Tag Archives: planning

Non Profit Your Way to Helping Others

One of the interesting things we are discovering at EntreDot is the power of a non-profit to garner collaboration. EntreDot™ is a newly formed business mentoring organization that is committed to ensuring entrepreneurial success. Our objective is to increase the chances of entrepreneurial success by creating high impact companies that are run by entrepreneurs with sustainable business management and leadership capabilities. By providing needed business assistance, we will help entrepreneurs increase revenue and job growth for their companies and communities.

Were we simply a management consulting firm, we would be perceived as being in competition with other consultants, certified public accountants, attorneys, angel funds, investment bankers, and so on… in which case, we would be left to ourselves to try and help one entrepreneur at a time. We knew that we wanted the cooperation of people from all of the categories above, plus many more, so it was a strategic business model decision to become a 501 (c) (3).

What we did not count on, however, is the strong community support. Whether it is the local government (Thank you Mayor McFarlane, Council members Bonner Gaylord and Mary Ann Baldwin for your support evident last night at the Innovate Raleigh event at REDii!), paragovernment organizations like the Cary Chamber and the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, educational groups like the NCSU School of Textiles and School of Design plus Wake Technical Community College, volunteers who serve tirelessly, or great sponsors, we have been overwhelmed at the synergy created by bringing people together who all want to see more entrepreneurs be successful.

The benefits to the entrepreneurs and to their communities are:

  • Avoiding critical errors that lead to business failure
  • Improving the business skills of local entrepreneurs
  • Having a second set of eyes on key business issues like financing, cash flow management, marketing programs, sales traction, and many more
  • Validating entrepreneurs’ their ideas and decisions
  • Helping entrepreneurs build the right management team to run their companies
  • Assisting entrepreneurs in building relationships with all their stakeholders, and potentially steering them to new customers, suppliers and financing sources
  • Retaining local entrepreneurs who will stay in their communities to create new businesses; reducing the “brain drain”
  • Increasing the number of good jobs within the rapidly growing new companies throughout NC, including in its most distressed counties
  • Increasing revenue to local communities via the expansion of local economies

Recently, I had the distinct pleasure of hearing Nobel prize winner Muhammad Yunus espouse the virtues of social business as a means to solve community issues. This is an idea whose time has come! We are excited to be helping entrepreneurs create better local economies, with the myriad of spillover effects.

What non-profit can you help create that will solve community needs through strong collaboration?

Successful Business Plans: 5 More Keys


EntreDot Executive Director Bill Warner wrote a blog post this week for the Raleigh Emerging Designers Innovation Incubator website about business plans. In it, he shares keys to success.  Yesterday’s post here dealt with 5 keys; 5 more are offered below:

“Have a compelling value proposition.”

  • Solve a truly important problem with an attractive return on investment.
  • Make sure it fits into your buyer’s priorities.

The Challenge: You must fit within your buyer’s priority list for planned purchases. The benefit of your product has to be at the forefront of your customer’s needs. The best way to express the value of your product or service is to present a return on investment (ROI) analysis. You should be providing either higher revenue or lower cost/expense, and it should take less than a year to pay the investment back. Anything else is probably a “nice to have,” and is unlikely to win in a market where buyers are only purchasing “must have” solutions.

“Have a targeted marketing plan.”

  • Know how to reach your buyer to gain awareness
  • Establish a cost effective lead generation plan

The Challenge: Select the right way to deliver your message to your potential buyer: advertising, trade articles, mail or email campaigns, telemarketing, distributors, value added remarkets, dealers or direct sales force. Many companies are over-reliant on franchises as offering a silver bullet strategy for support and getting started. They don’t sufficiently analyze what the franchiser brings to the table that you can’t do for yourself. Franchisees sometimes over-estimate the value of the support from the franchiser; in that, is it worth the franchising fee and the royalty payment? Can those costs be made up by efficiencies offered by the franchiser? Can those costs be passed on to your customer? If not, the franchisee is at a competitive disadvantage. Those with a “brand” that can bring customers in the door on “day one” and provide active business operation assistance, rather than arms length promises, are particularly worth looking into. Once you have generated qualified leads, manage them through the entire sales process.

“Create the most efficient sales channel and excellent customer support.”

  • Ensure the sales approach is affordable
  • Build satisfied customers

The Challenge: Establish a sales forecast. Hoping for sales is not planning. Sales forecasts are based on understanding the buyer in your selected market segment and on the experience of others in it. Many new companies underestimate the time it takes to build a business to the point where it is profitable. As a result, many new businesses are under-financed and have insufficient working capital to sustain themselves in the initial growth period or during seasonal downturns. Being new and small is no excuse for cutting corners in dealing with customers. Would you go into a shop in the mall with cheap looking furnishings and lighting? Don’t try to save money there. Your sales and support efforts should be guided to create a satisfied customer who is willing to be a reference to other potential customers and give you repeat business as well.

“Understand your entire financial model.”

  • Establish realistic sales, cost, capital and expense plans
  • Understand cash flow and profit dynamics

The Challenge: Establish a solid financial plan. Many new companies are unplanned or under-planned. Planning cannot deal with all the surprises in the real world, but why be surprised by things you can anticipate and deal with beforehand? Planning requires a highly detailed and kinetic vision of the future of the business that reduces that vision to the language of business, dollars and cents. A financial plan is required to raise money from banks and investors in addition to helping you set financial objectives. Many new companies try to save money by avoiding the costs of lawyers, accountants and insurance agents. One mistake can cost you many times the small cost of relying on experts. Operationally, the most important financial dynamic to understand is cash flow. Know how money comes into and goes out of your company and when the transactions occur. The penalty for not managing your financials well is running out of money and probably losing your business.

“Ensure you have a winning team.”

  • They should have the passion for success
  • Attract the best experience and know-how

The Challenge: Pick the best people for your company. Many new businesses reach too far in a single step; for example, starting a trucking business without any prior experience. Take it “step-by-step”. Often the first step is to get a job in a business similar to the one you want to start. Learn the business from the inside out. Then start your own business.  With the right experience under your belt, build your team with people that fill out the strengths that you need to run your business. Pick only the best people that can get the job done. Avoid hiring friends and family.

5 Keys to a Successful Business Plan

Bill Warner, in a blog post on the Raleigh Emerging Designers innovation incubator website this week, shares the following about successful business plans:

If you were to ask twenty experienced business people what it takes to have a successful business plan, chances are you will get many of these answers and more. Here is my view of what a successful business plan is made of.

“Most importantly, have the passion for your business.”

  • Confirm that your entire heart and soul is behind the business.
  • Insure you have family and friends supporting you.

The Challenge: Having the passion for your business means it is something you may want to do for the rest of your life. It is not a sideline until the job market improves. It is not something you can manage part-time while you are looking for a “real” job. You may not be passionate about the idea initially, but if you don’t become passionate as you do your research, beware. Sometimes, your passion will be the only thing that will keep you going.

“Define your market.”

  • Focus on large and growing opportunities.
  • Intimately understand your buyer’s wants and needs.

The Challenge: A market is a group of buyers that have common buying wants and needs. Business owners need to understand if the market is big enough to go after and whether or not it is reachable. Many small businesses fail to define their market, lack emphasis on customers and groups of customers (market segments), and how to reach buyers in those market segments. Your market definition should include market size, growth rate, market trends, market influencers, number of buyers, buyer wants and needs, competitive analysis and regulatory influences. Test your definition by meeting with other companies in your market segment and with potential buyers.

“Ensure you have a winning business model.”

  • Understand everything that affects your market segment.
  • Determine if your business will produce results.

The Challenge: A business consists of a market and a product or service; not just an operation or a product. You must define both. Export-import is not a business; rather, “importing decorative candles for sale by mail-order to wealthy collectors of oriental art” defines a business. You need to understand how your business will coexist in your selected market segment. How will your business operate within an environment of suppliers, manufacturers, distribution channels, competitors and buyers? Put the whole picture together so you know how your company fits in.

“Know how to beat your competitor(s).”

  • Understand their strengths.
  • Exploit their weaknesses.

The Challenge: New businesses need a creative concept. Sometimes they just follow the pack; thus have no competitive advantage. New businesses cannot ignore the competition. You must look for underserved niches in the marketplace. The creative concept does not have to define a totally new class of business, but rather a “twist” on an existing business may be adequate.  Know all about your competitors and clearly understand how you will beat them. With a product that is uniquely differentiated and satisfies the buyers need, you will win more than you lose.

“Create a winning product or service.”

  • Provide what the buyer wants and in the way they want it.
  • Have a plan to expand to new opportunities.

The Challenge: There are three strategies for success in dealing in a competitive environment: lowest cost (not lowest price), best product and market focus. The first two are difficult or impossible to achieve for most small businesses. The third, focus, requires management discipline and overcoming the urge to do too many other things. If you really understand your buyer and know what it takes to win against competition, your product or service will be easy to sell. Anything less will lead to failure.

Better Mousetraps Require Divergent Thinking!

One of the people I follow in leadership blogs is Dan Rockwell, aka Leadership Freak. His post this morning cautions against working hard versus working smart:

It doesn’t matter how hard you work if you’re working on the wrong things.

He goes on to discuss how doing business without thinking strategically can be harmful to your business and personal health. While it’s needful to get work out the door (think lawyers focusing on billable work, carpenters hammering nails), to only do so is to lose sight of the bigger, value adding activities that distinguish great businesses from ordinary ones. Your efforts are not as productive as they could be because you are displacing the benefits of your focus and inertia that could be applied to thinking about what would make you more successful and pursuing those activities that promise reward for another day–not just the current one!

Some of the activities that suffer when you are not working on your business include:

  • Planning
  • Goal-setting
  • Brainstorming
  • Delegating
  • Organizing
  • Dreaming
  • Alliance building
  • Networking

When our attention is shifted to “working on the business” (thanks Michael Gerber for the E-Myth insights), we are thinking innovatively. Our efforts are building something that will stand the test of time. Net worth/business value soars as we are refining the business model instead of just trying to work harder. Think about franchise systems. The value is in the documented processes and controls. Even if you never plan to sell through a franchise agreement, you would do well to consider the genius behind the movement. Instead of being the person who only makes money off the sweat of his or her brow, you find a way to make money off others’ labors.

Rockwell suggests the following to help you get unstuck and more productive in creating a business with greater value:

  1. Create a weekly “working on” appointment with yourself. Identify and take a next step.
  2. Make small adjustments. You’ll never shift toward working on your business in one giant leap.
  3. Find new eyes. Discuss systems, strategies, and vision with experts outside your field.
  4. Listen. Many leaders and business owners have too many answers and too few questions.
  5. Try something. Waiting for stunning success prevents progress.
  6. Delegate more even if it takes longer at first.
  7. Follow-up and follow-through. Frustrations inspire conversations regarding improvements but follow-through changes things. Perhaps some form of accountability would help?

For entrepreneurs, mentors can be extremely valuable in holding one accountable to a process like the one commended.  Going it alone, without the benefit of outside advice and counsel, makes us technicians without hope of escaping the rat race.  You can change your future today–be daring to do so!

Secret Entrepreneur Weapon

In a January 26, 2012 article for Entrepreneur magazine (Mentors: A Young Entrepreneur’s Secret Weapon) Adam Toren writes,

…to take advantage of the most powerful weapon an entrepreneur can have, find a mentor.

A good mentor helps you think through a business idea, suggests ways to generate that startup capital and provides the experience and savvy you’re missing. You’ll get praise when you deserve it and a heads-up when trouble comes — probably long before you would have noticed it yourself.

Instead of mentoring, many entrepreneurs “hang out” with peers, attend fun/trendy events for start-ups, and make presentations at conferences and forums. While there is a place for many–if not all–of these activities, they do not take the place of a relationship with someone who has knowledge or expertise in areas that are not your own strengths. Often, the mentors even know of others who can be helpful in additional disciplines so that you are able to become surrounded with wise counsel and advice. EntreDot is a mentoring organization that has seen the need for this type of service and is creating and implementing programs via innovation centers and in conjunction with strategic allies to foster entrepreneurship in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina.

Entrepreneurs — especially young ones — tend to tap their friends for business advice. But that can be a mistake. The reason is, friends tell you what you want to hear. For what you need to hear, rather, a mentor is often a better bet.

A mentor could be a professional who advises entrepreneurs for a living or someone working in a related industry who is willing to help you. And unlike your friends, mentors are typically more removed from you and your business. So they tend to be more comfortable delivering bad or critical news and advice. And since many of them have either started up businesses in the past or have worked in industries that you’re trying to shake up, mentors can also fill experience gaps, as well as impart their wisdom on how to handle specific business challenges.

The above quote was taken from another article in Entrepreneur magazine, this one by Martin Zwillig last week (A Good Mentor Will Tell it Like It Is). The gist of his insight is that mentors can come from a variety of backgrounds, but their key role is to warn you of missteps rather than cheer your every decision. The good mentors can help you identify steps to success and stand by you to follow them when challenges would distract you from executing your plan.

Zwillig concludes by suggesting 5 Qualities That Are a Must in an Ideal Mentor:

  • Pragmatism.
  • Fortitude. 
  • Stamina.
  • Connections.
  • Perspective. 


Hope you are successful in putting your own secret weapon to strategic advantage!