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The Idea Obsession

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Do you have a fantastic business idea?

Why do so many efforts to engage ‘would be’ entrepreneurs start with this question?

My ideal client would answer with a resounding ‘No!’ to this question.

I want clients to be hungry and passionate about trying something new- but they definitely do not have to have a fantastic business idea.

Or even any ideas at all.

The ideas are the easy bit.

And the truth is that most new businesses are not built around some fantastically original idea but are a variation on an already proven theme.

So my ideal client has not yet found the idea that they want to turn into a business.  This way I get the chance to shape the process that they use for developing and evaluating ideas.

The alternative – a client who has what they think is a great business idea – even though they have not really thought about either the marketplace or the industry is a much more difficult proposition to work with.

However most of the enterprise support programmes that I see are based on an assumption that the client has an idea and we just need to help them work it up.

Is your service designed to help the client who has not yet got a fantastic business idea – or any ideas at all?

The E-Factor

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Had a great morning yesterday when I got to meet some of the team responsible for the development of the LEGI programme in North East Lincolnshire – and got to enjoy the splendour of Cleethorpes!

So what impressed me about the e-factor approach?

  • The enthusiasm and belief about what could be achieved in North East Lincolnshire
  • The commitment to real outreach work (facilitating an understanding of enterprise rather than trying to sell services and facilities)
  • A commitment to develop the demand for enterprise services before investing in too much infrastructure (an ambitious property development programme is underway – but only after the outreach and adviser teams have already got some hungry and ambitious clients)
  • The functional, astute and prosaic approach to developing property – this is about affordability, commerciality, sustainability and flexibility – not about signature buildings and grand statements
  • The close integration of all parts of the delivery team – most of the key staff work for a single social enterprise.  They share an office and have a close commitment to, and history with the communities they serve
  • There is a real sense of ‘shared destiny’ across the various strands of project development – a real recognition of how success in all aspects will be critical to the success of the project as a whole
  • Some really great case studies of significant progress already made to transform the lives of clients – these will provide a strong platform for developing an excellent reputation where it matters – in target communities.

Big thanks to Charlotte, Tony, Matt and Paul for spending  time with me. I am really interested to see how things develop in North East Lincolnshire.

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Building Confidence and Self Belief

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In my experience entrepreneurs fall into one of two types. Either they are excellent (perhaps too good) at building their own self belief and confidence – or they are weak in this area – full of self doubts and expectations of disaster.   Some communities are full of people with generally good levels of self belief and confidence. In others the opposite is the norm.  In these communities the ability to build relationships with clients that enable them to improve their confidence and self belief is key.

Many enterprise professionals act as if confidence and self belief are the same thing – interchangeable words and concepts – but to me there are important differences.  Confidence is a temporary thing, transient, malleable in the short term.

Self belief is a more fixed (but still developable) underlying trait or characteristic that may have been grooved for many years.  It is our levels of self belief that dicate whether setbacks are seen as part of a consistent pattern of failure (low self belief; generally low confidence) or as just a temporary setback.

Most entrepreneurs will experience a loss of confidence, but their generally high levels of self belief allow them to see this as just a temporary setback, a blip, a one off.  Not something to dwell on or let define their expectations of the future or their own self image.

Generally it is not too hard to identify people with low self belief.  Their language is full of self doubt and negativity.  “I doubt that this will work”, “I have got this idea – but I don’t think it is very good”.

It is much harder to know what to do about it.  There are no quick fixes.

My first observation would be that most enterprise professionals have very little opportunity to do much work in this area because they do not have the time to build really powerful helping relationships with clients.  The support that they offer is more transactional (think ‘inform, diagnose and broker’) than transformational (think ‘insight, develop and coach’).  Their focus is on developing the business plan not the entrepreneur.

For those that do form more transformational relationships then working with both self belief (in the long term) and confidence (in the short term) are central to their effectiveness.  So what sorts of things do they do?

  • They help clients to recognise their patterns of thinking and self talk and categorise them simply as ‘helpful’ or ‘hindering’
  • teach clients how to replace hindering thoughts and beliefs with helpful ones
  • help the client to develop and use affirmations to improve self belief and confidence ( a good example of an affirmation for would be entrepreneurs is ‘all setbacks are only temporary’)
  • help clients to recognise and take note of times when they succeed, when things go to plan and make sure that these are fully reflected in their self image
  • teach clients to visualise success, to see, taste and feel success in their imaginations before they start to pursue it in the real world
  • teach clients to focus on lots of small wins – what can we achieve in the next 30 minutes?  24 hours?  This helps to build a climate and expectation of progress – which makes it difficult to maintain low self belief.

I know many enterprise professionals choose to ignore this part of their role.  They see it as being counselling or psychology rather than enterprise development.  They prefer to focus on the ‘hard’ issues of business planning and finance. In doing so many of  them compound issues of self belief and confidence as they have little or no belief in the clients ability to succeed or little conception of their role in helping to develop an enterprising psychology in their clients.

Tumbleweed Moments

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEl5k3Tzedc]

We might be moaning about the leaves that blow into the garden – but at least we don’t have 6 ft of tumbleweed to clear away.

But here is what enterprising Idahoans get to do with their problem – sell it over the internet at $16 a pop plus postage!

Can you imagine the conversation with the business adviser?

“I’ve got this idea for a business…you know that tumbleweed that blows all over the prairie…well I am going to sell it to posh shops to use in window displays and as the perfect present for the person with no sense of humour.  I think I can make a killing….”

For more business ideas that ‘just won’t work’ (except that they do) – click here.

Enterprise as the Process of Becoming – From A to B

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I spent a really enjoyable hour or two yesterday working with a group of enterprise champions from FE colleges across Yorkshire.

They had spent much of the morning talking about the usual stuff – enterprise shows, RDA projects to promote enterprise and entrepreneurship to young people etc.

In my rant I took a slightly different approach and talked about enterprise as being the process of becoming a person.

About a set of strategies and skills that help you to move from A to B, which often includes helping to establish that there is a B – there is a better life – and that they can do things to achieve it.  (it is interesting to note that many people who we consider ‘enteprising’ are actually using enterprise to stay at ‘A’).

This led me to talk about the importance of working with students in 3 areas:

  1. Reason – the logic and practice of enterprise and entrepreneurship, goal setting, planning, managing and all that good technical stuff
  2. Purpose – clarifying why – what do we want to HAVE, what are we prepared to DO in order to get it, and perhaps most importantly, what kind of person do we want to BE – and does this fit with what we are prepared to DO and what we want to HAVE.  (This ‘HAVE, DO, BE’ feels important to me – it should help us to work in more person centred ways, helping people to become what they want to be rather than manipulating them into the policy makers tick boxes).
  3. Self esteem – making sure that students really believe that they deserve better, that they can achieve more, that they can succeed – but that it is down to them – the hard work HAS to be theirs.

This approach helps us to position enterprise as close to the core purpose of FE – the education of young people.  It also helps us to broaden our focus from the nuts and bolts of enterprise (the domain of REASON) onto the more motivating domains of Purpose and Self Esteem.  And I am sure this might help us to engage more FE staff in really exploring the importance of enterprise in delivering their mission.