Think like a Startup. Visualize Your Business Model.. in 15 Minutes

“Ordinary people believe only in the possible. Extraordinary people visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible. And by visualizing the impossible, they begin to see it as possible.”

~ Cherie Carter-Scott

This is the challenge for most entrepreneurs is that we often get caught up so much in daily things that we failed to see the big picture, focus on that and put it to work.

The startup business framework created by Tom Hulme, IDEO’s Design Director at their London’s office, is simple enough for anyone to use. Whether you just have this idea that you think is very interesting, to large companies.

Huge Procurement Dollar for Small & Minority Biz (in Maryland): Interview with Jerry Godwin

The other week I had the opportunity to have Jerry Godwin, Business Development Specialist with Wheaton (Maryland) Business Innovation Center as guest on my program – Ecotwist. In this interview, we talked about a whole range of issues from the innovation hub that the county offers to State’s procurement dollar for small and minority businesses. (Podcast of interview is below).

Innovation Hub

There are 5 business innovation network within the county based on location and industry: Shady Grove (biotech), Silver Spring (IT and software development), Wheaton (professional services), Rockville (international and tech companies), Germantown (biotech and life cycle companies).

There are two reasons why you’d be interested in participating in some sort of incubation: 1) Typically you pay below market rate for space provided. 2) The county provides broad technical assistance for CEOs and their staffs with close to 60 seminars a year. Some are 1 hour long, some are 2-3 hours long.

Currently there are over 180 companies in the county’s incubators network. The objective is, within about 3 years with the kind of environment created, Jerry says “with the technical training and synergies,” they expect that these companies will outgrow its space.

More than 90 companies have outgrown their spaces and move into commercial space. About 94 of these companies still in business, considering the failure rate of business the first year is about north of 85%. So that’s a pretty darn good success ratio. About 100 of companies under their portfolio have graduated from the program. They created 2500 jobs. Use 500,000 sf of commercial space. And bring $500 million of capital infusion back into the county.

The county provides financial and tax incentives for small businesses from new jobs tax credit, enhance new jobs tax credit to enterprise zone tax credit.

Montgomery county procurement

Jerry also said that there’s a big push in procurement dollar for small and minority businesses, which is part of the county’s Local Small Business Reserve Program.

All County departments’ is required to contract a minimum of 20 percent of annual solicitations to small businesses. The solicitations are reserved for vendors registered with the Local Small Business Reserve Program. The dollar amount is around $35 million for FY 2010.

For a business to participate in the procurement, it’s a 2 step process:

1. Register as vendor with Montgomery County at http://mcipcc.net
2. Register with Local Small Business Reserve Program at http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/lsbrp

You can also visit Montgomery County Economic Development, for more details.

There’s more that we covered in our interview. Check out the podcast of “Doing Business Locally: Interview with Jerry Godwin.”

20 Sustainability Learning Resources

FOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN. These are some of the sites where you can learn and dig deeper on sustainability. Whether you’re an employee, business owner, professional, or even executive and career changer, the information available through these sites is priceless. The best part is, most of the resources it’s either available for free or for a small subscription fee.

The resources below provide you with the knowledge, the kind of information that includes things that would affect the sustainability of your business, i.e. climate change, energy efficiency, nature conservation, biodiversity, water efficiency, and more.  It is by no means they are the only twenty sources out there. There are literally more than hundreds (probably thousands) sources globally! However, for the purpose of learning, we’re going to start one chunk at a time. It’s good enough to spin your head.

Green is the World’s Trend

I found that green is a growing trend. Saw in a number of places how green products and services (including slogans) are popping up here and there. Organic. Natural products. Recycled, biodegradeble packaging. Fair trade. And more.

Attitude and behavior not there yet. But at least products are becoming commonly available on some supermarkets’ shelves, though still selling at premium. Anyone, any business, who can come up with affordable organic products could (potentially) capture market share. Asia has almost two-thirds of world’s population.

There’s an old saying ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ So, below you’ll see pictures I took at random places in Jakarta, Indonesia and Bangkok, Thailand. 

The Top 10 Clean Energy States

Clean Edge just released their first annual U.S. clean energy leadership index, that ranks the top 10 states for clean energy based on certain methodologies they use, i.e. technology, policy and investment. The company tracks more than 4,000 public and private data points across all 50 states. 

You’ll see from the map that East and West coast are dominant in this case. However, a few states outside the coastal states, also play a role. 

Most of the top 10 states are blue states. Coincidentally, Ernst & Young came up with similar blue states conclusion. 

1. California, 
2. Oregon, 
3. Massachusetts, 
4. Washington, 
5. Colorado, 
6. New York, 
7. Illinois, 
8. Connecticut, 
9. Minnesota and 
10. New Jersey. 

What that means is that these states are probably the first states in the U.S. that will come out of recession. With the rest of the world venturing into low-carbon economy, these states will stay competitive. For wannabe entrepreneurs: this kind of economic environment is definitely good for business. 

Take that, Congress! Hmm, more specifically the close-minded, anti-progress group. 

 

5 Global Forces that Will Shape The Future of Your Business

Reasons for rethinking business as we go forward to 2011 and beyond. According to McKinsey Quarterly, there are five global forces that will shape the future of business and society that represents both opportunities and challenges. 

“These trends are important because each of them can create, reshape, or extinguish entire industries,” says Patrick Vigueri of McKinsey’s. (emphasis added)

1. The rise of emerging market as the center of consumerism and innovation.

2. The imperative to improve developed-market productivity.

3. Ever-expanding (and interconnected) global networks.

4. The tension between rapidly rising resource consumption and sustainability.

5. The increasingly larger role of the state as a business partner and regulator.

Watch the video. 

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/App_Themes/v2.0/swf/external_player.swf

For transcript, here.

10 Principles of Strong Brands

In today’s marketplace, “corporations need to be aware more than ever before of the many underlying forces that impact a brand’s ongoing strength,” according to Interbrand. The rule of relationships between business and customers is changing. In the 24/7 news cycle, business can lose their brand value in a matter of minutes. Customers are more vocal. They would let you know what they feel online via Twitter, Facebook, blog comments, etc. Responding to a crisis to maintain perceived brand image is more important than before. Ask BP about it. 

To stay true to your brand’s promise, business needs to humanize its customer relationships, via Interbrand. 

It is clear that the rules are changing, but in a landscape fraught with contradictions, and vocal customers scrutinizing your every move, it is difficult to know how best to proceed. Yet some brands are already adapting – embracing transparency and a higher level of customer engagement at every touchpoint, while staying true to their brand promise both internally and externally. Brands like Coca Cola, Ford and Santander are guiding the way forward, showing the world that it is possible to win in this marketplace, and build trust and loyalty that influence customer demand, despite many risks. (emphasis added)

COCA COLA: 124-year old brand still relevant in today’s market. 

FORD: using customer feedback to make a comeback.

SANTANDER: transparency, honesty and respect for its clients. 

According to Interbrand’s Brand Strength Score, here is the 10 components that make up in a brand’s ability to generate value.

1. Commitment
2. Protection
3. Clarity
4. Responsiveness
5. Authenticity
6. Relevance
7. Understanding
8. Consistency
9. Presence
10. Differentiation

Number 9 has something to do with how social media can elevate the presence of brands.

You can dig in deeper via the definitive guide to the most valuable global brands of 2010, here or below. 

http://static.issuu.com/webembed/viewers/style1/v1/IssuuViewer.swf

Open publication – Free publishing – More top 100 brands

Business with a Purpose Business Models

I stumbled into Business Model Alchemist via Holy Kaw. If you’re into social entrepreneurship – looking into business models that has something to do with social and environmental impact, like I am – take a look at this presentation below for inspirations.

Business Models Beyond Profit – Social Entrepreneurship Lecture

View more presentations from Alexander Osterwalder

Calculating GHG Emissions for Small Businesses

Sixty corporations begin measuring the greenhouse gas emissions from their products and supply chain. For big corporations, it’s part of “their” risk management of measuring energy usage within their supply chain. For example, Walmart is using Sustainability Assessment, so their suppliers can measure their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. What’s gets measured, then gets managed, and have the opportunities to innovate – in the process. 

The business value of measuring energy and GHG is this: if your business reduce the energy use, you not only cut energy costs, but also reduces the greenhouse gas emissions. Moving forward, as more companies put in place all kinds of environmental reporting/ scorecard, by measuring the energy use and reduce GGH – you are essentially ahead of the game.

WHO ARE SMALL BUSINESSES?

In the U.S., it is from mom-and-pop store owners all the way to companies with 1,500 employees. It’s by definition. Via EPA.

The SBA defines small business by category of business using North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS).¹ For example, in the case of manufacturing, generally defines small business as a business having 500 employees or fewer. For many types of manufacturing, however, the SBA’s size standards define small business as a business having up to 750, 1000 or 1500 employees, depending on the particular type of business. In the case of agriculture; mining; and gas and sanitary services, the SBA size standards generally define small business with respect to annual receipts(from $0.5 million for crops to $25 million for certain types of pipelines). The SBA definition of a small business applies to a firm’s parent company and all affiliates as a single entity.

-emphasis added

Surprised? I was.

The European Union have a simple checklist of 4 indicators to determine whether or not you are a small or medium sized businesses (or SMEs):

1. Is the organization engage in economic activity? Y/N
2. Does it have fewer than 250 employees? Y/N
3. Does it have annual turnover not exceeding 50M Euros or balance sheet total not exceeding 43M Euros? Y/N
4. Is it autonomous? Y/N

If you check yes, then you are. On question number 4, even if it’s no, may ‘still’ qualify as SME.

For most small businesses, the majority of GHG emissions will come from their source of energy (electricity) and vehicles. For manufacturers, additional emissions it will come from use of refrigerants, waste gases, on onsite combustion. 

THE STEPS

Climate Leaders – a US government funded private-government partnership, via EPA – suggested the four steps for calculating and managing your GHG emissions.

Step 1 – Get Started

• Defined GHG
• Understand the principles of GHG accounting
• Choosing a base year against the future emissions you want to track. 
• Identifying the facilities you want to include within your organization boundaries

Step 2 – Calculate GHG Emissions

• Identifying emission source types and quantifying emissions

Step 3 – Create an Inventory Management Plan

• Documenting inventory procedures
• Inventory management for low-emitters

Step 4 – Set a Reduction Goal and Track Progress

• Annual GHG summary and goal tracking form
• Setting a GHG reduction goal
• Resources for reducing GHG emissions
• Going carbon neutral

On-Page SEO: Cheatsheet

The expert over at Conversation Marketing put together the cheat sheet below, so that we all can learn what goes under the hood. The strategy to put together content includes the kind of ‘relevant’ phrases, keywords in your line of business, so people will click on your content. 

Here’s the summary of the ‘On-Page SEO cheatsheet,’ via Conversation Marketing. h/t Who’s Blogging What, where I found this article from. This applies to blogging as well. 

1. The headline should contain your key phrase.

2. Navigation links matter. 

3. Images should have fully descriptive ALT attributes and file name. Microblogging platform like Posterous (the one I use) don’t have that feature yet, but full-fledged blogging platforms – i.e. WordPress, Typepad, etc. – do. 

4. Use your key phrases in headings further down the page and paragraphs, too, if it makes sense. Note: don’t go crazy on this. 

5. The title tag is the single most important element in on-page SEO. Make sure your key phrases come first. But also make sure that the title-tag is well written and would people want to click, because it will show up in the search results. 

All this and relevancy matter. Everything has to be relevant. Beyond that there’s only good – valuable – content, if you want your visitors to keep coming back.

You can read the rest of “On-Page SEO” below. 

On_Page_SEO_Cheatsheet.pdf
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