Empathy for an entrepreneur is about “walking a mile in someone’s shoes” and it is one of the most undervalued, yet most impactful, qualities in a great entrepreneur and leader.

Entrepreneur Magazine contends that empathy “can bring a competitive advantage in business. Our ability to see the world from the perspective of others is one of the most crucial tools in our business toolbox.”

Several years ago, Google did a major study about why some of its teams were more effective than others, in an attempt to identify the factors they should aim to include in building future groups. They learned that the best groups shared 2 behaviors:

1. There was ‘‘equality in distribution of conversational turn-taking.’’ The study determined that even though some group members spoke more during certain tasks and less during others, by the end of the day, everyone had spoken pretty much the same amount.
2. There was high ‘‘average social sensitivity’’, which meant that people were pretty good at reading how others were feeling based on their tone of voice, expressions and non-verbal cues. They were good at figuring out when people felt they were being left out or when others were dominating the conversation and they adjusted their behaviours accordingly.

These 2 behaviours – conversational turn-taking and empathy – create what is known as psychological safety – and they help establish human bonds, both in the work environment and in outside life.  Teams that share these behaviours are better at motivating, better at building loyalty, better at dealing with member dissatisfaction, better at recognizing and acknowledging contributions of members, better at dealing with conflict…they were just better! And leaders that have these characteristics are more likely to have loyal, committed employees and team members. In turn, they are aslo more likely to have loyal, returning customers.

What are some of the other ways that empathy can impact your bottom line?

One of the characteristics of the Lean Startup methodology that is the recommended model for starting a new company is the focus on the customer. When you pick a customer segment to serve, one of the recommendations is to create customer personas. Some entrepreneurs actually name and identify the characteristics of the customer, creating a made-up appearance and background, all the way down to the colour of her hair and maybe even the kind of car he/she drives. Anything that gives you a better understanding of your target customer or market will help you tailor your product or service to that audience. And at the end of the day, understanding people is analogous to empathizing with them.

That goes for your competitors too. If you can think like the competition, you have a better chance of determining their weaknesses.

Empathy is something that you are born with but if you feel you didn’t get a big enough share, don’t worry! This is also something you can develop.  Here are a few ways to up your empathy game; the more you improve, the more it will benefit you, both personally and with respect to the bottom line.

1. Share the microphone – as indicated above, let others talk, and when they do, make sure you actually listen until they ask for opinions or comments. People need to feel heard.
2. Get feedback from others regarding your relationship and listening skills and see what you can do to improve the things others have identified
3. Assume everyone is doing their best and is working for the good of the company instead of assigning blame when something goes wrong.
4. Go somewhere new that is out of your normal environment. Every time you travel, you see new perspectives and learn about other, equally legitimate ways of doing things
5. Treat others as you would like to be treated.
6. Don’t assume others always know what they should be doing. Maybe they would already be doing it if they knew they should be.
7. Celebrate all the wins, from tiny ones to the home runs.
8. Do something hard and challenging. In doing so, it is likely you will experience failure, disappointment or frustration. All of those feelings develop humility which leads to empathy
9. Be curious – it leads to better understanding of those around you.

Empathy is different from sympathy, in that in the latter you feel sorry for someone but you may not even really understand their situation. Empathy, in contrast, is about the ability to imagine yourself in the same situation, with all the emotions, reactions and opinions of that person. It doesn’t have to be about misfortune in the same way sympathy does. Rather, it’s simply about a genuine desire to understand someone else; to build a relationship with them based on a shared experience or at least, the adoption of the emotions of a person going through that experience.

I read something recently that said it’s all about putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, remembering that not everyone’s shoes should fit the same. Profound way of thinking about empathy. The bottom line is that true empathy in business impacts sales, motivation, innovation, productivity, employee engagement, and collaboration – all by helping to understand the other person’s perspective. Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes can make it easier to find a compromise between two points of view.

If you constantly strive to understand others by imagining yourself in someone else’s shoes, your empathy can’t help but change the culture of your company, your understanding of your customer, and impact your bottom line.

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Let’s be real, most of us set goals at the beginning of the year that are vague, unrealistic, and not very specific. we was to “exercise more” or “eat healthier” or finally “start our own business”. According to NBCNews about 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by the second week of February every year!

What can we do to increase the likelihood that we will stick to our goals?

Whether our goals are personal or business-related. Whether we want to lose a few pounds or start our own business, the experts say we have to create SMART Goals!

SMART goals were created in 1981 as a tool to help improve the chances of actually accomplishing a goal. They help set you up for success by pushing you further with your vision, by giving  you a sense of direction, and by helping you organize your goals & objectives, whether they are personal or business-related, so you have a better chance of reaching them.

So, what are SMART goals? SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Based.

Specific
Be specific about what you want to accomplish. Focus on the who, what, and where of your goal. Make sure it’s not vague.  For instance, “More sales” is not a SMART goal. Instead, try something more specific like “increase sales conversions from our live webinar”.

Measurable
Measure what really matters to you. Make sure your goals have an objective indicator of success. This provides a tangible way to measure progress. For instance, if we add an objective performance indicator to our example from above, it would read : “improve sales conversion rates from our live webinar by 20%”. Measuring progress allows you to track your goals and stay focused

Attainable
Make your goals realistic and attainable. Using our example, if the current conversion rate from the live webinar is 14%, attaining a goal of 20% sounds reasonable. Think about whether you  have the necessary skills to accomplish this goal. If you think you don’t, find people who do.

Relevant
Focus your goals on what would be impactful to you. If improving the sales conversions from your live webinar means more people will have access to your life-changing product, it becomes meaningful and impactful. It also helps grow the business. These are all meaningful results.

Time-Based
Set a reasonable deadline for your SMART goals. Back to our example, “ By June 1, 2021 I will improve sales conversion rates from our live webinar by 20%”.

It’s ok to revisit your SMART goals every few months and adjust them. You’ll learn what works and what doesn’t as you move forward. SMART goals can be fluid, as long as they are not forgotten. So before you beat yourself up for failing to keep your New Year’s resolutions, replace them with SMART goals

SMART goals has recently become the gold standard for setting goals. There are templates to help create SMART goals. You can find one HERE or search on Google for a template that you like.  So, before you beat yourself up for failing to keep your New Year’s resolutions, replace them with SMART goals.

Happy New Year!

Sean

The post Forget Your New Year’s Resolutions and Focus on SMART Goals Instead appeared first on 100 Steps 2 Startup.

No, it’s not that easy, and more importantly it’s inaccurate. Age 20, Age 40, Age 60? Too young, too old,? Is there a best age to start a new business?

The examples above are outliers and most business founders, particularly the more successful ones, are 35 years or older. In fact, middle aged founders are 2 to 3 times more likely to succeed than those in their 20s or even younger according to a 2018 study from Northwestern University. 40-year old’s make up 3% percent of startup founders compared to their 25-year-old counterparts at 1.7% and they are 1.3 times more likely to establish a startup that is in the top 0.1%. There is also the 5 year “success” milestone that most business owners look forward to and according to 2015 US census data, 55% of business that are 6 to 10 years old were started by founder with an average age of 36.5.  Those in their 20s were dead last at only 4.8%.

That’s a pretty strong case to not give up based on your age, so let’s dive in and look at why being older can give you a serious advantage.

As potential founders grow into their 30’s and 40s they develop a broader range of good contacts, a better reputation, a broader range of experiences, and the understanding that you start with the customer. This helps to identify potential pitfalls and risks that younger people might ignore simply because their idea is cool, exciting, and following a fad that may not have long-term legs.

There are a bunch of reasons why those in their mid 30s- mid 40s are more successful. Let’s look at a few.

They are less likely to start a new business because it is “cool”. Young people can get caught up in the excitement of an opportunity and because of the lack of perceived risk mentioned above, might be more likely to launch without thinking the whole thing through or without understanding that the idea might be faddish, without long-term legs.

They are more likely to be able to self- finance, which means less debt. According to the US census, 75% of business owners used personal savings and assets to fund (or at least, launch) their business. In your mid-30s, you are at your peak earning point in your career. If you’ve had the dream of starting a business, you’ve probably socked away some funds to allow you to take that leap. When you have no or little debt, you can make decisions that are in the best long term interest of the company, rather than with the short term obligation of servicing debt hanging over you.

They have education (95% of those surveyed by OnStartups had graduated from college and half had advanced degrees) and understand the importance of having skills/knowledge or acquiring them.

They have experience – they understand the kinds of pitfalls that can be encountered and have thought about how to avoid them. They also have gained the kinds of hands-on skills that give them the confidence that they can run a business on their own.

They have networks – One of the best ways of starting a business is looking at the groups you are a member of and seeing what unmet needs that group has. Groups can be your work, cycling, photography, parenting etc. When you have been working or out in the world for a while, you are more likely to have experienced issues that have no current solution, both in your corporate environment and in your life. It is these problems that provide opportunities for successful businesses, so the more life you’ve lived and the more networks you are a part of, the more problems you’re likely to have encountered.

They have more friends and associates who are entrepreneurs – Research shows that the more friends and family you have who are entrepreneurs, the more likely it is that you will be too.

They have significant industry experience – Kaufmann’s The Anatomy of Entrepreneur research indicated that 50.9 percent of founders from high growth industries have industry experience of 6-15 years before starting their first business. Some of the best business startups come as responses to issues that someone personally faced in their work. When you are in an industry for several years, you understand where the issues are and if you have an entrepreneurial mindset, you start looking for ways to overcome those issues. In many cases, all competitors in the same industry face the same issues (and possibly in other industries as well). If you can find a good solution, you not only have a built-in market for it right away, but you also have some of the contacts to get your idea in front of the right people.

They have access to more startup funds and help from banks as well as from friends and family – They have a long credit history and as such, are able to borrow if necessary. Their friends are also established enough that they may be able to provide financial support in a way that friends in their 20s cannot. Bank of America’s Small Business Owner Report found that 38% of entrepreneurs received a financial gift or loan from friends and/or family. By the way, more than 35% also said they rely on friends and family to help run the business in roles like advisors, employees, investors and partners.  They see their family, friends and community as core to their success and those in the mid 30s to mid 40s are old enough to have a well-developed network of friends and community members who can play a role, both in financing and in operating the business.

No one ever said that you can’t be a successful entrepreneur at age 22 or 62. There are many. But research definitely points to the fact that education, experience, opportunity, network, and funding all come together in the mid-30s and position a founder to have the best chance of success.

Whatever your age, stage or goals, we wish you the best of luck! Don’t stress about it. Just start and see what happens!

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Who you hire could have a lot to do with who does the hiring. Business founders tend to hire very different candidates than HR managers who work at companies they don’t own.

The majority of people who take new jobs aren’t actually looking for a new job. They don’t see a job posting and apply for it. Instead, they are proactively recruited and subsequently convinced to leave their current position for the new one elsewhere.

If finding top talent is a priority, why is it that the best candidates don’t always get hired?

The Hiring Fallacy

“The best person for the job gets hired” is a fallacy that I held for many years. Until I learned the truth. As a young lawyer I interviewed at many firms before finding one that fit. On several occasions I was told I was overqualified or wasn’t a good fit. I didn’t find out the truth until many years later from an HR manager at a firm.

When company owners hire, they hire the best: the best fit, the best candidate, the most valuable. Perhaps because, as owners, the success of their employees puts money in their pocket. But law firms, like many large organizations, employ proxies for hiring. They have HR managers and, as I learned later, HR managers don’t hire the best, they hire the person less likely to get them fired.

An HR manager wants good people, and good metrics. Low turnover, being often seen as most important, means finding those that fit but aren’t too overambitious (they are more likely to leave). So, a big firm wants new hires that will stay the course and not bolt for greener pastures after being trained and gaining experience. As a result, they’re likely to pass on some of the creative candidates. The ones with high problem-solving skills and lots of initiative. This leaves an open opportunity for founders/entrepreneurs looking to recruit good talent.

For that reason, founders should look closely at those who report having difficulty getting hired at big Fortune 500 companies.

Hiring the Best

Unlike HR Managers, entrepreneurs should always hire the best, even if that means shorter tenure overall. At a startup, all employees wear multiple hats. This is often because the firm is under-resourced and everyone has to pitch in. Entrepreneurs need employees that can rise to the chaos and not help the firm strive, but help the firm thrive.

What should entrepreneurs look for when hiring for their startup?

1. Passion is one. Individuals working for a startup will have to work long hours, be comfortable in a more unstructured environment, adopt many different roles and take initiative. Being passionate about what you do, and the team you work with, makes work feel like play.

2.  Collaboration is another. A startup’s team is often small and team members must work together to leverage each other’s strengths. Finding the best solutions to the challenges that will undoubtedly arise will take collaboration, diverse thinking, some disagreement, respect and the ability to put one’s ego aside. The ultimate goal is to reach the next level together – that’s the reason everyone is there.

3.  Analytical skills is a third. Startups benefit from team members who can analyze a situation and creatively problem-solve. In particular, startups need individuals who can think on-the-go and who know both the technical as well as the strategic aspects of the business very well.

4.  Lastly, intrapreneurship skills are a definite asset. Intrapreneurial attitudes within a startup encourage employees to act like entrepreneurs. These individuals are self-motivated and action oriented. They take initiative to move the company towards the KPI’s that were set as a team. They have the company’s development at heart coupled with an entrepreneurial mindset that allows them to work towards the common goal.

Jack Welch, the famous Chair of General Electric, and one of the most respected business minds of the last century, pontificated that all leaders should rank their team members as either “sixes” or “nines.” To Welsh, a nine (out of 10) was a proactive, self-directed superstar, and a six was an underperforming asset that needed to be culled. He suggested firing all the sixes and reassigned their salaries, responsibilities and resources. Hiring sixes will only bring down the company culture, and results as well. Wait to find the nines, the benefit will outweigh the delay.

As a founder, if you’re looking for the best candidates, throw out the traditional HR models. Ask your existing team members who they know that would fit the company’s culture and goals best, and go after  those people. Recruit from a pool that includes individuals who are looking as well as those who are not. And add the criteria above to your list of requirements.

It’s one of the hardest tasks you’ll be faced with, but assembling the right team is also the most rewarding in the long run.

Good luck.

The post How to Hire the Best Candidates for Your Startup (Not Just Those Who Fit the Job) appeared first on 100 Steps 2 Startup.

How many people do you know that want to start a business with their best friend? Probably at least a few. Now, how many partnerships do you know that have blown up? Also, probably at least a few. Why do you think that is?

The biggest reason partnerships fail is that most entrepreneurs don’t know how to find the right partner. They just pick someone they know. They assume that because they like to hang out together, or have a beer together or went to school or even grew up together, it means that they will also partner well together. Sorry to say, but that is just not the case.

Unfortunately, going into business with a friend is more likely to wreck the friendship than help your business. While there are definitely exceptions to the rule, your best advice is to keep your friends as your friends and instead, choose a partner that has the specific qualities you need to augment and offset yours. The best way to say it is that partners need to hire each other.

You could go it alone rather than get into the complications that come with having a partner, but the fact is, having the right partner is awesome. It is great to have someone to share the passion, share the work, bounce ideas around, bring skills you don’t have, contacts and networks and even money.  The right partner will cheerlead when you are getting frustrated, celebrate your successes, and balance you out in a whole bunch of ways.  Honestly, a great partner is like a great marriage, and sometimes you need to date a lot before you find the right match to build a successful business with.

How do you do that?

The first thing is that you really need to decide what your partner needs to bring to the table. Where are your strengths and what are your weaknesses? There is no point in both of you being excellent in operations and horrible in sales. Figure out what skill set and experience would best complement yours.

Then get out there and date.

• Talk to professors at entrepreneurial programs – some of them hold events that put their students with people who have businesses that need partners. Some bring in entrepreneurs to present to their students.
• Join networks in your local area – many also have good events where you can meet people. Talk to people in the industry you want to target – there are many who have great inside knowledge of the industry because they’ve seen what is currently working and what isn’t. They may know a good fit for you … or they may want to move to something entrepreneurial.
• Think of people you’ve worked with over the years. Does anyone strike you as having the skillset you’d need to be a good partner?
• Investigate the many online “find-a-co-founder” sites. Some examples to get you started include StartHawk and CoFoundersLab. There are many others.

My husband is in the private equity business and regularly buys businesses in which he partners with current owners/operators so in effect, he is always doing due diligence on potential partners. We have a family policy that we have dinner with the potential partner and that person’s spouse/partner (if there is one).

One of the things you learn outside of the traditional interview process is how the person treats others. You’d be surprised how much you can learn by seeing how s/he interacts with waiters, and parking lot staff members and other people in a subordinate role. It is also important to see how that person interacts with you in social setting and also how s/he talks with their partner and with your spouse/partner. This person and you are going to be spending a LOT of time together, and likely your families are going to get to know each other pretty well. If you can’t mesh in a social situation, that is probably going to be a red flag. Not that you’re going to be hanging out together, although you might, but you are going to have a lot of late nights and weekends and you’re going to want to be with someone who you like.

Ok, now you have dated a lot and are thinking about getting engaged. What’s next? People often miss talking about a few key things:

1. Where do you see the business going? Who is the target customer? Make sure you are aligned.
2. What are your expectations regarding hours and commitments? If you’re going to be burning the candle at both ends and the partner sees this as a side hustle, get back on Bumble.
3. What do you see as your main areas of responsibility and what does your partner see as theirs? Is there too much overlap or is there good division?
4. Are you equal partners or do you have more equity or voting shares? Some businesses give extra shares to the person who came up with the idea – and that person either gets more money or gets the tie-breaking vote in case of disagreement.
5. Along those same lines, do you agree on policies regarding situations where one wants to do something and the other doesn’t. In my business, one partner could try to persuade the other but if either had a hard NO on the idea, it was a no.

There are lots more suggestions but this will get you going. The final thing is that partnership agreements aren’t mandatory, but like a marriage contract, they are there to protect you if things go sideways. The hope is that you’ll never need one, but it sure is good to have one if there is trouble. It is also useful to have if you are talking about building to an exit – it should be very clear if there is a big win how the spoils get divided.

I was lucky – I had an amazing partner that wasn’t a friend when we started but is one of my nearest and dearest now, and I attribute it to the fact that we say we hired each other. We complemented each other from a business perspective and were totally aligned from a personal one. We made it through one exit and then went right back in for round 2 and exited that one too. Follow some of the above rules for finding a great partner to end up with someone who is going to be with you to the end.

Good luck.

The post How to Find the Right Co-Founder for Your Startup appeared first on 100 Steps 2 Startup.

The biggest ongoing feature of this method is that you are constantly creating hypotheses and assumptions about all aspects of your business. Every assumption is tested. If assumptions are proven correct, you proceed and if they are proven incorrect, you pivot and make new hypotheses and assumptions and do it all over again.

When I listened to a Zoomcast a few weeks ago about scenario planning, it struck me that scenario planning is another tool that allows you to test things out in a new or even long- established business.

The speaker in the Zoomcast used a quote that I thought was apt: “one thing a person cannot do, no matter how rigorous his analysis or heroic his imagination, is to draw up a list of things that would never occur to him.” Thomas Schelling

Scenario planning allows us to use a process to help us come up with things that would never otherwise occur to us; things that could force our businesses off balance and help us prepare better. This type of planning can help us assess the budget and operational changes in best/moderate and worst cast scenarios.  It can guide decision making about key decisions. Scenario planning can also help us move out of ignorance, challenge mental models, encourage out of the box thinking, and orient away from short term thinking.

When people are starting a new business (or operating a more established one), they tend to continue on a path, unless something comes along to push them off, at which time they are forced off that path. But what if businesses, both new and old, undertook a scenario planning exercise every few years? It seems likely that scenario planning would open leadership’s eyes to new opportunities that may fall outside the path, as well as new threats that might one day push them off.

Scenario planning is most often used when there is uncertainty in the future. It has been used by many during this pandemic because it’s impossible to know what next week, or next year, will look like. It helps businesses be better prepared to face some of the “futures” that might emerge. For many organizations in the for profit, and not-for-profit world, scenario planning has been a life saver. They have already thought through how they would respond to situations so they can avoid the purely reactive, flying by the seat of your pants, responses that characterized the early weeks and months of 2020.

What I’m suggesting is different. I’m suggesting that businesses engage in this process when the future is relatively certain; when the business is on a path that looks assured. That’s when you have time to ask the questions …

1. Is this the right path for the next several years?
2. Is there anything else we should be looking at?
3. Are there any opportunities we are missing?
4. Is there something that might negatively influence our business?

When you put smart people in a room (or on a zoom) and take away the walls of the box they are in, you allow them to imagine what the world might look like in the future, with no constraints, and you open up possibilities that would not have been on your radar otherwise.

A good scenario plan starts with blue sky – everything is on the table – and once you’ve opened up the world, you then start to make “bets” about the 3-4 most likely “futures” and how they will impact your specific situation.

Include other stakeholders like suppliers, and customers. Make sure that your group includes people with tech knowledge and economics and other areas that affect your business. Include people who have a range of ages.  Hire a professional, if you need to – there are lots around – but if you don’t have budget for an outsider, task someone with researching online – there are lots of good templates and examples that can assist you.

Scenario planning is a tool, like the testing, pivoting, testing again tool that the Lean Startup uses.  In fact, if you find opportunities through scenario planning that might be of interest to your business, you can use the test, pivot, test again tool in conjunction with scenario planning to see which opportunities you should pursue. Both of these tools can and should be used throughout the life of the business.

So plan you scenarios, refer to them often, adjust them annually and your business will be better prepared for whatever happens.

The post How to use Scenario Planning for your Startup appeared first on 100 Steps 2 Startup.

Courage is defined as facing difficult situations without fear, but can also be characterized as facing them despite fear.

Does it take courage to be an entrepreneur?

Lots of entrepreneurs would say yes because learning how to be a successful an entrepreneur means facing a whole range of fears.  In the Journal of Business Venturing (Volume 31, Issue 3, May 2016, Pages 302-325) there is a study of 65 entrepreneurs who were interviewed about sources of fear and they identified 7, which were validated in further studies. These fears were:

• financial security
• opportunity costs
• ability to fund the venture
• personal ability/self-esteem
• potential of the idea
• threats to social esteem
• the venture’s ability to execute

What was particularly interesting about these fears is that the first 3 fears on this list tended to motivate and the others tended to inhibit. That is, the first ones pushed entrepreneurs to work harder, push through, succeed. The latter ones, the ones in which entrepreneurs question if their idea has legs or whether they personally can launch a successful venture, slow them down and sometimes stop them in their tracks.

While the Journal of Business Venturing identifies the above 7, others frame them in other ways that might speak to you not only in a business context, but in life:

• Fear of change.
• Fear of failure.
• Fear that you don’t know enough.
• Fear of the unknown (which is often related to fear of change)
• Fear of spending your hard-earned money on your venture.
• Fear of letting others down.
• Fear of doing things that make us anxious
• Fear of making mistakes.
• Fear of not measuring up –often referred to as imposter syndrome.
• Fear of saying no

While fear is widespread and can cause stress that isn’t great for your health, the ability to anticipate it and manage it is a vital skill that you can actually learn. There are strategies that help entrepreneurs act courageously, and help them continue moving forward in the face of fear.

While these strategies are discussed here in the context of entrepreneurship, take note of the following as they would be just as useful in the business of life! There are a bunch of techniques below, but ask your network if none of these work for you as they’re likely to share many others.

So, what can I do to act courageously and continue moving forward even when I’m scared out of my wits?

1. Start by being aware. Figure out when you’re feeling anxious and see if you can figure out why. Sometimes the fear and anxiety have nothing to do with work.
2. Use your fear to help you address issues. If it is causing you anxiety, is there something about it that makes your worry? Is there a flaw or weakness in what you’re doing that you need to address? Sometimes, the fear is a way of telling you to open your eyes and look again. Sometimes fear is how you get to the right answer.
3. Seek information and advice. Take advantage of both formal and informal sources of education including entrepreneurship classes, coding bootcamps, accounting skills etc.
4. Surround yourself with a network of experts and mentors. They’ve been there and have valuable experience and info to share. Take advantage of them.
5. Ask yourself the following question: 10 years from now, will I regret not doing this thing? Most entrepreneurs say that their biggest regrets are not the things they DID do, but rather the things they DIDN’T
6. Reframe the fear – call it excitement instead. Your body responds to both in very similar ways but your brain makes them feel very different.
7. Just start moving forward. Dale Carnegie said that “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go and get busy.Take incremental steps and test at each step. When your testing says that you’ve proven your hypothesis to be correct, keep going. If you’ve disproved it, pivot and test again. That way, you break things down into much more manageable, less scary steps. There is a saying that goes…How do you eat an elephant? The answer is…One bite at a time.
8. Finally…Imagine the worst. Then imagine your response to that situation. Then say to yourself…Then what. Say it again. Then what… When you’ve gamed out all the possible end points to your worst fears, and you know how you would respond and how that response would impact the outcome, you remove the fear we identified above – Fear of the unknown.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re going to be afraid sometimes. In fact, Statista reports that as many as 35.2 percent of U.S. entrepreneurs experience the fear of failure. – (StartupNation). And that isn’t even counting all those other types of fear we talked about above. And that isn’t even counting all the fears that come with just living your life. So, you’d better get a handle on how to deal with it.  And don’t let it stop you…because Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will.

The post How Entrepreneurs Can Overcome the Fear of Failure When Starting a Business appeared first on 100 Steps 2 Startup.

What feelings or emotions do my customers have?

Your company is solving a problem for a particular customer segment and this segment has emotions that may be more prevalent than others. Colours that reflect certain emotions are a great way to relate to your customers through your brand. For example, red is often identified with anger, embarrassment and love. Blue relates to shyness, sadness and calmness. And so on. Begin by making a note of what you think may be your customers’ predominant emotions and then find colors that are relevant. A helpful tool to find colors is www.w3schools.com/colors/colors_picker.asp.

How do I want them to feel after using my solution? How do I pick a font? 

After customers use your solution do they feel more confident, happier or excited? All of these emotions could be used to find the type of font for your branding. For example, if your customer feels strong you could choose a bold font. Ultimately you want to choose a font that will truly connect and resonate with your customers.

• Serif – a font that is classic, often used to show trust, tradition and age
• Sans-serif – a font “without” the flourish of serif fonts. More modern, clean, and more minimalistic
• Slab serif – a font that is characterized by thick, block-like lines. Used to convey a bold, confident message
• Script – a font that is are elegant and unique, similar to handwriting
• Impact – a font that is used for headlines, designed for greatest impact
• Decorative – a type off font that is unique and styled

What 3 adjectives would I like my customers to use after using my solution?

Thinking about adjectives you would like customers to use after using your solution is an important part of choosing the elements of your logo. Depending on the name of your solution and your elevator pitch you could use these adjectives to add to your design or to make it more unique. Remember don’t make your logo too busy because this could cause confusion when you use it in different places such as social media, letterhead, online ads, print ads and simply on the pages of your site. Keep it simple.

You will use the answers to these 3 questions to guide you through creating your brand. It is important for you to know that there is no right or wrong when it comes to branding and you shouldn’t overthink it too much. You want to be good enough today because it is better to get out the door today than it is to wait. Things change and new competition enters the market. So the faster you get out, the better chance you will have to build something great.

Wise Words:  Customer emotions are at the heart of both Customer Discovery and the generation of a Customer Persona.  In Phase 2 of 100 Steps 2 Startup, we conduct 20 hours of face 2 face (or on zoom), including how to independently find early adopters to interview.  These early adopters, and the emotions they share form the foundation of your Customer Persona (Step 16).  A Customer Persona is a one page snapshot of Ernie Early Adopter, and the anchor on which you build your community’s first members.

Good luck!

Onwards & Upwards.

The post How To Build a Brand for Your Startup appeared first on 100 Steps 2 Startup.

According to Francis Scialabba from (a terrific newsletter) Morning Brew, there were 1.5 million new business applications in the US during Q2 and Canada followed the same pattern. These so called “Covidpreneurs” are driving new business formation at the fastest rate in more than a decade (WSJ).

People lost their jobs and said, “What the h-ll – I’m not working anyway – I might as well”. Interest rates are low and there are lots of smart people around to entice into startups.

But, as with any other time in history, just because you start it, doesn’t mean it is going to be a success. It is not an “If you build it, they will come” situation. People start businesses for a variety of reasons and hope theirs is going to disrupt the industry and be super successful.  Few do and few are.

I read a quote that really struck me in a newsletter called Check your Pulse, a tech and startups newsletter, written by Sari Azout. Here’s what she said:

“Technology doesn’t disrupt industries. Unhappy customers do. The best companies don’t have access to better technology. They have a better ability to understand people. “

So smart, right?  If you don’t start with the customer, your chance of surviving, never mind disrupting, are surprisingly slim. Smart business startups start with the customer FIRST, and before launching, know that they are building a business that offers a solution that customers value.  If you know that, all the next steps are going to make sense. If you don’t have proof of market viability and customer buy-in, what do you have?

Recent advances gleaned from research about business startups have led to the creation of the Lean Startup methodology, a scientific method that uses information to navigate through the startup process, helping entrepreneurs cut risk, test and pivot, launch early and iterate often, and most importantly, talk to customers right from the start.

The Lean Method starts with picking a customer to serve, not starting with a product/service idea. It teaches you to look around at all the groups you belong to (cyclists, body builders, grandparents, musicians, gardeners…whatever).  All of these groups are potential customer segments to serve, as long as they are big enough.

Choose the ones you know the best and feel like you have the best access to. Then, think about all the problems you face as a member of that group. Or talk to a few other members and see what problems they face. I’m sure there are a lot of you facing the same problems. Just make sure that you can differentiate between a problem that offers a business idea and one that offers a business opportunity. Frankly, there are a lot of problems out there that are just not solvable, so the ones on your list need to be actionable.  They also need to be ones that people are already trying to solve or would pay good money to someone to have solved. If it is just a “nice to have” vs. a “need to have”, your market is going to tell you they want it but when the time comes to put their money where their mouth is, it’s not going to happen.

The next step in this process is to go out and talk to the people who are already trying to solve this issue. If you can’t be 10X faster, cheaper, lighter…just better than what is out there, move on! If you can be exponentially better, then you need to use these early adopters – these people who already trying to solve it in a sub-optimal way – to help you refine the solution.

Every time you have a hypothesis about your solution, you’re going to put it out there for comments. Unlike the old days when no one launched a product or service ‘til it was perfect, the new, better way is to test every single assumption – the customer, the market, the problem, the solution, the name…everything.  If you ask people to help prove your assumptions wrong, you’re going to learn more than if you ask them what’s right, and every bit of feedback is going to help you refine and test your idea.

And every assumption that has been proven wrong is going to send you in a different direction. It’s called pivoting and it is a key part of the startup journey. It is going to happen at every step along the way, because you’re going to test at every step along the way. You come up with an assumption and test and pivot and assume and test and pivot again.  In doing so, you make necessary adjustments before investing lots of money and time and energy. The process helps you cut the risk before you get in over your head or make moves that are plain out wrong. Some say that this method lets you fail sooner. Because if you fail sooner, you can learn from that failure and take a different path next time.

The best part about the Lean Startup method is that the customer helps you build the product that THEY want.  What did I say at the beginning? Unhappy customers disrupt industries. So, you’re finding those unhappy customers and working with them to create the solution that would make them be happier.

Start with the customer and really listen, and the you’re going to be one of those Covidpreneurs who comes out on top!

The post COVID is Spurring Millions of New Business Applications… How to ensure YOURS is a success! appeared first on 100 Steps 2 Startup.

My family and I have been adhering to the rules of Covid, which means we’ve enjoyed a lot of family time and we’ve had more time to reflect on our lives. In addition to being grateful for what we have, we are committed to improving ourselves and learning as we go. Like all entrepreneurs, I prefer to see the opportunity in adversary. So here are my recommended 7 things to do to make yourself a better entrepreneur.

1. Customer Discovery.  Steve Blank’s customer discovery advocates that you “get out of the building” to engage with your customers. While face to face may be off the table right now, you should take the opportunity to reach out to leading customers and check in with their needs. Remember they may be working from home too. So having an impromptu, informal discussion of how you can do better may be timely, as there are less distractions.
2. Return to First Principles. First principles thinking is the act of boiling a process down to the fundamental parts that you know are true and building up from there. You started your venture to serve an unmet market need.  But since starting you have been running full speed with little time for rest, let alone reflection. But now you may have more time. Sit down and look at your business, explore how and where you are on the entrepreneurial journey. Think about pivoting and adjustments.
3. Start to Meditate.  Meditation has a positive impact on Entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs need to be able to think quickly and process multiple pieces of information at the same time. Mindfulness meditation will help you increase your focus and ability to think with a sense of clarity leading to improved decision-making.  Think of meditation as exercise for the mind. You go to the gym, start light and work your way up. Similarly, try mindfulness meditation for just 10 minutes a day. Commit to it. Then after two weeks, see the improvement. You won’t give up the practice. Start with this Harvard article.
4. (re)Read Books. Great entrepreneurs are lifelong learners and one of the best ways to learn is to read, or reread, a book. Here are a few of my recommendations: Venture Deals, Lean Startup, Zero to One, The Hard Things about Hard Things and How to Win Friends and Influence People.
5. Learn something new. Reading is only one way to upgrade your knowledge base. Taking an online course is another.  Here are some of my favorite (free and paid) options: y combinator Startup School, Stanford’s eCorner, 100 Steps 2 Startup, Ryerson Startup School, and edX.
6. Watch a Biography Online.  For years entrepreneurship has been seen as tacit knowledge and thus best taught through experience and example.  So learn from the lessons, lives and mistakes of other great founders. Here are some of my favorite (free and paid) options for online biographies:  Biography, Youtube and the Naked Entrepreneur.
7. Learn to Code. Coding is the new second language (sorry Spanish) and soon no one in business will be able to escape the need to understand coding.   But don’t panic!  Today coding is taught through a variety of channels and experiences, many of which you can do while at home. Here are my favorite two:  codeSparkand Grasshopper

Every entrepreneur has a different reason for why they had originally wanted to start a business. But most entrepreneurs agree on one thing – starting and running your own business is great! One of the most important things you can do to become a better entrepreneur is Learn From Your Mistakes. It’s ok to fail, because failure leads to doing something better. Don’t be afraid to do something, fail and learn from that. That, along with the tips listed above, will no doubt help you become a better entrepreneur.

Good luck.

The post 7 things to do to Become a Better Entrepreneur appeared first on 100 Steps 2 Startup.