Continuing my recent meme of linking to high quality posts on other sites, I wanted to link to Mark Suster of GRP Ventures and his recent series on the site Both Sides of the Table. Mark has unique experience as both an entrepreneur and a VC, and has great war stories to tell. I recommend taking a look at the following:
I hope you find these resources useful.
I’m the 2009-2010 Champion for the non-profit EO Atlanta Accelerator Program, which means I help coordinate the program and recruit while our chapter administrator takes care of all the details. From the EO Accelerator website:
The Accelerator Program is the catalyst that enables first stage entrepreneurs to catapult their business to the next level.
The goal with the EO Accelerator program is to help entrepreneurs reach $1 million in annual sales, and thus qualify to join EO. The main tenants of the program include the following:
If you’re an entrepreneur with at least $250,000 in revenues, I recommend you apply for EO Accelerator.
We have a monthly financials review on the first Thursday of each month. As part of our rhythm, data, and priorities, using the terminology from Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, we try to have consistent, repeatable processes for everything we do. The monthly financials review involves talking through the following items:
Financials, especially cash flow, are critical for entrepreneurs to monitor, and I recommend doing it on a regular basis.
It’s that time of the quarter to do our performance reviews. We try to make them very simple and focused using a methodology from Patrick Lencioni. Everyone in my company has to answer the following four questions personally as well as for their direct reports:
Employees then provide anonymous feedback about how their manager can improve to our HR manager. I feel that doing reviews quarterly, and not tying them to compensation discussions, makes for better communication that flows in a more timely manner.
Whenever people ask about our sales and marketing strategy, I always tell them we focus on direct sales with a small percentage of revenue coming from indirect channels like value added resellers (VARs). Inevitably, I’ll get the question asking why we don’t do more with distribution partners. We’ve worked hard in the past at setting up reseller and OEM relationships only to never have them work out as well as both parties initially expected.
I think distribution partnerships are a good idea but I wouldn’t bet the farm on them.
Partnerships, like any other part of your business, take serious time and energy to cultivate well. My recommended approach is to take baby steps with distributors and build small wins over time. Once you have some simple wins under your belt, only then would I recommend taking the next step toward a deeper relationship.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to spend a couple hours with three entrepreneurs as part of a special group devoted to continual business improvement. We meet once a month and talk about ways to improve our businesses, with a special emphasis on corporate culture. A topic for yesterday was for one of the entrepreneurs to take us through his new ZAG.
ZAG comes from the Mary Neumeier book of the same name and is a way to express your company and brand in a succinct, no-nonsense manner by answering several simple questions. Once your ZAG is complete, you will have outlined several facets of your business, including:
I recommend checking out the ZAG book to better clarify many aspects of your business.
Two weeks ago I met with an entrepreneur that is in the midst of changing the strategy for his small ecommerce business. As ecommerce sites have become more prevalent, and big brands like Amazon.com have continued to expand product lines, it is more difficult for small vendors to compete. This entrepreneur’s enhanced strategy is as follows:
I don’t know much about ecommerce businesses but his enhanced strategy sounds strong to me.
Mike Blake has a great post from April of this year titled Joining the VC Scene in Atlanta. His insight and links are an invaluable resource for anyone looking to get involved in the Atlanta technology community. I would have tweaked Mike’s title to say “Technology Community” instead of “VC Scene” as his commentary is really applicable to anyone that is interested in getting involved, regardless of caring about the VC scene. In addition, I would add a few more links:
Again, please read Mike’s post and get involved in the Atlanta technology community!
Alexander Muse, whom I don’t know, has a great blog over at Texas Startup Blog. One key section of his blog, labeled Startup Advice, has a great deal of content that every entrepreneur should read. Here are some of the topics:
I recommend entrepreneurs read through all the topics.
On Tuesday of this week I met with an aspiring web entrepreneur who sought input on what he should do to better his skills. In addition to the five habits of a successful entrepreneur advice, I offered up the following items to be a habit as well:
Doing these tasks on a regular basis isn’t the easiest thing to do, but making it a habit and sticking to it can make the difference between success and failure.
David Cummings on Startups 