If you decide to get into ‘business’ at all, you will have customers. The customer may be fortune 500 companies or 13 year-old kids, but you are going to be selling to someone. And you will hate them. You won’t admit it, but you will feel it. Why? Because they will not behave how you want them to! They won’t say the right things (FLAMES), or buy enough, or care about you. They take too long, play mind games, and pay too little. So how do I cope?

A few tips that have helped me learn to hate my customers less.
1.) accept that you cannot control others.
2.) try to learn what they ‘do do’ consistently.
3.) have a dialogue. JUST TALK TO THEM… normally. Don’t always be selling, sometimes you just need to learn more about them.
4.) remember you exist to help them… but you can’t help the un-willing.
5.) GOLDEN RULE: do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. TREAT YOUR SUPPLIERS BETTER! Really. Just consider how you treat your own suppliers, and good karma will start to flow.

For more on Karma see: http://www.karmaback.com 🙂
coming soon!

Photo Attributes: derivative work: — Mike.lifeguard | @en.wb Kittyplya03042006.JPG: Photographed by and copyright of (c) David Corby (User:Miskatonic, uploader) 2006

Engineers loathe buzzwords. Usually they are a precursor to a bad idea, misconceived, and violating several laws of nature or physics. Keeping up with the buzzwords and hype, however, is critical to the engineer-type mind who wants to succeed. Buzzword knowledge makes you look smarter (as long as you don’t criticize others misunderstanding), and opens up new opportunities. For example, did you know that Amazon is co-investing MILLIONS of dollars in cloud computing companies: all you have to do is apply…

Here is a list of reasons to keep up with buzzwords:
1.) So you can understand what your boss is saying (or trying to say).
2.) So you can see new opportunities in the convergence of new (old) ideas.
3.) So you can learn about tidbits like the Amazon Investment Fund investing in Cloud Computing.
4.) Because it might help you win in business today.

How can you get a jump-start learning the buzzwords and seeing through the hype to how it can help you?
1.) Read Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin
2.) Read Seth Godin’s blog.
3.) TechCrunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/
4.) Read Slashdot.org
5.) Attend start-up conferences and events like those we have here in Austin as part of the Austin Technology Incubator.
6.) What is your favorite source??? (Please share below!!!)

Even my 6yo son knows the marketing formula…. do you? Here it is in C++.
customer_action = customer_need * demand(product(5cs), place(5cs), price(5cs), promotion(5cs));
If you don’t understand marketing quite this well or this precise, read on.

I am passionate about learning. I am even more passionate about teaching: I love it. I love learning through teaching. Recently, I decided to start sharing some of my business knowledge with friends and family. My son is helping me (as you can see here!). The topic of this day was “Marketing Basics” and to highlight, this is the view from an engineer-type mind (my own). So you will see, it is simple, straightforward, organized, and logical. Engineers, pay attention, all the marketing basics are IN THIS BLOG POST! After this, you will probably be a better marketer than your VP Marketing (who forgot all this because it wasn’t organized or learned as rigorous as science is by engineers). My 5 YO son grasped most of this… you can too.

Marketing Basics:
THE GOAL:
The goal of marketing is simple.
To build demand, awareness, and action.

Marketing (as a class) has 4 member functions: (The 4 Ps of marketing)
Product
Price
Place
Promotion

1.) Product – to help define a product/service that satisfies a need, solves a problem, or is otherwise desirable. It’s features and benefits SHOULD be defined by marketing.

2.) Price – to set a price which maximizes profits based on demand. (see economic theory). NOTE: this price should be based on PERCEIVED VALUE, not on cost.

3.) Place – to find the best places to put the product/service where it is convenient and readily available to the target customer.

4.) Promotion – to advertise and educate customers about the product/service, price, and PLACE. NOTE: must create ‘action’ here, and SHOULD be measurable.

—
Marketing’s tools/variables.
Marketing has 5 member variables that must be considered… the 5 Cs of Marketing.
Customer
Company
Competition
Collaboration
Context

1. Customer – who are they, and what do they want? This is vital information (inputs) to the functions of marketing (the 4 Ps above).

2. Company – who are you, and what do you want? Often this is your competitive advantage and the goal of your business.

3. Competition – who are they, and how are you different/better?

4. Collaboration – who can help you and why?

5. Context – what’s going on in society and how can that help/hurt you?

—
That is it. Really.

Can Marketing be made more complex? Sure… is that good? You decide.

For me, I’ll keep my marketing simple. I’ll deliver the 4 Ps using the 5 Cs, and get it out there and get it going… to acheive the goal: build demand and create action.

For me, action is sales. A topic for another day!

Giving birth to a new business can be a thrill. The word is thrill, not green, as Bruce Willis would say in the blockbuster film The Fifth Element. Green is money: if that is your thrill, go be an investment banker or some other lucrative job. The thrill of success, of building winning teams, and of launching successful companies is what motivates the best of us…

In fact, ‘thrill’ may be one reason that VCs struggle to put ‘process’ into small companies. Process can go against thrill if not managed well. For me, I absolutely love giving birth to a new business. I’ve discovered a process that I think makes for a good recipe for forming an idea into a business. It starts first and foremost with motivation: why are you starting the business? For me it is not just thrill (that is the reward), it is people, passion, and love of the challenge.

Here is my recipe for sharpening an idea and turning it into a business:
1.) Understand your reasons for starting the business!!!
* For me, this is the best part. I absolutely love the challenge of running a new business. I truly enjoy seeing my employees, partners, and bosses succeed. Finally, I am almost always passionate about the need or problem I am solving.
* The real thrill for me though: is doing all this MY WAY: the way that doesn’t compromise on values, and is unique. In fact, the best part about starting and running a company for me is hiring, managing, and firing according to the winning values that I believe in (more on that in a future post).

2.) Hone the idea into a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
* For me, I’ve written about the MVP idea already… but this is so important. If your MVP idea can’t solve (by its self) a part of the need or problem: start over. If it solves “too much” and “will take a long time” to get going… or requires a “chicken for your egg” start over.

3.) Build a winning Business Plan.
* A winning business plan to me is one that: a.) clearly identifies the problem or need. b.) has a solid business model, c.) identifies and sizes the target market, and c.) shows how profitability can be achieved quickly. I’ll assume that the product/service idea is good… the other parts are almost always the key.

4.) Build a team and a product.
* Based on the business plan, build a small team.. give shares freely for work early, and get the MVP product built ASAP!

5.) Sell it.
* start selling now. I am learning about this myself… it is hard. Be voratios about learning: there are Good sales books out there (i’m on a sales book reading kick right now myself, and i’ll post my results soon).

6.) Raise money if needed.
* after you have successfully made a sale, determine if you can keep going and get to profitability, or if you need to raise money now.

7.) Sell it more.
* keep selling. Selling stock. Selling product. Selling vision. Selling culture. Successful selling is THE thing that makes small businesses work.

(photo credits)
Bruce Willis in The Fifth Element.(©1997 Sony Pictures Entertainment Company. All rights reserved.)

Being an entrepreneur is REALLY REALLY HARD. You have to persist. You have to put your whole self into it. I often meet with engineer-types and others who are looking to start a new venture. It’s almost always an exciting idea, but it is almost always lacking a few key elements. Nevertheless, I never scoff or worry about what is lacking (although I do try to highlight the missing pieces). The reason I don’t worry, because I know that if that budding entrepreneur works HARD ENOUGH and persists, they will succeed. The business might not, but they will.

Here are a list of the common things I see advising new young companies:
1. Lack of Business model. (or naive business model)
2. Scalability problems. (marketing, sales, etc.)
3. Weak go-to-market plan.
4. Thinking they can do it all themselves. (no team plan)
5. Thinking fund-raising is easy.
6. Thinking of “raising money” before the product.
7. Too MUCH too soon. (too hard)
8. Chicken and Egg problems.

Feel free to ask questions about the above, if you don’t know what I mean.

Oh, and come see me tonight 10/15/09:
http://tytusblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/tytus-to-speak-at-ieee-in-austin.html

photo attributes:

While I was working at Intel, I learned what a truly successful culture looked like. Somehow Intel had cultivated a culture of pride: pride of ones work, ones product, ones company, and ones peers. When I founded Bigfoot Networks with my 2 good friends from Business school (props to Mike Cubbage and Bob Grim), I wanted to somehow ensure that a culture of pride, one where people actually WANT to work was developed.

For four years, I was CEO of Bigfoot Networks, and within the first few months of our founding, I had convinced the team that a formalized culture with certain common values was a good thing. My first draft of our mission and values statement (corny to those who haven’t really lived one), was accepted by all without modification (they didn’t know what they were in for!)!

Our mission:
We fight lag win Innovation.
Our common Values:
Ownership
Passion
Flexibility & Redemption
Directness

These had specific definition so there was no confusion what we meant (see below). In practice these 4 things combined to create a culture of pride, just like at Intel. Many employees have said to me that the culture WAS the reason they joined Bigfoot, and it WAS the thing they liked the most about working there. We took our culture VERY seriously, and everyone made an effort to know it and to live it (most importantly perhaps, myself, as CEO). Ownership was ‘lived’ in every meeting, where owners were delegated ownership (not tasks). Passion pervaded our work, and those who didn’t have it were asked politely to move on (hopefully to something they WERE passionate about). Flexibility was being a startup, but screwing up meant redemption. And all of this in as direct a manner as I know how to live.

Every year, I asked employees to talk about Culture and review what worked and what didn’t. Only after 2 years and a team the size of 20 did a new facet to our culture get introduced: Teamwork. It was already implicit in what we did, but we weren’t giving it any credit. In fact, we were celebrating owners and not teams. We added that to our mix and it was for the better: we no longer celebrated individuals as a group but instead celebrated wins as a team. (yes I wasn’t very good at it, but I tried!)

Now I’m off on a new adventure, starting a new company. We are yet again trying our best to build a culture of Pride… but now in a new unique way. More to come in a future post.

—

Full definitions of the culture from Bigfoot:

Ownership:
I COMPLETELY OWN the work I am assigned.
Ownership includes planning, execution, and analysis.
Execution includes driving those around me for the things I need to be successful, even the CEO.
Everything that matters has an owner.
I am responsible for the work I do, and the work that others do for my project.
When complete, I am proud of what I’ve done

Directness:
I never punish or squash ideas, feedback, or directness, even when its painful.
I listen to others, and I am listened to.
I am direct with feedback and ideas, I never hold back, even when its painful.
I don’t keep Secrets or practice Politics.
I use Constructive Collaboration to strive for a win-win-or-no-deal solution for all.
I don’t discriminate, pre-judge, or harass anyone for any reason: great ideas come from diversity.

Passion:
I am passionate about what I do.
I know I add value, and what I do matters.
I continue to learn new things in and out of the office: and I share my knowledge when I can.
When I encounter problems or issues, I look at them as learning opportunities.
I know where the company, my team, and myself are going, and the plan to get there.

Flexibility and Redemption:
I enjoy being stretched, and doing things I’ve never done before: whatever it takes.
I make fast decisions, taking calculated risks for speed.
Flexibility is my weapon: I don’t let momentum make me do the wrong things right.
If I make a mistake, I announce it: I know Redemption is possible and flexibility means sometimes being wrong.
If others make a mistake, I give them the opportunity and tools for Redemption.

Teamwork:
I celebrate wins as a team.
I recognize individuals only in light of the team.
I never leave a team-mate alone.
I strive to better not only myself but also my team.
The team grows when I teach and share my knowledge freely.

photo attribution