1,500 Entrepreneurs & 175 Investors to Converge at NYEW
Mix and mingle, be inspired and learn from more than 1,500 rsvp’d entrepreneurs and 175 rsvp’d investors from across the nation at New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW) being held April 12th – 16th, 2010 at Scholastic Auditorium in SoHo.
Confirmed investors represent the following industries:
- Biotech
- Business Products & Services
- Consumer Products & Services
- Distribution
- Financial Services
- Green
- Healthcare
- IT
- Media & Entertainment
- Medical Devices
- Mobile
- Retail
- Software
- Telecom
View the schedule of events here.
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Stop At Nothing. Achieve Anything.
Gary Whitehill is the Founder of The Relentless Foundation and New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), both of which reflect his entrepreneurial drive and relentless energy.
In 2009, The Relentless Foundation inspired the creation of New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), an unprecedented gathering of entrepreneurs, from innovation-minded start-ups to multi-million dollar revenue generators who are given the chance to learn, connect and leverage opportunities to help drive economic change.
The Entrepreneur Week movement continues to grow, with events planned in more US cities and around the world.
Additionally, Gary believes kids should have the ability to create the world they want, and that those who are driven to achieve must also be given tools such as entrepreneurship to learn, grow and express themselves.
Gary supports people and companies invested in driving social and economic change.
5 Components to Making Your Business Perfect
Lately I have been teaching a uniquely green focused FastTrac™ Tech Venture program run by ITAC – New York City’s Industrial and Technology Assistance Corporation.
Our class is full of small start-up and early-stage businesses with state-of-the-art green technology business concepts. Super cool ideas ranging from solar panel manufacturers to internet-based companies that measure energy usage of your home and commercial buildings.
This week we were going over how to really test their business concept, and how close they are to being a “perfect” business.
Based on the market research they have been doing, I asked them to rate their businesses based on the following five components:
- Product / Service Feasibility – Does the product or service serve a purpose? Is their a need for it? What makes it better, different or unique from competitors’ products or services?
- Market Feasibility – Is there a demand for the product/service? From whom? What are they currently purchasing instead? Will you be able to capture some of the market share out there? How much of it?
- Financial Feasibility – What is your cost structure? How much can you sell your product / service for? How profitable will it be? How scalable is it? How quickly can you ramp up production of your product / service to meet demand? How much capital do you need to make it happen? Do you have this capital or do you need to raise it? From where would you raise it?
- Technology Feasibility – How “current” is your technology? Will your potential customers “get it” and understand its value? How difficult is it for your competition to enter your market? How much of a lead time will you have over the competition? How will you stay ahead of the curve on your technology as it changes?
- Environmental Feasibility – How much energy does your product / service consume, including travel, office equipment, etc.? How much carbon is your business emitting? Water pollution? How about chemicals, heavy metals, and toxicity in production and distribution of your product / service? Natural resources consumed, such as paper, metals, water, etc.? Design: durability, reusability, and reused/recycled materials? Packaging and waste / recyclability of the materials? How does your supply-chain taking care of the same issues and their environmental impact?
This turned into an hour-long discussion and debate on how to measure these various components and their importance in business.
Especially the Environmental Feasibility component.
The class wondered what was so important about measuring these issues and if all of them applied to each of them. The answer is by making it important for their business turns into a very serious benefit over their competition, as long as it is well researched and done authentically. And that most of the components apply to most businesses. More than the average entrepreneur realizes!
I encouraged them to focus on the amount of savings and/or increased revenue a company can receive by really ramping up their environmental feasibility.
It can effectively put them far ahead of the competition.
Just as important as implementing the changes of these five components of a perfect business is knowing how to leverage them once they are put in place. That is this week’s action steps for them to do and I’m really looking forward to seeing the results they come up with next week.
Action Steps for the Week
Rate your business from 1 – 10 on the following five components:
- Product / Service
- Market
- Financial
- Technology
- Environmental
1 = poor – 10 = excellent. Add them up and compare to a “perfect” business score of “50”.
Very few businesses ever score a “50”, but use it as a benchmark to strive for. And look at your “lower” scores and know this is a place to start ASAP.
And for those lower scoring components of your business determine how to ramp them up. Do you need to do some market research to determine what you need to do? Do you need to determine how to leverage that part of your business once it is ramped up.
For example, if you got a weak score on technology, how do you get up to speed? What has to happen? How much will it cost? How can you market it as a leg up on your competition? And then how can you stay ahead of the competition going forward? Lastly, where do you find this information out?
This can take some work and research, and in the end you and your business will benefit dramatically because of it.
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About the Blogger: Stefan Doering is the creator of BEST Coaches’ groundbreaking 90-day “UnReasonable” program which brings to the table his almost 30 years of hard-earned business savvy and 4-plus decades of pure heart.
Stefan started his first company at the age of 17. His later companies included the leaders of major companies and institutions as well as multi-millionaires and billionaires as investors, board members and mentors, and had household names among their clients.
6 Confirmed Panels for New York Entrepreneur Week April 2010
Social Media Can Generate Revenue For My Business…. Really?
Description: Panelists discuss unique strategies they’ve implemented for leveraging social media to generate substantial revenue for their businesses. Long and short-term strategies for generating this important additional revenue source will be explored.
Entrepreneurial Ventures: The Impact at Home
Description: Launching a business can have a significant impact on your family and personal relationships. This panel discusses many of the common challenges, and offers strategies to strike a healthy balance between business and relationships.
I Have No Money, Now What?
Description: Panelists will discuss creative approaches to sustainability and stability as well as how to develop, build and scale a breakthrough company with limited resources, such as:
1) Unique incentive structures for your company
2) Free and low cost resources for entrepreneurs
Success is in the Company You Keep
Description: Seasoned entrepreneurs and CEO’s reveal how to diligence partners, suppliers and employees; as well as
1) How to find an attract the right talent and partnerships
2) Understanding the pitfalls of hiring just on resume alone
3) Understanding how and where to find a complimentary partner
4) Hiring, managing, getting the most out of non-full-time employees
My Product isn’t Cool? What in the World Should I Do?
Description: Panelists discuss how to get the word out about your product, even when it isn’t flashy. Topics include:
1) Understanding hype and why it’s a power weapon
2) Clever ways to get publicity for your brand
3) Learn the pros and cons from top-tier “spin doctors”
The $5MM Company: Growing Fast…. But Also the Right Way
Description: Panelists will share tactics they’ve leveraged to achieve unprecedented business growth; as well as strategies for mitigating marketshare loss in the face of stagnant growth.
6 Simple Ways for Entrepreneurs to Stay Healthy and Productive
As an entrepreneur, you probably have many responsibilities and a very busy schedule. The lifestyle usually doesn’t leave much time to eat right, exercise, or de-stress. There are some simple ways to integrate these practices in your life to make you healthier and more productive. These are my opinions from personal experience but I have data to support all of these recommendations, and you’ve got nothing to lose by trying some or all of them.
1) Lose The Chair – Get rid of your desk chair and raise your desk to a standing position. You will stand taller with better poster and you’ll find yourself shifting back and forth between your feet. This will translate to better momentum, more energy, and a reduced risk of heart disease and obesity.
2) Be The Whale – Krill Oil is a supplement that will change your life the first day you take it. 48 times more effective than fish oil with no fishy aftertaste, it will reduce your cholesterol, manage your sugar, and reduce inflammation.
3) Reduce Negative Influence – Spend time with people who are positive and have interesting ideas. Try as much as possible to remove any negativity from clients, suppliers, coworkers. In the end your output will be reduced as will your level of happiness if you don’t.
4) Be Selfish – No matter what your responsibilities are, a client, a business, a spouse, children, pets, houseplants, whatever it might be, you need a little “me” time every day, preferably an hour. If that means getting up at 5AM to go for a run for an hour or to just stare at a wall, you need some time to check in with yourself and kind of see how things are going. You can learn a lot from this type of self reflection and sometimes it will help to “reboot” your mind.
5) Dilution is the Solution – The vast majority of us don’t hydrate popular. The old adage of 8 glasses of water per day doesn’t really cut it, you should be drinking nearly double that, somewhere between 2.2 and 3 liters per day. Of course it’s different for everyone but generally you shouldn’t ever be thirsty. Drinking water will make you healthier with each sip, you’ll feel better and you’ll look better. Ideally, you will completely cut out sodas or even fruit juice because of the sugar. If you feel like water won’t give you enough of a boost, try tea, my recommendation would be Yerba Mate, one of the most incredible super foods on the face of the earth.
6) Go for Goals – Most entrepreneurs are goal oriented and very competitive. The only way I have found to consistently keep exercise in my life is to have a goal, reach it, and then move on to the next activity. I’m currently training for a half marathon, afterwards, I hope to never run again. I’m also training for a triathlon. You can go for a belt in a martial art or some other competition.
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About the Blogger: Ari Meisel is a real estate developer, green building consultant, materials specialist, inventor and author. He started his first company when he was 12 years old and is now working on his sixth venture. Ari’s has been working to foster entrepreneurship since helping create the current entrepreneurship major at the Wharton School of Business. He continues to be drawn to innovations in a variety of fields.
Alice in Wonderland – How is Her Economy
If Alice in Wonderland were an entrepreneur, who would she invite to her tea party? First, there would be the Mad Hatter, moving from one seat to the next, drinking tea and spending money every which way. But it’s hard to tell if that’s real money or just more debt.
Then there’s the Cheshire cat, smiling brightly because he knows the way out of recession, but like the economic recovery, keeps fading in and out of view. Commercial banks are happy to come to tea, but they are hard to pin down when Alice asks them for a loan. And where is the Consumer in all this? In the teapot of course – like the Dormouse – trying to avoid more taxes and ever increasing health care costs.
What is Alice to do? At the table over the past few weeks are some thoughts from entrepreneurs about the current economic conditions that are worth reading. Many of them agree – “money is the biggest challenge”. But they suggest this is not the time to give up your dream. Downturns often create opportunities. They say: “Study the landscape to make your product better or different from the competition”. And “price your product appropriately”. Use technology to grow if you can’t expand your staff. Mushrooms may work for Alice when she wants to grow, but the real world requires hardware and software. “Get systems in place to guide everyday tasks.” Then you can manage the work flow and your future growth.
Remember to keep everyone in your organization “on the same page”. These entrepreneurs have a lot more to say and it can be found here in the “How to Succeed” section.
Alice in Wonderland has an easy way out thanks to Lewis Carroll – she can just wake up! But the rest of us need to come up with something more specific to get out of this economic rabbit hole. Hopefully the advice from these entrepreneurs will help.
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About the blogger: Alice Krause, former Deputy Executive of Chase Bank’s retail businesses, is Founder of the award winning NewsonWomen,com, a daily news site that focuses on women’s achievements. News on Women reports on what women are doing in business, education, science and technology, philanthropy and the arts.
AOL Interview: An Entrepreneurial Lesson
Recently AOL’s Daleela Farina interviewed NYEW founder Gary Whitehill on a myraid of subjects, including: his journey as a serial entrepreneur, thoughts on inspirational leadership, the vision of NYEW and plans for The Relentless Foundation in 2010.
The article can be found here.
——
Stop At Nothing. Achieve Anything.
Gary Whitehill is the Founder of The Relentless Foundation and New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), both of which reflect his entrepreneurial drive and relentless energy.
In 2009, The Relentless Foundation inspired the creation of New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), an unprecedented gathering of entrepreneurs, from innovation-minded start-ups to multi-million dollar revenue generators who are given the chance to learn, connect and leverage opportunities to help drive economic change.
The Entrepreneur Week movement continues to grow, with events planned in more US cities and around the world.
Additionally, Gary believes kids should have the ability to create the world they want, and that those who are driven to achieve must also be given tools such as entrepreneurship to learn, grow and express themselves.
Gary supports people and companies invested in driving social and economic change.
Ari Meisel Supports NY Entrepreneur Week
By: Ari Meisel
Serial Entrepreneur
Founder of LEED Pro
Entrepreneur Week is a milestone achievement for me as an entrepreneur. I started my first company when I was 12 at a time when young entrepreneur had to work very hard just to get taken seriously, now we have people who become billionaires before they graduate college and entrepreneurship is not only accepted but is encouraged in people of all ages and backgrounds.
A week dedicated to Entrepreneurship is amazing to me and is a validation of the efforts of thousands of young entrepreneurs of the last generation. This country has seen a lot of recessions, and usually we get out some sort of ingenuity. I believe that entrepreneurship will be the future economic vehicle going forward and I also believe that green is one of the roads it will take towards the future.
Green is everywhere now from building materials, to energy sources, to household cleaning products. Whether people have realized that we need to do something to reverse the damage that has been done to the planet, or they’ve grown a greater social conscious, or they simply find the idea of cleaning their floor with a mop made from recycled soda bottles cool, everybody is interested in green.
In order to move forward in this environment you need to understand how green can and does affect your business and how you can use it to propel your business onward. Over the next week I hope to bring you a few key posts about what you can do to green your business, respond to your clients green needs, and enter green industries that may be entirely new to your business.
Auxiliary Skills and Entrepreneurship
There is always a big debate about whether or not entrepreneurship can be taught. I personally don’t think you can manufacture a spirit of innovation. I also believe that everyone has the inherent ability to innovate but it’s a matter of fostering that ability that makes people entrepreneurs. We are all born with the ability to be creative, Picasso said that every child is born an artist, the trick is getting them to stay an artist as they become adults.
Obviously, learning the fundamental “academic” skills of business are probably pretty important to being an entrepreneur. I say probably because I challenge you to find more than one startup entrepreneur who uses LIFO and FIFO accounting systems in their daily lives. Most of what we end up using we learn as we go or from mentors in our specific industry. So what are the skills that make an entrepreneur function at peak ability? Most life skills will do it, everything from martial arts to knowing how to cook can make you a more effective entrepreneur. The desire to collect skills is the same drive that pushes an entrepreneur to improve upon their ideas.
I have my pilots license and nothing in my entire life has taught me how to multitask better than having to monitor six gauges at once, communicate with other plane and traffic control, read a map and navigate using visual and electronic means, watch for other traffic, and oh yeah, fly the plane. I have taken cooking classes with my wife and through those classes I have learned to plan, not just so that the meal tastes good but so that I can entertain friends or clients at the same time and make it look easy. I study Krav Maga, an Israeli Hand-to-Hand combat style where multiple attackers trying to choke me teaches you how to act and react under pressure. My wife is a Yoga instructor and a regularly take her classes to give find my center in a hectic world and bring a calm to my mind that allows me to think of new ideas and activate new parts of my brain. I’m even getting certified as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). Will I ever need to deliver a baby? Probably not, but I will know how?
I can say that in 90% of the situations I will encounter in my life and my business, I will handle them with confidence and decisiveness. If that doesn’t make you a better entrepreneur I don’t know what will.
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About the Blogger: Ari Meisel is a real estate developer, green building consultant, materials specialist, inventor and author. He started his first company when he was 12 years old and is now working on his sixth venture. Ari’s has been working to foster entrepreneurship since helping create the current entrepreneurship major at the Wharton School of Business. He continues to be drawn to innovations in a variety of fields.
Avoiding Risk: The Opposite of Being an Entrepreneur
Recently I was at a business networking event in New York. And a man was doing a good job presenting his product to the audience. It was high-end with nice “green” features that he was hired to design for his client, who operates in a very competitive industry. But there was no indication of the environmental features of the product, a key selling point.
After the presentation, I asked him what was up with that. He said his company has been around for 50 years and they are not about to change. How’s their business doing? “Struggling. Sales are way off and more competition is setting in daily.”
Businesses are in serious trouble when are not taking on bold, new ideas. Especially today with the economic climate, fierce global competition and technology shifts.
A product or service can work really well when it is first introduced. But if you become complacent, you most likely quickly will end up struggling in business. We call these businesses “shooting stars”. And they are everywhere, especially now. So how does one break out of this dangerous predicament?
Create a mindset for implementing bold, new ideas. A new way of thinking.
For it is your current thinking that has gotten you exactly where you are today. All fine and good, unless you’re not happy with where you are!
What if you think beyond “reason”? Into the realm of theUnReasonable—stretching yourself beyond what you thought possible?
If you do, there is a whole new world of possibilities awaiting you. And there is an important distinction: there is a difference between being UnReasonable and being unrealistic or irresponsible in creating your bold, new goal.
Six steps for implementing abold new idea:
- Ask powerful questions—When you want results to happen beyond what you normally see or expect, you must reframe your thinking. For example, instead of, “How can I make money this month?”, ask, “What is the fastest way to generate $10K in the next six weeks?” Your brain goes to work answering that question instead.
- Manage limiting beliefs—These may be your blind spots or you may be well aware of them. First ask others who know you to help you determine what trips you up. For example, you feel you are not a “numbers person” and therefore cannot keep track of your business’ finances.Next, determine workarounds or solutions to that belief.
- Shake the cobwebs out—Often times we’re deep in our routine. And we cannot fathom breaking out of it to a better or more-efficient way of getting it accomplished. For example, you get a coffee and perform social media posts on Facebook and Twitter for two hours each morning. To break out, assess the impact of your actions to the original purpose for doing your routine.
- Build a support team—This is crucial for really stretching yourself. It is easier for others to see our blind spots that we don’t see for ourselves. Create your team of like-minded, committed people that are “up to” serious things in their lives will and will move mountains for you. Or contact me and I’ll get you onto one of our teams.
- Create your strategy—Break down your bold, new idea into the three top components. Take your support team and determine fresh and innovative ways to build a powerful set of solutions for achieving what it is you want to achieve. Build a plan around this.
- Perform Risk Analysis—Compare the magnitude of the potential consequences to the probability it will happen. Break down your bold new direction into the possible risks involved. Assign potential consequences and probabilities to them. From there create a plan to hedge or protect yourself if you decide to pursue your new, bold idea.
In the end, it really does depend on your comfort with risk. True success, no matter how you define it, is directly correlated to your stomach to risk. And how you manage it.
Action Steps for the Week:
Answer the following questions:
- What is the #1 thing holding you back from getting to the next level?
- Are you sure that is what is holding you back? Or is it really a limiting belief? For example, “I don’t have the finances to hire a marketing expert to help me.”
- Instead, what is your powerful question? In our example, “What is the best way I can bring on a marketing expert this month using the resources I have to offer?”
Once you create an answer to your powerful question, create a game plan. Get your support team together to discuss what they think and how you can make it better.
What pieces are missing? What people do you need to bring in to complete the strategy? What measures are you going to create to determine if it is working?
And, how will you minimize your risk?
From here, you are ready to rock. Implement it as soon as you can to keep the energy and momentum moving.
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About the Blogger: Stefan Doering is the creator of BEST Coaches’ groundbreaking 90-day “UnReasonable” program which brings to the table his almost 30 years of hard-earned business savvy and 4-plus decades of pure heart.
Stefan started his first company at the age of 17. His later companies included the leaders of major companies and institutions as well as multi-millionaires and billionaires as investors, board members and mentors, and had household names among their clients.
Becoming an Entrepreneur: Things to Consider
This past October I had a conversation with a member of the United States House of Representatives about health care reform. During our conversation, the Congressman made an interesting comment to me about entrepreneurship; he said that the biggest concern with health care costs now are that they prohibit people from becoming entrepreneurs.
When deciding whether or not to pursue an entrepreneurial opportunity, you are forced to choose between a job with a steady salary and health benefits or starting your own company with no salary and out-of-pocket healthcare fees that can cost you thousands of dollars each year.
The lack of salary is not as prohibitive for entrepreneurs as people build up their own cushion prior to leaving their 9-5 job knowing they will not have a salary while starting their business. But losing all of the various benefits that come along with a full time position at an established company can be a hindrance to budding new entrepreneurs as they loose these benefits, including the group rate costs of health insurance and a reduced cost for health insurance as some of the employees costs are picked up by the employer.
Different people will have different opinions on the health insurance dilemma for entrepreneurs. Insurance brokers will try and sell you a plan for your company stressing that it is a tax deduction, while others will tell you that you don’t need insurance right away since you can always go to a clinic or to just buy the cheapest insurance you can find in case of emergencies. But at the end of the day, this is just one of the decisions that people need to consider before starting their own company.
Some others include:
- Do I need to quit my job – Can I continue working at my 9-5 job while working on my company at nights and on weekends so I can maintain a salary and benefits or do I have to give it all up and focus 100% on my new idea?
- Should I try and raise capital right away – Do I need money in the company to cover benefits and expenses or should I keep as many shares as I can to myself and live on a shoestring budget until I am making a profits or ready for partners?
- Should I rent an office – Do you need a place to work every day and pay rent or can you work from home until the company gets going?
- Should I incorporate – Often people are very quick to incorporate so they can say that they have their own company. With LegalZoom and MyCorporation, it is so easy to do, but people often don’t understand what they are doing or the long-term effects of their decision now. The type of corporation you choose now may not be the best in the future should you need to bring on investors.
At the end of the day, entrepreneurs need to realize that while they have an idea that they believe in, starting your own company is much more than just an idea. When starting your own company, many decisions will affect not only your cash flow but your personal life dramatically. You will essentially be married to your idea and your business and you must devote all of your efforts to it. Entrepreneurs need to make sure that if the business fails, it is a result of the business and not because issues in their personal life caused them to shut it down. Being able to say that you gave it your best shot is all anyone can ever ask for.
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About the Blogger:
Aron Schoenfeld, is the co-founder of DreamArtists Studios (www.dreamartists.com), a boutique music production company specializing in music for television, commercials and film. Aron also serves on the Board of Advisors for New York Entrepreneur Week and the Bergen Newspaper Group. For more information about Aron, please visit his website at www.aronschoenfeld.com
Borne for the Biz: Why should we care?
By Landon David Chase
Everyday there are thousands, if not more, reports on just about anything in the world of business. From tech to healthcare, the oil crisis to insider trading scandal, we gain great insight into the business world through a distorted kaleidoscope of newspapers, television, and radio. The people who are mentioned, whether it be the Bernie Madoff’s of the world, to Steve Jobs, or even Warren Buffet; there’s an addictive nature to our general fascination. These people, these men and women, are entrepreneurs. How many people in this world are really entrepreneurial though? What is an entrepreneur? The textbook taught method of a university tries to define it as those who start new organizations as a response to new opportunity in the environment. It can be as simple as creating a new way to play videogames to catering to lazy college student’s inability to do laundry by offering a paid for service (a godsend to myself I must say). The term is thrown around so often that it almost seems impossible to not be a bit curious about who these people are.
In literature and film, you can trace the themes of entrepreneurship back for hundreds of years. Look at Shakespeare’s The Merchant’s of Venice. What is arguably an anti-semitic satire on Venetian culture quickly points out that Shylock is in fact a brilliant entrepreneur. Like other Jewish men in this time, Christians weren’t allowed to lend money, but the likes of Shylock were able to make the best of their non-Christian background by filling in a much needed gap (though it had severe social consequences).
Citizen Kane is another perfect example of our fascination with the business world. While not exactly as suave as Gordon Gekko, the man was brilliant and influential. His last breath of “Rosebud” creates a media frenzy of investigation, which leads Jerry Thompson on an almost epic odyssey to uncover the final word of this man’s life. The point is this: why on earth would anyone even care?
Ultimately, money aside, there’s a big part that affects the most common person. While many might not care if Microsoft or Apple go head to head, others realize when companies like thees strive to be the most “entrepreneurial” we benefit the most as consumers. These companies and the brilliant minds behind them tirelessly fight night and day to outwit and outdo the competition. As a result, we almost methodically end up needing to replace half of our electronics at the end of the shopping season every year now. My cell phone for instance gets an upgrade every six months because something much better (and shockingly cheaper) keeps coming out.
As a hopeful entrepreneur (and writer) I myself see many opportunities in the world at an early age. Being an entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises major in college I’ve entered my third year with a completed internship at a respectable entertainment website and have already started my own company, all at the age of 20. It seemed one minute I was just a kid in the big city and the next thing I know I’m in the Harvard Club with a few colleagues talking about future business plans. It’s a daunting and intimidating task. There is no real reason I even have to do these things, the funny part was that part of me just felt the need to do something. I don’t care about the money or the potential fame (as shocking as that might sound), but the possibility to make a legitimate name for myself. The very thought was quite enticing.
After watching my family do business in Connecticut for the last two decades, I know I was given an invaluable set of tools to take on the real world. It’s my lifeblood, a birthright if you will. A calling that subconsciously screams so loud that I can’t ignore it. Successful or not, I know I have to try. My grandpa David always said to honor three things; family, god, and charity. After seeing him as a renowned Holocaust survivor whose shadow I can only hope to cast one day as far as his does to me, I can see what he means.
Being an entrepreneur isn’t just about making money; it’s about being a person who takes on the responsibility as a role model in this society. While you can have all the money in the world, it means nothing if you don’t have anyone to share it with, have a God to thank for it, and have a hand to extend to those who need it the most. That to me is what being an entrepreneur is all about. We are fascinated with entrepreneurs because in all honesty, a lot of them are actually worth it.
With an opportunity such as NYEW I feel that we can all amass a new culture around what being an Entrepreneur is about. Instead of just being recognized as the elite of the business world or the billionaires of tomorrow, we can use it to network a group of people that can actually make a significant difference in the world. They say you can put a typewriter in a room full of monkeys and they’ll write Shakespeare. With those odds I’d love to see what happens when you do the same with the likes of Entrepreneurs.
Business Networking Events and Resources for Entrepreneurs in New York
Almost everyday someone asks me “where can I go to find XYZ.” I figured it would be easier if I wrote down a decent portion of the organizations I normally recommend to folks. Here in New York there are a plethora of events day in and day out. They include conferences, forums, meetups and workshops.
The frequency, quality, size and scale of events in New York for entrepreneurs, from the aspiring or idea-stage entrepreneur all the way up to the growth and acquisition-stage entrepreneur, can vary greatly.
Below is a list of organizations and resources that you as an entrepreneur here in New York should become familiar with, as well as a breakdown at what stage of your company’s growth the organization(s) would be most relevant for you:
Aspiring / Idea-stage / Early-stage:
140 Characters Conference (#140conf)
Business Incubator Associate of New York State
Columbia Entrepreneurs Organization
Columbia University – Eugene Lang Center for Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurs Exchange Club (NYU)
Get Venture by Mark Peter Davis
Manhattan Chamber of Commerce (MCC)
New York City Business Networking Group
New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW) Facebook Fan Page
New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW) Meetup
Pace University – Lubin Center for Entrepreneurship
Growth-stage ($1MM+ in Revenue):
Entrepreneurs Organization (EO)
Manhattan Chamber of Commerce (MCC)
Women Presidents Organization (WPO)
——
Stop At Nothing. Achieve Anything.
Gary Whitehill is the Founder of The Relentless Foundation and New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), both of which reflect his entrepreneurial drive and relentless energy.
In 2009, The Relentless Foundation inspired the creation of New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), an unprecedented gathering of entrepreneurs, from innovation-minded start-ups to multi-million dollar revenue generators who are given the chance to learn, connect and leverage opportunities to help drive economic change.
The Entrepreneur Week movement continues to grow, with events planned in more US cities and around the world.
Additionally, Gary believes kids should have the ability to create the world they want, and that those who are driven to achieve must also be given tools such as entrepreneurship to learn, grow and express themselves.
Gary supports people and companies invested in driving social and economic change.
Communicating as a Leader: The Art of Giving Feedback
Ironically, one of the critical aspects of leadership is developing the leadership abilities of others. Some leaders see employee feedback as either praise or criticism and never utilize one of the most powerful ways to develop others – developmental feedback. Many business leaders are reluctant to give feedback and might avoid direct conversations because they don’t know exactly what to say and/or how to say it without sounding confrontational or negative.
Often, business leaders choose passive methods for giving feedback like communicating important feedback via email (where an employee might not fully understand the intended tone and doesn’t have the opportunity to ask immediate questions). Another poor approach is what I call a “drive-by.” This method usually involves a leader quickly blurting out information while walking away. Like communicating through email, this approach doesn’t provide the opportunity for a genuine conversation or the opportunity for an employee to ask questions or get clarification.
Developmental feedback, however, can empower you as a leader, improve communication between you and your team, strengthen relationships, improve customer service, and drive results. Using a structured approach to giving feedback can ensure you communicate clearly and cover all of your points. It can also provide an opportunity for you to show support and encouragement and share praise
There are two categories of developmental feedback, one is reinforcing (when you ‘catch someone doing something right’ and you want to acknowledge their positive contribution so they continue to behave this way). The other category is redirecting (when you observe a mistake or poor performance and need to correct the behavior).
Consider these five steps when giving either reinforcing or redirecting feedback:
1: Check in first. Instead of telling, try asking. It might seem surprising, but the best way to offer developmental feedback is to start with a question. Ask an open-ended question to better understand the employee’s point of view and to learn more about his/her motivation for acting the way they did. To start the conversation, you could ask something like, “I want to get your take on our new timesheets, are you having any challenges completing them?”
2: What is the standard for behavior? Once you’ve asked an open-ended question and heard the response, you can remind him/her about your expectations of their behavior. For example, “I need everybody to complete their timesheets by Friday at 2pm so I can process the payroll for the entire team.
3: What did you observe? State the behavior or action you observed and be as objective as possible. Don’t speak in universal terms like, “You always do this” or “You never do this.” Comment on this particular situation and use a real example of observed behavior. Say something like, “I noticed that you submitted your timesheet at 6pm for the last two weeks,” as an example of redirecting feedback, or “I want to thank you for submitting your timesheets on time for the past month.
4: What is the impact? Explain the specific impact that his/her behavior has on colleagues, customers, or a work process – whatever makes sense for the situation. Instead of saying something vague like, “You’re unprofessional” say something like, “When you submit your timesheet late, it holds up the payroll process and then some people won’t get their checks until Saturday” or “Because you submitted your timesheets by the deadline, I was able to process the payroll and pay everyone on time this month.”
5: Reinforce or Redirect. Explain why you want them to continue their behavior, if you’re reinforcing. You could simply say something like, “Thanks again for making the deadline.” If you’re redirecting, you could say something like, “If you’d like, I can remind you on Thursday to start completing your timesheet so you can make the Friday deadline. Does that work for you?”
Following reinforcing or redirecting feedback, you should always end on a positive note to motivate the listener. Use statements like, “Eventually, completing your timesheet will be quick, we’re all adjusting to the new form.”
Timing is everything. Make sure you’re in the right frame of mind when you give feedback. If you’re tired or angry, your emotions might sneak into your words and/or body language. Also consider the timing for the listener. Are you trying to catch someone when they’re walking out the door or feel terrible because they just made a major mistake? Try to give feedback when someone is relaxed and open to hearing your ideas.
Timing is also important regarding how often you give feedback. Don’t wait until an annual performance review to give feedback. Give feedback often; make it a part of your regular leadership approach. This five-step feedback process might seem cumbersome at first, but with a little practice, it will get easier. Add developmental feedback to your leadership toolkit and, in addition to driving results, you’ll be strengthening your human resources.
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About the Blogger: Holly Landau is a leadership expert, former US Army Officer, and CEO of Landau Leadership – an innovative training & development firm providing customized curriculum, public leadership events, and online learning solutions to boost individual and team productivity. Holly is an active facilitator and keynote speaker covering topics like leadership, strategy, creativity, and communication. She is also a regular contributor to several business blogs including nolcha.com and her own leadership blog. She is one of the contributing experts for the upcoming American Express OPEN Book on Leadership. Contact Holly at hollylandau@landauleadership.com and follow her on Twitter: @LeadershipMuse. New Classifications of Entrepreneur
In a world of niche advertising, marketing and brand differentiation, it is little wonder that the title of Entrepreneur has been prefixed to further define to the world not only who they are, but also the market segment and/or mission they serve.
This new way of segmenting entrepreneurs is not only a boon to marketers and consultants like myself, providing a means to segment and target our audience, but also to the legions of emerging entrepreneurs who are in need of clarity and definition of their new life’s path.
Regardless of how you choose to categorize yourself, ____preneur or entrepreneur, we look forward to seeing you at New York Entrepreneur Week in April 2010. The following list contains some of the most popular “preneur” titles in common use, if I have missed any, and I am sure I have, feel free to add any other “preneur” titles you have heard to this list in the comments section.
Solopreneur-is a single individual operating a business enterprise formerly known as a sole proprietor entrepreneur
Spiritualpreneur – is someone who operates a business enterprise based on the guiding principles of their spiritual beliefs for wealth, prosperity and abundance. Also may include spiritual based ventures such as energy healers, reiki masters, acupuncturist, etc.
Socialpreneur – is someone who operates a business enterprise to create social change, OR
Socialpreneur- is an entrepreneur who uses social media to operate a business enterprise.
Serialpreneur- an individual, who has founded, built and sold numerous ventures.
Womenpreneur- is a female entrepreneur.
Mompreneur – is a woman who is both a mother and operating a business enterprise, also has a magazine specifically devoted to this entrepreneur niche.
Epreneur- an individual who operates an ecommerce business enterprise
Webpreneur – also an individual who operates an ecommerce business enterprise
Infopreneur is an individual who operates a business enterprise which gathers, packages and sell information or information products.
Petrepreneur is an individual who operated a business enterprise in the pet industry.
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About the Blogger: Will Corrente, is the founder of Operation Entrepreneur, an entrepreneurship consulting firm based in West Palm Beach, FL. In addition, he writes a weekly column on small business and entrepreneurship for The Bergen News.
Networking: A Cost Effective Investment for Entrepreneurs
Let’s be honest. When most people think of making an investment in their business, their minds become clouded with thoughts of dollars and cents. They think about the cost of equipment, websites, lawyers, accountants, advertising, payroll, etc. Entrepreneurs especially feel the strain as they often bootstrap and throw all of their personal funds into their ideas.
You are often competing against numerous other companies that are already established and have the funds to create a competitive advantage. This creates a situation where you must try and create some sort of advantage for your company that your competitors cannot. So the question is, how can an entrepreneur that has limited financial flexibility compete with the more established companies and eat away at their competitive advantage?
We need to take a closer look at the different types of investment strategies you could employ to give your business have a shot at success. One relatively inexpensive, often forgotten investment strategy that can prove to be very effective in the quest to expand your business and professional/personal brand is networking. As simple as it sounds, networking is one of the most cost effective ways to take your business to the next level.
Networking, when done correctly, exposes your company, product/service, and brand to other business professionals, advertisers, sponsors, and potential clients. If business owners began to look at networking more as a strategic business opportunity and less like a necessary evil, they could begin to see an increase in profitability. Research has shown that effective networking can be directly related to increase in a company’s bottom line.
In the simplest of terms, networking can be defined as the process or practice of building up or maintaining informal relationships, especially with people whose friendship could bring advantages such as job or business opportunities. With that said, it should be no mystery why perfecting this skill is so imperative to the success of a growing business.
The costs associated with networking are often very minimal, and some networking events are even free. Those that are not may have an admission fee that ranges any where from $10 to $50 per person, a modest fee that will pay significant dividends. In addition to networking, entrepreneurs should also look to spend some funds on clothing, accessories, business cards, etc. This step is often cast aside as superficial; however, it should not be overlooked as first impressions are about 70% of the networking experience and, thus, should be taken very seriously. It is important to view every individual you meet (both inside and outside of a formal networking event) as a potential ally with whom you can build a mutually beneficial relationship. This is why your appearance and personal brand should be carefully considered.
When all is said and done, the pros associated with networking can far outweigh the costs. While entrepreneurs may not yet be able to afford high end investing practices right away, most anyone can jump right into the networking circuit in order to help their business launch and grow.
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About the Blogger:
Aron Schoenfeld, is the founder of Do It In Person, LLC, a unique company focusing on teaching in person communication skills and creating unique and effective networking events for people to use these skills.
Mr. Edison, Please Tell Me What Laboratory Rules You Want Me to Observe?
A good friend of mine once sat down to lunch with Stephen Covey and a group of fellow executives. During the course of the meal, one of the men commented on the unusual tablespoons, and said “Look at the backend of it.” All the people at the table flipped their spoons over, but my friend – quite unintentionally – angled it up so he could look at the bottom tip of it. Laughter ensued. But Covey raised a hand and pointed out that my friend’s actions suggested something interesting in his behavior: the ability to look at the world in an unexpected way. So I guess it’s not surprising to hear my friend is one of the most innovative entrepreneurs I know, as well as a successful millionaire who has transformed the industry he is in.
The story reminds me of an important fact. Entrepreneurs are often at the forefront of innovation. They possess a unique set of skills that lends itself to inspired invention and driven change. Really good business solutions and radical transformations in history have one thing in common. Somewhere, someone believed that you could do something better, different or completely new. Someone challenged the status quo or saw failure as an opportunity to try again. Often, those people were entrepreneurs.
One reason is that entrepreneurs tend to see the world around them differently. As Thomas Edison said to his laboratory assistant, “There ain’t no rules around here. We’re trying to accomplish somep’n!” Innovation is most often simply a matter of having a different perspective than everyone else, and the perseverance to make it happen. For example, some of the most creative people I know had learning disabilities growing up. Forced to adapt so they could fit into a rigid school format, many developed alternative ways of making sense of the world.
Tony Buzan, father of the world-renowned creative technique of Mind Mapping, is a point in case. Tony admits he came up with mind maps because he was “doing badly at school”. He was also smart enough to realize that the way people were measuring intelligence was rather limited. Quick experiment: in your mind’s eye, picture the moon, the sun, the earth and a lemon. Which one is different? While you may be like most people and select lemon as the odd-one-out, Tony would point out that if you were using color as your filter, earth would be odd because it’s not yellow.
Innovation is therefore inspired by understanding that there’s not always only one right answer. Or realizing you may have an answer to a problem that doesn’t yet exist. Did you know that the parachute was invented before powered flight? In a “fascinating facts” piece about James Dyson, you’ll read that his inspiration for cyclonic technology happened one day while he was vacuuming his house (in itself, fascinating!) and he realized his top-of-the-line machine was losing suction and getting clogged. Dyson refused to accept there was only one good way to build a vacuum cleaner, and the cyclonic suction, roller-ball Dyson vacuum cleaner was born.
Innovation is also about seeing an idea for what it’s really worth. Think about all those stories of accidental invention. Like Wilson Greatbatch back in 1956, who was experimenting with a device he was building to record heartbeats. He grabbed the wrong resistor and connected it, and discovered that the circuit emitted a pulse. Voila, Greatbatch realized his device could be used to control heartbeat, and the pacemaker was invented.
Which brings me to a final point on inspired innovation. I believe the most profound and valuable innovation and creativity has to come from a sense of purpose or a powerful cause – it is unbounded thinking about how to make life and the world more meaningful that leads us to solve great challenges and achieve impossible objectives. Just look at how one company’s mission transformed the lives of millions of people: Microsoft, with its tagline of “A PC on every desk”. And behind that audacious goal, an inspired cause to find ways for people and things to achieve their greatest potential.
Innovation comes in many forms and is a tool that’s wielded well by many entrepreneurs. Having a different perspective has inspired many of Apple’s products – simply because Steve Jobs refused to accept that everyday things such as radios and phones and computers had to be mundane and ugly. Ergo: Apple is synonymous with easy, simple and beautiful. Sometimes the entrepreneurial way out has to be invented. Understanding that there’s not always only one right answer gave us solutions like Galileo’s telescope and James Dyson’s vacuum cleaner. Then there are the accidental innovations, like 3Ms’s experimental polymer that turned out to be less of an adhesive and more of a sticky fix that today everyone calls a Post-It™ note. Ultimately, there’s the kind of innovation that really makes this world a better place, because it comes from a passionate sense of purpose. Like Google’s search engine, motivated by the cause of organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful.
Because entrepreneurs have had the courage to ask questions and take risks – wheels were invented, men learned to fly, machines were made to work more efficiently, and the world has moved forward. The spirit to invent and innovate lies at the heart of true entrepreneurship. Or, to loosely paraphrase Peter Drucker: innovation is the specific tool that entrepreneurs use to increase their capacity to create wealth.
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About the Blogger: Janine de Nysschen is the founder of WhyTelligence and uses change and purpose dynamics to create unique strategies for complex problems, helping businesses and executives increase their impact and performance.
Leveraging Social Media Today- What is the Future of Print?
The new business landscape is truly a game changer. It allows smaller businesses to reach 1,000s of potential customers without huge marketing budgets like that of larger corporations. Viral videos, Facebook, Twitter are a few of the new tools available to small business.
But, just like any tool, social media tools are worthless unless you know how to use them. Paramount in successful use of social media is to avoid what’s termed interruption marketing. That is, disrupting people with your sales message when they haven’t asked for it.
Instead, people want to be helped. Rather than selling to someone, it is more effective to provide useful information. If someone on a forum asks a question, one should answer it rather than saying “hire me”. By providing help and showing you knowledge, you’re more apt to actually have a follow up discussion involving being hired.
The old days of spending tons of cash for print, TV or radio ads are gone. The new landscape involves being nice and un-solicitous. For more information about the new business landscape, attend New York Entrepreneur Week.
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About the Blogger:
Matthew Weiss is owner of Weiss & Associates, PC, a boutique vehicle and traffic law firm located at 419 Park Avenue South, New York, NY. For more information visit his site New York Traffic Lawyer. Mr. Weiss is also the Global Learning Chair for the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, a worldwide not-for-profit dedicated to helping businesses owners learn and grow.
Hype: An Entrepreneurs Most Powerful Weapon
Anyone reading this knows what it’s like to get excited about a pending release. Whether it be a new Dan Brown novel to the mythical Apple Tablet, we all love the speculation. Hype is a great way to describe this type of obsession.
The companies behind these products know we are suckers for teasers, specs, promos, anything at all that can give our thirst just a momentary reprieve. At the same time, this last year especially, we’ve noticed the tactic shifting substantially through the age of the Internet.
What used to be a controlled environment has now become a free-for-all frenzy of information being traded and “leaked” online. I can’t tell you how many Crunchgear blog posts I’ve read that dealt with “leaked” specs of various Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, or Sony products. I even remember knowing about the PS3 Slim almost five months in advance of its release. The companies allegedly go to an intense length to hide these rumors with cease and desist letters, threats of legal action, or even just plain denial. We all know though that at the same time they LET a lot of it happen.
Think about it, it’s almost a way to allow them to control the market without actually violating FTC or SEC rules. I remember recently reading a few reports that Apple was being investigated by the SEC on several counts of insider trading (thanks to Macrumors) which noted that the stocks that were being traded almost seemed like the people had direct knowledge of the inner workings of the company- as if employed there themselves. This is laughable because in all honesty, with all the leaked specs from Chinese manufacturers and distributors and “insider” sources, anyone with a good sense of the calendar-shopping year could have done the same thing. Everyone knows if the next keynote address actually delivers then the stock will skyrocket.
What I think is so fascinating is that while this almost seems like a dirty trick to play on the minds of consumers, I can’t help applaud these companies. It’s Entrepreneurship 101; find an opportunity and exploit the heck out of it to the point that people will be clamoring for your new and innovative product/service.
The hype is 90% of the battle because if done successfully, the product will deliver as expected (and hopefully surpass expectations). If I have to choose my next mp3 player, computer, or touch screen device, I couldn’t care less about who makes it, it’s all about what they can offer and how excited I get for it. I used to be an advent user of Windows software until Vista came out, but after Windows 7 and the announcement of the Courier tablet/journal, I’ve actually considered purchasing one of these new products.
Point being- the leaked specs of the Courier blew my mind away. Seriously- check it out, it’s almost scary what this thing might do and how it will change the way classes and the workplace function. The fact of the matter is that in this new age, every year is a milestone in achievement from the one prior. No longer are we stuck on a plateau. It’s all up hill to the point that the now black and white E-reader market, for instance, will turn into a full on media device with an vibrant color interface and new and improved month long battery life by 2012. You never know, but the hype will keep us coming back.
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About the Blogger: Landon David Chase is a Student at Syracuse University.
How User Experience Designers are like Therapists
In writing for NYEWeek, I always try to think of topics that will relate to the Entrepreneurial mind. The post I write today may or may not do so, but my hope is that it will invoke some ideas that will change your thinking about how you approach your customer. As I’ve mentioned in several previous posts on my blog I’m surrounded by counselors and therapists of all kinds. In talking with these folks, I can’t help but see the similarities that keep coming up between our two professions, those of Therapy and UX Design.
Recently, I asked a seasoned therapist how he chooses to deliver responses to his clients. Basically I wanted to know; if Client A came to him with a problem and Client B came to him with the same problem, would he give them the same response? His reply to my question was eye opening.
The therapist replied “It is not my job to push my thoughts and ideas onto my clients. I am not their friends. Friends do that. When someone comes to them with a problem they respond ‘well this is what I would do…’ then explain their point of view instead of giving tailored advice. My job is to listen to my clients, take their needs & personalities as well as the way in which they explained their problem into account, and really understand what kind of help they are asking for. From there, I tailor a response that the specific client will be able to absorb best as well as one that their personality will be able to use. My personal opinions are thrown out the window.”
Wow, if this didn’t make some connections in my head.
That is precisely how a User Experience Designer is different from the majority of professionals out there in corporate or start up land. Let me explain further. Our job is not to push our opinions about how to create websites or features we like onto our users. There are a ton of interactions out there that I personally despise that I include in my designs. You may ask “Well if you despise them, why do you include them in your work?”
I do so simply because the majority of the users that I’m designing for do NOT share my opinion. These interactions and features are ones that they actually feel comfortable using or that make their experience delightful. My role as a UX Designer is not to force my opinions about certain treatments or interactions onto users. Just because I love or hate something does not mean it will facilitate a great user experience. A UX Designer should NEVER talk in opinions. That is one of the first things we learn in our profession. Instead we take a great deal of our time, including “non-work” time, to study people. We learn what works for users and what doesn’t. We try to understand others’ behaviors and by doing so are coming to our clients with facts and not opinions.
When I tell a client “That is not something that users will understand.” It is because I have studied users, not because I don’t understand it myself. This is a key feature to look for when hiring and working with a UX Designer.
This thinking is a big shift for most people dealing with the web. For example, many people tend to pick colors for their websites because they like the colors, not because these colors facilitate easier reading or emotional response. This same behavior happens with other features (i.e. I like drag and drop and I want it on my site, even if there is no need for this type of treatment). There is actually a science to website creation and the number one rule is to throw away your personal opinion.
You are not your user, and your opinions may or may not match theirs. The fact is you are the one that needs your users to use your website or buy your product and you should make that experience enjoyable. The way to do this is to remove the subjective and work in the objective.
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About the Blogger: Lis is the Founder of Hubert Experience Design, a boutique user experience firm based in NYC. Her firm has worked with a wide range of organizations, from Fortune 500 to start-up. Hubert Experience Design takes pride in making websites better and easier to use.
How Can Entrepreneurs Learn About User Experience (UX) Design
Throughout my time as a User Experience Designer, I’ve had the privilege of meeting with and talking to people from many different backgrounds. These backgrounds range from people trying to get into the UX field, visual designers, front end/backend developers, product managers, company founders, etc.
No matter the background or level of expertise I tend to get one question over and over again: “How do I learn more about User Experience and what it is?”
Now, I usually caveat my answer with the idea that it really depends why and what you want to learn about the field. There are those that want to become UX professionals. Their track of learning is obviously way different that those that just want to be able to communicate better with their UX Designers as well as to hire better UX Talent, or determine if they need that talent at all. My guess is the majority of people reading this post fall into the second track of learners. So, that is the track that I will focus on.
When thinking about how I learned about User Experience (UX), one thing sticks out: Reading. I read A LOT. Books, blogs posts, magazine articles, you name it I read it. I read to learn new processes or procedures to use with clients, to clarify questions about old topics that I’ve been wondering about, to stay on top of my game so that I can hang with other UXers, the list goes on and on. The important part for you is knowing what to read. Here is a quick list of reading material that will bring you up to speed on User Experience and Usability.
Books:
Don’t Make Me Think:A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug
The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web by Jesse James Garrett
The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity by Alan Cooper
The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web by Steve Mulder & Ziv Yaar
For more UX Books check out:
20 User Experience Books you should own
The UX Canon: Essential Reading for the User Experience Designer
Blogs:
52 Week of UX
Boxes & Arrwows
The UX Workshop
UX Booth
10 UX (User Experience) Blogs to Watch in 2010
Another great way to learn is by being a part of the User Experience Community. We are social creatures who love getting together and learning as well as talking about what we do. That being said, these groups and associations put on events that are of interest to people that aren’t in the UX field, but that just want to know more about what we do. They are great ways to network and learn. Check out some of these groups in your area.
Groups:
Interaction Design Association (IxDA)
Usability Professionals Association (UPA)
UX Bookclub
This information should give you a good jump start to learning about User Experience. I’m sure I’ve left something off the list, and knowing that I will say the number one rule to learning is to keep learning! Pick up whatever material looks interesting and helpful. Reach out to anyone that you want to learn from and meet with them to learn more. If you truly have an interest in knowing more about the field, the resources that will help you do so are endless. Oh, and don’t be afraid to reach out to me for further questions… I’d love to help!
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About the Blogger: Lis is the Founder of Hubert Experience Design, a boutique user experience firm based in NYC. Her firm has worked with a wide range of organizations, from Fortune 500 to start-up. Hubert Experience Design takes pride in making websites better and easier to use.
Green is a hot topic. The September 28 issue of Newsweek published a list of the 500 greenest companies in America with Hewlett-Packet listed as number one. Last April, former President Bill Clinton, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) Chief Scientist Amory Lovins, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Empire State Building owner Tony Malkin, declared a very bold plan to reduce the energy use of the Empire State Building by 38 percent, and save $4.4 million annually in the process.
When it comes to conversations regarding green buildings, there are a couple of concerns that are in the foreground for most business owners – do green buildings really increase employee productivity and what is the cost of building (or retrofitting) within green guidelines?
There are a couple of reliable standards to establish the parameters for the green industry: Energy Star label and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. For example, the GSA (Government Services Administration) recently announced that by 2010 all GSA procured buildings will need to fulfill the requirements of the Energy Star label.
The following are the results of a study by the University of San Diego’s Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate and real estate services company CB Richard Ellis. Researchers surveyed 154 buildings with more than 2,000 tenants in 2009. These buildings fit into the green category by either fulfilling the requirements of the Energy Star label or LEED certified. Approximately 534 responses were obtained from the survey.
The majority of the buildings were multi-tenant, 94%. Furthermore, 56% were located in a suburban setting and 56% situated in a business district. The examiners concluded that healthier buildings increase productivity by decreasing sick time and employees were healthier and happier.
The survey concluded that green buildings had:
18% lower employee turnover
22% higher employee morale
23% easier recruiting of employees
24% more effective client meetings
43% agree that employees are more productive
45% fewer sick days
As the researchers concluded, “Green does pay off. Contrary to popular opinion, the green movement is not purely public sector-driven, although we do note a large number of cities now mandating LEED certification for certain sized buildings, usually 50,000 square feet and up by the year 2012.” They affirm that we still face many challenges regarding building green; mostly due to a “lack of planning and developer education,” combined with a lack of knowledge from vendors and city officials.
The bottom line is that if you are either planning a new building or trying to implement some steps to partake in this global effort, you will be making a difference, for your employees and to the world.
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About the Blogger: Vera Angelico, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP is an architect that has been certified by The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™. This is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. She will be on panel at NYEW.
Green Building Doesn’t Have To Cost More
One of the biggest holdups people seem to have about making their buildings or homes green is that they have heard all sorts of rumors that green building costs a lot more. They assume that this is a rule rather than an exception and it’s simply not true. If you are smart about your material choices, design decisions, and contractor education, there is no reason why you can’t build a very green building to little or no premium over standard construction. People also don’t take into account that green buildings will cost less to operate and will command higher rents and overall value because they have been built green. Sometimes, going green can even save you money…
A perfect example is parking surfaces. Take for example an average 40 space parking lot where the convention would be to pour black asphalt, in the Mid-Atlantic region this should cost around $60,000. However, as far as green building goes, black asphalt is one of the worst surfaces you can have. Its soaks up heat during the day and releases it at night, which messes with the local ecosystem, it isn’t porous so stormwater can’t drain through it require large concrete drywells and filter systems, and it uses oil. Now as an alternative consider a product like Drivable Grass, as series of recycled concrete nubs held together by nylon tendrils. To star they contain recycled content, they can be laid down quickly and easily without any special tools and allow grass to freely grow between the nubs while easily supporting the weight of vehicles. They allow stormwater to freely drain through and the grass acts as a natural filter mechanism, the heat island effect is eliminated and it looks beautiful. It’s also less than half the cost of installing asphalt. This doesn’t even take into account that you no longer need big expensive drywells either.
By making smart material choices in green building, you can keep costs in line and still achieve your sustainable goals.
Ari Meisel | LEED AP
LEED Pro, LLC
T: 212.673.3027
F: 646.225.5275
On December 24th, NJ lawmakers officially asked MTV to cancel the “Jersey Shore.” The latest criticism comes from the New Jersey Italian American Legislative Caucus- which believes the wildly offensive show could significantly reduce tourism to the well known area this upcoming year.
The announcement can be found here.
People often confuse geothermal and geoexchange technologies and call them both Geothermal. This is a misnomer unless you live near one of the earths fault lines. Geothermal technology is actually a method of generating power through super heated water turning to steam and powering a turbine which generates energy. Geoexchange is a process of using the earth as one big heat sink for heating and cooling a building or home.
It’s one of the most incredibly simple and yet most efficient building technologies we have. One method involves burying a large loop underground with a fluid pumping through it that can very efficiently transfer heat. Since the ground beneath us tends to maintain a constant temperature regardless of the weather on the surface, it can be used as an enormous heat sink. In cooling seasons, the heat is removed from the structure and dumped into the ground and in the heating seasons, the ground loop picks up warmth from the earth and uses that to heat the structure. All of this basically relies on a small pump to move the fluid through the loop and you can see efficiencies of 300-400%. The key variable in cost depends on your location because you need to get the loop down to a depth where you have a constant temperature. In eastern Long Island that’s an easy 55 feet, but in downtown Manhattan for instance, someone had to drill through 1100 feet of bedrock to install this type of system for their townhouse.
This speaks to making a building as efficient as possible, this is not a renewable form of energy, it’s simply one of the most efficient means of heating and cooling a space using a mechanical system.
Features vs Benefits – Jolting Your Sales NOW
Earlier this week I was teaching marketing to about 20 entrepreneurs here in NYC.After the class several came up to say they got some super-cool tips on how to immediately impact their sales with little or no cost. Just rewriting and designing their marketing strategies based on what they just learned.
And here is what they learned: the difference between selling the features and benefits of your product or service.
Features—a physical or tangible component of your product / service. Using a product example, a bicycle: weighs only 23 pounds, has 21 gears, Shimano brakes, 110PSI high-pressure tires, and is designed light and built for speed.
And for service-based businesses, an example would be a chiropractor’s office: we offer a 10 minute evaluation and assessment of your pain (or situation), then do a series of 3 to 5 treatments over the course of two weeks, followed be an additional assessment, and so on.
Benefits—the non-physical, emotional and intangible reactions to your product / service. In our product example: this super-light, super-fast bicycle with 21 gears will make sure you can get up that insane mountain you have been training for all these months. When you get to the top, you’ll look behind you and know you just conquered that amazing ride you’ve been dreaming about….
In our service example: your initial evaluation with our top chiropractor will immediately ensure you are getting the exact treatment you need for your situation, and as quickly as possible. With this you can relax and let our expert chiropractor do his (her) magic on your body. Watch how quickly your body will respond to his (her) touch and adjustments.
Question: Do you think people buy from features or benefits?
In our class this week this became a debate. Some said features, some said benefits and some said both.
We all agreed that people buy on benefits. BENEFITS!
Why?
Because people want to know how they will benefit from using your product or service. Yeah, sure it is helpful knowing how many gears the bike has, but really getting them to feel the accomplishment of getting to the top of the amazing mountain is what is going to override the features.
If they feel the possibility of owning your product (or hiring you for your service), you will make the sale so much easier to accomplish.
People buy on emotions!
Still not convinced? Look at Apple’s iPhones. For many, many people, if it ain’t an iPhone (or other Apple product) they are not interested. It is NOT because of the features (although this certainly helps) it is because they have positioned themselves quite successfully as a hip, cool, state-of-the-art company. And people want a piece of THAT in their lives.
STILL not convinced? Park your rear-end in front of the TV for 30 minutes. Watch two cable stations: Home Shopping Network and QVC. Just watch what these masters of selling do: they can take the ugliest piece of (you know what) and sell millions of them. How they do it is mention (briefly) a feature and then spend 10 minutes talking about all the benefits of it.
Benefits, benefits, benefits!
So if it is in fact benefits that sell your product or service, where are you putting your marketing resources: features or benefits?
If the former, I highly, (I mean highly) recommend you immediately shift your energy into the latter.
And if you do not immediately see results, please e-mail me. I’m not kidding!
Action Steps for the Week
Take a look at your product or service. Make a list of the top 5 features of it.
Next, write as many benefits as you can think of for each of those features. Go nuts with this and then pick the top 10-15 of them (depending on how you will use this information.)
HERE’S THE CATCH: Do this from your customers’ perspective, not yours!
If you are not sure their perspective, find out. There are many ways to get this feedback from them: surveys, calling them, standing on the street corner and asking them, you name it.
Once you are clear on what the benefits are, you are now ready to put your promotional materials together. Briefly mention the feature and then all its benefits. Do this for the top features.
NOTE: avoid grandiose claims like, “The world’s best…” or “You’ll love the taste of…” That stuff does not work. Instead, back it up with statistics, data, survey results, scientific discoveries, etc. Third party endorsements are golden.
Lastly, use testimonials that add credibility to what you promote. Do these to your marketing and you will most likely be amazed at the quick results you will see.
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About the Blogger: Stefan Doering is the creator of BEST Coaches’ groundbreaking 90-day “UnReasonable” program which brings to the table his almost 30 years of hard-earned business savvy and 4-plus decades of pure heart. Stefan started his first company at the age of 17. His later companies included the leaders of major companies and institutions as well as multi-millionaires and billionaires as investors, board members and mentors, and had household names among their clients.
Entrepreneurship: Nature vs. Nurture
There has been a flurry of debate about this topic over the past few months. Vivek Wadwha’s post on TechCrunch resurrected this age old debate last month.
Since Vivek’s post, I have taken a considerable amount of time to reflect on what Vivek said before posting my own point of view. Mark Suster also recently wrote an insightful response, which is in contrast to Vivek’s, which inspired me to think much harder about this topic.
With the backdrop of the two posts above, here’s my point of view: I firmly believe entrepreneurship is 20% nature and 80% nurture.
It’s certainly agreeable that we are born with certain physical characteristics based on genetics – eyes, nose, arms, legs, etc. But the argument I struggle with in regard to if 80% of our inclination to become entrepreneurs comes from nature is: what about the theory of the tabula rasa – the blank slate? In addition, how do you explain the inner critic which resides in all of us?
I believe genetics simply provides us the blank slate, our minds are just barely hardwired when we’re born – free and open to interpretation of all which the world surrounds us with. Over time our mind starts to fill in or write on that blank slate based on the stimuli we acquire through experiences, both good and bad. As the frequency of experiences in our lives increases, there is a parallel influx of stimuli being presented to and processed by our brain. Thus, the more stimuli we are exposed to and react upon, the more “writing” that is placed on our slate.
This writing becomes the map which directs our brain muscle and formation, with an end goal of developing a baseline we can use for structuring our thoughts/reactions/interpretations toward an ever growing amount of stimuli. Said another way, these stimuli are presented to us through each experience we have in our daily lives and can be actions as simple as playing a sport, eating a certain food, reading a book or driving a car. Eventually, as time passes, our reactions to stimuli build upon one another, like a pyramid, forming a solid map for how our brain should hardwire itself. Eventually we end up with a solid conceptual framework which we leverage to interpret stimuli throughout the rest of our life.
An analogy: weightlifters drink protein shakes after every gym session because protein is the underlying nutrient to replenish the tears that the muscle has experienced from the stress of lifting weights. During our developmental years the muscle in our brain seeks direction on how to interpret the world – a baseline per se. Think of the writing being placed on the slate as a replenishing nutrient which our mind necessitates and seeks to absorb whenever possible. Over time, as those nutrients (stimuli) increase in frequency, our mind becomes stronger and stronger toward a certain interpretation of the world.
This leads to my point: once past your developmental years, which are a culmination of hundreds of thousands of experiences and stimuli, only then do you have a structure and framework for interpreting the world. Once you’re capable of interpreting the world, you are then able to form scalable mental thought patterns and a purpose for why you do what you do.
Said another way: nature simply provides the slate to write upon. Nurture throughout our developmental years is what actually writes on that slate, forms our personality and viewpoints of the world, and ultimately whether we’re going to be the next billionaire entrepreneur, award winning violinist or multinational expatriate.
—-
Stop At Nothing. Achieve Anything.
Gary Whitehill is the Founder of The Relentless Foundation and New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), both of which reflect his entrepreneurial drive and relentless energy.
In 2009, The Relentless Foundation inspired the creation of New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), an unprecedented gathering of entrepreneurs, from innovation-minded start-ups to multi-million dollar revenue generators who are given the chance to learn, connect and leverage opportunities to help drive economic change.
The Entrepreneur Week movement continues to grow, with events planned in more US cities and around the world.
Additionally, Gary believes kids should have the ability to create the world they want, and that those who are driven to achieve must also be given tools such as entrepreneurship to learn, grow and express themselves.
Gary supports people and companies invested in driving social and economic change.
Entrepreneurship: Nature vs. Nurture
There has been a flurry of debate about this topic over the past few months. Vivek Wadwha’s post on TechCrunch resurrected this age old debate last month.
Since Vivek’s post, I have taken a considerable amount of time to reflect on what Vivek said before posting my own point of view. Mark Suster also recently wrote an insightful response, which is in contrast to Vivek’s, which inspired me to think much harder about this topic.
With the backdrop of the two posts above, here’s my point of view: I firmly believe entrepreneurship is 20% nature and 80% nurture.
It’s certainly agreeable that we are born with certain physical characteristics based on genetics – eyes, nose, arms, legs, etc. But the argument I struggle with in regard to if 80% of our inclination to become entrepreneurs comes from nature is: what about the theory of the tabula rasa – the blank slate? In addition, how do you explain the inner critic which resides in all of us?
I believe genetics simply provides us the blank slate, our minds are just barely hardwired when we’re born – free and open to interpretation of all which the world surrounds us with. Over time our mind starts to fill in or write on that blank slate based on the stimuli we acquire through experiences, both good and bad. As the frequency of experiences in our lives increases, there is a parallel influx of stimuli being presented to and processed by our brain. Thus, the more stimuli we are exposed to and react upon, the more “writing” that is placed on our slate.
This writing becomes the map which directs our brain muscle and formation, with an end goal of developing a baseline we can use for structuring our thoughts/reactions/interpretations toward an ever growing amount of stimuli. Said another way, these stimuli are presented to us through each experience we have in our daily lives and can be actions as simple as playing a sport, eating a certain food, reading a book or driving a car. Eventually, as time passes, our reactions to stimuli build upon one another, like a pyramid, forming a solid map for how our brain should hardwire itself. Eventually we end up with a solid conceptual framework which we leverage to interpret stimuli throughout the rest of our life.
An analogy: weightlifters drink protein shakes after every gym session because protein is the underlying nutrient to replenish the tears that the muscle has experienced from the stress of lifting weights. During our developmental years the muscle in our brain seeks direction on how to interpret the world – a baseline per se. Think of the writing being placed on the slate as a replenishing nutrient which our mind necessitates and seeks to absorb whenever possible. Over time, as those nutrients (stimuli) increase in frequency, our mind becomes stronger and stronger toward a certain interpretation of the world.
This leads to my point: once past your developmental years, which are a culmination of hundreds of thousands of experiences and stimuli, only then do you have a structure and framework for interpreting the world. Once you’re capable of interpreting the world, you are then able to form scalable mental thought patterns and a purpose for why you do what you do.
Said another way: nature simply provides the slate to write upon. Nurture throughout our developmental years is what actually writes on that slate, forms our personality and viewpoints of the world, and ultimately whether we’re going to be the next billionaire entrepreneur, award winning violinist or multinational expatriate.
—-
Stop At Nothing. Achieve Anything.
Gary Whitehill is the Founder of The Relentless Foundation and New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), both of which reflect his entrepreneurial drive and relentless energy.
In 2009, The Relentless Foundation inspired the creation of New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), an unprecedented gathering of entrepreneurs, from innovation-minded start-ups to multi-million dollar revenue generators who are given the chance to learn, connect and leverage opportunities to help drive economic change.
The Entrepreneur Week movement continues to grow, with events planned in more US cities and around the world.
Additionally, Gary believes kids should have the ability to create the world they want, and that those who are driven to achieve must also be given tools such as entrepreneurship to learn, grow and express themselves.
Gary supports people and companies invested in driving social and economic change.
Entrepreneurship: Get it Right from the Start
If you are thinking of starting a business this year, you will soon find that everyone around you has sage advice to offer. Here’s a laundry list of practical advice I have collected working with budding entrepreneurs to help you along the way.
1. Get excited. If you are not energized by your idea, why should anyone else? Show enthusiasm for your idea.
2. Raise more than you need. Regardless of how much capital you think you require, getting a business off the ground always cost more than you anticipate. Aim to raise more than you think you need. This applies to your non-for-profit too.
3. Develop a team of advisors, mentors and coaches. No one person will have all the answers for you. Think about the kind of guidance you need to develop your business and connect with a variety of experts you can tap into as sounding boards.
4. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Find your niche and go deep, becoming an expert in what you do.
5. Pay yourself first. When putting your business’s financial strategy together, don’t forget to add a line item for your salary. You have to eat!
6. You don’t have to do it all yourself. If you want to do something right, you have to do it yourself. Wrong! Think about where your weaknesses lie, and hire people to fill in those gaps.
7. Set your sights high and dare to be different. Certainly common sense matters, but don’t be afraid to go against the mainstream and innovate. Dare to be the next Apple, EBay or Google.
8. Faster is not always better. Be mindful of growing your business at a pace that is sustainable. Growing as fast as possible is good – but not so fast your company can’t handle the demand!
9. Finding the right business partner matters. Carefully selecting your business partner is important. The partner you choose will be a long-term relationship, and life is short. Choose a partner who is intelligent, highly knowledgeable of your company and industry, is passionate about your business and complements your style.
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About the Blogger:
Professor Murray Low is the Director of the Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center at Columbia Business School. He is an experienced entrepreneur and a leading authority on entrepreneurship in independent, corporate and not-for-profit settings. Starting businesses in several industries led him to study how the entrepreneurial process differs by context. His current research examines the dynamics of entrepreneurial careers. As the founder of the Columbia Entrepreneurship Program, he has worked to make entrepreneurship a viable career option for MBA graduates. Low consults to both small and large companies, family businesses and not-for-profits. He teaches executive seminars in the areas of entrepreneurship and strategic management and makes frequent presentations to academic and industry groups. He has published widely in academic and practitioner journals and is a regular commentator in the media.
Stop Chasing Shiny Things: 5 Key Questions to Keep You on Track
All too often as entrepreneurs, there are a million and one ideas swimming around your head. You see trends in the marketplace that with the right mix of marketing, execution, technology, and effort could mean big success. But all too often, that million dollar idea quickly loses its luster and is soon replaced by another million dollar idea, and so on, and so on. Some of the keys to overcoming this obstacle were discussed in the “Goal Setting- the importance of 30, 60, and 90 day goals” panel discussion at NYEW this past November.
As entrepreneurs, you must realize that your vision and creativity is not only your greatest asset, but also your greatest weakness. Using the creative genius of the entrepreneur in you will always produce millions of possibilities, but not all of those possibilities are legitimate sustainable businesses.
The first way is to keep yourself focused and to stop chasing shiny things is to not let too much time lapse between the idea and your determination of its viability as a legitimate business opportunity. In today’s fast paced global market, you cannot afford to sit on the sidelines and waste time chasing shiny things, so it is imperative that you place a maximum time limit that you will devote to the exploration of an idea. This is especially important if you are a start up entrepreneur who has not yet opened a business.
The second way to keep yourself focused and to stop chasing shiny things is to develop a standard vetting process for all of your ideas. Using this process, you ask key questions to determine if you should move forward on the idea. If it meets the minimum criteria, then there should be another set of questions, and so on, if it fails, you either hold it off to the side for the future and move on to another idea, or discard it and move on..
The following are the 5 key questions to ask of any business idea to determine if it is worth pursuing.
1) Does the opportunity fit my skills and experiences? If I am a restaurateur, opening a used car lot to take advantage of the growing demand for used cars may be a good idea, but is not a good fit for core skills and competencies.
2) Is the opportunity a business or a job? Many ideas are great for a one man show but cannot be expanded into a large scale business. If you open one franchise, you have a job, if you become a master franchisor and open multiple stores, you have a business.
3) Does the opportunity have large market appeal? Is the sales potential large enough to sustain the growth and revenues necessary to make this a lucrative business? What is the size of my market, how many people will buy from me and why?
4) Does the opportunity have a residual income component? I have a friend who sells custom outdoor kitchens, it is a great and lucrative business, but he is constantly hunting for elephants. Is this a business that requires elephant hunting or one where once you bag the elephant, he will continue to buy over and over and over.
5) What is the execution timeframe? How quickly you can put all the pieces together and bring the opportunity to market and begin generating revenue.
Over the years, these questions have helped to separate the “nice to do” ideas from the “need to do” ideas and to spend my time most effectively. The combination of setting clear goals based on predetermined time frames and a minimum standard vetting process has helped me stay on track and can also do the same for you. Best of luck!
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About the Blogger: Will Corrente, is the founder of Operation Entrepreneur, an entrepreneurship consulting firm based in West Palm Beach, FL. In addition, he writes a weekly column on small business and entrepreneurship for The Bergen News.
Meeting of the Big Minds (MBM) April 2010
This past weekend I was fortunate enough to attend MBM. The retreat is the brainchild of Dan Lack, the visionary Founder of Pushing Beyond, out of Atlanta, GA. We were introduced by a mutual contact 8 months ago and since then sky has been the limit. In terms of attending MBM, Dan’s only qualification is quite simple – in his humble opinion you must be “one heck of a badass” (quoted word for word).
The retreat was three days (thurs-sun) and is held semi-annually in the middle of literally nowhere – Huntsville, TX. There is no internet and little time for phone calls, something most of us get anxiety just thinking about. The retreat brought together 16 rockstar entrepreneurs from around America who are each doing absolutely mind blowing things and crushing it beyond belief. If someone asked me to describe the retreat I would respond in 3 words: passion, inspiration, reality.
Hosted at a serene location, Fox Creek Ranch, the 20 room oasis has been in the Lack Family for three generations. Dan’s grandparents built the home as a sanctuary for his entire family and its extensions, which number above 60 folks. The ranch includes 300 acres of pristine wild land, rolling pastures, a large lake and (of course) cows.
When the retreat began I had absolutely no clue what to expect. I thought I would most likely acquire a few friends and relationships out of the experience and call it a day. However, to my gleeful surprise, by the end of MBM I can honestly say that in just 4 short days I gained a family of 8 extended brothers and 7 sisters who I would do anything for on this earth. Think about that for just a moment. And yes, MBM is just that darn powerful.
It’s actually very challenging to articulate my experience at MBM and what it meant to me. There were so many transformations – personally, professionally, emotionally and spiritually. In all honesty, MBM has been one of the highlights of my entire life to this point. It’s a bold statement and I truly mean every word.
The interesting thing about MBM is that there are other organizations throughout the country which try to replicate the MBM model. Guess what? I have been to many of them and know a plethora of folks who have attended all the rest. Hands down – nothing comes even remotely close to MBM. It’s simply unheard of for 18 entrepreneurs from all walks of life, living in 8 different states, working in 10 different industries, decide to come together at a secluded ranch to create real valuable, actionable and scalable connections for one another both personally and professionally.
MBM is invite only and spreads exclusively through word of mouth. With such a value add model, it’s no surprise that Dan amassed a rockstar list of folks who in a business context are driven and relentless toward success, but more importantly, were open, vulnerable and completely unselfish toward everyone else throughout the entire retreat. A few additional words to describe the journey I experienced over the 96 hour I was in Texas include: compelling, connected, eclectic, humorous, reality-altering, triumph, uplifting and zoned in.
Two activities were the main focus of the retreat:
- MBM Spotlights: Each individual was given the undivided attention of the entire group for 19 minutes. This was our opportunity to share with the group a little about who we are: what we‘re currently working on, and how the group could lend us support.
- MBM One-on-Ones: Spending quality time and having great one-on-one conversations with each person at the ranch. This was done by: sitting on the hammocks, running/walking the property, Bass and Catfish fishing, playing basketball and skeet shooting.
There were an abundance of memories I accumulated with each and every person above.
To Amber, Ben, Brian, Caroline, Dan, Erin, Garrett, Gina, Glenn, Haley, Ingrid, Keith, Lyn, Mike, Suzanne, Traci …. You are each genuinely gifted at your craft, humble in your pursuits of achieving success and astonishingly beautiful – both inside and out. Thank you for the opportunity to hear your insights, stories and viewpoints on the world. I will carry each conversation close to my heart as long as I live and look forward to seeing everyone during my nationwide tour in May.
—
Stop At Nothing. Achieve Anything.
Gary Whitehill is the Founder of The Relentless Foundation and New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), both of which reflect his entrepreneurial drive and relentless energy.
In 2009, The Relentless Foundation inspired the creation of New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), an unprecedented gathering of entrepreneurs, from innovation-minded start-ups to multi-million dollar revenue generators who are given the chance to learn, connect and leverage opportunities to help drive economic change.
The Entrepreneur Week movement continues to grow, with events planned in more US cities and around the world.
Additionally, Gary believes kids should have the ability to create the world they want, and that those who are driven to achieve must also be given tools such as entrepreneurship to learn, grow and express themselves.
Gary supports people and companies invested in driving social and economic change.
Should Entrepreneurs Hire a UX Designer
In thinking about what types of questions I get the most as a User Experience consultant, I came up with one question that is not always asked directly, but that is implied in almost every introductory meeting I have. That question is “Should I hire a UX Designer?”
If the answer to that question is yes, then the next question is usually “When in the process should I hire this skill set?” Let’s look at each question in more detail.
Hiring a UX Designer
When I talk to entrepreneurs and start ups about this topic, I usually try to get a feel for several things. First, does your product and/or service plan on interfacing with users? In my career this interfacing has most often been through a web site (web browser) or a mobile device. However, I have also been hired to work on intranets, desktop applications and database entry systems. Users are not always direct consumers of a product. They may also be employees that are interfacing with objects that enable your product/service to get to market, or maintain a product/services presence within a market. So my advice would be if your product or service relies on these types of interactions, bring in someone who knows users of all kinds, and the types of behaviors to expect from these users.
The second thing I try to get a feel for, is how familiar the entrepreneur or start up is with a user experience designer role. Meaning how well do they know what I do and how I can help. You might find yourself asking “what does a user experience designer do that I can’t do? I know people. I know how people think and act, after all, I interface with systems, websites, and mobile devices all the time, and am a pretty average user. How hard could it be to look a little closer at how I function and design for interactions based on my behavior?”
When I see someone asking these questions, I know that they haven’t worked with someone that does what I do before. So, I would answer these questions with, of course, more questions:
- Who are your users?
- What need is your product filling?
- How are the users filling this need without your product?
- How can we learn lessons about their present day behavior (if there is any) and translate that into the medium that you will be delivering your product through?
Oh, and usually, your user is nothing like you, or not as close as you think. Users surprise us at how stupid they are for not realizing how the product/service works. They should just get it. Well keep in mind you want them to pay you for your goods, not the other way around. Why not bring in someone that can help take your product and make it more clear to users? Why not cut the users’ learning curve and instead of trying to completely change their behaviors and habits, work with them or at least learn from them. Considering everything else that you have to do in your day, get funding, talk to stakeholders, plan risk assessments, network your tail off, don’t you think you should bring in an expert to bridge the user gap? It not only ensures efficiency, but also a higher quality of product.
So, when in your process should you bring in a UX designer? Well, in reality this always depends on budget. However, I think that bringing someone in as early as possible, like when you are first considering a user interfacing product, is beneficial.
They can help you to think from a user’s perspective about what the product might be and also help you talk through what features might exist. How helpful would that be in a stakeholder/board meeting? This doesn’t have to be a huge amount of effort from the UXD at first, but could be hourly consultation to steer you in the right direction. The UXD can begin doing user research at this time and can help to define a more detailed strategy for your product, again by bringing in the user point of view. So, ideally you would bring in a UXD before you are even beginning to put together your website or application. If this is not possible, then it is essential that the UXD be present during the website/application planning phase. If you want to do holistic planning, then leaving out your users is not the way to be successful.
The moral of the story is, user research is intensive, and taking the research and knowledge and designing an interaction around it is even more intensive. This is not something that can be done just by knowing websites and computers. User Experience Designers can help you to plan your product and service and create an interface that is pleasant and easy to use. This does not have to be high budget either. A great UXD is flexible and creative and will try to help as much as possible if time is available. But you must be open to someone else being the expert when it comes to user/customer behavior.
This doesn’t mean you should give up all control, but it does mean that there are people out there that can teach you a thing or two about who you’re trying to reach and who can help make your product/service better. Why not let them help?
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About the Blogger: Lis is the Founder of Hubert Experience Design, a botique user experience firm based in NYC. Her firm has worked with a wide range of organizations, from Fortune 500 to start-up. Hubert Experience Design takes pride in making websites better and easier to use
Should an Entrepreneur Share Their Idea?
Countless entrepreneurs are afraid to share their idea for a new product or service out of fear someone is going to steal it out from under them. This fear is not completely unfounded, but for most fledgling entrepreneurs, the fear is more of a roadblock than a protector.
There are millions of life changing successful business ideas in the minds of entrepreneurs all around the globe that never get to market because they are never shared and developed out of fear of being stolen. Like many things in life, ideas have a limited shelf life and timing is often everything.
As an entrepreneur, I am sure you have experienced this first hand. You have a great idea, but you do not act upon it, and a year or two later you see someone else has brought the same or similar product or service to market. If you are like most entrepreneurs, over the years you have or will have many ideas, but to make them successful you must either have the resources and skills to implement them or acquire the skills to bring it to market.
All ideas, no matter how good must be fleshed out and researched and unfortunately sometimes the only way to do this is to tell people about your concept. The fear that someone will steal the concept and create the business is a remote possibility at best. Ask any successful entrepreneur how much hard work, thought and planning goes into a successful business and they will tell you that an idea is just the starting point, there are countless hours of planning, research and most importantly execution which must take place to transform your idea from a cool thought into a successful business.
Does this mean you want to just freely tell everyone about your idea? Absolutely not, you should be selective with who you tell and how much detail you give them. Obviously if you are friends with the founders of YouTube, you do not want to tell them about a technology you are working on which will leap frog their application and leave them in the dust. But talking to your next door neighbor who is a successful IT consultant is a different story.
There are millions of life changing successful business ideas in the minds entrepreneurs all around the globe that never get to market because they are never shared and developed out of fear of being stolen.
So how do you start moving forward without losing the idea to someone else?
- Be Selective – about who you speak to and how much detail you give, make sure you know a little about the person with whom you are speaking. What is their industry? How long have you known them? Are they trustworthy? Most importantly, ask yourself why are you sharing information with them? What is the benefit to you? How can they help you further your idea and mission?
- Share Sparingly– only share what is needed to illicit the feedback or information you need.
- Protect Yourself- consider asking them to sign a Non-Disclosure/Non-Compete/Confidentiality Agreement which can spell out what the other party can or cannot do with the information you share with them. Standard versions of these forms are available on sites such as LegalZoom.
There are millions of ideas that are never implemented, yet there are ideas that have become million dollar businesses because the entrepreneur took a calculated and careful approach to sharing the idea and getting it out there. Collaborate and share strategically so you too can build your ideas into a viable business. Strategically sharing an idea is one of the cornerstones of creating connections where there once was none. I know many an entrepreneur who in the process of sharing their idea found a willing connector who was more than willing to make in introduction or two to help give some legs to the entrepreneurs ideas. Strategically sharing ideas is a cornerstone in preparing yourself and your business to be “connection ready.”
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About the Blogger:
Will Corrente is the well known connection optimizer and Founding Director of Corrente Consulting International Inc. (CCI). For over 20 years, Will has been creating process based solutions for small businesses and entrepreneurs to be connection ready and poised to reach the next level. Will is a regular featured columnist for New York Entrepreneur Week and the Bergen News, and blogs here. Subscribe to his free newsletter “Connection Ready” to receive the latest tips on how to connection optimize your business.
Should an Entrepreneur Share Their Idea?
Countless entrepreneurs are afraid to share their idea for a new product or service out of fear someone is going to steal it out from under them. This fear is not completely unfounded, but for most fledgling entrepreneurs, the fear is more of a roadblock than a protector.
There are millions of life changing successful business ideas in the minds of entrepreneurs all around the globe that never get to market because they are never shared and developed out of fear of being stolen. Like many things in life, ideas have a limited shelf life and timing is often everything.
As an entrepreneur, I am sure you have experienced this first hand. You have a great idea, but you do not act upon it, and a year or two later you see someone else has brought the same or similar product or service to market. If you are like most entrepreneurs, over the years you have or will have many ideas, but to make them successful you must either have the resources and skills to implement them or acquire the skills to bring it to market.
All ideas, no matter how good must be fleshed out and researched and unfortunately sometimes the only way to do this is to tell people about your concept. The fear that someone will steal the concept and create the business is a remote possibility at best. Ask any successful entrepreneur how much hard work, thought and planning goes into a successful business and they will tell you that an idea is just the starting point, there are countless hours of planning, research and most importantly execution which must take place to transform your idea from a cool thought into a successful business.
Does this mean you want to just freely tell everyone about your idea? Absolutely not, you should be selective with who you tell and how much detail you give them. Obviously if you are friends with the founders of YouTube, you do not want to tell them about a technology you are working on which will leap frog their application and leave them in the dust. But talking to your next door neighbor who is a successful IT consultant is a different story.
There are millions of life changing successful business ideas in the minds entrepreneurs all around the globe that never get to market because they are never shared and developed out of fear of being stolen.
So how do you start moving forward without losing the idea to someone else?
- Be Selective – about who you speak to and how much detail you give, make sure you know a little about the person with whom you are speaking. What is their industry? How long have you known them? Are they trustworthy? Most importantly, ask yourself why are you sharing information with them? What is the benefit to you? How can they help you further your idea and mission?
- Share Sparingly– only share what is needed to illicit the feedback or information you need.
- Protect Yourself- consider asking them to sign a Non-Disclosure/Non-Compete/Confidentiality Agreement which can spell out what the other party can or cannot do with the information you share with them. Standard versions of these forms are available on sites such as LegalZoom.
There are millions of ideas that are never implemented, yet there are ideas that have become million dollar businesses because the entrepreneur took a calculated and careful approach to sharing the idea and getting it out there. Collaborate and share strategically so you too can build your ideas into a viable business. Strategically sharing an idea is one of the cornerstones of creating connections where there once was none. I know many an entrepreneur who in the process of sharing their idea found a willing connector who was more than willing to make in introduction or two to help give some legs to the entrepreneurs ideas. Strategically sharing ideas is a cornerstone in preparing yourself and your business to be “connection ready.”
—-
About the Blogger:
Will Corrente is the well known connection optimizer and Founding Director of Corrente Consulting International Inc. (CCI). For over 20 years, Will has been creating process based solutions for small businesses and entrepreneurs to be connection ready and poised to reach the next level. Will is a regular featured columnist for New York Entrepreneur Week and the Bergen News, and blogs here. Subscribe to his free newsletter “Connection Ready” to receive the latest tips on how to connection optimize your business.
Seven Steps to Attracting Your Billionaire Angel Investor
The first time I met John I was really surprised. He was introduced to me from an investor in my new company at the time and John was an old friend of his. What surprised me about John how human he was. He was in his late sixties and somewhat stubborn and opinionated. But not it an arrogant way.
John’s wealth started with his grandfather’s company. The family ran and grew it into a conglomerate that was eventually sold. John now managed the family’s assets of over a billion dollars. I was really nervous when I pitched him, knowing what he could mean to my company. But after listening to me for a few minutes and asking a few questions, John politely rejected my request to invest.
I forgot about John until about a year later when we were at the next level with our business. I knew John was not interested in us but I was able to set up a meeting to get his advice on how to get the next round of financing in, which we were in desperate need of.
At lunch John asked me a bunch of questions and I gave him updates. And while I had answered most of his questions hundreds of times before to other investor leads, at lunch I was just being honest as I knew he was not interested. Polished sales pitch was off and guard was down. I just wanted his advice.
After desert, John asked me how much I was looking for. “Quarter of a million” was my answer. He said, “Why don’t you walk back with me to my office and I’ll write you a check.”
I said, “Excuse me??!!”, to which he smiled and said, “Let’s go.” And in that moment my company took a giant leap forward.
It was far more than the money John invested, it was how involved he became in our business that made him so amazing for us. Instant credibility was gained when people learned he was involved in the business. In fact often our staff would say, “Stefan, John’s on the phone… again!”
And John would call to tell me things like, “Stefan, I just spoke with [so-and-so]. He/she is a $xxx million-dollar guy and they told me to tell you to call them.”
A week later he would check to see if I had spoken with his referral. The times I told John the person did not return my call, he would curse and hang up before I could even finish my sentence.
Ten minutes later the phone was ringing with that person on the line.
And that is an angel investor. In fact, a dream angel.
Angels, if you’re not familiar with the term, are investors that do far more than give you money. They roll up their sleeves and help build the company. The love the excitement and energy the business is generating and they want to be a part of it.
So how do you find one for yourself?
Seven Steps for Finding Your Billionaire Angel Investor:
- Refine your vision. Make it “billionaire”-like in scale. Make sure it fits the mindset of someone accustomed to thinking really big and powerfully. This doesn’t necessarily mean the size of the business. Make it real and realistic, but your (authentic) passion and intensity of it must be huge.
- Pick your Angel. Identify them by name. Find out as much as you can about them. What they like and have they funded before. Find out their key people: their spouse, personal assistant, administrator, etc.
- Use the back door. Often times they are not accessible directly. Find out how to get in front of a key contact of theirs. That should not be nearly as difficult. Start to build a relationship with that person.
- Get your ducks in a row. The basics like finances, business plan, executive summary, sales pitch, etc. Make sure you know your industry and what is going on. Feel very comfortable in what you know and what you don’t know.
- Practice on your D-list first. Then C-list, then B-list before going to your billionaire contact (i.e. “A-list”.) Make your mistakes and iron out the kinks on those you are OK with messing up on. And you WILL mess up!
- Be comfortable in your skin. Passionate about where you are taking the company… and most importantly, be real.
- Ask for their advice. These guys are usually hit up all the time. To help them relax and really “be” with you, let them know you (authentically) would like their advice on what to do next for your business.
These steps do not ensure you will nail it every time, but do know what makes you 1,100% more attractive to someone who is constantly approached for money, is just being real with them. Being relaxed and yourself.
So go to it and perhaps you will walk home with someone just like John!
Action Steps for the Week:
- Looking for funding in your business? Who is your dream investor? What do you know about him/her? Research that person until you feel you really “know” your billionaire angel investor.
- Make sure your business is something that would excite them. How you will know this is a) how excite are you about it and b) their interest level in your industry.
Do you have a way to get in front of them? If not, who do you know who knows an inner-circle person? Still drawing a blank? Then who do you know who knows someone who might know an inner-circle person? Don’t give up and more-than-likely you’ll be in front of your potential angel sooner than you think.
——-
About the Blogger: Stefan Doering is the creator of BEST Coaches’ groundbreaking 90-day “UnReasonable” program which brings to the table his almost 30 years of hard-earned business savvy and 4-plus decades of pure heart.
Stefan started his first company at the age of 17. His later companies included the leaders of major companies and institutions as well as multi-millionaires and billionaires as investors, board members and mentors, and had household names among their clients.
Sales Magic is Bogus: Understanding the 80/20 Rule & Trigger Points (Part 2)
In their profession, top sellers obsess over one critical rule: What is the 20% I do which makes 80% of the difference in the acquisition and retention of my customer?
This is not rocket science folks- just simple mathematics.
However, it does require a highly skilled salesperson to recognize the 20% which does in fact make 80% of the difference. So then, how do you recognize this 20% sooner rather then later? Well, to be truthful, it can be complicated in certain industries, but overall it boils down to a few things:
- Time – The longer you spend understanding your customer, both in person and through your own independent research, the more successful you will be in every stage of the sales process.
- Energy – It is contagious. If you’re high energy, your customer will be as well. High energy = high engagement, high engagement = more likely sale. High energy can easily tip the odds of a sale in your favor
- Persistence – On average, it takes 5 “no’s” to get a “yes.” Don’t simply take the first “no” as the customers only answer in the sales process and leave (as 99% of sales people do). Instead, expect and embrace the “no,” because the sooner you get all 5 out of the way, the sooner you’re going to make the sale.
- Enthusiasm – Believe in yourself, your product and the process by which you make the sale. If you don’t, you’re mediocre at best at the sales profession.
Leveraging each of the above points to learn about your target consumer is a crucial first step in understanding their purchasing triggers in both short and long-term contexts.
Next, take what you’ve learned from your customer (constructive feedback) and immerse yourself in their purchasing mentality. Devote a considerable amount of time and energy toward understanding every one of their tastes/habits/likes/dislikes. This is not meant to be an overnight exercise- the more time you spend reflecting, the easier it will be for you to identify with your customer.
Once a salesperson understands their target consumers purchasing mentality, they can then begin the process of honing their presentation into a few concise, actionable and repeatable steps. Over time, this makes all the difference in the world between selling just the industry average and selling in excess of 200% more then the next closest sales representative.
——Stop At Nothing. Achieve Anything.
Gary Whitehill is the Founder of The Relentless Foundation and New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), both of which reflect his entrepreneurial drive and relentless energy.
In 2009, The Relentless Foundation inspired the creation of New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), an unprecedented gathering of entrepreneurs, from innovation-minded start-ups to multi-million dollar revenue generators who are given the chance to learn, connect and leverage opportunities to help drive economic change.
The Entrepreneur Week movement continues to grow, with events planned in more US cities and around the world.
Additionally, Gary believes kids should have the ability to create the world they want, and that those who are driven to achieve must also be given tools such as entrepreneurship to learn, grow and express themselves.
Gary supports people and companies invested in driving social and economic change.
Sales is not Magic: Understanding the Discipline of a Sales Connoisseur – Part 1
I’ve seen a lot of posts lately about sales, with many questions revolving around how to make the perfect sales pitch in either a B2C or B2B context. Based on my prior experience, I felt it’d be relevant to now throw my two cents into the bucket with a series of posts on the topic.
Background
Most people don’t know I worked as a high-end salon shoe salesman for 1.5yrs at Nordstrom earlier this decade before moving to NYC. Starting out, I was way behind the average salesperson in terms of their learning curve:
- I had never sold anything in my life
- I knew nothing about salon shoes (Weitzman, Ferragamo, Paul Green, etc)
- When I was hired, I actually had to ask my mother “what is a salon shoe?”
- I had no idea salon shoe salesman were the most aggressive pool of sharks there could be in any sales context-period
In spite of those shortcomings, I ended up doing very well over the course of my tenure at the company- I sold more than $625K in shoes within that short span- unprecedented as a first year salesman at the company. By the way, this was as a 20 year old college student, taking an 18 credit course load, and holding a 3.85 GPA in 3 separate majors.
Why is Selling So Hard?
For most, selling a product or service in either a B2C or B2B context is just too tough of a job. There’s a lengthy sales process, numerous challenges in getting to a decision maker, long hours, etc. As a result, a cultish following has ensued around those who claim to have the keys/tricks/etc for how to sell.
Many believe top sellers (regardless of vertical) hold some sort of magical black book, and that it’s this which makes their numbers skyrocket 60%-200% above their next closest counterpart. Guess what?
Just like anything else in sales- it’s simply a numbers game. But what many do in fact fail to realize is the top sellers encompass two vital qualities which ultimately lead to their profound successes:
- They are confident and unequivocally believe in themselves and their process
- They are optimization freaks
It’s crucial to understand, in the world of a top salesperson- every single movement, word, phrase, close toward the sale and follow-up is optimally scripted for a sale (both in the long and short-term). Confidence in themselves, in their process, and in understanding what must be optimized are the crucial levers which determine the viability and scalability of a salesperson’s rolodex.
——
Stop At Nothing. Achieve Anything.
Gary Whitehill is the Founder of The Relentless Foundation and New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), both of which reflect his entrepreneurial drive and relentless energy.
In 2009, The Relentless Foundation inspired the creation of New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), an unprecedented gathering of entrepreneurs, from innovation-minded start-ups to multi-million dollar revenue generators who are given the chance to learn, connect and leverage opportunities to help drive economic change.
The Entrepreneur Week movement continues to grow, with events planned in more US cities and around the world.
Additionally, Gary believes kids should have the ability to create the world they want, and that those who are driven to achieve must also be given tools such as entrepreneurship to learn, grow and express themselves.
Gary supports people and companies invested in driving social and economic change.
Sales is Not Magic: Identifying Sales Triggers
Friends, Family and clients still ask on occasion “how did you do it – how did you manage to sell over $500K in shoes within 14 months?”
As mentioned in previous posts, the supposed “secret” to selling is actually not a secret at all. Based on my experience, there are three skills you must embrace to become a top-tier sales Jedi in today’s hypercompetitive marketplace:
1) Understand selling is just a numbers game
One day you’ll sell $11K in three hours of work and the next you’ll struggle to sell $1K over the span of an entire day. But in the aggregate, remaining steadfastly focused on your goals will pay off, with a gradual climb toward long-term success.
2) Understand the 80/20 rule
As mentioned in post #2 of this series, memorize the 20% that makes 80% of the difference until it’s instinctive. This is imperative; your long-term viability as a sales professional depends on it.
3) Develop the ability to quickly identify, hone and leverage the triggers of your target consumer
Of the above three skills, point #3 will catapult you the furthest and fastest. Triggers become significantly more apparent as the frequency of sales presentations increase.
Nordstrom is the ideal environment for scaling sales trigger understanding because a sales rep executes roughly 20 presentations/day during the week and more than 40/day on the weekend. Retail is a fast-paced and transaction-oriented environment. Therefore, within a very short amount of time you’re blessed with the benefit of executing hundreds transactions and obtaining large swaths of customer feedback. These are crucial in facilitating your understanding of the wants, needs and ultimately the triggers of your target consumer.
The downside of this type of sales environment is the very “short leash” you’re given. If you don’t produce the boot will arrive on the horizon very fast. You are expected to ramp up sales significantly faster than in other sales contexts.
For instance, on the other side of the pendulum reside enterprise sales. In the beginning, these are long, drawn out and sporadic transactions (2 – 6 month sales cycle). Every opportunity to identify and hone sales triggers must be cherished. In this environment, you are given a longer lead time to “figure it out,” but even then your “leash” is only as long as the market allows – which isn’t more than four months.
——
Stop At Nothing. Achieve Anything.
Gary Whitehill is the Founder of The Relentless Foundation and New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), both of which reflect his entrepreneurial drive and relentless energy.
In 2009, The Relentless Foundation inspired the creation of New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), an unprecedented gathering of entrepreneurs, from innovation-minded start-ups to multi-million dollar revenue generators who are given the chance to learn, connect and leverage opportunities to help drive economic change.
The Entrepreneur Week movement continues to grow, with events planned in more US cities and around the world.
Additionally, Gary believes kids should have the ability to create the world they want, and that those who are driven to achieve must also be given tools such as entrepreneurship to learn, grow and express themselves.
Gary supports people and companies invested in driving social and economic change.
Renewable Energy vs. Using Less Energy
Many people assume that when you are building green you need to have solar panels, which are very expensive, even after state and federal rebates. While it’s true that renewable energy technology is very innovative and green, I think it’s the wrong angle to attack the problem from. We should be focusing on making buildings more efficient so that they use less energy rather then figuring out an alternative way to meet their current energy needs.
A concept that is becoming ever more popular these days is the Passive House. These structures are so incredibly efficient that they don’t need any artificial heating or cooling. First off, they have a much higher level of insulation than standard construction. Typical walls will have an R-Value (the level of resistance to heat transfer) of 19, passive houses can have insulation up to R-50, and they tend to be better sealed as well so that less air leaks in or out. That’s great but then you have the issue of getting stale air out and fresh air in, and this is where these structures are really amazing. They use a technology called a Heat Recovery Ventilator. Essentially you have air inside that is at a standard room temperature. In cold months, the HRV pulls that stale air out and brings in fresh cold air from the outside, the two streams of air pass by each other, and then heat from the inside air is efficiently and almost completely transferred to the incoming air. The result is a building so efficient that body heat and even light bulbs can affect and regulate the temperature inside. This type of structure requires no alternative forms of energy and probably uses less energy then a single room of a typical house.
The assumed need for alternative energy is one of the reasons that people think green building has to cost more, while the passive house is an extreme case, it’s clear that if you look at the problem from the otherside, there are very smart ways to be more green.
Quickly Connect With NYC’s Thriving Startup Community
Groups/Events:
Garysguide.org
NY Tech Meetup
NextNY
New York Entrepreneur Week
Girls in Tech New York
Bootup IO
Ultra Light Startups
Hackers and Founders
Brooklyn+30
Augmented Reality New York
Endeavor
Hatchery
Startup One Stop
Founders Institute New York
Entrepreneurs Roundtable
New York PHP
MIT Enterprise Forum of NY
Web2NewYork
iBreakfast
Mobile Monday New York
Young Women Social Entrepreneurs
Lean Startup Meetup New York
Early-stage VCs:
NYC SeedStart from NYCSeed
Union Square Ventures
Genacast
First Round Capital
Polaris Venture Partners
Spark Capital
Contour Ventures
Betaworks
Metamorphic Ventures
Founders Collective
NYC Investment Fund
DreamIt Ventures
SoftBank Capital
RRE Ventures
DFJ Gotham
Greenhill SAVP
General Catalyst
Angels/Angel Groups:
New York Angels
Keiretsu Forum New York
Esther Dyson
Scott Kurnit
Office Space for Small Companies / Co-working:
Hive at 55
DogPatch Labs
New Work City
Rose Tech Ventures
Sunshine suites
Tech Space
Common Spaces
NYU/Poly Incubator
Services:
Freelancers Union
——
About the Blogger: Murat Aktihanoglu is the founder/CEO of Centrl, a location based social network.
He is also the organizer of Entrepreneurs Roundtable events in NYC and the co-author of the upcoming LBS/Mobile book from Manning.
Quickly Connect With NYC’s Thriving Startup Community
Groups/Events:
Garysguide.org
NY Tech Meetup
NextNY
New York Entrepreneur Week
Girls in Tech New York
Bootup IO
Ultra Light Startups
Hackers and Founders
Brooklyn+30
Augmented Reality New York
Endeavor
Hatchery
Startup One Stop
Founders Institute New York
Entrepreneurs Roundtable
New York PHP
MIT Enterprise Forum of NY
Web2NewYork
iBreakfast
Mobile Monday New York
Young Women Social Entrepreneurs
Lean Startup Meetup New York
Early-stage VCs:
NYC SeedStart from NYCSeed
Union Square Ventures
Genacast
First Round Capital
Polaris Venture Partners
Spark Capital
Contour Ventures
Betaworks
Metamorphic Ventures
Founders Collective
NYC Investment Fund
DreamIt Ventures
SoftBank Capital
RRE Ventures
DFJ Gotham
Greenhill SAVP
General Catalyst
Angels/Angel Groups:
New York Angels
Keiretsu Forum New York
Esther Dyson
Scott Kurnit
Office Space for Small Companies / Co-working:
Hive at 55
DogPatch Labs
New Work City
Rose Tech Ventures
Sunshine suites
Tech Space
Common Spaces
NYU/Poly Incubator
Services:
Freelancers Union
——
About the Blogger: Murat Aktihanoglu is the founder/CEO of Centrl, a location based social network.
He is also the organizer of Entrepreneurs Roundtable events in NYC and the co-author of the upcoming LBS/Mobile book from Manning.
Perception is Reality for Entrepreneurs
Recently, I saw a post on twitter by Gary Whitehill, founder of New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), “One of the hardest things to understand in life is: You’re not what you are, but what you’re perceived to be.” In this day and age of social media, this is one of the most important things for people to remember. First impressions last a lifetime and in today’s day and age, our first impression is made with the information that people see about us online.
Let’s be honest, when we connect with a person at a meeting or are introduced through a mutual contact, the first thing we do is go to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to learn more about this person. If the individual has no information available or a spotty resume on these sites, part of the excitement of the initial introduction is lost immediately. The person will now have to overcome this void in order to make a great first impression.
In today’s age of the internet, you are your own brand and how you market and sell that brand will make you a success. You need to take an active role in building that brand so that when you do meet someone you are prepared and give off a great first impression. Some of the ways this can be accomplished are:
• Start a blog about your industry – Portray yourself as knowledgeable and people will listen to you and ask for your advice. This will give you a lot of credibility.
• Learn the industry – Make sure you know the names of the key companies and players in the industry. You don’t want to look dumbfounded when these individuals’ names are mentioned.
• Network – Build up a network of contacts in your field and related fields so that you can leverage their knowledge. Attend industry events and roundtables so that you can be more visible and be an active participant so that people know who you are.
• Learn how to make a great first impression – Make sure you know how to attract someone’s attention when you meet them. People have short attention spans so make sure you know how to get engage them from the first moment. You only have one chance at a first impression!
This is an especially important lesson for entrepreneurs. Very often entrepreneurs are young and have no track record. The only information people have about you is what they can find online. When you are going out to raise capital or to sell your product, people want to know who you are, what you stand for and what kind of person you are. You need to use all the tools available to you to create a certain perception of yourself in the eyes of others. This perception can often be the difference between getting the funding you need or the potential investors having no faith in you.
You are the most important thing that you are selling – make sure you are perceived that way.
—–
About the Blogger:
Aron Schoenfeld, is the co-founder of DreamArtists Studios, a boutique music production company specializing in music for television, commercials and film. Aron also serves on the Board of Advisors for New York Entrepreneur Week and the Bergen Newspaper Group. For more information about Aron, please visit his website at www.aronschoenfeld.com
Panel Preview- Roadmap for the Tech/Mobile/Telecom/Media: Top Entrepreneurs Reflect
On Tuesday, I will be part of the NYEW panel “A Roadmap for the Tech/Mobile/Telecom/Media Sectors: Top Entrepreneurs Reflect.”
It is a perfect topic and promises to generate a lively discussion. I have lots of Silicon Valley tech start-up experience and some Fortune 50 Telecom experience – but for reasons that will become obvious I will focus on mobile. Mobile changes everything and we are just beginning to realize it. What interests me most is how profoundly mobile phones are changing the way we work.
I started cc:Sync[www.ccSync.com] to capitalize on the huge opportunity to provide services to an increasingly mobile workforce. My co-founder, Don Price, and I met at Avaya where he was a CTO and I ran the On-Demand Group. At Avaya, we responded to the explosion of mobile phone use with “mobile integration” initiatives. But these missed the point. Integrating mobile phones into the PBX doesn’t help mobile executives: mobile phones have rendered the PBX irrelevant. We no longer take our calls through corporate trunks. We rarely check our corporate voice mail. Increasingly we don’t even reliably check our corporate email.
We now use mobile phones for all our calls. And, even if our company is paying the bill (hell, even if they bought the phone) we consider it ours. We use it, manage it, download the apps we want and turn it off when we like. We have incredible control over how, when and to whom we connect and special new powers – like texting.
There is something magical about text messaging. We can now find and communicate with people instantly, privately and without really interrupting them. No wonder we text more than we call. We text 2.5B times a day. Texting has even finally made its way to the corner office with some 80% of executives using text for work. But there is a lot more text can do for business.
Our initial offering, cc:Sync Text Groups, uses SMS to let a group of coworkers have a real-time text conversation. Everyone gets every message and anyone can send a message. It works with the native text application on any phone, through any carrier, anywhere in the world – no download required. It supports mobile email for Blackberry users. It is private and secure: only group members can get the messages and every message is authenticated. The groups are managed with the cc:Sync web application which also offers access to logged conversations.
cc:Sync is one of a new generation of services which capitalize on emerging “real-time” mobile and web technologies. It’s a very good time to start a business. Come to our panel and we can talk more about it.
—-
About the Blogger:
Chris is the Founder and CEO of cc:Sync, a service that provides groups of mobile and non-mobile coworkers real-time short messaging that is instant, private and continuous – plus one-click conference calling . Prior to cc:Sync, Chris was the EVP of Business Development at LiveOps, Inc. the leading provider of virtual and distributed call center services. There he was responsible for corporate strategy, indirect sales channels, and overall expansion. Chris joined LiveOps from Avaya where he was Vice President of the Avaya On Demand Business Unit. Chris was also President and CEO of Driveway Corporation, a leading provider of cloud storage. At Driveway, Chris built a business that served 8 million individual users and delivered hosted services that were integrated into many of the leading web sites including microsoft.com, macafee.com, lycos.com, and schwab.com. He also held senior positions at Fabrik Communications, Inc., and Farallon Computing, Inc.
Chris received his B.S. Degree in Engineering with an emphasis in Control Systems from the University of California, Davis.
Panel Preview- Roadmap for the Tech/Mobile/Telecom/Media: Top Entrepreneurs Reflect
On Tuesday, I will be part of the NYEW panel “A Roadmap for the Tech/Mobile/Telecom/Media Sectors: Top Entrepreneurs Reflect.”
It is a perfect topic and promises to generate a lively discussion. I have lots of Silicon Valley tech start-up experience and some Fortune 50 Telecom experience – but for reasons that will become obvious I will focus on mobile. Mobile changes everything and we are just beginning to realize it. What interests me most is how profoundly mobile phones are changing the way we work.
I started cc:Sync[www.ccSync.com] to capitalize on the huge opportunity to provide services to an increasingly mobile workforce. My co-founder, Don Price, and I met at Avaya where he was a CTO and I ran the On-Demand Group. At Avaya, we responded to the explosion of mobile phone use with “mobile integration” initiatives. But these missed the point. Integrating mobile phones into the PBX doesn’t help mobile executives: mobile phones have rendered the PBX irrelevant. We no longer take our calls through corporate trunks. We rarely check our corporate voice mail. Increasingly we don’t even reliably check our corporate email.
We now use mobile phones for all our calls. And, even if our company is paying the bill (hell, even if they bought the phone) we consider it ours. We use it, manage it, download the apps we want and turn it off when we like. We have incredible control over how, when and to whom we connect and special new powers – like texting.
There is something magical about text messaging. We can now find and communicate with people instantly, privately and without really interrupting them. No wonder we text more than we call. We text 2.5B times a day. Texting has even finally made its way to the corner office with some 80% of executives using text for work. But there is a lot more text can do for business.
Our initial offering, cc:Sync Text Groups, uses SMS to let a group of coworkers have a real-time text conversation. Everyone gets every message and anyone can send a message. It works with the native text application on any phone, through any carrier, anywhere in the world – no download required. It supports mobile email for Blackberry users. It is private and secure: only group members can get the messages and every message is authenticated. The groups are managed with the cc:Sync web application which also offers access to logged conversations.
cc:Sync is one of a new generation of services which capitalize on emerging “real-time” mobile and web technologies. It’s a very good time to start a business. Come to our panel and we can talk more about it.
—-
About the Blogger:
Chris is the Founder and CEO of cc:Sync, a service that provides groups of mobile and non-mobile coworkers real-time short messaging that is instant, private and continuous – plus one-click conference calling . Prior to cc:Sync, Chris was the EVP of Business Development at LiveOps, Inc. the leading provider of virtual and distributed call center services. There he was responsible for corporate strategy, indirect sales channels, and overall expansion. Chris joined LiveOps from Avaya where he was Vice President of the Avaya On Demand Business Unit. Chris was also President and CEO of Driveway Corporation, a leading provider of cloud storage. At Driveway, Chris built a business that served 8 million individual users and delivered hosted services that were integrated into many of the leading web sites including microsoft.com, macafee.com, lycos.com, and schwab.com. He also held senior positions at Fabrik Communications, Inc., and Farallon Computing, Inc.
Chris received his B.S. Degree in Engineering with an emphasis in Control Systems from the University of California, Davis.
New York Entrepreneur Week’s Top 10 Tips to Starting a Business in This Economy
For the fearful, our current economic environment is an obstacle, for the bold, it is an opportunity.
What do companies like GE, HP, Microsoft, CNN, Hyatt and Burger King have in common? They were all started in economic downturns by entrepreneurs whose passion, commitment, and ability to execute far out-shadowed the temporary economic obstacles.
New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW) scheduled November 16th to the 20th 2009 celebrates the opportunities to be found in this economy. Through a series of panels, keynotes and networking sessions, entrepreneurs will learn from over 120 speakers from 18 states and 3 continents the resources available to them and how to launch, grow, and manage a successful business venture.
For those bold entrepreneurs, here are 10 Tips to Starting a Business in This Economy based on panel discussions scheduled at NYEW:
1) Your Idea Must be Fresh and Innovative
Many entrepreneurs have made a fortune on a simple twist or new application on an existing product or service. Having a great idea is the first critical step of success.
(Panel Discussion: The Next Big Thing: Hot Entrepreneur Opportunities for Today and Tomorrow)
2) Your Idea Must Compel the Customer to Spend
Customers are more cautious than ever with their purchasing dollar, knowing what makes your product or service irresistible is the key to success in a down economy.
(Panel Discussion: Sales for Non-Salespeople: Understanding the Purchasing Triggers of Your Target Market)
3) You Must Have an Executable Plan with Clear Objectives
Writing a plan, doing research, and having a well thought out strategy along with realistic projections for revenues and expenses are crucial in an economy where every dollar counts.
(Panel Discussion: You Have Passion- Now You Need Structure: Why It’s a Must to Set 30/60/90 Day Goals)
4) You Must Be a Watch Dog on Costs and Expenses:
With access to capital scarce in a slow economy; it is more important than ever to cut costs to the bone and make every dollar of revenue count.
(Panel Discussion: You Want to be an Entrepreneur? The Reality of Being a Full-Fledged Bootstrapper)
5) You Must Be Prepared to Sell:
Great sales people are made, not born. You must learn and apply the essential skills of selling your product or service to succeed and prosper.
(Panel Discussion: Sales For Non-Salespeople: Critical Tips Every Executive Must Know)
6) Put Your Customer Ahead of Yourself:
Great entrepreneurs know that success is all about serving the customer. Keep your focus on meeting and exceeding the customer’s needs, and you will not only stand out from the competition, but your customer will reward you for it.
(Panel Discussion: Prospecting, Selling and Turning Customers into Advocates for Your Business)
7) Don’t Go It Alone; Ask For Help:
People love to help others, you just need to ask them! The key to success in any economy is to seek the advice and counsel of experienced business persons in your niche or industry.
(Panel Discussion: Success is in the Company You Keep: Finding, Selecting and Getting Mentors)
Use Leverage to Grow:
Successful entrepreneurs know that big success comes from leveraging their contacts, experiences, relationships and finances. Learning this critical skill is essential in a struggling economy.
(Panel Discussion: LEVERAGE! Successful Strategies for Getting Big Time Resources with Very Little Capital)
9) Harness Technology and Social Media:
Pencil and paper entrepreneurship is dead, make sure you are familiar with the latest technology and social media platforms to speed your operational efficiencies, and drive marketing and sales results.
(Panel Discussion: Emerging Social Media Trends: What You Must Know and How to Leverage It)
10) Never Give Up, Never Surrender:
Your ability to motivate yourself and your team is paramount in a tough economy. You must set the course, share the vision and kick it up a notch if you expect to survive and thrive in this economy.
(Panel Discussion: Entrepreneurial Leadership: It’s Not Always Easy Being the CEO)
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About the Blogger:
Will Corrente is the President of Corrente Consulting International Inc., a small business and entrepreneur consulting firm based out of West Palm Beach, Florida.
Why Net Neutrality Will Never Happen/The Missed Entrepreneurial Opportunity- Part 1
As a precursor to this post, I just want to let it be known that if you aren’t aware of ISP’s, copyright infringement, torrents, or the FCC, then you probably won’t care too much. On the other hand, if you’re one the 10mm people that do (myself included), who actively use the Internet and care about much of the “underground” aspects of it, then read on.
To catch the unenlightened up to date, after much speculation and debate which appeared on various tech blogs, it was shown that the FCC was planning on proposing a new set of Internet legislation dubbed “Net Neutrality”. Now I know what some of you must be asking yourselves; “isn’t the Internet already a neutral place?” Though the file sharing trends and trials are being much more publicized because of the increased tension between users, ISP’s, and the various companies such as Sony or Apple (not to mention the recent Pirate Bay mockery that was made in regards to the proposed “legalized buyout” of it’s trademark and domain) as of late, relatively few people actually know the laws that govern both sides of the argument.
In a nutshell it comes down to this: People “steal” heavily online whether it is a song or the new Dan Brown book. The companies that are allegedly losing sales want their money back… almost 10,000x fold. If you get caught you will usually be charged on just a few songs, about 13 to 26 at this point (we all know that it would be outrageous to have to pay about $130,000 dollars for the thousand songs you ACTUALLY downloaded illegally). The odds are stacked 100% against you; they have the better lawyers, a few high profile artists, and to top it off the jury happens to be people who don’t know or care about anything that has to do with downloading music online. What do you get? Screwed is the most simplistic term.
If you actually have sympathy for this grave plight that has threatened your daily Internet activity, here are some comforting facts. First, the odds of actually getting sued and having a lawsuit that goes to court (usually a $7,000 settlement out of court has occurred in many of the cease and desist incidents over the last decade) is less likely then being abducted by Aliens. It can happen, but more then likely not. Second, the ISP’s are more or less on the user side in terms of privacy. Third, there is a growing political movement that has swept the globe since the summer (all hail the Pirate Party).
With that in mind, there can be a light at the end of this bleak tunnel. A common ground can be reached, if BOTH sides are willing to compromise. Playing Devil’s advocate- let’s take the side of the record labels. Yes, intellectual property is being stolen. Yes, they are technically losing sales by this. Yes, that little FBI copyright notice that pops up before every movie you watch on DVD is actually real and enforced. Yes, there needs to be a change. There are thousands of artists and television shows/movies are being stolen everyday. As a result, the people who should get paid (artists or writers/talent of these shows, as well as production crews) don’t get their comeuppance. At the same time, we saw this just a couple of years ago when the WGA created a media frenzy over their unfair cut from internet download sales of their shows from sources such as itunes. It’s bad enough that they potentially lose royalties when their material is stolen, but on the other hand THEY don’t even get sympathy from the big corporations.
In another recent attention grabbing article I read how Sony Records in Mexico ended up breaking massive copyright laws with an ex artist on their label who then was able to seize 10,000 unauthorized CD’s. You heard me, the people bent on getting their money back still happen to be the faceless, titan, hypocrites. They can do what they want …….unless they get called on it, and yet will still win in the end. We get caught and all of a sudden it’s an automatic game over.
Now looking from the viewpoint of the infringers, it’s pretty obvious what the pros are: free content that is more then likely unfairly priced in this economy coupled with quick access to what you want, when you want it. In theory ,depending on what kind of method you’re using, you can gain access to thousands of movies and download them almost instantly onto your computer. You can finally say goodbye to DVD’s and Blu-ray discs, and file sizes are smaller and the same quality as the ones offered legally. Truth be told- this needs to be the future.
In a society that demands instant access to almost anything, it’s actually harmful to try and stop various aspects of these practices. Here’s a perfect example. A few years ago I LEGALLY bought a compilation of Marvel Comics on a DVD. The content could all be taken off the disc and opened in Adobe PDF legally, but at the same time I also wondered why it took so long for a company to do this. Essentially, an entire legacy of art, popular culture, and awesomeness was transported off the paper and into the eternally preserved digital world. What was missing? Well for starters, not every comic in the series was included; there were many omissions due to “copyright” laws, which created some gapping plot holes when later issues started depending heavily on crossover with other series.
Soon after I then discovered you could download the entire run of the same series in a torrent file, but I’m not talking about just what was on the disc, I mean EVERYTHING in a twenty plus gigabyte file. Truth be told, people at Marvel didn’t do this, everyday people who wanted to preserve the comics did. Now technically (and actually) these people are breaking copyright laws. Almost half the issues couldn’t be easily obtained (issue one of Spider-man goes for several thousand dollars) without high cost or scarcity. What might be looked at as a gross theft of intellectual property simultaneously becomes one of the biggest free archiving preservation acts of our time. But in the end is this even a justifiable practice? Is there a real entrepreneurial aspect or justified reason people could use to their advantage with this model of content distribution?
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About the Blogger: Landon David Chase is a Student at Syracuse University.
Unemployed? Harvard MBA or Launch a Startup?
The situation: You’ve lost your job. And the market to get another one as you well know is dismal. With this as a backdrop, you may be thinking that now is the time to invest in yourself. Perhaps by going to business school and getting an MBA? Or perhaps it is time to start that business you’ve had in the back of your mind for some time?
There are plenty of people advising that now is the perfect time to start a business. But if debating between business school or starting your own business, how should one think about this decision?
We sat down with business school graduate Kofi Kankam graduate (Wharton MBA, Harvard BA) and founder of a successful startup, to get some perspectives on these questions. Most notably, Kofi runs,Admit Advantage, is an MBA consulting company which helps professionals with admission into top-tier MBA programs.
Even though he is in the business of helping people get into business school, Kofi warns, “What is clear to us after a few years of formally engaging in this process is that going business school is not as much of a slam-dunk choice as many are led to believe. It has to be analyzed carefully because going can be a mistake even if you can get in.”
Below are excerpts from our detailed conversation with Kofi. For those of you considering business school or starting your own business some tips, Kofi offers insights and questions to consider as you think about these very important decisions.
First, it may be useful to understand what Admit does.
Admit works with prospective candidates internationally to help them gain acceptance to top MBA programs. It took a few years, but we have developed a fairly robust process to help these candidates mitigate their weaknesses, craft engaging narratives, develop a rigorous brand, and position themselves to compete.
In terms of actual services, we offer items like overall strategy, essay structure/editing/review, mock interviews, resume development, school selection advice, recommendation management, and a few others including “Ding” analysis which involves working with students to determine why they were not accepted and plot their strategy for their reapplication. It’s an intense process.
Interestingly, for many of our prospects we encounter some of the very issues of this ChubbyBrain dialogue: Does it make sense for them to go school? What if they have a great idea/company? How can they take most advantage of it if they do go? What are the risks?
Before we get into the questions specifically around business school or startup, give us some sense for business school applicants and admission trends and any quick tips for those who are considering applying.
Ok. We have observed two dominant trends in the past nine months. First, we are seeing a lot of younger applicants who have had a job for only few years and have had limited ability to demonstrate leadership in the workplace. For these candidates, we are strongly suggesting they seek leadership in their company through peripheral initiatives such as recruiting or community service.
The second interesting, yet unsurprising trend, is a large set of people with more significant gaps in their work experience due to the economic layoffs. A few years ago people filled those resume gaps with nebulous independent consulting assignments, today this strategy is a lot more risky as admissions committees are very aware that “independent consulting” is usually an employment gap. Also, there is a risk that this employment will be scrutinized in the background check process. We advise people to be honest about employment gaps, and if they lose their job, to immediately identify a leadership role in a community service organization or to write a business plan. Community service can demonstrate that candidates are well-rounded and have leadership opportunity while a business plan underscores initiative and innovation. Both of these tactics can turn an employment gap into a positive asset as opposed to a sheepish effort to cover it up.
Since your business is about helping people get into business school, can you give us some context for the picture applicants are facing? How competitive is the market?
The market already was really competitive for some of the top schools, but in the last year it has become even more intense. For the top programs, candidates often feel discouraged. We had a candidate who is at Harvard who told us that a recruiting event she attended for prospective female candidates which had 240 persons in 2007 had over 400 women at the same event! Applications at the top ten to fifteen programs were up over 13% in a single year. Of course, the number of spots is not increasing so the competition is fierce. Obviously, the economy is a huge factor in this increase: Last year (most applicants applied by January of 2009 for entry this fall), people were beginning to expect to get fired. This year, the layoffs actually happened. We’re finding candidates who are seeking an MBA as much for the refuge from the corporate tsunami as for the typical training, contacts, credibility, and industry-transfer reasons. Also, more individuals want to raise their safety net a bit thinking it is harder to get fired from a firm if you have an MBA – I don’t think that is totally correct, but many candidates believe this notion. The time when a candidate with a strong GPA, reputable firm, and strong recommendations could feel comfortable gaining admittance into a top-tier program without compelling essays and expressed contribution to a school’s MBA community is over.
A recent article by a Harvard MBA posited that an MBA from Harvard Business School which was “once regarded as a golden ticket to riches” is “more like scarlet letters of shame” today. Do you give any credence to the idea that the value of an MBA has diminished given our current woes and the feeling amongst some segment that MBAs drove these issues?
No, I really do not. Of course there are many articles lambasting the ill-formed and greedy actions of those with MBAs. Frankly, some of those stories are appropriate and may have persuaded the general public to look with derision on this degree. So, you may not be able to impress a potential date with the fact you have an MBA degree (not recommended, by the way) – does it really matter in terms of your career progression? Hardly, in my opinion. Beyond the general populace not being as enthralled with an MBA, I’ll concede even more points on the diminished value of the MBA:
First, beyond the top 20 to 25 MBA programs, the value has diminished because companies are shortening their list of feeder schools (dropping some altogether and lowering the amount of students they take from others). Much as a coach shortens his or her bench in the NCAA tourney, many firms are not hiring as aggressively outside of the ‘name-brand’ programs.
In a related manner, an MBA holder from a program outside of this elite class may not enhance his or her status in the same manner as previously.
Additionally, the timeline for paying back the MBA loans has lengthened. Financial companies, the destination of several MBA alums (including those who eventually start their own companies) are restructuring their salary/bonus configurations (or just slashing bonus pools). If this effect stays in place, which it likely will for the companies who are now bank holding companies as opposed to investment banks, the loan payback will take years longer. Also, premier consulting companies will not hire as many people, compelling students to seek employment in other companies (consulting and non-consulting) whose pay packages are not as rich.
So, why is an MBA still of great value for Chubbybrain readers and others even within this current dismal economic climate and environment of disdain for some with MBAs?
- The training is still really relevant for staring your own business or working within the popular fields of consulting, marketing, and finance. In fact, amidst this economic mess, who are some of the folks called in to help fix the problem? MBAs. The head of the office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight is a Harvard MBA which is untangling the mess of Fannie and Freddie Mae. The current person in charge of overseeing the distribution of the head of the $700 billion TARP fund distributions is a Wharton MBA. The value of the training is needed more than ever.
- The opportunities in several fields of entrepreneurship which are arising due to the disintermediation/disruption in the entire global economy are ripe for those with strong financial training, ability to devise strategy, a wide base of contacts/relationships, and the credibility to be heard. Those characteristics are endemic to MBAs.
- Though there are new entrepreneurs to become household names like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, or Richard Branson in emerging fields like solar, clean/green tech, nanotechnology and others, their cadre of first-tier employees will likely consist of MBAs. And, those employees will be well-compensated, may be counted as founders, and will likely be well-positioned to start their own companies in other fields. This very evening, I’m going to meet with a friend with a top-tier MBA degree who was an early employee (#3) of a technology company and who recently received funding to start his own related venture. Often the best entrepreneurs who get their shot to run their own venture are ones with contacts to angel investors and VCs – a built-in advantage for well-connected MBAs.
- When people get laid off, some of the best networks for potential employment opportunities are derived from their MBA contacts/MBA alumni networks.
- The MBA is a long-term play. Even three years ago, few economists beyond Nassim Taleb, predicted the economic markets would be roiled by widespread malaise. Who knows where we will be in five years or ten years? So to focus on the snapshot of now is not really sensible. In fact, a member of Chubbybrain who applies to school this fall/winter will not finish school until 2012 in three years! The assets of training, contacts, credibility and others will likely be constant. It’s questionable that the economic environment will be.
With financial services and consulting industries being a major source of jobs for MBAs in the past, do you think the ROI on an MBA holds?
I do. As previously mentioned, I think that the long-term stature of the degree has to be factored into any analysis of the return on investment (including time and lost wages). The return is present if an MBA candidate is attending for a specific and actionable purpose. It may be there is the person is going to school to ‘figure out what they want to do’, but that is a very risky proposition and a steppingstone for buyer’s remorse. For me, that’s not good enough to risk that time, money, and lack of immersion within my career path. Most MBA programs feel the same way and spend a copious amount of time reviewing the essays to test the focus and reason for seeking admittance of all their candidates.
With that context, let’s discuss the question of business school vs entrepreneurship.
Ok.
There are some people considering business school who may be contemplating studying entrepreneurship while at business school. There are many successful entrepreneurs who say that you learn by doing and so that business school is not required and that the $100k+ investment you’re making could be used to fund and grow your business and that $100k+ can buy you real-world lessons. As someone who went to business school and who has started their own successful business, what are your thoughts on this for yourself and more generally?
Well, $100K is actually closer to $300K. Most top-tier programs cost about $70K in terms of tuition and budget (books, meals, travel, entertainment, etc. . .). Let’s assume that most candidates to business school have worked for three to four years and are making $65K per year (high in some areas/fields and dramatically low in others, even today). That’s $140K for school and $130K in lost wages. So, a price-tag of $270K is more realistic. But, business school is still a great choice for many people for the following reasons:
In my estimation, the $140K they spent is likely not going to be enough money for them to build the product, harness a team, market the product/service, and distribute it. For most people, even with $270K, the lack of additional funding, limited skills, and restricted time (assuming the individuals work part-time to maintain their salary) will prove very difficult to overcome.
Additionally, so many people have creative ideas or entrepreneurial energy, but not necessarily an actual potential business. Business school is a great place to get your ideas vetted, and gain the skill/training to launch your company or join a young company, get well-compensated with time and be situated to start your own later.
On-the-job training is always necessary a bit, but too much can paralyze a company if the entrepreneur cannot move quickly enough. With an MBA, you give yourself a chance to ask the right questions (if you can’t provide the answers) and have resources amongst those who can help.
Even with an idea, most entrepreneurs need serious funding. For people who are not independently wealthy or from prominent business undergrad schools like UVA, Wharton or Sloan, the MBA is a great chance to build a rolodex of influential angel investors and potential VCs amongst classmates and, potentially, professors.
An entrepreneur has a strong platform on which to contact and interact with successful entrepreneurs. As an MBA student, the entrepreneur can leverage the program related clubs (i.e. Entrepreneurship Club) to establish access to anyone in a way that he/she would not be able to do on their own. As an example, in my second year of school, I had the chance to meet and interact with Bob Johnson, the billionaire media mogul, because I invited him to speak at a conference I led. I never would have made it past his secretary if I had called without the banner of Wharton.
Investor credibility – While investors would be most impressed with someone who built a successful company and is e seeking funding for a second company, having a strong MBA degree with a well-constructed business plan, financial model and executive summary are a boon also. Suddenly, the entrepreneur is no longer a ‘random’ figure with no track record. She is an alumnus of school “X” with an interesting idea and a great chance to gain a meeting. When investors, customers, and potential employee have ‘nothing to go on’ with a new entrepreneur, having a strong school on which to hang your hat is really significant.
In business school, you develop a base of contacts to get pulled into ideas by other people. It is typical for one classmate to have an idea and build it with another friend who may not be the creative type.
The entrepreneur builds a “Plan B” while working on his idea. With an MBA, there is an opportunity to make serious money to either moonlight (like writing business plans for others) while working on his concept/new company or get a strong job (even now) to fund his moonlighting entrepreneurial activities.
Many people start companies related to the field in which they work: i.e. New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg worked at Salomon Brothers before developing his financial terminals that gained him acclaim and eventual billionaire status. Business school can help an entrepreneurial aspirant break into a field in which there is entrepreneurial opportunity.
Most of the top business schools have strong implementation components: a) Classes that one takes to implement a plan related to product development, pricing, marketing and distribution, copyright protection, venture capital, and angel networks; b) Business plan competitions for funding, feedback, and support; c) business incubators where one’s company can be nurtured and grown; and d) Alumni networks and angel investment groups after graduation.
Can business schools create better entrepreneurs?
No, they cannot. I resist the word “create” because I just don’t believe in that conception. The business schools can nurture entrepreneurial spirits, but I don’t think they are going to create entrepreneurs. An MBA candidate who becomes a successful entrepreneur is going to have to enter with stock of some of these assets: a) Idea; b) Prodigious skill/talent; c) Ability to deal with ambiguity; d) Relentless ability to execute; e) Strong communication skills; f) Ability to bring varied people/interests together. If a person has those assets, for the reasons mentioned above, a school can nurture them. But, paradoxically, because of the debt that many students find themselves in and impending adulthood (i.e. marriage, buying a dwelling, kids, etc.. .) it gets difficult to have flexibility to pursue that idea. Now, one is $270K poorer and needs to address some human needs on Maslow’s level before embarking on a strenuous and financially arduous journey. He or she may be more risk-averse due to this increased financial burden. That is the paradox. A person can be better trained, but more restricted from acting on that premise. So, to pursue entrepreneurship at business school, one has to have a real operating plan for how to leverage the program. They have to think about the financial horizon and plan accordingly.
In contrast to the above group, there are also many wondering which thing should they pursue, e.g. business school or starting their own business. As someone who is an entrepreneur, who has attend business school and whose business is advising people on getting into business school, how do you think someone thinking about business school vs. founding a startup should think about this question? What framework or questions should they ask themselves to help make their decision?
The questions/frameworks that should be considered rely on the previous discussion points. A little bit of advice I would offer your readers include several key items to consider.
One, you must distinguish if you: A) Have entrepreneurial spirit and plan to attend business school, but are considering not attending because you worry about thinking of an idea and being hamstrung in pursuing it versus B) Are an entrepreneur now with a idea/concept who is considering whether you should go to school to further develop it.
It takes a bit of honesty to classify yourself in group ‘A’, but I think this position is where most people lie. The romance of starting a company is powerful, but most MBA applicants don’t actually have anything to build and may be satisfied being close to the action with a bit of equity upside if the service is a hit. In that case, business school is a bit more tenable provided the other issues raised (the candidate’s plan) are addressed.
The latter classification, ‘B’, is not just someone who ‘wants to start something’. If you have a viable idea, there are a myriad of other questions that you have to consider before you opt to venture to business school or stay out and build. These questions include:
- Do you have the skill set to implement the idea or do you not have the skills to build the product/service into a company? If you need those skills, then you may need to go to business school to have a viable shot. If you actually have the tools, business school may be more of a desire than a necessity.
- Even if you have the capacity to build your product/service, do you have the contacts and credibility to obtain funding from angels and venture capitalists? Determine the approximate capital outlay that you need to build your company. If you can build a company with capital from your reserves, this issue may not be relevant (i.e. building a web design firm). If you need outside capital because you are of limited means and/or need a lot of money, business school can be a fantastic entry point to obtain capital.
- How will you obtain employees? Do you have a reservoir of management or technologists to help you or you “outside the matrix” for finding those people? Who is going to help you build? Who will you partner with and who will you hire? If you are not clear on your personnel assets at the beginning, you are likely not going to make it work. If you are seeking a unit of other managers, business/strategists to hire, and even technologists, business school may prove very fruitful.
- Is there time-sensitivity to building your company due to either the marketplace or even your own timeframe? Business school is not an option if you see other competitors in your marketplace who are months ahead of you and/or signing up limited customers. Of course, if that corporate nemesis exists, you may not even want to enter the industry for any reason. If you are thinking of buying a house/apartment in three years, it is hard to see how you can attend business school and start a new company at the same time.
The critical step is to analyze both your intended industry’s lifecycle and your own personal life schedule to determine if you can afford to push your effective start-date back by two years (three if you accept that you won’t be starting business school until Fall 2010 at the earliest)
- Do you have the financial capacity to absorb the $150K debt (and $270K in economic impact including lost wages) and build your company after school? Determine what your monthly loan payment will be and how you will pay for it. Will you take a job immediately after business school? Do you have savings to lessen how much money you borrow? How does this analysis mesh with the previous exploration of time-sensitivity? Even if you gain the fullest training, contacts, and credibility, is the weight of the huge debt going to compel you to work within a firm for multiple years so that you won’t pursue your entrepreneurial idea anyway?
Again, the critical thing is to determine if you are willing to sacrifice working on your product/service full-time while you work within a job to help pay off the debt after school? Determine if your partner is willing to accept the sacrifice in time for your relationship
- Is there a way to creatively be in school and still move your company forward so that solid progress is achieved before you graduate? Determine if you can start your company now with a partner who can run it while you go to school to leverage the aforementioned assets (contacts, training, credibility) while your partner runs operations during the day? Also, determine if you can take the company concept and work on it through your classes through developing the business plan, finding team members, obtaining legal representation, and possible funding sources.
- What tools are you going to actively obtain and leverage on campus? Think about the courses that you will seek to take. What the types of classmates that will be important for making your company successful (skill sets, industry positioning, international placement)? What clubs or organizations will your join and lead? Who do you need/want to meet for your company and how can you leverage the assets of school X to obtain this access? How will you harness the alumni or other school affiliates for your company?
For us, it’s a challenge to determine for most applicants who are looking to traverse the well-traveled path of working in specific industries. For individuals like the readers of ChubbyBrain and those of us seeking entrepreneurial success, it is even more difficult. Ultimately, we’re pretty bullish on business school, but only after a sober assessment for each applicant.
Two Careers That Didn’t Exist Ten Years Ago
As a user experience designer, I find it extremely challenging to describe to others what I do. I’m sure there are many reasons why this is, but I think the biggest reason is that my career is so new. In fact, it has been in existence, at least in the web world, less time than I have!
Knowing my struggles in this arena, my good friend passed along to me this article. As I scrolled down the list, I noticed numbers:
7. Social Media Strategist
8. User Experience Analyst
Seeing both side by side as separate titles threw me off. I mean, isn’t part of making a website enjoyable and easy to use integrated with having a social media strategy? Don’t I do this day in and day out with each and every client I work with? I would be extremely hesitant to hire a social media strategist that didn’t have a user experience/usability background.
Here’s why: when business owners hear social media they tend to think about getting more customers to interact with their brand at all costs. “Oh, this is a free way to sell my product.” A social media strategist without a user experience background can help you get more followers on twitter and more fans on Facebook, but I’m unsure they’d be able to get you the right followers and fans.
For me as an entrepreneur, it’s about quality over quantity. Quality followers and fans are different for each brand. Finding this quality group, that’s the job of your user experience designer.
As a user experience designer, it is my job to first know your user base, your business and your competition and to help you do the same. A UX (user experience) Designer will do research to see where the intended user and business requirements intersect and help to promote and attain the needs of both. By doing so, the UXD brings to life the user behaviors of your target customer and that is important for your social media strategy. Knowing your customers, how they act, think and behave is key to knowing how, when and where to implement social media.
The point? Having more followers is great and yes helps, at times, to contribute to sales and word of mouth. But having followers that are engaged with your company, that have a relationship with it because your company meets and exceeds the customer’s expectation is invaluable. These are the followers that will be with you through thick and thin, answering the questions:
- Who will buy your product and evangelize your service so you don’t have to?
- Who will bring your business from average to extraordinary?
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About the Blogger: Lis is the Founder of Hubert Experience Design, a botique user experience firm based in NYC. Her firm has worked with a wide range of organizations, from Fortune 500 to start-up. Hubert Experience Design takes pride in making websites better and easier to use.
Top 10 Ways to Out-Green Your Competition
Things here in NYC are crazy with corporations and entrepreneurs trying to figure out how to catch the green wave.
And if you’re in doubt whether there is some serious potential in business in this area, just spend 3 minutes at any magazine store and look at the front covers of some of the major publications. That should placate your doubts!
Why is the “green” industry so darn hot and very unlikely to be just a fad:
* Red China is now turning green and will lead the way in a very short time
* European countries are returning to coal know as “the dirtiest fuel on earth”
* The planet’s population is expected to increase 50%… to 9 billion… within 40 years
* The number of cars and trucks is expected to double by 2040 to two billion
* The number of commercial jetliners is expected to double to 36,000 by 2030
And those issues are related to just the “energy” part of environmental issues. Add to the mix: climate change, water, biodiversity / land use, chemicals / toxics / heavy metals, air pollution, waste management, ozone layer depletion, forest / fisheries, and deforestation and you will get my point.
So, if you’re still straddling the fence on this one, it is time to get into action. The market will not allow you to do so otherwise.
Top 10 ways to AUTHENTICALLY stay ahead of the competition:
1. Create a powerful Sustainability Blueprint—define what sustainability means to your business and your map towards achieving it. Make sure to incorporate the triple bottom line: people, planet and profits.
2. Audit your practices—for the resources you save (energy, paper, water, materials, chemicals, etc.) as well as any community-based projects you impact
3. Redesign your model—your products/services around your Sustainability Blueprint
4. Use the wheel, don’t reinvent it—look to see what other companies are doing well and emulate or copy parts for your business
5. Join green communities—networking groups (i.e. Green Drinks the largest environmental business networking group in the world), conferences, and various lectures.
6. Become an “expert”—build your credentials through certifications and writing or teaching for well-regarded institutions
7. Create your team—JV’s (joint ventures), partners, vendors, marketing people… all like-minded and synergistic with your vision
8. Hang around really smart people—to help you “sharpen the saw” for continually improving your Sustainability Blueprint
9. Be UnReasonable—always think outside the box and step up powerfully towards solutions towards our environmental / social challenges
10. Market your Sustainability Blueprint—use your newly defined model to position your company at the cutting edge and ahead of the competition.
Action Steps for the Week:
* Determine what “Sustainability” means to you and your business
* Assess where your competition is in regards to sustainability
* Commit to overhauling your business practices, incorporating people, planet, and profits
* Review how you can position your company competitively in the marketplace using your Sustainability Blueprint
* Define your team must you bring in to complete the “picture” for your Blueprint
* Use your definition of Sustainability to attract your team
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About the Blogger: Stefan Doering is the creator of BEST Coaches’ groundbreaking 90-day “UnReasonable” program which brings to the table his almost 30 years of hard-earned business savvy and 4-plus decades of pure heart.
Stefan started his first company at the age of 17. His later companies included the leaders of major companies and institutions as well as multi-millionaires and billionaires as investors, board members and mentors, and had household names among their clients.
The State of Fashion for the Emerging Luxury Entrepreneur
The luxury fashion market has been in the headlines of every major city for over a year now. Stocks are down; prices are lower than ever, marketing teams are being called in. Branding is strategically evaluated bit by bit, over the worlds leaders like LVMH, Gucci Group and Hermes.
“The reality is people love luxury, they love brands, they love shopping…what has changed is their understanding,” Steve Sadove, Chairman and Chief Executive of Saks, said during a panel discussing the state of the luxury segment at the National Retail Federation’s annual convention.
With all research going back to the idea that it is customer service and unique additions is what will keep the big brands alive. Customization has become key – everywhere from Hermes with their engravers hitting the stores to scribe personal perfume bottles, to Prada’s made-to-order stores. Even Chanel and Dolce and Gabanna are literally “asking” clients what they want.
But it is even a more interesting situation when looking at the entrepreneur.
If consumers are shelling out large dollar amounts only for the labels they know and rely on because of longevity and branding practices… what happens to the luxury entrepreneur?
I am of the opinion that partnerships are the best way to go right now.
Take for instance Furio Apparel. Both originally students of Rhode Island School of Design Catherine Furio and Parker Manis, have a business plan that exceeds the general “We want to make pretty clothing”.
Their vision links with short film makers, jewelry design, and industrial design allowing them to “incubate” young talent as well, while their collection and business grows. They invest in their own community of artists. Spring 2010 even brought on artisans from The Crochet Guild of America, who gave the brand pieces to insert within the garments.
This gives a young business a greater success rate by allowing them to explore other areas of the design business, essentially making the risk of investment less, because with every dress could come a coffee table or a short documentary.
If the fashion industry is all about “the new” it is important that the business world embraces newness as it were and rewards those who have thought outside of the box to be able to do it different and better than others. “The consumer directs, the customer requests but the brand decides.” Jeff Fardell , CEO of Mexx.
Those should be words to live by for an emerging luxury entrepreneur.
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About the Blogger: Lynn Furge is the Creative Director of Nolcha: Fashion Business Services; a leading operator of educational, event outlets, and business-to-business services devoted to fashion entrepreneurs and related retail businesses. The Nolcha platform includes Nolcha.com, an online fashion portal delivering business education and services; Nolcha Fashion Week: New York, currently held during New York fashion week providing key exposure to press, buyers, and industry figures for emerging and independent fashion designers from all over the world to break into the New York fashion market, in both apparel and accessories; events during London Fashion Week with key partners and Independent Retail Week in New York and Chicago, an initiative to drive business and increase revenue for small fashion retail brands.
The Future of Competitive Advantage in Web Technology and Service-Oriented Organizations
Our world is more hypercompetitive then ever before, and at an ever increasing rate of speed. As a result, entrepreneurs who stake their company’s long-term viability on just one competitive advantage (or even two) will not have a high likelihood of survival. Why?
The future of competitive advantage is aggregation. Having one or two competitive advantages has become the commoditized standard on a local, regional, national and global scale. Thus, survival and scalability means incorporating four, five, or even six disparate products/services synergistically and effectively to gain meaningful and sustainable marketshare. Furthermore, in addition to aggregation, businesses must continue a strong R&D Program, seeking new innovations that leapfrog the competition.
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Stop At Nothing. Achieve Anything.
Gary Whitehill is the Founder of The Relentless Foundation and New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), both of which reflect his entrepreneurial drive and relentless energy.
In 2009, The Relentless Foundation inspired the creation of New York Entrepreneur Week (NYEW), an unprecedented gathering of entrepreneurs, from innovation-minded start-ups to multi-million dollar revenue generators who are given the chance to learn, connect and leverage opportunities to help drive economic change.
The Entrepreneur Week movement continues to grow, with events planned in more US cities and around the world.
Additionally, Gary believes kids should have the ability to create the world they want, and that those who are driven to achieve must also be given tools such as entrepreneurship to learn, grow and express themselves.
Gary supports people and companies invested in driving social and economic change.
The Fundamental Choices and Right Questions for Entrepreneurs
After over a year of working with a variety of clients – individuals and companies – I have realized there are two crucial factors that determine long-term success: the choices we make now and the questions we ask about our future.
You may think that’s awfully obvious. But my experience shows otherwise. My consulting practice is geared to showing clients how to prioritize what they have to change, so that they can make real progress – in business, or in life. Too often companies are focused on their direction and execution, without truly understanding the intention and sense of purpose that drives them. This impacts their ability to make fundamental choices or ask the right questions to move them forward.
“I have a manufacturing crisis”, “I need to hire someone now”, “I have to decide whether this partnership will work” … these are typical client dilemmas. Here’s where it becomes interesting. Because for most clients their obvious course is to try figure out what choices they have to make to immediately improve their situation, and to answer questions that solve current problems.
Instead, I encourage clients to value a strategic perspective. I push them to think about fundamental choices, not short-term trade-offs. A fundamental choice is a conscious decision to act in a way that will ultimately lead to you and your business being focused on your purpose. It often depends on the kind of transformational questions you ask. Not “what can we change?” But “why are we making this change?”
Purpose is a journey. My first step is to measure how purpose-centered each client is: do they know who they are and what is important to them, and why they do what they do? My next step is to show them how their brains are hard-wired for certain behaviors, and how, unless they truly understand the pattern that makes them successful, they will have trouble making decisions, solving problems and communicating ideas.
When you have your purpose blueprint in hand, it’s easy to start creating better strategies. So it’s at this point that I help clients prioritize what’s really important to them. I show them what they have to change if they want a better or different outcome.
Right now many CEOs and companies have been sucked into the turbulent economic vortex and it’s affected their ability to think strategically. I understand its Business Survival 101. But I’m willing to bet that the people who choose to continue to focus on what they stand for and where they want to get to, will weather this storm much better than those whose mindset is only how to survive.
Even in times of pressure, remember that your choices should lead you towards creating more meaning in everything you do. And when you ask questions, focus on the end you want to achieve, and not the situation in hand.
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About the Blogger: Janine de Nysschen uses change and purpose dynamics to come up with unique strategies that address complex problems for businesses and executives seeking to increase impact and performance. Her clients range from Fortune 100 companies like Microsoft to entrepreneurial start ups and non-profit organizations in the US, Africa and Australia.
The Fashion Cross Over for Entrepreneurs
Robert Duffy President of Marc Jacobs has begun to twitter and is using it to not only start a ticket giveaway to the famed Armory show that happened last night. They also did live feeds from the show even going as far as leaving a “personal note” on the Marc Jacobs website to invite people to come, watch, and spread the word via facebook.
In the world of social networking and staying in touch minute by minute brands are grasping at any straw they can to stay relevant.
The Mercedes Benz fashion week tents has allowed tweeters from all over the world to give their fans minute by minute soundbites into the world of fashion from backstage to the designer’s final bow.
With that said during event season it is always possible to garner the attention of fans and new clients, but what should a fashion business do in between seasons? Here are a few new products that prove the fashion community is trying to stay on top of the Mobile Application bringing new meaning to anything you want with the touch of a button.
Shop View
A new Iphone App $1.99 app gives you a 3D tour of the local shops on Oxford Street in London plus links to their websites and Twitter feeds of special sales.
Trendstop TrendTracker
This new app not only selects the season’s trends for you but also gives you fashion events and venues around the globe.
Chicfeed
This app focuses on street style, bringing you updates from the most popular blogs, including the Sartorialist, Face Hunter, and Altamira where users can see up to the minute influential fashion from the real people shopping.
myFendi
The ultimate application for the Fendi fan lets you classify your favorite looks by the label and locate the closest store. As a special gimmick, this app also mixes and matches Fendi items with the clothes in your wardrobe.
Love It or Lose It
Can’t decide what to wear? Love It or Lose it ($1.99) lets you send up to three pictures of an outfit – from the store, your room, or wherever you are – to your friends or the app’s online community, giving you instant feedback on how you look.
The key thing to take out of these apps is ingenuity where there is something for every type of client. Instead of trying to reach a much wider audience businesses are using these add-ons to create a better customer service platform for their existing shoppers. And as the news of that spreads, the numbers will grow.
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About the Blogger: Lynn Furge is the Creative Director of Nolcha: Fashion Business Services; a leading operator of educational, event outlets, and business-to-business services devoted to fashion entrepreneurs and related retail businesses. The Nolcha platform includes Nolcha.com, an online fashion portal delivering business education and services; Nolcha Fashion Week: New York, currently held during New York fashion week providing key exposure to press, buyers, and industry figures for emerging and independent fashion designers from all over the world to break into the New York fashion market, in both apparel and accessories; events during London Fashion Week with key partners and Independent Retail Week in New York and Chicago, an initiative to drive business and increase revenue for small fashion retail brands.
The Economic Benefits of Building Green
Most people who build green buildings are not the tree hugging type that are doing it to save the environment and the migratory patterns of local bird life. It’s ok to admit that there is a financial incentive to – in the end – doing the right thing. One of the nice things about LEED certification is that it doesn’t only look at the impact a building has on the environment and local ecology but also at the impact it has on the individuals using the building.
Green buildings should have better air quality, less contaminants throughout, no irritating off gassing from furniture or carpets, more natural light and individual control over temperature and illumination. The ergonomics of a building become as important as it’s carbon footprint. Studies have shown that workers in these buildings are more productive and miss less work for illness.
Think about this…On average in the United States, the cost of utilities in commercial buildings on a per square foot basis is about $3 annually. So if you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to install solar panels and increase insulation and use the best glass for your windows in order to save 50% on your utilities you will be saving about $1.50 per square foot. The average cost of salaries and benefits – meaning people – is roughly $330 per square foot. If a single employee, misses just one less day of work because they are in a healthier environment, it’s a savings of $3 per square foot. It seems to make a whole lot of sense to go green.
The Age of Stupid – Can We Save the World by 2015?
Last month I saw a fascinating movie premier, The Age of Stupid.
Never mind that it was the first time a movie premier was broadcast live via satellite (from here in New York) around the world on over 550 screens in 45 countries. Or that they had in attendance the likes of Kofi Annan (former Secretary General of the United Nations), Heather Graham and Jillian Anderson as well as music from Moby and Radiohead.. Or that The Huffington Post called the movie launch “One of the most important films of the year (perhaps decade)….” as both a new way independent films will be released and also a way to give additional exposure to the environmental message.
Instead, what was fascinating was it was a film about an old man living in the devastated world of 2055, watching ‘archive’ footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change while we had the chance?
Today expert climatologists around the world are agreeing we are about to hit the point of no return for our planet. And that point is 2015- closing in on five years away!
What does this mean? The UN’s Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) announced in 2007 that if we do not stop our earth’s temperature from increasing beyond the levels it will hit by 2015, there will be no stopping the environmental impacts that will ensue.
A month or so later Time Magazine wrote “Can We Save the World By 2015″? and quoted David Doniger, the policy director of the world renowned Natural Resource Defense Council’s climate center, “We’re almost at the point of no return. If we don’t turn these emission trends down soon, we’re cooked.”
Does this sound dramatic and doom and gloom?
Ok, it does! And we’re here to learn about being UnReasonable in creating powerful results.
Quickly. What I teach, train and coach businesses on is the fastest way we will not only stop this disaster from occurring but actually reverse it is to show people how to make money regenerating the earth’s resources.
And a new major player just joined the contest to being the greenest. And it’s not the United States. You may be surprised by whom… China.
Yes, Red China is now going green!
Just two weeks ago Thomas Friedman, writer and three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize wrote an Op Ed piece for the New York Times “The New Sputnik”, arguing, “I believe future historians may well conclude that the most important thing to happen in the last 18 months was that Red China decided to become Green China.”
Examples from the past few weeks are China announcing at the UN last week it will cut carbon emissions by 2020. While they did not explain more clearly what they meant by this, they have already recruited America’s premier solar equipment manufacturer, Applied Materials, to open the world’s largest privately funded solar research facility… in China. This is after already having the world’s largest supplier of solar panels, Suntech, in China.
So this is where YOU come in.
It’s kind of like playing basketball here on the street in Brooklyn. There is a lot of “trash talking,” a form of insulting that is meant to challenge and often poke fun at the other team. And when that happens, often times it motivates the other team to play much better.
Experts predict that before the end of the next year, China will surpass the US in energy technology. And so perhaps we ought to take this as a form of China trash talking us to really step up. Have you been thinking of going green and catching the “green” wave? Now is the time.
Have you already gone down this path? Now is the time to raise the bar to take on this competition from China. Are you not interested in going down the path of “greening up” your act? You may want to seriously rethink that.
Because in case the predictions of 2015, looming just six years away, isn’t enough to get you reconsidering, being caught holding the modern-day equivalent of the buggy whip might be.
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About the Blogger: Stefan Doering is the creator of BEST Coaches’ groundbreaking 90-day “UnReasonable” program which brings to the table his almost 30 years of hard-earned business savvy and 4-plus decades of pure heart.
Stefan started his first company at the age of 17. His later companies included the leaders of major companies and institutions as well as multi-millionaires and billionaires as investors, board members and mentors, and had household names among their clients.
The Advice Most Important to Entrepreneurs in this Economy
When I look back over the advice given by entrepreneurs featured on NewsonWomen.com in 2009, it becomes clear what entrepreneurs think is important. The number one topic mentioned again and again by entrepreneurs on how to be successful is “people” – who you work with makes the difference.
The second most popular piece of advice mentioned is finding your “niche” and capitalizing on the opportunities it presents. Coming in third for advice on the road to success is the “customer”, and treating your customers well so they become loyal. This is an unscientific study, but interesting nonetheless.
I was not surprised to find very little mention of financing or advice on how to fund a business in my review, even in this year of economic hardship. Entrepreneurs are by nature creative and innovative, and most aren’t trained in the area of finance. It’s well known women receive only a small share of the venture capital dollars available, so what choices do women entrepreneurs have? I guess it comes down to banking or bootstrapping (using your own money, growing internally and maintaining control of your company).
What do entrepreneurs know of finance and of bankers? When they seek financing, are they focused on the banker’s needs as well as their own? As a banker, I came from a traditional background well versed in the five C’s of credit:
- Collateral
- Character (the entrepreneur’s)
- Cash flow (capacity to repay)
- Capital (the money invested by the owner)
- Conditions (economic environment, money use etc.)
Today’s financial mess is in a large part due to many bankers forgetting these simple rules. Bankers should be somewhat risk-averse, a far cry from the entrepreneurial personality. But these personalities don’t necessarily need to collide. They need to understand each other. Entrepreneurs need to understand the value of the five C’s of bankers. And bankers need to learn the five C’s of entrepreneurs – courage (to take the right risk), control (of their company and their destiny), commitment (to their dream and to growth), compassion (to their people and to their customers), and collaboration (among all). If this happens, 2010 could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
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About the Bloggger:
Alice Krause, former Deputy Credit Executive of Chase Bank’s retail businesses, is Founder of the award winning www.newsonwomen,com, the daily news site that focuses on women’s achievements. News on Women reports on what women are doing in business, education, science and technology, philanthropy and the arts.
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