Many of my clients are start up company CEOs and entrepreneurs who have no background whatsoever in sales and marketing.  Many of my clients are startup entrepreneurs who have little or no cash to pay for copywriting talent (or any thing else.)

I’m certainly no expert on copywriting – and I’m currently working on learning more myself on how to improve my own copy.  However, a friend of mine, Trevor ‘Toe Cracker’ Crook, IS an expert.  He’s also offering 10 hours of downloadable audio MP3s of his “Copywriting Blueprint Formula” for free.

I know that you see a lot of this kind of stuff on the Internet – but I’ve listened to the audios and there is a huge amount of content with virtually none of the usual upsell.

Trevor’s concept on giving away his content for free is “Pay it forward.”  Just like in the novel and the movie by the same name, the idea is to give up front with no expectation of receiving in return.  Trevor’s goal is to “pay it forward” by giving this audio course to one million entrepreneurs.

I’m not an affiliate of Trevor.  I don’t get paid anything for this recommendation. He doesn’t even know that I’m posting this information on my blog or sending it to my list.  However, I strongly recommend you take advantage of this free download, listen to the audios and start applying what you discover to improve your own copy.

This is just my way of reciprocating by helping Trevor - with me “paying it forward” to help him reach his one million Entrepreneur goal.

Robert Lee Goodman, MBA
http://Virtual-Exec.com
http://DeviledDetails.com

• Do you even know ALL the dots that go into “connecting the dots” for your new business?
• Do you know the W Cubed – W To The Third Power – for each action item and milestone required for your new company?  WHO?  Is going to do WHAT?  WHEN?
• Do you know all the major and semi-major milestones and “Deviled Details” to REALLY get from Point A, where you are now – To Point B, where you want to be?
• Have you taken into account the REAL costs that go with each of those “Deviled Details?”

My Action Planning Service is focused on helping you comprehensively answer ALL of those questions – so you REALLY know what is required for the success of your new company – including all the dots and all the deviled details.

The goal of the Action Plan is to collect, in one place, ALL the action items that will be required to realistically implement your vision for your company over the next 12 months.

With the optional Financial Business Model AND the Detailed Action Plan for the next 12 months showing all major and semi-major milestones, you will have a very comprehensive road map for your new company. You will also know what resources it will take, money-wise and people-wise, to get you from Point A to Point B.

We will go through up to three iterations as we brainstorm and revise items, priorities, dates and budgets.  As we fine tune your Action List, we will focus on available assets and personnel and the right timing for bringing more folks into the company or outsourcing some of the tasks.

We start with 10 hours of my one-on-one consulting and mentoring.  For most clients, this is all the time that is needed to generate an accurate and meaningful Action Plan for their business. The cost:  only $2,750.  Additional hours are available at my standard rate.  The incremental cost for the optional Financial Business Model is only $500.

To date, I’ve already helped the founders and CEOs of over 2,000 diverse companies in over three dozen countries with their business planning, fundraising and plan implementation – to realistically define & implement the right action plan for their business.

Isn’t this the kind of expertise you need for your company?

Isn’t it time you have a real game plan to get you to YOUR Point B?

Robert Lee Goodman, MBA
Ceo & Chief ImpleMENTOR
www.Virtual-Exec.com

What is the second biggest mistake?

Many cost-sensitive entrepreneurs depend on number crunchers, bean counters and newly minted MBAs for their projections – just to save a few dollars.

New start up CEOs doom their new company by pinching pennies in the wrong place. Instead, what they need are pivotal insights from experienced consultants who can provide the guidance the entrepreneur needs for producing a realistic, genuinely implementable business plan.

Your business plan is not some academic document – instead, it is your crucial road map to successful implementation of your vision for your new company.

The most important part of any business plan is the detailed financial projections that are the basis for the entire business model of every new start up company. There are four sets of underlying assumptions that drive all the projections:

1. Start up costs – what will you need to spend up front to get the company going?
2. Sales forecast – the single most important set of assumptions for your whole plan – how many of what, will you sell, for how much, at what costs, when?
3. Personnel – how many, of what kind of employees, will you need at what cost, when?
4. Operating costs – what will it really cost to be in business, generate sales, give necessary sales support and exemplary customer service and cover all back office expenses?

Every part of your financial projections is just arithmetic – based on those four sets of driving assumptions. Because it is just arithmetic, many entrepreneurs make the often fatal mistake of assuming it is trivial and can be done easily and cheaply.

But – if you guess wrong on any of these assumptions, then most of your projections are wrong – including two of your most important projections: your cash flow and your capital needs. If you guess wrong on your assumptions that impact these, then you will probably run out of money and your new company will fail.

Number crunchers and bean counters are great at arithmetic. So are newly minted MBAs. And, they can be relatively cheap to hire. But this cheap hire may be the most expensive mistake you will make as a start up CEO.

These cheap hires almost never have any experience base or expertises that help entrepreneurs make meaningful assumptions. So, entrepreneurs who use this approach for their business plans end up with GIGO: garbage in, garbage out projections that are misleading at best – but more often, fatal in the end.

As the adage goes, the only thing worse than going the wrong direction – is going the wrong direction enthusiastically. By basing your business plan on the wrong assumptions, you end up going the wrong direction – probably enthusiastically – believing your bean counter-generated plan will be the path to wealth.

Entrepreneurs who have thought they were saving a few hundred dollars by hiring cheap number crunchers or inexperienced MBAs, end up losing everything they’ve invested in their new company – all because they were penny wise – and dollar foolish – or rather, thousands, hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars foolish.

Cash is always limited for start up companies – but this is one place you do not want to get trapped by false savings.

What’s the best way for you to avoid the second biggest mistake for your new start up company?

Hire an experienced management consultant who specializes in start up companies – particularly a consultant who has started at least a dozen of their own companies. That way, you get insights based on real life experience that will help you end up with a genuinely implementable plan for the future – your future and the future of your new start up company.

Ceo Resource LLC has specialized in cost-effectively helping over 2,000 entrepreneurs and start up companies with their business planning for the past 14 years.

Please check out our services at:

www.ShouldYouStartACompanyToday.com <~~ Sample documents and blog

www.ChiefDragonSlayer.com <~~~ Business plans and planning

www.StartUpCompanyMentoring.com <~~~ 1:1 CEO coaching, consulting and mentoring

www.StartUpCompanyWorkshop.com <~~~ 1:1 Insights to design your own business model, your business plan, your own future

www.StartUpCompanyUniversity.com <~~ Training courses for the entrepreneur and start up CEO

Wishing you stellar success for your start up company,

Robert Lee Goodman, MBA

I’m pleased to tell you about my own new company – Start Up Company University – which is a division of Ceo Resource LLC. The first product offered by Start Up Company University might make all the difference to your own company’s future.

Funding Foreplay is a four module audio training course that teaches start up company CEOs like you – how to properly prepare and present the dozen documents you must have to successfully romance and seduce angel investors and VC to invest in your company.

I’ve condensed and distilled down the techniques that have taken me three decades to acquire and fine tune with my own real companies and my own real deals. Funding Foreplay includes over five hours of audio – and over 390 pages of real life, highly confidential, documents you can use as guides for your own dozen documents.

The introductory price of Funding Foreplay will double after the sale of the first 500 courses. You can learn to speak the language of investor love and grab Funding Foreplay at half the price…if you hurry.

After 500 are sold, the price of Funding Foreplay will double – which is still an incredible price for all that’s included. It’s just not as incredible as the introductory price that will be paid by the first 500 fast moving, decisive entrepreneurs who will jump on this offer.

Click on www.FundingForeplay.com to see how this audio course will help get your own new company started and funded…and so you can grab the half price offer while it lasts.

Wishing you stellar success for your start up company,

Robert Goodman, MBA
Ceo & Chief Dragon Slayer
www.StartUpCompanyUniversity.com

PS: While you’re at the www.FundingForeplay.com site, be sure and find the link to the coupon that will get you a 100% discount on the entire Module 1 audio for Funding Foreplay – if you’re one of the first 1,000 to request it. I really hope you are one of the lucky ones.

This one is filed under “Dragons – Fundraising: Can I Use Investor Money To Pay Me Back?”

Question:

Love the blog! Finally someone answering real life startup company questions! I want to raise $1.8 million for my computer business to take it to the next level. Can I use $250,000 of the $1.8 million to pay me back the money that I have already invested in getting my company started?

Thanks again!

Walt

Answer:

This is one of the most frequent questions I get from clients: Can I get back all of my money that I have invested so far in starting my company from the new investment dollars I get from angel investors or venture capital?

The short answer is almost never.

• Most will see it as a red flag and not invest.
• Most want to see you so committed, financially, to the company that you can’t afford to let it fail.
• If you don’t get paid back, then the company only needs $1,550,000 instead of $1,800,000 to accomplish the same goals that are in your business plan.

The longer answer is maybe a little.

• Sometimes…not often…but sometimes…you might be able to pay yourself back some…or have the company assume, say a working capital loan you took out….or assume responsibility for a second mortgage on your house where you can document that all the funds went into the company.
• The other way that sometimes works is with direct payments to others that you’ve made. For example, say you hire that great consulting firm, Ceo Resource, to help your start up consulting, business plan and PPM prep work. Let’s say, you have already paid them $10,000. What you might do is list Ceo Resource as a start up expense in the start up expenses table even though you have already fronted the payment for their incredibly worthwhile fees. In this case, you turn in the receipt after the funding like an expense report…you have accounted for the expense on the start up costs table…so the numbers balance. However…if you are going to do this…be sure and disclose it in full and glorious detail in the PPM.
• Obviously, the bigger the amount you want back to you, the more resistance from prospective investors.

There are always exceptions….a client in Chicago insisted their board members, who were their first round investors, get back $1 million in start up funding of the $2 million they had invested. I jumped up and down strongly advising against it for the reasons that I just mentioned…but the client always gets the final vote. They did allow me to totally disclose the payback in the PPM I did for them.

So, what happened? They sold the whole $5 million deal out to the first investment group who saw the deal…and the board members got their $1 million. The company had such good traction on a product that was already in the marketplace that the investment group agreed to the terms. So, even with all of my experience, I can be wrong. However….it is the only time that any client in 30 years has ever pulled out more than $100,000. Ever.

Don’t count on being an exception.

All of this brings up another issue for those of you who are going to be seeking investor funds.

• You will only have one shot with most prospective investors. They are not shopping at Baskin Robbins – you can’t offer them 31 flavors of your deal.
• For example, like we were just discussing – how much, if any of your own seed capital should you try and get back in your offering?
• You might be tempted to give it a try…trying to get back all your money with the idea that you can negotiate if anyone brings up the issue.
• The problem is that you probably won’t have the chance…prospects will just tell you they are not interested…or even more likely, “It just doesn’t fit our criteria at this time….” Meaning you probably won’t often get a real voiced objection. Just another no. And no chance to have a discussion for renegotiation.

So, you pay your money…you take your chances…..but you want to do all you can to GREATLY increase your chances – so be sure and structure your investment offering right the first time!

Ask YOUR Question

Go to www.StartUpCompanyQuestions.com and ask your own question. You might see it answered here – and you will get invited to a FREE teleseminar and webcast on the “Top 21 Questions Entrepreneurs Want to Know MOST about Start Up Companies!”

Robert Lee Goodman, MBA
Ceo & Chief Dragon Slayer
www.CeoResource.com

PS: Next month I will be releasing a new Audio E-book Coaching Series, “Funding ForePlay – Getting Ready to Romance the Money For Your Start Up Company.” In addition to the multiple-module audio, you will get the ten real life sample documents (over 300 pages) that you can use as guides to develop your own “must have” ten documents – that you NEED before you are REALLY ready to romance the money. You can use these ten documents as templates for your own documentation base to help ensure that you competently and legally raise the funds for your new company.

I will be offering the first 500 copies at less than half the regular price of $795. If you are one of the first 500 paying clients, you can get all the audio modules and all the sample documents which are discussed in detail with the audio e-book for only $395. If you hired me to work with you individually to provide this same level of information, the cost would be well over $10,000. Now, you can get the information, insights and sample documents you need for under $400 IF you are one of the first 500.

After 500 copies are sold, the price WILL go to $795. I haven’t set up the shopping cart for pre-pays yet. However, if you want to make sure you are one of the lucky 500, send me an email with the subject, “Make me one of the lucky 500″ and I will let you know if slots are still available and how you can pre-pay directly and reserve your copy.

This one is filed under “Dragons – Fundraising: Can I Spend The Investor Money As I Get It?”

Question:

Thanks for your comments about accredited angel investors. It was very helpful. We just finished your business plan and are starting to pitch our deal to angel investors and venture capital. Since we are already spending money on buying stuff for the company, can we start spending the investor money as we get it?

Steve

Answer:

The first thing you need to buy is a big sword – so you can fight off all the dragons that are getting ready to hatch! Firstly, you didn’t say – but I hope you have a Reg D PPM for a LOT of reasons. Please see FundRaisingDocuments.com

One of the things that should be covered in your Reg D PPM is how you handle investor funds as you receive them. For every successful offering I have ever been involved with or even watched from the sidelines, the money is ALWAYS escrowed as it is collected. That means that the money is deposited in a separate, untouchable escrow account UNTIL all of the minimum level of funding is reached. None of it goes into the company’s operating account until then.

Why?

If you are raising $1 million as an example, the investor who gives you the first $100,000 is going to be as protected as the investor who gives you the last $100,000 if it is all escrowed. If, instead, you spend the first investor’s money on starting the company while you are still trying to raise the rest, he is at substantial risk:

• You business plan is built around having a total of $1 million in order to successfully implement the plan.
• If you are unsuccessful in raising all $1 million, it means you can’t implement the plan.
• Which probably means you will run out of cash and go out of business AFTER you have already spent the first investor’s money!

Even semi-sophisticated angel investors understand this and you will find it virtually impossible to raise your funding for your start up company unless the funds are escrowed OR you get all $1 million, in our example, from one group. In that case, they can ensure the same thing: full funding before you start using the money.

If you don’t have a PPM, get one. If you already have a PPM, make sure it has the escrow language in there. It’s hard enough getting angel investors to write a check that will clear the bank. Don’t make your task even more difficult!

Ask YOUR QuestionGo to www.StartUpCompanyQuestions.com and ask your own question. You might see it answered here – and you will get invited to a FREE teleseminar and webcast on the “Top 21 Questions Entrepreneurs Want to Know MOST about Start Up Companies!”

Robert Lee Goodman, MBA
Ceo & Chief Dragon Slayer
www.CeoResource.com

PS: Next month I will be releasing a new Audio E-book Coaching Series, “Funding ForePlay – Getting Ready to Romance the Money For Your Start Up Company.” In addition to the multiple-module audio, you will get the ten real life sample documents (over 300 pages) that you can use as guides to develop your own “must have” ten documents – that you NEED before you are REALLY ready to romance the money. You can use these ten documents as templates for your own documentation base to help ensure that you competently and legally raise the funds for your new company.

I will be offering the first 500 copies at less than half the regular price of $795. If you are one of the first 500 paying clients, you can get all the audio modules and all the sample documents which are discussed in detail with the audio e-book for only $395. If you hired me to work with you individually to provide this same level of information, the cost would be well over $10,000. Now, you can get the information, insights and sample documents you need for under $400 IF you are one of the first 500.

After 500 copies are sold, the price WILL go to $795. I haven’t set up the shopping cart for pre-pays yet. However, if you want to make sure you are one of the lucky 500, send me an email with the subject, “Make me one of the lucky 500″ and I will let you know if slots are still available and how you can pre-pay directly and reserve your copy.

This one is filed under “Dragons – Sales: How Do You Forecast Revenues For A Start Up Company?”

Question:

I am working on a quickie Excel spreadsheet I developed for a business plan for my internet startup company and am clueless how to even start getting a handle on my guessing my revenues for the first year, let alone the second and third years of my new company. I obviously need to hire you for a lot of what I’m doing since I am also clueless about a lot of things and how to implement them – and it looks like you really have already done it all! But I want to at least have a guess on revenues before I take the next step and start spending money. Help!

Dennis

Answer:

I haven’t done it “all”…but in three decades, I have done a LOT when it comes to start up companies! Working with 2,000 start up companies can do that for you!

In answer to your question, projecting future sales for ANY company can be challenging – but it can be especially difficult for a start up company with no history for guidance.

Without spending time, effort and money with validated market research, it will be hard knowing the real size of both your addressed market and your target market. For most small, start-up companies, their target market is substantially larger than the amount that will be actually captured in the first few years. That having been said, you are still faced with the challenge most start up companies have: predicting a realistic sales forecast.

Your sales forecast numbers are probably one of the most important assumptions you make in developing a business model for your new company. Your sales numbers will have an interrelationship on many of the other numbers in your plan: start up costs, personnel needs, advertising and marketing, support costs, how much space you lease, etc.

An excellent way to forecast sales is to already KNOW your customer acquisition cost. If you know when you spend $1,000 on advertising and marketing, that you end up with 10 new clients, then your customer acquisition cost would be $1,000 divided by $10 or $100. In other words, if you know from history that it will cost you $100 to acquire and sell to a real, paying customer, then you figure out how much you are going to spend in Years 1, 2 and 3 and divide the amount spent by the customer acquisition cost. The problem with this approach is that, for most start up companies, there is no history to know what the customer acquisition cost will be. (Hint: It will usually be a LOT higher than you would expect it to be!)

There is another basic rule of thumb that might still get us close…to spend about 10% of annual revenues on advertising, marketing and other sales related costs. Although you can make the case that a start up should spend more or less than this, let’s assume for now that is what we will do. So, this is what I would do for the first pass at your business model:

• Price your services and products with your best guess as to what the market will bear based on the competition or alternative choices your prospective customers have as ways to currently solve their problem.
• Figure out how big you would LIKE to be in annual sales for Years 1, 2 and 3. Say, $1 million, $3 million and $5 million (or whatever you think is reflective of YOUR vision).
• Then, go back and figure out how many UNITS of your product and services that have to be sold each month or each year to accomplish this.
• Then, figure out for each incremental UNIT you sell, what if any, incremental cost will you have associated with that new customer. Use this amount in the Direct Unit Costs for that product or service.
• That will take care of your sales forecast side.
• Now look at the number of customers you will have each month and each year and extend your vision to see what kinds of people you will need in your organization to take care of all the issues that will be required to make the sale, collect the money, update the databases, support the customers, provide enhancements to the products and services, handle complaints, manage the company, pursue strategic alliances and partnerships and every other task you can envision FOR THE NUMBER of CUSTOMERS YOU ARE SHOWING IN YOUR SALE FORECAST. List these folks in the Personnel Table with how much you think you will have to pay to get good people. Be sure and take timing into account for the hiring. You most probably won’t need everyone on Day 1 / Month 1. Many you may not need until Month 5 or 6. Many you may not need until Year 2 or Year 3. People are usually the most expensive asset you add to your company so try and stay lean without sacrificing muscle development!
• Lastly, look at each of the operating cost line items that I have in the Worksheet and try to imagine what it would cost for each item to both generate sales…and support an organization that is responsive to the growth of your vision and providing stellar support for your customers. Again, this is where we plug in the 10% of Revenues for your total Sales and Marketing costs.
• Finally, go back and fill in all the Start Up Costs you will require in the way of R&D, computers, desk and chairs, excellent consultants!…and all the other stuff you will need to open the doors – taking your projected company size for Year 1 into account.

By using this approach we have established a LOT of things somewhat independent of the revenue model we finally decide on using. You have already set what revenue goals you have and what kind and size organization you will need to be in business…and the basic operating costs to provide the kinds of services in your vision. These TYPE of costs will all change some…but surprisingly little. The amounts for each can change a lot depending on the scalability of your numbers.

However, even if we change our revenue model, you will basically need the same kinds of folks doing the same kinds of things for the same pay…and have operating costs that will be close in most areas – with all of these just scaled up or down to reflect your changing revenue model.

Also, check out the 114 questions and my audio at www.StartUpCompanyWorkshop.com and see if any of those questions might give you added clarity for other business model considerations for your Excel spreadsheet.

The important thing is to start pulling all the above components together in a working hypothesis for our business model….and then tweak as much as needed until we have a finely tuned model that works the way you want and still reflects your vision!

Good luck with your Excel spreadsheet. Just let me know when you are ready for my help.

What do you think?

Post your ideas if you have other thoughts.

Ask YOUR Question

Go to www.StartUpCompanyQuestions.com and ask your own question. You might see it answered here – and you will get invited to a FREE teleseminar and webcast on the “Top 21 Questions Entrepreneurs Want to Know MOST about Start Up Companies!”

Robert Lee Goodman, MBA
Ceo & Chief Dragon Slayer
www.CeoResource.com

This one is filed under “Dragons – Personnel: How do you fire the indispensable person in your organization?”

Question:

We just moved and I have decided that even if you built an office across the street and moved in slowly, it is devastation to the routine. My staff all get their feathers ruffled despite the fact that their gain is significant in the work place. It just chaps me to no end to deal with WHINERS! Even though I am a woman CEO, I have to admit that I loathe women employees as a rule anyway – but whining women disturb me to my very core.

For the record, I employ 7 men to every woman – not by design but just the way it worked out. The women that I have (for the most part) think like men, behave like men and love men. However, I have one NAZI fem , the HR director, who is causing problems for the whole organization with her attitude and approach. Even though she is indispensable to my company, she is my biggest mistake. How do I rid myself of her since no one else knows what she knows in so many very critical areas?

Susan

Answer:

I remember all those hassles….during the 15 plus years I had my real estate companies and had hundreds of folks working for me, we moved the corporate offices (me, and about 50 other execs and corporate support people) about three or four times….into bigger and bigger…and nicer spaces….once into an elegant, brand new Class A, high rise next to the Galleria in Dallas with over 10,000 sq ft.

I got so tired of all the whining about space….who had the nicer office, who had more space for their division or subsidiary, who had nicer furniture, computers, view, ad nauseam…just like dealing with eight year old children….and those were my first reports – presidents and senior level VPs….not to mention the rank and file….all of which is just one of many reasons that I decided 14 years ago, it would just be me – and superstar contract labor!

With regard to Der Führer, my intuition is that you will fire her. That will be the probable bottom line. How much more time and energy do you want to allow her to waste for you and the whole company between now and the fire date? To get there more quickly without critical problems, you might want to consider some, or all, of the following:

• Before you start anything, drive defensively…assume sabotage. (Just because you are paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.) Back up all her computer files, etc. especially since she runs HR…
• Get her to give you a detailed action list of all the items she sees as important that need to be done for the next 3 to 6 months. This is a good idea anyway…since it should show:
  • Action Item issue
  • Priority
  • Start date
  • Due date
  • Functional area (Personnel, Insurance, workers’ comp review, etc.)
  • Expected cost if any…other resources required
  • I personally like having folks do this in Excel since the columns can be easily sorted

By making sure this is an all inclusive list, you will know what loose ends need to be covered if she quits or you fire her on the spot.

Besides the paranoid motivation, I find having these written action items from ALL first reports to be a great idea. I do this with a lot of my clients and they very often respond that they have gained immense clarity without getting bogged down with micro-management.

Even though your first reports will moan about having to do yet another report, many, if not most, will use it as a way to show how busy they are…how important and indispensable they are….and that they deserve a raise!

If you have all your first reports do this, then Der Führer will see no red flags. Besides, this is a natural since it is both a new year AND new office space!

Give her a chance to solve the problem(s)….this is my usual approach with first reports…but it requires total candor…in writing….and a 90 day performance plan….with major candid reviews every 30 days.

• Write down every objection you have to what she does or how she does it.
• Write down why you see the current approach as a problem or a negative impact.
• Write down what you want to see as SOP for each item, including the exact attitude.
• Make clear that is what you require for the corporate culture you INSIST on for YOUR company.
• Don’t mince words on any of the above….but keep it objective.
• Ask her if she can make the changes to match the culture you insist on.
• If she says no, decision made. Objectively.
• If she says yes, she will make commitments and promises to change. (N.B.: She may or may not even be able to change.)
• Monitor, manage, critique and review once a week or every two weeks or once a month…whatever makes sense for your organization.

If there is genuine improvement…keep on with the monitor, manage, critique and review until you can check this issue off your list. If there is no genuine, substantive improvement, fire her. That means her last day is THAT day. I’ve learned, way too many times, when you fire someone, you do not keep them around for even a day! Not even until the end of that day!

Consider, for your sized organization, outsourcing the whole thing….it may be cheaper and give you even better coverage for all the things that go into HR these days! If nothing else, outsource in the interim so that you don’t feel rushed hiring the right replacement.

What do you think?

Post your ideas if you have other thoughts.

Ask YOUR Question

Go to www.StartUpCompanyQuestions.com and ask your own question. You might see it answered here – and you will get invited to a FREE teleseminar and webcast on the “Top 21 Questions Entrepreneurs Want to Know MOST about Start Up Companies!”

Robert Lee Goodman, MBA
Ceo & Chief Dragon Slayer
www.CeoResource.com

Worried that you don’t have the diverse background to understand ALL the various critical components of forming, starting, funding and operating your new company? Concerned that you will be embarrassed by not knowing the answers to the questions that venture capitalists, angel investors and bankers may ask you when you pitch your deal?

Take a look at the 114 below questions that I cover with my Start Up Company Workshop clients. If you already know the answers to all or even most of these, then you probably are ready to generate a meaningful business plan for realistic implementation. And, you may even be ready to own and operate your own company.

Let’s find out.

The Workshop Questions

The Start Up Company Workshop includes my individually consulting with you about YOUR company with the goal of us fully defining your vision – so that we can develop and refine your glimmers into a genuinely implementable plan of action with specific strategies and tactics. To help meet that goal as comprehensively as possible, the Workshop includes us working together to answer as much as we can on all the following applicable areas for your company:

• Are your personal and new business goals REALLY congruent? Let’s make sure before you make a major investment of your time, energy, focus and money.
• What are the basic concepts of your company – from glimmer to goals?
• What are your ideal yet realistic major objectives for the company after you are in business for five year? What do you want MOST to have accomplished after five years?
• What are the company keys – for success, risk, business challenges, market differentiation and technology factors?
• What ARE you selling? Products, services, both? Now? Five years from now? Are they REALLY the best right here, right now, products or services for you to start with? How soon can you earn a dollar?
• What are your strategic and tactical foci for your marketing and sales:
  • What is YOUR calculated cost of acquisition for each of your typical customers?
  • Have you established an affordable marketing and advertising campaign within your budget constraints that matches your customer acquisition costs?
  • What are your SWOT?
  • Who are your competitors? (If your answer is “none”, you are NOT ready!)
  • What is your value proposition? Ignoring motherhood words, why WILL customers buy from you instead of their alternatives?
  • What are your sales channels? Who will close each sale? How will you motivate and compensate your sales force?
  • What are your strategies regarding ad agencies / creative content / advertising budget issues and costs – how will you REALLY rise above the noise level? Are you sure you don’t need this? Are you sure your budget is right?
  • What are your best strategies and tactics for attacking the market and generating both fast sales and reaching positive cash flow?
  • What are your forecasts for the products and services that will be sold? How many of each will be sold during each month for the first two years and yearly for the next 3 years?
  • What are your target price points and why? Are you too cheap? Are you too expensive? Are you sure?
  • What are your cost of goods? Are there better alternatives?
  • What is the most likely ramp up for sales of each product and service?
• What are your constraints to growth?
  • Personnel? Capital?
  • Product and service diversification?
  • Market demand?
  • Sales channels?
  • What would you do differently if you had $1 million more than you think you need? $5 million?
  • What would it take to increase your Year 5 revenues by a factor of 10? Are you sure?
• Do you know your W³ – Who? is going to do What? When?
  • Do you have the right Who?
  • Do you have a definite list of all the What?
  • Does the When match the timeline you need to capitalize on your ideas and the marketplace?
• Have you developed a realistic organizational structure?
  • Will it support your sales forecast?
  • Have you established job definitions and salary requirements for every position?
  • Are YOU the ideal CEO for your own company? Now? In five years?
  • How much are you going to pay YOU? Are you sure?
  • Have you laid out a K&T Chart mapping the credentials, experience and capabilities of the ideal candidate for each key position?
  • Do you have a realistic timeline for hiring each person? This includes hiring them at the right time so you don’t waste payroll – and properly reflecting the time required to interview, decide, offer, negotiate, hire and have them actually start working and being productive for you.
  • Have your capital needs and cash flow calculations taken into account all the hiring costs associated with using headhunters, Monster.com, etc.?
  • What, exactly, have you decided to do about stock options, founder’s equity, bonus pools and other incentives for key personnel?
  • Who will serve on your board of directors / board of advisors? Have you taken into account all the issues? Who are your candidates? What is their compensation?
• Have you fully defined realistic operating costs?
  • Do they reflect the direct and indirect implications of both the sales forecast and the organizational structure?
  • What kind of facilities will be required for the number of people working for the company? How many sq. ft. of space are required for offices? For warehousing? What rent per sq. ft.? What are the costs for utilities? Taxes? Insurance? How does all this change over the next five years?
  • Is your production internal or outsourced?
  • How much capital will be consumed by inventory?
  • What systems and procedures will be needed?
  • What are the detailed steps required for fulfillment?
  • Have you taken all three dozen kinds of typical operating costs into account? (MAJOR risk factors if you overlook the wrong costs.)
  • What are the industry-specific and company-specific operating costs you have beyond the usual three dozen line items?
• What are your start up capital requirements?
  • What will you have in start up costs – what dollars will you need to be spent in the first 30 days after kick off if you are going to do it “the right way?”
  • How much money will you need for everything? Are you sure? Do you know how much will be left in the bank account when you start generating positive monthly cash flow? What will you do if you start to run out of money to pay the bills?
  • How much reserves do you want to add to what you THINK you need for start up capital? How much do you need for reserves for you to be able to sleep at night since you KNOW that it ALWAYS takes longer and ALWAYS costs more?
• What is your fundraising strategy?
  • Equity or debt or self-funded?
  • If equity, what structure? What will you give up? What kind of ROI will your investors enjoy if everything goes right? Are you sure it’s enough? Are you giving away too little or too much? What happens if everything does NOT go right?
  • Do you fully understanding the laws regarding fundraising? Do you know the constraints of state and federal securities laws and the VERY onerous penalties for even a slight technical violation?
  • Investors – do you know how to find them? How to motivate them to write the check? What kind of communications you need to send them? What about their rights and your obligations?
  • Do you know the “deviled details” involved in raising the money?
  • Do you know how to start legal / stay legal?
  • What is your exit strategy? What if your investors want a different strategy?
  • What will your company be worth in five years?
• What are your major milestones for the next five years – to get from where you are now to where you want to be? Will those milestones accomplish all the five year objectives you established?
• Does your business model REALLY make sense – for you, for your family. for your team, for your investors? Is the risk / reward ratio good enough for YOU to adequately receive the ROI YOU deserve for all the investment of time, energy, money and life it will take to get you there?

If you haven’t started or run a company, or very many companies, you might not know the answers to these kinds of questions – or even knew some of the questions even existed. Don’t feel badly about it. We all have our own areas of expertise that we’ve developed over the years of our own personal history. For me, these ARE the kind of questions that I’ve spent the last three decades answering. And where I fought many of the major dragon battles – when I hadn’t known the answers!

Don’t go it alone. Benefit from my experience answering this same multitude of questions, and slaying these dragons, for my own companies and for 2,000 other companies and their CEOs. Do you really want to face ALL those dragons by yourself?

Whether you are a single person running your own dot com out of your bedroom – or have plans for multiple branch offices in multiple countries employing hundreds of people, you NEED to know the answers to the above questions – and you should know them before you even start. If you have already started, then get the answers to all the above BEFORE you get blindsided by the lethal dragons that WILL come from having no answers.

Sign up ASAP for The Start Up Company Workshop.

What’s Included in The Start Up Company Workshop

It’s one thing to read the above questions – but the real POWER of the Start Up Company Workshop is that, together, WE brainstorm each of these issues and MORE – and discuss how each question REALLY relates to YOUR company, YOUR future, YOUR specific dragons. This is where YOU will personally benefit from my three decades of experience gained from working one on one with thousands of companies and their CEOs.

The Start Up Company Workshop includes:

• 12 hours of individual telephone consulting with Robert Lee Goodman – focused on all of the above kinds of issues that are applicable for YOUR company. I do not delegate this. You benefit directly from my experience.
• Sessions will be for a single 2 hour teleconference each week for 6 weeks.
• All telephone consulting sessions will be via a teleconference bridge line so you can include up to five people on the phone call. Optionally, and at no extra charge, we can also include a webcast of our discussions and brainstorming with up to 10 additional participants. Since we will be discussing critically confidential plans for YOUR business, only those invited by you will be able to join the call or webcast. Our teleconferencing can be just you – or others in your family or others on your team that you want to have participate. That way, you can benefit from the joint collaboration of your other trusted advisors. Both the teleconference bridge and the webcast are pass code protected. However, if you prefer even tighter security, we can fore go the webcast. If you prefer even more security, we can have a standard two way phone call without the teleconferencing bridge. It is strictly your decision. My only requirement is that only those directly associated with your own company participate.
• All six telephone consulting sessions will be recorded in MP3 audio format so that you have all the calls in an easy-to-download format. Play back our sessions as often as you want on your computer or iPod. These recordings are strictly confidential and they will not be shared with others by Ceo Resource. Again, my only requirement is that only those directly associated with your own company receive the audio files.
• Formatted transcripts of each recorded session are available as Word documents as an option for $200 per hour of audio. Having the transcripts of our discussions makes it easy to add narrative to your financial projections to end up with a comprehensive business plan.
• Financial projections for YOUR company with up to three drafts – Twenty plus pages that include five years of detailed financial projections, with tables and charts, in both Microsoft Word and Excel spreadsheet formats. Projections include: Start up capital requirements, revenue forecasts, profit and loss, break-even analysis, cash flow, balance sheet, ratio analysis and future valuation analysis. I normally charge $800 for these same projections but they are included FREE with your Start Up Company Workshop. These projections will be for YOUR company based on what we cover in the Workshop.

The brainstorming between us about YOUR company is the magic ingredient here that you can’t get from a book…or even briefly reading through the list. It comes for us, together, brainstorming about YOUR specific business…YOUR specific market niche…YOUR specific dragons that will try to stand in the way of YOUR success….and the detailed strategic and tactical decisions you will make about YOUR company based on the results of The Start Up Company Workshop.

Pricing

• Standard Service: The investment for this 12 hour, six week strategic and tactical Start Up Company Workshop for your new company is only $4,600.
• Priority Service: You can expedite your planning with Priority Service – For Priority Service, we will invest two hour sessions twice per week to get it done in only 3 weeks. The investment for this Priority Service is only $9,200.
• Top Priority Service: If your timeline is critical, you can REALLY expedite your planning with Top Priority Service – Get it all done in one week! Intensive three hour sessions over four days – all in one week. The investment for Top Priority Service is only $13,800.
• On Site Service – Get it all done in two days at your location! We will invest together, a highly focused, intense two days of personal one on one face time AT YOUR LOCATION that will be dedicated to answering the Workshop’s questions for your company’s strategy and tactics. The investment for this on site mentoring is $21,400 for continental USA locations and $39,250 for international locations, with either plus first class travel costs.
• Included FREE with ALL Service Levels – Audio MP3s of all 12 hours of our telephone sessions plus over 20 pages of five years of financial projections for YOUR company are included for FREE.
• Optional – Follow on mentoring after 12 hours, if requested, will be available at my standard , priority or top priority billing rates, depending on your needs.

Note: There are a VERY limited number of slots available for this kind of individualized service and slots may or may not be currently available. If you would like to benefit from this unique and valuable service, please email me now by clicking Start Up Company Workshop to let me know your needs and timetable and I will respond with my availability.

Keynote Speaking / Seminar Training – For Those Who Need More Than 1:1

These services are for organizations that request a keynote speech (either 20 or 45 minutes) OR need a one day, up to six hours, seminar training session for up to 100 people. The investment for this mentoring is $24,500 for continental USA locations and $39,500 for international locations, with either plus first class travel.

Note: There are a very limited number of slots available for this kind of individualized service and slots may or may not be currently available. If you would like to benefit from this unique and valuable service, please email me now by clicking Speaking / Seminar Many:1 to let me know your needs and timetable and I will respond with my availability.

Other Special Needs?

Please email me now if you have other, special mentoring or meeting needs that are not covered by the above by clicking Special Mentoring Needs.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Robert Lee Goodman, MBA
Ceo & Chief Dragon Slayer