5 Entrepreneurial Lessons I Wish I Had Known When I Was 21

When I was 21, I had just graduated from NCSU with a BS in Chemistry and was on my way to Princeton to get my masters and then my PhD in Chemistry.  It wasn’t until 3 years after graduating that I decided to start my business on the side (lesson learned).

During graduate school and from running my business, I learned some great lessons which, would have made my 20's totally different if I had learned them at 21.  

Don’t get me wrong, I am really glad I had the experiences I did in graduate school and in my management career afterwards. And, I would have started my company much earlier if I had had these lessons under my belt.

1) You should dream big.

By seeing yourself achieving big goals, it’s much easier to achieve them because you can see a path to meet those goals.  Remember to always ask the question of “what is the worst that can happen if I go after this huge goal?”  The answer is usually not that bad and once those worst fears are defined, it’s easier to recognize how unlikely they are.

For me, dreaming big was creating a business, launching a product, taking it to market, and then sharing my experiences with other young entrepreneurs.    I’m glad I did finally define my dream and set out to achieve.

2) Marketing is key.  It’s not a mysterious black box; it’s a skill you can learn, practice, and perfect like any other.

You cannot ignore marketing because it can make or break you.  Product design, process design and understanding the numbers will only take you so far.  If you have a great idea but no idea how to let people know about it or how they perceive it, your business is doomed from the beginning.  Being able to predict if the marketing for a certain product will be easy or not is huge because that knowledge can give you a very good idea about the success of the venture.

For me, with a totally scientific education at age 21, I wish I had thought to recognize this hole in my knowledge base earlier in my career.  It was not until I almost graduated with my doctorate that this hole became apparent to me (I know for you people in business out there, this probably sounds crazy!).

What I really learned in graduate school was how to learn things.

Once I set marketing as a skill I should learn about, focusing on it and learning the basics of marketing was relatively easy.   

3) You are NOT the first person to experience whatever challenge you're going through so use your network.

In addition to the fact that it is very comforting to talk to someone who has gone through whatever challenge it may be before,  having a network of people who can advise you is SO helpful.  

It is too tempting to feel like you have to figure everything out for yourself in your own business... the truth is, you don't have to.   This go-it-alone feeling is especially pervasive once you are working full-time on your own business.  Certainly, when I worked in the lab and then at McMaster-Carr in the management team, I reached out in order to make projects run smoothly if I didn’t feel I knew what to do.  However working alone and being the boss is sometimes lonely.   You should know this going in and use your network from the beginning, not just after you’re frustrated or discouraged.

4) Action is critical, even if they are small actions.  You can’t just think a goal into accomplishment.

You should have a big goal in mind and try to get your daily actions to move you, bit-by-bit, closer to that big goal.   Whether those little things are sending an email out to your list, or asking for help on a subject, or calling a potential supplier to ask one more time what’s the best they can do, you must DO and not just THINK.

Don't be overwhelmed by a big goal, move towards it. 

Ideas, like light bulbs, are only really neat if you plug them in and use them. 

Thinking will only get you so far if you want to accomplish big things.  Sometimes if you’re stuck in your thinking, taking one step forward illuminate the path ahead.

5) You DON'T have to know everything before you start.  Indeed, that is the incorrect thinking that holds so many people back. 

It's very tempting to think you need a degree or lots of training before you start your own business.  

The truth is that you're never going to know it all.  You should look at life and your business as a learning opportunity for yourself.  When I started my business, I was working full time and my co-workers were all going to get their MBAs.   I decided I would invest that money and time I would have spent getting an MBA differently.  I would start my own business and approach my business as a way to learn all the business lessons I needed to know that way.   

Would it have been possible to have these lessons firmly under my belt before age 21.  Yeah, I think so.  That said, I’m so pleased about the path life has taken me on so far.  Sometimes, I think I’ve learned things when I actually needed to know them…. Or maybe that’s just when they sunk in properly. 

What entrepreneurial lessons do you wish you had known at 21?   Start a comment below and share! 

If you like this post or think it would be helpful to someone else in your life, please share it!

 

Do you want a free 30-minute consultation on your business with me, Katie Hughes, PhD?

Connect with Katie on Twitter @katiehhughes and we’ll can something up.

When there are too many fires in your business....

What do you do when you are always having to step in and "put out a fire?"

Complain while feeling needed and important?
No.

This is a common mistake that many business owners and managers make on a regular basis.

Step back and notice the bigger picture

Are you calling things fires and emergencies that are really just a lit match that hasn't been dropped yet?

My mind's eye sees a blazing fire I must deal with immediately because I see
all the POTENTIAL for the blaze to ignite.  This creates unnecessary urgency and stress. 

Sometimes what I perceive as fires are really just lit matches
and not truly urgent situations at this stage.   

I catch myself doing this a lot.  Because I have a sense of the business as a whole, I know how the various processes fit together and will impact one another.  Sometimes we see the situation for its POTENTIAL to cause problems and not for what the situation is right now.  Nor, usually, do we see multiple ways to deal with the situation that may make small sacrifices in timeliness but reduce the stress level considerably. 

Here's an example of a situation I helped with recently dealing with shipping duplicate orders with product:

Have we actually mailed duplicate orders yet?

        Or are the duplicate packages still sitting, waiting to be picked up?   IE the product's not actually out the door yet.

               Or did we just print the shipping labels?   IE Could one email can fix this situation in the short-term?


Yes, printing extra shipping labels may result in mailing out tons of extra product.
That could be hugely expensive!
What would your customers think of you?
BUT if it hasn't actually happened yet, what is the minimum you have to do to stop it from going down the wrong path right now.

Figure out the minimum you need to do and do it... quickly.  Then sit back and reevaluate the time sensitivity of "fixing" the problem.   Is fixing the whole problem a fire you need to be involved in?

You should indeed fix the problem so it doesn't happen again.

That may mean figuring out who/what triggered the train to run off the rails in the first place.  

If the train wasn't really off the tracks, only starting to turn, here are some suggestions:
1) Set standards and expectations
2) Communicate how you want things handled and why
3) Use decision trees for standard situations that help show how you came to the conclusion/solution that you did
4) Give your people authority to take care of the situation and right the train without your intervention if possible.
5) Set limits where you will find out about a true train derailment before it's too late, but only if your staff can't handle it.  Make sure this is defined.

Maybe you're seeing a fire that YOU have to put out. But, your staff may see a match that they've watched you put out many times and would handle fine if you just let them.

Maybe the fires are actually real.  

OK. Once you've decided that, it's time to look at the process you use to execute the actions in the business and look for places where that process may lead your people astray 

IE they may have done everything right according to the process you had communicated.

Looking at your process (hopefully it's written), what keeps ALLOWING the train to derail?

Are there minor changes you could make to your process to handle these situations?
Sometimes simply defining what is happening is enough to make it very clear what an easy solution would be.

Stay open-minded as you're analyzing the processes you have in place.  

Maybe you're making it way to complicated.    If it's not you that's doing the work, make sure to ask the people who are doing it what solutions they might suggest.  There's nothing like doing a process 100 times to make you realize how it could be improved.  If you haven't done it much, ask the people who have.

Fires are created when "unusual" situations pop up that don't fit into our regular scenarios.  

Businesses and their processes change over time.  You will probably not do the same thing for years and years and handle everything the same way.  Whether it's getting a new book keeping system, or shipping orders in a different way, or handling your public relations or social media differently, things change.

Change is hard and the fires that are created by change are one of the reasons why.   Every time we change something, the play book we usually use may not work and we find ourselves having some hurdles to jump.

The first few times a situation pops up, they will probably create fires.  You may be the best person to help sort them out in the beginning.  That said, after you've encountered it a few times and the path to the solution was similar each time, it's time to build yourself a system.

Your system might be to put fire hydrants everywhere to
make putting the fires out an easy task.... Or you could put fire
retardant all over to prevent the match from lighting...
Your choice, but take action!

Build your system to handle new situations:

1) Set standards and expectations
2) Communicate how you want things handled and the why behind each.
3) Use decision trees for standard situations that help show how you came to the conclusion/solution that you did
4) Give your people authority to take care of the situation and right the train without your intervention if possible.
5) Set limits where you will find out about a true train derailment before it's too late, but only if your staff can't handle it.  Make sure these parameters are defined and communicated in writing.

Write all this down.  Write down the problem. Write down your solution.  

Write down your new process that will keep this from bothering you again but still lead to good customer satisfaction. 

Remember that a day will come when you would like to go on vacation or go to your daughter's recital without feeling like your business can't survive without you.    You don't want to be the only firefighter in town or have a company that's fire prone!

Did you like this post?  Please share it or click "like"! 

Comments?  What fires do you put out on a regular basis that you could prevent with a better process?

Feedback

What are they NOT telling you?

Somehow, many adults I know tend to shy away from asking for feedback.  If it comes there way fine, but otherwise, they are very hesitant to ask for it.  The problem with this is that feedback makes us better.  

One reason we don't get much feedback is because we fail to ask for it!

I think it's because we're scared of what we might hear, so we don't ask at all. 

If you haven't decided on a January resolution yet, here's one for you: Make it a habit to ask your customers what they think.  

All feedback isn't bad.  Don't forget that there's positive feedback out there, too.  

If you want good testimonials, good product reviews, referrals, etc you have to ASK.

There's a trend I've noticed recently on a few email posts.  People are flat out asking "what do you think of this email?" 

There's usually a link to some kind of form that asks ANONYMOUSLY what you liked, what you didn't like and what you would change etc.

Needless to say, this information is invaluable.

Go out there ask the questions that get you the answers you need to continuously improve your products, marketing, and image.   

Do you have a story about when the feedback you received was a total surprise and changed your actions completely?   Share! 

Questions? Comments? Thoughts? Suggestions?   

Lessons I learned from my first trade show

Does your market niche gather at a trade show?   

My niche market definitely did and going there was a great move for my business.  However, here are some critical lessons I learned from my first experience that will make yours go smoothly. 

Trade shows are a VERY effective way to reach connectors in certain markets.    Still, trade shows are exhausting ways to make money.

Here are 5 tips for making your money go the furthest so that investment  boosts your business up! 

1) You need a system to keep track of and follow-up with all the contacts that you'll get. 

 Believe me, even if you don't ask for them (and you should) you'll still get tons of cards.

You need a system, set up AND communicated to everyone working the booth beforehand to remember key points about each person so you can make the most of these contacts later.

• Was this person a potential distributor? 
• An end user who loved the product and gave you a testimonial? 

You need to keep these straight.

 2) There are peaks and valleys in foot traffic - treat the show as a marathon and NOT a sprint. 

The hours of these trade shows vary, but they are all exhausting.

Tip: Take plenty of water and quick snacks you can eat between potential contacts so you stay energized.

Whatever you do, wear very comfortable shoes that won't give you blisters on day one.  You don't want to be miserable for the remaining 2-4 days of the conference!

 3) Booth location matters... a lot. 

You may have paid full price for your booth, but if they put you in a corner out of the main walkway, you will NOT sell as much or meet as many people.  Usually a map is provided so ask who is close by your desired spot before you sign on the dotted line.

We were back-to-back with a speaker company once.  We had to yell over their music all weekend.  I will not be in that position again if I can help it, so I always check who our neighbors will be and ask to be moved if there is someone objectionable.

Tip: Pick a booth location that people can see when they enter the room.  Ideally, your booth will be in the direction people will be walking when they enter the room.

Make sure you are marketing ideally for the space you have. If you need banner stands so they can SEE your fabulous banners and signs from where they're coming from, buy them and make sure you have ones that turn/raise up if your customers won't be looking at your booth straight on. 

4) If you are selling items at your booth, us a tablet and/or smart phone and data plan to make transactions cheaper and easier. 

I have found that using an application like SquareUp, Intuit's Go Payment, or Paypal's PayUp where you can scan customer's credit cards and send automatic emailed receipts to be so much less expensive than traditional methods of taking cards. (Believe me, people don't usually want to pay cash, so be ready)

** Caution: most of these applications will not give you access to these customer's email addresses in the future.  If you intend to build your email list, you will have to add another process, like a email sign up form on the table** 

Save $: Using an IPad's data plan is often much cheaper than paying for a dedicated power and phone line to be put in your booth.

Make sure to have a couple of these devices in your booth so multiple transactions can be processed at once.  You want a small line, but not a HUGE line of people just waiting to use their cards.

5)  Small crowds draw more people because of the element of social proof.  

Use small crowds to your advantage!  If you can work an area into your booth that will cause people to crowd/hang around just a few moments instead of staying on the other side of the table and walking on past, other attendees will notice and will come by just to see what everyone else is looking at.

The result is that getting the first person into your empty booth is the hardest so try not to let your booth seem empty.

Trade shows are an essential part of launching a successful business in many industries.   For my first business, Slip-On Dancers^TM, it was a proving ground that launched  into licensing deals, distributorships, and testimonials let alone giving me the cash to really get the business rolling. 

Goodness knows these aren't all the tips you need to guarantee success at your first trade show, but hopefully these will help you avoid the major pitfalls that I found myself in when I started.

Comments? Questions?  Talk to me.

Which niche should you focus on first? Part 3 of 3

Who is your ideal target niche? Part 3 of 3

Finally, let's put everything we've figured out about our market together and identify the most promising niches for you to approach first. 

In Part 1 & Part 2 of this series, we looked at who your ideal customer is and who your competition is. 

You should have answers to questions like:  

• How many customers are in each of your potential target niches?
• How much will it cost you to market to that niche?
• How many sales will you likely make?
• What is your profit for that niche?
• How much does it cost for you to sell one product versus selling the product in bulk?  
• The costs to manufacture/produce the product won't be very different if you are selling subscriptions to an online training course, but could mean a huge difference in fulfillment if you have a physical product that has to be manufactured and shipped.
• If you have a physical product, can you reasonably pass on the extra costs of shipping single orders to the consumer?  

Here's the formula to determine which niche you should probably approach first*

         (# potential sales x profits from each sale) - marketing costs 

Which niche looks the best from this profit perspective?

* Caveat:  There is some level of marketing investment here that you must be OK with in order for this niche to be a good fit for you.    Essentially, you need to make sure you can cover the cost of marketing to this ideal niche.

• Is the marketing cost over a long time? 1 year, 2 years, 6 months?  
• Is the value of the marketing a cost you can cover at this point in your business?  
• Can you defer those costs until the sales start coming in? 

If your most profitable niche is not a niche you can appropriately market to YET due to costs, go to the next profitable niche and see if you can make that successful. 

OR, if you really think the first niche is the best one for you, start thinking of ways to lower the marketing costs.  For example, instead of buying TV ads, having a center booth at a trade show and having full page magazine ads, maybe you could post on influential blogs and get online reviews.  Consider getting a partial-page magazine ad and sharing a booth with another (non-competing) vendor.

If your marketing plan is "get on QVC," the odds are against your success, but there are likely lots of other creative (cheaper) ways to reach your target market.  You probably know where members of that niche get together and look for information, especially if you are part of that niche.

Pick your niche market.  Make sure it's a niche that will LOVE your product and that you can reach with your starter marketing budget. 

Niche marketing is like climbing stairs.  Focus on ONE niche and do it the BEST you can.  Get that one segment of the market 'under your belt' then move on to the next market.  

Action steps:

1) Write the answers to the above questions down outlining why this niche is right for you right now (this is the first part of your company manual and marketing plan!). 

2) Figure out if you can afford the initial marketing efforts in addition to the manufacturing costs. 

3) List your niches in order... 1st choice... 2nd choice...3rd choice...

Questions? Comments? Have I forgotten something?  Stories about how you first chose your first niche for your product or service?  Talk to me. 

15 processes that business owners should systematize

15 processes that business owners should be able to shift away

 Based on my experience, a surprising number of small business owners are tied down to their businesses, can't go on vacation, or have trouble getting time off if the kids are sick. 

The feeling of being "tied down" often stems from a lack of systematization in their businesses.  A system enables you to hand the task over to another person while having metrics/checks in place so you are assured it happened correctly.

15 tasks business owners should have systems around and should be able to step away from:

1. Fulfilling orders
2. Ordering materials

3. Keeping inventory
4. Responding to pricing requests
5. Collecting on past due invoices
6. Answering the main business telephone line
7. Researching competitors
8. Book keeping
9. Composing Blog Articles
10. Writing press releases
11. Cleaning the office
12. Writing the first draft of employee manuals
13. Doing customer surveys
14. Scouring HARO lists and other sources free press for opportunities
15. Keeping an eye on Twitter and Facebook throughout the day

Recognize that many of these tasks are simply tasks in the middle larger process of a customer ordering and a customer receiving the product.  If the owner is responsible for a time sensitive piece of the operation between the customer ordering and the product being delivered to the customer, the owner will always be tied to the business. 

Good Systems are set-up by people who understand the ins and outs of actually doing the task

When starting a business, it is critical to do many or all of these tasks at some point so you know what an appropriate system looks like.

Once you establish a pattern of handling these business operations, you should be able to write down what must happen in order for that task to be achieved.  At that point, the owner needs to be aware of their time and hand the responsibility off at least some of the time.  The owners time should then be focused on what it will take to move the business forward.

Need help designing a system?

Start with this question:  What happens 90% of the time for this task to be completed?
Write down, step-by-step what has to happen in the most standard scenarios.
Use decision trees if that would help organize your thoughts.
Hand the list to someone else and see if it make sense to them and adjust accordingly
For creating manuals for steps on a computer, I recommend using Jing to capture your screen and computer microphone.




Hopefully, if you still have these tasks on your plate, the post will start you thinking about what it would take to be able to hand them off to someone else without your business going downhill, even for a short time (vacation anyone?).

Did I miss a task you think is important to recognize?  Please let me know in  the comments below.

If you're struggling with how to set up systems for any of  these tasks, I can help.  Send me an email and let's talk!

 *Image courtesy of vichie81 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Welcome to TheTimeItTakes.Me!

When was the last time that you looked (really looked) at how you used your time, either in your job or maybe just around the house? 

For me , I try to take a hard look at this very unfun subject pretty often.  

I'm not sure about you, but I find it incredibly easy to attach deadlines that really are just there because I falsely put value on work for works sake.  The urgency is sometimes totally legitimate.  For example, yesterday, if my assistant is out, someone needs to answer customer emails. 

The important thing is that I realize answering customer emails is not where I really add value.  

I add much more value to my company (and I have a lot fewer urgent tasks) when I ask other people to help.

When I started my first business, I actually wasn't too savy about how to do successfully get tasks off my plate. What I did was take a very scientific and analytical approach to solving that problem.   

The result is that I developed a system for looking at small business processes that allows me to identify steps that can be systematized and automated to free up your time as the owner. 

In this blog, I talk a lot about systems and how to systematize and simplify processes, but I also try to bring you information that I personally have found helpful that will help you run your life as smoothly as possible.  

Please reach out and connect with me if you want help, or to be featured as a case study. 

Cheers to your happiness!

Katie

Mastermind groups - it's all about accountability and new ideas

Entrepreneurs should belong to a mastermind group

I have been a full-time entrepreneur almost 2 years at this point, and I love what I do.  A large part of my love for this job js that I can set my own schedule, make my own decisions, and strategize at my leisure about my company selling Slip-On Dancers.

While that's nice and all....

I realize the power of having accountability in my business life.   

I'm NOT talking about my own self-imposed accountability to my customers, I'm talking about how I go about holding myself accountable to achieve business objectives I have set forth for company.  Sometimes, it is really easy to just get yourself lost in the weeds of your company, take back tasks you've delegated already, or just let the company coast for a while, taking care of things as they come up instead of trying to be ahead of the curve.

What I needed was a buddy to whom I was accountable for taking business actions

For me this came in the form of group business coaching, through People Biz courtesy of Count Me In and American Express Open.   Everyone assigned to our group declared what their goals were and then, over the next months, we slowly checked off the boxes, doing the hard work to move our respective businesses forward.  The disappointment factor weighs heavily here in that, if you told a friend you WOULD have something done, aren't you more likely to actually make the time to get it done?  Procrastination all of a sudden has a backstop. 

It's nice to have a network, but your business will probably perform better if you have a network to whom you are accountable

There are lots of mastermind groups out there that cost lots of money, but I believe you can get most of the benefits just by reaching out to a few other entrepreneurs who you trust and start one yourself.  

Get help when you need it

In addition to the accountability benefits, you also can get other people's input on problems you're having in your own business.  I like this quote from Henry Ford taken when he realized he could not accurately answer the attorney's questions because of his lack of formal education. 

“If I should really WANT to answer the foolish question you have just asked, or any of the other questions you have been asking me, let me remind you that I have a row of electric push-buttons on my desk, and by pushing the right button, I can summon to my aid men who can answer ANY question I desire to ask concerning the business to which I am devoting most of my efforts. Now, will you kindly tell me, WHY I should clutter up my mind with general knowledge, for the purpose of being able to answer questions, when I have men around me who can supply any knowledge I require?”

In many ways, I feel like my mastermind experience has given me a similar feeling that, should I need to know something I don't, I CAN get the answer pretty quickly by relying on my network and largely my mastermind group.


In short, entrepreneurs are headstrong, like to do their own thing, and feel like they can take on the world, BUT they'll do better if they leverage the psychological power of being accountable to friends for goals they want to achieve.


Do you belong to a mastermind group? What have you gotten out of it?  Leave a note in the comments.

Why Jing is great for small businesses? Let me count the ways!

Every once in a while, we all come across products that are fantastic.   They save us time, energy, frustration, etc.  When I come across one of these little wonders, I turn into an evangalist for the idea, product, whatever.

For me Jing is one of these products that makes me go all evangelical.

What is Jing? It's a free program that lets you take screen shots of portions of your computer screen and record short videos.  Once you take the screen shots, you can overlay them with text, boxes, arrows, etc.  I use it in my business selling Slip-On Dancers all the time.

4 great uses for Jing in a small business:

#1 Making a video manual

One of the main uses for me is in making a manual for my employees on how to do various tasks within our computer systems.    I can't tell you how much easier it is to explain it once, record it, and then put it in our training manual.

#2 Giving feedback on artwork

Another use is for reviewing creatives for artwork, it is so much quicker and easier to use than opening up Photoshop just to add comments about what you like or dislike about the new version of the ad, website, or photo you are reviewing.

For example, here's how I told my web designer that I like the positioning of the coupon bar:

#3 Creating explanation videos for customers

Procrastination Defensive Mantra

What do you do that makes you face your least enjoyable tasks? 

Every successful entrepreneur has an effective defense against procrastination.

There are things that need to be done in every business that no one wants to do. If those essential things aren't done, procrastination can kill a business. For me, my defense is a strategy I got pretty good at while taking my business Dance Yourself Fit LLC through the the Business Accelerator Coaching Program through People Biz and Count Me In.

For me the procrastination defense starts with a firm idea in my head of a vision for where I'm going with the business. 

Having a firm vision gives you two things:  the motivation and tasks.   It's that big picture vision for what the organization is going to contribute that provides the motivation necessary to overcome the procrastination.

With your mind on the long term vision, can you see a reason for actually accomplishing the annoying tasks?  

Those annoying tasks are on your to do list because you have a plan that comes from connecting the dots between where you are now and where you want to be in the next few months and years. Connect those dots in finer and finer elements to come up with "digestible work pieces."