Conferences and Trade Show Marketing

Conferences and trade shows bring thousands of like-minded people together and make it easy for companies to build awareness, acquire new leads and sell products. Right?

Not so much anymore. Conferences and trade shows have become less attractive because the decision makers may not attend, the cost of travel, booths and admission fees steadily increase, while budgets are decreasing disproportionately.

When you gotta go, then you gotta go. Here’s some thoughts to take with you.

Go Big or Go Rogue

If you can’t afford a prime spot, and a killer booth, think of other ways to attract customers. In one of my startups, we couldn’t get into a conference, so we rented a restaurant down the street, hired limos, and gave out free backstage passes to participants at the show (we had a mole deliver them inside the conference.) We were able to attract 60 of the 300 attendees to the conference and have them all to ourselves. The total cost was much less than having a booth and standing around for 2 days hoping someone will talk to you.

2012 – A Great Year of Enterpreneurship

2012 finishes as a fantastic year for startups in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky region.  How can I say that when we haven’t launched a Google or two here yet? I can because the region’s entrepreneurial culture shifted into high gear and gains momentum every day. Traditional measurements of how much venture capital investment or startup payrolls or revenue figures do not show our real spirit. These indicators lag the exciting work that happens daily in startups and the support organizations like the Brandery, UpTech, HCBC, QCA, GCVA, VFA, CincyTech and Cintrifuse. The fact that we have so many acronyms compared to a decade ago demonstrates the progress we have made.

In 2001, Bob Herbold, former COO of Microsoft and executive vice president of P&G marketing met with the original Regional Technology  Initiative team (forerunner of CincyTech.) With his intimate knowledge of Cincinnati and Silicon Valley, he relayed to us that Rome and the Valley wasn’t built in a day. Redmond, Washington became the center for all things Microsoft because that’s where Bill Gates was born. Research Triangle Park became a center for technology and pharmaceutical research in the 70’s because of a vision to develop the real estate began in the 50’s. His advice to our team was simple: begin laying the foundation for entrepreneurial development and be patient.

The Business of Non-Profits

Think of all the great works that non-profit organizations give to our communities. They embody a lot of the characteristics of startups – passion for an idea, deeply held beliefs by the founders and impact on the region (market.) Although the term social entrepreneurship is relatively new, the process has been around for centuries. Instead of making a return on investment measured in terms of profit, social entrepreneurs measure their positive returns to society.

However, for-profit and non-profit organizations probably have more in common than differences. The distinction between the two really lies in how the Internal Revenue Service treats the taxability of each group. The 501(c)3 non-profits are exempt from income tax, sales tax and property taxes. In return for this benefit, they must meet stringent requirements so that society and not an individual is personally benefitting from this tax exemption.

In just about every other way, the non-profits look, smell and act like a for-profit business. Non-profits must take in more money than they spend. They must market their services and goods to their constituents (customers.) While often associated with volunteers, many non-profits have payroll for workers who make their living doing these good works. In order for non-profits to succeed, they must run like a for-profit business.

One of our first customers to test our service was Homestretch Hounds, a dog rescue shelter in Hillsboro, Ohio that provides a second chance for dogs whose time has run out at other facilities. This started as a small home operation and grew to accommodate the demand of the marketplace by providing a great environment for the dogs or by a great adoption network they have built. Like any other business, they have to buy supplies and services and as a donation-centric entity, they like to spend their money effectively. To maximize the impact of donations, they negotiated a great deal with a dog food manufacturer. Just like other small businesses, getting a great deal on the product doesn’t necessarily mean you will get a great deal on the shipping. In fact, the market charges premiums for small loads versus using an entire trailer. Keeping an eye on the budget, the founder caught wind of our service in Soapbox and Homestretch Hounds stretched their budget to save 33% on shipping. The lesson is that non-profits need to run their organizations like a business.

Many non-profits get started by non-business people. So how do you acquire the skills and knowledge to become a sustainable business in the non-profit world? Follow the paths of many non-profits by forming a board of advisors or directors that have different backgrounds: financial, marketing, governmental and more. Don’t appoint your people who all have the same background — build diversity on your board in multiple ways. Seek out the advice of other successful non-profits – they all had to start somewhere and like entrepreneurs, most are glad to help others along the way. If you are just getting started, ArtWorks offers an 8-week boot camp called Springboard, which provides you with the basics of starting your organization (for-profit or non-profit.)

Seek out these resources and you will increase your chances of success.

Find out more about Homestretch Hounds at https://www.facebook.com/HomestretchHounds

Find out more about Springboard at http://www.artworkscincinnati.org/springboard/

Bill Cunningham is the CEO of OneMorePallet.com and shop foreman at the Greater Cincinnati Venture Association.

Steve Blank Wows the GCVA

The New Normal for Startups

“No business plan survives first customer contact.” – Steve Blank

Steve Blank wowed the Greater Cincinnati Venture Association meeting this week by delivering a compacted presentation of his customer development process. Steve has launched 8 companies in Silicon Valley over the last 31 After a brief stint at retirement, he assembled his life’s lessons about startups into college course, which turned into a book, which has turned into a viral movement in the entrepreneurial world to increase a startup’s chances of success.

And to top it off, this is not a get rich quick scheme for the author, as he has published his work and shared his resources in a variety of locations such as the Stanford Entrepreneurial Corner, Udemy, SlideShare and others for free. He has assembled an incredible list of resources for startups on his website that covers everything from presentations to financing to finding customers. Yes, you have to buy the book, “The Startup Owner’s User Manual” – after all, products composed of atoms and require shipping do have production costs, a for $24 on Amazon, you can have the definitive bible and handbook to guide you on the path to building a successful company. Ask any MBA student who has taken a business plan course that required a $140 textbook if this is a great deal!

A Game Changer for Startups

The traditional path for startups goes something like this:  get an idea, develop a business plan, raise some money, work on completing the product, spend a lot to take it to market, and then watch customers flock to buy your wares. The rare instances of this happening in the past (like the infamous Pet Rock) are difficult to replicate.  What is missing from the traditional path is the customer and Steve’s approach involves agile customer development in parallel to software development (or product development) to find the right business model that will succeed.

In his view of the world, a “startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.” The greatest ideas will never see the light of day unless you have customers. Finding customers who will buy and love your product as well as developing the right channels and message become far more important than the cool mySQL database searches or incredible user-created content. So instead of raising $1 million from angels or venture guys and work like madmen (and madwomen) to create a product in a secret lair, Steve suggests that you “validate your hypotheses with experiments.”  Separate the things your know (which he calls facts) from your faith-based ideas that you believe will work and test them with customers.

Talk to 100 Customers

Since “there are no facts in the office, get outside the building.” There is no substitute for eyeball to eyeball contact with real customers. There are also no shortcuts. Market research and focus groups are great for discovering what people thought in the past, but if you are to be successful, you have to skate to where the puck will be (ala Wayne Gretzky.) The founding team must do this – it can’t be outsourced to a consulting firm – the first hand learnings are most valuable to the founders.

So the Customer Development Process is sweeping the country. I know that Miami and Northern Kentucky Universities have started to integrated Steve’s thinking into their courses. Steve’s GCVA presentation is available on www.gcva.com as we as the links to resources mentioned above. Use these to find the right business model, and your startup will take off like a rocket!

Bill Cunningham is the CEO of OneMorePallet.com and shop foreman at the Greater Cincinnati Venture Association.

What One Person Can Do!

The Greater Cincinnati Venture Association set a new record of over 200 attendees for the Cintrifuse presentation by Jeff Weedman. Hot topics always make for great crowds, but Cintrifuse drew over 60 non-members to the event highlighting the importance of entrepreneurial ecosystem to the regional economy. The GCVA also took the opportunity to recognize Laura Baverman, the Enquirer’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship reporter, for her contributions to the entrepreneurial community. As Jack Wyant, Blue Chip Venture Company’s founder and managing director, so eloquently delivered,

“You helped change an entire region in just one decade
For 1,875,000 words our thanks is hereby acknowledged and paid!”

 As part of the team of business school professors and entrepreneurs who pen this column, we applaud all the media that have curated our progress as growing startup community.   As Jeff Weedman stated at the GCVA, “We are fighting above our weight class!” That is the dream of every entrepreneur – to appear bigger and better in the eyes of the world. Thanks to Laura and all the media sources, we read about it, celebrate it and create a culture that appreciates it!

So thanks to Laura, there would be many successes missed in the journey without her reporting. And there are many other unrecognized leaders in building the community — people who do it for the “good of the order” and because it is the right thing to do. For example, you have no idea of the thousands of hours Rich Kiley logged back in the early 2000’s (at CincyTech then known as the Regional Technology Initiative) working on Senate Bill 180. SB180 created the Ohio Venture Capital Authority allowing many venture firms to leverage the Third Frontier and create new startups, technologies and jobs. Cincinnati was fortunate to borrow Rich as an on-loan executive from P&G — or SB180 would not have seen the light of day.

Many more “Wizards of Oz” work behind the curtains towards the success of our entrepreneurial community. If I try to name them all, I will miss most of them. They may not seem to be a part of the ecosystem, but they all are doing their best to support it. They include the volunteer (and tireless) organizers of events like TEDx, Continuous Web, the GCVA, the software interest groups, IEEE and the like. The programs at Cincinnati State that create new chefs and Springboard at ArtWorks that creates business-savvy artists and creatives – make up the fabric of our entrepreneurial community. The Venture for America program (recruited by a team led by Eric Avner of the Haile Foundation) is quietly building the next generation of entrepreneurs and building a network of high energy foot soldiers for startups.

Now it is your turn — what can you do to make a difference? No one can do it all, but all of us can do something that moves the needle. I truly believe Laura Baverman had no idea of the impact of her work on our efforts and how grateful we are that she communicated so well, and understood our mission, our challenges and our personalities that produced a vibrant economy. So find something you can do well to support entrepreneurship, whether it is starting a new business, or supporting the ones that are getting off the ground. One person makes a difference and we have a lot of “one persons” in Cincinnati doing just that. Be one!

Bill Cunningham is the CEO of OneMorePallet.com and shop foreman at the Greater Cincinnati Venture Association.

Conventional Wisdom

Five Cincinnati startups participated in the Huffington Post’s Entrepreneurial Expo over the last two weeks as part of Arianna Huffington’s initiative to focus on What’s Working: A Bipartisan Search For Solutions To The Jobs Crisis.  According to Ms. Huffington, the initiative embraced the “two necessarily partisan events — the Republican convention in Tampa and the Democratic convention in Charlotte -­ as powerful platforms for presenting a fundamentally bipartisan issue: what we the people can do to accelerate job creation and fill job openings.”

The luncheon panels, hosted by NBC’s Tom Brokaw included celebrities like Jeff Case — CEO of Startup America, Andrew Yang – CEO of Venture for America, Walter Isaacson – CEO of the Aspen Institute and author of Steve Jobs biography to discuss how to amplify and proliferate the great works entrepreneurs are achieving in this effort. America has many models that create jobs and work well.

Study after study shows that employment growth comes from the small business and startup sector. Intuitively, entrepreneurs start companies because of their creativity, innovation and passion to build great products and great companies. This results in great companies needing great employees with high passion who will have great jobs .

All Work and No Play

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. 

– old proverb

Remember Jack Nicholson in “The Shining” typing this phrase over and over on reams of paper? Well, this hits home far too many times for entrepreneurs in startups. No vacation. 24/7. Always on. You find that you have become your work.

If you run a motor at 110% of its capacity, the motor will burn out. What makes you think you are different from a simple machine. The law of diminishing returns will punish you for trying to eke out those extra hours, days and weeks of work. You become less effective and therefore less efficient. The startup world becomes very seductive when you believe the more is more. Like golf, believing if you swing just a bit harder, the ball will travel a bit farther. Z. David Patterson of Blue Chip Venture Company said his venture capital mentor advised him that “Trees do not grow to the sky!”

So how do you manage to break this vicious cycle of work, work and more work? Start by reading Jim Collins’ “Good to Great” – where you start to build a team that leverages your leadership. You put the right people in the right seats on the bus, and find that growth happens organically. In fact, set your goal  to remove all the roadblocks for those bus riders so they carry out their goals. You essentially work yourself out of a job where no one relies on you to keep the company running. Your people keep the bus running smoothly because you have empowered them to do so and have given up the micro-managing, hands-on everything approach. Guy Kawasaki recommends hiring people smarter than yourself to fill the bus. A players hire A+ players who hire more A+ players.  B players usually hire C players who then hire D players until you are in a death spiral with a company full of Z players.

Where Ideas Rule!

Entrepreneurs exude creativity! Right? Every small business owner loves thinking and trying new things. Correct-a-mundo? Well the answer to these questions is a resounding YES, but only for those small businesses who value and nurture new ideas. Many firms seem to have a great culture of innovation and free thinking, and yet, many firms don’. How do you convert your company from a don’ter to a doer?

Start at the top

Embrace new ideas with a passion. Conduct ideas sessions frequently. Constantly look at how to do things better. A great approach to ideation is the I-Power technique. Created by Martin Edelston, it gives the captains of commerce a compass to inspire innovation. Very simply, I-Power takes the old suggestion box off the wall and places it squarely in the center of every group activity in your firm. At every meeting, each attendee must bring an idea on one of the company’s ideas forms. The CEO reviews them personally every weekend, and every one gets paid a dollar for each idea, and two dollars for a great idea. Now that doesn’t sound like much, but for Mr. Edelston, it generated about 30,000 new ideas in one year from his 275 employees. Some were good; some were bad; some were crazy; some were glad. His $30,000 investment in ideas gave everyone the license to think. By the way, one of these ideas saved $750,000 in printing costs . Nice ROI!

The Wisdom of Listening

“Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change” – Confucius

For those of us in the middle, we know that change is no longer an option, but a required course to survive and thrive. If your company is growing quickly, you may feel your whole culture change every three to six months. So what can you do to stay ahead of the curve?

“As a an entrepreneur, don’t start from scratch. Set up a good support network to share (or beg, borrow and steal) good ideas, test your assumptions and hold your feet to the fire. A common comment from startup entrepreneurs is that they have no one to talk to about their issues. The employees all come to them with their problems and concerns – but the business owner needs a friendly ear.