Greenville Business Magazine 2010 June issue : Page 13

It’s Hard Out There for an Entrepreneur BY MARTY FLYNN | PHOTOGRAPH BY OLIVER YU FOTOGRAPHIE modern day shopper. The next breed of small business owners will have to be smarter, more innovative, and more connected to capture a modern customer who is elusive, over-served, and less charmed by homegrown appeal. We need less new businesses and more successful existing businesses. Economic development, the recruitment tool of many municipalities cannot keep luring small business ventures through selective statistics that tend to overstock the local fishing pond. There may be increasing numbers of fish, but the number of fishermen in the form of non-local competition drains the local shopping species of its ability to support the many local options. The spirit of entrepreneurism is alive and well, but the flames of ideal must be tempered by a pragmatic look at market behavior. The future of small business will depend on foundational support at the national and local levels designed to reshape buying attitudes and skew buyers towards a local shopping bias. Real help for small business start-ups has to extend beyond the base of mentoring, cheerleading, and ‘how to’ resources. It has to come in the form of operational assistance such as affordable rent and cost-sharing collaborative efforts. While investment angels make rarer appearances these days, “F ollowing the many graduation cheers that echoed throughout the month of May, comes the sigh of quiet desperation among fledgling employment seekers released into a challenging, fiercely competitive, and uncertain work environment. While some will pursue the familiar job seeking paths armed with well crafted resumes, a certain few will seize the reins of their destinies as would-be entrepreneurs. These risk takers who undertake their own course of employment as business owners do so at a time when small business is less valued and appreciated from the paying customer perspective. “I want to own my own business” is a romantic notion, an adventure fraught with peril, that very often spirals into a story of unrequited love between prospector and prospect. Too many budding business owners are hitching their wagon to the ‘build it and they will come’’ star, which no longer shines on a market fueled by pragmatism over impulse, need over want. I want to support local business, but I need to get the best deal going. The customer who is the ultimate venture capitalist has decided the fate of the small business before the lights are even switched on. The power of an idea for a business today relies not in the product itself as much as it does to the application of the product to the customer’s life. And it is indeed a tall order today to match a winning product with the competitive pricing instincts of the and financial business plans face more rigid scrutiny and less likelihood of approval, entrepreneurs should not be allowed to perish on the jagged rocks of a shaky economy. However, the traditional business lifecycle model of birth, growth, maturity, and decline is a fairytale. A modern day start-up must step on the line a winner, and success must come quickly if it is to come at all. There are always new opportunities, but more careful analysis of the competitive environment needs to be applied in the launching of a new venture. Otherwise, we may end up piling businesses with similar offerings on top of each other, risking the possibility that the whole heap will crumble under the weight of excessive supply. Entrepreneurs must be willing to look for opportunities in less familiar places. In our quest for inspiration, we should look back at some of the great success stories that did not follow the well traveled path of discovery. When everyone else was panning for gold, Levi Strauss found his fortune outfitting the gold-diggers with a rugged sack pants that would endure long after the gold rush. When most toy makers were busy creating smart intelligent sophisticated toys for the harder to please children, along comes an ugly ragamuffin cabbage patch doll that suddenly became a ‘must have’ for eager to please parents. Revlon cosmetics and the Monopoly board game were created during the depression years of the 1930’s. A luxury accessory and a fictional money game might have seemed like questionable ideas to present to a penny pinching market place, yet their success suggests that in challeng- ing times, entrepreneurs would be well served to invest in the product of ‘hope’ and its many innovations. ■ Marty Flynn is the head of the Greenville Tech marketing department. JUNE 2010 | GREENVILLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE 13

>>columns - It’s Hard Out There for an Entrepreneur

Marty Flynn

Following the many graduation cheers that echoed throughout the month of May, comes the sigh of quiet desperation among fledgling employment seekers released into a challenging, fiercely competitive, and uncertain work environment. While some will pursue the familiar job seeking paths armed with well crafted resumes, a certain few will seize the reins of their destinies as would-be entrepreneurs. These risk takers who undertake their own course of employment as business owners do so at a time when small business is less valued and appreciated from the paying customer perspective.

“I want to own my own business” is a romantic notion, an adventure fraught with peril, that very often spirals into a story of unrequited love between prospector and prospect. Too many budding business owners are hitching their wagon to the ‘build it and they will come’’ star, which no longer shines on a market fueled by pragmatism over impulse, need over want. I want to support local business, but I need to get the best deal going. The customer who is the ultimate venture capitalist has decided the fate of the small business before the lights are even switched on. The power of an idea for a business today relies not in the product itself as much as it does to the application of the product to the customer’s life. And it is indeed a tall order today to match a winning product with the competitive pricing instincts of the modern day shopper. The next breed of small business owners will have to be smarter, more innovative, and more connected to capture a modern customer who is elusive, over-served, and less charmed by homegrown appeal.

We need less new businesses and more successful existing businesses. Economic development, the recruitment tool of many municipalities cannot keep luring small business ventures through selective statistics that tend to overstock the local fishing pond. There may be increasing numbers of fish, but the number of fishermen in the form of non-local competition drains the local shopping species of its ability to support the many local options. The spirit of entrepreneurism is alive and well, but the flames of ideal must be tempered by a pragmatic look at market behavior. The future of small business will depend on foundational support at the national and local levels designed to reshape buying attitudes and skew buyers towards a local shopping bias. Real help for small business start-ups has to extend beyond the base of mentoring, cheerleading, and ‘how to’ resources. It has to come in the form of operational assistance such as affordable rent and cost-sharing collaborative efforts.

While investment angels make rarer appearances these days, and financial business plans face more rigid scrutiny and less likelihood of approval, entrepreneurs should not be allowed to perish on the jagged rocks of a shaky economy. However, the traditional business lifecycle model of birth, growth, maturity, and decline is a fairytale. A modern day start-up must step on the line a winner, and success must come quickly if it is to come at all. There are always new opportunities, but more careful analysis of the competitive environment needs to be applied in the launching of a new venture. Otherwise, we may end up piling businesses with similar offerings on top of each other, risking the possibility that the whole heap will crumble under the weight of excessive supply.

Entrepreneurs must be willing to look for opportunities in less familiar places. In our quest for inspiration, we should look back at some of the great success stories that did not follow the well traveled path of discovery. When everyone else was panning for gold, Levi Strauss found his fortune outfitting the gold-diggers with a rugged sack pants that would endure long after the gold rush. When most toy makers were busy creating smart intelligent sophisticated toys for the harder to please children, along comes an ugly ragamuffin cabbage patch doll that suddenly became a ‘must have’ for eager to please parents. Revlon cosmetics and the Monopoly board game were created during the depression years of the 1930’s. A luxury accessory and a fictional money game might have seemed like questionable ideas to present to a penny pinching market place, yet their success suggests that in challenging times, entrepreneurs would be well served to invest in the product of ‘hope’ and its many innovations.