Should You Start A Company

“What Is Your Start Up Company’s Special Ingredient?”

This is one of the key questions I ask my consulting clients who are starting a new business. What would your answer be to this question? Exactly why WILL prospective customers buy from you instead of continuing to do whatever it is they are currently doing?

Amazingly, most entrepreneurs have not even considered this issue - they rarely even have an answer after they’ve thought about it for a while.   Marginal “me too” improvements over existing solutions will rarely drive sales for a start up company.  This is true even in areas of interest and focus for your prospects.  Even great innovative improvements in areas that are not of interest and focus to your prospects will also rarely drive sales.

I call this your YSI:  Your Special Ingredient.  Sometimes this is called your USP - Your Unique Selling Proposition - a concept and theory that goes back to the 1940s.  Others refer to it with a variety of terms, like KSP - Key Selling Point.  No matter what the acronym, it is still the same basic question:  Why you and your company? (more…)

What dragons are stopping you from taking the next step with your start up or emerging company? Are you stuck at a fork in the road on your way to success with your vision?

While individually working with over 2,000 entrepreneurs and start up company CEOs, I’ve noticed that, in many cases, one or more of a particular half-dozen deadly dragons can often stop a company in its tracks.

Which ones are blocking your personal path for your start up company right now?

1. The Indecision Dragon – Closely related to the Overchoice Dragon, this brute keeps whispering “What if this and what if that…” which keeps you from making key decisions and making progress. Yogi Berra, the New York Yankee philosopher, said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” What are the top dozen genuine pivot points for your company right this minute? What do you need to know today to make a decision on each - and cross each one off the list as completed? What do you finally need to know to get past that fork in the road? Remember: No decision IS a decision – one that can affect all future decisions, choices, direction and timetables. Don’t lose by default.

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This one mistake is so critical that it jeopardizes the immediate survivability of your start up company - even before you get started.

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: (more…)

Want to help entrepreneurs and start up CEOs succeed - while you earn MAJOR affiliate commissions and JV fees at the same time?

Start Up Company University, in anticipation of its product launch for Funding Foreplay, is seeking qualified affiliate marketing and JV partners to accelerate exposure and sales of the company’s new line of products and services.

The University offers these kinds of commissions and fees to qualified and participating affiliates and JV partners:

• Funding Foreplay - Earn up to $198.50 for each sale.
• Start Up Company Mentoring - Earn up to $585.00 for each sale.
• Start Up Company Workshop - Earn up to $7,850.00 for each sale.

With those kinds of payouts, how many sales and how much total commissions are waiting to be immediately tapped by you from your client base or lists?

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I’ve just added two new widgets here at my blog that will let you immediately download both a Sample Comprehensive Business Plan and a Reg D 506 Private Placement Memorandum (PPM) - for free. The PPM also includes a Prospective Investor Questionnaire and Investor Subscription Agreement.

These two free downloads are very basic, and are not the business plan or PPM that are included and analyzed in detail in Funding Foreplay - but they will show you the fundamental components of what you need for two of the twelve total documents you are required for successfully raising investment capital from venture capital and angel investors. Each document is about 40 pages long and can be immediately downloaded.

For a much more comprehensive business plan and PPM, including samples of all dozen necessary documents you will need, check out Funding Foreplay at www.FundingForeplay.com.

If you need help with financial projections and your business plan or business planning, check out my services and prices at www.ChiefDragonSlayer.com.

If you need personal, one on one coaching and mentoring, please check out my services at www.StartUpCompanyMentoring.com for details and pricing.

Wishing you STELLAR success with YOUR start up,

Robert Lee Goodman

As a serial entrepreneur, I find reality TV a complete, contrived waste of time. I’ve never watched American Idol, Survivor, Amazing Race, The Apprentice, etc. Even the commercials showed me more than I ever wanted to know.

However…

There is finally one reality show that I not only watch - but one that I strongly recommend every entrepreneur and start up company CEO should watch religiously.

The show, Start-Up Junkies, on the MOJO Network really does show what it is like to run a new company.

Frank Lloyd Wright once said TV is chewing gum for the mind. He must have been talking about reality TV. However, Start-Up Junkies is a feast for anyone even thinking about starting a company. (more…)

(The following is an article in the upcoming March 1, 2008 edition of the RTIR - Radio TV Interview Report that goes out to 4,000 radio and TV producers in the USA and Canada each month. It is part of the promotion of my upcoming teleseminar series on “Funding Foreplay: What You Need To Know To Romance The Funding For Your Start Up Company.” Stay tuned for details!)

Will You Lose Your Job in the Recession of 2008?
Why More People Will Start Their Own Businesses This Year

Consumer confidence is plummeting as is the housing market. Companies from Citigroup to Sprint to Yahoo are announcing big layoffs. There were more than 15,000 mass layoffs nationwide in 2007; this year may be worse. It isn’t pretty in the business world and anyone who works for a big company knows they have zero job security.

While people always fantasize about starting and opening their own businesses, in times of turmoil those thoughts multiply. But should your audience be among those entrepreneurs to take the plunge?

The man to ask is internationally-renowned consultant Robert Lee Goodman, who has consulted with more than 2,000 entrepreneurs in more than 36 countries and has launched nearly four dozen of his own companies.

Invite him on-air to:

• Take calls from audience members who want to start their own businesses. Are their ideas viable?
• Talk about the questions individuals should ask themselves before they pull the trigger.
• Reveal what most would-be entrepreneurs get wrong about developing a business plan, finding backers and other important issues.
• Address why so many baby boomers are finally ready to be their own boss.
• Share some of the reasons why not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur.

CREDENTIALS: Robert Lee Goodman has an MBA and 30 years of CEO-level business and consulting experience with virtually every type of industry. He regularly gives workshops on starting a business and has a new blog, www.ShouldYouStartACompany.com. Other Web sites he operates include www.StartUpCompanyWorkshop.com and www.CeoResource.com. Audio clips on Web sites.

AVAILABILITY: Tampa, nationwide by arrangement and via telephone
CONTACT: Robert Lee Goodman, Ceo@CeoResource.com

If you are starting a company, are you REALLY ready to get started? Are you REALLY ready to develop a fully defined business plan? Are you REALLY ready to pull the trigger and start spending money, hiring people and REALLY invest your time, energy and emotion in your vision for the next several years of YOUR life?

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 (more…)

Since this blog is focused on helping folks with their own start up, I thought it appropriate for me to start a thread on something I am doing to re-invent one of my own companies: transitioning Ceo Resource LLC from 1 to 1 consulting to 1 to Many. For the past 14 years, I have focused solely on 1 to 1 – helping almost 2,000 entrepreneurs individually all over the world. It has been tremendously gratifying providing pivotal help to so many folks – many of whom have become very good life long friends. (more…)

This is my first blog so please bear with me as I try to quickly learn the ropes - without hanging myself.

The purpose of this blog is to share some insights I’ve gained during the past three decades starting nearly four dozen companies - and serving, during the past 14 years, as a consultant to nearly 2,000 entrepreneurs and their start up companies in more than three dozen countries located on six of the seven continents.

You can find more details on that service, and more about me, at www.ChiefDragonSlayer.com if you care to peek.