Can Your Startup Flourish Despite Business Chaos?

Every startup founder I know talks about the chaos of their business, which they usually attribute to that burst of growth that is required to get to positive cash flow. They envision a stable environment after that point, and may have convinced themselves that they will be safer and happier with a livable income, maintaining a loyal but flat customer base.

Sadly, this false perception often leads to the death of their business, or at least the end of their tenure as CEO. I “second the message” that chaos never subsides, from a couple of successful entrepreneurs, Clate Mask and Scott Martineau, in their book “Conquer the Chaos.” Your only choice is to live with it, and find a way to conquer it.

Some small business owners hope to reduce stress by keeping their business static, and believe that they can rely on referrals and repeat business to keep a consistent customer set. Even with this, Mask and Martineau present some important reasons why not innovating, or going into maintenance mode, will lead to your demise:

• Competitors swoop in and take your space. There are always people around with deeper pockets that can find synergy between your space and theirs. Once they see you have developed credible traction, they can grab your space with less cost (meaning lower price) than you had to put into developing it. Don’t count on your IP to save you.

• Employees stop innovating. Employees are human, and a static known environment is more comfortable than a dynamic one. Innovation requires venturing into the unknown, causing more dreaded chaos. The easiest way to reduce chaos is to buffer all your activities (slow down), define safer generic processes, which spiral down productivity.

• Your products quickly become outdated. Change is the only constant in a successful business. Technology keeps improving at a rapid rate, so you fall behind in technology, driving costs up, and you become non-competitive.

• Your income drops. With decreased employee productivity and outdated technology, your costs go up, and income drops. Even great entrepreneurs are amazed at how fast this can lead to a non-recoverable situation.

The only real solution is to conquer the chaos, while continually expanding your reach into the available market, and into the improvements in technology. Conquering chaos requires two key strategies:

1. Mindset strategy. Your mindset is your emotional capital, bolstered by disciplined optimism and entrepreneurial independence. These give you the capacity to grow your business without getting consumed by it. You need to find ways to replenish these on a regular basis, and find your balance of pain versus rewards to keep your company vital.

2. System strategies. These are the processes and tools you implement to grow your business and keep it running smoothly and profitably. Key ones include centralization, automation, and follow-up. Again, balance is the key, with some measurements along the way to keep you on track.

Even after you bring chaos under control, you face an ongoing challenge to avoid back-sliding. Once your systems are in place, you have to give yourself the time you are saving. Make sure your own ambition doesn’t send you back into chaos. Don’t fall for the belief that your business will fail without you. Relax, let go, and enjoy the freedom you have earned.

Only now can you become the liberated entrepreneur that you set out to be in the first place. Your business will grow, you will make more money, have more time, more control, more purpose, and less chaos. Do you have what it takes to achieve the real entrepreneur lifestyle?

Marty Zwilling

10 Keys To Team Motivation For A Winning Business

Sponsored by VISA Business

One of the keys to maximizing the productivity and success of your team, as well as yourself, is motivation. It has been estimated that the average team member at any given time works at less than 50% of his capacity. Thus, mastering the art of employee motivation could double your chances of success over the average competitor.

While there are many books written on this subject, most entrepreneurs I know simply assume that their own vision, motivation, and drive will be adopted and maintained by partners and employees. This is based on a one-hour inspirational talk by the founder or business leader, supplemented a reasonable salary and a dose of fear for good measure.

Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Motivation has to be a constant priority and tone, focused more on the positive emotional and internal needs of a person, rather than their opportunity to simply make more money. My review of the research indicates that many experts have settled on four R’s for motivation, but I have found ten, and you can probably add a couple more:

1. Respect. Every professional expects to be treated with respect. We all watch our leaders’ body language, facial expressions, and words for indications of respect and disrespect. Show by your words and actions that you value their role.

2. Resources. A team that doesn’t have the resources to do their job will lose their motivation rapidly. In a startup, key resources include funding, facilities and tools, and the time to get the job done. The most important resource may be your help and support.

3. Relationships. Positive social interactions with fellow team members lead to improved job satisfaction and motivation. Inversely, people who are negative and bring negative interpersonal attitudes to the workplace will destroy the motivation of others.

4. Responsibility. New responsibilities, when done with respect and moderation, prevent stagnation and challenges people to perform at even higher levels. Most people will rise to the occasion, see their progress, and become even more motivated.

5. Recognition. When you recognize and celebrate individual achievements, large and small, in front of peers, people feel wonderful about themselves. They feel more competent and eager to repeat the success or take on additional responsibility.

6. Rewards. People need rewards to maintain their motivation, or they will start to feel that the recognition is all “show,” with no substance behind it. Cash incentives are a good start, but even intangible rewards, like lunch with the boss, can be powerful motivators.

7. Reserves. In the military, an important mission is always backed up by reserve forces. Having backup gives a team confidence, motivation, and a sense of value. In startups, when people are clearly willing to back up each other, everyone’s motivation increases.

8. Reasons. A good cause can be the most powerful motivator of all. Workers doing assembly-line tasks during World War II were highly motivated because they were helping to win the war. Make sure your team really believes their work has impact.

9. Reinforcement. When a team member shows increased skills or results, following prior rewards, reinforcing that progress will result in a motivational multiplier. Reinforcement on a regular basis is recognition and rewards on steroids.

10. Recruiting. People are more motivated when they see “new blood” joining the team. This gives everyone a sense of renewal, additional support, and a fresh perspective. Recruiting is the inverse of layoffs, which reduces motivation in everyone.

In reality, people motivate themselves, and all these dimensions are simply ways to accelerate personal motivation. The key to increasing anyone’s intrinsic motivation is to align the support with things they value. Therefore the first step is to get to know your people, talk to them, and ask them what they are passionate about. Don’t try to guess the answers.

Doesn’t it make sense to use these motivational elements to get that other 50% from your startup team? In addition, these elements will make your business a more enjoyable and exciting place for everyone, consistent with your own vision for being an entrepreneur. When was the last time you really assessed the motivation level at your business?

Marty Zwilling

Disclosure: This blog entry sponsored by Visa Business and I received compensation for my time from Visa for sharing my views in this post, but the views expressed here are solely mine, not Visa's. Visit http://facebook.com/visasmallbiz to take a look at the reinvented Facebook Page: Well Sourced by Visa Business.

The Page serves as a space where small business owners can access educational resources, read success stories from other business owners, engage with peers, and find tips to help businesses run more efficiently.

Every month, the Page will introduce a new theme that will focus on a topic important to a small business owner's success. For additional tips and advice, and information about Visa's small business solutions, follow @VisaSmallBiz and visit http://visa.com/business.

Pick The Entrepreneur Lifestyle Alternative For You

You are an aspiring entrepreneur, eager to dump the corporate grind, and work to the beat of your own drummer, but you can’t come up with that killer idea to save the world. What are the alternatives that will give you the independence you crave, and challenge your business acumen?

Technically, I believe an entrepreneur is anyone who manages his own profit and loss, and doesn’t meet the government tax definition of an employee. Beyond the traditional new product or service model, you can always buy an existing business, purchase a franchise, join a multi-level marketing (MLM) company, or simply go out on your own as a consultant.

Of course there are a million variations which can make the difference, like work at home versus an office, or online versus storefront, but these are secondary to your basic role. In deciding which of these startup models is right for you, the best place to begin is to ask yourself why you want to own a business rather than be an employee:

• You have the technology to change the world. If you want to nurture a product into full bloom, a traditional startup is your best bet. Of course, you get the challenge of filing patents, developing a product, and defining the revenue model. With an existing business, MLM, or franchise, the technology and process are already set.

• You really just want to be the boss. If your answer is that you want to own your own business because of the freedom it will bring you to manage an operation, try a franchise or join an MLM. The base organization will define what you have to do, when you do it, and how you do it, but the success is all in the execution. Don’t look for an investor, since they can be the toughest boss you ever had.

• You want to make lots of money. New startups build from scratch, and go for broke. Many end that way, but a chosen few do make lots of money. Franchises, on the average, make less money than other types of businesses, but they have higher success rates. Consulting businesses rarely scale, so you may do well, but are not likely to make lots of money. MLMs are like the lottery, minimal investment, with low odds of any success, but a few people hit it really big.

• You are doing it to satisfy someone else. Too many people are running a business because their father always expected them to take over for the family, the spouse has been nagging you to do it for years, or they want to prove something to a sibling or peer. If you have a choice here, at least pick a less risky franchise, or a minimal investment MLM.

• You're looking for something to keep you busy. If you have startup funds in hand, you are one of the lucky ones who can start or buy any business you want. If you lack hands-on experience, a franchise may be ideal for you, because you'll get help with everything you need to set up your business. On the other hand, if experience is your strong suit, why not highlight and share it through consulting?

Whichever business model you pick, you need to make a serious commitment to the effort, or you will likely fail. I have a friend who starts a new business every couple of years, sort of like a hobby. After a few months, she gets tired of the grind, or runs up against a couple of tough problems, so she rationalizes that the economy turned bad, or someone misled her, and she walks away. A different business model probably won’t solve this problem.

If you still aren’t sure where you fit, I recommend working for someone else for a few years to gain knowledge, contacts, capital, and learn more about yourself. Then take the plunge with one of the above business models. You will soon know whether you are having fun, and that’s the most important criteria for any aspiration. Enjoy.

Marty Zwilling

Entrepreneurs Need Experience More Than An MBA

I don’t have an MBA. I used to fear that this would put me at a disadvantage in starting my own company, but now I’m convinced that it may be the other way around. In some reputable surveys, as many as two-thirds of entrepreneurs felt that their entrepreneurial spirit was more ingrained than learned, so a specific education level is at least irrelevant.

For business professionals who aspire to an executive position in a large company, most people agree that an MBA is always positive. It will get you a higher starting salary, and a valuable edge in your credentials at every promotion opportunity. In fact, BusinessWeek reports that roughly 40 percent of the S&P 500 chief executives have MBAs in any given year.

On the other hand, I had trouble thinking of famous entrepreneurs with an MBA. With a little research I found a few notable names in relatively recent businesses, although each of these actually started with some big-company experience:

• Fred Smith, chairman and founder, Federal Express. Smith is a legend among MBAs because he developed the hub-and-spoke delivery concept in a business case at Harvard Business School. The company now has more than 160,000 employees and revenues of $44 billion. He built an overnight competitor to the U.S. Postal Service.

• Meg Whitman, president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard. As an entrepreneur, she grew EBay from 30 employees and $4 million in annual revenue to more than 15,000 employees and $8 billion in annual revenue, before moving on to HP. She is a graduate of Princeton University and has an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

• John Scully, former CEO of Apple. He has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. During his ten-year tenure, Apple's sales increased from $800 million to $8 billion. Yet he was ultimately replaced a one-semester college dropout, Steve Jobs, who was the original founder. Sculley is currently doing well, despite his setback at Apple, as a partner in Sculley Brothers, a private investment firm formed in 1995.

These probably feel that their MBA was worthwhile. But I’ve found so many on the other side, like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Steve Jobs, who dropped out of college to start companies, and succeeded anyway. So here's my net on how an entrepreneur should look at an MBA:

1. If you are already an entrepreneur, more education, including an MBA, will only slow you down. Consider it a waste of time.

2. If you plan to become an entrepreneur, and already have business experience or an undergraduate business degree, skip the two-year delay and cost of the MBA.

3. If you have a technical career with no business background, and you want to start your own business, an MBA can be a blessing by giving you the basic knowledge you need to manage your business.

4. If you are still in school, and contemplating an MBA before stepping into the entrepreneurial world, go for it. An MBA will extend your education more broadly into the world of business strategy, and give you more credibility with potential investors.

5. If all else fails, calculate the ROI. Ignore prestige or credentials and look at the numbers by calculating the ROI of your MBA degree. Look at admissions testing and requirements, college tuition, textbooks, housing or transportation costs (none if opting for an online MBA). From there consider your pre-MBA salary and potential lifetime earnings with an MBA. What do the numbers say?

What’s different about the entrepreneurial environment? Many people argue that it has to do with the requirement for entrepreneurs to use “effectual” reasoning, compared to “causal” reasoning taught by most of the major business schools.

According to Professor Saras Sarasvathy, who teaches entrepreneurship at the Darden Graduate School of Business, causal reasoning begins with a pre-determined goal and a given means, and seeks to identify the optimal way to get there. Effectual reasoning, on the other hand, begins with a given means and allows goals to emerge based on situational dynamics.

That’s all a bit academic, so for me an MBA is not gold. But I have to admit that I feel blessed when I’m invited to guest lecture at MBA classes at one of the local universities. As in all my articles, I always hope to add a dose of reality to the theory, and make some gold for entrepreneurs and executives alike. But I’m always open to learning from you as well.

Marty Zwilling

5 Keys To Effective Entrepreneurial Team Mentoring

I’ve always wondered why every executive meeting has to be one hour in length, or longer. That’s probably a tenth of your day spent on one issue. It better be a critical one, because you have a hundred others waiting. I believe you can be much more productive, as well as a more effective leader, if you approach most meetings as mentoring opportunities, and limit them to five minutes.

In a traditional meeting, another person presents you with multiple options, and you make the decision. With the five-minute mentoring approach, the mentee asks for your support in their decision, or asks for your insight on the considerations for them making a future decision. Which approach do you think is more fulfilling for them, and best for your company in the long run?

The time limit has more to do with setting an expectation that the meeting is not for solving the problem, but coaching on the parameters and the approach. If you are a problem solver by nature, like Richard Branson,  this requires you to change your mindset from giving the “answer,” to helping someone else understand the process, and come to an even better solution.

I have used this approach with high-tech roles, like software design, as well as business development roles. It works, but in all cases, to be a successful mentor, there are some key things you have to do:

1. Be available always. If you are “too busy” most of the time, or locked behind closed doors, no mentoring relationship can work. It has to be evident to the mentee that this relationship is important to you, and you will make short periods of time available on a moment’s notice as required. If you often make people wait, they will take extra time, which will make more people wait longer and later.

2. Adapt to each individual learning style. Start by open listening. Some people learn best from anecdotal stories, and others need concrete pointers and step-by-step instructions. Respect each mentee’s desire to grow and honor their individual style. Remember that five-minute listening is not the same as five-minute mentoring.

3. Respect discussion confidentiality. Mentor discussions must remain confidential, so both parties can talk freely to each other without being quoted around the water cooler later. The mentee must not be afraid to show false starts or a naïve perspective.

4. Provide honest and constructive feedback. Personal attacks and emotional comments are not appropriate, but people need real feedback to learn. Set the context by clarifying your goals and expectations on a regular basis. Critique the work and not the person.

5. Hold the mentee responsible and accountable. Encourage the mentee to generate their own solutions, and make it clear that they must accept full responsibility for their personal choices. Good people won’t want it to work any other way. Most people learn best from making mistakes, so you have to let them fail sometimes.

I’m definitely not proposing the “traditional” style of mentoring, where the goal was a one-way transfer of a broad range of knowledge or information. Here the mentor was the authoritarian source, and directed all other aspects of the mentoring relationship. The mentee was a passive recipient and often had little say or control in the relationship.

Today’s learner-centered mentoring is a dynamic and two-way relationship that involves critical reflection and full participation in short period increments by both partners. The mentor assumes a role of a facilitator. The mentee becomes a proactive and equal partner, helping direct the relationship and set its goals.

The primary responsibility of a startup founder is to provide vision and leadership. Use five-minute mentoring as one tool and stick to it with unwavering zeal. There's nothing worse than getting off course and entering areas that lead you away from the primary track. Your greatest contribution is maintaining focus and guiding the team. Give it a try. You’ll get your time back and real respect.

Marty Zwilling