Clarity Questions - ANSWERED

If you go to PlanHQ and login, look under the Goal Corporate Clarity, you will see an attachment. This attachement is the Clarity Questions Answered. Any thoughts or feedback please comment through the blog. If you do not have access to PlanHQ email erika@cameronchell.com she will set you up to receive the login information.

If you have already signed up for PlanHQ then you will have received an email alearting you to the updates to the plan.

Further you will notice that Erika has set up a new Goal catagorie called Bucket List. This is a place for anyone to input ideas, goals, objectives or thougths that they may not yet know where or how the idea may fit into the plan. It is also a great place just to dump brainstormed ideas or random thoughts you may have with respect to a plan you are building such that they do not get forgot and can be used or brainstormed later. Often I find this list, when reviewed by other team members invokes a lot of new and better ideas as well as constructive critisims -very important.

Someone inserted a Goal,
All members of this blog should discuss the value of such an endeavor in person. 29 June 09 (in 2 months) "The perspectives each member brings to the sustainable HQ blog will be unique and thus, its application will be better understood if all suggest why we feel the concept is a valuable one."

If you inserted this goal, thank you for participating and GREAT suggestion! I would like to suggest that if you insert a Goal I encourage you to put your name on it, (not necessary but it would help). Anyway, I think this is a great idea for a "if you can make it" get together over a lunch or breakfast (my treat) to discuss this process. Also it is a great networking opportunity for all of us. Details to follow over the course of the next number of weeks. If anyone has any thoughts or feedback on getting together please email myself, cameron@cameronchell.com or erika@cameronchell.com.

Finally, you will notice in PlanHQ I set up a new goal to be completed by next Friday called Elevator Pitch. In next weeks blog post I will go through a process call Verbalized Summary Objective (VSO) which is a great exercise for developing your elevator pitch (10 words or less) based on the answers to the clarity questions.

Time to Get Started

10 of us are signed up and have access to PlanHQ. Signing up for PlanHQ will give you the full experience of the collaborative real-time business plan process. As we all know, business plans now need to be living documents that are an every day part of a companies operations. If you would like to sign up for Plan HQ that will work in conjunction with this blog email Erika. Erika's email address is erika@cameronchell.com. Erika can set you up as a team member with full sucess to the service.
To start I think it important to understand the philosophy under which I have built business and advise my clients as to what to look for in investing in startups or building them. This will give us some context for the process that I employee using Plan HQ. Before I do this however I want to say that this philosophy comes from my experience in working with some amazing people on some amazing deals and from a lot of reading over years. Not much of what I do is really new, most of it is a mash of great thinkers and authors ideas, concepts and teachings. However, what I do think is of unique and of great value is the experience that each one of us can bring to implementing this and other philosophies to this process. Philosophies, most importantly that have been honed by all of our years of education in the school of hard knocks. :-)
Philosophical Business Context: (The 5 must haves in order of importance)

1. Clarity - being very clear on what we want to accomplish as opposed to what we think we want to accomplish. (Huh??)
2. People- We must be able to identify who we need and not what we need.
3. Working Plan - Measurable.
4. Cash - Fuel to establish and grow.
5. Balance - PLWYMPYF (Personally Live Within Your Means, Pay Yourself First).

1. Clarity: Most often the reason we are doing a startup is not the reason we think we are doing a startup. Ultimately this leads to conflicting values, directions and decisions. I imagine we can all identify with the story of a friend or a colleague who came to us and said that he was wanting to start a company or buy a particular business. Then, when asked why he or she wants to do that, the answer becomes, long(ish), justified(ish) and complex in logic. This is the first sign that the person is 1.) Not being honest as to why they want to start the company or buy a particular business 2.) Not clear at all as to why they really want to take on the endeavor in question, or 3.) A combination of 1 and 2. I am adamant on this point when looking at deals or working with clients. "If someone cannot answer why they are starting or buying a particular company and why it makes sense in 10 words or less they are either lying, ignorant or both." -Chell
The best tool I have come across to gain clarity on a project is a series of 6 questions outlined by Patrick Lencioni in his book Obsessions Of An Extraordinary Executive.

The six questions are:

1. Why does the organization exist and what difference does it make in the world?
2. What behavioral values are irreplaceable and fundamental? (I find that three is as many as you can have with out diluting what is important to you. The best way to answer this is to look at the person in your organization or the role model you have in building the start up and ask yourself what are the three most recognizable traits that person has. This will more likely than not will represent the in some form the three top values that are irreplaceable for you and fundamental to your business success.)
3. What business are we in, and against whom do we compete?
4. How Does our Approach differ from that of our competition? (This is also known as your Overt Benefit. Doug Haul, Jump start Your Business Brain).
5. What are your goals this month, this quarter, this year, next year, five years from now? (Thematic goals and Strategic goals. I like to break it up that you have one thematic goal for each time frame above and then three strategic goals that support each of the thematic goals. The strategic goals could also be viewed as the top three objectives required to obtain the thematic goal.)
6. Who has to do what to achieve our goals for this month, this quarter, this year, next year, five years from now?

You will notice that my first posts on this Blog are are posts answering these questions. The most important aspect of a startup is clarity so in everything I do I start with getting clear by answering the above six or very similar questions. FYI, I use this approach not just for building a business plan or investing in a startup. I use this 6 question process for any endeavor I am considering taking on in my life.

Answering these 6 questions will get you clear on why you want to do something and not why you think you want to do something. Quite often after answering these questions if you are honest with yourself you will come to the conclusion that why you are doing what you want to do just is not compelling enough to be successful. Conversely, you may also find that it is more compelling than what you originally thought and for different reasons than you thought. These 6 questions are one of the most powerful business tools available. If you are honest and thorough they are very tough questions and can take a full day or more to answer even for a simple plan or project.

If you are signed up for the PlanHQ process you will see that I have created a GOAL called Corporate Clarity. I have made me responsible for the Goal. I then have created an action called attach/post in the Corporate Clarity Goal the six clarity questions for for people to answer and attach their responses back. I then have given a due date for the questions to be answered back in draft and then another action for a final version of the questions to be posted once I have any feedback from the Business Builders, (you) drafts. All of you should have received an email from PlanHQ alerting you to my updates in PlanHQ.

On week until we start with PlanHQ

Five people have so far sent me an email and are now set up as team members in PlanHQ.  Please don't hesitate to email me with any questions on PlanHQ or feel free to comment via the blog. We will start the on-line business plan collaboration using PlanHQ in just over a week. Truth be told, I am away for the next week taking a break.  I look forward to returning and sharing in this process with all of you.

Have a GREAT week!

Cameron

Lets Make A Plan

I have been using a web based business planning tool called PlanHQ. I have been using this particular tool with my clients for about 6 months. Below is a description of PlanHQ taken from their web site.

________

What is PlanHQ
PlanHQ is a web based business plan tool that turns your static document and spreadsheet into a dynamic and up-to-date overview of where you’re going and how you’re tracking.
With PlanHQ, your business plan changes as your business changes, not just once or twice a year. Your whole team is actively involved in creating and actioning your plan and can align and prioritize all their work against company goals. This means that everyone is always working to plan and ensures you achieve your goals.

Who is PlanHQ for?
Entrepreneurs: Keep your multiple ventures on track. Startups: Turn your ideas into a fully functioning business.Growing Businesses: Set, update and monitor goals as your business grows.Investors/VC’s: Easily track your portfolio companies at any time.Business Coaches: Play an active role in implementing your advice.

When you use PlanHQ:
Planning is a process, not an outcome
Your entire team is involved in achieving your plan
Your plan TELLS YOU what needs doing and what’s changed
Strategic goals result in immediate actions
You can track progress towards achieving your goals

________

I have been having solid success in using the PlanHQ service with my clients. So, I have created a new business plan session in PlanHQ called Sustainable Startup. This session will allow any or all of us to participate in building a business plan in real time, on-line.  If you would like to have free unlimited access/input to this business planning process for Sustainable Startup, send me your email address. I will then list you as a team member and the service will send you a link such that you can create your own password and access. My email address is cameron@cameronchell.com. 

What can you gain from participating? Test, challenge and share your own ideas, gain insight from others on their ideas, watch/participate in a project unfolding in real time, gaining experience in using this software and working with a group to experience it's power.

Remember,  please send me your email address. I will then list you as a team member and the service will send you a link such that you can create your own password and access. My email address is cameron@cameronchell.com

Thanks, I look forward to building a living plan on-line with you. 

P.S.

"Don't be intimided by things you have not done, they are usually easier and more rewarding than you imagined"  -Arthur Chell

If you want to check out PlanHQ for yourself go to www.planhq.com

A great site to check out www.killerstartup.com

Check out this great site that evaluates 15 startups a day! One of the practical ways that I have found to use the site is by subscribing to the RSS feed. Each day or two I take a 5 minute look at the names and quick description of what they have evaluated. This clues me in to what is hot in terms of activity and space. I find this really spurs some creative thinking about my own projects and what is happening in the entire industry. If anything grabs my attention I then may click on it and take a look and or comeback to look at it later in the archives that the site keeps by date and by industry space. Note: the site is very Internet centric but a great resources in that context. Also, I am working to get the Killer Startup Widget added to the Sustainable Startup Blog, (I know, I know it is just some simple HTML code to insert but I cant to get to work - yet).

Also, stay tuned as in the next couple of days I will be unveiling what I think is a very cool on-line business planning software that each of you will be able to use for your own projects and investments as well as participate with it in the business planing of this Reality Blog. Look for this posting in the next few days called Lets Make A Plan.

Thank you to everyone for following Sustainable Startup.