A few weeks ago Eric Olsen of Blogcritics.org asked me if I wanted to take part in a new experiment. Guy Kawasaki of Garage.com was trying to spread word in the blogosphere about his new book, The Art of the Start, by having his publisher sending it out to various bloggers. We could rave about it, pan it, or toss it on the recycle heap. All we were committed to do was write a few words about it. (And, no. No money changed hands.)
Thankfully, The Art of the Start is a worthy read, especially for those who are launching a small business, tech startup or organization, or are considering doing so.
Kawasaki, a longtime startup evangelist, entrepreneur and venture capitalist, has written a business book that eschews the usual insider jargon and leaden prose for an accessible, engaging ride through startup hell.
Kawasaki has seen it all over the years – blunders large and small, business plans bulky enough to crush a small dog and concise enough to fit on a napkin – and he guides us through this sometimes exhilarating, sometimes vexing landscape with a light touch and a sense of whimsy, culled from years on the speakers’ circuit.
You want breezy? Here’s breezy:
“Bill Reichert, a managing director of Garage, likes to tell entrepreneurs that the odds of raising venture capital are equal to the odds of getting struck by lightning while standing on the bottom of a swimming pool on a sunny day. He’s exaggerating. The odds aren’t that good.”
In The Art of the Start, you’ll read about positioning, pitching, bootstrapping, recruiting, raising capital, partnering, branding, rainmaking, and other things that go into launching a successful venture.
For instance, Kawasaki advises would-be entrepreneurs to devise a succinct mantra for internal consumption, to boil down the essence of the company’s mission to a single phrase or idea. That’s different from a tagline, which is for the public. Nike’s mantra is “Authentic athletic performance.” Its tagline is “Just do it.”
He offers several large corporations and organizations a hypothetical mantra, free of charge. Coca-Cola: Refresh the world. Wendy’s: Healthy fast food. March of Dimes: Save babies. U.S. Air Force: Kick butt in air and space.
Most newbies to the business world “fire up Word to write a business plan, launch PowerPoint to craft a pitch, or boot Excel to build a financial projection. Wrong, wrong, wrong!” he writes.
Instead, he advises, you should get going by getting going. Think big, strive for something grand. Don’t work in a vacuum – find a few soulmates. Polarize people by creating something that catalyzes passion, pro and con.
Kawasaki isn’t afraid to challenge conventional dogma, as when he advises, “Most experts wouldn’t agree, but a business plan is of limited usefulness for a startup because entrepreneurs base so much of their plans on assumptions, ‘visions,’ and unknowns. … Organizations are successful because of good implementation, not good business plans.”
He also points out that your pitch is more important than your business plan. Most entrepreneurs get it backward: “A good business plan is a detailed version of a pitch – as opposed to a pitch being a detailed version of a business plan. If you get the pitch right, you’ll get the plan right.” He offers a 10-point list of the subjects that should be covered in any pitch for investors, and if you’re looking for VC capital, this alone is worth the price of the book.
Another useful chapter is “The Art of Recruiting,” which should be in the bookcase of every HR department. The author – as he does throughout the book – taps into the experience of others, in the case, Amy Vernetti, the headhunter for Kindred Partners, who outlines the art of reference checking. Among the questions she would ask of references:
– How would you rank him against others in similar positions?
– What contributions has he made to the organization?
– How do others in the organization view him?
– In what areas does he need improvement?
– Should I speak with anyone else about him?
I could go on, but you get the idea. Kawasaki has pulled together a lifetime of business lessons in this relatively short (226 pages), accessible and smart work.
JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.
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