A cuppa entrepreneurship

It was like a living jolt of good java visited our Drake University Entrepreneurial Leadership class the other day. Julie McGuire, founder and owner of Zanzibar's Coffee Adventure, 2723 Ingersoll Ave., in bustling Des Moines, IA, graced us with her thoughts and experiences on her entrepreneurial adventure.

She started off, much to the students' surprise by asking them a couple questions. First she asked them to jot down 2 characteristics essential to being an entrepreneur. Then she asked them to consider whether there is a difference between being a business woman and being an entrepreneur.

After sharing her personal background: Des Moines native; moved to California to pursue international business; took a job in a coffee shop; loved it; was good at it, but it wasn't enough. She wanted a "real career." Passed up opportunity to run a shop for somebody else, and decided to return to Des Moines where nobody was doing premium coffee yet. Why Des Moines? How could she leave Cali? As she explained, someone starting a new business is going to spend 100 hours+ a week working, so it didn't matter if it was in Des Mines or Vail. Also, she knew the "landscape." It also didn't hurt that Mom would cook for her and make sure she was getting a couple square meals regularly.

She wrote a great business plan and went searching for financing. Two years later, 2 YEARS, she finally landed enough financial support to get started. Of course by then, two other coffee shops had opened up. But they weren't in her neighborhood, and they did not make coffee the way she knew it had to be made. BTW, one of the reasons it took so long for her to get financed was because she was a "her." Bankers and investors were not quite ready for a young, single woman who wanted to start her own specialty biz. She also bumped into the "nobody will pay that for coffee around here" mentality, and after two other shops opened , that attitude shifted to , "well, you're a little late, they've got the market covered." Julie, and those that know her are not surprised by this, persevered. And 15 years later she has a successful business that has become a part of many people's lives. Zanzibar's has become part of that landscape she knew so well.

Unlike our other presenters, she did not offer the students a neat list of key traits; instead, she continued to ask questions. How do you come up with new ideas and solutions virtually every day? How do you recruit and keep staff in a customer-service oriented retail business? Was she really an entrepreneur (I answer that resoundingly YES...15 years ago she was a leader as a young woman, in creating a neighborhood destination, or as she refers to it, a third location: home, work , Zanzibar's; there was nothing like it in Des Moines, and there still really isn't). If she was, is she still? And if she isn't, what is she?

She acknowledged that she was passionate about her dream and her business; she was very committed and was willing to make the sacrifices to make it happen. She wondered, however, if she could muster the same passion and make the same sacrifices to do it again today.

I'll offer this summary of the traits that make Julie McGuire a successful entrepreneurial leader:
find your dream

• Be prepared to work very hard and very long
• Stick with it; you will encounter obstacles, and you will likely encounter naysayers
• Be prepared for challenges everyday
• Commit to coming up with new ideas and new solutions everyday
• Be attentive to the needs and development of associates and, especially, employees
• Be involved in your community
• Be passionate about what you do

Thanks Julie.

Party Bus Driver

Wow. I'm "teaching" Entrepreneurial Leadership at Drake University in Des Moines. I put "teaching" in quotes because it feels more like I am guiding students to discover on their own what makes and what it takes to be lead an entrepreneurial venture.

Anyway, why the "Wow!" Well, yesterday, my first guest presenter, Alexander Grgurich, provided a terrific guide to how to drive an entrepreneurial venture. While an undergrad, Alexander bootstrapped some $, bought a bus and turned it into a party bus. Half a dozen buses and a couple of acquisitions later he has built a solid little company, all at the ripe old age of 22, and is looking for new opportunities. Also while an undergrad, he ran for mayor of Norwalk, a small town near Des Moines, and came within 6 votes of winning the election; he turned that bump in the road into a successful run for Norwalk's city council. (hmmm, do I see a trend of small town politics leading to bigger and better things? I did not ask him if he can field dress a moose, but I'd bet he could learn if he had to).

Alexander and I share an interest in co-working; we also believe in giving back to the community. I thought he'd bring a unique perspective to the 40 students in my class, and he graciously agreed to talk to them early yesterday morning. Here are some highlights from his excellent presentation:

+You never really know where the next big thing* will come from, but you must keep an eye on what is going on in the world. Alexander recommends Springwise, a very cool business trends site.

*Tom Davenport discusses this in his blog at Harvard Business Publishing. Thanks to CrowdSourcing Directory for the eye image.

+Entrepreneurial Leadership involves innovation, risk and persistence.

Without innovation progress will grind to a halt.
It doesn't require a new product or gizmo;
it can be a new, better way of doing something
Life is hard; it involves risks.
The key is to protect your downside; try not to lose if all if you fail
If you fail, try again, and again, and again.
He was elected only after 2 failed tries.

+He closed with 3 tips; I'll call them Grgurich's Guide to Successful Entrepreneurship:

1. Understand who you are
Put aside all distractions and identify your strengths and weaknesses (he drew pictures).
2. Admit you don't know everything, and ask for help when you need it.
3. Find mentors.

Great stuff. Keep an eye on this guy.

My Entrepreneurial Philosophy

I love Wordle. Here is what I got when I plugged a statement of my entrepreneurial philosophy into this little word cloud generator. Pretty cool; but I realize that I need to emphasize other words and concepts to really drive home my belief that entrepreneurs make things happen.

I think this one by Jackson Miller is a better image of what the author was trying to say (and what entrepreneurship involves):

I am going to have my Drake University Entrepreneurial Leadership class use this delightful tool to develop their own views of what it takes and what it means to lead an entrepreneurial venture. Kudos to Mike Sansone for introducing me to Wordle.

Can you teach it?

Starting next week I will be "teaching" entrepreneurial leadership at Drake University in Des Moines, IA. I first taught entrepreneurial management at a local community college 7 or 8 years ago. Before that I would have argued you can't teach it and it didn't belong in a college curriculum. Although I have yet to research the question, my personal experience made me a convert. Most of my students were really interested in starting their own businesses, and a surprising number did so. Although not all those students were traditional college age, the ones that started businesses were young. Their ventures included buying a bar (no mean feat for two guys under 21), opening a photography studio, sewing custom clothing, and starting an event planning business.

Just as importantly, all the students were required to think critically about the potential of small businesses and to do some self-analysis. It was challenging and fun for all of us, and at a minimum, after examining numerous real life successes and failures, the students came away with a greater appreciation for what is involved in starting a new business and succeeding with it.

Many schools around the U.S. have entrepreneurship programs today. It still is not clear if graduates of those programs start more businesses or are more successful. As Carl Schramm, President of the Kauffman Foundation, eloquently argues in his book, The Entrepreneurial Imperative, however, "Our colleges should be at the very heart of entrepreneurial capitalism..." The Foundation has recently published a report, Entrepreneurship in American Higher Education, arguing that entrepreneurship, as a "dominant force in contemporary America", is properly incorporated into the undergraduate curriculum.

On the other hand, as one of my favorite entrepreneurship bloggers, Kelly Spors who blogs for the Wall Street Journal, recently reported, entrepreneurship programs may not lead directly to local economic development. On the other hand, Dr. Jeffrey Cornwall, of Belmont University in Tennessee, argues they can and do lead to new businesses and new jobs.

I believe they are a good starting point, and they can't hurt (provided students "continue" to learn to read, and write and think. But that's another story...

What do you think?