100UE Fundee Blog: Genesis Magazine

Founder: Brittany K. Earls

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December 5, 2011: Blind Faith vs. Calculated Faith

Entrepreneurs are like mothers: We always hold our children (in this case our businesses) in the highest regard. We have the most expectations and greatest faith in our creation and are 100 percent sure it will succeed. Faith and a strong belief in the product you’re selling is super-important; however, this year I learned a strong lesson in blind faith versus calculated faith.

Blind faith usually means you’ve made few precautions, and regardless of financial figures or profit projections, we take a huge leap and push for the goal we have in mind. Calculated faith means we have examined the numbers and our potential, and our chances of achieving specific goals are possible with extra effort, even in a seemingly tough situation.

An example of blind faith is increasing your prices 30 percent hoping your customers don’t notice, or applying for a $250,000 business loan when you have zero assets and zero credit, or not creating a business plan or business structure and just winging it. An example of calculated faith, by contrast, is starting a business regardless of a recession, launching an innovative product that might go against the norm or agitate the status quo.

When you employ calculated faith, by contrast, you’re facing an obstacle head-on and coming up with solutions to mitigate every risk — and although the situation might not be 100 percent comfortable or predictable, you go for it anyway, knowing that you have a solid plan and a steady path forward.

Your current and future clients deserve more results than blind faith will ever provide them. Lucky for me, as part of 100 Urban Entrepreneurs I now have a solid business summary, profit projection, marketing plan and sales presentation. These things are what I like to call “blueprints for success,” and I’m now pointed in the direction of taking the path of calculated faith. You can expect great things from Genesis Magazine in 2012!

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November 11, 2011: Small Steps, Brittany: When $24.99 Trumps $1,500

Building a business isn’t easy, but it can be less stressful when you have help and plan accordingly. Every day I feel like the title character from the 1991 movie What about Bob: Bob (Bill Murray), who sees a psychiatrist for his extreme case of obsessive-compulsive disorder, constantly has to remind himself to accomplish small things by saying, “Baby steps, Bob . . . baby steps!” On the to-do list of any entrepreneurial startup, of course, there are an average of 12,980 things. If I knock out only 10 a day, it’s OK, because I’m taking baby steps — yet crucial steps — toward success.

This last two weeks have been about rebranding and repositioning my business. My small team and I have created a new Web site that’s more user-friendly, truer to our brand and shows off our best asset: the actual magazine! The other focus for us this past week has been to remember the importance of small sales.

Here’s why: I’ve spent 2011 going after big fish: investors, grants and large advertisers. This is a necessary (if ambitious) goal, but in truth, we were not prepared to attract such large fish. Not only did we need to reposition and reintroduce ourselves, we also needed to be sensitive to people’s budgets. With that in mind, then, we’re focusing on subscriber sales — yep, $24.99 subscriptions over $1,500 advertisers. That sounds crazy — but 50 new subscribers yield way more profit than zero advertisers.

This is where 100 Urban Entrepreneurs has come in. All of our recent conference calls and expert presentations have centered on branding, PR and financial projections. Had I been forced to tighten up my brand and really analyze my company’s financial capabilities back in January, we would have hit most of our quarterly financial goals. That’s the virtue of 100UE’s mentoring program: preparation, a second opinion and sound guidance. 100UE doesn’t give you a magic wand that you can wave over your business to make it an instant success — instead, the program offers efficient, practical advice, and the simple steps they outline are the foundation that many young entrepreneurs overlook.

Finally, technology: You can expect Genesis magazine to have an app within the next six months. There is, after all, an app for everything, and we will not be any different. We’ll continue to print, of course, but we’ll ride the digital wave, too — digital viewing of print media is fast, easy and many consumers’ preference. We need app-technology vendors, as well as distribution vendors for the print edition. These potential partnerships are a dime a dozen, so we’ll be searching for the best quality and the lowest cost — another tip from 100UE.

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October 28, 2011: Not Superwoman

So far, my experience with 100 Urban Entrepreneurs has been great. This past week, focusing on branding and ideas, really struck a chord with me. My best and worst trait is that I am super-independent and want to do everything myself. It was crucial, though, to hear Magnus Greaves, cofounder and CEO of 100UE and TheCASHFLOW, walk through some of the steps of how he and his team initially came up with their company’s name and branding.

One thing Magnus stressed over and over was the importance of getting feedback from other people. He admitted that he often favors his own ideas, and therefore must have other people evaluate them so that he can get a well-rounded opinion. Not only did he stress the value of listening to your team members; he also suggested asking for client and target-audience feedback.

With that in mind, I immediately sent Genesis magazine’s current logo and spreads for the next issue to a few of my favorite subscribers, my design team and a few of the people in my 100UE entrepreneurs’ group. Just that quickly, I’ve received a ton of ideas, and my designers have already started making great revisions. I’m blown away! All I had to do was ask for help? Are you serious? Ask people for their opinion and not just rely on my own? Share my company vision? Be a part of a team and not just a sole proprietor? What a simple but often overlooked concept! Business owners — let’s remember that there is no “S” on our chest! Don’t let pride and super-independence ruin our chance at business growth and wealth creation.