I can verify this statement through experience. About two years ago i co-founded a collaboration software called GroupTable. What I’ve found through my interactions with GroupTable and other collaborative software applications is that they are best utilized to keep a group cohesive and connected when apart….not as a replacement for physical meetings.

Here’s just a few ways you could take advantage of travel services like those offered by British Airlines to grow your business:

• If your considering a new supplier or distributor…why not fly out and check out their facilities? Seeing their establishment and meeting their team can help you make a more informed decision. This kind of thing could save you thousands of dollars or help you rest easy knowing that your making the correct decision.
• Trying to close a big client? Show your commitment by flying out to meet him. Much of sales in any industry is developing a relationship built on trust, communication and rapport. Of course you have to have a good product or service, but developing a great relationship will only result in the deal getting closed faster, future sales and lots of referrals.
• Spending time face to face with a potential partner can really help you get a sense of who they are. After handling business go have a drink with them and get to know them more personally. Would you want to be in business with someone you don’t know or don’t get a good vibe with?….I know I don’t
• More productive meetings…if meetings are structured properly and those attending are prepared in person meetings have the potential to be much more productive than virtual meetings. Many times quick meetings can be done effectively through collaborative tools like GroupTable, but for extensive meetings that are more involved having a large whiteboard to diagram and plan things out is very helpful. Though many collaborative tools have whiteboards you don’t get the same effect or end result.

Now we all know that we’re in a economic recession and most businesses are cutting back on nearly all expenses including travel. Once you give it a try I’m sure you’ll see that face to face meetings often pay for themselves.

Still not convinced….How can you find the budget to invest in seeing this for your self?

Well I the great news is that British Airlines has a contest where they are offering a business grant to 100 companies. Each grant consists of a years worth of business class travel anywhere British Airways flies! But….that’s not all!

I can’t help that I sound like an infomercial it’s cool what they are doing

See for yourself…

The Grant

• British Airways airfare for 10 round-trip Club World business class flights.
• 5 free British Airways World Cargo freight shipments of up to 500 kilos to worldwide destinations
• $1000 toward accommodation at Courtyard by Marriott
• 5 Regus Businessworld Gold Cards providing access to business lounges worldwide
• Canon PIXMA MX860 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer

Applying for the grant is easy all you need to do is answer a few questions about your business objectives in 2010 and how this grant could help.

I strongly encourage all aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners to enter the contest by visiting: Business Opportunity Grant Contest

Sun Tzu is most popular for his book The Art of War.  Though this book is filled with military strategies and tactics there are core lessons that can be extremely beneficial in many different situations such as sports, business or even personal relationships.

I was reading the art of war and came across a good quote that I thought was a very good lesson to reflect on.

“If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, the general is to blame. But if his orders ARE clear, and the soldiers nevertheless disobey, then it is the fault of their officers.”

Having employees and interacting with vendors, partners and clients everyday I can completely appreciate the value of clear, concise and candid communication.  It is very easy to think that someone understands what you are trying to get across just because you understand it.  If you’re not clear it leaves someone to play the guessing game and try to perceive what they thought you’ve meant.  This is how mistakes happen….breaks in communication.  It’s always better to over explain giving several examples and very specific verbs and adjectives that articulate the exact message you’re trying to get across.  This leaves no room for error in the communication process, only disagreement or insubordination as Sun Tzu said referred to.  I strive to improve my communication skills daily in all of my interactions.

Have you had any experiences recently where you’ve noticed a break in communication that you or someone else could have prevented by being more clear?

If so please share

Stumble or digg this post if you see the value in the quote and post.

thanks

Allow me to explain…

First off let me say that I not only quit my job, but a job at a really great work environment with awesome people and fun/unique company culture….Where else do you ring in new hires with tequila shots, have cubicle decorating contests and plow your face into cake on your birthday & anniversary of employment? Of course I’m talking about IZEA, a top social media marketing company that operates SocialSpark, PayPerPost and more.

So the question I know many people are thinking…Why the H*ll did you quit? or What is he thinking?

Well I have always been a person that doesn’t shy away from challenges. I have also always trusted my gut, which was one of the main reasons why I moved to Orlando in the first place. I knew no-one in Florida, but something told me this was the right choice. That decision turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made and over the last 2 years I’ve accomplished a great deal.

Besides trusting my gut I also moved to Orlando to be in a fertile environment to grow my own ventures. My goal has always been to create jobs for others, not be bound by an hourly job and to grow extremely wealthy in the process. Then be able to give back and help other young entrepreneurs achieve their dreams.

With these goals constantly in mind I came to the conclusion that IZEA has done all it can to assist me in reaching them at this stage in my life.

I’ve really enjoyed my time at IZEA, feel that I have learned a great deal and built relationships with a lot of great people, however now is the time for me to go hard after my goals. As time passes many people sink into a mode of comfortably and they stop striving and are content with their current situation. Though this is completely alright for some people at this point in my life this is not okay for me. At this time I have no children to pay for and no major expenses. There’s no better time for me than right now. If you desire to reach your goals no matter what they may be you have to go for it. When there’s more risk, there is a greater chance for more of a reward. In addition to that my dad taught me a long time ago that you improve and grow the most during periods of uncertainty and turmoil. If you’re not working through problems or challenges your performing not growing. I recently saw a great quote on Drew Mclellans blog: “Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”

That quote really sums up how I feel and why I did what I did. I have so much of a desire to achieve my goals that fear seems very trivial in comparison. Some may call me foolish, some may call me outright stupid, but the way I see it it needed to be done. I have full confidence in my abilities and in god and know I will make it work.

Stay tuned…

More to come

This year’s winner was Helping Hands Healthcare, a service-based firm committed to providing superior consulting and installation of daily living aids to families with in-home healthcare needs.

Other finalists included: Mercury Mobile Software, a firm developing a home screen replacement application for smart phones; Orlando Search Engine Marketing, a search engine optimization (SEO) service provider; and Ski Florida, an indoor snow ski, snowboard and kids’ snow play facility.

It was truly a great experience for me being that I got to sit on the other side of the table with judges much older and more experienced than me.

Just to run through some of the other judges:

Rick Walsh

Mr. Walsh is President of the KnobHill Group, an investment and strategic counseling company. Prior to establishing the KnobHill Group, he served as Senior Vice President Corporate Affairs of Darden Restaurants Inc. (DRI) and was a founding member of the leadership team that took Darden public in 1995.

Mr. Walsh has been recognized as Orlando Business Journal’s “Businessman of the Year”; one of “Florida’s 100 Most influential” by Florida Trend Magazine; “25 Most Powerful People in Central Florida” by the Orlando Sentinel; and “50 Most Powerful People in Orlando” by Orlando Magazine.

Thomas Bland

G. Thomas Bland, Jr., serves as Chairman of the Board,CEO and president of AquaFiber Technologies Corporation.In 2004, Mr. Bland was inducted into the UCF College of Business Administration Hall of Fame. He currently is a member of the UCF College of Business Administration’s Dean’s Executive Council, and serves as a board member for the Florida Hospital Diabetes Foundation. He also established a home healthcare business, TenderCare Professional Assisted Living Services, Inc., for which he concurrently serves as Chairman of the Board.

Charlotte Williams

Charlotte Williams founded SummerHill Homes, a sucessful construction company, and then became a leading local real estate professional.  Charlotte is now a top real estate agent and owner of ERA Williams Real Estate Group.

David Pape

Serial entrepreneur and investor with four successful start-ups and over 30 years of experience.  Mr. Pape has developed a keen eye for lucrative market niches and an innovative ability to develop opportunities.

The competition was sponsored by Steven Felkowitz,  CEO of Atico International.  His company, Atico International is a full service sourcing and product development company that provides retailers, wholesalers and distributors with the insight and worldwide relationships to build a successful import program. I heard they generate over $600M a year in revenue…I guess he could afford to sponsor the prize money and event over the last few years.

Getting to know these extremely successful business professionals and investors on a more personal level was a great experience.  I was the youngest judge by far and was judging students I went to school with less than a year ago, as well as students currently enrolled in the MBA program.  Being a judge gave me a taste of where I want to be eventually (sooner than later), which is an angel investor sitting on the other side of the table listening to entrepreneurs pitch, investing in companies I like and working with them to help them grow.

This was truly a great experience.

I’ve been extremely busy lately and haven’t had much time to come up for air and post on my blog.  I was out of town for a week in Vegas for Affiliate Summit West then came  back and have had a lot of obligations for both IZEA and my start-up (GroupTable) lately.  It’s the beginning of the semester so many students across the country are going back to school and so GroupTable’s usage is really picking up.  GroupTable also has a bunch of other things in the works, which I’m not able to talk about until they come to the light, but trust me it’s awesome.

(But time consuming)

Rest assured I will have some good posts in the near future.

Thanks for your patience

After responding back to him via email I thought that my insight may be helpful to others in a similar position.  So with his permission I have decided published certain aspects of our email correspondence here.  I hope this is helpful….If anyone else has any questions feel free to contact me via email: contact [at] davidbrim [dot] org.

His email…

Hello David,
I’m [name], a student with entrepreneurial spirit at Bowling Green State University.

[other private info regarding past accomplishments and details on venture/idea]

Do you have any advice or suggestion on how can I start my own web 2.0 company?

Happy New Year!

[Name]

Hi [Name]
Thanks for reaching out. I have a few ideas that I hope will help:

Some people may disagree with this, however I take the “Ready Fire Aim Approach“.

• Ready: Do enough research to understand the market, how your product will work, ways you’ll make money, how you’ll grow your customer base etc.
• Fire: Jump in.  Once you get started and the ball get’s rolling it’s a lot easier to continue the momentum and leverage one success to another. Get team members who compliment your skills and build your board of advisers/mentors. Make progress on the development of your product (more info about this below)
• Aim: I know from personal experience that things will usually never work out exactly as planned, because the market is always changing. By just getting things started you’ll learn a lot along the way through your experience (though it’s best to stand on the shoulders of giants and learn from other’s mistakes).  Either way if you get things going it’s easy to leverage your successes and progress your venture.  Focus on making quality contacts in your niche and then leverage their relationships, and grow your network even more.

The reason I like this approach is that many of the investors I’ve spoken with have actually told me that they don’t even read business plans.  They read your executive summary, listen to your pitch/view your power pt slides, then go straight for the financials. Therefore as long as you know where you want to go for your venture as well as what is feasible and can articulate it to others, as a rule I think it’s better to get things moving.

With that said you should still make sure that you have an understanding of your market, the problem your target market is facing, your product, competitors, marketing strategies & tactics, business model and what resources, team members and capital you’ll need.

Here is a little more depth on these aspects and what I would include in the plan….

1. Executive Summary: This is a compilation of all your sections in a one to two pg doc-written last)
2. Define market: Who are your customers (target market & potential other markets) Who are the current players/competition in the market.  What are some recent trends in the industry?
3. State the Void in the Market- the problem your target market is facing
4. What’s the solution (your product)
5. Elaborate on your product:  Do this in words and then draw sketches of what you would like on each page (in as much detail as possible). Then create a flow chart of how the user will interact with the site. What pages will lead to what etc. How will the user navigate? The more you can do, the more money you’ll save from a designer later. At bare minimum have all the features and information you want written down for each page.

(The sketches, flow chart and info on navigation will be very helpful when you take it to an actual designer…It’s way better than going to them and saying “Ummm…I have an idea for a website. Please design it”)

6. Outline your current and future team.  Who currently exists and what kind of people do you need on your team to bring your vision to life.Find team members that compliment skills you don’t have (Colleges are a perfect place to find them. Talk to professors, department heads, other students in a given major etc). If you don’t have money to hire them, offer equity (cut them in on the company). That’s how we launched GroupTable.
7. Marketing plan: how will you grow your user base? (I use the bowling pin analogy- don’t try to take over a whole market at once. Target 1 segment (pin) then then the next and so on.  Internet marketing is one good way to go as I articulated in a recent post.
8. Business Model: How will you make money or add value to a existing company?
9. Some preliminary financials (Simple cost association and projected revenue over 3 month, 6 month and one year should suffice initially.
10. What other resources do you need? (How much capital are you seeking, how could you get it angel investment, loan, fund through business plan competitions, or seek some seed funding through family and/or friends.

After you’ve planned the work, work the plan

Jump in and get started…

• Take your diagrams of your product to your potential customers, talk with them, survey them using SurveyMonkey or another survey tool
• Once your concept is perfected get it designed (take the sketches and information you created in the product section of your plan I outlined above)
• If you can’t find those around your campus/community, you can find cheap contractors online, (check out http://www.odesk.com/ We use them from time to time.
• Hopefully after you get the design back you’ll at least have a coder to add functionality to the design.  (Otherwise you may want to choose a firm that can design or develop your idea as a package deal…this can get expensive though)
• Continue the steps of the plan accordingly…Marketing, nurturing relationships with potential collaborators, etc

Be prepared for a lot of late nights and ups and downs, but it’s a beautiful struggle and very rewarding.  Once you get the ball rolling good things will continue to happen and doors will open.  Things have really worked out for us thus far using this formula. After launching less than a year ago we have strong traction and a lot of high level partnerships coming to fruition that will excel our growth.  You may also want to check out a recent post I did entitled Ten Great Things About Being A College Entrepreneur. Hope this helps…

Good luck.

If you have any other questions let me know

David Brim

So here is my Top Ten Business Lessons I’ve Learned from Sports:

1. Competition Helps You Grow
   

During my basketball career  I realized that competition is healthy.  It keeps you on your toes and on your “A Game”.  Competition motivates you to work harder and give your all, even when nobody is watching…There’s nothing like knowing your improving while your competition is sleeping.  The same is true in business.  Know your competitors and create some healthy competition.  Also your current competitor may be a future collaborator or team-mate.  If not, both of you are at least working to grow your specific industry as a whole.

2. If You Want to Be Great…Do extra

I strongly believe that in order to get ahead you have to do everything the others do…and more.  You can be extremely talented in sports, or business, but if you want to be looked upon as a leader in your field you have to Do Extra.  This could mean shooting an extra 500 jump shots or more after practice (Which I did religiously) or working late after hours on a presentation or business plan- which I do religiously.

3. Build a Team of Value Creators

You want people on your team that are better/smarter than you in their respective areas and people that are value creators. A great way to see if someone is a value creator is to look at their past accomplishments or successes. If someone has created value for themselves or the past teams/companies they have been a part of, chances are they can create value for your organization as well.

4. Stand on the Shoulders of Giants

It’s always good to have a role-model or mentor both in sports and in business. This allows you to learn from other’s mistakes, so you don’t have to make the same ones on your own.  When I played basketball I used to study Michael Jordan’s game tapes, and read about or talk to successful pro players.  In business I seek out the top entrepreneurs, or industry vets and enjoy talking with them about their experiences and listening to their advice.  I don’t look at successful people through eyes of jealousy, but inspiration, knowing that if they can achieve those levels of success, I can as well.

5. Timing is everything

Timing is an essential element in sports and business.  In both scenarios the moves you make must be relevant to what is going on around you.  You shouldn’t shoot a random shot without knowing the scenario of the game, everything should be in context.  If it’s late in the fourth quarter you may want to hold the ball, if there’s a need in an Industry not being fulfilled you may want to move extremely fast and get clients in contract to lock out competitors.  You also have to actively keep up on trends and emerging innovations if you want to be successful in a particular industry.  In both scenarios it’s all about being aware of what’s happening around you then planning your moves accordingly.

6. Be Passionate About What You Do

When your passionate about something it shows.  If your playing a sport and are just going through the motions everyone can pick up on that.  When your passionate about an issue it’s like “Your in the Zone” when your doing it.  Time seems to stand still and you can accomplish a great amount and it seems almost effortless.

7. Realize there is Always Going to be Haters

When your doing something right, there is always going to be people that are jealous and try to bring you down.  There are a lot of people who just like bringing others down, because they don’t have enough passion or desire to channel that energy into improving themselves.  Either way I use the haters as motivation.  I realize if I wasn’t doing something right, haters probably wouldn’t even notice me.   They would be focusing their efforts on bringing down somebody who was doing something right.

8. Set Lofty Goals

I believe that people should set high goals for themselves.   Not goals that are completely unattainable, but lofty ones. In sports and business, if you have high expectation for yourself, even if you don’t quite reach them, typically you’ll still be in a much better position than if you had lower goals.

9. Just Do it

When trying to accomplish something In business and sports, there are a million excuses that can be made to explain why something can’t happen.  First off let me say that you need to take time to develop your skills, or conduct research for your market, but once you have a decent grasp…Jump in and Do it.  Once you get actively involved in something it’s easy to find others who can help you get the ball rolling.  You also learn an unbelievable amount by going through tough scenarios first hand.

10. Sometimes it’s wise to re-direct your energy

This was a very hard lesson for me to learn, but I’m very glad I learned it.  I have never been a quitter.  I am a very positive thinker and hard worker, however sometimes it’s better to re-direct your energy to an opportunity that is more fruitful for you.

Growing up I always thought I could get a Division one college scholarship then go to the NBA.  After I graduated high school and things weren’t panning out the way I expected, but I didn’t give up.  I went to a top prep school in Connecticut and started averaging 10 pts per game on a very good team.  After getting no Division one scholarship offers, I then started playing for a smaller college team (California University of PA).  Though I was doing very well in practice, the coaches still weren’t playing me. This was extremely frustrating to me, because I’ve never been a bench player.

One day it clicked to me…If I don’t go to the NBA, what will I have?  If I continue on my current path, I’ll graduate with a degree that isn’t even accredited and will have no real work experience in my field.  It was at this point I decided to re-direct my energy to something that looked more promising, business.

Today I still stay very mindful of this lesson.  You have to know when to re-direct your energy.  If your in a venture that you love, you can have all the positive thoughts you want, but you have to be a realist.  Ask yourself…What is the risk & potential return of my decision?  Is the potential return worth the risk?  If you have the potential to lose all of your life savings, go into massive debt and break up your marriage…You better make sure the potential return is there.

Feel free to add your thoughts, as well as other business lessons that you have learned from sports.