Then again, perhaps this is only natural when you get any group of people who are passionate about some common thing together in the same room.  This is what I imagine businessmen are talking about when they go on and on about “synergy.”  They want to leverage that passion, and all the bright ideas that come with it, into a strategy that they can use.  Something concrete.

No doubt, these types of meetings — we called it “the WV Summit” — can be enormously beneficial.  Just from a moral perspective, this was huge.  Most of us had never met before, and putting a face (and a voice) to a name that we were used to seeing only in our email address boxes made the work on our various startups seem more worthwhile; more human.

Bigger than that, though, and bigger than all those great ideas, was the discovery of all the ways that the various assembled companies could help each other.  Many startups find themselves embarking on a quest to reinvent some kind of wheel.  Sometimes this is necessary.  Indeed, sometimes it is an essential part of that company’s raison d’etre.  But those situations are rare, or at least rarer than you might think.

It’s easy to get caught up in your startup’s day-to-day.  Everything seems both significant and unique.  But the book of Ecclesiastes had it right in its lament: “There’s nothing new under the sun.”  A few short hours in a conference room elicited all manner of miniature collaborations that could be made between the four companies in attendance.  There were marketing strategies that could be adapted and reused, business processes that could be mimicked, and small projects that could be undertaken together for shared benefit.

Of course, the key to all of this is follow-up.  One of the first things we discussed at the summit by way of preface was that almost all ideas are bad ideas.  There are millions of businesses that seem to beg to be created on a daily basis.  Some of them may even be worth money — a lot of money.  But without follow-up (and a lot of late nights) they are worthless.  They distract you from other profitable pursuits.

In other words: even good ideas turn bad if you don’t develop them.  Try them out.  The market will tell you’re on the right track fairly quickly, and then you can change course if necessary (and, more than likely, it will be necessary).  The important thing is to put yourself out there, or else you’ll never know what the market thinks.

Think of the market as a very, very large company meeting.  There’s a lot of good ideas out there; a lot of intelligence.  Launching a business and keeping your ear to the ground is akin to organizing a startup summit and showing up with a notepad, a pen, and your listening cap.  Then you rinse and repeat.

If it sounds like an exhausting process, I must confess that it can be.  That’s why it is absolutely essential not to reinvent any wheels that don’t need reinventing.  Listen to your allies — you always have many more than you think.  And, of course, never miss an opportunity to let them work for you.  Just remember that every partnership is a two-way street.

About the author: John J. Walters is a freelancer with WasabiVentures, director of marketing with TestSoup, and a research associate with The Maryland Public Policy Institute.

In some cases their indecision is driven by the fact that they so love what they do that they would choose to one day die while doing it.

As a commitment to your craft, that takes some beating.

For the others, their lack of clarity about The Last Day comes from an over-emphasis on what’s happening in their lives today supported by three false assumptions.

1. That because a business makes them a lot of money today it will make them a lot of money for as long as they need it to.

2. That because a business makes them a lot of money it will make someone else a lot of money.

3. That selling a successful business is negotiated largely on their terms and results in their freedom.

If your company provides a service there are only two ways you can create a retirement from it:

• Make so much money while it it is successful that you don’t need the income once it’s not.
• Make yourself irrelevant to the success of your business.

If you do neither, you will one day reach a point when getting out is a lot more attractive than staying in. And your options for doing so will be slim and none.

Because any business built to be dependent on you dies when you die, which is disappointing for both your family and the employees that you leave behind.

And a considerable disincentive to prospective buyers.

Buyers buy businesses because of what they will do in the future. Not what they have done in the past.

And if the success of your company is dependent on your personal involvement, the only way you can sell it is by selling yourself along with it.

Which means that for three to five years you’ll be taking orders from someone else, doing it their way, and hoping their way doesn’t screw it up so badly that there’s actually money left to pay you when all is said and done. Not to mention the impact on your hard-earned legacy and reputation.

If your business depends on you and you want to retire in five years, start shopping for a buyer now. And then hope you can convince someone you’re not as good at running this business as they will be. And that you’re dying to work for them.

Or avoid all this by building a business to last. Regardless of who owns it.

This comes with a number of benefits. Including but not limited to: lifelong income; potential wealth; employee security; reward for loyalty; negotiation leverage; personal legacy; reputation; family security; quality of life; inner peace.

Actually the last one is less certain. We are complex beings, after all. The others are guaranteed.

It takes as much effort to build a business to last as one built only for today.

Doing so provides for that eventuality that overcomes all strategies: Death.

And will make your employees grateful for at least one thing when you’re gone: They get the use of your desk back.

About the author: Charles Day is a co-founder of The Lookinglass Consultancy.

To  a great extent, that depends on the development of a Business Plan.  Yes, I hear collective moans and groans emanating through cyber space at this very moment; but folks, numbers don’t lie.

Statistically, 11% of small businesses develop and execute from a written Business Plan while 89% of small businesses fail within the first 5 years — pretty simple math.

That said, let me debunk the myth that Business Plan development will require months and months of time, extended research, acquisition of comparable data and a several reams of paper.  It may evolve to that, but start small — develop a plan that will act as a benchmark for decisions about your business direction and focus.  Otherwise, (trust me) your focus will be all over the map, pursuing every new idea and nuance that may float by your peripheral vision.

Here’s a place to begin: The One Page Business Plan Company, a resource  I happened upon recently.  Curious to learn a bit more, I linked from their website and connected with them via email.  A response to my question came within hours… very impressive.  The next day a follow-up email came from the company President Jim Horan; even more impressive.  Why?  Because in this day and age, to receive a response, let alone a timely response to any email inquiry is unusual, and in this case, I received a personalized response and additional follow-up.

My bet is their professional response to my simple email inquiry is indicative of their organization as a whole, and of their product. Although I have not yet ordered the product, I very well may do so as my Business Plan is quite frankly archaic and could benefit from developing a fresh perspective.

Let me interject a disclaimer here.  If you are developing a small business in which you will be making applications for funding either from a bank or investor, your Business Plan will need to be developed to greater detail.  The One Page Business Plan looks to offer resources in that direction, or, your local community college can likely provide you with assistance as would SCORE.

About the author: Tracy Campbell is CEO of Simplicated, LLC, Productivity Consultant, trainer and speaker.

In truth,  innovation follows clear patterns of success and can be managed much like any other business discipline.  Equally, our economic climate provides the perfect soil for finding success through innovation.  You, your customers, your employees and your bottom line will all benefit.

In a nutshell, innovation includes the evaluation (and/or discovery) of what fundamental problem your internal or external customer want to solve.  That is: what is the underlying reason they want or need you to begin with?

What will your customers use to evaluate solutions such as  product, service or value you provide?  What barriers are limiting your customers’ ability to use your  product service or value successfully, and what other products, services, or values might your customers consider?

This past Christmas, while shopping for my mother, I purchased some clothes at a store I had never frequented before.  As the sales assistant wrapped the gift, she handed me a gift card enclosed in an envelope and shared that if I needed a last minute gift I could simply follow the instructions inside the envelope; call an 800 number, load the gift card with an amount of my choosing and in an instant have handled a potential struggle to find a last minute gift.

Talk about innovation!  The idea broke down the barriers of purchase ( I would not have purchased a gift card if I wasn’t sure I needed one), provided an instant solution to a potential problem (If I happen to forget someone on my Christmas list, I was covered) and provided a service and a value I had not anticipated.  Kudos’s to Talbot’s; somewhere within that organization, innovation is alive and well!

About the author: Tracy Campbell is CEO of Simplicated, LLC, Productivity Consultant, trainer and speaker.

I spent last week in southern California visiting family for the holidays.  To get myself in the spirit I decided to read the corporate history of In-N-Out Burger, the legendary hamburger chain that has become a veritable emblem of Los Angeles culture.  There’s Hollywood, and then there’s In-N-Out.

An entrepreneur can learn a lot from this family-owned business, which has been slowly growing to its iconic status since 1948.  Here are the three biggest lessons I took from the book:

1) Do one thing; do it right. When Harry and Esther Snyder started In-N-Out they weren’t reinventing the wheel (although they did invent the drive-thru) — they simply decided to do what a lot of other people were doing, but better.  Their business model was simple: provide the best possible burgers at reasonable prices.  True, they happened to get into the fast-food game at a time and in a place of enormous growth, but if they hadn’t had this commitment to quality they would have been swallowed up by one of the larger chains like so many of their competitors.

2) Keep your focus. Keeping their focus on something they felt passionate about allowed the Snyders to stay successful through the tumultuous explosion of the fast-food industry.  In-N-Out was started as place that served the best burgers and so it stayed throughout its history.  While other chains were finding ways to expand as rapidly as possible (and sacrificing quality and service to do it), they kept their rollout slow and steady while maintaining a close watch over the standards that had made them a cult sensation.

3) No marketing department, no problem. While a lot of companies (especially startups) look to get noticed as quickly as possible, the Snyders recognized that the best publicity is word-of-mouth from satisfied customers.  It was a long time before In-N-Out started advertising, even modestly.  The fact that customers didn’t feel hustled by the business meant that they trusted the company more, and consequently felt more loyalty towards it.  This allowed In-N-Out to attract enormous crowds to new store openings, despite the fact that they almost never advertised them.  Grassroots marketing at its finest.

The “slow and steady” business model adopted by In-N-Out might not suit your business, but it’s hard to argue with the estimated $300 million in sales the company was generating in 2004 (when the corporate history ends).  Not bad for a family business that began life as two-person operation 56 years before in a small California suburb.

About the Author:

While experts agree vision and planning are essential, my qualifier is revision and planning are key to your success.  Many fail to come to terms with the fact that some processes and/or services may be out of date or flat out did not work well.

My advice is to take time to review everything you have in place for either interviewing or building business.  Have you received or even asked for feedback?  If yes, what has worked best?  Keep those.  If you had valid criticism, own up to it and tweak what you must.

For all endeavors it is important to remain current.  Remaining current attracts more interviews, prospects and clients.  It’s a little more difficult if you have been out of work for a while.  My advice is to read up on your industry, call associates who are working and perhaps you might find a complementary type job to provide a wider scope of your profession or a temporary job to get you back in the game.

A conversation last week validated the importance of keeping up to date.  Our daughter shared that only 10 years ago when the internet was picking up steam, she once had a comical interview. Laughing hard at the remembrance, she recalled that the mission of the then company (now out of business) was to compile a hard copy Yellow Page Directory of Internet sites!  Obviously this was before Google came into being.

What may not be quite as funny is if any of us were to review all of our laid out services and descriptions of such on our web pages only to find some are similarly outdated.  Should any of your offerings be “borderline,” determine whether they may be saved with a little tweaking or if they truly need to be discarded.  Should the latter be the case, this would be the time to implement your new idea or soul search what will be the next best route for you to take.

All the while, continue to build relationships and you will experience a Smooth Sale or more readily hear HIRED!

Last week I wrote a short list of 11 things my boss has taught me during the past year.  Today I thought I’d write another list, this time about the various bits of advice I’ve received from people in the Wasabi Ventures circuit that I’ve asked for advice on the beta launch of my first company (which is happening pretty much right now, by the way).

1.) You never feel like you’re ready.  Just go for it anyway.  Be sure to put time, effort, and polish into your project, but don’t get paralyzed by perfection.  No matter how long you spend tweaking something there will always be improvements to be made.

2.) Make use of your personal network.  You have friends and family that believe in you, right?  Well ask them to try out your product or service and get some preliminary opinions!  It may not be as honest (or painful) as what you would get from outsiders, but it’s a start.

3.) Ask strangers.  This is the single most “cringe-worthy” piece of advice I was given.  I can’t bring myself to ask strangers at coffee bars to try out my web service, but I can get it reviewed by people on the internet who enjoy (or get paid) to do it.  There are plenty of sites out there that review startups.  Find them and use them.

4.) People don’t need you.  In fact, you need them.  But the only way to get people on your side is to prove to them that you can help them with something.  So don’t demand that people try (and like) your product.  Really listen and understand your target market’s needs.

5.) Reach out and touch someone.  Not literally.  But make an effort to talk to other people who may be doing something similar.  In general, you’ll find other startups or even people in your industry willing to help out if you make the effort to connect with them.

6.) Blog, and be consistent about it.  Get some content on your site and keep at it at least once a week.  There’s a lot of dead space on the web.  What’s to stop a casual browser from dismissing your site as another failed startup from the ‘90s if he doesn’t see any new content?  Make an effort to put up quality content regularly, and to finding (and contacting) others who are doing the same thing.  Help each other out.

7.) Listen to people.  Okay, so you’ve made some good connections and gotten some decent feedback.  Don’t ignore it!  Listen to what people say about your product and don’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board with what doesn’t work.  Remember: people don’t need you — you need them.

8.) Give stuff away.  Often times, the only way you will get new people to give your product/service a chance at all is to let them try it for free or to find another way to make it worth their while.  Bribery may be wrong in politics, but it’s a fine way to get customers.

9.) Get some analytics on your site.  How visitors to your site find out about you is important.  Installing analytics on your site is a pretty painless process (and one that I must admit I have been putting off for far too long) and can help you figure out which avenues are most successful and which aren’t.

10.) Learn about search engine optimization.  I’ve read up on this and it is both confusing and a little bit like voodoo, but a little time spent figuring out what your site keywords should be could go a long way.

11.) Be persistent.  Starting a new business takes so much persistence that you need to be passionate about what you’re doing.  Like what you do and work hard at it.  Don’t give up too soon.

So there’s another 11 little gems that I’ve heard over the past few weeks as I work on getting MeetingCaptain off the ground.  I’ll admit that I’m guilty of disregarding more than a couple of them.  It’s difficult even to get past that first one — and even harder to find the confidence to ask people to review your work.  But it needs to be done eventually.

About the Author:

“When you wish upon a star” may have come from a Disney song, but it’s very applicable to today’s news and translates well to both entrepreneurs and job seekers. It calls into question your power of belief and today’s story is very inspiring.

The Lucille Packard “Make a Wish Foundation” enables children with life threatening disease to make their fondest wish come true. Today we learned of a 7 year-old girl, Kassaundra, who fought death twice and now lives with a pacemaker in her chest. Kassaundra embraces the spirit of life. Ignoring her less-than-perfect health, she plays softball and swims. But her passion is singing and dancing — she wants to be a movie star!

The Foundation granted Kassaundra’s request. She was treated to a fancy dress of her choice and a new hair-do. A chauffeur picked her up in a limousine. The Police escorted the limo while photographers and crowds followed her to the theater where she was to perform. Kassaundra was then led onto stage and performed to cheering fans — truly her wish come true!

I found three pertinent messages in this story for everything you undertake in life:
1. Find your passion and keep striving to achieve your dream.
2. Illness (and any other obstacle) is only a detour — find the strength to overcome.
3. Believe you will succeed. Work for it.

The business side of this: look how much attention you are able to attract when you hit the right stride. Your mindset, along with your plan of action (plus implementation of course), become your marketing-communication strategies which ultimately attract more sales. Prospects, clients, sales, and business development on auto pilot will be yours.

Begin wishing upon a star to find your Smooth Sale!

This question was the topic at one of our portfolio companies, PBwiki , last week. One of the senior developers had put together a list of articles that he had read about development philosophies. The one article that caused the most interaction by the team was an excerpt from The Inmates are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper. Most people came down on the side that you have to listen to customers to make sure you are building things that the marketplace wants. But I actually took a different twist when I sent this email:

The key message here is that you have to know who your target is and listen to those customers. Don’t think that every customer fits your target audience.