John's Music Blog

I told you in an earlier post that I would tell readers about some institutions “about which I care deeply.”  One of those is Metrowest Jewish Day School, and tonight I spent time on the phones trying to raise scholarship money for students who want to attend.  As with most private religious schools, particularly those in startup mode like ours, the cost of tuition is substantially less than the cost to educate.  In addition, many families can not afford the cost of tuition.  But because we want to make this unique education open to all in our community, we do the fundraising.  So far this year, we are more than 80% of the way to meeting our goal of raising $700,000. 

As an inexperienced solicitor, I was thankful for the script that was provided for my pitch.  In short, this script, which was a good “pitch,” explained who we are and the fact that we are raising money for scholarships.  Short and sweet.  Next to me was another inexperienced solicitor and parent of a student at the school, who made more calls and raised more money than me tonight.  But I accomplished something that, over the long run, I hope will turn out to be just as valuable.  I sold the school.  Or more accurately, I began the process of selling the school. (more…)

When my partner and I founded our company, we wanted to ensure that our interests were aligned with that of our clients.  That drove several decisions in terms of our business model and fee structure.  On the one hand, we needed enough revenue to keep the lights on.  That’s in our clients’ interest and in ours. But, we intentionally kept our costs extremely low, taking the minimum office space that is necessary to operate the business and only spending money on those things absolutely  required to operate the business.   There’s no “flash” when you come to visit.  The chairs, the desks, the filing cabinets, and the computers have all been around the block more than once.   That allows us to keep our retainer fees comparitively low.  Again, that’s in our clients’ interest and in ours.  

On the other hand, we expect to be compensated fairly and proportionally, if we help our clients grow their revenue and increase the value of their businesses.  If we drive a million dollars in sales, we’ve increased revenue, but we’ve also increased the value of the business, and we expect to participate in that increased value.  That notion is difficult for some, who are used to a commission-only, a fee-for-service, or an hourly-rate model. 

In keeping with our aligned-interest model, if we work with one company, we don’t work with their direct competitors.  That might seem patently obvious to some, but probe a bit on the companies offering to make introductions or help promote your company, and you may be surprised at how many of those offering to work with you also work with your direct competitors.  (more…)

I had a long conversation with one of my nephews, Mike, this evening.  He had a lot to report, including record sales this week at the restaurant he co-founded with his brother Chris.  The topic turned to one of my favorites, which is “personal brand.”  I’m acting as a part-time mentor for Mike, and I want him to start focusing more on his personal brand.  By that I mean he should begin to take an active role in determining what people think of when they think of Mike. 

One of the suggestions that I made was to consider starting his own blog to begin creating his personal brand, independent of his restaurant’s brand.   He could start it on the restaurant business.  I did a quick Google Blog search and came up with several interesting sites.  But then I asked Mike what he was really passionate about.  Mike is really passionate about cooking.  Certainly his restaurant, Black and Brew, gives him an opportunity to experiment some.  And he tells me they have been changing a number of things in their second year of operations.  These include evolving the drink and food items to appeal to a mixed, more-mature crowd, meaning, not only the local college students, but also the 25 – 45 year old age group.  This change enabled them to avoid the after-college-is-out sales drop they experienced last year.   On the culinary side, it is still a largely sandwich and soups place, however. (more…)

Thanks to the amazing support staff at HostMySite and the help of a good friend, I am finally starting to make good on my promise to be A Business Resource for Entrepreneurs and Inventors.  I’ve been faithfully blogging about once a week and including suggestions and commentary on how to succeed as an entrepreneur.  But I hadn’t really started to create a library of resources, which is what I want to do. 

What I needed to do first was learn a little bit about coding in HTML.  It’s hard to believe that only 3 months ago, the only person in my immediate family who could even remotely begin to code in HTML, XML, or CSS was my 12-year old son.  But I have finally learned how to modify WordPress templates, create new pages, and link to them.  I modified the dead-end tabs that were across the top of my blog (thanks to everyone who pointed that out), and they now lead to some resources, which I hope you will find helpful.  Hey, I even uploaded a picture of me taken in the waiting area of a conference center in Tokyo a few years back, so you can now see who is writing this blog.

Check out the Books and Resources pages, and more importantly, send suggestions of other books and on-line resources that will help this community of entrepreneurs.  I’ll be updating it frequently.

I believe there are three critical ingredients in an entrepreneur:

• Faith
• Trust
• Passion 

In Business Plans That Work, the authors state:

We find that entrepreneurs often ask, “What can go right?” whereas nonentrepreneurs ask, “What can go wrong?”

Asking “What can go right?” is an act of faith.  It is faith that you have been given sufficient talent and drive, which, when combined with the experience you have earned, will enable you to succeed.  But you also need trust.  In my case, it was trust in a business partner, whom I’ve known for 20 years.  It was also the encouragement and support of a trusted friend, Kirby, who had preceded me in the entrepreneurial plunge.  His life seems to exemplify the values promoted by Pay It Forward. No one makes it as an entrepreneur without someone beside them, in front of them or behind them as a support. (more…)

When I worked at market researcher, IDC, I met Tony Ulwick, CEO of Strategyn, who is a pioneer in the field of outcomes-based innovation.  The folks who introduced me to Tony were from Innosight, which is a company founded by Clayton Christensen.  IDC’s notion at the time was that by partnering with Innosight and Strategyn, we could provide a service to technology companies to help them with product innovation.  This assistance would help those technology companies innovate to better serve the jobs (or achieve the outcomes) that their customers or prospects were trying to do.

One of the basic premises of the methodology is that customers can “hire” a variety of things to get the job done.  Here’s a simple example.  You’re stuck in an airport for several hours, as I was today, and you are looking for something to do.  What are the things that you could “hire” to pass the time or prevent boredom?  (more…)