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Sara Hand Perspectives REAL Early Stage Companies

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REAL Early Stage Companies

By Sara Hand

In working with early stage companies there are several key challenges that, unless addressed, can make customer and investor acquisition more difficult.

ONE: A unique value proposition

You have certain characteristics, a uniqueness which makes you different from other people…what makes you special, what makes you unlike any other human being. Just as you are unique as an individual, so you are unique as a business. Yes, there may be other businesses that provide a product or service that is similar to what you provide, however, they are not you AND that IS important. Because it is in your difference, your uniqueness, that something called a unique selling proposition comes forth. People buy a product or service …YOUR product or service, because of what makes you different not because of how you are the same as anyone else.

If you don’t know what makes you specifically different and unique, commit some time to defining that position. It will pay off as you become more profitable and more effective in how you spend your time and money!

TWO: Clearly defined market

Despite the fact that just about anyone could be your prospect, the reality is that not everyone is. No matter how good you are and how hard you try, not everyone is going to like you. Your job is not to make everyone like you, but to identify that specific group of prospects that you best serve. Who are they? Where are they? How do you best reach them?

If you don’t know who your ideal prospect is – start with the prospect that is obviously served by your company and will pay you in a timely fashion. Whether you will ever look for funding or you will push through the startup phase with sheer willpower, you will never really pass Go without a clearly defined market.

THREE: “Lone ranger” syndrome

Typically, a successful venture requires the skill sets and expertise of more than one individual. Often entrepreneurs have difficulty releasing some of the responsibility of growing a business to anyone else. Whether it is control issues in that no one else can do it as well as themselves, or the lack of desire to share any stake in their company with anyone else – the sheer amount of work can bury that “single by choice” entrepreneur. Sometimes they are waiting until they can afford to hire the “best” in management and don’t realize that an effective alternative is the addition of an advisory board, and that could make a substantial difference in their performance. Entrepreneurs sometimes go it alone because they don’t know what they don’t know.

If ever there were a time to be an entrepreneur here in SWFL, this is it. The resources available to help entrepreneurs find the answers and the people to take their businesses to the next level abound. For example a friend of mine Mike O’Donnell has just recently moved here from Seattle and relocated his technology company to the area. As a serial entrepreneur, he is bringing an organization called the Founder Institute here to help other potential high growth companies get off to a great start with better equipped founders. Introductory sessions have just started, with the 16 week intensive series starting in March. See http://www.fi.co/about.

In September 2012, Tampa Bay WaVE and the University of South Florida received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Commerce Department to support early stage technology ventures. Now the FirstWaVE Accelerator is accepting their first round of applications for the launch of the business accelerator program http://www.tampabaywave.org.

At the Gulf Coast Venture Forum, an angel investor network, we look at a number of early stage companies each month to select the four to six that will present for our investors. If you believe that your venture has the potential to be a high growth enterprise requiring funding, check the list above for your homework. Visit http://www.gcvf.com for more information and to apply.

sara-handManaging Partner for S P Hand and Associates, Sara Hand specializes in developing creative strategies for business growth with a strong focus on implementation. She is President of the Sarasota Chapter Gulf Coast Venture Forum, co-founder of BarCamp Sarasota, on the Board of Directors for the Sun Coast Technology Forum and is involved regionally in collaborative efforts for Entrepreneurial Support organizations across SWFL. Sara may be reached at (941) 228.4033 or sara@sphandandassociates.com.

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