Weekly Resource #15 – Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition

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An international business competition – Connecting entrepreneurial companies with local, national and international investors.

I tell all the early stage entrepreneurs I work with to go to as many pitch and business plan competitions as they can when they’re starting out.  Even if you’re not ready to compete for funding, you’ll gain invaluable knowledge from watching others and paying attention to the judges’s comments and feedback.  I learned much of what I know today about successfully applying for funding and other key capital strategies from listening to evaluations of investor pitches.

Led by the newly formed Business Accelerator Network for Southeast Michigan (which includes Ann Arbor SPARK, Automation Alley, Macomb-OU INCubator, and TechTown), the Business Leaders for Michigan, the University Research Corridor (Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University) and the New Economy Initiative, this competition boasts an impressive list of venture capitalists from around the nation on it’s judging panel.

In 2012, sixty venture capitalists from fifty one firms judged the competition – providing a great network across the country as well as constructive feedback to help the participating companies in their persistent drive for excellence.

So whether you’re ready to enter the company competition, or the student competition, or whether you just want to go and learn this time, register now for Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition.  The deadline for company applications is August 14, so don’t delay.

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Weekly Resource #8 – Michigan eLibrary

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In addition to the plethora of digital resources already available to residents through MeL, Michigan’s eLibrary, state funding just made even more research and reference materials available to businesses and entrepreneurs.  (A quick internet search confirmed other states offer similar services.)

How Do These Resources Help You and Your Business?

Research and data are critical at every stage of business development and growth.  While it’s widely assumed entrepreneurs are risk takers, the truth is, people who start and grow successful ventures mitigate real and perceived risks through very careful planning and analysis of relevant data at every stage of the process.

In the Idea or Startup Stage, data is used to identify competitors, define your customer demographic, estimate product or service costs, validate market needs, and prepare the financial section of your business plan in order to secure funding.

Established business poised for growth can use these research tools to analyze the competition, identify new markets, learn about exporting regulations and opportunities, and explore new product or service deliveries.

All businesses involved in product development needs data to analyze the competition, validate a market need for the concept, determine the best materials and processes for manufacturing, understand target customers and how to reach them, apply for and secure a patent, and determine the costs and price of your goods.

What’s Available?

DemographicsNow: Business & People – Business & demographic data to assess business viability, create sales leads & mailing lists, complete location analysis and business plans, analyze population trends, and find potential sponsors and donors.

Business Insights: Global – A variety of international learning and research tools organized by country, company, and industry.

BusinessDecision – Uses Census data and state of the art mapping technology to present consumer market data, including the Tapestry lifestyle segmentation system, consumer spending data, demographic & housing data, population estimates, and forecasts.

A complete listing of business and job resources available can be found here.

6 Tips for Effectively Building Your Professional Network

shutterstock_130099706You’ve heard it said time and again, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”  Through the course of your entrepreneurial journey you’ve no doubt learned the truth of this statement.  Maybe it was a professor who encouraged you to take the leap in the first place.  Maybe your neighbor helped with the initial business plan or your aunt invested some pre-seed capital.  I know my personal history has repeatedly proven the value of people and relationships in achieving success, no matter how large or small the objective or goal.

For me, growing that network of support and strengthening those relationships has always come fairly easily, like I was born to it.  My Grandma Louise was an avid antique dealer, a.k.a. hoarder with a title.  Nearly all of her descendants, my children included, still appreciate stuff.  When I was a kid, my first cousins collected matchbooks and pencils and bottle caps.  I had collections also, but it was widely known then, even as it is now, I favored collecting people.

I never thought much about this hobby and certainly wouldn’t have considered it something I could teach.  Recently, however, I heard Dr. Diana J. Wong, President and CEO of Sensei Masters, reference the difference between explicit and implicit knowledge.  Implicit knowledge, she explained, is all the stuff you know that you don’t realize you know.  It’s the culmination of your personality, your experiences, and your informed circumstance.  It becomes ingrained and you use it unconsciously, so you don’t think about it when you’re inventorying your skills or expertise.

Dr. Wong’s encouragement to take stock of our implicit knowledge, got me thinking about all the times people have commented on this hobby, or rather this gift for attracting and growing my circle of interesting and supportive friends & colleagues.  And I decided then she was right; I should share what I’ve found to be true.

So, here are my 6 Tips for Effectively Building Your Professional Network.

1.        Create Possibilities

Be active.  Finding time for business networking and industry events is challenging for all professionals, but especially difficult for the do-it-all small business owner.  It’s critically important, however, to put yourself out there and create opportunities for telling your story.  Select carefully and with discretion, but commit to joining key organizations and make event participation a strategic priority.

And don’t forget, chance encounters can lead to great things.  I initiate conversations with strangers in all situations.  As a result, I met one of my very dearest and best girlfriends in the baby swing aisle at Toys R Us.  And I’ve met InsYght clients on public transportation, at community events, in the grocery store, and during music festivals.  Networking possibilities are endless if you consider all the people you encounter every day as potential partners, clients, funders, or friends.

2.       Prepare

Meetings that don’t rely on happenstance provide a different kind of opportunity.  Let’s go back to networking and industry trade events.  I recommend making the most of your precious time by preparing for those in advance.  First, ensure the targeted audience matches your own interest and objectives.

Then, whenever possible, research attendees ahead of time so you can set goals for interaction and maximize your time.  Don’t be afraid to ask organizers for a list of registrants, sponsors or exhibitors.  You won’t always get it, but you never know until you ask.  If personal privacy is a concern, you can ask them for some general idea of the organizations represented, etc.

Learn what you can about individuals and / or organizations attending.  Look for common ground like alma mater or professional affiliations to warm up your introductions.  You might even make a cold call in advance asking to set an appointment for a face-to-fact at the event.  At the very least, familiarizing yourself with your expected audience will make your more comfortable and confident during the event, thus leading to more opportunities.

3.        Find Common Ground

During all these conversations, those you’ve either carefully planned or initiated spontaneously, look for some common ground, something to give the relationship a start.  It might look and sound like small talk, but simple questions can be the best way to start this.  Add a few of these to your repertoire:

Do you have any pets?  What are you reading?  Did you play any sports?

Showing interest in people, and identifying common interests, roles, and affiliations, encourages dialogue and builds trust.  More simply, but just as importantly, it gives you a lead-in the next time you connect.

4.        Take Notes

To aid that process, I always write little notes about whatever will help me remember the people I’ve met and talked to.  This can start during the investigation process before a networking event, as mentioned above, or can happen immediately following, while the encounter is still fresh.  Use a business card or speaker bio, if available, so the information stays with the contact.

Make a note, if you can, about each new person you meet and what you talked about or heard them say.  He’s a cyclist; she has a motorcycle.  Their son is graduating from LSU or their daughter’s taking the LSAT.  She rushed out to her niece’s dance recital or he went home to watch the Wings.

Notes can include other little tips to help you remember people also.  I have event attendee lists that say things like, “sat at our table for lunch; chatted in the buffet line; introduced by Sam, attended breakout session on packaging,” etc.  The next time you reach out to them; use this intelligence to re-ignite the connection.

If this sounds a bit like finding common ground, that’s not an accident.  Again, remembering these little things helps you connect with people on a personal level and builds trust and camaraderie.

So does doing what you say you’re going to, so take note of those promises and commitments as well, i.e. send a recipe we talked about or make an email introduction to a contractor.  This helps me keep it all straight when it’s time to follow up.

5.       Follow-Up

Like anything else, all this effort only matters if you get results & you won’t get results if you don’t use the information you’ve collected to some avail.  Sending a personalized note or email to the people you’ve met reminds them of the meeting and keeps the lines of communication open.  Be sure to include a comment from your notes, so it’s obvious you were really listening and were invested in the exchange.

Like anything else that requires your time, this step can be challenging and is easily put off or pushed aside.  But, I would argue, it’s the most critical step in effectively building your network.  Think about it.  If you’re too busy to stay connected, they probably are too, which means neither of you will make the effort and the potential partnership, sale or friendship will fall by the wayside.

6.       Stay in Touch

Provided you followed the advice herein and found some common ground, and provided you also followed up, you will have established a solid baseline of rapport with your new friend.  To build on it and strengthen the relationship further, you need to stay in touch.  There are plenty of ways to do this, of course, and the specifics might vary from person to person.

One thing I’m known for doing regularly is sending tidbits of news related to someone’s industry, articles about their competition, or email introductions to parties of potential interest to my contacts.  Here again is where your notes help.  How else will you remember to send the bicycle meet-up & ride event to the cyclist or a “whoot – whoot” shout out to the Wings fan when they win the cup if can’t recall those conversations?

Thoughtful gestures like these don’t just help you make friends.  They establish you as a resource to your professional contacts.  And when people need products, services, guidance or other sources of help, where else would they turn?  Why to a respected and trusted colleague, of course.  To you.

So there you have them; six Tips for Effectively Building Your Professional Network.  They’re more like the things you learned in kindergarten than rocket science, but these tactics have proven effective in helping me collect a vast and strong network of trusted friends, colleagues and customers, who time and again have supported my efforts, boosted my chances, and ensured my success.

Image Credit:  Shutterstock

Weekly Resource #6 – Inner City Capital Connections

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Is your small business in an economically distressed city?

Inner City Capital Connections (ICCC) is a free, national program designed to help you access the capital necessary to achieve sustainable growth & provide employment opportunities for residents.

Brought to you by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), ICCC provides financial education and peer-to-peer mentoring for investment-ready companies and facilitates relationships with debt & equity providers and business strategy experts.  Participants gain practice and a thorough understanding of how to successfully pitch their business to capital investors.

Companies in 133 cities and 35 states have already leveraged this training with successful results.  Eighty-nine percent of them raised capital within 2 years of participation and 55% did so within a year.  Could you be next?  ICIC is now accepting applications for upcoming executive education seminars in the following cities:

Cleveland     –     Detroit

Designed for company owners and taught by respected experts, this interactive program explores  a variety of business finance options and teaches the importance of building your capacity to successful prepare for and manage the subsequent growth.  Select participants will earn the opportunity to showcase their learning and market their companies at the ICCC Conference at Fortune Magazine in New York City.  Past participants have been featured in such esteemed publications as:  The Wall Street JournalReutersInc.PortfolioPE HubMSN Money, and Small Business Television.

Successful applicants have represented diverse industries & backgrounds, but all are of sufficient size and strength to attract the growth capital needed to increase revenues and jobs in their inner cities.  If this sounds like you, click here for application information:  ClevelandDetroit.

“Money, It’s a Gas.” – Part 1

“Money, it’s a gas.  Grab that cash with both hands.”
– Money, Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon

Wouldn’t every entrepreneur with an inspired idea and every small business owner with a current opportunity love to take this advice and grab the cash?  Unfortunately, many aren’t clear about the funding options available to them during their various stages of business development and, therefore, often reach for something they’re either not ready for or are ineligible to receive.

I frequently meet and consult with people who have great ideas for a community-based small businesses.  Some already have well developed plans for launching and a great chance of success.  But they need some start-up capital, so they’re asking about angel investors or grant money.

What they often don’t know is:

  • Government grants for funding private enterprise generally don’t exist; and
  • Typical equity investors, i.e. angels or venture capitalists, are interested only in highly scalable, growth-oriented ventures because they represent the highest return on investment potential.

Therefore, lifestyle businesses are reliant on fundraising from friends and family, crowdfunding, traditional bank loans, and community-based microenterprise lending programs.  The most obvious, but often overlooked, financing source is sales.  But that’s a subject for another post.

For now, let’s focus on external funding sources available at various stages in the business life cycle.  The following graphs, used with permission from Han Peng, Manager of Entrepreneurial Programs at TechTown Detroit in Michigan, help illustrate how profitability, time and stage impact your financing options.  The first is general and works across geographic boundaries, while the second adds a layer to illustrate some specific Michigan program examples.  I’m confident the principles can be applied to similar programs across state lines.

Graph 1.0

Printed with permission from Han Peng, TechTown Detroit

Printed with permission from Han Peng, TechTown Detroit

Graph 2.0

Printed with permission from Han Peng, TechTown Detroit

Printed with permission from Han Peng, TechTown Detroit

These graphs don’t take industry, location, ownership designation, or other individual characteristics of the business into account, but it’s important to note those factors can also have a great effect on an entrepreneur’s or small business owner’s eligibility for funding, as can the application itself.  Knowing how and when to prepare and present your ask is critical to a successful capital raise campaign at all levels, from friends and family loans to venture capital investments.  Stay tuned for a future post with those helpful tips.

 

Weekly Resource #3 – Supplier Connection

According to this blog post by Karen Gordon Mills, Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, recent reports show that “small suppliers can more than triple revenue growth and more than double job growth only a few years after becoming a large company supplier.”

Are you ready to grow?

As part of the American Supplier Initiative to support American manufacturing and small business growth, the U.S. Small Business Administration has collaborated with a consortium of large companies to bring you Supplier Connection.

Created by the IBM Foundation, Supplier Connection is a free online common application that allows small businesses to simultaneously send information about their products and services to private sector buyers.

Current buyers include fifteen household brands with a combined purchasing power of $300 billion each year.  More large companies are expected to be added in the coming months.

 Register today!

 

Welcome to the new InsYght blog!

BrendanMy name is Brendan and I am the intern of the InsYght team.

We are proud to present our new blog. This is one of many new mediums of communication we will be implementing in the near future to reach out to you, the entrepreneur.

Our goal with this blog is to create a source of the most current and useful business resources and information and present it in a simplistic yet informative manner. You can expect everything from “resources of the week” to “entrepreneur video spotlights”.

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter and be sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter to stay up to date with latest business tools and information.

-Brendan