Big ideas are worthless

Jeff Stibel is president of web.com a web marketing company describes himself as the contrarian entrepreneur and he made what seem to be several counterpoints to the earlier presentations to prove it.

Jeff truly believes this a perfect time for an entrepreneur to start a business. “Big ides are worthless…execution is everything (ideas are a dime a dozen, don’t confuse entrepreneurs with being an inventor, history littered great ideas that failed,” said Jeff naming many successful companies like Sony and Gillette whose original products went nowhere.

Taking on a list of common business myths Jeff countered such claims as “be willing to risk everything” with the reality that entrepreneurs make actually make calculated risks, not a reckless gamble. “In order to win you have to refuse to lose” Jeff said the reality is that if you are not failing or risking failure you are not challenging yourself. “I love failure, I always know what I did wrong, there is nothing wrong with failing over and over” said Jeff.

The idea of “cut your losses” is also a myth according to Matt who said the reality is you never give up. There is always a solution. Protect what you need to but persevere. He used Juno, classmates.com and myspace.com as examples of business models that began either on the wrong track or an unnoticed piece of a bigger business until finally “discovered”

The last myth was that of always using other people’s money. Jeff warned that taking on investors is the biggest decision a business can make and it’s important to give more than you take and don’t do it if you aren’t sure you can add value. “Think long term; will your VC’s still want to work with you down the road” said Jeff.

Critical Insight:  When trying to attract people don’t look for a team. Look for the right  individual for each job because even that is hard and a building a team Jeff would argue is impossible.

The CalTech/MIT Enterprise Forum  aims to encourage the growth and success of technology based entrepreneurial ventures and was sponsored by the business and technology law firm of Stubbs, Alderton & Markiles, LLP

Not an “entrepreneur,” a “value accumulator”
Phil Ressler of BigStage.com which offers a service that projects a realistic picture of yourself easily on pictures and video. Phil also offered a list that gave a worthwhile challenge to us all and had an example for most of them. The list was a good one so enjoy and learn.

Critical Insight: “F**K the economy: 14 timeless rules
1. I’m not an entrepreneur, I’m a value accumulator. If you’re going to take somebody’s money you need to build value for that investor.
2. Every company needs an existential argument- (why do you need to exist? Keep it short).
3. Don’t hide the big ides behind the little idea…Discussed a software firm not seeing the stronger value of it’s open architecture than of the compiler they thought was their product advantage.
4. Segregate corporate marketing from product marketing (brands create climate of acceptance for products & services) The iPhone is mediocre but desirable.
5. Market makers beat company builders (demand will ensure a company is built) Obama built a market.
6. Venture capital comes with a responsibility to accumulate value (to be successful build value).
7. Your company is the value accumulator, not your product.
8. Some businesses aren’t worth building (painful to misjudge).
9. You can’t sell what you can’t explain and communicate.
10 You can’t save your way to success, grow or die.
11. focus kills (max your community of comprehension).
12. You can’t argue your way to success (emotional appeal trumps data).
13. Its better sell a business than technology
14. Time is expensive (operate aggressively. change your circumstances today)

Do you really want VC money?
Matt Ridenour from Momentum Venture Management made the refreshing move of scraping his planned presentation in light of the makeup of the audience. “Raising money is a big waste of time and most VC’s aren’t in your circle” said Matt who has obviously seen his share of inappropriate pitches.

Some of the most honest and straightforward advice on finding the right VC came from Matt who suggested learning what the investors requirements are and only go to those who address your specifics. “Most VC’s correlate with current markets which is a mistake and they swing for the fences which means that you are not going to get their money but do you even want VC money?” said Matt explaining that it’s tough right now to build a business, acquire customers and nobody is going to risk doing something new but if you can do it and come out of this cycle you’ll dominate.

Critical Insight: “Entrepreneurs are going to build this thing whether anybody supports them or not. Ask yourself if you are the right person to run this business….if you aren’t credible, learn and meet people that can help solve this problem. Successful entrepreneurs are focused on transactions-if you don’t buy my product I can’t feed my kids” said Matt describing the desirable attitude.

Product and sales- all else is expendable

Following Jonathan’s insights was a venture capitalist, Beau Laskey from Steamboat Ventures who invest equity capital in private companies at early stages and stay very involved with the companies they invest in. Beau shared a list of lessons learned with quick bites like be all in all of the time, lots of talent on the street these days with high unemployment so go out and get the best, have laser focus and a sense of urgency.

There may not have been a lot of how to in Beau’s presentation with suggestions like have infinite return on investment and it’s about product and sales, all else is expendable. Suggestions to make these ideal conditions come true came in the form of never, never, never quit, hope is not a strategy and know the data but trust your gut and the art. Not a lot of personal experience as examples but they were all good points…and business book titles.

Critical Insight: Beau is optimistic that we are going to find more innovation that we really haven’t seen in last couple of years were we’ve mostly seen “me-too” companies and web 2.0 marketers.

Focus, focus, focus on a limited product offering

Tom McGovern is from snap.com which owns Snapshots, an enhanced pop-up that allows browsers to view a pop-up with content from other sites while remaining on the site of choice. Snapshots is on 10 million sites said Tom and used the companies bumps and bruises through the development process as an example of focusing on the right product.

The company began with a visual search engine that burned through lots of capital and consumers enjoyed but were not loyal to. Next evolved into the Snapshots widget and marketed to other sites. Loyalty increased, revenue increased and they are now hyper focused on getting the product out there and making money from it, finally close to break even. Tom recommended using tech startup boot camps to get established and to use the economic downturn as an opportunity to renegotiate everything.

Critical Insight: “Internet models of building audience first before a revenue producing business model are he’s optimistic that we are going to find more innovation that we really haven’t seen in last couple of years were we’ve mostly seen me too companies and web 2.0 being punished,” said Tom. “Focus on monetizing and don’t pursue large size, long term development cycle products in today’s economy.”

War stories from the front lines

With a transitioning presidential administration promising hope and change in one of the most dramatic economic downturns of the last 75 years what better time to host a forum on building a successful business during challenging times. A recent CalTech/MIT forum entitled “War Stories from the Front Line: Critical Insights on Building a Successful Venture in Challenging Times” captured the seemingly conflicting ideas of starting a business when so many others are struggling.

With unemployment over 7% and 2 million people having lost their job in the last 3 months alone it was no surprise that the room was packed even on an early Saturday morning but the audience may not have expected some of the advice.
“Start your business now so you’ll be ready for the upswing,”
“If you are wondering if you are an entrepreneur wonder no longer…you are not.”
“Businesses are not built on one big idea,”
“Businesses are built on a big idea…just not the one they think.”
“Drive value with a values based business.”
“Treat investor money like you’re borrowing it from your own mother.”

These quotes and many others came from a very distinguished panel of techies, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who each took their turn with a short presentation and an extended Q&A.

Devoting profits to non-profits in tough times?
The first speaker was Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of GOOD Worldwide, Inc. and founder of Ethos Water which was purchased by and can be found at your local Starbucks store. Jonathan also teaches social marketing at UCLA and has found success by focusing more on good than the profit margin.

Jonathan’s advice is that values need to be integrated into the brand and the business must have a return but make it up in volume through engaged consumer base. The idea being if a business is doing good people are going to be attracted to it.

“You must always be optimistic. Our companies promote an economy of integrity and transparency to meet needs.” Said Jonathan and went into his most well known example of Ethos premium water aspired to help people in need with 50% of profits going to help provide fresh water in underdeveloped countries. “We started during post 911 and investors didn’t believe but consumers understood that every bottle makes a difference.”

Starbucks soon bought the brand which began a close relationship that has been a distribution vehicle for other businesses such as GOOD magazine and a place on the board of directors of the coffee company.

Critical Insight:  Avoid venture capitalists; your first investor is your mom. You need to be able to sit across from her table and say I’m doing you right.

Just thought I’d write a quick post on a service I find really useful for our business. We have several online social profiles for our business and we’ve been using this great service called HelloTxt that allows us to update all of these social websites with one post. So in one post you can update Twitter, MySpace, Linkedin, Facebook, and 20 or so other sites. We haven’t had any problems with it thus far and the service is free! These updates can let your network know about what you’re up to, market new services or blog posts, get feedback, and just help you stay connected.

I came across this list today and felt inspired to post it here. Bob Parsons is the CEO & founder of Go Daddy one of the largest domain sellers. They also offer a ton of other services such as web hosting, email hosting, site builders, SSL certs, and more. Go Daddy is also famous for their sexy super bowl commercials. Bob is a marketing genius. Go to his site and check out what he’s doing and you’ll notice the Go Daddy girls throughout the site. Sex SELLS! I was blown away at the millions they spent on these commercials several years ago but it’s obviously paid off for them since most people who are familiar with domain providers think of Go Daddy when it comes to buying a domain name. Here’s the list from Bob Parsons video blog site:

1.     Get and stay out of your comfort zone.
2.    Never give up.
3.    When you are ready to quit, you’re closer than you think.
4.    Accept the worst possible outcome.
5.    Focus on what you want to have happen.
6.    Take things a day at a time.
7.    Always be moving forward.
8.    Be quick to decide.
9.    Measure everything of significance.
10.    Anything that is not managed will deteriorate.
11.    Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you’re doing.
12.    Never let anybody push you around.
13.    Never expect life to be fair.
14.    Solve your own problems.
15.    Don’t take yourself too seriously.
16.    There’s always a reason to smile.

Very inspirational! Thanks Bob!

Growing at a rapid pace is a demand for businesses that are more socially conscious and environmentally responsible. While many businesses market themselves as “green” or providing fair labor practices, a quick test is to consider the businesses overall transparency. If a company markets itself as responsible, then it ought to provide all the related information, after all they should have nothing to hide. One such company is Fair Indigo, an apparel company that is working to be certified as fair trade fashion. I am a proponent of companies like Fair Indigo who invest in more than their own profit margin, and really consider the hidden costs to laborers and the land. In a Globalized world were products are made in sweatshops with unmonitored environmental regulations, it is important that when constructing your own business plan you are innovative so that you may be the aberration to the low norm.

Starting a company online is not as easy as it used to be.  The internet has grown exponentially in the past decade, your not just a little fish in a big pond, your plankton in the Atlantic. Therefore, you have to prepare yourself to be competitive in order to survive in a growing global network. Building your business on the web requires more work than simply setting up a template and adding text. To be successful online you need to use keywords that will help identify your niche and increase traffic. If you want to improve your site ranking, you should consider search engine optimization web design. Also have a full comprehension of your target and gear your site to be appropriate and interesting for the group you are interested in attracting. For instance if you are setting up a website about your plastic surgery practice, you may want a page dedicated to patient testimonies. Once you have polished up your website so it is search engine friendly, informative, and appealing to your target, go ahead and promote it online. There are thousands of free services that allow your promote your business on the web but I would suggest you post on People’s Guide, Yahoo Local, and eBay. People’s Guide is a relatively new sit but it is simple to use, networked with over 100 cities, and it has a clean, professional appearance.

So you want to start up a Marketing plan for your small business. There are several routes to take to complete a successful SBI Marketing plan. First, you need to plot your goals, what is your quota? What is your target market? These are a couple questions you need to consider when designing an effective marketing plan. Next Create an effective situation analysis, a situation analysis is an analysis of the Market place. In a situation analysis you identify who your competitors are, a customer analysis determining the target market you want your product to reach. Third is a company analysis, where do you stand, what are the core values of your organization. You analyze your organization in terms of its overall strengths, weaknesses, areas for improvement and so forth.

Once you have created an effective situation analysis you compile a SWOT analysis, which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Its an overall evaluation of were your organization stands in terms of the market.

Next you move into the market segmentation phase, you target and find methods to attract your target market. You find what products and services will bring business to your organization.  After you segment your market you can compile a variety of marketing strategies to target your market. What type of marketing methods you can best utilize your products and services, online, mail circular, etc. Once you identified one strategy to use you implement your main marketing strategy to implement your target market. After implementing it you draw your final conclusions based on your sales figures of your business.

With such a competitive job market, people are looking to have an edge on the competition. This usually means taking their education to the next level and receiving a masters in Business Administration (MBA). To get into an effective MBA program you need to fulfill their criteria. The first thing to consider before going into any graduate program is I am passionate for this? Do I see myself doing this field of work for the next 20 years? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average person goes through nine different careers in their lifetime.

Okay, you got that passion to get an MBA, now take the next step, do I fulfill the minimum requirements to get into the MBA program I want to get into. Many MBA schools have different requirements such as work experience, undergraduate grades and so forth. One of the highest weighed criteria in applying for an MBA program is your GMAT Scores. The GMAT is a standardize test to measure the intellect of an individual. There are several criteria they consider when choosing applicants for many MBA programs, work experience, GMAT scores, Undergraduate performance and 4th the interview to get into an MBA program. Its like looking for a new job, campus faculty want to know if this is really what you want to do with your life.

With many options available, you want to find that MBA program that best fits your needs. Several criteria should be considered, such as Prestige, requirements, tuition, and class schedules. Most people who enter into MBA programs have other things to consider such as family, finances, and work situation and so forth to fit an ideal plan into going back to school. Most people look for an MBA for a pay increase, remember that’s the real motivation to getting an MBA, money is essential for our standard of living and our economy.