BUSINESS FIRST INNER 39-82:Layout 1 9/6/08 16:54 Page 51
KNOWLEDGE 51
BEAT THE RECESSION!
OK, some of us are feeling more than a little
The elevator pitch should be written on a beer mat, and looked at the
twitchy. Who knows what lies around the next
next morning, when everyone is sober. If it still looks like a good idea,
corner? Should we be fainthearted? Not a bit of it,
then it’s time to speak to a mentor, again long before you mortgage
your house or spend any money. A mentor will provide a good sanity
according to Mike Southon.
check for your business, and if they like the idea will add some
Let’s face it; there is probably going to be a recession sometime soon.
credibility, and even suggest who might be your first customer. This first
All the signs are there: credit crunch, general downturn, oil prices rising,
customer is always the hardest; it will probably be one of your friends
politicians wringing their hands, claiming it’s not their fault, though the
who is happy to give your solution a try, and who will be honest about
boom times were all down to them, of course!
how good it was.
So what do we do about it? Sell everything, convert as much as you
If they are delighted and start telling their friends, you may be onto
can to gold and hide it under the mattress? I have a better idea: why
something; if not, you should go back to the pub and start working on
not start a business?
the next idea. Eventually you’ll find something you’re happy to deliver,
that has significant network attraction
You may have no other choice; your stable employer may find this is
and can clearly be delivered at a
the perfect time to ‘let you go’. So it’s time to dust off that compelling
profit. Then you have a viable
business plan you’ve been working on in your spare time.
business. It’s as simple as that!
The good news is that a down-turn is a great time to start a business. All Source: Mike Southon, the
the most successful ones I have worked on (including the one that Beermat Entrepreneur
made me very rich) were started during a recession. Of course I didn’t www.beermat.biz
plan it that way, it just sort of happened, but I did notice that offices,
raw materials and even people were cheaper than before, and that
good contra deals could be made, such as exchanging office space
for services.
But the most important thing is that people are motivated and will give
110%, even if just to stick two fingers at the smug manager who told
them they were surplus to requirements. Boom times breed lazy
people, who feel customers owe them a living, and that the good
times will never end.
So if you now feel inspired to start your own business, then you’re
probably asking yourself “what should I do?” This is actually the wrong
question to start the process; you should be asking yourself “who
should I do it with?” There are a million good business ideas out there;
what is lacking is the expertise to make them a success. That is why
I always suggest you put the virtual team together first, ideally
before quitting your day job, and work from there.
In our model, three people go down to a pub, and start writing on
beer mats. It should be a mixed team, covering the main bases:
Delivery (actually providing the product or service), Sales (finding
customers), and Finance (making a profit). These three individuals
all ask themselves “Where’s the pain?” There should be a real
problem out there which they are passionate about solving, that
they feel has some potential customers, and that they reckon
can be provided at a profit.
They should then formulate this into a simple elevator pitch: what
problems are they solving, how they are going to solve it, and why
people should buy from them? A few words of guidance here: this
is a pitch in an elevator, so you have about twenty seconds. Many
elevator pitches that I receive assume the elevator gets stuck for
several hours.
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