Light, Motion and Magic

Happy Birthday to me! I began this Light, Motion and Magic blog a year ago - and what a great year it has been! Today I’d like to write a little about what I’ve learned from the blogging experience - and since this blog is all about being a woman entrepreneur starting my business - I’ll outline where my business efforts are right now.

This blogging experience has been terrific. There have been both outward and inward benefits to this blog. I started it because I realized that there is an online community that I would need to understand, reach out to and be a part of if I were ever going to make a success of my online business. That online community is every bit as robust as I thought it would be, and more. The other blogs and bloggers that I’ve followed, those I’ve communicated with in forums, and the additional Twitter community that I engage with has simply become a part of my life now. Yes, it takes up time, but it’s well, well worth it. I have a genuine fondness and respect for the friends I’ve made online, and the times I’ve reached out, I’ve rarely been disappointed.

On an internal level, I can’t overstate how important it has been, as I’ve gone through this business start-up process, to take the time to concentrate my thoughts and experiences as I’ve gone along. Yes, it’s been hard to think of exactly what to write about sometimes, but the effort has always been rewarding, and has often crystallized my thinking, or spurred me to more needed research.

I am very, very glad that I took the leap to try this online format, and I look forward to another year with you!

My latest test of patience in getting Miri Market off the ground is finally drawing to an end. Johannes will be done with the design enhancements soon, which I am very excited to see. After that, I look forward to getting reactions to the concept from people through online surveys and face-to-face research.

The economic conditions in which we find ourselves is going to affect my business decisions, without a doubt. It’s tough enough to get a business off the ground, even without the tremors of a looming economic crisis shaking that very ground. I will continue to move forward very cautiously. Admittedly, getting Miri Market going has been s-l-o-w-w-w-w, but I’ve always believed that the process will unfold as it should, in due time. Perhaps the delays have been a good thing, and I should be grateful that the nervousness of watching the economy this week was not compounded by having a container of new product to launch and sell! These are uncertain times, for sure, highlighting the need to minimize risk and do my research to make sure this is a product that will be well-received.

Thus, I start out on Year Two of this blog. As I proceed with my business plans through the months ahead I will continue to write about my experiences and bring to you my honest observations and insights. I thank all my readers, and I hope you’ll keep stopping by to take this journey with me.

Tags:blog, Blogging, business decisions, economy, Light Motion and Magic, Miri Market, online community

Early in August I wrote about Energy, Globalization and Manufacturing. Today I want to point you in the direction of more interesting information about globalization, and let you know what’s going on my fall business reading list. I’m not only interested in this topic as a woman entrepreneur, I’m just plain interested.

Laurel Delaney at The Global Small Business Blog consistantly brings up good topics connected to small business and globalization. Her blog pointed me to this site: Knowledge@Wharton and their discussion of a book titled: GLOBALITY: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything.

GLOBALITY tells the story of a new era of international business competition. The global challenger companies—that grew up in the rapidly-developing economies—are challenging the big, developed-country corporations that have been globalization leaders for the last two decades. Both challengers and incumbents will find themselves competing with everyone (including former partners and suppliers) from everywhere (in both developed and developing markets) for everything (including customers, talent, and more).

This looks like a good one to put on my reading list.

I also like the Globalization category of Small Business Trends. It has many fine articles, one of the contributors being the above-mentioned Laurel Delaney. Read any of the articles listed and you’ll get thoughtful content about global business.

There is a reference in one of the articles to Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat. This a book I hear about time and time again, and have often told myself, “I have to read it!” And I haven’t, yet. It seems to me that the globalization of business is a trend that is here to stay, so I want to be more informed, making this is a second book that goes on my reading list (along with Friedman’s latest book, Hot, Flat and Crowded.)

I’ve also discovered a new and fascinating rejoinder to Friedman’s The World is Flat, titled  The Entrepreneurial Society, by David Andretsch, from the Kauffman Foundation’s Entrepreneur’s Resource Center. As I mentioned in last week’s post Exciting Entrepreneurship Initiatives, this site is a tremendous source of information, globalization included.

New book by IU’s Audretsch declares business world ‘not flat’

Embracing innovation is the only way for Western businesses to succeed in the global market, says Indiana University economics Professor David Audretsch. In his new book, The Entrepreneurial Society (Oxford University Press). Audretsch argues that labor will continue to be outsourced abroad as long as the tasks involved are routine and replicable, but companies that reward new ideas, niche markets and community collaboration can thrive on local employment.

“If your company’s competitive advantage is based on lowest cost, you’re out of here,” he said. “If you want to stay and thrive in the United States, the focus needs to be on innovation. You need to think of things we’re not doing today.”

Baby boomers have had a difficult time grasping the changes of a globalized economy, he said. They inherited the economic success of the postwar era, in which large corporations were the major employers. Their attempts to follow an outdated formula have led to personal and corporate financial failures, Audretsch said.

Moving beyond the conclusions of Thomas Friedman’s 2005 bestseller The World is Flat, Audretsch argues that business innovation actually occurs in geographical “pockets” such as Silicon Valley software development, fashion in Paris and Milan, and finance in New York. Talent—and wealth—tend to collect in these areas known for cutting-edge development. The solution to the off-shoring dilemma, Audretsch says, lies in identifying community strengths and building these areas as hotbeds of innovation.

“It turns out, ideas and creation of those ideas happen in a proximate way—people gathered together make ideas grow, and to proactively respond you need to be in the same place together. Business innovation functions much like the world of music—the best work happens when you get together and jam,” he said.

This book will have to be added to my globalization reading list, as well!

I know that I’ve only scratched the surface of this topic and I’ve got an ambitious amount to absorb in just what I’ve found so far. But it’s a start, and a reminder that to stay current on the world, and business trends, the learning curve is never-ending.

Tags:David Andretsch, Energy, Entrepreneur's Resource Center, Exciting Entrepreneurship Initiatives, Globality: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for, Globalization and Manufacturing, Hot Flat and Crowded, Kauffman Foundation, Knowledge@Wharton, Laurel Delaney, never-ending learning curve, Small Business Trends, The Entrepreneurial Society, The Global Small Business Blog, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman

I took a nice little on-line journey this week…into the world of entrepreneurship initiatives. First I began by checking on information about Global Entrepreneurship Week coming up November 17-23, 2008.

Global Entrepreneurship Week is a combination and expansion of two successful initiatives, the debut of EntrepreneurshipWeek USA in 2007 and the inspiration behind it, Enterprise Week in the UK which was kicked off in 2004 by now-Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

During the last year, these two efforts - led by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in the US and the Make Your Mark campaign in the UK - combined to engage 2,720 partner organizations planning 6,891 activities that directly involved 929,449 individuals.

Thousands of pieces of media coverage amplified the message, reaching tens of millions.

Watch this great, short video about Entrepreneurship Week 2007. I confess I got excited about all the energy, creativity and possibilites unleashed by this project!

Browsing around this site led me to the Imagine it! site where I watched a whole set of videos from a competition during last year’s Entrepreneurship Week. (Incidentally, the host of the video, pictured below, is Iliza Shlesinger who just won NBC’s Last Comic Standing.)

The film, imagine it!, tells the story of college students who participated in a global creativity challenge hosted by Stanford University during EntrepreneurshipWeek USA in 2007. The challenge? Create value using one pack of Post-it notes in just six days. Teams from around the globe including Thailand, Australia, India, Brazil, Colombia, Japan, Ecuador and the United States surprised everyone with what they did—raising and donating money, composing music, helping the disabled, making powerful social statements and educating children.The film captures the spirit of the next generation of entrepreneurs that will be unleashed during Global Entrepreneurship Week, from November 17-23, 2008.

Allow yourself plenty of time to watch the videos-it’s really fun to see what these bright teams came up with!

Which, in turn, led me to the website of the Kauffman Foundation, one of the main sponsors of Entrepreneurship Week. As a woman entrepreneur, there is much on this site of particular help to me.

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation was established in the mid-1960s by the late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, the Kauffman Foundation is the 30th largest foundation in the United States with an asset base of approximately $2 billion.

The vision of the Kauffman Foundation is to foster “a society of economically independent individuals who are engaged citizens, contributing to the improvement of their communities.” In service of this vision, and in keeping with our founder’s wishes, the Foundation focuses its grant making and operations on two areas: advancing entrepreneurship and improving the education of children and youth.

There is just loads and loads of great information on this site. Among the most relevant to me is the Entrepreneur’s Resource Center, featuring a wealth of practical articles, written for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs.

Finally I found myself back at the Global Entrepreneurship Week site, where I registered as a member and signed up for their newsletter. One of the ways the site recommends becoming involved is to “tell others about the week.” And so I have!

Do some exploring on your own to find out about these terrific entrepreneurship initiatives.

Tags:entrepreneurship, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Global Entrepreneurship Week, Iliza Shlesinger, Imagine it!

Having gone to all three sessions of 2008 Summer Venture Camp put on by The Collaborative, I want to summarize the most important lessons that I took away from among all the information, expertise and advice given.

My business niche as a woman entrepreneur with Miri Market was not the primary target of most of the panel discussions, which seemed focused on med/tech start-up companies needing millions in venture capital. The Minneapolis/St. Paul area is especially strong in this industry, being home to Medtronic, St. Jude and Guidant, plus we have a world-class University that makes strong contributions in med/tech research. But the same things that make a strong candidate for getting venture capital makes a strong start-up company of any size, in any industry.

In the last venture camp session it was mentioned that you have to give people a message 9 times for it to stick. Much of what I focus on here are universal elements that were mentioned again and again - maybe not 9 times, but said by enough different people, enough times over the three sessions, that they “stuck” with me. The rest seems like just helpful good sense, to keep in mind as I build my company. So here they are:

1. Successful entrepreneurs need to be really FLEXIBLE. They also need to be completely dedicated; open to input; enthusiastic, but willing to learn; open to criticism; easy to work with; prepared.

2. Be sure to communicate to everyone - your employees, your board, your investors - IT’S ALL GOING TO CHANGE. You need to continually re-evaluate ideas, employee performance, compensation, priorities for spending - with the constant goal of making money and liquidity. Continually set up the expectation that things will be changing.

3. The saying, “Find a need, and fill it” is true. If you start with one idea in mind, and find that your customers are taking it in another direction or asking for some changes, go with it! Due diligence, market research, patent searches and understanding the competitive landscape can also help point you to the void that needs filling.

4. The main things to have down, which you must be able to communicate in a few, concise sentences, are:
-What’s your unique thing, your proprietary property/technology?
-How big is your market opportunity, your universe of buyers?
-What is the benefit customers receive from using your product? Will people pay for it?
-Management team. Management team. Management team.

5. When writing your business plan, make sure you have your above “story” together. Often a power point with supporting schedules will suffice, along with an excellent executive summary.

6. Hire people that are smarter than you. If you don’t have the knowledge and experience to get your company where it needs to be, find someone who does.

7. If you want to attract talent and have them work above and beyond for your success, give ownership as incentive - the earlier, the better. It’s difficult to lose key employees when you’re growing.

8. Don’t give up too much, too soon to your management team. Make sure they earn it, that no one is “dead weight,” then reward generously.

9. Be clear about the different components of your benefits package, and what long-term components reward as opposed to base pay.

10. If incentives are dependent on profit, put out the numbers so the employees know how they’re doing.

11. Consider that benefits have different value to different employees. Also think about the intangibles of your company that might help keep your employees. Create the right benefits and atmosphere for the employees you want to hire and keep.

12. Communicate, communicate, communicate - to employees, investors, public.

13. The right management team means having the right people at each stage. For example, having a bookkeeper –> having a comptroller –> having a CFO. Each time you add the right person, you’re adding value, even though the cash hit can be difficult at the time.

14. Constantly stay on top of cash flow. Check every day so you don’t have surprises.

15. Qualify your new customers. Set payment terms and credit limits. Follow up on slow payers. Offer discounts to get customers to pay more quickly. Offer credit card payment. Impose finance charges for late payments (and also use as leverage.) You can sometimes renegotiate terms with your manufacturers, suppliers. Convert sales as quickly as possible into cash in the bank.

16. Take the time to organize your board. Over time try to increase its sophistication to one that’s informed, and will take action when necessary.

Tags:2008 Summer Venture Camp, Business lessons, start-up, The Collaborative, Woman entrepreneur

There certainly has been a lot of talk about oil and energy prices lately. It has been the topic of a lot of political debate. But it directly concerns me as a woman entrepreneur, and my business Miri Market, when the time comes to choose a manufacturer for my product: Where will I go to have my product made? What will be the most cost-effective manufacturing choice for my business? What will be the most environmentally responsible manufacturing choice?

As we all know, much consumer product manufacturing is now done in Asia. But there was an excellent article by Larry Rohter in the New York Times on Sunday, Shipping Costs Start To Crimp Globalization.

Cheap oil, the lubricant of quick, inexpensive transportation links across the world, may not return anytime soon, upsetting the logic of diffuse global supply chains that treat geography as a footnote in the pursuit of lower wages. Rising concern about global warming, the reaction against lost jobs in rich countries, worries about food safety and security, and the collapse of world trade talks in Geneva last week also signal that political and environmental concerns may make the calculus of globalization far more complex.

Three issues - higher shipping costs, sensitivity to the “green” concerns of energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions, and a world political landscape shunning tariff reductions - may all be combining to push us towards “what some economists call a neighborhood effect — putting factories closer to components suppliers and to consumers.” But the article goes on to suggest:

As economists and business executives well know, shipping costs are only one factor in determining the flow of international trade. When companies decide where to invest in a new factory or from whom to buy a product, they also take into account exchange rates, consumer confidence, labor costs, government regulations and the availability of skilled managers.

A year ago when I was starting this venture, there was an automatic assumption in several conversations that my manufacturing would probably be done in China. The economic and energy landscape is changing fast as I edge nearer to those manufacturing decisions. I will have to decide where to manufacture my product based on many factors, but I will have no choice but to stay flexible and well-informed on energy and globalization trends. It remains true, as Jack Welch, 20-year Chairman and CEO of General Electric said, “An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate advantage.”

Tags:globalization, Larry Rohter, manufacturing, neighborhood effect, New York Times, Shipping Costs Start To Crimp Globalization

I belong to the GetGo network in Minnesota, “A community by and for entrepreneurs, investors and those that support them.” They are offering discounted rates for 2008 Summer Venture Camp.

The Collaborative Summer Venture Camp returns in 2008, building on the highly valued and successful 2007 sessions, serving as both a primer and refresher for all interested in building Minnesota’s next generation of innovators. 3 mornings, 12 topics, 50 speakers. Our goal is to help fuel and inform the ‘next generation’ of innovators while also following The Collaborative trademark of providing information and networking to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses.

As a woman entrepreneur starting my own company, the topics that will be addressed are of great interest, including business planning, capital structure, financing a business with equity and debt, due dilligence, intellectual property and building a team. This three-morning series is being put on by The Collaborative, “…the largest membership organization in Minnesota serving growing and emerging companies, entrepreneurs, investors and executives.”

I realize that this is a local event, and many of you readers from around the country cannot take advantage of it. But look for events such as this in your home state. For, as Otto von Bismark replied when told that a wise man learns from experience…“No, a fool learns from experience. A wise man learns from the experience of others.”

Tags:2008 Summer Venture Camp, GetGo, The Collaborative, Woman entrepreneur

I hope you’re enjoying the new look of “Light, Motion and Magic!” I’d like to point out a few features.

For those of you who do not want to subscribe to a “feed,” you can now sign up to get my blog posts by email. In other words, every time I publish a post to this blog, it will automatically be sent to you in the form of an email. You simply sign up by typing in your email address in the space provided above and center, and click on the subscribe button. You will then go to a short form that requires you to type in the letters shown in a box - to verify that you are a human and not an automated spam program! Finally you will have to reply to a confirmation email sent to your email address, to make sure that the blog will go to the right address.

It’s an easy way for you to stay up on my adventures as a woman entrepreneur, and of course you can still come to this actual site any time!

As you can see, I now have a space on the right to feature my company, Miri Market. Click on the Miri Market logo and it will take you to my temporary Miri Market webiste. Don’t forget that you can sign up there to get my future “company” emails as well.

And finally, since my photo is above in the “About the author” section, I will no longer be putting my picture in every post. I will still use my photos and other images from time to time. I still have some work to do to fill out my blogroll and clean up the formatting with some old posts, but what you see is basically what you’ll be getting!

I hope you find this new design pleasing and easy to use. Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions.

MANY, MANY thanks to Eric Florenzano for handling the migration to this new Wordpress design, and for all his unflagging technical advice and help. (I couldn’t do it without you, sweetie pie.)

Tags:Add new tag, blog, Miri Market, Woman entrepreneur

To me, as a woman entrepreneur, there is no such thing as just “waiting.” SOMETHING productive can always take place while waiting on other outcomes.

To be productive while the product designer is developing the design of my item, I need only revisit my To-Do List for Starting a Company.pdf.

Look at all the tasks to be done just in MANUFACTURING AND SYSTEMS SET-UP:

From The Mom Inventor’s Handbook by Tamara Monosoff-

-Pinpoint the right manufacturer or contract manufacturer
-Determine materials
-Design packaging & package printing
-Determine tariffs
-Determine timing/calendar for manufacturing process, shipping,
-Determine transportation & customs costs & timelines
-Get samples - test them
-Get agreement in writing for possible future bad product
-Determine production pricing
-Register with Dunn & Bradstreet
-Find Merchant Account company and set up account for merchant payments
-Get accounting system in place to provide for:
invoices, p/o’s, order confirmations, shipping orders, inventory tracking, tracking notice, MAPs
-Get insurance, esp. liability
-Get phone lines + vc mail
-Determine whether you yourself will warehouse and ship orders, or use a fulfillment company

From The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki:

-Rent office space if necessary
-Find key vendors
-Get insurance

Not to mention all that can be done to FOCUS IN ON TARGET MARKET:

From The Mom Inventor’s Handbook byTamara Monosoff:

-Primary research: conduct focus groups, interviews, surveys with prototype
-Define and refine your messages

From The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki:

-Get testable versions to customers
-Write good manual: thoroughly index and use good pics

From Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz:

-Create blog
-TALKERS: find people who will talk about you;
1 get permission and contact info
2 Create contact vehicle - let them talk

From The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott:

-Learn as much as possible about buyers; segment into groups
-Learn the phrases they use; by interviews, focus groups; read what they read
-Decide what you want them to understand about your company: messages

There is no such thing as waiting…there is PLENTY to do!

Tags:Andy Sernovitz, David Meerman Scott, Focus In On Target Market, Guy Kawasaki, Manufacturing and Systems Set-Up, Tamara Monosoff, The Art of the Start, The Mom Inventor's Handbook, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, To-Do List for Starting a Company, waiting, Word of Mouth marketing

One of the blogs I subscribe to and consistently read is Dane Carlson’s Business Opportunities Weblog. It’s a constant source of interesting profiles of entrepreneurs, their businesses and business opportunities.

On Monday the blog featured an interview with Melissa Atherholt, a woman entrepreneur and the founder of Passport Baby, a company that “…manufactures its main product, the Kindersack(R), the
Original European baby sleeping sack used by parents since the 1960’s
to keep babies safely warm while sleeping. The Passport Baby owner also
invented the droolie (TM) which is basically a fashionable way for
babies to soak up what they’re named for! [We]…also offer many other products that we feel are interesting and
innovative. Our tagline is Passport Baby - Bringing the World to
you….and taking you to the World! We are in the process of making our
website truly live up to our tagline and want to offer products that
will assist parents as they travel.”

The following part of the interview really spoke to me and echoed my own journey as a woman entrepreneur starting a business:

“What steps did you need to take to get Passport Baby up and running?

Research took most of my time for the first 2 years. I
spent countless hours combing over safety regulations, etc. and reading
documents about SIDS. That took the bulk of my time. Then, finding the
right manufacturer, designing the product - it all takes way longer
than you plan. Funding is also another obstacle. I found that it was
actually quite difficult to get a small business loan that was….well… a
small loan! Most banks wanted you to borrow $50,000 or more and I
wasn’t prepared to do that since we had just moved into a new home and
I had just quit my job. I opted for a home equity loan of only $16,000.
With that money I was able to purchase my first order from the
manufacturer and pay attorneys to make sure my products and designs
were legally protected.”

In this blog, where I am documenting my entrepreneurial experience, I am sometimes a little embarrassed that the progress I write about moves along so slowly.  I don’t feel so bad about it now after hearing Melissa talk about the 2 years it took her also. And I have found out exactly the same information about business loans; it looks like I, too, will have to take out a home equity loan to finance the purchase of my first manufacturing order.

“Do you have any advice you’d like share with other moms who are interested in starting their own online stores?

Oh dear. Part of me wants to say, “Don’t do it!” Because
I know what it takes to make it work, and how much funding it takes!
You have to be prepared financially first. I financed this totally on
my own and put every penny back into the business. You definitely have
to be ready to not be paid for years. I think people have preconceived
notions of making their first million in the first year and that just
doesn’t happen. You have to have a very strong passion for what you’re
doing and it can’t be about the money. It can be very rewarding because
every day I get emails from Moms that say they couldn’t live without
our products - that’s what makes it all worth while!”

I have heard this kind of warning about expectations of starting a business before, and Melissa articulates it so well in this interview. I am working hard to make my expectations realistic for both the break-even point and for the overall financial rewards of my business. I love this process of creating a business and being a woman entrepreneur, and that will have to be a part of my reward for now, and for some time to come.

I encourage you all to read the whole interview with Melissa Atherholt at Business Opportunities Weblog

Tags:Business Opportunities Weblog, Dane Carlson, Droolies, Kindersacks, Melissa Atherholt, Passport Baby

I want to catch you up on how my business is going, and what I’ve been doing lately.

My item is being worked on by my product designer. He stays in close touch with me, and has asked me to research a few things for him along the way. It takes time.

I’m very close to having a splash page up for my company website. I’m really looking forward to announcing my company name and having a nascent presence for my product on the web. I thought I’d be doing this in February, but looks like it’ll be May. It’s taken a long time.

I continue to do research on all sorts of things related to marketing, PR, best online business practice, insurance, accounting, etc. It all takes a lot of time to research.

Although I’ve been putting less into it lately than I should, I continue to try to build the readership of my blog. I am trying to build my social networks. Every person that becomes interested in my story and the process of bringing my item to market will be a person that will at least know about my product when I launch it. You guessed it…IT TAKES TIME.

My mom has some axioms she’s developed over the years, one of which is simply this:
“Everything takes longer than you think.”

Boy, was she ever right.

Tags:company website, product designer, research, splash page, Time