Tim Zarley protects ideas. If you’re building a product, actively enjoy the details of this episode brewed through valuable IP strategies. Zarley Law, now Zarley Conley, has been collaborating with idea machines for over 60 years, so as Tim Zarley follows in his father’s footsteps, it’s neat to have this recorded relic brewed to keep you building.
The entrepreneurial lifestyle resists definition.
Business owners paint with strokes of curiosity, determination, and innovation. When people build with creative ambition, experience is valuable, but the symphony of desire and attitude plays an equally important role. It takes heart to start and resilience to keep building. Executing early moves, managing focus, collecting feedback, building a team, and maintaining sales is such an art form.
The best part about an entrepreneurial lifestyle is that it’s accessible to everyone. This can be seen as students explore projects that look like work to others, but feel like play to them. It’s intrapreneurs fueling positive change in existing companies. It’s startup founders achieving product-market fit with new ideas and others who build on existing momentum by acquiring an established business.
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This caffeinated contribution was written by Sheldon Ohringer. Sheldon has led large sales teams, is an active investor, a board member, and is now building Cocoon Growth to help others buy their first business.
Starting a business is one way to explore the entrepreneurial lifestyle, but buying an existing business is also an interesting way to write your own story. While there may be a cost for the head start, acquiring an existing business presents an interesting side door to the entrepreneurial lifestyle.
As you consider a business to buy, avoid future headaches by understanding industry requirements such as licenses, permits, zoning, and environmental requirements. As you work with existing ownership to determine a purchase price, a valuation based on capitalized earnings, excess earnings, cash flow, and tangible assets are all methods to guide fair negotiations. In the end, the right price is one that delights the seller and has the buyer excited.
As details come together, partner with legal and accounting experts who focus on mergers and acquisitions to document the transaction. A letter of intent, confidentiality agreement, contracts, leasing documents, financial statements, tax returns, and sales agreements are all important documents to talk with your M&A team about. Many transactions include a vesting schedule as well, so stay in-tune with these details to avoid unwanted surprises.
There are a variety of strategic ways to acquire a business, but once the transition takes place, new owners are given keys to a kingdom that hails an established team, customer base, and operating procedures. As we see in the Exit section of the Results chapter in YDNTB, there will be challenges during these transitory times, but in the end, virtuous leaders listen to keep the culture balanced. All the good that comes with a business is important to maintain, but an honest audit of negative aspects are important too. Intentional candor with areas to improve allows new owners to build on past success, while charting a renewed vision for lasting prosperity.
Phygital is a nerdy good term.
The combination of physical and digital is something humanity has been experimenting with for centuries. The history of electronic engineering is straight inventive and the conversational AI powering our new ChatUX in BEN BOT knew about the concept before I even asked.
Perhaps this means I’m late to the party, but at web3dsm last week, I was introduced to this “phygital” word. As I’ve thought more about it, phygital feels like a term to help us think about the blends between physical and digital worlds. Phygital experiences have connectivity (or potential to do so) in almost everything man-made.
Phygital products exist in seemingly all industry sectors. Basically anything with electricity, and of course, technology products with electronic hardware and of course, all IoT products designed to be smart. These days, everything has an app option, eh. As I roasted on this writing, the computer and smartphone kept earning my mental vote for the most personified examples of a physical device that layers the entire user experience (“UX”) into a digital counterpart. Radio and TV can earn runner-up recognition if they don’t want left out, haha!
So, how did a recent web3 conversation lead to this new word? When more wayfinders start sharing ideas, the expansion of one’s thoughts can be dilated and intensified. After Josh Larson helped us paint a conversation with generative AI, prompt engineering, and liberating bias systems in digital art, the articulated use of phygital and a compelling use case stuck with me.
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I’ve enjoyed building web3dsm with a decentralized team of volunteers. Along with being another energizing community building exercise, the compelling IRL conversations with fellow technologists has activated curiosity and thickened many people’s understandings of different concepts within web3. Over the past 7 months, we’ve featured amazing web3 projects alongside cooperative education, complimented by deep thinking amongst a growing number of community leaders.
Alright… imagine a hoodie with a passive chip.
When scanned by a phone, the clothing activates a treasured digital experience. Think about it. Maybe you already have? Ta daa! Digital clothing.
You’d need a strong tech team and some luck in loud markets, but the idea of chip-enabled clothing feels like pure wonder, but also possible with an inquisitive team, expanding access to required components, attention from the right audience, and the right community-driven initiative. Hmm…
Phygital clothing is extra crazy too, because it’s been such a traditional example of a physical product. Clothing is also designed to be a very personal choice. As clothing continues to be initialized by electronics, the digital companion will introduce almost endless depth. Embedding fresh remarkability, accessibility, different states to unlock, real-time incentives, network effects, and transcendent brand loyalty. Wow.
Whether you get electronic clothing from me or not, I predict more clothing will soon have the option to connect, even offering digital options to pair with what you wear. Alright, it’s been fun to reflect on the future of fashion, but this idea machine is scheduled for a pit stop. As always, reply to connect and I’ll look forward to bonus interactions.
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Another spellbinding term is #ChatUX. This may be our theme for next week, so if a friend shared this with you, confirm your free Roasted Reflections subscription. If you’ve enjoyed my weekly writing for years, thanks again and keep building my friend.
I’ve embarked on a campaign to cure my seasonal allergies. Trying to understand the details of this immunotherapy reminds me how clarity effects confidence.
With allergy shots that require weekly visits for the first several months, then monthly visits for 2-5 years, you’d think there would be a sharp collection of resources to highlight treatment options, insurance codes linked to cost of care, and benefits/risk comparisons.
Proactively investing in your health is hard enough. Feeling like you’re taking a gamble without clarity on how a long-term effort may (or may not) come together, makes it way harder. I understand that healthcare is complex because everyone’s body and health habits are different, but there’s seemingly enough commonality to allow for a solid base of standardization, paired with different options and disclaimers to keep the variables in focus. Wish me luck, but this decision-making process has been cloaked in fog.
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“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air. Work, family, health, friends, and spirit. And you’re keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – family, health, friends, and spirit – are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same.” –Bryan Dyson
As we look through the lens of entrepreneurship, delivering fearless clarity may put you on the hook and will turn some prospects away, but it adds efficiency to the sales process and leads to more satisfaction from better customers.
This does not mean we simplify everything. Simplification is polarizing, so delivering confidence through clarity is more about sequencing. Try delivering less information to ensure clarity, then support a well communicated slowness with connected resources to meet a prospect’s specific needs. This sequenced effort gives people what they need, when they need it. When everyone feels informed, confidence increases and the opportunity for more lasting collaboration is refined.
The New Year is already starting to feel like old news, eh. Let’s shake off that early temptation to push your new idea toward someday. Look, I get it. There was intoxicating enthusiasm when you first thought through everything over the holidays. As you’ve returned to routine, the idea that felt like it was the one & only thing that mattered, now seems to be falling down your priority list.
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This is normal, but we’re not normal!
We are the weird who make a ruckus.
After some creative wireframing, I challenge you to setup (at least) two meeting to breath life into this budding idea. First, meet with a #givefirst mentor. This should feel like a supportive space, but avoid rainbows and butterflies. Be realistic by sharing the exciting aspects of the idea, but also the challenges. As discussed in YDNTB, a fast no is much better than a long, wrong yes. That said, playing it safe is easier than activating initiative, so don’t let early doubt slow you down. Instead, welcome it. Let this energizing form of curiosity uncover new understandings. Pivots are inevitable and this exploration adds confidence as the original ideal is tweaked toward product-market fit.
After transparently talking with that trusted mentor, the next meeting is with a potential customer. This will feel too early, but it’s not. Your actually protecting your personal bandwidth by not swinging at a bad pitch too many times. Be smart to optimize these early interactions. Arrive prepared to ask good questions. Take notes and speak less so you can actively listen to how this potential early adopter is responding. Are you building a pain killer or vitamin? Remember, feedback is data and this is only one data point, but let this conversation absorb reality into the idea. Show up, stand out, follow up, stay connected by accelerating their work, and let’s keep building.
To do so, let’s continue brewing into this month’s theme of early moves. The business model canvas is a tool for crafting a story that sells. Here is a business model canvas that includes a little extra encouragement.
As we dive in, I’d like to share a suggested cadence from a friend of mine. Based in Sacramento, JDM is a fellow founder, entrepreneurial ecosystem builder, and tenacious content creator. He will be sharing a caffeinated contribution soon, but the way he moves through the business model canvas caught my attention. In short, most business models can’t be told in one story so it’s not one box at a time, but one story at a time. Instead of trying to boil the ocean, organize different stories for each customer segment. I’ve numbered each box in this downloadable business model canvas as a friendly guide.
By telling the story of how you’re creating value for one customer segment, hypotheses connect through all nine boxes and are properly contextualized. Now add more stories, one at a time. To stay organized, use a clean business model canvas for each customer. With different stories told for each customer, color code each story as they are merged into one business model canvas. As everything blends together, the rainbow of color creates a roadmap to reality.