WilliamGriggs.com | Entrepreneur + Marketer + Technologist

Dolla Dolla Bill Y’all!

Yesterday, Sue Painter did an excellent post titled 3 Steps To Get The Most Out Of BarCamp Nashville Even If You Don’t Know A Soul! I want to follow that post by talking about how to get the most money out of BarCamp Nashville.

Regardless if you are attending or speaking, you can use the simple tactic below to generate leads, sales, brand awareness and partnerships for your business. How? Follow me!

Step 1) Ask yourself, “What does your business specialize in?”

For example, if you specialize in search engine optimization, start there.

Step 2) Find and purchase two books on the your specialty.

The key here is to get two copies of a beginner book and two copies of a more advance title on the subject.

Step 3) Host a drawing for the books

Get the word out before hand and the day of, that you will be giving away some awesome books at lunch. Keep in mind, the lunch deadline pushes people to act. Then surprise people by doing it again at the end of the day. All people have to do to enter into the drawing is give you their business card.

Step 4) Gather two beer pitchers from behind the bar

Fine, other containers will do, but the key here is to keep the drawings divided by book level (beginners vs advance).

Step 5) Follow-Up!

On Sunday afternoon take the stack of business cards you collected and begin to go through them and develop your outreach approach (method, message, etc.). Generally speaking, the individuals that entered for a chance to win the beginner book could make great clients, while the people that entered for a chance to win the advance book could make great business partners.

Want two more ways drive sales at BarCamp? Fill out the form below and I will personally send them to you!

(Input your email address and hit “Return” or “Enter”)

Be sure to check out Bar Camp Nashville To Go Or Not To Go by Greg Patarini tomorrow!

Fact: Nashville is becoming a hotbed for entrepreneurship

Ok, it’s likely that you already knew the fact above, so I wanted to take it one step further. Below you will meet some of the companies that are putting Nashville on the map! These startups range from exciting healthcare plays to technology platforms, more traditionally found in silicon valley.

In each video, you will learn about one of Nashville’s hottest startups from its founder. Enjoy!

Top Startups In Nashville

Bonus!

Do YOU want to get on this list? Take your first step by watching the video below!
Tips, tools and tactics to improve your pitch and business plan from Clayton Associates’ own, Andrew Bouldin

Want to learn more about entrepreneurship in Nashville? Sign up for my newsletter below!

(Input your email address and hit “Return” or “Enter”)

Did I miss anyone? Let me know in the comments below.

Problem

When launching a startup you have a lot to do.

Solution

To combat the endless to do list and make progress, you must prioritize.

Challenge

Early on you will be forced to do a lot of things that fall outside your comfort zone. I challenge you to embrace those items. It’s easy to focus on what comes natural, is the most fun, or can be completed in the shortest period of time, but if it is not crucial to the immediate success of your organization, then you should not be doing it.

I suggest you break your to do list into three sections including: Today, Work In Progress (WIP) and Future.

1. - Under Today, place all the items you plan to complete by the end of the day. Don’t forget to prioritize said items with the most important tasks at the top of your list.
2. - Under WIP, put items that you have worked on, but require someone else’s attention before you can complete, such as setting up a meeting.
3. - Under Future, place all the items you need to complete, but are not time sensitive.

Question

Are you doing what’s easy, or are you doing what needs to be done to ensure your immediate success?

Next Steps

1. - Develop your to do list
2. - Create each of the following three headers: Today, Work In Progress (WIP) and Future
3. - Prioritize — Ask yourself, “What needs to be done today?”
4. - Reevaluate your to do list daily
5. - Continually ask yourself, “Am I doing what must be done to ensure the immediate success of my organization?”
6. - Work off of your to-do list daily

Calling All Entrepreneurs! How do you organize and determine the work you are to complete on a daily basis? What approaches have you explored?

Introduction:

As entrepreneurs, infographics can present information to us that not only benefits our businesses, including helping us determine our course of action, they also give us insight into ourselves as well as the overall startup landscape. Below are 13 infographics that are useful and/or interesting, and pertain directly to the field of entrepreneurship.

Note: Click on the image to see the full infographic.

Who Are The Entrepreneurs?

Source: Daily Infographic

The Anatomy of a Startup, Illustrated

Source: TheNextWeb.com

How to Pick a Startup Funding Strategy

Source: grasshoppergroup.com

Startup Business Cycle

Source: FlowingData.com

The Facts of Small Business

Source: TechLifeMashup.com

Tech Startups vs Rock Bands

Source: TelevisionSky.org

The Evolution of the Entrepreneur

Source: Grasshoppergrou.com

Visualizing Innovation

Source: SocialEarth.org

The Entrepreneur’s State of Mind in 2010

Source: FastCompany.com

The Rise Of An Entrepreneur

Source: Penn-Olson.com

The Young Entrepreneur Mega InfoGraphic

Source: YoungEntrepreneur.com

Entrepreneurs in the Cloud

Source: Chargify.com

An Optimistic Outlook for Entrepreneurs in 2011

Source: BusinessBlogsHub.com

Bonus:  

Entrepreneur vs. MBA. Is the MBA Worth it?

Source: BostonInnovation.com

Did I miss any?! If so, put them in the comments below!

About William:

While at centresource and Suineg Consulting, William Griggs worked with clients ranging from one-man operations to large corporations in order to launch their products and grow their business.

William is very active in the digital community and has served as both an advisor and in managerial roles of several Internet start-up companies.

Currently, William is in the process of starting Give Year, a social enterprise he is incubating in the Nashville Entrepreneur Center that seeks to change the world by harnessing the talents of our nation’s most promising future leaders and providing them with an opportunity to serve.

Follow William: twitter.com/william_griggs

Introduction:

Having an intern or two is a great way to get more done inside your startup and due to the fact that career service departments push college students to secure as many internships as possible, during their collegiate career, there is a surplus of talented college students floating around.

There have been plenty written about how to find and motivate your interns, so in this post I will talk about a simple, yet effective strategy I use to manage interns inside GiveYear.

Managing Interns Inside Your Startup

The main complaint I hear from startups founders, regarding interns, is that they have to spend way too much time managing them, forcing them to question if interns were worth the hassle.

To address this concern, you must streamline the process and clearly set expectations. Note: Depending on where you are in the startup process, you might need to modify my strategy to better fit your needs. Currently, I am in the building process with GiveYear, which requires a lot of research and development.

How To Manage Interns Inside Your Startup

Two Google Docs + One Day A Week — Simple enough?

Google Doc #1

Anytime I think of an item that needs to be done and I think an intern could do, I jot it down into Google Doc #1.

Google Doc #2

Google Doc #2 is for all the assignments and completed work.

Inside Google Doc #2 I will explain the task at hand and provide links to any resources I think would prove valuable. The most crucial piece of the task explanation, that is often overlooked, is the output. Be clear with regards to what you expect the output of the task to be. For instance, if it’s a research project ask for a one page summary on a topic and a list of relevant links they found while compiling the summary. Again, make sure they keep all their completed work in Google Doc #2.

Make it clear to your intern that you don’t want them to struggle on the assignments and that if they ever have any questions, to send you an email.

One Day A Week

I have my interns come in one day a week for 2 to 3 office hours. Every time they come in the expectation is that they completed their last assignments (stored in Google Doc #2) and that they are ready to get started on 2-3 new assignments. If they are complete their new assignments during their office hours, I assign them 1-2 new assignments for homework, due by our next meeting.

Conclusion:

It’s clear interns seek flexibility in their schedule, while at the same time seeking valuable resume-building experience. In the model, not only are the wants/needs of the intern met, but they are also met from the startups point of view. You, as a startup founder, are able to get things done in an effective manner, while avoiding all the common complaints associated with managing an intern.

Let me know how do you go about managing interns inside your startup by leaving a comment below!

Last week, I wrote a post sharing with you my five favorite books for entrepreneurs as well as a collection of lists other people have put together around the same topic. Today I am going to share with you the five books I am going to read by the end of the summer (Labor Day: September 5th, 2011)!

The Steve Jobs Way: iLeadership for a New Generation by Jay Elliot and William L. Simon

Tell To Win by Peter Guber

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

Uncharitable: How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential by Dan Pallotta

Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes by Katya Andresen

What books will you be reading this summer?

Introduction:

Reading will set you a part from the crowd. Being well-read both in your field of interest, but also areas outside your field of interest, will help increase your likelihood of success and make you a more interesting and valuable leader, team member, family member and friend. Below is a list of my favorite entrepreneurship-focused books, as well as a list of top entrepreneurship-focused book lists compiled by others. Enjoy!

My Top 5:

- Poke the Box by Seth Godin
- The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself by John Jantsch
- Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best… and Learn from the Worst by Robert I. Sutton
- Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality by Scott Belsky
- Rework by Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson

Other Strong Lists:

- Books For Startups by Steve Blank
- What books should entrepreneurs read? (Source: Quora)
- The 99 Best Business Books (Source: PersonalMBA.com)
- 15 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read (Source: BusinessInsider.com)
- Must-Read Badass Business Books For Entrepreneurs (Source: TheRiseToTheTop.com)
- The Business Owner’s Bookshelf (Source: Inc.com)

Let me know what books will you be reading this summer in the comments below!