Entrepreneuring in a Recession

"Don't bunt. Aim out of the ballpark. Aim for the company of immortals." - David Ogilvy

"You're the only one who can make the difference. Whatever you dream, go for it." - Earvin "Magic" Johnson.

"Serving the needs of others is the only legitimate business today." - A.P. Giannini

I could go on. Or rather, Evan Carmichael did, in his site to provide inspiration and education for business leaders (scroll over the faces...new ones are added, so go back).

It takes at least a daily dose of inspiration for entrepreneurs to lead these days. Is it worth starting a business in this economic climate? Is it worth persevering in an enterprise you have started? My resources say that actually this is one of the best times. It is a boot-camp that sets the culture and the operations that provide for strong character and growth in a business.

"Everybody says this is a good time to start a business. Well, is it?" In Is this a good time to start a business? BNET Feb 12, 2009 , Steve Tobak weighs the pros and cons, as well as letting us know what the gurus at BusinessWeek, Wall Street Journal, and others have to say. "If you’ve got an idea, can get your business plan ducks in a row, can find capital, and have a long enough runway to survive until customers have money to spend, then it’s a good idea. If not, then it’s not. But that’s just me."

In the January 19, 2009 issue of BusinessWeek, Emily Thornton outlined for entrepreneurs a game plan "Managing Through a Crisis: The New Rules." "In times of turmoil, opportunities abound. But taking advantage of them will require fast reflexes, an aggressive attitude, and serious changes to the status quo."

Executive coach Marshall Goldsmith advises, "Judge less, help those who are down, focus on the future, and understand your own emotions."

Cold Calling and the Elevator Pitch

Knowing your market's interests, opinions, and behaviors - much more than knowing age and location - and communicating a message that engages your audience relative to their persona, is still key to succeeding, even in an entrepreneur economy.

Since the turn of the millenium, people have been moving to self-employment in huge numbers. Driven by new technologies and a series of economic downturns - leaders who are underemployed, unemployed, or are, as discussed in a 2006 USA Today article, simply fed up with the cost of labor, are starting their own businesses. Over the past decade this emerging "entrepreneur economy" has been changing the paradigms and protocols for doing business. However, much of what it takes to succeed remains the same.

These business start-ups are most often a micro-business made up of one self-employed sole proprietor with a dream. Yet, starting up a business takes more than a great idea, as all of these entrepreneurs have learned. High on the list are "guts" and perseverance. It also takes soul-searching and self-evaluation to identify strengths and skills that provide a sustainable competitive advantage. This is called "market research" and "business planning" - which many skip over until they are floundering and need to get back to basics.

In books like Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers (1991, revised 1999), by Geoffrey A. Moore, and Stage-Gate method books by Robert G. Cooper, including Winning at New Products: Accelerating the Process from Idea to Launch, Third Edition, strategists describe many keys to success, but all say that producing specific to the interests of your market is fundamental to succeeding in business. This goes for companies of any size, including a small organization made up of one.

As data pours in from new communication technologies, marketers are finding that demographics hardly matter in defining buying behaviors. Yesterday, Bryan Eisenberg, said that demographics "are only loosely correlated to behavior and often horrible in predicting marketing response" in The Case for Persona-Based Lead Generation,

So, how does this tie in with cold calling and your elevator pitch? Knowing your customer's psychographics well enough to empathetically tell them how you can make a difference is critical to moving forward in business.

Robert Gerrish, Aug 5, 2008, BNET makes this connection more specifically - "The need for cold calling frequently accompanies the launch of a new business, or the launch of a new offering" and "trying to sell a product or service to an unknown and unqualified prospect can be so confronting that it’s easy to get frozen into a state of inaction."

This brings us to the "so what" - what actions you personally can take as an entrepreneur.

• First, use the technology to know your prospects. Use the multitude of outsourcing resources developed in this "entrepreneur economy" to compile and test your message. Some examples are listed in an earlier Finding the Upside blog post.
  
• Second, tool your message down to a very few words that are "designed to pull the prospect into the story" as described in How to Rewrite an Elevator Pitch