Entrepreneur – Page 29 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

3 Simple Steps for Achieving Global Domination

August 9, 2010/3 Comments/in Entrepreneur, Innovation, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

So you want to take over the world, huh? Not quite sure how to get started, you say? Then I have a treat for you

Building on our last post about how to think about capturing the huge global opportunities that are out there to improve your business, today I’ll offer some practical advice on how to get started.

Going global is intimidating. For some, anything beyond buying toys with a “Made in China” stamp on them can freak them out. But with a focused and measured approach, you too can start down the path of making your organization global.

In the last post, we covered some notions around evaluating opportunities on the revenue side and the cost side of the ledger. To capture them, you have to think about market entry, product/service delivery, and communications. Without those three, your efforts are dead on arrival. Are there other considerations? Sure. These are simply the first three I recommend considering as part of your global conquest plan.

How Your Business Can Achieve Global Domination

August 2, 2010/2 Comments/in Entrepreneur, Innovation, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

I’m going to take over the world!

It’s really fun to say that. It’s even more fun to take action toward that goal.

Our world has gotten smaller. Way smaller. Globalization is an unstoppable trend. But as they say, the trend is your friend so why not take advantage of it? I don’t care how big or small your business is – there are huge opportunities out there for you beyond the shores of your country (assuming yours has shores).

The real trick is understanding what globalization can do for your business then figuring out how to exploit those opportunities. Today I’ll cover some simple notions around what the global opportunities are and in the next post I’ll more importantly discuss a few key ways to capture them.

Going global is intimidating. It sounds huge. You need a passport and visas (and we know what a joy those processes can be). You need to understand new languages and cultures. And heaven forbid you have to take a coach class 14 hour flight across the ocean (trust me, it’s painful). Okay. So get over it and dive in.

To illustrate today’s points, I’ll use examples from two businesses I’m running: thoughtLEADERS (leadership training) and TiXiT (discounted event tickets). Sure, they’re simple businesses but they’re microcosms that will help get the following points across.

Think about it simply – opportunities exist in terms of revenues and costs. It’s not that hard. As far as how to capture the opportunities, it boils down to market entry, product/service delivery, and communication. So let’s go global! Here we go:

5 Steps to Entrepreneurship With Zero Risk

April 19, 2010/8 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Career, Entrepreneur, Sales /by Mike Figliuolo

I’m sick of people asking “Do you know how crazy you are for making the decision to go out on your own as an entrepreneur and taking on all that risk?”

I’ve barely taken ANY risk as I’ve pursued my entrepreneurial ventures. You can take this (almost) risk-free approach too if you plan carefully and deliberately.

First, let’s dissect the kinds of risk you typically take as an entrepreneur then we’ll get into making entrepreneurship (almost) risk-free.

There are a few discrete types of risk you’ll take as you set forth on your own: financial risk, career risk, brand risk, and lifestyle risk.

Financial risk: you have the potential to blow it all. Or you can simply run out of cash and face foreclosure. This happens when you build a business that can’t sustain the cash demands you’ll face as an entrepreneur. I recently explored this risk in the 4 traps that destroy entrepreneurs.

Career risk: you can derail your career progression because you spend a few years out of corporate America pursuing your dream of building www.BoogerSculptures.com (by the way, that URL is available in case you’re interested…).

Personal brand risk: you become known as the guy who “couldn’t cut it” as an entrepreneur.

Lifestyle risk: your family hates you because they forget what you look like since you’re working 94 hours a day. You also become such a stress bomb that everyone around you develops a nervous twitch.

Now that I’ve scared off the lily-livered posers from pursuing the entrepreneurial dream, I’ll tell all you real want-to-be-my-own-boss types how to de-risk entrepreneurship:

Want a Powerful Business? Take Your Own Medicine

April 12, 2010/2 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

You’ve all been to the doctor at some point. There’s always that moment of truth where he tells you to change your bad habits, eat better, and exercise more. It all makes sense and is sound advice.

But how likely are you to follow his advice if he’s wheezing it out because he weighs 350 lbs. and you keep getting distracted by the piece of Ho Ho hanging off his lower lip? Not so much, right?

As a trainer, coach, and communicator I dispense more than my fair share of advice and guidance. A lot of it even makes sense. Occasionally. But there’s something I find more difficult than just about every other aspect of my job: taking my own advice.

The weird thing is I regularly advise leaders on how to improve their businesses yet I sometimes get lazy about doing the same exact things I tell them to do. Why do I demonstrate this shortcoming? Maybe it’s pure sloth. Maybe I run under the misguided belief that all the things I advise others to do I must naturally do myself in my own business dealings.

Then one of my friends proves me wrong. When you surround yourself with incredibly smart people, they tend to ask some really smart questions. Needless to say I get asked smart questions quite frequently. If you stop and listen to those questions though (either from others or the ones you’d ask yourself if you were dispensing advice to you) you can make your business exponentially more powerful. Here’s how:

If You Want to Close the Deal, Go Naked

March 29, 2010/7 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Sales /by Mike Figliuolo

No one will deny business has become infinitely more complex and exponentially more efficient. Kind of. The challenge we face in the information age is there’s too much frickin’ information. Even worse, you’re usually trying to cut through the clutter to make your sale. It can be you’re selling a product, a service, or an idea to internal customers but the point is you’re always selling something.

Well I have news folks. I found a new trick for cutting through that clutter to make the sale: go naked.

I know how important clarity of communications is to making these sales. Heck, a huge part of my business is based on clear, concise communications training. You wouldn’t believe how much demand there is for tools to help us persuade and influence people more effectively and efficiently. One of the first blog posts I ever wrote was about getting to the “so what?” in a compelling way.

I try to practice what I preach. I try to make my communications succinct and punchy. I don’t always succeed. I’m always looking for new ways to get to “yes” with my audience. The other day I tried a new one. I went naked to two separate and hugely important meetings. And it felt so good I plan on going naked much more often.

Since you all know I kept my clothes on for those meetings (really being naked would be kinda creepy) let me explain what I mean.

Two More Traps that Destroy Entrepreneurs (Part 2)

March 22, 2010/2 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

In my last post I talked about the traps entrepreneurs face with respect to cash (not planning it well enough or managing it rigorously enough) and being your own boss (which means you might not have coworkers to help you make decisions). If you missed the post, go read it here.

Today I’ll cover two more traps that can ruin your business faster than Takeru Kobayashi can destroy a Nathan’s hot dog.

If you’re an entrepreneur you likely have a cool idea for a product or a service. That knowledge and innovation is the core of what you’re about. You somehow intuitively understand a market need and that’s the source of your success. Or failure depending on how you play it. That’s the third trap.

The fourth trap is that as the Big Cheese, you don’t need to sweat the small stuff. You’re the king of rock. There is none higher. Sucka MC’s better call you sire. Well guess what your majesty? You DO have to sweat the small stuff. All of it.

Let’s explore these two traps, shall we?

4 Traps That Destroy Entrepreneurs (Part 1)

March 15, 2010/6 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Entrepreneur, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

From a glance at early responses to our poll on entrepreneurship (see bottom of this page and VOTE if you haven’t already) it seems like everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. It’s sexy. Startups. IPOs. Be your own boss. Right?

Well sometimes it downright sucks. And if you don’t know what you’re taking on, you’re likely tackling much more work and risk than you believe. In fact, in my conversations with other entrepreneurs (man, that’s a big word and it sounds funny) I’ve come across four things that will absolutely destroy your business. We’ve already covered the concept of how entrepreneurs need to bootstrap to win. The traps I’ll cover now go beyond that. They’re so important that I don’t want to give them short shrift so I’ll cover two of them in this post and two in the next.

First, let’s look at why being an entrepreneur seems so sexy and glamorous:

– you get to be your own boss and no one can tell you what to do

– you set your own hours

– you get to make all the decisions

– you can make gobs of cash and you keep all of it

– you get to write a blog with Bozo the Clown pictures without having to run it by corporate communications

Sounds awesome, right? It is. I’ve been running entrepreneurial ventures my whole life dating back to selling hand-painted pencils and comic books in 6th grade (they were two separate business units of course). I’ve been a full-time entrepreneur for over two years now (translation – 100% of my income has come from my ventures at thoughtLEADERS, weBuild, and TiXiT). Yes, it’s awesome. I love it. But I’ve seen 4 things that can wipe you out in the blink of an eye and send you scurrying back to the cubicle farm.

Entrepreneurs Need to Bootstrap to WIN

February 9, 2010/2 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s guest post is by Brian Link who is a partner of mine in weBuild, thoughtLEADERS, and TiXiT among the many other things he does (yes, both of us have many entrepreneurial interests). This perspective on bootstrapping a new venture is so spot-on it almost hurts. This article is prompted by today’s launch of TiXiT where Brian is the CTO and I’m CEO. Enough context. Here’s Brian:

I’ve seen my share of Internet startups and each entrepreneur, if you asked them, would tell you that getting started is the hardest part. Many people think they have a great idea. Some have even have written it down and dreamed of turning it into something big. But taking those first few steps of talking to other people, committing your own money, finding a team to help build it and figuring out how to tell the world about it is where you need great strategy (and some luck).

One strategy, if you’re lucky enough, is to borrow a million bucks from your rich uncle. You might also find an angel investor or venture capitalist and beat the one in a million odds and get funded before you have a product or revenue. The much more likely scenario and the smartest strategy is much more difficult, if you can pull it off. It’s called bootstrapping.

The term comes from a saying that started in the 1800s: “to pull yourself up by your bootstraps” which implies an impossible task. As a metaphor, it means to better oneself by one’s own unaided efforts. And today it often refers to starting a business that is self-sustaining and created with little or no external help. While bootstrapping is incredibly hard, there are huge rewards.

Bootstrapping is hard. You need to stick your neck out; quit your job; have some money to spend; have a great network to lean on; and have a lot of confidence and guts. It’s certainly not for everyone. But for the brave who have a great idea, the reward can be huge. The best practices for bootstrapping can fill volumes of books, but here’s a quick summary of some ideas and strategies:

Walking Away from the Cash is Good Business

December 21, 2009/6 Comments/in Entrepreneur, Leadership, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Sometimes there’s nothing tougher than a heaping helping of your own medicine. In this case it involves me, a nice pile of cash, peer pressure, and a tough decision.

You folks know how often I rant about the fact that strategy is about saying “no.” It’s easy for me to pontificate on this point. I tell you about companies I’ve seen do this well and others I’ve seen screw it up.

On Friday, it was my turn to put up or shut up. Today I’d like to recap the thoughts and events that led me to turn my back on an opportunity to earn a decent chunk of change. In sharing this I hope to make this critical strategic lesson accessible and easy to understand so you, in turn, can apply it to your business.

Allow me to bore you for a moment and explain my firm’s strategy so you have some context. I run a leadership training business. Our strategy is to offer training sessions on critical business skills to large companies. We differentiate ourselves with the experience level of our instructors. We value delivering outstanding service to our clients and delivering top notch business results.

We grow by deepening relationships with existing clients (translation: becoming part of corporate universities or recurring leadership programs) and adding new clients. When we’re not teaching, we’re developing new clients, building new classes, or eating Cookie Crisp while watching Spongebob reruns (it’s about a balanced lifestyle folks).

That strategy sounds pretty clear, no? This is where it gets screwed up though…

Lessons from Leonidas the Spartan King: Why Shrinking Your Business is Smart

November 4, 2009/2 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Social Media, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Today’s guest post is written by Brian Ahearn (no, that’s not his picture at left). Brian’s one of the most knowledgeable guys I know on the subject of influencing people (which is why he’s been a guest here before). Enjoy!

I conducted a workshop recently called Principles of Persuasion. During a break, one of the students said she’d had a conversation with her five-year-old son and expressed parental surprise over something he said. She told him she was going to a meeting about leadership at work. He told her they had talked about leadership at school and he knew what a leader was. He said leaders were people who had followers. Simple and to the point, his definition was right on. Out of the mouth of babes!

Let’s look at this leader/follower idea as it applies to the online world. If you’re on Twitter then you follow people and people follow you. In a sense, for those who follow you, you’re a leader. You might be a leader by virtue of your expertise in an area or simply because people find you interesting. But, by definition of our young friend, people have chosen to follow you and therefore you’re a leader.

You Call Them Business Partners But Your Contract Says Otherwise

August 10, 2009/5 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur /by Mike Figliuolo

Your legal department is screwing up. Royally.

You work hard to build relationships with other businesses. How many hours do you invest getting closer to partners, customers, and suppliers? And then that wonderful handshake happens and it’s time to hammer out the agreements. That’s when Larry the Litigator takes over.

Larry’s a generally good guy. He’s a great corporate attorney. His main mission in life is to protect your organization from litigation. Sometimes he even generates real bottom-line value with the way he constructs contracts. The problem is, he’s gotten so aggressive in constructing legal agreements that he’s negatively impacting all those relationships you worked so hard to build.

I’m not writing this to berate Larry – I’m writing it to make YOU aware of the impact Larry is having on your relationships. If you’re not careful, he’ll do things like I mention below. When he does, he can sour a relationship right from the start.

Shame on you if you’ve let the following happen to your contracts:

The Leader’s Balance Dilemma: Grow the Core or Expand Beyond It

July 27, 2009/1 Comment/in Entrepreneur, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Growth is the lifeblood of your business. A leader’s job is to take that business to bigger and better places. The dilemma lies in how to get there.

You’re often faced with a simple choice: keep growing your core or expand into new arenas. It’s a challenge of balance.

By growing your core, you’re building what you’re already successful at. Customers have validated that product or service. It’s likely very profitable. And as you’ve heard me pontificate on before, strategy is inherently about saying “no.”

On the flip side, your core can only get you so far. The ideas behind it might get stale or run their logical lifespan. Cool new opportunities and ideas spring up all the time. Many of those new opportunities are untested and unproven though therefore they’re riskier.

Your job as a leader is to balance between strengthening and growing what you already do well while simultaneously finding new growth opportunities for your business. It’s challenging because you have resource constraints and can only invest so much time, effort, and money into building the core and expanding beyond it. You have to make this tradeoff effectively. This applies to you whether you’re a small business or a monolithic one.

So how can you strike that balance?