Raising Equity and Venture Capital on Main Street

I first read The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber about a decade ago  and since then re-read it often as  a seminal book on  entrepreneurship. Its basic premise is that an entrepreneur needs to be able to work on, rather than in, her business. As long as she is a "technician" (for example, a bakery owner who bakes the cookies in her bakery) she will never become a CEO able to spend time on opportunities like expanding the number of bakeries she owns.
I bought into this common-sense philosophy for years because I could see it at play in  my own small business where, at times,  I did or was involved in every aspect of the business. E-Myth was my guide to avoiding that trap.
Until a few weeks ago when I finished Seth Godin's new book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable.
In it, Godin lays out a blueprint for a new definition […]

Hey, will you help me with a project? I want to write more about how small business entrepreneurs succeed. So tell me: what's the ONE thing about your business that enables you to make it. Perhaps it's the unique niche you fill. Maybe it's your way of keeping costs really low. Or charging very high prices. Tell me your ONE thing so I can share it with others. Email me at entrepreneurs.guide(at)about.com and be sure to put MY ONE THING in the subject line.
What's Your Entrepreneurial "One Thing?" originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Sunday, March 28th, 2010 at 13:25:10.
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John Warrillow,  author of Built to Sell, a great book on how to make sure your business will be in good shape for a sale when you're ready to turn over the keys, has used his book platform to give back in a great way.  John is working with micro-lending facilitator Kiva.org to help third-world entrepreneurs succeed.  His goal is ambitious: Over the next 20 years, he wants to loan $100 million to business owners around the world.  If you're an entrepreneur, please consider helping other entrepreneurs who have a lot less to work with.  Visit John's site for details.
Entrepreneurs Helping Entrepreneurs originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Friday, March 26th, 2010 at 12:38:53.
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About.com invited entrepreneurs to reveal what made their small businesses unique and the lessons they'd learned (the hard way) as a result of being in business. Eight-five business owners responded with profiles of their companies, heart-felt stories of years of struggle before important breakthroughs, and solid pointers for everyone looking to make it in their own business. We recently published 17 lessons learned. Here are 17 more great lessons from people who have been there and done that.
17 More Hard-Learned Lessons from Entrepreneurs originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Friday, March 26th, 2010 at 11:15:23.
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Do you have a coach?
I do. I think entrepreneurs who own small businesses need a professional, certified, experienced coach to help them think, plan and take action. I've worked with coaches for the past eight years or so, and it costs some money. But it has paid for itself many times over because these professionals helped me refine my ideas and motivated me into action.
How do you choose a coach?
First, find someone who is a Professional or Master Certified Coach recognized by the International Coach Federation as having passed a rigorous course of study, testing and evaluation. Everyone (and everyone's mother) these days is calling herself a coach. Out of work sales manager? In 20 minutes you can print some business cards that say you're a sales coach. Used to be a human resources manager? Now you're a career coach. Went to college? Now you're a coach for recent college […]

Recently, About.com  invited entrepreneurs to tell us what made their small businesses unique. We also asked them to tell us the lessons they'd learned (the hard way) as a result of being in business. Eight-five business owners responded with profiles of their companies, heart-felt stories of years of struggle before important breakthroughs, and solid pointers for everyone looking to make it in their own business. I've been poring over the profiles, and especially the lessons. Here are some great lessons (and more to come) from people who have been there and done that.

Regardless of how brilliant or sophisticated the strategy, it has little value if not adopted and implemented.
Creativity is enabled at the intersection of Freedom and Passion streets.
More time spent in user testing could have saved us time in the long run, because it would have allowed us to catch our mistakes and get ahead of them. Haste makes […]

Having recently published a book on how to know if franchising is right for you after your corporate career, I am a collector of the stories of people making good on the franchise dream. How are they doing it?
Matt Slappey of Decatur, Ga., a franchisee of Murphy Business Brokers. Matt was a sales executive at Pfizer for 12 years-a successful one who made his numbers. But the anxiety of being powerless in corporate America took its toll on him. "We had layoffs every 18 months. I was once laid off and rehired on the same day!" He was tired of having "meetings about having meetings." Finally, he quit-no layoff, no severance, no stock options.
He took a few months to soul-search. He decided he wanted the "potential to make a ton of money without having a lot of employees to manage." He bought his business brokerage franchise about two […]

I was five minutes early for the train into Manhattan this morning so I crossed the street to stop into the deli. The place has changed owners over the years. First it was the Pot Belly Deli, then Brooklyn Paul's Deli, now it's Patti's Deli.
Patti greeted me warmly, "Hi, young man." I like her already! I asked for a whole wheat bagel, and she dug around the big bag of bagels delivered earlier in the morning. "We always get one whole wheat." Sure enough, there it was. She lightly buttered it as I asked, wrapped it, and then I heard a light thunk sound — a stamp being applied to the bagel wrapping. "Made with ♥."
I commented on how nice that was, and she said with a warm smile, "Everything here is made with love." And I believe her. I then noticed her cute logo shirt with an embroidered porky-pig type […]

I recently posted a review of John Warrillow's excellent book, Built to Sell, which is about how to create a business that another party will want to buy.  We received a lot of reaction from business owners and others, and attorney James C. Roberts III, Esq. of Global Capital Law Group PC offered some helpful hints for those small business owners in the process of negotiating to sell their business. Here are his tips.
1. Know When to Fold 'Em: Everyone should have what is called a BATNA–Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement,  also known as  a walkaway point. Be prepared to walk away. If the business seller does not want that, then he or she should have a floor price — which would be another way of having a walkaway point.
2. Use a Licensed Broker: If the seller is using a business broker, make sure that he or she is […]

 
While doing some research, I came across an article in the New York Times and I was struck by a problem I see all the time in business (and in life in general): our difficulty communicating clearly with others. The article was about an American baseball manager who's training the Chinese Olympic baseball team. He tells them:
"If you hit it here,"… acting as if he were hitting a ball after it passed his body, "you drive a Chevy. If you hit it here," he said, pretending to hit the ball as it crossed the middle of the plate, "you drive a Cadillac. But if you hit it here," he said, pretending to connect a smidgen earlier, "you're in a Rolls-Royce with a chauffeur! Get it? That's how much money they have. They don't count it, they weigh it!"
They had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. Despite the interpreter.
The […]