The Wounded Warrior Entrepreneur Program

							The Wounded Warrior Entrepreneur Program
Ten Principals to Follow Throughout your Entire Business Life-Cycle . . . With a Little Help from your Friends

Presented by

June 27, 2007

Objectives
…To share with you the ideas of a veteran, former 8(a), small and eventually large business owner about how to succeed in your new mission as a business owner by describing:

• An emerging, unofficial and experimental program involving government and industry • Designed to provide “real-life lessons and assistance” to Service-Disabled Veterans (SDV’s) who want to become or are new entrepreneurs • And to identify a number of “no-cost” and very-heavily discounted services to be provided to SDV’s during all phases of their business life cycle as a sincere token of our appreciation for your service

Ten Principles to Follow
Get Organized Develop Your Family of Plans Learn to Use Every Federal, State and Commercial Procurement Assistance Program Available to You 4. Understand Everything there is to Know about Your Clients and Prospects 5. Never Stop Learning 6. Be Your Brand and Word and Build a Stable of 12th Men 7. Establish Mentor-Protégé Relationships 8. Drive Your Business By Looking Through the Windshield and Not Your Rear-View Mirror 9. Develop and Use a Formal Management Process to Run Your Business 10. Never Forget Your Wounded Warrior Legacy 1. 2. 3.

Get Organized
• Build a Quality Team • Choose Your Business Name, Structure, Location and Key Stakeholders with the Same Care You Might of Used in Finding a Spouse • Understand, Develop and Consistently Improve the Few Key Processes that Drive Your Business • Industry Role: Incorporate/Organize any SDVOB at no cost to any SDV; SDV’s pay only for government fees

Develop Your Family of Plans
• Strategic Operational/Annual, Marketing and Sales, Project, Product/Service Development and Financing • Develop “SMART” Objectives • Measure Progress Against Objectives Frequently and Make Adjustments to Your Tactics and Your Team • Be Accountable for Results and Hold Others Accountable as Well • Industry Role: Provide templates for all of the above plans at no cost to SDVOB’s

Learn to Use All Available Procurement Assistance Programs
• 8(a), SDB, HUBZone, SDVOSB, DBE. MBE, WBENC, MSDC and GSA Schedules • Be Visible and Active Within these Communities • Make Each Program Official into a Goodwill Ambassador for Your Company • Prepare Early for the Time That You Will No Longer Enjoy These Fleeting Advantages • Industry Role: Provide “deep discounts” for all certification and GSA Schedule preparation efforts and unlimited telephone/email consultation

Understand Your Clients and Prospects
• Mission, Organizational Structure, Programs, People, Politics, Budgets, Procurement Processes and Practices • Make this into a Core Competency of Your Company • Focus on a Manageable Number of Clients and Turn Them into Raving Fans of Your Company • Industry Role: Provide “Top 20” Federal agency dossiers and marketing assistance at cost

Never Stop Learning
• Recall That You are a Leader Now, Starting a New Career as a Business Owner • Begin with a Study of Leadership, Which is the Science and Art of Getting Others to Do What They Thought Could Never be Done • You Shall Now have to Master Personnel Management, Financial Management, Project Management, Marketing and Sales Management, Contract Management and Countless Other Management Specialties • Self Management Will Require That You Also Recognize That Running a Business is a Team Sport • Industry Role: Provide discount SDVOSB rate for attendance of “The Management Course for 8(a) and Small Business Presidents”

Build a Brand and Add the 12th Man
• Decide on a Strategy of “More for the Money”, “Higher Quality than Your Competition”, “Easier to Use or Access than Others”, “Faster Delivery”, “Different from Any”, or “Lowest Price” • Always Deliver What You Promise; and Create Credibility as a Trusted Supplier • Reduce the Market’s Perception of “High Risk” in Contracting with You, Leading to a Virtual Sales Force of Satisfied Clients Providing Outstanding Testimonials to You and for Your Company’s Performance • Industry Role: Provide a documented methodology to develop discriminators to fend off “small business” prospect concerns at no cost to SDVOSB’s

Establish Mentor-Protégé Relationships
• Pursue Those Joint Ventures That Will Be “WinWin” for both the Protégé and the Mentor • Perform an Honest Appraisal of Your Weaknesses and Seek a Mentor Who Can Complement, Coach and Contract with Your Company to Overcome Your Shortcomings • Be a Mentor to Your Fellow Wounded Warrior Entrepreneur Brothers and Sisters • Industry Role: Provide template for SBA Mentor-Protégé Agreement at no cost to SDVOSB’s and deep discounts for preparation of this and other Federal agency agreements

Use the Windshield and Not the Rear-View Mirror to Manage Your Business
• Develop and Use Pro-forma Sales, Operating Budgets, Personnel Forecasts and Cash Flows to Manage the Present and Future of Your Business • Understand and Manage the Activities that Drive the Key Accounts in Your Firm • Treat Every Project as if It Were an Independent Business • Become expert in the Sources of Capital Available to a Business with Your Profile • Become Capable of Preparing Financing Proposals to Acquire Required Funds • Brief Your Bank Early and Often and Avoid Surprising Them With Bad News • Industry Role: Prepare loan proposals at deep discounts and introduce SDVOSB’s to “SDV Friendly” sources of financing

Use a Formal Management System to Run Your Business
• Understand that Company Management Consists of Distinct, but Fully Interconnected Processes • Leadership, Culture, People, Marketing and Sales, Planning, Organization, Technological Capabilities/Skills, Control and Communications • Learn the Inputs and Outputs of Each Process and How to Diagnose and Resolve Company Issues Using Your Management Model • Industry Role: Provide “Management System” documentation and unlimited online/telephone consultation to SDVOSB’s at no cost to SDV’s

Never Forget Your Wounded Warrior Legacy
• Be Proud of Your Hard-Earned Status • Honor Your Fellow Veterans by Providing Outstanding Products and Services • Reach Back to Assist Other Members of Your Military Family • Never Wallow in Self-Pity or Shame, Neither Sells Well In Business • Don’t Let What’s Happened in the Past Cripple You in the Present • Enjoy Your New Mission and Promotion to the Rank of Business Owner • Industry Role: Recognize SDVOSDB success stories on all national, state and local chamber web sites on a monthly basis and provide annual national association awards for performance “above and beyond” the usual.