Transitioning from Employee to Entrepreneur

Facilitator: Mark Corbin

Transitioning from Employee to Entrepreneur

You have focused your entire career on doing a good job and maintaining a professional demeanor. However, during the latest financial crisis to grip the United States you have found yourself on the bubble, feeling the vibe, or just downright worried about your job. What should you do now? Well, do your homework dont wait until the handwriting is on the wall or the pink slip is in your hand; now is the time to figure out if it is time to work for yourself or to remain an employee. In this workshop you will begin to explore if you have what it takes to Transition from Employee to Entrepreneur. During the workshop we cover the following topics; Free Agent Status Know Thyself Push vs. Pull You Need Money Watch out for Money Traps Money-Family and Friends Sales- Move Those Kits Build Your Brand Plan Ahead Resources Page Five People You Need to Know

Transitioning from Employee to Entrepreneur

Free Agent Status Rise of the self-employed: There are a whole new generation of self-employed people now entering the work force. Job security is an oxymoron; (1) Consider oneself a free agent, (2) Independent contractors rather than traditional employees, (3) Just consider this nugget: "Temple University officials noticed something a little out of the ordinary when they looked at the results of the post-graduation survey of 2009's undergraduate class: for the first time in the life of the survey, self employment ranked alongside banking, education and healthcare as one of the most popular career paths for recent graduates. What to expect from yourself when you decide to work for yourself: (1) Should I remain an employee? (2) What is my skill set? (3) What I dont know, (4) How do I set-up a business and (5) Do I have the Passion and Discipline to work for myself. Fill in the blank _______________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ Push vs. Pull
There are two basic types of demand in the marketplacea want and a need. A business that addresses a need is more promising than one that addresses a want. In the case of a market need, theres pre-existing pent-up demand, and creating awareness is all thats required to catalyze sales of your offering.

Know Thyself

In the case of a market want, youll need to push your product onto consumers, and this requires expensive advertising campaigns to influence the sale.

Transitioning from Employee to Entrepreneur

You Need Money-The Right Path

Create a path to profitability: Investors know that success depends on a solid plan, a lucrative target market, and a good team, a product that solves a problem or fills a pressing need, competitive advantage, and a path to profitability. Without the fundamentals you cannot succeed. No amount of money will make these things magically appear, even if an investor is willing to invest in their absence.

Watch out for Money Traps

What most people dont understand about what borrowed money can or cannot do are things like: Correct a bad business model/plan: Ask yourself, is it really the lack of money that is holding us back, or is there a weakness in the model that needs to be addressed? What does your competition look like on paper? Money cannot buy customer love: You can give away the doughnuts but if you have to sell the glaze you aint got no love.

Money- Friends and Family

Borrowing money from friends and family can work both for and against the new business owner: (1) Many of these loans can be made available rather quickly because these families and associates know the entrepreneur personally. Keep in mind: (2) Family members and friends may feel that they should have a say in every company decision, (3) They may desire a large stake in the new business, (4) Remember, above all this can lead to resentment and relationship strains among all parties involved.
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Transitioning from Employee to Entrepreneur

Sales - Move Those Kits Your Only Job is to Sell | Learn the Basics of Selling: Begin by analyzing the following steps of your sales process: (1) The total number of sales leads, (2) The number of referrals provided by your referral networks, (3) The average number of appointments made by each salesperson, (4) The number of proposals or sales presentations and (4) The number of closed sales and the average sale size.

Build Your Brand

Become known as an expert and resources in your field. People buy from people they like. People will also invest in people who have a quality idea and plan for success. Get Known by using zero based marketing and advertising, social networking and publicity. Expand your network of contacts, increasing your visibility with potential partners, board members, advisors, and others who can give you a boost. Planning includes S.W.O.T (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis. Business Owners need to know their internal strengths and weaknesses and the external opportunities and threats to the business. Business Owners should always be conscious of the continuously changing economic, technological, and financial, market, legal and competitive environment requires continuous attention to planning. Planning decisions must be made each year. Postponing planning is akin to the sailor leaving port with no map, no destination and no navigation instruments.

It is Better to Plan Ahead

Transitioning from Employee to Entrepreneur Resources Page

Business Name: What is the name of your business and where is it located? To check for start-up name availability go to: https://www.ai.org/sos/bus_service/online_ corps/nameavail.asp To find information on how to research your industry go to: http://www.virtualpet.com/industry/howto/s earch.htm What patent or copyright protection has been secured? To obtain a patent go to: http://www.uspto.gov/ To obtain a copyright go to http://www.loc.gov/copyright/ Pricing Strategy: How are your products and services priced? For help with pricing go to: http://www.sba.gov/library/pubs/fm-13.txt Specific Industry Sector: What specific industry grouping do you operate within? To find your industry classification name and code go to: http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.htm l and select NAICS Search. Product Description: What is it that you sell? Some questions to address may include: To find suppliers go to http://www.thomasregister.com/ What regulatory issues may apply to your product? 1. Federal Trade Commission 2. Food and Drug Administration 3. Consumer Product Safety Commission To review the Clayton Act which regulates pricing and pricing practices go to: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/13.h tml Market Size: To estimate the size of a consumer market in numbers of customers, go to: http://www.census.gov/population/www/ind ex.html

Additional sources of market research: 1. The American FactFinder 2. USA Counties 3. Indiana Business Research Center 4. Understanding USA 5. Mailing Lists and Databases Competitive Analysis: With whom does your To learn more about the tactics of creating business compete? To locate potential buzz and effective word of mouth campaigns competitors go to: see the following: http://www.infousa.com/homesite/index.htm 1. Unleashing the Ideavirus by Seth Godin l?106 2. The Anatomy of Buzz by Emanuel Rosen 3. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell 4. The Secrets of Word of Mouth Marketing by George Silverman

Transitioning from Employee to Entrepreneur

(5) People You Need to Know (1) Mentor: A wise and trusted counselor or teacher whom You Inc. will listen; (2) Mail Carrier: A person, especially a friend, who delivers for You Inc., (3) Advocate: Someone who will support or recommend You, Inc. publicly, (4) Strategist: One who is skilled in strategy and willing to help develop You, Inc and (4) Woman of Action: A person who prefers to act rather than contemplate and gets things accomplished quickly and efficiently for You Inc.

Sources

1. A WINNING BUSINESS ATTITUDE by Bernard L. Erven, Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics Ohio State University; http://aede.ag.ohiostate.edu/people/erven.1/HRM/winning attitude 203-1198Reno.pdf 2. All ClipArt; http://office.microsoft.com/enus/images/similar 3. Resources Page; The Tactics of Creating A Business Plan by Jack B. Hess, Columbus Enterprise Development Corporation, Copyright 2001

MARKCORBIN

Mark Corbin is a Technical Assistance Trainer and Small Business Consultant whose area(s) of expertise are providing Technical Assistance to Start-up, Small Business, and Mid-Size Businesses. Marks workshops & seminars are a blend of lecture, interactive group discussions and exercises. Marks exercises provide attendees the ability to learn by doing as participants are encouraged to utilize real world problems that allow the adult learner to develop and acquire skills immediately. Contact Information: 215-432-2259, coachcorbin@verizon.net or @MarkCorbin1