If you are not a U.S. citizen you can legally live and work in the United States as long as you obtain one of the immigrant visas that are available to foreign nationals. Many of these visa programs are targeted at people with special work skills or for people who wish to invest in businesses that provide jobs in the U.S. Many engineers, scientists, and doctors apply for these types of visas. Many successful entrepreneurs who wish to try their hand at business, U.S. style, apply for what are often called “permanent visas.”

According to the State Department, “U.S. immigration laws enacted by Congress provide authority over immigration matters, including entry and exit of all travelers across the nation’s borders, determining who may enter, how long they may stay, and when they must leave. The Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA) in Title 8 of the United States Code, provides the foundation for immigration law, along with its amendments.”

As U.S. immigration lawyers will tell you, one of the most important documents that applicants need when applying for a business or employment related visa is a comprehensive business plan. The business plan is so critical because it documents that the business you wish to acquire or launch or for which you will become a senior executive is sustainable. It supports the fact that the applicant will be able to “stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment” according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), the government agency that oversees lawful immigration to the United States.

In many instances, for those applying for a business or employment related visa, the terminology is foreign, the process is complicated, and the application is nearly impossible without the assistance of an attorney who specializes in immigration applications. Information on U.S. immigrant visas can be found on the USCIS website as well as the website for the American Immigration Lawyers Association and immihelp.com. You can also find information on the U.S. Department of State website.

I am often asked if the American government prefers that visa applicants invest in one kind of business over another. The answer is no, as long as you are creating jobs for American workers. Plan on bringing some capital, bring your talent and skills, and plan to spur growth and provide jobs. Here are some of the types of businesses that Cayenne Consulting’s clients have invested in or joined in the past few years.

• Aviation consultancy
• Fertility clinic and sperm bank
• General construction
• Franchised restaurant stores

Every U.S. Visa applicant will enhance their chances of success by allowing plenty of time, getting help from a specialist attorney who will put the client’s interests first, and, if applying for a business related visa, develop a first class business plan that will enable you to distinguish yourself as a capable, successful business person.

Please remember that if you require assistance with a business plan for immigration purposes, Cayenne Consulting can help.

Good luck!

All the technology we have at our disposal only serves to increase the importance of clear and efficient communication for every successful entrepreneur. This importance will take several forms: proper business communication etiquette, understanding the degree of formality or informality appropriate for each interaction, and salesmanship.

Year after year, I am amazed at the way that salesmanship enters into the picture of success. Many people seem to underestimate the importance of effective salesmanship. Sales is seen by some as being a negative, overbearing inconvenience that must be suffered in the world of business from time to time. The truth lies far from that. Learning the proper art of salesmanship entails the refinement of one’s ability to communicate sincerely and effectively with clients. It is the art of listening and then letting people know that you understand their needs clearly, and you are prepared to serve them. It’s really that simple.

Perhaps one of the all-time great books in the field of personal development is Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, which was originally published in 1936. I first read the book when I was in my 20s. I went on to earn a PhD in social psychology and became a college professor. Eventually, I left academics and went into sales and management. Six years ago, I became a full-time business plan consultant, and now I am 52. Yet, in all that time, and with all of the knowledge and experience in social psychology and sales I have picked up along the way, there is one particular passage in that book I have always remembered. So, when I wanted to write a blog post with some sales advice for entrepreneurs, lo and behold, I found myself thinking about Dale Carnegie, and how to really win friends and influence people.

In this unforgettable passage, Carnegie talks about Tippy, the dog he had when he was a boy:

You never read a book on psychology, Tippy. You didn’t need to. You knew by some divine instinct that you can make more friends in two months by becoming genuinely interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. Let me repeat that. You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.

If I could take everything I know about sales, social psychology, and communication, and boil it all down to one kernel of wisdom, I could never say it better than Carnegie did when he described his dog, Tippy.

Many of Carnegie’s most helpful and useful pieces of advice relate to becoming genuinely interested in other people:

• “It is the individual who is not interested in his fellow men who has the greatest difficulties in life and provides the greatest injury to others. It is from among such individuals that all human failures spring.”
• “But Thurston’s method was totally different. He told me that every time he went on stage he said to himself: ‘I am grateful because these people come to see me. They make it possible for me to make my living in a very agreeable way.’”
• “If we want to make friends, let’s put ourselves out to do things for other people – things that require time, energy, unselfishness, and thoughtfulness.”
• “Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”

In other words, once you commit to the singular importance of taking a genuine interest in other people, then one of the most powerful sales and communication skills you can develop is simply knowing when to shut up and listen sincerely. The power of listening will be explored in a future post.

Businesses need to compete in the marketplace to satisfy customer needs by creating unique value for the customer. When companies create value for the customer, they are rewarded with future business opportunities. Companies that fail to create value for customers, or do it less efficiently than the competitors, will be less profitable and may eventually go out of business. According to Bruce Henderson, the founder of Boston Consulting Group, “all competitors who persist over time must maintain a unique advantage by differentiating over all others. Managing that difference is the essence of long-term strategy.”

The most successful companies in the world today, such as Facebook, Google, Apple, Nike, Procter & Gamble, and Toyota, have created enviable positions in the market via differentiated product offerings that offer a unique value to the customer. Competition is a necessary condition for developing strategy. Monopolies, that by definition have weak or no competition, do not spend a whole lot of time and resources to strategy development.

We live in an era of hyper-competition. Globalization has made the world a smaller place, and businesses can leverage resources from all around the world to compete. During the past many decades, businesses have focused on reducing costs via outsourcing of non-critical activities to lower cost locations, as well as on realigning their resources internally to deliver better value to the customer at a lower cost. However, becoming more efficient in operations does not mean a business has a strategic advantage over the others. Others are also trying to reduce costs and become more operationally efficient at the same time. Thus operational effectiveness becomes a necessary, but not sufficient, condition to perform well in the marketplace. Many of the tools and techniques of operations management, such as Total Quality Management, Supply Chain Management, Lean Operations etc. make a business more competitive.

A business can surpass its competition only if it can establish a sustainable competitive advantage, i.e. a difference that it can preserve. Competitive advantage can emerge from many approaches, such as superior product design, high quality reputation, supply chain management, novel ways of reaching the consumer such as Amazon.com’s web-only strategy or Dell’s direct to consumer strategy. All competitive advantage is temporary, since as soon as a company achieves excellence in one area, others will rush to copy its features, thus weakening its differentiation. For example, Apple Macintosh was the first computer aimed at the mass market to have a graphical user interface and a mouse. It was soon copied by IBM clones and Microsoft, thus eroding Apple’s differentiation. Even today, Apple continues to lead in user interface innovation, such as touch and gestures on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPads. However, competitors such as RIM Blackberry, Nokia and LG have already started copying this innovation.

Strategy involves deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value to the customer. For example, Amazon was an early mover in the e-commence space and quickly established a unique position in the minds of the consumer as a reputable vendor on the web. It did not have a brick and mortar store presence. It stayed true to its web-only strategy while many competitors have moved to a hybrid physical store as well as web presence.

Apple moved into the retail space as a way to reach its customers that were not being served well by its distribution channel comprising PC retailers. Its move into retail was widely criticized as doomed to failure because Apple had no retail experience. Critics could point to the failure of Gateway’s strategy of company owned stores to reach its customers. Apple defied conventional wisdom and focused on offering a superior customer service experience, modeled on the quality experience of Four Seasons hotels. Its retail strategy has been an outstanding success, leading to establishment of 364 stores worldwide by early 2012, including the USA, UK, Canada, Japan, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, France and China. Today, Apple has the highest sale per square foot in the retail industry, beating even Tiffany’s that sells diamonds and jewelry. Microsoft tried to copy Apple’s retail strategy by opening its own stores. As of early 2012, it only had 18 stores. Its future in retail is open to speculation at the moment.

According to Prof. Michael Porter of Harvard Business School, a thought leader in the field of corporate strategy, the essence of strategy lies in “choosing to perform activities differently than competitors.” Apple has consistently outperformed its competition by creating unique value through unique activities. Take iPods and iTunes as an example. When iPod was introduced in 2001, it had modest sales. When the iTunes store opened in 2003, iPod sales took off. Today, iTunes store sells more music than Wal-Mart, and commands over 70% of all downloaded music. It had 27% market share of all music sales in the US in 2010. Whereas many competitors such as Microsoft and Google have tried to copy iTunes, they have not been successful in mounting a challenge to Apple. Finally, Microsoft killed its unsuccessful Zune music player after spending billions of dollars over several years trying to get a foothold in the consumer market.

In France, they have a saying: “Vive la difference (Long live the difference)”. It is true in strategic thinking as well.

Disruption is one of the most overused words in business today. Many entrepreneurs make claims to be disruptive; often implying that the product or technology they are developing is far superior to what the established companies have. What they really mean is that their product or technology is a breakthrough.

But it is not disruptive.

Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen first coined the term “disruptive technologies” in his landmark 1997 book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, to describe an innovation that cannot be used by customers in the mainstream market. The book described the case of the steel industry in the 1980s, when the mainstream steel mills were focused on creating high-quality steel for sheet metal. New mini-mills started using recycled steel to create low quality rebars that are used inside cement structures to give it strength. Since it was a low margin business, the big steel mills were eager to get out of that market. In the meantime, the mini-mills improved their quality and started attacking the larger mills’ bread-and-butter business of sheet metal. Soon they drove the larger mills out of business.

Similarly, Toyota and Honda entered the US car market with small econo-boxes that the Big 3 did not produce. A few decades later, they were making mainstream sedans, virtually driving the big three into bankruptcy.

According to Prof. Christensen, “Disruptive innovations either create new markets by bringing new features to non-consumers, or offer more convenience and lower prices to customers at the low end of an existing market.”

Advanced technologies are rarely disruptive. The Airbus 380 superjumbo is not a disruptive innovation. It is a breakthrough. The Embraer regional jets, however, are a disruptive innovation, as they bring significantly lower cost per seat mile to the airlines for short routes.

But sometimes, cutting-edge technology in one area can disrupt another adjacent market. Take the case of the iPad. When it was introduced, many people struggled to figure out what it was good for. But tens of millions of customers started using it as low-end substitute for a laptop. Sales of low-end laptops plummeted after its introduction.

Intel’s legendary ex-chairman Andrew Grove used to say that true disruption is when a company disrupts a competitor’s business model, i.e. how someone makes money from a product or service. When Xerox introduced its first copier in the late 1950s, it was so expensive that most industry analysts said it would fail. But Xerox decided to rent out its copiers for a fixed price, only charging the customer for actual number of copies made. By deploying a disruptive business model, it became the dominant office copier company.

Next time you see a business plan making a claim of being disruptive, ask the question: Is it a breakthrough, or a disruption?

Every entrepreneur needs a convincing “elevator pitch,” so named because it is the pitch you give if you happen to step into an elevator with the investor of your dreams. The elevator pitch is a well-rehearsed snapshot that conveys the essence of your business plan in 30-60 seconds. It’s the pitch you will give over and over, on flights, at conventions, out networking, in chance meetings with strangers, and at the beginning of every meeting you have – essentially, whenever you need to introduce yourself and your business.

What are you trying to accomplish?

In the case of people who can directly help you – say, potential investors, or strategic partners – you want them to give you their card and invite you to call or meet so they can learn more.

In the case of everybody else, you want to pique their curiosity and get them to remember enough about your venture so they share your story with their network – which hopefully includes somebody who can help you directly. You want your elevator pitch to go viral, person-to-person.

Just what goes into your elevator pitch?

• Problem-Solution Combo: Start by expressing the problem you solve, in a way your audience can relate. For a company like Dropbox, it might be: “Isn’t it a royal pain to keep the files on your home and work computers and mobile devices synchronized and backed up all the time? Our software works in the background and takes care of that for you in the cloud, like magic.” Make the listener want to hear more. Focus on benefits and don’t get technical.
• Business Model: Explain, in one or two sentences, who your customers are and how you plan to make money. For example, “We target iPhone users, mostly in the 15-25 demo. We offer a limited free version; the full, unlocked, advertising-free version is $4.99.” Don’t make it more complicated than it needs to be.
• Competitive Advantage: What factors make your product better than alternatives and substitutes? For example, “Clinical trials show equal efficacy compared to the current market leading drug, but with significantly reduced toxicity and risk of stomach bleeding.”
• Market Potential: Explain the size of the addressable market, how it is growing or changing, and how much of the market you think you can capture. For example: “The U.S. market for municipal wastewater purification equipment is now $200 million, and growing at 15% as aging infrastructure needs to be replaced. Within 5 years, we believe our superior cost-benefit profile will make us the market leader, resulting in $125 million in revenue.”
• Traction: Describe recent accomplishments that illustrate the kind of momentum you’ve generated. For example, “In the past quarter, we’ve filled the remaining two roles in our co-founding team, and we’ve installed an alpha version of our software at 5 test customer sites including the marketing analytics division at Wells Fargo.”
• Call to Action: Finish your elevator pitch with a specific request, depending on your audience. Maybe you simply want feedback. Or maybe you want to schedule time to give a product demo, or a referral to an investor. Keep it simple: “If you’re interested in learning more, I’d love to stop by at your office in the next week or two to give you a live demo. Would that work for you?”

The elevator pitch is the central thesis of your business, and everything revolves around it. You won’t get it right overnight, and you’ll likely need to let it evolve over time.
Here are some tips for zeroing in on the right pitch:

• No more than 200 words: Your elevator pitch should be 30-60 seconds long.
• Avoid jargon: Use language your mother can understand and proudly repeat to her friends.
• Create variations: Try different versions on people and see what they think sounds best. You’ll also need to create variations based on your audience and your desired action.
• Act on feedback: If you get the same requests for clarification repeatedly, you obviously need to change your pitch.
• Don’t rush your delivery: If you try to speed-talk, your audience won’t understand a word you say. Speak slowly and deliberately, and use brief pauses to let key ideas sink in.
• Practice: You need to be able to deliver your pitch naturally, easily, with conviction and enthusiasm, without having it sound rehearsed. Practice in front of a mirror, with an audio recorder, with a web cam, or with the video recorder on your phone or digital camera.
• Be consistent: Once you settle on your message, your elevator pitch, the first few paragraphs of your business plan, your pitch deck, and the About Us page of your website all need to convey the same message, using similar language.

People DO, in fact, judge books by their covers. Your elevator pitch is the cover for your business, so make sure you make a great first impression.

I have been writing about business etiquette for years. I guess it has been important to me because I put so much value in first impressions. First impressions aside, it is imperative in today’s competitive global arena to have sound business etiquette skills and none are more important these days than the etiquette that you use on the telephone, in emails, in conference calls and webinars, and even in social media. Indeed, etiquette is an essential requirement in order for you to distinguish yourself, develop and maintain business relationships, strengthen your business presence, project a positive, confident, professional image, and thrive in every situation with confidence.

In everything you do, your manners have a direct impact on your professional and social success. According to Tamiko Zablith, Founder and Director of Minding Manners™, a London based consultancy, “in today’s increasingly global society, etiquette is the essential ‘soft-skill’ that often determines who becomes a leader, and who gets left behind.”

In your email, telephone and social media exchanges you have the opportunity to set yourself apart by knowing the correct way to:

• Leave a telephone message
• Conduct yourself on a telephone call
• Originate and respond to emails
• Participate in a virtual group discussion
• Communicate in social media

Since this is a blog post and not a 3 volume anthology, let’s just cover a few of the absolute essentials.

• Telephone Messages: Speak slowly and clearly; never leave a message without leaving a number; keep your message very brief; please remember to use please and thank you; suggest several good times for a call back; oh, I almost forgot, tell the listener who is calling. If you receive a telephone message from someone who might be trying to sell you something that you do not need, have the courage and courtesy to call them back and in 30 seconds or less tell them that in order to save them time, you do not require their services or products and that they would be better served spending time on another prospect.
• General Telephone Conduct: Answer with your name and company name so the caller knows they have dialed the correct number. For example, “Good morning, this is Jimmy Lewin of Cayenne Consulting.” Speak slowly and clearly. Return all calls within a business day. It is not necessary to provide an excuse for a tardy return of a call. Just return the call. Treat all callers with consideration, dignity and respect.
• Business Emails: This may come as a surprise to 60% of people who use emails in business…business emails are for business! The transmission of jokes, spam and personal notes and comments and, oh yes, smiley faces are for another type of email…personal email. Emails should always be professional, brief as possible, polite and direct. Never assume a specific audience because once you click on “Send,” well, I think you know what I’m about to say. Every email that you originate or respond to should be proof read. Emails are not SMS messages. Silly typos make a lasting impression. PROOF READ!
• Conference Calls: If you are the originator of the call, be certain that every participant is introduced or introduces themselves, their company and, if possible why they are participating. Have an agenda that everyone knows in advance. Get down to business immediately. The two most talked about topics on a conference call are the weather and sports. Forget about it! If you are a professional, then please conduct yourself accordingly. Aggressive, rude behavior is the hallmark of the non-professional. Be certain that everyone has the opportunity to contribute. That is why you invited them to participate in the first place. If someone seems to be dominating the conversation, it is ok to remind them that that there are other participants to be heard from.
• Social Media: There is no such thing as privacy. Be a professional and re-read all of the essentials above.

So, you’ve just read the preceding 600 or so words and you are, right about now saying to yourself, I know this. Great, now would be an excellent time to start doing it.

Mentoring can be one of the most effective ways to avoid common entrepreneurial mistakes. However, entrepreneurs often find it difficult to find a suitable mentor, or don’t know how to make the mentoring relationship pay dividends. Like any other relationship, both sides need to work at making the relationship effective.

Many entrepreneurs view a mentor as an older and more experienced person who takes a personal interest in providing guidance and advice. They don’t think about the relationship requiring a reciprocal investment on their part, both in nurturing the relationship, and truly listening – without being defensive – to the advice being offered.

In the book, Earn What You’re Really Worth, author Brian Tracy provides excellent advice on how mentoring, as well as other personal development activities, can contribute to your value and earning potential.

Here are some tips on how to find and utilize the right mentor, adapted specifically for entrepreneurs:

• Set clear objectives: Decide exactly what you want to gain from your mentor before you start thinking of the ideal person to work with. A successful financial executive probably isn’t the right mentor for building and executing a great marketing strategy. If you don’t have an objective, you won’t know when you arrive.
• Lead the discussions: Your mentor should not be driving your business, or expected to provide critical feedback on actions taken or missed. It’s up to you to create an agenda so that you can uncover specific insights, while leaving room open for discussion of broader or related issues.
• Work continually to solidify the guidance: The very best mentors are the most interested in helping someone who is willing to learn and grow quickly. That doesn’t mean you should accept all guidance blindly. Don’t resist because you’re uncomfortable implementing new ideas. Make an honest effort to understand and implement action items.
• Don’t monopolize your mentor: Remember, the best mentors are busy people, and they will react poorly to someone trying to take up a lot of their time. The best approach is to ask for small focused blocks of time, maybe just ten minutes, in private, and be prepared with real issues to discuss.
• Always remember the difference between a mentor, a friend, and a coach. Expect a mentor to tell you what you need to hear, not like a friend who may tell you what you want to hear. A business coach is focused on helping you with generic skills, whereas a mentor’s aim is to teach you based on specific situations. The same person can’t be all of these.
• Keep your mentor regularly informed of progress: There is nothing that makes a potential mentor more open to helping you than your making it clear that you are following through, and the help is doing you some good. Set up a regular reporting system.
• Keep the relationship positive and productive: If a mentor proves to be unresponsive or on a different wavelength, bow out of the relationship. Powerful mentors are usually in a position that can hurt you as well as help you, so don’t waste their time or antagonize them.

When you seek out a mentor, you must look for someone who genuinely cares about you as a person and who really wants you and your venture to succeed. That emotional involvement and genuine concern for you are the keys to real mentor contributions.

Some people will say that you need to make all your own mistakes in order to learn. Yet there is plenty of evidence that the fastest way to business success is by standing on the shoulders of those who have already spent years learning how to succeed. If you can’t make a mentor relationship work, you should worry about the rest of your business as well.

Business networking is one of the most effective ways for a startup founder to find mentors, investors, and even key executive candidates. The prospect of where and how to network, however, may seem daunting if you are an introvert, or if you have never networked before.

There are established protocols for the process of building business contacts, just like there are for building and maintaining other social relationships. Here are a few important steps to take:

• Get introductions from your existing contacts: Start with the people you know who can attest to the quality of your work so that they can recommend you to others. Their initial introduction may lead to other contacts that will pay dividends.
• Post your profile on LinkedIn, join Twitter, and engage in relevant discussions: There may be other networks that will also benefit you, depending on your circumstances and location, including sites such as Ryze, Plaxo, and Facebook. Others, such as MySpace, are not likely to help you.
• Join and participate in local networking groups: Business groups like TiE – The Indus Entrepreneurs and EO – Entrepreneurs Organization are places to meet people so that you can both offer and receive assistance. Remember it helps to build mutually beneficial relationships in the business community. In addition to business organizations, the local Chamber of Commerce offers networking resources as you begin the process.
• Volunteer to help out with entrepreneur activities at your local university: All universities love and need to get help from people with business experience for coaching and judging activities in their Entrepreneurship and MBA programs. Your investment in time may allow for you to meet or be connected to many people who can help you.
• Attend an investment conference: Conferences are full of potential investors who are actively soliciting new opportunities. Hand out your business card with confidence at breaks, lunches, mixers, or scheduled activities.
• Join a local investment group: If you can meet the SEC “accredited investor” criteria ($1M net worth or $200K annual income, although these standards will change with the recent passage of the JOBS Act), this is a great way for potential investors to view you as a as peer. In addition, you will see how the process really works from a variety of perspectives, which will offer you the best preparation you could have for your own approach later. In most cases, these groups don’t require that you invest in others as a prerequisite for membership.

Many initial steps to building a professional network may seem self-evident but there are also several key things to avoid as well:

• Don’t do all of the talking. Networking is about listening and understanding other people’s needs. Think of how you can help the other person. You will get your chance.
• Avoid cold calls and email blasts of your resume and business plan to potential investors.
• Do not monopolize the time of an important investor at a social gathering or share too much information about your personal life.
• Don’t forget to follow through on your promises. If you tell somebody you’ll be in touch to schedule a meeting over coffee, or that you’ll introduce her to another person in your network who may be helpful, be sure to follow through.
• Don’t let your network grow cold. A business network is like friendships – you must constantly work at keeping your relationships warm.

Although networking may seem daunting to introverts, it also offers them a unique opportunity to focus more on listening than on talking. Most successful investors will probably remember you better if you are able to listen carefully and ask thoughtful questions of them. Nevertheless, it is important to have your elevator pitch honed so that you can talk about your business easily when asked. Enthusiasm and having fun are just as important as observing networking etiquette.

Entrepreneurial creativity can’t thrive in a vacuum. It needs data and knowledge, and constant exposure to new ideas and perspectives. If you spend 100% of your time focusing only on your narrow niche, you’re likely to miss opportunities that are hiding in plain sight.

I find that podcasts are a great way to expand my mind, especially while engaging in otherwise idle activities: driving, hiking, running, or working out on the elliptical, for example.

I’ve discovered some favorites over the years. They’re all available for free via iTunes. If you’re not an Apple product user, most of these podcasts have their own websites where you can listen online or download in MP3 format (but iTunes is far more convenient because you can easily sync content and keep track of which episodes you’ve already listened to).

Here are my picks for the Top Ten Podcasts for Entrepreneurs:

• Stanford eCorner’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders: This is a weekly, hour-long deep-dive into entrepreneurial topics in the form of interviews with insightful business leaders. Highlights include Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn on “Live Life in Permanent Beta,” Guy Kawasaki on “Creating Enchantment,” Steve Jurvetson of Draper Fisher Jurvetson on “Innovation in a Disruptive Environment,” and Eric Ries on “Evangelizing for the Lean Startup.”
• HBR IdeaCast: The Harvard Business Review’s IdeaCast consists of weekly interviews, mostly under 15 minutes, with leading executives and researchers covering all aspects of business and management.
• NPR’s Planet Money: This twice-weekly podcast covers an amazing array of micro- and macro-economic issues, both domestic and international, in ways accessible to all listeners. Each episode begins with a brief “economic indicator” – a number currently making headlines, with a description of its relevance. It then takes a deep-dive into the day’s topic. Some episodes, such as those dealing with the toxic debt securities at the heart of the financial crisis, form a story line that spans many months. Others examine the economics of various industries, explore policy issues that may seal the fate of the European debt crisis, or explain the historical origins of the practice of tipping service providers from an economic perspective. Most episodes are about 20 minutes in length.
• Freakonomics Radio: Economists Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner explore “the hidden side of everything.” For example, do more expensive wines actually taste better, or does price influence perception? And would adding a lottery feature to savings accounts increase savings rates?
• LSAT Logic in Everyday Life: This series by the Princeton Review applies critical thinking skills to everyday topics ranging from politics to advertising to conventional wisdom. Arm yourself with the tools needed to expose fallacies and other logical flaws in arguments.
• Arming the Donkeys: Dan Ariely, professor of behavioral economics at Duke University, has informal chats with researchers on everything from the perils of procrastination to why bonuses backfire. Most episodes are under 10 minutes.
• NPR’s Science Friday: Host Ira Flatow covers the latest news in science, technology, health, and the environment, with interviews of scientists, authors, and policymakers. Most 50-minute episode cover 3-4 topics each. Older episodes and related materials are available on the Science Friday website.
• Wall Street Journal on Small Business: Brief weekly summaries of business news relevant to small businesses, including some high-level tips. The coverage is often superficial, but sound bites can sometimes be a good catalyst to take your thinking in new directions.
• The Public Speaker’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Improving Your Communication Skills: Practical tips for improving all aspects of your communication, from casual speech, to public addresses, to email, to marketing copy. These are critical skills for success in any area of business, and these podcasts are a great investment of your time. If you like this one, you’ll also like Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing – another essential for people who communicate for a living.
• TED Radio Hour: Host Alison Stewart interviews TED speakers covering new inventions, fresh approaches to old problems, and new ways to think and create. This series launched in April 2012, and is likely to become one of my favorites.

So step away from your computer for a while, plug in your earbuds, and go get some fresh air while you fill your mind with some new knowledge. I guarantee these podcasts will make you a better entrepreneur.

If you have some favorite podcasts that I might have missed, please share them in the Comments section below. Happy listening!

After working with numerous mobile app startups, a common pattern has surfaced. The founder is hard at work with developers, designing the app back-to-front and front-to-back, deciding on pricing, deciding on marketing, and so forth. But all these important decisions are being made in a vacuum. No one knows for sure who will really be interested in the app, what’s the optimal user interface, and what, if anything, people will pay for the app.

So, my task is to slow the team down and go to work on some rough prototypes or essentially anything we can get in front of potential users. In contrast to the old way of doing concept testing, what we can do today on the net is amazingly easy, quick, and cheap. There are plenty of tools out there that allow one to develop a minimum viable prototype, or better yet, several prototypes that can then be used for quick comparison testing. These prototypes essentially allow you to get a sense of what look and feel will be most appropriate, and a great way to show the potential functionality of the app without the app actually working yet.

And then there is price testing. Will the app attract enough demand at $1.99, $0.99, or perhaps a freemium model? Try out different pricing strategies with a set of friends, through a rough web page, or using one of the many free online survey tools like SurveyMonkey.

Startup entrepreneurs often think they must come up with all the answers themselves, when in fact the answers to all of these types of product questions should come from target market customers. We can put a bunch of the smartest Cayenne consultants in a room and come up with great product strategy recommendations. But, without knowing what the prospective user would really value, we are simply second guessing. When clients inevitably ask me what I think about a particular product feature or price, my answer is always: “What do I know? I’m not your target market. Let’s go find out.”

And think of this “go out and ask” approach from the point of view of potential investors. Rather than being put in the position of convincing/selling investors that your vision of the product is perfect, you can take the higher ground of educating investors on what customers have already told you they want and what they are willing to pay. The old saying “data always trumps opinion” plays out again, and your business plan will be much more credible because of it.

Prototype testing is not a one-time event, especially with mobile apps. The market is changing so fast that it’s best to think about testing on an ongoing basis. The team should be constantly evaluating new features and more improved user interfaces. If you don’t, your competitors will. A great example is how USA Today is constantly making changes to its market leading iPhone/Pad app. They are constantly tinkering with the user interface with the goal of maximizing end user value. In my opinion, their commitment to ongoing testing has put the USA Today app in a whole different league from their competitors. You can do the same.

I should also mention that many business-oriented software entrepreneurs don’t believe they can do this type of prototype development themselves. The common refrain is “I’ll have to ask my developer to do these prototypes.” I’m convinced that the best business software entrepreneur gets their hands just a little dirty with some easy prototyping tools such as Ruby on Rails. That will be the topic of a future post.

Any investor will tell you that great business ideas are “dime-a-dozen.” Lots of people have great ideas all the time. Most investors feel that a “great” entrepreneur with a “so-so” idea is much more fundable than a “so-so” entrepreneur with a “great” idea. It’s fine to be a thinker or visionary, but you’ll never build a successful business if you can’t Get It Done and execute.

Professor Sean Wise, who has worked with over 15,000 entrepreneurs (including many with the popular TV shows Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank), says that no matter how great the opportunity and idea, in the end it is only the execution that produces companies and generates wealth.

In his book HOT or NOT: How to know if your Business Idea will Fly or Fail, Wise discusses not only the elements of a good idea and a good pitch, but also the attributes that distinguish entrepreneurs who can deliver from the grandiose idea people:

1. Active evangelism: The entrepreneur gets out and actively shares the idea with the people who can help turn the idea into a business, including potential employees, investors, customers, suppliers, friends, and peers. In contract, idea people are often secretive and paranoid that someone else will steal it.
2. Open to feedback, and welcoming of skeptical views: Get It Done entrepreneurs always welcome the hard questions and challenge the fundamental questions behind their ideas. They don’t always associate with “yes” people who just tell them what they want to hear.
3. Sets and tracks performance metrics: A business has too many moving parts for any one person to be able to manage without a good project management framework. Get It Done entrepreneurs find ways to translate long-term goals into measurable daily action items, and make sure everyone is “rowing in the same direction.”
4. Ties rewards to performance: Effective business people establish accountability for achieving key metrics. They don’t hire friends for the sake of friendship, or just pay people for showing up and looking busy. A proper reward structure is a powerful tool for motivating the team to help you achieve success.
5. Ties organizational structure to strategy: Forget the “traditional” organizational structure. Build your organizational structure around the value chain so that key roles support your ultimate goal: happy paying customers. Startups don’t need a VP of HR, or a full-time CFO. You need people who can talk to and understand what customers want, and a team who can deliver on those needs.
6. Willing to question assumptions and adapt: Most startups pivot at least a few times. The odds of version 1.0 of your business plan being correct are very low. Your business plan needs to be a living document that adapts to new information, new challenges, and new opportunities. Be agile. Let your competitors blindly stay the course and fail.
7. Sets a strong example: The leader instills values, passion, and work ethic into the company through example. If the leader can’t keep commitments, neither will the business. Investors are good at spotting and avoiding difficult personalities.

Of course, entrepreneur screening, like opportunity screening, is highly subjective. We all have preconceptions that can fool us into making bad decisions about both people and ideas. The most successful entrepreneurs and investors objectively consider information that refutes their beliefs, rather than seeking out data which might support their confirmation bias.

Successful implementation requires an understanding of the “big picture,” of course, but the devil is in the details. Yet Get It Done leadership is definitely not about micro-managing people or doing it all yourself. It is about “owning” the process and leading others by example.

We all know entrepreneurs who claim that their idea is “the next Google” or is “bigger than Facebook.” Maybe you’re one of them. But it only matters if you can acquire the execution skills needed to turn your idea into a viable business.

We all agree about the increasing need to maximize sales. Typically entrepreneurs and sales professionals think this means more emphasis on the selling process. Instead, it really means spending more time viewing the buying process from your customer’s perspective. In a recent book Slow Down, Sell Faster!, author Kevin Davis explained that the largest single mistake sales professionals make is that they try to close the sale too early. They arrive at the end of their “pitch” just as the customer is beginning to recognize they have a need! They leave the scene just as the prospective customer begins assessing solutions by looking at your competition. Obviously not good to give up as soon as you’ve activated their need.

Assuming you are serious about competing with big companies for customers, and realize that a fast sales pitch doesn’t mean more sales, here are some tips from Kevin that every entrepreneur needs to understand, even before attempting their very first sale:

1. Understand how your customers buy. “What are the steps in your customer’s buying process?” When the product is simple, and there is no competition, buyers can make a quick decision. But these days, that is rarely the case. Thus most customers need to do some research and learn more first. You need to think about a purchase from the customer’s viewpoint, and be there for her.
2. Define the steps of your sales process in customer terms. Understanding buying is where selling should start. Get very clear and specific about the steps customers take as they move through their buying process. Replace your “sales process” labels with “customer actions,” which then become the objectives for you when you call or meet with customers.
3. Manage the pipeline based on where customers are in their buying process. What should matter to you is not where you are in YOUR sales process, but where the customer is in THEIR buying process. Ask yourself: “What actions has the customer taken thus far?” And, “What action should they take next, and by when?” The answers to these questions provide you with a better understanding of the true status of the sales opportunity.
4. Map out who will be involved in the buying decision, and what step they are at in the buying process. If the buying decision is complex, you need to determine what factors are working for you in the sale, what factors are working against you, and what you can do to put yourself in a better position to win. Don’t get ahead of your customer.
5. Focus on the most influential decision makers. Often the real purchase decision is not made by the person you are interacting with. Find the C-level executives behind the scenes, or the key influencers, or the personal connections that can override simple price and benefit arguments.
6. Provide coaching early in the sales process; avoid last minute interventions. We’ve all heard the complaint about the sales manager “riding in on a white horse” to save the day and close a deal on behalf of the salesperson. The end result of this white-horse ride is often three-fold: white knuckles for the salesperson, a bigger discount for the customer, and lower profit for the company! What kind of win is that?

Speed is important in getting to multiple decision makers quickly, identifying what is important to each player, and knowing where each player is in the buying process. After that, it’s time to slow down and stay in sync with each customer’s buying process. People hate feeling rushed, and you don’t want the buyer to resent your efforts.

Customer focus has nothing to do with your selling or service process, whether the customers are individual consumers, or large corporate buyers negotiating a complex transaction. The key is to put yourself in their shoes, and lead them through their own process. Customers want to buy from leaders, not pushers. What a novel way to exceed your customer’s expectations!

Rookie internet entrepreneurs often make the mistake of overestimating advertising revenue in their financial projections. If challenged, the founder usually cites the Facebook business model (free service to users, revenue from ads), but forgets that Facebook has had several hundred million in funding, and has been profitable only in the last couple of years.

The most challenging time is your first years, when your site is relatively unknown, and your page views are low. Until you get a million page-views per month, your revenue will be negligible, and advertisers won’t be interested in your site. Don’t count on that to fund your startup.

Content is a tough business. It can be very successful like it now is for Facebook, but entrepreneurs usually underestimate how long it will take for page-views to ramp. They might see early traction due to early promotions, or special advertiser deals, but then reality sets in.

To better understand these realities, let’s clarify some terminology. Unless you live in this world every day, you are probably as confused as I was by the different advertising models, so let me outline the common ones:

1. Pay per click (PPC). In this most popular model, advertisers pay each time a user clicks on an ad and is redirected to the advertiser website. Advertisers do not pay for each ad view, but only when the ad is clicked on. For advertisers, this is called cost per click (CPC).
2. Pay per view (PPV, PPI or PPM). With this model, you get paid for each ad view or page-view (same as impression). For advertisers, this is cost per impression (CPI), or cost per mille (CPM) per thousand impressions. Advertisers normally prefer CPC, since they don’t like to pay when you ignore their ad.
3. Pay per action (PPA or PPL). This advertising model was added a few years ago to mitigate the risks of click fraud. Here the advertiser pays only if a customer has been delivered to a website and takes a further action (conversion), such as buying a product or filling out a web form. The advertiser side is called cost per action (CPA) or cost per lead (CPL).

Now back to the revenue realities. If a startup wants to get the attention of investors, it needs to show large growth, like $50 million in revenue in five years. Today, without highly specialized targeting, the rule-of-thumb expectation should be no more than $1 in advertising revenue per thousand page-views.

To get to $50 million in revenue you would need 50 billion page views in a year, or just over 4 billion per month. Facebook is far above this range now, now with over 1 trillion page views, but only the top 10 sites in the US are in the right ballpark. The top 10 all took several years to get there, and all are well beyond startup stage.

It doesn’t matter that the ads themselves come in a myriad of shapes and sizes – banner, panel, floating, expanding, wallpaper, trick banner, pop-up, pop-under, or even video. Costs and payments vary by size, level of targeting, and volume. A current trend to increase revenue is to make advertisements more interactive, but the basic numbers haven’t changed much.

The bottom line is that any online advertising revenue you project in the first couple of years for your startup will be heavily discounted by any savvy investor, and will likely cause your business plan to be rejected. Face reality.

Investors know that during this early period, you will likely be spending more heavily than you expect to build page-views, rather than collecting revenue from the millions of users you won’t have yet.

Making the leap from the corporate world to starting your own company is tough. You can make it easier for yourself by joining an existing startup on the ground floor. If it works out, great. If not, you can apply the lessons learned to your own startup. But before you join a startup, be sure you’re prepared for the realities.

Startups are vastly different from corporate employment. A big chunk of your compensation is likely to be in equity, so the long-term potential is high, but the monthly paychecks will be smaller than for comparable positions in established companies. The last time I checked, mortgage companies won’t accept payments in the form of stock options. And very few startups are in a position to offer health benefits, so you’ll need to provide for yourself.

To make the transition easier, it helps to have a spouse or partner who keeps a day job at a larger company like Apple, Intel, or Google. Your partner’s employer provides a stable income and excellent benefits, and hopefully your partner can get off work at a reasonable hour to pick up the kids.

That leaves the other partner free to take a shot at the startup lifestyle. But how do you go about finding the right startup opportunity for you? Here are a few ideas:

• Check Craigslist: Many startups post openings on Craigslist.org because the listing fee is low, or even free in some locations. But don’t forget the other job sites like Monster and Dice, as well as local newspaper classifieds.
• Keep your network warm: People hire people they know and trust, so make sure you stay in touch with friends who work at startups. Even if they aren’t hiring, they have friends at other startups.
• Scour venture capital firm websites: Most VCs list portfolio companies on their websites. Some may even list opportunities at some of these firms. Start here for a list of venture capital funds. You can try the same for Angel organizations.
• Check startup job directories: Check sites like VentureLoop, where you can search by job title and location.
• Join networking groups: Every area has networking events, like the NYC Tech Meetup, and organizations like the Silicon Valley Forum. Get out to at least one networking event every week.

However, one obvious word of caution: Be choosy about what startup you join. Ask around about the founders. Make sure you meet at least a few people at different levels in the organization. Make sure you understand the culture and like the atmosphere before you take the job. You’ll spend more time with your co-workers than you will with anybody else, so you’d better like them!

Also, remember that most startups fail. Here are a few questions you can ask to get a feel for how many paychecks you can expect, and how many more will depend on management’s ability to generate revenue or secure additional investment:

• How much cash is in the bank?
• How much money does the company burn each month (burn rate)?
• Are you expecting another round of funding, and if so, when is it expected to close?
• When does the company expect to be cash flow positive?

Finally, make sure you are mentally prepared for the realities of working for a startup. The hours are exhausting and unpredictable. Stress levels can be high. Reporting structures, roles, and responsibilities are often fluid in startups, and they sometimes seem like dysfunctional families.

If you want to be part of the next big thing and change the world, a startup is where it happens. Joining one is the next best thing to starting one yourself.

As a company founder, one of your biggest opportunities – and responsibilities – is that you get to define the corporate culture. Once the culture is set, it’s difficult to change – so the challenge is in getting it right the first time. You can learn a lot from companies like Apple and Netflix, who are both widely respected for their exemplary culture.

In his book Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit, author Jim Stengel explores a ten-year study of the fifty best businesses in the world, and concludes that those with a culture based on improving people’s lives had triple the growth rate of their competitors.

Based on this study, we have summarized ten principles for building a rock-solid corporate culture. Implement them early, and you’ll significantly enhance your firm’s growth potential:

1. Be clear about what you stand for. The values and priorities you exemplify set the culture. People follow what you do, not what you say. Reinforce your beliefs regularly with your team, your customers, and your suppliers.
2. Write down your core principles. Lay down your commandments. Set them in stone and put them somewhere the world can see it.
3. Assemble the right team. Interview carefully and ask probing questions to see if the candidate’s value system aligns with yours. You won’t always get it right, so quickly handle hiring mistakes before they corrode your corporate culture.
4. Avoid silos. “Traditional” roles like sales, marketing, and product management often lead to mediocrity. Everybody on the team has SOME responsibility in each of these areas, especially in the age of social media.
5. Set high standards. You broadcast your standards every time you accept or reject recommendations from your team. If you set high standards, your team will step up to the challenge. Your customers will notice.
6. Champion innovation in all areas. Create an environment that fosters and rewards innovation in all areas. This includes business models, marketing tactics, customer service, operating procedures, and of course, product innovation itself.
7. Recognize and reward exemplary values. Hold one or two firm-wide events each year, and recognize those who best exemplify the corporate culture. Invite your customers and investors, and make it fun.
8. Train continuously. Every interaction is an opportunity to teach and to learn. Training is coaching, rather than criticizing. Continuous teaching is a hallmark of great companies and their leaders.
9. Live your legacy. Envision the legacy you want to leave. What kind of company do you want to create? Get your team to share that vision so that all decisions and actions move the company closer to that ideal.
10. Think and act like a winner. Customers want to associate with winners. Whatever your competitive strengths are, focus on maintaining your advantage in those areas.

You don’t need to start a cult to achieve an exceptional corporate culture, but it does require a disdain for conventional wisdom and the status quo. Build your corporate culture around the pursuit of ideals; growth and profit will follow.

If you stand still, you’ll soon see your competitors speeding past you. You need to be on the constant lookout for growth opportunities or you’ll be left behind.

Steven Schussler, author of It’s a Jungle In There, advises entrepreneurs to observe the world around them and make a conscious and consistent effort to ask themselves: “Is there something hiding here that I could change to uncover new opportunities?”

Schussler provides several examples of how he used this approach over the course of his own career. Summarized here are several fundamental growth strategies that sometimes get overlooked in favor of more complex strategies:

1. Explore adjacent markets. Look for ways to apply your core competencies to new market areas, or for different types of customers. By leveraging economies of scale, common design, and location, you may be able to compete in new markets faster and at a lower cost than incumbents already in those markets.
2. Sell new offerings to existing customers. Your existing customers already know and trust you, and hopefully you have a strong understanding of their needs. It should be easy to introduce new products and services that complement what you already sell to them. You don’t have to develop the product yourself, of course – you can become a licensee or distributor of existing products.
3. Add add-on services that enhance your product. For example, you can help your customers make more effective use of your products by selling them support, customization, or training services.
4. Extrapolate and iterate. Today’s “cash cow” is tomorrow’s dead technology. Think of where the technology is heading, and don’t be left in the dust like the book and music publishing industries. The Nook is now worth more than parent company Barnes & Noble.
5. Expand your reach. The alternative to selling more to existing customers is to reach out to new customers. Depending on your business model, you can open new locations or expand your online presence.
6. Merge with or acquire another business. M&A is a common way of acquiring new products and services or distribution channels. This often works best if you find a company with a culture similar to yours with great potential, suffering in areas where you have particular expertise.
7. License your product to distribution partners. If your sales organization has reached its limits, or if you lack access to some slice of the market, then explore distribution partnerships that already have access to those markets.
8. Hire people smarter than you. If you always hire people less capable than you or who see things exactly the way you do, you can’t expect your company to move forward. Look for people who will will see things that you don’t see. Foster a culture of innovation, and reward performance. If you don’t, your best people will leave and join your competitors.

Great entrepreneurs are always on the lookout for new growth opportunities. Sometimes, the best ones are the fundamental, time-tested approaches that have served entrepreneurs well for eons.

People who have spent years climbing the corporate ladder often dream about jumping ship and starting their own venture. The transition from employee to entrepreneur is a tricky move full of risk and uncertainty. And when the job market is in flux as it is today, your fallback options are limited. So be sure to do your homework before taking the leap.

An article in the Harvard Business Review, Five Ways to Bungle a Job Change, listed five common mistakes professionals make when moving to a new position. These five mistakes also apply to those planning to start or join a startup:

1. Insufficient research: When changing companies, you need to do your research about cultural fit, job responsibilities, expectations, and financial stability. These also apply to startup situations. Find some experienced entrepreneurs and ask about how they managed these issues. Their input will help you formulate a realistic view of what your startup experience might be like before you leave your current job.
2. Doing it for the money: The grass always look greener on the other side. The first few years of almost any startup means making financial sacrifices. In fact, most startup founders pay themselves zero salary for up to two years. Only a small fraction of startups ever succeed in raising money from investors, so your Plan A should be to subsist on very little until you can bootstrap your company to positive cash flow. Many entrepreneurs can’t afford to quit their “day job” until the startup has a few paying customers.
3. Leaving, rather than starting: Hating your job isn’t the right reason to quit and start a company. Startups are as stressful as any corporate job. You should start a company because you believe the market will truly benefit from what you have to offer.
4. Unrealistic expectations: Most corporate types don’t know what they don’t know about entrepreneurship, and take the leap without a strong appreciation for the skill set necessary to make it as an entrepreneur. Success requires a lot more than good ideas and passion. You need to be prepared to handle the nuts and bolts of every aspect of the company, including recruiting co-founders and employees, product development, sales and marketing, finance, investor relations, operations and administration, and even basic legal issues. Some books by Guy Kawasaki including The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything and Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition will help you get started.
5. Short term thinking: The move from corporate life to a startup is a massive lifestyle change. It’s not a quick road to riches, or an escape from a problem. Starting a company is hard work, requires a ton of learning, has a high failure rate, and the payoff is in the distant future.

Many of these mistakes are inter-dependent. When people overestimate their abilities, their corporate life can be dissatisfying because of less-than-stellar performance reviews and bonuses. If this is why they take the leap into the startup world, the mismatch between perceived and actual talent could make them even unhappier.

Before taking the plunge, ask yourself: “What if I’m wrong?” Have a Plan B that allows you to cut your losses and move on. Make sure you have an honest view of your strengths and weaknesses. Few executives have an accurate view of their own weaknesses, so find a mentor who can give you honest feedback.

Most importantly, you must truly understand what you do and do not like to do, and decide what work-life balance works best for you. You spend most of your adult life at work. Life is too short to let career missteps make it unhappy.