Month: March 2014

Categories
Starting Up

Managing Expections: Launch and Learn #entrepreneurfail

launchandlearn

New Webcomics series brought to you by #entrepreneurfail and GetEntrepreneurial.com. Enjoy!

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

I have timely news for you. Your launch may take you twice as long and cost double what was expected, and that’s the best-case scenario. The bottom line is that it’s tough to deliver when and what you intend to. Schedules are shifted, budgets are rebalanced and the original scope is tweaked, prodded and pivoted. However, you are in good company – even our favorite fruit company had delayed their phone shipments in the past.

When I first decided to pursue one of my business ideas – I couldn’t wait to tell every person I met about the upcoming launch date and plans for growth in order to generate some future buzz.  I naively believed that 2-3 months sounded like a fair benchmark – even though I never actually sat down to calculate the possible timelines, nor assess all the tasks required.  As I started working, minutes swirled into weeks. As I approached nearly 4 months after my initial rants, I sheepishly shared a defunct prototype with just a few people.  Everything took longer than I expected, and the output looked much more different than what was in my head.

To keep assess actual timelines and things on track, I recommend BaseCamp and DeskAway. Both have a free trial period, and are cloud-based solutions that you can use either immediately. Allocate tasks to your whole team, check on the status in real time and keep track of a lot more in order to avoid an #entrepreneurfail. These are all baby steps to delivering on your launch date.

Have you met all your deadlines? Tell us about it in the comments below. 

This comic was created by Kriti Vichare for #entrepreneurfail: Startup Success.

Categories
Communication Skills

The Writing Life — What’s Your Shield?

writing-pen

I’m writing this at Bill Baren’s The Big Shift event. Bill is an interesting fellow (check out my PW Unplugged Radio interview with him) and what I most enjoy is how he presents “old” topics with a fresh, new slant.

Yesterday he talked about the “shields” we all carry around with us. A shield is something we use to protect ourselves from taking a chance and maybe getting hurt (like we start a new business but the business fails, so if we didn’t start that business we would never experience the hurt of it failing — and we have a shield that keeps us from ever starting the biz in the first place).

Shields can be things like:

* I’m too old

* The economy is bad

* I don’t have a college degree (or the right education)

* My family isn’t supportive

* I don’t have the money

* My kids are young and I need to be with them

Or it can even be internal blocks we don’t even realize we have, like a fear of success or failure or making to much money or not valuing ourselves, etc.

So it got me thinking — what shields am I using to keep myself from writing?

While I probably have a few (I think we all have multiple shields) I think one of the big ones for me is “I don’t have the time.”

I mean, I have a busy, thriving, copywriting and marketing business. I travel a lot, am on the phone a lot, when is there time?

So, yes there’s no question I COULD make the argument I have no time.

But…

Then I look at authors such as Stephen King and Mary Higgens Clark, both of whom worked full time, had little money AND had families and STILL managed to find the time to write their first book. (Clark in particular — she was a single mom supporting 5 kids and working full time — she used to get up at 4 am to write, plus when her kids were doing homework she would write with them.)

I don’t have kids. So how is it I, with no kids, can’t find the time to write?

Maybe because it’s a shield. A comfortable shield protecting me from rejection. Because, of course, if I can’t find time to write, then I don’t have to worry about my writing getting rejected.

See how that works?

So, I’m taking a stand here that I’m no longer using the “I don’t have time” excuse to stop myself from getting my writing out there.

Now, it’s your turn. What’s YOUR shield protecting yourself from writing? Comment below and let the world see it, because it’s only by getting it OUT of you that will allow you to finally make that shift.

Categories
Sales & Marketing

Easy Ways to Avoid Sales Failure

sales-failure

As a sales manager or leader it’s a duty of yours to remove obstacles that are in the way of your team’s success. The obstacles can range from providing training or simply supporting the team in their efforts. How are you doing it?

Take a moment to read the article on Why Your Sales Will Fail in the perspective as a sales professional.

The article was written to help sales professionals understand where they tend to drop the ball and where they could increase their efforts. This process is a 2 way street and it’s essential that the management team adopts the mind set of helping their teams thrive in any way possible.

Below are some key ways you could be focusing on improving and increasing your sales team effectiveness with a little bit of effort you could end up seeing exponential growth in productivity.

Training

Believe it or not the majority of professionals, not just in sales, appreciate and want further training. It’s a way to grow within the industry but most importantly it’s a way for a professional to progress with their own career.

If you have a fear of employees leaving due to their increase in experience and knowledge then you’re being selfish. The reality is that if you provide your team with the tools to thrive and succeed then it’s unlikely they’ll be looking to leave any time soon.

Training is a cost, sure it is. But the purpose of training sometimes reaches beyond the idea of learning something new. Training can also be seen as a motivational tool giving the attendee some new found knowledge or experience that drives them to work harder and smarter.

If you look at training with a long term view then you’ll realise that the current costs are actually quite small.

Support

The last thing anyone wants is to be stuck on an account that doesn’t seem to be moving down the sales cycle or stuck in a rut of no deals.

This is where the most experienced and knowledgeable person should be made available, but the question is how likely is that to happen?

Referring to the training pointer above, if you think training costs too much then why not offer your personal knowledge to your team? Sometimes your personal experience, time and knowledge is worth more than gold to your team.

When you hire someone new, be it a completely new trainee or an experienced veteran you still need to offer your personal support.

For the trainee it offers an opportunity to fast track with your knowledge and success and for the experience veteran it allows for them to understand processes, actions, ideas and goals without doing guess work.

It’s surprising how few people are willing to offer genuine support to their teams.

Categories
Work Life

The 4-Hour Shirk Week #entrepreneurfail

how-much-longer

New Webcomics series brought to you by #entrepreneurfail and GetEntrepreneurial.com. Enjoy!

Now don’t get me wrong…I really like Tim Ferriss and his books, hacks, and inspirational goals. He seems to polarize with his material though: either you love his material or are secretly cursing him for making you feel like an underachiever.

This post is a public service announcement for those entrepreneurs who, for many years, have been misinterpreting, misusing, or just missing his techniques from The 4-Hour Workweek. Here are some of the benefits of his books, as well as some of the potential #entrepreneurfail moments related to it, so you can proceed with caution.

Useful Nuggests

Simply put, in all of his books, Tim Ferriss stitches together his knowledge, methods, hacks and accomplishments based on the mini experiments he’s conducted and the empirical results he has achieved. For the new entrepreneur there are many little nuggets of wisdom that can be adapted to simplify and succeed as a small business owner.

Caveats and Proceeding with Caution

Here’s the problem: Many entrepreneurs assume FAST RESULTS when they hear ‘4-hour week’. They don’t realize that to get to this point, entrepreneurs may have to put in some 100-hour weeks. Don’t forget that Tim Ferriss probably still doesn’t work a ‘4-hour week,’ since he is probably busy creating the next book for us. Also, if we all just work 4 hours a week, who will be doing the grunt level of work in our society.?

Another issue for us mere mortals, as David Seah admits in his review of the 4-Hour Workweek, that many of Tim Ferriss’ recommendations are a challenge to complete. Entrepreneurs are already under so much pressure, so the added pressure of working many long hours, and not seeing the galactic results is overwhelming.

And finally, in the 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss recommends outsourcing for growing a business. But guess what…you’ll find entrepreneurs outsourcing not only the ancillary functions of their business, but also the business development, the secret sauce, and the core business operations. This is a recipe for disaster, and true entrepreneurs know that the key business functions need to stay in-house to truly differentiate and provide value.

All in all, I’m sure you’ll get some pointers if you haven’t picked up his books yet. Just tread cautiously as you dive into his methods.

?Let us know what you think of the books: Four-Hour Workweek, The Four-Hour Body, or The Four-Hour Chef in the comments below. Are you a fan or a skeptic when it comes to Tim Ferriss? 

This post was originally created by Kriti Vichare for #entrepreneurfail: Startup Success. She is the founder of IdeaKube, providing innovation and creativity workshops for virtual teams.

Categories
Operations

Dwelling on your Dwelling: Finding a Startup Office #entrepreneurfail

entrepreneurfail-dwell

New Webcomics series brought to you by #entrepreneurfail and GetEntrepreneurial.com. Enjoy!

Is your filing cabinet under your bed?

In New York City or any large metropolis worldwide, you’ll find entrepreneurs who have made a home office a reality. The city provides an alluring location, but the dollar per square foot is obscene. This is why many budding entrepreneurs choose to start in a home office. And in working from home, the magical line between the bed and the desk soon disappears – an #entrepreneurfail.

Some of the challenges we have faced working in a home office include:

  1. Lack of camaraderie and employee banter
  2. Difficult to be presentable for last minute meetings
  3. No space to have office meetings
  4. Cabin fever strikes all the time 

You can use your flexibility to your advantage if you don’t have a traditional office, though. Just remember, cubicle-dwellers across the world would gladly trade their cage to have your 15-second commute. It is just unfortunate that productivity can wane when your workspace is lonely and cluttered, which is a definite #entrepreneurfail.  To escape the monotony of your home office, you can go to coworking spaces and coffee shops. Here is a list of places with free wifi that may help you in your quest. Alternatively, you can be your own wifi provider, and carry a hotspot. We’ve also used libraries, parks, hotel lobbies and other public spaces to set up shop for the day.

Good luck finding a cordoned-off spot to optimize your output. And now, back to work!

Tell us about your quest to find the perfect spot to work. Let us know in the comments below. 

Fails are nothing but a laugh on the road to success. Find more entrepreneurship comics here.  This post is originally from #entrepreneurfail: Startup Success by Kriti Vichare.