Successful Startup 101 Magazine - Issue 9

Successful Startup 101

  Real Startup Advice for Today’s Non-Conventional Entrepreneur

  Vol. 1, Issue 9, Oct. 2014

  Editor & Publisher Tabitha Jean Naylor

  www.successfulstartup101.com

  Copyright 2014 by Tabitha Jean Naylor. All Rights Reserved.

  Table of contents

  * Letter From The Editor

  * What Fuels A Startup’s Success: The Drive to Win or Fear of Failure? by George Deeb

  * Failure is Good, but Here Are 10 Mistakes Your Startup Should NEVER Make, by Tom Hogan

  * The Right Way to Quit Your Job and Launch a Startup, by Marco Terry

  * SHIFTing Gears: Steve Sax Trades Home Runs For Start-Ups

  * Life Lessons Successful Leaders Wish They Had Learned Earlier, by Brigette Hyacinth

  * What Is Your Business Worth?, by Natalie Green

  * 20 Signs You’re Succeeding In Life Even If You Don’t Feel You Are, by Carol Morgan

  * 5 Benefits of Collaboration, by Michael Hyatt and Michele Cushatt

  * October’s Must See Movie for Entrepreneurs: October Sky

  * The Positive Impacts of Outsourcing

  * 7 Tools to Hack Your Growth (That Means Get Big, Fast), by Murray Newlands

  * How to Close a Sale: The Only Thing You Need to Know, by Jill Konrath

  * Cash Today, Losses Tomorrow!, by Richard Weinberger

  * Getting Clients from Social Media: 4 Things You Need to Fix, By Michelle Nickolaisen

  * Building Company Culture (On A Budget), by David Donner Chait

  * Insider Tip: How to Give Away FREE Stuff and Make Money in the Process, by Assia Salikhova

  * 4 Programs Every Startup Founder Should Know About, by Tabitha Jean Naylor

  * 8 Simple Ways to Reward Employees on a Budget, by Rhett Power

  * 3 Key Factors to Creating Your Customer Experience Strategy, by Alan See

  * How to Avoid Common Startup Blunders

  * The 10 Most Reliable Ways to Fund a Startup, by Martin Zwilling

  * 5 Lessons the Special Forces Taught Me about Business, by Michael I. Kaplan

  * Editorial Focus: Content Marketing Institute

  * Motivational Boosters

  * Contact Successful Startup 101

  Letter From The Editor

  Do you remember the first scary Halloween costume you ever tried on? After the mask went on, your outlook of the world changed: you were fearless; you were invincible; and you were on top of the world.

  Whether you’re an introvert or extrovert, being a startup founder will force you to face many scary issues that you may be too afraid to take on, but many times, being successful means exploring outside of your comfort zone.

  If you have already begun designing your startup, are in the launching stages or still playing with the idea of running your own business, you have already taken the first step outside of the box.

  Spine-Chilling Situations

  There are many different kinds of situations that can strike fear in any entrepreneur – many of which seem like they are out of your control. It’s important to face these demons head on and remember that no ghost or ghoul can scare you away from your dreams.

  Everyone has their own personal fears about launching a startup, but some examples of scary situations that you may think are out of your control include:

  * Because it would be your company, the mistakes will be yours; the failures will be yours; the problems will be yours

  * Letting down your customers or constantly feeling the need to be perfect or cause no problems for your clients

  * Letting down your employees, if you have any

  * Making a bad decision, whether it is regarding business aspects or products

  * The fear of losing interest in your startup

  Harboring fear is a legitimate concern. As an entrepreneur, addressing the fears you have can move you one step closer to your journey to success.

  Frightful, But Necessary Changes

  Before launching your startup, it is important to address some of the concerns you may have or fears that may be holding you back. Stepping out of your comfort zone can be a difficult task, but it is a crucial one to ensuring your success.

  There are a couple of changes that you can make that will allow you to feel more comfortable about the decisions or risks you may be faced with as a startup founder.

  * Remember that everyone is afraid of change or of failure and that some of the greatest entrepreneurs and business owners have failed at least once: Arianna Huffington’s second book was rejected by 36 publishers; Bill Gates’ first startup was launched in high school, which failed; and the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, didn’t see profits from his startup for many years. Wear your failures like a badge of courage.

  * Acknowledging your fears and figuring out what the real problem is. For example, a business doesn’t fail as a whole; there are certain areas and changes that need to be made to products or finances, so find out where it is you’re afraid of things going awry. Once you figure out what areas you are concerned with, you can focus more on ensuring they are properly taken care of.

  * Once you have address possible failures and learned to accept them, teach yourself how to change these situations into positive ones and face any issues you have head on. Ignoring your fears and concerns will only allow you to harbor them and let them burrow into your daily emotions.

  * Prepare to succeed: write out a business plan with all possibilities and predicted scenarios so that you can feel semi-prepared in the case of a problem or failure.

  The Gory Benefits

  Stepping outside of your comfort zone is scary as is, but it is a necessity to becoming successful. If you have already quit your job or begun launching your startup, you have taken the first step to recognizing these fears and doing what is necessary to overcome them.

  Fear will always be following close behind you, but allowing it to benefit you positively can allow positive changes in your business. For example, being afraid or having a small amount of anxiety can sometimes allow you to perform better.

  After understanding that you will always harbor fear, you can learn how to control it and change it to positively affect you rather than scare you away from making decisions.

  “Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.”

  So, our advice for you this month: don’t spook yourself out of success!

  All the best -

  TABITHA JEAN NAYLOR

  Editor & Publisher

  What Fuels a Startup’s Success: The Drive to Win or Fear of Failure?

  The age old debate about what fuels a startup's success is whether they are "driven to win" or have a "fear of failure".  In this lesson, we are going to try and resolve this question, once and for all.

  I think both sides of this argument are pretty self-explanatory, but let's just make sure we are clear on what we are talking about here.  Being "driven to win" is an insatiable desire to be #1 in your industry, often with a "take no prisoners" mindset of growing market share as quickly as possible.  The CEOs of these types of businesses often have a deep disliking of their competitors, and see themselves in a "all-out sprint" against the CEO's of others in their space.  On the other hand, "fear of failure" is driven more by not wanting the company to go out of business, and the perceived negative impact that would have on the CEO's resume and reputation.  To me, the former feels more akin to an "offensive" strategy, and the latter feels more like a "defensive" strategy.

  So, if that is in fact a good a
nalogy, are you aware of any competition that doesn't require the proper balance of both a good offense and a good defense?  I really think if you have too much of one, without the other, your success will be hampered.  As one example from the sports world, do we all remember the failed Rich Rodriguez tenure as head coach of Michigan Football between 2008-2010.  His innovative offense broke every statistically record, as the most productive offense in the 132 year history of this storied program.  While at the same time, his lack of defensive focus, broke every statistically record in the wrong direction, as the worst program in the history of Michigan football.  This lop-sided mix of skills, resulted in a middle-of-the-road record (7-6 in 2010), and the ultimate firing of Rich Rodriguez at the end of that season.

  This analogy holds true in the business world, as well.  All offense and no defense, can cripple your company.  If you are too scared to fail (e.g, too much defense), that may cripple your ability to innovate out-of-the-box ideas, that if successful, would catapult your business to new heights never before possible.  Let's use Apple as an example.  What if Steve Jobs had stayed "defensive", focusing on protecting Apple's marketshare as the leader in personal computers.  We would have never seen such great innovations as the iPod, iTunes, iPhone and iPad that revolutionalized the tech scene in the years that followed, fueling Apple's meteoric growth and stock price.  And, on the flip side, if you try to use too much "offense", you can cripple your business by growing too quickly, or running out of cash, or entering more markets than logically makes sense for your phase of development, stretching your limited resources too thinly to be sustainable.

  I think this theory holds true from my personal experience while CEO of iExplore.  I was equally focused on "offense" and "defense".  I was deeply-driven to win market share and partnerships away from my competitors at the time, like Away.com, Gorp.com, and AdventureSeek.  I wasn't going to rest until we had the largest website and most strategic partnerships locked up.  While, at the same time,  I had a deep fear of failing, especially in the wake of 9/11/2001 and the negative impact that had on the travel industry.  I wasn't going to let Osama Bin Laden end my dream or taint my track record, and I fought on through very difficult market conditions, even though the odds of success were not in my favor.  Without the "offense", we would have never built up a #1 market position and partnerships with National Geographic, Travel Channel, Expedia, Travelocity, Lonely Planet, Fodors, Frommers, Conde Nast and others.  And, without the "defense", it would have been a lot easier to simply file for bankruptcy in 2001, given the uphill battle that laid ahead.

  So, it is not whether you are "driven to win" or have a "fear of failure".  To me, startup success needs an equal balance of both, for "offense" and "defense".

  About the Author

  George Deeb is the Managing Partner at Red Rocket Ventures, a growth consulting,  advisory and executive staffing firm based in Chicago.  Red Rocket is also a founding member of Ensemble, an all-star powered “Digital Services Suite”. You can follow us on Twitter at @georgedeeb, @RedRocketVC and @EnsembleHQ.

  Failure is Good, but Here Are 10 Mistakes Your Startup Should NEVER Make

  By Tom Hogan

  Failure is the fertilizer of Silicon Valley, or so we would have you believe. Like fraternity hazing, we take excessive pleasure in warning plebes (aspiring entrepreneurs) that 80 to 90 percent of all startups fail.

  But failure, when you get right down to it, is neither inevitable nor anything to brag about. As Silicon Valley veterans — Oracle, Sun, SynOptics, and over 40 startups and tech giants — we’ve had ringside seats to some of the greatest successes and flame-outs in tech history. And while everyone associated with technology startups knows that you need to kiss a few frogs at times, we’ve created an early warning ‘failure list’ that we consult before we pucker up:

  * It’s the technology, stupid.

  If they take this approach, they’re lost before they start — and yet it’s the single largest startup sin. The founders have spent years creating their technology and so assume it’s as compelling to others as it is to them. It isn’t. It’s not what the technology can do (speeds and feeds), it’s what it can do for the customer. Solutions sell, technology doesn’t.

  * Make the CEO a rock star.

  Too many first-time CEOs think they’re the next Steve Jobs — down to the bullying behavior and grandiose statements. But even Jobs had his Wozniak. VCs invest in teams, not individuals. As Walter Isaacson’s new book The Innovators attests, if a CEO doesn’t bring in a strong exec team, listen to them, and share the credit, the startup will soon be a true one-man operation for all the wrong reasons.

  * Spend early and big on branding.

  Don’t create your brand in a cocoon, or with the help of a high-priced branding agency. Let it evolve organically, based on your company culture and customer reactions. The resulting brand will be truer — and cheaper.

  * Give the UX director power over the brand.

  A powerful UX director, strong on visuals and light on Marketing, can do great damage to your marketing efforts. If you’re not going to let your VP of Marketing design your UX, don’t let your UX director have control over your brand.

  * Let your people choose their own job titles.

  Then consider what titles like “sales guru” and “growth hacker” are costing you in enterprise sales.

  * Print T-shirts to mark product milestones instead of customer milestones.

  The more t-shirts your company has before its first major sale, the quicker investors should head for the door.

  * Go virtual from the start (flex time over face time).

  This is a tough one, since we know how hard it is to hire these days, especially with Google and Facebook poaching the best talent. But hiring remotely from the start is a recipe for failure. Too many of a startup’s best ideas happen in ad hoc meetings and shared work space. Bottom line: Face time trumps flex time, at least in the early, formative days of a startup.

  * Revise your value proposition early and often.

  Many companies, having read The Lean Startup, think that just because they can throw their product out into the market, gauge initial reaction, and quickly respond, they can do the same with their core value proposition to the customer. Nope. Playing with your core customer value doesn’t make you look responsive, it makes you look indecisive. Challenge and iterate your positioning and messaging before you launch, then go through one sales cycle before you make any major changes.

  * Leadership, not management, is the key to success.

  “Vision” (usually the domain of the CEO) is critical to a strong launch. But once you’ve had a strong start and early sales success, it’s time to focus on growth and execution. The days of everyone reporting to the CEO are over, as are the days of the CEO making every major decision. It’s time to manage — in some cases ‘manage managers’ — an entirely new (and essential) skill. If the CEO can’t make the transition, make him/her ‘Chief Evangelist’ and find a new CEO.

  * Let your Board of Directors be very hands-on.

  The more you see board members on-site at a startup, the better the chances that the company is flailing. A strong CEO needs to rely on the BOD without depending on them.

  So, if you believe you need to fail before you can succeed, make sure you fail in an original way. Because all of the above are avoidable.

  About the Authors

  Tom Hogan and Carol Broadbent are the founders and principles of Crowded Ocean, a Silicon Valley marketing agency that has launched over 30 startups, with 10 of those companies being either acquired or gone public.

  The Right Way to Quit Your Job and Launch a Startup

  By Marco Terry

  One of the most stressful parts of being an entrepreneur is quitting your job to work full-time in your startup. You are jumping into the precipice of the unknown, hoping for the best. This leap is one of the most important phases of the startup process.

&n
bsp; Many entrepreneurs don’t handle this phase well. They quit their job before they are ready, they don’t prepare thoroughly enough, or they resign the wrong way. Regardless, this misstep will affect your startup. This transition is a critical for your business. You can’t afford to make a mistake.

  From this article, you will learn:

  What you need to do before you quit your job

  The smart way to build a personal budget (hint: it’s really easy!)

  How to avoid the biggest mistake

  How to resign in a professional way

  Preparing for the Transition

  Going from full-time employee to full-time entrepreneur requires a lot of preparation. The amount of effort depends on a number of factors. Your income, expenses, and responsibilities are all important considerations. These factors also determine how much and for how long you need to prepare.

  Most people can prepare adequately for the transition as long as they are smart, patient and determined. Your objective should be to remain employed and draw a salary for as long as possible. Make the transition only once everything is fully prepared. Consider the following:

  1) Do you have a business idea in place?

  You should not quit your job unless you have a business idea that is fully developed. Often, entrepreneurs think that a business plan qualifies as “fully developing” the idea. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. Most business plans are developed using “fill in-the-blank” templates and are seldom adequate.

  Fully develop the plan by thinking through contingencies and business processes. Think of most scenarios and develop ways to approach them. Run markets tests and build prototypes to ensure the idea is viable. Expect this process to take a long time – months, not weeks.

  2) Do you have financing in place?

  Finding financing is often similar to getting married. You have to find suitable candidates, court them, and hope that they say yes. Often, this process takes just as long as finding a real-life soul mate. Don’t quit your job until you have found a way to finance the initial stage of your business.