The Do's and Don'ts for Testing Your Business Idea

 My favorite “quit your job” scene from the movies is in Jerry Maguire.

Jerry, a sports agent, has a crisis of conscience and decides that he needs to focus more on individual attention for his clients and less on the bottom line.

“Well, don't worry. Don't worry. I'm not gonna do what you all think I'm gonna do, which is just flip out!” 

Jerry then packs his boxes, takes some goldfish, and talks one other employee into following him out.

Look, I get it.

We all have dreams of throwing off the shackles of a 9-5 job. By the way, where did the 9:00 in 9-5  come from?  Is that Dolly Parton’s fault?  Who has a job where you can walk in at 9am and leave at 5?  If you have that job maybe you should keep it.

But don’t pull a Jerry Maguire and storm out of your job with no plan in place.

 In fact, I swear people do this and cash in their 401k knowing they will crash and burn, because they are so desperate for a change.

If you have a burning business idea or even a side hustle that needs to grow, check out the Do’s and Don’ts of testing your business idea before launching full time.

Don’t ask friends or family

We all have that one person we know that loves to “tell it like it is”, like they’re a guest on Jerry Springer, but most of our family and friends will tell us what we want to hear.  

Asking your Aunt Linda, who’s a payroll clerk near retirement, what she thinks of your idea for becoming a digital marketing consultant isn’t very helpful.  

Yeah, she’s on Facebook a lot, but she’s not your target customer.  

You might want to ask Aunt Linda to introduce you to the owner of the business though.

Do talk to potential customers (people you don’t know) and get honest feedback

This will be awkward because you will have to step way out of your comfort zone.  

But guess what?  

This whole thing will eventually be outside of your comfort zone, so this is a great way to tiptoe into it.  

If you want to become a digital marketing consultant for service-based businesses, then talk to some affluent business owners you don’t know.  

Remember, we’re not asking Aunt Linda directly, but she may be able to introduce us to some people, and so can your family and friends.  

This will also work if it’s direct to the consumer.  

If you want to start a residential cleaning business for affluent homeowners get some introductions and post on some Facebook groups.  

You can even create a brief, 5 question survey and ask the tough questions you are scared to get answers for like pricing.  

 

Don’t overthink it

Perfection is the enemy of progress.  

Whatever you start out doing right now will almost certainly change by this time next year.  

That’s normal.  

Waiting to have the perfect website and getting everything trademarked is silly.  

Nobody is going to steal your idea because they are too busy not implementing their own idea.

Do just start selling

Quit waiting on permission to start.  

I get inquiries all of the time from people that are scared that someone in a black trench coat with a briefcase from the government will knock on their front door because they made an extra grand this month.  

If it does happen you may be the first that I’ve heard of.  

You are allowed to make up to $3,000 in a calendar year without any structure in place.  

And I’m sure I can get in trouble for saying this, but even if you sneak up to $5k-$10k without all of your I’s dotted and T’s crossed, you will be just fine.  

This means you can just start to test out your idea.

Give it away

Not to everyone and not for long, but at least a few people over the first few weeks, so you can test how well your idea works.  

You can also charge just enough to cover the cost of the product or service, which also gives some skin in the game for the customer.

But most importantly, you can make the agreement that you will receive a fair testimonial after the transaction takes place.

This is a win-win all the way around.

As for Jerry Maguire, everything worked out in the end.  Because it’s a movie.  

And sure, you know a Jerry Maguire or two, but they are the exception and not the rule.

Give yourself a real chance and start testing your idea today!

How to Fund Your New Business

The first album I ever bought was Michael Jackson’s Thriller.  

I was only seven years old and managed to save up a grand total of $6.  

I never even looked at the price, because $6 was the most money in the world to me.  

My older sister Barbara was kind enough to stand in line with me at K-Mart, and thank God she did, because the album was actually $7 and some change.  

I was panicked as the clerk awkwardly looked down at me with my six crumpled dollar bills.  

Luckily, Barbara had a couple of bucks on her and she took pity on me.  

And, she claimed 20% ownership of that Thriller album.

Unfortunately, this is also how many folks try to fund their full-time business.  

But they're not six years old with a smarter thirteen-year-old waiting in the wings.

After 14 years of coaching small business owners and start-ups, I have found these to be the most common ways to fund that full-time business you are dreaming of.

BEST WAYS

Personal savings/resources 

This is the most common and smartest way that people fund their full-time business.  

This takes longer and requires the most discipline, however, it is the most secure and successful.

Determine what your start-up costs and working capital needs are now and simply compare it to what you have access to.  

Whatever you are short is the amount you have to save.  

It’s not rocket science, but you wouldn’t believe the number of people that find that exercise difficult.

And yes, I count a home equity line as part of your savings but be careful because that is also one of your most precious assets.

Bank and/or Small Business Administration (SBA) loan 

This one is simple to understand, but not easy to do.

A lending institution wants you to have capital, collateral, and cash flow to loan you money.

For example, if you want to start a landscaping business and your project you need $100,000 for equipment and working capital, the breakdown for qualifying looks like this:

• Capital is around 20%-25% of the total cost.  In this case you would need $25,000 of cash on your own.

• Collateral that can cover the other $75,000.  They may be willing to use some of the equipment you are purchasing, but most likely they want a fixed asset that appreciates, i.e. your home.

• Then you need cash flow to pay for the new loan.  And if this business is less than two years old, the bank won’t count the income from the business.  This is one of the reasons I usually advise people to start their business on the side, before launching full-time.

Then there’s the matter of having good credit, showing how you will spend the money, a business plan, etc.

So if you don’t have the full $25,000, don’t have that much collateral, and you are short the monthly income to pay for a new loan, you may need to Plan B in this case. That might look like buying a zero turn mower on your own and start mowing yards during the evenings and weekends first.

An SBA loan is not that much different from a traditional bank loan.  The same rules apply with capital, collateral, and cash flow, however, the SBA will potentially guarantee the repayment of up to 85% of the loan to the bank if you are unable to repay the loan.

This doesn’t make the loan necessarily that much easier to obtain, but it incentivizes banks to make those loans.

NOT THE BEST WAYS

Family/friends 

This one is not my favorite.

Your family and friends have heard you go on and on about how you are ready to start your own business and some of them are eager to get in on the action.

I’m not saying this can’t work out, but it rarely does.  

Those silent partners that want to see you succeed usually become passive aggressive advisors that want their money back sooner rather than later and with plenty of interest.

Assuming you do borrow money from family or friends, make sure you have a written agreement in place for the terms and interest rate.

When MeMaw said, “honey, you just pay it back whenever you can”, she really meant starting next month with a modest 5% interest rate.  She just assumed you knew that though.

Credit cards 

This one is a straight up no-no.

I don’t want to go all Dave Ramsey on you, but starting a full-time business has enough obstacles.

If you are in such a tight financial spot that you can’t save any cash and the bank says your income doesn’t support a loan, then you might need to take care of those issues first.

Adding a high interest loan (which is what a credit card is) won’t make your financial situation better, but it will definitely make it worse.

VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT WAYS

Investors 

I blame Shark Tank for the emails I get asking about local investors.  

And I do love Shark Tank, but investors like that (venture capitalists or angel investors) are usually looking for something in the tech, medical, or even music industries.  

Also, they usually want to invest in someone that has experience in raising capital and this industry.

That leaves out a big majority of traditional businesses.

Investors for the rest of us will usually be someone you know that believes in your business idea.

If you go that route, I’d suggest working with an attorney to create a term sheet, which is a document outlining the business agreement, establishing how the investor will be paid back. 

But keep in mind that you are taking on someone that will have ownership and will eventually want some say so in your business too.  

 

Crowdfunding 

It’s not fair for me to say crowdfunding is non-existent for small business funding, because the evidence proves otherwise on their platforms.

I just haven’t met anyone that has been successful with it.

Below are some options and there are several more:

• Kickstarter

• Indiegogo

• Fundable

 , 

Grants 

While there has been a boom of grants, advances, and forgivable loans over the past year geared toward helping people recover from the pandemic, I’ve yet in my 14 year career at the TSBDC to see a legitimate grant for someone starting a small business.

In reality, getting a small business grant to start or expand your business isn't very likely. 

As for me, that Thriller album is long gone and I still owe Barbara a couple of bucks.  

So, maybe that was like a funding business start-up :). 

Top 5 Reasons that Side Hustles Flounder

Worst game ever
http://pixelpompeii.blogspot.com/2015/01/lets-play-ancient-greek-punishment-2012.html

Client - “Charles, my business has just EXPLODED!  I am just so busy.  I’m seriously thinking about quitting my job!”

Me - “That’s great!  How much are you making?”

Client - “I’ve made $12,000.”

Me  - “Wow!  Per month?”

Client - “Oh gosh no.  I made that in the last 12 months. So what do you think?  Should I quit?”

My Quarantine Epiphany

This epiphany for deep, focused work really solidified itself while we were under quarantine during COVID-19.

I was having to learn to work from home, like so many of the entrepreneurs I know. 

Or better yet like my wife had done for years.

Sarah owns a bookkeeping business and she would always tell me how difficult it was during the summer, because our three children would take turns interrupting her day. 

For a bookkeeper interruptions, means administrative mistakes, like putting the decimal in the wrong spot.

Well, now I got a taste of it. 

During those first few weeks of quarantine, I was helping dozens and dozens of entrepreneurs navigate SBA loan hell.  

Every day, one of my so-happy-not-to-be-in-school children would come bounding in to ask very important questions like, “Can I have a cookie?” or tell me, “Ava threw a sock at me!” 

Each time they would do that, I would get totally distracted and it would take forever to get back on track. 

By the way, it takes an average of about 25 minutes (23 minutes and 15 seconds, to be exact) to return to the original task after an interruption, according to Gloria Mark, who studies digital distraction at the University of California, Irvine.

I finally had a come-to-Jesus meeting with them and said they weren’t allowed to come into daddy’s office (the master bedroom) unless there was a really big fire or someone was bleeding profusely. 

After that little announcement by me, I remember thinking that I needed to research a question about the PPP loan.  Then I saw a news article about small business tips to surviving COVID-19; then I got a text from my one of my clients, which made me remember an interesting video that I wanted to watch; then I saw something in the video that made me remember I had a post on LinkedIn that I was super proud of and I wanted to see if got any likes or comments; then I noticed that I had two invitations to connect to people that I sort of knew and I clicked on their profiles to read more about them and one of them was local and for some reason that made me think about an email I was supposed to send; then when I opened my email there was another entrepreneur that had a question; then I started another tab in my browser to research that question….

And then it hit me.  

Each of these little thoughts and each of these distractions were just like my kiddos asking me one more question. 

Except the distractions I created weren’t sweet little faces that were hoping for just a little guidance from their dear ole dad. 

Nope.  They were just one more endorphin rush to the brain that led to absolutely nowhere.  Well, except for a frustrating day where I had been really busy, but accomplished very little.

Personally, I have always been big on time management and prided myself on it.  I would block out time on my calendar, turn off some of the notifications on my phone, and make some effort to not check email every 10 minutes.  I was ahead of most folks at least. However, I would still have way too many days, where I didn’t know what in the world I had accomplished.

I decided right then and there that every time I saw a notification (you know the redbox with the white number) I would picture one of my children’s faces asking me another question. 

 If I wasn’t willing to answer question after question to my kids, then that goofy little notification wasn’t going to get my attention either. 

Sure, I could rationalize that it’s the client of my dreams that was going to hire 100 people and make national news. 

In reality it’s just another black hole of a 45 minute set of distractions.  And I was tired of distractions. 

The same goes for every fleeting thought in my head.  

I don’t need the answer to, “I wonder how many people liked my post?” or “what is the latest breaking news on CNN/Fox News/whatever” right now.  

If it’s super important I’ll remember it later.  

And if it’s truly business-related and I know that I MUST KNOW the answer, I’ll simply write it down and make it a point to find out at the end of the day, when after I have spent my energy on more important topics. 

This decision has made a dramatic improvement in my production, creativity, and most of all my sanity. 

The real problem for our generation of entrepreneurs (or really anyone) is not the Democrats, Republicans, China, Russia, sitting too much, or what kind of mask you wear. 

The real problem is our complete inability to focus and actually think all of the way through a problem and creatively solve it.  

We are way too submissive to distractions and digital clutter.  

We have fully embraced being plugged into a giant machine and we don’t know or even seem to care about who’s running the show.  

If you want to run your own show, it’s time to unplug and take control. 

Try this tomorrow. 

Think of a problem that you would like to solve. 

Then spend 90 minutes thinking about it with nothing but a pen and paper. 

No phone, no computer, no music, and no podcast. 

Odds most of you won’t make it 90 minutes.  

Heck, I’ve seen people give up after 9 minutes and give excuses about how they work really well with more stimulation, i.e. scrolling endlessly on their phone and pretending it is research.  

But this is your chance. 

 

Everybody else is distracted with multitasking and made up emergencies.

 

There is a huge business and personal opportunity to do what means the most to you by diving deep into your work like nobody else will do.

 

 

 

 

 

This Is the Beginning, Not the End

 For the past 4 ½ months I’ve worked harder from home than I think I ever have in the office.

My email and phone have been blowing up with confused and frustrated entrepreneurs.

I have been on countless ZOOM conference calls and feel like I’ve read every article on SBA loans humanly possible.

I’m not feeling sorry for myself, because small business owners have been through 10x worse. 

I’m just stating the reality of the situation.

Now that the world is opening back up with people getting out and most likely the Payroll Protection Plan (PPP) loan will be changed to give more time to work through the forgiveness process, it may feel like we are coming to the end of this thing.

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but this is the beginning, not the end.

The recession will be real and it will be tough.

It’s like when the preacher baptizes a new Christian.  The preacher doesn’t say, it’s all over and you can coast from here on out.”  The preacher says, “Now is when the real work begins.”

During the Great Recession over a decade ago, Middle Tennessee lost several good businesses.  

They couldn’t generate enough revenue to pay fixed expenses, let alone for the business owner to feel like they were making the money they deserved.

However, several good businesses started then too.

·         Future Vision Energy (now Energy Lighting Services)

·         Green Village Recycling

·         Campione’s Taste of Chicago

·         Epic Events Centre

·         Café Rakka

And several more thrived, despite a down economy.

So what should you do?

I’m sure you’re over being told to just “pivot” or “every problem presents and opportunity.”

Both of those things are true, but sometimes the tone deafness of it makes you tune out altogether.

But there is something to changing your mindset.

Right now more than ever, you need to turn the TV off, put the phone away, and quit listening to your favorite angry radio/podcast host telling how things are worse than ever.

A)     You don’t have time for it.  You’ve got a business to run.

B)      It’s an energy suck and makes you anxious!

Unless, you plan on doing something meaningful with the information you obtain from the clickbait driven world we live in i.e., going to work for a local non-profit, sending money to a charity, peaceful protesting, writing your Congressman daily, etc., then you are just feeding your mind junk food.

Yes, I get that we have an obligation to be an informed citizen of the U.S., but that really only takes minutes a day and not hours.

Here’s the analogy that comes to mind.

The way we are “staying informed” is like, saying, “I’m hungry so I would be foolish not to eat.” 

But you’re not eating 2-3 healthy meals a day that are filled with fresh fruits and vegetables.

You’re snacking all day long on Doritos and Twinkies.  Lots of them!

Quit putting junk food in your brain!!!

So what should you do as a small business owner that is real and tangible?

·         Use that time and energy to reset your 2020 revenue goals. Literally, put pen to paper and write out what your revenue goals for the rest of the year MUST be in order to survive and/or get back on track to your original goals.

·         How many customers will you need to survive/thrive for the rest of the year?  What is you new average sale worth?  That will tell you how many customers you need each month to make this happen.

·         You’ll have to change your marketing in a lot of cases.  Be willing to set aside time on Tuesday and Friday afternoons and call people and ask for referrals and follow up on leads.  Send out good email marketing that people will find helpful and make them want to buy from you.  For some of you, social media is necessary, but also noisy right now, so pay close attention to what is working and quit spending time on the stuff that isn’t.  

·         Take this time to get your bookkeeping organized.  If you are unable or unwilling, talk to your CPA or bookkeeper.  This is not an expense you can afford to cut.

·         Decide on how many employees you truly need to move forward.  I understand that a lot of employees are making more money on unemployment versus working, but let me be blunt here.  This is a good time to upgrade employees in a few spots.  Unemployment is no longer 3%, so you can find possibly find someone else that has the right attitude to help you take your business forward. 

·         Be willing to streamline your business as much as possible and cut expenses that aren’t related to marketing.  Ask for deferrals and work out payment agreements.

And if you are overwhelmed and don’t know what to do, then just do one small thing. 

Even if you only take a piece of paper and pencil, write one sentence.  Make one phone call.  Send one email.

But do SOMETHING!

Your momentum is everything right now and you can’t just sit there.

As far as the TSBDC goes, we are currently forming partnerships with accounting, marketing, and human resource firms to help businesses get back on track.

Hopefully in the coming month or so, we will have real, in-person workshops and in another month or so even live, one-on-one counseling.

In the meantime, if you own a business and want to receive free, one-on-one confidential advising through email and/phone go to www.tsbdc.org and click on Request Advising.

Stay safe and let’s get to work!

 

Your Experience Can Lie to You

Malcolm Gladwell is one of the authors (Outliers, Blink, The Tipping Point) and podcasters (Revisionist History) that I really pay attention to. 

He has a unique way of looking at things from all angles. 

One thing that Malcolm Gladwell said in his book, Outliers, has really stuck with me.

He is credited with saying that you need 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. 

Here’s his quote:

“To become a chess grandmaster also seems to take about ten years. (Only the legendary Bobby Fisher got to that elite level in less than that amount of time: it took him nine years.) And what’s ten years? Well, it’s roughly how long it takes to put in ten thousand hours of hard practice. Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness.”

That doesn’t mean that 10,000 hours of practice will make you an expert, but it is a prerequisite to becoming an expert.

And this makes sense.

You can be good at what you do, but without years of practice, you won’t become an expert.

And while experience matters, unfortunately, our experience can also lie.

I’m a big believer in practice makes perfect.  But if you are practicing bad habits, they will eventually get set in stone and make you think you have perfected something.

For example:

In parenting – “Well, I raised three kids and none of them turned out to be ax murderers.” is a favorite statement by grandparents when giving out unsolicited advice to parents. 

They are saying that they’re advice should be used, because they are experts. 

And they think they are experts because you aren’t an ax murderer.  Seriously.

While they get credit for not raising ax murderers (not sure why that was the benchmark for Baby Boomers), there are 7+ billion people on planet Earth. 

The stork brought exactly zero of them. 

But you would have to assume that there aren’t 7+ billion people that could be considered experts, correct? 

That’s not to say that a lot of grandparents aren’t experts, but they can’t all be experts, simply because they were parents for a long time.

In your job – Have you ever had a boss that was in over their head?  It’s called the Peter Principle.

The Peter Principle is an observation that the tendency in most organizational hierarchies, such as that of a corporation, is for every employee to rise in the hierarchy through promotion until they reach a level of respective incompetence.

Simply having several years of experience in your job doesn’t mean you are necessarily great at your job. 

You may just be good enough not to get fired.  You know, like a C+ student.

In small your business – “We have 20 years of experience” is often a marketing strategy that is much overused. 

Yes, I want my insurance agent to have a lot of experience in reading policies, but I would prefer someone that is experienced AND good. 

It is quite possible that our experience is just good enough to keep you in the same place for 20+ years.

So how do you know if your experience is lying to you?

• Are your sales the same now as they were 5 years ago?
• Are you doing the exact same tasks that should’ve been already outsourced or do you have the same exact number of employees from 5 years ago?
• Are you doing the exact same thing in all areas of your business because “that’s the way we’ve always done it”?

If the answer is yes to any of those questions, your old experience may need to be tossed for some new experiences out of your comfort zone.

10,000 hours is only good if it leads to expertise.  It’s not good if it leads to complacency.

Oh, and the ax murderer parenting comment doesn’t apply to my parents or my in-laws…much😁.  

This Bad Habit Might Be a Good Thing

One of the worst habits we have in my household (well, I have) is comparing what we have to someone else has.

And there’s always someone with something nicerJ.

•          We got a 55 inch 4k TV, but…my sister-in-law got a 75 inch TV that has such a clear picture I thought that Derrick Henry was in their living room.
•          We went to the beach in the fall, but…another family we know owns their own beach house.  And a lake house.  And a cabin in the mountains.  And blah, blah, blah.

We are constantly comparing ourselves with others to measure how well we are doing. 

This is not a very healthy thing to do on an individual basis.

But…

This could be a good thing in your business!

No, you shouldn’t stress out if a competitor has a new product or just moved to a bigger location.

However, you should be comparing your Income Statement to the industry average.

Why?

“What gets measured gets done!”

For example:

•        If you are a restaurant owner what is your cost of goods sold (COGS), compared to other restaurants? The average is 37%.
•        If you are a landscaper, do you know what your payroll costs are compared to other landscapers? The average is 22.50% and revenue per employee is $72,347.
•        If you are a department store, do you know what your rent is compared to other department stores? The average is 5.36%
•        If you are a real estate broker what should you be spending on marketing compared to other brokers? The average is 3.52%

Small business owners do a good job of comparing their current business to what they did last year, however, they need to know how their Income Statement compares to the industry as a whole.

Common measurements are your costs-of-goods-sold (COGS), net profit margin, current ratio, percentage of expenses versus income, etc. 

Comparing against other businesses in your industry is a more accurate way to determine how well you are doing and what you could improve upon.

Below are some great places to find these types of benchmarks for your industry:

• Your CPA
•   www.bizstats.com
• Your trade association for your industry
• You could always contact your friendly TSBDC for this type of comparison, charles.alexander@volstate.edu 

p.s.

And if you just got a new smoker, I don’t want to hear about it.  Mine is just fineL.

How You Can be UNIQUE and Immediately STAND OUT

A few years ago, my wife (Sarah) and I visited my daughter Ava’s elementary school to do something called “Parent Share”. 

“Parent Share” is when grownups bore little kids with what they do for a living.

Since Sarah and I are entrepreneurial, we decided to help 140 second graders start a business.

Should be easy, right:)?

We took on about 40 kids at a time, putting 4-5 kids per business.

We had them pick a business, name it, decide what they were going to sell, price items, and even do an organizational chart.

But most importantly, we had them describe why their business was different and why customers would buy from them.

We got some shocking results!

And by shocking, I mean, we had dozens of 7 and 8 year-olds GET IT!

We had a photography business that sold “very expensive photos, but they are all 3D and the customer gets to edit them.” And there was a candy store that “had the most sugar in their candy, than anyone else!”

Out of 35 business, there were only a couple that were the best or cheapest. 

Oh, and there were ZERO business with X number of years of experience, great customer service, or had some complicated-sounding certifications.

Why?

Kids know you can’t be the same as everyone else and expect to STAND OUT among everyone else

Odds are, you are unique, and there is a good reason for someone to buy from you instead of your competitor.

·                     If you are truly the expert, display it.

·                     If you really serve a special market, make sure everyone knows about it.

·                     If you are the most convenient, fastest, or most accurate, hang your hat on it.

And if that seems too difficult, I know a few kids you can hireJ.