Crazy can be defined as doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result. Crazy is when you have the most amazing product to sell, but your customer has no money. Crazy is when you create a sales forecast in Excel with hockey-stick escalating revenues, yet in your gut you know that this might not be too realistic. Crazy is when your business model is simply not working, but you refuse to see the light. Crazy is when we fool ourselves, both in business and in life.

But isn’t it necessary for entrepreneurs to be visionary? Don’t we have to own a dream? Don’t we have to see solutions where no one else dares to look or believe? Isn’t it necessary to “keep the faith” in spite of resistance? What if Thomas Edison had quit after over 1000 failed experiments to invent the light bulb? Isn’t that what makes some entrepreneurs great while others are only mediocre? Don’t entrepreneurs need to be a bit crazy?

In the book Awakening the Entrepreneur Within, by Michael Gerber, he talks about 4 different entrepreneur personality types. There is the DREAMER – the entrepreneur with the ability to see holes in the market and to discover innovative new ways of solving problems. There is the THINKER – the one who takes the dream and figures out the mechanics and the strategy necessary to make it work. There is the STORYTELLER – the one who figures out how to tell the world about this amazing dream, and then there is the LEADER – the one who buys the dream, understands the strategy, embraces the story, but takes LEADERSHIP.

My wife’s favorite mantra is “Balance, balance and even more balance”.

Balance is what entrepreneurs need. To succeed you must have all the 4 personality traits, not just one. You cannot be just a dreamer. You must also balance this by being a good thinker, storyteller and leader as well.

Nobody ever said that being an entrepreneur would be easy. Don’t give up your dream, but seek the balance that will make it all work.  I promise that I will.

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Want to turn-around your business and achieve results in record time? Contact me to discuss Executive Coaching, Group Facilitation and Management for Hire services for technology companies. You can learn more at www.ricksalmon.com ,  www.xelerator.com and at www.e-unlimited.com.

Rick Salmon is an energetic entrepreneur who lives in Norway and believes that European startup companies can succeed and grow quickly if only they get the proper help and assistance. Subscribe to this newsletter/blog to receive frequent updates and tips. Contact me if you want to find out how we can help accelerate your business.

Image from www.all4humor.com

Here is a 1-Minute Reality Checklist for technology entrepreneurs:

1. Does your business idea soothe someone’s pain, discomfort, frustration, or dissatisfaction?
2. Are there lots of those people out there?
3. Do these people (or companies, or governments) have money to pay for it?
4. Will they be able to decide quickly to buy your product or service?
5. Does your idea exploit something about you that is outstanding or unique?

If the answer to any of these questions is “NO”, then you need to do some soul-searching work on your business plan.

The best companies are not built on new technology. They are built on solving real-life problems. Pushing new technology is like pushing on a rope. It just doesn’t work. Start with a clearly defined problem. Start with a clearly defined group of people who all experience this problem. Let these people and their common problem pull your technology into the market. This strategy is much easier and long-term. If another technology comes along and eclipses yours, then just adopt it and continue solving the problem for your customers.

If you start with the technology first, then expect a long and difficult climb up the mountain of success. If you start with the problem first, then it will be like bobsledding.  You can choose.

This list was borrowed from Daniel Isenberg, who is a professor of entrepreneurship and Harvard PhD. Here is the link.

Want to turn-around your business and achieve results in record time? Contact me to discuss Executive Coaching, Group Facilitation and Management for Hire services for technology companies. You can learn more at www.ricksalmon.com ,  www.xelerator.com and at www.e-unlimited.com.

Rick Salmon is an energetic entrepreneur who lives in Norway and believes that European startup companies can succeed and grow quickly if only they get the proper help and assistance. Subscribe to this newsletter/blog to receive frequent updates and tips.

The problem with change is that changing just a little is often harder than changing a lot. Your old mindset still has its old values and attachments that inevitably will slide you back into your old groove. But when you change enough to create a new mindset, you can free yourself from your old way of looking at things and create a new groove.

The older we get, the more difficult habits are to break. The more we have done something one way, then the more difficult it is to do it another way. The longer we have a perspective, the harder it is to change the way we see things.  This is human nature.

Want to make a change? Make it a big change not a small one. Trying to wake up 15 minutes earlier each morning is harder than deciding to wake up 1 hour earlier. The transition is greater and the effect will be more noticeable and likely to stick. Trying to simply improve your sales skills is much more difficult than committing to making a significant change in your sales strategy (enroll in a course, hire a sales coach, employ a consultant). The point is that if you first come to the realization that you need to change something in your life, then make it a big change. You might find it easier and you will more likely succeed.

Want to turn-around your business and achieve results in record time? Contact me to discuss Executive Coaching, Group Facilitation and Management for Hire services for technology companies. You can learn more at www.ricksalmon.com and at www.xelerator.com.

Rick Salmon is an energetic entrepreneur who lives in Norway and believes that this beautiful world that we have created needs our help. Subscribe to this newsletter/blog to receive frequent updates and tips.

Hunters and Farmers
10,000 years ago, civilization forked. Farming was invented and the way many people spent their time was changed forever.
Clearly, farming is a very different activity from hunting. Farmers spend time sweating the details, worrying about the weather, making smart choices about seeds and breeding and working hard to avoid a bad crop. Hunters, on the other hand, have long periods of distracted noticing interrupted by brief moments of frenzied panic.

It’s not crazy to imagine that some people are better at one activity than another. There might even be a gulf between people who are good at each of the two skills. Thom Hartmann has written extensively on this. He points out that medicating kids who might be better at hunting so that they can sit quietly in a school designed to teach farming doesn’t make a lot of sense.

A kid who has innate hunting skills is easily distracted, because noticing small movements in the brush is exactly what you’d need to do if you were hunting. Scan and scan and pounce. That same kid is able to drop everything and focus like a laser–for a while–if it’s urgent. The farming kid, on the other hand, is particularly good at tilling the fields of endless homework problems, each a bit like the other. Just don’t ask him to change gears instantly.

Marketers confuse the two groups. Are you selling a product that helps farmers… and hoping that hunters will buy it? How do you expect that people will discover your product, or believe that it will help them? The woman who reads each issue of Vogue, hurrying through the pages then clicking over to Zappos.com to overnight order the latest makeup kit–she’s hunting. Contrast this to the CTO who spends six months issuing RFPs (request for purchase) to buy a PBX… he’s farming.

Both groups are worthy, both groups are profitable. But each group is very different from the other, and I think we need to consider teaching, hiring and marketing to these groups in completely different ways. I’m not sure if there’s a genetic component or if this is merely a convenient grouping of people’s personas. All I know is that it often explains a lot about behavior (including mine).

The simple key to effective marketing is to really understand your customer. Understand them so well that you know whether they are hunters or farmers. Understand them so well that you know what keeps them awake at night and worrying about the future. Know what they are talking about with their colleagues. Know what they need. More importantly, know what they want (I need a new car for basic transportation, but I really want a shiny little sports car…). How do you do this?  Simple. Go spend some time with them. Invite them to lunch. Just drop by their offices to see what they are doing. If you are a hunter yourself, you probably already do this frequently. If you are a farmer, then get off the farm now and then.

Want to turn-around your business and achieve results in record time? Contact me to discuss Executive Coaching, Group Facilitation and Management for Hire services for technology companies. You can learn more at www.ricksalmon.com and at www.xelerator.com.

Rick Salmon is an energetic entrepreneur who lives in Norway and believes that this beautiful world that we have created needs our help. Subscribe to this newsletter/blog to receive frequent updates and tips.

Then to make matters worse, I just read an article about a group in the Northeast that is encouraging people who are facing layoffs from their jobs to consider becoming entrepreneurs.

How dare they? Is becoming an entrepreneur really an option for someone facing redundancy and unemployment?

My Story
What got me started? 20 years ago I was working for Norsk Data, a large corporation that went through several big rounds of layoffs. One year after the third round I learned from my boss that my name had been on the list of those to be fired in the last round. Being familiar with my work, he had rescued me from the list. Learning this news shook me to the core. I had never even imagined that I could lose my job. In spite of all the layoffs, it had not even been a remote possibility in my mind. After all, I was so smart and talented (I thought). Leaning this fact shattered my ideas about job stability. It made me completely rethink which career path was ”safe” and which was ”risky”. I vowed to myself that I would never again put myself in a position where another person’s whim could affect my future in such a dramatic manner. I decided that by becoming an entrepreneur, I could control my own fate and shape my own destiny. Within 3 months of receiving this news, I was involved with 2 software programmers in my first successful tech startup called BlueSky Software (renamed eHelp Corporation). Since then I have been involved with over 12 different startups and early stage ventures. It became a good career for me.

The threat of being laid-off prompted me to take action. How would you deal with this same situation? I sincerely believe that more people who are faced with layoffs should indeed consider becoming entrepreneurs. I will not promise you that it is an easy path to walk, but for the right type of person, it is a good move to make.

Excerpt from:  Forum urges recession hit people into business:

“No one is ever going to suggest that starting a business is the easy option – such a step into the unknown can be daunting or even intimidating. But there has never been a better time to give it a go because you’re not alone. There are plenty who are in the same position and plenty who’ve been through it, come out the other side and once they’ve worked through the doubts and challenges never look back. And their stories are always inspirational.”

“Entrepreneurs have an increasing role to play in the future success of the economy and we should see this as an opportunity to transform the economic make-up of the region.”

Want to turn-around your business and achieve results in record time? Contact me to discuss Executive Coaching, Group Facilitation and Management for Hire services for technology companies. You can learn more at www.ricksalmon.com and at www.xelerator.com.

Rick Salmon is an energetic entrepreneur who believes that this beautiful world that we have created needs our help. Subscribe to this newsletter/blog to receive frequent updates and tips.

“The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in our region. What is lacking is the opportunity and ability to tap into ‘the experts’.” - Donna Kilhoffer (Community Education Council)

On July 28, 2009 the US House of Representatives passed a bi-partisan bill called the Educating Entrepreneurs Through Today’s Technology Act. The bill was introduced by New York Democrat Nydia Velazquez, who is the Chairperson of the House Small Business Committee.  It provides funds for creating a USA national training program for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses. It will finance satellite and advanced network infrastructure as well as leading-edge content and participation by some of the most successful and experienced entrepreneurs on the planet. The delivery will be live, online, interactive and available to small business owners and entrepreneurs nationwide. Whether they live in the backwoods of West Virginia or in the heart of Silicon Valley, they will now have access to instant, interactive and specialized expertise. Now that is the type of government stimulus program I like.

Why is this important for European entrepreneurs and politicians?

• USA entrepreneurs are challenged because there are so many remote geographies and rural areas. Europeans are challenged because there are so many different and also remote nationalities. Europe needs this kind of program.
• USA entrepreneurs are blessed with a single, large and homogeneous market. Europeans need to lower the national barriers so that European Entrepreneurs can service EU markets unencumbered.
• USA venture capital markets are uniform and relatively equivalent across the country (the VC terms in Boston are not that much different from those in Silicon Valley or the Technology Triangle in N.Carolina). Europe needs to flatten the geography.
• USA entrepreneurs struggle with internationalization and cross-border ventures. Europeans understand this innately and should be encouraged to use this to their competitive advantage.

Europe needs to find a way to turn this from a disadvantage into a competitive advantage.

Your comments on this article are encouraged.

Here is more information:

“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, employing roughly half of U.S. workers, and while our communities are experiencing high unemployment rates, the entrepreneurial spirit remains alive and well,” Thompson told the Members.  “For many underserved and rural areas, it is critical to have the opportunity and ability to tap into resources that will foster further economic development and provide prospective entrepreneurs with the same access afforded to their suburban and urban counterparts.”

The measure will provide high-quality tele-distance training through a competitive grants process administered by the Small Business Administration. The program will promote peer-to-peer networking for small business development, by using technology to deliver information and share data on-line and through videos and satellite communication.

Satellite seminars and online information services will allow prospective and established business men and women to interact with each other to trouble shoot problems and share best practices for interacting with the Small business Administration.  This is a good example of the proliferation of online networking sites, where people can exchange their knowledge and  information.  This one will offer facts and figures on securing financing, navigating government regulations and learning to get a small business off the ground.

For many entrepreneurs, accessing this kind of information requires driving long distances to a Small Business Development Center.  This legislation will bring the information to home computers.

In April, when this bill had a hearing before the Small Business Committee, Donna Kilhoffer, the program manager for the Community Education Council of Elk and Cameron Counties testified, “The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in our region. What is lacking is the opportunity and ability to tap into ‘the experts’.”

This measure will allow people throughout the Nation to tap into the experts.

Thompson’s bill passed in May as well when it was included as a part of a larger House-passed bill, (H.R. 2352), the Job Creation through Entrepreneurship Act of 2009.  Both measures await action in the U.S. Senate before either can become law.

Want to turn-around your business and achieve results in record time? Contact me to discuss Executive Coaching, Group Facilitation and Management for Hire services for technology companies. You can learn more at www.ricksalmon.com and at www.xelerator.com.

Rick Salmon is an energetic entrepreneur who believes that this beautiful world that we have created needs our help. Subscribe to this newsletter/blog to receive frequent updates and tips.

All professional athletes have coaches. No serious competitor would attempt to compete at peak level without one. A coach is not just another player or colleague; a coach is a specially trained person with a very specific role. A coach does not have to be a star athlete. Sometimes the best coaches were never really good at the sport. They have different skills. So why do athletes need a coach? Is there a real purpose that the coach fulfills? Is it really necessary?

Let’s look at what a (good) sports coach does:

• Assess the athlete’s overall strengths and weaknesses
• Be objective – give honest feedback aimed at improvement
• Design game tactics that favor the athlete’s strengths
• Create training exercises that strengthen the athlete’s weaknesses
• Track the athlete’s progress with training and exercise programs from month to month
• Design strategies for long-term improvement/mastery
• Recruit other specialists if needed
• Help the athlete set specific goals and outcomes (Gold Medal, World Champion, etc.)
• Keep the focus on the goals (removing any distractions)
• Offer encouragement in times of defeat
• Celebrate the victories!

COACHING ENTREPRENEURS:

There are entrepreneurs who succeed but there are many more that will never succeed. Just ask any investor. How do you pick the winners from the losers? Most investors will tell you that the most important aspect is the people involved in a startup. So what makes one entrepreneur more likely to succeed than others? It is the mind-set. It is the mental strength and determination of the entrepreneur that is usually the key deciding factor.

Coaching entrepreneurs is very similar to coaching athletes. Even natural sports talent needs to be developed. It rarely just happens on its own. The best entrepreneurs are not always those with the biggest IQs and the most distinguished PhDs.  They are, however, the ones that are observant, who listen carefully, who are willing to take good advice and who are quick to adapt and change.

Let’s look at what a (good) entrepreneur coach does:

• Assess the entrepreneur’s overall strengths and weaknesses
• Be objective – give honest feedback aimed at improvement
• Design business-development tactics that favor the entrepreneur’s strengths
• Create training exercises that strengthen the entrepreneur’s weaknesses
• Track the entrepreneur’s completion of goals from month to month
• Design strategies for long-term improvement/mastery
• Determine the ultimate outcomes/goals (IPO, exit, investors, etc.)
• Keep the focus on these outcomes (removing any distractions)
• Offer encouragement when there are setbacks
• Celebrate the victories!

Why hire an Entrepreneur Coach?

If you are a serious athlete, then you probably already have a coach. If you are a serious entrepreneur, then you owe it to yourself to explore this tool. I think you will be surprised how effective and also fun it can be. I have used many different coaches over the past 5 years. Each time I am embarking on an exciting new venture or entering into an especially challenging project or transition period, I hire a coach. It is great to have the help and guidance during these kind of periods. Sometimes I only use them for 3 months. The longest I have gone is 18 months with the same coach.

Put your startup company into to a new high gear. Challenge yourself to give 100% focus over the next 3 months and you will be amazed at how your business will change and prosper. If you are committed to your startup and if you have a sense of urgency about building your business, then sign up for a free trial session today. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

If you are not really serious about your startup business, if you do not whole-heartedly believe that you can and will succeed, then don’t bother with this.

Participating in an executive coaching program can be a very fulfilling and rewarding process. It is a time for you to reflect on your strengths, your past successes and also to identify areas of your life and business that you would like to enhance.

For many of our clients it becomes a major turning point in both their professional as well as their personal lives.  It is a great way to re-ignite your passion, to help to identify your purpose and to accelerate your growth quickly.

Want to learn more?  Try a free, no-obligation, no sales-pressure coaching session. Click here

• Success is the result of Good Judgment
• Good Judgment is the result of Experience
• Experience is the result of Bad Judgment

Have I learned anything after almost 20 years of doing startup companies? I try not to make the same mistakes more than at least 1 time. Today I sat down and decided to make a list of the most common mistakes that I (and other entrepreneurs) typically make.

1. Overestimating the market potential

I have been so sure about my products, and known that they would change people’s lives that I just couldn’t imagine not capturing at least 75% of the market…  OK, or at least 10% of the Chinese market.

2. Overestimating the necessity of my products or services

Not only will I capture that 75% of the market, but there is no way anyone can live without my products and services. They’d be fools not to line up at my door…right?

3. Falling in Love with my own Technology

I have this great, unique and patented technology that surely almost everyone will want.  The problem is that I haven’t yet figured out who will be willing to pay for it… Pushing a technology that is in search of a problem to solve is like pushing on a rope.

4. Creating Products not Markets

Technologies come and technologies go. Think of all the big, fancy new technologies that have appeared like a flash fire in a frying pan, then just disappeared. The technologies vaporize, but the markets usually last much longer. My new technology may solve a problem in a market. If I make an investment in getting to know this market well and in providing more solutions to other problems that this market has, then I will end up with a loyal market and a sustainable business, no matter what technologies come and go.

5. Creating revenue projections to make the numbers work

As entrepreneurs we usually believe so fully in our idea or business concept, that we often end up “tweaking” the numbers just a bit to validate our beliefs. It’s usually not intentional and seems harmless at the time to say “yeah, maybe we’ll get 3% of the market instead of 2%…yep, see now look how wildly successful this will be!”.  Or saying things like, “Nah, I really don’t think expenses will run at 30% of revenue…it’s probably more like 25%”.  Do your homework, make your projections as accurately as you can, then live with what the bottom line number tells you.

6. Trying to do it all myself

It is so easy to fall into the trap of trying to do it all. One of the key strengths of good entrepreneurs is that they are usually capable of doing lots of different things – and all relatively well. I am pretty good at lots of small business tasks (sales, marketing, social media, technology, finance, communication, negotiation, etc.), so I am often tempted to try to do it all myself. The problem is that I don’t have the time and pros usually do a better job (there is a reason they are professionals and I am not). Outsourcing tasks and building a team are key factors to accelerating business development… but not easy for most entrepreneurs like me.

7. Underestimating timelines

From idea conception to product launch in three months, no problem!  My rampant enthusiasm often leads me to believe that I can do things quicker than is humanly possible. It is good to set timelines that push the limits, but keep in mind what is realistic.

8. Believing that short term goals will lead to long term success

If I keep achieving my short-term goals, then I should be on the right track for the long term, right?  Not always. If I took the time to determine my long-term (3-5 years) goals and then mapped them to my short-term outcomes, then I am probably going in the right direction. Short-term goals without a long-term strategy is like driving in the dark with no map or GPS. If I can only see as far as my headlights reach, then I may end up going in circles forever.

9. Underestimating the competition

It’s often easy for me to think that I will be able to enter and dominate a market due to my superior business model and my flamboyant skills. It’s also pretty easy to underestimate the competition. The fact that they are already in the market gives them a big advantage. Respecting this fact causes me to get clever and to devise strategies to outthink and outperform the competition.

10. Forgetting to work ON my business instead of just working FOR it

Building a business is not the same as running one. These two things are not the same. I sometimes forget that my job as an entrepreneur is not to do all the work myself, but to be the strategist who puts in place systems that function and tasks that others can do. Building scalable and sustainable business is the goal. The majority of my work needs to be on how to grow then business, not on the actual doing.

This video shows the winner of “Ukraine ’s Got Talent”,  Kseniya Simonova, age 24,  drawing a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table. The story shows how ordinary people were affected by the German invasion during World War II.  Her talent, which admittedly is a strange one, is mesmeric to watch.

The images, projected onto a large screen, moved many in the audience to tears and she won the top prize of about $130,000.

• She begins by creating a scene showing a couple sitting holding hands on a bench under a starry sky, but then warplanes appear and the happy scene is obliterated.

• It is replaced by a woman’s face crying, but then a baby arrives and the woman smiles again. Once again war returns and Miss Simonova throws the sand into chaos from which a young woman’s face appears.

• She quickly becomes an old widow, her face wrinkled and sad, before the image turns into a monument to the Unknown Soldier.

• This outdoor scene becomes framed by a window as if the viewer is looking out on the monument from within a house.

• In the final scene, a mother and child appear inside and a man standing outside, with his hands pressed against the glass, saying goodbye.

• The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine , resulted in one in four of the population being killed with eight to 11 million deaths out of a population of 42 million.

Artist Kseniya Simonova says:

“I find it difficult to create art using paper and pencils or paintbrushes, but using sand and fingers is easier for me. The art…even brings some audience members to tears, and there’s surely no bigger compliment.”

Please take time out to see this amazing piece of art.

So what does creating sand art have to do with Entrepreneurship? Everything. Creating a painting or creating a business requires that you start with a vision, with a desire to do something, and with the courage to take action. The vision is not always 100% clear when you start, but by taking action – by taking the first step down a new path – you will open doors and discover new opportunities that you never dreamed were possible. My challenge to every artist and entrepreneur is to dare to take that first step.

- RICK

In order to keep my business afloat I need to be skilled with a number of different tasks such as: Marketing (including web, CMS, branding, advertising, social media, desktop publishing, copywriting…), Sales (including distribution models, negotiation, networking…), General Administration, HR & Personnel issues, Engineering, Legal issues, IP & Patents, Government reporting and compliance, etc.  The list is endless and each area requires some time and energy. How do you keep from going crazy?

In coaching entrepreneurs I often use a tool called a balance wheel. You start by identifying your most important areas of focus – whether it be with your business or with your life. For example, in my life I might pick the following 6 areas: health, wealth, family & friends, career, and charity. I then give each area a rating from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest). I then plot out a wheel with each of the values. Here is the wheel for my current business:

What does this wheel tell me? Nothing that I did not already know, but as with any graph or chart, it illustrates the imbalances between the areas. It reminds me that I need to devote more time to the development of technology, a team and administrative routines. This tool gets really useful when you track changes over time. When I return to this same exercise 3 months from now, it will be interesting to see how I have changed my perceptions and what sort of results I have achieved. This will make for a valuable discussion with my own personal coach.

To avoid becoming a Mad Hatter, I need to keep my focus on balancing all the different aspects of my job. If I am very successful in one area, yet I make a total mess of others, then it will cause me big problems. I need to achieve a good balance and create a wheel that is well-rounded and can be driven at high speeds without bumping or falling apart.

Would you like to try a free coaching session? Contact me today to set it up. Not only is it a lot of fun, but it may help you achieve that balance and avoid becoming an entrepreneur Mad Hatter.

Want to turn-around your business and achieve results in record time? Contact me to discuss Executive Coaching, Group Facilitation and Management for Hire services for technology companies. You can learn more at www.ricksalmon.com and at www.xelerator.com.

Rick Salmon is an energetic entrepreneur who believes that this beautiful world that we have created needs our help. Subscribe to this newsletter/blog to receive frequent updates and tips.