The SRS Initiative

10/09/2021

If your clients and/or customers aren't becoming your clients or customers before they get to your website or platform - then someone else is gaining your market share.

09/29/2021

Let’s say you’re someone who wants to develop a product and get it ready for commercialization. You are also wondering if it has a chance of succeeding in the market?

Where do you start?
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One of the simplest or easiest way to start is by doing some market research in the context of Total Addressable Market (TAM), Service Available Market (SAM), and Service Obtainable Market (SOM).

Focus on TAM if you are just beginning - it has been stated that a TAM between 2-100 million suggest you are on the right track for success (this is just a suggestion and obviously this varies and there are/can be many exceptions).

After you do your initial market research to generate a baseline of expectation, then move towards developing a minimum viable product (MVP) and/or a minimum viable service (MVS) and the respective market validation studies.

All of this is not a linear process so you will have to wash, rinse, dry, wear, and repeat as necessary while beginning to develop out your business model and strategy.

The goal is to eventually find product and/or service market fit.

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If while doing your initial market research and you decide to move forward, it might be a good idea to seek out advice, guidance, and help from third parties to help you develop out your concept, product, research, or service into a business, start-up, or venture.

Third parties are also good for helping you to de-risk your venture, especially if you are going the Venture Capitalist (VC) route.

But remember, and this is most important…

Whatever you do, always make sure you find those who can support you and are in your corner.

09/10/2021

For those wanting or planning to start a small business this year, according to "The Blueprint - The Motley Fool Service", below are listed the top 10 best states to start a small business in 2021.

1. Montana
2. South Dakota
3. Florida
4. Texas
5. Idaho
6. Utah
7. Arizona
8. Oregon
9. Wyoming
10. Nevada

https://www.fool.com/the-blueprint/top-10-best-states-to-start-your-small-business/

In addition, the indicators (i.e., the six essential factors) that they used for this ranking process are insightful.

Especially if you combine this with the 3Ts which are:

1) Team,
2) Total Addressable Market (TAM), and
3) Timing

These six essential factors integrated with the 3Ts allows one (or founder or individual or team) to assess their venture's power, impact, attractiveness, and potential success.

Starting a business is difficult, but even more important is where you start it. Here we detail the top 10 states to start your next small business in.

07/28/2021

If you're someone who runs or is starting a business, you've probably heard that that you need to “niche down” to be successful in your venture. This advice is great, but sometimes you need to “niche-up”.

“Niche-up” in essence means to go broad.

Because the reality is that you need to go through a “cyclic niche-down and niche-up process” to test, validate, pivot, evolve, grow, and generate demand.

Regardless to whether you are a service or product company or even a little bit of both, doing one (e.g. niche-down) without being able to do the other (e.g. niche-up) slows down your ability to reach product or service market fit.

Many treat product or service market fit as a stable fixed position. However, product or service market fit can and does change. Regardless of whether you want it to or not.

What happened to market needs since Covid-19 provides evidence for how what makes for a good product or service market fit can change in an instant.

Understanding and knowing how to execute this is one of the keys for maintaining a successful business.

06/07/2021

Not all businesses are start-ups. However, if you are planning to found, develop, or already have a start-up read "Why StartUps Fail" by Tom Eisenmann.

A $30-$40 investment now could save you $100’s if not $1000’s in the future or even prevent start-up failure...

And of course feel free to contact me with any questions or if I can be of some service.

05/04/2021

Over 70.0% of small business owners have no exit strategy. An exit strategy is a plan for what happens when a business owner, investor, etc., wants or needs to leave or stop taking part in their or someone else’s business.

So, for those who have or are planning to start a business, start-up, or Research Impact (RI) Venture - think and put a plan in place for what should be done with your company when you decide to retire, leave, or get tired of it in advance.

This might seem counterintuitive but thinking about your exit strategy will help you determine a strategy for how you want to organize, or start, and/or move your company forward.

If you already have a company and do not have an exit strategy.

Now is a great time to get one.

Below are a list of five major types of exit strategies.

04/24/2021

So, you have obtained a patent, no what – have you thought about patent licensing?

Below I have provided 10 basic types of patent licensing that one should know.

Out of these ten numbers 7 and 8 are not a specific type of patent license per se but rather names for approaches that are used in the licensing community.

Number 7 listed below is called “carrot licensing” – an approach where the patent holder entices the licensee with a glimpse of the patent to get them to buy.

Number 8 is called “stick licensing” – an approach where someone or entity is infringing (i.e., using) your patent and you basically say get the license or else…

Moral of the story here is to always know your Intellectual Property (IP) rights and options. It is also good to know the lingo.

Please reach out to me if you have patent licensing and/or business questions and would like a consultation.

If I cannot answer your legal and IP questions , I have colleagues who I work with who can.

02/25/2021

Here’s the scenario: You have an idea for a start-up or business.

In addition, after a little time and effort your idea now appears to be feasible based on an initial validation strategy / protocol that a third party helped you to develop and implement…

You are now ready to begin developing a business plan.

But you don’t know how to get started – in fact you don’t know much about your market to further determine, pursue, and write about your service or product-market fit (i.e. your niche that fits the needs of clients/customer demographic who pays for the value offered).

What do you do?

Try this,

Hire a freelancer or go through a freelance service like Fiverr (an online marketplace for freelance services) and get someone to write a business plan for you around the market you are interested in along with providing your ideas.

The resulting product will give you a way to understand your market and provide a framework allowing you to create your own tailored RI Venture business plan.

One marketplace, millions of professional services. Browse. Buy. Done.

01/24/2021

When it comes to developing a business or start-up, people always talk about validating the idea.

However, the first step in the process is coming up with a reasonable idea that could be executed and then begin validating aspects of it (i.e., the idea).

So, the question is how do you get started?

Here is one of several ways this can be done - map out your ideas through the Lean Canvas model (it has been slightly modified) developed by Alexander Osterwalder provided below.

Then use this as a roadmap for figuring out how to validate each venture idea.

12/27/2020

Burn rate is critical for understanding when you are going to run out of money (i.e. runway ends) and also determining how much money a company needs to continue operating and hopefully grow.

It is also important to know that there are various ways to calculate burn rate (e.g. net or gross) and that one’s burn rate can increase and decrease.

There are many places where one can go to learn about burn rate.

Geckoboard is a good place to start. Below are some “basic” burn rate equations they provide.

Take home message - know your burn rate.

12/13/2020

Not everyone starting or running a business wants or needs to raise capital. But if you do, here is the scenario...

Let’s say that you have decided to go the investor route and will look for angel investors.

You hired someone to get your legal documents in order. However, you have not been impressed with your legal counsel and your almost broke, so you push on.

After a ton of hard work, you find an angel investor asking for a 20% stake (via stock) with a great track record, who can also add incredible value, and is ready to sign.

You are super excited because this is your first time, and the cash infusion is very important for your private company.

You are also nervous, and wondering did you miss something critical?

The answer is yes, you did. Make sure you are prepared to submit your Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings. In this case, most likely a Form D.

This form is one you cannot afford to miss or forget.

Looking for investors? Below are documents one should know about.

11/22/2020

For those who want to start or have a business, there is a transition that many of you will go through, that very few openly talk about.

It is the transition of working for someone else (i.e. an employee) and/or having a side business or hustle to becoming the CEO of your own company – the point when building and moving your company or venture forward takes priority.

This is a lonely transition where: your thoughts begin to change; your social and digital presence begins to shift; people seem less interested in what you have to say; you start to encounter an abundance mindset (e.g. almost everything could be possible but you realize that you have to focus and decide to move in one direction) and; you constantly question if you are correct.

When this happens and it will – buckle up, stand your ground, focus, find one person who can support you, and move forward.

In these scenarios, even through your failures, you win, because it is only a matter of time before you learn and transform, as you transition to the other side.

If you need help through this transition please email me to figure out how I can best support you!