Recipe for Success in Entrepreneurship

So you want to own your own business?  Perhaps you want to start a company with some partners?  Do you want to be a successful entrepreneur either way?  I’m assuming you answered yes to all three of these questions.  While I have A LOT to learn still as an entrepreneur, I have learned some good stuff on my own.  More importantly, I’ve listened to a bunch of other highly successful entrepreneurs and paid close attention to their reasons for success.  Combine my experience with all of theirs and I think I have a pretty decent idea of what the recipe is for success in entrepreneurship.  Ready? This is big stuff.  Write it down.  Share it.  Memorize it.  Live it!

1 – Spend a crazy amount of time figuring out what business you want to be in.  Pick one you’d enjoy, not just one that can make you money.  Also pick one that you understand somewhat or can learn to understand thru hard work.  I’d say pick some sort of tech/internet play as they are low cost, high growth, and present good exit opportunities, but there are plenty of great businesses outside of this space should you choose something else.

2 – Once you’ve completed #1, get to work.  Don’t raise money, use your credit cards and a bunch of free stuff to get your business going.  Get a line of credit or a small SBA loan.  Don’t rely on investors or worry about an exit strategy.  Spend barely enough to survive – make your investment thru sweat, learning, effort, borrowing expertise, reading and just duct taping things together to see if you can gain any traction at all.

3 – Try as early as possible to get some customers.  Why?  Two reasons – the first is obvious, some revenue.  Duh.  The other is so that they can help you build your product/service into something they’d buy more of or pay more for later.  Customers build great products for you if you engage them and listen to them.

4 – Work your ass off.  No exchanging this for anything else.  Work your ass off, it’s the only way to do it.  I’m not saying you can’t have fun, that you should forsake your family, or anything else.  I am saying be SuperMan and just do it all.  It’s been done by others time and again, why can’t you do it?

5 – Commit.  Stick with what you are doing for awhile.  Don’t go 1/2 in, go all in.  Don’t be a pansy and back out at the first sign of difficulty.  Fail fast if you are going to fail (see a previous post about failing fast), otherwise, stick with the ship thru good times and bad as there will be both on your way to the really good stuff.

6 – Get some great partners and people smarter than you are on board.  Do it quick.  Do it early.  Check your ego at the door and realize that a smaller piece of something big is much more valuable than a large piece of something small.

Repeat most of these, sometimes in a different order, again and again until the following happens:

1 – You have enough customers, revenue and traction to legitimately pitch for an investment.  Don’t make an idiot of yourself and pitch too soon.  Unless you have a lot of previous success in a related area, ideas do not get funded 99% of the time.  Ideas that have shown some execution and traction have a much higher likelihood of getting funded.

2 – Keep betting.  Double down.  Don’t find a little success and rat hole it.  Put it on the table, let it ride!  Entrepreneurs are, after all, risk takers.  Calculated risk takers, but risk takers nonetheless.  Now is not the time to take the cheap way out.  Go all in!

3 – Get a big bank loan, sign some big customers, and funnel all of this cash into growth.  Again, double down!  It’s not time to even think about selling yet.

I’ll do a follow up post on another part of the recipe.  This part though is tried and true.  It could take you awhile to get thru all of it.  Comment about your take on the recipe.  Seen it succeed?  Seen it fail?  In the middle of it?  Let’s hear about it…

Do you have an iPhone? Do you use Twitter?  Do you have an iPhone and have wanted to try Twitter but for some reason you haven’t “gotten it” yet?  Then try our NEW Twitter app, TwitJump!  It’s free and unique.  It makes Twitter totally relevant and easy to use.  I hope you will download it and let me know what you think.  Feel free to leave some positive feedback and ratings as well via the review button on iTunes

Thanks a bunch, here are the links:

Link to the iTunes site:   TwitJump App – iTunes

Picture of what the app looks like on iTunes:   Pics of TwitJump for iPhone

The answer is quite simple really.  It’s our People.  ”Aces In Their Places” as an old partner of mine used to say.  We have dedicated, talented, hard working, and fully committed employees who deal with constant change, ups and downs, crazy work loads, and do all of this and more with a smile.  Enthusiasm and a positive attitude from each of them makes a big difference too.  They lift where they stand.  They win.  They learn and grow as we learn and grow.

As owners, our partnership has very little ego as well – it’s all about what is best for FundingUniverse.  That means tough decisions, but it also means we grew 6,000+% last year and that’s in part because we gel.  We compliment each other’s skill sets.  So how did FundingUniverse make it onto the Inc. 500 this year as the #1 fastest growing company in Utah (all categories), the #2 fastest growing company in the USA in our category (business services) and the #34 fastest growing company in the USA (all categories) with a 6,000%+ growth rate over the past 5 years (and counting – watch for us in future years!). Again, it’s quite simple really, here is the list of answers  (in order of our Yammer company directory).  Thank you doesn’t do it justice – but to each of you, THANK YOU for being an important part of my life and for making a difference in the lives of those you work with and for helping our customers in the countless ways that you do.  It’s my great honor to be on this list with you, side by side.  Let’s do it again next year, shall we?

Levi King
Brock Blake
Mike Henderson
Trent Miskin
Zach Mangum
Brett Child
Richard Ferguson
Kendall Frazier
Cody Rich
David Ahrens
Kevin Nelson
Bob Loros
Brett Dansie
Tiffany Carter
Jeffrey Neslen
Derick Faller
Lynn Manning
Ben Midget
Joe Simmons
Joe Hughes
Jake Hoopes
Darren Lunt
Reed Noorlander
Jim Rampton
Jason Woodland
Caton Hanson
Mariah Waldron
Brody Bennett
Edward Reynolds
Pilimi Findlay
Joel Jensen
Carly Skinner
Brent Davis
Curtis Swenson
Mike Millward
Nick Cronin
Dave Perry
Ariena Pauch
Kelli Evans
Lindsay Hayes
Jon Fink
Jordan Keith
Michele Gee
Monica Beeman
Tyler Metcalf
Ryan De Prima
Matt Stapleton
Shane Van Cott
Diana Rees
Kim Blackburn
Shaun Fuhriman
Ben Westerman
Noah Goodrich
Lisa Trueax
Terry King

First of all, before the haters come out, my motivation is actually not to buy followers or friends.  I am certainly excited that the outcome could be an increase in both, but it isn’t my primary reason for doing this whatsoever.  If I wanted to bump my numbers as per the contests rules in the lower portion of this blog post, I could just spend the money on followers/friends with various sites and get the same results.  So that should put a stop to that chatter if anyone thinks it’s what I am after.

There is so much talk about Twitter vs. Facebook.  Depending upon your use case, I think one/both is indeed the better answer for you.  Really, they are both great for different reasons.  I’ll blog about that later, perhaps as how it relates to this.  In an attempt to prove it with my own little idea, I am going to give away two Apple iPad’s and/or two Apple iPhone’s (or two Droid OS phones if that floats your boat) to test it.

Here is the deal:

My 20,000 follower on my Twitter account (I think I am at 16,000 or so now) gets either an iPad or an iPhone 4/Droid phone, you choose.  Period.  I pay for it and mail it to you within a week.

My 4,000th friend on Facebook (I think I am at about 2,000 or so now) gets either an iPad or an iPhone 4, you choose.  Period.  I pay for it and mail it to you within a week.

This is totally unlike other offers I’ve seen like this that admit that they want to buy followers/friends.  Even if they want to buy friends, so what – people try to buy friends in real life all the time – it just took a bit to leak into social media, that’s all!  I am in this for the data, hence my point above that if I wanted to buy followers/friends, I could and for cheaper then my offer here.  Who can RT via Twitter and share via FB this contest the quickest?  Then who follows/unfollows as it gets close to 20K on Twitter and who does the same on FB, un-friends and friends to try and be the 4,000th one???  I hope we can all watch and find out.  I will be taking screenshots, keeping track of counts, and doing some post contest analysis and will share the data with you.

Why do you want to do this:

1 – It’s easy. Follow and friend me and then ignore or hide me if you find me lame/boring (totally possible) and then get interested again when I am getting close to the winning numbers.  You will also want to click the ‘like’ button at the top of this post so it’s easier to share/track and you can get updates if you want them.  You can also click ‘retweet’ on the top of this post as well so that you can send it to your Twitter followers.

2 – RT and share, blog, etc. my tweet/FB update and ‘like’/retweet above this blog post as much as you are comfortable.  Why?  You want your winnings soon, right?  The more people that can understand the simplicity of #1 above, the quicker we get there, the quicker you could win.

3 – Some of you might be interested in the data I collect and share.  I can analyze stuff like which network spread faster, which one won first, which users had the greatest reach, is the ‘like’ button or the RT more powerful, how long will it take compared to my other methods, how many people immediately drop me after the contest is over – all kinds of cool metrics!!!  It won’t happen if it doesn’t work, so help it work, and let’s learn some more stuff about these two platforms that will be useful to you and me.

Here is how you win the contest (i.e. the rules).  You take a screen shot at follower 19,999 of my Twitter account that clearly shows time/date of your screen shot on your computer, and then right after you follow me, take another that should show almost the identical time and the count changing to 20,000.  Same with my Facebook account, only the number is 3,999 and 4,0000, respectively.  You have to email this proof to me IMMEDIATELY – alex AT the entrepreneurs blog DOT com.   Once I am satisfied it’s you that won via this data, you pick your prize and I mail it to you within a week.  ONE MAJOR ASTERISK – I have sole decision over the winner.  If for any reason I think you cheated or I think you got second place, you have to live with my decision.  REPEAT – YOU HAVE TO LIVE WITH MY DECISION.  You agree not to whine and moan anywhere, especially on Twitter/Facebook if I decide you got second or third.  There is only ONE winner per platform (one person could conceivably win both though), and that is entirely, completely and totally in my sole discretion of who that is.  I’m not going to screw anyone over, but I predict if we get to the winning numbers, things will be crazy and since cool stuff will be on the line, someone will try to cheat.  If for some reason I get two people that send me screen shots that I can prove are not doctored, then the winner will be the one who sends me the email first.  Any questions, ask me!

There will be winner(s) though, so that’ll be cool.  Good luck.  Spread the word!!! RT on Twitter, share on Facebook, ‘like’/retweet on this post above, and let’s get some cool stuff to people in a fun, no strings contest.  I hope YOU win

So I had a colonoscopy yesterday.  All went well.  As an aside, I had it at age 35 due to the fact that my Father died a few years ago from a particularly nasty strain of colon cancer that grows really fast.  Since I am my Dad’s mirror image, I’ll be getting a colonscopy every few years in order to prevent cancer the best that I can.  You should too.  If you have symptoms, have a family history, or are of age – GET ONE.  They are not that fun, but apparently they can be quite funny.  So much so that my wife thought it was a good idea to take notes of what I was saying as I awoke from anesthesia.  I remember 0% of this.  I have to admit, I can see myself saying some of this stuff and I bet it was kinda funny.  I hope it makes you laugh.  Have a great Friday:

Do you think you’ve got the stones to be an entrepreneur?  The cajones?  The balls?  The ovaries?  The guts?  Of course you do.  How many people who say they want to be an entrepreneur, when pushed, actually break down and admit that they can’t cut it?  In my experience, not many.  Being an entrepreneur seems like it is the new Doctor or Lawyer in terms of the cool thing to be successful at.  It certainly hasn’t always been that way, and of course there are many who still think the golden path to success is layered with extra years in school and an advanced degree.  I’m not saying they are wrong – those are fine professions that can often reap great financial, and often personal, benefit.  However, I can honestly say I have yet to meet a completely content lawyer.  I have met a few content Doctors and Dentists that are reasonably happy in their career, but most of them are older.  Even those ones invest a lot of their discretionary income in unrelated businesses (with a super high failure rate unfortunately).  And don’t get me started on the poor souls who lose their life to Wall Street, consulting firms, and investment bank and the other 100+ hour work weeks all in the name of career advancement.  Good for them, no thanks for me.

The younger Doctors and Dentists that I know aren’t operating in the medical field that used to exist.  There are a lot more rules and regulations, and many of them are taking (gasp) jobs working for large medical companies.  Some of them are simply taking over “Dad’s” practice, or worse yet, using his money to build an exorbitant facility.  Seriously, have you seen some of these places new Doctors/Dentists are building?  I don’t get it.  But anyhow, I digress. The consultants and investment bankers and other Ivy League jobs that still await newly minted MBA’s from the top schools are continuing to pay well, but there aren’t as many of those jobs available as there used to be.  And besides that, most of them suffer for years until they can find the time (or get the guts) to leave and join a company with some sort of entrepreneurial flavor anyway.  Others will stay at the McKinsey’s of the World forever, and they will most certainly create a lot of wealth for themselves, but again – no thanks.  That path isn’t for me, and once again, I’m guessing it isn’t for you.

I’d venture to say that most people aspire to work for themselves and have a life they can truly call their own.  I’m guessing if you are reading this, you’d like to work for yourself.  You’d like to own a business.  You are tired of being subjected to decisions that really aren’t yours.  You are tired of Corporate America and you’d like a change of scenery.  You’d like to create your own opportunities that generate wealth for you, your families and your employees.  Those are all noble goals.  You do not have to be an entrepreneur necessarily to create opportunity and wealth though.  You can work at Bain & Co. or B of A for 35 years and have opportunity and wealth for both you and your family.  So it must be the first part that attracts you to entrepreneurship – the working for yourself part, right?   While I’m sure when a lawyer finally makes ‘partner’ status, or a consultant is moved up the chain enough at the Investment Bank, there are layers of security that create a feeling of having ‘arrived’.  I can’t help but wonder though if that compares to the satisfaction of getting to that same place, but from within a company you really helped build.

Working for “yourself” as the saying goes, isn’t really for ‘yourself’ at all.  Almost any great company I know of has partners, investors, banks, board members and such that really make it group of people working for ‘themselves’.  Semantics aside, it’s still this type of environment, where you alone or you with a group, own a company and run it day to day.  That’s what you want to do, right?  That’s what you talk about doing, right?  Talk is cheap though.  Action speaks louder than words.  There really is only one way to find out if you can answer the questions at the very beginning of this post.  How is that you ask?  By failing.  Yep, failing.

It’s highly unlikely that your first entrepreneurial venture will be a large financial success.  It is unlikely it will be a financial success at all.  Perhaps you will buy yourself a job and make a few bucks, but in the previous paragraphs that wasn’t what you were aspiring to, was it?  You wanted a permanent lifestyle change.  You want to be your own boss.  You want to build and own a part of something that you genuinely helped create.  You want all the financial success that you would have had if you stayed in the fill-in-the-blank-here career all of those years.  In order to do that – in fact, the only way to do that – you have to understand that failure is a legitimate option.

What do I mean by that?  Of course I’ve heard the saying ‘failure is not an option’.  And I totally agree.  At the risk of sounding like I have MPD, I’m not saying you have to accept failure.  In fact, abhor it.  I am saying that it’s a concept that you can learn to master instead of suffer from.  How?  By recognizing failure quickly and either changing direction to avoid it (if possible) or doing everything you can to quickly recover from it.  The first part is where the great entrepreneurial stories come from.  The near-death experience of company XYZ that paid it’s last dime for payroll, product, advertising, rent or some combination of that in order to rise again and make it to the top of the widget world.  Maybe that will be you.  Awesome and congrats.

What is more likely is that you will find yourself, at some point, stuck with a business and a financial situation, that are going to be difficult to fix.    So, what do you do?  Having learned from failures of my past, I’d simply say this.  If you are going to continue forward because being an entrepreneur is the choice you’ve made, hurry up and fail so you can get the mess cleaned up and get on with the next thing.  Fail fast.  Fail inexpensively.  Fail without risking it all.  Gone are the days that you have to risk everything you have in order to be an entrepreneur.  With the advancements in technology and the steep discounts in international labor and materials, there is just no excuse for blowing your every last cent on a business before you find out it won’t work.  There is no honor in throwing good time and money after bad.   Have the guts to say “this isn’t the one” and move on.  Have the guts to say “I did all I could here, I’m going to do something else now”.  Have the guts to admit that you failed.

Let me reiterate that I am not suggesting you wimp out and jump ship early.  No way.  Never.  What I am saying is understand that entrepreneurship comes with success and failure.  It’s just part of the deal for most people.  So if you can recognize it quicker, minimize the time and money damage, and move on – it’ll be that much sooner and closer to you big win.

So go on now, get out there and FAIL!  Just remember, a success is waiting around the corner.

I mentioned to Jeremy Hanks at an event today that I thought a lot of people were Twitter stalkers.  That thought obviously prompted this brief post.  Are you a Twitter stalker?  Let me define it before you answer.  I’m describing people who go online or on their smartphone to check the updates of people on Twitter, yet they don’t actually ‘follow’ them in technical Twitter terminology.  It’s tough to do that with Facebook and LinkedIn due to most privacy settings, but it’s easy to do it on Twitter.  Go to their Twitter account, read their updates, move on.  They won’t know you were there, but you know what they are up to.  I’m positive there are some reading this now that do this with me.  I am also positive I don’t do it myself.  Of course I’ll look up the occassional Twitter account of someone I am not following, but that isn’t what I am talking about.  I’m talking about consistent/regular reading of someone’s Tweet’s without clicking the ‘follow’ button.

If I’m interested in what you are doing, I will follow you on Twitter.  I recently unfollowed everyone and am now finding and following people one at a time.  If you aren’t on my following list, there is a good chance you will be in the future.  Let me be clear, it is not a special honor by any means for me to follow you – but nonetheless, I plan to grow my following list one person at a time.

Anyone willing to confess they are a Twitter stalker?  I’ll allow anonymous comments

If you’d like to write a guest post on my blog, I’d like to hear from you.  Email me.  alex AT theentrepreneursblog DOT COM.

I’m not sure yet what I’ll do with the requests, but I’d like to see other entrepreneurs use this domain to get their thoughts out there for discussion.  I look forward to hearing from you.

I usually blog about entrepreneurship, stuff I’m working on, the occasional book review and sometimes a random topic.  This post fits squarely in the “random topic’ category. I bet your wondering what the topic of my blog means.  If it had been a few months ago, I myself would have had no clue what it means.  Fast forwarding to today, I have to laugh at what it means.

There is a huge internet rumor that teen music idol (and top Twitter topic) Justin Bieber changed his name from Alex Lawrence to Justin Bieber.  Here is a screenshot of what happens when you google said topic (click on the image below to see the search results in a larger image):

So what does this mean for me?  A few funny (and no slightly annoying) things actually.

1 – I get constant TwitJump email alerts that my name is being mentioned on Twitter.  Much to my chagrin, 90% of the time it is because someone is freaking out that I’m not the real Justin Bieber.

2 – I get tweets, emails, FB messages and more yelling at me for making up this rumor and that they KNOW I am not Justin Bieber.  They are correct.

3 – I’m reminded of how old I am.  All of these teenage girls are nuts-oid about this kid and I just don’t get it.  Perhaps if I were younger it’d make more sense.

So, what do I do from here?  I was thinking of starting a career as a Justin Bieber impersonator.  See below for why that won’t work and who I’d be better of impersonating.

This is Justin Bieber, not Alex Lawrence.  Don’t believe what you read on Twitter.

This is Jack Black.  Let’s be honest, there is much more of a resemblance.

My solution to squashing the Bieber/Lawrence internet rumor?  Switch it with a new one.  I’m actually Jack Black!  Chew on that one little teen tweeters!

Then IdeaPitch(tm) is for you.  Go to our FundingUniverse FB page, ‘LIKE’ us, and upload your idea.  It’s just that easy.  If you get the most votes, you win $2K cash with no strings attached.  It isn’t a loan or an investment.  The winner gets the cash and does with it as they see fit.  Talk is cheap – if you have a good idea, share it briefly and get your friends and others to vote.  The Idea with the most votes at the end of this round, wins!  Upload your videos and let me know, I’ll check it out and maybe I’ll vote for YOU!  Either way, it’s a FUN competition that someone will win – why not you?

FundingUniverse IdeaPitch Competition on Facebook