So What? Who Cares? Why You?

Confidence to Make the Shot!

As we head in to the last long weekend of the summer, take time out to do all those things you've loved most this summer!!

I'll be golfing -- and since I've been spending a fair bit of time on the links this summer, here's my take on what golf has taught me about business building (I need to justify all that time on the course somehow!).

Golf Lessons for Business Builders:

1) Timing - swing too fast or hard and you're guaranteed to shank it.  Rhythm is everything.

2) Focus - staying down on the shot - my biggest weakness!

3) Course management - planning each shot to avoid the obstacles and the hazards.

4) A little luck doesn't hurt,

and most important thing I've learned is...

5) Have the Confidence to Make the Shot

You've got to believe you can make the shot -- if you stand over the ball thinking you're going to slice it or hit it in the water, odds are you will.  A key success factor, in golf as in business, is confidence.  Believing you can execute when you really need to separates winners from losers.

And yes, the luck factor is a biggy too!

Enjoy your weekend.

Wendy

So What? Who Cares? Why You?
www.wendykennedy.com
author/advisor/lady with the flipcharts!

Are You Keeping Score?

If you’re not, then it’s time to start.

Keeping score means measuring your progress.  Are you executing on the things that matter? Set yourself up 90 and 180 day targets – and be specific on the metrics to measure them. And don’t get a laundry list – pick 4-5 important yardsticks.

I know lots of CEOs that say they do this, but they don’t do it with discipline – written down, shared with the team, and with a commitment to running the company against them.

Depending upon your growth priorities, you’ll have different things to score, but here are a few examples of what I mean:

- # of new customers acquired

- Leads/Close

- Key Account Wins

- RFP/Win Ratio

- Design wins

- # of new customers acquired

- # of new channel partners signed

- Revenue by customer type

- Customer support response times

- Uptime – MTBF – or some product performance metric

- there are lots more…

Commit to metrics that matter. Write these down and keep them in your back pocket (the entire team should be doing this).  Report quarterly on these and hold yourself and your team accountable. 

It WILL make a difference.

Showing the Money

If you're like most folks in startup land, you've got callouses and blisters from crafting investor documents.  You know the ones - those ten slide presentations (yah, right!!!), 2-page investment summaries, and not to be forgotten, business plan bible.

Several times in these documents I've found myself debating where you should put the "ask". 

This morning I dug out an article written by PowerPoint guru, Cliff Atkinson.  Cliff makes a great case for putting your most important slide, "the money slide", up front.  I had this discussion with a couple of founders on Monday and thought some perspective on this topic could be useful for others.

Read Cliff's article here.

Trees and Company Building

Yes, I know it’s an odd topic.  But I’m on vacation right now and so my BLOG posts are a bit infrequent and light hearted I confess!

I was wandering around our property this morning with an arborist, who’s trying to save a few of our birch trees from disease.  Based on his invoice, I’m thinking this might be a more lucrative profession!!!

As we moved from tree to tree, he carefully looked at the trunks and leaves for signs of stress and then offered up his words of advice for nurturing each one.

The list was extensive, and I’ve forgotten much of it, but it was the similarities to company building that I had the most fun with.

Maybe it’s just me and too much sun, but here they are:

1.  Trees focus on building roots for the first 3 years – it’s not until after that when they really take off.

2.  Cut off multiple “leaders” (the top branches), if they happen to appear or the other branches will try to grow behind both leaders and the tree will be stunted.  I thought you’d like this one J !!

3. Never plant a tree alone – it needs an ecosystem to survive.  The elements like wind, winters, etc. can be very hard for a tree to survive with the support of other trees around it.

4.  Pruning every once in a while makes the tree stronger.

5.  Trees die from the top down., not the bottom up.  Now that’s a powerful one for sure.

I think Jim Collins, author of “Good to Great”, would agree.

Enjoy your summer where every you may be.

~~~~~~

Wendy Kennedy

author/advisor/and lady with the flipcharts

So What? Who Cares? Why You?

www.wendykennedy.com

It’s A Small World

With summer in full swing and everyone out and about, I find myself in the “it’s a small world mode”.

It’s either because I’m getting older (as much as I hate to admit it), or because I’m cutting across many different social networks. Whatever the reason, it’s great.  Reconnecting with folks, cross-pollinating friendships between old and new acquaintances, and cultivating new relationships, it’s all good on both a personal and business level. 

I’m treating that theory of 6 degrees of separation like my golf handicap – battling to get it down!

Why this Post?

Because I find that summer is an absolutely perfect time to “connect” – people generally tend to be in a connecting mindset and there’s no shortage of things to do or talk about.  The perfect conditions for networking and building new relationships.  We often get so busy that we dismiss social events as taking time away – but in fact, it’s one of the best business investments you can make. 

It’s no secret that a strong network is a pillar for building great companies.  So take advantage of this time of year - whether you golf, play tennis, bike, love to cook, or whatever, find an activity or create an event to extend your network.

Just think of it this way -- It’s simply good business.

~~~~~~

Wendy Kennedy - author/speaker/lady with the flipcharts

So What? Who Cares? Why You?

www.wendykennedy.com

"Without Customers, You Don't Have a Business"

Here's some mental floss for you to ponder as we head into a long weekend.

This week as I met with clients, attended a CEO think tank session, sat in on a couple of advisory board meetings, I was struck by how much time we devote to discussions about governance, capital, and cash flow and yet how little time we devote to discussing customers -- getting them, learning from them, and keeping them.  Customers are the reason businesses exist - the worst mistake you can make is to forget this.

If we're going to build world class businesses, customers need to be a big part of the governance equation. 

Pick up a copy of July's Fast Company and read Peppers and Rogers' article "Customers Don't Grow on Trees".  It may spark a new metric for you to add to measure the health of your company.

When Your Short on Money #5 - The Grand Finale

Bold Strokes

Here's my final take on what I've learned about making a few dollars go a long way ...

1. Do a Few Things Really Well.
2. Don't Sprinkle Your Dollars Across Many Activities
3. You've Got to Make A Few Strategic Choices - Bold Strokes
4. Plug Away at It -- Just when you Get Tired of Something, Others are Just Catching On

I tend to go with the rule of: 1/2, 1/4, 1/4 -- in other words, I pick my three major business building activities (typically i look ahead 2 quarters), and then I invest my dollars (and energy) this way. 

After all, we want impact - so to get impact, you need to push hard on something to make it stick - both internally in your company as well as externally in the market.

Making choices about focus is tough -- the hardest word to say when you're building a business is ...

"NO"

Happy Canada Day!

When You’re Short on Money #4

Shop Around and Ask Around

I always like to encourage my clients to look around before committing to contracting for services or purchasing products.

The online age has brought a whole slew of alternative competitors in almost every category.  For many operational items, you can now get some remarkable solutions at price point you'll love.  Plus, there's the option of hosted models vs. server based which can offload the support infrastructure. 

Just the other day someone told me about a site where you can buy a complete corporate identity and web site template at prices as low as $69.00 US – just 2-3 years ago, you could pay $10-15K for the same thing.  And we’re talking slick, professional looking designs (check out http://www.steves-templates.com)

The new breed of entrepreneurs are also becoming procurement specialists on e-Bay, negotiating and buying items at a fraction of the list prices.

Here's another one I recently was introduced to - http://www.evalueserve.com/ - business and market intelligence being conducted globally - their proposition is customized quality research at 50% of the cost of other research firms.  You can view samples of their research work on their web site.

So Shop Around before you leap in to a project.

And, Ask Around – we as a society don’t ask enough questions – so ask, ask, ask -- and yes, ask your peers, but also your neighbor, ask your dentist, ask people you want to get to know (it’s a great icebreaker) --asking beyond your immediate circle might surprise and delight you with some creative options.

You will, I hope, be pleasantly surprised with the options to get something remarkable at a great price point.

When You’re Short on Money #3

Build Ties that Bind Your Prospects

I specifically say prospects here vs. customers – they are not customers until you close business.  We should never call someone a customer until we’ve closed a deal with them.  When we have “prospects”, I think there’s a greater sense of urgency to execute.  Customers = Revenue -- Prospects = Close, but no Cigar!

So, with that said, you can do many creative things with your prospects to delight and enlighten them (and move closer to turning them in to customers).

I’m a big fan of providing insight and knowledge to your prospects – particularly if you’re selling a new technology or alternative approach to something, offering insights through white papers, technical briefs, etc. can be very compelling to your prospect. Remember, they need to feel confident that you are a good bet, so the more you can equip them with “thought leadership” materials, the more comfortable they will become.

It costs very little these days to create a web seminar (webinar) to provide knowledge on a specific topic.  Pick a topic that’s hot in your market space and create a 30-40 minute presentation that’s educational – not a sales pitch.  Perhaps you can team up with one of your early access partners to do this and reach in to their prospect list also. 

I’ve also seen great success with techniques like focus groups to provide input to the product roadmap.  If you don’t have resources to commit to a full blown customer advisory board, then why not run a couple of formal focus groups to show your prospects that you’re committed to listening to their requirements.  Another great way to build relationships.

If my experience in startups is relevant, I’d say that I’ve always found when I was short on money it came down to creating high value materials.  Look around in your organization – I’m sure there’s a system architect, hardware designer, etc. that has some really interesting and valuable perspectives that your prospects would love to hear about.  And don’t underestimate the power of listening to your customers and creating forums to allow them to contribute to your business.  They will respect you for this.  These are The Ties that Bind.

Finally, nothing is FREE -- time is money -- and you'll need someone to invest time to do these activities - execute well and the time will be worth it.

Hope this is helpful.

When You're Short on Money #2

Early Access Partners

I call this early access partners to stress that you need to focus on partnerships that will build coverage/access to the market, in contrast to other partnerships like technology licensing, product development, etc.

I find the act of building partner relations one of the toughest for an early stage company.  We all want the big brand top guns as our partners, but the reality is that these large organizations often take the longest to secure (and they’re looking for stability and credibility in their partners).  Worse, very often one person in these large organizations (without the authority) will encourage us to spend time pursuing them as allies which can be a huge time guzzler for us.

I’d rather opt for partners who are a little bigger than I am and hungry to build momentum.  These guys may see you as a nice complement to offer their customers or a way to extend their product in to a new segment.  Put yourself in your partner’s shoes and ask “what’s in it for them”.  It’s got to be compelling.

You need partners who are nimble and driven to execute.  You need traction to build value.  And you also only need a few key partners vs. a laundry list.  I often see startups put up a laundry list of logos on their slides titled “Partners/Alliances”, but when you scratch below the surface, there’s nothing there.  Value comes from more than a logo.

Best to have a few key partners that you are truly developing business with and that you can showcase a deep business relationship brewing.  This is VALUE.

Remember too that partners like customers take work to develop.  So you need to think carefully about which early access partners give you the best ROI.  I have a due diligence checklist I’ve developed to assess prospective partners that I’m happy to share with you (just pop me an email). 

Hope some of these ideas help you cultivate your own winning partnerships!

Happy Trails!