Monday, June 2, 2008

Entrepreneurial “procrastination” – easy to be a victim

The first proof of the preacher himself committing the sin is my inability to do a Blog in recent weeks – shame on me for procrastinating!

Now back to preaching…

Procrastinating on getting to revenue equals sudden death.

Recently an entrepreneur passionately indicated that they have potential customers that are willing to buy their product NOW, but they are holding back until they raise more capital! because they are concerned about the growth and how they can control it; they have seen this before as they claimed.

Upon further investigation, it became clear that the product works, there are no technical reasons for delay, and that the customer is actually willing to pay a portion of the fees in advance; which can support staffing and internal expenses. This conversation has bothered me to the point of motivating me to write a post (thank god for the motivation!). So, I would like to remind some of my entrepreneur friends of the following key facts of entrepreneurship:

1. Avoiding a potential mistake, may be as bad as making a new mistake
2. A business is built on revenues not raised capital
3. The more of the company you keep the better off you are!
4. Before you control growth you should experience it
5. Risk is a part of life.
6. Fear of failure is as BAD as if not worst than fear of success
7. There is a thing called “competition” , while you ponder they are executing!

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is a unique entrepreneur who would rather raise cash against equity or debt than by way of profits and revenue.

Many a first time entrepreneur thinks they have such a big idea that once they have completed what they have planned, clients will be waiting to get a piece of it.

One of the my favorite story lines for folks has always been Dell.

How they sell was not only well known but was taught in MBA schools as a case study and still for 10 years HP could not get it and could not replicate it. The key is EXECUTION. Vision is one element, passion is another, but at the end of the day EXECUTION is key.

Today my favorite corollary to the DELL theory is, DELL is trying to do what HP is doing today and HP has been doing this for over 20 years, that is selling via Retail Outlets. Why is HP succeeding today when it was loosing yesterday.

The answer again is EXECUTION.

I agree with you Sid, if folks will not jump on opportunities and take the new client opportunities I would think maybe that are not that passionate about EXECUTION of that idea and really more excited about creating an organization.

regards
Rajat Khurana

CT said...

Good point, Rajat.

Execution is always key.

In my little business (which I really just call a "muse" to steal a term from Tim Ferriss) my philosophy is this:

Once you determine your target (by asking yourself "Is there an opportunity, and can I win?")...

Bring something to market as fast as possible - being completely up-front and honest with your market that they are getting something very early on in the product development cycle.

Then have your CUSTOMERS dictate the product direction, while also fueling growth through viral marketing.

There is no better sounding board than a customer, if you are willing to listen to their feedback.

Get beyond your ego and into your customer's hearts.

Anonymous said...

Love this post, Sid, but I want more. Why aren't you blogging? =)

Mark Bregman said...

Hi Sid,
Sometimes a completely different kind of leader is needed. I coined the term "Disruptive Leader" after Clayton Christenson's concept of disruptive innovation or disruptive technology. Here's a link to my article: "Disruptive Leaders for Disruptive Companies"
http://www.bobsearch.com/rfv-10.aspx

Lary Stucker said...

Too true Sid. I have worked with two kinds of companies. Companies that build their products on the back of their customers and companies that build their products on the back of the investors. Guess which ones have been more successful?

-Lary

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