The More You Know
by Matt Zemon
Every entrepreneur starts his or her business from square one- just like you. Once started, all of their time and energy goes into to growing the business.
As the entrepreneur-in-residence for the National Military Spouse Network I am always looking for ways to help military spouses start or grow businesses. An important resource for me has been the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO). This organization provides small accountability forums and knowledge sharing for entrepreneurs around the world. (For those of you with $1 million or more of annual revenue check them out!)
This month I am offering some suggested reading for military spouse entrepreneurs. They are written by thought leaders that were introduced to me through EO and cover a variety of topics that can help entrepreneurs of any size.
Getting back to square one, let's start with the beginning of a business. Sound planning can make or break a new company, but it doesn't have to be daunting. The three sources I cite on this subject offer great suggestions and tools. Eric Ries is the creator of The Lean Startup and he offers a process to empower entrepreneurs to make better business decisions faster. His scientific approach to creating and managing startups streamlines the process. The Startup of YOU focuses on the human side of entrepreneurship. Reid Hoffman, Co-founder and Chairman of LinkedIn and Ben Casnocha, an Entrepreneur and Author cover the mindset and skill set that are needed by today's startups. The Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur takes a colorful and visual approach to strategy and planning. Their Business Model Canvas is a simple, but effective template that allows you to create a customized model of your business, whether it is a startup or a going concern.
Once you are confident about your plan, the management elements needed to execute it should receive your thoughtful attention. Once again, there are many sources of information that can be helpful. Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Growing Firm, by Verne Harnish, gets back to the fundamental best practices you can use to gain focus and align employees and vendors. His one page Checklist and a number of other resources and helpful videos are available online.
Hiring great people isn't easy, but it doesn't have to be hard. Geoff Smart and Randy Street wrote a fantastic book called Who that can help anyone make better hiring decisions.
Once you have hired employees, don't forget to spend time on your company culture. Define what the company stands for and what is expected of every member. Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo From Maslow, by Chip Conley is a great look at what motivates employees, customers, bosses and investors. He provides ideas on how to use that knowledge to strengthen relationships. Those relationships are at the core of a strong and profitable business.
When it comes to generating business, there is a lot of advice out there about promotion. Seth Godin has written a number of great books including Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, which identifies what makes a product/company noticeable in a sea of marketing messages.
In Double Double: How To Double your Revenue and Profit in 3 Years Or Less, Cameron Herald addresses the three steps to success: Planning, Building and Leading. As the former COO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK, he played a key role in building a great company. One key element for his company was generating free media exposure through an inexpensive public relations strategy, which he describes in detail in Double Double.
A well-known trait common to entrepreneurs is a thirst for learning. I hope these reading suggestions will quench your thirst for a little while.
No offshore call centers! As President & CEO, Matt Zemon brings over 20 years of operations, billing and customer service experience to American Support. American Support provides contact center support to some of America's largest companies using a 100% U.S.-based workforce. Matt has been named one of Triangle Business Journal's 40 under 40 while American Support is included in CableFax's "Top 10 places in the cable industry to work" and WorldBlu's list of "Most Democratic Organizations".
Have a question about your business plan for Matt? Ask here. Your question/answer may be printed in a future issue.