Heal Thyself Small Business and In-Turn Heal This Econonomy - What Small biz & Start-ups Can Do to Prevail Again and Rescue Our Economy

It is no secret (except to folks in Washington DC) that it is small businesses who have led us out of every recession in our history (50% of all jobs and 65% of new jobs). While large corporations hoard money for acquisitions and to invest in innovative technologies to replace humans (because they can afford to) it is the small business owner who judges the horizon and takes the risk to hire talent to grow. Likewise it is the entrepreneur who decides to invest his/her life savings and those of family and friends for a start-up idea or franchise ownership. This is where new jobs are formed. And this is how rampant national under-employment or unemployment issues get resolved.

A rather startling bit of historic news broke a few years ago about startups in America. In 2008, emerging startups for the first time in history trailed business failures. That means more business are failing now than are new businesses entering the market to take up the slack in jobs. 

Some great insight into this trend can be found in this article by Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup. He had a quote in the article that truly captures the challenge we face in America.

"Let's get one thing clear: This economy is never truly coming back unless we reverse the birth and death trends of American (SMB) businesses." 

My intent here in this two-part article is to candidly address these two topics (the birth and death trends of SMBs). I will share a perspective - why and how to improve - that comes from 14 years of consulting for privately held businesses and advising/mentoring startups.

Part 1 - Why are they failing?

To fix the problem we have to understand the problem. Let’s first discuss business failure rates. According to the Small Business Administration, a business started in 2004 has a 48% chance of still being around today - half are gone. The number-one reason businesses fail is rather obvious - they flat run out of money. But how does this occur?

Try these reasons (compiled research of Moya K. Mason, “What causes small businesses to fail.”) :

• Choosing a business that isn't very profitable.
• Inadequate cash reserves.
• Failure to clearly define and understand your market, your customers, and your customers' buying habits.
• Failure to price your product or service correctly.
• Failure to adequately anticipate cash flow.
• Failure to anticipate or react to competition, technology, or other changes in the marketplace.
• Overgeneralization - be everything to everyone.
• Overdependence on a single customer or customer set.
• Uncontrolled growth.
• Believing you can do everything yourself.
• Putting up with inadequate management.

This list is very comprehensive and accurately captures what I have observed. Sadly, these are all preventable, everyone of these causes are, if only business owners would follow the very basic business rules - the very first of which is have a plan, or in the case of a startup, write a business plan (before you launch).

A war is being waged against business/strategic plans.

There are folks out there, especially in the start-up world, who are advocating that business planning is outdated. Here is an entry from one such “expert” who titled his blog, “Why you Should Ditch Annual Business Plans” 

"Business planning is broken. In a world that is constantly changing and increasingly complex, business leaders can’t plan for a predicted future anymore. By the time an annual business plan is ratified the market has moved on to places that nobody could have imagined. If businesses are unable keep up with changing customer needs they stagnate or decline.

Leaders need to abandon traditional business planning and embrace the creative process instead. Business plans should look more like sketchbooks than spreadsheets. What do sketchbooks do? They help artists unlock ideas, to experiment and learn, to stretch boundaries, and to build talent. Artists take their best ideas from sketchbooks and use them to create their best work.

Businesses should operate as a similar collection of experiments. The testing and refining of new growth ideas ensures a constant connection with a changing customer base. Aggressive growth happens when leaders are able to continuously shift investment to those ideas that show the most promise." 

His contention, like so many taking this position, is that the marketplace is changing SO rapidly it is just not possible to plan. He is also suggesting the best and most respected business owner (CEO) is the one who stands up in front of his/her employees with his sketch book of ideas on where he is taking the business. Do you want to follow this leader? This is all utter BS and this mindset explains in part the sad failure rates for start-ups and established businesses alike.

Let’s look at the very basic elements of a business/strategic plan:

• What basic human problem am I solving?

• Is my solution unique?

• Do people want to buy my solutions? What is my proof?

• How big is the marketplace that I am selling to?

• Who are the competitors/trends I should pay attention to?

• What skills/people do I need on-hand to sell and deliver my solution?

• How many widgets will I have to sell to cover costs and be cash-positive?

• How long can I operate with cash on hand?

If you look at these 8 basic questions and compare them to the reasons for failing you have to wonder why business owners fight this basic step of business. I‘ve heard a few excuses over the years and share them here.

“While poor management is cited most frequently as the reason businesses fail, inadequate or ill-timed financing is a close second.”

Because of this, some (especially politicians) will immediately point their finger at our banks and other financing institutions and blame them for this problem. “If they would only loan more we would solve this problem.”, they will claim. There are even those suggesting the criteria for loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration should be lowered to “untie the hands” of the banks.

STOP!

Asking banks and our government to assume larger risks is not the answer. While it is unimaginable to find the CEO of Coke, Facebook, Home Depot or Uber unable to intelligently discuss forecast sales, cash flow, profits, trends that may impact their market, the competition they face and long-range growth strategies, these types of conversations with SMB’s and startups are dubious at best. So to suggest easier access to US government-backed loans is crazy talk. Let’s not make this mistake again. We’ve seen and felt what happens when our banks and government invest in speculation (Solyndra).

Heal thyself American business owners and save our economy (play the Battle Hymn of the Republic now).

America needs you, small and medium sized business owners. We need you more than ever! There is nothing Congress, or the President can do that will have a more dramatic impact on our economy and jobs than you can by dismissing those who irresponsibly suggest there are shortcuts to success in business. Or those suggesting you can Tweet, or social media, or robo-call your way to growth. Dismiss the notion that simply having an idea and ambition is all that is necessary to launch a start-up. I implore you to help heal our economy by healing your businesses. Become a disciple for businesses owners around you by first following the basic tenets of a growing business - have a plan, execute to the plan. Inspire your workforce with a vision of the future and a realistic written growth path. Show you can lead. Show you can set goals and achieve them on a recurring basis. Show you can be a responsible steward of someone else’s money (a bank for instance) by repeatedly making prudent, plan-based decisions on hiring, marketing, capital equipment and services. Let your profitable sales win-rate reveal how well you know your customer and respect your competitors. And finally, surround yourself with smart, critical thinkers who will not shy away from challenging you or telling you what you need to hear. 

If you do these things you will do more to transform your business, the lives of your employees, and our national economy than any new President, Congress or trade deal could ever dream of doing.

And my message to Washington DC - get the heck out of the way!

Part 2 will examine the second issue facing America - the declining birth trends of SMBs.  

About the author:  Mike Gomez is the President and CEO of Allegro Consulting, a business growth specialty firm in Atlanta, Georgia helping privately held business owners find new avenues for sustained growth for over 14 years. He is a start-up mentor at ATL Tech Village and Four Athens Tech Incubator, guest lecturer at GaTech and UGA, and prolific business speaker.  His growth focused articles have appeared in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, ATL Business Chronicle, Gwinnett Business Journal, and the Business Insider. www.allegroconsultant.com

@GrowthGuy's 8 Rules for Startups - from 14 yrs. of Business "Accident Investigations"

In my past life I supported aircraft accident investigations. The primary purpose of these investigations was of course to find the root cause for why the accident occurred. Equally important was the transmittal of the findings and conclusions to the entire aviation community (pilots/crew, maintenance, designers, air traffic control, etc...) in an effort to prevent the accident from happening again. (Learn from a real jet crash: “What a jet crash can teach a business owner” ).

Sadly, in my 14 years of consulting for small businesses and startups alike in Metro Atlanta I have visited too many business "crash" sites. In an attempt to prevent a crash, or better yet, improve your chances for success, I share these findings from those who faltered of failed. This list is intended to be complimentary to Mark Cuban’s outstanding 12 Rules for Startups published in Entrepreneur Magazine back in 2012.

1. Plan it on paper first. What problem are we solving? What differentiates our solution? What is our pricing strategy? Who pays? How do we attract customers? How do we sell to these customers? How long before cash positive? These are just a few of the questions one should be asking BEFORE you create a logo, a website, or even establish a name for your company? The process of writing succinct answers that stand up to tough honest scrutiny is harder than you think but it is an exercise that is well worth it. Though this business planning process will not guarantee success it will most certainly improve your chances tremendously. (Want to know “What to Include in Your Business Plan”)
2. Start ‘soda straw’ small. “I want to sell our solution to lawyers.” “I want to provide our services to any tech startup.” “This new CRM solution is for ANY small business.” These are real examples from start-up founders who each had a minimal sales force. The problem with this approach is the size of the customer target dwarfs the typical staff and resources available to communicate with this audience in any meaningful concentrated manner. The more effective approach is to carve out a narrow segment of the target demographic (by geography, specialty, etc...) and concentrate your resources accordingly then prove your business model can succeed with that segmented customer. Then, and only then, grow by pursuing new customer demographics in “one vector off “ increments.
3. Be transparent. Tell the team what the plan is (there is a plan - right?), who are the competitors, why are we different, how are we going to grow, what the company can/will look like a year from now, and how will we make that vision a reality. Saying that the plan is in your head just doesn’t help anyone. Worse than that, keeping the plan a ‘secret’ provides for the use of that number one of all excuses when goals aren’t met, “I didn’t know.”.
4. Lead. People want to be led. That is a fact. A great work environment is one where there is personal satisfaction for directly contributing to the growth of the company. I heard from one CEO of a Fortune 100 company that his leadership style was to “set expectations then inspect”. Perfect and succinct. So lead by assigning clear roles and responsibilities, set measurable expectations then inspect to ensure your plan is being followed and the team is getting the support, training and resources they need to do their jobs.
5. Have a sales process. Place as much emphasis on the sales process as you do about making the product or delivering the service. Sales is a respected profession and critical to the success of any company. So handing the responsibility to the most dynamic person, best golfer, best joke teller, or best looking person on your team is probably not the best approach. Sales is a process - the process of gathering knowledge about your customer’s problem so that you might devise a solution to best solve it. It is therefore critical that your sales process reflects how your customer buys similar products or services. Much like other specialty roles such as operation, finance, and accounting, sales too takes skills, training, and expertise. (Learn here about “The Business Owner’s Role in Supporting a Sales Team”)
6. Measure the right things. But don’t over measure. Taking the temperature of the company is important to gauge it’s health and how well your team is performing to the plan (there is that word again!). Here are a few of my favorite things to measure: qualified leads (marketing), win-rate/renewals (sales), defects/rework/on-time delivery/production cost (operations), operating cash flow (finance).
7. Be miserly. Especially about “non-value-added” expenses. If you would hesitate at all to itemize the expense on a customer’s bill then think twice about spending the money. Example: new office chair, plants, company flat company, especially in a startup, so treat it as a precious resource .... because it is. (Here is a good article about cash flow management: 4 Biggest Causes of Cash Flow Management )
8. Seek out advice and be coachable. Being a good lawyer doesn’t automatically mean you have the experience to be the CEO of your newly formed law practice. Same thing holds for a gaming coder, software developer, or a doctor, engineer, or a chemist. And lastly just because it was your idea or invention doesn’t mean you are equipped with the skills to lead and grow a company. Sad to see an owner finally grasp, “You mean the problem is me?” just before the business is shuttered. Worse is everyone around him/her already knew this. Running a growing thriving company is hard and requires talent and expertise. If you have not gained that expertise through varied job experiences then seek out those experts and LISTEN and ACT on their advice.

 

Need help with you Metro Atlanta, Georgia start-up?  Let's have a cup of coffee. Contact me here. 

About the author. Mike Gomez is President and CEO of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm in Atlanta, GA. Allegro has been helping Georgia’s private business owners to plan and execute strong growth strategies since 2002. Mike is a strategy and sales process evangelist and coach with a tool chest built on direct experience in international sales ($10B), strategy and program management. He is an advisor at Atlanta Tech Village, judge for Next Top Entrepreneur, a prolific speaker, writer, former aerospace engineer, and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. 

Thinking Strategically (versus Tactically)

January always seems to be a month for owners of start-ups and established companies alike to reflect on their business.

Do I want this year to be different than last?

Do I want to deal with the same issues (people), have to overcome the same challenges (sales win-rate), work the same hours (long), have the same number of sleepless nights (too many)?

Most will know in their gut that a different outcome requires change.  And for this ever so brief period of time they are on the cusp of thinking strategically about their business.

But sadly, I have observed over and over again that they quickly revert to tactical thinking when searching for solutions. A new website. A new lead generation service. New CRM software. New social media initiatives ("we are going to be serious this year about blogging").  I have even witnessed an owner decide on the spot to invest in a booth design and commit to attending two expos as her solution to bolstering two previous years of lackluster sales. You can imagine the investment that tactical decision will cost.

Steven Covey in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, coined the phrase, "begin with the end in mind". He shared this lesson:

"Begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination.  It means to know where you're going so that you better understand where you are at now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction."

Here is my business interpretation of his lesson:

"Begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your strategic objectives.  It means to know what you want your business to look like in 3-years (sales, operations, people) and, based on where you stand today, be certain the tactical decisions you make are always in-line with the strategic plan."

I have observed that most business owners are fairly comfortable thinking tactically. In fact they thrive on it. There is nothing that makes them feel better about themselves and their role in the company than solving a tactical problem. Strategic thinking, however, is a less common trait.

I was going to write about what it takes to think strategically but I found an author who nailed this topic.  Paul Shoemaker of Wharton's Mack Institute identifies and shares the "6 Habits of True Strategic Thinkers" in this outstanding Inc. article.

Strategically plotting a point on the horizon for your business and letting that be the beacon to guide tactical decisions is how business growth is most efficiently achieved.

Want to build a growth strategy for your metro Atlanta, Georgia business?  Let's discuss this over a cup of coffee.  Contact me here.

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping businesses plan and execute aggressive growth strategies. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is a strategist, sales process evangelist, prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. He is also a mentor at Atlanta Tech Village and Four Athens Tech Incubator. www.allegroconsultant.com

I Resolve to... 10 Resolutions For Growth in the New Year

Beginning a new year offers us a time to reflect on the past and the future of our business - to think about what went well and where we might have fallen short of expectations. It is also a good time to make changes, to resolve to leading your business in a manner that assures steady progressive growth.

Based on 12 years of experience working with privately-held business owners, this will typically mean doing things significantly different than you have in the past.

To be a catalyst to this positive change, I offer my top ten resolutions for growth in 2015.

In 2016, I resolve to:  

1. Have a well vetted, market-based plan that defines our future state in a measurable way (3-years and 1-year from now) - customer mix, sales, operations, etc.. 
2. Share that plan with our employees so they too know what we are striving to achieve and how they can be a part of our success. 
3. Operate to that plan - to get things done and hit milestones when we said we would - and that there will be real repercussions for failing to do so. 
4. Not make a single spontaneous buying decision for professional services or capital equipment - I will let the plan dictate these important cash expenditures. 
5. Know who we are competing against by company name. 
6. Strive to differentiate from our competitors - and if we can’t - to out-market them as one would do if selling a commodity product/service like toothpaste, accounting services, banking, web development, etc.... 
7. Know who are our target customers and that it be narrowly defined - consistent with the size of our marketing and sales force. 
8. Recognize that all marketing activity has ultimately one purpose - to generate qualified leads for our sales force. Thus, I will plan our expenditures and measure its effectiveness accordingly. 
9. Know and rationalize in business terms our social media presence/activity.
10. Make good hiring decisions - which are driven by the plan, and starts with a written job description outlining the necessary experience and performance expectations, pay and benefits.. 

How many of these are you currently following? Need some help bringing these resolutions to life in you metro Atlanta, Georgia business? Let's talk over a cup of coffee. Contact me here.

Wishing you the greatest success in 2016!

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping businesses plan and execute aggressive growth strategies. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is a sales process and growth strategy evangelist, prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. He is also an advisor at Atlanta Tech Village and Four Athens Tech Incubator. www.allegroconsultant.com

The Elevator Pitch Challenge. Can You Say Yours In Two Floors (10 sec)?

Ah! The infamous "elevator pitch". How many of you have this refined in such a manner that you can actually give it in an elevator or any other setting for that manner?

Why is this even important?

Well here is a case where a strong elevator pitch can be valuable. At the start of nearly every Board of Advisory event at the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce the host would send a microphone around the entire room giving everyone an opportunity to stand up and state your name, your company name and "what it is you do". There are several ways the moderator would keep this from consuming the entire time allocated for the event itself. One way was to restrict the person to saying this in three breaths (three sentences). Another was to limit it to 10 seconds. In other words, an opportunity to give your elevator pitch but to an audience of 50 to 100 local business leaders. This kind of scenario is not uncommon. Are you prepared for it?

I use the following elevator scenario with my clients to hone their ability to clearly articulate what it is they do.

"You just walked into the 3rd floor elevator at a shopping mall and just before the door closes an important business acquaintance you haven't seen in a long while squeezes in the door at the last second. He/she recognizes you and says, "Mike! Good to see you again. What are you up to nowadays?" He presses the first floor button. The elevator starts to move. How will you reply?"

A typical elevator will cover two floors in 10 - 16 seconds. To allow for a response I suggest your pitch should last no more than 10 seconds.

So now that we know how long it should be, what are the ingredients to a good elevator pitch? When stating what you do it should be, (1) clear enough for your grandmother to understand, (2) be stated in a manner that clearly sets you apart from others in your sector, and (3) is intriguing enough to warrant the following sincere (versus the brush off) reply, "Wow, that's interesting. I'd like to hear more. Let's get together for coffee." Of course, if the person is not in the market for your services another good response could be, “Interesting, I might know someone who could use your services.”

The bottom line is be clear, be different, and be brief.

Here is how the elevator ride would be for me.

We see each other in the elevator and the business owner says, "Mike! Good to see you again. What are you up to nowadays?" He presses the first floor button. The elevator starts to move.

I reply, “Good to see you Tom. I’m with Allegro Consulting, a 12 year old firm working exclusively with private companies on matters related to growing a sound business like strategy and process definition."

In this 10 seconds I emphasized a key differentiator for my company, longevity, that we’ve been around longer than almost everyone of my competitors. I made it clear who I specialize in working with, “private(ly) (held) companies”. And, I gave two concrete examples of what I do for my clients. You noticed I didn’t say something vague like, “I help companies go to the next level.” even though this is the most common phrase I hear from potential new clients. The reason is this phrase can mean different things to different people. There is no doubt what strategy means and implied in that is, I help companies who are ready to grow based on a strategy.

Was this helpful?

Want to sharpen the elevator pitch for your metro Atlanta business?   Let's talk about it over a cup of coffee.  Contact me here.

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping businesses plan and execute aggressive growth strategies. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is a growth strategy, and sales process evangelist, prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. www.allegroconsultant.com

Where is the script for your business? (Reprise)

This was one of my earlier and more popular blogs. I thought it would be appropriate to dust it off and republish it because it is invariably this time of year when business owners begin to reflect on the past year and the new one just around the corner. I hear these quotes most often: "Maybe we should do things differently next year." or "I'd sure like to feel like I am in more control of our growth." or "I am ready to take it to the next level." Maybe this article will add additional motivation to change. Enjoy.

I was speaking to a large gathering of business owners and was asked whether there was an inherent conflict between planning for growth and the more free spirited entrepreneurial-like approach - where you stay agile and react to opportunities as they arise (i.e., operate without a plan). This was a great question as it addresses a big misconception about planning - that it somehow hand-cuffs a business.

To answer the question I asked the audience to imagine themselves accidentally walking onto the set of a movie production. Then imagine grabbing the megaphone and asking everyone on the set to freeze for a moment and to please hold up their script for the day. In this case, none of us would be too surprised to see that the cameraman, the director, the soundman, the actors, and even the caterers will all be able to produce a script for that specific day.  The cameraman will know which cameras he has to have ready and where they should be staged.  Because of the script, the actors will know the lines and the scenes they are expected to be ready for.  And the script will reveal to the caterers how many meals they have to prepare for and where they will be served that day. You see, a movie will never come together without a script.

Now take that same megaphone into your own business and ask your leadership team and employees to produce their script for the day. How will they react to this request? I suspect most will give you that “deer in the headlights” look.

There is not a producer in the world or investor that would pursue a movie production without a well written script. The idea is simply preposterous. Yet most of us will run our businesses without one.

The script for your company is a plan - a simple concise document which aligns your team around a common objective or end-state that is consistent with your vision and market conditions. And, like the script for a movie, there are portions written specifically for specialized roles. Sales, operations, finance, human resources, marketing should each have a script which defines the specific tasks they must complete (and when) to keep your “movie” progressing.

The script governing the day-to-day operations are process documents which describes how a product or service is produced and delivered within your company.

You will find that businesses that grow consistently year after year operate to a well vetted long-term (3 yr.) and short-term (1 yr.) plan. It is the plan they refer to BEFORE making a hiring decision, investing in capital equipment, or spending precious cash on marketing campaigns and website improvements. It is also the plan that will guide them when building and executing a sales strategy.

These same growing companies also recognize that the process by which they produce a product or service can impact competitiveness. By documenting critical processes they eliminate the risk of being dependent on any one person’s memory or contribution. It also gives them a foundation from which to explore innovative changes that will improve efficiency and thus increase profitability.

Now I hope I have convinced you that, like a movie, your business too requires scripting. Can you imagine actors, cameramen, and set designers coming to a specific location and then left to their own to interpret the verbal instructions of the producer’s vision for a movie. It would be chaotic at best with numerous costly ventures down one frustrating dead-end after another. Entrepreneurial or not, is this the atmosphere for a growing thriving business? No.

So, where is the script for your business? It is worthwhile to note that since 1980 over 70% of the winners of the Academy Award for best picture also received the Oscar for best screenplay – the script.

Want help to build your "script"?  Let's talk over coffee about where you want to take your metro Atlanta business. Contact me here.

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping businesses plan and execute aggressive growth strategies. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is a sales process evangelist, prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. www.allegroconsultant.com

Is your business an orange among a lot of oranges?

I gave a talk to business owners about the importance of having a targeted marketing and sales strategy (#5 on my 10 Essential Elements to Long-Term Growth). In that talk I showed why companies who thrive are laser focused in defining to whom they want to sell their products or services. This is especially true with start-ups or small companies where a limited marketing budget and a small sales force is the norm. The analogy I use most often to stress this point is the game of darts. How silly would it be to play darts without a dartboard? Yet I routinely see owners liberally handing out darts to their sales team with no dartboard in sight - all the while still expecting them to regularly hit a bullseye (customer).

It was after this presentation that a question was posed, “How do I decide who to target?”

Bingo!  That is exactly the question I wanted these business owners to ponder.

I’m sorry to say that you won’t find the answer here in this blog. Why? Because the process to decide this requires an extensive internal company assessment and external market analysis.

I can, however, give you one step in that process. Answer this question, "How are you different from competitors in your industry or sector?" Figuring out what’s different about your business will then lead to identifying companies who value that difference - and thus whom you should consider targeting.

Unfortunately, most of us are in “commodity” businesses. In other words, within our industry sector we are simply an orange sitting on a stack of oranges. Unless you've intentionally done something to separate yourself, this is likely true whether you are a marketing firm, lawyer, dentist, any broker, web designer, staffing company, accounting firm, bank, dry cleaners, insurance company, real estate agent, etc ... Are you getting the picture? Even a company like Boeing is an orange. The difference for them is the stack of competing oranges is rather small (only four commercial aircraft builders in the world). If we could all be so lucky to compete against just four rivals.

The challenge for every business owner is to decide (1) do I simply compete as an orange - knowing I will have to out-market (advertise, SEO, etc...) all the other oranges in my sector and accept that price will drive most decisions or (2) narrow the competing field by specializing - become unique - a blood orange, naval orange, or clementine for example. There is no right or wrong answer here. The downfall comes by being unaware, in denial, or worse yet, think you have something unique when in fact you don't.

Here is a quick example. Cordell and Cordell is a law firm. I think we all know how many law firms there are in this world (that stack of oranges is a mile high). Recognizing this, Cordell and Cordell chose to specialize - they became a domestic litigation firm further specializing in men’s divorce - a blood orange (no pun). In doing so, they reduced the size of the competition significantly. And by fully embracing this strategy they know clearly who they want to serve (target) as a customer. They have even gone so far as to own and manage the content of mensdivorce.com and mensrights.com. Brilliant!

I have a friend who once defined his firm as a marketing company. He eventually recognized he was in a very crowded market (lots of oranges (marketing firms) here in Atlanta). Every engagement became a competitive race to the bottom in price. He decided to change course, to specialize in just one aspect of the marketing spectrum - marketing communications, even further specializing in presentations. He created a brand called Presentation Tune-ups and is now much clearer about who specifically he is targeting for his specialized service. And much like the lawyer example above his relationships, first built around presentations, eventually encompasses other marketing related services.

So ask yourself, are you an orange competing against other oranges? If so, how will your customer choose your orange from the rest on the stack? What does your dartboard look like? Or, have you made yourself a unique enough orange to warrant being placed in a different bin, with the ability to command a higher price, and a much clearer understanding of the bullseye your marketing and sales force are aiming at.

Tired of being an orange among all the other oranges?  Let's talk over a cup of coffee how we can define a way to make your metro Atlanta business unique.  Contact me here.

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping Georgia business owners take their company "to the next level". He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is a sales process evangelist, prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. www.allegroconsultant.com

The Worst Sales Direction EVER! “Treat it like it’s your own business.”

I've just heard this story too many times not to share it as a learning moment.
I received a call from a salesperson asking for advice as he struggled to meet his quarterly sales quota. I assumed he was calling looking for new sales techniques or particular guidance on moving a client to close. But this was not the case at all. Here is how the dialogue went:
Salesperson says, “I’m selling a product in a market where I have a competitor selling the exact same thing.”
I replied, “Same thing? You mean same features, same everything?”
“Yes”
“Are you more price competitive?”
“No, not really. We offer trade in of older equipment to bring the price down but so does our competitor”
“What about service?”

“Yeah, we do support the customer better than they do.”
”That’s good. But will your customer pay more for this better service?”
“No.”
“Interesting, so tell me what kind of direction have you received from the owner of the business you work for?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, given the market realities you’ve outlined, how does your owner expect you to win new business? Is he doing things to separate you from this competitor? For example, specializing in a certain niche (becoming experts and thus the preferred vendor) or using marketing and strong advertising techniques to build brand preference (aka, Colgate vs Crest toothpaste)?”
“No, the only guidance I was given was, “Treat it like it’s your business.”
Even the best salesperson will under-perform or fail under these conditions. It is not the salesperson's job to identify target customers and invent ways to differentiate. The role of the owner, President and/or CEO of a business is to equip your sales team with the tools to be successful. At a minimum this includes the following:

• A list of “target customers” 
• those inline with the customer mix outlined in your short and long-range growth plan
• who match the profile of those who will value your product, expertise and/or differentiators
• The compelling story to support why clients should buy your product over competitors
• Who are the competitors the sales team can expect to face and what differentiates us from each
• A supportive marketing (lead generating, branding, demo tools, social media, samples, brochures, etc...) strategy
• The right sales tools and support (travel budget, conference attendance, CRM, bid and proposal, quoting, etc...) - tools that actually help the sales team do their job versus those that help the owner monitor the sales force.

Given that only 28% of a salesperson’s time is spent in front of the customer and about 50% of that time is actually selling (the rest is prospecting (35%), relationship building (10%), and training (5%)), it is imperative, you the owner, equip him/her with the tools to ensure it is the right prospect and that he maximizes the productivity of that time.

In my 12 years of consulting "under-performing sales" has been by far the number one pain point with the blame typically placed squarely on the salesperson or VP of Sales. It is not long into the engagement when humility kicks in as the owner discovers it is their lack of a long-range plan, a clear understanding of what makes them different, a detailed knowledge of their competitors, and an ineffective or non-existent marketing strategy that are the real culprits.

Want to grow your metro Atlanta business?  Let's talk over a cup of coffee about what we can do to give your sales team the right tools for success? Contact me here.

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping businesses plan and execute aggressive growth strategies. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is a sales process evangelist, prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. www.allegroconsultant.com

8 Growth Tools Every Business Owner Should Know, Have and Use

You need a good nail-gun, a saw and more to be a carpenter. To be a car mechanic you need a wrench, a computer code reader and a good socket-set to name a few of the essential tools. If you are a regular mountain climber then you likely have good rope, and plenty of high quality caribiners in your tool chest.  So, what are some of the important tools required if you are the CEO of your start-up or established business. 

#1 Business Plan (for start-ups): An exercise and accompanying document you complete PRIOR to launching a new business. Properly done it will force you to be clear on what your business is all about, the product or service you deliver, how you plan to deliver it, and supporting evidence for why customers will buy from you over competing alternatives. It will also tell you how much money you need to keep the business operating effectively before you are producing sufficient cash flow to cover operating expenses. Experience says you will find this document will be obsolete in the first six months of operations as real life will be surprisingly different than your assumptions. Regardless, this step is critical to success.

 #2 Strategic Plan (for established businesses): An exercise and accompanying document that combines your future vision of the business and real life market realities to define in a measurable way what your company will look like 2 to 3 years from now. It is the spot on the map you select before getting into your car for a road trip. Customer mix, revenue, market penetration, operations and people are all addressed in this document. A well done strategic plan will leverage you current strengths, acknowledge and address weaknesses, exploit market opportunities, and counter external threats. Everyone in your company should know your strategic plan - this is how you create an “aligned” workforce.

 #3 Tactical Plan: An annual document that defines specific actions (beyond day to day operations) to be taken by specific individuals in a specific time-frame (usually quarterly) that will incrementally move your company one step closer to the Strategic Plan goals. If you were to envision your business as a movie, this would be the “script”. You are the director and your employees, the actors. You are tasked with completing this movie on time and with no overruns.

 #4 Targeted Customer: Exactly who did you design your product/service for? It is not “everyone”. Your target customer is the bullseye of your sales dart board. The better you are able to describe the critical attributes (job, race, gender, age, income, business, hobby, etc...) the better and more efficient your marketing and sales force will be in finding and winning them.

 #5 Sales Strategy: A process where you analyze the depth and breadth of your market opportunities, the intensity of the competition you expect to face, and given resources you possess to devise a sales plan of attack. Similar to war planning you may choose a broad strategy that secures a large number of small victories or concentrate your resources to score a big impactful strategic win. It defines how and where you will deploy your limited resources as well as the weaknesses of you competition you plan to exploit to win new business.

 #6 Marketing Strategy: Marketing is all about generating qualified leads for your sales team to close on. Developing a marketing strategy is a left brain activity as it involves analysis and critical thinking. A well done marketing strategy involves analyzing your customers (who they are and how they buy) then exploring and selecting the most effective tools (web, social media, billboard, collateral, TV commercials, car wrap) within given financial constraints to garner their interest. You compete and hire marketing experts and service providers for their right brain creative skills to implement your strategy.

 #7 Sales Process: A replicable and thus written method for how you take a warm lead and turn him/her into a happy customer. As you might expect this is one of the most important steps in your business processes and should not be relegated to the personal techniques of any given salesperson. In addition to more consistent win rates, a defined sales process will allow you the owner to engage in a conversation with any of your sales team and know exactly who is in the funnel and where they are in the sales cycle.

 #8 Critical Processes: Those unique, replicable steps your company completes to generate leads, win business, deliver a consistent product or service and collect financial compensation. Documenting these steps provides two major benefits, (1) reduces risk by creating a back-up should you be unfortunate to lose a critical employee with all of the corporate memory due to a job change or accident and, (2) it establishes a baseline upon which to develop improvements. Say your company name is XYZ then what makes your product an XYZ product or service performed and delivered the XYZ way?  

Are you a metro Atlanta business who may need to 'borrow' some of these tools to help your business grow? Let's talk over a cup of coffee.  Contact me here.


About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping startups and establish businesses plan and execute aggressive growth strategies. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is a growth strategy and complex sales expert, prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. www.allegroconsultant.com

The Formula for a Successful Start-up

Towards the end of an engaging coffee meeting with Harold Brown, a well known and self defined serial entrepreneur and investor in the rising tech community of metro Atlanta, he made this observation, “As I am getting to know you Mike I’ve come to the conclusion you are not a ‘creator’ you are instead a ‘doer’ and I bet if we paired you with a good creator we’d get one heck of a start-up.”   

I wasn’t insulted by that observation at all.  In fact he captured me perfectly.  I am a doer and always have been.  My consulting company is all about helping business owners become more disciplined doers.  There is no doubt the aircraft engineering degree (process orientation) and military upbringing (Dad was career USAF) contributed to these traits.  The whole conversation got me thinking about what the necessary ingredients are for a successful start-up – outside the risk taking, free spirit characteristics you hear about most often. Here’s what I concluded:

(C + D) + Fr = SSu

or

(Creator + Doer) + Financial resources = Successful Start-up

Leave it to a former engineer to turn an observation into an equation. Let’s take a moment to dissect this formula.

Financial resources:  The inclusion of this in the equation should not be a surprise to anyone. It takes money or equivalent to start a company.  We all know that - whether that means going without pay for years or writing checks for website, business cards, office space, travel, capital equipment, etc…. I read somewhere that one of the top three reasons for a start-up failure is being under-capitalized.  In other words they simply run out of money before sales revenues are sufficient to support the business.  Now I will argue that a vast majority run out of money because they spent unwisely namely because they lacked a Doer who would ensure a plan was in place to control precious cash.

Creator:  This is the passionate idea person who can see a problem or need as well as the business solutions to address it.  Though there are common traits between a creator and an inventor the difference is dramatic.  A creator in this case conceptualizes a business solution before a technology solution. Sadly an inventor‘s approach is exactly opposite, which explains why so many inventors are flat broke.  Jeff Stibell wrote this in a Harvard Business Review article titled, Are you an Inventor or an Entrepreneur?

“But don’t confuse being an entrepreneur with being an inventor. Great ideas are a dime a dozen. Action is what differentiates an entrepreneur from an inventor. If you want to focus on ideas, become an inventor — not an entrepreneur.”

Guys like Henry Buckley typify the definition of a creator. He conceived and started 10 businesses, the latest a jogger-based door-to-door pamphlet delivery service called JogPost.

Doer:  This is a person (a) with the discipline and skills to develop and execute a credible business plan, (b) who possess fundamental selling and marketing skills, and (c) who is versed enough in financial balance sheets to make critical and timely decisions, (d) who knows how to find, hire and motivate a talented workforce, and (e) who knows when and how to engage outside experts (legal, accounting, etc…). 

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting that this is an entirely different person from the creator.  Though quite rare, a creator may in fact possess some or all of these traits.  The important message is a business cannot make it without a well thought out plan, good marketing, strong sales and a disciplined approach to how capital is being utilized.  Take away any one of these and you’ve significantly impacted your chances of success.

Jim Flannery, Founder of the Four Athens technology incubator, reinforces this formula when he shared with me the reason the word “Four” is in his incubator name.  His experience says that you need the following four things to make a successful start-up:

• A business person
• A marketing/sales person 
• A technical person that can implement an MVP (software/hardware start-ups exclusively) 
• A service provider (legal/accounting) 

“I am very fearful of solo founders,” Jim says.  “My advice, rather than say "do you possess these traits", is "can you find two other people that possess one of these traits each AND believe in your (creator) vision"  

My strong message to those creators is to be brutally honest when assessing your skill-sets and if you lack any of those under the category of doer don’t make the mistake of thinking you can get by without it. I’ve seen enough to confidently say you can’t and won’t.

Want some growth advice for your metro Atlanta start-up from a proven "doer"?  Let's chat over a cup of coffee.  Contact me here.

Mike Gomez is the founder of Allegro Consulting, a business growth specialty firm.  He has served as a program manager and business development executive in both Fortune 100 companies as well as small businesses. Through the use of sound yet simplified business processes he has helped Georgia companies achieve remarkable sales growth. Mike is a growth strategy and complex sales expert, prolific writer, speaker, guest lecturer at GaTech and UGA, and a mentor at FourAthen technology incubator and Atlanta Tech Village.  http://allegroconsultant.com

“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” - Staffing needs and the early stage start-up.

So you have this great idea for a business.  You are prepared to make the sacrifices to self finance until sales can support the company.  You’ve analyzed your personal strengths and weaknesses and recognize you lack some of the critical skills required to get the business off the ground.  You need help.  But you can’t afford the full time salaries to hire the talent your business demands. 

What do you do?

This is one of the recurring scenarios I have seen with start-ups.  It’s an ugly sight really; watching a founder run full speed into this brick wall of reality.  And my advice is always the same.  If you do not have a solution to overcome this particular weakness then STOP. Don’t continue to build, or develop or spend time or money on this business idea because you will fail.

The staffing shortfall I see most often is the role of sales – sales strategy and implementation. Most founders first believe that selling is the easy part, that it’s something they can do themselves.  Or, there are those who attempt the, “if I build it, they will come” philosophy of sales. And finally, the last group, believing that social media and email blast will be a sufficient sales force.  They eventually learn that selling is crucial to the business and requires a level of expertise and experience. 

So, assuming you need more talent than is available through a free intern, what are the options for securing such talent? Let’s run down the choices.

1. Commission only.  This approach will have the least impact on cash flow because you only pay when sales are generated.  Yes, you might have to pay upfront for car allowances, cell phones and computer charges but that’s about it.  However, you’ve heard the saying, “you get what you pay for”?  This applies here.  Those who will take a commission only job are no doubt self starters but they will also ditch you in a heartbeat for a better offer. Their bottom line is the driving concern not your company nor your customers. If your product or service is a fairly easy sell and the rewards flow quickly this may be a good option for your start-up business. On the other hand, if it is a longer more challenging sales cycle and pay-out of commissions will take longer, I have found that more time will be spent by your new salesperson revising his or her resume and looking for a better gig than actually selling.
2. Base pay plus commission.  This is by far the surest method for hiring the exact talent you need – qualifications, industry experience, past performance.  The downside of course is impact on cashflow. You will be writing checks before any sales are generated.  Striking the right balance between the amount of base pay necessary to secure talent while keeping the motivating force of the commission will be one of your tougher challenges. 
3. Deferred pay plus commission.  This is an interesting variation of the base pay plus commission approach.  Here you and the candidate agree upon a market base pay and commission structure.  Then, predicated on current and future cash flow projections, you decide how much of the base pay you can afford to pay now and how much you will ask the prospect to defer to a specific date or milestone. The prospect is basically letting you use his pay as operating capital until there is sufficient cash flow.  Here are the four areas available for negotiation (flexibility) with this approach:
1. the length of the deferral,
2. the interest rate applied to amounts deferred,
3. the amount of compensation deferred, and
4. the pay mix or combination of cash and noncash forms of compensation that are ultimately paid.

This can be a particularly compelling tactic if there is a milestone on the horizon that will trigger an influx of new capital (meeting a performance standard, venture capital infusion, achieve positive cash flow status). As you might expect significant trust in the business idea, the business model and most importantly the management team to execute and monetize the idea is critical. As founder it is your job to instill that trust and make absolutely certain you pay the deferred amounts with interest as promised.  

Having the right talent on hand to support your start-up is crucial to success.  Attracting that talent can be a challenge with limited cash flow.  It starts with identifying the roles and responsibilities you expect that person to fulfill.  Follow that with writing down the qualifications and experience you feel are necessary for that person to be successful. Lastly is outlining a cash flow appropriate compensation plan that you will use to attract that individual.  

Mike Gomez is the founder of Allegro Consulting, a business growth specialist.  He has served as a program manager and business development executive in both Fortune 500 companies as well as small business. Through the use of sound yet simplified business processes he has helped Georgia companies achieve remarkable growth. Mike is a guest lecturer at GaTech and UGA and a mentor at FourAthen technology incubator. He can be reached by phone at 678-908-8433 or by e-mail at m.gomez@allegroconsultant.com. Visit http://allegroconsultant.com

Success Diagram

I can't take credit for the humor in the first two - it's the last one that I added. Though thoughtful planning and sound execution (based on a plan) doesn't guarantee smooth sailing to success it sure will lessen the severity of the deviations.

Need for More ProActive and Accountability-Based Business Incubators/Accelerators

Over my eleven years offering sales strategy and long-term growth guidance to business owners I have had several opportunities to work with start-ups located within the communal walls of a business incubator/ accelerator/co-working space.  An increasingly common experience I recently had with a company in such an environment made me wonder.  Are we really helping these start-up companies by simply giving them encouragement (cheer-leading), access to mentors (which are rarely called upon), discounted office/bull-pin space, refrigerators full of Red Bull, pin-pong tables, good WiFi and conference rooms?  Is this enough to make a real difference, to lessen the high failure rate (40% first year) typically experienced by start-ups (hi-tech or otherwise) or create good jobs through growing enterprises? Or are we just being enablers, offering a site (albeit discounted) other than say home or a more expensive office space (like Regus) from which they will still unwisely burn precious cash on an questionable idea without a well vetted plan or realistic sales strategy.

I will argue most of these start-up sites (whatever you want to call them) would see dramatically different results (jobs, success, revenue) by (a) being more selective with whom they welcome (have the basics of a business plan and ability to say how they will make money (don't laugh, it is sad how many can't answer this question))  and (b) are more pro-actively engaged with those housed in their facilities (periodic mandatory reviews with ramifications).

I became a better engineer, salesperson, pilot, program manager, and leader because I had bosses who were motivated to hold me accountable, teach, challenge, measure and coach me (whether I liked it or not) because they too were expected to achieve aggressive performance goals.  I can vividly remember both how much I had to prepare for and how nerve racking it was to undergo a top to bottom program management review of a project I had P&L responsibility over or a "black-hat" review of a international sales campaign I was leading or even a check-flight while in the USAF.  These intense sessions in front of company leadership could be career making or career ending events. Did I have a choice on whether I participated? No, of course not, this was a condition of my job - these were my bosses. But I will tell you with absolute certainty I grew with each one.

Those who have started companies and failed one, two or three times before succeeding are walking encyclopedias (look it up) of valuable information that can be used to PREVENT others from experiencing the same pain and waste of valuable resources. Unfortunately there is a pervasive belief by those sponsoring or operating these co-working/accelerator/incubator spaces that failure is the best teacher, and further, that forced performance/strategy reviews will poison the collegial "creative," "stimulating," "nurturing," environment they are trying to foster. I say "nuts" to this notion (stealing a line from General Anthony McAuliffe during WWII when responding to the German's insistence that he surrender because he was clearly surround by an overwhelming force).

Let me share the most recent experience that prompted this outburst.  A partner of a two-person software start-up housed in an incubator called and asked for a two-hour sales strategy consult. That partner had already experienced one failure and didn’t want to be involved in another. (I was later told the principal was resistant to the idea up until the very moment I arrived.  After all, he felt they were just fine, that this was an unnecessary use of $400.) In those two-hours we discussed the product and what was unique about it, the characteristic of their current customer (just one) and why they purchased the product. Then I let them explain and I provided feedback on their sales strategy - who they were targeting and how.  Here is an email I received from the principle the next day:

"That was a great session and extremely helpful. Your no BS approach is what a lot of startups should be getting. Problem is most people advising start-ups don't know what they are talking about. In 4 years I have not had one person advise me that my approach sucked and was a waste of time...when it did. That's the right advice to really help someone. I think our new strategy will be (emphasis on will be --- because we have some homework to do) extremely simplified and measurable based on our conversation. Time to build the war room."

Left alone I am certain, based on the course they were on, they would have run out of money and folded. Not because they didn't have a good product, in fact it's a great product. In just two short yet intense hours we discovered the shortcomings of their approach and set them on a new course.  How many other start-ups in these settings could be saved from this experienced and regular scrutiny? Are we doing them a disservice by sitting back and waiting for them to seek help (usually too late) or should we do like my bosses did to me and insist on regular reviews? Wouldn't it make for a better story if those who entered sites like ATL Tech Village or FourAthens are say 50% more likely to succeed because of these mandatory tough love reviews? I bet it would improve the attractiveness and PR of these sites as well.

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping start-ups and established businesses alike wrestling with issues of growth. He formerly sold military fighter jets to international allies for the largest aerospace firms Boeing and Lockheed. Under Allegro he grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is also a prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. www.allegroconsultant.com

Tough Decisions are Part of Entrepreneurial Landscape

Whether you are the owner of a start-up or a well established business you are going to be challenged to make tough, agonizing decisions that will have a lasting impact.

Peter Drucker said this about decision making and business, “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”

Decision making is part of the landscape of business.  And in the true spirit of the immortal words "The buck stops here," the toughest decisions are reserved for you the owner.  So how do you make these types of decision.  First and foremost you use your strategic and tactical plan as a guide.  A well vetted, market-based long and short-range plan is a very valuable tool for making tough business decisions. "Is it consistent with the plan?" is one of my favorite questions to ask owners struggling with a tough decision.

But what if both or all the options are consistent with the plan. What then?

There is something to be said about trusting your instinct and making decisions that way.  If you have a lot of relevant experience from which these "instincts" originate then you are likely to make a pretty good decisions. But I am a data guy.  Even with my depth of experience I feel more comfortable and confident when unemotional data is added to the decision process.

Here are the steps I would take to guide me towards making a tough decision:

• What strategic problem am I trying to solve? (Be as specific as possible.)

• What solutions are there to solve my problem? (short-term and long-term)

• What is the approximate cost (financial ($cash)) of each solution? Ballpark it.

• The strategic impact (pros and cons) be of each solution over say a 2-year period? KISS principle

• Rank the solutions by cost.

• Rank the solution by strategic impact.

• After compiling this data step away for a day or two.

• Now put your CEO hat on and look at the data as if a person on your staff is presenting these options to you for the very first time. 

• Make an executive decision.  Document your rationale (On this date, I chose this course of action because.....).

• Proceed - and don't look back.

Getting input from an advisory board for those decisions of strategic significance may also be prudent.  But recognize, you and only you will be held accountable for the decision you ultimately make.  There is a reason for the saying, "It's lonely at the top."

Want some unbiased help exploring options and assessing impact of different strategies?  We can help. Contact us here. The first coffee is on us.

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping turnaround businesses wrestling with stagnant growth. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is also a prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. www.allegroconsultant.com

Strategic Marketing

2013 has been an interesting year so far.

I met with five owners who came to me with stories of spending $5K, $8K and $10K respectively on marketing campaigns. They proudly showed me their new website, logo, car wrap, etc... They each said they thoroughly interviewed the marketing firm - great credentials and reputations.

So why did they call me?

Despite the spend they weren't getting new customers.

Clearly these marketing campaigns were ineffective.

Stand by for a new article I'm writing about the role of marketing and when and how to engage this service.

Hint: The role of marketing is to generate quality leads - it takes a strategy first to determine what type of leads you want. It takes a strategy to understand the competitive market your campaign will be conducted in.

Do you have a long and short-term strategy?

About the author. Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping turnaround businesses wrestling with stagnant growth. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years. Mike is also a prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former military officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters. www.allegroconsultant.com

Graduate student entrepreneurs “accelerate” at UGA

I have been honored to be a mentor for a program recently launched at the University of Georgia called the UGA Student Business Accelerator Program.  This is the brainchild of entrepreneur evangelist and UGA faculty, Chris Hanks.  His vision is to offer grad students who have a business idea the opportunity to receive coaching and guidance as well as the motivation to get their business off the ground during the school year. 

The students and mentors meet every other week in an informal class setting to brief on their progress, present hurdles, and reach agreement on next actions.  “By giving these entrepreneurs access to world-class, business experts and ensuring they leave with specific actions to take before the next meeting we stimulate them to keep moving the bar on their business idea”, says Chris Hanks.

In just two meetings there have already been some significant “ah ha” moments.  A couple of start-ups realized they needed to go back to the drawing board and re-think their business idea. Better it was discovered here than after spending a lot of time and money. Those who remain in are getting some very candid and valuable advice - free of charge.

I’d like to share two of the more significant lessons learned thus far  - as every business whether just starting out or well established could equally benefit from these.

1.  Stay focused on the problem you are trying to solve with your business.  Businesses thrive because they solve a problem or fill and need for a price their target market is willing to pay.  The better you are able to define the problem or need, as well as the target market, the more likely your solution will hit the mark, is unique and thus desired.

2.  To succeed in the marketplace your product must be “sellable” – customers are willing to pay a price to solve a problem or fill a need.  I know this seems kind of simple but there are a lot of problems in this world that just aren’t worth a dime to solve.  At the same time there are many successful businesses born out of making you aware of a problem you never thought you had (TV remote, pizza delivered hot and fast to my door).

I will continue to add to these lessons-learned as the school year progresses.  Here are the other mentors giving their time to support this exciting project.

Brent Chandler, Founder and CEO, Form Free – an Athens based start-up launched in 2009.

Nicholas Berente, Assistant Professor UGA.  He was the founder and President of Pentagon Engineering Corporation, a company he sold in 2002.  More recently he founded The Qube La, a mobile and web application development company.

Nick Campbell, Sr. Associate, Alvarez & Marsal North America, LLC.

About the author.  Mike Gomez is President of Allegro Consulting, a growth specialty firm helping turnaround privately-held businesses wrestling with stagnant growth. He grew his very first client’s business from $8M to $35M in just two years.  Prior to Allegro Mike sold military fighter jets to foreign allies for aerospace giants, Boeing and Lockheed.  He is a prolific speaker, writer, three-time marathoner, a former USAF officer and pilot of both aircraft and helicopters.  www.allegroconsultant.com