Category Archives: Business Principles

Why They Call It Serial Entrepreneurship

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They call it serial entrepreneurship for a reason.

In a parallel connection, the data flows through multiple connections simultaneously. This is the same as the turnstiles of an arena where many people pass through multiple turnstiles simultaneously.

But, even though there are many turnstiles, each turnstile can only have one person passing through it a time.

Startup entrepreneurs who attempt to simultaneously execute multiple business models or operate against multiple market segments are attempting to single-handedly go through multiple turnstiles at the same time.

It just can’t be done.

When you are building a business, that business needs at least 100% of you. There is no way you can be fair to that business, and that business’ customers, employees, co-founders, investors and stakeholders if you are trying to split yourself across that business and additional business models.

The same goes for market segments when you are a startup. You cannot fully and effectively serve multiple market segments with startup scale resources.

Conversely, in a serial connection, the data flows through one connection, one block of data at a time, one block of data after another. It’s just like you moving through a turnstile. You go through one turnstile at a time.

Starting a business is the same as passing through a turnstile. You may do many of them in your lifetime, but you can only fully do one at a time.

If you are trying to do more than one at a time, you are doing it wrong.

It’s not called parallel entrepreneurship.

It’s called serial entrepreneurship.

It’s called serial entrepreneurship for a reason.

(almost) Everything you’ll ever need to know about business

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There was an excerpt posted today on the Four Hour Workweek blog from a new 81-page book: A Few Lessons for Investors and Managers from Warren E. Buffett.

I love succinctness, and you can’t get much better than distilling the essence of “what Charlie and I have been saying over the years in annual reports and at annual meetings” into 81 pages.

Here’s one of my favorite sections:

THE REALLY GREAT BUSINESS: High returns, a sustainable competitive advantage and obstacles that make it tough for new companies to enter

A truly great business must have an enduring “moat” that protects excellent returns on invested capital. (2007)

“Moats”—a metaphor for the superiorities they possess that make life difficult for their competitors. (2007)

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Struggling for Traction

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It’s very easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of the hamster wheel inside the fishbowl of building your business and forget about the overall opportunity parameters.

If you are struggling for traction, it indicates that you may be:

  • Experiencing a mismatch between what you believe to be the opportunity and the reality of the opportunity (this is very common in the immediate-post-bar-napkin, just-keep-grinding and true-believer phases)
  • Building a solution looking for a problem (this is typical of engineering driven companies)
  • Not understanding who your ideal customer is and what their pain is (this is also typical of engineering driven companies)
  • Lacking sufficient ideal customers who are willing to pay for a solution to their pain at a price point that supports a sustainably profitable business model (this is a strategic leadership error, typically a variation of “it’s my idea so it must be good”)
  • Not effectively creating the perception of need in your prospects (this is marketing’s job, and this is fairly common when building solutions looking for a problem)
  • Not closing on the perceived need (this is sales’ job, and this one is rare compared to the others in this list)

Early Stage Priorities

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During the very early days of a business, in stage one, decisions are made which determines the initial trajectory of a business. While you can always pivot and change direction, every pivot costs resources.

In the early stages of a business, you don’t have much in the way of resources, so limiting the number of pivots is directly related to efficiency.

Here’s some counsel I recently provided to a couple of engineers who have an early stage Big Data startup:

You are currently early in stage one here: www.IdeaToExit.com. You have made some preliminary decisions regarding the business model, but have yet to progress through the most important stage one section: market sizing.

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A Swing and a Miss

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As part of my consulting services, I am tasked with evaluating companies for VC, private equity and angel investors.

I recently attended a private pitch by an experienced entrepreneur to evaluate the potential of the company for some interested investors.

The entrepreneur was the prototype of what many aspiring entrepreneurs or early stage founders wish they could be:

  • Silicon Valley startup veteran
  • Multiple startups
  • VC funded in previous companies
  • Had successfully exited and made his investors money
  • Talented engineer

In short, he had a sterling track record, impeccable credentials and noteworthy references.

To the run-of-the-mill tech startup founder, he was the poster child for “who gets funded when I don’t.”

And, he failed.

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The Business Model

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There are seven stages in the life-cycle of a business:

  1. Assessment (ideas, resources, market)
  2. Seed (nurturing the idea)
  3. Discovery (discovering a sustainably profitable business model)
  4. Proof (proving the business model)
  5. Scale
  6. Execution
  7. Exit

 

Most people starting this journey for the first time think they will go directly from brilliant business idea to execution of a highly lucrative business model. What they miss is all the hard work in between that it takes to nurture their idea, discover a viable, sustainably profitable business model, prove that model and then scale that model into the highly lucrative machine of their initial dreams.

In addition, most of the business startup press, especially the maximum-buzz high technology startup media, concentrates on the Lean Startup methodology as applied to the business model discovery phase. http://theleanstartup.com/ This leads some first time entrepreneurs to believe that as long as they optimize the business model discovery stage of the journey, nothing else really matters. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

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Cash Flow

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Cash flow is the top challenge for just about every new business in the world.

Most people who are new to business are fearful, if not overwhelmed, by the financial side of the business. Not many new entrepreneurs have a working understanding of the financial terms, much less the reports, used by business finance professionals. How many new entrepreneurs understand the differences between and the implications of cash versus accrual accounting? Not many.

This is a problem because people tend to avoid, downplay and fear that which they don’t understand. Accounting and finance are no exception. Entrepreneurs who have little to no understanding of finance and even less available time to go up the learning curve on it are naturally vulnerable to financial challenges, if not disaster, in their businesses.

The key to overcoming this is to focus on cash flow, because that is what will kill your business.

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Patents

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I have been granted a patent by the United States Patent Office. I am seeking funds to help with the manufacturing in China.

Congratulations on your patent.

By obtaining a patent, you have obtained Intellectual Property (IP) protection for your product. In order for a competitor to directly compete with your device, they must either pay you a licensing fee for the use of your patented design or create an alternative design that accomplishes the same purpose.

In a broad sense, you have erected a barrier to entry for competitors. Barriers to entry can be created by a dominant brand position, capital resources, unique product capabilities, proprietary sales channels, vendor and customer relationships, etc. All of those barriers to entry are market based.

A patent is a legal barrier to entry in a specific market. In your case, you have a U.S. patent, so your design is protected in the U.S. market. A country specific patent protects products in that country. An International Patent protects a design in all countries who are party to the international patent agreement.

The burden of any legal barrier to entry such as a patent or copyright is that it is incumbent on you, the patent holder, to enforce your rights. That means you must police the marketplace to discover infringing products and file (and pay for) legal action to stop the infringing product’s sales.

The upside of a patent is that it provides legal and enforceable IP protection. The downside is that you need the required capital and legal resources to enforce your patent.

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Work Life Balance

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Balance

Achieving balance while building a business is very challenging. The rule of thumb when starting and growing a business is that you will work much, much too hard in the initial stages. It’s better to come to terms with that reality going in, make your peace with it, and just buckle down and put in the effort required to get the business up and running.

If you are constantly beating yourself up because you are not living the perfect balanced life featured on the magazine covers, you are not helping the cause. Those ideal versions of life are mostly fantasies or one-in-a-million stories.

Starting and building a business, especially in the initial stages, requires huge amounts of time, energy and focus. It is important to understand that going in. It is very important that those important to you, those in your support network, understand that going in. If you and those around you are not fully in tune with the resource, time and energy requirements of starting and building a business, the psychic and emotional tolls that ensue can destroy your business, your relationships and your life.

I will say this again: Starting a building a business, especially in the initial stages, requires huge amounts of time, energy and focus. Don’t diminish any of those three by fighting a running battle with yourself or those around you regarding this issue.

Having said all of that, it is important to carve out some moments for yourself and for your life on a regular basis, even in the early days of starting your business. Make a point of taking a few minutes to do something just for you and something just for those around you. Have a plan, and stick to it, of gradually increasing those moments as the business gets up on its feet.

Once your business is operational, things change. No business model is valid if it is based on heroic effort by those involved. If the only way your business works is if you neglect yourself, those around you and your life, then the business model is flawed and it is doomed to failure in the mid- to long-term. Once your business is operational, you must be in balance or the business will fail; it’s only a matter of time. You simply can’t sustain an unbalanced energy and time investment in a business at the cost of all other aspects of your life. It will eventually kill the business, kill your life or kill you. For a business to be sustainable, you, and everyone else associated with the business, must be in a reasonable state of life/work balance.

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Diverse Offerings

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This challenge is one I see a lot while providing management consulting, mentoring and coaching to entrepreneurs and startup teams.

For example, a business plans to offer the following products and services:

  1. web design
  2. web site maintenance
  3. web design instruction
  4. instructional packages for website owners
  5. life coaching
  6. photography
  7. public speaking
  8. writing
  9. professional skating instruction

You can make the case that 1-4 are related products and could be complementary offerings.

You can also make a case that public speaking and writing can address any of the other offerings.

However, you cannot make a case that attempting to sell all of these diverse products and services is possible in a brand coherent, much less an energy and capital efficient, manner.

I have personally been a professional photographer, public speaker and writer. I know, first-hand, how much time, energy and marketing focus is required to be a success in any one of those three endeavors.

And that is really the point here. It is tough enough to build a successful business around any one, single offering, much less nine, and especially nine that are either completely disparate or tenuously related.

Each offering you sell has its own set of development, maintenance, delivery and support requirements. Each offering has its own market and customers, each requiring very specific value propositions, brand positionings, marketing messages, sales channels and execution.

Each business is a bucking bronco in its own right.

Photo: Meralain via Flickr

 

Trying to ride multiple horses at once is tough enough as a rodeo trick.

It is not a valid business model.

You need to pick a horse and ride it.

Pick one horse, one market, one set of customers, one value proposition, one brand position, one marketing message, one sales channel and one business model to execute.

Find a market niche and own that niche. Then expand from there.

Nine horses is too many to ride.

Before you build a business plan, pick a horse and ride it.

 

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