21 Golden Rules of Entrepreneurship According to Jason Nazar

A big reason for starting this site was to show people that a business owner isn’t some special kind of person that has all the knowledge and tools at their disposal. Anyone can start a business, but not everyone can keep a business going if they aren’t committed to it and pushing themselves to work harder and learn more. While doing some research for an article I came across this great video by Jason Nazar CEO and Founder of DocStoc. Now the video doesn’t impart some great new answers that no one else has ever stated before, but what it does do is present the same ideas from a different angle.  He has a great “Joe Everyman” quality to him which felt allowed viewers to be reached in a way that doesn’t as if he talking down to them or trying to pitch a product. What you get is a great lecture in which he covers 21 rules that he learned on his journey.

The video runs an hour and thirty minutes so I took it upon myself to give you the condensed notes version for those that don’t have that time to spare. I do strongly recommend setting aside some time later on to watch this video posted below or on my recommended videos section. So here are the 21 Golden Rules of Entrepreneurship by Jason Nazar

I’ll See it When I Believe It

You have to envision what you want and you have to keep picturing it right down to the last detail. You hold on to that mental image until you believe it actually exists. You have to manifest it into reality

Perpetual Sense of Urgency

You feel you have something really important in your life that you must do.  That you are meant for greatness and every second you don’t act is time wasted in the clock that is you life. You don’t want to be wishing you had more time to do what you wanted in life.

The Only Variable You Can Control is Your Work Ethic

There can be several different outcomes and the only thing you truly have control over is the amount of work you have put in to try and direct those outcomes. Your hard shows in the end results of what ever you are working on. You should make mental contracts with people because they will force to complete these agreements in fear of looking like a failure.

The 5 Step Sales Processes

1) Gain Interest:

People love talking about themselves and their interests. If you are able to find those interests it will be easier to persuade them.

2) Establish Credibility:

Your professional and educational background are obviously what people will want to know first but it will be your honesty and sincerity that will give your credibility as a person.

3) Establish A Need:

 Listen to what a person has to say, ask them what it is that they want and then just reiterate it back to them. The trick isn’t to understand what they need but to make them feel you do. As they feel they have someone who really understands them, they become more open to suggestion. What you have to do is offer them a solution that can best match those needs. If you don’t have anything to match those needs it’s best to not force it.

4) Offer A Solution:

As they feel they have someone who really understands them, they become more open to suggestion. What you have to do is offer them a solution that can best match those needs. If you don’t have anything to match those needs it’s best to not force it.

5) Have A System For An Easy Transaction:

Have a system ready that lets you get started right away

All Effort Is Equal

The same effort it takes to do other tasks is the same effort that can be used to start a billion dollar business. You may need different skill sets or paths but the output of effort is the same.

You Don’t Have to have a Product to Sell a Product

Amazing entrepreneurs can describe a product that doesn’t exist and people will want it. You don’t need the physical product to sell the idea but you better go make it after you do.

Ten Questions to Consider When Starting A Business

1) What is your product and service?

Explain it to someone like they are a 5^th grader so they can tell someone else and it will make sense.

2) What is its unique value proposition?

What makes it better?

3) What is the market opportunity?

   1- What problem do you solve?

   2-How large is the market?

   3-How fast is the market growing?

   4-Who is your competition?

4) How do you make money?

What is the revenue model?

5) Who is the management team?

How are they uniquely qualified?

6) What is the strategy?

  1-What is the long term goal?

  2-What are the 3, 6, 9, & 12 month milestones?

7) How do you sale or market you product/service?

8) How much capital do you need/intend to raise?

What is the primary start up cost?

9) What are the projected financials for the company?

What is the projected income statement?

10) What is the preliminary valuation of the company?

How much would you sell a percentage of your company for?

Court Mentors

Take two hours of your week and ask people you would like to be like to be your mentor. They will take you under their wings and guide you in the right direction. Plus they will a personal investment in you to see that you do not let them and yourself down. Their knowledge and resources are vital to you starting your own company.

Most Important Question to Start: What is Your Why?

What is driving you? What is your passion? If you don’t have a big “why” if it’s not the thing that is driving you and pushing you forward, you will always use the “what” and the “how” as an excuse not to do it.

Great Entrepreneurs Sell Ether

You have the ability to sell a dream in such specific detail and color that it feels tangible. People will believe in you because they can see that it is what is driving you and that you will accomplish it. It is what will help people get equity or accept deferred payments in the start. You must in fuse it with certainty that others will believe in you.

Ideas Don’t matter/ Execution Does

The most driven individuals can take a horrible idea and make it a successful one just as the laziest individuals can take a brilliant idea and fail. The idea is only as great as your execution to present it to people and getting it done.

Speed and Momentum: The Power of Now

This is key! You are running against the wind, if you go slowly the wind will stop you. Most business do not succeed because they never get started in the first place. You have to have a sense of urgency

The Entrepreneurs Dilemma

Stay attached to the problem you are trying to solve but be flexible in the solution to solve the problem. 

Make Your Product Different and Better

Look at existing business that are doing well and making money. Ask yourself how you improve upon that business that is already successful.  Then you have to ask yourself, what would be your competitive advantage? What would make you stand apart from that other company?

Keep it Lean

Put something out there with bugs and all and see how people respond to it. By putting it out there you will actually see if there is a market for you product and service and their feedback help guide you in the right direction. If you spend too much time on it until you believe it is ready, you run the risk of offering something that no one cares for and all you have accomplished is wasting your time.

How Can You Start in Two Weeks & with a $1,000?

You have to think about how you would immediately start this company if you had to launch in two weeks and with only $1,000. You also need to think how you can immediately start charging to make so revenue and paying back investors. You need to get it in the hands of real users to get actual feedback.

First Sell Yourself

This is vital when you are trying to raise money to start. Angel investors are not investing in your business, they are investing in you. They are making a bet on you believing that you can do it. You are always selling yourself first and what you are going to accomplish.

Be Sincere and Exceed Expectations

You have to set expectations and then over deliver. A way to build credibility is to tell that you are going to do in a certain period of time; you then achieve it faster and with better results then what you told them. Getting them to see what you are working towards and the results you are yielding is a big meaningful achievement. So you have to achieve your goal faster and with better results and then you do it over and over again

1 0 Lessons Startups Can Learn From Superheroes

1) Superheroes never give up:

Like Batman, you have to keep pressing on the very last breath. Challenges are overcome by wholeheartedly committing to unrelenting persistence.

2) Superheroes always get the job done

There are no excuses if you don’t save the girl from the burning house. There are just results, not reason, you either save the day or you don’t. Grey area is for Kafka not comic heroes. 

 3) Superheroes are the best at what they do

Flash is the fastest and we all know it. If you are the back end developer, you are the best developer in the work and everyone on your team knows it. Let great talent excel in areas where their superpowers are most needed.

4) Superheroes are crystal clear on their purpose

Captain Marvel maybe a cheese ball, but he knows what he stands for. Startups die when they are not clear on their mission.

5) Superheroes are not flawless

Superheroes have flaws, every member of your team will also. The goal is not perfection; it’s the pursuit of perfection. 

 6) Superheroes don’t seek the glory but they will get it anyway 

 Don’t do it because you want the attention. If you do it right you will get it anyway. 

 7) Superheroes help others

Superheroes help others by solving problems. Start ups should be obsessed NOT with themselves, but with how they are going to help other people and solve their issues. 

 8) Superheroes can do it by themselves but are more powerful in teams.

 You always have to have each other’s back. It’s you vs. the world and bringing together your own team of superheroes, mutual respect, loyalty, and camaraderie of that team is vital.

9) Superheroes true strength comes from their character

No matter how super you think you are, your strength comes from your character not your talent. Be courageous, be respectful, be honorable, and be selfless.

10) Superheroes accomplish huge feats

The same effort it takes to start a lemonade stand or college club is the same effort it takes to   change the world. Your goal is not to build a product or get traffic…your goal is to accomplish the most amazing feat possible. Make the product, save the world.

The One Most Important Thing

Most of the stuff to do makes no difference in starting up a company. The most successful people wake up every morning and ask themselves one question every day. If I get the most important thing done today, this week, or month it is……..…then they spend 80% of the time doing that thing.

Certainty! You’ll See it When You Believe it

If you can envision it and infuse it with your own certainty and belief in self, it will become a reality.

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Whose Needs Are You Serving?

Last night while channel surfing I stumbled upon a reality show that caught my attention. While the show obviously reeked of scripted television its premise is what intrigued me and kept me watching. The premise focuses on helping under performing establishments such as restaurants and hotels by getting to the root of the cause for this. The show makes these small businesses ask the questions, whose needs are really being served? Is the primary goal to serve the owner or the customer?

This episode focused on a married couple that owns and operates a bed and breakfast that was in danger of declaring bankruptcy. At the start we learn the property was actually the husband’s old elementary school which he purchased to convert into his dream bed and breakfast. As viewers got a tour of the Inn they couldn’t help but feel they are walking into someone’s outdated and unkempt home as opposed to a place of business. The décor of the entire establishment just screamed dated while owners pet dogs ran amuck throughout the Inn. The husband truly believed the look and pets actually added to the charm and unique feel of the establishment. Viewers were also treated to the Inn’s monthly dinner mystery theater in which the husband was of course the star of the production. When the host asked how much profit it was generating for them, the wife was quick to answer that it didn’t generate any as it more a show for her husband and his friends.  As the show progressed and more layers were peeled back, it became glaringly obvious to viewers that the husband was clearly more interested in reliving his past and acting out a childhood fantasy of merging his home and school into one. He was too busy playing in this environment he seem to lose focus on day to day business operations. It was no wonder why the business was in the bad financial shape it was in. The only effort the Inn made to generate new business was renovating the banquet hall for $50,000. The renovations ended up being a bad investment as the husband remodeled with a look that fit his personal taste instead of one more appealing to renters or guests. The husband essentially created an Inn that fit his own needs and comfort as opposed to a business establishment catering to its guests. Of course this is being a show about helping businesses, the Inn was given a new lease on life as it received an all expenses paid makeover from top to bottom and a few lesson on how not to run a business. 

 If only all business had a TV show or benefactor to save them from themselves such as the Bed and Breakfast. Unfortunately real life doesn’t work out that way for most business operating in the same manner. The scenario of the Inn mirrors many companies in various fields in which owners are more concerned with using the business as a way to serve their own personal needs. Often time owners are too concerned creating this environment that they envision in their head that they are not aware that they created a place that customers don’t care for. Have you ever walked into establishment in where the owners and employees dominated resources intended for customer use? Or have you ever walked into a business where you felt as a customer that your mere presence was an inconvenience to the staff? It can leave one wondering if these business owners ever considered customers when they were initially thinking of starting a business. Customers are not the only ones that suffer through the owner’s vision of how they operate their business. Often times employees are just as frustrated as customers dealing with owners that change things at a moment’s notice or incorporate procedure that only make sense to them.  Being a business owner gives you the freedom to create the work environment that you have envisioned but at the end of the day the purpose of business is to generate profit. That profit comes from the customers who’s needs and satisfaction have to come first above all else.

It is not only the self serving owner that can destroy a business; even those with the best of intentions that can be harmful to themselves. Another program I can across showcased a family owned and operated restaurant that was on the verge of closing. The owner decided to start her own restaurant after several years in the food industry in which she felt her and her co workers were treated poorly by management. She set out to create an establishment where employees were treated fairly and would be happy with their jobs. She believed that in doing so the employees would be more productive and better serve customers. While in theory that would work, what she created was something far from that. Almost immediately she hired her family and anyone looking for work and giving them as many hours as needed. She quickly lost control of the work environment as the freedom here staff were given would lead to chaos. The staff would clock in when they wanted and often times being playing on their cell phones instead of attending to customers. The host of the program had to look the owner in the eyes and tell her that vision was a failure because she never thought of it as a business. In her vision she was really just thinking of an ideal work environment for herself but failing to realize that alone wasn’t enough reason to start a business. 

People often fantasize what it would be like to be the boss and call the shots. In those fantasies they might picture what their office looks like, the products they would sell, or how they would treat staff and handle certain situations. What they often fail to think about is how all those things would affect customers and if that is even a business they would want to do business with. Ownership and title could always be transferred over to another party but a business will always need a customer/client to stay in operating. An owner often needs to take a step back and put themselves in the customer’s shoes.They need to see if the customer’s needs are being met and if not what changes need to be made so that they can. Only from a customer first based foundation can an owner have the freedom to incorporate what they envisioned in their business environment.

 -Sergio Esteban Bustamante (S.E.B.)

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