Entrepreneur's Journey

The Death of an Entrepreneur - Part 2

2010-05-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

I must admit writing the first post about the Death of an Entrepreneur was therapeutic. It was good to get off my chest those things that I wanted to share. I wanted to get out in the open those things that every technology entrepreneur should consider before doing whatever they are planning on doing.

Problem is, most entrepreneurs must die. There is no way of saving them. They will read my post and then do what I did. They will say "this time it is different", "I will do that later after I get to this stage"... blah blah blah.. and then death.

No matter what you read, or who tells you anything about how to be successful or even how NOT to fail.. guess what, you are going to do what you are going to do and it will happen. Kinda like riding a motorcycle. It is not a matter of if you will wreck it is a matter of when and how bad.

My hope is when you fall you skin your knee. I hope you can bandage it up and keep going. But also understand sometimes you will hit a tree with no helmet going 450 miles an hour while texting and picking your nose.... what I will not understand is if you forget about that tree you hit.

The next time you set out down the road going 450 miles an hour with no helmet my hope is you will at least not text or pick your nose. Chances are you will get further down the road past the site of your last disaster.

I have learned so much from my start up experiences but what I learned and the way I learned them is going to be completely different from the way you learn, however one very basic concept is universal..

Please, please, please remember your mistakes. Remember the skid marks and your blood and skin on the highway in the places you fell.

Entrepreneurs never die. They get beat up, bruised, smashed, crushed, eaten, smacked and ripped from limb to limb but they live. Some how they keep breathing and dreaming and planning... do not let that ever die!

The Death of an Entrepreneur

2010-04-23T18:53:00.000-07:00

Here we are coming to the end of a hard, dirty, bullet ridden road. Blood has spilled and the last breath of air enters our lungs. Guess what? This is not the end of the story.

An entrepreneur never dies. They just some how continue to rise from the dead. I know this first hand because I died yet here I am. I am taking yet another breath of air and blood is some how getting to my brain, at least enough to write this post.

What I would like to do is describe the things that lead up to my death so you can avoid following in my path.

1) Your family is #1, #2, and #3. If what you are doing is putting their well being or roof over their head in jeopardy, do not do it. You must be ready well beyond any doubt before you risk the financial pressure and struggles of being an entrepreneur. If I ever strike out again, I will have more money than myself or my family knows what to do with.. with that being said...#4

4) Have so much money in your back pocket that you can not sit down. You better freaking have a mint saved up. Either that or an extremely low requirement for money each month. I had no business starting my last venture. I had no business starting my first venture for that matter because then I had no money and no experience. At least this last time I had one of those two things. One extremely important factor is money. You have to live, eat, and have shelter. You need money for that. Either have a source of revenue prior to starting your venture or have it saved up. Your run way will end if you don't way way too soon. The key and secret to success is runway. You must allow yourself the time you and your business requires to grow and develop into what it was meant to become. A short runway equates to the stress of having to grow fast or die. This pressure is not good or healthy for anyone.

5) Get someone with some sense of finances on your core team. If that person can not dedicate the time or resources to you find someone else. This person needs to watch your money like a hawk and own your ever changing business plan and financial docs. If you are going to require outside funding at some point this (#5) is an absolute requirement for success. I do not care if you have a CPA from Harvard (if that is even possible) you have to build a business and the last thing you need to do is worry about accounting or financial documents until you need them to present to an investor. I had found an ace with sales and accounting skills to help me start BigLeapGPS but his runway was shorter than mine. Looking back, I knew I had to replace him with someone to help in those aspects I was not strong and I didn't. Shame on me!

6) Yes, for the most part, means Hell no screw off. DO NOT listen to the vast majority of people because they are full of shit and are not willing to back anything they say with anything but more shit. I wasted 98.99% of my time on dung spewers. Imagine if I had just stuck to the few that were actually for real in their intentions to work with me and allow us to grow our businesses together. Problem is it is tough to weed out the crap because they are the ones that always sound so good. Keep in mind that 1 out of every 25-30 discussions you have will turn into anything worth your time. People for the most part want to tell you what you want to hear with no intention of ever doing what they say they will do or what you think they will do.

There are more points to address but this is all I can muster tonight.

I have mulled over this post for I know 4-5 months. My intention is not to send future or potential entrepreneurs for the hills. All I want to do is make clear what I learned through dying you can change and adapt to while you still have blood left in your body.

I wanted to make sure I hit home as best I could that it may be exotic thought to start a business and make it successful but the absolute truth is we hear much more about successes then we do of the failures. The successes are those who find their non-shit blower(s) before the runway ends and who have time to still grow their business before an even better funded, more experienced start up doing the same thing eats their lunch. The process is a challenge. It was one of the greatest challenges of my life.

I do want to end this post with something positive... If an entrepreneur dies, they come back stronger.

So worst case, at least you have that to look forward to... Good luck and don't die!!! Get it right the first time....

Hello, I am Joe. I am a bootstrapper.

2009-07-24T19:48:00.000-07:00

I wrote this blog as if I were walking into a treatment facility. I am committing myself for the reason of being a bootstrapper. I walk in and everyone says, "Hey Joe, what are you in for?" And I say, Hello I am Joe. I am a bootstrapper. Well what does that really mean? Let's talk about the meaning of "bootstrap" first: "to help oneself, often through improvised means." Every time I read that definition I have to laugh a little to myself because it is so prefect, particularly the bit about improvised means. If you are bootstrapping a business, you are living improvisation firsthand. The only way for a business to not be considered bootstrapped is for it to bring in enough revenue to cover its costs and the costs of the (now very simple) lives of its owners/entrepreneurs.

Although I am a bootstrapper, I have had help along the way. I have received some funds from friends and family to get my business to 2009. In January 2009, I hoped to bring in additional funding from other sources, but the economy's nose dive had other plans for us. That other plan was continued improvisation. But here we are in July, and we are still doing it! We are not just surviving; we are driving! We are going out and developing other markets; we are getting more players involved; we are not stopping. You stop, you die. We believe way too much in what we are doing at this point to die. We believe in our hearts, souls, and minds that our product will make a difference, be successful, and (in our case) save lives. You don't bootstrap if you don't believe. We believe!

So what does it look like? Bootstrapping means no vacations to the beach when everyone else on Facebook is going and snapping pictures. Bootstrapping is living well under whatever means you were used to. So instead of a dinner at Lattitude you have dinner at home, $1 rentals from your local supermarket vs. going to the movies. Bootstrapping is really just living more simple lives then you were probably used to living. And I ask you, is that so bad? Imagine applying the rules of bootstrapping to a family that currently has a good income. Imagine for a second if you acted as if you were improvised by saving vs. spending. WOW! I know I would be in a different place if I followed my own advice today.

The craziest thing of all is that bootstrappers bootstrap by choice. Most of us left paying jobs with normal hours to pursue our dreams, and most of us brought others along for the ride. Our passion propels us out of our comfort and into improv-land. It's an odd place to be; the air seems thinner, like it's hard to get a full, deep breath. It's a steep climb, but we know in our hearts that when we unfasten our bootstaps at the summit, the view will be phenomenal.

Are you a bootstrapper? Please share your story and pictures with us...

I have included a picture of my running shoes which are also my grass cutting shoes and pretty much everything else shoes, for the simply reason that they are my boots, they represent the number of miles I need to get out of every single investment I make.

A Business Case for Connecting

2009-05-18T17:51:00.000-07:00

I believe it is going to take a mixture of unique methods to kick start our economy. I am not an economist and do not know how to better spend money none of us have. What I do know is the power of making connections to help our community and yourself down the road. This act may very well be one of the strongest things we can do to boost our economy.

For example, you know someone who makes socks and you know someone who distributes socks well invite them both to lunch or send out an introduction e-mail. There may be nothing there or it could turn into the type relationship that transforms both their businesses. It is not up for you to decide. It is up for them and what can come from them getting together. I bet right now if you think about it there are at least two or three sets of people either in your industry or not that you have thought of to connect together. Do it. Get these people together.

I recently called a lunch meeting with two of the premier wireless leaders in the Upstate. The result of that meeting was two gentlemen who have been in the same industry and in the same geography for more than 10 years coming together on a business idea that could end up being huge for both companies. Prior to this meeting they had never met face to face but when the introduction lunch was called, there was no hesitation.

I did not get anything directly out of the lunch introduction. But I might down the road. I believe that for every good thing you do you are rewarded by 100 virgins, no really, I believe everything comes back around in multiples of three. For every good thing you do, you get it back x3. Plus it just feels good to do something positive in business when everything else around us is so negative.

Please, take a few moments right now to introduce at least two people together who you have been thinking needed to meet. Use Swampfox use Linkedin, you whatever you have, heck... maybe an e-mail or phone call.

Please share your successes in this post of when either someone connected you with someone that had a fundamental change in your business or a connection you made between two individuals or companies that resulted in something very positive.

Fear vs. Belief

2009-05-15T18:53:00.000-07:00

While I was out running the other night I realized something seismic: belief conquers fear. More specifically, I had conquered my fear of entrepreneurship through belief. While there are many important steps to building a successful start-up business, none is more important than this: the day you realize that your belief in your idea, product, or service is bigger than your fears and anxiety about the business and its future. The day you realize that is a good day.

Leading up to this moment I remember feeling and even saying to some of you that I felt like you could punch me, stab me, shoot me with whatever you had, and everything would bounce off. This feeling was me overcoming fear and believing more and more in what I was doing and the direction we were heading.

In this path I have traveled for nearly 2 years, there have been the highest highs and the lowest lows. And by lows, I mean stress so intense it resulted in temporary loss of vision in one eye. That's scary. And that's it, really - the lowest lows were fueled by fear. The highest highs were fueled by my belief being validated that things were going to be alright.

I am not going to sit here and tell you I am not going to have more lows. I know I will, and I know they could happen any day. But I also know when they do happen, I will pull through and get on top again.

Belief is easier when you start getting external validation. One such validation of our business and overall business model is the fact that we are slowly growing while other much larger competitors are failing. Much larger, better funded, "better lead" companies are fizzling out of gas, and we are just sitting there watching them fall from the sky like bugs hitting the zapper. Why?

It is not because we have a better product or a better portal or a better idea. It is our model. Our approach to getting business done. Talk about validation of belief! Hiding behind patents seems to be worthless. We have patents, but your only true defense in this global market is execution. No start up has funding to protect its patents against a bigger player, and the time wasted in the courts is time wasted focused on your market.

When you have no money things are tough, but when you have no belief, things are impossible.

TechCrunch50 or not, we are getting ready to Launch!

2008-09-13T18:34:00.000-07:00

Here we are.... 1 1/2 years later, we are almost ready to announce to the world our ideas and products on how to effectively reduce the number of missing, lost, and injured children worldwide. I really want this to be drilled home with anyone who reads about or knows anything about BigLeapGPS. We want to bring lost, missing, injured, and kidnapped children home quickly and safely with the world's smallest GPS protection technology that most everyone will be able to afford. We are excited and you should be as well... more coming soon... very very soon!

We were close but no cigar, this year...

2008-09-08T18:09:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone... I had to remove all press related to BigLeapGPS and our magic sauce to the GPS market last month because we were on the short list for this year's TechCrunch50 in San Francisco. We ended up not making the cut this year but it has done nothing but motivate us to get it done next year. Here is the website, we were up against some fantastic companies... www.techcrunch50.com. There were over 1000 submissions from 49 different countries. Again, I feel it was a great honor to have made it as far as we did.

So with that being said, BigLeapGPS is moving forward at quite a tick right now... we have our prototype under development as we speak... should be ready to demo in November of this year. Our website is being put together by Orangecoat ... www.orangecoat.com and is going to be a showstopper... not to build it up or anything. But we should be releasing the website, our press release on our official launch, and other things very very soon so please stay tuned....

This has been an amazing trip so far. Thank you to everyone who has been apart of this and I look forward to us all celebrating the success of BigLeapGPS for years to come....

BigLeapGPS LLC. receives investment from private source and SCLaunch!

2008-08-08T13:36:00.000-07:00

Submitted by: Joe Milam on Aug 08, 2008 at 3:12 pm Tagged with: Investment, start up Source: BigLeapGPS LLC.

BigLeapGPS LLC., a disruptive GPS technology start up focused on the licensing, engineering and delivery of the world's smallest personal GPS device, is pleased to announce receiving seed investment from a private source as well as a product development grant from SCLaunch!

“We are excited that after a year of hard work we are finally on our way,” said Joe Milam, the founder of BigLeapGPS, LLC.

BigLeapGPS LLC. is a company that is focused on delivering safety and peace-of-mind through the application of wireless networks, GPS location and software technology.

The BigLeapGPS device is a non-obtrusive, easy to use, and highly customizable solution for use in multiple markets from asset tracking to personal protection. All BigLeapGPS devices are tied to a 24/7 web portal for accurate, real time and historical device location anywhere in the GSM cellular world.

The BigLeapGPS story started nearly one year ago after an unsuccessful search for a small GPS device for protecting children. The passion for child protection translated into some amazing innovation that will change the way manufacturers build personal GPS devices.

For details on their technology please contact Joe at jmilam@bigleapgps.com

See 4 other posts submitted by Joe Milam. Find articles, people, and videos related to: Investment, start up

My "Stinky" Motivation

2008-08-01T18:03:00.001-07:00

Here is a funny story I wanted to share about one of the core elements that continues to motivate me to create and launch my ideas...

About 4 years ago I had an idea... underwear that would absorb any gas issues one would have. Let me say this was not a personal issue, I just thought it was a good idea... that small note was for all of you who were snickering out there. So basically the underwear would absorb your stinky gas and instead of making your neighbor in the car suffer they would instead be treated to the smell of roses, a fresh breeze, Hell... anything but what it actually smelled like. So I called up my brother-in-law who is a chemical engineer and asked him how we could do it. After he laughed for a while he said he would think about it. Well, we never talked about it again.

So I was sitting in traffic in Atlanta one afternoon when low and behold I heard something I could not believe. An interview with some guys who had done what I thought up a few years before... http://www.flat-d.com/technology1.html .

I called my brother-in-law up that night and told him what I had heard... I told him right then, that this would not happen again. And again I am not sure he heard me because he was laughing still at me.

This was my one idea, albeit a stinky one, that got away and I now look at every good idea I have very closely because I DO NOT want what happened with my underwear to happen again.

I know a lot of you have similar stories of ideas you had that you did not carry through with but someone did.. if you have them, please post them as a reply to this.

These missed opportunities should motivate you to create, create, create and not just come up with an idea and sit on it or in the case of my idea, take it a step further and gas it to death.

Today was a good day

2008-07-18T19:58:00.000-07:00

The trip of an entrepreneur is more up and down then the biggest, fastest roller coaster in world. It has the lowest lows followed by some highs that would empress Cheech and Chong. Today was a good day and helped to remind me of the value of your close network of friends, advisers, and family that you are consistently surrounded by and get all the necessary support you need. I am so thankful to have the network around me that I have. So much so that I know without a doubt that I would be nowhere near where I am with BigLeapGPS as I am now without it. I did a presentation to an entrepreneur class at Clemson several months back and I kept coming back to my network. I kept saying that everything I have and have been able to do was based on that and a student piped up and said, "How can I get in on this network?" I told him to come to InnoVenture 2008, he came, and I introduced him to my network. It is not rocket science to find the people around you that can help, it is building a relationship and trust with them before anything is asked of them that makes a great difference. To go as far as even doing something for them because any supportive network is a two way street and will never work if all you do is take and take. Give, give a lot and things come back many, many times over. Of all the investments, sales training classes, self help groups, whatever else I have invested in in the past to better myself - my network has by far been my greatest investment.

Idea creation is nothing compared to what you do with it

2008-07-18T19:50:00.000-07:00

Everybody has ideas. As anyone, so what was or is your great idea that could change the world? What is your paper drink umbrella or your paper click or your post it note? Most everyone will have at least one idea if not many that are truly unique and would be a game changer if they had taken the idea further than just saying, "Hey, what about this?" Don't get me wrong, having great ideas are very important but what is even more important is you doing something with them or sharing your ideas with people that can do something. There is absolutely nothing wrong in sharing a concept with a mover and a shaker especially if you know yourself well enough to know you are not going to do anything about it. Please, share your game changers with someone, chances are if they move forward with anything you give them it will come back 3 fold in your favor.

The American Idol Business Method

2008-07-05T18:40:00.000-07:00

Think about it for a second in business terms rather than music. What if you had the ability to take a list of product ideas and concepts, present them to the world and let the world tell you which ones they like best and would/will buy when they are produced.
Think about what this concept cuts out for a business. 1) research on what the customer will buy. 2) product pre-production costs based on estimates rather than exact interest figures. 3) the risk of developing a product that would not sell.
The most popular TV show in the world is nothing more than a product advertisement and they are getting paid by the viewer to tell them which products they will pay more money for. The business model for American Idol is genius. You get paid to figure out what product to produce then you get paid on the finished product.
How can we apply those same terms to business and effectively deliver a list of products, ideas, or concepts to the market at large and make the potential customer care enough to provide feed back and at the same time get excited enough about the finished product to turn around and buy it when available?

At Test - The true value of an idea - Can we make Greenville Wireless?

2008-06-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

Submitted by: Joe Milam on Jun 21, 2008 at 8:57 pm Tagged with: idea creation, Wireless Source: BigLeapGPS

When I had coffee with John Warner in the Fall of last year to talk about my BigLeapGPS idea; we had met at Port City Java on a busy morning. I asked John to sit outside because I was, at that time, like most other idea guys... I was very careful about who I talked to and who was listening. John made a point to me about my concerns. He said if I stood in the middle of Port City Java and announced to the customers what I was doing with BigLeapGPS and how I was going to do it, no one would do anything about it. No one would steal this idea I hold so close to my heart and I guess number one point is no one will implement what it would take to start a busienss around it. I believe those comments now more than ever being reminded of the trials it takes to get a start up started.
So with all that being said, I have an idea and I want to share it with the SwampFox community and I want to see if anyone will actually construct a business case around this idea and do something with it. Here it is:

Many of you may remember that back in 2003 I installed one of the first business sponsored Wi-Fi networks in the country right here in downtown Greenville. Well after the keys to the wireless network were given to another company to run it has not run very well, if at all. I have an idea on how to get a working wireless network back up in downtown Greenville as well as provide a marketing medium for the participates in the network.

In summary, get a lot of restaurants, bars and other businesses in the downtown areas all up and down Main Street to allow you to install a small piece of software on their existing wireless access point or sell an access point for $95.00. Set all the network names to the same SSID or network identifer, something like freeGVwireless.com whatever the website address is. And have all the access points redirect anyone who logs onto them to this www.freeGVwireless.com website where all the participating businesses are highlighted.

Forget having cities spend hundreds and millions on Metro-Wi-Fi projects, build the networks organically from the centers of commerce.

The key here is to have the participating business pay very little if anything for the exposure on the website because they are helpig fuel traffic to the site. This is where you need to be creative on how to generate revenue from this model. There is your challenge SwampFox... let's see if we can figure this out. If this is NOT a good idea, please let me know that as well and let me know why.

As always, I am an e-mail away with any questions. jmilam@bigleapgps.com

Here is the link to the software:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/

Thank you and good luck!

2008-06-15T18:48:00.000-07:00

Cranking up the wheel

2008-06-15T18:32:00.000-07:00

It is truly hard to believe my last post was in December! I guess that is what happens when you are really trying to launch a business. So with that being said, if you see someone trying to launch a business and they have blog entries every day or so... are they really building a business?? Anyway, BigLeapGPS is still moving forward. We have two investors behind us to help get things rolling and I have found some invaluable advisers who are giving their blood and sweat into this project right there with me.

It is amazing to look back over the short time, also a year now, that I have been developing this business to see the things that have changed and the things that have remained the same. In many areas of life change is not looked at as always good. In a start up it is absolutely essential to success. Without almost constant change and business plan tests you will not get very far. You have always got to listen to the ones around you who are more experienced. These people come into your path at different times. Stay true to your goals but remember there are many ways of getting there and it is best to follow the paths well traveled.

With all that being said I feel it is important to publish the BigLeapGPS story and goals as they are today. I do hope these goals are reached in one way, shape or form down the road. The actual way we get there is yet to be determined all I know is I believe in it and the people around me. When you have that, what can stop you?

The birth of BigLeapGPS

2007-12-01T19:53:00.000-08:00

By the way, I have not shared with anyone outside of FastTrac or my close friends and associates what business I am developing and going to be launching. It is called BigLeapGPS. It will be the world's smallest personal GPS tracking device focused initially on child tracking. From there the uses are limitless. Keep an eye open for the site to go live as we have a few more developments happen. www.bigleapgps.com Nothing is there now but I promise it will be.

This idea came about at the end of August 2007 when my wife Chris and I were talking in the kitchen. Let me tell you first off that like must of you I am full of ideas and have been spouting them off to Chris since we met. This idea was the first one where she stopped what she was doing and told me this was my best idea yet. The idea was to incorporate a small GPS tracking device into a piece of jewelry for a child to wear so it would not be detected by a kidnapper.

Well here we are 3 months later, I have a business plan, an investor pitch, an amazing engineering company behind me and an entire entrepreneurial community beside me. Things are looking very promising and if I have my way about it, we will be manufacturing and selling this product before the end of 2008.

Please let me know your thoughts on this concept and if you are a manufacturer of a product or set of products focused on the child market for ages 3 through 8 please get in touch with me as I would like to validate my idea of incorporating my technology with your product.

Please write and let me know your thoughts... I am also interested in the political viewpoints many of you have. I know the reasons for me bringing this product to market is to return lost and kidnapped children safely and quickly. However, I am sure a completely different position can be taken and I want to hear about it.

Soccer vs. Swimming - A Classic Dilemma

2007-12-01T19:30:00.000-08:00

I remember vividly when I was 9 years old and my mother had, at this point, been taking me from soccer practice to swim meets to soccer games to out of State meets for swimming... it all came to a head one day after soccer practice when she asked me, "Joe, I really need for you to choose one sport over the other because I can not continue to keep this up for you." My mom posed the first major decision I had to make in my life. Do I continue playing soccer or do I literally dive full time into swimming. Well, the way my mind worked then is a little different than now... I decided to swim because I was starting to get really good and because girls swam more then they played soccer. So there you have it. I chose swimming and ended up swimming my way to 6 State records, national rankings in several events and most importantly a swimming scholarship to Clemson. I would say the life changing decision I made at 9 years old worked out pretty well.

I bring all this up because all entrepreneurs must make a similar decision at some point. They have been doing one thing for a while, maybe their entire professional career, and here is something to take them away from the norm and into something completely different. Again the move, change, or whatever you want to call it was brought on by something inside you going, you have got to make a choice. Well, now it is something inside and no longer my mother. To choose doing what you have been doing or to do something you have never done before and hopefully something that has never been done by anyone else either.

I never looked back to soccer after I made my decision to swim. Sure, I would play it in the backyard or with friends but I never wanted to go back to what I was doing prior to my decision to swim. I made the decision to swim and that is what I did. An entrepreneur must have the same drive and determination to make the decision and not look back. Every bit of focus and energy must be dedicated to making your goal a reality.

What was the first major decision you ever had to make and how did it affect your life?

I am back... Finally!!

2007-12-01T06:06:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! I am very sorry for the small disappearance. One of the things I quickly learned as I started to build a business is the lack of time for everything. Being the father of three young children, the husband of a very busy and driven wife one barely has time to eat.

Since my last post in Sept. there have been a lot of things that have happened. I will start by saying the FastTrac TechVenture class was by far the best thing a tech-driven entrepreneur could do for their efforts. I started by new business venture planning at the same time the class started. By the time the class was done in 11 weeks, I had a solid foundation on which to build.

I hope to be able to fill in more details shortly and try to get this blog caught up again. Not to say I have any extra time but I feel this medium is extremely important and I want to do whatever I can to help guide and maybe inspire like minded individuals to dive in and take a swim in the entrepreneur waters...

Unexpected challenge

2007-09-01T12:09:00.000-07:00

As if bringing an idea to life was hard enough I was presented with a new challenge last week. I have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I plan on taking this news in stride and will do my best to truly make the best of this disease. I plan on getting in great shape, eating well and living my life has I have been with the exception of daily finger pricks and a shot everynight. Nontheless, any new development like this causes you to reevaluate your life, what you are doing with it and pretty much everything else. In my case, I have an even stronger desire to see my idea through and make the biggest impact that I can. Upward and onward, no holds barred.... let's all continue this trip more vigorously than before!

Signed up for FastTrac TechVenture

2007-08-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

Today I signed up to attend the FastTrac TechVenture:

FastTrac TechVenture Workshops

FastTrac® TechVenture™ Program Overview

FastTrac® TechVenture™ is a comprehensive business training program that addresses the needs of start-up entrepreneurs refining and writing their business plans and seeking to grow sustainable high-impact companies. The program combines one-on-one coaching, peer learning, guest speakers and comprehensive tools to help entrepreneurs produce solid business plans and strategies.

Program Goal

The goal of FastTrac® TechVenture™ is to enable entrepreneurs to develop an effective Elevator Pitch, Business Plan, and Investor Presentation in order to effectively communicate your:

• Market opportunities
• Business concept
• Investment potential

Dates:
Ten Tuesdays starting September 11th from 6:00-9:30 p.m.; Program concludes with graduation where participants meet investors.

Location:
Innovate Building — Downtown Greenville, SC.

Class Outline:

* Week 1: Exploring Entrepreneurship
* Week 2: Defining the Target Market
* Week 3: Conducting Market Research and Analysis
* Week 4: Testing Your Business Concept
* Week 5: Entering and Capturing the Market
* Week 6: Planning for Financial Success
* Week 7: Building and Compensating Your Team
* Week 8: Protecting the Business & Your Intellectual Property
* Week 9: Identifying Funding and Working with Investors
* Week 10: Managing Cash and Operating Your Business
* Post-Class: Investment Pitch Refinement Session
* Graduation: Class graduates meet angel investors, venture capitalists and event sponsors

A Discussion with John Warner

2007-08-30T19:19:00.000-07:00

John recently agreed to meet with me to discuss a technology-based idea I am pursuing. What I gained from this discussion will greatly help me be more successful and, from that perspective, I wanted to share this insight so that if you have an idea or concept you might gain a solid direction on how to start down the path of bringing your ideas to life. Not to say this is everything you need to do but think of this as a launching point. We will move together through the rest!

1) There are a lot of great ideas out there. You and I have heard and come up with a bunch of them. We might have even seen a few of our ideas which were born years ago be developed by others. Well, the first thing you have to get over... your idea, like many others are nothing nor will they amount to anything until you execute on them.

Do research on the web, check out the US Patent Office website (http://www.uspto.gov) for any patents touching or surrounding your idea, and share your idea with a few, trusted individuals to help qualify and build on your idea. It would help if the ones you share this idea with are knowledgeable in the field where your idea or product falls.

When you do your research be sure to ask the right questions. John used an example from a recent blog from Swamp Fox to explain this one: Henry Ford said, If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. By asking the right questions to his potential customers he learned they wanted to get to town faster and be able to get back home sooner after selling their goods. Ford, hearing this need, developed a stripped down, basic car for the masses to help them do just that, replace their horses for basic transportation to and from town. Please read the blog entry by going to: http://swampfoxinsights.blogspot.com/2007/08/henry-ford-if-i-had-asked-people-what.html. The right questions should further help you define your target market and sales channel.

2) One of the first questions John asked me was what will motivate anyone to by this product. Just because the idea is a no-brainer in an entrepreneur's mind doesn't mean a hill of beans if a defined market set or demographic will not purchase large numbers of this item. The motivation to purchase should come from an inner need of the buyer to make the purchase. What environment, place, circumstance, event, etc. does a person need, want, or require the item you are developing. You must define when and where people will want to buy your item and set up a sales channel to direct your product to those people so when they make up their mind or realize your product is what they want or need that you are there to sell it to them.

3) Keep it simple. With every additional step or process you add to your idea or product the difficulty and frustration rate goes higher exponential. Do not complicate a simple idea or process with extra bells and whistles. Stick to the core reasons for your idea coming about. If you developed a paper cup, make a cup, not an insulated, covered, spill proof, with a lid cup. Make your cup, sell your cup and get profitable. After you are profitable you can come back and add whatever else to the cup your paying customers want.

4) Who is your competition? Your idea or product is more than likely a reconfiguration of ideas or products already on the market. What are those products on the market and why would anyone purchase your product over something else? If there is a market for your idea or product, re-invent it by reconfiguring a product or solution (your idea) that re-defines the market. By developing or re-inventing a market you will gain and hopefully retain market share and success. The first out of the gate, historically speaking, is usually always first.

5) Remember your resources. There are a lot of resources available to you to develop and explore your ideas. If you are a high tech, knowledge based entrepreneur then you have Greenville NEXT (http://www.nextgreenville.com) made up of some of the most talented and resourceful entrepreneurs in the country. You have SC Launch! which was created to facilitate applied research, product development and commercialization programs, strengthen South Carolina’s Knowledge Economy and create high wage-earning jobs by executing the mandates of the South Carolina Innovation Centers Act of 2005. (http://www.sclaunch.org) There are more resources than I can list in this article, I would suggest you contact the Greenville Chamber of Commerce for more details on who and what can best support your execution of your idea into a reality.

In summary, The only thing holding you back is yourself. You have no reason not to pursue your idea if you feel strongly about it and if you feel your idea or product will be accepted by your public. If you do not know if it will be accepted, then find out by asking the right questions and doing research on your idea. This will enable you to define who your public is and how to sell to them based on their times of motivation. When you sell to them, sell a simple to use product at whatever price that will get your venture profitable. Come on, how simple is that!

For those who are not familiar with John Warner:

John Warner is President of Swamp Fox LLC, publisher of Swamp Fox: News of the Southeastern Innovation Corridor and producer of the annual InnoVenture Conference. John is on the Board of the SC Venture Capital Fund, and is President and Co-founder of Capital Insights LLC, a Greenville, SC venture capital firm. He served as Chairman of its most successful portfolio company, Earth Fare, Inc., a southeastern chain of organic grocery stores. He holds numerous other business and community leadership positions.

In the beginning

2007-08-28T07:13:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

I am Joe Milam from Greenville SC... I have been a self proclaimed entrepreneur for at least 6 years ever I left my sales position at ScanSource to help them move into e-commerce with a product called BlackArrow. BlackArrow was built to help ScanSource resellers move to the Internet and sell products that ScanSource sells. Being a part of the BlackArrow team and something so innovative made me want to go out and do something new on my own.

I left BlackArrow and ScanSource in July of 2001 to start up my own business. After I did some web development for a little while with a reseller I started Gorilla Networks with some friends to provide wireless networks for businesses. One of our first projects was to wirelessly enable downtown Greenville. We wanted to use this as a marketing method for our business. And it worked! By the press generated by the wireless project Gorilla quickly moved into doing large scale wireless networks for hospitals, other cities and colleges.

It looked like we were on our way until we made a very bad decision, we diversified.

VoIP was coming on really strong at the same time wireless networks were popping up everywhere. Being young and invinsible entrepreneurs we lunged into developing a hosted VoIP solution before VoIP was cool. We justified this diversion by saying the hosted VoIP would lead directly into wireless hosted VoIP - man what a mouth full. Well, needless to say this diversion cost Gorilla a lot of time, money and relationships. Key thing to remember here and learn is you need to pick one thing and be the best in the world at it. We should have stuck with wireless and let other companies with more of a bankroll tackle hosted VoIP.

We ended up selling off the wireless business we worked so hard to build in 2005.

In Jan of 2006 I joined forces with my brother's existing company called PICS or Profitable Inventory Control Systems, Inc. PICS is a software development company focused on building inventory control, asset tracking and process tracking solutions for the manufacturing vertical. Since joining the company, which my brother and I had discussed for some time, I began to work directly with one of our very talented .NET programmers to produce what is/will become the best process tracking solution on the market.

With all this being said, this brings us to today... the birth of a new idea. So what I want to try and do is give you an insider's view of what I am doing and going through to make my idea happen.