Bloblive Nashville
April 15, 2009 (6:00 PM – 9:00 PM)
Belmont University, Nashville, TN
Beaman Student Life Center, Rooms A&B
Doors open and brain-food served at 6:00 PM
Idea sharing and live video streaming begins at 7:00 PM CST

Register for this event here.

The FastPitch Event tonight is being streamed, so you can join in even if you don’t live anywhere near Nashville, TN.  The pitches will start up in about 30 minutes.  You can watch and vote from home, your office, your car (if you are not driving), the beach, your corner tap, or the library.

Here is the link to the live webcast.

I don’t get my hope from anyone in Washington, DC.

I have the joy of working each day with young entrepreneurs who are brimming with true hope and optimism about the future.

Today I spent the day leading 72 students at Centennial High School in Franklin, Tennessee on a full day of what we call the Entrepreneurial Challenge.  It is an exercise originally developed by my friend Dr. George Solomon at George Washington University.

Twenty four teams each comprised of three students developed ideas based on the theme:  “Find a business opportunity that can be started in Williamson County that take advantage of or is able to thrive in the current economic downturn”

All of the teams did a wonderful job.

The students came up with their ideas, researched them to turn them into viable opportunities, and then perfected their pitch all in about four hours.  They then pitched to various entrepreneurs from the community for several rounds.

The winners where three young women who came up with a business with the following mission:  “To provide informational and enjoyable cooking programs to kids and teens which promote a healthy lifestyle with affordable life changes.”  Their proposed venture would both teach low cost options for kids to make health meals at home, thus saving money in these difficult times and addressing their concern with obesity among young people. 

I left the school feeling a lot more hopeful about our future.

I live in Franklin, Tennessee, which is located just south of Nashville in Williamson County.

Williamson County has traditionally had a much higher than average percentage of its workforce who are entrepreneurs.  We are now seeing a significant spike in self-employment and of ‘accidental entrepreneurs.’  Rather than sit around and wait for a job to come their way, they are taking a proactive approach and finding their own opportunity in the market. 

In fact, I am seeing people who are still employed looking at ways to forge out on their own because they have no long-term confidence that their current employer can be relied on for a job.

The Nashville Business Journal ran a story on this trend in our county:

As the overall economy worsened, new business starts in Williamson County continued to grow throughout 2008. In December, for instance, the number of new business licenses was more than four times higher than the licenses pulled in December 2007.

“We have a very resourceful workforce in Williamson County who still see opportunity and are willing to take a risk,” says Matt Largen, economic development director for Williamson County. “They likely have access to capital through their savings or from family and friends.”

[Randy] Blue is a perfect example.

The Brentwood resident had been director of IT portfolio management at HCA and spent months searching for a new job. With nine years of experience in management and consulting and 11 years in corporate management roles, Blue had never been unemployed previously for more than six months.

But he realized the severity of the recession limited his options. So he seized the opportunity to do something he’d always thought about — start his own business.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we are running a business plan boot camp down in Williamson County.  It is full of both aspiring and accidental entrepreneurs.  The people taking this seminar are incredibly optimistic — even those who had no intention of ever becoming an entrepreneur before the current economic mess.

As I stated to the author of the Nashville Business Journal article, these folks understand that this is a good time to start a business:

While conventional wisdom might be that recessions are bad times to start a business, Cornwall says many businesses were started during downturns. Recessions mean cheaper rent, equipment and start-up costs.

In my column this week in the Tennessean, I offer some more advice for the growing legions of accidental entrepreneurs.

The recession is creating more and more accidental entrepreneurs — those who suddenly find themselves out of work.

In my last column, I offered suggestions on how these accidental entrepreneurs can find ideas for self-employment. But not all of these ideas will prove to be viable business opportunities. Evaluating the “3 M’s” of an idea for a business can weed out those that are doomed to fail from those that have a good chance of success.

Is there a market?

The first step is to determine if there are enough customers willing to buy your product or service for you to make a living. Seek advice from people who work in the industry. Their knowledge can help you determine the market potential for your idea. Learn as much as you can about your potential customers. Talk to potential customers to determine if they will buy from you. Get to know your competition’s strengths and weaknesses. Focus research on how well they are meeting the needs of the customer. You should also investigate how well their businesses are doing during the recession.

Is there a margin?

Even if there is a market for your business, you still need to determine if it can earn you a living. The second step for evaluating an idea is to understand the basic economics of the business. How much will the product or service sell for and how much will it cost to produce the product or offer the service?

Do not try to develop a full budget — rather, you are forecasting the price you can charge and the basic costs associated with actually making the product or providing the service. Make sure that your costs include the salary you need to cover your basic living expenses. You may not be able to pay yourself from the new business right away, but it should be able to meet your needs before your savings have run out.

Is this for me?

The final step is to ascertain if the business is a good fit for you. As discussed in my last column, it is your passion that will carry you through the challenges of running a business. And it is your experiences, knowledge and skills that increase the chances of successfully launching and growing the new venture.

Evaluating the three M’s behind each idea for a new business will help increase your chances for success in a new career as an accidental entrepreneur.

Although you may feel that time is of the essence to begin to replace lost income, take time to ensure that the new venture you pursue will truly provide a real opportunity to make a living.

Stephanie Chen at CNN.com has a good story about “accidental” entrepreneurs making the best of the down economy.

As job security from corporate America fades, [many] see the economic downturn as an unexpected chance to transform hobbies or youthful fantasies, once-dubbed impractical, into grown-up careers.

“I’ve spent most of my professional life making money for other people’s companies,” says Laura Waldusky, who opened her own jewelry shop this month in Houston, Texas, after being unable to find a job in 2008. “Why not invest my talents in, well, myself?”

I told Ms. Chen that contrary to what many people think, a down economy can be great timing to launch an entrepreneurial career.  It is also a time when small businesses actual have an advantage over their corporate competitors.  From her story:

Jeffrey Cornwall, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Belmont University in Tennessee, says small business owners must be fiscally conservative and adapt to changing customer demands. Launching a business during an economic crisis can be a good time to steal market share from established yet vulnerable competitors.

One perk to being small: Since small businesses employ less people, enabling the organization to hunker down and reduce expenditures when the economy goes sour, he says.

My column in the Tennessean this week is for all of you accidental entrepreneurs out there. 

The recession is creating many “accidental entrepreneurs” — people who suddenly find themselves out of work with no viable option except to make it on their own through self-employment or starting a small business.

A question I am frequently asked these days is, “What kind of business can I possibly start?”

The best business opportunities come from things people already know something about. They come from our work experiences, our hobbies, or our everyday lives. Find something from your experiences that is also a need for others.

If you are lucky, it may be a niche that nobody has discovered. Or, if there is competition, the existing business may not be meeting the needs of customers in that market. Either way, solving everyday problems that you understand is the best path for your first business venture.

In today’s economy you can create a strong competitive advantage if you can find a way to build better value for customers, perhaps by offering them the same or even better quality than competitors at a lower price.

Seize the passion

Make sure the business is something you are passionate about. Is the business something that will truly make you excited to get up in the morning?

There are many tough periods during the growth of a business when entrepreneurs need true passion to carry them through. Many entrepreneurs will tell you that the only type of business you should ever start is one that is fun for you to operate.

Doing something you enjoy — and believe in — will help carry you through the long hours and the stressful days to come.

Money also matters. The business will need to generate enough income for your personal budget. Also, it will need to become profitable before you run out of whatever funds you have saved to live on during the start-up period. If your savings are meager, you may need to find a venture that generates cash flow quickly.

An entrepreneurial business is not just a simple financial investment or a way to make quick income. It becomes more personal and emotional than that.

Surveys of entrepreneurs tell us that income and wealth are only part of the reason for launching businesses. Often entrepreneurs want to build a business that has a culture that reflects their personal values.

Finally, don’t overlook the importance of building a business that allows room for the other things that are important in your life. The time and energy you want for your family, your friends, your church, your hobbies. All that must be factored into your planning.

Although you may have never planned to start a business, many of the “accidental entrepreneurs” from the last major recession in the early 1980s found it a rewarding career path and have continued to be entrepreneurs ever since. Keep the faith.

My daughter Maggie sent along this blog post with five more examples of businesses launched during the Great Depression.  Keep the faith!!

What just three short years ago seemed like the next great thing may no longer make sense in this new “Age of Value”.

Entrepreneur.com looks back at businesses that went from “hot” to “flop”:

There are some important lessons in these tales. 

Even in the best economic times there’s a fine line between a trend and a fad. When times get tough, a hot idea can fizzle out just as quickly, so do your research and take careful consideration.

My take — always look for a business with legs.  Start a business that you can imagine will be valuable to customers for years and even decades to come. 

Ask yourself these questions:

• Does my business idea offer value that people will desire over the long term?
• Is the source of the opportunity a fundamental change or a permanent shift in technology, society, demographics, or market structures?
• Do I have a niche that I can protect indefinitely, or will I soon see a flood of new competitors?
• Is my idea just a temporary fix to a market problem that will soon be replaced by something better?
• Is my product or service something that people will need even if the economy weakens?