Startup Advice
Do what you love and you won’t work a day?
I’m re-posting this because I got a lot of feedback. The majority agreed but some people wanted to modify my premise. One said maybe you should lower your expectations and “do what you like”. Do a job that’s “sort of satisfying”? I don’t think so–not my style. I believe everybody is good at, and has a passion for, something, and that something is the heart of what you love to do. Therefore, the key to finding something that you love to do is in finding what you really do well and have a passion for. Of course, if nobody will pay you for that endeavor, maybe you’ve just discovered a good hobby.
Anyway, here’s the original post:
“Do what you love and you won’t work a day” is inane bull-crap, IMHO. I love drinking beer, I truly do. But, no one will pay me for that. I love creating graphic art, which I think is pretty good, but it seems as though no one will pay me for that, either! Could I make a living out of playing with my kids? Doubtful. I’m passionate about writing songs, but since no one has bought anything I wrote,… Continue reading
The Seven Steps of Customer Investigation
When aspiring entrepreneurs finally realize they have to spend more time developing the customer than developing the product in the early days, they are faced with a dilemma: “You mean I have to actually TALK to people?”
Steve Blank and Eric Ries would answer the same way: yes. You can’t build a product around who you think is the customer and what their problem is and how they want to solve it and whether or not your product offers a compelling solution—you are not the customer! Only the customer is the customer. You have assumptions, but you have to define and verify them before finalizing your product, so you have to get out there and do the process of customer investigation.
So, how? I suggest Seven Steps, which are built around sales process as it applies to qualifying a prospect.
1: Ask for permission – show respect and consideration; ask for permission and help
2: Qualify the prospect – do they fit the customer profile?
3: Problem probe – do they recognize the problem?
4: Solution probe – are they looking for a solution?
5: Urgency probe – how urgent is the need to solve… Continue reading
Does Self Assessment Really Come First?
I spend a lot of ink on self assessment in my book. I always thought that you have to figure out what you’re capable of and can do and are good at and passionate about before you can make a wise choice to be an entrepreneur. In my analytical, architectural mind, that makes sense: build a foundation of understanding—of yourself, your customer, your product—before you build the product and the business. However…
I recently saw the results of a poll on an entrepreneur-oriented web site that had 51% saying they think it’s a better idea to learn about starting a business by just starting a business. Only 22% thought they should get prepared by talking to successful (and unsuccessful) entrepreneurs or read books before they make the plunge. That just doesn’t seem right to me.
Here’s my dilemma: I started out by just starting out; damn the torpedoes and all of that. I figured it out as I went along and I succeeded with luck and balls. Now, many years later, I’m telling people what I learned: that you can really screw it up if you don’t learn a few things first. Luck and balls… Continue reading
Testing Assumptions with Customers
When you are testing the assumptions you generate in the Assessment stage of the ACE Methodology, you have to first define and verify them through research in the Confirmation stage. This means asking a lot of prospective customers the three critical questions: 1) do they really have the problem you think they do?, 2) do they have an urgent need to solve it?, and 3) does your product seem to offer a compelling solution? The customer investigation process is an important part of designing a successful product.
To do this, you have to ask people these questions, either in-person or virtually. Conducting face-to-face interviews is best because you can judge their reaction and ask probing questions. In Startup Assembly Manual, we discuss the Seven Steps of customer investigation; it’s a sales process structure.
Virtual interviews need a different strategy. You have to test your marketing message through a web site or social media to get the answers to the questions. The best method I’ve tried on the web is where your home page has a random redirect function to four different pages. Each page has a different message, which basically asks… Continue reading
I need to be an entrepreneur. Now what?
I cross paths with a lot of people, especially older job seekers, who say “I need to start my own business, but I don’t know what it will be”. Wanting to be an entrepreneur and independent is the first step along a path of millions of steps, each one carrying the virus of failure. If you don’t choose a target really well in this first step, you probably will catch the failure flu. So, how do you choose?
I think the basic foundation of any successful business person is a really strong self-assessment. That’s the first step in the ACE Methodology. I’ve found that successful entrepreneurs fully understand their strengths, weaknesses, passions, experience and values then put them to work in a focused direction. Honest self-assessment is really hard (you think it would be easy, but it isn’t) because you can be too close to yourself. Friends and family (even strangers) often have a better perspective on what you’re good at and passionate about.
“Passions” will help you get up in the morning to accomplish something. “Strengths” will help you do it well. “Experience” will help you avoid a long education and rookie mistakes.… Continue reading
Pitching to Investors is a Sales Process
When entrepreneurs try to raise money at any level, it involves a “pitch”. Pitching to investors can be defined within the context of a sales process where you and your idea is the product and the investor is the customer. There are some rules, but first, don’t pitch until you are ready.
Before the pitch, entrepreneurs have to understand the investor’s mindset, what they are looking for. They want a place to put money that has the potential for maximum return with as minimum of risk as possible. They don’t normally want to “take a flyer” on an unproven concept. Therefore, you have to prepared with as strong a “proof of concept” as you can. There are three flavors of proof of concept: technical (does it work; does it give the customer the value proposition it promises); economic (is the price customers will pay be more than a summation of the costs involved in producing and selling and distributing it).
The third is “social” proof of concept where you have proven that there a lots of people with a) a real problem (the one you think they have), b) an urgent need to… Continue reading
Sculpting an Entrepreneurial Elephant
In a college art class (a long time ago) we were told to sculpt a “successful elephant” with a lump of clay. The puzzled guy next to me asked how to start making a successful elephant. Consistent with my smart-ass nature, I said, “remove everything that doesn’t look like an elephant”.
I meet a young entrepreneur last week and he asked ”how do I make a successful business”. After a quick flashback, I answered: “remove whatever will make it fail.”
But, after thinking through why I was getting a blank expression, I realized the problem was he didn’t yet know what will cause failure. Of course, he didn’t know how to succeed, either. I quickly revised my answer to “try everything that sounds smart, be willing to fail, remove that and then leave everything that works; whatever is left over will look like success.” Failure is a part of the entrepreneurial process – just don’t make it a permanent part.
I don’t know if that’s wise or not, but I thought it is pretty cool.
Three Critical Questions for Entrepreneurs
Whether you’re a consultant, an app creator, or creating a product for sale, you are providing a solution to a problem. On one hand, if there is no problem, then nobody needs a solution and you don’t have a product. On the other, if everyone has the problem, you have a great position to start from.
Entrepreneurs have to ask themselves these three simple questions:
1. Is there real problem shared by a lot of people?
2. Is there an urgent need to find a solution?
3. Does your product offer a compelling solution to the problem?
On question one: you are not your customer; only your customer is your customer. If no one else but you has the problem you’re trying to solve, you don’t have a product.
On question two: If there’s no urgency (degree of both frequency and intensity together), then a customer’s motivation to buy is low and sales will be tough, even if they know they have a problem. Making something that’s hard to sell isn’t smart.
On question three: You may find a known problem and discovered there’s a sense of urgency to find a solution, but your product might suck. … Continue reading
After an entrepreneur STARTS a business
The dream of every entrepreneur is to start and run a business that will provide a rewarding, challenging, and fruitful life. Or maybe it’s reaching that pot of gold in three to five years—or someday. Most founders I know see overcoming the challenges as the fun part, where the journey is as—or more—important as creating the exit. For me, that’s true. It was never about the money, it was about the puzzle-piecing, the arranging the parts of the business in a well-oiled symphony of ever-expanding efficiency and production. The money just comes along with doing that well.
OK. Maybe that sounds a little dramatic. It is really true, though. If you don’t love the challenge of arranging and massaging each detail of growing the business, from engineering to manufacturing to eCommerce to the mail room, you may miss some critical component. A business is like a big machine, with gears and levers and belts and motors, all whirring in fine precision—at least it SHOULD be. However, trust me, if you don’t pay enough attention to that little gear over there, you could break the machine. Or, more likely, make it run inefficiently. It runs, but it might be losing power.… Continue reading
ACE Methodology – Personal Assessment 1
ACE Methodology
The concept behind the ACE Methodology for Startups applies itself well to most endeavors intended to create success. The Startup Assembly Manual uses it to lay out a road map for entrepreneurs and people with an idea but no clue what to do with it.
ACE is Assessment, Confirmation, and Execution. The Assessment stage leads you through the process of assessing yourself, your customer, your product, and your business idea. From that comes a set of assumptions which are refined, defined, then tested in the Confirmation stage – first with research and customer investigation then with sales. When you have a proven set of assumptions, you build a business plan and Execute it.
In this article, we’ll discuss one of the most important assessments you will make, personal assessment. In future articles, we’ll discuss more personal qualities that make up a foundation of success. But, let’s start with this:
After forty years of being an entrepreneur and knowing a lot of them, certain personal characteristics seem to determine success or failure. Someone asked me what is the most important trait of a successful entrepreneur. I answered: objectivity. This is the ability to see things… Continue reading