Successful Startup 101 Magazine - Veteran's Issue 2014
Page 5
About the Author
Martin is the CEO & Founder of Startup Professionals, Inc., a consultancy focused on assisting entrepreneurs with mentoring, business strategy and planning, and networking. Martin for years has provided entrepreneurs with first-hand advice, mentoring and business plan assistance as a startup consultant. He has a unique combination of business and high-tech experience, and executive mentoring and connecting startups with potential investors, board members, and service providers.
How to Avoid Common Startup Blunders
Entrepreneurs bring approximately 543,000 new business ideas to fruition every month, transforming and evolving the consumer landscape with everything from specialty grocery stores to jewelry shops. But with the average cost of starting a new business burning a $30,000 hole in most owners’ pockets, cutting costs without cutting corners can be a major challenge for both experienced retailers and industry newcomers. Despite arguments that for how critical public awareness is for retail success, allotting marketing dollars from an already limited budget can seem a stretch for many entrepreneurs.
That small business struggle - of managing your bottom line while being conscious of the proactive steps required to get ahead - was the inspiration behind sales and marketing expert Tabitha Naylor’smarketing consultancy practice and business advice site, SuccessfulStartUp101.com.
MEET THE EXPERT:
Tabitha Naylor, marketing pro and founder of
SuccessfulStartUp101.com.
“Over the years of speaking with business owners I came to recognize that many operators end up making the same mistakes as their peers,” says Naylor. “It doesn’t matter where they are geographically, what niche they’re in, it’s just human nature that, unfortunately, we end up making common mistakes that others already have experienced and that end up costing us in the long run.”
The economic feasibility of startups and small shops requires creativity, perseverance, and perhaps a little insight from industry peers when it comes to critical business components, like marketing. Blogging, social media, and a web presence to match the feel and sophistication of your physical storefront are just a few of the many tips Tabitha shared with us in our recent Podcast series on building your small business while avoiding common start up pitfalls. Listen to the full podcast below. You can also jump ahead to key talking points by referencing the index below, or click over to the full transcript.
1:10 About SuccessfulStartup101.com
3:55 Defining modern day marketing
6:15 What differentiates inbound and outbound marketing
9:18 How small businesses can incorporate inbound marketing into their business strategies
10:25 Why ROI is important in marketing, and other helpful metrics retailers should be aware of
12:45 Simple ways to increase ROI
15:35 Tips on common outbound marketing approaches
17:00 Top tricks for accurately measuring ROI
17:55 What should be on every business owners’ startup checklist
This has been an installment of Kimco Realty’s StoreFront, an interview series with leaders of successful retail businesses. For more interviews, visit the StoreFront page. To learn how you can be featured, email us. We’d love to hear from you.
5 Lessons the Special Forces Taught Me about Business
By Michael I. Kaplan
Last month I had the pleasure of speaking at a Wounded Warrior Project workshop on business and entrepreneurship in Tampa, Florida. During our question and answer session a young veteran made a statement that I found incredibly interesting and served as the inspiration for this article.
The gentleman – a US Army veteran who served as a sniper instructor and team leader – prefaced his question about resume writing with the following statement: “I was an infantry team leader and a sniper instructor, which doesn’t have any real value in the corporate world. So, I wanted to know if you could tell me how …?”
Stop right there. I vehemently disagree.
Veterans entering the civilian workforce have to understand that their resumes should actually reflect much more than hard skills and transferable skills; they have to reflect and promote the benefits of life experiences that will prove to be “mission critical” to prospective employers. Further, those benefits need to be communicated to prospective employers effectively.
More importantly, it’s our responsibility as military veterans to educate Corporate America to this fact as well. Not sometime in the future, but now.
My message to civilian employers and aspiring veteran job-seekers is rather straightforward. While you may not immediately see a direct correlation between military training and the job in question, be advised that those experiences have created a mindset that’s directly relevant to succeeding in any business environment.
Consider the 5 following lessons that prove this fact to be true.
1. Planning is essential, but contingency plans are critical.
In the military we rely on the Operation Order to guide or missions, hoping that the intelligence data our mission is based on is accurate and timely. We plan, we train and we prepare to execute the mission flawlessly. We’re inserted into the area of operation and beginning our movement to the target when our team leader suddenly exclaims, “WAIT … there’s not supposed to be a river here.”
When veterans come face-to-face with Murphy’s Law, they can adapt and overcome. They have contingency plans that allow them to think and react quickly. They didn’t get this ability from reading a book.
2. 360-degree awareness gets the team home safely.
The ability to be completely aware in hostile and non-permissive environments saves lives in combat situations. There’s no room for “I should have seen that coming” when it comes to explosive devices or rifle barrels protruding from windows in buildings.
Veterans with this experience have command over their business environment. They walk into offices and immediately scan the walls for informative plaques, and guide introductory conversations after noticing a lapel pin or a class ring on the hand they shook. They seal deals and get the team back successfully.
3. Wait for the best shot, not the perfect shot.
In sniper school we’re trained to patiently wait for our shot, unaffected by our environment. When the target presents itself, we act: range it, dope it, scope it and pull the trigger. We’d like a perfect shot, but we know that if we hold the scope on target too long muscle fatigue sets in and our scope begins a figure-8 wobble. When that happens, we missed our opportunity.
Veterans in the civilian workforce hope for a perfect outcome, but they’re not afraid to execute when ready and make course corrections along the way if needed. They don’t suffer from “paralysis by analysis,” and they certainly don’t succumb to “deer in the headlights” syndrome. They’re doers and fivers.
4. Know when to advance, stand down and retreat.
In our modern age of special operations warfare, small teams of highly specialized personnel with a high degree of autonomy are tasked with successfully executing tactical operations with the hope of having a strategic impact. We’ve been trained to exercise good judgment: we know when it’s right to execute, and we know there are times when the situation requires us to quietly stand down and retreat unnoticed.
Veterans in the civilian workforce don’t let pride and ego override this reality. When a meeting is going badly they know how to gracefully end the conversation and exit with dignity. When contract negotiations stall, they have the judgment to know when to maneuver to a successful conclusion and when to stand down for another opportunity. They didn’t obtain this critical life skill in a classroom.
5. Individuals are strong, but teams are powerful.
Special Operations personnel are the most well-trained and highly lethal individuals on this planet. We also know that despite our strengths we have to sleep, and in a hostile environment that would be impossible were it not for the other membe
rs of the team remaining awake and alert. When we execute our missions, we’re as focused on the safety of the team members to our right and left as we are on the mission in front of us. As a cohesive team, the effectiveness of our combined individual skills increases exponentially.
Veterans in the civilian workforce live by the mantra “first my mission, then my men, then myself” and know the powerful capabilities of a cohesive team. They derive satisfaction from their individual accomplishments but realize their potential increases exponentially as a unit. They despise self-absorb, back-stabbing sycophants. If you’ve never heard the term “Blue Falcon,” I encourage you to look it up now.
In summary, if I handed you my resume you’d never see these skills listed … but they’re there. You may not believe Special Forces training is relevant to the sales job you advertised … but it is. The next time a military veteran applies for a position with your company, look beyond the resume and the rifle.
What you’ll discover about our military veterans and their professional capabilities will pleasantly surprise you.
About the Author
Michael Kaplan is the founder and CEO of Phase 2 Advantage, a consulting company that provides entrepreneurship and business management training for military and academic organizations. His most recent book, The Prior-Service Entrepreneur: Providing Military Veterans with the Competitive Skills to Start a Successful Business, has earned a 5-star rating on Amazon and is currently used as a course textbook in numerous business and entrepreneurship training programs throughout the United States.
Five Startup Lessons for Fast-Growing Companies
By Kit Hickey
Within our first month of publicly launching Ministry of Supply in June 2012, we sold more than 6,000 shirts and gained 4,000 customers. Our company grew fast because it had to. We were an adolescent trapped in a baby’s body — we had to learn how to sprint before we could learn how to walk, and we had some serious growing pains as we tried to scale production from 300 to 6,000 shirts a month.
However, we quickly realized that by empowering our customers and empowering our company, we could truly grow the way we wanted. Everything we do comes down to empowering people to be their best.
As a co-founder, I focus a lot on how we can scale our team, our operations and our distribution. We’re a startup, and face many of the same challenges that startups face. Here’s what we’ve learned along the way about managing fast growth.
Championship vs. Ownership
There are six members of our team, and we all champion different areas of the business. For example, co-founder Gihan Amarasiriwardena focuses on product development and technology. Devin Cook, head of Customer Advocacy, spends all day thinking about how we can make customers as happy as possible. Over the months, we realized that we worked better as a team when we moved away from ownership and moved towards championship.
This philosophy ensures nobody feels possessive about his or her area of focus, while encouraging teamwork and collaboration. So while Devin may be focused on customer happiness, we all chip in with ideas and often have company-wide brainstorms about improving the customer experience. As champions, we’re all really proud of the areas we focus on and are encouraged to get others behind our initiatives.
Holistic Views of the Business
I love knowing what’s going on in all areas of the business, and we’ve found that everyone the team does too. We have an open office space and are constantly talking and bouncing ideas off of each other throughout the day. A few months ago, we realized that our communication wasn’t great despite the fact that we spent all day talking – some people didn’t know what was going on in various aspects of the business because decisions get made so quickly and a lot of decisions get made outside of the office.
We’ve been trying to get better at making sure that everyone in the company knows what’s going on and has a holistic view of the business. Being transparent and giving everyone the opportunity to know as much as they can enables everyone on a team to be their best.
Agile Problem-Solving
We act fast whenever we see problems. When we realized that some of the shirts we were shipping were running too slim, we halted production, created a new pattern, trained our manufacturers, and got better-fitting shirts on the market in three weeks.
Being able to adapt quickly and iterate in real-time is a huge benefit of a startup and we will forever try to retain that ability. In this example, by acting quickly to solve a problem, we were able to minimize exchanges — and more importantly, make our customers happy.
Technology Is in Our DNA
As a fashion brand born out of MIT, we use technology to create the best products possible — from our use of thermal mapping to optimize venting in our Aero pants design to the NASA phase-change performance materials we use in our Apollo shirts.
We truly believe that technology can improve everyone’s lives and we democratize technology through apparel. As such, we don’t stop at the use of technology in product development; we leverage technology in every touch point of our brand.
Brand Is Culture
At Ministry of Supply, we all live and breathe the mission. We are intentional about hiring people who fit both our brand and our culture. When we take company retreats, we challenge ourselves to be our best. Our last one included hiking and winter camping in negative degrees. We want our customers to be their best and our employees to be their best. Everything we do comes down to that.
Obviously a startup is a tremendous amount of work and nothing is certain. However, by staying true to our mission and empowering our customers and employees, we know that we’ll be here for the long haul.
About the Article
Kit Hickey is the co-founder of Ministry of Supply, a brand which is inventing the future of men's professional wear. The company has been featured in NYT, TechCrunch, Inc., Forbes and Elle Magazine. In addition, Kit is a lover of mountain sports and has half an MBA from MIT. Follow her: @kit_hickey
Entrepreneurs: Here Are 7 Ways to Make the Most of Your Downtime
By Ilya Pozin
As an entrepreneur or startup founder, being stretched thin comes with the territory. Juggling a busy schedule may be second nature for you, but are you really using your time wisely?
As the founder of two startups, I’ve grown so accustomed to being busy that I don’t think I function as well without a lot on my plate. But it’s taken years of practice for me to fine-tune my time management to ensure I’m not just getting things done but also maximizing every spare minute. This is especially important when it comes to your downtime–even if it’s just 15 minutes per day.
Here are seven things to accomplish while making the best use of every spare minute you have:
1. Reprogram your schedule
Using your brief moment of downtime to work on scheduling could save you a lot of time in the future. How much time are you allocating toward meetings, projects, or anything else you’re encountering on a daily basis?
Focus on slivers of time where you can cut back. For example, rather than scheduling a one hour meeting to chat with your team, cut out the fluff so it’s 30 minutes or less.
2. Brainstorming
Idea generation is crucial to every startup founder, but it can be challenging to find time in your busy schedule. If you have 30 minutes of quiet time in the morning, brainstorm some ways to improve your business or just let your creativity flow for a while. Or, if your team is having a slow work day, invite them to the meeting room and divide them into teams for an impromptu brainstorming session. Give the team with the best new ideas a reward, like flex time or a day to work from home.
3. Strategizing
Every minute counts when it comes to strategizing ways to grow your business. This could mean researching new ways to reach your customer base via marketing strategies or simply improving your website.
To put your spare time strategizing to better use, consider bringi
ng in your business partner or trusted employee to help you further your thinking.
4. Evaluate your team
When was the last time you spent time evaluating the way your team functions? Go beyond considering their efficiency and whether they’re thoroughly engaged. Instead, hone in on their strengths and weaknesses and figure out ways for them to improve. You may even want to pull your employees aside for a one-on-one to individually to address any issues and gain feedback.
5. Rework internal processes
Is your business running as smoothly as you think it is? Take time to figure out ways to improve your internal processes and boost company-wide efficiency.
For example, you may find a software program that can automate menial tasks. Or maybe you’re struggling internally with the management and delegation of your teams. Consider restructuring your organization to remove hierarchy and function in a new manner.
6. Uninterrupted general focus
Balancing a busy schedule often means struggling to find time to sit down and truly focus on something for a long period of time. Take advantage of every spare moment of down time to achieve uninterrupted focus on a pressing matter, even if it’s just organizing your inbox.
7. Catch up on reading
Believe it or not, reading is a great way to make use of your time. Make time to read up on the latest industry news, check out what your competitors are doing, or even finish up that book that’s been gathering dust on your shelf. Feeding your mind also enhances your creativity and productivity overall.