Successful Startup 101
Real Startup Advice for Today’s Non-Conventional Entrepreneur
Veteran's Issue 2014
Editor & Publisher
Tabitha Jean Naylor
www.successfulstartup101.com
Copyright 2014 by Tabitha Jean Naylor. All Rights Reserved.
Table of content
* Letter From The Editor
* Lessons for Entrepreneurs From A Navy Seal, by Martin Zwilling
* 80 Ways to Find Your Next Big Startup Idea, by Thomas Oppong
* Leave the Nest to Start Your Own Company: 8 Signs You're Ready, by Marla Tabaka
* Do You Have What It Takes to Start Your Own Business?, by Rieva Lesonsky
* Why Startups Hire Their Own Lawyers, By Daniel Doktori
* Pros and Cons of Joining a Business Accelerator Program, by Jerry Jao
* 8 Ways to Fund Your Veteran-Owned Startup, by Tom Cox
* Building A Startup Empire, by Kriti Vichare
* What Fuels A Startup’s Success: The Drive to Win or Fear of Failure? by George Deeb
* 7 Sure-Fire Success Principles, by Daniel C. Steenerson
* 10 Common Startup Flaws Leading to an Early Demise, by Martin Zwilling
* How to Avoid Common Startup Blunders
* 5 Lessons the Special Forces Taught Me about Business, by Michael I. Kaplan
* Five Startup Lessons for Fast-Growing Companies, by Kit Hickey
* Entrepreneurs: Here Are 7 Ways to Make the Most of Your Downtime, by Ilya Pozin
* New Report: Entrepreneurship May Be Contagious, by Lewis Schiff
* Change Happens to You and Because of You, by Brian Solis
* Fear - The Entrepreneur’s New Fuel, by Tabitha Jean Naylor
* Tips from the Startup Fundraising Playbook, by Nathan Beckord
* 5 Ways for Bootstrapped Startups to Get Through the First Year, by Zach Cutler
* How to Close a Sale: The Only Thing You Need to Know - by Jill Konrath
* 10 Reasons Why Small Businesses Fail, by Jared Mumford
* 6 Ideas for Starting a Business, by Mary Ellen Biery
* Why You Should Never Give Up On Your Dreams, by Adriana Langford
* Contact Successful Startup101
Letter From The Editor
In 2013, there were 21.4 million veterans in the United Stated - yet a September report revealed that the percentage of veteran business owners decreased from 11.9% in 2007 to 9.1% in 2012. Many veterans, as well as active military men and women facing a new stage in their lives, have doubts about transitioning from a life in the military to earning a living as a private citizen. However, logic dictates that veterans’ skillset and training learned in the military translates perfectly into the startup space.
While serving in the military does not train military men and women how to run a business, it does train you how to be a survivor, an innovator, a forward-thinker and an inspiration. The military trains you to be both a team member and a leader.
As honored men and women serving the country, you should know you have a strong foundation to succeed in business. According to many business experts, U.S. veterans are among the most disciplined, malleable, and intellectual people in the world. What you don’t know about running a business, you can learn.
If you are in active service but on the brink of leaving the service, you are extremely fortunate because this is the era of startups. And if you’re worried about your age, don’t be because this is also the era of employability.
What is a Startup and Employability?
Startup refers to a newly created business. Forbes defines it more intricately as a company that is working to find a solution to an existing problem or gap in goods or services. Just like any new business, there are no guarantees with a startup but there are investors willing to put in funds to support the business idea.
Employability is also related to new businesses in the sense that it should boost your confidence that the business world is more interested in personal attributes, skills, and understanding of skills rather than degrees and diplomas. It completely rakes over the old school method of going through a diploma mill to get hired or be believable in business.
Why a Veteran Fits the Bill for Entrepreneurship
There are multiple reasons why you as a veteran will make the perfect entrepreneur. A few of these reasons are:
* You can face risk and pressure boldly and know how to manage them effectively. The risks and pressure in starting a new business are daunting. It’s the one reason most people stop short of opening a business or leveling up with their business. You are fearless but you are also taught to be analytical and cautious. You will be great in managing risks and handling pressure.
* You know how to improvise and work with limited resources. Most businesses, even the established ones, have to know how to “do without” whether it is lack of funds, time, people, or resources. As military a man or woman, you are an expert in improvisation. You can prioritize, maximize, and stretch your resources to meet goals.
Finally, you have been taught to excel, pay attention to details, plan, and dream big. Now is the time to do something for yourself and your family. You have what it takes to be successful as a private citizen. You have a veteran’s skillset and training, which you learned in the military - and this translates PERFECTLY into the startup space.
All The Best -
TABITHA JEAN NAYLOR
Editor & Publisher
Lessons for Entrepreneurs From A Navy Seal
By Martin Zwilling
You have to be extra tough mentally to be an entrepreneur. While thinking about it, I realized that it’s really not that different from the toughness required and trained into America’s elite military force of Navy SEALs, who are known to be cool under fire, able to sense danger before it’s too late, and never give up on achieving their objective.
I just finished a new book “The Way of the SEAL,” co-authored by Mark Divine, who spent many years with the SEALs, and has since started and built six multimillion-dollar business ventures. He now teaches the key principles to business leaders through his Unbeatable Mind Academy, focusing on the following lessons and strategies, which I recommend for every entrepreneur:
1. Lead from the front, so that others will want to work for you. To be an entrepreneur or a Navy SEAL, you must first have vision, focus, and the courage to step up to lead. That means visibly walking the talk and willing to clear a path for others. People want to follow leaders they can learn from, who demonstrate excellence and commitment in all they do.
2. Focus on one thing until victory is achieved. SEALs call this front-sight focus, or the ability to envision your goal to the point that you see it, believe it, and make it happen. Every entrepreneur needs this kind of focus to build a minimum viable product, target the right customer segment, differentiate from competitors, and drive business growth.
3. Think offense, all the time, to eradicate fear and indecisiveness. Indecision leads to doubt, then the two blend and become fear, which signals defense, resulting in being overrun in the business world, as well as the military world. Offense, for entrepreneurs, means leading with a new business model, new marketing, and new technology.
4. Never be thrown off-guard by chaotic conditions. Smash the box and think outside the box. In the world of the entrepreneur and the SEAL, chaos is the norm, not the exception. Plan for it mentally and physically, and you will see opportunities rather than problems in the chaos. Winning is finding opportunities, rather than fighting problems.
5. Access your intuition so you can make “hard
right” decisions. Your intuition is really your knowledge and awareness of your business environment, which must be honed with practice and focus. This knowledge is required for you to turn quickly or pivot based on new input from the market, without loss of competitive position.
6. Achieve twenty times more than you think you can. Set your targets high. Nobody knows what they are truly capable of, with the right discipline, drive, and determination (three Ds). SEALs challenge themselves to find their 20x factor, and entrepreneurs should accept no less of a challenge. Leverage the resources of mentors, investors, and peers.
By teaching and practicing the principles behind these six lessons, Mark Divine was able to improve the pass rate of Navy SEAL candidates from less than 30% to over 80%. I see the same potential for improving the success rate of new entrepreneurs from the current 10-year survival rate below 30%, to a new high target of 80% in this new era.
Expanding...
He suggests that you start with a self-assessment against the “five mountains” to be climbed on the path to self-mastery and success, with my adaptation for entrepreneurs:
• Physical: business as well as technical skills required for the domain you want to enter.
• Mental: ability to persevere, make decisions, focus, and visualize success.
• Emotional: resilience, open to relationships, keep negative emotions under control.
• Intuitional: level of awareness, listen more than speak, strong self-esteem, insightful.
• Spiritual: strong values, at peace, willing to make sacrifices, see the big picture.
I agree with Divine that if you desire serious change in your life, you can’t get there by focusing on what you don’t want. Becoming an entrepreneur is a great lifestyle, but it is a serious change from other career alternatives. If you decide to be an entrepreneur because you don’t want a boss, on don’t like regular business hours, you may be setting yourself up for failure.
Apply the lessons from the Navy SEALs and you too can be an elite warrior who leads and succeeds in the new global business paradigm. Are you up to the challenge?
About the Author
I am the Founder and CEO of Startup Professionals, a company that provides services to startup founders around the world. My background includes a 30-year track record as an executive in general management, computer software development, product management, and marketing. I'm now in "give-back mode" as a mentor to startup founders, and an Angel investor. My experience with investors includes roles on the selection committee of two local Angel groups, and working from the other side of the table with several VCs in Silicon Valley. In addition to blogging, I recently released my first book titled “Do You Have What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur?” You can contact me directly at [email protected]. Feel free to Circle me on Google+.
80 Ways to Find Your Next Big Startup Idea
By Thomas Oppong
You want to build the next big thing? The good news is that it’s not beyond your skills and capabilities if you truly believe you have something great to offer the world. The bad news is that most people don’t get to do it because they make the mistake of trying to solve a problem no one has.
The following quote by Steve Jobs is perhaps one of the greatest quotes that can inspire the creative genius in you.
Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is – everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will, you know if you push in, something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it.–Steve Jobs
Paul Graham sums it all in this short quote about what to create.
The very best startup ideas tend to have three things in common: they’re something the founders themselves want, that they themselves can build, and that few others realize are worth doing. -Paul Graham
These are the 80 ways to find your next big idea.
1. Ask yourself how is the current product too complicated? What simple little thing could you do to just make it simpler.
2. Ask again-why it doesn’t work better and how to resolve the problem.
3. Don’t wait for a brilliant, paradigm-shifting, disruptive idea, find a real problem people have and solve it.
4. Look for market gaps in the trail of successful concepts. You will likely need fewer resources to launch a market gap plug.
5. What are the biggest challenges your colleagues at work face?
6. Go shopping for a few hours and listen to other shoppers talk about products, complain about processes, and just gab.
7. Look for problems that matches your skill set.
8. Find an industry or situation where the customer is getting frustrated on price and the customer experience is poor.
9. Think about combining two products into one.
10. What tasks take up the most time during your day?
11. Explore something completely foreign to you. The freedom from preconceptions will give you some unique insights.
12. Get people commenting and giving feedback feedback about every possible idea you have.
13. Look for problems not ideas.
14. Go to a startup weekend in your city or near you.
15. What inefficiencies do you notice in your daily routine work.
16. Ask yourself: what abilities do you care about or want to enhance?
17. Live in the future and build what people will need.
18. Look out for cues when reading books or when taking a walk, in the bus, on the train, subway etc.
19. A great start up idea is one you’ll be able to grow continuously. Think long-term.
20. Get your best friends together, complain about life problems, brainstorm solutions, talk it out, and write everything down.
21. Organize a Meetup or find a meetup to share ideas.
22. Many of the great businesses of the next decade will be about making information about our behaviors more visible.-Evan Williams
23. Don’t think about just one niche, stay open to ideas from all industries.
24. Think of something that everyone does with their friends and make it public.
25. Identify tasks that take time/waste your time.
26. Ask yourself what was impossible, or unnecessary a few years ago but with technology is possible today.
27. What activity do you dread the most in a given day?
28. Ask random people that you meet what the biggest annoyances in their lives and jobs are.
29. When you encounter a problem think through all the possible ways of resolving it.
30. Know about different disciplines, and have broad knowledge. Innovation often comes from crossbreeding different disciplines.
31. Ask yourself why it hasn’t been improved in the way you think would work.
32. What frustrates you most about a product, in that frustration is an idea.
33. Stay away from TechCrunch or Mashable and look outside the box
34. Put yourself in a new state of mind. Get out of your demography.
35. It’s hard to make a good product if it doesn’t solve a problem you are personally facing.
37. Maintain a sense of curiosity in the world around you, a mental flexibility to entertain odd possibilities
38. Being creative is a habit you get into, maintain that habit constantly.
39. Search yourself and look for problems you have yourself.
40. Don’t think up startup ideas. Notice them.
41. Ideas with no long term value generally fail. Look for what will still be relevant tomorrow.
42. Transform a situation where people are isolated or lonely by connecting them in a novel way.
43. Find an active forum. Make it easier for someone (or a group) to do something they’re talking about doing there, it could be your next
startup
44. Make use of your favorite to-do app consistently and write down your ideas the instant they come to you.
45. Take a different route home.
46. Look for markets that are not sufficiently served.
47. Think about the most normal, expected solution to a problem would be, and then try to imagine the opposite.
48. When you see something that annoys you, think about how to solve it.
49. Talk about your ideas with friends. Get feedback. Tweak and repeat.
50. Be in-the-know about breaking trends.
51. Look at the most commonly searched phrases on Google trends.
52. Look through the customer service sections of websites and find out what people are complaining about.
53. Find product review forums and read about customer frustration about products.
54. Listen when other people complain. Gather it by listening when people tell you what’s ruining their day.
55. Bring an existing idea to a different platform.
56. Study your employer’s business process and build upon it. i.e. improve it.
57. Spend time reading about other companies and their customer pain points
58. Build something you need in your company, chances are others need it too. Think Yammer.
59. Copy business-model ideas from another country that have yet to be imported
60. Taking a trip to a totally different environment is always a great way to spot interesting ideas.
61. Try things: Experiment with everything. You’ll find things you like and things you don’t like.
62. Spend time with successful people in your network and talk about the same issues. Each will have a slightly different way of thinking about things.
63. Create a Twitter list. Add influential users whose ideas can inspire great ideas.
Successful Startup 101 Magazine - Veteran's Issue 2014 Page 1