Kristin: (old notes but still relevant in portions and frankly reads much more inspirational and ground breaking than your chapter. I am highlighting key elements throughout that I believe need more explanation/emphasis, etc.)
Scott,
I’ve been giving your book a lot of thought since we talked. It was interesting hearing you say George and Thom
keep telling you the drafts don’t sound like you. I don’t know if that’s simply the writing as much as the vehicle
in which it’s being conveyed.
Your “deal” is largely the fact you’ve done this your way. You didn’t (and still don’t) have a business plan…which
goes against every business strategy going. You didn’t staff up as most companies [add to anti-rules] would have done by now.
You basically write your own rules. You’ve “gone against the grain” almost every step of the way. You’ve told
major customers to F-off, you’ve taken on all the major players in a lawsuit when your lawyers told you it wasn’t
going to pan out, and you broadcast every facet of your business day…the good, the bad, and the off the wall.
When I look back on the first chapter you sent, the reason it doesn’t “sound” like you is because you would
never tell “your story” that way. It’s very logical and progresses in a chronological manner. You’re frenetic and
want to get things done in your way and time frame, not in a manner as set forth by others. For example, you want your
samples in a week of two. I tell you that’s not how the industry works and you say you don’t care, it doesn’t
make sense, make it happen. And, for the most part, you get your samples much sooner than any other
company I’ve worked for.
The Cathy Black book I mentioned today was a business book infused with vignettes of her career. Maybe
that would be a better fit. Instead of telling the story of you and Scottevest from beginning to the current day,
fish around and come up with a few key, bullet points that epitomize how you’ve gotten where you have. The
22 Pocket idea would still work, but instead of segmenting them the way you’ve been thinking,
maybe you could use each pocket for a different business strategy and then within that chapter recount
various experiences that reinforce it. It could be “writing the new rules of business: perfectly stowed in
22 purposeful pockets.” [this theme doesn't come through as much as I would like] I know that sounds goofy, but it’s just a quick thought. How many business
execs play video games with their customers who have become friends? How many busimess execs go
on a road trip in an old VW van? You run a very successful, yet very unconventional company….so why shouldn’t
your book/advice/strategy be told in a non-linear, unconventional manner? [your new chapter and approach is way too linear... Frankly, these 2 paragraphs are more compelling than what we have from your intro and chapter] You and your story have been very
inspiring to a lot of people, but maybe it’s the “not playing by other people’s rules” or “making up the rules as
you go” that makes it so interesting.
more drafts you go through the less it sounds like you and your company.
“breaking the rules” or “anti-rules” came about, but there’s a scene toward the end of the
movie Working Girl where Melanie Griffith’s character says something about not being able
to get a job if you don’t have the experience and you can’t get your foot in the door unless
you break the rules. I know that’s not how your anti-rules came about, but I’m just trying to
find something we can tie your path of rule-breaking to. Just a thought.
THOM:
* “Out of the Pocket” is a great title, concept and metaphor. To you, “pockets” are what anthropologists call a Key Symbol – an object or thing that is layered with meanings that touch upon every aspect of life. It works, love it.
* That said… The 22 Chapters: going into 22 chapters to match up with one pocket each is too literal and takes the metaphor way too far. The idea of Pockets is great, but matching a story or lesson to a literal pocket cheapens what is otherwise a great metaphor. Split 22 chapters into 4 sections each and you have 100 bits of diluted/sliced-and-diced information. Too many chunks equals “no impact.” The 4 sections of each chapter are structural (i.e. easier to fill in the blanks), but are not intuitive – they need to be both, or at least just intuitive. [I AGREE THAT THIS MAKES SENSE]
* Suggest: six to eight chapters, each one covering a SCOTTEVEST innovation from the start of the company to the present day and how the development of that innovation illustrates your mindset as thinking “Out of the Pocket”: [AGAIN, I LIKE THE CONCEPT BUT NOT SURE THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO STRUCTURE. I HONESTLY NEED YOUR HELP TO COME UP WITH THE OUTLINE AND STRUCTURE. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART. I THINK IT IMPORTANT THAT THE BOOK CAN BE READ AS A WHOLE, AND NOT JUST MANY CHAPTERS WITHOUT A COHERENT STORY, WITH A BEG, MID AND END, AND ARC, ETC. I DON'T FEEL HOW THIS IS HAPPENING WITH THE DRAFT] NOT SURE IF THOM’S STRUCTURE AS WRITTEN MAKES SENSE BUT SEEMS LIKE A GOOD IDEA/DIRECTION BUT HOPE YOU CAN COME UP WITH SOMETHING BETTER.]
* Innovation #1: Clothing with Many Pockets for Gadgets (the initial idea that got you into the game)
* #2 PAN (the innovation that was so important that it was patented)
* #3 Removable Sleeves (going from a vest to a jacket opens a whole new market)
* Pants & Emphasis on Style (new designs take SeV out of the “vest” market and towards the fashion market – when you had your first “a-ha” moment you never imagined things going in this direction… it’s like you have sailed past the horizon)
* Clear Touch (responding to new trends in technology in an agile way – touchscreens, etc.)
* Ski Products/Quantum (tackling a new market b/c you know you can do it better, the “why not us?” attitude)
* Revised Clear Touch pocket (testing something new, changing course)
* Etc. – these are just off the top of my head
* Indirect character development and a hook. Here’s a quick stab at the first few lines of a prologue, lots of attitude: [I REALLY LIKE THIS TONE]
“I’ve never written a book before in my life… not even this one! That’s right – you are reading the words of a ghost-writer[, BUT WITH MY INPUT AND DICTATION, ETC.]. Ask yourself this: what kind of person starts off a book about himself, written by himself, with an admission that he’s not even writing it [IN THE FIRST SENTENCE]? Simple. Someone who values transparency and honesty, doesn’t take himself too seriously, is willing and able to break silly rules and asks on an all-too-regular basis, “Why the fuck not?” It’s nice to meet you – I’m Scott Jordan, CEO & Founder of SCOTTEVEST, and if you keep reading I will guarantee that you will not be bored [BOTH LAURA AND I, AND OTHERS, WERE VERY BORED BY THE DRAFT PRESENTED] and you may learn a thing or twelve about how I’ve been able to make my clothing business successful despite lawyers, liars, terrorists, idiots, shitty technology, dumb rules, focus groups, compromisers, investors, the press and even my own worst enemy… myself. [BUT I AM NOT HERE TO TEACH YOU, PER SE. THE LEARNING IS UP TO YOU. I'M JUST TELLING MY STORY; WHAT YOU DO WITH IT IS UP TO YOU] Oh, and did I mention that I’ve never been happier in my life than I am right now? This is how I did it….”
I hope this is in some way useful….
* Flavor: I realize that this is a draft and still needs more flavor/polish applied to it. Some of my favorite parts about Stacey’s writing are her clever turns of phrase that she inserts into the narrative. This draft is lacking what she typically inserts, so hopefully that will make its way back into it because it’s fairly flat right now and reads more like notes than a narrative.
* Flow: This flows pretty well from start to finish, but feels like it’s skimming along the surface of the story without delving deep into any one part. It’s from the perspective of someone telling someone else’s story – the narrator doesn’t speak as if they actually lived the story, just telling it. It’s a little emotionally detached.
* Voice: Still not quite your voice, but it’s a lot smoother.
* Structure: We discussed this a bit yesterday, but if there are going to be 22 chapters split into 4 sections each, it will get predictable/tedious a couple chapters in. “What is conventional wisdom?” X is conventional wisdom. “What did Scott do?” The opposite of X. I really like the pocket concept, I just think the structure needs to be massaged some more before it’s ready for prime time. Now is the time to do it.
All in all, this is a draft toward something better, but Stacey may need to up her caffeine intake to “get” you. A few days after I had started working with you I noticed that when you wake up in the morning you start to sprint, and you don’t stop sprinting all day long. There’s no warm-up, no stretching, just running flat-out. I think this is pretty core to understanding your motivations for not writing a business plan, for embracing technology, etc. A self-propelled desire to get someplace fast because patience isn’t really your thing, but success is very much your thing. You measure success hour-to-hour just as you insist on time reports from vendors broken into 1/10th hour chunks… it forces people to think about what they are working on in the moment and quickly glide from one to the next. I get the sense that you learned this bit by bit over your career with everything evolving and adding up to your current work-style, so it’s worth examining whether looking at specific lessons/anti-rules as verticals is going to shoot ourselves in the foot when trying to craft a narrative that builds to some form of climax across the whole of the book.
Structure/outline need to get nailed down asap or I think it’s going to cause a lot of frustration, but seeing what a chapter would look like is helpful to sorting out what does/does not work.
Laura:
It has improved, but I find it exceptionally boring (I’m only on the 4th page and am having a really hard time trying to finish). Also, the grammar is making me cringe. I realize that a lot of people will ignore grammar when writing conversationally, but having had proper grammar drilled into my head, I’m struggling to read it. If I make it through the rest of the pages, I’ll try to read the intro–right now, I feel like I’m doing the assigned reading for a really lame community college business school class.
I never thought somebody could make your story sound boring…
I know you’re trying to get something out of this, given the large investment of both time and money, but I don’t think it is salvageable.
Out of Pocket:
The New Rules of Business Perfectly Stowed in 22 Purposeful Pockets
When I was nineteen [TWENTY] years old and a sophomore [JUNIOR, BTW, WHEN YOU ARE NOT SURE OF A FACTUAL MATTER, PLEASE PUT IT IN BRACKETS OR ADD [CONFIRM] NEXT TO IT. I KNOW THIS IS PART OF THE PROCESS BUT IT WOULD BE HELPFUL TO KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOT SURE OF CERTAIN FACTS OR ARE MAKING THEM UP, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN PROVIDED WITH FACTS THAT BACK THEM UP; NOT SURE IN THIS CASE]. in college, I had a great idea for an entrepreneurial endeavor [I WOULD NEVER USE THIS PHRASE] that I was positive would be a financial success. I followed all the rules. I wrote a business plan and did market research. I found partners and investors. I applied for and got a small business loan. [AS I INFORMED YOU, IT WAS A LOAN THAT MY DAD GUARENTEED, NOT AN SBA LOAN. IN ANY EVENT, NOT SURE THIS IS THE BEST STORY TO INTRODUCE THE READER TO THE BOOK] And I jumped headfirst into the world of marketing and promotion.
The endeavor was a limited success, it didn’t lose money. [AND GOT ME LAID.... BUT NOT SURE THIS STORY IS BEST ANYWAY.] But it didn’t exactly launch me into the world of self-employment or independent wealth. My partners turned out to be more irritating than helpful. [NOT HOW I WOULD DESCRIBE MY PARTNERS PER SE] I ended up in a lawsuit with my venture capitalist investor. [HE WAS A LOCAL BUSINESSMAN, NOT A VENTURE CAPITALIST, AND HE WAS A PIG WHO ENDED UP IN JAIL] The key element of my marketing plan resulted in a cease and desist order. [NOT RIGHT TERMINOLOGY AND MAY BE WORTH GOING INTO MORE IF WE USE THIS STORY] My well-thought-out business plan bore no relation to the actual business I was operating. [NOT ENTIRELY TRUE, JUST THE PARTS RELATING TO THE MARKET RESEARCH. I WOULD BE HAPPY TO SHOW YOU THE BUSINESS PLAN IF YOU THINK IT WOULD HELP]
I followed all the rules, and one by one, they bit me in the ass.
Well, maybe not all. The fact that I made up most of the statistics, graphs, charts, and surveys in that first business plan is another story that I’ll share a little later!
Flash forward a couple of decades, and I am the owner and CEO of a very successful company. [NAME THE COMPANY HERE] A company that is redefining how business can be done, in no small part because I let go of “the rules” and learned to follow my instincts about business. [NOTE: MAY WANT TO APPLY SOME OF THE LESSONS FROM MALCOM'S BOOK BLINK TO MY BUSINESS BUT NOT SO OVERTLY] That is what this book is about. I believe there are many people out there with great ideas and entrepreneurial spirit who get bogged down in trying to follow “the rules” of business. Come to think of it, maybe my doing a little creative fiction in that first plan was the first sign I was always destined to break the rules a little! [AGAIN, NOT SURE THAT THIS IS THE BEST FIRST EXAMPLE. I THINK THAT PLACING ME IN A LAW FIRM DESPARATELY TRYING TO GET INTO BUSINESS MIGHT BE BETTER AND MORE RELEVANT AND IS BETTER PLACE TO START MY JOURNEY]
My company, SCOTTEVEST, [MAY WANT TO ACKNOWLEGE THAT IT IS ADMITTEDLY AND AWKWARD NAME] was launched with one product. A vest [, DUBBED THE eVEST 1.0] that was designed specifically to help me mange all of my portable gadgets and gear with a [TON OF ERGONIMICALLY DESIGNED] system of specialized pockets. I’ve always been a serious gadget guy. [THIS COMES OUT OF NOWHERE. NOT SURE IT BELONGS HERE. NOT FLOWING WELL TO ME.] I never leave the house without an arsenal of phones, PDAs, cameras, MP3 players…if it is a portable gadget I probably have it with me. Figuring out how to carry them all without resorting to a very uncool man-purse [ACTUALLY, IT WAS THE BUTT UGLY FAKE OR CHEAP LEATHER FANNY PACK I RESORTED TO] had always been an issue. Pockets have been around for centuries. [MILLENIUM ACTUALLY] No one ever really thinks about them. But I took a simple idea about this overlooked element and completely re-imagined it, making it the focus of my products, and as a result, changed the landscape of how clothing functions. [I LIKE THIS PREMISE BUT IT DOESN'T REALLY RESONATE HOW I TOOK SOMETHING SO FREAKING OBVIOUS AND MADE IT BETTER BY PUTTING A FREAKING HOLE IN IT AND ADDING MORE POCKETS. ETC.]
The same thing has been true of how I built my company. I let go of all of the standard rules of business that had been drummed into my head, and let myself re-imagine how a company can function. [I NEVER REALLY IMAGINED IT, I JUST DID IT.] By adopting Out of [THE] Pocket thinking, I have attained a level of success and personal fulfillment in my work that I never would have achieved if I had stuck to the rules. [WORTH MENTIONING THAT IT HAS ALLOWED ME TO LIVE MY LIFE HERE IN SUN VALLEY, ETC.]
That is what this book is about. Empowering people with great ideas and drive to go after their dreams. [ACTUALLY, THE BOOK IS NOT ABOUT EMPOWERING PEOPLE PER SE. SEE THOM'S COMMENTS ABOVE. IT IS ABOUT MY STORY AND IF IT EMPOWERS PEOPLE, GREAT, BUT NOT WHAT IT IS ABOUT PER SE. NOT SURE ABOUT THIS. NEEDS FURTHER THOUGHT] Showing you some of the ways that you can adopt my Out of [THE] Pocket Anti-Rules [NEED MUCH BETTER TERM HERE. PERHAPS WE REFER TO THE HOLES/SLITS IN THE POCKET, WHICH AT FIRST SEEMS COUNTER INTUITIVE, BUT IS THE BASIS FOR MY PATENT] to help you along your way.
Regardless of whether you have already had your A-Ha moment or big idea, [OH, DID I TELL YOU THAT I WAS ON DONNY D's SHOW TWICE AND ONCE TOLD A PANEL OF CONSULTANTS THAT THEY SUCK....JUST A THOUGHT...] or if you just want to be prepared when it arrives, this book can be a resource for you as you explore what your life and career can be. [NOT SURE WE WANT TO POSITION THE BOOK SO DIRECTLY AS A HOW TO BOOK] The chapters are broken down into four parts: [NEED TO THINK THIS THROUGH A BIT. SEEMS WAY TOO LINEAR BUT NOT SURE IF THERE IS A WAY AROUND THIS]
The Pocket: Every pocket in my SCOTTEVEST was specifically designed around a particular gadget that I use, or item I like to carry with me. These serve as inspiration for the chapter, sort of a frame around the bigger ideas within. [IF IT INSPIRES THE CHAPTER, IT DOES NEED TO BE REFERENCED IN SOME FASHION OR BE CONNECTED TO WHAT FOLLOWS. IF IT DOESN'T INSPIRE IT, WE NEED ANOTHER WAY TO DESCRIBE IT....]
Open the Pocket: This section acknowledges an accepted business rule or practice, and defines the Out of [THE] Pocket Anti-Rule that correlates to either abandoning or adapting that practice. [NOT SURE IF THIS STRUCTURE IS RIGHT. SEEMS TO BE THE FOCUS ON THE RULE RATHER THAN THE HOLE IN THE POCKET PREMISE. I THINK IF WHAT WE ARE SELLING IS THE EXCEPTION TO THE RULE, THAT SHOULD BE THE FOCUS, NOT THE OPPOSITE]
In the Pocket: these real-life stories focus on all of the essential elements of both why and how to adopt the Anti-Rule, and illuminate how I use the ideas in my own business operations. [WAY TO DRY OF AN EXPLANATION IMHO, ALTHOUGH ACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF THE SECTION. LET'S DISCUSS]
Zipping it Up: These sections include interviews with some of the people who have been instrumental in the success of my business, as well as anecdotes about the pitfalls and pinnacles I have seen along the way. [THIS IS A CRITICAL PART OF THE STRUCTURE AND VERY IMPORTANT THAT I SEE HOW YOU ENVISION THIS. I WAS A BIT MIFFED ABOUT THE CONFUSION ON THE INTERVIEW WITH BARRY. IN SUM, BARRY TOLD ME HE WAS AVAILABLE LAST WEEK TO DO THE INTERVIEW BUT YOU PUSHED IT TO LATER THIS WEEK, AND THEN YOU TOLD ME YOU HAD A TOUGH TIME NAILING DOWN A TIME, BUT BARRY TOLD ME HE WAS SET FOR WED AT A TIME CERTAIN. STACEY, THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT ISSUE TO ME. I AM SHARING MY MOST IMPT CONTACTS WITH YOU AND HOPE YOU CAN COORDINATE SCHEDULES IN A TIMELY FASHION, RESPECTING OTHER'S SCHEDULES, WHILE STAYING ON TRACK WITH OUR OWN SCHEDULE. BARRY HAS WRITTEN SEVERAL BUSINESS BOOKS AND KNOWS ME VERY WELL. I WOULD HAVE PREFERRED TO HAVE READ YOUR COMPLETE CHAPTER YESTERDAY, INCLUDING BARRY'S INTERVIEW AS WELL AS THE "as well as anecdotes about the pitfalls and pinnacles I have seen along the way" WHICH YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN FROM ME. THIS GOES TO STAYING ON SCHEDULE, AMONG OTHER ISSUES, SUCH AS TRUST AND HONESTY, ETC., WHICH THROUGH MY STORIES TO DATE YOU SHOULD KNOW ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO ME.
Out of [THE] Pocket thinking isn’t for everyone. It requires a certain amount of commitment, risk-taking, and faith. And to build a business in the Out of [THE] Pocket model is a lot of very hard work. But if you are the kind of person who is willing to go all out to achieve your dreams, who has simply been hampered by years of being told to follow rules that seem impossible or even ridiculous, I hope that this book and my story will be inspiring to you. [WAY TOO DRY. IT SHOULD BE RE-WRITTEN IN MY VOICE, NOT AS A BUSINESS BOOK PER SE. MAY WANT TO HAVE THE INTRO WRITTEN BY YOU AS MY GHOST WRITER, OR KRISTIN. JUST A THOUGHT, E.G., "I have know and worked with Scott for 5 years.." Not sure, just a thought.
It will be important to remember that we are merging the memoir and business book models, using some anecdotes from your life to illuminate how the company came to be and why it is successful. And that the ultimate outcome we are looking for is to gain you entrée into the world of public speaking, [NOT TRUE. UTLIMATE OUTCOME IS TO SELL MORE PRODUCTS BY INTRODUCING MY STORY TO A MUCH WIDER AUDIENCE, THEN SECONDARY GOAL IS TO GET ME ON TV TALKING ABOUT MY STORY. I HAVE NO INTENTION OF GOING TO SMALL TOWNS OR SMALL CONVENTIONS TO TALK. IT'S A PAIN TO TRAVEL FROM HERE SO IF I GO SOMEWHERE IT WILL BE ONLY TO PROMOTE A BEST SELLING BOOK, SO IT NEEDS TO BE A FREAKING AWESOME READ] so look for the Scott persona in the book to be the kind of guy that you can imagine wanting to go hear on a panel or as a keynote speaker at a trade show or conference. [NOT MY PRIMARY GOAL AGAIN. IMAGINE A GUY WHO LIVED THE DREAM AND IS VERY INTERESTING AND FUNNY, WITH A VERY UNIQUE OUTLOOK. I DON'T WANT TO BE ON A PANEL, UNLESS IT IS PREMIER PANEL] I am pushing the idea that your company is a new model of company that is achievable for an entrepreneur, and threading the vest throughout so that you can create a speaking model that includes taking stuff out of the pockets. [I STILL THINK THIS IS A DOABLE PREMISE, BUT NOT SURE HOW AS WRITTEN. AS STATED ABOVE, IF THE NETBOOK IS AN INSPIRATION FOR THE CHAPTER IT NEEDS TO BEAR SOME RELATION TO IT] I am also trying to create chapters that can stand on their own for use in business school classrooms, and also because often the people who buy books like this pick them up and put them down and sometimes go a while between chapters, so I want each chapter to be like a little complete entity so that if someone comes back to the book after a few weeks, they don’t feel like they have lost the thread. [THIS WOULD BE NICE, BUT I BELIEVE THE BOOK NEEDS TO BE A COMPLETE WORK AND STORY, WHERE YOU FEEL THAT IF YOU DON'T START THE NEXT CHAPTER YOU WILL MISS SOMETHING]
The best books of this kind don’t do the chronological step by step “here is how I built my company”, since that is a very boring model. [AGREED, BUT I THINK THE NEW DRAFT FEELS A BIT LIKE THIS] I am sure there will be places while you read where you will think “So much more happened than that!” but some of this is embracing patience, the stories will get fleshed out over the course of the book, and by structuring it thematically we keep the reader moving along with us. For example, by seeing snippets of Laura in the first chapters, we pique interest about her so that when we get to the Laura chapter, the reader is excited to get the blanks filled in. [I DON'T GET THIS FEEL IN THE DRAFT.]
Things that are not structurally here yet, but we may choose to add during the final editing process when we have the text and arc of the story the way we want it:
Takeaways or tips [SHOULD WE DO THIS MORE DIRECTLY AT THE END, ZIPPING IT UP CHAPTER?]
Little boxes with Vestimonials [I LIKE THIS IDEA, AND THINK IF WE INCLUDE QUOTES FROM MEDIA REVIEWS AT THE TIME IN THE MARGIN WOULD BE GOOD]
Pictures [I AGREE THAT THIS IS NEEDED]
For now, you are more looking for the sensibility of the book and your trusty gut feeling that we are on the right track and that we have a good foundation to build upon. [GETTING CLOSER BUT NOT THERE YET]
NETBOOK POCKET:
In Scott’s Pocket: (insert specs on the coolest netbook available at the time of publication) [I THINK THIS NEEDS TO BE COMBINED WITH ABOVE DESCRIPTION, IN SCOTT'S POCKET: A SONY NETBOOK MODEL XXXX, .....]
In the Pocket: [SOMEWHERE IN THIS SECTION, YOU NEED TO REFER TO WHAT'S IN SCOTT'S POCKETS ABOVE, EVEN IF JUST TANGENTIALLY...] Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Any MBA professor worth their salt will not only insist on business plans, but will spend a good portion of their teaching time training people to create them. In fact, if you told most professional people in the corporate arena that you were thinking of starting a small business without one, they’d recommend a shrink. Then they’d give you the number of a consultant to help guide you through the process of creating a well thought out plan with graphs and charts and surveys and market research and profit projections.
I often wonder how many great ideas and cool new products never got beyond the dream phase because the people with the inspiration were daunted by the idea of having to create a viable business plan. If you’ve never done one, they seem impossible, the kind of document that only the extra-smart, super-educated could possibly put together.
I say, give it up. Think outside that pocket. Don’t spend valuable time you could be spending actually launching your business on inventing assumptions and trying to get the full scope of your plans down on paper.
This left-of-center thinking doesn’t come out of thin air. Just like the most successful preachers are the ones who can speak honestly about their former lives of sin, I have done, or attempted to do, more business plans than any rational human being should have. And yet my business, my dream-come-true reality, operates entirely without one, and very successfully. It was a hard-earned lesson, but one I am grateful for every day.
I mentioned before my first entrepreneurial endeavor in college. I was a junior at Ohio State University, and had become aware of a successful calendar being marketed at the University of Southern California. The Men of USC, a celebration of the hottest guys at the school, was making money hand over fist. I knew that there were plenty of good looking guys on my campus, and at the nation’s largest university, with nearly 60,000 students, I had to assume that a similar calendar would be equally profitable.
I knew it. I knew it in my gut. And if I had just gone with my gut, I might still today be the publisher of a Men of OSU calendar. But I had been taught that in business, you can’t be successful without jumping through the standard hoops, and a well-written, deeply researched business plan was in order. And let me tell you, I put together a doozy. Fancy charts and graphs. Long narrative about the marketing and promotion opportunities.
I was at least smart enough at that stage to recognize two important truths. First, you can make statistics say anything you want. Do a survey of 100 people and write the questions so that they lead to the answer you want, and then multiply up by your target audience and abracadabra! Projected profits of gargantuan proportions.
Second, even taking a survey of 100 people is time consuming and seriously boring, especially since you know you have designed it so that you get your desired outcome, so why bother? I faked the surveys and stats, knowing that there was no way to truly prove my idea would succeed without just giving it a try. Okay, not exactly ethical, but let’s remember, I was nineteen, I had a great idea, and I just wanted to get started already!
The business plan worked, even with its fictional sections, as it was supposed to. It helped me attract an investor. It was an excellent support tool in my application for a bank loan. It made my partners feel comfortable that we were going about our project in the right way.
The time I spent hunched over my word processor putting together pages of brilliant business-speak, I should have spent focused on the actual business. For example, I should have met with the administration of the school and gotten their buy-in before moving ahead. When the school decided that a beefcake calendar wasn’t the image they were looking to project, my Men of OSU became Men of Ohio, which isn’t exactly quite as appealing to the 25,000 young female coeds who were supposed to plunk down their money. No more steamy pics of star athletes half out of their school uniforms, or wearing a strategically placed OSU towel. It didn’t make the calendar a failure; we earned out our initial investment and broke even. But breaking even sure wasn’t the centerpiece of our beautiful business plan!
Even though that business plan didn’t end up bearing any resemblance to the actual business we put together, a shockingly common event, I still believed that business plans were simply a part of the program. So when SCOTTEVEST came into being, I took a deep breath and looked into the creation of an appropriate business plan. Knowing that I needed to be forwarding my business and not bogged down in research and writing, I hired a couple of interns to create the document for me. The seventy-six page rough draft was so bad, so laughable, that I abandoned it without a second thought. The company they were talking about wasn’t MY company, it was some Frankenstein monster, compiled from bits and pieces of business-school theoretical companies. If I was going to have a business plan, it had better actually reflect my business. I handed the interns’ work over to a guy who claimed to have a ton of experience with business plans, and he gave me a document that was as convoluted and irrelevant as the one he was supposed to be fixing.
In the meantime, with no plan in place, SURPRISE! My business was not only up and running, but doing so successfully. We had applied for and received a provisional patent for our Technology-Enabled Clothing design. We were the first company to fully integrate the wires associated with portable gadgets into the fabric and functionality of garments. We were rethinking clothes, and people were beginning to take notice.
Then September 11, 2001 changed everything. By this time SCOTTEVEST was averaging about a thousand dollars a day in sales of our vest, mostly to travelers who loved the ability to manage all their gear and gadgets. We had gotten some positive press, and had several PR irons in the fire that were due to pay off. When the world blew up, three things happened. One, travel slowed to a crawl, and there was much speculation that it might be years before it returned to pre-9/11 levels. Two, all media was focused completely on terrorism and the attacks, and our PR opportunities disappeared. Three, and scariest for me, our sales tanked, dropping by nearly 90%. I was facing the very real possibility that my company might fail, and began to think about how to save it.
My wife Laura and I had financed the company entirely with our savings, taking on neither partners nor investors, happily maintaining autonomy. However, I thought that if the sales trends continued we might need the cash flow that such people can provide. And everyone knows you cannot get investors or partners interested without a solid business plan.
Back again to the drawing board. I spoke with a friend, Barry Friedlander, who recommended that I talk to Barry Moltz, who specialized in consulting on these things. When I shared with Barry M. my most current rough draft, and gave him a sense of the company, he shocked me by telling me that we were in fine shape and not to worry.
Off the hook! Without needing to bring in outside assistance, the business plan was an unnecessary project. We just needed to do what we had always done, follow our gut, shift with the changing times, and respond to challenges with our instincts and hard work and not by pushing paper around.
You would think that after all that time, with the company still operating and doing well, new products launching and innovative marketing working like a charm, and with a such pathetic attempts behind me, that I would have learned my lesson. But some things take longer to sink in than others.
Did I leave it at three failed partial business plans? Nope. I kept at it. There was the fourth try, where the consultant thought it would be a good idea to rename the company. Having spent over five years creating a recognizable brand, that idea seemed particularly insane. The fact that the company name is also MY NAME, I’m not going to lie to you, I was a little bit insulted.
The fifth attempt was absolutely unreadable, and I’m pretty sure that the content of the footnotes was far more extensive than the actual main narrative.
I should have let it go. I should have taken a step back and looked at all the company was achieving, the sales record, the repeat customers. Over 1600 appearances in publications and media. And yet, the more successful the company became, the more I worried that perhaps I should revisit the whole business plan thing yet again. After all, the endgame was to create something that would survive long beyond me, which would be attractive to a larger company for eventual acquisition. How would I ever sell the company without an effective working plan in place?
All of my previous tries had come from a place of either outside influence or fear. For the first time, I was looking at a plan as a hopeful document. I felt secure, I knew we were doing great, I recognized that there was a future that could include a major corporation wanting to give me buckets of money to take it over. And who isn’t a fan of buckets of money? Figuring that being in this new positive head space about the whole plan thing, I jumped right into a SIXTH try at a plan that would accurately represent the company and its potential.
What I got was more of an Executive Summary of a plan that never materialized. More importantly, I ended up with a very clear and well substantiated knowledge that business plans are not for me or SCOTTEVEST.
What takes their place? A certain amount of logic and instinct. You know when you have an idea that seems very original and has potential. There is just a feeling of that light bulb going on over your head. For me, it was a twist on an ancient idea. Pockets have been around for millennia. I knew I didn’t invent them. But I also knew that I could do something with them that no one had ever done.
If your idea is a better mousetrap, do a little research to see if someone else has gotten there first before you waste too much time or energy. If it is something completely new, talk about it with some people you trust. Your family and friends. Do they think it is an awesome idea or do they think you are nuts? If you are lucky, and really onto something, you should get equal amounts of both!
A lot of plans rely on projecting long term outcomes. Unfortunately this world moves way too fast to pay too much attention to three years from now. I think a lot of businesses go under simply because their business plan locks them into one path, and when the ground shifts beneath them, they are unprepared or unable to alter course. Does that mean you shouldn’t think about the future? Of course not, keep an eye on the horizon. But recognize that successful entrepreneurs can take a lot of different roads to the same destination, and you don’t necessarily have to pick one and stick to it.
Am I saying that a business plan is never a good idea? Of course not. There are always people who operate better with some strategic thinking. I’ve been fortunate to have been in a position to build this company without the need for outside cash, (which I highly recommend and will discuss in more depth later), so I have never been asked for documentation of where the company is and where it is going. If you absolutely have to bring in partners, investors, or banks, you are probably going to need a business plan of some kind. And for some, the act of developing a plan can serve to either reinforce your passion or show you that your idea actually isn’t as viable as you initially believed.
But if my experience has shown anything, it is that some massive document can’t prove up your business, only you and your hard work and energy can do that. You shouldn’t be intimidated by “what you are supposed to do”. A business plan can be whatever you need it to be. It can be a drawing on a napkin of a brilliant product that doesn’t exist yet, but might change the world. It can be a set of ten goals for your business, to be a reminder of where you are trying to go. It could be as simple as a To Do List, which can shift and change every day.
If you are going to need to embark on a business plan, and want to learn from my mistakes? Do as much of it as you can yourself. I hoped that by farming out this tedious task I could just focus on actually building the business, and let someone else do the crappy part. What I’ve had to admit to myself in retrospect, is that part of why my plans were so frustrating and inaccurate was because they didn’t represent me or my company. No one knows your business ideas better than you, so if you do feel the need to have one of these in place, pull your Netbook out of your SCOTTEVEST and get to it! You will probably have to bring in some outside help with legal stuff and possibly some accounting, unless you are a lawyer or CPA or both. Work with specialists in the areas where you need assistance, but be sure that the heart of your plan comes from your heart.
And possibly most importantly, make sure it is a flexible dynamic document. One that you are modifying pretty consistently as your business grows and develops. The best business plans, besides no business plan, aren’t written in stone, they are written in pencil! And the more you view whatever sort of plan you choose to complete as a living breathing document, the better off you and your company will be.
Zipping it Up: Insert interview with Barry Moltz, discussion of his version of interacting with Scott around the business plan
Recent Comments