Reading, reading, reading.

When I was young I was not a big reader. This is likely because I found it arduous when someone told me I had to read something (studying) as opposed to reading something simply out of interest.

As I’ve “grown up” I find myself reading more and more. Everything I read is for pleasure. This includes the reading I had to complete for my CMA designation. When reading for fun I absorb more and get more out of the experience.

The most successful entrepreneurs I know share these three characteristics:

(1) have laser focus,

(2) are great leaders and,

(3) are very well read.

It is because of #3 that I thought I would share this link (thanks C100) on the “Six Must Read Books for every Entrepreneur”

http://tlabs.in/blogs/6-must-read-books-entrepreneur/

Full disclosure, I haven’t read any of them! But I’ve just ordered them and look forward to doing so!

Leadership the Steve Jobs Way

Here is a summary of a recent HBR article that I think does a great job of outlining Steve Jobs’ leadership secrets.

He was not perfect (are any of us?) and was clearly a very difficult boss. But in reading Isaacson’s biography of Jobs it’s clear that many of those who worked for Jobs would likely do so again if given the opportunity. That to me is a clear sign of someone’s leadership.

Here is a list of the high level characteristics. A link to the article is at the bottom of this post:

(1) Focus – one that is difficult for me but so very important.

(2) Simplify – he says you have to go very deep to effectively simplify. I believe this to be very true with the most successful and effective (eight word or less) vision statements. You have to go deep into strategic planning before concluding with an effective vision.

(3) Take responsibility end to end. Very few people do this.

(4) When behind leapfrog. I think laser focus is required to successfully leapfrog.

(5) Put products before profits.

(6) Don’t be a slave to focus groups. I really enjoy the Henry Ford quote, “If I had asked customers what they wanted they would have said, ‘A faster horse.’”

(7) Bend reality – this was one of his key tools to getting the most out of people.

(8) Impute.

(9) Push for perfection. I find this interesting. Particularly in technology where businesses focus on shipping their minimum viable product in order to get real life customer feedback and then improve, ship, improve, ship.

(10) Tolerate only ‘A’ players. I think this comes directly from passion. If you’re passionate about what you do then you’re already a long way toward setting yourself up to be an ‘A’ player. Conversely, I don’t believe you can be the best at something without being totally passionate about it.

(11) Engage face-to-face. I couldn’t agree more!

(12) Combine humanities with the Sciences.

(13) Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Enjoy the article: http://hbr.org/2012/04/the-real-leadership-lessons-of-steve-jobs/ar/1

Path to success

Entrepreneurs can’t do it alone

By their very nature entrepreneurs are independent thinkers and personalities.  They have confidence in their own abilities and often drive blindingly toward their goals.  Sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much.

One of things all entrepreneurs could benefit from understanding is that they can’t do it all by themselves.  Successful businesses may be built on the vision of a leader (Ford, Microsoft and, closer to home, 1-800-Got-Junk, Jim Pattison Group and Rocky Mountaineer come to mind).  But they only succeed if that leader can assemble a team of complementary skill sets.

Bill Gates has Steve Ballmer, Sergei and Larry have Eric, Walt Disney had Roy, Clive Beddoe had Mark Hill.  I can’t emphasize enough the value of a good team – I have the war wounds to prove it.

PCWorks was my second business.  It struggled and I struggled in it for eighteen months.  I hired incorrectly, I took office space and other overhead on too quickly, I advertised to aggressively and I didn’t focus relentlessly enough on getting sales (ie cash from customers) in the door.

Even in light of all the challenges in that business, I always understood that I needed a team to work with me.  I understood my strengths.  More importantly, I understood my weaknesses.  Given my weaknesses I knew the business needed a cracker jack computer tech (I’m not a techie) and it needed a guerrilla salesperson.

Bringing a team together is easier said than done.  Even though I was looking for my “A-Team” from day one, it still took me eighteen months to find them.  And I didn’t meet them through an expensive head hunter, I found them through personal relationships.  My director of business development came through a longtime personal friend and my director of services came through professional acquaintance.

The lesson here for me is not to underestimate the challenge in finding the right team members at the right time in their professional lives and in the life of one’s business.

Entrepreneurs should never be afraid to ask for help.

Serious fun

My director of business development at PCWorks (who I credit with helping take the company from about $15,000 in monthly revenue to around $150,000 and who has since gone on to build a successful speaking business – visit www.itwitch.com) used to have a turn of phrase, “serious fun”.

I always liked it because it reminded the team that we were involved in building a startup business, which was serious.  But it also reminded us that we needed to have fun in the process.

That company was a really tough one for me.  I had invested all of my available capital before it started to turn the post.  I was stressed because it took almost two years to make a profit and I was the only source of funds.  Let me say that it really is a reality check when your personal bank account is very close to being dry and your company still isn’t making money.

Fortunately it turned around in the end, and while I didn’t make money on that company I did get most (not all) of the investment back.  Even though it was rough at times, I’d like to think we had some fun.  Whether it was first person games played through our office’s network, going to my family’s place in the Gulf Islands, going River Rafting or just hanging out over brunch on the weekend – we never really lost sight of the fact that we needed a bit of levity.

This video was forwarded by Sarah McNeill of McNeill Nakamoto (www.mcnak.com) and I think it’s just terrific.  Kudos to this team for having serious fun.

Enjoy:

Business opportunity #1

As I go through the process of considering my next business (this has been a long process, I sold my last business nine years ago) I find myself thinking long and hard about what I want to do, what I can do and what will provide a return.

There are three businesses that I’m currently considering.  The filter I’m using to assess all three is based on Jim Collins’ Hedgehog.

(1) What do I want to do (passion).

(2) What am I good at (skill).

(3) What can provide me with an adequate return (economic engine).

Essentially, he argues that great businesses only focus on those opportunities where passion, skill and ability to generate profits cross.  I think the Hedgehog can be used for individuals too.

I’m going to post a three part series that run through an analysis of each of these opportunities framed using the Hedgehog (1 not at all, 3 totally).  I’m not yet at a stage where I want to publicly broadcast details on these opportunities, but if you’re interested in learning more then send me a message.  I’m more than happy to talk offline.

Opportunity S

(1) Passion

I describe my passions as deal making, leading, managing, motivating, team building, boating, jogging, biking, reading, politics, finance, BC’s southern Gulf Islands, business and Vancouver.

My passions as described by my personal board of directors: “big picture”, politics, drive my own vision (not someone else’s), control, client facing, see things work, instinct, not bigco, managing.

• Deal making: 1
• Leading: 3
• Managing: 3
• Motivating: 3
• Team building: 3
• Boating, jogging, biking, reading, politics, finance: 1
• BC’s Southern Gulf Islands: 1
• Business: 3
• Vancouver: 3
• Big picture: 3
• Drive my own vision: 3
• Control: 3
• Client facing: 2
• See things work: 2
• Instinct: 3
• Not bigco: 3

This opportunity would certainly provide me with an opportunity to once again lead and build a team, drive my own vision, follow my instinct (I think there’s an opportunity here) and make deals with suppliers.  If successful it would provide me with time to pursue the “other” passions – boating etc.

(2) Skill

As identified by my personal board of directors: people, strategy, advising, relationships, goal driven, process oriented, structured, execution, sales, presentation and verbal skills.

• People: 2
• Strategy: 3
• Advising: 1
• Relationships: 1
• Goal driven: 3
• Process oriented: 3
• Structured: 3
• Execution: 3
• Sales: 2
• Presentation/communication: 1
• Verbal: 1

(3) Economic engine.

This opportunity is an online store that is very focused on a single market niche.  The market is large, the margins are good.  If volume were achieved then the business would be very profitable.  There is competition and I don’t see a “game changing” component.  It would add convenience and provide an easy place for consumers to go for esoteric versions of the product.

Really profitable online opportunities are game changing.  For example, Amazon changed the entire way we buy books and has become a great company.  This opportunity doesn’t have that game changing component, so can it be really lucrative?

• Economic prospects: 2

Student entrepreneurship

The University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, the University of Victoria and other BC based post-secondary institutions are hotbeds for entrepreneurship.

Dating back more than fifty years, some of BC’s local entrepreneur success stories originated from the university environment.

Jimmy Pattison started curbing cars while at UBC.  Brian Scudamore started hauling junk while at UBC.  Peter Armstrong started giving sightseeing tours while at UBC.  Anthony and Andrew Sukow started Advanced Economic Research Systems while at UVic.  There are many more examples.

Useful capital is one thing companies need, but there are two key things entrepreneurs must seek out.

(1) Mentorship – someone with domain expertise and a verifiable track record.  I was 23 when I started my first company and grew it to 40 employees and y second company grew to 12 employees.  I was surrounded by staff, but I struggled to make big decisions and made myriad mistakes.  Had I had effective mentoring I would have made good decisions great and bad decisions better.

(2) Effective relationships – entrepreneurs can’t do it alone and you never know when a relationship is going to pay dividends.  Had I not made a great effort to establish connections while building my second company, I wouldn’t have made two very key hires and, undoubtedly, would have had trouble selling it.

The free market thinker in me thinks that if a student entrepreneur is going to be successful they will figure these things out on their own.  They’ll find a commercially viable opportunity, build the right relationships, find effective mentors and raise appropriate capital.

But the entrepreneur in me who has been beat up (particularly in my second company) likes the idea of giving a helping hand, particularly in the early days.  So, I’ve been helping out a team which is establishing a program in entrepreneurship for my alma mater – UBC.  It will include mentorship, opportunities for relationship building and very early stage pre/pre seed capital.

I will write more on this another time.

In the interim check out this Financial Post article (http://www.financialpost.com/small-business/business-solutions/story.html?id=2403106) on Canada’s current venture capital market.  It features a take on this climate by Danny Robinson, co-founder of Bootup Labs and a successful entrepreneur in his own right.

Bootup is doing some very interesting things in Vancouver and it’s worth checking them out.

Mentor lesson #2: do what you love

Fifteen years ago my dad sent me to a long time client of his for some career and life advice.  I had just graduated from university and was trying to figure out what to do with my life.

I remember that day and that advice vividly.  I owned a white Volkswagen Jetta, was wearing a green golf shirt, khaki pants, boat shoes and met in his office in Washington state.  His green Mercedes S500 was in his parking lot and he referred to it as being “ugly as sin, but drives like a dream.”

We spent two hours together and I remember one piece of advice as though it was delivered to me only a few minutes ago.  It was, “do what you love and all else will follow.”

I haven’t always followed this advice, but when I have I’ve been happier, more successful and have just felt normal.

I came across this video of Steve Jobs delivering the commencement address to a Stanford graduating class.  One of his messages, “follow your heart, it knows what you want to become”, reminded me of my mentor’s 1994 lesson.

See the video below.  It’s well worth fifteen minutes.

Reading

My father once said to me that in order to be successful in business one must master the spoken and written word.

Strengthening communication skills doesn’t need to be done by studying languages or grammar, but can be simply done by reading.

I didn’t start enjoying reading until I was in my twenties, but once I started reading regularly my abilities immediately improved.  I look back on business letters I wrote during my second company (when I was 23/24 years old) and they are long winded and repetitive.  Today letters from me are more concise and readable.  Better for me and better for the recipients.

Check out my reading list on this blog.  You’ll see that I don’t read heavy books, but books that reflect things that are interesting to me. These include books on business, maritime history and disasters, John Grisham thrillers and, more regularly, various periodicals.

If I could only read one item for the rest of my life it would be the Economist magazine.  Its use of the Queen’s English (tyre instead of tire) is interesting and topics are exceptionally wide ranging.  If there is something important going on in the world then this periodical is covering it.

Exit

Many investors pontificate on how entrepreneurs must communicate their exit strategy right up front.  It’s argued that in order for an investor to invest he or she must understand how they’re going to get their money out.

I have started, built and sold  two companies and am currently working on starting my third.  Even though I have gone through this process twice on my own, I am by no means an expert because I don’t do angel investing.  Nonetheless, I am of the view that these investors who are advising “neophyte” entrepreneurs to focus on their exit are misguiding them at best and doing them a disservice at worst.

Building a company is a process, not a transaction.  An entrepreneur and manager must focus building their company up to being the best in its marketplace.  Define “best” however you want (market share, employee count, technological innovation, profits, growth rates etc.).

If a business is very good at what it does, then the rest will take care of itself