Momentum

Win-Win Partnering

Every Monday afternoon Momentum teams gather at Grand Valley State University’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation to discuss the relevance of Guy Kawasaki’s book The Art of the Start and meet with area start up gurus. Momentum’s Art of the Start discussions are facilitated by Mike Morin, Momentum Team Director and SVP at MediaGuide .

Win-Win Partnering

Most partnerships will fail. How do you create one that will succeed? It takes work, business savvy, great relationships, and a lot of trust.

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Entrepreneurial Stewardship and Financial Literacy-lessons from Ron Bullis

At our weekly Momentum dinner at The Factory couple of weeks ago, the Momentum teams had the pleasure of a visit from Ron Bullis of Northwestern Mutual and The Ella Bullis Foundation.

As a business owner and perpetual entrepreneur, Ron’s specialization is in business planning, with a passion for teaching stewardship and financial literacy. Along with his non-profit, Ella Bullis Foundation, Ron now runs a strong and growing practice with new and established business owners and professionals, primarily located in West Michigan. He is also a frequent presenter of financial literacy and stewardship seminars.

Ron shared the personal story of his business, Platinum One; how he achieved rapid financial success; and the mistakes he made that caused his business and personal financial collapse. Today, Ron draws on his experiences and entrepreneurial spirit to lead the Ella Bullis Foundation, a charity he founded to benefit families of babies in the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital neonatal intensive care unit. Ron talked about how his experience in losing his business, investments, and personal property, and the death of his daughter, have made him passionate about entrepreneurial stewardship and financial literacy. Here is what he shared:

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Cutting through the clutter-great advice from media guru Nick Wasmiller

What is the best way for a startup to communicate its message and get the media’s attention? On June 18, the Momentum teams learned first hand from local public relations guru Nick Wasmiller of SeyferthPR. These days, media outlets are working with half the staff and are getting double the requests. They are inundated with e-mails and phone calls. Nick gave us some valuable tips on cutting through the clutter.



Engaging Reporters:

• The media is the gatekeeper to the audiences that entrepreneurs are trying to influence. When engaging reporters, it is important to understand their readership/viewership and how your company/story relates to them. What is your purpose? Who are you trying to influence? Why should they care? Remember -Audience/Purpose/Message.
• Research reporters to see who covers your industry.
• Begin with your local media, it will influence bigger stories down the road.
• Reporters hate attachments. Post your news release in the body of your e-mail.
• Develop a fact sheet about your company and bios to have handy when reporters want more information.
• Position yourself as an expert. Reporters are covering a variety of topics and are not proficient in all of them. Be the go-to person in your industry.
• Be available to reporters for follow-up questions.
• Research bloggers who are the influencers in your industry and engage them.

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It’s almost here!  Momentum Demo Day 2010!

*A community that supports a vibrant start-up culture attracts and retains creative talent. *
After 12 exciting weeks of focus, hard work, and the guidance of our fabulous mentors, the Momentum start-ups of 2010 are ready show their stuff!

Please join us on July 26th as Varsity News Network, TerraPerks, JaiPlace, and Learning Interfaces, present their venture opportunities to the business and investment community.

We hope to see you there!

WHAT: Momentum Demo Day 2010

WHEN: Monday, July 26th 5:30-7:30PM

WHERE: GVSU’s Loosemore Auditorium

REGISTRATION: http://demoday2010.eventbrite.com

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West Michigan’s Entrepreneurs Have Another Resource

Ever feel like you can’t get connected to the right resources?

Momentum Partner, Grand Valley State University’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation is pleased to bring you the Entreprnr Resource Guide. The site includes information about business acceleration and advisory services, access to capital, and incubation services. It also contains an information and education section to help entrepreneurs who are self-motivated learners.

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Who Do You Want? Who Wants You?

Every Monday afternoon Momentum teams gather at Grand Valley State University’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation to discuss the relevance of Guy Kawasaki’s book The Art of the Start and meet with area start up gurus. Momentum’s Art of the Start discussions are facilitated by Mike Morin, Momentum Team Director and SVP at MediaGuide .

Momentum teams were fortunate to have Amy Kraal, Senior Consultant and Partner at HROI join their discussion on recruiting.

So you’re a few months into your new venture, you’ve had a few small successes, but you’re running on fumes and need help to keep things going. Where do you begin? Well, hopefully you’ve already begun. Recruiting, like nearly every aspect of your start up relies heavily on your ability to network. Hopefully you’re always building connections and keeping track of those individuals who may be a good fit for your organization down the road. Now, how do you get quality people to want to work for your start-up? Amy Krall gave our Momentum teams plenty of great tips.

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The Art of Bootstrapping

Every Monday afternoon Momentum teams gather at Grand Valley State University’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation to discuss the relevance of Guy Kawasaki’s book The Art of the Start and meet with area start up gurus. This week’s Art of the Start discussion was facilitated by Momentum Mentor John Malnor, Vice President of Growth Initiatives at Steelcase.

Bootstrapping isn’t always pretty, but it should always be smart. Today’s start-ups know that bootstrapping is essential to staying lean and flexible. Another critical point for start-ups is smart cash flow. After all, you can’t bootstrap on negative cash flow for too long. Many startups fail because they can’t manage their cash flow. Effective bootstrapping can help make positive cash flow a reality.

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The Dirty Work of Chaos

Every Monday afternoon Momentum teams gather at Grand Valley State University’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation to discuss the relevance of Guy Kawasaki’s book The Art of the Start and meet with area start up gurus. Momentum’s Art of the Start discussions are facilitated by Mike Morin, Momentum Team Director and SVP at MediaGuide .

The Dirty Work of Chaos

Four weeks into Momentum and our teams are in deep; deep into financial models, business plans, pitching techniques and, well . . . chaos. They aren’t alone. Every start-up faces the C word. Those that make it beyond this chaotic period are better for it. Navigating the chaos is a formative process for entrepreneurs and their ventures. It facilitates refinement, simplicity, and many times, success. On the other hand, this early chaos may be that last nail in the coffin; maybe that business really isn’t viable after all. Either way, meeting the chaos head on is imperative.

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Great advice-The 5 things you need to be thinking about right now

This week the Momentum crew met at The Factory our Wednesday night Speaker Dinner and had a great conversation with “Brad MacLean, founder of Creative Byline. Brad shared his story and some great insight with the Momentum entrepreneurs.

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Protecting the Business & IP

As entrepreneurs, you must make sure that your company remains safe by ensuring that nothing enters it that could harm the business and nothing leaves that reduces the value. This entails choosing the best business entity, protecting intellectual property, and complying with governmental regulations. This was the topic of last week’s Business Lunch. Tom Williams from McGarry Bair stopped by to give us the scoop on intellectual property protection and choosing the right entity.

Tom Williams is an intellectual property and litigation attorney. He specializes in successful resolution of intellectual property and general business disputes. He encourages his clients to seek IP protection for the following reasons:

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