And I Thought it was Just Me….

A new survey commissioned by Office Depot reveals that many individuals (34 percent) lose significant amounts of time — more than 15 minutes a day or nearly two hours every week — hunting for lost papers, sorting through messy files and re-booking missed appointments.
I think I lose two hours every day on such activities.
According to the study, the majority (53 percent) live in “controlled chaos,” where their desk is a mess but they claim to know where everything is located.
I am in the other 47 percent that lives in uncontrolled chaos. My desk is a mess and I have no idea where things are most of the time.
Busy professionals also are finding this rather chaotic lifestyle costly. In fact, 76 percent of respondents report they lose time to disorder, while more than half (51 percent) are concerned about missing important deadlines or appointments, and many cite fear of diminishing their reputation (16 percent) or losing business opportunities (14 percent) due to disorganization.
I am in the 24 percent who don’t even know that I lose time to my disorder. But then, ignorance is indeed bliss.
A mere 22 percent of respondents stated that they arranged their desk for maximum productivity every day, while 49 percent organize only once a month — or less frequently.
I organize my desk once a semester, whether it needs it or not.
Of those surveyed, 67 percent are not sure how to start or maintain their efforts.
I gave up years ago — it is now just a part of my character.
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Vision is More than Product and Market

An entrepreneur’s vision should communicate what her business can become. It paints a clear and compelling picture for employees, investors, suppliers, and other stakeholders of what they are buying into at a time when the business has little or nothing to show. But to be complete, this vision should describe more than the product the business will make and market it will serve. It should also paint a picture of how the entrepreneur intends to conduct herself as she starts and grows her business.
The entrepreneur’s values should also be reflected in her vision for the business. How will she conduct herself as she starts and builds her business? How does she want to treat her employees? How does she want those employees to treat the customer? What are the principles that will shape how her employees act in her business?
The values she brings to her business should be the same values that guide her life outside her business. This is what creates true integrity in her life. Each action in her business will shape her character. The opportunities she pursues, who she chooses to do business with, who she hires, how she treats each stakeholder of her business, all develop her character just as much as her actions in her family and in her community.
So her vision will not only guide her business strategically, but also guide the development of its culture. And it will also help shape who she becomes as a person.

A Fourth Aspect of Opportunity Assessment

There are three key questions that every entrepreneur should ask while assessing to see if an idea is a real business opportunity. Is there really a market? Is there enough margin to make the business feasible? Is this business really for me in terms of my passion and my experience? Answering these questions is a process that entrepreneurs should go through with every idea they are seriously considering for a new business. As I have written earlier, answering these questions is a step long before pen is put to paper to write a business plan or a dime of money is raised. My students sometimes refer to this as answering the “3 M’s”.
There is also a fourth “M” that should be assessed, That is the morality of the business idea. Now what is moral is a tricky issue. But if we are going to be serious about running an ethical business, shouldn’t it begin at the very first steps of the start-up? But what makes a business moral?
The morality of a new business relates to two issues. First, do we have a vision to build a good business? Do we intend to business that creates a good culture for its employees? Do we intend intend to treat our external stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers and investors, with integrity and honesty?
The second part of building a good business from the very beginning relates to product or service that we offer to the market. Does our business idea make a positive contribution to society? I am not saying, for example, that only entrepreneurs who make new medical devices that save millions of people’s lives is the only type of moral businesses. That is not the point. Rather, do we have a vision to offer a product or service that in some way will make peoples lives a little bit better, even if in some small and insignificant way.
In many ways the issue here comes down to intent. The same business concept can be moral when implemented by one entrepreneur and not moral when started by another. Let me offer an example, but please know that I am not suggesting that I know the intent of either of these entrepreneurs nor pretend to know what is in their hearts and minds, for that is where this ultimately rests.
These examples come from a recent story in US News on genetic screening for the potential to come down with severe genetically related diseases. On the surface this sounds like a pretty good thing to offer to the market. Some of the companies offer this service in a way that clearly is intended to first and foremost help their customers. They only offer tests that are scientifically validated and do so with one-on-one genetic counseling as part of the service. Some other companies in this story offer tests that are of questionable validity and reliability and provide the results with vague and, according to the US News story, potentially misleading written explanation of the results. Again I do not pretend to judge what either entrepreneur intended here, but in looking at their actions and how they implemented the same basic concept, one can infer some possible differences in their visions for this same business concept.
A few years ago I was team-teaching this concept with my co-author Mike Naughton from the U of St. Thomas. One of our students asked us if his family business was a good business, a moral business. After all, their business simply planted bushes and tress along state and county highways. What did that really contribute to society, he asked? But Mike assured him that indeed this business could be good, as long as their vision included good intentions for their customers, their market and their community. The student said that they took pride in making people’s long and often tedious commutes a bit more pleasant and enjoyable.
“Then that is indeed a good business,” Mike assured him.

Straight “A’s” Needed for Equity Investment

It is time to dispel a financing myth. You will often hear that investors will put money in an “A” team with a “C” idea, but not an “A” idea with only a “C” team. The truth is that you will need straight “A’s” to get angel or VC money.
Certainly you need an “A” team. The investors need to know that the entrepreneurial team can deliver on the plan. The team’s collective experience is the best predictor of future success. They prefer that you have managed a start-up through its growth before, and if it was financially successful that is all the better.
But, they also want an “A” business concept. It has to have market potential that is big, I mean really big. To get the multiples of their investment that they expect, they need your business to have the clear potential to grow to many millions in sales and the probability of many millions in cash flow. They also want to see a relatively benign competitive environment. Never say there is no competitive, because then you look naive, but your plan should insulate you as much as possible from competitive threats, as that is the key to unimpeded growth.
They also want an “A” exit plan. If they can’t see a clear path to get their money out of the deal within a few short years, it doesn’t matter how good you are or your idea looks. Today that is most often an acquisition, since IPOs are few and far between.
And investors want “A” intellectual property protection. They don’t want to invest in deals that cannot be protected. In today’s global economy they will often look at your IP both domestically and internationally.
So study hard and do your homework if you want equity financing, as you will need a perfect 4.0 grade point average to close the deal.

Unemployment Steady, Self-Employment Up

In spite of all of the hand wringing in Washington, the US economy is chugging right along.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that there was a strong increase in new payroll jobs in December and that unemployment is holding steady at 4.5%. This was a stronger than expected report.
Self-employment was also up last month by 156,000 to 9.865 million, which is 8.7% of the workforce.
Given the surveys of the past few months that showing that small business owners are already having challenges finding qualified workers, this may not be great news for the entrepreneurial economy as it continues to signal tight job markets and hints of future inflation.
But, as our two soon to be college graduate children pointed out at dinner last night, it is good for them as there are plenty of jobs out there!

Entrepreneurship and the Year of the Pig

Although it does not technically start until sometime in February, 2007 is the Year of the Pig. Here are some quotes about pigs and the wisdom they offer for entrepreneurs.
Pigs and Business Ethics: I learned long ago never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it. (George Bernard Shaw).
The next time you are tempted to follow the lead of a less than scrupulous competitor, especially when it comes to an issue of ethics and your integrity, remember this saying. And also remember that if you you wrestle with too many pigs in the mud, you might start to like it as much as they do.
Pigs and Lawyers: Lawsuit n. A machine which you go into as a pig and come out of as a sausage. (Ambrose Bierce).
When it comes to legal issues, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” (a quote than I believe is attributed to Henry de Bracton). Avoiding litigation is never completely possible, but there are some common sense ways to avoid becoming someones sausage. Develop a strong shareholder agreement before you start your business. Continue to develop your personnel systems, and spend a little money on an employment attorney along the way to improve your litigation protection. Develop strong contracts with your attorney. Be honest and always do what you promise to do.
Pigs and Taking the Entrepreneurial Plunge: The difference between ‘involvement’ and ‘commitment’ is like an eggs-and-ham breakfast: the chicken was ‘involved’ – the pig was ‘committed’ (anon.).
I see too many new entrepreneurs, especially older ones, try to find the easy transition from a job to becoming an entrepreneur. In the world of entrepreneurship, at some time you have to accept that you are like the pig when it comes to breakfast!
Pigs and Finding Opportunities: One has a nose. The nose scents and it chooses. An artist is simply a kind of pig snouting truffles. (Igor Stravinsky).
Most good business opportunities are right there under you nose….
Pigs and Fame: Fame is like a shaved pig with a greased tail, and it is only after it has slipped through the hands of some thousands, that some fellow, by mere chance, holds on to it! (Davy Crockett).
Although it is often unspoken, many entrepreneurs seek fame as one of their goals Be careful what you pray for — fame often comes for the wrong reason, and your fame can soon turn into infamy. Also, the better known you become, the more competitors you will attract.
Pigs and Exit Planning: You can’t fatten the pig on market day. (John Howard).
Building value in your business is a long-term process that takes consistent commitment. There is no magic that can make your business more valuable at the time you are ready to move on. You build a little bit of value every day over many years of hard work.
Happy New Year! As my father likes to say: Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered. In 2007, be the pig!
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