BookPDF Available

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Risk and Decisions: Building Successful Early-Stage Ventures

Authors:

Abstract

Becoming a successful entrepreneur is impossible without accepting risk – the question is which risk to take and at what time. Expert authors Thomas G. Pittz and Eric W. Liguori draw on years of working with and in early-stage ventures to provide guidance for managing the risk associated with these decisions. Throughout this book, they offer practical, no-nonsense advice for marketing and financing your business, bringing on partners and employees, networking with key connectors, and launching your business as inexpensively and aggressively as possible. Following lean startup logic, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Risk and Decisions: Building Successful Early-Stage Ventures cuts through to the strategically important – and emotionally charged – decisions that separate the successful entrepreneurs from the unsuccessful. It is designed to help entrepreneurs move quickly, rapidly iterate their business models based on customer feedback, and provide guideposts for managing the risks inherent in all startup ventures.
THE ENTREPRENEUR’S GUIDE
TO RISK AND DECISIONS
“There are few resources that effectively help entrepreneur’s navigate the
black box of risk and decision-making along their tumultuous journey.
Every aspect of that journey - whether it be marketing, nancing, partner-
ships, HR, networking, or actually launching has unlimited landmines that
can put an end to a dream. This book is a critical how-to guide for any
entrepreneur at any stage to spot and disarm those landmines with expert
precision.
—Doan Winkel, Senior Vice President of Programming,
United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship
“In their new book, The Entrepreneur’s Guide... Thom Pittz and Eric Liguori
have identied all of the key issues that entrepreneurs face in developing
and growing businesses and provide critical and detailed guidance for suc-
cess. I am pleased to see a major section of the book devoted to networks
and networking as an entrepreneur’s network of support is the foundation
for entrepreneurial innovation and growth.
—William B. Gartner,The Bertarelli Foundation Distinguished
Professor Family Entrepreneurship, Babson College
“This book is an essential tool for every entrepreneur during his startup
journey. It provides a handy reference which can be reverted to based on
real life experiences. An essential companion for all aspiring entrepreneurs
or small business owners.
—Ahmed Osman, President,
International Council for Small Business
“Thom Pittz and Eric Liguori have provided a no-nonsense, incredibly
insightful and practical guide for entrepreneurs looking to launch and/or
grown their businesses. Great insights on guerrilla marketing, the power
and pitfalls of crowd funding, and understanding failure and rejection.
Recognizing the massive amount of work and stress necessary to build
a successful venture, Pittz and Liguori have masterfully distilled wisdom
gained from working with hundreds of startups around the globe to help
entrepreneurs avoid landmines and gear up for success. Great reading for
anyone immersed in the entrepreneurial process!”
Tim Mescon, Executive VP and Chief Ofcer,
Europe, Middle East and Africa, AACSB International
THE ENTREPRENEUR’S GUIDE
TO RISK AND DECISIONS
Building Successful Early-Stage
Ventures
BY
THOMAS G. PITTZ
University of Tampa, USA
AND
ERIC W. LIGUORI
Rowan University, USA
United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India
Malaysia – China
Emerald Publishing Limited
Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK
First edition 2020
Copyright © 2020 Thomas G. Pittz and Eric W. Liguori
Published under exclusive licence
Reprints and permissions service
Contact: permissions@emeraldinsight.com
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without
either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence
permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright
Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance
Center. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of
information contained in the text, illustrations or advertisements.
The opinions expressed in these chapters are not necessarily
those of the Author or the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
ISBN: 978-1-83867-874-6 (Print)
ISBN: 978-1-83867-871-5 (Online)
ISBN: 978-1-83867-873-9 (Epub)
CONTENTS
Prologue vii
Foreword xi
1. Process 1
1. Ideas Versus Execution 1
2. Business Plans Versus Business Models 4
3. Prototyping and MVPs 8
4. Market Segmentation and Pivoting 12
5. The Pitch 14
2. People 17
1. Selecting Partners 17
2. Determining Equity and Vesting 20
3. Building Culture 25
4. Hiring Employees 28
5. Choosing Mentors 31
3. Networks 33
1. Networking Fundamentals 33
2. Navigating Networks 36
3. Building Networks 39
4. Exploiting Networks 44
5. Maintaining Networks 48
4. Sales & Marketing 51
1. Learning to Sell 51
2. Sales Pipeline and Metrics 54
3. Failure, Rejection, and Learning 57
4. Pricing Models 60
v
vi Contents
5. Guerilla Marketing 63
6. Branding 68
5. Financing 71
1. Financial Literacy 71
2. Bootstrapping 77
3. Crowdfunding 80
4. Equity Financing 83
5. Debt Financing 88
6. Nuts & Bolts 91
1. Rudimentary Legal Considerations 91
2. Human Resources Basics 95
3. Compliance and Business Systems 97
4. Tax Considerations 99
5. Exit Strategies 102
6. Conclusion 107
References 109
Index 111
PROLOGUE
Entrepreneurs and small business owners are ruthless pragmatists,
effectuators, and exploiters of resources. They are nimble, quick to
eliminate what does not add value, and are not afraid to make bold
decisions and even cut corners. Managers are deliberate, patient,
and stewards of resources. They assess risk, perfect operations, dive
deeply into processes, and keep a company humming along. This
is not a book for managers. This book is designed for founders of
early-stage ventures and would-be entrepreneurs. In our view, these
are the business leaders most in need of pragmatic advice and most
open to receiving it.
In this book, we will not be delving into each and every aspect of
starting and growing a business as that would require an exhaustive
treatise that no entrepreneur would have time to read. You will nd
that there are aspects of the entrepreneurial journey where we have
only scratched the surface (e.g., social media marketing, accounting,
legal compliance, etc.) or have ignored altogether (e.g., creativity,
exit strategies, site selection, etc.). These decisions were made, in
part, for parsimony but mostly because this book prioritizes bold
action over second-guessing and risk-aversion. And there are also
plenty of other resources available on these topics. Diving too deeply
into areas of risk for entrepreneurs has alarming potential to derail
an entire venture, no matter its potential. As a result, our goal for
this book is to cut to the quick of the lessons that we have learned
over years of working in early-stage entrepreneurial ventures, dis-
cuss some topics that have not been adequately addressed before,
and to encourage readers to continue their entrepreneurial journeys.
This book builds from the lean startup approach to launching
a business (Ries, 2011), which aims to shorten development cycles
and rapidly discover whether a business model is viable in the
vii
viii Prologue
marketplace. The assumption of lean startup is that when entrepre-
neurs use an iterative process to building their business and focus
on quickly gaining and responding to customer feedback, they
reduce resource requirements, time, and risk. Following the lean
startup logic, this book has been designed to help entrepreneurs
move quickly while providing guideposts for managing the risks
of business startup. It presumes a rudimentary level of business
concepts and jargon or the willingness to pick up the nomenclature
as you digest the book.
Becoming a successful entrepreneur is impossible without
accepting risk – the question is which risk to take and at what time.
It is not a challenge to nd published work on entrepreneurship
that can help determine whether it is the path for you. There are
textbooks that cover the process of business startup from an aca-
demic perspective, there are articles that dive more deeply into par-
ticular aspects of the entrepreneur’s journey, and there are plenty of
unicorn stories that lionize the entrepreneurs who have found suc-
cess. Very few, however, focus on providing guidance for founders
of early-stage ventures regarding what risks to take and when to
take them. We hope that this book can help to provide a roadmap
for making those incredibly important early decisions.
Startups Versus Small Businesses
There are distinct differences between a startup and small business
and most resources for entrepreneurs focus on the former. Startup
companies are intended to create something new and innovative or
to radically improve what already exists. Small businesses, converse-
ly, do not make any claims to uniqueness and prefer to follow turn-
key business approaches (e.g., restaurants, lawyers, digital marketers,
etc.). Startup companies are most often founded with technology as
their bedrock, whereas small businesses use technology as an impor-
tant but not mission-critical tool. Startup companies typically run for
as long as possible without hiring employees, while small businesses
often require employees from the outset. Startup companies gener-
ally view numerous options for exit strategies while small businesses
either plan to sell the company or make it a family business.
Prologue ix
Educator and entrepreneur Steve Blank offers a concise deni-
tion of a business startup as a temporary organization that is in
search of a repeatable and scalable business model. Put differently,
a startup company is merely a stage in an evolving business. A
small business, on the other hand, is a self-sustaining company that
does not require major investment to scale, has a smaller base of
sales and employees, and typically enters a local or regional mar-
ket. Most books and articles focus exclusively on either startups or
small businesses but not both, and usually with a predisposition to
the former. According to data gathered from the Census Bureau in
2016, however, companies with fewer than 100 workers account
for 98.2% of all US employer rms (Small Business and Entre-
preneurship Council, 2019). Sufce it to say that very, very few
of these companies ever achieve large company status, which sug-
gests that it is vital to discuss the entrepreneurial process for both
startup companies and small businesses as much of the challenges
of business formation and growth are equally relevant.
While many of the challenges inherent in the launch of a new
venture are the same for small businesses and startups, it is never-
theless important to consider what type of entrepreneur you want
to be. That decision will frame many of your early-stage business
decisions and how you will dene success in the end. A small busi-
ness owner measures success within a small market and how well
their business efciently meets customer needs within it. Most peo-
ple can name many successful local restaurants, electricians, or cof-
fee shops. A startup founder intends to disrupt and take over a
large market as fast as possible. A startup positions itself to give
up ownership to take in major investments to scale the business,
whereas a small business will often choose debt nancing to retain
full control of their company.
The obligation to properly identify and respond to customer
needs is the critical aspect of business formation and growth that
is held in common by both startup companies and small business-
es. The goal of any entrepreneur should be to identify a customer
problem and innovate a solution. Both types of companies need
to quickly ascertain product/market t, or whether their proposed
product or service ts the needs of the targeted consumer market-
place. This can only be achieved by gathering information from
xPrologue
customers, which is perhaps the most valuable skill that an entre-
preneur can practice. This book will outline numerous methods for
achieving product/market t in as quickly, inexpensively, and ef-
ciently a manner as possible. Through the course of this book, we
will offer practical, no nonsense advice for marketing and nanc-
ing your business, bringing on partners and employees, networking
with key connectors, and launching your business as inexpensively
and aggressively as possible.
xi
FOREWORD BY KEVIN
HARRINGTON: ORIGINAL
SHARK ON “SHARK TANK
The biggest risk that an entrepreneur faces is becoming so bogged
down by details and beset by fears of failure that their business
never gets off the ground. In “The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Risk and
Decisions: Building Successful Early-Stage Ventures,” Thomas Pittz
and Eric Liguori offer practical advice for making the key early
decisions that will keep your business moving forward. Many of the
lessons I have learned the hard way through many of my own suc-
cesses and failures are synthesized in this book to let you start and
scale your company while sidestepping landmines along the way.
The process of entrepreneurship is all about managing risk: lev-
eraging personal assets, deciding when and how to protect intel-
lectual property, spending cash to bring a new product to market,
taking on investments, partners and employees, and many more.
The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Risk and Decisions provides advice
for all of these decisions in an approachable style that demysties
the entrepreneurial process and motivates the hard work neces-
sary to become successful. Hard work and perseverance have been
the most critical aspects of my success, especially during the hard
times, so I wish this book had been around when I started out!
While this book is geared toward entrepreneurs in the early stag-
es of their business venture, the insights provided are immediately
relevant and valuable at any stage of entrepreneurial journey. The
Entrepreneur’s Guide to Risk and Decisions goes into detail about
the entrepreneurial process, with a focus on launching lean and
gathering prompt feedback from the marketplace – greatly improv-
ing your chances for success. It also discusses the human component
of entrepreneurship and how to properly structure partnerships
xii Foreword
that will help grow your business rapidly. Pittz and Liguori offer
a lot of pragmatic advice for early-stage entrepreneurs on the nuts
and bolts of marketing, sales, nancing, legal, and human resource
considerations for their growing business – they’ve done a master-
ful job capturing what I spent years learning the hard way.
In my favorite section of the book, Pittz and Liguori discuss the
power of networks and join a conversation I began in my own book
titled Key Person of Inuence. In my experience, building networks
is of vital importance for entrepreneurs and becoming successful
means both leveraging your network and becoming a valuable play-
er within it. I have shown how a ‘key person of inuence’ enjoys a
special status in their eld because they are well known and highly
regarded. They are the people that make things happen with a phone
call. They attract opportunities and can make a project successful
simply by being involved. By following the practical advice provided
in The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Risk and Decisions, you will have
started down the path towards joining that illustrious group.
The best advice I can give you is to take the content in this book
seriously, work hard, surround yourself with the right people, and
always try to remain positive and to persevere! Entrepreneurship
is a marathon, not a sprint, so use this book to play the long game
the smart way.
Kevin Harrington
1
1
PROCESS
1. IDEAS VERSUS EXECUTION
The power of ideas is a bit paradoxical when it comes to launching
a business. On the one hand, it makes no sense to start a business
without a good idea. Initiating a business startup without an idea
rarely, if ever, generates successful companies. Beginning with an
idea that you are passionate about is often what motivates entre-
preneurs through the difcult times and keeps you from giving
up too early. Furthermore, starting a business before arriving at a
good idea tends to motivate a rush toward a business model which,
unfortunately, usually results in plausible-sounding but derivative
business concepts. However, the paradox of ideas is that without
execution, ideas are worthless, but without ideas execution is futile.
And, in instances where the founder believes so much in the idea
that he or she is unwilling to learn from customers or colleagues
and is unable to pivot, then ideas are worth less than nothing. This
sentiment about the power of ideas in launching a business is echoed
by nearly everyone who has experienced entrepreneurship rst-hand.
Let us continue to speak plainly, your business ideas are not original.
Perhaps you have never previously encountered anything like the
brilliant concept rolling around in your head, but rest assured that
someone else has thought of it and perhaps even tried to make a busi-
ness out of it. The idea matters very little. What matters is execution.
To be brutally honest, ideas themselves are worth nothing.
Great ideas can also cause entrepreneurs to become too secretive
2The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Risk and Decisions
about their business models. If entrepreneurs guard their ideas too
closely, they often miss out on opportunities to share them with
someone who can help bring them to fruition. Even if your busi-
ness idea sound like a cannot-miss concept to others (and, here’s
a news ash, it likely won’t) those wouldbe idea thieves still must
out-execute you and your team. Launching a startup company is
perhaps one of the most difcult and all-consuming jobs a per-
son could choose; most people will simply not have the guts and
stamina for it. So, rather than steal your idea, most advisors will
tell you that it has no future as a business (friends and family will,
of course, likely tell you that it will be a smashing success). So, as
opposed to jealously guarding ideas, it is far more important to
develop a strong sense of self-belief and to share ideas to stimulate
learning, growth, and create the space for organic and serendipi-
tous opportunities.
There are many ways to generate business ideas and entire
volumes have been written on the subject. You can look at the
macro-environment for trends and technologies that are on the
horizon and determine how to move into these areas or apply
these concepts in other industries. You can focus on something
that bothers you to nd a solution that can become a business.
You can nd a way to make a product or service cheaper. You can
look for gaps in customer demand in industries that are domi-
nated by large players or an industry that has fallen behind the
innovation curve. Whichever path you choose for generating your
business idea, your success will be greater if you start with some-
thing that you know and, most importantly, that you concentrate
on talking to potential customers to determine what their needs
and interests are.
Whatever idea you choose, how well you execute on your busi-
ness model is far and away the most important predictor of success
in your new venture. Execution can be conceived of as comprising
two parts: growth and optimization. Growth is the most impor-
tant aspect of execution because it creates momentum: When your
company is growing, people are happy and it feels like you are
succeeding. When your company is growing, new roles and respon-
sibilities are created and people feel like their careers are advancing
and their investments are paying off. The opposite is true as well;
Process 3
when your company is not growing, it is demoralizing and causes
rapid burnout.
As a result, the most critical aspect of successful execution is
to maintain growth by making it your top priority. Identifying a
growth metric that can be easily tracked and gamied will bring
focus to the company’s momentum. After all, what the founder
measures, the company does. Do not, however, fool yourself with
vanity metrics. Vanity metrics are common mistakes that can derail
momentum. For example, do not focus on press, conference pres-
entations, and trade shows unless you plan to sell (and track sales)
from your company there or focus on new customers without also
looking at retention of existing customers. Set aggressive growth
goals that are achievable and celebrate successes. Decipher what is
blocking your growth and talk regularly about what could make
your company grow faster. These conversations will create employee
buy-in and stimulate new ideas for attracting customers.
It is quite common for a company that is growing like crazy
to struggle to maintain efcient internal processes and create con-
cern among the founders and employees about things coming
unraveled. This concern is amplied when people start to question
how the company can maintain its operations at a large scale out
when you get there. However, there are many resources available
to help optimize your business and investors seek out opportuni-
ties where growth is rapid and optimization is minimal. They see
these companies as undervalued. So, while growth should always
be the priority, best practice would dictate that some attention is
focused on optimization of the business model. This is particularly
true when considering customer service – do not focus too much on
growth that it hinders your ability to provide consistently excellent
customer service to existing consumers.
Focus on building products or services that consumers love –
this is the way that all great companies have achieved growth. Do
not fall prey to the splashy partnership or massive press launch
as these rarely work in the long-run. Rather, attract consumers
organically and continually ask where you can nd more of them.
Test numerous growth strategies including advertisements, guerilla
marketing, traditional sales, social media, etc. Perhaps most impor-
tantly, do not be afraid to engage in sales yourself. At least one
4The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Risk and Decisions
founder must become adept at asking people to use your product
or service and asking people to give money.
A quick related word on competitors: most founders believe
that if they fail it will be because they could not out-compete their
competitors in the early stages of their business. This could not be
further from the truth. In reality, most early-stage startups die from
self-inicted wounds as opposed to any retaliatory action by their
competitors. When companies fail, it is nearly always because they
did not nd a solution to the problems of their customers. Frankly,
entrepreneurs would be better off by simply ignoring competi-
tors unless and until they are able to out-execute them with actual
customer products or services. This is especially true when com-
petitors make a big splash in the press or raise a lot of money as
witnessing those events can be demoralizing and can distract from
the fact that it is all about execution and meeting customer needs.
No amount of press or money can shortcut that process.
Plus, without competition, entrepreneurship does not exist. It
is the reason antitrust legislation has developed and why some
policy-makers suggest that in industries where intellectual proper-
ty plays an important role, enforcement should be more stringent.
Young companies require a competitive marketplace to compete
with established rms and we must remain diligent to ensure that
economic and tax incentives do not favor big rms over small or
old rms over new. We must also be careful of the scope and dura-
tion of non-compete agreements as our goal is to preserve entrepre-
neurial entry into the marketplace. The message to entrepreneurs is
thus: do not play the victim when competitors enter your market or
employees leave with trade secrets. Protect your company wherever
you can, but, ultimately, your job is to outperform them.
2. BUSINESS PLANS VERSUS BUSINESS MODELS
The business model is intended to replace an elaborate business
plan with a single page, easily digested, and easily updated pic-
ture of the company and its activities. Frankly speaking, business
plans take too long to write, are seldom updated, and are often
out of date by the time they are completed. A full business plan
can be valuable for convincing friends and family to support your
Process 5
business endeavor and are still required by bankers for debt
nancing, but they too often distract from the primary foci of the
early-stage venture: getting feedback from customers and adapt-
ing to new information. Business models, on the other hand, are
intended to be simple and dynamic tools that can be adjusted
and synchronized with changes to the business. If used correctly,
they can also be a powerful tool for cogently and parsimoniously
explaining your business to potential partners, employees, custom-
ers, and investors. It is useful to think of a business model as a
drawing that shows all of the different parts of your company’s
strategy and how they are related and interdependent. It demon-
strates how the business makes money in a simple and straightfor-
ward design that is easy to describe to others.
A business model is a company’s plan for making a prot and
mapping out how the business will create ongoing value for cus-
tomers. That last part, called the value proposition, is the crux of
the business model as it addresses what differentiates the product
or service from competitors and the status quo solution to custom-
er problems. A quick search on google will yield numerous deni-
tions and articles describing the business model but all (at least
the good ones) will focus on the customer value proposition. The
prot model is the other critical aspect of the business model as it
involves revenue streams and cost structures.
Over the years, business models have become more diversied
and more sophisticated. Perhaps the most widely utilized concep-
tualization of the business model is Osterwalder and Pigneur’s
(2010) “Business Model Canvas” that includes nine components
that integrate to form the full business model. Each component
represents an important building block in the construction of the
overall business. It is a dynamic model that is intended to be
routinely analyzed and updated to reect the changes in the com-
petitive landscape and macro-environmental forces. The Business
Model Canvas includes:
1. Value proposition – The unique value that a company’s product
or service provides to customers.
2. Customer segmentsThe customers targeted by the company’s
product or service.
6The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Risk and Decisions
3. Customer relationships – How the company builds relation-
ships with its customers.
4. ChannelsThe channels that a company uses to acquire,
retain, and develop its customers.
5. Revenue streamsThe different areas of revenue generation
and how the company generates continuous cash ow.
6. Key partnerships – The strategic partnerships that the company
forms to increase efciencies and scalability of the business.
7. Key resources – The assets and knowledge that the company
possesses that allow it to provide distinct value to customers
that other companies cannot.
8. Key activities – The routine activities that the company engages in
that enable it to execute its strategy and establish market presence.
9. Cost structureThe costs associated with the business model
and which components can be leveraged to reduce costs.
In our experience, a derivation of the business model canvas by Ash
Maurya (2010), called the “Lean Canvas” is probably even more
suitable for use by entrepreneurs of early-stage ventures. The Lean
Canvas uses the same nine-component framework of the Business
Model Canvas, reframed to be of use to the early-stage business.
The new framework consists of:
1. ProblemWhat is the customer’s problem that your business
is trying to solve?
2. SolutionWhat is the company’s solution or set of solutions
to the customer problem?
3. Unique value proposition – How and why the company
is different from competitors and other solutions to the
customer’s problem?
4. Key metrics – The performance indicators that demonstrate
how the business is performing.
5. Unfair advantage – Something the company has that cannot be
easily copied or purchased.
Process 7
6. ChannelsThe various paths that will be used to reach
customers.
7. Customer segmentsThe target market and alpha users.
8. Cost structureThe costs associated with the business model
and which components can be leveraged to reduce costs.
9. Revenue streamsThe different areas of revenue generation
and how the company generates continuous cash ow.
Existing within the Business Model Canvas and Lean Canvas,
there are numerous revenue models for entrepreneurs to consider.
The “bait and hook” revenue model involves offering a basic
product at a very low cost (the bait) and then charging substantial
recurring amounts for rells or services (the hook). Examples of
this model include razors and razor blades, printers and ink car-
tridges, and Adobe’s reader and writer. The “freemium” revenue
model involves basic services are offered for free to entice users
in premium services, which require an upgrade and a fee. In the
“franchise” model, the franchisee uses another rm’s success-
ful business model and leverages the corporate brand while the
franchisor generates fee and royalty revenues from the franchisees.
The “direct sales” model involves marketing directly to consumers
through personal contact arrangements through demonstration or
personal presentations. In “collective or shared” revenue models,
businesses that come together to share information or resources.
The “value-added reseller” is a revenue model in which a business
makes something which is resold by other businesses with some
modications that add value to the original product or service. The
“disintermediary” model involves sidestepping traditional middle
men to reach customers directly, made famous by Dell, WebMD,
and Warby Parker. The aforementioned are only some of the most
popular business models and we encourage interested entrepre-
neurs to research additional ideas and information on the subject.
Savvy entrepreneurs will experiment with numerous business
model varieties and even consider developing some of their own
to test the underlying assumptions of their business and explore
other ways of generating customer value. Frequent and successful
business model innovation can increase a company’s resilience to
8The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Risk and Decisions
changes in the competitive landscape, which can provide a compet-
itive advantage. Also, be sure to match your marketing plan with
your business model. For example, if you are offering a free prod-
uct, it does not make sense to grow by buying users. Or, if you have
a product or service with less than a $500 LTV, you should experi-
ment with guerilla marketing techniques, social media, and other
less-expensive marketing methods. Conversely, if your product or
service brings more than $500 in LTV, then traditional sales meth-
ods may be the optimal approach. We will discuss LTV (lifetime
customer value) in much more detail later in the book.
3. PROTOTYPING AND MVPs
The overarching goal of any entrepreneur in any industry should
always be rapid response to customer feedback. That is why proto-
typing a business idea is an integral part of a lean startup approach
and is widely used in design thinking. It allows an entrepreneur to
test ideas with customers quickly and improve upon those ideas
based on feedback. It allows ideas that should not see the light of
day to be shut down quickly, while allowing ideas that have appeal
to customers to continue to improve. Prototyping is as important
for small business owners as it is for founders of startup companies
as well, for example, should a restaurant add a new menu item
without testing it rst? The most important feature of prototyping
is that it encourages action instead of planning.
Picture this scenario: Your founder team has ideated an excit-
ing new business concept during a dynamic brainstorming session.
You are so enthusiastic about this new idea that you decide to plan
every detail and craft the perfect product while holding the idea
close so that no competitor is aware of the brilliant new design
that will disrupt the market. You plan this product meticulously to
ensure that it has all of the features that your experience has shown
that customers want. After all, wasn’t it Steve Jobs who said that
customers don’t know what they want and that it was the entre-
preneur’s job to show them? That is terric company to be in and
you are sure that your product is the next iPhone. So, you build the
perfect product and then begin an aggressive marketing campaign
that is tailored with impeccable messaging and design. The website
you built attracts immediate attention and the social media cam-
... After all, merciless pragmatists, performers and resource exploiters are flourishing entrepreneurs and small business owners. They are agile, a negative value is easy to obliterate and are not reluctant to settle on strong choices or even pinch pennies (Pittz & Liguori, 2020). ...
... In conclusion, it is noted that turning into a good entrepreneur is unimaginable without embracing risk; which risks have been taken and at what time has consistently been the question (Pittz & Liguori, 2020). These times are particularly suitable for this form of realistic, straightforward guidance for making marketing and funding choices, welcoming on partners and personnel, schmoozing with quintessential connectors and taking care of the disturbance as efficiently and forcefully as could reasonably be expected. ...
Chapter
Full-text available
A demoralizing effect on the enterprise is the cataclysm brought about by the spread of COVID-19. A survey of the information on the impact of COVID-19 on the entrepreneurship-based SME put forward that before it improves, the economic implications of this COVID-19 outbreak will deteriorate for entrepreneurship-based SMEs and their workforces. This article presents pragmatic and proactive strategies to resolve the uncertainties and threats that are especially predominant in the present enterprise setting and to assist in balancing its deleterious influences.
... Sebagian besar bisnis membayar afiliasi bonus dalam bentuk komisi dari bagian dari setiap penjualan. Plus, ada teknik yang mengevaluasi setiap kali pengunjung mengklik halaman platform (Pittz, T. G., 2020). Operator biner di Indonesia mempekerjakan Social Media Influencer (SMI) sebagai afiliasi untuk menjual produk mereka. ...
Article
Full-text available
In Indonesia, binary options are still a relatively new financial product. New users of the binary options platform still do not realize that high risk is always correlated with predicted price fluctuations of the financial instruments used as assets. This study aims to try to investigate whether there are unlawful binary options trading activities in Indonesia, and examine whether there are causes of unethical actions used by binary options operators which result in losses for option holders. This study uses descriptive qualitative research using the literature review method by comparing, collecting, and analyzing previous research by leading to the existence of regulations. The findings of this study show that binary options are not a tool for trading or investing. The results of this study are that the Financial Services Authority (OJK) provides protection in the form of outreach and public education about the characteristics of fundraising efforts and oversight of illegal investments. Share information with regulators and law enforcement in places of oppression. In addition, under the coordination structure of the Investment Alert Task Force, better known as the Task Force for handling alleged unlawful acts in the field of fundraising and investment management, various agencies can work together to speed up the handling process.
... Starting a business is a risky step involving intense anxiety and a set of fears, from which the fear of failure is certainly the most significant. Knowing the financial, social and psychological losses involved in business failure, as well as strategies to exit and recover (Liguori and Pittz, 2020), trainees with an intense desire for starting a business feel more capable of controlling and responding to negative outcomes (Bohlayer and Gielnik, 2023) and thus relieved from the fear of failure (Byrne and Shepherd, 2015), increasing the feasibility of making their dream come true. So, the path through confidence is expected to depend not only on the skills considered in this research but also on specific training regarding entrepreneurial failure. ...
Article
Purpose This study aims to assess how undergraduates’ exposure to entrepreneurship education (EE) may increase their volitional desire and behavioral control to start-up a business. Design/methodology/approach The model establishes three different paths from EE to entrepreneurial intention (EI): attraction and passion through desire and confidence through control. These paths are assessed by partial least-squares structural equation modeling in a sample of 650 undergraduates from Poland, Turkey and Portugal. Findings The most effective way by which EE may increase EI is by promoting a favorable change in the attractiveness of the entrepreneurship career. Contrary to expectations based on the literature, the effects of EE on perceived behavioral control are weak and limited to aspects related to financial control. Practical implications EE programs should consider desire and control in different phases of training, with the following learning outcomes: explore prospective rewards of an attractive entrepreneurial career, develop self-efficacy regarding management competences and gain control by assuring skills to cope with failure. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to establish a path from EE to EI through passion and desire. It is also the first to consider entrepreneurial passion as a positive anticipated emotion in the model of goal-directed behavior. The results allow to relate the different paths with different learning outcomes of EE programs.
... Given this simple structure, they often do not have the market power to compete as adaptability suffers due to a relative lack of financial liquidity (Hall, 2016;Pindyck, 1988). As a result, privately held organizations face a double-edge sword in managing DOD contracts: they provide a singular expertise on specific technical issues early in the development process (Pittz & Liguori, 2020) but lack the larger resources required to build new products in the complex military DOD infrastructure (e.g., they lack market power). Enhanced market power is useful to thrive while facing the effects of a large DOD bureaucracy, and publicly traded diversified firms are better at navigating this bureaucracy while building and testing new systems. ...
Article
Full-text available
Problem Definition The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of diversification on interfirm relationships. Given how extensively firms develop key relationships with customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders, understanding the role that interfirm (relational) strategies are affected by diversification likely will be quite informative. This is particularly true of small businesses, which are not as frequently studied by strategy scholars. A relational perspective suggests that investments in relationship-specific assets, substantial knowledge exchange, combinations of complementary resources and capabilities, and effective governance structures between supply/buyer firms in a partnership dyad can generate relational rents. Methodology/Results A foundational predication within our research is that firm diversification will lead to more advantageous relationships with business partners, a hypothesis that we test through contract performance. In our study, we review 240 Research & Development and New Product Development contracts with supplier firms and the US Department of Defense that incorporated some form of risk-sharing between the buyer and supplier. We find that diversified firms engage in contracting with suppliers in a way that provides an advantage over their single-segment competitors in terms of total contract cost, the number of change proposals by engineers in contract work, and longer durations of government contracts. We also find that diversified small firms receive more of a benefit than their larger counterparts in terms of contracting advantage. Managerial Implications Based on our findings, it is evident that managers of diversified firms provide advantage to their firms by being more accustomed to complex contractual arrangements than their single-segment firm counterparts. Our findings also suggest that enhanced opportunities for organizational learning are available to diversified firms who engage in contractual relationships. Relational contracts that feature risk-sharing between buyers and suppliers provide space for joint-learning, and it is likely that managers of diversified firms have more experience navigating these risk-sharing relationships. This is particularly influential in a dynamic marketplace as firms prioritize innovation and adaptability in order to thrive.
... Organizations that are going through disruption require entrepreneurs or leaders who are comfortable with uncertainty (Branicki et al., 2018) and able to foresee the future (Morais-Storz et al., 2018) . Uncertainty and ambiguity urge business actors to become pragmatic, result-oriented, frugal, resourceful, and eager to make unpopular decisions (Pittz & Liguori, 2020) . ...
Article
Full-text available
The pandemic has affected various sectors of life. The pandemic has attracted the attention of many parties to assess the impacts that arise outside of health impacts, one of which is the impact on micro and small enterprises (MSEs). The central role of MSEs in the national economy is the primary driver of research on how MSEs build resilience in times of crisis. This study focuses on the strength of MSEs during the Covid-19 pandemic. MSEs are the mainstay of the national economy. Therefore, various aids for the recovery of MSEs have become the focus of national economic recovery throughout the world, including Indonesia. This study uses quantitative and qualitative methods on MSEs that are still able to maintain their continuity to this day. This research focused on revealing several characteristics of MSEs’ resilience according to the number of workers, income trends, and the extent to which individual resilience affects organizational resilience. The analysis also revealed a process-based model of how MSEs builds resilience during this ongoing crisis.
Book
Full-text available
The job of the entrepreneur has grown in significance in today's fast-paced and continuously expanding environment. A new type of entrepreneur called the Technical Entrepreneur has evolved with the development of technology and innovation. This book is intended for those who are enthusiastic about engineering and technology and have a burning ambition to invent something ground-breaking. The technology that supports your goods or services is something you must understand as a technical entrepreneur in addition to creating and managing them. This book seeks to present a certain set of abilities and information that are necessary for this. We will examine the fundamental tenets of entrepreneurship and how they relate to the technological world across the pages of this book. We will examine the methods and approaches that technical entrepreneurs might employ to realize their ideas, as well as the difficulties and chances they will encounter along the route. This book is for you whether you are an aspiring entrepreneur just getting started or an established businessperson trying to grow your company. As you start along this fascinating and fruitful journey, the insights and guidance provided in these pages will encourage and direct you.
Article
Full-text available
The COVID-19 pandemic in different areas all over the globe seems to cause negative effect on the economy, particularly in tourism, commerce, health, and investment. All that changed throughout the crisis. Most consumers rapidly turned towards e-commerce while the new regular structure was embraced by business owners and various sectors. The digital transformation is a transition induced or affected by technology, such as social media sites, to all aspects of daily life. The distinction on the concepts of digital transformation is described as the applications used to improve business efficiency. In this paper, we evaluate initiatives of abrupt change in business platforms of Medium scale businesses in San Fernando, and the relationship between using the digital transformation platform and surviving the business performance during pandemic and if they are impacted by the new normal. The problem statement evaluates the perceived extent to which digital transformation can assist micro-and small-scale businesses in surviving and winning despite the new normal. The findings show that social media, cashless transactions, delivery couriers, online shopping apps, and private messages have made a significant contribution to easing the pandemic. Using technologies may help and promote the survival of Medium enterprises (MEs) during this outbreak.
Research
Full-text available
The COVID-19 pandemic in different areas all over the globe seems to cause negative effect on the economy, particularly in tourism, commerce, health, and investment. All that changed throughout the crisis. Most consumers rapidly turned towards e-commerce while the new regular structure was embraced by business owners and various sectors. The digital transformation is a transition induced or affected by technology, such as social media sites, to all aspects of daily life. The distinction on the concepts of digital transformation is described as the applications used to improve business efficiency. In this paper, we evaluate initiatives of abrupt change in business platforms of Medium scale businesses in San Fernando, and the relationship between using the digital transformation platform and surviving the business performance during pandemic and if they are impacted by the new normal. The problem statement evaluates the perceived extent to which digital transformation can assist micro-and small-scale businesses in surviving and winning despite the new normal. The findings show that social media, cashless transactions, delivery couriers, online shopping apps, and private messages have made a significant contribution to easing the pandemic. Using technologies may help and promote the survival of Medium enterprises (MEs) during this outbreak.
Article
Full-text available
In this research, an economic assessment of the role and results of small business activities in the Republic of Kazakhstan was carried out. The use of mathematically based methods to identify the main reasons for the decline in the performance indicators of small businesses during the pandemic is one of the most relevant areas of macroeconomic analysis, which ensures a higher quality of information about the development of the national economy. The purpose of this study is to use the methods of economic analysis to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the results of small businesses in Kazakhstan and assess the degree of its sustainability in crisis periods by comparing previously achieved indicators with those during the first half of the pandemic, as well as to assess how small business develops in Kazakhstan: by increasing resources or by increasing the return on use resource units. The paper used traditional methods of economic analysis, such as comparison and detailing, and traditional and deterministic methods of factor analysis. The secondary data of the «Taldau» information and analytical system of the Bureau of National Statistics of the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms of the Republic of Kazakhstan served as data sources. The study of trends in the development of small businesses in Kazakhstan revealed that during the pandemic, the proportion of the number of small entities from the total number of active entities in the economy, as well as the share of those employed in it, did not decrease; but in general, its development occurs mainly by increasing resources, rather than increasing the return on a unit of resource. The pandemic has been a difficult test for small businesses, but it has served as a source for strengthening them and increasing their resilience
Article
In this interview, Eric Liguori talks about the past, and more importantly the future, of entrepreneurship education. Liguori discusses the history and origins of Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy (EE&P; this publication), where it has been, and why he believes the future is so bright. He also discusses areas of opportunity for the future entrepreneurship education and advice for educators in how they approach the teaching of entrepreneurship. Liguori was the Founding Executive Editor of EE&P for 5 years, from January 1, 2018 – December 31, 2022. This article aims to honor his leadership to the journal as well as to celebrate his recognition as the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship’s 2023 Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.