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Russ presents another BusinessMakers favorite: some of our very best advice from highly successful entrepreneurs. We offer words of wisdom from Will Rosellini, a fascinating and driven entrepreneur who is co-founder & CEO of MicroTransponder; Chris Baggott, Compendium Blogware, an avid blogger who is passionate about search engine marketing; and Steve McKee, the founder of marketing communications firm McKee Wallwork Cleveland.
Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at the BusinessMakers.com. And now it's time for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback, brought to you by Aflac, ask about it at work. And this morning we're going to share more of our excerpts of notable entrepreneurs giving advice to aspiring entrepreneurs. Up first we have Will Roselline former pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks and now co-founder and CEO of Micro-Transponder. Listen to what Will said when we asked him, what advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur:
Will: You know, the idea of being an entrepreneur is you have to ignore the 500 people that will tell you no every time you have an idea that you think is good. I can't tell you how many people will tell you what you can't do. The important thing is, is to also know that you don't know how to do it, and every time you don't know how to do something, don't figure it out for yourself, ask someone who's done it 20 times before. And people are very helpful for someone that works hard, asks questions, and isn't too arrogant to say, "I don't know what I'm talking about, but I'll figure it out by working hard." So really drop that pride down, ask a whole bunch of questions.
Russ: Ok, up next, Chris Baggot founder of Compendium Blogware from an interview that Esther Steinfeld did one year ago. Listen the Chris's start-up funding advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Chris: Never go into debt-hang on to your equity-and take as little as money as possible. The biggest mistake entrepreneurs make, and I talk to lots of them every week, is in their overall initial funding. They give up too much of the company to the first person that will give them any money. They always think they need more money than they do because they plan for, "I need a million dollars to get through the next 12 months." Great. Well, how much do you need to get through the next two months? Oh, $150,000. Well, that's a whole lot easier to raise. And if you make it to the next two months and look up again, you'll probably get a higher valuation, you've proven something-built a product-gotten a customer-hit a milestone-that's going to make it a lot more likely they get that next money in the future. Long tale of fundraising, I call it.
Russ: I love these advice pieces - and they are pretty much across the board, for our final one this morning, we're going to feature Steve McKee, co-founder of marketing and communications firm, McKee WallWork and Cleveland and author of When Growth Stalls, this is from an Esther Steinfeld interview back late last spring: .
Esther: Given all your experience with success, and with advertising, and marketing, in general, what would you give, what advice would you give to young, aspiring entrepreneurs?
Steve: I think the, the main advice I would give this is going to sound biased-but I really believe in the marketing perspective. I call it big M marketing, not little m marketing, which is not the marketing department, but the marketing perspective which says, business is all about satisfying customer needs and wants, and so the more you can learn about marketing theory, you know, deep and rich, and really understand that, the better off you'll be. That customers' needs have to come first. The customers may not always be able to articulate those needs, or they may not want to articulate those needs, but as long as you keep them in your sites, and orientate the company around them, you'll probably be okay.
Russ: Okay, and that concludes this week's session of advice from entrepreneurs and for entrepreneurs. And that wraps up his morning's Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback, brought to you by Aflac Ask about it at work. Stay tuned in for our Featured Guest interview with Joe Schurman, 6-time Microsoft Most Valuable Professional and Founder and CEO of Evangelyze Communications. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show heard here and seen online at thebusinessmakers.com.
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