Yes. But only if you are not clear on how to make the correct partner selection. Written by Mike Scott, co-founder and CEO of NONA, a software development studio based in South Africa. Software development is still a ‘dark art’ for many founders, executives and business decision-makers, and yet it can be absolutely critical to the success of your business. Finding the right software developer is analogous to working with a car mechanic who we simply have to trust because we just don’t know enough about fixing cars. There are countless horror stories of companies getting badly burnt by outsourced partners, but the reality is that many of those worst-case scenarios are avoidable if you’re deliberate during your assessment. I’ve created a list of the top concerns I’ve noticed—plus how to address them to give yourself a better chance of selecting the right partner. Fear: I won’t have control of the process.Ask for a detailed explanation of the processes that are used. Don’t accept vague answers or jargon. Look specifically for: How much visibility is provided into the process? How are communications are handled? How are different time zones handled? Fear: Outsourcing equals poor quality.There is a massive range of quality and cost in the outsourced market, and this is not necessarily a bad thing. What is most important is to be very clear about what you are looking for. If you are looking for a quickly bashed together prototype, then it’s probably fine to go with a low-cost outsourced dev team with large culture and language gaps. If, on the other hand, you are building something that forms part of your core business or product, then you want to be more selective and can expect to pay more. Consider the following: How is the team contracted and composed? Review the partner’s technical capabilities thoroughly.
This assessment doesn’t need to be drawn out and exhaustive, but it is very important that it happens. It’s easy for us to talk about how good we are, but we need to be able to provide objective proof and examples of that. This process will also give you a window into the communication style of the partner and how well they address and discuss complex topics. Fear: How do I know that I will get the return on investment?Continuous improvement and learning are essential and cost a lot. Supporting developers and designers to stay on top of trends requires deliberate action. Find out what the partner is doing to ensure that their teams are continuously improving, learning and being the best at their craft. At NONA, one of the things we do is to build in dedicated learning days. This culture of continuous improvement and knowledge-sharing results in improved team retention and higher team engagement. As you assess a potential, these are details you should care about because they translate into better developers and designers and therefore better quality product for you. Building, leading, optimizing and retaining great software teams is very difficult. You do have the option of building your own team in the early stages of your project and in some cases this can make sense but this is a very difficult thing to do well, here is why: Good software developers are in huge demand and are very difficult and expensive to attract and retain. Make sure that you understand what the partner is doing to create the kind of culture and working environment to suit the kind of people that you want working on your project. If you select the right partner, you will get far more value than just the knowledge of the team dedicated to your project. In our case, we deliberately create an environment for the knowledge to be shared between everyone which you benefit from as a client. In effect, clients are getting access to a very deep knowledge pool but without having to pay for and nurture the same. Ask the partner how they go about cultivating knowledge sharing within their teams and how that translates to value for your project. Fear: I’m worried that my application will be built and then I will be locked into that partner with no chance of taking this over internally, ever.This does happen, but it shouldn’t. It is wise to ask this question directly and to expect a solid and well-constructed answer. We build software as well if not better than most internal teams, but we also acknowledge that there comes a time where our costs don’t make sense anymore. This is why we are very particular about the technologies that we use, making certain that we aren’t unintentionally binding a client to our organization. When the time is right, we guide the client on building an internal team to take over from us. This has included helping with recruitment, interviews and, in some cases, playing the role of CTO for as long as required. The point is that you want to find a partner that understands the business value of the different stages in the process and keeps your business needs in mind all the way through. Again, don’t take anyone’s word for it. Get references and case studies for objective proof. So, working with an outsource software development partner can be a terrible idea—unless that partner is vetted thoroughly and carefully selected! Mike Scott is a member of the EO Adelaide chapter and the co-founder of NONA. A serial entrepreneur, he is also a father, a blockchain enthusiast and an avid mountain biker, swimmer and trail runner. The original version of this article appeared on Medium.com. The post Should You Fear Outsourcing Your Software Development? appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/2NumCKS
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Have you ever wondered where you’d have the best chance at start-up success in the APAC region? Researchers at ValueChampion analyzed publically available economic data—including the cost of doing business, business environment and quality of labor force—in order to rank the top 12 countries for entrepreneurs. The original article appeared on ValueChampion’s blog here. The top countries for startups in Asia-Pacific have strong economies, low costs of doing business, healthy business environments and well-educated people. We used publicly available data to score countries based on their rank across these categories. Note: A lower number indicates a higher ranking—or a better location for startups. 1. SingaporeThe World Bank rates Singapore as the second best country in the world to conduct business. Singapore is a relatively wealthy country, with GDP per capita of US$52,962, low unemployment (2.15 percent) and high internet accessibility (81 percent). The country has a high cost of living, but small businesses are offered tax incentives, and Singapore has the highest rate of adults with post-secondary schooling (42 percent). Last, the World Economic Forum ranks Singapore’s public institutions as #2 worldwide. Given these metrics, the country is an excellent place for individuals to start and grow businesses. 2. Hong KongHong Kong, where startups will find strong public institutions and good access to financing, came in tied for #2 on our list. Similar to Singapore, Hong Kong has a high GDP per capita (US$43,741) and low unemployment (3.7 percent), but also has a high cost of living (2nd highest in the world). Finally, Hong Kong has relatively low interest rates and taxes, and the World Bank ranks it as the third best city in the world to start a business. 2. JapanTied with Hong Kong, Japan is an excellent option for tech startups, since greater than 93 percent of the population has access to the internet. Its other strong attributes include incredibly low interest rates and a highly educated workforce (86 percent of people have at least a secondary school degree). The main drawbacks to Japan are the fact that it can be expensive to start a business given high corporate tax rates and salary expectations. Where does India rank?India came in 8th in our rankings, and we found its strongest attribute was Cost of Doing Business. India ranked 2nd overall in that category, driven by its excellent Cost of Living Rank. The top areas of improvement for India that could raise its ranking are GDP per capita, unemployment rate and ease of starting a business. Summary of Top Countries for Startups in Asia-PacificBelow is ValueChampion’s list of the top 12 countries in Asia-Pacific for startups. Since every business has different strategic considerations, we expanded on the rankings to show scores by category. As mentioned above, a lower score equates to a better rank. View more details on the rankings as well as sources in the original article.The post Best Countries in Asia-Pacific for Startups appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization https://ift.tt/2RBxTaG The benefit of core values goes far beyond the workplace, explains Marc Gutman. Marc is an EO Colorado member, the founder of WILDSTORY, and father to Ruby, Charlie and Nathan. Many of us have core values at our organizations. These values provide a common nomenclature and a North Star that guide our choices, our language and our priorities—at work. It’s these values that let us know we are working toward a shared mission—at work. These core values are our non-negotiables, the things we won’t compromise on—at work. And, truth be told, core values are amazing. They are one of the first things we walk clients through in our brand storytelling process because everything emanates from them. So, if core values are so great at work, then why don’t we have them at home? I wish I had been “woke” enough to see this myself, but I didn’t see the light until I heard Warren Rustand speak on this topic at the EO Executive Management Program (EMP). After hearing Warren speak, I rushed home and announced we were going to have family core values! You can imagine the groans and eye-rolls from my wife and three kids. “Great, dad. You just went to an EO event, got all fired up and now you have a new idea to test on us!” was the response. I couldn’t blame them for their initial reaction, but I convinced them to give it a try. We started by listing all the people we admire in our lives, whether they were friends, grandparents or celebrities. Then we asked “why”? “Why do we admire them? What qualities do they possess that we admire? If we were building a family out of people we knew, who would we want there?”
Once this was complete, I summarized the qualities and we started to combine them, culling down the list. When we arrived at five distinct ideas, I did some wordsmithing and came up with these:
I put some examples and defining behaviors next to these and returned to the dinner table to review with the family. Everyone agreed that these ideas reflected what we had come up with. That was the easy and fun part! The hard part is living them. Working them into your everyday nomenclature and conversation. My wife, Lindsey, and I often start dinner by playing a game called “roses and thorns.” This is where each member of the family goes around and says something that was great (a rose) about their day and has the chance to voice anything that wasn’t so great (thorns)—one rule is you can’t mention a family member that gave you a thorn! At least once a week we’ll announce that this round also includes a “bud,” which is an example of how you displayed family core values or any example of family core values. We also go out of our way to let the kids know if they aren’t upholding the family core values. “Own it” is all about owning when you’ve done something wrong or right. And it’s our way of making sure everyone takes responsibility. Sometimes, having family core values can force you to face some harsh truths. One night after dinner, there was talk of a school event for my middle child, Charlie. Caught up in my entrepreneurial ways, I mentioned that I was not attending because I had work. Instantly my daughter Ruby, our youngest, piped up and said, “Family first, dad!” That stopped me in my tracks. She was right. That is one of our core values—a non-negotiable, our guiding north star and how we want to build this family for the future. I thanked her for the reminder and let her know this is exactly why we have family core values, to keep us on track. Even when we happen to get off track. In addition to being the guideposts that help us to shape the life we’ve envisioned, the core values have been a great way to create a common language with the kids. It allows us to have tough conversations through a lens that we all understand, through values we all agree are important. Plus, since there are only five, they are easy to remember and manage. This exercise has been an impactful way for us to talk about values with our kids as well as have honest conversations about their values and where they are going in the world. I can’t wait to see what that future looks like! Marc Gutman is the founder of WILDSTORY, a brand strategy and content studio that believes building powerful conversations that change the way people feel about your brand leads to long-term brand loyalty and drives purchases. The WILDSTORY process is based on storytelling—telling the story of your customer and how your products and services make them the heroes of their own lives. The post Why Your Family Needs to Develop Core Values appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization http://bit.ly/2FrfhFC Written for EO by Jim Moran, founder and managing partner of ValueStreet Equity Partners. Shortly after the European Union enacted its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), France’s regulators fined Google $57 million for violating the privacy law. That fine might not be a huge deal for a company the size of Google, but the message to the world was loud and clear: All companies will be held accountable for compliance. GDPR only affects companies that do business within the EU, but it isn’t the only regulation that organizations need to worry about. When I ran an advertising business in the U.S., we faced just as much scrutiny for our advertising programs—and we paid a nominal fine for not knowing the applicable laws ahead of time. We also faced tax regulations from different state authorities that believed we owed them. Any internet brand that sells across state lines must grapple with this issue until the federal government standardizes digital taxation. We got our feet under us eventually; more importantly, we learned how to succeed in environments designed to regulate most of what we do. The Biggest Regulation Challenges Come EarlyCompliance is essential at any stage of your business’s development, but learning how to comply is most important in the early stages. You don’t know what you don’t know, and it’s easy to get stuck in a difficult situation. Even if you achieve compliance, most regulatory bodies can still hold you accountable for past incidents of noncompliance. On top of legal requirements, compliance is in high demand. According to a 2018 Axios poll, more than 55 percent of Americans worry that the government will not do enough to regulate tech companies. Despite this fear, companies that do business in more than one state already have to submit reports to each of those states. As more companies move online, regulators will continue to crack down on standardizing how these businesses sell products, store information, and tax their customers. The ability to navigate this tangled web of regulations will be an important skill moving forward, and these three tips can help you get started: 1. Hit the legal books. 2. Document everything. 3. Keep an ear to the ground. You have enough on your plate as an entrepreneur that you shouldn’t have to worry about losing it all because of an unintentional rule violation. Regulations can be intense, but learning which ones matter to your business and how to successfully meet them is one of the most important skills for you to sharpen. Jim Moran is the founder and managing partner of ValueStreet Equity Partners, a San Diego-based firm investing exclusively in small businesses. He lives in San Diego with his wife and son. The post Worried About Regulation? How to Prep Your Business Early for Lifelong Compliance appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization http://bit.ly/2X068if In 1988, Randy Nelson was one of the founding members of the Raleigh-Durham chapter of EO. He remained a member for nearly 20 years and recently transitioned to an EO Strategic Partner (SAP) in 2018. Randy is a graduate of EO Birthing of Giants (now known as EO Entrepreneurial Masters Program) and EO/London Business School program. Randy has helped many EO members with his transformational and thought-provoking ideas. We recently asked him to pass on his greatest lessons after two decades of peer sharing and executive learning with EO. Here’s what he shared. When I am asked what my greatest lessons learned have been over my 20-year EO career, I always respond with the same answer:
For many years, I did exactly the opposite of number 1 above—I listened with the intent to reply, not understand. I listened with the intent to vigorously defend my position because I thought it was a strength to prove how prepared I was! I thought I was supposed to have all the answers so, when questioned, I got defensive. I dug in. There was no ill-intent, I just thought that was what I was supposed to be doing—proving to my employees that I knew what I was doing. I certainly did not want to look unprepared or to show any signs of weakness in front of them. When I learned my nickname around the office was “The Iceman,”—named for the chill that followed me into a room—it was a career-defining moment that forced me to look in the mirror. I made a decision to change. I needed to listen with the intent to understand, not reply. I needed to learn to ask the right questions—not to have all the right answers. I needed to understand that how I had been listening was a weakness. I needed to learn that it was indeed a strength to be able to listen and learn from anyone in my company. I certainly was full of self-confidence at the time, but to make this transition to a better way of listening, I also needed to introduce a heavy dose of self-awareness—lesson number 2. Did you know that “the lack of self-awareness is the fatal flaw of an entrepreneurial leader”? This phrase has stuck with me ever since I heard it at the EO/London Business School many years ago. There is no doubt that EO members have the self-confidence necessary to start and build businesses—and I commend each of you for that; our economy needs you! But if you can blend in self-awareness at a much higher level, your ability to scale your business improves dramatically. What exactly is this self-awareness stuff? Here’s my favorite definition: Know thyself. Improve thyself. Complement thyself. Let’s take a closer look at what this means for you.
Think about your EO career to date. What have been your top lessons? When you uncover what they are, share them within your EO Forum the next time you meet, and have your Forum mates do the same! Randy Nelson is currently the CEO of Gold Dolphins LLC, a coaching, writing, speaking and consulting firm for entrepreneurs and leaders. Prior to Gold Dolphins, Randy built and sold two successful businesses which have produced over $US1 billion in sales and remain industry leaders today. Nicknamed the “Triangle’s Yoda” in Raleigh, North Carolina, by his EO Forum, he has a lifelong passion and successful track record for entrepreneurship and leadership. He and his wife, Kristi, reside in Clayton, North Carolina. They have six children and six grandchildren.
The post What I’ve Learned From 20 Years as an EO Member appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization http://bit.ly/2XXwdLf Ken Honda is the author of Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace with Your Money. He is a bestselling author of self-development books and has sold more than seven million copies worldwide. While his financial expertise comes from owning and managing several businesses, his writing spans topics that include finance and self-help, focusing on creating and generating personal wealth and happiness through deeper self-honesty. Ken recently shared a sneak peek of his philosophy behind achieving “happy money.” What is the difference between money IQ and money EQ? How do the two work together to create “happy money”?After running my own businesses for over 20 years, I know there are two types of intelligence that every entrepreneur needs—money IQ and money EQ. If you only have one, your business is sure to suffer. Every entrepreneur needs a basic level of money IQ. This is about making smart choices in how you make, spend and invest your money. Money IQ helps you create great strategies for generating and protecting your money. But the true mastery of your business comes from understanding your money EQ—your emotional relationship to money. No matter how smart you are with money until you understand how your unconscious mind works around money you will make expensive decisions, bad choices and miss opportunities. If your money EQ is low, you could very well end up losing money. That is why there is a long list of extremely intelligent individuals who have allowed their businesses to take over their life, have made bad choices and gone bankrupt. In order to achieve a happy money life, you need to have both a healthy money IQ and a healthy money EQ. Once you know about the intelligent and emotional aspects of making money, you will have a great relationship with it. What is the most unhealthy type of relationship a person can have with money? How does that impact a person’s life?Most people have a difficult relationship with money because of the ways they earn and spend it are unhealthy. Which is to say, a lot of entrepreneurs tend to take on projects or clients just for the paycheck, and the stress adds up quickly. Suffering is embedded in the act of getting money. Without realizing it, feelings of stress, pain, or irritation come up every time they use or think about money.
We also tend to live with the delusion that continually expanding our business just to become rich, will make us happy, solve all our problems, and put our worries to rest. The truth is actually completely the opposite. The more money we earn, the larger our work or business grows. When companies get bigger, expenses and payrolls get bigger, too. If you want to be free of money worries, you may need to examine your relationship with money. Ask yourself: What are your fears? How and why does money control you? What have you been brainwashed to believe? While it can be painful and somewhat traumatic to look back, by understanding where you are today in regard to your relationship to money and your unconscious beliefs about money, you’ll be better able to see how it controls your life. In your book, you write, “People who are confident aren’t that way because they are rich. They are rich because they are confident!” Will you please explain this idea further?To fully realize your potential as a business owner, keep in mind that it isn’t just money and abundance that is important; confidence in your own abilities matters as well. Even when your supply of money is low, confidence and self-esteem lead to the heart of abundance. Yet it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that many people are overpowered by doubt. And the road of self-doubt leads to only one place: fear. Fear of trying new things. Fear of doing anything. Fear of sharing your skills and talents. You need to trust before you get money. All success is an outgrowth of confidence. And when we are able to trust the flow of money, both in and out of our lives, being confident comes naturally.
A big cause of money stress is that people don’t trust the flow of money. They are worried that the money they make will not be enough to support their future. They worry that their ideas and projects won’t be worth all the time and energy spent. But if we are going to be decisive and act with confidence, we have to accept that money is a fluctuating thing. If you want to be happy and successful, you have to muster the confidence in yourself and your abilities. What are your tips to help someone with an unhappy relationship with money develop a more positive relationship with money?I believe that “thank you” are the two most powerful words to help you to start to transform your relationship with money. Take a look at your relationship with money. Make a plan to change your attitude to one of gratitude toward money. By appreciating money as it both enters and leaves your life, you will find a more fulfilling life. When we talk about increasing money, most people automatically imagine business investments and other techniques. However, for me, it means finding a purpose that you believe in from the heart and then aiding that purpose with money. As an entrepreneur, you should seek to create a flow of money that you feel happy about by doing what you love. The post Happy Money: Transforming Your Relationship with Money appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization http://bit.ly/2WOorqr By Miranda Naiman, accidental entrepreneur, motivational speaker, member of the EO Tanzania chapter and founder of Empower Limited, a Tanzanian human capital consultancy firm. It is mind-boggling how much time and money is invested in “strategy” at many companies—with some larger organizations even hiring a full-time person or team to oversee “strategy and innovation.” While commendable, this effort to invest in strategy doesn’t work unless the company also focuses on culture. After culture eats breakfast, it continues to chomp its way through strategy for lunch and dinner, too! No matter what business or client strategy you try to implement with your team, its success completely relies on the people implementing the plan. In essence, if the people driving the strategy aren’t passionate about the initiative or, worse, are apathetic about their job and their organization, then chances are limited that any strategy will be executed. Organizational culture is intangible; as such, it can be difficult to influence. It is the personality of your organization—those moments created by people breathing life into your values; your unique way of working or protocol. If the current culture of your organization is not aligned with your strategy, I suggest you take a hard look at how to make some tweaks and clean up your house. Rather than one dominating the other, strategy and culture should dine together with the intimacy of long-lost friends. Here are ways to catalyze this reunion of friends: Understand your number one measure of business success.At the top of the pyramid lies your BHAG (big hairy audacious goal), a game-changing outcome of effectively executing your strategy combined with a key metric for business success. This true-north metric could be financial or a performance denominator. No matter what it is, you should be crystal clear of your winning moves—the plays that will allow your organization to achieve, extend and exploit its market position. Now, ask yourself: Does everyone in the organization understand where you are going? Does everyone know that BHAG? Breathe life into your values.Organizational values are not a bunch of words listed on your company website or a checkbox exercise. They are your business DNA. If strangers were to watch you (your organization) for a few days, what words would they use to describe you and the way you do your work? What problem do you exist to solve and for whom? Most importantly, why does it matter to you? Hire for attitude.If culture is defined by the web of people associated with your organization, it is critical that new hires embody your values from the get-go. Find creative ways to assess potential recruits. Go beyond conventional personality profiling. Immerse prospective hires in a team huddle or meeting and observe their behavior. Invite them on one of your team building days or take them out for lunch with a couple of colleagues. You will be amazed at what you can learn by throwing someone in the deep-end—a surefire way to diagnose whether they are a cultural #InstaFit or #InstaMiss. Really lead by example.There is no use preaching from the pulpit. Culture is a unanimous and all-encompassing way of being that not only unites a team but fosters the right environment for strategic execution. I’ve been known to bust-a-move with my team on occasion—it’s all part of our culture. As a leader, you will need to drop the pretense and simply be. Energy is infectious. Be sure that your energy helps, not hinders, and purposefully inspires people to deliver. The post Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization http://bit.ly/2WK1xAv When we asked EO members to share how their entrepreneurial and parenting endeavors inform each other, we heard from Matt Doud, a member of the EO Baltimore chapter and co-founder and president of Planit. Matt shared what he considers a must-have for both areas of life.“The parallels between parenting and entrepreneurship are countless. There are no playbooks for either endeavor, so you must enter both believing in yourself. This is not necessarily the same as having confidence. You must know deep down that you can do it and no one else can instill that self-truth but you. Having said that, it’s also important to have humility and a willingness to fail. As long as you fail fast and learn from it. In both roles, I have learned more from the failures than the successes. The skills necessary are aligned, too. At the kitchen table or on the soccer field or in the boardroom, being an entrepreneur as well as a parent requires wearing many hats, including those of an evangelist, a cheerleader and a coach…as well as expert, servant and practitioner. And lastly, as a 25-year entrepreneur, husband of 20 years, and the father of 16- and 15-year-old sons, I would offer one bit of advice for anyone starting either of those paths: You need to be ready to go all in; otherwise, don’t do it at all. Running a business, like parenthood, is a 24/7, 365 endeavor. You need to be passionate about what you’re doing. Passion makes things possible. It can never be about the money. My kids taught me early in their lives about the rewards of being firm and decisive, while also being adaptable and open to feedback. To be a good listener. To trust my gut. I incorporate these into my entrepreneurial life on a daily basis, too.” A veteran of the Baltimore, Maryland, advertising marketplace, Matt Doud is the founder of the advertising agency Planit. He was named one of the Baltimore Business Journal’s 40-Under-40, one of Smart CEO magazine’s Future 50 and named one of the Most Influential Marylanders by The Baltimore Daily Record. The post Lessons Learned in Parenting and Entrepreneurship appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization http://bit.ly/31swqIB Written for EO by Steven Dudley, mindset and performance coach for entrepreneurs and competitive athletes. Forums, also called mastermind groups, hold a special place in the world of entrepreneurship. Forum can provide value for any niche group, but it is especially valuable for entrepreneurs. From my personal experience, the hardest and yet most imperative part of the entrepreneurial journey is the fight between the ears. If left unanswered the self-sabotage, the impostor, the self-doubt, the self-reliance and the resistance will pay a massive toll.
Forum is an amazing way to navigate and manage your mental health. Here are the two main ways that Forum can help you with your mental health issues. 1. The Inner FightThe biggest battle for all entrepreneurs is the one that happens inside our own heads. The mix between constant change, heavy-duty emotions and monumental daily decisions leaves entrepreneurs feeling no one can understand their issues. So, it’s natural that many of us keep everything locked away inside our own heads—leaving a fight between right and left hemispheres, pre-frontal cortex vs. amygdala, feelings vs. data, money vs. emotions, practical vs. creative, risk vs. guarantee, change vs. constant and the list could go on. This inner fight for what is right causes a lot of mental stress, anxiety and overall unhealthy thoughts for us entrepreneurs. Only until you turn the internal voice into an external voice will you make progress. It always makes sense in your own head but until you can explain it to the outside world, it’s incomprehensible. This is one way forum can serve your mental health. 2. Lonely IslandForum is essential for entrepreneurs because of the loneliness factor that affects us all. To bring that inner dialog out into the open is very powerful. It creates a space for you to finally not feel alone and to gain comfort that someone else is dealing with the same issues that you’re dealing with. It gives entrepreneurs an understanding that everyone has a voice inside their head and you’re not crazy. That’s why a trusted forum or mastermind group is so important. To feel heard and seen is a powerful tool that all entrepreneurs need—a support system so you don’t feel alone on an island. I have experienced, seen and heard the best and the worst of forum. When forum works well, it is lifesaving, quite literally. I have facilitated, coached and been a part of the best Forums and mastermind groups in the world. I have seen people take a step back off the ledge because of their peers. I have witnessed businesses grow by ten times in a month because of experience sharing. I have been part of hundreds of breakthrough moments, and I have watched a whole team of adults mentally break down to their most vulnerable state and then collectively rise higher than they were before. In my opinion, every entrepreneur should experience the power of forum even if it’s just for the mental health benefits. Steven Dudley was a semi-professional athlete before moving on to an entrepreneurial career in the wellness space. He built and sold two businesses in Denver, Colorado. He openly talks about his mental struggles along his journey, and now he is helping his fellow athletes and entrepreneurs conquer their own mental battles. He is a mindset and performance coach for entrepreneurs and competitive athletes, as well as a forum facilitator and author. The post 2 Reasons Why Forums Are Important for the Mental Health of Entrepreneurs appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization http://bit.ly/2wHzRgj Written for EO by Terry Lammers, certified valuation analyst and managing member of Innovative Business Advisors. After 24 years of raising children, my wife and I will become empty nesters soon. When I see a young couple with children, I think, “How the heck did we raise three kids into responsible adults?” That feeling reminds me of what starting a business can be like: It’s expensive. Starting a business comes with a hefty price tag. You have to buy equipment, lease an office and hire staff. When fighting for survival, you aren’t reviewing financial statements. You know only what’s in your checkbook. Your vision for the company started long-term, but in the trenches, all you can consider is how to make it through the day, the week, the month. When I returned to the family fuel business, the twentieth of every month was stressful because motor fuel taxes were due from sales the month before. I’d head to the post office hoping there was a pile of checks. I wasn’t thinking big-picture; I was trying to manage my checkbook. Going the extra mile to make the next milestone was almost like a badge of honor. Shifting Your Focus to Cash FlowHopefully, you can get your head above water and have some predictability month after month, like when your kids grow up and don’t require constant supervision. You can take the time to prioritize your finances and see how healthy the business is. Now is the time to switch your focus from the checkbook to key performance indicators—accounts receivable days, accounts payable days and inventory days—that will help you manage cash flow. The turning point for me was when my company got a line of credit on a borrowing base certificate. Getting a line of credit to support receivables was going to release monetary stress. But our value and ability to succeed were going to be judged by others. It’s at this point that you need to understand how to generate positive cash flow to the bottom line. Comparing the cash flow to the company’s net income helps analysts and investors see how well a business is run and how much money the company brings in. My company had to fund 15 days of sales before it received money from what was sold, which only became harder as sales increased. If my sales were US$100,000 a day, times 15 days, that was US$1.5 million in capital I needed to fund that gap. When sales shot up to US$200,000, that gap ballooned to US$3 million. If the bank had blinked on my line of credit, I was done. We usually earned a profit at year’s end, but we were starving for cash to run the company. It’s like stretching a rubber band: If you go too far, it snaps. Useful Tips for Understanding Cash FlowWhen your kids mature, you send them to school to learn and from teachers. As your business matures, you need the right people in your corner to help you grow it—a CPA and a business coach. Your team can challenge ideas, refocus and mentor you to stay at the top of your game. Creating a set of KPIs to assess the financial performance of your company makes it easier to create long-term goals and monitor what your bank thinks of your business’s progress. That’s why accounts receivable days, accounts payable days, and inventory days should be kept on the top of your mind. You might be in the weeds and thinking about your next loan payment instead of the long term—and that’s OK. But soon, it might be time to look to accrual accounting so you can shift your thinking to a cash flow mindset to better grow your business. Terry Lammers, certified valuation analyst, is managing member of Innovative Business Advisors. He and partner Steve Denny launched the business in 2014 to perform business valuations, help people buy and sell companies, and provide exit planning and consulting. Terry is the author of “You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know: Everything You Need to Know to Buy or Sell a Business,” and he was president and owner of Tri-County Petroleum for more than 20 years. The post Why Every Startup Needs to Shift Its Focus From the Checkbook to Cash Flow appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. via Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization http://bit.ly/2Xv6pps |
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November 2020
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