In the previous post we saw the two first key elements for entrepreneurship. The business model canvas that helps the entrepreneur define, clarify and express a business idea, and the customer development process, that clarifies the direction he needs to take once the business model that’s going to be built is defined and that will guide the entrepreneur to turn his business idea into reality keeping in mind the Lean startup.
Let’s see now the two other elements I consider indispensable to get the best out of entrepreneurship.
3. Valid mentors
People that guide the entrepreneur during the way helping them turn ideas into results. Mentors are references in key matters. Surely, for an innovation project, the entrepreneur will need to have more than one, depending on the stage he is in. The mentor doesn’t only set the tools closer to the entrepreneur but he also accompanies him during their use. The mentor doesn’t ask for reports/documentation, but he helps the entrepreneur to get to conclusions by using certain tools (which he will help you use).
I find it very recommendable that certain mentors be external from the enterprise. They will surely give a different point of view…
4. An agreed working method from the beginning to the end.
The management team of the enterprise, the involved team of mentors and the entrepreneurs should share a working method from the beginning to the end. It’s useless if we help the entrepreneur to define and focus his business idea in the early stages but we abandon him in the launch of the idea. It’s also useless if part of the mentor team is going to guide the entrepreneur according to the traditional enterprises creation model and the other part, follows the more practical perspective of validating the model doing at the beginning different tests, interviews, beta phases of the product, etc.
If statistics say that 9 out of every 10 startups fail, I think that putting, at least, these four elements in the way of the entrepreneur will help improve these numbers and to get the highest performance of the money enterprises invest in generating more business inside themselves.