There are a lot of folks hurting for work and wanting an opportunity to leap out-and-up from their current economic situation. As many big companies sit on the sideline for hiring, a growing number of disenfranchised people aspire to take control of their future and create their own job by starting a business or joining a startup. The trouble is: where do they turn? Where can they acquire the knowledge to be a business owner, a business partner, an entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurship is not a reserved for a “ruling class” or exclusive to the highly-educated. At its core, entrepreneurship is about building something of value that others want to purchase and accepting the risks inherent in the process of moving from “idea to implementation”. This includes butchers and bakers, not just iPhone app makers. Just as ActSeed is dedicated to assisting regular people build exceptional businesses, TEC is committed to training regular people to become business partners.

We interviewed Jack Finkelstein, the co-founder and President of TEC – which is as much a movement for positive change as it is a promising young business. We have provided Jack’s contact information at the end of the interview so you can reach him directly and explore how to get involved.

Q. Describe your “Eureka Moment”. What was the market opportunity that drove your decision to form a company around this product/service?

A. The Eureka Moment came when we realized that every one of our graduates will be guaranteed a job. This is a powerful statement to make in the middle of a recession. We also realized that not only are there millions who need our service, but every year an additional 2 million young adults enter our target market zone.

Q. How did you fund the company to its current state?

My partner and I have self-funded the project till now. We have also formed a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation, held seminars with Operation Hope in Harlem to test market our program, acquired an office at 590 Madison Avenue in New York City, and started some of the businesses that our graduates will participate in.

Q. ActSeed champions the need for solid planning and preparation from the very beginning. How important is planning and prep to your company’s success? Can you share an example or two?

A. Planning and preparation is important to the success of any new corporation. The seminars we held at Operation Hope and some of the high schools resulted in the following: Young adults in the inner cities with a high school degree or GED degree desperately want and need the TEC Center Program. Not only will they be guaranteed jobs but they will also become partners in the business that they will work in. Our target market currently has an unemployment rate of close to 20%. The TEC Center Program is a valuable program that can provide them with the type of success they may otherwise only dream about.

Q. How long did it take to get your idea into the market from initial concept to first customer?

A. This has been a 3 year labor of love that not only is about a great business venture – but also a “movement.” From understanding the inner city individual to determining which businesses can be formed and remain successful in the inner city has taken up the majority of our time. The last 6 months have been spent in looking for the right nationally accredited school with the proper accreditation, and Title IV abilities that we require for our program.

Q. What influence have the internet and new media had on the way you are marketing, selling and supporting your products/services?

A. An advantage we have is that we know how to reach our target market. Every high school graduating class, every GED class, and even the colleges represent potential students for our program. It is not a surprise that these individuals all have email addresses and a cell phone. We also utilize the internet as a research tool to teach entrepreneurialism to our students.

Q. Describe the challenges you faced as you built your customer base, including defining the customer target, establishing the right price and pricing strategy and of course, closing the first few deals. Any wisdom to share with other entrepreneurs on this subject?

A. Defining and reaching our customer base is perhaps our easiest task. We decided primarily on young adults in the inner cities because they can utilize our services more than college grads. The cost of tuition is covered through Title IV Federal Student Loan Program. Students pay back the loan after they graduate and begin working. Since all students will be working for one of our company-sponsored startups, we do not anticipate any issues in paying back the loan.

Q. What techniques have you used to establish credibility in the eyes of customers, investors, partners, personnel and the general public?

A. The TEC Center Program speaks for itself. Guaranteed government funding for every one of our students (each student gets pre-qualified for the funding). Guaranteed jobs for all graduates. The government spends approximately $100 Billion dollars every year on education and we anticipate that this will continue for a long time. This is virtually a no-risk, low cost business to enter. A classroom of 32 students can be turned around 3 times a day (each class is 3 ½ hours long). This represents enough revenue to support full operations and the company-initiated small businesses. Direct overhead is approximately 20%. Investors salivate over these statistics.

Q. Have government, University, or other community / economic development programs been useful? If so, how?

A. We believe that educators are good at educating but do not make the best entrepreneurs. Most have never owned or operated a successful business. While high schools mostly concentrate on math and science to prepare students for college, we concentrate on entrepreneurship and prepare our students to become partners in a business – a business that they will enter as a partner, without being required to apply any of their own savings. Most inner city economic development offices attempt to convince large businesses to move into their district in order to create jobs (mostly low level jobs). The TEC Center Program provides the tools, entrepreneurial education, training and a myriad of jobs and businesses that students can choose from.

Q. What is the most important thing people never tell you about joining or founding an early-stage company?

A. Most people do not know enough to give sound advice about founding an early-stage company. Entrepreneurs and optimists tell you to “go for it.” Non-entrepreneurs and pessimists tell you that “most new businesses fail.” The real key to success is to keep your expenses down, understand your target market and product (or service) better than anyone else, don’t hesitate to continually challenge all of your assumptions, and have plenty of contingency plans if things do not go as expected.

Q. Is there anything else you’d like to share that we didn’t ask you in the questions above?

A. In addition to an expected healthy financial return to our investors TEC is a shining example of a social value enterprise: a profitable venture that address a major public need and gives back to the community. The success of the TEC Center Program will also help reduce the dramatic high school drop-out rate, especially in the inner cities. Nationally, the high school drop-out rate is 25% to 50%, over 50% in the inner cities. In addition, 50% of college students drop out of college – 30% the first year alone. This dropout rate is called “The Silent Epidemic” because few people are talking about it. These individuals can now learn how to become entrepreneurs and partners in a business. TEC will be instrumental in training the unemployed, single parent families, returning G.I. veterans, and individuals who have been released from a correctional institution as long as they have a high school or GED degree. Something has to be done now. The TEC Center Program takes a major step forward in solving this very serious situation. Having just 1,000 students in each state represents a major contribution to job creation and the economic growth in each stage. We are not in a high-tech business; we are in a high-value business.

Our thoughts about ActSeed: “ActSeed is very professional and I strongly believe that its CEO, Bill Attinger, truly cares about our program. ActSeed has been involved in every aspect of the processes that are required to present the TEC Center Program as good as possible. You can’t go wrong by giving ActSeed the opportunity of matching your program to possible investors.”

For more information about The TEC Center, please contact Jack Finkelstein, founder and President, at jack@theteccenter.com or visit their web site at http://www.tecmembers.com.
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There’s no doubt that Napoleon Hill has influenced many generations of leaders with his research and writing that stems from a 1908 encounter with Andrew Carnegie.

Hill’s principals have been artfully brought into today’s business landscape with the book, “Three Feet from Gold”. ActSeed champions books and individuals who can both educate and inspire. Sharon Lechter and Greg Reid do this well.

When you buy this book, buy a notepad, too. This is one of those books that inspire you to take notes and then muster the tenacity you need to pursue your own purpose.

As the book states, the greatest reason for failure is quitting.  Don’t even consider quitting until you have read this book.

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 As the Managing Partner of Moore Venture Partners, LP, Terry sees up to 500 deals per year. From this list, he may seriously review a dozen of them and make an investment in about four of them.

Moore Venture Partners has established a unique niche in venture investing.  Moore doesn’t seed or lead transactions, but the firm does source and qualify deals that fit the interests of the top VCs in Silicon Valley and beyond. Then, they participate in deals with top VC firms.  Through this approach, Moore Venture Partners enables its limited partners to participate in investment opportunities to which they might not otherwise have access.

The Fund’s focus is technology and life sciences, particularly in southern California - companies with strong intellectual property (e.g. patents) in the early growth stages, and sometimes even in the expansion stage.

Terry has a solid track record of investing with returns coming from both acquisition opportunities and IPOs. His own operational experience helps him assess deals and their management teams.  His extensive relationships with top VC and corporate investors enable his portfolio companies to have the best chance to grow and succeed.  His leadership as Chairman of The VC Roundtable further indicates his commitment to bringing best practices and a collaborative spirit to venture investing.

ActSeed is glad to have firms like Moore Venture Partners involved in its Investor Group.

ActSeed provides Terry with visibility into a community of innovative startups – each having a series of ActSeed Scores that provide an indication of the company’s “investment-readiness”.  The scores calculated for each startup in ActSeed’s Entrepreneur Group enables Terry to immediately get a sense of whether the startup has established a solid foundation on which to grow and where gaps in the business might exist. Gaps won’t necessarily kill an investment opportunity, but not knowing what issues need attention may become quickly fatal for both entrepreneur and investor.  ActSeed’s contribution to the VC process is to bring any issues to the front of the conversation.

Moore Venture Partners is on track to provide great value to both its portfolio of startups and its limited partner investors. Terry Moore leads this effort by leveraging his experience and administering a thorough due diligence.  Each year a few startups may become part of the Moore Venture Partners’ investment portfolio and benefit further from Terry’s guidance and extensive network.  The hundreds of deals that don’t quite make the cut will need to look elsewhere for their capital needs.  ActSeed is glad to help Moore in his quest to find appropriate deals for his fund and provide a resource for the deals he sees that may not be ”investor-ready” and need to find funding elsewhere.

To learn more about Moore Venture Partners, please visit the Moore Venture Partners web site.

To learn more about how ActSeed can help your startup become investor-ready and find VC or individual investors who may be interested in your venture, please

1. Download ActSeed’s 5-page white paper,
2. Register on ActSeed.com and
3. Join ActSeed’s Entrepreneur Group.

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A great way to grow your business: find new customers using daily deals from GroupPrice.  ActSeed likes Group Price because they enable you to increase your sales with no upfront marketing expenses while cutting your costs with daily deals from other small businesses.

Problem

One of the growth problems for startups is getting more cash coming in than is going out. Cash is the fuel that powers a business. Not receivables or IOUs, but cash in the bank. You must positively impact your cash two ways:

• Increase revenues by attracting new paying customers
• Reduce expenses by finding great deals for the business services you need

Solution

ActSeed has partnered with GroupPrice to help you tap this innovative marketplace to boost your business in two important ways:

• Spark an increase in sales by tapping new customers without any upfront marketing or advertising expense.
• Find daily deals on products and services aimed at your start up or small businesses with discounts up to 80%.

How to Maximize the Benefits from the ActSeed-GroupPrice Partnership

Two steps.  Both are free.

1. Register with GroupPrice so you can buy and sell on the GroupPrice marketplace.

2. Register with ActSeed where you can access exclusive promotions and discounts from our leading partners like GroupPrice.

Like Fox Business TV, we think Group Price is like Groupon® – but dedicated to entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses.

 

Summary

ActSeed and GroupPrice are aligned in a commitment to helping you find sources of capital and streams of revenue. Cash is king. Heck, cash is also queen, prince and the whole royal court.

Forrester Research has identified that “daily deals for business is a persistent and growing trend.” Startups and small businesses – the backbone of the US economy – have been badly weakened by the recession, but sites like Group Price are helping them recover and grow.

Raise your revenue. Cut your costs. Do both using GroupPrice.

…Now that’s an obvious partnership that ActSeed can champion.

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Navigating legal issues is a challenge — a time-consuming and costly component of launching a business.  Small businesses need legal guidance from many angles: corporate law, securities law, employment law, patents, trademarks, privacy, finance, litigation, tax… and the list goes on.

Interpreting and applying the law often deals with “shades of gray” more than “black and white”.  In other words, a handful of very smart attorneys may offer very different perspectives and legal advice on a given issue. 

So, wouldn’t it be incredible if an entrepreneur or small business owner could throw out a legal question to 10 attorneys who have a relevant background and receive responses from each – all for just a few bucks? 
The founders of LawPivot thought so, and ActSeed agrees.

LawPivot is one of those “no-brainer” services for a startup or small business budget.  Being able to tap legal knowledge like this is invaluable.  ActSeed is more than a strategic ally of LawPivot; it’s also a happy client.  Consider this a very warm referral for all ActSeed members.

If you’d like to try LawPivot, they will give you a free trial. 

If you become a member of the ActSeed community (register for ActSeed here to receive the LawPivot bonus code; it’s free!), ActSeed will give a Promotional Code to extend your free LawPivot service through the end of 2011.

Not all of a company’s legal needs can be boiled down to a crowd-sourced response.  Attorneys and legal work will still need to be in the budget, but having access to a breadth of legal minds for a small monthly fee is invaluable.  To receive this service for free during 2011 is, literally, priceless.

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Angel investors typically congregate into formal angel groups based upon geographic proximity and interests in certain industry sectors and/or specific growth stages.  While these characteristics generally reflect the commonality within the Baylor Angel Network (BAN), what makes this angel group unique is how they have integrated Baylor University into their operation.

Operating an angel group within a university setting drives benefits to a broader group of beneficiaries, from business students to the business schools they attend.

In addition to the standard angel-entrepreneur activity, Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business receives an angel-designated percentage of the profits from each successful investment in the form of a gift to the University – on average, 25% of the profits  generated by the donor from a successful exit. Also, a few students at Baylor are selected to serve as research analysts who contribute to the evaluation of prospective deals.  Baylor Angels also mentor the student analysts and share their wisdom with students taking entrepreneurship classes.  BAN doesn’t require its angel members to be alumni of Baylor, but they do expect each BAN angel to contribute some of their returns to the University.

ActSeed is grateful to have the Baylor Angel Network involved in the ActSeed Investor Group. 

The disciplined, methodical approach that BAN applies to their investment decisions meshes well with ActSeed’s own methodical process for helping investors quickly understand “what’s under the hood”.  While BAN does very well in analyzing their deal flow internally, ActSeed Company (Entrepreneur) Scores provide BAN angels with another indication of how well a startup will perform in the due diligence phase.  In other words, ActSeed can help entrepreneurs quickly “bubble up” to the surface with angels and reduce the time it takes to go from first contact to funding decision.

Kevin Castello, Executive Director of the Baylor Angel Network, shares his thoughts:
“Excellence is revealed in execution. A lot of emphasis is placed on the vision, the business plan, the team, and other components but without execution they are just words on a page. There are so many challenges for a new entrepreneurial venture and it is critical to have an honest evaluation of your business. I love that ActSeed is committed to help entrepreneurs be prepared for their venture and to provide them tools for that process. BAN looks forward to a continued partnership with the ActSeed community.”

Before approaching the Baylor Angel Network or any angel group, an entrepreneur must first explore whether  investors would even be interested in their venture. ActSeed’s Investor profile helps clarify this.  For example, an entrepreneur can review the Baylor Angel Network’s ActSeed profile to learn:

• What types of deals generally interest the 40+ angel investors who are members of BAN,
• Where BAN angels are looking to invest (across five southwestern states), and  
• How much they intend to invest (amounts usually between $100,000 and $300,000, including participation in larger deals up to $2 million when there’s a lead investor already established). 

For entrepreneurs who may be thinking about approaching the Baylor Angel Network, consider approaching them through ActSeed’s Entrepreneur Group where you can do more than pitch them an idea – you can demonstrate your “investor-readiness” through your ActSeed Scores and possibly get moved to the front of the line for consideration.

 To learn more about the Baylor Angel Network and how they are integrating angel investing within the University, you can download their introductory document here.

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["Kicking the Tires" - an idiom - giving something an initial inspection before making a decision to pursue a transaction - origin: early car buyers would kick a vehicle's tires to see if they properly held air]

So far, we have been more visible on the entrepreneur-preparation side of the equation.  Recently, we have started to make significant inroads on the other side of the same equation - sharing “best practices” with a new generation of small business investors and attracting seasoned investors with our methodologies that will help them accelerate the review process (“due diligence”) for making investment decisions.

“Kick the Tires” is a new series of articles that highlight the many issues that a small business investor or “startup angel” should address before making an investment decision. We’ll include red flags to watch for. We’ll review “tangibles” and “intangibles” alike. We’ll explore small business investing from almost every angle, including legal, financial, organizational, strategic and cultural.

To date, our primary efforts toward building new reservoirs of investor capital have been through our workshops and webinars (“How to Evaluate Prospective Deals Like a Professional Angel Investor“).  These workshops are well-attended, but it feels like we try to cram two months of information into a two hour presentation.  Seriously, we do share a lot of information in a short period of time. From there, we develop a relationship and rapport with the attendees to assure they have tools to find and evaluate small business investment opportunities within the ActSeed entrepreneur community and beyond.  Kick the Tires is meant to supplement, expand and reinforce the knowledge shared in our workshops.

Who will benefit from reading the articles in this series?

Small business investors - both novice and seasoned.  Whether you want to invest $5,000 or $5 million, you still should apply a defined due diligence methodology and process to assure your interests are aligned with your investment choice.

Entrepreneurs.  These articles don’t contain fabricated hurdles or secret handshakes, but they do outline the issues that together create a solid business foundation that will give the business the greatest resistance to failure, which is another way to say the greatest chances for success.  Investors don’t want to invest in a company destined for failure any more than the entrepreneur wants to build a business exposed to avoidable failure.  In other words, what’s good for the investor is also good for the entrepreneur, making this series equally relevant to those building businesses.

Beyond the articles in this series, what can be done to help connect “well-prepared entrepreneurs” with “well-informed investors”?

Join ActSeed.  Apply the knowledge that is shared in the articles by joining the ActSeed Entrepreneur Group or the ActSeed Investor Group.  The principles and issues we highlight in “Kick the Tires” are the same that we use to connect compatible ‘treps and investors within ActSeed.com using our scored profiles and filtered search tools.

Finally, please send us suggestions or questions about small business investing that you’d like us to cover.  We’ll do our best to address these issues here as well.  Please send your questions about small business investing to: groupadmin.investor@actseed.com.

Together, let’s get to work and build some wealth!

There is a natural symbiosis between large enterprises and an “Innovation Economy” full of startups and emerging businesses.

Tomorrow’s market leaders are hard at work today, building companies that will grow our economy by generating taxable profits, creating jobs and contributing to free enterprise.  Today’s “big brands” want to engage those young companies that are taking steps to build a solid business foundation for a long life. The same big brands want to avoid companies that show signs of being “here today but gone tomorrow”.

While some of today’s small businesses will grow up to be big brands and dominant market leaders, most successful small businesses will become customers and partners of large enterprises.  In addition to selling products and services to small biz, big corporations constantly look for innovation within small companies to find new products, processes and technologies to invest in, license or even acquire.

With over 50% of all new businesses not even lasting five years, it is important for large enterprises to invest time and money with the companies that are avoiding the behaviors that often lead to failure, including a lack of planning, inadequate preparation and the failure to establish sound business fundamentals from the very beginning.

State and local economic development agencies are also very interested in attracting and nurturing small businesses that have potential to grow, create jobs and contribute to the local economy.

Governmental agencies are not usually interested or able to compete in the “home run ball” game that venture capital firms play with its portfolio of young companies, where one big ”hit” (company) might generate enough returns to account for the remainder of the investment portfolio to be written off or sold at breakeven at best.  Economic development agencies don’t manage investment portfolios that must generate returns in a finite amount of time; rather, they want to nurture companies that will contribute to the local economy over generations, even if they don’t “get big fast”.

In summary, large enterprises and governmental agencies can use ActSeed’s “Positive Impact 365™” program to identify and nurture the most promising small businesses in specific industries and at specific growth stages.

If you want to learn more about how you can get your brand or agency involved in the Positive Impact 365 program, please send us an email to positiveimpact365@actseed.com.

Our new LinkedIn group is a collaborative area for “perfecting the quick pitch”.

You typically get 45 seconds or 45 words – your “inside pitch” – to articulate your business model to customers, angels, VC and other investors. Join ActSeed’s LinkedIn group to test your message on fellow group members for constructive feedback, and help other entrepreneurs scrub their pitch, too.

How to participate:

Join ActSeed’s LinkedIn Group called “Inside Pitch” – it’s free!

Post your “inside pitch” as a new LinkedIn discussion in this group.

Invite others to provide constructive feedback.

Use the comment thread to refine the pitch and interact with those who are helping you.

Who should participate:

Entrepreneurs, small business owners, angels, investors, venture capitalists, founders of startups, students, executives, business coaches. Essentially, anybody who needs help or wants help in perfecting elevator pitches.

What happens when your pitch is ready?

Go find customers and/or investors and share your message!

Of course, ActSeed.com is a good venue to find “well-informed investors” who want to engage “well-prepared entrepreneurs”.

RULES:

1. Keep it constructive and civil. Rude or arrogant comments are not welcomed. We want to cultivate a forum where we help each other improve what we say or write when we pitch our business so when we do it “live” in front of a customer or investor , it resonates.

2. This is not a forum for you present your entire business plan or executive summary. This is where you try to say “more with less”. Here, we want to refine how we open the discussion so our targeted audience asks us to share more. This forum is for each of us to metaphorically “sharpen the hook that we’ll use to catch our fish”.

3. This is NOT a venue to solicit for funding.  Please do not indiscriminately broadcast a need for funding. If an investor likes your pitch or your concept, they will likely contact you. Please keep the focus on perfecting the message.  We will aggressively moderate against misuse of this group.

Inside Pitch is sponsored and managed by ActSeed, an online community for startups and small businesses – a community dedicated to providing the best resources to help entrepreneurs properly plan, establish a solid operational foundation, attract investment and become highly competitive in the marketplace.

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If this quote resonates with you, or even if you have another motive for becoming an entrepreneur, you should read this book.

Scott Shane packs this book with statistics and information that really helps you understand the realities of building a business. If you are a true entrepreneur, this book should sober your expectations and then bolster your resolve. If you aren’t quite there yet as an entrepreneur, this book will properly discourage you from burning too much of your own time and money (not to mention the time and money of others) until you are truly ready to “do it the right way.”

In this book, Shane shares statistics and data about where funding comes from for new business creation, what impact VC and angels have on new business creation, which industries receive most of their funds and who may likely be the best source of funds for your own business.  He shares data about how long it usually takes to “turn the corner” with a new business and the demographics of entrepreneurship, too.

The Illusions of Entrepreneurship pulls data from a multitude of resources, including the Federal Reserve Survey of Small business Finance and the Center for Venture Research in New Hampshire.  Essentially, Scott Shane has condensed thousands of pages of research into a single, coherent book.

This book is one of the first ones you should read if you are contemplating the plunge into the world of entrepreneurship.

You can purchase this book from ActSeed’s Amazon store here. 

Enjoy!