The Idea, Part III

If so many great ideas take place in the shower, why don't we institutionalize the platform? Can we discover what it is about the shower and isolate that variable?

Is it the hot water, the relaxation, or spending time without the ability to do anything else that might distract?

Just a thought I had while in the shower.

Ode to the Country Life

A central premise if the Nauvoo Commuter is that starting a business in a rural area has several large disadvantages over starting a business in a creative urban center, and you need to be aware of those, but you should focus on the advantages, which do exist.

Occasionally we list ideas of ventures that might fit well into a rural situation. Here are three more:

 - sell local flora (Prairie Tumbleweeds ships tumbleweeds
   worldwide for decorations and movie sets, $25 plus shipping)
 - courier (because logistics infrastructure is not as strong in
   your area)
 - shuttle driver for elderly (or for Amish families)

Go for it.

Why people buy your stuff

"Your stuff" could refer to a product, a service, or an ideology you are spending effort to propagate.  Why buy from you?

 - someone needs your product, and has difficulty obtaining it elsewhere (insulin)

 - they like you and want to support your business to show the depth of the friendship 

   (network marketing exploits this dynamic)

 - your selling format is so convenient (Walmart)

 - they can't beat your price, or your value 

 - you do a better job of selling; you tell a better story (Obama campaign)

 - your product is so neat, or has free features that are really neat (iPhone)

 

Other possibilities exist. Conversely, the "not why people buy from you" list:

 - because you hope people will buy from you

 - because it would make your parents proud of you

 - it would make your investors would yell at you less

You should choose a reason from the first list, and make it a compelling reason, and make sure you are the compelling answer to that issue. Sometimes people buy from you because you got lucky. But that is an incident, not a business model. 

Cover your assets

Here in Nauvoo we enjoy the oldest winery in the state of Illinois, Baxters. The oldest vines from the 1850s have been killed by herbicides from neighboring farmers (thank you very much), but some hundred-year-old grape vines still exist. They cultivate acre after acre of grape vines. Guess what industry they operate in?

That's right! You guessed correctly. They make wine.

As a rural entrepreneur, an obvious method of finding the most appropriate business model is asset analysis. Towns can do this, as they seek the best types of businesses for their communities.
Individuals do it as well.

Following your passion is fun, but it is a different approach. In the hinterland, starting with what you have is usually a shorter route to success. 

We have lost sight of what entrepreneurship means. The stories of over-night billionaires still have us jaded. We still have, in the back of our minds, 


Here at the Nauvoo Commuter, our audience is not internet tycoons, not world-shifting high flyers, but average, successful, job-creating entrepreneurs. We address you and those you support in your town. 

Can these traits be taught?

Are the seven traits of successful entrepreneurs teachable?  Or must people born with those traits? If teachable, can it be done in a classroom, or must it be out in the field?

Seriously, can we train people in rural areas to have these entrepreneurial characteristics? This is more than a mindset or attitude. To be genuine, they need to be deeply rooted in a person's being. The person may not need all of them in the same measure, but none of them should be described as a "weak area."

Entrepreneurship training should have two goals:

First, the program should instill the characteristics discussed yesterday. Training in this area generally teaches people the traits that they should have, and how important it is to have those traits. To actually change bad habits and become a different type of person, that is a much bigger challenge.

The other goal is to teach the needed SKILLS: bookkeeping, marketing, management, etc.

Success Formula: more ideas

Let's add two more traits to yesterday's list:

5) Ability to work in ambiguity
     A non-entrepreneur needs to know "why" and "how." They
     struggle in situations of uncertainty. An entrepreneur--particularly
     a successful one--does not freeze despite not having all the
     answers. They can still move forward.

6) Lack of fear of disappointing people
     If you fail, you will disappoint your family and friends (except the
     jealous ones). More so, you will disappoint investors and lenders.
     Some people cannot handle that fear, so they never take the leap.
     Entrepreneurs do not necessarily have more risk appetite than the
     average person. But they embrace, or at least accept, certain types
     of risk.

So here we have six traits needed to succeed in your own business. Good luck. 

Success Formula

Today we will offer a list of the traits of successful entrepreneurs. First, our definition: we look at long-term success. The one-hit wonder (The Knack of Entrepreneurship) and the flash-in-the pan lucky venturer are easier to define: they got lucky.

The problem with discussion in this area is that people do not agree. For every person who embodies successful traits, it seems you can find another successful entrepreneur who has done the opposite.

1) Ability to analyze the deal
     Some people are better at assessing the viability/success potential of a
     business concept. Some people think they are good at it but are not.
     Some know they are not good at it.

2) Perseverence
     Some people succeed because they persevere with a venture long
     after others would have quit. Some quit as soon as they recognize
     they've hit The Dip. They persevere, not in a particular business,
     but in the in idea of being an entrepreneur. Which way is better?

     We can't say yet, but we can say that trait #1 and trait #2 need
     to be combined. Have you ever met a serial entrepreneurial failure?
     These people are constantly trying new ventures, like speed dating,
     but nothing ever works. They eventually realize the idea was stupid
     --long after everyone else realized it--and they quit, looking for the
     next idea. They seem to have an unseen fear of success, but mask
     it with seeming to be persistent. These people are cannon fodder
     for multi-level marketing schemes.

3) Love of money
     The love of money is the root of all success. It is also the root
     of all evil, but this is not a discussion of morals. Every consistently
     successful person I have met has loved money.

4) Willingness to work hard
     Successful entrepreneurs work smart, but they also work hard.
     Keep in mind what a wise man once told me: lazy people work
     harder than hard-working people. Lazy people do things twice,
     they have to work much more briskly and later into the night
     because they procrastinated, and they don't make the effort to find
     easier ways to do things.

The list is longer, but these are some essentials. Each trait does not seem to be as important as the combination of the traits.
    

And that's the rest of the story...

Recently I was watching a movie with a cookie-cutter formulated plot. Very predictable. But I persevered, and was rewarded with a rewarding ending.

So it is with our lives. Misfortune, and nonfortune--the absence of anything interesting--can cause us to feel cheated.  But the movie is not over. The next scene might bring an interesting plot twist.


And so it is with your business. Bad news, bad luck, bad timing, all are just plot twists. Persevere, and the end of the story might be much more interesting than the one you had planned.

Your new strategy: Dawn of the Dead

Maybe the key to your success in the countryside is not by trying to build a dotcom better than Silicon Valley can. Maybe it is to do something excellent in a dying industry.

Trying to compete with world-class entrepreneurs might lead to competing on price. Instead, be the best at something no one else wants to do. Check out this Business Week article, especially #9:

Rugged survivors in Dying Industries

Soliloquy on Working From Home

A couple of decades ago, women began to complain that men should not be the only ones to leave home each day and go into the workplace. They could do it also.

But historically speaking, the idea of adults leaving home each day and working somewhere else is a very, very new concept. It began in the industrial revolution. From an evolutionary standpoint it is not natural. Throughout human history, almost all men and almost all women, in fact, stayed home and worked. All day long.

And children worked alongside them. Children respected the work their parents did. So they respected their parents.

Then men left, their work became abstract, and children lost respect for fathers. The same thing is now happening to mothers.

Working from home is not a new concept. It is a return to the way we did things for thousands of years. That is the realization I had when I first set up a home office in 1997.

Working from home is challenging. But for many people, it reconnects them with their natural state.

Hotizontal Villages

I've been arguing for years that our neighbor is not the person next door. It is the person who shares your interests.

Jesus was right, and it has huge consequences for your business. Maybe the town you live in only has 236 people, including the kid who actually away at army basic training. But you have neighbors all over the planet.

About 20 years ago I was in Switzerland doing a hotel inspection. One of the workers angrily approached the group I was with, yelling in Suisse-Deutsche. No one could understand him, so could not address his concerns. But I understood him. "We just walked through a pile of dust and we're tracking it onto the freshly-laid carpet."
I understood, not because I know German, but because I had worked the construction industry in a past life, so I understood his mindset. He and I lived in the same village. The connections between people are horizontal, stretching across the map, rather than vertically within our individual countries.

Someone in your neighborhood feels a closer bond to a person living 1,462 kilometers away who shares a fascination with Star Trek. They reside far apart, but live in the same trekkie village. Another resident of your community is a Lakers fan and you are a Bulls fan, so you live in different villages. Truck drivers can gather at specific diners and commiserate, rather than futilely trying to strike up conversations with pharmacists down the street when they return home on the weekend.

We no longer have social classes. They've been replaced by Avocation Strata.

So don't try to push those geographically close to buy something they don't want. Find the like-minded people around the world and sell to them. UPS awaits your beckon.

The Marketing is the Product

Toyota is one of the best marketers in generations. They start with reliable products. They distribute well. They trust their American subsidiary to promote the way they see best.

Everyone knows Toyota's quality is the best. But is it?

Perception is reality. Quality surveys are based on REPORTED defects. And Toyota owners report fewer defects. 

I have seen friends purchase Toyotas with major flaws and take them back to the dealer, just to be told that "we can't find a problem." So the new owner responds, "Toyota doesn't make poor quality, so I must have been wrong." Selective perception. The emperor has no clothes. The car whistles loudly over 50 mph, and they turn up the stereo. Nothing negative reported to JD Powers. 

(They also benefit from the fact that Americans are far more forgiving of foreign companies than they are of their American competitors. A family member's infidelity is far more serious than a stranger's indiscretion in another town. That's how we believe.) 

If you want to consistently knock the ball out of the park, year after year, as Toyota has done, you need to be like Toyota. You need to reinforce. Every marketing message from Toyota is a pat on the head. They tell you one thing: you made the right decision in buying a Toyota. After a decade, you believe it, so you buy another Toyota and tell your friends to do the same. Reinforce, reinforce. 

Having a low-cost manufacturing base also helps. So be like Toyota:

1) Gouge suppliers in ways that would make Walmart blush. 

2) Monopolize fleet sales in your home country so that you achieve economies of scale before you've exported one model. 

3) Silence dissenting voices.

Also, remember that it took Toyota decades to achieve mogul-hood. So you also need to stop being American and seeking the get-rich-quick solution. Stop flipping and start building a foundation. Mogul-hood takes a LONG time.   

Control. Cut costs. Reinforce. Set 100-year goals.

Midwest Manifesto

I think it is time to repeat my Midwest Manifesto. 

The Midwest has many remarkable companies, and should not concede to foreign competition. The tide is turning back in our favor.

People in the Midwest are smart, industrious, and prudent. Through those traits, we have built lasting companies. 

Our remaining need is to capture insight and skills those companies need to progress to the next level by hiring additional executives and specialists from outside the region. 

More ideas

Finding the specific idea is your responsibility. But here are some more ideas to show you the possibilities.

Start an online school. The systems part of it is already provided. Check out Supercool School.

Check out a similar option, involving video: Traindom.

Send in Your Questions

If the Nauvoo Commuter could resolve all of your business concerns, then they wouldn't business concerns, would they?

Running a business means solving unique problems every single say. If they were not unique, and someone else could tell you the answer, then your business would be a formula, and you would have not business. It would be a formula. Your customers don't need you to mediate a formula. If your business is too simple, you're irrelevant. 

But try us anyway. We might just have an idea you have not thought of yourself. Send us a message. 

Multiplying your skills

As a rural entrepreneur, you need to wear several hats. Even more than your city cousins would in the same situation. You don't have the support services available.

But at some point you will need to hire someone. Usually you hire a friend or neighbor. That gives you someone you can trust.

But your friends probably have skills similar to yours. So the hire just repeats you.

The Nauvoo Commuter recommends casting the net wider. Make hiring a strategy rather than a rash reaction. Be deliberate.

Spending time with children

When we communicate with adults, the conversation is obscured by mind games, innuendos, and cultural overlays. The more sophisticated the person, the more complicated it becomes.

Children, by contrast, are pure. No games, no intentional obscuring of meanings.

Years ago I took an intensive three-week cross-cultural communications course taught by a Swedish psychologist. Her advice was just that: if you want to become a better communicator, spend more time with children. You learn the way people should communicate, so it builds your ability.

Stuck in a home office while you take care of your children? You are in the ideal situation.

Bequeathing capacity

We've been exposed to volumes written about rural entrepreneurship and spoken with people on the same topic.
Unfortunately, the conversation too often turns to the topic of public assistance: grants, agencies, advisory functions. Government programs can be useful in providing advice and funds.

But spending time focusing on those options shifts energy. It takes away focus. Our purpose, here at the Nauvoo Commuter, is to build personal capacity.


This forum is dedicated to the idea of building individual capacities so that people will be able to pull up their socks and wow the world with their endeavor. 

We salute all of you out there, living in sparsely populated areas, who are beginning the entrepreneurial journey, rather than waiting for a program represented by an acronym. 

Explanation of Micro-equity

Micro-equity is a combining of micro-credit, which has done some good things in the world, with venture capital, which creates new economies. And micro-credit is starting to show signs that it sometimes brings negative results (explanation pending). 

The transaction size can be bigger, up to US$10,000, but the micro-finance firm retains a 50% stake in the recipient firm. The concept has two advantages over micro-loans:

1) The Micro-equity firm is highly motivated to assist in the success of the investee.

2) The Micro-equity firm earns a profit through capital gains at exit, which profits can be used to launch the dreams of even more entrepreneurs.

Downside:

1) The transaction size is so small that the Micro-equity firm is de-motivated to analyze business plans.

2) The cost per transaction, particularly for fixed costs of the fund and for sourcing potential deals, is too high to justify the effort.