Tycoon. How to Be REALLY Rich: review by Jon Gillespie-Brown, Author "So you want to be an entrepreneur"
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | June 19, 2009
I have had Tycoon, the book by Peter Jones for quite a while and eventually got around to reading it. Peter Jones, a well known Dragon from the UK TV show the Dragons Den (Dragons Den is an investment business show shown on the BBC) has written a book and it had a few useful tidbits, in particular the section on this self made millionaire golden rules I found useful.
The book is split into eight chapters:
- The Ten Golden Rules
- Put Your Imagination to Work
- What’s the Big Idea?
- Planning and Pitching
- Ignition, Making it Happen
- Building Your Future
- My Time on TV
- Final Word
I found most of the book a bit of ego trip for Peter and I have a feeling it went along with the TV show of the time that was very similar, a bit of a disappointment.
The part that has the most value for new entrepreneurs and resonated for me was the The Ten Golden Rules as below, the rest I skipped through as it was useful in parts but nothing new from the many of other books out there.
The Ten Golden Rules
RULE 1: Have a vision. Your vision is your destination. You’ll need a map to help you reach that destination, which will be made up of goals and results. The vision is the vital part, otherwise you won’t know where you are heading and your goals will be irrelevant.
My comments: So I agree that you need to have a clear “outcome” for your business but it goes well beyond a vision, it needs to be a big “dream”, one where you can build a passionate team. I also think the vision must be shared with the whole startup team and you need to be able to “live” the vision daily…it should be baked into the culture.
RULE 2: Use your influence. All businesses need business partners to grow. Tycoons know the importance of filling the gaps and weaknesses in their own skill set or business idea by finding the parts of the jigsaw puzzle to create the best chance of success.
My comments: This is important, know your strengths and weaknesses and then finding people to compliment you is very important to success and also raising funding.
RULE 3: Build your confidence. If you don’t believe in yourself or your idea, why should anyone else? Gain confidence through gaining experience, skills and knowledge. Change your perception of failure to realise that it gives you feedback. Feedback provides essential learning to help know what not to do next time.
My comments: Confidence is very near the top of the list for success in my view, you need it to do anything in a startup from raising funds, getting staff, getting customers…all these early tasks will be carried along by confidence and very hard to achieve without it.
RULE 4: Make a commitment. Committing to follow through once a decision is made is an invaluable ally on your road to success. Be prepared to work hard and make sacrifices. Commit to a common goal and make it happen, but commit to yourself and your health too.
My comments: Again, the startup road is extremely tough and long, you have to be up for it and to make a solid commitment to see it through or you will likely fail just before you get the success you deserve. So many fail 2′” from their goals through lack of commitment.
RULE 5: Take action. Action is the bridge between your vision and results. Action involves figuring out how to get from where you are now to where you want to be and taking the necessary steps in order to get there. Without action, there would be no results.
My comments: This is pretty obvious but many people have a great dream and do nothing about it! Use tools like my book “So you want to be an entrepreneur” to get very clear on what you want and then take action and break the inertia.
RULE 6: Aim for results. Tycoons make things happen. They are driven by results. Planning for your success is as important as achieving it. You need to know exactly how you got there so your success can be duplicated, scaled up and multiplied, and it is that which turns an entrepreneur into a Tycoon.
My comments: This is much the same as have a clear vision and outcome. You must set targets and aim for them, frankly a startup rarely hits it’s targets as they often move but if you don’t aim for the stars you won’t even reach the clouds!
RULE 7: Get your timing right. Anticipating the changing needs of the market and partners is crucial. Timing when to enter a market or not will help optimize success, as will knowing the right time and circumstances to start your business.
My comments: This has a lot to do with early planning of a business or taking advantage of changes in a market, or perhaps the availability of funding and staff. In 2009 it’s good timing for low overheads and staff availability but poor for funding. Also, with the many new changes there will be many opportunities for new businesses. Make sure you use your head as well as your heart making deciding to startup!
RULE 8: Persevere. Tycoons go the extra mile. Perseverance, sheer determination and tenacity are core characteristics of the Mindset of a Tycoon. Successful entrepreneurs battle against all the odds to build their business and always appreciate when it is time to get out. Try to have flexibility to work outside your own comfort zones in order to bring your dreams to fruition.
My comments: This is my No.1 trait for entrepreneurial success!
RULE 9: Be caring. Relationships with people are key. Business and personal relationships should be cherished. Treat people how you would want to be treated. Always remember that people are the lifeblood and engine room of any business.
My comments: This seems pretty obvious to me.
RULE 10: Use your intuition. Listen to your instincts. They can protect you from making poor business decisions and guide you down the right path. These key attributes are your tools for entrepreneurial brilliance.
My comments: I like this last one as I can tell you every time I have made a decision where my “gut” reaction was against it I made a huge mistake! You have to learn to trust your inner intuition even when you will be wrong on occasion – in my case it cost my a great deal of pain and aggravation and was mostly related to people who I should not have hired or done business with…
So these are useful set of rules, I would have added some and removed others but they do “set the scene” for a new entrepeenur and give you some useful guidance across the board in getting going.
The rest of the book has few nice bits in it but is not for those of us who have the experience of running our own business but it is useful in parts for someone totally new to business.
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About the Author: |
| Jon Gillespie-Brown is a published Author, Lecturer, Founder/CEO and Mentor on Entrepreneurship. He currently mentors at Stanford, UC Berkeley and the London Business School. Visit his site for tips by email/twitter, blog updates, detailed articles, worksheets, news, a free quiz and more! Go now to http://www.tobeanentrepreneur.com/ | |
What can you learn from Joe Costello…so you want to be an entrepreneur?
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | June 11, 2009
At one of the classes that I am a mentor at UC Berkeley HAAS Joe Costello came and gave a lively talk, he is a charismatic and very tall entrepreneur famous for growing Cadence to near a $Billion in sales. Now that what I call a great salesman!
So Joe can still talk a good game after 10 years since he left…and here is a summary of his “words of wisdom for the class”.
(These are from my notes and so they are little condensed but still useful I hope as he has a very strong opinion on most things about raising VC funds and being an entrepreneur).
About entrepreneurship:
- The VC’s are simply trying to figure out if YOU are investable? they are honed in on the people "pattern recognition" can “sniff” you, the business plan is irrelevant. What’s the team "made of"…
- He says entrepreneurs are "born" and not made… (bad news if you believe that, I don’t personally)
- Good news is they are evenly distributed across the World.
- You can kill entrepreneurial spirit if you are not careful and you can also develop that spirit
He also observed that if you are starting up now that the two biggest sectors in all economies = healthcare and education…untouched by technology industry.
When pitching a VC watch out for what they are looking for:
VC look for 2 things =
- do you have the right reflexes (good dna),
- also how badly damaged have you been in life (or what skills sets have you developed).
Costello believes that everything is driven by our “habits”. He likes Covey’s 7 habits… and says it’s a great book becuase most of your behaviors are dictated by habit and they are random habits, some good/bad.
In order to succeed and win big he suggests you “must pick good habits (if you have the dna) and reinforce them to improve yourself as an entrepreneur”.
He also contends that it’s also important to have the right people around you and to reinforce their “good habits”.
No.1 habit he looks for = focus the very best "way" that’s where to put all your energy (don’t scatter your energy)
His insight on pitching VCs was:
== VC trying to distract you and figure out if they can work out who’s boss, unsettle you, team friction, can they throw you off ==
Developing the idea of focus, he went on to give a story about being a pilot and how a core skill they have to learn is all about “negative target fixation” i.e. while flying you must constantly be on the lookout where to land? He says that pilots are anal, they hit the utility pole…as you make sure you don’t look at the wall or you will hit it….
It’s critical you hit the "open field", in other words “you eliminate the negative and focus on the outcome”.
Costello extends the analogy of the focus and vision of the open field to leadership (person and team) – the team want a clear “vision” (i.e. what’s the open field)….and then ensuring you land in the right place i.e. did you think about all the issues (water, ravines, mirage) = focus on the sweet spot.
He had a neat test of your ability to successfully launch a business and raise funding:
- (go/no go) The business plan, what rules are changing..if you don’t change the rules in a fundamental way you will lose, no investment. You must have a rule breaker…can’t beat big guys, in order of magnitude to beat you need the same order of mag i.e. same capital to meet the rev’s of competition. **fundamental**
- Got to be able to SELL your ideas…all great entrepreneurs are a “great salesperson”. Can you withstand enormous rejection. As an entrepreneur you will suffer 99% rejection…nobody likes it when you change the rules/so they hate you. Tons of "nos"…”tough sledding”.
- Execution with absolute "conviction". You must be very stubborn about the vision but you also need to very flexible on execution.
- You have got to be having fun…entrepreneurs are having adventurers, acid test for what you are doing….it must be fun or its wrong. Your passion will show through if you love it…this is what VCs want to see.
In his closing comments he also said:
- The real “action” is what VCs are looking for = your personal energy!
- The meta rule = there are no rules in biz (he who makes the rules wins…)
I liked his talk and his reputation proceeds him, I can’t say I agreed with it all but the majority I did think was very valuable to all of us entrepreneurs.
My take on all of this was:
- Make sure that you understand your own motives and habits and hone these to optimize your own gifts.
- Make sure you pass on the good habits to the team and ensure they pass it “down” and build a great culture.
- Totally focus on a clear vision of what you are trying to do and give it 150%.
- Make sure you don’t get distracted from your clear outcome and that you can avoid the pitfalls along the way.
- In order to be a strong leader you must be able to communicate your vision with energy and conviction.
- Don’t bother starting a business unless you are making fundamental changes to the “rules” of your market.
- Don’t bother trying to beat the big guys at their own game, change the game.
- Learn to sell as a fundamental skill, if you are the engineer get a salesman as your CEO.
- Conviction and focus are all good but the road is not straight and you must be very flexible to achieve your outcome.
- Don’t bother if you are totally passionate about your business idea and can pass on that enthusiasm and energy to others.
- This passion will become infectious to the team, customers and investors and without it you stand little chance with a VC!
- Finally, be a rule breaker and a rule maker…
All great food for thought, I hope you agree.
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About the Author: |
| Jon Gillespie-Brown is a published Author, Lecturer, Founder/CEO and Mentor on Entrepreneurship. He currently mentors at Stanford, UC Berkeley and the London Business School. Visit his site for tips by email/twitter, blog updates, detailed articles, worksheets, news, a free quiz and more! Go now to http://www.tobeanentrepreneur.com/ | |
Excellent video for tech startups…by Eric Ries
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | May 23, 2009
I met Eric through a friend Steve Blank and these two have formed a partnership of sorts both in teaching great lessons on startups which grew from working together at IMVU where Eric was a founder and Steve a board member and investor.
Eric is a seasoned tech. startup entrepreneur and Steve is an “uber” version of the same so it pays to listen to their advice.
Eric’s presentation takes a lot from Steve’s thinking on the topic of paying very close attention to your customers – he calls this his “Customer Development Model”…something we all need to do a great deal more of IMHO.
This is a long but worthwhile video if you are building a tech company and a software startup in particular.
See more on each of their blogs:
Eric’s blog Lessons Learned
Steve’s blog http://steveblank.com/
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About the Author: |
| Jon Gillespie-Brown is a published Author, Lecturer, Founder/CEO and Mentor on Entrepreneurship. He currently mentors at Stanford, UC Berkeley and the London Business School. Visit his site for tips by email/twitter, blog updates, detailed articles, worksheets, news, a free quiz and more! Go now to http://www.tobeanentrepreneur.com/ | |
A fun video about being an entrepreneur…and a viral lesson!
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | May 14, 2009
The guys at grasshopper know how to take their marketing viral…produce a fun message, very well produced, if a little cheesy and get the world to do the rest!
Anyway it’s an object lesson for startups on how to spread the word…
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About the Author: |
| Jon Gillespie-Brown is a published Author, Lecturer, Founder/CEO and Mentor on Entrepreneurship. He currently mentors at Stanford, UC Berkeley and the London Business School. Visit his site for tips by email/twitter, blog updates, detailed articles, worksheets, news, a free quiz and more! Go now to http://www.tobeanentrepreneur.com/ | |
Need to raise a smaller VC round, say 1-2M, see this list
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | May 7, 2009
I asked a friend Bill Romans to recommend to me smaller VC funds that like to offer smaller amounts of funding and are happy to work with $1-2M and variations around that level.
These guys are VCs but tend to be more boutique or smaller funds that prefer a smaller round to the bigger names.
These are ideal folks to work with if you are above the Angel threshold in terms of valuation, the amount you need or the need to syndicate a smaller round.
Here’s the list and a good place to start your search:
- ATA Ventures
- Blue Run Ventures
- Catamount Ventures
- Pacifica Fund
- Quicksilver Ventures
- Sippl Macdonald Ventures
- Startup Capital Ventures
- Windspeed Ventures
- Altos Ventures
- American River Ventures
- Clearstone
- Globespan
- Onset
- Venio Capital Partners
- Woodside Fund
- Intel Capital
- Maples Investments
- Gabriel Venture Partners
- Artiman
- Incubic
- Rembrandt
- True Ventures
- Horizon Ventures
- Novus Ventures
It’s probably worth checking out the latest news on the guys at their sites and at the funded (www.thefunded.com) to ensure there is a fit for your business idea and stage.
I would also check the state of their fund and if they are currently looking at new deals.
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About the Author: |
| Jon Gillespie-Brown is a published Author, Lecturer, Founder/CEO and Mentor on Entrepreneurship. He currently mentors at Stanford, UC Berkeley and the London Business School. Visit his site for tips by email/twitter, blog updates, detailed articles, worksheets, news, a free quiz and more! Go now to http://www.tobeanentrepreneur.com/ | |
Great advice on pitching VCs…common mistakes and how to avoid them
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | April 20, 2009
Tim Ferriss has had the foresight to ask some of the presenters at this years TiE conference (TiE’s annual conference on entrepreneurship, TiECON 2009 May 15/16) some very useful questions:
- What is the best pitch meeting that you remember and why?
- What are the most common mistakes or assumptions smart founders make in pitch meetings with VCs?
- What unfavorable terms do founders often miss or underestimate in term sheets?
- How can someone get you to look at a business plan if they don’t know anyone in your network (e.g. outside Silicon Valley elite, didn’t go to Stanford)?
Here are a few clips from the article from 4 VCs:
What is the best pitch meeting that you remember and why?
1. The best pitch meetings are those that have real technology breakthroughs applied to solving large and growing problems.
2. After the first introductory slide Jasvir Gill, the CEO and founder jumped straight to a demo…
3. For early stage companies (where you are not pitching demonstrated revenue growth), good pitches rely on either a compelling entrepreneur or a compelling idea. Great pitches rely on both.
4. The pitch meeting was the best because the service concept made intuitive sense, the service was validated by a major customer win, the market was large with proof points of successful outcomes…
This feedback illustrates some very important distinctions for me, mostly that you will see some similarities and many differences to the same question!
In other words you need to have all of these types of requirements/questions/expectations covered and need to be very flexible in your approach.
A cookie-cutter pitch will not work. Also, with advice like this you can make sure that you approach each investor/VC better prepared and we all know about the 5 P’s don’t we..!?
More here:
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About the Author: |
| Jon Gillespie-Brown is a published Author, Lecturer, Founder/CEO and Mentor on Entrepreneurship. He currently mentors at Stanford, UC Berkeley and the London Business School. Visit his site for tips by email/twitter, blog updates, detailed articles, worksheets, news, a free quiz and more! Go now to http://www.tobeanentrepreneur.com/ | |
Awakening the Entrepreneur Within: review by Jon Gillespie-Brown, Author "So you want to be an entrepreneur"
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | April 17, 2009
Being a fan of Tony Robbins books when I saw this is I immediately thought of “Awaken the giant within” written 20 years ago and this was a positive motivation to try this book. I have almost all the books on Entrepreneurship having written my own book on the topic “So you want to be an entrepreneur” and so it has to be a great book to get me excited.
At first look this book looked like a new and interesting spin on the topic so I bought it and I did enjoy other titles by Michael E. Gerber so all started well. Indeed, the first few chapters really resonated with me and were really original and useful to me as a mentor of new entrepreneurs and I found them passionate and motivating.
In summary, the core message early in the book is a great deal about the Authors early life and the need to dream big dreams and take action even if you don’t have a clear path to your goal, as Michael did when he started his career in small business coaching.
I recall early in my career the elation and excitement that came from “inventing a new life out of nothing other than the most delightful, most remarkable, most miraculous thing of all…your imagination” - I look back and think that is makes perfect sense that you can create a business but back then it all seemed very incredible and it still does to new entrepreneurs today.
The thing I liked the most and thought was really “spot on” came in chapter 2 where Michael states the “5 realities of the entrepreneur”. These are a detailed and useful definition of what an entrepreneur is, and while reading these it reminded me how far off the mark the “one minute entrepreneur” I reviewed recently really was! What’s good about this is it clearly shows that an entrepreneur is NOT just a small business person, it’s something way more than that…
In summary:
- A entrepreneur is an inventor, although few entrepreneurs are inventors. In essence the entrepreneur is creating something of value or filling a missing need from the market. She is inventing a business that is unique that stands out.
- Entrepreneurs do not buy business opportunities they create them. Again building on the idea that you need to create and invent something new and then to go on and develop that idea.
- Invention is contagious. This develops the idea that entrepreneurs are highly motivated to please their audience, the customer and also to show that the more significant the invention that greater the success.
- To an entrepreneur, the success of the invention – the business – is measured by growth. Again we are showing the difference between just starting a small business and the need for growth. A good business will grow and often rapidly after early customer adoption, if it stalls or is a poor idea then kill it and move on.
- Everyone possesses the ability to be an entrepreneur. This echoes my own thoughts that you are not born an entrepreneur but you can master and practice some of the skills but in every case you need to have the passion and the innovation and that can come to anyone, young or old, rich or poor, educated or not.
So these basic “realities” help frame what an entrepreneur is and then Michael goes on to discuss the 4 “dimensions” of the character of an entrepreneur. Again I find these useful.
- The Dreamer. This is where I start in my own book. A practical dreamer is a good summary of part of the entrepreneurs mentality. Without the big dream, the idea, the new invention there would be no unique spark for the other areas of the entrepreneur persona.
- The Thinker. Turning the dream into a reality takes strategy and thought. This is where the entrepreneur decides “how” execute the idea. This is very important, this is where the rubber meets the road and an idea is scoped out.
- The Storyteller. Again this is an essential part of the entrepreneur. It’s critical you can convey and enthuse others about your ideas. You need to be able to motivate and drive others to make your dream a reality from employees to investors to customers.
- The Leader. This is the “driver” behind the idea, making it happen, pushing the idea though its stages to final success bringing all the other parts of the entrepreneur persona together. Everything finally rests on the leaders ability to execute the idea.
So these early pages are very useful to give you an idea if you are made of the right stuff to be an entrepreneur and articulate that very well.
The bad news is that after this great start there is far too much of Michael and his life in this book for me. A quick look shows almost half the book goes the a lot of small talk about him and his dream rather than being focused on the reader and their needs! I found most of this unhelpful and some of it rather egotistical.
The basic ideas are good:
- The Awakening – The aha moment
- The Realization – Now you see the basis of the idea
- The Negative Reaction – Then you start to see the holes and problems with the idea and you have to hold on to the dream
- The Personal Dream – The explains the difference between a personal goal and something bigger, the entrepreneurial dream
- The Impersonal Dream – The goes on to explain you need to focus on the customer and not yourself
- The Sudden Shock – This is where you see the dream as a solid reality and start to build the passion around the dream
- The Dream is Born – This is where you define the idea and get your dream down on paper and start
These are the basic ideas that make up the first 2 parts of the book. Michael then goes on to flesh out the ideas of your dream and vision and this is again useful if a little bloated for me.
I found chapter 15 good, here he again states a key point for the new entrepreneur: DREAM BIG DREAMS or don’t bother. In other words, make sure that what you plan to do is a stretch, is amazing and will be transformational in a meaningful way. If you don’t “shoot for the moon” then you will probably find that what you create will not be worth the huge effort, pain and sacrifice that will be required!
After this point I started to lose interest, the book gets bogged down in my view with Michaels own project and a story that I didn’t find that useful about a fictional Mr. Espinosa. Here the author tries the “one minute manager” story approach but doesn’t carry it off.
I skip through most of the rest of the book and end up rather unsatisfied after a great start.
So in summary, the first part of the book I think is very useful and valuable and is well worth reading, the second half is useful in parts but doesn’t really have the same impact or relevance.
In general I think the book is worth buying for the above early chapters and useful parts and some of the reminders about his other works in the E-Myth series but I would skip a great deal of the bloat towards the end.
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About the Author: |
| Jon Gillespie-Brown is a published Author, Lecturer, Founder/CEO and Mentor on Entrepreneurship. He currently mentors at Stanford, UC Berkeley and the London Business School. Visit his site for tips by email/twitter, blog updates, detailed articles, worksheets, news, a free quiz and more! Go now to http://www.tobeanentrepreneur.com/ | |
How to write a winning elevator pitch
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | March 31, 2009
Writing a good and punchy “elevator pitch” is way harder than most people think. Plus I find that I really need to teach this skill a lot with my Stanford and UC Berkeley MBA’s to help them both with distilling their ideas, perfecting their business plans and finally pitching VCs – so this skill turns out to be very important and useful!
The reason is that most people don’t produce winning elevator pitches is that they don’t have the combination of good copywriting skills, the ability to be brief and finally the focus to just choose the most important “USP’s” (Unique selling points).
Frankly I find it very hard myself as I generally have a very complex software product to “sell”, I even find it hard to summarize myself in a few words that are compelling as I also get involved in many things! So if you are like me and want to try and distill the essence of you, your product or company read on.
First, what is an elevator pitch?
Well depending on the personal asking it could be a few things i.e. if it’s an investor then its a punchy summary of why your company is an interesting investment, whereas if it’s a casual inquiry like “What kind of work do you do?” you need to give them a brief answer – and each reply in roughly the time span of an elevator (lift) ride.
Elevator Pitch Essentials Author, Chris O’Leary, says:
“An elevator pitch is an overview of an idea, product, service, project, person, or other Solution and is designed to just get a conversation started.”
So this is a 60 second or less summary about the topic at hand, usually you or your company.
While the term “Elevator Pitch” is generally used in the context of entrepreneurship, and in particular in selling ideas for new businesses to Venture Capitalists, the truth is that the idea can be used to help sell a wide variety of things.
As you can see then, having a “canned” but punchy response can help you in many ways from networking events, to chance meetings with people to stand up pitches about your company – in each case you have a very short time to impress and then get some form of positive action – like “tell me more…”
“Summarize the company’s business on the back of a business card.” — Sequoia Capital
My favorite elevator opportunity I have seen was in a movie called “in pursuit of happiness” where Will Smith has a potential employer in a taxi and he has to try and convince him to give him a chance…in this case a Rubik’s cube came to his rescue but he really could have done with an elevator pitch! On the other hand Meg Ryan in working Girl did a great elevator pitch (literally) and got the job.
What is a compelling elevator pitch?
Most people totally screw up their elevator pitch, this is generally because they haven’t taken the time to craft one right for the circumstances and the one they have lacks power and focus on the desired outcome.
So we need a tightly focused mini sales and marketing message, right for the person or people you are delivering too and on the right topic. It also needs to lead to some form of action or outcome you desire.
The ideal length is in the order of 10-12 words or in that range for a personal intro and about 150-225 words for a business pitch.
Like any sales message it needs to offer some form of interesting “benefit” to the recipient – A "hook" (Open your pitch by getting the Investor’s attention with a "hook." A statement or question that piques their interest to want to hear more.)
Depending on your outcome, the message wants to be strong and unique enough to get people to actually “care” about who you are or what you do. Plus you want them to want to go on to learn more so it’s important not to be boring, trite or offer up the same old message.
Ideally the message will also be memorable either in it’s content or with the passion (Investors expect energy and dedication from entrepreneurs) with which you deliver the message, preferably both. A memorable pitch also enables others to spread the word about you effectively.
Finally, as i said you want some “action” to follow so don’t be afraid to ask for what you need, is it more time to tell the investor more – or maybe a quiet corner at a networking event for a longer chat, a business card or a referral – whatever it is, close the pitch by asking for something.
How to create a compelling elevator pitch?
One of my favorite people on this topic is Mike Southon and he is a world famous entrepreneur and author of the The Beermat Entrepreneur series. He says of an elevator pitch:
In sales, there is the concept of "golden nuggets", where as many as 50 amazing features of your product are crammed into literature by your marketing team. The problem is that most customers have very short attention spans and can only remember three things about your product. As soon as you mention the fourth golden nugget, the first, and probably most important one, drops out of their memory.
By the time you get to nugget number 50, all the most compelling ones have long since gone, and the prospective customer has also lost the will to live.
Rather than being to close the deal, the goal of an elevator pitch is to just get the ball rolling; to start a conversation, or dialogue, with the audience.
The five P’s:
So the methodology for a good elevator pitch is simple, and centers around five ‘P’s:
- pain
- premise
- people
- proof
- purpose
1. So this process is like creating your value proposition, you need to start off by looking at the nasty horrible immediate problem – or ADVIL – that people wish to solve when considering you or your business. So we start by looking for the pain? You should also ask: What is the pain or problem that you plan to solve?
The larger the pain, the more likely people are to give you money to take it away. Pain can come in many forms, but if your product or service saves time and money, that is a good start. In reality you also need to need a pain that needs in instant solution (like a headache that needs an Advil to stop it right now) as opposed to a pain that needs a vitamin to slowly get rid of it. Immediacy is very important.
2. You have to explain in simple terms the premise of your business. Exactly what is it you do? For this, you need to be literal and to the point. It’s amazing how many people can’t articulate what they do in a single sentence. Keep it punchy, pithy and potent (yes more Ps).
3. You need to talk about your people because entrepreneurship is a team game. Every investor says they look for a credible team rather than a good idea, and every customer says they buy from people not companies.
4. Proof is the hardest element to provide. Why should anyone buy from you and not your competitors? The best proof is examples of your happy customers, in the form of relevant case studies.
5. Finally, you must provide your purpose, and the most important purpose of any business is to make money.
Potential investors will be looking for a return on their investment, and prospective customers will only want to know that you run a sensible and profitable business, to ensure reliable and consistent delivery of your products and services.
Or may its the 9 C’s:
The book “Elevator Pitch Essentials” uses a longer version of the above to craft the elevator pitch?
- Concise
- Clear
- Compelling
- Credible
- Conceptual
- Concrete
- Consistent
- Customized
- Conversational
1. Concise
An effective elevator pitch contains as few words as possible, but no fewer.
2. Clear
Rather than being filled with acronyms, MBA-speak, and ten-dollar words, an effective elevator pitch can be understood by your grandparents, your spouse, and your children.
3. Compelling
An effective elevator pitch explains the problem your Solution solves.
4. Credible
An effective elevator pitch explains why you are qualified to see the problem and to build your Solution.
5. Conceptual
An effective elevator pitch stays at a fairly high level and does not go into too much unnecessary detail.
6. Concrete
As much as is possible, an effective elevator pitch is also specific and tangible.
7. Consistent
Every version of an effective elevator pitch conveys the same basic message.
8. Customized
An effective elevator pitch addresses the specific interests and concerns of the audience.
9. Conversational
Rather than being to close the deal, the goal of an elevator pitch is to just get the ball rolling; to start a conversation, or dialogue, with the audience.
Finally, Avoid mistakes:
Examples of pitches:
TechCrunch Elevator Pitches is a community video project that allows entrepreneurs to pitch their business idea to the general public and have it voted and commented on by viewers. Please note that this particular project allows one minute pitches, yet there are lots of submissions and examples so be sure to check it out.
Vator.tv is a video site featuring a rather non-traditional spin on the elevator pitch. There are plenty of video pitches by numerous companies and entrepreneurs.
This should provide the basics for delivering a good elevator pitch.
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About the Author: |
| Jon Gillespie-Brown is a published Author, Lecturer, Founder/CEO and Mentor on Entrepreneurship. He currently mentors at Stanford, UC Berkeley and the London Business School. Visit his site for tips by email/twitter, blog updates, detailed articles, worksheets, news, a free quiz and more! Go now to http://www.tobeanentrepreneur.com/ | |
Been laid off…should you hire yourself?
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | March 15, 2009
You know the numbers
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in FEBRUARY 2009 Nonfarm payroll employment continued to fall sharply in February (-651,000), and the unemployment rate rose from 7.6 to 8.1 percent. In February, job losses were large and widespread across nearly all major industry sectors.
The unemployment rate continued to trend upward in February for adult men (8.1 percent), adult women (6.7 percent). The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 270,000 to 2.9 million in February. Over the past 12 months, the number of long-term unemployed was up by 1.6 million.
The fear now is that the pace of job losses is only gathering further speed as employers move to slash costs to cope with falling demand. .
Noting that 1.9 million jobs have been lost since the start of the recession a year ago — two-thirds of them since September — President-elect Barack Obama invoked public spending as the best way to get a dead-in-the-water economy moving again. “This painful crisis,” he said in a statement, is an opportunity “to improve the lives of ordinary people by rebuilding roads and modernizing schools for our children,” and by investing in clean energy projects.
A goal of all this spending is to generate 2.5 million jobs over the next two years, he said, repeating an earlier pledge. Given the accelerating job losses, hitting that target would barely recover the jobs that have disappeared over the last year.
What does this mean for you?
So you may have been among these poor people already laid off, or maybe you are worried you are next?
The big question is what to do now…and maybe you are thinking should I strike out on my own because you have few other options or because you think this would be better than “risking it” at your current job?
In either case, don’t just leap into this type of decision because you feel you need too, even when you desperately need a job just starting up your own thing maybe totally the wrong choice!
Clearly, starting your own business after being laid-off is a major undertaking, particularly when the economy is depressed. It could be months, or even years, until you can develop a sustainable income stream.
Hire yourself…or not?
OK let’s examine the question then, what about starting a company from scratch?
If history is any guide, a significant number of people who are laid off over the coming year will do just that. Carl Schramm, the head of the Kauffman Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes entrepreneurial activity, points out that start-ups tend to flourish in the year that follows a sharp downturn. Rather than head back to another corporate bureaucracy, some of those made redundant will take a shot at being their own boss.
So there is definitely evidence that you could startup in these testing times, no doubt about it, but you should also be clear that risk is not reduced by these conditions, it’s probably increased for a pure startup – not least because of the lack of easily available capital.
So what about the counter argument, what about just hunkering down and finding a new job, working part-time or re-training for a new profession?
In my view you should consider all the options, you have many more choices than you think and if you take a little time to review all the choices you may find that you don’t have to start a business because you have been laid off.
Why is “thinking” about it important?
Well starting a business is really, really tough for most people and it requires not only skills, but serious commitment of time and money usually. There are many exceptions to this of course, but in general it involves all of the above. So you have just been handed your last pay check for a while and you have some savings and you now want to risk all of that on starting up? This is dangerous in one key aspect – the rebound effect – like you have just lost your great love as a kid and then you just jump into the first relationship that comes along..! Did that work out for those that did that in most cases, hell no!! The same applies to just starting a business up on the same premise.
Avoiding the rebound trap
So let’s say you are baring with me here and you think it’s right to stop a while and review your options.
Don’t stop too long and get depressed, this is affirmative action! I wrote a book to help you make the right decision. It’s purpose in this type of situation is to help you “write down” all your options and to mentor you through the thought process about becoming an entrepreneur!
The free entrepreneurship workbooks you can get from my site “So you want to be an entrepreneur” alone will help you avoid the trap of just jumping into something and following my own silly mistakes of starting a business with a “fire, ready, aim” approach.
As an entrepreneur, you’ll have to become a jack-of-all-trades with responsibility for marketing, hiring, bookkeeping and a thousand other tasks. You’ll lose (at least for a while) the perks of scheduled vacations, company-paid benefits and consistent paychecks. Have you thought about all that?
What about your partner, kids or family…what will this change mean to them, have you discussed that and do you have their support?
Of course, if you have a great idea, favorable market conditions, and can run a tight ship, you may never again have to face unemployment again…
Can you “start-up” if you decide too – Yes!
Don’t let me hold you back, if you have the passion and the ability to can definitely start right now and have a number of advantages that a recession brings like less competition and the ability to negotiate much lower costs for your business.
Indeed, as I have shown it’s a great time to start BUT only if you have the “right stuff” to do so – the same as any time – recession or not.
Paul Graham who has seen a great deal of startups says this:
If we’ve learned one thing from funding so many startups, it’s that they succeed or fail based on the qualities of the founders. The economy has some effect, certainly, but as a predictor of success it’s rounding error compared to the founders.
Which means that what matters is who you are, not when you do it. If you’re the right sort of person, you’ll win even in a bad economy. And if you’re not, a good economy won’t save you. Someone who thinks "I better not start a startup now, because the economy is so bad" is making the same mistake as the people who thought during the Bubble "all I have to do is start a startup, and I’ll be rich."
So in summary, by all means go for a startup now or anytime but do do the groundwork on yourself first – work out if you would make a good entrepreneur or not. Then go on to find another job or get started BUT don’t just jump in and risk your life savings just because you have been laid off.
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About the Author: |
| Jon Gillespie-Brown is a published Author, Lecturer, Founder/CEO and Mentor on Entrepreneurship. He currently mentors at Stanford, UC Berkeley and the London Business School. Visit his site for tips by email/twitter, blog updates, detailed articles, worksheets, news, a free quiz and more! Go now to http://www.tobeanentrepreneur.com/ | |
So, You Want to Be an Entrepreneur at the Wall Street Journal
By Jon Gillespie-Brown | March 1, 2009
Kelly K. Spors wrote an excellent article (So, You Want to Be an Entrepreneur) at the Wall Street Journal last week and one of the reasons I love it so much is that it totally echoes my own thoughts on the topic. Indeed, it could almost be a summary for my own book “So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur” Wiley.
She asks the critical question: “Thinking about starting a business? Make sure you’re cut out for it first.”
Indeed many of those being laid off right now may decide to “jump in” before checking out if they are really ready or have the skills to make the leap.
This is a serious risk, not least with their redundancy paycheck or savings but also of their own mental wellbeing. Being laid off is bad, but making the mistake of starting a business as you feel you have little choice is very dangerous.
However, I don’t want to put them off just allow them to “learn more about themselves” so they can make the right decision.
This article does a great job of making you think. My book takes all the concepts further along with providing detailed mentoring sessions and worksheets to make the process easy and enjoyable!
I like the article so much I want to suggest you read it and if it resonates then look at my book, if you are short on time and don’t want a detailed book on this topic this article does the trick – it’s short and to the point and covers all the bases.
Indeed you could read this and then go to my website and pick up all my free worksheets on most of the areas mentioned and get started!
Here’s what it covers:
1. Are you willing and able to bear great financial risk?
2. Are you willing to sacrifice your lifestyle for potentially many years?
3. Is your significant other on board?
4. Do you like all aspects of running a business?
5. Are you comfortable making decisions on the fly with no playbook?
6. What’s your track record of executing your ideas?
7. How persuasive and well-spoken are you?
8. Do you have a concept you’re passionate about?
9. Are you a self-starter?
10. Do you have a business partner?
Check it out here: So, You Want to Be an Entrepreneur
Then take my free quiz and see how you do…
Don’t forget that all the profits from my book also go to help other entrepreneurs around the world get started via the Grameen Foundation.
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About the Author: |
| Jon Gillespie-Brown is a published Author, Lecturer, Founder/CEO and Mentor on Entrepreneurship. He currently mentors at Stanford, UC Berkeley and the London Business School. Visit his site for tips by email/twitter, blog updates, detailed articles, worksheets, news, a free quiz and more! Go now to http://www.tobeanentrepreneur.com/ | |
