Starting with nothing...

Last night I was asked to give a short presentation on my business as part of a panel of "Women In Business." The following is a short except:

When I started The Pot & Bead I started from nothing.

What I didn't have:

• Formal business background - I'm an engineer. I don't have an MBA, I had never taken a business class and I didn't have any prior experience managing a business or a retail store. My experience in retail was pretty limited to working the cash register at a supermarket when I was in high school.
• Hidden stash of cash - I didn't start my business with any savings. In fact, I had a bit of debt (house, car, student loans, credit cards)
• Experience with the product - Did I mention I was an engineer? I'm not an artist, I didn't know about clay or painting or anything related.

What I did have:

• Books on how to write business plans - A business plan was necessary to acquire financing for the business. There are many good books out there on how to write a business plan and what to put in it.
• Ideas - Opening up a paint your own pottery studio wasn't my first idea or thought. I went through several, researching, learning, and trying to write a business plan. The idea for The Pot & Bead was the one that gelled.
• Resources - There are a wealth of resources out there for anyone who wants to start a business. I am particularly fond of my local Small Business Development Center that holds seminars on starting a business. They also will review your business plan.
• Determination - This, of course, was the key. I spent a great deal of time learning, researching and planning. I wanted to be in business for myself. I was determined to make it happen.

And I did. :) If you have a desire and determination, you can do it, too.

Cute Little Store E-book edition now available!

"Cute Little Store: between the entrepreneurial dream and business reality" is now available in e-book format. Have you read all the great reviews on Amazon but want it sooner and cheaper? Fantastic! Just click here to purchase it now.

Tidbits from this month's Inc.

Inc., "The Handbook of the American Entrepreneur," is one of my favorite magazine's right now.

While this month's issue's main focus was on "Going Global," I found a few other tidbits worth passing on to other small business owners:

1. Do you understand your credit card merchant statements?
One would think there's an easy answer - Yes. Yet, if I look at my business bank account which I check all the time, there are "Deposits" but there are also items labeled "DISCNT" and others labeled "Collections" and I realized I don't really understand the difference. There was a small 2-page article where they looked at many companies statements and attempted to roll them into one for anybody. While not necessarily applicable to your own card statement or mine, I will be pulling one out and calling the merchant company today and get an explanation for all the line items there. I'm a little embarrassed to say that after almost 5 years, I haven't done this before - I've always taken for granted that money shows up in my account and that the fees removed are straightforward. The message: if you're like me and not so sure about your merchant statements either, pull them out, call up the company and have them explain it.

2. "Many obstacles stand between a customer and a sale. Your job is to remove them."
This was the title of an article adapted from a new book: "Threshold Resistance" by A. Alfred Taubman. After starting a successful real estate development company, specializing in building malls, Mr. Taubman bought Sotheby's and transformed it in the 1980's. The article is interesting, but the title alone is what made me, and should make you think. This nice thing about it is that it's applicable to *any* business. We all have customers - what's preventing them from giving you their money? It could be anything from an unenthusiastic or ill-trained employee who's greeting them in your retail space to having to go through too many clicks on a website. The message: Read that title line again and just think about it in terms of your business.

Just a few things to think about. Have a great day!

A good business begins with a good plan

I receive a lot emails from people who read this blog and tell me that they are almost ready to start their business, just starting to think about it or they are someplace in between. So today, I thought we'd discuss that monster of a task that needs to get done at the very, very beginning: Your business plan.

If you've written your business plan already, fantastic!

If you haven't, why not? What's holding you back?

Is it that you think you lack time? Well, if you can't make the time to work on a business plan, then you're not going to have the time to plan the business. :) Carve out the time. It might 30 minutes before bed. Or maybe set the alarm to wake up 30 minutes earlier in the morning every day until it's done.

Is it that you don't know the first thing about business plans? That's an easy fix... there are dozens of books out there on business plans. If you are truly starting from scratch, then start with a book such as "Business plans for dummies" (I have it, it's one that I used when writing my business plan).

Is it that you started, but it's not coming together in the way you hoped? Ah ha! This is most interesting. This happened to me quite a bit when writing my business planS. Yes, that's plans with an "S". Before starting my paint your own pottery studio, I had thought of other kinds of business ideas I'd like to try. When I had an idea, I would start writing the plan. If it didn't come together, it was because it really wasn't right. It wasn't right for me at that time. For example, while lots of folks have businesses they run buying properties and acting as landlord or flipping them, it just wasn't coming together for me when I started outlining and writing the plan. It wasn't right. I moved on and went through about 6 different ideas before thinking about my retail store. The business plan for The Pot and Bead just fell into place so easily for me at that time... that's how I knew it was right.

Here is an interesting resource for you: For a while, I ran a second business as a consultant helping people get their business plans together. I'm not really a consultant at heart, so that business, Now Plan This, only lasted a year or so. I shut it down, but I still have one of the tools I created. It's a business plan questionnaire that I'm now giving out for free:

Download the PDF business questionnaire.

It's similar to a business plan template, but instead of headings of sections to fill in, it asks the question for you to answer.

The theory is, if you're starting a business, you darn tootin' should be able to answer these questions. If you can't answer the questions, that might be a red flag before you get started in really opening the business. Note: since Now Plan This no longer exists, this is not a form to submit back to me or anyone else. It's provided free for your reference. However, if you have a specific question, please don't hesitate to ask.

More about the early days of getting The Pot and Bead into existence can be found in my book: Cute Little Store.

Thanks for reading!

Foul language, bad spelling and religion are not usually good sales techniques...

All three of these things - naughty language, bad spelling and religion - were used on me the other day in some form of sales pitch. None of them worked.

The first was an email I received from someone overseas who was looking to network with other writers. He used some foul language in his introduction (in the form of a 4 letter word). Now, I might happen to be this informal among my very close friends, but it's in no way, shape or form appropriate in an introductory email to someone you've never met. I wasn't offended, but I was very put off by the tone it created and won't be responding to that email.

The second email was a solicitation to purchase some form of advertising. The advertising would involve placing my ad with another business' materials. But the name of this other business organization was spelled wrong by the sales person. Over and over. It reeks of un-professionalism that should not be present in a sales pitch.

The last one was the strangest (to me) and most controversial. Let me first say that my purpose here is only to present my view of how I see the business world. My blog is meant to describe how I do business - I'm sure there are others that would view this situation differently.

I received an email from an individual representing a business offering design and graphical services. These are services that I have paid other companies for in the past and it's something that (while I'm not looking for right now) I could possibly have use for in the future.

The email, however, touted the fact that this was a [Religion X] owned business. I thought that was very strange. The first thought that went through my head was "Who cares? What difference does it make?" It detracted significantly from the message of the business service they are trying to provide. I was a little offended - by the fact that this sales pitch was attempting to get me to use something private and personal that has nothing to do with my business to make a business decision.

Religion is a very touchy and personal subject with many people. So if one was going to use religion as a selling point, one first needs to determine if potential sales prospects also subscribe to ? What if I happened to belong to [Religion Y] which is at complete odds with [Religion X]. I might be so offended to the point of spreading negative word of mouth about that company.

One of the goals of selling, especially "cold call" selling is to connect with the customer. Announcing things like religion, politics and the like without knowing who you are talking to will most likely alienate prospects rather than connect with them.

At the end of the day, this kind of sales technique put me off working with that company because I'm not interested in purchasing any service from any organization because they are [Religion X] or [Religion Y] or [Religion Z] owned. It doesn't matter to me and in fact detracts from my desire to work with that organization. I'm interested in purchasing services from a business because they've demonstrated that they can provide a valuable service at a reasonable price.

The message in today's blog is this:

If you're attempting to sell and/or network, do so in the least controversial manner possible until you get to know the other person and build up a comfortable rapport. Err on the side of formality. Unless your politics or religion relate directly to the business you or your customers are in, leave your politics and religion at home. Be as professional with your pitch as possible - that includes watching your spelling and language.

A tip for developing your marketing pitch:

Before making the cold call, or sending the cold email, run your pitch by a couple friends or ideally, other business owners you know and can trust to give you honest feedback. Try to find people who will see it from a different point of view. Also, get other other eyes on your written materials - spelling mistakes aren't always caught by spell checkers.

Questions? Comments? I'm always curious to hear about experiences from other small business owners...