Doing Things Differently

Every year Entrepreneur Country puts on two fantastic forum events. While I am an insider (i.e. part of the Ariadne team of which Entrepreneur Country is a part) I really think these events are totally stand out – and this is why. Yes this is slightly sales oriented – full disclosure…

1. They are charged – The Buzz is huge
2. They showcase success stories by amazing people
3. Deals get done

So after 5 years of these events, with the most recent attracting 400 people, keynotes from BBC Dragons and successful entrepreneurs – what makes Entrepreneur Country different? Read more…

A common and increasingly asked question I find myself getting from start-up entrepreneurs is “Do I need a CTO or technologist as a co-founder, can I not just outsource the pure technical development and own the IP?” I have 3 key reasons, based on experience supporting start-ups through funding and commercial success, as to why I think the answer to be “Yes, absolutely”.

I can think of at least a dozen such conversations just from the last quarter of 2011. I can also point to an equal number of examples where early stage companies had made the decision to outsource only then later had to reverse the decision and to in-house their technology.

So in my experience, yes… you do need a technologist as a key part of your founding team – assuming of course you are in the digital/online/technology world. There are, of course, many advantages in having an outsourced development team (either on or off-shore) but the actual ownership and delivery of the product needs to be owned in-house. I am not alone… I had a chuckle when I read Charlie Crystle’s blog (a Founder/CEO/Hacker) where he posted: “Two posts ago I lamented the news that a local startup might outsource their core dev.” So to the why… Read more…

For the sports-focused society that we are, I am surprised that there are not more high-paced businesses that make use of business coaches and mentors. I have come across very few people who admit to seeing the benefit of leveraging an outsider as a confidante, advisor and coach but rather the opposite “We are doing okay, why would we need one?”. Is okay enough or do we want to be brilliant?

I get the very real sense that in British business culture a business coach or advisor is a sign of weakness or failure and yet we would not expect any budding sports person to pursue a sporting career without a coach – how are they different? Sports requires agility, fitness, clear mind, focus, determination, vision and passion. Business requires the same, doesn’t it?

When I was competing in martial arts I had three coaches, one for my mental preparation, one for perfecting the practice of forms (Kata) and the third to focus on my sparring. I really benefited from their ability to help me think about the problems and where to find the opportunity in my opponent’s flaws. I could lean on them when I needed to and I felt supported by their stability and their perspective. While I was psyching up for the match or competition, they stayed calm and kept my focus. They knew my strengths and weaknesses and could help me train on improving between matches.

In business there are no matches, the battle is by day, minute and second. There is always a competitor looking for the same client, wanting to provide a better or cheaper product. The requirement to stay on top of ones game is relentless. There is more information sharing and data available and we are making decisions at breakneck speed. Business is now 24/7 and any successful or aspiring business person is always connected. Just like when I was warming up for the next sparring match.

In this environment, the need for perspective is great and yet the environment is not conducive… this is why businesses need coaches.

Today I ran a proposition and position workshop with a client over a three-hour session. The benefit of working with an advisor is that my client could take the step back and look at their business from where I am standing… on the outside. They had tried to do the work internally but they had not prioritised it, didn’t have the external perspective and had taken a long time to get not very far. This is not uncommon, rather the opposite!

Today we were all really fired up, inspired and extremely productive. Net-net: we transformed the proposition into one which is exciting and strong, they felt inspired by their business and they have a tool-set with which to go sell their kick-ass product. This is something that otherwise would have taken months to get to.

Obviously I would think that businesses need coaches and mentors given my profession as a coach and psychologist but I fell into this through looking for investment worthy businesses and kept coming across high-growth businesses that had not stopped to take a breath and as such were putting their own fires out. The most rewarding thing for me in coaching is seeing the clients eyes light up, their inspiration is at full tilt and they realise they probably do have the answers to the problems, it is the space and perspective they don’t always have and that is what I bring – along with some humour and external insight for validation.

A great business is fit, self-aware and agile. A mentor is someone who challenges, encourages and validates before the market gets to do that. A coach is someone who prepares for the fight and for the challenge. They provide the stability and insight by not being in the same boat rocking to the same waves or standing on the same burning platform.

If you feel like you are running a 200mph marathon and want to up your game, and see business as a mental and economic sport, have you thought about a mentor or coach as an investment rather than a weakness?

I have been asked to give a presentation about tailoring business plans for investors at the Entrepreneur Country Building Your Business Summer Workshop tomorrow (30th June 2011) in partnership with Smith & Williamson. As this is a core topic for the book I am working on I am rather excited about the opportunity.

Googling “Writing Business Plans” returns 154m results so clearly there is more than enough information out there and yet on a daily basis I receive and read business plans that leave me bored, confused or simply disinterested. I think the problem lies in the process…

I believe that too many people see the process as a must do rather than a want to do and so as a result they lose so much of the flair and passion that they have for their business. As a potential investor, I want to feel what the proposition is about, how the entrepreneur will inspire his/her target market and how I can imagine myself using their product.

For me, one of the key ingredients missing in most business plans is the passion. The passion for what the business is about. Not in the form of the technology but in the form of what the technology can enable for the consumer of the service. This is the magic!

Including the passion and the story of the vision into a business plan is like making a tapestry. A tapestry has a specific underlying structure of the weave but it is the colours and combinations that make it unique. In presenting a business plan the same applies. Tomorrow I will be presenting what I consider the things not taught when learning to write a business plan – the soft side of bringing the weave to a level of passion and differentiation.

The first part of the process is to think about the structure much like Mike Harris’ Perfect Pitch architecture: What do you do? How are you different? What is your credibility? What is the market problem / solution you bring?

In preparing the structure of the business plan I always suggest the entrepreneur focuses on the questions of Why, What, When, Who and How so that at every stage of the plan you are answering the investor’s questions of Why this, why now and why you?

If the business plan focuses on the technology you are probably only going to inspire the technologists in the room while if you talk about the implications to the people who use your service all of a sudden it can appeal to a larger audience. You need to think about who it is who is reading the plan. If the investor does not invest, would you not still want them to buy your product, subscribe to your service or at least talk about you as a thought leader?

My 5 Do’s and 5 Don’ts I am sure will get some interesting responses:

Do:
Map out the sections before writing them
Define your perfect user/customer/client
Always ask yourself if each section answers the Why, When, What, Who and How
Keep the plan to under 30 pages
Use external examples and data only when relevant

Dont:
Start with the big market opportunity before the proposition
Make it bigger than it is just to please an investors 20x
Assume the investor knows your market
Say if we can get only a small percentage of a big market we can be huge
Say you have no competitors

For the presentation, follow this link or view it below: