A few weeks ago, I laid out my theory for the difference between professional managers and entrepreneurs. Then, I boldly proclaimed that there are four types of entrepreneurs in the world – the tinkerer, the visionary, the innovator and the misfit.

Since you didn’t deluge me with piles of email missives saying I was a nut job, halfway to being fitted for a straightjacket, this week let’s take a deeper dive into the world of entrepreneurs.

Meet the Visionary Entrepreneur, the one who sees the future. Like a seer, visionary entrepreneurs gaze into their proverbial crystal ball and then tap into their uncanny ability to identify glaring gaps in the marketplace for specific new products and services, even entirely new industries.

Henry Ford and Steve Jobs are the poster children for visionary entrepreneurs.

Long before anyone else, Ford recognized the market opportunities for making the automobile affordable to the masses. Because of this, he essentially created an entirely new industry where one didn’t exist before and became its early master. Further, the process Ford developed to make this happen – the assembly line – was a transformational idea which was subsequently applied to nearly every industry to create scalable efficiencies.

While not quite as impressive as liberating the masses to travel more freely – and farther – across the country, Jobs accomplished similar breakthroughs for the personal electronics and animated filmmaking industries.

Through his company, Apple, Jobs created a viable market for personal computers, first through the original line of Apple desktop computers, then with the Macintosh. Using the same company, Jobs then reinvented the marketplace for music delivery through the iPod and its truly visionary iTunes platform. As if that weren’t enough, Jobs took a hiatus from Apple to found Pixar Animation Studios, where he re-imagined the world of animated filmmaking.

Visionary entrepreneurs also possess traits owned by The Innovator, which isn’t surprising because The visionary entrepreneur is an innovator at heart.

Visionary entrepreneurs are not afraid to try new things and fail. In fact, sometimes, their ideas are too far ahead of the market so they’re unable to fully capitalize on their creation.

Consider Charles Stack, a Cleveland-based entrepreneur who in 1992 founded the world’s first online bookstore, Book Stacks Unlimited, long before the World Wide Web or Amazon.com existed. A bibliophile, Stack parlayed his hobby into a business and used the then-popular online bulletin board system (BBS) to allow people to dial a phone number and log their computer in to the bookstore.

Stack built Book Stacks to 500,000 titles before he sold it in 1996 for $4.2 million to the company that would become Cendant Corp. This was mere months after Amazon.com was founded and months before Amazon’s high-profile $32 million IPO that would usher in the beginning of the dot-com era.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of cases of visionary entrepreneurs not just reaching the marketplace first but also finding out they’ve standing there alone – without enough potential customers to start the momentum toward critical mass.

Often, visionary entrepreneurs create the niche where they play, sometimes going months or years without direct competition. Here’s a column written by Smart Business co-founder and CEO Fred Koury, a visionary entrepreneur in his own right because he literally developed the niche market and product where Smart Business Network competes nationwide.

At their core, visionary entrepreneurs see unrealized potential and know how to effect change to realize that potential.

First, meet Dave Gilbert, CEO of the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission. When he took the reins, it was a two-person operation that existed basically in name only; today, Gilbert’s breathed new life into the organization and turned it into a regional revenue driver.

Next, meet Albert Chen, who took an idea from proposal to reality at Telamon Corp., building a half-billion-dollar organization in the process.

And there’s Ben Fertic, who saw immense untapped potential in the World Triathlon Corporation and expanded the brand beyond what others had been able to do.

Let’s not forget about Pat Ryan, who grew Aon from a local insurance company into an industry giant by leading the company through a combination of organic growth and integrating more than 425 acquisitions.

Are you an entrepreneur? Are you consumed with a great desire to create a company, create value or change the world? If so, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve created today’s roundup with you in mind. Read up on tips, resources and news important to you as we explore the journey into the world of entrepreneurship.
Basics

Is entrepreneurship all it’s cracked up to be? It all depends on how you approach it. To many people who decide to start their own business, disillusionment and disenchantment can easily and quickly set in. They find their new endeavor causes them more stress and less satisfaction than they expected. They work longer hours, make less money, and are more isolated than in their previous work. This article emphasizes why they do what they do, recognizing the sacrifices they must make. Huff Post Small Business

What Gets Investors Excited? Revenue. Do you want investors? You need sales. Without sales, all you really have is a vision and it is not easy to attract investors without revenue. The revenue amount is not as important as you would think. The investor wants to know that you have successfully entered the revenue phase. Fast Company

Biggest is not always best. Entrepreneurs often have to start with nothing but an idea, so it goes without saying that creating the biggest business is, at least at first, not an option. But does this mean your business can’t be best at what you do? Not at all, says entrepreneur Richard Branson in this interview. Entrepreneur
Self-development

Why success is sometimes about being first. Sometimes we worry too much about being best. It’s not that there’s any sin in doing quality work, but sometimes waiting until things are perfect can also be about fear. Entrepreneurs take the plunge, because they know waiting doesn’t necessarily lead to higher quality. Seth’s Blog

Get yourself untangled. Entrepreneurship, leadership and originality require that we stop letting ourselves get tangled with the criticism or reaction of others. Keeping focus requires an inner drive. Take feedback for what it’s worth but don’t become too distracted by other people’s lives or what they say about you. Chris Brogan

Beware distraction from your dreams. In a similar vein to the link above, here’s another take on staying true to your entrepreneurial vision. It can be hard in a world filled with distraction, but be aware that letting yourself be pulled off course can lead to real problems and delay or prevent the success you seek. Dr. Shannon Reece
Advice

Some tips you should ignore…or not. We guarantee this post will cause some debate. Creating a business plan, seeking out mentors and looking for investors are all important activities entrepreneurs should engage in early on…at least in some people’s books. Others feel not so much. Where do you stand on these first steps? Youngentrepreneur

The new look of entrepreneurship is lean. If you plan to start a company, the one thing you don’t need is loads of employees. That’s because ever improving technology makes operating a lean business easier every day. Look for the areas you can keep your business lean. It will help you in the long run to keep your startup strong. WSJ

It’s easy to psych yourself out as a small business owner. You see the campaigns your bigger competitors are running and you’re intimidated. You know that you don’t have the same marketing budget or the same reach, and it’s harder for you to get out there while still focusing on your business. But all of that is OK, because as a small business owner, you have a lot going for you that the big dogs can’t compete with. You have the ability to steal customers away simply by focusing on the many strengths that come with being small.

How can you steal customers away from big brands? Below are just six ways.

1. By Focusing on Simplicity

Users want websites they can navigate, products that are easy to use and services that make sense the first time they’re explained. They don’t want the red tape, the hassles or the extra clicks that bigger brands throw into the process. As a small business owner, by keeping it simple you focus on your core user and ensure that they’re going to be happy doing business with you. Most users aren’t looking for the “experience” of it all. They just want to get what they want and then be able to leave. Let the big guys be complicated. You just be profitable.

2. By Solving Users’ Core Problems

One of the biggest advantages of life as a SMB owner is that you live and breathe what you do. You’re in it every day and you’re always talking to customers and hearing about what they’re struggling with. That gives you an opportunity to solve the core problems they’re discussing. It gives you that real-time feedback and knowledge that the bigger brands have a much harder time trying to replicate. Related to the point above, don’t add lots of extra features and bells and whistles that your customers don’t really need. Instead, focus on their core problems. What are they coming to you for and what’s the biggest challenge on their plate right now? That’s what you need to address. The rest doesn’t matter.

3. By Outmaneuvering Big Brands

When you’re small, you’re nimble. You have the opportunity to react to what you see happening in the market. You can change your plans based on what your customers are telling you or you can look for timely partners or tie-ins to what you’re doing. Bigger brands don’t have this luxury. It takes time for that advertising to be created, be approved and be sent out. It takes time for legal to reject, edit and then approve a new message the company wants to deliver. As a small business owner, the fact that you can bob and weave as necessary is incredibly useful.

4. By Excelling at Customer Service

Do you know why many customers prefer to do business with SMBs rather than larger brands? Sure, we all like to feel like we’re supporting our community, but we also know that we’ll be treated better if we go to a small business. We know that if we eat at that local café often enough, pretty soon the woman behind the counter will learn our name, our order and how we like it cooked. We know that if we have a problem with something we bought at the local electronics store, we can take it back and explain to the person what happened. One area where SMBs really set themselves apart is in the area of customer service. They go above and beyond for their customers and the result is return customers. People like going where they feel valued. SMBs give them that the way bigger brands simply can’t.

5. By Being Fearless

Being fearless doesn’t mean being reckless, but it does mean being bold and taking chances. It means experimenting with new technology or methods while the big dogs are still fighting for approval to even create a Twitter account. Being fearless allows small business owners to take risks and try things while the cost of failing at them is still relatively low. Read about something on a blog you think may work for your brand? Try it. Have an idea for a different way to use your Facebook page? Try it. Want to host a meetup in your store? You can do it next week. Take advantage of your size by acting while the big brands are still having meetings about it.

6. By Becoming a Big Brand Yourself

So you’re small? So what? That’s no excuse for not taking the time to develop a trusted and visible brand of your own. By incorporating blogging, Twitter, Facebook, forums and more into your marketing mix, you can work to create consistent content around your brand to make sure you’re visible and in front of your audience at all times. Who says rockin’ brands are only for the big boys?

Planning sucks. None of us like to do it and if you’ve had any corporate experience in the process, it’s no wonder. But planning is an absolute necessity if you want to be successful.

So how do we reconcile our need to succeed with our propensity for procrastination?

Simple: Re-frame how you look at planning.

We hate planning because we remember the endless meetings, hours of research that doesn’t seem to get you closer to an answer and documents the size of War and Peace. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Developing a Marketing Plan is nothing more than setting goals and making a to-do list that will get you there. It’s really not much different than planning a party.

You’re basically creating a plan for inviting more people you love to give you money and then tell other people why they should give you their money too. Sounds like a party to me. How about you?

That’s why I’ve been working to develop really simple, one-page templates that can be used to develop marketing plans. I’d like to share two different ones with you. They’re designed to get you thinking and planning and making money, not writing lengthy documents.

(1) One-page marketing plan # 1 – The first marketing plan template is one that I’ve loosely adapted from learnings from the original marketing guru, Philip Kotler. (Even he doesn’t believe in hundred-page plans). It’s a simple single sheet of paper that outlines the basic marketing components or categories like your Mission/Objectives, Target Market, Offering, Pricing, Distribution, Communication — you know, those 4 Ps we love so much in marketing. But the good news is that that’s really all there is to it.

You can find something roughly along these lines in an old “Marketing Management” book that Kotler wrote over 20 years ago, but I think the principles are still valid.

You can use this format as a place to put your big thoughts so that you can focus on what the strategies are.

I am making the template available as a Word document — both a blank template and a mocked-up sample plan, which you can use as a guide for how to fill out the template.

Download blank template #1 (.doc format)

Download mocked-up sample plan #1 (.doc format)

(2) One-page marketing plan #2 — The second one-page plan format I use is a combination of the Kotler plan and the Guerrilla Marketing process as advocated by Michael McLaughlin. This one’s not much different from the Kotler plan, but it’s less academic and more focused on emotional triggers that will get your ideal customer to choose you.

I am also making this template available as Microsoft Word documents for you to download use to guide your marketing planning.

Download the blank template #2 (.doc format)

Download a mocked-up sample plan #2 (.doc format)

So, there you have the plans I’ve been using — and my hat tip goes to both of the masters for giving me a starting point to create these one-page marketing plan templates.

Now, I’d love to hear from you. What do you think of these one-page marketing plans? What do you use as a marketing plan, and why? In what ways would you change or improve the templates I’ve offered? Come on, share your ideas.