Think Like an Entrepreneur

Ken Jones, Director of the Entrepreneur & Venture Development Center at the University of Houston Downtown, edu-tained (educated and entertained) our guests at our recent Sterling Bank Women’s Business Initiative luncheon in Houston, as he challenged us all to “Think Like an Entrepreneur”.

His definition of an entrepreneur is “one who knows the outcome is up to her and wants it that way”.

Ken identified the top two reasons for bankruptcies as lack of capital and lack of talent. He then shared seven critical requirements for entrepreneurial success:

• Risk tolerance
• Distinctive competitive advantage
• Clearly defined customer
• Financial literacy
• Exposure of business to target markets
• Selling to all customers
• Every employee earning 3 times her salary for the company

The goal is to position to achieve superior, long-term profitable growth regardless of changes in the economy. A vivid example of successfully incorporating the seven critical elements began with the discovery that though there are 10,300 restaurants in the Houston area, only a very few are open at 2 a.m. when the bars close. One of Ken’s students opened a restaurant to cater to wee hour diners and made $1.17 million the first year.

He encouraged us to truthfully examine two key questions:

• If you competed against yourself, how would you win?
• Would you do business with you?

Ken recommended two books which are required reading for his students, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell and Stop Acting Rich: And Start Living like a Real Millionaire by Thomas J. Stanley.

He concluded with his 8 R’s for success:

Revitalization – rejuvenating value proposition with new services and justifying premium pricing
Retention – hold customers longer – ask them what’s important
Reacquisition – winback odds are 3:1 v. 8:1
Referrals – earn 3 referrals over the course of a year from your best customers
Regeneration – precision marketing – pursue professional niches
Rainmaking – at one of his companies each employee’s business card had President as their title
Related Sales – McDonald’s has a 1 in 2 chance of success
Reputation Building – your brand is the gut feeling others have about your company