What Makes an Entrepreneur? Four Letters: JFDI

by MARK SUSTER on NOVEMBER 19, 2009

I had a picture in the office of my first company with the logo above and the capital letters JFDI.  (In case it’s not obvious it’s a play on the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.”)  I believe that being successful as an entrepreneur requires you to get lots of things done.  You are constantly faced with decisions and there is always incomplete information.  This paralyzes most people.  Not you.

Entrepreneurs make fast decisions and move forward knowing that at best 70% of their decisions are going to be right.  They move the ball forward every day.  They are quick to spot their mistakes and correct.  Good entrepreneurs can admit when their course of action was wrong and learn from it.  Good entrepreneurs are wrong often.  If you’re not then you’re not trying hard enough.  Good entrepreneurs have a penchant for doing vs. over-analyzing.  (obviously don’t read this as zero analysis)

I spent nearly a decade building software for large companies and then advising companies on the same.  I didn’t have to make many serious decisions.  So I was surprised at the sheer volumes of decisions that had to be made when I became a startup CEO.  Most of them are completely mundane such as choosing which:  bank,  office space, 1-year lease vs. 2-year lease, logo, URL, pricing structure or which VC.

The technology team disagrees on direction and wants resolutions.  Your head of sales thinks she should fire somebody.  You need to decide whether or not to launch at TechCrunch50.  Somebody asks whether you plan to set up 401k’s and do contribution matching.  I think this paralyzes many people.

I learned quickly that I needed to just do things.  Yet I initially had a team full of people that seemed to either over analyze things or more likely wait for a higher source within the company to make the tough decisions for them.  You’re sales person is getting blocked by the CTO who says she shouldn’t go above him but the CTO isn’t approving the deal.  Should she take a chance and potentially ruffle feathers?

Yes, I know it’s my job as the CEO to be the coach for people and that’s fine.  But if everybody is looking for me to make their decisions we’ll never get anything done.  I felt like I had done the hard bit and chosen people that I truly respected and I would rather empower them to make decisions and accept consequences.

Sometimes you need to break some eggs to get things done so if that’s what it takes I wanted my team to go for it and I wanted to symbolize that it was OK with me.  I would far rather have some messes to clean up than to never have them cross the line trying.

So I took on the motto JFDI to symbolize this.  And I think my team did a great job and rose to the occasion.  Maybe it helps that I love controversy and pushing the boundaries so people felt it was OK for them to do it as well.

Another side of JFDI is finding ways to get stuff done that seem impossible.  Entrepreneurs have a way of doing that. Getting suppliers to accept terms that they said they never normally agree, getting accepted to speak on a panel when the conference organizer initially said “no,” getting people to moonlight for you until you have the cash to bring them on board.

A couple of quick stories / examples:

1. Making Things Happen

There’s a guy in Los Angeles that I met at several tech networking events.  He was a really nice and personable guy who had deep domain knowledge in an industry that he’d worked in for 10 years that is in need of technological advancement.  He wanted to be the guy who did it.  So we discussed his ideas several times.  I usually try to avoid getting stuck reviewing people’s PowerPoint decks (I get this request too often and frankly I’m already behind on my own work!) but there are some people you just take an (extra) liking to and want to help.  This was such a guy.

So over several months I went through a few iterations on his idea.  He was stuck on capital raising.  He wanted to know how to get started and “Could I intro him to a couple of local angels?”  One night after a DealMaker Media event we got 20 minutes together after the event ended.  I was blunt (warning: that sometimes happens with me) and told him not to bother and that I wasn’t prepared to help with angels.

“Why?” he asked.  I told him he wasn’t a real entrepreneur.  He looked stunned.  I said that he had been talking about doing this for too long.  He still had no website and no prototypes.  But “he didn’t have the budget to hire a developer until he had raised money!”

I said that was my point. “A real entrepreneur would have done it anyway.  He would have found somebody technical and inspired that individual to work for equity or deferred payment.  Real entrepreneurs are contagious.  They are filled with ideas and they get those ideas onto paper.  That paper can be in the form of wireframes or in the form of a PowerPoint plan.  Or worst case your ideas can be conveyed verbally.  But they GET THINGS DONE.  You have the skills and knowledge to do that.”

I walked away kind of feeling bad.  I don’t like to intentionally crush people’s hopes.  But I always view my job as being honest so that people don’t waste time, money or both if their ideas aren’t good or the positive execution isn’t likely.  But then something awesome happened.  He took my comments as a challenge.  He went out and found a developer and built a product.  He refined his business plan and he got commitments for $150-200k but needed some lead angels to commit first.  When he re-approached me he had a much better plan and he had a prototype!  I introduced him to some angels and his round was OVER SUBSCRIBED!

That is a true story.  I don’t know whether the entrepreneur feels comfortable with my saying who he is so if he does and he reads this perhaps he’ll put his details in the comments section.  But I  bring up this story for a reason.

2. Analysis Paralysis

I used to sit on the board of a company (for which I DID NOT invest) with a very smart and very likable CEO.  This person was educated at the best US schools and had worked for a top-tier strategy consulting firm – one of the big 3.  The CEO led every board meeting with vigor and the board members (sans me) were always wowed.  The CEO had 60-page Powerpoint presentations analyzing every micro detail of the business.  The company had less than $5 million in revenue yet we had a multi-tab spreadsheet doing activity-based costing on our customer service staff, operations and technology.

We had every chart every invented by man (or McKinsey) showing failure rates of our product, mean-times-to-repair, detailed sales forecast charts, etc.  Charts.  What lovely charts!  I know they would have been very useful in dissected the woes of General Motors.  I was the only unimpressed board member.  I was the one pointing out that we were behind on our sales targets and our “Elephant Deal” that had been promised was 6 months late.

After a few board meetings I finally spoke up.  I was a bull in a china shop.  I said (out loud), “I sure wish that some of the time that went into these PowerPoint slides would have gone into meetings with the COO, CFO or CMO of [Elephant Customer].” The CEO had never met with any of them.

With a CEO that likable, smart, educated and accomplished it made board members squirm that I was willing to call bullshit.

I’m sure you know what happens next.  We missed our sales target by more than 66% for the year but we had great slides explaining why.  The next year we set the sales budget equal to the previous year’s sales budget that we had missed.  We missed the next year by more than 33%.  Nobody seemed shocked.  The company has burned through serious cash.  I complained the whole way.  It was not fun.  No “independent” board members seemed to care (or even comprehend the lunacy of the whole situation).

To this day I’m sure they see the situation differently.  Beautiful slides by top-tier consultants have hoodwinked large companies for years and I can see why.  They are intoxicating, complex, insightful and tell a great story.  But in the end they’re usually just that – a story.  Sometimes a fantasy.

I still really like this CEO and have deep respect for this person outside of the role of being a CEO.  The “Peter Principle” says that “everybody rises to their level of incompetency.”  Read this as some people who are great at analyzing to not make great doers and therefore do not make great entrepreneurs.  I think many VCs have learned this the hard way when they step in to temporarily run companies as I have seen happen.

The problem with the company that I described above was that there was somebody willing to fund ongoing losses and the board continued to believe that good times were just around the corner.  Maybe they’ll be proved right some day.  I certainly hope so.  But in the UK we used to call this “promising jam tomorrow.”  I was tired of jam tomorrow.  I left the board.  The company never JFDI.

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How to Pitch a VC: 5 Tips from ‘Shark Tank’

By Steve Strauss | October 3, 2011

What does it take to not only get the attention of VCs, but actually get them to invest in your business? This, of course, is a question that vexes many an entrepreneur. Sure, you can read books and articles and watch videos, but let me suggest a different path:

Watch TV.

Specifically, turn on the show “Shark Tank” on Friday nights. If you have never seen it, here’s a quick recap: Entrepreneurs and inventors come before a panel of multi-millionaires and billionaires (like Mark Cuban and Barbara Corcoran) and pitch their businesses. If the sharks (the investors) like the idea and think it is a market-worthy product, they will offer the entrepreneur some or all of the money the person is seeking in exchange for an equity stake in the business. If they strike a deal, the shark and the entrepreneur are in business together.

It’s fascinating to watch, from both perspectives. Sometimes you see entrepreneurs go up there with a dynamite idea but no clue how to execute on it. Or they have no sales or no team. Sometimes the sharks battle each other for a piece of the pie when an idea seems too big to miss such as Toygaroo, a company that rents toys to parents of young kids for a monthly fee — sort of like Netflix for toys. Brilliant.

But for us entrepreneurs in the audience there are a lot of lessons on how, and how not, to approach and get money from a VC. Here are five:

1. Know your numbers cold and be able to back them up: How many times have I seen someone on the show come in and say they need, say, “$100,000 for a 10% stake in my company”? The sharks immediately note that that means the entrepreneur values the company at $1 million. They ask:

What sales do you have to back that up?

What assets do you have?

What is your profit margin?

If the entrepreneur has no proof that the business is really worth what he says it is, then it’s over. Know your numbers.

2. Have some sort of secret sauce: There is no shortage of great ideas out there. What distinguishes yours? Why should a VC invest in your idea over the hundreds of others he or she sees every year? You have to offer something different and special and unique.

As one of the sharks, billionaire Kevin Harrington says, “A good business idea is a product or service that solves a problem that is not already being solved in the marketplace. The product or service should be unique enough that it’s not something already readily available.”

3. Have a great team: VCs love to see that you have surrounded yourself with people who can execute on the plan, and who have experience and a can-do attitude. That said, Barbara Corcoran notes, “Always choose attitude over experience. When I hire people I make a habit of never looking at their resume because most people spend most of their life in the wrong job. I never hire complainers or excuse-makers because they’ll find a way within my company to do more of the same. People with a can-do attitude are a pleasure to work with.”

4. Put your best foot forward: Not a few times on the show have the sharks said that they are investing in the person more than the idea. You have to come to the meeting with the VC and be impressive — a leader, a visionary, articulate, confident, and bold, all rolled into one.

Again, Barbara Corcoran is instructive, “My most important criteria when making the decision to invest are: 1) Do I trust the individual? and 2) Do they have the fire in their belly to bring the business to the finish line?”

5. Show them the money. Investors invest to make a profit. Be able to prove that you will make them a big one.

In the end, whether you get the money or not, depends on all of these things. Harrington puts it this way: “Your presentation needs to convince potential investors and business partners that you know what you are doing, have a background in your business, and have put together a good team. It’s important that you show them as little risk as possible, and convince them that they will not only get their money back, but also a high return on investment.”

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6 Lessons We Could Learn from Steve Jobs

By Margaret Heffernan | October 6, 2011

Tracking the achievements of Steve Jobs isn’t a difficult thing to do. They’re big, public and - especially in technology - remarkably long lasting. More tricky but, I think, more interesting, is eliciting from those achievements the lessons we could learn from his successes if we tried.

1. Style is Content

From the outset, Jobs and Apple believed in style: in fonts, in graphics, in industrial design and in marketing. It’s easy to under-estimate how eccentric this was at the time - and how eccentric it remains today. While most organizations believe that style is the exclusive purview of marketing, few achieve it even there. Most hardware and software remains remarkably clunky, ugly or simply derivative. (The Kindle is hideous; the Fire a pale imitation.) When I first started working in technology 15 years ago, style was dismissed as frivolous and that’s the status it still holds in most companies today. Anyone who imagines that Apple’s success derives entirely from what’s inside the box  (and there are more than a few) has missed a very obvious point.

Conventional wisdom divides thinking into the left brain and the right brain. The left is all systematic, rational, linear while the right is more emotional and creative. What Jobs demonstrated was that success lies not in emphasizing one over the other but in bringing them together. The physical representation of this was clear when he took over Pixar. The new campus planned 3 separate buildings: for creatives, for producers and for business people. He insisted that they be brought under one roof, with toilets at the center - because that’s where everyone meets and talks.

2. Patience Beats Speed

For all that Apple is known for fast product development, the truth is that Jobs was very good at waiting. After his return to Apple in 1997, when the company teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, he did what any smart CEO would do: slashed product lines (15 desktop models to 1) cut software and hardware engineers, eliminated peripherals, reduced inventory and retailers and moved most manufacturing offshore. There is nothing brilliant about this; it’s textbook stuff. But asked in 1998, by Richard Rummelt, what he was going to do next, in order to move Apple beyond its fragile niche position, Jobs had a gutsy answer: “I am going to wait for the next big thing.”

Wait? In a technology business? That took courage. Of course, once he’d figured out what the next big thing was, Jobs was methodical and patient - again - in putting in place everything he’d need to take advantage of the seismic shift in the environment when the U.S. market moved to broadband.

It’s also worth remembering that, during the three years he did this, he was remorselessly hammered by industry analysts not one of whom understood what he was up to.

3. Drama Trumps Romance

Jobs’s product launches were famed for their drama. But one thing they didn’t offer was romance. The products did what they said they’d do. Marketing commentary around them didn’t promise fantasies, illusions or daydreams. Apple promoted its products but didn’t hype them. This may seem a lackluster quality but it built trust. Apple said its products were easy to use not because (like many of its competitors) it hoped that was true, or because it was true for the PhD engineers who’d invented them, but because it was true. It seems peculiar to celebrate a company for truth in advertising but that’s one reason why Apple customers, once smitten, stayed loyal.

4. Nothing Beats a Good Mistake

Jobs’s career isn’t without its mis-steps. Losing control of Apple was the biggest and most obvious but there were plenty of minor slip ups along the way. The suicides at the Foxconn plant that manufactures iPhones was just one of these. But Jobs didn’t try to deny that they had taken place or that they mattered. He was swift to point out that Apple’s scrutiny of its suppliers was more rigorous than most - but he still moved quickly to understand what was going on and try to find remedies.

Every company makes mistakes. But, treated right, they can be treasure troves of learning. Moreover, people loved Jobs not because he didn’t make mistakes - but because he learned from them.

5. Technology Isn’t All About Youth

In the age of fast companies, built not to last, Apple offered ample proof that you can be innovative and cool after the age of 25. Experience, know how and skills counted for something. While the products were cool, they weren’t all built by pre-adolescents oblivious to the constraints and needs of normal human beings. That Jobs continued to be as innovative in his 50s as he had been in his 20s is something most companies should take time to consider at length.

6. Business Doesn’t Have to Be Bad

Earlier this week I was teaching a class of new MBA students. A strikingly international group, they came from Thailand, India, Korea, Colombia, Russia, Canada, Taiwan, China and the U.S. I asked them who their heroes were. As usual, the list included their parents, various heads of state and Nelson Mandela. But topping the list - regardless of age or nationality - was Steve Jobs. More than anyone else alive, he was the person who inspired their love of business and their desire to try their hands at it.

In an age when the streets are full of anger and violence at the havoc wreaked by one part of the business world, that there is such an inspirational figure as Jobs is important. We need smart men and women, young and old, to have high ambitions for the world of work, someone who believed passionately and articulated brilliantly how much good business can achieve. Now that Jobs is gone, who can fail to be concerned that no one else adequately represents his rich synthesis of intellect, imagination and passion?

The lessons we could learn from Steve Jobs aren’t all that remarkable. Many of them contain wisdom that we already know — we just don’t apply it. Why not? Is it that we lack courage? Or is it that we find it hard to believe that tenets so simple can prove so effective? Surely that’s the moral of the Apple story: there is genius in simplicity. But simple is hard.

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Pixar: Steve Jobs’ Greatest Accomplishment

By Constantine von Hoffman | October 5, 2011

For a moment, let’s set aside all the talk of Steve Jobs as the man who brought us the Mac, iPad and iPod, and who shocked Apple back to life. Let’s remember him as a man who brought joy and great art to the world through a little side-project of his: Pixar Studios.

In 1986 — nine years before anyone had ever heard of Buzz and Woody — Jobs bought what was then known as the Graphics Group from George Lucas‘ Lucasfilms. At that point in time there was little reason to think of this purchase as anything more than quixotic. Pixar was in the hardware business, selling high-end computers to the U.S. government and Disney Studios (DIS).

Its animation work started as an attempt to sell those computers. John Lasseter, today recognized as one of the great movie makers of all time, was hired to create short animations that would demonstrate the machines’ abilities. These were premiered at SIGGRAPH, the computer industry’s largest convention, to amazing responses.

In retrospect what was most interesting about the reaction from all these alpha geeks was that they were far more impressed by the stories than the technology. After the first showing of Luxor Jr., a charming story of two anthropomorphicized desk lamps, Lasseter says he was bombarded with questions about whether one lamp was mother or father to the smaller lamp.

For a while the company did computer graphics work for other movies, but that didn’t really make a lot money. Jobs then realized he shouldn’t be in the hardware business (that’s pretty much the story of his professional life). So in 1990 Jobs sold sold Pixar’s hardware division, including all proprietary hardware technology and imaging software, to Vicom Systems. Shortly thereafter Pixar signed a three picture deal with Disney Animation Studios. In 1995 Toy Story hit the screens — kicking off the most amazing run of success by a movie studio EVER.

In the past 16 years Pixar has produced 12 feature films — all them box office smashes. The $602 million average gross of their films is unequaled in movie history. Six of them — Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wall*E, Up and Toy Story 3 — won Oscars. The last two are two of the three only animated movies ever to be nominated for Best Picture.

While Pixar’s work is clearly among the best animation ever produced, you can make a very reasonable argument that they are also among the best movies ever.

In 2006 Disney bought Pixar for $7.4 billion, making Jobs Disney’s largest shareholder.

Jobs wasn’t the story teller who created Nemo, Woody or any of the rest. He was the man who saw what was needed to make those stories possible. Pixar clearly didn’t end up as what Jobs thought it would be when he bought it. His ability to see the opportunity as it evolved is yet further proof of what a singular man Jobs was.

Ars longa, vita brevis

- http://www.bnet.com/blog/sports-entertainment/pixar-steve-jobs-greatest-accomplishment/1621 -

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How To Be An Entrepreneur

Whilst the ultimate desire for any Muslim is success in the Hereafter, the Qur’an also teaches prayers for success in this world. Before beginning a new series on Global Muslim entrepreneurs, emel looks at the attributes that a Muslim entrepreneur should be striving for in their business.

Faith in Trade

The Qur’an has many verses extolling the virtues of trade, and the Prophet has said that nine-tenths of all rizq (material provision) is derived from commerce. He himself led trade missions to al-Sham, including for the businesswoman Khadijah bint Khuwaylid (later to become his wife). Extensive trade networks created a medium through which Islam spread peacefully, initially through the merchant class and then into the general population. Indeed, it can be said that trade flows within the veins of the Islamic culture and narrative. Given that commerce is crucial for a thriving country, with small businesses today providing the engines that power economies - creating jobs, fuelling growth and transforming communities - it is vital that young Muslim entrepreneurs take up the mantle of commerce, and begin to harness the faith-based enthusiasm for trade.

Win Win

The best deals are when the principle of ‘Win, Win’ is adhered to. Both parties should come out of a deal feeling happy. If one party feels they have given too much, or not received enough, then it is not a good deal. The ability to make such a deal requires the development of mutual respect and care. The Prophet said, “None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself,” and such an attitude in business will lead to a positive reputation.

Business plan

Writing a business plan will allow you to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your idea and clearly assess and evaluate the proposition. Whilst the Qur’an reminds us that “God is the best of planners”, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t plan; indeed, the Prophet was clear that people had to fulfil their responsibilities towards stable action, reminding his followers to, “Have faith in God and tie up your camel.” A business plan, however sketchy, is essential to the entrepreneur. For a start-up, it should look at the projected outgoings and projected income; and give a best guess assessment of “break even”.

Success and Failure

Success is generally defined in terms of achieving goals, acquiring wealth, having prestige, status, and power; however, there is a reason why the muezzin calls out “Come to success” when he calls people to prayer; for the success of any individual is ultimately their capacity to worship God. The Qur’an says, “I have only created jinn and mankind that they may worship Me.” As this is the purpose of human beings, success can only be through this. That is not to say that the pursuit of worldly success is wrong, it’s just that one has to recognise that it is not our ultimate purpose. In addition, whilst recognising that provision is from God, for the Qur’an says, “And God provides provision to whom He wishes without any account”, the Prophet made clear that believers had to “Spread out your goods and services, and seek provision from your Lord.

Want and Need

Often, business models are about creating want and desire in the consumer. Advertising is the public face of that, and billions of pounds are spent on marketing that is not necessarily connected to substance. The business model of a Muslim entrepreneur has to be more than creating consumer goods based upon consumer desire, and projects with social – not just economic – utility should be supported. Businesses that provide social enrichment and don’t just satisfy consumer desire, but rather build social capital are long-term winners.

Keep it Halal

The Prophet said, “When God prohibits a thing He prohibits the price of it as well,” meaning that one cannot trade in forbidden things. Alcohol, drugs, gambling, pork products, pornography, etc are all obviously prohibited ways of earning a living. The Prophet also forbade transactions involving unspecified quantity, so for example one cannot sell ‘fish in the river’, ‘birds in the air’. A Muslim entrepreneur should refrain from hoarding items hoping to make a higher profit at a later date; and selling items based upon fraudulent claims is also forbidden, as is of course, dealing in usury.

Brand values

Big business always talks about “brand values”, but what is good for the corporate also holds true for the small enterprise. In addition to finding the unique selling point (USP) of your brand, Muslim entrepreneurship should have trust, justice, and integrity at the core of their brand values. The Qur’an reminds the believer that “justice is closest to God consciousness” and tells the reader to “Give full measure and full weight in justice, and wrong not people in respect of their goods” and “Oh you who believe! Eat not up each other’s property by unfair and dishonest means.”  Add ihsan, excellence, to the brand for “God has prescribed excellence in all things”, and the Muslim entrepreneur is well on the way to creating a long-lasting, sustainable brand.

Balance

Islam is profoundly about mizan, balance; and the Qur’an describes the Muslim community as “a middle nation to act as witnesses unto mankind, and the Prophet to act as a witness unto you.” As such, there should be balance in all things, including entrepreneurship. Therefore, a Muslim entrepreneur should establish balance between work and family life, between profit and sustainability, between passion and pragmatism.

Going Green

There are natural synergies between the Muslim Lifestyle Economy and the ethical lifestyle economy. Muslim entrepreneurship needs to have the vision to perceive those synergies and then implement them. The Qur’an describes humanity’s stewardship of this world, and those in business have a great responsibility to make sure their products and services are sustainable from an environmental as well as commercial perspective.

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Follow the trend and you’re on a winner

DUNCAN BANNATYNE was brought up in a poor area of Glasgow and left school at 15 for stints in the Navy, on a farm and behind a bar. He was 30 when he went into business, buying an ice-cream van for £450. Within two years he had six vans, but when a newspaper reported a shortage of nursing homes, he decided to build one himself. He set up successful businesses in the healthcare and fitness sectors and now owns a chain of healthclubs.

Everyone seems to be obsessed with finding ‘never-been-seen- before’, ‘cutting edge’, ‘breakthrough’, ‘all-improved’ ideas for businesses that nobody has ever heard of before.

I’ve never patented anything. I’ve never come up with a new idea. Nothing. But I’ve made £168m. So, how does that work? If you want to find a good idea for a new business venture, it’s not about inventing anything. The light bulb, telephone and wheel have all been done before. Don’t beat yourself up trying to split atoms.

Like me, follow the latest trends in all the newspapers. Keep an eye on whatever is getting the most press for a consistently long period of time.

Spot the trends and then follow the yellow brick road. If everyone’s doing it, so should you. The revolutionary concept that nobody has ever thought of before is for your ego, not your wallet.

When Margaret Thatcher was prime minister, she was offering to pay business people to look after the elderly in care homes due to overcrowding in hospitals. Anyone with a brain started opening care homes. So I launched Quality Care Homes and sold it for £46m 10 years later.

Health clubs were happening. Everyone was getting fit. There was an explosion on the scene with Fitness First and Holmes Place. So I launched Bannatyne Fitness.

The appetite was already there and so I knew I was on to a winner. It is now valued at £120m.

Even my first ice-cream business was an idea waiting to happen. I was at a car auction when an ice-cream van came through. It was a ready-made business that I didn’t have to think about.

As far as ideas for businesses go, jump on the bandwagon. This is not to say that you can’t put a unique spin on your new courier service, café or cattery. It’s just that if everyone is already talking about it, you know it’s more likely to succeed.

Of course, with any idea, ascertain what the key benefits are first. Be sure your idea is at the beginning of its lifecycle. You don’t want to enter a cluttered market with so many competitors that you can’t see the wood for the trees. Also ensure that your idea isn’t already mature and interest is waning.

Be a little controversial. Tackle something with talk value. And make sure that your idea is part of a trend and not a fad. A fad, like most of the Big Brother stars, are here today and gone tomorrow. A trend has longevity.

Look at the steady growth in demand for organic food. Everyone’s talking about it and demanding it. Organic food is not a fad. We’re not overnight going to start craving chemically enhanced, toxin-enriched battery chickens and hens’ eggs again as opposed to organic ones.

If your business idea is about real chocolate or 100% natural smoothies, you know you’re in good company.

Ultimately, trust your own judgment. You can feel when you’re on to a winner. Don’t try to be too clever. Usually it is your first instinct that’s the right one.

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