and finds stuff that is working in the real world. Importantly, that stuff is making the world better.

Our copy of the Jan/Feb 2009 issue recently landed. The cover story is specifically devoted to the top '25 intelligent optimists who are creating a better tomorrow today'.

There are folks nominated by some of the world's great visionaries as being among the 'best and brightest' in important emerging fields worldwide.

This issue has so many worthy entries I can't even begin to summarize. However, one of the nominees that especially caught my eye was Rinaldo Brutoco, Founder of the World Business Academy. I have just learned of this gentleman and this organization. First impressions are great. I've ordered some of their materials to learn more. In short, what I know is that Mr. Brutoco is a solid business guy and a long time board member of The Men's Warehouse, which has created a sustainable, viable, multi-bullion dollar business model following high ethical standards.

So as a Christmas present, I'll post some of what Ode said about Mr. Brutoco and the World Business Academy: "The Academy encourages managers to see beyond short-term profits and look for sustainability in all areas of their businesses, from relationships with employees, to interactions with suppliers. Brutoco says this approach isn't just ethically sound, it's good for business. 'Current events show that we desperately need businesses to take responsibility for the whole of society,' he says. 'In the past business was encouraged to see itself as swashbuckling or raiding rather than contributing to and building an economically just society. When greed dominates, you get exactly the kind of crisis we now have.'"

Ode continues… "Still Brutoco sees business as the solution to the problems it helped create. 'The competencies of business, properly motivated and directed, can solve every problem in the world better than any other institution,' he says. The key is for business people to add values, not just value. 'What would it look like if you brought your compassion as well as your intellect to work? What would you do if you cared about how everyone in society fares?'"

Good stuff. I think this approach not only works with large businesses, it is a MUST for smaller enterprises of all types. The kind of economics that are emerging from this mess we are in will require that new and emerging enterprises provide value and values. This doesn't mean you have to cure cancer. It does mean you have to love what you are doing and put that sincerity into your offering. And you have to love and honor the process of doing enterprise.

And what does that get you? In this new emerging economy, a business model that can demonstrate its values in its products and services earns customers. Those enterprises that can live out their sustainable models with all stakeholders, in turn become increasingly sustainable themselves. That's what's required to be considered a professional going forward. Anything less marks you as just another vendor passing by unheeded and unneeded.

Remember, you have to be a professional at every level, even (especially!) if you are a one or two person enterprise just starting up.

I've seen sustainable enterprises work over and over at the small business level. This practice is now thankfully taking over big organizations. Put this into practice as you grow your own enterprise, and you'll find it works for you too.

My best to everyone! Merry Christmas 2008!

Ode Magazine

The World Business Academy

Oh what a place to grow your business!

You can't know how great it feels to say this:

Everything written in these blog posts solely reflects my own personal opinion. Nothing in these posts reflects the opinions of my past, current or future employers.

I have been looking for just the right way to use the ideas I discuss in these posts to make as valuable and widespread a contribution to entrepreneurs as I could manage.

I will forever be grateful to Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC) and their wonderful Small Business Center, led by Russ Roberts. Russ and the WCTC Small Business Center gave me the encouragement and platform to deploy my own set of courses in micro enterprise. We taught those online. The interactions with entrepreneurs in those courses was very positive and the feedback was really fun.

I've recently accepted the position as Executive Director of the newly created Iowa County Area Economic Development Corporation. I'm humbled and honored to have the chance to work with these great folks.

Iowa County is immediately West of Dane County (Madison area), Wisconsin. Iowa County is at the heart of what we call the driftless region of Wisconsin. The glaciers never reached this region leaving the spectacular beauty and outdoor excitement of these amazing landscapes to become sculpted by the environment for millennia. Throw in three spectacular state parks in our county alone. Throw in our own excellent portion and access to the Lower Wisconsin Scenic Riverway, about 95 miles of undammed, wild and scenic river, surrounded by 80,000 acres of protected, public land. Throw in the largest tall grass prairie East of the Mississippi

Wait a minute, I'm supposed to be talking about work. Yet I am.

The good people of Iowa County, Wisconsin have protected their resources and grown vibrant, livable communities within that context. It's a compelling vision and a wonderful place to grow your own business.

The area is situated exactly in the middle of a region of more than 25 million people. It has great shipping logistics (think Lands' End headquarters). It has an amazing ag sector and a growing, exciting arts and creative community that makes groundbreaking global contributions. Our manufacturers include one of the most innovative furniture designers in the world, Ulrich Sielaff, of The Sielaff Corporation, and Cummins Engine, a global manufacturing innovator, especially in our plant's contribution to environmental stewardship. Our world class health care systems have kept Iowa County rated among the healthiest and happiest people in Wisconsin. Do you like history? Ours is the oldest working courthouse in Wisconsin and a photographer's dream (as is the entire county). Like architecture and design? Iowa County is the home of Taliesen, Frank Lloyd Wright's home, studio and school. Like drama? We're home to the world renowned Shakespeare focused American Player's Theater and its magnificent outdoor stage. Wonderful tourism? You have to visit The House on the Rock and it's related golf amenities. At every turn of every beautiful road, I can find something new that amazes and delights. Log cabins, glass artists, potters, storytelling, dancing and strong cultural celebrations such as those found at our Folklore Village. Add in wonderful agricultural businesses of every variety, including our (delicious!) sustainable regional foods group. All of this beauty and dynamism is built around vibrant, liveable communities that create and support all this.

Can you see why I'm so enthusiastic? I get to help.

We'll be creating platforms for all our great communities and all our county enterprises to introduce themselves to you. We'll be rolling out a new Entrepreneurs and Inventors Club quickly. I love the empowerment these groups bring to emerging entrepreneurs. Through these clubs, we'll be launching as many smart, new, sustainable businesses as we can. We'll be sending out RFEs (Requests For Entrepreneurs) who would like to grow their business in beautiful Iowa County Wisconsin. Come join Iowa County. We're open for business!

The Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen wrote a great book on economic development called Development As Freedom. I see my role in economic development in that light. Building stronger enterprise skills among individuals and greater economic strength for existing businesses delivers more freedom for people, communities and their governments. This has never been more true than in the turbulence we've lived through this year.

I'm humbled and honored by the opportunity to make a contribution to this great region. I truly believe this is the renaissance age of entrepreneurship and that it's just beginning.

Come on out and visit our exciting county and our diverse region. We're looking forward to introducing you to each other. Oh what a place to grow yourself and grow your business!

Welcome to Iowa County, Wisconsin.

There was an interesting piece on the NPR Radio program Marketplace on Tuesday 11/18/08.

The piece was titled "Starting a Business in a Bad Economy."

In a short space, it identified a number of things that, from my perspective, are critical for small-scale entrepreneurs and startups to understand. It also highlighted some of the most fundamental misunderstandings about entrepreneurship that are in common currency.

What I would like this post to highlight is that small-scale sustainable enterprises are absolutely possible in this economy if you are willing to put in the time and effort. However, the amount of time required for these kind of startups is typically more than you estimate.

If your financial life is such that you need immediate pay-the-rent type cash flows, starting your own business to dig out of this is a very poor option, with low odds of success.

Let's start with current news. There is no doubt this economy is a massive mess. Each time there's been a ray of hope, it's been snuffed out by something unexpected from left field. Then we restart and the process gets repeated. This has been an awful year for the economy and the near future looks very rough.

That doesn't mean you get under your desk however. It means you smarten up and start building some solutions for yourself.

I've run small businesses through the last bunch of recessions, including the whoppers. If you are overextended and have built your enterprise on a platform of unsupportable risk, then you've got real trouble. For the rest of us, the sun will continue coming up. Birds sing after storms.

The Marketplace radio piece was done by Mitchell Hartmann of Oregon Public Radio. Mr Hartmann is a very good reporter and focuses on sustainability issues for Marketplace.

This piece summarized a few of at the many difficulties and opportunities that startups face in this kind of economic environment.

Mr. Hartmann spoke with an advisor at the Small Business Development Center in Portland about people rushing into entrepreneurship out of immediate financial need.

The advisor, Jackie Babacky Peterson, sounded a bit shell shocked, referring to the newly unemployed launching new businesses on their credit cards. That indeed is a very bad path.

Here's a transcript from that section:

"Advisor Jackie Babicky-Peterson is seeing unemployment and entrepreneurship meet but not necessarily in a good way."

"Many people get laid off from companies so they are deciding this is a good time to launch a business even though it may be very difficult."

"Many people will rush into biz for themselves without sufficient planning and with little or no savings they'll use personal credit cards to get going. 'Just pure startup money is now - and always has been - pretty impossible.'"

"Credit cards will kill you."

She concludes: "I think we will have more failures."

I'd like to parse this for what slow, measured, startup types can take from this.

Ms Babacky-Perterson is spot on identifying the process of 'rushing into business' as a way of pre-scheduling the likely death of your enterprise and damage to your personal financial welfare.

One line in that quote is critical. It was about the difficulty in attracting outside money to small startups. Outside investment money for brand new startups has never been available. Not in this bad economy and not in the past when things were better. Appropriate small-scale startup money only comes from your pocket. Alternately, outside investment can come, with an increasing chance for trouble, from friends and family.

And yes, using credit cards to finance your rushed effort will likely kill your startup.

And yes, with more startups there will be more failures. However, the most vibrant regional economies in the US have high startup rates AND high failure rates. What's working here is that cultures of entrepreneurship and participatory commerce are celebrated. If something doesn't work, you try something else. There can't be successes if there aren't failures. The key is how we deal with those failures and learn from them, and how we support the culture of entrepreneurship that engenders all this activity.

And yes, if you drive a boatload of other people's money off a cliff (see current events), you've created dysfunction and hurt the system for those that follow. If you lose a small amount of your own capital (and probably a large amount of time), then you're smarter and ready for the next effort.

In the past, I have quoted Vivek Wadhwa whose common sense seems to show at key points in these national discussions of entrepreneurship. (Jan. 5, 2008)

Vivek Wadhwa founded two tech startups and now researches entrepreneurship at Duke and Harvard.

While Mr. Wadhwa's comments speak specifically to large firms, his ideas deliver critically important meaning to the discussion of small startups.

Mr. Wadhwa says the Fortune 500 is full of companies that were founded during bad times: Johnson & Johnson, Disney, Cisco, and Intel to name a few.

The Marketplace reporter Mitchell Hartmann then referred to a big entrepreneurship organization as saying startups will not increase due to these terrible market conditions.

Vivak Wadhwa says that's the wrong conclusion to draw from the current economic conditions.

Here is where I want to shine a bright light on the good words of Mr. Wadhwa.

"We'll be back on track in 2 - 3 years. By that time you will have gotten your business model working, you've got your products perfected, you know your customers, you know your market space, and now you can go to the angel investors, the venture capitalists and pitch a real company to them."

Mitchell Hartmann closed his piece this way:

"So, if you don't have funding from your own nest egg, or from friends and family, you can pretty much forget about going from 0 to startup during this downturn."

With no diss at all to Mr. Hartmann, I humbly submit a concluding summary that would promote some glass-is-half-full action steps.

Mine would run something like this….

If you can invest a small amount of money and a large amount of your time, you can create your own sustainable enterprise in these difficult economic times. With hard work that enterprise can become a commercial platform allowing you to go forward in life with more personal options and more financial security.

Thanks to Mitchell Hartmann for the great piece and thanks, as always, to Marketplace.

Now get out there ASAP and start something. Slowly.


Marketplace broadcast of this story

A passion for problems

A good friend and mentor directed me to a wonderful book called Ripples From The Zambezi, by Ernesto Sirolli.

Mr Sirolli has been doing economic development work around the world and in the U.S. for more than 30 years. He is a 'bottom up' developer - nurturing small startups and then helping those entrepreneurs grow to the next level.

There are many great things to say about the book and the work. I want to focus on one aspect that I've always believed and taught to startup students and clients.

People often ask me what kind of business they should start. Often they're well along into researching business 'opportunities' being marketed to them.

I tell them that's the wrong question. The primary question is "What do you love?" Give me that answer, and I'll tell you what kind of business to start.

If you want to create your own small scale startup, focus on what you love. Build your enterprise around what you do beautifully or make with passion. The service or product will sell your enterprise in a way you couldn't duplicate with any other method, given small scale startup budgets.

Mr. Sirolli directs those that would help entrepreneurs first find the individuals who are passionate about their work and their ideas. Then he advocates getting the appropriate tools and structures in place to support that kind of enterprise.

He says this: "Success , we can therefore say, is to do beautifully whatever it is that you love doing…. And successful people come from every social stratum, race and sex. Some have been physically and psychologically abused; some couldn't see; some couldn't move and typed their books , letter by letter, with a stick held in their mouths. To be a genius in your own mind, however is meaningless; you have to dance it, build it, grow it, communicate it. Share it with the world."

The world gets made better by people solving problems. If you look around and can't see enough problems, I can't help.

Find a problem. Tell me why you know it passionately. Tell me what you love about your solutions, and I'll tell you what kind of startup you should organize. Your business will survive and grow only by continuing to solve problems with all the passion and skill that you can bring to your enterprise.

On top of that you get to live and work with what you love. It's a pretty great two-fer.

In closing, these kinds of small scale startups have never been more needed by the wider economy. The opportunities for small scale startups have never been greater. We are entering the renaissance age of entrepreneurship.

However, you need to remember that it will take longer than you think. The kinds of startups I'm writing about here are the most sustainable and most likely to succeed . But they take a while. I've called it the slow startup movement for a good reason. It's true.

What do you really love? Ready, Fire, Aim. Repeat. Good luck my friend.



Enersto Sirolli and the Sirolli Institute

Thanks to Sue at the Vernon County Economic Development office for the introduction to this good work.

The Slow Startup Movement. An introduction...

The Slow Startup Movement

A Field Guide to Organizing and Launching Your Own Small Enterprise on Your Terms, With Little Risk and Less Money.

An introduction….

Let's start with the economic crisis. My ideas are meant to offer a little self-defense and hope to those of us who would like to get more control over our financial lives, more security in our commercial lives, and more enjoyment in our personal lives.

There are any number of approaches that can work to help you launch your own enterprise. I want to talk about one of those paths that I think fits these times and people's aspirations perfectly. I've also seen them work over a lifetime of entrepreneurship.

This awful economic environment is changing the entrepreneurial landscape rapidly. I would suggest that what has happened to economies across the world will make it increasingly viable and even necessary to create your own small enterprise.

Running to the bank for a loan or raising money from outside investors will certainly continue for a few, but for the vast majority of startups, those tools are just not available.

Rather than give up on the thought, I suggest we get busy. Slowly. It helps me to think of it as the slow startup movement.

The TV and movies push images of entrepreneurs as manic speedy-commerce freaks. This has its roots, but those kind of enterprises often cause as many problems as they solve.

There was a good book out a few years ago called 'The Millionaire Next Door' by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko. What was so eye-catching about their study is that people with significant (actual) personal resources and security were not those best skilled at surfing bubbles, but were average people, that started small and carefully grew their businesses slowly over time. They lived below their means. They accumulated real security over time.

A garden is an obvious metaphor. A garden we plant ourselves. A garden we learn to grow. A garden of things we love. A garden whose journey is every bit as valuable as its outcome. A garden that can positively change our self-worth and increase security for our families. A garden that makes our communities stronger.

What in the heck could planting a tiny economic plot of your own do to change things?

The idea of Victory Gardens come to mind.

Think of starting your own enterprise as starting your own small garden. You start carefully. You plan. You nurture the garden, and you grow stronger, wiser and more valuable personally during the process. The work in the garden and the fruits of the garden make you and your community more sustainable and secure.

Here's what Michael Pollin just wrote in a great piece in the Oct. 9 New York Times Magazine, entitled 'Farmer In Chief'. It's an open letter to the next President about our food policies seen as a national security issue, among many other valuable perspectives.

"When Eleanor Roosevelt did something similar in 1943, she helped start a Victory Garden movement that ended up making a substantial contribution to feeding the nation in wartime. (Less well known is the fact that Roosevelt planted this garden over the objections of the U.S.D.A., which feared home gardening would hurt the American food industry.) By the end of the war, more than 20 million home gardens were supplying 40 percent of the produce consumed in America." (My note - these are results achieved in 2 years as a result of contributions made by millions of tiny contributors.)

So what does this have to do with a slow startup movement?

I've borrowed the gist of the term from the slow foods movement. Do you know it? The premise is take control of your food life. Use local foods and high quality resources. Strive for creating value and improving your life. Strive for an enjoyment of the process for savoring the results. Strive to share those results with friends and your communities in ways that make all involved stronger and more viable.

Gardening and cooking are iterative steps. Things don't always go the way you want. It takes time to get started. To do it right, it takes flexibility and creativity and most of all patience.

This is also the recipe for starting small, sustainable enterprises.

You use simple, high quality ingredients. You add your creativity and skill, and most of all patience, and you slowly create nourishing results.

This is not to say that many of these slow startups will not become sprinters, or gazelles as they are referred to in economic development circles. For those with appropriate offerings in the right markets, this is something to encourage. But a recent US Small Business Administration analysis of the gazelles notes that these firms don't get to the place they can sprint until they have in the market for a number of years, and have made their mistakes, and have polished their model, and organized appropriately for the time in their life cycle that they can take off like gazelles.

You don't start as a gazelle. You start as a gardener, nurturing what's good, weeding out what works against success.

That's the essence of the slow startup movement idea. Put yourself in the game. Find something you love and nurture it. Find the help and the resources to grow your seedlings. Take your time. Observe. Test. Fail. Rejigger. Repeat.

You can do it my friend. Like the Victory Gardens of World War II, we need to do it given the state of things.

The slow startup movement is a kind of commerce that you can follow to increase your own security, engage your creativity, and build the communities you live in.

Dig in, my friend. You can do it. Now is the time to start.



New York Times 'Open Letter to the Next Farmer In Chief'.

Overview of the book, The Millionaire Next Door, at WIkipedia

Next Generation Business Development

The Economic Development Director of Racine County, WI is Gordon Kacala. Gordon and I have not met, but I'm an admirer of his work and his writing.

I buy the Racine Journal Times whenever I'm in Racine, which is fairly often. I love newspapers, but my specific reason is to read Gordon Kacala's column in the Journal Times called 'Developing Racine'.

In a recent column I really liked, Gordon wrote about one of my favorite economic development subjects, manufacturing. Specifically his column talked about ways to define 'next generation' manufacturing.

The definitions Gordon pointed at have been proposed by our own Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership. I think these are a great first effort. I also think they are generally applicable to all kinds of economic development issues.

This evolving definition for 'next generation' enterprise has five main characteristics called out. I'm going to take each point and apply it to business development generally.

- Your enterprise embraces systemic, continuous improvement

ME: For startups and small businesses, this does not have to
mean biotech patents. It can mean sending invoices faster or storing phone numbers in the right place, or checking credit better. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to continuously improve your operations and the solutions you offer. However, you do need to do both all the time.

- Your enterprise is globally engaged

ME: There is micro-economic and a macro-economic comment to be made, given current circumstances.

The big global stuff is fun, and it's never been more available to small businesses. In both of my last enterprises, we had customers on 5 continents. I sold recycling equipment in Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas from my virtual office in Madison, Wisconsin. However going global is not the first step that most startups must learn to take. We took those global steps only after we learned to walk regionally and nationally.

I am not going to dismiss purely local commerce, but it can be very limiting and potentially lethal for most small enterprises.

For most enterprise their first markets need to be regional. It spreads the risk, it increases the universe of customers and it offers the potential for implementing your solutions at lower costs.

After that, when appropriate, you should then learn to market yourself nationally. Setting up a small enterprise that rejects the potential for selling across the United States is naive and wrong headed. When appropriate, marketing small businesses throughout the US has never been easier or less expensive.

After that, go global with my blessings. It can be rewarding and very profitable if you're ready.

- Your enterprise has active strategies to attract, develop and retain the talent necessary to win in a next-generation world.

ME: For the smallest businesses this means training yourself to learn the skills and tools needed to cowboy up commercially in the 21st century. This is not only the digital stuff, but the people skills needed to equitably do commerce going forward. Attracting and developing talent for small business can mean employees, but also increasingly means growing and retaining talented strategic market partners.

For existing small businesses, I would also suggest that the big picture needs adjusting. I mean that we all need to advocate for a system that takes health care out of the list of risks we face when starting and running enterprises. Without that, we can not compete for, or retain talent. The talent we need won't be available because those talented people can't risk their insurance status. The people who small businesses most need, (and I think the same people who most need small business), have to balance their family's risks with every decision as you do. We need to fix health care to fix economic development. Period.

- Your enterprise incorporates green ideas in its growth and operating strategies as a means to reduce waste and take advantage of the growing demand for sustainable products.

ME: I have seen the most egregious BS attached to the green movement, and I have also marketed hard right into it with great success. The test of sustainable green commerce is not a complicated one; it needs to fix real problems and it needs to make money.

There has been a sea change recently that will drive this movement forward. Green has become a national security issue.

As a sustainable path into the future, I have never seen so
much market wind at the back of green commerce

Need a definition of green commerce? I recently saw a great quote by Nobel Prize-wining physist Murray Gell-Mann defining sustainable as, "living off nature's income rather than it's principal".

Your community and the entire world want more sustainable products and services. There has never been more potential for ground-up, sustainable entrepreneurship in my lifetime.

- Your enterprise is skilled in strategic partner and supplier relationship management as a means to increase production flexibility, use partner competencies, and tap new markets.


ME: For small businesses, this translates as setting up equitable, transparent, mutually beneficial food chains with your commercial partners and customers. This is the most profitable model in the long run, and also the easiest to operate. Simple is good.


What we've seen in the economic meltdown this summer is that complicated, opaque commercial systems are almost impossible to manage and master, and in most case lead to disaster.

Next Generation business development will require the positions suggested above: continuous innovation, a regional and national market focus, your approach to all people is one of equality, your approach to commerce sustainably fixes problems, and you develop the ability to work cooperatively and equitably with all your commercial stakeholders.


Sustainable = repeatable. This 'Next Generation' model highlights that approach. Anyone can do this. I believe everyone should start and grow their own enterprises along these principles.

There has never been a more important time to to do so for yourself and for our economy going forward.




Thanks to Gordon Kacala for his good work and good writing on behalf of Racine County. Visit the Racine County Economic Development site

Visit the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership site discussing Next Generation Manufacturing