So you want to launch a business...

I know who grows my arugula

"Each man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to care that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes well -- he has changed his market-cart into a chariot of the sun."  

    Ralph Waldo Emerson

Gwynn Hamilton and Robert Webster grow food for my family.  They garden at the Stonecrop Farm in Newport, Virginia, with the faithful assistance of their five-year-old daughter, Zoe. 

We always stop at their booth at the Blacksburg Farmers' Market.  They know our names, remember what we like, and apologize when we arrive late and they have sold out of our favorite, arugula.  But they definitely are not our private gardeners.  It's quite clear even to a casual observer that they genuinely care about all their customers, not just us.  And to reciprocate that caring, by being a friendly and faithful repeat buyer, just comes naturally.

What if each business relationship had that depth, that warmth?  World peace would be within our reach.  I'm sure of it.  Swords would become plowshares, no question.

Every entrepreneur makes a choice as to how to relate to clients.  The seller/buyer interaction is part of each business's Magic formula.  And I am convinced that people prefer to do business with other people, rather than with machines or systems.  There is intrinsic human value in community, even when the individual relationships are digitally enhanced.

It's not easy for a global company to create local relationships.  But it's not impossible.  Wal-Mart is not required to employ smiling greeters.  Rackspace is not required to provide "fanatical support" from pop-up, human "rackers."

So, I offer you this simple strategic consideration for 2010.

As the New Year emerges, fresh life rising from the composted past, I challenge myself, and you as well, to seize the opportunity to beat at least one sword into a plowshare, to change one humble market-cart into a warm and radiant chariot of the sun.

I'm not losing. I'm learning.

"Life is like playing a violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on."

    Samuel Butler

Breaking news.  You heard it here first!  Unskilled violinists don't receive much applause.  And off-target products and services don't sell. 

So, what happens to the aspiring violinist who cannot move his audience?  What happens to the entrepreneur whose first product flops?

My son is a musician.  His career choice has exposed me to all sorts of people and situations that would have otherwise been forever hidden from me.  A few years ago, we were visiting a college as part of the audition tour required of every music major.  During such visits the aspiring performer is interviewed and then demonstrates his skill for the professors who will be charged with transforming him into a reliable applause generator.  The parents wait in the hall.

The halls of these music institutes are festooned with all sorts of flashy concert posters and album ads, of course.  But they are also home to a wealth of inspirational materials.  Here is a keeper.

"Amateurs practice until they get it right.  Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong."

Wannabee entrepreneurs (and musicians) try only until they hit the first serious obstacle.  Then they lose, precisely because they believe they are losing. 

Winners keep at it until they succeed.  They win because they understand that they are not losing, but that they are learning.

For a scientist, an experiment that does not confirm the hypothesis is not a failure.  It is a useful stepping stone to a fresh hypothesis.  For a musician, a bad review provides clarity on how the performance can be improved.  For an entrepreneur, a rejected product is a clear message about the true needs of the marketplace.

Product acceptance is disappointing?  You have two choices.  Declare defeat and go find a job.  Or address the current biggest complaint and try again.  Then repeat the cycle as long as your Moxie holds out.

Ultimately, you will learn so much about your Market that you can't get it wrong.  You will have mastered your Magic.

By the way, the musicians and the scientists all have Mentors.  They are built into the system.  I'm just saying...

How to eat a five hundred pound marshmallow

"Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work."

                                    Peter Drucker

The vast gorge that lies between noble intent and significant achievement is, of course, quite real, and widely documented.  Lofty goals are commonplace.  Noteworthy achievement?  Not so much.  And this is particularly true for entrepreneurs and their ambitious startup plans.

Many years ago one of my friends presented me with a clever metaphor that I have since used on a regular basis.  Speaking about one particular challenge, he said, "This is like a five hundred pound marshmallow.  I can't even get a firm grip on it, let alone eat it.  But if I chop it up into bite sized pieces, I can at least make some progress." 

It seems to me that the vast gorge between intent and achievement might be addressed in the same manner.  So - I hereby offer a simple experiment that you may perform in the comfort and security of your own office. 

How to eat a five hundred pound marshmallow...

Commit to specific, short-term, relevant actions that are obvious and powerful pre-requisites to lofty outcomes, rather than to the outcomes themselves.  Hold the outcomes in mind, of course.  But focus on the actions, one at a time.  Select one.  Complete it.  Review your situation.  Determine what the next most relevant action should be, and take it.  Repeat as needed.

Example.  Don't resolve to increase sales by $1,000,000. 

Instead, visualize your business as vibrant and prosperous, larger than it is today, with more clients, placing larger orders.  Then execute one specific, measurable, immediate, relevant action on the path to that prosperity.  Perhaps it might be to make five prospect calls today.  After those five calls are made, assess the fresh information.  The next most useful action might be to make five more calls; or it might be to compose a new introductory pitch; or it might be to lower prices by 10%.

Bonus: every time you actually complete one of those relevant actions, you get an accomplishment boost, a nice recharge for your Moxie.

So, remember the old English proverb, "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride."  Transform your vision into meaningful action.

P.S.  This system also works for New Year's Resolutions.

Startups for seniors

It's all about the Moxie!!

A recently released Kauffman Foundation study, "The Coming Entrepreneurship Boom,"  suggests that the United States might be on the cusp of a startup boom—not in spite of an aging population but because of it.  Entrepreneurship, it turns out, is not just for the young.  Colonel Sanders, after all, didn't really crank up his Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise operation until he was 65.

Drea Knufken, at Business Pundit, points out the advantages that accrue to late-life entrepreneurs; and they are significant.

Advantages of Age

    * Money – If you know you want to start a business some day, you can put away cash for ten years and fund your business yourself until you reach cash flow positive. It helps to have assets.
    * Connections – When you are 25, you don't know a lot of executives at other companies. By the time you are 40, your friends and co-workers will have switched companies, changed jobs, and moved up the corporate ladder. This gives you easier access to decision makers and the people you need to help you get your business off the ground. Many of your old friends and co-workers will be your first customers, and open doors for you in all kinds of places.
    * Wisdom – You have much more business experience to pull on. You don't have to learn or invent many of the standard processes that exist at most companies.
    * Patience – The longer you wait, the more pitches you will see. If you aren't compelled to swing at anything and everything just to try to get a hit, you can wait for that pitch that is in your sweet spot.

I often tell young people who visit me with startup ideas: I'm no smarter than I was at 20; but I have a lot more data.  And I know many, many more people.  Remember, who you know is what you know. 

So, baby boomers, if you were wondering whether your next career might be as an entrepreneur, consider the words of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, from his poem, Ulysses ...

        Come, my friends,

        'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
        Push off, and sitting well in order smite
        The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
        To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
        Of all the western stars, until I die.

        Tho' much is taken, much abides; and though
        We are not now that strength which in old days
        Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
        One equal temper of heroic hearts,
        Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
        To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

It really is all about the Moxie.