Posts Tagged ‘Aron Schoenfeld’

One of the entrepreneurial buzzwords I have heard in recent months has been “elevator pitch.” Many networking groups have been pushing elevator pitch events as can be evidenced by the 45 upcoming meetups scheduled for elevator pitches or pitch parties. And 35 groups talk about elevator pitches in their description. But as someone who has attended many networking events and heard just about every entrepreneur at New York Entrepreneur Week pitching their idea, I think that the elevator pitch is no longer the key but rather the “pitch to pitch” is.

Lets face it; we no longer have the attention span we did 5 years ago. Twitter has shortened our attention span to 140 characters, TiVo has taken away our ability to sit through a commercial and all these blackberries, Iphones and Ipad like devices have destroyed our ability to do one thing at a time. Think back to Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, we saw an incredible spectacle. The most popular free agent, the man who will be bringing millions to the team that signs him, created a show to declare who the winner is. Regardless of where he went, Lebron James would be making millions and have endorsements worth much more than that. While his decision made some people jump for joy, other break down crying and others bashing him for this overly orchestrated event, there are many lessons that can be taken from what watching the whole process of Lebron going through free agency, some positive and others, negative. Below are four very important Read the rest of this entry »

Here is a great article from Careerbuilder.com on people taking on internships at various stages in their career and why they do it. I am featured in the article for my work with New York Entrepreneur Week. The read the article, please click here.

Most people start their entrepreneurial ventures when they are young and single for the very simple reason that you end up being married to your business. From the day you start your business until the day you exit from it, as a founder and the visionary, you need to be involved in every decision, idea and meeting critical to the success of your organization. You are on call 24/7, especially in this day and age of the SmartPhone.

As someone who started dating my future wife while she was working at an early stage startup and married her as I was starting my own company, I was lucky that my wife understood the life of late night emails and phone calls, working on weekends and a non-existant paycheck. However, despite my wife’s understanding and high tolerance for the risk of entrepreneurship, being an entrepreneur with a family is not an easy task.

As someone who has been through it, I believe that the following are some of the keys to making it work (Note: I am often guilty of not following through on these myself, but working towards them will make a big difference!)

• Family hour – 1 hour a night with no answering calls or emails and just sitting with your family talking.
• Shared calendar with your spouse/significant other – Let them see when you have meetings and events so you can plan time together, even if they need to call your secretary to schedule it.
• Bring your spouse to events – If you go out to a fundraiser party, bring your spouse. Let them have fun too!
• Take advantage of you being your own boss – Don’t use entrepreneurship as an excuse to miss important events or vacations. You can work from a laptop almost anywhere in the world and can answer emails from your smartphone in real time. When your family needs you somewhere, make sure to be there.

New York Entrepreneur Week (www.nyew.org) will be having a panel entitled “Entrepreneurial Ventures: The Impact at Home” in their April 2010 conference where there will be much more valuable insight into this topic. But it is most important to remember that most startups don’t succeed and it so it is most important to make sure your family will still support you whether you go big or go bust.

I just read an interesting post on the philosophy of the sale by Gary Whitehill, founder of New York Entrepreneur Week (www.nyew.org). Please click here to read the post.

My father has been in sales all his life selling office supplies and is still one of the top sales people in the industry. My first experience in sales was working with him for a summer. I remember going from client to client and learning the art of the sale and the subtleties involved. My clearest memory is of him being flat out rejected by a client and on the way out, my father mentioned that his company had Yankee tickets that clients can use. The guy turned around and placed an order on the spot. When I walked out, I asked my father what had just happened. He told me he noticed a Yankee necklace under the guys t-shirt and knew all along he had him at the mention of Yankees.

I took an important lesson from this. Most people sell similar, if not the same products. The difference is how you sell it. How well do you know your customers? Do you know if they have a family? Have kids? Or do you only know their email addresses. In today’s environment where it is so easy for anyone to get your client’s contact info, you need an edge that will make them think long and hard before they consider switching suppliers.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and stories!