Week 3 -- Business Planning

Pillars:  Patterns of history.  In Pillars, David and our QLP Entrepreneurs explored the broad patterns and cycles of history across U.S. history.  We set a foundation of four general phases of empires: the Age of Faith, Age of Myth, Age of Reason, and Age of Machines.  We also built a conceptual framework of four generational archetypes:  the Prophet, Nomad, Hero, and Artist.  Our Entrepreneurs recognize that understanding the patterns of history will help them prepare for the future, set a course for their own Hero's Journey and life missions, and develop business plans that anticipate future trends and social movements.  

Skills:  Business plans.  

“Plans are worthless.  Planning is essential.”  Dwight D. Eisenhower.  

“Everyone has a plan . . . until they get punched in the face!”  Mike Tyson.  

Mere ideas do NOT = $$

We studied the primary elements of a business plan and helped each other with the planning process.  Two videos helped us understand basic planning, one from Startupdaddy.com and the other from the SBA.

We dove deep into the key elements of a basic plan:  

• Executive Summary
• Company Overview
• Product or Service Offering
• Market Research
• Sales & Marketing Plan
• Financials

As a group we practiced creating a simple cash-flow spreadsheet to get our Entrepreneurs started on their own pro forma cash-flow statements.  (100 points to Chandra for pointing out that we must always include our own time and labor as a line item! Many entrepreneurs forget this vital calculation.)

Running Partners.  Our Entrepreneurs created an covenant around what they expect from each other as running partners: 

• Bring your strengths and talents to the partnership.
• Don't be a jerk.
• Push and encourage your partners by asking, "Is that your best work?" (100 points to Dan for discovering the key peer-accountability question!)
• Give honest feedback, and receive that feedback without taking offense.
• Care about your partner(s), and be interested in their business.
• Keep your commitments (this is galactically huge in any relationship).

Our Entrepreneurs then formed these running partnerships: 

• Charles / Dan / Bekah
• Will / Joe Bob
• Jackson / Kiki
• Jin / Austin / Chandra
• Thomas / Ted

Guest:  Kirk Feller, BGZ Brands / BodyGuardz

BGZ Brands has created a family of brand offerings of mobile-device protection cases and related products.  The most widely known BGZ brand is BodyGuardz, a line famous for its "stealthy," thin-but-tough, device protection.  BodyGuardz has been very successful in recent years, ranking an industry second in vendor sales at AT&T stores, hitting Inc.'s Fastest 500 list, and growing at an astonishing 1,076% over the last two years.  

Kirk and his wife, April Feller, started BodyGuardz in 2002 by stamping out vinyl screen protectors in their basement.  Kirk described how he and his family struggled to make ends meet during the first three years of their venture.  He told our Entrpreneuers, "you have to be willing to fails many times and sacrifice everything to pursue your dream."  This, he explained, "requires, first and foremost, real passion about what you do."  Kirk told how he and April dedicated their 401K fund, a second mortgage, and then had their home up for sale during ramp-up. 

Kirk's mission is to provide an excellent work culture and great pay to the people he cares about.  In Kirk's paradigm, family comes first, above all else.  He encouraged our Entrepreneurs to develop their own moral compass to check their choices against.  

Kirk relies on "reverse mentoring."  He is likes to surround himself with (in his own words) "people smarter than me."  He also takes opportunities to learn marketing techniques from the younger generation, "having kids teach me because the know Instagram and other social media."  

Kirk taught our Entrepreneurs to create powerful sales stories for their businesses.  He pulled out a CIA-style metal briefcase holding a sample of BodyGuardz latest high-tech product, created with Unequal Technologies' military-grade composite padding, which is used to prevent impact damage.  The case also contained a billy club and a glove holding Unequal padding.  Kirk put the glove on his hand and then proceeded to beat his gloved hand with the club.  We were stunned.  "No pain," Kirk claimed.  This effective sales demo, tied with the compelling story about Unequal and its fascinating applications, sold us all on BodyGuardz's newest phone case.  

Challenge:  Our Entrepreneurs accepted this week's challenge to develop a business plan (edited by running partners) that includes a cash-flow spreadsheet. Goal date: this coming Monday.

Next Week:  Next week we will focus on gathering resources needed to launch our businesses.

News / Call-outs:  

Published!!  Congratulations to Rebekah (our first QLP Entrepreneur, aka "guinea pig," from the 2014-15 school year).  Her project on journalism and study of worker misclassification in Utah culminated in submitting an article, "On the Payroll," for publication.  Utah Business Magazine picked it up (and paid her for it too!).  Find it here.  --Who needs a grade from a teacher when the world is judging your work? 

First Town Hall Meeting:  Jackson led our Entrepreneurs in a discussion about what is working well in QLP and what we can improve.  Positive feedback:  our Entrepreneurs enjoy the class environment and culture; they love the highly involved learning-by-doing structure; they get a lot out of guest-speaker visits.  Improve:  they asked us for more one-on-one consulting time, mid-class breaks, field-trips, booth time (chairs are uncomfortable), and instruction on entity formation.  

Soapbox:  To the parents of our wonderful Entrepreneurs:  We encourage you to watch Cameron Herold's TEDx talk, "Let's Raise Kids to Be Entrepreneurs," and consider what you are doing with your kids to exemplify and encourage creativity, independent thinking, and entrepreneurship in the home.  

Week 2 -- Market Research

Pillars- Finding genius.  In pillars we defined the word "genius" from a broad perspective, discovering that a true genius lives within all of us.  We looked at the difference between left-brain and right-brain functioning, and discussed why the entrepreneur needs to use the whole brain.  The right brain to dream, create, build, and to see the whole picture.  The left brain to use logic, reason, research to add the details to our ideas.  

We also looked at why we need empathy (a key to design thinking), the ability to imagine yourself in someone else’s position and to feel what that person is feeling.  The argument was made that emotional abilities are just as important as conventional and intellectual abilities.  As we move into a computer and conceptual age we looked at a greater need for human connection.  “Leadership is about empathy.  It is having the ability to relate and to connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives.”  We want our Entrepreneurs to inspire as well as create.  

Skills- Market Research.  We kicked off our study of market research by watching Brian McCarthy’s video on Marketing Research.  Market Research is defining a marketing problem or opportunity, collecting and analyzing information, and recommending actions to improve the marketing or development activities.  

We can gather information in two ways: quantitative, and qualitative research.   Quantitative is a logical approach by collecting data and statistics.  Qualitative focuses more on the emotional side of research by asking how a person feels or thinks, and why they make certain choices.  

Challenge-  The students completed their challenge from week 1 and collectively as a class had over 2000 unique ideas.  Those with the most ideas were Dan, Jackson, and Thomas.  By having the most ideas they all won Arvo watches.  Congrats!!!!

Pitches- Our Entrepreneurs did initial elevator pitches to the group.  They had a small period of time to sell their ideas to the class.  The winner of the elevator pitch won an Arvo watch.   Congratulations to Chandra!!! 

Guest Speaker- Jason Neeley of Warp 9 (black shirt)

Jason helped us to see how good market research can help a business be successful, by knowing the right price to sell your product.  Jason, from a young age, was always entrepreneurial minded.  He told us how he started a mistletoe business in California as a child.  He wanted to expand his business to Utah and reached out to grocery stores to sell them fresh mistletoe from California.  He thought he would be rich.  He had the idea to send the mistletoe by airplane.  The next day he was expecting a call from the stores about how happy they were about all the mistletoe.  Instead, he received calls from the stores saying the mistletoe had all dried up and died.  It was too cold on the plane.  Jason was devastated.  Instead of making the $7,000 he envisioned he lost $800.00.  Even amidst the failure, however, Jason would continued to see and take take on opportunities.  

He taught our Entrepreneurs basic SWOT analysis, encouraging them to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  He also discussed sustainability, encouraging our Entrepreneurs to find opportunities that are sustainable into the future.  For example, after Jason started selling motorcycle wheels, he quickly expanded Warp9 to sell other parts, increasing its ability to sustain growth.  

Next Week:  we will focus on business plans, creating one that includes a basic cash-flow spreadsheet.  

Week 1 -- Eye of the Entrepreneur / Design Thinking

Pillars:  In our quest to understand the cycles and patterns of history relevant to the path of our QLP Entrepreneurs, we discussed the receding tide of entrepreneurism in America.  According to recent news, the U.S. now ranks an abysmal 12th among developed nations.  We explored possible root causes for this trend.  

Skills:  Our Entrepreneurs took advantage of opportunities to practice their new conflict resolution and communication skills (from the Collaborant training last week) in their group work, especially in deciding how to fairly distribute the Arvo watches (see below).  

We discussed the importance of making our visitors and guests feel welcome in our studio.  We started the practice of hand writing personalized thank-you notes to our guests.  

On this week's theme of seeing opportunities and generating ideas, we watched and discussed Steven Johnson's RSA Animate presentation, "Where Good Ideas Come From."  We also started Stanford's D School Crash Course in design thinking, focusing particularly on the empathy phase.  

Guests:  Jake Nackos and Aaron Neuenschwander of Arvo Watches visited the QLP studio on Wednesday.  

Arvo has enjoyed skyrocket growth from its simple conception in a pawn shop two years ago to selling its popular watches in more than 70 countries today.  

Jake was browsing a pawn shop, and having grown up around his father's watch collection, he was drawn to a $50 gold watch.  It was well worn, and so the band fit comfortably.  Jake liked the minimalist style and perfect fit of this classic timepiece.  The experience set him on a path exploring manufacturing of a watch line following this simple, comfortable design.  

Arvo's biggest challenge was dealing with quality-control issues in its early days of manufacturing.  Jake paid close attention to Arvo's customers concerns, replacing over 200 watches before they were able to get the bugs out.  Jake told the class, "I was surprised how forgiving the customers can be when you treat them right."  

Arvo has leveraged social media in its highly successful marketing strategy.  Jake explained his view that, in contrast to traditional media outlets, social and digital media "cut through the fog."  "People don't care so much anymore about what LeBron James is wearing," he said, "as they do about what their friend is wearing."  For the younger generation, Arvo's target audience, "influencer marketing" is key.  

Arvo's motto is "be good, do good."  The Arvo team tries to exemplify this idea by donating 10% of its profits to local charity organizations and community causes, like Underground Railroad and the Granite School District.  Arvo also regularly creates service opportunities for its loyal fan base to participate in. 

Aaron explained the concept of minimum viable product (MVP) offerings to the QLP entrepreneurs, dovetailing nicely with our study of the design-thinking principle of empathy.  Arvo is eager to get its new products out of production and into the hands of its customers because it relies so heavily on their input in the ongoing design process.  

Jake and Aaron encouraged our Entrepreneurs to begin networking by setting up LinkedIn accounts and taking advantage of the international connections at AISU.  

They left us with with Arvo socks and five Arvo watches!  Our Entrepreneurs came up with a contest related to this week's challenge for awarding the watches.  

Challenge:  The challenge for this week -- as defined and accepted by our Entrepreneurs -- is to identify x# of business ideas or opportunities to solve problems by the start of next week.  The idea here is simply to get our Entrepreneurs in the habit of seeing opportunities to improve and create that exist all around.  We had different levels of commitment to the x#, leaving that to each individual.  Figures ranged from 70 original ideas to over 100.  (Award of some of the Arvo watches is tied to this.) 

Next Week:  Next week we will study basic market research.  We will challenge our Entrepreneurs to come up with a research plan to test their initial hypothesis of their business plan.  We will also present first-run elevator pitches, complete D School, and form our running partnerships for the trimester.  

Week 0 -- Leadership Intensive

A big thanks to Joe Staker and the owners of Collaborant, who donated their valuable time and expertise in training our QLP Entrepreneurs.  Joe, an entrepreneur in his own right, provided three days of in-person, high-impact instruction in the areas of personal accountability, conflict resolution, and communication.  We learned and practiced key principles and skills to get to the heart of working together:

• Get our motives right by expanding our circle of concern and focusing on everyone’s needs and interests. 
• Hold our reactions in tough situations and actively choosing who we’ll be.
• Conflict presents an opportunity to improve a process or a relationship if we can get down to the underlying reasons driving why we all want what we want.
• Communication works best when we dig patiently to the “root” issues and discuss specific instances and careful observations.