Skills: Identifying Needs and Resources. Mentors. Business Naming.
To lay the groundwork for identifying needs and resources, we opened our week watching and discussing two videos:
Resourcefulness. The first was a segment of Tony Robbins' TED Talk on resourcefulness. Our key to success, Tony argues, is not having the right resources, the right boss, the right investors, the right weather, or even right Supreme Court decision, rather it is in being resourceful, having that quality of human spirit and character to get past any challenge: "you find a way, if you want it enough," and "decisions shape destiny."
Mentors. The second video was Tai Lopez's TEDx talk on finding mentors to teach skills and help work through specific challenges. Tai had a few special mentors that were key to his journey. "Don't be afraid to go to the top," Tai advised, encouraging his listeners to get help from people at least "ten times ahead of you." He also suggests culling the wisdom of the greatest minds by reading books voraciously and applying the lessons learned.
Our Entrepreneurs synthesized their discussion on these principles with the idea that a knowledgeable mentor may be the most important resource of all.
Resource List: We explored conducting an effective need/resource analysis in running teams, the key elements of which might include these:
- Consider you plan from A to Z.
- Point A is wherever you are right now in developing your business.
- Point Z is where you want to be, having a market-ready product or service offering by Nov. 14.
- Now ask: what do I need to get or do to move from A to Z? Write everything down.
- Consider specific task needs to be done next to move this item along? And ask:
- Is there someone you know who could help with this item? A mentor.
- When will you do it? A goal date.
- What is the priority of this task relative to getting the overall business rolling?
- If there are many items (and there are), a spreadsheet can be helpful to sort dates, categories, priorities, etc.
We worked together to create an example spreadsheet.
After finishing this analysis, identify your grenade pin (or linchpin), that one relatively small thing you can do next that will net huge effects and momentum. For several of our Entrepreneurs, this vital pin was reaching out to someone they know, a potential mentor, for a little coaching.
After finishing this analysis, identify your grenade pin (or linchpin), that one relatively small thing you can do next that will net huge effects and momentum. For several of our Entrepreneurs, this vital pin was reaching out to someone they know, a potential mentor, for a little coaching.
Business Naming. Our Entrepreneurs also explored naming their businesses. One important key in choosing a name is making sure no one else is using the same or similar name for your product or service offering. Our entrepreneurs searched the names they would like have related to the following uses:
- National scale trademark registrations at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
- State level business entity registrations at the Utah Division of Corporations
- General use worldwide using a basic Google search
- Domain name availability using GoDaddy.com
Guest: Jana Francis, Founder of Steals.com
Jana started her entrepreneur's journey in late 90's while working in Silicon Valley. In her spare time she collected undervalued treasures at garage sales and listed them for sale on eBay.
She returned to Utah after four years in CA, taking a position at KSL working with marketing clients. She leveraged her experience in Silicon Valley as the "girl geek," pushing KSL to embrace the Information Age by moving more content onto ksl.com, using text-message promos, and providing a consistent stream of online revenue.
In 2006, with the birth of her third child, Jana began researching baby products online. She noticed that online sellers in the baby space lacked easy-to-read, helpful content on their pages. She saw an opportunity to create an online store that provided in-depth product information, high-quality images, and daily deals (before Groupon). She formed babysteals.com.
Jana worked tirelessly for a year and a half to get the business going. She started marketing the company by emailing all her friends and family. She went to an expo, taking her household TV off the wall just to show mock-up pages of her website. To stay focused, she set the goal to take one significant step every day toward launching the business.
Her determination paid off. Babysteals.com and her family of "steals" businesses have now handled over 2.5 million orders. They now employ around 50 people, running fulfillment from a 30,000 sq. foot center.
Jana advised our Entrepreneurs, advocating the need for having passion about their offerings, "It is hard to start a business, but a million times harder to maintain a business." She takes great reward in seeing her employees grow; some, she explained, started in entry-level positions but now serve as directors. She encouraged us to surround ourselves with "people smarter than you, and don't be intimidated by that."
Challenge: The challenge for this week is to develop a complete, written need/resource analysis and submit this to a running partner for review.
Congrats!! To Thomas, who launched his T-shirt designs and started selling online. 7 sales so far!
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