Blunt on Business

Apr

One of the Great Myths of Entrepreneurship: Calling the Shots

culture, entrepreneurship, personality, start-ups

The Myth of Calling the Shots

One of the reasons I initially got into entrepreneurship was that I wanted to “call the shots.” This is one of the most common reasons people cite for getting into entrepreneurship. Being the boss. Calling the shots. Making the decisions. It’s compelling. And it’s almost completely false. It’s one of the great myths of entrepreneurship (one of the others is ’setting your own schedule’ – but that’s for another time).

Here’s why it’s a myth: you don’t call the shots – the market calls the shots. While you get to make decisions, those decisions can’t be made in a vacuum. Well they can be, but then you’re in business NFL – Not For Long. I come across so many entrepreneurs who see entrepreneurship as one giant path of constant self-aggrandizement. They see success as following their instinct and trusting in their singular vision. And that’s just plain stupid. Your business needs to serve a need – its needs to connect with what the client wants. And if you make it all about what you want – and your need to make decisions – you’re putting yourself first. It’s not about you – it’s about the client.

Here’s another reason it’s a myth: you should surround yourself with smart people. Better yet smarter people. If you insist on making all the decisions – you’re closing yourself off from the advice and support of these people. Or you’ve surrounded yourself with yes men and/or idiots.

When you think you’ll call the shots you’re subscribing to the view of entrepreneurs being brilliant geniuses ensconced in their ivory towers handing down brilliance from on-high. If you look at really successful entrepreneurs, they are connectors. They form partnerships, they bring resources together, and they listen to clients. What they don’t do is engage in the relentless arrogance of thinking it’s about calling the shots.

In my own experience, discovering this myth was one of the more painful realizations of running my own business. It stinks to realize that it’s not about you and your brilliant ideas. It’s about putting yourself out of the picture and focusing on the client.

Any other myths you’ve seen busted?

3 Reasons Why Business Plans Fail

mistakes, start-ups

I’ve helped several people put together business plans. The business plan I put together for my comedy club was used as a sample form in a book on business plans. Theoretically, I know something about business plans. I’ve seen some bad ones. The worst ones I’ve seen tend to be bad for one of these reasons.

3 Reasons Why Business Plans Fail

1. Filling in the Blank

There are plenty of software packages and business plan templates out there on the tubes of the Internet. While they can give you bit of structure when you’re completely lost and on your own – they can also have you focusing on issues which make little sense if any. A business plan that’s intended for venture capitalists or other serious investors needs to have an exit strategy – a plan for cashing out the investors. If you’re putting together a business plan for a small business or some business that you want to build and grow – you don’t need an exit strategy. Your exit strategy is filing for bankruptcy and moving back to your parent’s basement. Don’t fill in the blanks if you don’t understand the blanks.

2. Failure to you know, plan

Want to create a bad business plan – don’t use it to detail what you’ll actually do, use it to provide a 10,000 foot view of something you need to have microscopic insight into. This tends to be compounded by the fill-in-the-blank approach, where a business has a ‘marketing plan’ consisting of ‘generating great word of mouth, building the brand and engaging in social media.’ I’m reminded of a stand-up comic who asked an audience member what he did for a living. The guy in the audience said “Nothing” to which the comedian replied “Then how do you know when you’re done?” If your plan is that vague, how do you know when you’re doing it?

3. A Plan for World Domination

Not every business is going to be successful. And yet every bad business plan seems to not only promise success, but promises the kind of success that results in each investor ending up with enough money to buy their own island and flood it with enough filthy lucre to sink the damned thing. Project a reasonable growth arc and realize you’re not going to turn a web design company into the second coming of the Roman empire.

Avoid these common mistakes and keep your business plan alive.

A clever idea to raise money for your startup

general, marketing, resourcefulness, start-ups, tips

My friend, the incomparable Margaret Hicks, has started her own business giving tours of Chicago.

A Smart Idea for a Business

It’s really a great idea for a lifestyle business. It leverages her knowledge (she’s trained as a docent, and has done tours for other companies) and her skills (she’s funny, engaging, and smart without being smarmy). It also leverages the natural resources available in Chicago (interesting sites, stories, and an abundant tourist population) all of which she can access at basically zero cost. Zero cost natural resources? That’s the type of thing business dreams are made of.

A clever idea to raise money for your startup

Margaret’s really gone from being a smart cookie, to being a whole tray of steaming hot cookies made by your Nana with her fund raising strategy. She’s having a “Help Me Build My Business” party. For $20 her guests will get booze, beer and great food (her husband is a pro grade cook). I was so enamored of the business idea and the fund raising idea that I kicked in $50. And I can’t even make the party!

Why this is a clever idea

I’m a big fan of bootstrapping, but also calling in all your resources. By having this party, she’s calling in her resources in a fun way that won’t burn out those resources. It’s the Girl Scout Cookie Principle: ask people for small favors and give them something great in return and you can tap those people again and again. Girl Scout Cookies raise funds for the Girl Scouts without tapping out the resource (all those aunts, uncles and people at work). Why doesn’t it tap them out? Simple, they get a benefit above and beyond the ‘donative’ benefit and the incremental hit is so small they barely notice. Do you remember how much you spent on Girl Scout Cookies this year? I don’t, except when I tuck my gut into the car, and next year I’ll get hit up by the same tiny Trumps for cookies and willingly fork over my moolah. Brilliant.

It also taps into the Kid Rock Marketing Method: relentlessly promote your product to whoever will listen – particularly if those people express positive interest in the product. If you went up to Kid Rock after one of his early shows and told him you liked his music, he’d thank you and ask you if you were coming to the next show. If you were, he’d ask if you were bringing anyone. If you were, he’d ask if you wanted to sell T-shirts (giving you a T-shirt in return). Obnoxious – hell yeah. But that’s because we live in a world where self promotion is frowned on. Are you starting a business? Do you want it to survive, succeed and possibly grow? Are you telling people about your business? If you answered “yes” to the first two questions, why are you answering “no” to the third question? Networking is as much about getting the word out as it is about asking for stuff. Start getting the word out.

Margaret’s doing a great job of conceiving this business, funding it, and getting the word out to her potential supporters and evangelists in one swell foop. Check it out at ChicagoElevated.com.

Have any clever fund raising ideas? Ever been sucked up into someone else’s promotion efforts? Ever sold a Kid Rock T-Shirt? Chime in on the comments.

One of the Great Myths of Entrepreneurship: Calling the Shots