I'm Raising An Entrepreneur - Make Mine a $Million Meetup LA 2010

From what I have observed, the United States does not raise entrepreneurs. This is one of the main reasons I have been raising my daughter to become an entrepreneur.

I worked at a young age. My father gave me a job counting his company’s inventory each year starting when I was around 8. My dad had a typewriter sales and service company. He had contracts with most of the large hotels in Las Vegas and he had a team of technicians that would be dispatched to various accounts if a ribbon was stuck or an IBM Selectric II typeball was broken. As I got older, I was given more duties and eventually a regular schedule. I got to work in all aspects of my father’s company and learned valuable lessons about maintenance contracts, accounts receivable, real estate, management and more.

I’m doing it differently than my dad. I read an article in Inc. in 2005 that had a tremendous impact on me. I had just visited Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and purchased some chocolate from a boutique called Vosges when I found an article on raising entrepreneurs (this is when my daughter was 5). I read that the mother of the founder of Vosges was an entrepreneur and raised 2 out of 3 entrepreneurs. I was very motivated about not letting my daughter work for me. Here is the link to the article: http://tinyurl.com/22mbsfx Unlike my dad (who fired me twice for not being up to his standards), I’m trying to save my daughter from being traumatized by my exacting business standards and teaching her to launch her own company.

I encouraged my daughter, Olivia, to start her first company, Sierra Company right after I read that article. Olivia was 5 or 6. She thought of the company name and we agreed to the business concept: she would be an outsourced personal assistant for $0.25 an hour. We made business cards for her and created an email address and I helped her pitch a few people (friends and family). That company didn’t last long and I was ok with that. I have started and abandoned about 20 companies since I was a kid.

The next company I helped Olivia start was Fun Exercise http://www.funexercise.net when she was about 7. Fun Exercise makes and sells exercise DVDs for kids. Fun Exercise was a blast! Olivia loves the camera (video camera that is) and she learned a lot of great lessons from that company. One of my vendors created a spread sheet where Olivia could punch in her selling price and instantly see what her gross profit per unit would be. She tested a $5 price point all the way to a $20 price point. We discussed value and target market. She felt that $5 was a good price point even though she liked the profit margin at $10 better. This company has been put to the side for now and Olivia may or may not go back to it. Olivia might be like me and have 15 companies before she finds one that really sticks for her.

Olivia’s current company is Bananafoot http://www.bananafoot.net an ecom site that sells mindfully made products. The products themselves are either bio-degradable or BPA-free or the packaging is minimal or bio-degradable. I’m Olivia’s advisor and employee. Olivia is using Social Media for her marketing currently but also attends a lot of business events to spread the word about her company. She attends and participates in about 1-2 Toastmasters http://www.tmdistrictone.org meetings a month to help her develop her speaking skills. We worked on her elevator pitch and uploaded it to Make Mine a $Million recently http://tinyurl.com/23z6ml8. She attended the Make Mine a $Million Los Angeles Meetup on April 20th, 2010 and gave her elevator pitch to a room full of 40 women entrepreneurs including Nell Merlino, the founder of Make Mine a $Million and Take Your Daughter To Work Day as well as the amazing Stacey Soleil (@staceysoleil).

It isn’t easy trying to raise an entrepreneur. The biggest challenge is that Olivia doesn’t like Social Media (unlike mommy). I could suggest that she outsource it but that is one area that I feel it’s more effective when done by the person with the message. One of the easier lessons for Olivia (who has a very generous heart) has been teaching Olivia about micro-philanthropy with her business. Olivia will be giving some of her proceeds from one of her product lines to the Burbank Green Alliance http://www.burbankgreenalliance.org. The easiest part of teaching Olivia about business is how to network – she has the gift of gab! At the Make Mine a $Million Meetup, Olivia took 40 business cards with her and came home with 3. I personally watched her speak with tons of people from that event. I feel that these are the kind of skills that are important to develop early.

I took Olivia to see the movie Oceans last night for market research. Plastic is one of the greatest and worst inventions. The movie was uplifting and sobering at the same time. I was careful to discuss Olivia’s product lines with her and how each product specifically impacts the environment after the consumer is done with it. I explained that each time Olivia speaks with someone about her products that she is educating them about plastic and rubber alternatives. I explained that commerce is a powerful tool for change. The movie had a lot of great lessons in it – only 1 out of a 1,000 sea turtles make it from the nest to the ocean to reproduce. I told Olivia that it’s the same in business – only the toughest, fastest and luckiest survive.

Olivia can choose to be a homemaker or an entrepreneur (or both!) and I’ll be happy. The most important thing is to mentor my child in an area that I feel will be valuable to her education. It’s that Chinese Proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

The photograph is from the Make Mine a $Million Los Angeles Meetup on April 20th and from left to right: Julie Fogg (@juliefogg), Olivia Osen (@oliviaosen my daughter), Nell Merlino (@nellmerlino founder of Make Mine a $Million and Take Your Daughter To Work Day), my Donald Trump doll and Stacey Soleil (@staceysoleil).

The John Wooden Global Leadership 2009 Award Dinner

My evening at the UCLA Anderson School of Management John Wooden Global Leadership 2009 Award Dinner on May 21st was amazing! I heard John Wooden, coaching legend for UCLA Bruins talk about leadership in a way that was foreign to me. Nothing sophisticated or complex. His biggest influence was his father. We received a copy of Mr. Wooden's latest book & I like to read a few pages when I wake up. I also have my 8 year old daughter read a page to me here & there. It's a fantastic read.

I loved the bonus of watching Ken Chenault, American Express Chairman & CEO receive the 2009 John Wooden Global Leadership Award. Another great leader, this man's company sponsors many of the business organizations I belong to.

I would have loved to say more to Ken Chenault as his wife took this photo of us. It was late & I wanted to be courteous, but I wish I had taken a moment to tell him a little bit about my background & how much all of the programs American Express sponsors have helped me to flourish. I didn't graduate from high school (that fact is trivial compared to other hurdles I have faced in my lifetime), yet I have been given many opportunities to improve my lot in life. On that note, I will say: Thank you for the opportunities to develop myself as a leader & an entrepreneur, Mr. Chenault.

http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/x22667.xml

http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/x22081.xml

A Passion for Excellence

I got a call yesterday informing me that the data team on the Walgreens project we wrapped up this week said that our project was “the best installation.” That is a huge compliment considering the size of Walgreens. We handled the installation of a new Nortel BCM phone system, the installation of the voice & data cabling as well as extending the dmarcs for the voice T1 & data T1. The project had challenges but experience and passion saved the day. When I say passion, I mean a passion for excellence. The customer’s experience starts and ends at the top in my opinion. If a leader believes that customers should have “the best installation,” then this attitude will saturate a company, regardless of scale. Check out www.twitter.com/zappos for an example of a large company I respect that has a leader with a passion for excellence.

Stop Leaving Money on the Table

Have you ever not bothered to bill someone due to the hassle? Left money on the table that you *know* you should have billed, but didn't? Ever knew that some work was done but later noticed that it didn't get invoiced for some reason?

Our old work order management software didn't convert work orders to invoices and wasn't web accessible by customers. Too much was still being done on paper and over the phone. Customers would call and ask for service so there was often no record. Billable work sometimes didn't make it's way back to our controller at all. We decided we needed to revise this process and improve the supporting technology.

The software we deployed is AyaNova (www.ayanova.com) and they have a module that allows our clients to open tickets themselves through a web portal that is linked to our website. We are a small firm with a high-touch model, but this one step allowed us to let the customer enter information directly.

I cannot emphasize enough how important a solid vendor partner is when rolling out a ticketing system application. The hosted application route saved us from dealing with the server setup and costs. For a reasonable fee HaveAByte.com handles all this for me, and had me up and running with the core system in less than a day. They also have various add-ons that give me one-click access to backups and other features that save me huge chunks of time.

This system improved our entire process. Customers now enter tickets to request service. We approve the work and schedule it to a tech with AyaNova. The techs can access their work order list for the day, even via BlackBerry. They enter in labor as soon as it's done and fill in the details of the work. The work orders get converted to QuickBooks invoices instantly. Everything that is billable is billed, without exception. No paper, no post-it notes, no forgotten work, and NO money left on the table. It also feels good creating less paper waste on top of it all.

We went from NET 90 to NET 30 with the new system. I looked at a lot of solutions and AyaNova was a powerful and inexpensive choice. The addition of the HaveAByte.com as a hosted solution provider made it a no brainer. I looked at BlueService, which initially seems like a better deal but ultimately would have cost me a lot more in the long run.

The AyaNova folks were kind enough to share a coupon code for my blog visitors. Go to HaveAByte.com/AyaNova_Licenses.htm and use use coupon code JULIEFOGGBLOG10 and get 10% off until July 31st.

June 2006

It was unbelievable to be picked as an award recipient for the San Francisco 2006 Make Mine a $Million program. Going through the application process was educational and helped with the competition itself. I spent 6 days in San Francisco for the NAWBO May 31 - June 3 conference and the Make Mine a $Million competition and it was time and money well-spent.

One of the major benefits of the Make Mine a $Million program is the people you meet (This photo was taken right before the competitors went on stage before the panel of judges and voting audience – I am sitting between Robin M. and Kali E.R.). Meeting people that have common interests is priceless to me. I had the opportunity to meet Denise Houseberg in San Francisco from www.marketexpo.com, a 2005 award recipient that has passed the million-dollar revenue mark and I really enjoy speaking to her. I also communicate with about 10 of my San Francisco fellow-award recipients weekly. Meeting these savvy and charismatic women has been great for me because I have new friends and resources to go to for quick questions about business.

Another amazing benefit is having access to the experts from OPEN for American Express, QVC, Cisco, Count Me In and the coaches. The time and effort these professionals devote to the program and award recipients are nothing short of amazing. Being under the magnifying glass with the coaches was an experience that provided a wealth of feedback that I have already started to incorporate into my big-picture plan.

On May 25, 2006, I declared my intention to “grow my business beyond the $million revenue level,” with a certificate at www.makemineamillion.org. I also donated $15 to the site because I wanted to make sure that women that need a $500 or $1,500 micro loan can get it. Please take a minute and make a donation. Whatever you can afford, just do it. Getting 1 million women to the “$million revenue level” by 2010 is going to be a group effort. Good luck and go declare yourself!