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I've been building The Department of Motivated Vehicles for 6 months now. Whenever you're just starting out as an entrepreneur, you really want to be conscious of your costs or burn rate. This awareness is called cost consciousness. Since I'm the only only employee right now, my burn rate was essentially my monthly expenses which are under $2,000 with student loans.
But there comes a point when every entrepreneur has to make a leap from cost consciousness to cash flow consciousness. It's easy to get caught up always thinking about your burn rate and forgetting that sometimes you need to inject the business with cash by investing other things besides your time in order to grow.
I've come to a point where I'm ready to bring on my first part-time employee for 10-20 hours a week. My cash flow consciousness tells me that as long as an employee creates more value than they take in given period of time then they are a good investment. Of course I have to find the right person first. This means building a team to build the business. It's an opportunity to bring in other people's gifts and talents to the vision. And I'm certain that I'll work harder knowing that someone else is depending on me ever week—even in the hours that they aren't around.
This is definitely a sign of growth for me. In the past I've had difficulty asking for help from people, but I'm trying to grow something that is bigger than me and outlives me so I have to rely on other people. The DMV's growth is dependent on my growth until I get many others to adopt/shape it as their own vision. I definitely believe in employee ownership emotionally and financially. No more small thinking. Dream BIG!
For Social Enterprises
Ashoka »Ashoka is the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs—men and women with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems. Since 1981, we have elected over 2,000 leading social entrepreneurs as Ashoka Fellows, providing them with living stipends, professional support, and access to a global network of peers in more than 60 countries.
Dell Social Innovation Competition »
The RGK Center at The University of Texas and Dell are looking for college students worldwide with ingenious ideas to change the world. Dream up a plan that combines creativity and innovation to tackle a pressing social issue, and you can win $50,000 to put your plan into action!
Echoing Green »
To accelerate social change, Echoing Green invests in and supports outstanding emerging social entrepreneurs to launch new organizations that deliver bold, high-impact solutions. Through a two-year fellowship program, we help our network of visionaries develop new solutions to society’s most difficult problems.
Global Giving »
Unlike a traditional foundation, GlobalGiving does not directly offer grants or support. GlobalGiving uses its website to connect individual and institutional donors directly to social, environmental and economic development projects around the world via our "public" website, www.globalgiving.com. Potential donors can browse and select from a wide offering of projects, organized by geography or by themes such as health care, the environment, and education. GlobalGiving markets these projects through a number of channels, including corporations, employee giving campaigns, and direct consumer marketing partnerships. When donors come to GlobalGiving, they can find and fund projects that meet their diverse interests.
Global Social Venture Competition »
The purpose of GSVC is to actively support and promote the creation and growth of successful social ventures around the world. We define a social venture as an enterprise that has both financial and social goals integral to its purpose. Grand Prize: $25,000 2nd Place Prize: $10,000 3rd Place Prize: $5,000
Knight News Challenge »
We’re giving away around $5 million in 2009 for the development and distribution of neighborhood and community-focused projects, services, and programs.
Skoll Awards »
The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship support social entrepreneurs whose work has the potential for large-scale influence on critical challenges of our time: environmental sustainability, health, tolerance and human rights, institutional responsibility, economic and social equity, and peace and security. These issues are at the heart of the foundation’s vision of empowering people to create a peaceful, prosperous, sustainable world.
Stanford BASES Social E-Challenge »
The Social E-Challenge is a business plan competition for entrepreneurial ventures whose primary goal is to effect social and/or environmental change. Participants range from for-profit businesses with a strong sense of social responsibility to nonprofits with sustainable revenue-generation models. The common denominator is that these companies seek to have a positive impact on our society and/or the environment. Social E-Challenge provides participants with $50,000 in final round prizes, as well as the resources and training to launch their startups, which include workshops, mixers, speakers, a mentorship program, and individual feedback from renowned judges.
Whitney M. Young, Jr. Memorial New Venture Competition »
Whitney M. Young, Jr. Memorial Conference is focused on early-stage new ventures. The primary purpose of the New Venture Competition is to provide entrepreneurs of African descent the opportunity to present their ideas for growth companies to an illustrious panel of investors and venture capitalists. The top team will receive $10,000, while the 2nd and 3rd place teams will receive $5,000 and $2,500, respectively.
For Technology Start Ups
BootUp Labs »Bootup Labs is a startup accelerator in Vancouver, BC that helps founders and companies go "from zero to fundable." Bootup Labs recruits and supports promising entrepreneurs and provides mentorship, ongoing support and office space to help define their business and secure venture financing. Our nine-month mentoring and support program is designed to help you get to the next level with your company, and prepare you to receive your first round of funding. Read more about Bootup Labs, or contact us if you're ready to start talking to us about how we can help.
DreamIt Ventures »
The DreamIt Managing Partners have been investing in early stage companies since they sold the companies they started. In the last few years we have become enthusiastic about how quickly and inexpensively great companies can be launched. At the same time we have seen some very talented people with great ideas struggle to pull the pieces together and get over the startup hump. With the help and support of entrepreneurs, technologists, prominent law and accounting firms, angel investor groups and venture capital firms, DreamIt Ventures was born. Our goal at DreamIt is simple: Help great people with great ideas build great companies.
LaunchBox »
LaunchBox Digital is a place for cutting-edge ideas and cutting-edge talent. LaunchBox Digital helps entrepreneurs maximize their chance of success and get through the challenging early days of starting a new business.
Seedcamp »
At Seedcamp, we believe Europe has the talent, the role models, and the capital founders need to succeed. We want to provide a catalyst for the next generation of great entrepreneurs and help you take risks, think big, and succeed. Participating in Seedcamp will give you enormous validation and access to a world-class network of advisors to help you with every aspect of your business, plus a direct route to seed and venture capital.
TechStars »
TechStars only accepts about twenty companies each summer (about ten in Boulder, and about ten in Boston). In Boulder last year, 393 companies applied and ten were accepted. Getting in is hard, and it means something special. TechStars fills the startup funding gap by providing just enough capital to get your idea off the ground. Your new company receives up to $18,000 in seed funding.
Y Combinator »
Y Combinator is a new kind of venture firm specializing in funding early stage startups. We help startups through what is for many the hardest step, from idea to company. We invest mostly in software and web services. And because we are ourselves technology people, we prefer groups with a lot of technical depth. We care more about how smart you are than how old you are, and more about the quality of your ideas than whether you have a formal business plan.
- Write one thing: Each day I recommend writing down one thing that if you accomplished it would make your day a success. This should be connected to your overall business priorities in some way. Make sure it follows the SMART goals methodology.
- Plan your day: I created these two simple tools to help me plan my day, week, and month. One is just a weekly time grid and the other one is a personal planning chart.
- Make time to eat: It's easy to get sucked into work and not eat all day. When I do that, it usually because I'm feeling unproductive and thus guilty or superproductive and in the zone. Perhaps your daily walk should be to the grocery store to get fresh fruits and veggies.
- People are important: One thing that an office provides is an opportunity to be with other people. Working from home can be lonely. A good solution is to arrange dinners with friends who have 9-to-5 jobs. I would avoid lunch engagements because it may take you out of your flow if it too far away.
- Set office hours: Since my bedroom and office are one in the same, I never know when to stop working. Though you have pushed against 9-to-5 culture, I think it's a good idea to set office hours based on when your productivity is highest. If you can separate your bedroom and office, even better.
- Get outside: Since there is no transportation to work besides rolling out of bed, I recommend scheduling a walk, run, or workout during the day to get some fresh air.
- Count your minutes: All of sudden your cell phone becomes your office phone so watch your cell phone minutes and make sure that you don't go over. You may want to consider using Skype for outgoing calls or upgrade your cell phone plan.
- Get a printer/fax/scan/copy: It's important to be able to print things on the spot. I took the printer at my employer's office for granted. The last thing you want to have to do is run to Kinko's across town once a day. A good printer and ink cartridges may run $150.
- Write your distractions: Oftentimes we justify our distractions as doing tangential work and then at the end of the day we only end up working 3 hours in an 8 hour day. Write your distractions on the wall so that you know when you're being distracted. Some of mine are sorting stray paper, unwashed clothes, the refrigerator, and Facebook.
- Get dressed (from Paul C.): My friend Paul read this posts and recommends that you get dressed like you're going to work. You may even want to take a walk around the block like you're in transit to work to change your mindset about your environment especially if your office is in your bedroom.
That's all for now. I hope this helps. If I think of some more I'll let you know.
Feel free to add more ideas below.
Attracting and Retaining Great People
If you guessed a raise and a promotion, you're only partially right. The only two things your employees really want are to to feel valued and and to create value. Virgin and Johnson & Johnson have developed company cultures that put employees above shareholders. In his book "Losing My Virginity", Richard Bronson, Founder and CEO of Virgin, states "Convention dictates that a company looks after its shareholders first, its customers next and last of all worries about its employees. Virgin does the opposite. If you start off with a happy, well-motivated workforce, you're far more likely to have happy customers. In due course the resulting profits will make shareholders happy." Johnson & Johnson's 60 year old Credo places employees second after customers, but before community and shareholders. Both companies recognize that their employees are their most valuable assets and thus create organizational cultures that allow employees to demonstrate their value.
1. To Feel Valued
Company culture is central to an employee's sense of value. Culture gets ingrained in a new team member during the on-boarding process and perhaps even earlier. Your company culture may have caused some talented people to self-select out before or during the interview process. Culture is 20% explicit and 80% unstated. In other words, there are a few underlying principles that are explicitly stated within the company that inform millions of possible individual and organizational decisions about how employees relate to one another on a daily basis. The company's principles shape the culture and it is the CEO's responsibility to foster a healthy culture to spur innovation and growth. Principles determine how success is measured internally and externally. Raises, promotions, hiring and firing decisions should be made in alignment with organization's principles.
2. To Create Value
Everyone secretly wants be a super hero or at least feel like they are changing the world in some way. They want to be able to point to something and say "I did that." Imagine that there was an off-boarding process where each employee that was leaving had to make a final presentation to the entire organization. Would your employees have anything to brag about or would they simply just restate the bullet-points on their initial job descriptions? When you give your employees opportunities to create value, they will also feel valued, invested, and invested in. If leadership trusts in its employees and leads instead of manages, the employees will naturally energize innovate, taking the company to new heights that even the CEO's vision could not have imagined.
Syndicated by DowntoBusiness.com
Attracting and Retaining Great People
The Vision:
Commitment to the vision has the highest form of commitment because the vision rarely changes. Every company is trying to solve some problem that will make life easier for someone. If they aren't, then won't be in business that long. Even if the team or technology changes over time, a person committed to the vision will still be dedicated because their goal is to realize the vision by any means necessary.
The Team:
Commitment to the team is important and required, however teams change. Great people love to work with other great people. However, if someone is only committed to a particular person or people on a team, as soon as they leave, then that person's commitment to the vision and the rest of the team starts to fade and they become less valuable to the vision.
The Technology:
Commitment to the technology is important, but technology is always evolving and the current technical solution is only one of many ways to potentially achieve the overall vision. At some point, the company may adopt a new strategy that obviates the current technology. If that is the case, then the person who was only on board to exercise their passion for that particular technology will fall off.
If you can find talented people that are committed to the vision first, team second, and technology third, you will have built a team with the right motivation. Someone committed to all three is priceless. You may want to double-check the motivations of your current team on these three areas as well.
This article was syndicated by Downtobusiness.com
Before the business plan, the pitch deck, the company name, the logo, and the business cards, the most powerful thing you have as an entrepreneur is a vision that people can believe in. A powerful vision will attract the right people, opportunities, and ideas.
One of the myths about visionary companies revealed by James Collins and Jerry Porras in "Built To Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies" is that it doesn't take a great idea to start a great company. The reality is that few of the visionary companies the research began with a great idea. Several began without any idea at all. Most just began with a few people dedicated to realizing a singular vision.
Your product will evolve over time, but your vision should remain constant. Your first product may fail, but if you're truly committed to the vision, then you will go back to the drawing board to try to find another way to achieve it.
People want to feel like they are changing the world everyday they come to work. The challenge of actualizing the company's vision ignites their fire more so than the product itself. The product is a manifestation of the vision, not the other way around. Trying to blindly build a product without a vision may bring you some financing, a niche market, and some PR, but in the long-run it may cost you valuable team members, your integrity, and most importantly, your life.
The last thing you want to do is spend ten years building something that made lots of money but failed to achieve your initial vision. You could have got a job for that.
In addition to reading "Built To Last" (click here for summary), I also recommend that you read Randy Komisar's "Monk & The Riddle". It documents the journey of a technology entrepreneur and his struggle to create value for the world as his vision gets clouded by profit, prestige, and people.
Godspeed!
This article was syndicated by Downtobusiness.com
I'm starting a series on my blog called the Mix-tion-ary. Basically, I mix words together to create new meanings. It's like remixing a song to create a new song. As a writer, I sometimes feel confined by the English language, so in order to fully express myself to myself and the others, I will create new words to help me define and articulate how I feel.
#1: Entrepre-new-real
A characteristic in everyone but only accessible to one who is aware of the creative force within them and is willing to undertake the birth of a new reality through any form of creation (ie art, agriculture, business, etc).
The word "entrepreneur" is a loanword from French. In French the verb "entreprendre" means "to undertake", with "entre" coming from the Latin word meaning "between", and "prendre" meaning "to take".
Today, the term social entrepreneur is very popular because they have dis-covered new models of business that unify social mission with financial ambition. One's social mission seeks to create value first. One's financial ambition seeks to capture as much of the value created as possible.
Google is perhaps the best model of social entrepreneurship to date with the social mission of organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful and the financial ambition actualized through their highly profitable Google Adwords profit model.
To change is to create new avenues to a destine-nation. The alternative is insanity, which can be defined as doing the same thing over and over and expected a different results. Whether as entrepre-new-ers or intrapre-new-ers, lasting change will only come through every human being tapping into the entrepre-new-real spirit within them.
75 Reminders To Follow Your Passions
This is a tribute to some of my entrepreneurial friends (mostly) under 30 who are self-employing themselves full-time or part-time with their passions. Thank you for reminding and inspiring me with your bold examples.
CLOTHING & APPAREL
Olatunde of Esface
Dania of Fluffy Jo
Tracy of Dangerous Negro Apparel
Andy of Bonobos Pants
Olu of Lambano Shoe Company
Ras of Saxidat
Michael Cox of E3 Clothes
MUSICIANS
Jidenna the Chief, artist for DarkWater Productions
Daniel Farris, pianist, drummer, songwriter, & producer for Woodworks Records
Nasambu, singer and songwriter for Streets the the Hill
Honey Larochelle, singer and songwriter for Honey Larochelle
Felica Khong of Jazmin
Manghoba, Shibanmbo South African Drumming
Shani Kulture of Planet Ubiquity
Sara Araya aka Cia Moon, singer, pianist, movie scores
Novena of Baby Stone, performing artist, song writer, pianist
Clifford Worley of Livemyhustle.com
THE ARTS (Film, Photography, Writing, Etc)
M.K. Asante Jr., Director and Producer
Daniel Davila of Momentum Cinema
Nakia of 7/8 Productions
Lesha Patterson Photography
Jody of King Rucks Productions
Babatunde Akinloye of Tunde Productions
Sallome Hralima of the Re:Construction Period
Alicia Boone of So Live Arts Movement
Alixa & Naima of Climbing Poetree
Arcelie Reyes Photography
PERSONAL CARE
Tiffany Wheeler Day Care Services
Sean & Kumi of Mr. Barber Shop
CAREER & LIFE COACHING
Allah Jesus of Talking4Real.com
Rob Ryan of Center for Health, life coach
Ruth of Ruth Littlejohn Consulting
Cindy of Less Drama, life coach
Mareza of Doostang.com
EDUCATION
Mandla of New World Education Consulting Group
Chris Balme of the Spark Program
Scott of Transformative Action Institute
Michael Del Ponte of ConsciousLifestyle.org
Katrina Scott George of None But Ourselves
Adam of Learning Enterprises
HEALING & MEDICINE
Dr. Toni Daniels, pain & addiction alleviation
Larissa, dietician and living consultant
Nasambu, massage therapist
Sophia, massage therapist
Julie Brown, Healing/Nutrition/Detox, & Colon Hydrotherapy
FINANCE & BUSINESS
Wil of Wil Ash & Associates Tax Services
Kimberly of New Venture Consulting Group
Rolando Brown of Parallel Movement
Jessica of Kiva.org
Inman of Finfo.com
REAL ESTATE
Keidrick Cole
Gerren Bennett
FOOD & DINING
Carmen of Carmen & Family BBQ Restaurants
Mark of Karibbean City Jamaican Food
Abezero of Vital Ital Calabash
Nader of Foodspa.com Online Catering
Jenny Park of Adele's Frozen Custard
Robyn Goldman Ice Cream
Mark Karimi of the Meridian Hooka Lounge
PUBLICATIONS
Tom of Newsiasm.com
ELECTRONICS & TOOLS
Sam Goldman of Dlight Designs
Andre of MDG Tools
TECHNOLOGY
Harland Gaston Seedplay.com
Will of Cre8object.com
JEWELRY
Monique of Monique Pean Jewelry
Mia Watson
Kimiko Boyd
GAMING
Erik of Chess.com
Nick of NP Games
Adam Tolnay Games
MODELS & ACTORS
Mia Franco
Juan Session
OTHER
Billy Parish of the Energy Action Coalition
Simon of Speededate.com
