Monthly Archives: August 2016

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Mentorship: 8 Tips on Finding the Right Mentor

This mentorship post is a continuation of my series on young entrepreneurs.  If you haven’t read Part 1 & Part 2, click here:  Where to start as a young entrepreneur – Part 1 and 12 Startup tips for a young entrepreneur – Part 2

Mentorship is the oldest form of education.  As a young entrepreneur, you need a mentor to take you to the next level.

Why do you need a mentor?
Mentorship is the oldest form of education.  As a young entrepreneur, you need a mentor to take you to the next level. The mentor of your choosing has one thing that you still don’t. Experience. A good mentor can challenge you to think thoughts that might have never occurred to you before.

A good mentor has a network of professionals and friends who you might stand to benefit from. In the worst scenario, a mentor can act as your personal cheerleader and coach. They can provide praise and clap for you when nobody else will. The old quote servers true here: “Pay close attention to people who don’t clap when you win”

Common mistakes young entrepreneurs make when seeking mentorship:
1) The mentor will find me.
2) I have to ask him/her out to be my mentor.
3) My mentor will buy me lunch / coffee / food / gifts because they already made it.
4) Mentorship isn’t something you get; it’s something you do.
5) The first mentor I meet has to be my mentor!

1) Find someone you look up to.
Mentorship is always about the person and not about the money or the lifestyle. I know so many people who try to leech on to take advantage of “perks” that the mentor has worked a lifetime to achieve. Your mentor should have qualities as a person that you feel are valuable to you and you can learn from. Ask questions of yourself that you feel your mentor should guide you with. Here are a few samples:
a) What do I need to learn from my mentor?
b) How often would I like to meet with my mentor?
c) What are my weakest points that my mentor can work with me on?
d) What am I really good at that my mentor can benefit from?

2) Study your new mentor.
Take the time to study your mentor. Ask questions that will help you with understanding how they do things. Understand everything you can about how they conduct business and the process they use for business transactions. By transaction, it could be a phone call, an actual sale, a networking event, a new agreement, etc. If they have a blog, or a website that they journal in, make sure you read it and understand everything before you meet with them and ask questions.  Nothing shows your preparedness level more than asking a question that your mentor just recently wrote a blog about.  Do your homework to avoid the embarrassment.

Mentorship Quote

3) Lifeguard.
Your mentor is not your lifeguard. Don’t go swimming into $120,000 in debt then call your mentor for advice. If they weren’t a part of getting you in the hole, the expectation can’t be for them to get you out of the hole. Go ahead, ask for advice, but keep the expectation at advice and not a life line.  The value of a mentor will keep you out of the dangers of rising waters; granted, you want to be kept out.

4) Let the relationship grow.
Look for someone who you feel comfortable with and can relate to. You want a mentor who can easily answer an e-mail or answer a text message without treating you like an interruption of their time. Your comfort level should include the ability to sit at a coffee shop or at a lunch date with your mentor and not feel intimidated or belittled. Your ability to get comfortable with your mentor will actually take the pressure off the mentor to be open and candid with you.  Keep watering the relationship with your mentor.  The closer you become to your mentor the more likely they are to bring you into their circle.

5) Feedback.
Your expectation should be for your mentor to be brutally honest with you. Most mentors are successful entrepreneurs who run their own network of businesses. They don’t have the time to sit back and sugar coat every piece of advice they give you. I recently had a mentor of mine look at a new pricing structure I have been working on for my company; his response to my e-mail was “work harder…” – I don’t need anything more from him than to send me back to my drawing board to make it better. Of course, when we do our meeting, he will give me more feedback but the expectation is for me to work harder to be ready for that meeting so I don’t waste his time.

6) Take. Give, Give, Give.
Most mentors will be “repaid” for their mentorship by your success. They want nothing more than to see you make it. Just because mentors know how to be humble doesn’t mean you are off the hook! Find ways to give. Find ways to add value.  Sometimes you can spring for lunch, sometimes you can buy coffee. If you actually spend the time to get to know your mentor (read tip #2), you should have a good idea of how or what you can do to provide value. Gratitude is key.

7) Commitment.
Be mentor worthy. If you pickup nothing more, pickup that one piece.  Be mentor worthy.  Anyone willing to help you and spend time with you wants to make sure they spend their time wisely. I have been stuck in situations before where I give advice to someone and they clearly go the opposite direction, no problem.  However, don’t come back and ask for more advice for the road that you traveled and expect me to change my advice up to fit into your decision. Don’t waste anyone’s time if you aren’t ready to be mentored.

8) There can be only one.
Once you land that all important mentor, what do you do? Now get another one! You aren’t limited to any number of mentors. If you do your homework and are really honest with yourself, this portion becomes easier. If you know your shortcomings, it is easy to utilize mentors in every aspect of what you are trying to achieve. Look at the big picture… a “Board of Directors” is actually a board of mentors for the organization they serve.

There is no right or wrong time to get a mentor.  My advice to you, is to get one now.  It is the single most important thing you can do to help your business grow.

This is a good read when it comes to making mentors work for you:

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12 Startup Tips for a Young Entrepreneur – Part 2

This is a continuation of my series on young entrepreneurs.  If you haven’t read Part 1, click here:  Where to start as a young entrepreneur – Part 1

Entrepreneur

Founding a startup as a young entrepreneur gets difficult if you don’t know where you are going.  This guide will help you get started.

In the last week, I have had several people ask me for a list of requirements that I felt were important.  I complied a list, and here it is in no particular order:  

1. Focus.  Refocus.  Focus again.  
When building your entrepreneur empire, your thoughts are always to jump at every opportunity that comes your way.  Every opportunity you hear about, you see dollar signs.  Don’t let false hope and false dollar signs derail you from your business goal.  The more time you spend investigating each opportunity, the more time you have to spend to get the train back on track, the more time you lost focusing on your business.  Do one thing and do it well.  Its better to be 100% proficient on one thing vs. being 10% proficient on 10 things.  Most failed startups are the direct result of spreading too thin and being greedy when it comes to opportunities.

2. Purpose, not money.  
Simple answer?  Add value.  Find ways to give and to add value to peoples lives.  The money will come once you become a value to someone.  Sit down and truly evaluate your ability to add value and what you can offer to clients that others can’t.  If you are a personal trainer, what sets you apart from the other 102,302 trainers living in your area?  What do you do better?  Put yourself in the client’s shoe… why would I hire myself to train me?  Find the value… Warren Buffet says “You should focus on building a customer base, reputation, recognition, and loyalty.  Money follows after.” 

3. Be frugal. 

Remember that $600 chair you saw at Office Depot?  With the lumbar support and mesh backing so you don’t sweat on a hot summer day… Yeah, that one.  DON’T BUY IT!  You don’t need office space, you don’t need a brand new laptop, you don’t need a fancy chair.  All of the above can be accomplished at a Starbucks with a pair of earphones.  You want your cash to be in your account for as long as possible.  Watch every dollar and triple check every expense.  Will this expense help your business get to the next level?  If the answer is maybe, the answer is no.

4. Pitch.
Sometimes known as an “elevator pitch” – logic:  If you were an entrepreneur in an elevator, and a high level CEO walks in, you have until he gets off the elevator to convince him/her to purchase your product or to convert to your services.  What would you tell him/her?  You have about 25-30 seconds to give them your pitch and convince them that you are IT!  Work on this, practice this, try it in front of a mirror, work on it some more.  Yours took 31 seconds?  That took too long.  Work again.

I have looked around for some time and found this website to be the most detailed with helping examples to help put your entrepreneur pitch together: Creating an Elevator Pitch

5. Don’t flatter yourself.
Make sure you can deliver what you promise.  Don’t fall victim to your own false promises.  Don’t exaggerate the truth or your previous accomplishments.  There is always a way for people to find out.  More times than not, they find out and your reputation goes down the drain.  Your reputation is so much more important than the cash in your wallet.  Guard it with everything you have!

6. Hold yourself true to your brand.
Remember the old commercial for FedEx?  Absolutely, positively by 11am.  11:01am would be unacceptable.  Whatever you promise, you have to work day and night to make sure you deliver on time.  Your brand reputation is riding on your ability to make promises and deliver promises.

 

Entrepreneur 12 tips

7. Build relationships.
You have to do the foot work.  Sitting behind your Social media persona and posting about how wonderful you are will only get you so far.  If you want people to buy your product, or buy into your services you need to go to them and preach to them.  The more relationships you build, the more people you have out there who are vouching for you.  The more people who vouch for you, the more opportunities will arise from your relationships.   The trick here is to build your network of relationships before you actually need it.

You can read more on building relationships here:  Secrets to Business Relationships


8. 3’s a crowd in the kitchen.
A lot of entrepreneur sites recommend finding a co-founder to start a business with.  There are many benefits to this theory including splitting responsibilities and costs.  With 2 or 3 of you, it is easier to grow and reach more people in less time.  My rule of thumb is that if you have 3 cooks in the kitchen, somewhere, sometime, the food isn’t going to be perfect.  Also, remember $100 profit, split into 3 pockets is $33 per person.  

9. Make sure it makes cents.
I spoke to someone this morning who spent $300 a month marketing his brand on Facebook.  He has a small business in Pasadena, Ca; he budgeted $300 / month using Facebook ads.  The problem?  He marketed his company to a nationwide audience. 

He has a small family owned coffee shop.  Why would anyone drive from Washington to drink coffee in Pasadena?  What if you are driving through town?  Then your radius marketing of 5 miles will nail them!  Free advertising from yelp! is more valuable in this case than $300 a month from Facebook.  Make sure you know where you are spending your money and what the return on your money is.  If you spend $300 a month on advertising, how many cups of coffee do you need to sell to break even?  Is your goal to break even or just bring people in the doors and hope they become lifelong friends?

10. Take advice, but not that advice.
The old saying “Are you the smartest guy in the room?  If so, you are in the wrong room” comes true again.  While you are new, you have to surround yourself with people who have been there and done that before.  You need people to give you advice, to bounce ideas off of, to help proofread information, to help plan next step goals, etc.  You need people.  As you start to get better, you will realize that the more you do, the more success you find, the more people line up to give you free advice.  I like to listen to all advice because I never know what I’m going to love.  I take everything with a grain of salt and perform my own analysis on the advice.  Sometimes, it’s brilliant!  Other times, it’s trash!  My brain does the processing, but my gut is what leads me. 

11. Get another job.
Welcome to entrepreneurship!  As a young entrepreneur you should sit back, relax, and wait for the money to come rolling in!  WRONG!  You have expenses… business expenses, personal expenses, etc.  The money has to come from somewhere to help ends meet until your startup matures.  You need a job to help pay for your startup.  I’m not telling you to go work somewhere just to waste some time and bring home a paycheck.  I want you to strategically go work somewhere that will help your startup grow:
1.  Learn how others are marketing in your industry.
2.  Learn how much they charge.
3.  Learn how they maintain relationships.
4.  Learn what types of relationships they abandon. 

The more you can learn, the less mistakes you will make on your own dime.  The best part about this model is that someone else is paying you to learn these lessons through their business.  

The downside:  Make sure you don’t get so focused on your job that you forget to focus on your business.  You need to find a happy balance between the two for this to work.  At the end of the day, you are making a honest wage and must pull your weight to keep your job.

12. Feedback.
The customer is NOT always right, and neither are you!  I recently had one of my top 5 clients decide to leave us and join a partnership with another IT company who was open 24/7/365.  In my last call with them, we went over all the access passwords and server locations.

In order to turn a negative into a positive, I asked them to send me a list of things that they felt we fell short on.  The immediate response I received was that they didn’t want to throw mud back and forth between us.  I lost my cool a little bit and replied with a harsh “I understand, but I would love to know what ways I can take care of my existing clients better” – the next morning, I had a list of 12 things they felt we could have done better in our time together.  Some of them were absurd, but others were so on point that we changed our internal procedure the very next day.  Sometimes feedback is brutal, but it’s the only way to get better.

Want more tips?  How about 6 tools every entrepreneur should use in their business?  

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Where to Start as a Young Entrepreneur – Part 1

I got a random text message from someone I had crossed paths with a few years back… It was so random that I had to pull the “Sorry, new phone.. who’s this?” – introductions aside, he got straight to the point and asked if I would be willing to listen to him and his business ideas.  Me listening turned into a 3 hour conversation on launching his business. 

In the next 3 days, two more people called me for similar type conversations.  

I figure if I get 3 calls in a matter of 3 days, there has to be more people looking for this information, (aha! moment) I will document this journey with my 3 new entrepreneurs so everyone can benefit from our conversations.  

We spoke about:  

1. Passion.
How in love are you with your business idea?  How much time do you spend thinking about it?  How much true passion do you have for that line of work?  (Queue Confucius)  “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life” 

Picture this:  You’ve had a very rough week but a very productive week.  You busted your ass all week and closed some major sales and made some nice money.  It’s now Friday afternoon at 2pm, are you exhausted from your work week?  Are you tired and ready to go to a bar to drink with the guys?  Did you just post TGIF on your Facebook page?  Or do you keep chugging along to finish the week off even stronger?  I know it’s very superficial, but understand the concept and not the example.  

So if I have Passion, I can make it as an entrepreneur?  No.  You need more.  Keep reading.  

2.  Work.
We are all lazy.  I’ll say it again.  We are all lazy.  Give us all a way to do the least amount of work, while earning as much money as possible…. This model will ensure your failure as an entrepreneur.  Every day, every time.  

Let’s break it down a little more.  How much work is enough?  How much do I need to work?  Most successful entrepreneurs will tell you that if you aren’t hitting the 60 hours a week mark, you aren’t working hard enough. One of my favorite bloggers, Neil Patel openly states that he works 60 to 80 hours a week.

We talk about putting in the work; everyone is always game.  Everyone always says I am willing to put in the work… Nobody imagines how much work 60 to 80 hours a week is until they do it for a week.  Still wondering why entrepreneurs are such a special breed of people? 

Entrepreneurs are willing to work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week. -Lori Greiner


3.  Brainstorm.
Grab your notebook and jot down all of your thoughts on your new business.  Jot down ideas, opportunities, strengths, weaknesses, threats, competition, everything.  

Sketch visuals of your website.  How will it look?  Where will the information go?  How will it flow?  What type of content will you have on the front page?  How will people contact you?  What do you want them to know about you?  

This should be long; it should be a work in progress.  I keep a notebook by my bed incase I have a brilliant moment at 3am while I am feeding milk to my 1-year-old.  

The secret to writing notes down is that there is no right or wrong.  Just write, jot, draw, and sketch.  When you review later, you can always cross things out or move things to new sections.  The rule is, there are no rules.  Develop a system that works for you.  

4.  Website.
You need a .com for your business.  I know you can buy a .net, .tv, .rocks, etc.  You need a .com.  Instant credibility.  

Lately, I have been recommending to everyone to go look through thousands of WordPress Templates online and find one that fits the model they liked during the Brainstorm stage.  Find one that flows like you had envisioned.  Can’t find one that works?  That means you lied during the Work stage.  Put in the work, you’ll find it.

Themes are fairly inexpensive and are great for keeping costs down while creating a presence online.  Why is an online presence necessary?  Read this:  6 Reasons Why Your Small Business NEEDS a Website

5.  Brand-Awareness.
Everyone’s favorite section.  Go create your social media pages.  Go! 

Which platform works for your business? 

Google+: 2,500 Million users
Facebook:  1,590 Million users
Tumblr:  555 Million users
Instagram:  400 Million users
Twitter:  320 Million users
Snapchat:  200 Million users
Pinterest:  100 Million users
LinkedIn:  100 Million users 

Protip:  Don’t use one of those account linkage things that allows you to post on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at the same time.  If a client is looking at your social media pages to validate you as a business, seeing the same post across all platforms looks lazy and unplanned.  

Reminder:  Be passionate about your work, but not putting in the work will turn your passion into your work.  

Related Article:  6 Must Have Tools to Start Your Startup

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4 Ways to Make a Good Logo a GREAT Logo

What makes a great logo? If I had to answer this question in one word, my answer would be: Simplicity, and you will notice how many times that word comes up today. However, just that one word is an extremely vague answer, so let’s go into some detail to clarify exactly what goes into a great logo.

1. Simple.

Let’s continue off with the idea of simplicity. A logo should be easy to recognize and also appealing to the eyes. If your logo has crazy artwork and designs, whether it be in many different colors or not, it becomes hard to look at. Even more so, it becomes hard to recognize if you were to see it a few weeks later. A simple logo is not only pleasing to look at but will also be easy to remember as well. Just remember, when designing a logo memorability and simplicity go hand-in-hand.

Here is a great example of a company moving towards a simpler logo design.

Starbucks 1971

1971

Starbucks 2015

2015

2. Timeless.

Another aspect of making a good logo should be its effectiveness to last through the years. That being said, this does not mean that there should never be changes or updates made to your logo. Times change after all, what was appealing to the people in the 1950’s is not the same as what appeals to people now. When I was first getting into design, I saw numerous blogs with the same idea of timelessness and all the blogs I read had a picture of the Pepsi logo throughout the years next to ONE Coca-Cola logo that supposedly hadn’t changed since 1985. This is simply untrue. Both companies made changes towards simplicity and memorability, which resulted in the effectiveness of their logos throughout the years. The actual chart comparing Coca-Cola and Pepsi can be found here.

3. Functional.

In order for your logo to be functional in any aspect you choose to use it in, then it must be SIMPLE. Yes, that word again. Adding shadow or gradient effects may look great on the background you are working on, but how will it work once moved to a different setting? Your logo should have the ability to swap between white and black backgrounds, be printed on T-shirts or made into stickers with no extra hassle. A functional logo should be one that is capable of being promoted in any which way you choose.

4. Communication.

Your logo should be a representation of your company. However, do not confuse that statement as an invitation to be cliché. Being able to differentiate the two will help you create an effective logo. Lastly, your logo should be marketable not in just one area or targeted audience but everywhere, while still being appropriate.

Understanding the difference between these four things while still being able to incorporate them into your design will be the deciding factor between a good logo and a GREAT logo.