Welcome To Startup Students

It’s been 145 days since my last post, and contrary to what some of you might have thought I did not die a week after Thanksgiving 2007. I do admit to being a slacker though.

I always envisioned my last semester in college to be the easiest. I figured I would take a few classes and just coast through graduation. As it turned out, however, it was by far one of the toughest and busiest few months of my life. I’d like to take a few minutes to share with you some of my accomplishments and I promise to get back into posting quality content this week.

First off, as you might have surmised, I am graduating. In fact, this is finals week so I only have a few days of college left. I’ve been in school longer than the average student – since summer 2002 actually – but I have loved every minute of it.

Beyond school, it has been a banner year thus far for my web development company, Brett Adams Design LLC. I’ve had the pleasure of working with a variety of clients transcending numerous industries. Later this week I plan on profiling a couple of them – at least one of which could be integral in the development of the next great Student Start Up.

And while business is going great, after much thought I’ve determined that getting some real world experience of my own is integral to my long term success as an entrepreneur. After a couple months of searching for the perfect fit, I have accepted a position at New York based startup Yodle.com. Yodle is a leading provider of local online advertising that provides businesses with a simple and affordable way to get more phone calls.

That being said, I will be moving to NYC in about three weeks and I start my new position in June. I look forward to the new experience and promise to keep you in the loop through this blog. Thanks again to those who have stuck around in my absence and welcome to the new readers. Class dismissed!

I’ll be taking some time off from working, studying, and blogging for the next couple days and I hope you get to as well. Happy Thanksgiving, and best wishes – I’ll be back Monday!

Class dismissed.

This is a quick tip I picked up in class recently, and I thought I’d share it with you.  It’s similar to other strategies I’ve discussed for different aspects of your small business, but in this case we’re applying the techniques to your target customer.  It’s pretty simple and even somewhat enjoyable.

By profiling your customers, things inevitably become easier.  You’ll even discover a few “invisible” customers you didn’t even know were lurking.  The technique I’d like to share with you involves building a target market collage.

• Look through old general interest magazines, industry publications, and those you think your target audience would read.  Cut out twenty of so pictures, phrases, and quotes that seem to represent your target customer.
• Come up with a list of your target customer’s favorites.  Include TV shows, movies, dining options, hobbies, mucic, books, URL’s, etc.
• Combine these into a collage

Sounds kinda corny but it helps you to start thinking “outside the box” – opening your eyes to alternative thoughts about your target.  It’s also good to stimulate the “other” side of your brain for a variety of reasons.

Again, quick post today but I just thought some of you might be interested in giving this a shot.  Class dismissed.

Good evening startup students.  Sorry about the lack of posting, I’ve been crazy busy with school, work. and my startup’s business plan.  And that’s what lead me to writing this post.  Let me quickly take you back in time to last Saturday.

Things were going great, readership on Startup Students has really picked up, school was going well, and all my clients were at bay.   I took Sunday off, then Monday rolled around.  That’s when things started spinning out of control.  I had two finals this week and needed to complete my 45 page business plan in addition to putting together a 20 minute presentation.  On top of that I was hit with two rush order projects that absolutely had to be completed according to their schedule.

I managed to survive, but was forced to neglect this blog in the process.  In fact, I think things worked out okay because I’m still getting great responses to last Friday’s post.  At any rate, today I’d like to talk about geting your priorities in order – including  saving time to accomodate for urgent or surprise issues.  Below are a few points to thing about.

• Maintain a calendar.  You can use Outlook, an online equivalent, or regular old paper.  I use a combination of Mozilla Sunbird and Notepad.  Before I go to bed I scribble down the next day’s priorities.  No particular order, I just try and get everything down.  In the morning I’ll take a look at my list and prioritize based on a couple of factors, namely urgency and value.

Keeping a schedule and not just going at things blindly is really the only advice I should need to offer, but here’s a few more…

• Ignore time wasting activities.  Stay away from your inbox, or instant messenger.  Turn off the tv and iTunes, focus on the task at hand.  It’s really amazing how much time this will save you, enough time in fact to actually enjoy those time wasters at a later point.
• Don’t bite off more than you can chew – unless you can handle keeping it down and not letting it spew all over the floor.  Don’t get me wrong, have a full plate is great – in fact I think I get more done because of it.  But there comes a point of diminishing returns where it simply doesn’t make since to take on any more assignments.
  • One option here is outsourcing.  It’s a technique I employ and it’s highly recommended.  In the coming weeks I’ll be talking about it more.
• I’m betting a good portion of you are perfectionists in at least one aspect of your life.  It’s appropriate to be a perfectionist at some things, spelling and grammar come to mind, but in general it’s a complete waste of time.   I picked up one of my clients because their previous developer was too caught up in assuring his code was 100% perfect and in turn neglected what the clients really wanted – fast and reliable service.
• Remember to resist the temptation to do small and tedious tasks extremely well, it’s the big picture that counts.  This goes hand in hand with the above point.
• Nobody ever said you have to please everybody, and in fact nobody expects you to (other than your professors maybe).

I’ve got a few more pointers tucked away, but I’ll save them for another day.  Don’t forget to share this post with others if you enjoyed it and I look forward to everyone’s comments.  Class dismissed.

We can broadly allocate young entrepreneurs into two distinct categories – Artisan (Jack) and Opportunistic (Jill).

Both parties have met the characteristics of startup students as defined in my earlier posts, however both have chosen a different direction of the crossroads every young entrepreneur inevitably faces. Let’s take a look at Jack the Artisan first:

1. He has sufficient technical training
   1. He’s fairly skilled at fetching a pale of water
2. He takes a paternalistic approach
   1. Jack invites Jill along for the journey
3. Reluctance to delegate
   1. He’ll bring Jill along for the ride, but doesn’t have the foresight to enlist her service
4. Ill-defined strategy
   1. Let’s face hit, Jack broke his crown so the plan wasn’t that well though out
5. Takes a personal sales approach
6. Plans for the short term
7. Lacks a sophisticated record keeping system

I apologize for running out of Jack and Jill analogies, but you get the point. Jack is a great candidate for a “lifestyle” business – one where he’ll see limited potential and limited returns, but will do well enough to lead the lifestyle he desires.

Let’s take a look at our other budding entrepreneur, Jill the Opportunist. She’ll be taking a more focused approach with hopes of high returns and high potential in her next venture.

1. She has a broad education
2. Takes a rational approach
3. Has no problem delegating assignments
4. Possesses a well defined strategy
5. Takes a diversified approach to marketing efforts
6. Plans for the long haul
7. Utilizes sophisticated accounting measures and makes accurate projections

So there you have it, the two broad entrepreneurial types. I hope you strive for the Opportunistic approach, but please don’t think there is anything wrong with having a lifestyle business – they’re perfect for some people. In fact, in the coming months we’ll discuss some of the options available to these individuals such as franchising and home based businesses (but don’t think I wont try and convince you to take that business opportunity and apply it to a high growth model).

That’s all for now, class dismissed.

I’d like to expand a bit on yesterday’s post with a little more detail on the intrinsic characteristics of startup students.

• Succesful young entrepreneurs see commercial opportunities everywhere they look
  • And the key here is they don’t just leave it at that – they capitalize on them.
• They tend to be extremely optimistic
  • Some might see this as a fault, but it’s my opinion that a pessimist walks around with their eyes shut and won’t have a chance to find those opportunities.

I think Mark Twain put it best years ago,

“I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one”

We can break down the characteristics even further into four distinct attributes. You’ll find some overlap from yesterday’s discussion here:

1. A sincere need for achievement
2. A desire to take risks (and I don’t mean you should to be a gambler)
3. Extreme self confidence
4. An finally passion along with a healthy dose of enthusiasm

That’s all for now, tomorrow we’ll examine the differences between two types of entrepreneurs. Class dismissed!

When determining if you have what it takes to become the next great startup student, it’s a good idea to check which characteristics you have. Heres the top 10 from both sides of the aisle.

Top 10 Killer Factors (the bad ones):

1. Weak Personality
2. The Loner Syndrome
3. Cash Flow Troubles
4. Lack of Marketing Strategies
5. Lack of Control
6. No Plan
7. Associate with the Wrong Crowd
8. Not Enough Financial Backing
9. Underestimating your Competition
10. Lack of Focus on your Core Idea

And now for the Top 10 Success Factors of young entrepreneurs:

1. A Willingness to Succeed
2. Self Confidence
3. Understands the Competition
4. Uses a Targeted Marketing Strategy
5. Clear Idea for their next Startup
6. Healthy Managerial Support
7. Cooperates well with Others
8. Well Structured in Life and Business
9. Keeps Close Tabs on Finances
10. The Business Plan

#10 is a biggie, and we’ll will discuss it in depth over the coming months with tips and strategies, templates, research, and everything else you’ll need when developing the plan for your startup.

If you possess a few (or many) of the Killer Characteristics (remember – those are the bad ones) don’t worry, you’re not alone! I just ask you to make a concise effort to move towards the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs.

Class dismissed, see you tomorrow!

Well, I don’t know about you, but I never took a test on the first day of class. Don’t worry though, this one isn’t graded. Here is a quick four question test to see if you’ve got the goods when it comes to being a startup student.

1. Determine the difference between what you want to do in life (and business) and what you’re good at. Make a quick list of your skillset and hold onto that for future reference.
   
2. What drives you to succeed and what gives you satisfaction in your daily life?
3. Determine your values and priorities. Looking ahead, what values and priorities do you want to establish for your new venture? Can you find any differences between the two?
4. Having measured these differences, do you have what it takes to overcome those differences?

Life and business overlap – especially for young entrepreneurs. Knowing the difference between your own personal values and those of your future startup is essential to the success of your next venture as a student startup.

Class dismissed, see you back here tomorrow!