The Entrepreneur's Mentor

Resources for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs typically have a full gamut of internal resources. These include creativity, innovative thought process, big picture thinking,optimism, perseverance and focus. But internal resources are rarely sufficient to carry the day by themselves.

So, what else is needed? The thoughts and ideas of others, for one thing. The entire concept of social networking and open source is sharing of information and ideas. Entrepreneurs need legal advice, accounting advice, marketing advice. What else?

They need to network with other business owners at the same phase or at a later phase of development to share experiences. They need to develop relationships with peers.

Doing What Matters

James M. Kilts is not your typical entrepreneur. His most recent career moves include stints as CEO at Nabisco, Kraft Foods and Gillette. He was successful at all three. And he offers up his formula for this success in his recent book Doing What Matters.

I read at least one or two new business books each week, and this one stands head and shoulders above almost all of them in recent memory. His lessons are applicable to entrepreneurs even though the experiences he documents are with Fortune 500 companies. No matter what business you are in, it is important to figure out what really matters-what you need to do to be successful. Then figure out how to measure it-and measure it religiously.

Legal Issues

Entrepreneurs can sometime rush into situations in a somewhat headstrong manner, "going where angels fear to tread".

Let me list a few issues that pop up all of the time. If you do not address them correctly, you will get burned.

• Don't be too trusting.
  • If you have partners or shareholders, make sure you have a written agreement.
  • If you have even one employee, have a confidentiality agreement (many states do no uphold non-competition agreements.) Every employee must sign at time of hire, not later.
  • Don't do any deals on a handshake.

• Create a policies and procedures manual and use it.
  • Treat everyone equally and by the book or you will have problems.

Entrepreneurial Dashboard

Over the years, a number of different authors and consultants have come up with a variety of "scorecards", report cards and dashboards for the use of executives.  The idea has always been to measure what is deemed important, and then put the measurements in a format that is easily  readable and understandable.

So, suppose we want to create a "dashboard" for entrepreneurs...What would we want to measure that is critical to entrepreneurial success? Would we be analyzing the same data at all stages of entrepreneurial growth?

For instance, at startup, there is nothing more important than cash on hand. A business owner needs to be aware of the amount of available cash every single day.  If a business plan is based on an operating budget, then compliance with budget is important and variances need to be tracked.

If a budget has an expectation of certain sales levels, they must be watched carefully. And managing labor expense may be critical, so that goes on the dashboard.

E as in Entrepreneur

Sitting at my desk trying to inspire myself to do some of the less appealing tasks that a small business owner must do, I came to the conclusion that I lacked the necessary ENERGY to do them.  They are not arduous, or even difficult, but they are not fun.  It takes a certain type of ENERGY to do the mundane tasks, especially when the fun stuff awaits.

Being entrepreneurial requires constant ENERGY and undying ENTHUSIASM. After saying that I began to wonder about other "E" words that might be used to describe entrepreneurs.

How many can you come up with?  I'll throw in a few, but don't want to hog them all.  How about EXTROVERTED, ENGAGED and ENCOURAGING? Take it from there.