1. Your book is titled The Chic Entrepreneur. What do you mean by the term of Chic Entrepreneur?
Chic Entrepreneur: A Chic Entrepreneur is an entrepreneur that is savvy and stylish in her business manner and method. She understands that a business is a living organism, with great potential for growth if tended to properly. She combines her signature style with industriousness to form a strategic marketing plan that will allow her business to grow into an entity that will ultimately function without her. She understands that the true purpose of starting and growing a business is to create an entity of value, as opposed to simply a job for herself.
She also is self-aware enough to recognize her strengths and weaknesses and clever enough to surround herself with people who round out that picture. She sees the big picture and knows her role in it. She knows when to persevere and when to cut her losses.
2. How can a Chic Entrepreneur find and develop a good business idea?
Chic Entrepreneur: A true Chic Entrepreneur sees the world through a business lens. She is alert to the market opportunities all around her and is always looking for ways to solve problems and thus create business value. The business idea(s) that she, Ms. Chic, decides to pursue should be something that she is passionate about and ready to put an incredible amount of energy, brainpower and money into. However, the idea itself is just the beginning.
I find a common misconception many want-to-be business owners have is that it is all about the idea. In reality however, a mediocre idea with a well thought out strategy and solid plan, will ultimately out perform a brilliant idea that lacks those other elements. So it’s important to spend the time and the thought energy to flush out the idea into a plan, and to run it by others for feedback before you invest your life savings, or even just last year’s Christmas bonus into your new business venture.
A Chic Entrepreneur’s business idea dares to be different. She does business with a bold and authentic personality that speaks directly to customers’ unmet needs, and delivers unique value to them. This is the way Chic Entrepreneurs stand apart from the crowd.
Chic Entrepreneurs who know that they want to start a business, but don’t know what kind yet, should consider their passions and do research by working within that field and talking to others. You want to let your passions guide you and then overlay a business framework to test the business viability of your idea. The Flourishing Business Methodology (which is referenced in the book’s conclusion) offers a simple way to take an idea and then map out a business strategy around it.
Elizabeth Gordon (photo left)
3. Should a Chic Entrepreneur concentrate on dominating a niche market?
Chic Entrepreneur: Yes. Trying to sell to anybody who will buy is a losing strategy. The power of focus will propel you further than the temptation to take whatever you can get. I find people often underestimate just how big the market they are in is and just how long or how much money it takes to develop a known reputation. In your early days, developing a sustainable stronghold in a narrow niche where you can count on repeat business and word of mouth to add momentum to your marketing message will allow you to bring in the kind of profits you’ll need to fund your growth.
Ultimately, your goal is to build a scalable business that provides you, the owner, with the maximum amount of leverage possible. To accomplish this, you must choose a niche to focus on and resist the urge to stray. Stick to your niche and become the absolute best at what you have to offer. If you spread yourself too thin, much like Rome, you will collapse in a tough economy.
4. How important is it to start out a new business with a solid business plan and strategy?
Chic Entrepreneur: This is arguably the most important part of a business. While I have met business owners who do not continue to update their business plan or who have never used one, I see many more business owners succeeding because they had a plan, constantly update it and use it as a guide to their success and growth.
That being said, a business plan does not have to be 25 pages long and bound with a glossy cover. A good business plan should also be brilliant in its simplicity. You should be able to fit the core of it on an index card, and everyone within the company should know the business model and their role in making it work.
I hear many new entrepreneurs use verbiage such as “so I thought I’d give this a try” to describe their recent foray into entrepreneurship which is a little scary. Deciding to start a business venture involves risk. The degree of that risk varies by the type of business and the stage of life and financial situation of the entrepreneur.
Most entrepreneurs are not too keen on the idea of planning, but here’s another way to think about it. If you went out looking for a new job and got an offer to work somewhere for 6 months or a year without pay, with the promise that they would pay you once they saw that you were really ‘going work out’ as an employee, you would likely think long and hard before taking such a job. You’d probably want to see their business plan. In the same regard, that is essentially what you are doing when you start a business, you are taking a job that doesn’t pay, with the promise that if things go as planned, you will get paid. You are putting your money, your time and your ability to provide for your family’s livelihood on the line. When you think about it this way, you can see the importance of knowing in much more detail what “as planned” really means, and thus the value of that plan.
If you are in a position where you have a high-risk tolerance and you can afford to cut your losses, feel free to stumble in haphazardly and see what happens in the first few months. If things don’t work out, no big deal, you can move on to something else with little pain. If you do meet with some initial success, congratulate yourself for a good guess and then sit down and plan out how you will continue such success.
The plan itself is not necessarily the most important outcome of undertaking the planning process, the real value is that you force yourself to really do some research and think through what you are doing and why it will work. It forces you to identify what are the critical success factors, what could go wrong and what you will do then. Things seldom go as planned, but having planned better prepares you for making decisions about what to do next.
5. It's a crowded marketplace out there. How can a Chic Entrepreneur set her business apart from her competitors?
Chic Entrepreneur: It is a crowded marketplace and it isn’t. If you develop a unique value, be it a product, service, information or experience, you will be able to define your own market more narrowly and have a clearly defined niche market that you can dominate or at least become known within. It feels a lot less crowded when what you are selling is unlike what the competition is pedaling.
6. Good employees can make a business more successful and bad employees can often do serious damage to a company and its reputation. How can a Chic Entrepreneur attract and keep the best employees to her business?
Chic Entrepreneur: Most small businesses cannot afford to finance laziness or incompetence. By taking the time to screen employees, assess their abilities, find out what motivates them and what their true desired career goals are, you can attract employees that will grow with your company and be with you for the long haul. What a person has done in the past (i.e. the contents of the resume) will give you an idea of their track record and their reliability, but what a person has done is less important than who they are and what they can do. Many skills can be taught but inherent qualities such as a friendly personality, empathy, a good work ethic, ability to perform under pressure or learn quickly, creativity, or a sense of humor can not be taught, so keep that in mind. Cultural fit is just as important as being able to perform. Create an environment in which candidates can see that they will be an integral part in the greater plan and want to see the company succeed.
Getting those first few dedicated employees is critical because they will be your walking billboards for the company. Turnover is a killer. When an employee leaves, knowledge and experience walks right out the door and thus right off your balance sheet. When you have to retrain, you loose continuity with your clients and internally, so it’s imperative to be choosy and find employees that aren’t going to run away for a little more money, a job closer to home or any other issue.
You have to vet employees’ primarily motivational drivers out when you’re hiring your staff. Making sure that your job is going to a good fit for them, is just as important as knowing whether they will be a good fit for the job. Your employees should be with you because they want to, if they believe in what you are doing, they can get excited about the mission, they enjoy the work, and they can grow with you. Good jobs should enable employees to reach their goals. The current CEO of McDonalds started as a fry cook.
A Chic Entrepreneur sees her staff and people with lives and goals and dreams, not just workhorses, although they need to be that as well. Matching people to jobs that will allow them to use their strengths will provide them with satisfaction. Providing them with incentives that will motivate them to meet and exceed expectations will help you get the best out of them.
Leanna Adams (photo left)
7. Maintaining positive cash flow is vital to a business. How can a Chic Entrepreneur create and maintain her cash flow?
Chic Entrepreneur: You hit the nail on the head. Cash flow is the lifeblood of a company. If it stops flowing, it can be fatal. To create and maintain a positive cash flow, it’s important to be familiar with your cash position at all times. This means slowing down the flow of cash going out and speeding up the flow of cash coming in. Negotiate terms with vendors so that you don’t have to front monies before having the cash that comes from sales, or can at least minimize the time gap in between. Incentivize or force your customers to pay prior to or immediately upon delivery of products or services.
Knowing your cash position also means that you must be completely aware of your projected spending. If you’ve completed the business plan’s financial section, have worked out a budget, included all possible expenditures, and know what you have, what you can spend and what you need for the future.
8. Many business people dislike the sales and marketing aspect of business. How can a Chic Entrepreneur make sales and marketing a positive part of the company?
Chic Entrepreneur: Being a good salesperson is an essential entrepreneurial skill, and it can be learned. So if you have not played this role before or have fear or discomfort in it, you need to confront that head on with education and experience. Building a business will force you to go outside your comfort zone from time to time, but that is a good thing. That’s what personal growth is made of. A Chic Entrepreneur not only looks good on the outside, she is also brave and courageous on the inside. She can overcome anything she sets her mind to.
Some people, especially women, are worried that trying to sell makes them come across as being too pushy or even scamming people. Good sales training in the form of books or workshops will teach you that sales is really helping others to find a solution that will leave them better off. If you believe in the value you provide, you will want to help others by showing them how they can enjoy its benefits. Find enjoyment in satisfying customers.
Trying to delegate the sales function too early in the business building process is dangerous. No one is going to be able to sell with as much passion and knowledge as you, so whether you feel like it or not, you are the best one for this job early on.
Ultimately, once you have gotten the business off the ground, you can delegate. By exciting employees in the sales and marketing aspect of the business, you cause them to be tied to the success of the business and get the best ideas they have to offer. Brainstorming and idea sharing should be a big part of your company culture. There should also be incentives tied to both the sales and marketing that your business does. While this is easier to see on the sales side, you can and should offer your marketing team bonus incentives when certain tangible goals are met.
9. Having good systems in place for operating a company is often recommended. How can a Chic Entrepreneur put effective systems in place that keep the business operating as she envisioned?
Chic Entrepreneur: Processes allow you to create consistency. A Chic Entrepreneur doesn’t stumble around with clumsy execution. She is swift and suave. You and your employees must develop a systematic way of doing things, instead of reinventing the wheel each time you start a new project or get a new client. These processes will enable you to perform consistently and provide a reliable customer experience. Customers want to know they can count on getting the same dependable product and service every time they come to you. Consistency builds trust, and trust breeds loyalty. Effective systems are also one of keys for being able to slowly walk away from operations.
Use process maps to pictorially depict the flow of things, and then use your brain to streamline what you’re doing to make it more efficient.
10. If you had one piece of advice for a Chic Entrepreneur, what would that advice be?
Chic Entrepreneur:Your most important accessory is a confident smile. Wear it always.
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Thanks to Elizabeth Gordon and Leanna Adams of The Chic Entrepreneur for their great and helpful answers.
My book review of The Chic Entrepreneur: Put Your Business In Higher Heels by Elizabeth Gordon and Leanna Adams.
