New Venture Lab: Equipping Christian Entrepreneurs

MBA with Sales Experience Seeks Advice on Building His Entrepreneurial Skills

Question

I am a father of two girls and was introduced to you through a magazine article 6 months ago, just as I was finishing my MBA.  You've been a blessing!  My question is: Now that I'm in management consulting, where should I focus my skill/knowledge development which will best complement my 10 years of sales experience and prepare me to become a successful entrepreneur in the next 2-5 years?  In other words, at a high level, is it better that I go deeper in my market-facing experience or that I branch out by gaining either financial or operational experience?  Thanks and God bless!  God is good.

Answer

The good news is that you have skills in the most needed area as a future entrepreneur: sales.  Given your 10 years of experience in sales, I would suggest you would now be better suited to start filling in some skills areas as you mentioned in accounting, finance, operations, HR, technology, service management, etc.  Entrepreneurs need to be good General Managers, and as such, need to be able to comfortably make decisions in any and all disciplines.  Obviously you can outsource, partner, hire expert counselors, etc. to assist, but you will ultimately still need to take that outside advice, weigh it and act upon it.  Given your MBA classes and some additional experience, you will be in a better position to make solid, informed decisions.

Jeff Kolego March 5, 2009

Here's one of the most important issues to consider: When you become an entrepreneur, what will be your main product/service? Will it be your management consulting services? Decide this first. Customers buy the benefit/problem solving ability of your product/service. Without success with customers, accounting, finance, and all of that matter very little. Innovation is key. Survery the market for management consulting companies (maybe you're working for one now). Document in writing what you see as the what most are operating. Then, talk to your target customers. Find out what their most important needs/problems are. After that, create a completely new-to-the-world service companies have never seen before. This will give you a durable advantage. Change it constantly as you go--your ideas will build on themselves over time.

The innovation of a breakthrough product/service is by far one of the biggest keys to entrepreneurship. When you have a compelling concept that excites customers, you have major potential to work with.

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