Posts Tagged ‘start-up’

The Glass is Half Full, Because the Other Half is on My Pants

Optimism.  That’s the number one characteristic of most entrepreneurs.  Is it raining today?  No worries, because I look great in my raincoat.  No food at the party?  Not a problem, people just come for the beer.  The economy is on the verge of the second Great Depression?  Hmmm…I guess, no worries, because I look great in my raincoat. 

What made me think about the preponderance of sunshine in most entrepenuers’ outlooks?  Well, as usual, it began with a margarita (actually 2 and 1/2 margaritas).  My wife and I were having lunch at Rosa Mexicano.  And as the saying goes, “When in Rosa, order at least three pomegranate margaritas.”  It could have been the humidity, or the sheer weight of the glass, but as I gripped the drink and raised it to my mouth, it just fell into my lap.  I could have quit, but I started scooping the pooled liquid back into the glass (see above drink picture and realize most of that was sitting on my jeans prior to being salvaged).

So, how does this relate to small business and optimism?  I guess it’s a bit tenuous, but making the best of whatever the economy or marketplace throws you (or what you throw on yourself) appears to be a cornerstone for successful entrepreneurs. 

The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business did a thorough study on optimism as it relates to an investment stnadard for start-ups.  The outcome of the study is not shocking (but when you have a GSB study to back you up, you sound more impressive).  The overall gist was that entrepeneurs generally are overally optimistic in their assessment of their own businesses.  This has both good and bad implications for investors in these start-ups.  The Bad:  optimism makes it difficult for the founders to truly asses market acceptance and overal value of the business.  The Good:  Because of their optimism, most founders will work the required nights and weekends to make sure the business is successful.  Of course, the study hedges the overall take-away by claiming that “realistic” entrepeneurs will have a better ability to value the business.

So, is optimism a curse or a blessing?  And did I actually drink the salvaged margarita?

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Posts Tagged ‘start-up’

A Few Good Blogs: Our Go To Small Business Blogs KikScore Likes Part 1

There are blogs now for nearly everything under the sun. That translates to a lot of noise out there.  So how do small businesses try to figure out which resources they should use online to stay up to date on trends and to get rock solid guidance from experts?  The best way is through word of mouth and also getting recommendations from other small businesses.  So here is our list of some really good blogs that we at KikScore read:

1) Startup Nation – If you have a startup or a small business, this blog not only has great tips and resources but it also has a great list of contributors that blog about marketing, customer service, financing and all sorts of other items.  The founders even host a great weekly podcast. The site is essentially a portal of all things small business.

2) SmallBizTrends – The owner of this site Anita Campbell is a small business expert and she also has an impressive line up of contributors to her blog.  Another reason I really like her (selfish, I know!)  is because her business and network of small business sites like BizSugar are based right outside of my hometown in beautiful Akron, Ohio. Anita also hosts an assortment of webinars on marketing, financing, social media and other small business focused topics. She plain knows small business!

3) SmallBizTechnology – So this site is a must review for the content but also for its owner Ramon Ray.  Before I had met Ramon, I had heard a lot of great things about him being a hugely energentic, small business evangalist. Unlike others, Ramon is one guy who lives up to the hype and much more!  Ramon’s energy, passion and knowledge of all things small business translates into this blog.  For a quick example of Ramon’s energy, here is a session he was a part of at the GrownSmartBiz Conference that occurred in Washington DC in late Septmeber this year.  His remarks start about half way in to this session.  Check it out (the whole session is worth a review!) and add this blog to your RSS feed.  Its worth it.

4) GetElastic – If you sell anything online, this blog is a must. When you are wondering about what is the latest tool or strategy you should use for your website, what you should do to optimize keyword terms or the latest trend for merchants during the holiday season check out GetElastic.  Merchants that sell online can really use this blog to help with day to day business issues.

5) WomenGrowBusiness – This is a unqiue blog that is run by recently named DC Tech Titan.   Jill Foster has assembled an all-start cast of small business female entrepreneurs that regularly contribute fabulous content on management, HR, financing, ecommerce, consulting, startups, communication and marketing, among many other items.  I also have met Jill and she is another huge small business evangalist.  She is also a fellow Dupont Circle neighbor! Jill literally has CEOs and other entrepreneurs beating down her door to contribute to the WomenGrowBusiness blog.

Do you have a go to blog?  Let us know which one it is.

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Posts Tagged ‘start-up’

Another Top Ten List For Small Businesses — But this one is Pretty Good

I’m not sure if David Letterman is to blame, but Top 10 lists exist for almost everything.  They are very similar to the “Idiot’s Guide” series.  They are the gimmick everyone uses to give you/your business advice.  Excuse a tangent for the moment, but I have a real problem with these Idiot’s Guides.  At first, they made sense — if you need to know how to use Microsoft Word, the title seems appropriate.  But now there are Idiot’s Guide to XMLT, or Cold Fusion.  These aren’t “Idiot’s Guides”…they are simply guides.  Sorry for that.

Ok, back to the proliferation of Top 10 lists for almost every piece of advice.  First, I think that ten pieces of advice are really too many to remember.  Just give us the most important 3 — I can remember that and, really, I’ll probably benefit the most from the Top 3.  Secondly, most of these Top 10 don’t actually have ten unique pieces of advice.  They fudge it (e.g. “Tip #8 — Remember Tip #10). 

But I came across a pretty good Top Ten list for Small Businesses — focused on the Top Ten ways a company can cross the divide from start-up to established venture.   I’d repeat them for you, but that feels like copying someone else’s homework.  But I’ll tell you my favorite tip — #2 (see, focus on the top 3 tips).  #2 is “Don’t underestimate the importance of informed intuition and gut feel.”

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Posts Tagged ‘start-up’

Who Ya Gonna Call for Help With Your Business? Not Ghostbusters, But Crowdsourcers

Small Business often get the  feeling they are alone on an island.  Sometime they can feel that island is haunted by competitors, new entrants, angry customers and all sorts of other folks who can scare a small business.  A small business can really feel like they are alone trying to keep their head above water managing their day to day business business.  But what about growth, what about adding product and service enhancements that your customers have been asking for over and over or that upgraded website that you know you need?  And how about all of those branding and marketing initiatives you have been hoping to spend time thinking about, creating and designing?

Enter Crowdsourcing. This is a method to get your business to address many of these issues.  Even better, typically you can use crowdsourcing to get help from individuas and suppliers with subject matter experience and at a low cost.

Wikipedia defines crowdsourcing as “taking tasks traditionally performed by an employee and outsourcing it to a group (crowd) of people or community in the form of an open call.”  So what this means is that there are people all over the United States and in  fact the world who have skills that your business can start using immediately.  There are actually multiple websites or skill portals that are solely devoted to specific areas of a business.  At these website and skill portals, talent of all skill levels and expertise congregate and compte to provide services to small, medium and large businesses.

Here is how it works:  You posts a problem, project or an idea related to your business directly on a particular website or portal.  The crowd of folks that have an interest or a level of expertise in that problem, project or idea then give you feedback.  Then the crowd can even comment on the crowd’s feedback or your follow-up feedback to the crowd.  After this, you can ask someone from the crowd to assist you with your problem, project or idea if you decide their feedback is in line with what you would like to use.

Review Profiles of Suppliers Most of these sites have supplier and user profiles that you can review. during the exchange of feedback over a project.  The supplier profiles typically detail a supplier’s or individual’s skill set, expertise and even examples of their prior work on similar issues.  Many profiles have a feedback mechanism so you can see  feedback that has been posted from prior users of that person’s services.  This allows you to make an informed decision for your small business about what member or supplier from the crowd you want to hire.

Inc. magazine recently had a nice example of a crowdsourcing success story for small business. Another good post about how crowdsoucing is even involved with American Idol can be found here.  And even the city of San Francisco is using crowdsourcing through an application called City Sourced to address city issues.

Here are just a few crowdsourcing services that small businesses are using to help themselves.

1)99designs – Use this service if you want something designed.  Crowd members specialize in providing graphic design and logo design services.  Get your next logo or product brochure designed here.

2) Odesk – Use this service if you want to get a website designed or even if you would like to have a quick IT project such as a computer application built for your website or company. You can even get sales and marketing services, customer support and translation services here.

3) NameThis – Use this service for naming services.  So if you need to rebrand a product, create a new product name for a line you are launching or need a new catchy name for your blog, NameThis and the community there can help your business.

4) Threadless – Use this service the next time you go to a trade show and pass out some cool T-Shirts with your brand name on it.  Threadless was profiled in Inc Magazine where they described Threadless as a place where The Customer Is the Company!” The community of designers will help you design your next company shirt.

5) iStockPhoto Use this service when your business needs an inexpensive image, illustartion or video for your company brochure, website or presentation.

6) Guru – Use this service for your business to access freelancers who work on legal, finance, accounting, data entry and evenHR and payroll matters.

Remeber when using any of these crowdsourcing sites, ask a lot of questions, do your dillegence and make sure to utlize the escrow and payment milestone services that some of these sites use.  That way you can protect your business when you use these services.

So if you add these recources to the great small business tools and widgets we identified previously you can know you aren’t alone anymore on the small business island!  Start using these recourcss to beat back those ghosts and competitors.

Please share your crowdsourcing experience with us in the comments.

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Posts Tagged ‘start-up’

Diary of a Tech Start-Up: Funding…Dance with the Devil or Not

One of the ongoing debates going on with our tech start-up is whether to seek outside investment or not.  The first point that is often made by one of us is that it is too early to be thinking about it.  Heck, we just launched the beta version of this site and are now getting our first customers…isn’t it a bit presumptive to think about asking for $$ from a stranger? 

This scenario reminds me of a scene in the greatest movie of all time — Waiting for Guffman.  Corky St. Clair is charged with directing a play about Blaine, Missourri’s history.  Corky approaches the City Council and states that the ONLY thing he needs to throw the play is “one hundred thousand dollars”.  When informed that the City’s annual budget is $100k and that includes swimming, Corky responds “there won’t be swimming in my play.”  How does this tie into our discussion for asking for outside investment?  Well, maybe it doesn’t but it’s a great movie.  No, my point is that we before we seek out investment, we need to clearly establish a need for our services and that we have a competent management team that will know what to do with the money if/when we do get it.  We can’t go in all Corky St. Clair, not having a clue as to what is a reasonable amount of investment and establish what we are going to do with the money will have a strong likelihood of showing a return on investment.  See Corky asking for money

Now comes a more pressing question.  Assuming the time is right (and we don’t ask for the entire City Council’s budget), do we seek out investment at all?  As Raj pointed out in an earlier post, there are now a lot of tools that exist that make starting and running a business very inexpensive.  To date, we’ve been self-funding KikScore and we’re pretty good at stretching a dollar.  While it would be great to have a swank office and have the ability to throw an awesome holiday party with a DJ, it may not be worth the equity and control we’d have to give up (it really depends on how good the DJ is).  We’re not alone in our thinking.  According to a recent posting on www.rockyradar.com — 84% of Inc’s Fastest Growing 500 companies never received venture capital (though many did likely get angel financing). 

Several of us on the KikScore team have been part of venture-backed companies previously.  Some of us had good experiences, some of us did not.  So, as we continue to grow our customer base and improve upon our core product, the debate within KikScore will rage — do we continue to self-fund or do we seek professional investment.  We’ll keep you updated (and we’d love to hear your thoughts about it).

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Posts Tagged ‘start-up’

Diary of a Tech Start-Up: Idea to Soft Launch

One of our ideas that we have here at KikScore is to provide a running blog on how we started business, what challenges we face, and what we’re doing to make our concept a viable (and hopefully profitable) concern.  There won’t be one voice in this diary, as each of us have a different view of events.  Hopefully this spectrum of views and running history will help our readers with similar challenges (and if you have some advice on approaching a similar problem, we’d love to hear it as well).  We’ll try to be useful and interesting, but most of all, honest (and hopefully humorous).  Ok, let’s get to it.

About 3 years ago, a thought comes across my mind.  I recall this moment well, as I usually don’t have a lot of thoughts.  The concept was to come up with a way to provide some transparency to shoppers — allow an ecommerce site to provide verifiable information on who they are and why they should be trusted (so they can compete with established brands and brick-and-mortar stores).  And if we can supplement this transparency with third party data on these businesses and score the likely shopping experience — well, that’s a home run.  Shoppers benefit from more competition and an excellent shopping experience, Sellers use their good name to sell more online, and we have a nice business.

In an effort to save readers from lighting themselves on fire out of boredom, ala Airplane: The Movie, I can summarize what we did between coming up with this idea and now having our soft launch of KikScore.  We hired a patent lawyer; filed a patent; hired outside developers to supplement our efforts; we futzed around with these developers far too long; 12 months later we fired those developers; we spend 6-8 months working and re-working on our scoring model and securing third-party data sources; we developed a look-and-feel of the site (twice); and came up with a name and trademark (twice).  We all did this while each of us were working full time (and often overtime) with day jobs!  Alot of late, late nights and plenty of weekend work got us to where we are at. 

We’re now live and have several beta customers out there.  While the past couple of years have been busy, we know that the next two will be even busier.  Though it will be a lot more exciting actually being in business, instead of talking about it.

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Posts Tagged ‘start-up’

Startup Checklist for Small Businesses

As we know, most business start out small. Starting a business is a very busy time in an entrepreneur’s life. So busy that many critical steps are often overlooked. In an effort to help those small, but soon to be large, businesses identify critical areas for success, we have put together a short 10 step checklist to make sure you are covering all of your bases.

Top 10 Checklist:

1. Research the Product or Service You Seek To Sale.
2. Create a Business Plan.
3. Determine Your Capital Budget.
4. Choose and Register Your Business Name.
5. Decide on the Legal Form of Your Business.
6. Open a Company Checking Account.
7. Determine if you need any state or local licenses/permits.
8. Obtain a Federal Employer Identification Number.
9. Set up a business website and business email address.
10. Research various trust products in the marketplace to help you fast track your credibility with your potential customers.

As you may know, there are many more factors that determines a small businesses success; however, if you were to ask me what are the top 10, then you the ones above are it.

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