Linkage: Your business to a non-profit like a chamber or worthy cause

We live in a moment where highly skilled workers and salespeople are out of work-but their skills still exist and their ability to influence others is powerful-from young,  just out-of-university business students to retirees, there is a pool of workers eager to do something.

Link your business to a cause-to something more important than the bottom-line and engage with stake-holders who support the idea: the linkage (between say, your newest venture and a % of gross to a chamber or a worthwhile non-profit.

Build bridges to USC Marshal School of Business,  to FIDM, to Pasadena Art Center, to Loyola, and Pepperdine and ask for volunteers to man phone banks, post blogs, and vitalize, with their elan, and esprit de  corps, your moribund business.

Have them open up a twitter campaign with you, face book, my space, blogs, postings, and respect their ideas, rewarding them with your experience and know-how and the promise that when the tide turns, their boats will have the  opportunity to lift with yours.

Try it: step so far out of the box in these new, value driven times that you create a new box.

kevin roberts: enter the jungle

On writing copy for email marketing

-posted  by martin cavanaugh porter

Do not underestimate your reader.

Do not write short, overly colorful copy unless you are incapable of writing well.

Do not deluge your segment benefit list with daily blasts.

Do over-estimate your reader: consider them your equal plus.

Do write extensive copy that is fact-based, low in adjective use, and written in black and white (with careful color accents).

Do systemize your email send-offs: perhaps weekly.

Bottom-line: Provide valuable information that is interesting, factual which leads the reader to trust you and to seek you (and thus your product or service) out. Write factually and passionately. Write simply, in a straightforward way and if you feel emotionally charged by the topic, well, emote. Passion through facts, Emotions through topic choice will lead the reader to value your email marketing and subscribe to your newsletters and blogs, and eventually, come to your viral-video events and social networking events to personally seek you out.

want to destroy your brand?…use hyperbole

branding & mkt 101: the danger of hyperbole or: “the worlds greatest phone system.”

Short and sweet: Mercedes Benz doesn’t call themselves the best automobile manufacturer in the world, nor for that matter does Rolls Royce-it does claim, that in relation to the size of the car and the size of the engine that it is the quietest. Note, relational to other distinguishing elements of the product.

Even Rolls Royce knows it’s important to qualify a claim.

Be what you are and admit your mistakes-then you will be trusted as an interlocutor, client, or service provider. This recession has cut the wheat from the chaff: those left standing will return to the basics: great service, great branding, and a degree of dignity relational to hyperbole.

For example:  If a client asks me has Forbes Legacy Ventures LLC ever failed? Answer: Yes. Or, have I (Martin) lived a life with full of personal mistakes. Answer: Yes. Or, are you sure all your ideas are good? Answer: No. Or, are we the ‘greatest’ branding-biz dev-vc organization. Answer: No, sir.

Forbes Legacy Ventures  LLC and The South Park Development Group have been told about the “world’s greatest phone system.” -hyperbole.

Here’s why: Out of 70 days use, 69 have been filled with some kind of error-each error a mark against my brand-my companies.

The errors continue: Two clients assumed we had gone out of business. Today clients and I called into the office this morning when my team was here and the phones did not ring.

Clearly, this is not the world’s greatest phone system. It’s a system that is actually a threat to our business.

Save the hyperbole for the saps-this crews been around the block too many times.

Lesson: Don’t ever use “greatest” -unless your:

• Nelson Mandela (South Africa’s Champion and world Icon)
• Gandhi (Saviour of India)
• Kevin Roberts (World Wide CEO Saatchi and Saatchi and saviour of over 700 brands-not hyperbole)
• Giovanni Agnelli (Founder of FIAT, emperor of Alfa Romeo, Ducatti, Maserati, Ferrari, and Lamborghini, and, founder of Europe’s third largest V.C firm-for which he was the secret leader of until after he passed away).
• Muhammad Ali (Need I say more)
• Winston Spencer Churchill (Saviour of Western Civilization)
• Golda Meir (Israel’s Iron Lady)

business building-5 steps -downtownlabiz.com

1. define success: it could just be, at this point, survival, or more-each business is unique. success could be getting out, clearing the decks and coaching soccer. it could be going back to school. it probably is growth, a focus on cash flow, and revenues.  also…many independent business owners define success as not working for anyone else.

2. set strategy:   strategy=focus, its about differentiating your business on multiple levels-this recession will clear the decks of mid-level players unwilling to engage in high-level branding and marketing, combined with excellent product or service. things will get uglier and winning will mean, conversely, being values driven. how are you different? think: your company, the target market, and the focus that narrows both.

use swot: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats-as  bulletin points-keep it simple, be honest, be straightforward. clarity in each segment will lead to focus, which will be your strategy.

3. Be concrete, be measurable: who does what? what is the budget? what is the burn rate? how much does it cost? test everything and everyone. deadline everything. focus on prime-mover actions. re-focus (getting a little too focused?-no such thing).  look at leads, look at who in your organization is focused on sales-on cash-flow-whatever their title, whatever their department. revise the business plan-all the time. use the business plan. plan and then be flexible enough to scrap all your precepts-but be in planning mode. planning=strategy=focus=success.

4. make sales-i know-sounds utterly, inane, insipid-but, make some bloody sales. use all the tools available: email mkt, the phone, walk your neighborhood, walk period. survive=talk, talk to people, hand out your business card-over and over and over again. smile. even when it’s tough. build your online identity: today, right now, give up on your mistrust of viral marketing: it works, use it. grow.get over it.

 connect with those groups and people you would not, in any other time, normally hang with: drop judgementalism as much as you can. you need help, you need to make connections. you need to make connections now. keep them. how? by giving them at least as much as what you need from them-your time, ideas. give lots of good ideas. use your ideas as currency. ideas=$. so value your ideas, believe in them and ‘gift’ them to your ever growing list of connections.

5. be planning and revising all the time. make lists, keep notes-and, well focus.

a game changing c.f.o-the importance of having a great mentor in your organization

c.f.o as game-changer

as c.e.o i deliberate, i engage in strategic thinking, and I develop the best strategy that should be implemented on behalf of my team, my clients, my family, and my community. most often, strategically, we are right on the money, backed by powerful tactical flanking executed by the team.

 i don’t always know how to handle everyone-i don’t always get interpersonal relationships right: i am burdened by the entirety of the enterprise-which is no excuse-i refuse excuses from others and will not accept one from myself.

but, i can become so engaged in the day’s affairs and so wrapped up in my own ego, that i can’t see the forest from the trees-and the trees are my team. trees need water and the chance to grow.

i became insensibly unable to deal with a member of the team because i could not, through my limited prism of life and business experience comprehend the true nature of that person’s character or abilities-and i gave up. my c.f.o did not. she saw what i did not: a biz developer, a hustler, a beehive worker-a passionate, unique individual whose life experiences, bound together into a quilt of embedded memory make her a valuable player to my clients, my team, and to me.

 my c.f.0, eve, worked with her and what i can see-early days-is an early spring of personal growth and business mojo. always listen in business, always look for the tipping point, which is to be found at the edges, not at the centre, at those moments when you should listen, and are not. effective=active=acting intelligently. that’s what i am beginning to see  in this person that the c.f .o is mentoring, and i am proud and grateful.

we may have a business development powerhouse on our hands in this young acolyte.

green-organic boot-strap v.c funding in south park l.a: hope RIZE

Friday, May 15, 2009

 

the hopeRIZE fund:finding and boot strap funding GREEN-ORGANIC entreprenenuers

today, brett and I will be filing the securities and exchange paperwork for the hopeRIZE fund: moving toward solution-first round financing for young, dynamic, highly innovative future GREEN ORGANIC entrepreneurs: core component attribute: the startup(s) must be HQ downtown southpark l.a. within the four block LUNA-EVO-EVO SOUTH-FLOWER STREE LOFT schema.

we look forward to working with South Park stake holders to advance this goal.

-martin cavanaugh porter III and brett h tomich.

questions? you can email: info@southparkbusinessincubator.biz 

50-for-500 club

we cannot remain locked in a disparate darkness of financial road blocks to innovation. 

the best time to innovate, invest, and grow is through a recession by supporting groundbreaking start up-entrepreneurs who often lack the ‘get in the door’ credentials to accelerate their product to market and reach the payback period to investors. 

the los angeles business war room round table must assist start-ups and on-going businesses receive a degree of credit from suppliers, obtain second rounds of financing, and have access to state-of-the art technology to leverage their innovation and bring their product or service to market. 

let us look at the present value, beta, efficiency frontier modelling through the lens: degree to which we can support an innovator succeed.

credit scores: one part of a whole- many individuals credit scores have taken a hit these last years and/or young men and women don’t have enough credit history to have an adequate score.

Let us move beyond the obvious in our collective thinking ”We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Einstein.

 lets also talk about: innovation scores (can product or service be brought to market or improved and be re-branded in short order with a reasonable expectation of success) and credibility scores (what is the individual’s relationship with his freinds and family like-this is a prime new way of balancing a potentially low credit score). full due-diligence adding criteria that allows for a more balanced view of the potential investment. 

 

brett and I propose the  50 for 500 club to begin to provide direct, technical,branding, ongoing strategic advice and limited financial ‘boot strap’ assistance to one potential innovative, entrepreneurial  graduate from the USC Marshall School of Business through the South Park Business Incubator (a private business incubator, a business  unit of the South Park Development Group). much more to come about the 50 for 500 club in the days ahead.

 south park biz incubator (also called la biz incubator) would provide legal, technical, office, branding and marketing assistance (unlimited email marketing campaign blasts, free, best of breed website-on line ecommerce presence, viral-SEO marketing, business planning, and assistance in 2nd and third round financing) for the life of the start-up company, taking a 10% interest.

members of the 50 for 500 club in return for each member putting up a $500.00 stake in the venture, collectively own 10% interest.

it’s a new model: double down on the angel  investor model and drive innovation and the hopes of start-up businessmen and women.

the 50 for 500 club will be on the agenda  at the first war room round table.

questions? ideas? email: btomich@southparkbusinessincubator.biz or mcporter@southparkbusinessincubator.biz

entreprenuer magazine blog posting on forbes legacy ventures llc-l.a biz incubator inc

flvllc.com

entrepreneur magazine’s blog has said of forbes legacy ventures llc’s model is that it is a hybrid v.c, branding, ecommerce organization both % -equity based and or fee based that is the first organization that seems to be flexible enough to provide concrete, universal solutions to small-medium businesses. they have integrated business consulting with v.c allowing small business access to technologically complex solutions and focused growth strategies at a very reasonable rate….”

forbes legacy ventures llc is so pleased to announce that they are being closely watched by business week , whole foods blog, and the real estate industry report: they are humbled-they feel it is thier duty to  live up to the accolades…..forbes legacy ventures llc- the south park development group-l.a biz incubator will endeavor every day, in every way to provide maximum value to its clients

e-raod cycle, update 2

E-ROAD Update 2

the forbes legacy ventures team will be test driving the E-Road this sunday at, 2pm.

almost zero carbon emissions

seems perfect for downtown….we will keep you posted…