6 Guidelines On How And When To Use Non-Disclosures

As an advisor to entrepreneurs, I often have to deal with people who are convinced that they must get me to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) before they begin talks about their new venture. They seem shocked to learn that most professional investors and advisors, myself included, routinely decline such requests, due to costly litigation and administrative nightmares.

My view is that non-disclosures won’t protect you from unscrupulous business contacts, so you simply shouldn’t deal with the flood of unknown people who will contact you via the phone or Internet. Stick with people you meet through warm introductions, or count on the integrity of professionals who have a visible reputation and references, instead of a legal document.

Yet I recommend to every entrepreneur that there are still situations where an NDA (sometimes called Confidential Disclosure Agreement) makes sense compared to normal situations, where your risk of losing an investor or advisor is greater than the risk of your idea being compromised. Here are my guidelines for when a signed agreement is required, versus other alternatives:

1. Insist on a two-way NDA for partner negotiations. Most often, your best partners are in some way a competitor, or already in a business complementary to yours. They could easily copy your business, so a mutual non-disclosure is required for protection in both directions. It pays to talk to competitors about the business, but not your business.

2. Get an NDA before detailed patent disclosures. Entrepreneurs should never disclose the details of a planned or current patent application to any outsiders, until after a non-disclosure or other contract has been signed. Potential investors don’t need this data, except perhaps as part of a final due diligence after an initial signed agreement.

3. Never disclose trade secrets without a contract. Some entrepreneurs avoid the patent process, since patent details become public once a patent is issued. Trade secrets, which may be recipes, formulas or processes, should only be disclosed on a need-to-know basis, even to employees, and then always accompanied by a contract.

4. Don’t ask for an NDA from trusted investors and advisors. If you are approaching a recognized venture capital group, or even an accredited angel investor, a non-disclosure agreement is counter-productive. These professionals value their integrity, like your therapist or financial advisor, and will not share your business details nor steal your idea.

5. Don’t even respond to unsolicited requests for details. If you receive an email or phone call requesting details on your plan from someone you don’t know, don’t assume that asking them to sign an NDA will protect you. The same is true for strangers who may approach you at networking events or industry conferences. Prepare a high-level pitch.

6. Read NDAs carefully for scope and duration. In today’s world of rapid innovation and new technologies, any individual or company should be hesitant to sign an agreement that limits their activities for more than two years, or is too broad in scope. If a longer term or scope change proves necessary later, any agreement can be amended as required.

In my experience, trying to tantalize a person of interest to you by dangling an NDA for signature, almost always backfires, to define you as too risk averse or paranoid to be a successful business person. In fact, if you have a good idea, you need smart investors and professionals to spread the word to other good people, so you really want them to talk and get feedback for you.

I also recommend that you practice explaining your concept in marketing terms through social media, networking opportunities, and crowdfunding. If that doesn’t get any attention, the details probably don’t need protection. Demanding an NDA too early is a sure way to kill your dream before the people who can help you even know what you have to offer.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 12/15/2017 ***

10 Questions To Ask Before Selecting A Search Firm

I started out in business as a techy geek, so I understand why technologists starting a new venture spend so much effort getting the product just right. Yet I’ve learned over time that building the business is all about having the right team members. Thus I’m frustrated when I see founders pushing off recruiting, or jumping to quick and cheap solutions, like Craigslist and free job sites.

I’m fully convinced that you get what you pay for with people. That doesn’t mean you need to hire an expensive recruiter for every position, but it does mean that you must put the same time and effort into finding rockstar people, as you do in building a rockstar solution. I believe the quality of your employees becomes more and more critical to survival and growth as the business matures.

In fact, according to a new book, ”Recruit Rockstars,” by Jeff Hyman, ninety percent of business problems are actually recruiting problems in disguise. Hyman started his career at the preeminent search firm Heidrick & Struggles, and has built four companies, so he knows the ropes. He and I both believe the right people are the most competitive advantage you can have in business.

He provides some great guidance from his experience, which I learned the hard way, on how to select the right recruiter, when you do decide to get some professional help finding the right people. Here are ten key questions you should ask in selecting any recruiter or firm:

1. What are your search successful completion metrics? Competent recruiters should be willing to share the percentage of searches that they actually complete. Numbers in the 80 to 90 percent range indicate market-leading efforts. Other measures to gauge process efficiency include the interview-to-offer ratio, and the offer-to-close percentage.

2. What percentage of your hires have stayed two years? This is often referred to as the “stick” rate for new hires. Eighty percent or higher is a good starting point, since twenty-four months is the current national average for job tenure with a company. Low numbers here may indicate poor vetting of candidates, or an inadequate search.

3. On average, how long does it take to complete a search? The national average is 90 to 120 days. An efficient recruiter who isn’t overloaded with searches can often do it in half that time. The longer the search takes, the more money you are losing by not having the position filled and productive. This cost can far exceed any search firm retainer.

4. How many searches are they working on concurrently? You want to know if your search will be one of fifteen they’re working on, or one of three. Good recruiters limit the number of concurrent searches, so they can give each one the proper personal attention. You want efforts to contact ideal candidates, rather than a total reliance on tools and lists.

5. How involved is the recruiter in the search process? Some search firms hand off all the real work to interns or call centers. Good recruiters develop their own candidate list, are creative and smart about how to message your opportunity, and are persistent in their follow-up. This can make all the difference in attracting the right candidate.

6. What is their vetting process for candidates? Make sure the recruiter fully understands your expectation of competency and culture, and is able to integrate that into their selection process. Find out who will be doing the interviews, how many rounds are expected, and whether the process will be done in person, by phone, or Skype video.

7. What are the rules and size of off-limits list? Usually a recruiter doing a search for a company will agree not to recruit anyone out of that company for another client for a certain period of time, usually a year or two. Thus larger search firms with large clients in your niche may not have access to the candidates you need to fill a specific role.

8. How will they position your company and opportunity? To attract the best candidates, they need to differentiate your company and your opportunity. Ask the potential recruiter to prepare a draft of the message they will be using, and make sure you agree that it will be compelling. Create job invitations, rather than job descriptions.

9. Will they provide complete visibility to the pipeline? Just because you intend to use a recruiter doesn’t mean you can totally delegate the hiring process. You should ask for a report on progress weekly, and take the time to review who has been contacted, vetting progress, and interview results. Only then can you provide timely input and adjustments.

10. What are the terms of any replacement guarantee? Most firms will recruit a new candidate for no additional fee, if the first one leaves or fails to perform. A guarantee of one month is not worth much, since this barely covers the honeymoon period. The best will offer a year, since poor fits and failures will certainly be evident by that time.

With these questions, and the commensurate work on your part, you too can attract rockstars who can really make your winning technology a leading business in the marketplace. Life is too short to get halfway there, and be held back by team members who don’t share your drive and commitment.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 12/13/2017 ***

5 Steps To Reduce Due Diligence Investment Failures

In my activities as an angel investor, and my work with new ventures seeking investment, I find the “due diligence” stage to be fraught with the most risk. Usually this stage only really starts after an investor has expressed serious interest, or already informally agreed to invest. Most founders consider the story already told and the deal pending, so they aren’t sure what more then can do.

Others schedule long and exhaustive practice and coaching sessions for everyone on the team, including showcase customers, to make sure that everyone tells the most positive and consistent story. Trying to stack the deck probably won’t work, but some effort makes sense, since I have personally seen more than one deal fall apart due to key team members being totally out of sync.

My best advice is to put some structure and discipline into your due diligence preparation, including the following steps:

1. Schedule a team meeting to bring everyone up to date. This meeting should include the CEO giving the investor pitch to the whole organization, and distributing the current business plan document to everyone. Since due diligence will include one or more visits from investors, everyone needs to be on the same page, with no surprises.

2. Identify and resolve any pending personnel situations. You need to brief the investor early if there are organizational or people changes that are in process, or conflicts that may become apparent during the due diligence visits. Make sure everyone accurately posts their role with your startup on social media profiles, resumes, and references.

3. Set up an interview room, stocked with current docs. The right preparation, including the latest business plan, org charts, process documentation, and an assigned executive other than yourself who can explain all of them, will go a long way in speeding up the process and creating a professional impression. Be prepared to follow-up as required.

4. Ask each of your leads to prepare for an interview. Investors or their consultants will expect to talk to several key personnel, looking for an update on how the business really works, depth of skills, culture, traction, and action plans. It’s fair for you to ask for a few slides from each in advance, and make sure the overall story is complete and consistent.

5. Update reference customers, partners, and vendors. Use this opportunity to validate their satisfaction and support for your company and your solution. If you find open issues that can’t be immediately resolved, be sure to proactively communicate these to investors, with an action plan, rather than try to hide or gloss over them.

The key theme for a successful due diligence is full disclosure and no surprises before or after the commitment. If more potential marriages were subjected to the same rigor, the divorce rate would likely not be in the current 50 percent range. In business as in other relationships, people on the team have to be above reproach, committed, and working on the same goals and values.

Startup equity investments imply a long-term business relationship, lasting five years or longer. During that period, it is very difficult for either party to get out of the deal, since there is no public market for the stock, and business divorces normally mean bankruptcy. It’s worth your time to do a little extra work here, and make the honeymoon phase a win-win one for both sides.

The founder needs to remember that investor meetings up to this point have been primarily off-site, with staged demos, and managed personally by the CEO or one or two executives. Due diligence reverses this process to include on-site visits and informal discussions with any or all members of the team, vendors, and good customers as well as bad.

Based on the size of the investment, and the runway available, the due diligence process can take several weeks, or even a couple of months to complete. Of course, it’s always appropriate to concurrently and openly reverse the process on your potential investor. A relationship as important as this one should never be a one-way street. Make it work for your new venture.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 12/05/2017 ***

7 Groups Of Difficult Customers Test Every Business

Have you ever noticed that some of your business owner friends get all the bad customers, and yours all seem fairly reasonable? Or is it the other way around? I’m always amazed that, in my role as a business advisor, bad customers somehow seem to gang up on certain businesses. I long ago learned that the customer is not always right, but you can turn most around to be great.

In my experience, turning difficult customers around is more art than science, but it does help to understand all the ways they can be frustrating. I saw some good insights in a new book, “Dealing with Difficult Customers,” by Noah Fleming and Shawn Veltman. These authors are experts on customer service and customer experience, having helped hundreds of companies of all sizes.

I always try to remember that no matter how many businesses I have helped, I am still a customer more often, usually many times a day almost every day of my life. Thus the first step in understanding difficult customers is to put yourself in your customer’s position, and think how often you find yourself in one of the following difficult customer categories:

1. Expecting what was promised but not delivered. This is called the expectation gap. As a business owner, you have to take a hard look, with your customer hat on, at what you promise and imply to your customers in your advertising, marketing materials, and your customer service. A winning strategy is to always under-promise and over-deliver.

2. Unwilling or too cheap to spend for good service. The reality is that a good customer experience today is more important than a premium product. No customers, including yourself, are willing to tolerate multiple bad experiences, just to get the lowest price. For your business to prosper, don’t associate good service only with high-price products.

3. Being unreasonably demanding of others. If you don’t feel like you are getting the proper attention or attitude, do you sometimes become difficult and demanding with business support personnel? On the business side, this translates into hiring customer-facing people with the proper training, motivation, and solutions to defuse difficulties.

4. Learning that your expectations were wrong. The reality is that we all make mistakes, so no customer is always right. Even when customers are wrong, they don’t have to be difficult if you treat them with respect, empathy, and personal consideration. Every business needs processes, but must empower employees to define exceptions.

5. Intentionally ignoring loyalty, despite good service. I think we all believe that loyalty is not an entitlement. Customer loyalty has to be earned through day-in-and-day-out good service, and returned in kind. Make sure your total customer experiences, not just service, are worthy of loyalty, and you won’t find customers walking away.

6. Spending more money there, so expect better service. In reality, every customer’s version of “more money” is different, so as a business, you must demonstrate “better service” than expectations and competitors to everyone opening their wallet. You want every interaction to be positively memorable, so no one has to keep score.

7. Complaining about everything, even the small stuff. If you have already built loyal customers for your business, they are willing to brush off an odd mistake as an anomaly. People usually become difficult due to a real problem, which they amplify by throwing in all the small stuff. Being consistently good is better than being great once in a while.

Of course, we all know people in our life and business who act irrationally difficult, despite our every effort to provide exceptional support. These deserve to be fired as customers or friends, since life and customers are all about building and maintaining win-win relationships. In fact, if you treat your customers as do your best win-win friends, you probably won’t have any bad ones.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 12/01/2017 ***

5 Keys To New Venture Financial Projections That Work

As an angel investor and business advisor on new ventures, I expect to see five-year financial projections from every entrepreneur. Yet I get more pushback on this request than almost any other issue. Founders point to the great number of financial unknowns in any new business, and are reluctant to “commit” to any numbers which may come back to haunt them later.

From my perspective, projecting financial returns is part of the homework every business person needs to do in sizing customer opportunity, product costs, pricing, competition and customer value, before expending their own resources in a highly risky venture. You need these projections to assess viability, set internal goals and milestones, and measure your team’s progress.

For investors, it’s more of a credibility and intelligence test. Does this entrepreneur understand the basics of business costs in the selected business domain, growth dynamics, and the competitive environment? Reasonableness and business sense are the issues, rather than accuracy, since everyone knows that key parameters will change often before success.

There is no black magic involved in predicting numbers, and I always recommend sticking with the some basic guidelines, outlined here. With these, if you can paint a positive picture for your new venture, I assure you that investors will sit up and take notice, and you will also know how to drive yourself and your team:

1. Determine your gross margin on sales. Per-unit cost less your cost per unit sold is your gross profit margin. If you lose money on every unit, you won’t make it up in volume. As a rule of thumb, most new businesses need a margin above 50 percent, even on wholesale prices, to cover operational expenses and survive long-term as a business.

2. Project unit-volume and price levels. Based on your market size and penetration expectations, size how many units you will sell, at what price, in every channel. This should ideally be a “bottoms-up” commitment from your sales team, not your own optimistic guess. Be sure to include expected volume cost and price reductions over time.

3. Quantify overhead and growth costs. It’s amazing how fast costs escalate as you grow. You need 5 percent or more of revenue for marketing, more for new development, and people costs will double as you add benefits, insurance, training, IT and processes. Check competitor numbers and industry average statistics to get you in the right range.

4. Set a target growth and market penetration rate. If you want to be assessed as a “premium” acquisition candidate down the road, an aggressive but reasonable target might be doubling revenue each year. For credibility, market penetration within five years should be at least 5 percent. Numbers far afield from these need special explanations.

5. Calculate cash-burn rate and investment timing. Initial sales success means more cash will be needed for inventory, receivables, facilities and people. Project your cash burn rate to keep at least 18 months between venture capital or angel investments. You need to know how many units to sell, and how much time you need to break-even.

From a planning and strategy standpoint, I offer these additional recommendations to maintain your credibility with outside investors, and to balance your risk due to market uncertainty:

• Add a buffer to your investment calculations. Investment requirements should always be based on financial projections and cash-flow calculations, not on what you think you can negotiate. If your cash flow shows a shortfall of $750,000, add a 33 percent buffer, and ask for a million. Be willing to give up 20 to 33 percent of your equity to support this.

• Update financial projections at least every quarter. Financial forecasts for startups are assumed to be estimates that will be updated as more information is known. Adjust revenues quarterly or even monthly, and replace forecasts with actuals as soon as a period ends. A business plan with old projections, ignoring actuals, will kill your credibility.

• Avoid high-medium-low projections, as well as irrational ones. Investors want entrepreneurs to be aggressive, but don’t make projections that make you look like the next Google. Entrepreneurs tend to be driven by their own targets, so pick an aggressive one, and you will likely do better than starting with a conservative one.

I always recommend that entrepreneurs do their own financial projections, rather than rely on an outside expert, because it’s the process that adds the value, more than the numbers. For additional value, I suggest the use of a spreadsheet financial model, with a few variables, like price and volume. This allows a quick analysis of alternate assumptions, with revenue impacts.

You don’t need complicated ratios for a startup business plan, since you don’t have a history. On the other hand, without financial projections, you don’t have a viable venture proposal. You don’t need an MBA to be credible with investors, just some common sense business expectations, and passion based on some data. Most of us need full investor support to turn our dream into reality.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 11/28/2017 ***

See Portuguese translation, thanks to Artur Weber

7 Plan Elements That Separate Businesses From Hobbies

Unless you are a serial entrepreneur with a string of successes behind you, you need a business plan to convince investors that you can build a business out of the dream that has been driving your passion to change the world. Don’t believe that Silicon Valley myth that all you have to do is sketch your idea on the back of a napkin, and investors will line up to give you money.

Based on my experience as an angel investor and a mentor to dozens of entrepreneurs, having no business plan is the quickest way to define yourself as just a dreamer, or at best a hobbyist. Let me be quick to say that a plan doesn’t have be a book, and probably should start as a “pitch deck” of maybe a dozen slides which cover all the right bases. The details can be added later.

Now let’s talk about the bases that need to be covered. Since this document is outward facing, it is important to keep the terminology and tone consistent with that of your customer set, investors, and business partners. Skip the acronyms and jargon. Open your pitch by grabbing the investor's attention with a statement or question that piques their interest, then hit the following key bases:

1. Definition of customer problem, followed by your solution. Use concrete terms to quantify value and pain. For example, “I just patented a new cell-phone technology that will double battery life for half the cost. No more pain of phone shutdown in the middle of a call.” This is your elevator pitch hook, which you must be able to deliver in 30 seconds.

2. Opportunity segmentation and competitive environment. The market scope for your solution should be quantified in non-technical terms, with data sourced from professionals in the industry, rather than your own opinion. List key competitors and alternatives, highlighting your sustainable competitive advantages, such as patents and trademarks.

3. Provide details on the business model and cash flow. Every business, including non-profits, needs a business model to survive. Providing your product or service free to customers may sound attractive in marketing materials, but you need revenue sources to survive. Free is a dirty word to investors, since it’s hard to get a financial return from free.

4. Highlight why your team is the best for this challenge. Make sure you name your key players and advisors, and include any prior startup experience and prior leadership in the relevant business domain. Current and past titles don’t convey this information. Professional investors look for the right people, more than the right product.

5. Marketing, sales, and customer experience. I’m assuming that most of you will see these as essential elements of a real business, but not needed for a hobby. Yet I continue to get funding requests that never mention any specific plans or costs to be associated with these elements. No mention usually means no plan and not competitive.

6. Project revenues, costs and investment needs. If you are not willing to set targets for yourself, don’t expect investors to commit their funds. Major milestones along the way should be outlined. When sizing your funding request, be aware of the value of your startup today, since most investors expect an equity share for their contributions.

7. Outline the potential investor return, and payback process. The best way to do this is to highlight a recent similar company payback to investors, via going public or acquisition exit. Angel investors look for high-growth potential companies who can double revenues yearly, and sell for a high multiplier, providing a 10- times multiplier return.

If you don’t have the time to write things down, or your writing skills leave something to be desired, don’t be afraid to get some help. No executive I know writes all his own contracts, but every smart one owns every one that is written for him, and understands every element. An entrepreneur who can’t manage a plan, probably won’t be able to manage the new business.

There are no guarantees, but various studies have found that entrepreneurs who start with a plan generally double their chances of building a successful business. In any context, and especially in the high-risk world of startups where more than 50 percent fail, you don’t need to start your venture by convincing key players that you have nothing yet but an expensive hobby.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 11/22/2017 ***

See Polish translation, thanks to Weronika Pawlak
See Hungarian translation, thanks to Elana Pavlet
See Czech translation, thanks to Ivana Horak
See French translation, thanks to Mathilde Guibert
See Swedish translation, thanks to David Mucchiano

10 Top Revenue Models Drive Viable Businesses Today

I was mentoring some graduate students at a local university recently, and I sensed again that profit seems to be a dirty word these days to many aspiring entrepreneurs. I’m certainly not a fan of customer rip-offs, but even non-profits have to be cash-flow positive, or have deep pockets, to help anyone for long. Every business needs to develop a revenue model even before a product.

The alternatives range from giving the product away for free (revenue from ads), to pricing based on costs, to charging what the market will bear (premium pricing). The implications of the decision you make are huge, including brand image, funding requirements, and long-term business viability. It’s naïve to think you can sell below costs, and make it up by attracting more customers.

This may seem like Business Fundamentals 101, but the market changes rapidly, so I thought it might be useful to share what I see as the most common revenue models being used by businesses today. As an experienced business advisor, here is my current summary, with some of the pros and cons or special considerations for each:

1. Product is free, revenue is from advertisers. This is the most common model used by online businesses and apps today, the so-called Facebook model, where your service is free, and the revenue comes from advertising. The challenge is to get the first million customers, before advertisers will sign up. Facebook spent $150 million getting started.

2. Freemium model – people pay for upgrade. In this variation on the free model, used by LinkedIn and many other online and app offerings, the basic function is free, but premium services are only available for an additional fee. This also requires a base critical mass, and real work to differentiate and convert users to paying customers.

3. Price based on product costs plus margin. In this more traditional product pricing model, the price is set at two to five times the product cost to cover overhead and operational expenses. If your product is a commodity, the margin may be as thin as ten percent. Use it when your new technology gives you a tremendous cost improvement.

4. Price based on average value to customer. If you can quantify a large value or cost savings to the customer, greater than your cost, charge a price commensurate with the value delivered. This doesn’t work well with “nice to have” offerings, like social networks, but does work for new drugs and medical devices that solve critical health problems.

5. Price with recurring low subscription payments. This is a very popular model today for Internet services, with monthly or yearly payments, in lieu of one higher up-front price. Advantages for your business include a stable revenue stream, customer retention, and increasing customer investment over time. The customer advantage is a lower entry cost.

6. Tiered pricing based on volume on customer scope. In product environments, where an enterprise product may have one user or hundreds of thousands, a common approach is to price by user ranges, or volume usage limits. Keep the number of tiers small for manageability. This approach doesn’t typically apply to consumer products and services.

7. Revenue is a percentage of every transaction. This is another popular model for platforms, e-commerce, and affiliates, where you as the transaction or product provider get a small percentage or royalty on every ultimate sale to customers by others. Amazon led the way on this one online, but distributors have long used this model in retail.

8. Low product price, but support is extra. In this model, the product price is attractive or free, but the customers are charged for installation, customization, training and other services. This model is good for getting your foot in the door, but it is basically a services business with the product as a marketing cost. Customers generally dislike this model.

9. Low entry price, with priced features additional. This approach works if your product can be configured “bare-bones” for a low price, and additional features priced separately. It is a very competitive approach, but requires design and development effort for value at every level. Expect extra costs for development, testing, documentation, and support.

10. Low price base, make money on disposables. With this model, popularly called the razor-blade model, the base unit is often sold below cost, with the anticipation of ongoing revenue from expensive supplies. Today, think cheap printers with expensive ink cartridges. This is another model that requires deep pockets to start, so be careful.

If you don’t like any of these models, you can always try the non-revenue model, sometimes called the Twitter model, where you count on investors to sustain your costs while your valuation increases exponentially based on millions of customers. The nonprofit version of this is a service so valuable and recognized, like UNICEF, that you never run out of donors and philanthropists.

Yet smart people don’t count on being one of these, and have a plan to validate their business model, concurrent with their plan to validate their solution. Certainly you shouldn’t be afraid of using the word “profit” in your discussions with a business advisor, potential investors, partners, and even customers. A reasonable profit will make your idea a reality for all, rather than a dream.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 11/17/2017 ***

7 Rules For Innovations That Produce Dominant Players

Innovation doesn’t always make you a winner in business. In my role as an angel investor in startups, almost every pitch I see highlights some real innovation in technology, business model, or market opportunity. Yet only a few of these get funded, and even fewer become dominant players in their chosen space. The rest fail quickly, or struggle for years to get real traction.

But don’t get me wrong. Innovation is necessary to get you into the game, but even a disruptive technology won’t assure you business success. These days, it’s all about harnessing your innovation to get an advantage in a business. Or as Steven S. Hoffman asserts in his new book, you have to “Make Elephants Fly,” and that requires getting outside of conventional thinking.

Hoffman should know, as an icon in the Silicon Valley, having educated and trained hundreds of startup founders as the CEO of “Founders Space,” designated by Inc.com as one of the top ten incubators and accelerators in the world. I like his list of Seven Unfair Advantages, at least one of which is required to make you a dominant player in your space, which he calls radical innovation:

1. Offer a solution that is exponentially better than any other. If it’s not an order of magnitude better or cheaper, customers usually conclude that the risk and cost of change are simply not worth the potential payback over what they have today. You may attract early adopters, who love everything new, but the mainstream market will be elusive.

2. Create an entirely new market space or new category. If your product or service is so unique and compelling that it’s able to define a whole new category, then you are the winner by default. This isn’t easy to do, but it happens. Just look at Nest, who is leading the IoT wave, and Oculus Rift, the company that put virtual reality on the map.

3. Be the first to disrupt an existing market space. Being first is always important. It’s amazing how many proposals I see that are “me too” with only slight or abstract differentiation from other social media sites, ride sharing, or collaboration tools. Examples of being first include Netflix for movies and TV and Redfin for real estate.

4. Ride the network effect to more users than anyone. The network effect is where the value of your business increases exponentially as your user count goes up. Look at competition for the numbers to beat, but in the consumer space, it usually takes millions to be the dominant player. Users can be advertisers, consumers, sellers, or passengers.

5. Establish exclusivity as a high barrier to entry. Prove exclusivity with whatever methods and relationships you can use, including patents, distribution channels, government support, or name-brand customer contracts. A startup with innovation and high entry barriers is the most attractive candidate for investors and acquisition partners.

6. Lock in customers with loyalty and high cost of change. Billion-dollar businesses are seldom about a single transaction with any customer. They’re about building long-term relationships, where the longer the customers use the product, the harder it is for them to leave. Great companies tend to build great ecosystems to provide added value.

7. Find a pent-up need and build a strong brand early. Brand building is costly and difficult, but making your brand a household name has the power to differentiate your product from everyone else’s. If there is a real need, people pay more for a brand-name, and perceive a higher level of trust and value, as well as an emotional attachment.

The message here is that just because you have an innovative new technology doesn’t mean it will rise above the competition and make money. You have to analyze each innovation early and continuously with a critical eye. Hoffman’s seven rules, paraphrased here, will tell you if you are likely to be become a dominant player. If not, it may pay to pivot now before your money and energy are gone.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 11/14/2017 ***

7 Ways To Survive The Retail Customer Shift To Online

In my role as advisor to small businesses, I often hear first-hand the challenges and failures of retail store owners who fear the advantages of online and feel the exodus to eCommerce, led by Amazon and Ebay. Ironically, the most common desire I hear from entrepreneurs selling wholly online, is the need for their entry into retail, as the next step in their growth strategy.

What neither group seems to fully comprehend is that retail needs to fundamentally change to succeed, far beyond the addition of an online component, to meet the experience expectations of today’s generation, an oversupplied global marketplace, and technology for instant pricing and distribution. Many pundits are already talking about a “retail apocalypse” that has already started.

In an effort to learn a bit more about this phenomenon, and how to capitalize on it rather than fight it, I just completed a new book, “Retail’s Seismic Shift,” by Michael Dart, with Robin Lewis. Dart and Lewis should know, since both have over twenty-five years of experience consulting with dozens of retail and consumer product companies, old and new.

Here is my summary of the strategies they recommend for retailers and eCommerce companies alike to meet the challenges ahead and thrive:

1. Demonstrate a willingness to break “business as usual.” Test new things and keep testing in your market for things that work. There is no magic, and things change so fast that you can’t count on things that worked for you in the past. Companies that are constantly looking forward, rather than backward, are going to be victorious.

2. Encourage and reward out-of-the-company thinking. Make sure everyone is curious and open, and not getting stuck with ideas from inside your company. People must be measured in performance reviews against industry best practices, rather than previous results in your business. They may be improving every period, but losing the race.

3. Measure your agility by putting metrics on change. Old views of change rates are no longer competitive. Don’t allow a subjective view to cloud your reality. Count the number of new projects, time and resources required to implement, and measure the return in revenue, customer satisfaction, or cost savings. In other words, stop focusing on meaningless metrics, and instead focus on store execution instead.

4. Abandon the concept of “cookie-cutter” stores. These days, you need different retail layouts and sizes for urban communities versus small neighborhood communities. Some may have no product at all for carry-out, with demonstrations and iPads for ordering and delivery the next day. Others highlight upscale styles, or complement nearby stores.

5. Create a non-online memorable customer experience. Only retail can provide real people relationships, and they better be memorable on the positive side. Find your niche, and it’s probably not competing on price and volume alone. These days, customers expect a focus on a higher cause, such as sustainability or social improvement.

6. Look for growth in emerging global market geographies. Rather than saturating your coverage of a single geography, use technology and the low cost of global manufacturing to cherry-pick new opportunities. There will always be markets where the culture, income levels, or the products don’t lend themselves to online.

7. Build a community with face-to-face between customers. Smart retail stores sponsor live events, peer-help sessions, and customer demonstrations to create great experiences and opportunities for people to feel community with others that they could never find online. Perhaps they need to add a coffee bar, or other entertainment options.

The time to start for new ventures is at the beginning, when you can set the right team culture, and before biases are set. For existing businesses, it’s harder. You have to break things, change people, and build some new habits yourself to be the right role model. The grass may be greener on the other side of the fence, but if you can’t get over the fence quickly, you won’t live to enjoy it.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 11/10/2017 ***

What Great Bosses And Great Employees Have In Common

Everyone in business loves to complain about their boss, and a classic Gallup study found that 50 percent of current employees have left at least one job in their career to get away from a bad manager. When asked for clarification, the most common reason seems to be a managers lack of clarity in setting expectations, which is obviously one of the most basic of employee needs.

On the other hand, almost every one of us in business can remember that one special manager in their career who exemplifies the norm, who commanded our trust, and treated us with respect, even in the toughest of business crises. In commemoration of U.S. National Boss’s Day every October, let’s all tip our hat to that unique and rare business person we wish all would emulate.

In an effort to be a better business advisor, and recognizing that the answer is not usually as simple as a single dimension, I have asked my own sample of employees at all levels for a list of key traits or attributes they see in great managers, resulting in the following list of ten top positive traits of a good boss:

1. Clearly communicates performance expectations. Even your best performers don’t like to be surprised after the fact by unknown expectations. One of the easiest ways to avoid surprises is to set deliverable milestone targets for each employee for every period. Then review the performance versus the roadmap and deliverables on a weekly basis.

2. Shows leadership as well as management skills. As Drucker said, "management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." Every employee appreciates guidance on both – to do the right thing at the right point in time, towards attainment of the organization’s goals, as well as employee satisfaction and perceived productivity.

3. Demonstrates extensive and current domain knowledge. Good bosses demonstrate relevant expertise and confidence about that knowledge, as well as the common sense to make quick productive decisions. This requires continuous learning, an ability to think outside the box, and the flexibility to change as the market and technology changes.

4. Possesses foresight and skills to plan and delegate. Great managers make it a point to understand the specific strengths of team members, and then scheduling tasks and delegating to the right people to get tasks done within deadlines. The best managers are guides and coaches, with a concrete plan based on goals, not just crisis commanders.

5. Provides positive and timely employee recognition. Most employees are more motivated by recognition than by money. You must immediately recognize team members, formally and informally, when they complete something successfully or show initiative. Over the long-term, make sure they get more positive than negative recognition.

6. Is an active listener, and provides immediate feedback. Listening to what is said, as well as what is not said, is of the utmost importance. It is demoralizing to an employee to be speaking to a supervisor who is interrupted for a phone call. Good managers plan for feedback sessions, and pick a venue that is conducive to discussion and adequate time.

7. Stays cool and calm in tough business situations. A great manager is an effective communicator and a composed individual, with a proven tolerance for ambiguity. He or she never loses their cool, keeps their ego in check, and is able to correct team members without emotional body language or statements. They don’t always have to be right.

8. Shows empathy for individual problems and challenges. This refers to the ability to "walk in another person's shoes", and to have insight into the thoughts, and the emotional reactions of individuals faced with change or the need to change. Empathy is suspending judgment of another's actions or reactions, while treating them with sensitivity.

9. Provides a role model for honesty, integrity, and humility. Simply put, today’s managers live in glass houses. Everything that a manager does is seen by employees. If a manager says one thing and does another, employees broadcast it. Managers must be straightforward in all words and actions, including admitting weaknesses and mistakes.

10. Always displays a positive sense of humor. People of all demographics respond to humor, and respect managers who can find humor even in tough business and personal situations. The majority of people are able to be amused at something funny, and see an irony. One of the most frequently cited attractions to a manager is their sense of humor.

Since most of these traits must seem intuitively obvious, it’s hard for me to understand why so many managers and employees miss on expectations. Perhaps it’s time for employees and team members to adopt and display these traits as well, especially the one about empathy for the challenges that your manager is facing. Only then can it be a win-win relationship for both parties.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 11/01/2017 ***

8 Creativity Traits That Will Improve Your Leadership

Starting a new venture is all about being creative, not just in the initial solution, but in tackling the daily challenges of every new and innovative business. In my role as business advisor, I find too many people still looking for the right answers in the back of the book. Most of what you learned in school is already obsolete. The winning answers and strategy has to come from your creativity.

In this new world of constant cultural and technological change, the only source you can trust is your own ability to learn faster and be more creative than your competition. In that context, we all have to deal with a huge information overload, which can stifle creativity, just by the sheer weight of trying to consume all the data bombarding us daily from the Internet, social media, and press.

In fact, according to a recent book, “Too Fast to Think: How to Reclaim Your Creativity in a Hyper-connected Work Culture,” by Chris Lewis, the pressure of this information overload is changing human behavior, and not always in good ways. He should know, based on his years of experience as a media trainer for senior politicians, business people and celebrities.

He sees the information overload as a major source of stress, a feeling of being constantly interrupted and out of control, and reduced focus on creativity. Lewis offers eight steps to reclaiming your creativity that I believe every entrepreneur should adopt:

1. Quiet – creativity speaks quietly and needs concentration. It’s important to schedule some time for thinking each day, away from the noise and clutter, so we can refreshingly experience sounds, smells, touch, and the full senses. The enemies of this are multi-tasking and juggling. If you are concentrating on too many things, creativity will not come.

2. Engage – creativity needs focus and commitment. Take the time to listen fully to the voices that really count, including your team leaders and customers. Also take the time to listen and believe in yourself. Take on and conquer your own fears and challenges, before you face the business challenges which require extra creativity.

3. Dream – creativity needs imagination and free thinking. Research has long suggested links between dreams and creativity. It suggests that the dreams themselves--with their idiosyncratic imagery, colorful extrapolations on the same theme and nonjudgmental stance--model the free thinking that precedes actual creation.

4. Relax – creativity requires patience and will not be forced. Sometimes your “Type A” personality works against you. You may never learn to love the queue or the line, but you can be calm in doing so. Ideas do not arrive by timetable. If you live by the clock, you may not allow creativity to intervene. Practice slowing down your pace once in a while.

5. Release – let go and accept that you can’t do everything. Don’t push off the basics of life in favor of work – schedule and maintain time for sleep, exercise, and healthy eating. Find time for some any of the creative arts to jump-start your creativity – dance, art, non-work relationships, or other hobbies. This new-found creativity will spill over to your work.

6. Repeat – experiments and repetition are the key. Scientists have long known that the best results come from controlled experiments, meaning that just one (or a few) factors are changed at a time, with repetition, while all others are kept constant. With information overload, too much input can lead to random tests with no creativity or analysis.

7. Play – creativity comes from what you enjoy and love. You can’t play or enjoy things when you are constantly rushing. Take the time to explore new ideas and have deep conversations with creative people about things you enjoy. If you don’t enjoy the financial side of your business, find a partner to be creative there, so you can be creative in yours.

8. Teach – people learn more about creativity helping others. The best mentors in business often find themselves learning as much as their mentees. You will find yourself creatively inspired by someone else’s style and ideas, and you can make them your own by improving them, changing them, or personalizing them in some way, and sharing.

Above all, remember that creativity in business is not a solo act. Good leadership is bringing out the best in creativity from all members of the team, through collaboration, customer engagement, incenting change, and publicly recognizing every contribution. To fight the negative impacts of the current information overload, what have you done today to foster your own creativity?

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 10/23/2017 ***

9 Sources Of Inspiration To Make Your Idea A Winner

Ideas are a dime a dozen, but the inspiration to drive a great business is a lot harder to find. As a mentor to many aspiring entrepreneurs, I often get asked for next sure-fire idea. I have to tell them that anyone can find ideas, but only you as a person can find the passion to transform one into a successful business. That’s why investors talk about investing in the jockey, not the horse.

Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, and other famous entrepreneurs are examples of dedicated people who looked for inspiration, rather than ideas for their next business. From my experience and their feedback, I can summarize the top principles which provide sound inspiration for entrepreneurs, who are then often able to convert even a mundane idea into a satisfying and long-term business:

1. Choose an idea from your heart, rather than someone’s head. Look inside yourself for inspiration and ideas, rather than asking me or anyone else. Only then will you find the passion to persevere through the challenges of a new venture, and actually enjoy the journey, as well as the destination. Do what you love, and it won’t even feel like work.

2. Focus first on changing the world, rather than making money. Great entrepreneurs identify something larger than money to provide purpose and meaning. Happiness does not scale up with income. Studies show that doubling your income increases happiness by less than 10%. The more you focus your efforts on others, the easier it is to do great work.

3. Work to anticipate a future market change and get there first. When attacking a currently known problem, chances are that dozens of others are already working on it. If you can look ahead successfully, you will have more time and fewer competitors to kill your inspiration. In addition, you will be seen and appreciated as a leader with a legacy.

4. Surround yourself with inspired people, and absorb their energy. Find people you respect and admire, who are inspired, and you will find their energies contagious. They will also amplify your inspiration to your customers, and keep it growing in your own mind. These people need to cover the gamut from partners, marketers, suppliers, to customers.

5. Solve a problem based on your own personal knowledge. Stick to domains within your experience, and your business inspiration will be more real and long-lived. Avoid the tendency to see the grass looking greener on the other side of the fence. It’s the things you think you know about a problem that will kill you, as well as what you don’t know.

6. Be inspired by customer value rather than solution features. Customers don't care about your product or service's features. Instead, they want to know how your solution will benefit them, in lower costs, dreams, hopes, and ambitions met. In other words, seek inspiration from your customer’s perception of value, rather than solution features.

7. Create a great customer experience, not just a product. I find that entrepreneur inspiration fades quickly, if not complemented by inspiring customer experiences. These days, customers are inspired by solutions that are easy and fun to find, have satisfying buying experiences, and great support. These get recommended many times to others.

8. Keep it simple by removing features, rather than adding more. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication of design, according to many studies. Steve Jobs was a master of inspiration from sophisticated designs, from the iPod to iPhone and packaging. Beware of false inspiration from early adopters, who typically ask for more features and options.

9. Practice telling your story to get and keep customers inspired. You can have the most innovative idea in the world, but if you cannot get people excited, it doesn’t matter. The key to storytelling is adapting your message and presentation to match the audience, rather than trying to find one size that fits all. Their inspiration then becomes yours.

Inspiration is what keeps your mind open to new possibilities, and that is certainly critical to business success in this age of rapid change. An idea can be innovative one day, and old news the next. Will your current inspiration and passion carry you to success through the challenges and changes that are normal for a new venture today?

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 10/20/2017 ***

7 Steps To Finding Investors Aligned With Your Values

One of the most common complaints I hear from new business owners and startups is about the pain and difficulty raising capital. The “venture capital” model is the only option they know, where they feel they get no mercy, giving up equity and control. Based on my experience with startups, I’m a strong believer that there are far better alternatives available, if you think outside the box.

The key is to look hard outside the world of “professional investors,” to regular people who share your vision and dreams, friends and family who believe in you, and crowd funding your ideas that have a popular appeal. Of course, none of these sources should be approached casually, and none will give you the relationship and terms you are looking for without proper win-win planning.

I just finished a new book, “Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business Without Selling Your Soul,” by Jenny Kassan, who has been in the business for over 20 years as an attorney and fund raiser. I agree with her recommended steps for every new venture, to find the alternatives that match your requirements, prepare for the process, and close on your terms:

1. Define your personal goals and values for investor alignment. Finding the right investor is like finding the right spouse – it likely won’t work unless you share the same goals and values. In your business, how much control are you willing to give up, how fast and far are you determined to grow, and are you willing to sell or stay for the long term?

2. Create the ideal investor profile for your unique business. Some investors are all about making money, while others care more about changing the world, advancing technology, or curing a disease that has ravaged their family. Your ideal investor is someone who will really value the benefits that come from advancing your business.

3. Document the investment types you are willing to consider. The basic categories include equity, straight debt, convertible debt, services, and agreements for future equity. If you project a sense of desperation, or ignorance of the options and implications, no potential investor will give you the credibility to be your partner in a business.

4. Complete and heed fund-raising legal compliance requirements. Many aspiring entrepreneurs try to raise capital, without first understanding and complying with government and state rules for disclosure, securities registration, private offerings, and accredited investors. The rules for crowdfunding and non-profits are even more specific.

5. Prepare properly for meeting and closing with investors. This includes investor pitching preparation, how to ask for investor meetings, what to say in the meetings, and follow-up. Generally, as a new business advisor, I recommend advance preparation of an executive summary, a pitch deck, short business plan, and lots of practice and passion.

6. Methodically address every obstacle head on. Fund raising is hard, and it always seems to take longer than anticipated. Obstacles are abundant, including the scarcity of warm introductions, enough traction to satisfy investors, and unending due diligence requirements. Maintain a positive mindset, and don’t get discouraged by every “no.”

7. Block out sufficient time on your calendar for raising capital. Many entrepreneurs see fund raising as a part-time task, behind high-priority solution development efforts. Prepare to spend as much as 80 percent of your time for a couple of months looking for and following up with investors. Building and maintaining momentum is key to success.

Unless you are happy with bootstrapping your new business, I recommend that you ignore conventional funding myths, and first seek investors who share your goals and values. You can find these in your professional circle and your sphere of influence, rather than angel groups and venture capitalists. For example, if you are a doctor, look for funding from the medical world.

Also, it pays to be more creative with your investment offer. Rather than simply exchanging equity for cash, explore partnership arrangements where qualified partners contribute services for equity. For example, rather than getting cash from professional investors and hiring programmers, find qualified developers who are willing to work for equity or deferred payments.

In my experience, smart and determined entrepreneurs are usually able to avoid the whole capital raising nightmare, and associated cash-flow and control risks, by simply broadening their definition of investors to include regular people who are willing to share the risk to accomplish common objectives and impacts. Make your business a shared labor of love, rather than a battle.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 10/18/2017 ***

How To Reduce Workplace Drama And Improve Results

Is it just me in my role as business advisor, or is emotional drama in the workplace increasing? Team members seem to be spending more and more time venting to anyone who will listen about the motives and actions of others, and less time introspectively focused on their own productivity and accountability. The result is less real engagement and more negativity for all to endure.

According to a new book, “No Ego,” by international keynote speaker and business consultant Cy Wakeman, the average worker spends 2.5 hours per day distracted by drama. She presents a convincing array of real examples that we have all seen, and offers the following reality principles for business leaders and professionals who want to turn this trend around in their environment:

1. Always give others the benefit of the doubt – assume noble intent. Drama is all about assuming the worst intent in team members and leaders, and wasting time venting wasteful thought processes and unproductive behaviors. The best leaders are highly focused on hiring only the right people, and modelling a high level of trust and respect.

2. Remind people that venting doesn’t resolve anything. It only ramps up negativity, and is ego’s way to avoid self-reflection. Smart co-workers and managers refuse to listen to venting, and are quick to turn the discussion to reality, by bringing the relevant parties together for resolution of suspected or real differences. Actions speak louder than words.

3. Diffuse suffering from imagined stories rather than reality. We all have a human tendency, developed in our childhood, to make up stories which paint us as a victim rather than the problem. In business, the best leaders diffuse this tendency by asking good questions, insisting on decisions based on real data, and not edicting results.

4. Use empathy when employee ego is creating doubts and chaos. Self-reflection, accountability, and reality are an affront to egos. Avoid ego’s trap by avoiding sympathy and using empathy instead. Sympathy exacerbates the pain rather than healing it. Empathy bypasses ego, shares an observed reality, and makes a call to greatness.

5. Confirm that challenges are the only reality for success. As long as people believe that business realities are hurting them, they will remain victims. Real leaders improve the readiness, training, and preparation for these events, so that circumstances are not a source of pain, but are expected and can be accomplished with personal satisfaction.

6. Remember that engagement requires accountability for results. Engagement without accountability leads to entitlement. Low-accountable people may appear to work hard, yet find complaints about everything. They come to believe that making them happy is someone else’s job. Hire, incent, and reward people that accept personal accountability.

7. Remove resistance to change as a source of drama. Traditional change management techniques need to be replaced by business readiness training and focus. When people are fluent in the now, and ready for what’s next, they won’t feel the pain, and will feel a sense of excitement and eagerness to capitalize on the possibilities change can bring.

8. Communicate that personal preferences don’t drive the business. Business leaders must convince the team that the decision makers today are customers, the marketplace, competition, feedback, innovation, and breakthroughs. The personal preferences and ego of anyone in the company has little to do long-term business success and satisfaction.

9. Check your own ego before you attempt to engage another. People who are prone to emotional drama are also super-sensitive to ego and emotions in their leaders and peers. Countering drama with more emotion or violently shaking them up is not productive. Humbly make the call to greatness as you gently spur self-reflection and confidence.

10. Develop accountability through coaching and mentoring. Building a culture of accountability with minimal emotional drama is a key element to organizational success today. High-performing companies formalize these coaching and mentoring programs, and apply them universally, rather than activate them only to solve specific problems.

I’m convinced that every entrepreneur, team member, and business leader needs to practice these principles to eliminate workplace drama, end entitlement, and drive more satisfying results. None of these deny the fact that business today is hard, and requires rapid adaptability to change and opportunities. Yet smart people make it a source of satisfaction, rather than continual pain.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 10/13/2017 ***

Why You Need Help Rather Than Helpers In A Startup

As an advisor to startups, and a mentor to many aspiring entrepreneurs, I’m still surprised at the number who are determined to go it alone. Even worse, when they figure out that they really need help, the first place they look is for an intern or untrained helpers. They don’t realize that these only increase their workload, due to training and management, rather than offloading real work.

Helpers do what you say, while people smarter than you in their domain do what you need, without any attention from you. In fact, if you are paying attention, you can actually learn from what they do. For example, inventors need to stick with their creative skills, and find a partner who knows how to build a business around it. That’s a win-win for both partners.

Thus top entrepreneurs spend as much time getting the right team in place to run the business as building the product or service. Unfortunately, some are so in love with themselves (narcissistic), that they can’t be convinced that anyone else could possibly run their finances, or take on marketing. True leaders know how to delegate and listen, and let others do what they know best.

In short, if you’re killing yourself with work, and following up on every detail, you may want to look closer at your team to ensure you’ve surrounded yourself with the right people. Of course, the right ones may cost you equity, but a small percentage of a big business is worth far more to you than a large chunk of nothing. Here are some attributes to look for in the people you need:

1. Prior experience and skills to complement your strengths. Would you attempt to build the house of your dreams, with random helpers showing no experience? Find a partner who has dealt with the realities of technology, tools, and financing. A startup has enough unknowns, without ignorance of the basics. Don’t repeat the mistakes of others.

2. Proven track record of getting things done. Hard work is necessary, but not sufficient to start a new business. Building a good plan, and measuring against that plan is crucial to growing any business. Often people with advanced degrees have academic smarts, but are not closers. You can’t afford to make every decision, or follow-up on every action.

3. Develop and propose their own problem solutions. How often do the people around you recommend solutions, rather than highlight problems? If you’re teaming with people who are smarter than you, you should be frequently surprised with their new ideas and solutions. You may not always agree, but you will be constantly learning from them.

4. Consistently passionate and positive in a role. The smart people you want are as positive and passionate about your business as you are. They take ownership and responsibility for their actions. They convince you with their actions that they understand the big picture. They argue confidently and deliberately, rather than defensively.

5. Spend more time listening than talking. It’s hard for team members to learn while they are talking. Look for team members who are active listeners, where you find yourself seeking them out, rather than always the other way around. It’s great to team with people that you can envision working for someday, or taking the helm of your business.

6. Push you to focus on strategic elements and being a better leader. You need people around you asking the right questions, and challenging you on strategic issues, rather than the crisis of the day. You will be motivated to hone your skills as a leader, and everyone will be motivated to raise their game to match the top performers.

7. Make coming to work fun and exhilarating. Smart people, who are confident in their role and contributions, will make the business fun again, rather than a stress-producer that keeps you up at night. Situations handled correctly and properly anticipated result in many exhilarating small successes, which makes the business a joy for everyone.

Of course, finding the right people is never easy, just like creating an innovative new solution is not easy. Count on building and testing relationships over several months, before you conclude that you really know what a person is capable of. Be sure to test your initial perspective on people you trust, including advisors, investors, and other partners. No “one night stands” need apply.

In my view, if more entrepreneurs spent the same amount of time finding the right partners and team members that they often spend developing the right solutions, the failure rate of startups would fall quickly from the current 90 percent in five years to maybe half that rate. Don’t let your ego get in the way. It’s your success and satisfaction that’s really at stake.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 10/09/2017 ***

7 Drivers of Digital Opportunity or Business Demise

Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, once predicted, “When the rate of change outside the company is greater than the rate of change inside, the end is near.” Yet in my role as business advisor, I often see companies naively ignoring this reality. The smarter ones look outside regularly for evidence of impending change, and treat these as opportunities to jump ahead of competitors.

Today, the move to digital technology is driving marketplace change at a seemingly ever-increasing rate. The pervasive Internet and mobile device access allows instant communication of new options, total sharing of customer experiences, and mass customization, on a world-wide scale. No more hiding behind a cultural stereotype, a well-built brand, or a geographic wall.

The question every entrepreneur and business executive should be asking is what are the drivers of the digital transformation, and how can you make them opportunities rather than costs. I found some real guidance on these questions in a new book, “The Digital Helix,” by Michael Gale and Chris Aarons, who have helped change the strategy of dozens of companies around the world.

I endorse their list of the seven key drivers of digital opportunity, how to recognize them, and examples of how forward-thinking companies have capitalized on them, which I paraphrase and summarize here:

1. Compression of supply and demand enables near instant fulfillment. Historically, many businesses profited from the time lags between supply and demand by exploiting geography, relationships, and buying habits. Today people can find and switch brands based on delivery, prices, and new features, with one or two clicks and minimal risk.

2. Shifting demographics changes customer needs and expectations. With simpler and cheaper access to information and alternatives, the cultures and generations are rapidly becoming more homogeneous. Demands and expectations change regularly as people learn from others who share their experiences in this new digital age.

3. Access to more information is leveling the market playing field. Almost anything and everything is available online, and the amount and depth of information is growing exponentially every year. This means market changes in the world today are instantly available everywhere, and quickly change the way we buy, sell, interact, and live.

4. Pay-as-you-go provides infinite ability to scale every business. Due to the efficiencies of digital, it is now commonplace to have companies with billions of dollars of revenue and valuation, with few employees, and without years of building infrastructure. Witness the exponential scaling of Uber, Pinterest, Airbnb, and other recent unicorns.

5. New competitors are built to be digital from day one. Think about the up-and-comers during the past decade that have either created new business models or stolen share from established players. Digital gives startups the same power to understand, engage, and look for new opportunities that traditional brands have spent decades building.

6. The rate of change is extremely exponential. In the past century, the benchmark for disruptive change was about thirty years or so. Now evolutions and even revolutions are happening within years, or at most a decade. In this digital age, you need a business capable of listening, assessing, and adjusting to the early nature of these changes.

7. The trade-offs between price, efficiency, and innovation have disappeared. Basic business theory states that businesses have three clear paths to success: cut prices, be more efficient, or invest in sustained technological advantages. Digital enables you to do all three simultaneously, and you must build a plan to do so to compete or die.

The message here is not about recklessly abandoning what you have, or taking huge steps into the unknown. Rather, it is much more about building a strategy to recognize change from early signals, and quickly transform your company to gain significant benefits from the change. The alternative is continual catch-up, and your eventual demise. How tired are you feeling today?

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 10/05/2017 ***

7 New Initiatives To Fearlessly Grow Your Business

Growth has always been fundamental to business success, but it’s never been more critical than it is now, nor more difficult. Every opportunity is global, but so is the competition. Evolving customer expectations and technology are the norm, forcing every company, from startups to large enterprises, to innovate quickly, despite their fear of change, uncertainty, and doubt.

As a long-time business advisor, I believe the mantra that every owner needs to live by today is to disrupt their own business before someone else does it for them. You must capitalize on the uncertainties in your market, rather than letting the unknowns slow you down. You need the commitment of every team member to respond quickly and effectively to emerging opportunities.

I found these points made well in a new book, “Fearless Growth,” by Amanda Setili, who has worked with disruptive technology startups in the United States and Malaysia, as well as some of the biggest companies in the world. She offers seven imperatives, which I espouse, for companies of any size to achieve record growth, and I paraphrase them here:

1. Embrace uncertainty and risk, rather than repeatability. Traditionally, businesses have yearned for consistency, as a lever tor productivity and cutting costs. Today the market and competitive landscape are changing so fast that the best lever to growth is the ability to anticipate and adapt to change, to beat competitors and excite customers.

2. Get in sync with customers by frequent customer interaction. Seek direct customer feedback, via social media and personal interactions, rather than old market research. Products and services must be updated continuously; not one major annual upgrade. Enable customers to customize your offerings, and learn from the choices they make.

3. Continually look outside for talent, data, and technology. In the past, companies avoided sharing knowledge or technology, preferring stealth mode and relying on internal expertise to stay safe. We now see that leveraging the ideas and capabilities outside your organization will grow opportunities and reduce risk faster, rather than increasing risk.

4. Connect and strengthen your customer ecosystem. Modern growth companies, such as Salesforce.com, have found great leverage value in hosting events to have their customers learn from each other, as well as from channel partners and complementary application providers. Attempts to control communication only slow down progress.

5. Create cross-functional teams to attack opportunities. These open the floodgates of employee creativity. The best growth companies enable employees to choose their own job, and grant them the leeway to get the work done. They connect employees across organizational silos, and establish fast feedback loops to facilitate learning and change.

6. Pursue growth opportunities outside your comfort zone. Instead of limiting your scope to current in-house capabilities, set clear objectives of acquiring new talent and skills each period, and make learning new skills a prime objective for every employee. This facilitates change and makes new opportunities attractive rather than frightening.

7. Recognize the impact of trust on efficiency and speed. Take deliberate action to build trust, and be a personal role model. Encourage and expect healthy conflict, debate, and dissent. The result is better decisions, more consensus, and accelerated business growth. Trust is heightened by showing appreciation regularly for individual contributions.

The objective of these imperatives is to help you stimulate continuous and fearless growth, even in turbulent markets, by staying more competitive, fostering innovation, and dominating your space. The time to start is now, if you didn’t start yesterday. Set and communicate clear priorities for your implementation, and don’t let “the way things have always been done” stand in your way.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 09/29/2017 ***

10 Winning Entrepreneur Insights That May Surprise You

Every aspiring entrepreneur would love to be the next Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos, but most have no idea what really sets these guys apart from all the rest. Conventional wisdom has them looking for a painful problem, a very large opportunity, and minimal competitive barriers to entry. In reality, most great entrepreneurs find these necessary, but not sufficient for the big win.

They think outside the box, with a sometimes surprising set of strategies, as outlined in a new book, “Think Bigger,” by Michael Sonnenfeldt. He has collected in-the-trenches intelligence and lessons from his TIGER 21 group of over 500 entrepreneurs and executives around the world. Each has amassed $10 million or more in personal assets, and is willing to share their insights with others.

Sonnenfeldt presents a rich array of strategies in his forty lessons from the trenches, including the following paraphrased insights that I find often overlooked or even rejected, based on my years of experience mentoring entrepreneurs:

1. Experience at a first-rate company is really valuable. Good big companies provide the training, mentoring, and experience managing teams that entrepreneurs need, but can’t afford. In addition, you can learn much about business principles, and your own capabilities, from being surrounded by many intense, ambitious, and super-smart peers.

2. Entrepreneurship is rarely about just making money. The best entrepreneurs are committed to fixing a problem, or advancing a purpose, and making money is only used as a validation of their insight. Any money made is typically poured back into the cause, rather than relished for a high-class lifestyle or extravagances by the entrepreneur.

3. Self-control beats passion for long term satisfaction. Passion often leads to a need for instant gratification. Most successful entrepreneurs either learn or are born with the capacity to delay gratification for critical periods in their lives. Even after success, they use self-control to continue to live modestly, and plow their profits back into business.

4. Think twice before investing with friends and family. Some are so self-centered that they see family and friends as an easy source of capital. Smarter entrepreneurs know that nothing can bring more embarrassment, resentment, and peril to relationships with people you love and respect than losing their money. Don’t jeopardize key relationships.

5. You are never to smart or too old for a mentor. In case you think mentors are only for “wimps,” you should know that Bill Gates always revered the guidance he received from Warren Buffet on many corporate matters. Most successful business people, whether retired or still active, love to share the wisdom they gained from their own experience.

6. Entrepreneurial skills can limit investing success. Entrepreneurs and investors are different kinds of people, inside and out. Smart investors diversify their exposure across multiple assets; if any one of these fails, they are still in the game. A true entrepreneur makes one big bet on a new and untested asset, normally against conventional wisdom.

7. Apply business skills to solve social problems. Social entrepreneurship is on the rise, with the advent of Millennials and a total world view. Companies that pursue socially relevant goals as part of their mission have the potential to generate double-bottom-line results - a financial return as well as a social benefit. One plus one can now equal three.

8. Skip conservative - be optimistic, even delusional.  The best entrepreneurs just believe they can make it happen – even though conventional logic would peg the risk as being off the charts. Professional investors dismiss founders who give “conservative” financial projections, and usually make less. Shoot for the moon – you may hit it.

9. Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. Too many entrepreneurs have a tendency to overrate their personal skills and wisdom, and seek out people who won’t challenge them. The smartest ones acknowledge their weaknesses, and find people who complement their skills, from whom they can learn and delegate authority.

10. Resilience and determination generally beat IQ. We all know of successful businesses started by entrepreneurs who dropped out of school, while MBAs get no premium with investors. According to most experts, “street smarts” (experience) trump “book smarts” (intelligence) every time, especially if accompanied with a large dose of grit.

Whether you are already a seasoned entrepreneur, or just starting out, I recommend that you regularly strive to think bigger and outside the box, starting with the lessons from others who have been there and done that, and emerged successfully. We need you then to contribute to the next set of winning strategies for the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Marty Zwilling

*** First published on Inc.com on 09/27/2017 ***