End of the Semester

I realized tonight I haven't posted in three weeks. It's finals time at the university where I teach and that just brings out a whole lot of crazy in all of us.

My favorite part of this end of the year has been renaming an award after long-time faculty member Judith A. Hakola. We now have the Judith A. Hakola Award in Professional & Technical Communication. Engineering commemorated the renaming of the award by presenting Judy with her own hard hat.

Judy A. Hakola and Megan Miller, Graduating Civil Engineer at the University of Maine.

Speed Dating for Business: Meet the Lenders!

Creative commons licensed image from Flickr user 401(K) 2013.

Call it speed dating for lenders and business owners. These events are popping up around the country, and one will be held in the Bangor, Maine area April 30.

The format of the event is similar to speed dating in that you get to meet with several vendors one-on-one. The goal is to spark relationships among entrepreneurs and financial organizations. Entrepreneurs have a chance to move from table to table to pitch a business idea, receive information about technology research funds, or meet with people who have expertise in business planning. Each meeting will last about 15-20 minutes and will give entrepreneurs a chance to pitch an idea and receive feedback.

If you plan to attend this event, you need to prepare your strategy.

Before you go… 

Keep in mind that each session is limited, so you want to spend the most time listening to feedback about your idea or what the lender has to offer, not explaining your idea.

If you have an idea, but not a fully developed business plan… 

If you have an idea, but have not developed a business plan yet, this event is perfect for testing your idea without a lot of up-front work. You might plan to visit 1-2 lenders, a group that helps with business plan writing, and if your idea includes technology or research, you might visit a tech-investment start-up initiative.

If you have a business plan… 

If you have a business plan already, still make sure your short pitch is up to speed. Everyone needs an “elevator pitch.” You can read more about how to develop this pitch, but generally, you want the pitch to be short, memorable, and repeatable. You want people to understand what you say the first time they hear it. This is more difficult than it seems when working with emerging ideas or technologies. Bring copies of your business plan to leave with interested vendors, who won’t have time to go over the details at that time, but can take the plan and look it over later.

Strategize as the event...

In regular speed dating, participants get to secretly identify the people they would like to meet again. Meet the Lenders attendees do not get this opportunity. Instead, you will receive one of three messages from each vendor you meet: a green light, yellow light, or red light message. Watch for these messages so you can strategize your next move while you’re still at the event.

Green Light: If you get a good vibe from the lender, try to set up a follow-up meeting and find out what you need to do before that meeting. If you need to add detail your business plan, pick up some materials or make an appointment with helper agencies before you leave the event.

Yellow Light: If the vendor gives you a sense that your idea or business plan needs more development, be sure to stop by the tables of organizations that help develop these plans, such as SCORE or SBDC.

Red Light: If the lenders give immediate feedback that your idea is not viable, decide how to use that feedback: Move on to the next lender, rethink your idea, or decide to work with SCORE or SBDC to develop your idea.

What to Bring… 

Bring several copies of your business plan and your business card. Consider writing on your business card what you hope to achieve: “Want to hire six more employees and expand my service area," to help you stand out.

Good luck!

Motivation for Monday: Two Entrepreneurial Tales(for when you're feeling stalled)

This week, behind the scenes, and in prep for a research project I'm doing this summer about brainstorming, I'm looking at blog posts written during 2012 about fear. Fear is a "commonplace" or typical topic in entrepreneurship writing.

Entrepreneur.com even has an RSS feed for fear. Even if an entrepreneur isn't scared of starting a business, fear is such a common topic that it at least has to be dismissed by asking, "Am I scared to try this?"

Some people associate fear with risk and how risk-adverse a person is. Today's post is about two women who never took time to bother with fear.

This week, Pearl Malkin has been in the news. Her story reminds me of Rosemary Smith, and together, entrepreneurs can take something from their stories.

Grandma Pearl

“Grandma Pearl” Malkin, as she is called, raised money on Kickstarter for her entrepreneurial venture, “Happy Canes.”
 
She surpassed her goal of $3,500. She decorates canes with flowers and sells them on Etsy. If you are having a feeling-low kind of entrepreneurial day, you need to go read her story.

Happy Canes by Grandma Pearl came about when she received 8 canes as a gift and thought they were all ugly, so she decided to decorate them, according to her Etsy site.

As someone who has had to use a cane for a few weeks, I agree; canes are ugly.

Grandma Pearl’s story touched me because it reminds me of the 9/11 story that I remember when I am scared. 

Rosemary Smith

I know a lot of legal-types, especially law-firm workers. On the day the towers fell, I—like every American—counted friends in New York. One of my friends worked for the law firm of Sidley Austin, but in a different city. Sidley Austin was located in Tower One. She told me that only one Sidley worker, Rosemary Smith, didn’t make it out of the building.

Whenever I am scared to do something, I think about Rosemary Smith. According to one news report, she was 61 when she died and still had an entrepreneurial dream: she wanted to be a full-time chocolatier.

Rosemary’s story isn’t just about carrying around a dream, though, because she wasn’t just a victim of 9/11, but a survivor. Rosemary worked at the World Trade Center during the 1993 bombing. After the 1993 bombing, she went back to work.

If Rosemary could go back to work in a building that had been bombed and if Grandma Pearl can rally through Kickstarter and Etsy to make her entrepreneurial venture take off at 89, then the rest of us can pretty much find a way to do anything.