4 Questions and Two Words for Entrepreneurs David Friedman Member, TechCoastAngels Oct. 2015

The Road to Profitable Growth If you see a fork in the road, take it. Yogi Berra If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there. Lewis Carroll I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. Jimmy Dean The Correct Answer: For an entrepreneur, it’s about the business and the executive team

It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle. Sun Tzu- The Art of War

4 Questions to Address

Question 1 Is there a market? – Is it growing? – What is the environment? – Who is the competition? – Can you target within the market a specific need? – Is it underserved, overserved, not served? – How will you monitor progress and substantiate traction in the market?

Question 2 Can you make it? – Do you have a solid product? – Do you have a single product, platform product or network product? – Is it (business or product) extensible? – Do you have IP? – Where are your strategic control points? – Do you have a moat? – What makes you different than other options?

Expansion of Products into Markets

Question 3 Can you make money? – What are your routes to revenue? – What is your business model? – How will you be able to protect and maintain pricing? – How will you support the organization growth? – How will you distribute, promote, market the product and the cost of doing so? – How much money do you need and how will you spend the money?

Question 4 How will you support the product and the market? – High touch or high-tech? – First line technical and customer support? In-house or outsource? – Cost to support?

2 Words

Focus

Metric Management Sales= Channels x appointments x close rate Number of leads generated Return on Marketing Investment – % leads generated – % responses – Clickthroughs Satisfaction/repeat buy/willingness to recommend Sales cycle time Average selling price Average order size

Measurement Template OrganizationDepartmentGoalOwner (A) Telephone Objective Typically two or three paragraphs long. What is trying to be accomplished.References – to specific marketing plan element Comments – additional information about the objective including Call to Action. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Specific Tasks Start Completion Status R/Y/G Metric name for Balanced Scorecard or Executive Dashboard Metric Description – description of the measure, include its intent, data source, and organization responsible for providing measure data. This will appear in the pop-up window when you mouse over the measure in the Balanced Scorecard. Data Source: how to get data Metric Target Metric Result R/Y/GCorrective Action Minimum ValueROMI (if applicable Scorecard Perspective Name Date Confidential and Proprietary- for distribution only by consent of author

PODFU Plan Organize Delegate Follow-Up Set a battle rhythm for your company and a dashboard to review. Share it with the entire team to build commitment and energy.

Thank you. David Friedman Managing Director