For
any entrepreneur who thinks forming a company and launching a new idea
will be a piece of cake, with you becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg,
please rethink your strategy. With so many university and business based
incubators and business accelerators promoting entrepreneurship
programs, it’s hard not to jump on the bandwagon to get going and get
your company out there. Look before you leap. Take a diagnostic look at
what’s required to be successful.
It sounds impressive to call yourself a CEO or tell your parents’ friends that you are pursuing a degree in entrepreneurial studies. But it doesn’t make you an entrepreneur.
Being an entrepreneur is hard work. Darn hard work. An often thankless 24/7/365 job where at times the only person who believes in you is you. Do you have that type of fire in your belly, commitment, and discipline? Do you have that type of leadership?
It’s not what they do tell you about signing up for university courses or competing for business plan competitions or seemingly free and easy money in pitch
competitions.
It’s what you find out immediately upon entering these programs and
competitions – and perhaps choose to ignore – that makes a difference in
setting expectations and outcomes.
For mature business people who decide to become entrepreneurs, regardless of their track record of success in the business world prior to their entry into the entrepreneurial one, one success doesn’t assure entrepreneurial success. Thinking like a mature business is not the same as thinking like an entrepreneur. In fact, it’s 180 degree opposite from what you learned and experienced in status quo work environments. Can your brain make the necessary recalibrations ? Are you flexible, ready to make those all-important pivots necessary to reposition based on new information that you are finding about market, industry, finances, business model? Your assumptions and presumptions are continually going to be tested. Over the long haul.
For academicians, it’s not a matter of keeping on tinkering and hoping some VC investor picks up your technology so you can hire some sales guy or gal to go out there and get your product or platform into the marketplace. In fact, you are the first Chief Marketing and Sales Officer, in addition to being the first Chief Technical Officer – and CFO as well. Oh, and your TechTransfer office isn’t going to market and sell your product for you, either. They are not an ad agency. They are concerned about IP, documentation, and validating your processes and approach to commercialization. Potential customers won’t be lining up to speak with you simply because they want to hear an academic lecture. They want to have a business discussion with you. Do you know how to have one? That’s a lot to digest, especially when you are a tenured and published professor.
Before you jump on the bandwagon with your idea, product, platform, intellectual property, understand the entrepreneurial landscape from this 10,000 foot eagle’s eye perspective. It’s like running a marathon. Anticipate and train your brain, and set and manage your, as well as your team’s, expectations over the long haul.
Entrepreneurship is as much about your idea, product, or platform, entrepreneurship as it is about your ability to lead throughout.
It sounds impressive to call yourself a CEO or tell your parents’ friends that you are pursuing a degree in entrepreneurial studies. But it doesn’t make you an entrepreneur.
Being an entrepreneur is hard work. Darn hard work. An often thankless 24/7/365 job where at times the only person who believes in you is you. Do you have that type of fire in your belly, commitment, and discipline? Do you have that type of leadership?
It’s not what they do tell you about signing up for university courses or competing for business plan competitions or seemingly free and easy money in pitch
competitions.
It’s what you find out immediately upon entering these programs and
competitions – and perhaps choose to ignore – that makes a difference in
setting expectations and outcomes.The first thing that any mentor, TechTransfer department, angel or venture capital investor willingly will tell you is that the overwhelming majority of entrepreneurships fail. Mostly because the wheels come off. The team loses focus – or never had it in the first place. You weren’t all on the same page, sharing the same vision. Your product wasn’t viable or the cost of commercialization becomes daunting. So how will you pivot?Students teams fail because it’s far more work than you realized. For those taking entrepreneurship courses, it’s not about completing homework assignments. Most of the time there aren’t any. It’s about immersing yourself in the complete experience: you are both the consultant and the lab rat in the entrepreneurial maze. It’s hardly that easy “A” grade that you thought you could get. It involves real-life team dynamics that you will encounter in the real world. If you don’t complete the deliverables or meet milestones, or figure you can get by with the minimum effort as output, you will get thrown under the bus – by the team. No slackers needed. There’s no “right” answer, one “right” way to do things. It’s about probability, choices, decisions, analytical thinking, judgment calls. Are you prepared to participate or simply observe?
For mature business people who decide to become entrepreneurs, regardless of their track record of success in the business world prior to their entry into the entrepreneurial one, one success doesn’t assure entrepreneurial success. Thinking like a mature business is not the same as thinking like an entrepreneur. In fact, it’s 180 degree opposite from what you learned and experienced in status quo work environments. Can your brain make the necessary recalibrations ? Are you flexible, ready to make those all-important pivots necessary to reposition based on new information that you are finding about market, industry, finances, business model? Your assumptions and presumptions are continually going to be tested. Over the long haul.
For academicians, it’s not a matter of keeping on tinkering and hoping some VC investor picks up your technology so you can hire some sales guy or gal to go out there and get your product or platform into the marketplace. In fact, you are the first Chief Marketing and Sales Officer, in addition to being the first Chief Technical Officer – and CFO as well. Oh, and your TechTransfer office isn’t going to market and sell your product for you, either. They are not an ad agency. They are concerned about IP, documentation, and validating your processes and approach to commercialization. Potential customers won’t be lining up to speak with you simply because they want to hear an academic lecture. They want to have a business discussion with you. Do you know how to have one? That’s a lot to digest, especially when you are a tenured and published professor.
Before you jump on the bandwagon with your idea, product, platform, intellectual property, understand the entrepreneurial landscape from this 10,000 foot eagle’s eye perspective. It’s like running a marathon. Anticipate and train your brain, and set and manage your, as well as your team’s, expectations over the long haul.
This may be more of a 3-5 year process, at least, before you achieve your exit strategy. You do have an exit strategy, don’t you?The wheels, indeed, will start to wobble if not come off your venture at least one time over the duration. That situation may be your first warning of lack of viability of your product, platform, or team.
Entrepreneurship is as much about your idea, product, or platform, entrepreneurship as it is about your ability to lead throughout.
And leadership is not a matter of glorified project management. It’s about how interoperable you are, how knowledgeable you are, and how passionate you are, about all aspects of your organization.Investors are buying into your ability to lead your start-up through obstacles and challenges.
Have you got what it takes over the long haul? Even when the wheels appear to be coming off your venture?
Focusing on Your Personal Horizon
November 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I
have no sense of direction. I’m one of those people who can’t read a
map without turning it in the direction I’m going in. And even then I’m
still not sure. When Garmin came out with their Nuvi GPS, my daughter
rushed out and had it installed in my car as a Christmas present. She
knew she was performing an act of mercy. Otherwise, she wasn’t sure
whether I’d make it home from being out on the road making sales calls.
Eventually I got pretty good at understanding where I was going. My kids now started calling me up for directions. I was telling them things like: “Take Exit 42 off I-75 North, turn left, go 1.2 miles….” You get it. I knew my directions relative to the road.
Still, to me, North was Up. If you asked me what direction North was, I’d point my finger Up. (I still do).
Yet when I continued to drive up and down the roads, calling on customers, trying to sell other people’s stuff and ending up being retained for my consulting services instead, I was focused ahead.
Not on the where the next exit was.
I focused on where the horizon is.
You know, the place where the road ends and the sky seems to take over. Out there.
I focused on my personal horizon.
My personal horizon is the place that I focus on when things get messy and chaotic. It grounds me each morning. I thank goodness for it and all the people and experiences which have formed it over the years. I look forward to the people and experiences that will continue to add to my personal horizon.
The core of my personal horizon hasn’t changed since I was a kid. It’s based on my core values.
And sure, as a child, you don’t have the vocabulary to articulate what your core values are all about. Ultimately it’s the stuff you find fair and unfair, just and unjust, behavior you endorse or reject. As I got older, I learned the vocabulary that allowed me to choose the words that articulate my core values.
My core values are trustworthiness, integrity, ethical behavior, and respect. They are my personal horizon.
As I blogged about on Tuesday, many of us get caught up in where we are, our here. Yet we are traveling down someone else’s roadmap, their there.
How many times have you rejected the path that Google maps has selected for you, or selected another route other than the one the GPS was talking at you? Just because you knew another way to get there. Or just because you decided to do something edgy and see what the road held for you?
Focusing on your personal horizon grounds you, centers you, and liberates you from making “their” choices for you. You know better. You really do.
It’s a matter of being true to who you are. True to your personal horizon. True to your personal core values.
Stay your own course.
Let me know what your personal core values are.
Eventually I got pretty good at understanding where I was going. My kids now started calling me up for directions. I was telling them things like: “Take Exit 42 off I-75 North, turn left, go 1.2 miles….” You get it. I knew my directions relative to the road.
Still, to me, North was Up. If you asked me what direction North was, I’d point my finger Up. (I still do).
Yet when I continued to drive up and down the roads, calling on customers, trying to sell other people’s stuff and ending up being retained for my consulting services instead, I was focused ahead.
Not on the where the next exit was.
I focused on where the horizon is.
You know, the place where the road ends and the sky seems to take over. Out there.
I focused on my personal horizon.
My personal horizon is the place that I focus on when things get messy and chaotic. It grounds me each morning. I thank goodness for it and all the people and experiences which have formed it over the years. I look forward to the people and experiences that will continue to add to my personal horizon.
The core of my personal horizon hasn’t changed since I was a kid. It’s based on my core values.
And sure, as a child, you don’t have the vocabulary to articulate what your core values are all about. Ultimately it’s the stuff you find fair and unfair, just and unjust, behavior you endorse or reject. As I got older, I learned the vocabulary that allowed me to choose the words that articulate my core values.
My core values are trustworthiness, integrity, ethical behavior, and respect. They are my personal horizon.
As I blogged about on Tuesday, many of us get caught up in where we are, our here. Yet we are traveling down someone else’s roadmap, their there.
How many times have you rejected the path that Google maps has selected for you, or selected another route other than the one the GPS was talking at you? Just because you knew another way to get there. Or just because you decided to do something edgy and see what the road held for you?
Focusing on your personal horizon grounds you, centers you, and liberates you from making “their” choices for you. You know better. You really do.
It’s a matter of being true to who you are. True to your personal horizon. True to your personal core values.
Stay your own course.
Let me know what your personal core values are.
Join me at the 2012 Women Entrepreneurs Conference
November 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
On November 17, 2012, the Michigan Association for Female Entrepreneurs (MAFE) will host their inaugural 2012 Women Entrepreneurs Conference. What makes this conference so intriguing – and one that got my immediate attention -is that the line-up is so good, especially for the first time out of the proverbial gate.MAFE supports and promotes the economic growth and advancement of women entrepreneurs in Southeast Michigan.
That
means supporting the entrepreneurial maturity of women at all levels of
business growth, from start-up to mature businesses.Michigan has a vibrant network of business incubators and university programs that support entrepreneurship. It’s one of a handful of states that “have it right” – in terms of how these incubators are modeled and how they interact with the entrepreneurial community.
One of the missions of MAFE is to accelerate the growth rate and success of women-owned businesses through enhanced networking and educational events, workshops, and seminars such as their 2012 Women Entrepreneurs Conference.
Which is why I am speaking at the event.
I’ll be hosting a session at the conference titled: Telling Your Story, Selling Your Venture. No matter whether you are a university professor, corporate professional, student, or someone with an idea that catches fire, all of us are uncomfortable pitching that idea to investors. Let’s face it, while the friends and family approach may work for a while in getting your start-up off the ground, eventually your friends and family begin wondering when you are going to get a real job, or real funding. That means it’s time for you to pitch to investors and enter business competitions, some of the most daunting experiences I know of.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
One of the ways investors separate the men from the boys – and the women from the girls – is how well you understand the mindset of the investment community and how well you position your venture with the goals of their portfolio. If what I just wrote sounds like Greek to you, then perhaps you might want to attend this seminar/break-out session at the event.
This country was built on entrepreneurship. It’s not something that is a given, however, even if you feel you qualify for programs and grants. You are asking organizations to put their money on you, and they need to exhibit found fiscal judgment when making their financial awards or making loans to your organization.
Are you speaking to them in their language? Do you understand how they think?
One of the shortfalls of anyone in the business world today, entrepreneurs particularly, is their knowledge gap about the financials of what leads their company from idea to profit. While a lot has been made about how girls shy away from math and STEM programs, it boils down to your mindset.
Are you going to tackle those finances or not? Leaving this critical aspect of your business to someone else – your father or uncle or a close family friend – jeopardizes your entrepreneurship in the long run. Who knows your company better than you? Work with your advisors. Collaborate with them.
If you are going to be that CEO, do so in more than title. That means simultaneously understanding the interrelationship between your value proposition, markets, industry, business model, and financials.
Join me on Saturday, November 17, 2012, when the Michigan Association for Female Entrepreneurs hosts their inaugural 2012 Women Entrepreneurs Conference. Find out the answers to these questions.
And a whole lot more from some incredibly talented and inspiring women.
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