Wait, Don't Leave! I'm Not Done Yet!

Today was chock full of events for the small business owner. In the morning I attended the Make Mine a Million $ Business in Newark, NJ and in the afternoon I went to the NY NJ Minority Supplier Development Council Expo (NY, NY) - and here are my takes on these events:

MMM $ Business was a very empowering event for women, but the thing that I saw with which the program could have really helped us budding entrepreneurs is in the deliveries of our messages. As you recall in an earlier post, I attended the VANJ Pitch Olympics where they had a format of allowing the speaker 2 minutes to present their business, and they stuck to that limit - often cutting the speaker off in mid-sentence. In the MMM $ Business event, the women had 2 minutes, with a 30-second warning. The moderator would hold up a STOP sign at the completion of 2 minutes - and the speakers just kept going! It is so important to get that pitch so that it is powerfully delivered in as little time as possible. What amazed me was that these women were briefly coached - yet they still disregarded the rule.

I see that as women we tend to want to give everyone a little story about ourselves to validate our requests. Most women don't come right out and say "I need $1 million to properly execute my well-developed marketing plan". We tend to say, "My name is Mary, and after my divorce I found that I had this dream in me......" I attended a Ladies Who Launch meeting on Sunday at which there were about 20 entrepreneurs. The moderator instructed us to tell a little about our companies and state what we NEED. I was the last presenter. It took about 1-1/2 hours to get to my turn! I gave my business and need pitches in 3-1/2 minutes (I timed myself) - and I believe that was too long! So, with all the programs that we have to support women entrepreneurs, the key skill that we just need to hone is that succinct PITCH!

The NYNJMSDC event was great for reinforcing our sales strategy of providing services to and forming partnerships with other suppliers in lieu of expending lots of energy going after the really large corporations. As we grow, more energies will be placed in going after the big guys, but I am proud of the business relationships that we have formed and I really enjoy helping promote my supplier alliances because if they get more work then we get more work! I also heard that they, too, held a pitch event but the time limit was longer. Since I didn't attend I cannot say much about it, but I hope that the time limit was no longer than 2 minutes for the same reasons I stated above.

I belong to a few entrepreneur-focused organizations, and I recognize that each take different approaches to providing services. All encourage development and growth, and the organizations have to work with members to make them realize that the pitch is the most important aspect of the company. Although people are nice, no one is going to wait in the elevator after the doors open if you don’t say something to catch their attention. So, to all the organizations out there for the entrepreneur, the main thing that we need with our memberships is the skill to tell our stories EFFECTIVELY in 2 minutes or less – so that we see those desired results!

The Verify-crED Journey

We are getting ready to launch a new service called Verify-crED. As with Verify-ID (which is the reason Verify-ED even exists and I am sure I will explain more in the future), we came across an unmet need and decided to create a solution. Verify-crED allows job seekers to verify their own credentials and present a read-only view of the verification details to a prospective employer. Like many ideas, it is very straightforward and there are benefits for both sides of the hiring equation.

So - we have a great idea, a product nearing the end of development and various opportunities. What to do next? Well, one of the first things we have done is get much needed support. Since our product is innovative we decided to hire college interns. I have to say that the process of finding an intern who would be a true contributor to our company was not easy. I have conducted sessions at colleges about what employers seek, and I am saddened by the sea of uninterested faces. I keep trying to remember what I was like as a last year student, and I remember being ambitious even back then. So I wonder what these students are truly expecting when they get out there in the "real world".

I like to tell people about our hiring process. We post our intern positions through the college employment sites. When an applicant expresses interest, I always respond with 3 basic questions that "test" whether they even know what we do. It is so sad, but 9 out of 10 applicants never even answer the questions. This indicates that they are just throwing out their resumes hoping that one "sticks". No thought is even put into how the position will support their future career aspirations.

I am so happy that we have found a couple of interns who are not only interested in what we are doing, but willing to do the work involved in launching Verify-crED. It is a skill to recognize return on investment for the things that you do, and I am always impressed when that skill is exhibited in someone younger that 30.

So I met with our interns on March 31st and they hit the ground running on April 1st. On April 1, I conducted a presentation to fellow supplier members of the Council (NY & NY Minority Supplier Development Council). It was a co-presentation done with an awesome, knowledgeable presenter who represented Customized Benefits Solutions, Inc., an employee benefits and HR services provider. Her presentation was very informative and the attendees really received great information about how to approach their hiring process. I also believe that my portion of the presentation was well-received, and I greatly enjoyed the delivery (even with my "costume malfunction" at the end). I am constantly looking for more venues to talk about background screening and how it is one of the best, inexpensive ways to avoid potential liability.

As a result of that presentation, we received much interest in our services - and that is the goal. I am very happy that when people hear what I have to say, they realize the task of incorporating background screening is not daunting. This is the way that I like to do sales. I HATE cold-calling, which is a problem since I am the Sales department. One of the first things we are going to do when we receive investment dollars is establish a focused sales force. I - CAN'T - WAIT!

That leads into our current quest - proper financing. I find it interesting that I am reading all of these articles about the ways minority-owned companies finance ventures, and I realize that we have followed the (not-so-good) pattern. We have used expensive credit cards to grow to where we are now. Our revenue has grown over 2200%, but it is still not enough to support both partners. Verify-crED has such great potential to surpass the revenue opportunities that we can realize with background screening, we just have to really get it out there. We are looking at our competitors and determining what we have to do to make more of an impact than they have. We are happy that they don't seem to be on the radar other than in local markets. So, come along for the ride.