Objectives:
Reason businesses fail
Starting while not knowing other skills
Board of directors
People you know
Friends and family
Vendor’s suppliers
1. Why most new businesses fail?
a. start a business knowing a skill but not other areas of business.
b. when you open a business you also need to know about marketing, sales, taxes, book keeping, employee and quarterly taxes, sales tax, human resource issues to prevent being sued by disgruntled employees, operations, customer service, shipping and more.
2. How do you prevent or deal with the issue of lack of knowledge?
a. formal education at a university or college
b. self taught- reading business material, publications like:
Wall Street Journal
Inc. Magazine
Wired Magazine
Advertising Age
Marketing Today
eMarketer Daily
Trade Journals
Get to know other professionals
3. Create your own “board of directors” for your business.
a. you need an accountant, banker, successful business person, maybe a lawyer.
b. set up a lunch meeting at a nice restaurant to explain your business and get their feedback.
c. set up the other three quarterly lunch meetings.
d. Bonus: because they are on your “board of directors” you can call them for advice during the year…frees professional consulting.
4. It’s who you know not what you know. Friends and family can be a rich source of frank feedback, and ideas.
a. family and friends are frank.
b. other acquaintances like neighbors, work associates
Example: college intern
5. Join professional associations such as Chamber of Commerce, and associations similar to accounting associations etc.
a. some of the very best contacts and networking are done at these meetings.
b. Join several organizations.
6. Vendors and suppliers
a. vendors not only sell you products but also sell to your competition.
b. make friends with the vendors, invite them to have coffee with you and chat. You will learn valuable information.
7. Create a contact strategy and contact list. Create a list of all people you know, business or not.
a. rank them hot, warm, cold.
b. create a plan with the date you will contact them using either phone, e-mail, or letter.
c. focus on the hot and warm contacts first.
d. record and keep track of conversations and write notes of what was said, and when the next contact will be.
8. Get endorsements and testimonials.
a. call and ask for them
b. write it yourself
c. send and tell make any changes he wants
d. usually he will noy change anything
Conclusion
It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. There is no greater asset than people you know in influence positions.
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