EntrepreneurshipLab.net Kickoff Event

KICKOFF EVENT

EntrepreneurshipLab.net

Quick housekeeping notes
- Webcast & chat are at http://entrepreneurshiplab.net/live
- I’ll check in at the breaks
- 9 a.m. to Noon-ish Central Time
- Slides, recordings will be posted to member’s area after
- Would love for you to Tweet & Facebook all this
- I’m @corymiller303 and you can use hashtag #entrelab


Today’s Sessions
- Is Entrepreneurship For You: 8 Questions to Ask
- Your Startup’s First Critical Partners
- Finding the Right Business Idea For You


What is the Lab about?


Helping each other start, run &
grow successful businesses


Entrepreneurship
is a tough, frustrating
& often lonely job


Lab is a private community
to learn & grow;
get support, feedback
& encouragement


Hear from entrepreneurs
who have succeeded


Monthly training topics
- Based on input and - Leadership and
demand Management

- Marketing - Products and Services
- Work-LIfe Alignment - Personal, Professional and
Career Development
- Customer Service,
Support and Care - Accounting and Financial
Management


Startups are experiments
The Lab is your place to launch & learn


Who Am I?
- Had 13 jobs since I was 16
- Being an entrepreneur is the BEST job I’ve ever had
- Started out in newspaper journalism
- 3 daily newspapers; 1 sports magazine; 3 nonproﬁts
- Always wanted to be an entrepreneur like my grandfathers


My Tipping Point
- Started professional blog in 2006
- Went from unknown to known
- Started learning web design at night
- Stumbled into a great freelance business
- Then my back started hurting from 16 hours days
- Wanted to build something bigger than myself


The dream made real
- Went full-time in 2008 with iThemes
- We build software & training for web designers
- 20+ employees, hundreds of products, thousands of
customers and on track for record year in 2012

- Named 7th Fastest Growing Co. in OKC in 2011


Is Entrepreneurship For You?
8 Questions Before the Journey Begins


Why Start a Business
in the First Place?


Some Reasons to Start a Biz
- Create your ideal job doing rockin’ work
- Align work with life
- Work with people you like & enjoy
- Turn ideas into reality
- Make money building something you own
- And ...


Change the World!
Make Meaning While Making Money


The First 8 Questions
To Get You Started


1. What does your calendar
look like for the next 5 years?


What consumes you enough
to devote 1,825 days to?


2. What do you want to
offer that makes people’s
lives awesome?


2. Make people’s
lives awesome

How are you making
someone’s life easier, better?


3. What does your perfect
playground look like?


How do you want
or need to work?


4. How are you going
to make money?


Passion without proﬁt
is called a hobby


5. Who is your pirate crew?


You need people, dummy


“If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.”
—African proverb


6. What would you
give up to get it?


Sacriﬁce


How BAD do you want it?


My secret motivating
kick in the pants?


I’m scared to death of ...
REGRET


I want my life to COUNT


And so do you!


7. What are you doing NOW
to achieve your dream?


What is ONE thing
you can do TODAY
that can make the biggest
impact & move you closer?


“Vision without execution
is hallucination.”
—Albert Einstein


8. Now ... what are you
waiting for?


Q&A + Discussion


Your First Critical Partners
The Key People You Need For Success


1. Signiﬁcant Other


First, most valuable,
most inﬂuential partner in biz


S.O. can make or
break your startup


Startup is a baby
you’re raising together


Biz should be a
shared compelling vision
you have for your lives


Before you start,
get away together


2. Accountant


Help with managing cashﬂow
and paying taxes


Cash is oxygen for biz


Too many fall or fail here


A ﬁnancial partner helps
manage this essential aspect


Questions to Ask
- What will I need to do or plan for this year? (Taxes, etc)
- What ﬁnancial software do you use or recommend?
- Where do you bank and why?
- What services do you typically provide businesses?
- Do you understand my business?
- Do you have clients doing similar things to what I’m doing?
- What advice & tips do you have for me to ensure
maximum success?


3. Attorney


First, to setup your legal
business entity


Second, to have someone to
call when an issue comes up


4. Team


Whoever you need
to build & ship


The Team Could Be ...
- Volunteer Team Members
- Paid Team Members
- Financial Partners
- Equity Partners
- Vendors / Suppliers
- Collaborators / Joint Venture Partners
- Consultants / Contractors


5. Mentors


Outside counsel
Experienced truth teller
Not compensated
Not a team member or partner


6. Customers


Everything in a startup
is an experiment to test


The ultimate test is
if someone will give
you $$$ for it


Never ever forget:
Customers are key partners
in your entrepreneurial dream


Finding the Right Biz
Opportunity for You
Aligning Who You Are With What You Do


For now ...
Put aside your big idea


Let’s talk about
Work-Life Alignment


Misalignment happens
when biz doesn’t MATCH you


Save yourself some grief


By the way ...
This is an exercise to go
through with your S.O.


The goal is to ...
Know yourself
and what you want


1. What are your life’s hopes,
dreams & goals?


Questions to ask yourself
- What does success look like - What are your lifestyle and
at the end of the day? At the living goals? What does living
end of your life? a good life look like for you?

- Answer the old question: - Where do you want to be in 6
What do you want written on months, 1 year, 5 years … or
your tombstone? when you're 30, 40, 50, 60?

- Who do you love and cherish - What are those future facts for
most in life? what your life will look life
then?
- What do your family goals
look like? - What does success for you
look like and feel?
- What are you ﬁnancial goals?

Let me ask it another way

What do you really want
your life to be about?


Take some time with these


2. Let’s talk personality ...


Two Helpful Discovery Tools:

Myers-Briggs Test Indicator
mbticomplete.com

StrengthsFinder
strengthsﬁnder.com


Why do these?
- Based on extensive survey and research
- Helps you understand yourself better
- See yourself from the outside-in
- Find what you’re naturally good at
- Avoid what you’re ridiculously bad at
- Recruit people to compliment you
- Find areas of interest that you might not have explored


The step that sometimes gets skipped
3. What expertise and
experiences do you have?


List out your resume in detail


All the jobs you’ve had?
Career ﬁelds, industries?
Favorite jobs & why?
Biggest impact you made?


4. What are your passions,
hobbies and interests?


The best businesses ...
- Champion a CAUSE (a better tomorrow)
- Come out of a CRISIS (an experience)
- Promote a CORE VALUE (a belief, philosophy)
- Offer a CURE (a solution)


So what stirs you up?


Two tips for exploring ...

1. Be careful with stress relief hobbies,
a business could ruin it for you

2. You don’t know what you really like
until you explore it. Try it out.


Now a big question ...


5. What would people PAY
you to do that you would
ENJOY the most?


Make two columns:
1. What you want to do most
2. What you think people would pay for

Find the top rated intersections.


Now, let’s bring
back your big awesome
business ideas ...


The sobering up questions
It’s time to get really real


1. Is it the best way to
achieve your goals?


2. Will you enjoy chasing it?


3. Can you invest the
next 5 years pursuing it?
Count the cost


4. How interested in it
are you now?
Rate it on a scale from 1 to 10


5. Is your S.O.
fully on board?


You should know now whether it’s time to ...
Take a next step
or reassess & start over


Business-Life Alignment
- Align with who you are & what you want
- Play to your strengths, not weaknesses
- Pursue what helps you best achieve your
goals & dreams
- And will capture your interest & secure your
long-term commitment to see it succeed


Next webinars
- The Great Entrepreneurial Experiment
- Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. Central

- Essential Steps for Bootstrapping Your Biz
- Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. Central


In the meantime ...
- Complete the member survey
- http://entrepreneurshiplab.net/dashboard/

- Post an introduction or question in the forum
- http://entrepreneurshiplab.net/forum/

- Invite someone else to join you ...


EntrepreneurshipLab.net Kickoff Event

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