Business plans are never a true reflection of what goes on in a startup. Yet banks, funders and potential investors still insist on them. My mentor told me something very interesting recently, which also transformed the way I view business since that chat. His words were “don’t plan too much, take your product to market and let clients determine how you craft it to meet their needs”.

That message was also conveyed in Allon Raiz’s new book – Lose The Business Plan “What they don’t teach you about being an entrepreneur. Something I got prior to launch and Allon Raiz singed it. If you have been here before, you may have read a wish list of people I wanted to meet and talk to, Allon is one of those people.

The book begins with Allon citing a meeting he had with his mentor, who believed in him and continually invested in ideas that sometimes failed and others succeeded. While starting businesses and growing them, Allon Raiz realized his passion was in building businesses rather than running them. That was when he discovered the incubator business model, which he now runs as Raizcorp alongside a team of committed people.

Desire

In the first few chapters he got me hooked, not only with the bold title, but because of some of the things he mentions in the book with desire being one of them.

“Desire is almost the inoculation against the downside. It is desire that gives you the ability to carry on when sales are down and you’re not closing any deals.” – Page 28

Business Plans, as almost a prerequisite, are not expected to portray anything that resembles change and wanting to transform how things are done in business. Banks and funders are about the numbers, low risk and a graph that starts with funding and takes an upward curve. Realistically, startups have challenges and continually alter their offer to suit the market. And banks, though knowing this, expect small businesses to follow a similar path.

Most funding requests are measured as being viable by people who, themselves, are not entrepreneurs. Then comes the dreaded meeting with your would-be funder, where you put on your best behavior and leave the dream, the desire to change things back home.

I had sex last night

Keep your mind out of the gutter, at least till you’ve commented – what you do thereafter is up to you.

Sex, being a universal activity across different cultures is a test that Allon uses for research among groups of entrepreneurs he interacts with. In this test he requests the participants to write words they associate with sex.

His findings reveal “up to 10% of the participants in pairs have no words in common and the average correlation is less than 14%”. This he uses as proof that something as unique as your business, in comparison to a universal activity, requires you to get the masses excited about.

He also found over 500 definitions of the word ‘entrepreneur’, with the only link being “They see an opportunity, take a risk, and in doing so create value”.

It is then, for the purpose of this post, safe to say that no 2 people will have a similar path in their businesses and business plans overlook that.

3 Types Of Entrepreneurs

You may have found yourself in countless debates about who is an entrepreneur and who isn’t. The committed man down the road from you, who has been running the same supermarket for ages, is seen as an entrepreneur. You may not agree, but everyone is adamant he is. Allon settles that argument with these 3 different kinds of entrepreneurs.

And the types are . . . . .

• The Subsistence Entrepreneur : Generally a one man band that has no real value, as it relies completely on the entrepreneur. It also does not make consistent profits.
• The Lifestyle Entrepreneur : Similar to the subsistence entrepreneur’s business, this one cannot be sold without the entrepreneur. Inversely, it makes a consistent profit that is sufficient in sustaining the entrepreneur’s lifestyle.
• The Growth Entrepreneur : This entrepreneur’s entity has value, and with time depends less on the entrepreneur. It also makes profits without the entrepreneur.

The Bottom Line

Allon Raiz wrote this book to get a point across and he manages to grip you quickly. Within the first few pages, you know if it’s something worth reading for you or not. He makes some valid points and in all of two sittings, I had decided to read the 154 pages again. Because it has some invaluable information, I would give it away except mine is a signed copy.

This book obliterates a lot of the misconceptions we tend to have about entrepreneurs and what makes them.

Which type of entrepreneur are you?

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Allon Raiz is the founder and CEO of Raizcorp, the only privately held, unfunded, profitable business incubator on the African continent, supporting in excess of 200 businesses.

Make contact with Allon on his website here, take a peak at Raizcorp and follow them on Twitter.

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The first thought was to begin this post with – ‘It seems News Café have suddenly become too big their customers’. Then I took a quick glance on Hello Peter, only to realize they’ve become giants and the customers does not matter.

We went to the News Café at the Emperor’s Palace recently after a comedy event, on a month end Saturday evening. Not being a restaurant owner, I would guess the last Saturday of the month would be one of the busiest times. It takes a whole franchise, 15 years of experience in the cocktail bar industry and experienced managers to conclude they need fewer waiters for that time of the month.

We got in, sat ourselves at a table that needed to be cleaned and thought it was temporary. A waitress finally attended to us 20 minutes later – still leaving the table dirty with empty glasses, till we called her back.

Our order

o   A glass of Coke

o   A double tot of Chivas

o   Double Jameson

o   And another soft drink

We then requested her to bring ice on the side.

What she heard

Take 30 minutes with our drinks. And oh, let the ice melt in them almost completely.

The long and short

We sat there for about 3 hours with every round of drinks taking no less than 25 minutes to arrive. The explanation was “the bar is busy this evening”, which the manager echoed after we spoke to him about the problem.

When I read on Hello Peter, it became clear that 54 complaints – in the past year – ranging from robberies to assaults by staff, revealed a different story.

Waiters and managers normally get grief from “fussy customers”.

While sitting there watching tempers flare from all the other tables, something else came to mind.

A flawed system is screwing your staff

Someone, other than me, also reported a similar issue on Hello Peter and it occurred around the same time. Guess what? It was for the same branch. Surprised?

Your system is inefficient when customers have the same problem. People would report the waiter and the manager without considering how the franchise puts this in place.

If you happen to be from News Café, or know someone who knows someone. . . . Please tell them to stop turning away customers in their shorts and go read Hello Peter here. They might get some insights from their customers.

Photo by: Dan Orbit on Flickr

It is not often that you get appreciated for the hard work you do. The sleepless nights. The pitches you don’t get called back for. But lucky for you, someone out there is watching.

This morning in the mail, I got something that might excite you. At least I thought it would.

Sanlam and Business Partners are giving away up to R100 000 in their Entrepreneur Of The Year Award. It’s also quite easy to apply from what I saw.

The requirements in their three categories are also simple enough. Before you think it’s too good to be true. You have to prove that – by their standards – the three most important financial risks of your business are quantifiable. The application form has more details on that. 

Categories and minimum requirements 

• Emerging Entrepreneur (business younger than three years old)
• Business Entrepreneur (turnover up to R20 million)
• Medium Business Entrepreneur (turnover greater than R20 million

Of course, you are not motivated by the cash prizes. But they are offering those too.

Cash Prizes

• Category winners will receive R20 000.00
• R100 000 in cash for the overall winner along with the opportunity to attend an international conference or trade show, as well as extensive public exposure. That should help in acquiring the much needed sales.

Download the entry forms and more information to enter.

Spread the word as far and wide as possible as well. . . . Good luck!

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Image by : xtrarant on Flickr

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A while back I wrote about the 100 list and promised you another post about it. After spending sometime thinking of ways to present it in writing, I finally decided that this would be it.

One of the things I do a lot of is talk about interesting things to do and experience as much of them as possible. But my thinking here has been quite rigid and business – focused in a way that makes it difficult to write about anything else.

Getting out of the boxes

The 100 list is partly me getting out that box and partly challenging myself and you to do certain things over the next year. Call it ‘living the dream’.

We all thrive where there is a bit of variety and interesting things do. That variety, adventure and word of mouse is what the 100 list all about.

.  . . but what for?

There are entrepreneurial companies out there that provide phenomenally amazing service, which we never get to talk about. Instead the ones that give us crap get more mention. The 100 list is where I will talk about them.

There are quite a few things I want to do over time which seem to get put off and once after a while they get relegated far from memory. And we tell ourselves they weren’t worth doing anyway.

Ones that are worth doing

For the ones that are worth doing there’s the 100 list. To start off here are a few things I plan to over the next year:

• Take the highest commercial bungee jump in the world at Bloukrans Bridge.
• Get dressed by Urban for a year
• Interview Malcolm Gladwell on NetwebTV
• Interview Chris Anderson on NetwebTV

This list will grow over time as more activities come to mind. Some I can only mention later on.

What things have you put off that are still worth doing? Tell us in the comments. And if you happen to be from Urban, feel free to email me.

Photo credit: Photo by Johannesen on Flickr