This year, we are launching an exciting new program called Accelerator!

If you are an entrepreneur, do you remember when you first started your company?

I do.

And I remember having to learn everything as I went, from from accounting, sales, and managing people, to strategy and defining my mission/vision & values. I made a lot of mistakes, and at each step, I tried to find mentors to guide me through the process so I could learn from their mistakes and grow my company faster.

• Accelerator is a program of Entrepreneurs’ Organization
• Applicants must have gross revenue of $250k to $999k in the previous 12 months, and be a founder or majority owner of their company
• This program is non-profit, and entirely funded by sponsors and Accelerator participants
• Only 30 applicants are accepted each year, with a focus on those dedicated to company growth
• This is an annual program with 3 years of curriculum. The expectation is that within 24-36 months a participant will graduate to over $1 million in revenue and exit the program
• The program consists of:
  – Monthly accountability group meetings made up of 4 participants and an EO mentor
  – Quarterly learning days focused on Strategy, Sales, People and Finance
• This curriculum is best of breed, and was selected by the U.S. State Department for their “Entrepreneurs for a New Beginning” program

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

There are many ways to get involved and support the Accelerator program!

1. Mentor – if you’re an EO member, share your entrepreneurial expertise and experience with early stage companies
2. Nominate – do you know an early stage entrepreneur who wants to grow?  nominate them for membership
3. Support – give back to the entrepreneurial community by sponsoring Accelerator
4. Apply – apply to be a participant in the Accelerator Program
5. Attend – if you are an EO member, attend the Accelerator learning days!
6. Follow – we’ll be blogging about the process and participants, listen in as we tell the stories of success!

Join me on this exciting journey, and I promise you will be inspired, learn a lot, and grow along with the rest of us!

Jeremy Brandt
CEO, 1-800-CashOffer, FastHomeOffer.com
2010/11 – EO Dallas Chapter President
2011/12 – Accelerator Program Champion

I run a company that spends a lot of time and money connecting home sellers with real estate professionals.  One of our biggest struggles is convincing real estate agents and investors to treat every phone call, every lead, as if it had $50,000 attached to it.

Especially in small businesses, we tend to get back to people “when it’s convenient” – well, that doesn’t work in the Internet world, where 50 of your competitors are 1 click away and ready to respond faster and better than you are.

And you may not even know it’s happening – most customers won’t say “someone else called me back before you did, so I’m working with them” – they just won’t call you back at all, leaving you to wonder what happened.

In the Internet economy – the research shows that if you take more than 15 minutes to get back to any new prospect who contacts you via a your web site, or a lead who fills out a form, or someone who leaves you a phone message – your chances plummet of ever working with them at all.

That’s something to think about when spending thousands of dollars or more each month trying to reach qualified customers.

Seth Godin (marketing genius and author) has a great post on his blog about this – and how letting an employee who isn’t amazing at customer service answer the phone can waste all your marketing dollars…

The $20,000 phone call

When a homeowner decides to put his house on sale and calls a broker…

When he calls the moving company…

When a family arrives in town and calls someone recommended as the family doctor…

When a wealthy couple calls their favorite fancy restaurant looking for a reservation…

Go down the list. Stockbrokers, even hairdressers. And not just people who recently moved. When a new referral shows up, all that work and expense, and then the phone rings and it gets answered by your annoyed, overworked, burned out, never very good at it anyway receptionist, it all falls apart.

What is the doctor thinking when she allows her neither pleasant nor interested in new patients receptionist to answer the phone?

– Seth Godin

On November 19th, Entrepreneurs’ Organization will be holding an event to celebrate EO24 and Global Entrepreneurship Week – to inspire entrepreneurial activity in Dallas and around the globe.

Our event will bring together prominent Dallas area business leaders and entrepreneurs for a panel discussion on entrepreneur activity in Dallas, the economy and other topics of interest to business leaders.

They hosted our event at their corporate headquarters, including a tour of their amazing logistics facility, from which any item that is in one of their stores originates.

A true entrepreneurial story, Kip has grown The Container Store from a single 1,600 sqft location in Dallas to 43 locations throughout the country, that average 25,000 sqft in size.

The big take-away from his talk was over-communicate to your staff, your partners and your vendors.  If you put your employees first – revenue and profits will follow.

The Container Store philosophy is that 1 great employee = 3 good employees, and 1 good employee = 3 bad employees.  So only hire great employees and over-pay them compared to the market.

Kip also says he gives the same power-point presentation on the company’s status to his board of directors and his employees.  Employees feel they know what is going on in the business and won’t be surprised.

Maybe that is why Fortune has named them one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For – 10 years in a row.

Plus, it’s not a bad bit of ‘viral marketing.  Enjoy.

My tips included writing everything down before you go to bed and doing something “mindless (watch TV, read a novel) that helps your brain wind down and disengage.  As an entrepreneur and business owner it is easy to let your mind go wild thinking of all the things that must be accomplished the next day, most of which nothing can be done about right now

Getting good sleep is critical to operating at your peak and being creative.  There are some great suggestions in this article and its a quick read.    Here is the link to the full story.

We recently launched a company called 1-800-CashOffer because we saw a huge unmet need in the marketplace.

Residential real estate investors serve a very important function in the real estate economy. By purchasing, fixing up and selling property that is in disrepair they improve neighborhoods, increase property values, and provide an outlet for property that would otherwise sit vacant. They purchase homes going into foreclosure and both save a person’s credit in a tough situation and provide an outlet for the bank to quickly sell the property (banks do not want to foreclose, they do so because they have to).

Unfortunately, because of the actions of a few un-educated, un-professional, and un-scrupulous investors that have gone to a get-rich-quick seminar – the industry has started to get a black eye. The increased rate of mortgage fraud some so-called investors have been involved in has not helped any.

1-800-CashOffer was created so that scrupulous, honest investors that have the ability to purchase a home for cash and close quickly, can operate under a national reputable brand that consumers can trust.

Home sellers can feel confident that they will be treated right and that the real estate investor is experienced and will follow through on their commitments.

We have combined 1-800-CashOffer with our “Certified Professional Homebuyer” program that certifies an investors experience level and ability to purchase a home quickly for cash, in addition to holding them to a higher standard of ethics.

What a talented family They were speaking to a group of entrepreneurs about Ken’s upcoming book – “The One Minute Entrepreneur” that is similar to “The One Minute Manager” in format but focused on helping entrepreneurs think through the skills needed to create a successful company.

I was able to review a manuscript and I believe it will be a great resource for those thinking of starting a company. It covers a lot of the basic skills and “common sense” things that unfortunately aren’t as “common” as they should be. The forward is by Michael Gerber, who has an amazing track record of helping small businesses to
create processes and systems to succeed.

If you ever have the opportunity to hear any of the Blanchards, especially Ken, speak, I highly recommend you do whatever you can to attend. They are all highly sought after speakers who do an excellent job of engaging their audience while
providing a lot of in-depth data and analysis.

And when “The One Minute Entrepreneur” comes out, be sure and pick up a copy!

An article earlier this month by Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy.com outlines why, after doing all the filing needed and receiving SEC approval, he decided to withdraw his registration with the SEC to become a public company.

One of the primary reasons cited in his post are the stringent accounting methods that the SEC would require them to use if they wanted to be public.

With the ridiculous Sarbanes-Oxley Act requirements, many companies (and their the CEOs who are now ultimately responsible for financial errors) are deciding to either not go public, or to go public in a foreign market to avoid the overbearing requirements of the US market.

SOX was a typical over-reaction to the Enron/Tyco/etc scandals of the past few years.  Just like preventing you from bringing hair gel on an airplane probably doesn’t make you any safer, but makes you feel safer because “at least they did something“, many of the SOX requirements don’t do anything to stop fraud, while making it much harder to do business as a public company.

Do we really want US companies to feel like that have to go to foreign markets if they want public investment?  Business is what drives our economy.  Let’s figure out how to make it easier for business owners to operate, not hamstring their efforts to grow (and create jobs, and buy buildings, and pay taxes).

One of the interesting things from his business history is that with both of the companies he founded he was the sole investor.  He never raised money and created two companies with revenues in excess of $100M.

Of the 16 rules Parsons has come up with, here are a few that are my favorite:

1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone. I believe that not
much happens of any significance when we’re in our comfort zone. I hear
people say, “But I’m concerned about security.” My response to that is
simple: “Security is for cadavers.”

7. Always be moving forward. Never stop investing. Never stop
improving. Never stop doing something new. The moment you stop
improving your organization, it starts to die. Make it your goal to be
better each and every day, in some small way. Remember the Japanese
concept of Kaizen. Small daily improvements eventually result in huge
advantages.

8. Be quick to decide. Remember what General George S. Patton
said: “A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than
a perfect plan tomorrow.”

You can view Parsons’ entire post at Bob Parsons – My 16 Rules.