OR

Do you know of a Latino owned and/or operated green-based business here in Brooklyn?

Because of the great group of Brooklyn-based Latino green entrepreneurs you helped us send to Washington, DC last year, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez’s office has asked us to do it again this year’s awards on September 14th.

These businesses will be recognized during the 2nd Annual Latino Recognition for green initiatives will take place at the 2010 CHCI Public Policy Conference, Closing Plenary Session, “Green Economy in our Hemisphere” on Tuesday, September 14, 2010.

Congresswoman Velazquez is a senior House of Representative and Chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Chair of the House Small Business Committee and a senior member of the Financial Service Committee.

It’s the second year in a row that the plenary will showcase Latino entrepreneurs, innovators, and initiatives spearheaded by Latinos across the country promoting a greener economy and green jobs, thus providing a forum to demonstrate Latino talent, innovation, and leadership in the green economy.

If you feel you qualify or know someone who qualifies, please email Daniel (daniel@bestcoachesinc.com) by Friday August 27th so we can determine if it would be a fit for you/them.

UnReasonably yours,

Stefan Doering
President & Founder
BEST Coaches, Inc.

PS: Act by Friday, August 27th to ensure we get you or your suggested Latino green entrepreneur from Brooklyn down to the awards ceremony in Washington, DC on September 14th.

We had just finished agreeing to work together on our next Summit in November when I mentioned I was inspired to write this week’s newsletter from one of the best articles I’ve read in a while:  But Will It Make You Happy? by Stephanie Rosenbloom, in the New York Times.

He laughed and said he and his wife Ayano read the same article, inspiring them to put their two-year apartment search on hold until they sorted out some things in their lives and careers.

We discovered at lunch that Devin, Ayano and I have been scaling back in our material possessions and finding it was actually making us much happier.

And we’re not alone.  In the US— one of the most materialistic societies in the world— people have been downsizing by the droves.  And while driven by the economy, many experts and researchers agree this is not going away anytime soon.

In fact, people are finding it is a new way of being.  And if you listen to various experts, it is here to stay.  Rosenbloom writes, “Many retailing professionals think this is not a fad, but rather ‘the new normal.’”

Goodbye to wanting more and bigger things in order to be happy.  Goodbye to wanting to “one up” others.  Goodbye to caring about what the Jones’ are doing next door.

So what is taking its place?  Two things:

1. Experiences—quality time, leisurely activities, more frequent and smaller vacations to name a few.  Recent research shows that spending on fulfilling experiences creates longer-lasting happiness over buying material items. Relishing longer what a person buys and does, rather than the instant gratification and impersonal experiences from online purchases and mega stores is key.
2. Strong Relationships—with friends, family and colleagues creates happier people, according to recent research.   In the Times article Roco Belic, an LA filmmaker creating a documentary “Happy” says, “The single one trait that is common between every single person that is ‘happy’ is strong relationships.”

How to position your business to address these two shifts?

Create a Powerful Experience With Your Customers. Bring in the emotions, fun, excitement. Make it memorable.  Slow down the sale cycle.  Make it exclusive.  Have them anticipate the purchase more.  Anticipation creates excitement.

One of the hottest strategies corporate America is embracing is co-creation, where companies work together with customers to generate a more powerful experience and brand loyalty.

Nike is a master at this with their crazy popular Nike iD program, where online customers can design and make their own shoes before having them shipped directly to them.

B-to-C companies should eliminate the “Pile it high and sell it low” strategy and replace it with making the experience fun, hip, cool, and/or meaningful.  Build a story behind your products and services.  What made the Body Shop so successful wasn’t there all natural and healthy products.  It was the story each product had about how the customer was helping a community of indigenous women in Africa make a living for themselves, for example.

Also, make sure your products and services enhance home life and improving the experience and living at home.  WalMart has started bundling themes of  products, so you can bet it is an important trend.

Build strong relationships with your stakeholders.

Stakeholders include your vendors, employees, community, customers, other synergistic businesses and so on.

Social media is helpful in this regard, but make sure they are strong relationships.  It really doesn’t matter if you have 28,348 “friends”, “fans” or “followers” unless you really are connected with them.

It’s the quality, NOT the quantity.  Work together and leverage each other’s resources through referrals, co-branding, partnering and so on.  Do a joint mailing list promotion for example.

So here Devin and I are sitting at lunch excited about the article in the Times.  Excited because in this recession, many people are forced to get their happiness back on track.

And after all, downsizing means less stress, less debt, and less consumption of resources.

And a smaller carbon footprint.

And while some economists and members of our society still judge success based on the dollars generated by the consumption of goods and services (Gross Domestic Product), more and more of us are finding this is to be a flawed measurement tool.

Perhaps most importantly, happier people means less violence and more a peaceful society.

And in the end, isn’t that what we’re really all about?

Action Steps for the Week:

In your business look to see what you can do to amp up the customer’s experience of your business.  Especially if you are a business-to-consumer play.

Study Apple Computers, the masters at this.  It’s no coincidence they are one of the few retailers doing quite well right now.

Also take a look at your relationships.  Which ones are strong?  Which ones are NOT?  How can you leverage the ones that are strong and build the ones that are lacking?

How can you partner with like-minded businesses to do more experience-based cross-promotions?

The cooler more interesting and innovative, yet simple, the better.

And remember, have fun and stay happy in the process.  Customers will pick up on this and want to give you more business.

OR

Do you know an inner-city business that would be interested in being featured on 2011 Inner City 100?

What is 2011 Inner City 100?

It’s a list of the 100 fastest-growing inner city companies in the U.S presented by the ICIC (Initiative for a Competitive Inner City) along with Bloomberg BusinessWeek and the Harvard Business Review.

This list recognizes successful companies and their CEOs as role models for entrepreneurship, innovative business practices and job creation in America’s inner cities.

INTERESTED! Click Here

Inner City 100 Stats in the last 12 years:

• 607 different companies
• Collectively generated 27.2 billion in revenue
• Created nearly 72,000 new jobs

YOUR company could be next!

Your company has to:

• Be an independent, for-profit corporation, partnership or proprietorship
• 5-year operating sales history (2005-2009): $200K in 2005, $1MM in sales in 2009
• Increases in 2009 sales over 2008 sales
• Presented in Bloomberg and Harvard Business Review
• Don’t have to be green
• At least 10 full-time employees in 2009
• Headquartered or 51% of operation in an inner city

DON’T WAIT! Due October 31^st, 2010! To register CLICK HERE

OR

Do you know of an inner-city business needing to raise from $10K – $20MM?

Run by the ICIC (Initiative for a Competitive Inner City), the Inner City Capital Connections (ICCC) is a free national program designed to drive the growth of inner city companies.

Email Daniel (daniel@bestcoachesinc.com) before August 30^th. YOU don’t want to loose this opportunity!

ICCC Benefits:

• Discover the full range of financial options
• Obtain one-on-one feedback from seasoned investors and consultants
• Optimize your business growth strategy
• Build and strengthen relationships with investor

ICCC Stats to Date:

• 6 ICCC Events
• 150 inner city companies selected
• 115 equity providers selected
• $140 million in capital raised

YOUR company could be next!

Your company has to have:

• Under $2MM in sales or located in inner city
• Green Businesses and Green/Clean Technology
• Must be 40% of employees in inner-city

DON’T FORGET – Contact us before August 30th, so we can insure YOUR application is properly submitted.

Please contact Daniel (daniel@bestcoachesinc.com)

You see we only had about 13 registered people for our Green Entrepreneur Summit:  Scaling Up Without Selling Out and we were concerned we would not fill the event, the first of it’s type in NYC.  What message would THAT send to the world that there were not enough Green Entrepreneurs interested in scaling up.

Some of the members of our team wanted a Plan B in case our goal of 40 attendees did not happen.  And I could certainly understand why.  We’d invested a lot of time and energy and what if things did not turn out?  How to we manage the project?

But more importantly, how do we manage our breakdown?  After all we had our venue, co-sponsors and speakers all lined up for the event.  It would be a real bummer, to say the least, if we only have 13 attendees.

“And I don’t WANT a Plan B,” I continued with my partners.  “Because if we have one, that is the plan that will most likely end up happening.”

And that is how we began managing our breakdown.  No Plan B.

The Summit last week ended up being a success.  Even after getting a new venue double the size, we had about 30 people showing up the day of the Summit trying to get in because we sold out online the day before.  Security stopped letting people upstairs as our standing-room-only event was breaking fire code laws for the building.

And that doesn’t include the 58 people watching the event live via our internet streaming video channel.

How people manage breakdowns can be quite telling in how successful they end up being in business.

Here is the cool thing about breakdowns:  they can often times lead to breakthroughs in how you are doing something.

But it takes something from you to make that happen.

Here are some ways people manage breakdowns:

• Roll over and play dead—usually giving up and saying that is the best you can do.
• Panic—everything is going to be ruined and you’re all doomed.
• Collapse the situation—when one or two things are not working as planned or expected, and you say nothing is working.
• Roll with it—as things happen and expectations are not met, you quickly address and reassess where you are before moving forward.  This takes focus and commitment to the outcome you most desire.

Depending on which method you tend to use, there may be a better way.  The best people I’ve seen that manage breakdowns are those that use the following steps in managing breakdowns:

1. Declare a Breakdown—this is quite powerful and gets you focused on what is really happening.  The admission of a breakdown allows you to hit the “reset” button.  More on this in a moment.
2. Ask the Right Questions—most people do NOT ask powerful or appropriate questions when dealing with breakdowns.  For example, if you only have 13 registrations for your event, instead of asking, “What is Plan B?”, ask, “What is the quickest and fastest way to get at least another 40 registrations in 14 days?”
3. Narrow Possible Solutions to Three—come up with as many answers to your “right question(s)” and then narrow the choices down in order to pick your strategy.
4. Define “Go”/”No-Go” Point—while not having a Plan B works for some people, it is important to be UnReasonable and responsible.  Make sure you have metrics set up to monitor progress on your project.
5. Don’t Look Back—once you decided to go forward with your adjusted strategy, don’t question yourself along the way.  Keep moving forward.  Use your metrics you defined in Step 4 to guide you.  Doubting your decision will derail you faster than you know.
6. Play Full Out—Once you decide to go, make sure you put everything you have into your choice.  Otherwise, more-than-likely you’ll end up back in the same place you started.

When we started by declaring our breakdown by only having 13 signups and we may not make it, we acknowledged our situation.  Kind of like the words, “Houston, we have a problem!”

And once acknowledged, it creates a clean slate from which to operate.  That your current plan is not working and that you need to recreate a new one ASAP.

Try it with your next breakdown.  Perhaps you’ll have standing room only results as well.

Action Steps for the Week

To get a clear understanding on how you tend to manage breakdowns, take a look at the last two or three you’ve had:

• How did you manage them?  Which of the above-mentioned ways did you use?
• What did you do well in the breakdown?
• What can you do better next time?

To drill down into this a bit deeper, take a look at one breakdown in your life that you handled really, really well.  What did you do differently than you normally do?

Next, take a look at something in your business that is heading towards breakdown (or already there).

What is the “what’s so” about the breakdown?  The facts, not emotions of what is going on.  Remove the emotions.

Does it make sense to declare a breakdown?  If not, why not?  Make sure you are clear on this.

Otherwise hit the “reset” button and declare a breakdown.  Then ask yourself a powerful question on what is the fastest, easiest, most inexpensive, etc. way to get what you want as your desired goal.

Lastly, monitor the results with your go/no-go metrics defined and in place.

My partner on this event, Erica Griggs from Carbon Outreach, and I just now were trying to figure out how to tell 25+ people we have to put them on our waiting list.

Good problem to have, but not easy to turn people away.

So we decided to be UnReasonable and now you can watch us live, online via video streaming at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/green-entrepreneur-summit.

What would you see? We’ll have a morning packed full of well-versed speakers with decades of experience answering questions around green Marketing & PR and  Finance strategies before creating Your ‘Scaling Up Without Selling Out’ strategy.

In the background, there will be interviews of attending green entrepreneurs by Planet Forward for potential spots on PBS.  All this inside a LEED Gold certified space.

We want you to ask your green entrepreneurial questions! You can do this via Twitter.com/greenENTsummit.  Please feel free to tweet questions using the #greenENT hashtag, which will be projected in the main conference room throughout the event.

The Green Entrepreneur Summit is tailored to your needs and we’ve worked arduously to make sure you’ll be wowed!

UnReasonably yours,

Stefan

Quick update on the results of your help:  we just learned that yesterday Planet Forward filmed the first documentary, featuring a really cool from your suggestions:  Tri-State Biodiesel.  Four more of your suggestions to go!

And the best of them will be put on PBS and National Geographic specials.

Check out Planet Forward’s Tri-State Biodiesel video: http://bit.ly/ck37u8

And it gets better!  Planet Forward just asked to attend our July 22nd Green Entrepreneur Summit: Scaling Up Without Selling Out in Manhattan to meet, interview and possibly film more green entrepreneurs like you.

Since the planet needs more thriving small green businesses like yours, we’re trying to make attending this event a no-brainer for you. We’ve just secured a larger venue for the extra people and you can now come with a guest for the price of one:  $79.

Just use discount code GUEST01 on the website above.

Looking forward to seeing you this coming Thursday, July 22nd!  Mention you came because of this announcement and I’ll introduce you to Jason from Planet Forward.

UnReasonably yours,

Stefan

PS: If you attend on July 22nd’s Green Entrepreneur Summit, Planet Forward is looking to meet and film some of the following green companies:

TECH— What technology are you developing that will improve how we generate or use energy?
BUSINESS—How is your business going beyond the hype and going green in a real way?
RESEARCH— What theory, behavior, or norm are you researching to improve how we generate or use energy?
POLICY— What is, should, or could your town or state be doing to encourage better energy use?

We were chatting over the weekend as they are on my finance panel for next week’s Green Entrepreneur Summit.  Ron last month raised a whopping eight-figure sum in only six months!  David raised $2MM in one of the more creative ways I had heard before.

How they did it can be helpful for any green/non-green entrepreneur looking for capital.

Ron Bergamini, CEO of Action Environmental Services, one of the greenest carting companies in the country, is a very modest guy.  He would never let on to what it took to raise more money than any small business I have known.  That modesty showed up again today when I saw him speak on a panel with the founder of MeetUp.com and several other like-minded NYC entrepreneurs.

All Ron said on today’s panel was “it was tough raising it.”

What he didn’t mention is the banks put him through the ringer.  Big time.  What should have taken weeks took months.  They didn’t double-check his finances, they triple-checked them.  He told me, “Two years ago when you were just off on your projections, it was a simple call to the bank to explain things.  Now the banks call me as soon as the slightest thing goes awry.”

Makes it tough to run a company that way.  But now that he is very well capitalized, he is ready for his aggressive expansion plans.

David Kistner, Founder of Green Apple Cleaners, one of the biggest and greenest “wet cleaning” (environmental dry cleaning) businesses in the US, had a completely different experience.  David raised about $2MM a couple of years ago in his second round of financing.  How he did it was one of the more creative ways I’ve heard.   He’ll be explaining this story next week at the event.

Like Ron, David is a very laid back guy, who would never let on how difficult raising capital was for him.

But the real lesson for him came after he raised his capital. He actually had to downsize from 10 locations to his current three.

The reason why reminded me of what I went through ten years earlier with my green retail stores.

He expanded too quickly.  In his case it was because he could not keep up with the demand and maintain quality with his state-of-the-art environmental cleaning process for clothing.

This created serious log jams in his production, which in turn started to jeopardize Green Apple’s brand and image.

But speaking with him all I heard was his excitement.  He now has a more grounded company with a solid infrastructure.  And is ready to expand again!

Going through these experiences can make good entrepreneurs great, depending on how they handle the lessons.  Lessons that can never be learned in school.

For both Ron and David, their experiences are helping them become environmental business leaders in their industries.

Here are some of the key challenges to deal with when raising capital:

1. Balancing Your Time— one of the biggest shocks to entrepreneurs when first raising capital is how much time it takes to write the business plan and then meetings and more meetings with prospective investors.  Each one wants different information and/or have it in a different way.  All this while you are trying to grow your business and expand your customer base.
2. Enough is Not Enough—one of the hardest things to do is get a check from an investor and NOT spend it right away.  To put it in escrow until the right amount of money is raised.  If it IS raised, then spend it.  If it is NOT raised, then give it back.
3. Valuating the Company—every entrepreneur wants to tell their investors their investment is now worth more.  But when raising money and you say your company is worth X, if that number is not accurate the next time you raise money, the company’s value may be lower than the previous round.  You risk upsetting your investors.
4. Blue Skying—when raising money, investors want to know your growth potential.  How much you can scale up.  It is easy to say your market potential is far greater than reality.  When doing this, it can look great on paper, but when it comes to delivering, you may have a very hard time explaining your failings to your investors.
5. Teaming Up—there is nothing more difficult than bringing on the wrong key management.  If they don’t “get” your vision (especially green businesses) or have a very different strategy of getting there, it will be a rocky road. And if you’re not careful, your investors may fire you because of it.  Remember when Steve Jobs was fired by Apple’s board in the 1980s?
6. Good vs Bad Money—when someone is dangling a check in front of you, it can be VERY difficult to say, “No thank you!”  Yet if the check dangler is not in alignment with your company’s vision or strategy for growth, down the road it may come back to bite you in the you-know-what.  This is especially true for green companies who are often on a different growth trajectory than traditional companies.

Ron and David are excited about what they are building and to teach it to us.  Along the other equally great finance and marketing experts, they will be sharing lessons learned and things to avoid next Thursday, July 22^nd in Manhattan.

If you have a green business and want to learn from these folks as well as meet other great entrepreneurs just like you, Be UnReasonable and come.

And because you are a dedicated reader, just use special code SDPC01 for a massive discount (I’m embarrassed to say what it is!)

Check out the Green Entrepreneur Summit:  Scaling Up Without Selling Out and use the discount code while we still have seats.

Action Steps for the Week

Raising capital are you?  How seriously have you crunched your numbers?  How prepared are you for being on the grill by experienced bankers/investors?

Ready, well then, OK!  Start by making a list of what will most likely trip you up from the six Key Challenges above.

Mostly likely you will have elements of all six.

For each, create a strategy to keep your ambitions in check as you move forward.

Almost like when you are trying to lose weight and you ask your partner to stop you from ordering that dessert at the restaurant, make sure you have something in place to keep you in check as things start to heat up.

Most likely you’ll be glad you did.

And I was representing green entrepreneurism.

We were trying to figure out what it would take to make mobility of people and goods and services a sustainable endeavor.  Super cool ideas were flying around the room about how to recreate entire transportation systems within cities and regions around the world.

Towards the end of the day I mentioned to the group that the best and fastest way to implement our ideas was to show people how to make money doing it.

The room fell silent.

Soon after, the politicians and energy and automobile executives protested saying that policy must drive this initiative.

I said, “Policy can’t and won’t drive this.  If we wait for that to happen, we’ll go nowhere fast.  It is far easier to set the entrepreneurs loose on solving this once we give them direction, inspiration and tools.”  Several people agreed and several rolled their eyes.

And that is when I realized if only about half the room was sold on such a crucial strategic component on launching sustainable mobility, imagine how difficult it will be to sell a city or country.

The key to selling… selling anything, is really just two basic components.  And depending on what you are selling, these two components need to be managed accordingly, depending on if you are selling someone to go on a date with you vs. selling yourself as the next president of the United States.

Two parts to selling (almost) anything:

1. Energy—deliver your passion for what you are selling.  Get them engaged and interested.  If nothing else, get them to get your interest and passion for it.  “The key is, you have to make people believe you believe.  Like a sermon, you have to let it flow out.  And then let it come back to you from the audience.”  John Deal, On the Road With A Supersalesman, by David Freeman, Inc Magazine, April, 2010.
2. Action—once the energy is there, request the next step with them.  Whether it be to go on a date with you, vote for you, or buy your widget.  Remember the key here is they must be energized before they will act.  If not, it will come across like pressure.

While these two steps in selling are straight forward, they can be difficult and take practice to implement successfully, depending on what you are selling.

Here are some tips to successfully implement and pitfalls to avoid:

• Get them emotionally committed.  During the “energy” stage, start the conversation by making it about them.  What is their challenge or problem they need solved.
• Have them want it to work.  The key to energy is they see the possibility of what you are selling as being great for them.  Make sure you deliver this to them.
• Make sure they are controlling the conversation.  Be sure it’s their idea, not yours.  Make sure they buy into it because they thought of it.  Guide them in this direction.  If you’re speaking more than 10%, that is too much!
• Have a sales pitch you can adjust quickly and easily.  Listen to what they want to share with you and guide them down the path towards your solution.  If you use a standard pitch, you’ll fail most of the time.
• Make sure you bring up pricing early on, if possible.  Feel comfortable with why you charge what you charge.  Be ready for objections and have powerful explanations.
• Speak to their skepticism before it speaks to you!  If you’re not the fastest, least expensive, most state-of-the-art, etc. bring that up early on.  If not, they’ll find out eventually and it will likely bite you in the you-know-what.
• Do not move to “Action” until the “Energy” is there.  Just stay focused on the other person.  If you go to Action too early, apologize for your enthusiasm and go back to the emotional (Energy) component.  How you know they are energized is when you are energized.

So armed with this list information, selling becomes easy, fun and effortless.  Especially when you are selling something you love and believe in.

This coming October, I will most certainly use it at next roundtable discussion at Columbia and expect to “convert” most of the listeners this time around.

Action Steps for the Week

Whether you realize it or not, you are ALWAYS selling.  If you wear makeup, or professional clothing, those are forms of selling.

Once you get used to the fact that selling is just a daily activity, you can examine those areas you are most wanting to improve.  Break it into the energy and action components.

In “energy”, what can you share to get them going in a direction you would like to lead them?  A personal story, a current event in the news, what?

Make sure you listen more than you speak.  Your job is to guide them.  Let them ask questions and share what they want to share, while taking them down a path.

When it is time, take them to “action” and ask them to do something that is a logical next step.

And if you do this correctly, 50% of the time they will be taking YOU to action and asking things like, “so how can you help me?”

Most importantly, remember to have fun when selling your widget.

As I’m sorting through all of these green companies, I have been speaking with some of the founders/CEO’s about their businesses.  Super cool concepts and technologies that inspire the bejesus out of me and my staff.  And many of them are growing like crazy.

For some of the rapidly growing companies, I advised them on how to scale up without losing their vision and passion for the environment and their business.

With them I shared seven mistakes I made when scaling my green company in the 90’s:

Mistake # 1

You think you have the best green product/service in your industry.

While that may have been true when you started, things change. And these days, quicker than ever.

It is difficult being the best.  Ask any top athlete, be it Tiger Woods, Roger Federer or Michael Jordan.  When you’re at the top, everyone wants to topple you.  You become a big target.  They study you, watch you, and learn all your moves.

That is why many of the “best” become shooting stars.  Instead of staying focused on staying the best, you can become high on yourself and all the crap others feed you about how great you are.

And then one day you wake up to the news another company is now #1 in your industry and you wonder how that could have happened.

Mistake #2

You think you can scale up easily without selling out

One of the hardest things to manage as your company grows is sticking to your environmental and social ideals.

As you grow the playing field changes, often dramatically.  What you were once able to do when you were smaller, you can no longer do at all or as effectively.  Either because your company is too large or because you now have people working with you that have different priorities or views in regard to your ideals.

So you reluctantly decide to go make exceptions to your original vision in order to accommodate your growth.

Mistake #3.

You believe your investors will let you play your own game

When you first start out, you most likely get funding from family and friends.  They invest or loan you the money because the love and trust you.

You get comfortable in your roll as decision maker and you try to keep them updated on your decisions and the direction you are take the company.

But the next round of funding is beyond their reach.  Now you bring in more seasoned investors.  Your grand visions of the company are OK, but how you get there are not necessarily in alignment with what they think.

You agreed to give these investors seats on your board of directors.  Being the guys with the wallet, they might be able to persuade other board members to their way of thinking.

Now you have a dilemma.  Either play by your rules and risk being fired by the board, or you play by theirs.

It no longer is your game.

Mistake #4

You’re convinced your team will follow you to the ends of the earth

In the beginning, it’s you against the world.  And those crazy enough to follow you and your dream to save the planet are completely on board with you.  You envision you will all grow old running this company together.

As your business grows, you now have growing staff, customers, suppliers and the related additional responsibilities not there before.  What you used to do by the seat of your pants you now need to have an “operations manual”, hiring and firing policies, budgets, shareholders meetings, policies and procedures, and a growing list of demands from outside forces to be dealt with.

For some of the original team members, it is no longer appropriate to have them working with the company.  And it could be a mistake to keep them.

And for others, they may conclude the company is not what it used to be.  It is no longer you against the world.  They have a hard time adapting and accommodating the shifts.

So they leave.  And a piece of you and the company leaves with them.

Mistake #5

You think things won’t change as your company grows

One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is when your company starts to grow, you think you will stay the same.

In fact, the more you resist changing as the company changes, the more the company changes… only in the wrong direction.

For example, you decide you will continue to do the bookkeeping since you like doing it and are pretty good at it.  Because you are not spending that time looking for new hires to join your team, you soon find your team running around trying to accommodate the additional work load as you grow.

This stresses your staff.  They start dropping the ball on the increase in customers you have.  Eventually either your staff or customers quit as you are not taking care of either.

Mistake #6

You’re sure you’ll always stay in charge

Sometimes it gets lonely at the top.  As you grow, you will make mistakes, mainly because you are exploring new territory and might not have an experienced person to turn to for advice or guidance.

So if you don’t know your own exit strategy from the business, you could actually take down the whole company.  Having an experienced board of directors helps.  Eventually the decision may be that it is time for you to step down and let someone else take over.  Someone with the right experience to take the business to the next level.

And if you envisioned running the show until you die, you may be in for a rude awakening.

Mistake #7

You believe that when you’re scaled up you’ll be sitting pretty

One of the biggest illusions is when sales get to a certain level you’ll be content.  Or once you raise this round of capital, then life will smooth out.

In reality what happens as you scale up is your challenges stay exactly the same.

Only just with more 0’s.

For example, instead of dealing with five suppliers for your products, you are now dealing with 50.  Or instead of raising $500K to purchase inventory from a supplier, you’re now trying to raise $5MM to buy them.

Your challenges will always stay with you, no matter where you go.

The rude awakening is one day you wake up and realize you miss the good ol’ days when things were much smaller and simpler.

Yet that is the price of playing a very big game.

Conclusion

Scaling a green business is just like scaling any business… only much more difficult.  Because you are balancing three bottom lines, not just one.

The solution to maintaining the right balance is the new way of doing business.

In the end you are playing a big game.  A game that needs to be played, far beyond just you.  For the economy, for the planet and for your community.  And by following these lessons learned by those before you, you are more likely to succeed.

Action Steps for the Week:

Make sure you create and incorporate a clear vision for your company integrating your environmental, social and business commitments in a sustainable way.

The key is to build a system for consistency and to manage your mistakes.

And you will make mistakes.  If you don’t, you are not playing a big enough game.  Just know you will make more of them than the ”single-bottom-line” (traditional) businesses.

The key is not to not make mistakes, rather to accelerate through them.