Grab Some High-Octane, Fully Caffeinated Small Biz Inspiration
You have to love it when two of your favorite things in the world come together, and for many of us that’s exactly what’s happening with Enterpreneurship.org’s “1 Million Cups” program. Entrepreneurs come together every Wednesday in locations all around the country—often coffee shops—to have a cup of java and talk about their projects. (Okay, now that I think about it, this may combine three of our favorite things: entrepreneurship, coffee and talking!) A moveable brainstorm Let me be a little more specific about the talking part. Each week two local entrepreneurs give a 20-minute presentation about what they are doing. They then engage with the group, fielding questions, listening to suggestions and generally brainstorming. Of course, in arenas like this, it’s also very possible to find areas of overlap, places where one startup can help another. You might think of 1 Million Cups as sort of a mini-coworking setup. Cross fertilization between small businesses can yield great results. When two or more innovative startups get together, the sum of the whole is often greater than the individual pieces. The groups meet on Wednesday from 9-10 a.m. It’s just an hour, but when you factor in the caffeine and the energy entrepreneurs bring to the table, a lot can be accomplished in just 60 minutes. Find a meeting Check out their map of locations, and you’ll see that the project stretches from coast to coast. Many of you should be able to find a nearby meeting. Local groups are pretty autonomous. The concept, organization and materials were developed by the Kauffman Labs for Enterprise Creation. Local organizers enlist in the program, receive support—materials and coaching—from Kauffman Labs and then make it happen in their own cities and towns. Once local organizers are ready, they scout venues, find sponsors, bring in others, build the buzz, source the coffee, manage the web presence and more. Local organizers also enjoy subsidized trips to Kansas City periodically to attend organizer summits. Start a meeting If you’re in the startup mode, or have an idea you would like to take to the next level, I encourage you to find a 1 Million Cups meeting and go ASAP. There’s a very good chance you will meet the people you need to know to network in your city. And through those relationships, you may get the ideas that it takes to assure the success of your small business. And if your town isn’t yet on the 1 Million Cups map, give some thought to offering yourself as a local...
read moreSmall Business Owners are Problem Solvers.
I’ve always said, show me a problem and I’ll show you a business opportunity. That’s exactly what happened to Keith Hayman, founder of Music City Pizza in Nashville, TN. Hayman moved to Nashville after having lived in New York and San Francisco, both well-known cities for their delicious pizza which can be found on nearly every city block. Hungry for a slice of pizza pie, Hayman began searching for a good pizza joint in Nashville. He learned while there were plenty of barbecue restaurants, pizza was hard to find. So he decided to take matters into his own hands. He’d open his own pizza parlor. But he didn’t stop there. Like most entrepreneurs, he had a bigger vision. A former touring musician, Hayman wanted to combine his love for music, pizza and beer into one package. Recently, his business caught the eyes of Capital One Spark and was featured in their “I Am Small Business Proud” campaign. In the past few weeks, award-winning filmmakers, Trisha Dalton and John Sears trekked across the country, visiting small businesses and telling their stories—Keith’s Music City Pizza was a hotspot they couldn’t miss. “I thought pizzas look like records and everyone comes to Nashville looking for a record deal,” Hayman said. “So I came up with a record deal for up and coming bands. What that means is I name pizzas after the bands, and they come and play my venue. They get exposure and for every pizza that sells the band gets a buck.” In addition to supporting area musicians, Hayman also works with local charities on fundraising activities. Like so many small business owners around the country, community support — giving back — is an integral part of the business culture. Open less than a year, Music City Pizza has had its share of obstacles. As luck would have it the venue launched at the same time as about 75 new restaurants in the Nashville area. Then Nashville was hit by the Polar Vortex which kept many potential customers inside their warm homes. But Hayman survived, and he says business is picking up. “This business operation is the perfect balance for me. I get the business and I get the creativity. I still play almost every day and I get to create music, too,” Hayman explains. What I love about the Music City story is that it is indicative of the spirit of entrepreneurship. And it has what I believe are the elements of a successful venture: * Identify a market need and solve the problem; * Make sure you love what you do; * And be unique. This is just one of the many inspiring stories profiled by the “I am Small Business Proud” filmmakers who crossed the country talking to business owners from all walks of life. I encourage you to watch the vignettes on YouTube. The entire campaign which ends June 14 after a 10 week road trip was sponsored by Capital One Business Spark. Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed herein are those of the author (yours truly) and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Capital...
read moreCongratulations! Your Small Business is Going to the Dogs
Cei and Suzanne, two team members at Hired, a tech career marketplace place, were recently recognized for their one-year anniversary with the San Francisco-based company. It’s not unusual for a company to recognize the service anniversaries of their employees, but this situation was a bit unusual. You see, Cei is a (pronounced “Ky”) is her 120-pound Leonberger — a really big dog. Cei comes to work daily with Suzanne and is a beloved part of the team. At the marketing services firm O’Hara Project offices, company mascot Chloe, is popular with neighboring businesses. She’s even a regular on the firm’s social media account engaging with clients. I mean with a face like that — who could resist her personality. So why are these small businesses going to the dogs? Because it’s smart business. Well, here’s the scoop. Experts agree that having a dog with you at work is an inexpensive way to increase productivity and reduce stress. Additionally, studies have shown that dogs also enhance collaboration at work. “The advantages to having dogs in our workspace is pretty clear to our team here at FreshBooks. Stress reduction aside, I can’t tell you the number of times that a co-worker I usually have little reason to interact with otherwise has approached to meet my dogs, Kitty and Carl. These interactions more often than not lead to new friendships and can result in employees from very different arms of the company discussing how they might work together on projects in the future,” explains Chris Richard, Support Rockstar at Freshbooks. Small businesses often find allowing their employees to bring their furry-four-legged friends to work is a unique and valuable employee benefit — something they can’t get from a large company. At Rover.com, the company’s policy is, “bring your furry friend to work, if it makes you happy.” Because today is Take Your Dogs to Work Day, I thought I’d share some guidelines with you if you’re interested in creating a dog-friendly or pet-friendly small business. 1. Types. You need to decide what types of pets will be allowed in the office. Not every pet is office appropriate. 2. Parameters. Determine what parts of the office the animals will be allowed. There may need to be pet-free zones. Taking dogs to meetings or having them in areas with high customer traffic may be problematic. 3. Limits. Establish criteria that forbids sick or dirty animals. Also, require proof the animal is current on its vaccinations and licenses. 4. Get buy-in. Make sure your entire team is on-board. You may have employees who are afraid of dogs or other animals or may suffer from allergies. 5. Clean-up. Require employees to clean-up after their dogs if there is an accident. Some businesses have a three-strike rule; three mistakes and you’re out. 6. Noise. Establish guidelines for noise levels, particularly in an area where there is a considerable amount of customer interaction. An incessantly barking dog is bad for business. You can find more information about how to make your office a dog-friendly or pet-friendly environment at dogfriendly.com. And if you have a furry four-legged team member, share your pictures here. ...
read moreWant to Sell Your Business Someday? Start Planning Now
We’ve touched on the subject of exit strategies here before and one of the most important points in that discussion is that you should have the end in sight even when you’re first starting a small business or buying an existing business. The ultimate buyer of your business when you’re ready to move one will determine the direction of the business, how you manage it and how you position it. So, now that you’re getting more serious about selling your business, who is it going to appeal to? Is your business basically an owner-operated company? If so, you’re going to have to find someone who has an interest in that level of day-to-day operations. Selling your business is a job of finding the right individual. Do you have management in place to run the business so it requires minimal oversight from you? If that’s your situation, it opens up other options for buyers. When your business falls into that second category you can be more creative in your hunt for a suitor. Think about companies who can use your business to achieve better vertical or horizontal integration. Enhancing another company’s position Is there a competitor in another area of the country that would benefit by expanding to your location? Maybe there’s a competitor who would like to snap up your business to gain market-share. This would be a horizontal expansion for the company doing the buying. Does it make sense for a related industry to buy your company to improve its efficiency and allow it to capture value added profits? If you’re retail, do you have a major supplier that would benefit from a retail presence? If your business is setup to continue beyond your ownership, an investor—a more local version of Warren Buffet—could be interested. This is especially true if the sector you’re in offers a good cash flow. To get the best price you need to do a lot of homework; and this isn’t high school—don’t put your homework off until the last minute. You must find out how similar companies are valued. There are a variety of formulas used and you need to see which typically apply to the kind of business you own and operate. Get ready for the scrutiny Once you understand how a potential buyer will look at your business when you start to negotiate its price, you can do a good job getting it ready to sell. You might need to make a significant effort to improve cash flow, reduce overhead, lower inventory levels or reposition your business in other ways to attract buyers at a price you can live with. Usually buyers will look at three years of profit and loss statements. This is why you need to be planning your end game moves well before you want to make the sale. There are websites such as BizBuySell.com where you can list your business and there are also professionals—brokers, mergers and acquisitions advisors and bankers—who can connect buyers and sellers. Find the right one for your business and start planning for your sale sooner rather than later....
read moreReinventing Presentations: HaikuDeck.com
Ugh! I’ve been invited to speak at an upcoming event and the organizer insists I have a Powerpoint presentation. I never use Powerpoint because I think it’s boring — plus, I’m not the most skilled at creating presentations. That’s exactly how Adam Tratt and Kevin Leneway felt when they needed to easily create a killer pitch deck to grab the attention of potential investors. “The best part of being an entrepreneur is pitching and getting people excited abouot your idea,” explained Tratt. “We asked ourselves why is it so difficult to create an awesome presentation.” That question sparked the creativity of the two entrepreneurs and they went to work. “We’ve all been using pretty much the same tools, in the same way, for years–using lame templates, fiddling with the space between our bullets, and wrestling with bulky file attachments–despite the fact that we hate doing those things and we’re spending an increasing amount of time on connected, mobile devices,” said Tratt. The result of their collaboration: Haikudeck.com. A presentation software that the founders say is 10 times easier and 10 times better than any existing platform. “We read up on presentation skills and we found certain things were needed. Focus on one idea at a time. Use powerful images and a consistent format. If you use a chart make it simple,” Tratt noted. Haikudeck.com was originally introduced as a iPad app in August, 2012. It was clear from the beginning that they had hit a nerve. Users have grown from zero to 33 million and the platform is now available on the web too. Tratt told me that at Haikudeck they believe it’s important to be able to tell your story in a compelling and creative way. The company philosophy: Keep in simply; make it beautiful; and make it fun. So I decided to give it a try myself. You can judge for yourself, but I don’t think it looks like a typical, boring presentation. THE Small Business Expert – Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires Have your tried Haikudeck.com? Best practices you can...
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