Monthly Archives: February 2010

Feb24

Sometimes you need a swift kick in the pants

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Sometimes you need a swift kick in the pants

A few weeks ago I wrote about “Failing better”, and apparently the “Powers-that-Be” assumed I needed to exercise that advice again, and so at this writing I am regrouping and taking stock after the company I worked for – a start-up – shut down.

The average lifetime of a new company is about 2 years, and so this one lived an average lifetime.  And while I am looking for the next great adventure I have a few moments to review what I have learned in this experience, and to share that learning with you:

  1. Enjoy the team you work with – sometimes I think I am drawn to a gig purely because I am supposed to meet and learn from someone else who is going to be there.  In this particular case, I made some long lasting friendships, and we created some wonderful memories of working together that I would not trade.
  2. Appreciate the challenges.   I believe that I learn more quickly under the pressure of fixing something or solving a problem with limitations.  I think we all learn to become more innovative, more flexible and more able to move in and out of “the box” when we are challenged to do so.  I learned an enormous amount about social media, researching start-ups, and best uses of tools for collaborating with an off-shore team in the last few months due mostly to the extraordinary need to do so on a shoestring and as quickly as possible.
  3. Communicate communicate communicate.  When you are very busy, you can forget just how important it is to communicate with others who are very busy.  It isn’t just important, it is imperative if you are to survive in business.  This is something I will continue to strive to do BETTER.
  4. Take time off. This is something I wish I had done more of…since I was pretty much available and doing work seven days a week often more than 10 hours a day for the last two years… I missed a funeral because we had a release going into production – and I truly wish that I had taken care of that and other personal types of business rather than making the company my number one priority. That time will never be recaptured, and it is my only regret in the whole experience.

What’s next?  I am open to possibilities and also think I will be heading towards doing things I have passion around, and hoping that the $$’s will follow.  I will continue learning and sharing information about business development and business networking – and lessons learned as a consultant and as an employee.  I love to share what I learn and I am grateful for the opportunity to do so.

I view this as a “swift kick in the pants” and will get it in gear.  Hope to hear from you, and thanks for continuing to follow the blog.

Cheers,

Natalia

Feb15

Writing a Great Resume: Principles for Technical Professionals by Liz Klein

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Writing a Great Resume: Principles for Technical Professionals by Liz Klein

Your skills, talents and experience are as unique as your fingerprints.  No one else has your mind, your aspirations, and your way of seeing the world.  The purpose of a resume is to present yourself effectively to a prospective employer, to showcase yourself as the valuable professional you are.

The following suggestions are intended to guide you through the process of creating an excellent resume and finding the position you are seeking.

Step One: Spend some time thinking about where you want to go.  Then write a descriptive paragraph that highlights your key strengths and skills that make you valuable to an employer.

Most of the people I interview have some idea of where they want to go in their careers.  It’s difficult to get where you want to go if you don’t know where that it is!  Not knowing your career objective is like setting out on a vacation with no itinerary, just wandering here and there, without goals or plans, and without a timetable.  That may be okay for a vacation, if you like traveling in that fashion, but it can lead to much frustration in your career.

If you’ve been downsized, all of your former plans have been altered, and your initial reaction may be fear.  I would encourage you to view this change as an opportunity to move towards something better.

There is no longer any “job security” in the old-fashioned sense.  Rather, security comes from keeping skills strong and up-to-date.  We all need to pay attention to the marketplace, because technology is constantly changing.  We will need to become life-long learners to succeed.

Most of us are very busy on a day-to-day basis.  The tyranny of the urgent can easily keep us so occupied that we forget to plan ahead for the important steps we want to take.  I firmly believe that sitting down on a periodic basis (at least twice a year) and writing out goals for different areas of our lives can help us move in the right direction.  You may have unexpected detours, but if you know your desired destination, you will get there.

Here are some questions to help you compose a good descriptive paragraph:

Do you want to move to a new level with your next position?  For example, if you are a Software Engineer, are you looking for a team lead or Senior Software Engineer position?

Are you attempting to transition to a new field?  If you see certain skills as transferable, you may wish to connect them with your objectives and your desired move.

Do you desire to work with a particular technology?  Are you looking for a particular kind of experience, for example, working with back-end technologies rather than the front-end development you have been doing?

What are your long-term goals?  You may not want to state them in the objective, but you need to know them.  They will help you to decide whether the position offered is a positive step for you.

Step Two:  Spend some time thinking about where you’ve been.  Then describe your experiences clearly, concisely, and honestly.

Write down the major responsibilities of your positions.  Your resume should list your positions in chronological order, working backwards, with accurate dates.  Any gaps in your work history should be explained.

It is easier to read bullet points than dense paragraphs.  Remember, the managers and human resource professionals who review your resume have a hundred more on their desk.  Make it easy to read.  Along the same lines, a font less than 10 points in size is difficult to read.  The same would apply to fancy fonts that look like handwriting or hand printing.  Be considerate of the time constraints of the people reviewing your resume!  Allow some white space, use bolding for company names and/or position titles, and keep your descriptions concise.

Don’t overstate your experience.  At the same time, be sure you are including anything that might be relevant to the position you are applying for.  Be sure to include clear information about the technologies and tools you worked with.

The old suggestions about keeping your resume to one page are obsolete, especially if you have been in the work force for several years.  On the other hand, a resume more than three pages long is probably overkill.  You may wish to go back no more than 10 years, and summarize or leave off your history prior to that time.  If you have worked on many projects, you may wish to develop a separate document which will describe your project work in great detail, which you can bring with you to the interview, or e-mail separately to a manager who wants more detail.

Step Three:  Do create some type of skills chart listing the languages, tools, platforms, and databases, etc. that you have used.  You may wish to rank your skill level, or highlight your key skills.  Managers can include appropriate skills, also.

A laundry list of all the skills you have can be useful, but I almost always end up asking candidates, “What are your key skills?”  Usually there are three to five technologies you are expert at using.  Can someone reading your resume figure that out?

I’ve attached some sample skill charts, including my own, to show you that this can be done in many different ways.

Step Four: Put everything together and lead with your strengths!  What will an employer find most appealing in your work history?

When you’re ready to put things together, think about what your strengths are.  If you’ve done contract work, have a lot of different employers or projects on your resume, and have a desire to move back to regular employment, a skills chart or key word chart can pull everything together into a coherent whole.  If you have a master’s degree in physics with a 4.0 GPA, you have a rare brain, and should probably put that on the first page of your resume.  Some people include a brief description of themselves, for example:  “A talented and hard-working developer with superb communication and leadership skills, and strong experience in manufacturing environments.”

If you don’t know what your strengths are, ask your co-workers, or think about what your manager praised you for at your last performance review.  Your spouse and your friends can help you decide, also.

Be careful to spell check your resume, and have someone with good editing skills proofread it for you.  Many companies and recruiters eliminate candidates with spelling, capitalization, punctuation or grammatical errors.  When you have 100 choices on your desk, would you call the person who misspelled a word?

Step Five: Choose your approach to the job search process.  Should you use a recruiter, apply on-line, fax your resume, network with friends, or sit back and wait?

If you are serious about changing jobs, I would never advise sitting back and waiting!  Perhaps you’re here because you need to update your resume and that’s as far as you want to go right now.  I think, in today’s workplace, it is wise to keep one’s resume updated at all times.

If you’re working 12+ hours a day, and you’re serious about job searching, a recruiter may be your best choice.  There are many advantages to using a good recruiter.  A recruiter can lead you to companies you might not find on your own.  Oftentimes, the recruiter has a relationship with the manager and can get your resume directly in front of the hiring authority.

To find a good recruiter, network with your technical friends.  You may find a position just by doing that!  Networking with friends and through your professional associations is another key way to job search.  Friends in other companies may be able to put your resume in front of hiring managers, also, and sometimes they receive a bonus for referring you.

It is difficult for a recruiter to assist a candidate who is going through a major career transition.  If you are a C programmer who has just completed a Java training program, but you have no experience using Java on the job, a recruiter may not be able to help you.  The fees paid to recruiters are a reward for finding the “almost perfect” candidate, and that usually means a candidate with two-plus years of experience in the desired technology.

Generally, e-mail is the most desirable method of sending your resume.  Be sure to include the job number, if requested, in the subject line, along with your name and/or the position you are applying for.  Faxing resumes is cumbersome, because the recruiter or HR professional would need to scan the resume onto the computer in order to send it on to a hiring manager.

You may also wish to post your resume on one of the major career sites on the Internet.  Be prepared for a lot of phone calls.  Make sure you have a reliable answering machine or a service like “call notes” to accept your messages.  Or, include only an e-mail address (not your work e-mail!) so you can weed out positions you are not interested in.  If you only have e-mail service at work, make sure you set up a private e-mail account with Yahoo, Excite, Hotmail, or a similar portal that offers free e-mail.  If you are employed, you may wish to post your resume confidentially rather than openly, and most job boards offer that option.

You can find Liz Klein at http://www.thewwword.com and http://site.talentlegends.com/.

Posted via email from Natalia’s Other Blog

Feb12

Many Fail To Plan, More Fail To Execute! by Martin Harshberger

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Many Fail To Plan, More Fail To Execute! by Martin Harshberger

Many Fail To Plan, More Fail To Execute!
Copyright (c) 2010 Martin Harshberger

Measurable Results LLC
http://www.bottomlinecoach.com/

As the owner, CEO or senior executive of a business, you share many things in common with the coaches of professional sports teams. Can you imagine the head coach of a team – say in the National Football League – going into a game without a game plan? Of course not! That coach would soon be out of work. Coaches literally spend hundreds hours preparing for a 60-minute event.

A good coach not only develops and documents a strategy to win; he makes sure it’s understood by every player on the team. Every successful coach knows that a plan is essential for success.

But every successful coach also knows that a plan alone is not sufficient for success. The best plan in the world is useless if it’s not implemented. When the whistle blows to start the game, the players can’t simply stand on the sidelines and talk about what a great plan they have. They must take the field and play to win.

A coach that doesn’t learn from failures and make adjustments so that his team consistently wins soon finds out what the letters NFL really mean: Not For Long.

Why should you view your business as any different?

Your Role As An Executive Is To Execute!

It never ceases to amaze me – I’ll work with a company for weeks to develop a comprehensive strategic plan, and then nothing! Nada! It’s as if management says, “OK, now that we’ve finished the plan, we can check that off our list and get back to business as usual.”

They know they have issues that need to be changed. They pay good money to hire outside assistance to facilitate a planning process. They complete their plan. Then they proceed to ignore it!

Why? Is it fear of change? Fear of making a mistake? Fear of confronting people? A lack of confidence in themselves and/or their staff? Probably it’s a mixture of some or all of these.

For most executives, implementation is harder than planning. It takes determination and courage to actually do what you say you want to do. Implementation requires commitment, accountability, and change. That’s where the majority of companies fail.

Bold Actions Require Bold Leadership.

The absence of a decision is a de facto decision. That goes for all aspects of business planning and execution – from
acknowledging problems to resolving them.

Tolerating poor personal performance from a staff member is choosing mediocrity. It lowers the bar for the entire staff.

Failing to take action about substandard quality is a decision about quality. It sends a message about core values to everyone in the organization.

It’s wise to gather the facts before making decisions. But postponing action “until there’s a better time” or “until
there’s more data” is too often a cover-up for plain old fear to act.

Want to diminish focus and credibility in your organization? Here’s a sure-fire way: Develop a plan, communicate it to your people, and then fail to execute it.

When you fail to act on your plans, you undermine motivation, enthusiasm, pride, respect, commitment, and productivity. Yet 90 percent of American companies do just that, as shown by the chart below.

See Image: http://thephantomwriters.com/client-img/7314-execute.jpg

Talk about an alarming statistic! If only 10 percent of American companies take the necessary actions to implement their plans, no wonder we’re losing our edge.

Many executives confuse busyness with effectiveness. They think they’re accomplishing a lot when people come to them all day long with questions and problems. It makes them feel important. They like being the center of the storm.

But executives who react instead of act accomplish little. They don’t produce progress because they’re concentrating on the minutia and ignoring the momentous. They’re playing around instead of playing to win.

But remember that your employees are watching your actions. They’ll respond to your leadership based on how you execute your plan.

To help you maintain your focus on decisive action, here are four principles for you to periodically review:

* If the status quo isn’t working, change it.

* If you don’t make a decision, you’re making a decision.

* If you don’t like making tough decisions, you’re not alone. But winners do it anyway.

* If you want to exercise real leadership, you must act.

You have to “walk the talk” every single day to attain excellence in any organization. You must take the field and play to win!

“Action without vision is a nightmare. Vision without action is a daydream.” — Japanese proverb

—————————-
Martin Harshberger is Managing Partner of Measurable Results LLC.
Marty specializes in strategic planning, pre- and post-merger
integration, as well as business process improvement.
He can be reached at 662-844-9088 or by email at:
mailto:info@bottomlinecoach.com
His new book Bottom Line Focus is available on Amazon
and his website: http://www.bottomlinecoach.com/

Feb10

The Art of Working A Room — Networking Skills for Small Business Copyright (c) 2010 K. MacKillop

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The Art of Working A Room — Networking Skills for Small Business Copyright (c) 2010 K. MacKillop
The Art of Working A Room — Networking Skills for Small Business
Copyright (c) 2010 K. MacKillopLaunchX
http://www.launchx.com/

Mastering the art of effective networking marks the difference between merely successful entrepreneurs and captains of industry – the better you are at networking, the more power you wield. Networking serves many purposes, from building your customer  base to providing and receiving needed resources from contacts in the business community, and anyone planning on growing a startup should devote time to sharpening their networking skills.

For many experienced entrepreneurs, networking events are the most productive way to spend their limited business-social time. For others, entering a room full of people seems overwhelming, especially if they don’t know anyone else there. There are a few simple rules to follow to be successful working the room, and anyone with a little willingness can learn to be a master of networking.

Begin With the End In Mind

Before you attend any networking events, plan your objectives. Whether you have a specific business problem you need to address, or you are looking to add three solid business contacts to your network, or you need two new client leads, going in with a plan will make the time you spend networking far more effective. Attending without set objectives is far more likely to result in a lot of time spent with very little payoff.

As you become more involved in your business community, you will likely find that there are enough networking events to completely fill your calendar. There is no need to attend every event. Some organizations will meet your particular needs better than others. Try out different venues, and evaluate the outcome based on a simple rule – you should obtain at least three new contacts, leads, or pieces of useful information for every hour you spend networking. If you find yourself attending a weekly event with the same people and you are not garnering any new information or leads, consider reducing your attendance to once per month and trying different events to improve your results.

In addition to setting specific objectives, prepare topics to discuss, knowledge to offer, and questions to ask to keep the conversation going. If there is a specific referral or information that you need, make a note so you don’t forget. Take your planner with you to hold business cards and take notes as needed.

Working the Room

Every networking event you attend will fall into one of three categories: you know everyone there, you know a few people, or you don’t know a soul. Each circumstance requires a different approach. If you know everyone, be sure to make contact with them all. Limit your conversations to a few minutes each. If possible, make introductions between professionals you know who have something in common or complementary skills or businesses.

If you know only a few people in the room, start by catching up with each of them. Ask them who else they know and to introduce you around. Be sure you do the same by introducing the people you  know to each other. Be prepared with business cards to exchange and make a habit of giving two to each new contact – one to keep and one to pass on as a referral. When you receive cards from new contacts, take a moment to note any interesting personal or business information about them to add to your contact database. If someone you meet does not have a business card, write down their information in your planner…whatever you do, never let a potentially good contact go to waste.

If you don’t know anyone at a networking event, start by looking for people standing by themselves. No one likes to be on the outside looking in, and generally these other folks will also be uncomfortable because they don’t know anyone. Once you have chatted for a few minutes, take your new contact with you to meet another loner, and another, until you have a group that everyone else in the room wants to join. Showing that kind of leadership will make you the go-to contact in your business community and will increase the odds of growing your business through referrals.

If the event you are attending has a “special guest” invited, most attendees will be clamoring for their attention. If the press is present, you should be talking to them. Meeting the state Senator is exciting, but knowing the local business reporter will get you more exposure and, thus, more business. Pay attention to what people are talking about and be just as interested in what you can do for them as in what they can do for you. Set an objective to be the best networking contact in your industry or area, and work every room with that intention in mind.

What to do (and not to do) at networking events

Some basic do’s and don’ts of networking events:

* Do dress one step up from how you expect everyone else to be
dressed.* Don’t make critical judgments of others based on how they are
dressed.

* Do carry more than enough business cards, at least one pen,
and your planner or notepad.

* Don’t answer calls, texts, or emails while talking with
others. If you must use your smartphone, excuse yourself and step
outside.

* Do listen to what other people need and take note – if you can
help them, it will improve your reputation as a great contact.

* Don’t talk too much about personal things, especially if they
are negative. Even if you are on the brink of divorce, your kid
was suspended from school, and your dog bit the neighbor, nobody
in the networking environment needs to know about it. Same goes
for medical issues.

* Do review your notes from the last event and follow up as
appropriate.

* Do not bring up negative issues in front of uninvolved
contacts.

* Do make a point to chat with the bartender and servers -
you’d be surprised who they know and who they might end up to
be.

* Don’t drink alcohol. Avoid eating unless absolutely starving.
Food in your teeth and garlic breath is not the image you are
striving for. If you must eat, take a break and be sure to check
yourself in the restroom before getting back to networking.

* Don’t try to talk to others while they are eating. Seriously,
grab an energy bar on the way – why waste limited networking time
on a snack?

Effective networking skills are a powerful tool for entrepreneurs, and the ability to work a room is one of the toughest to master. Use common sense and make a point of evaluating your performance after each networking event. The more self-aware you are, the easier it will be to become the go-to contact in your area and industry.

—————————-

K. MacKillop, a serial entrepreneur with a J.D. from Duke
University, is founder of LaunchX and authors a blog focused
on starting a business (http://www.blog.launchx.com/). It is
a complete business startup kit containing everything you
need to turn your idea into a successful business. Visit
http://www.LaunchX.com/ for a free Business Readiness
Assessment and get on the road to starting a business
today: http://www.launchx.com/are-you-ready.html

Posted via email from Natalia’s Other Blog

Feb4

Social Media Management – Setting Your Sights on the Right Sites

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Social Media Management – Setting Your Sights on the Right Sites
Social Media Management – Setting Your Sights on the Right Sites
Copyright (c) 2010 Enzo F. Cesario
BrandSplat
http://www.Brandsplat.com/

One of the most amazing features about the Web is that it allows many people to take advantage of features they did not originate. Livejournal, Twitter, Digg, Reddit and each of the many other Social Media sites were proposed and implemented with a relatively small cadre of people, yet thousands of businesses are finding ways to use these sites for promotion and improvement every day. These sites allow for communication with the nearly captive audience that is any business’ dream.

Of course as is the case with any innovative process many businesses jump in to Social Media Marketing without understanding the problems at hand, and find themselves ignored or scorned for seeming to be incompetent. In some cases this is a failure of research, while in others it is a case of forgetting that these audiences are indeed people with complex opinions and attitudes. Combine these traits with the mass communication capability of the Internet, and you have equal potential for word of mouth fame or disaster.

Before jumping into SMM, every business needs to consider the core options available to them and see just which ones truly suit the organization and its needs. The leadership must consider the objective of their business and the audience that will facilitate this objective. Then they should consider not just which Social Media sites this audience frequents, but how to reach them in a way that makes them care. To that end, what follows is a short review of some Social Media sites and a comparison of their roles to highlight these issues.

Twitter

Twitter is Social Media at its barest; short messages are sent out to anyone following the account, usually consisting of no more than a brief comment or a short URL. US President Barack Obama relied heavily on Twitter during his successful White House bid, using it to promote rallies and campaign meetings. The very brevity of Twitter gives it some of its most unexpected strength. After all, what could be more mysterious than a message reading ‘Tyler Park, 9:30 pm, bring chips and sunglasses’? Sunglasses at night? Chips? It immediately gets the mind racing with questions and interest.

Yet in a classic example illustrating that audiences are not simply feedback devices, but actual people, consider the gone-wrong story of the Republican Party in Connecticut. In an effort to satire some of their opponents, the party set up 33 fake Twitter accounts impersonating state Democrats! Twitter shut down the accounts citing terms of service clauses against impersonating other individuals. The move raised a number of ethical questions and is a classic example that users should always ask if ‘can’ necessarily means ‘should.’

Facebook and Myspace

The title of this section indicates a common perception in the media that these competing services are offering essentially the same product. In a sense this is true, as both offer users a chance to join groups, manage and customize a profile, and use a variety of applications for entertainment or business. They represent the more involved tier of Social Media, combining aspects of blogging and websites for easy access.

However the facts show that perceptions can be misleading. Facebook only allows for plain text customization, whereas Myspace allows users to customize with HTML and CSS. While this may not sound like the greatest of distinctions it does make Facebook more accessible to the ‘casual’ user of Social media, while Myspace by default becomes the realm of those more interested in website design. If your business’ aim is to recruit potential designers, this distinction alone tells you where to focus your efforts.

Digg and Reddit

These sites and others like them are in essence an Internet popularity contest. Users submit content, and other users vote on whether they find it interesting. The theory of use here is that these sites can be used as a benchmark for public opinion, based on a reading of what is popular at any given time. Except it isn’t always that simple. Digg has faced criticism that the site’s owners have a great deal of direct influence on which stories make it to the front page, which does call into question whether it actually represents public opinion.

Not the Final Word, Just a Thought

Above we mentioned the curious case of Republicans attempting a bit of satire and finding themselves called on ethical questions. Another fact to consider is the irony vote. It is not unknown or even uncommon for Internet hobbyists to vote en masse for an irrelevant news story just to see if they can make it popular as a jest. For example, the infamous and popular social site 4chan seemingly organized massive, worldwide boycotts of the Church of Scientology because it could.

Working with a professional social media marketing agency can help ensure that your online efforts are focused on the right sites, with the right message, to the right audience for maximum ROI.

Above all, the lesson that must be learned is that the Internet is not a static collection of people waiting to obey the input of  various broadcasters. Each audience is composed of many distinct and individual users, many of whom are intelligent, critical thinkers with opinions and ideas of their own. If your campaign treats them as a switch to be thrown, it will fail, period. If you want your campaign to succeed, treat these audiences with respect and develop a campaign that communicates with rather than at them.

———————————————————————
Enzo F. Cesario is an online brand management specialist
and co-founder of Brandsplat, a social media company that
uses blogs, articles, videos and social media to drive
traffic to your site. For the free Brandcasting Report
go to http://www.BrandSplat.com/ or visit our blog at
http://www.iBrandCasting.com/

Posted via email from Natalia’s Other Blog

Feb3

Women and Social Entrepreneurship — A Growing Trend by K. MacKillop

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Women and Social Entrepreneurship — A Growing Trend by K. MacKillop
Women and Social Entrepreneurship — A Growing Trend
Copyright (c) 2010 K. MacKillop
LaunchX
http://www.launchx.com/Women business owners have long been the fastest growing sector of entrepreneurs, and it is very common for this group to lead the charge of social entrepreneurism. Social entrepreneurs use their business acumen to both create a profitable business and contribute to the greater good. Wanting to use your talents to create social change no longer requires a low-paying position within the nonprofit sector. In fact, many women are finding that the power and privilege that comes with successful entrepreneurship make it easier to make a difference, both financially and by promoting new ideas.

The majority of nonprofits rely on outside donors to keep the good works going. Running a for-profit business provides a broader opportunity for increasing sales and profitability, primarily because of the flexibility of private ownership over the purpose restrictions of a nonprofit. And, using the business practices and profits of a for-profit business to exact change allows the owner to alter priorities as needed. A nonprofit is locked into the stated purpose included in the organizing papers.

There is nothing wrong with improving one’s own financial status. The attitude that one must suffer in order to do good is yesterday’s attitude. The more you have, the more you can do, and more and more Americans are accepting this reality. Again, women are leading the charge in showing this to be true. Those in the highest net worth categories (mostly entrepreneurs and business executives) are very active, and very generous, philanthropists overall. On average, over half of these women contribute over $25,000 per year to charity, while 19% contribute 1 Million dollars or more each year.

There are over 10 Million businesses that are partially women-owned in the US, and about 7.7 Million businesses that are majority-owned by women. Of the majority owned, nearly half are home-based and employ 14 Million part-time or full-time employees. Around 70% of women-owned businesses are in the service sector, though the retail sector is slowly growing. Another nearly 8% are in the real estate sector, including property management and leasing.

Whatever type of business, there are indications that women are doing a better job overall of keeping an eye on the details and managing change — a proportionately fewer number of women-owned ventures are failing during this recession than men-owned. It may be in part because these businesses tend to be smaller on
average, thus are better able to slide through the recession, but whatever the reason, women in business are doing well. With an estimated 1.1 trillion in sales each year, there is plenty of opportunity to improve your own station while working on the social issues most important to you.

Combining a for-profit business with social activism provides the best of both worlds. Women who are thinking about launching a nonprofit should consider the alternative. The fundamentals of running either type of business (profit or nonprofit) are essentially the same — planning, marketing and financial management. But the payoff of for-profit success can be extreme. Not only will your increased personal income allow you the freedom to do more, but the power of entrepreneurial success will allow you to provide encouragement and set an example for balancing work and the greater good.

———————————————————-

K. MacKillop, a serial entrepreneur with a J.D. from Duke
University, is founder of LaunchX and authors a blog focused
on starting a business (http://www.blog.launchx.com/). The
LaunchX System provides everything you need to launch your
own social entrepreneurship idea, including step-by-step
instructions, key software, and coaching. Visit
http://www.LaunchX.com/ and take our Business Readiness
Assessment and learn what to do next for your business startup
(http://www.launchx.com/are-you-ready.html)

Posted via email from Natalia’s Other Blog

Feb2

Adaptation

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Adaptation

First of all, I confess to have “stolen” the concept for today’s blog from my friend and peer, Afsheen.  Her blog about this has been percolating in my brain for a bit…I have a bit of a love for metaphor, and so I would characterize the thoughts this way, using the natural world as my palette.

So let us look at the adaptation in the wild… the shark, which was a “start-up” thousands of years ago, has survived changing market environments by being extremely good at its initial business focus of eating, etc.  It has developed the tools to survive in multiple environments, chosen a “market” that is very wide (the oceans), and has shown that it is excellent at what it does, and can weather the changes of environment that have extincted other similar species.

In a nutshell, the shark is successful at its business because it stayed with its strengths and honed those skills. It did not become a platypus – who, while a successful start-up in its own right, has a much smaller niche market environment, and clearly tried to be too many things – it holds its market share tenuously, because if the environment shifts too much, it will become extinct (okay it is meant to be a funny example – my apologies to any platypii or platypus lovers who are offended).

Note also, that for the shark, there are competitor species, who are also equally good at what they do, but they are relative “newcomers”.  The Orca (a mammal) does a darned good job of being a predator – shares the same market environment, and for the most part is successful…just a recent arrival on the market – relatively speaking.

Bringing this back to business, and out of metaphor – a start-up can extinct itself by trying to be too many things at once, and losing site of both its market share environment and what it does best.  It doesn’t mean that it cannot be successful in a smaller, niche environment – a boutique offering – or a specific industry vertical.  But it will not be as pervasive or have the brand identity that a business who focuses on it’s primary offering does, at least until that offering has developed a widespread following and established its credibility.

By trying to meet all the requirements of all customers, the start-up can go from being adaptable to being unfocused, and diluting its own potency in the market place.

As in nature, success is a delicate balance between agility, adaptability, skills and luck.