The Rodman Ride is a great event held every year in Foxboro, MA with over 1,500 riders helping to raise money for 25 children’s charities and free post- party BBQ at the finish line that’s sponsored by local restaurants and breweries. Last year, BBBSMB had nearly 90 riders made up of company teams, corporate partners, Bigs and Little’s, staff, and family and friends. There are three courses to choose from for any ability that all begin and end in Foxboro- 25-miles, 50 miles and 100 miles. Starting times are set so that all courses finish together at the same time. There is no minimum fundraising goal and riders have BBBSMB development staff and event planners by their side to help them along the way. Based on past ride data, a team of 10 riders would likely raise $10,000 and 25 riders would likely raise $25,000, which would all go directly to the agency with a 15% match as there is no overhead.

We have put together a very simple one page overview that describes the benefits and process and some of the prizes that can be won and marketing benefits. Please contact myself or Molly Neville to set up an onsite info session and she can coordinate with someone from your company to get the team together and help them with fundraising. Riders can also sign up directly online.

Thanks!

So can entrepreneurs avoid this fate? At some point, a business has to make itself as a whole better than the sum of a few key individuals. What’s needed is the creation of systems and processes that break down and document core business functions, so that others can learn to achieve the same results as the top performers. Many entrepreneurs at first don’t believe that they can teach others to do things as well as they can, and they are surprised that their actions contain steps that can be defined, documented, and delegated. Yet, these “playbooks” and systems for your growing company are what will make the core functions of your business efficient and sustainable. They also create an operational competitive advantage for the organization, reducing the risk posed by the departure of key personnel and making the success of the business less dependent on the company’s founders.

Learn More How We Can Help with Operations & Systems & Process Documentation

Here is where companies get it right: Freemium works when the tolls ahead are well-defined before the user signs up for the free version. When the fee trigger is based on the number of uses, features, e-mails, or another relevant metric related to usage, it’s reasonable for a customer who is finding the product useful to start paying for it. In many cases, the free version will also require having a credit card on file, setting clear expectations for eventual payment. The company provides a low-barrier way for users to try the product, but it’s clear from the start that the free ride won’t last forever.

Here is where companies get it wrong: Free is not in itself a sustainable business model. Therefore, freemium does not mean that the core product is available free, and you plan to figure out how to charge for it later. A very large segment of society will use something because it’s free with absolutely no intention of paying for it ever. These are not customers you want to pad your stats with. Although Internet businesses tend to associate success with big user numbers, you do not want freeloaders and need to deter them from signing up in the first place. They will never pull out their wallets, yet they will use your bandwidth, tax your customer support, and—most importantly—they will distract you from figuring out which features and services customers value enough to actually buy. As I have mentioned before in my Get to Revenue Fast Article, you need this feedback to prioritize your development and strategy.

Call me old-fashioned, but I would rather have 100 paid users for my product than 100,000 enjoying my work for free. If you create something of value, you should have the confidence to charge for it.  For more on this topic and how to get to a paid version, see this presentation from the folks at 37 Signals, it’s one of the best I have ever seen at framing the issue.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Investors will tell you that first impressions count, and that the majority of companies do not present themselves well initially. Management often use converted sales presentations, provide unrealistic financial projections, and are impractical about their capital requirements or likely valuation—all of which can turn investors away. Most businesses benefit from taking a step back and slowing down the process, making sure that all their materials are clear and address the key issues for investors—and that the business is ready for due diligence. This process takes time and planning with management to ensure that the company has proactively addressed what investors will need to understand about a business (not just what a potential customer, employee, or partner might need to know).

Businesses need a very succinct message for a core group of influencers who might not invest directly, but will forward your information to other investors who have specific experience or interest in your industry. These influencers won’t take the time to read a 30- to 45-page business plan, at best you may have a few minutes to pique their interest; they will look at the industry and the amount of money being raised, then decide to forward or not.

Before you reach out directly to both investors and influencers, it’s important to put your best foot forward and have your entire portfolio of materials polished and ready for prime time. This where we can make the biggest difference. Learn More About How We Can Help

We went into the development process very focused on functionality and the business objectives that we wanted to achieve rather than the “design.” We know that our site is used as a marketing tool for prospective clients who want to learn more about the type of work we do, who we do it for, and the feedback from these clients. On the old site, this information was kept in different places and done manually.  For the new site, we wanted the ability to better integrate these different assets (client logos and descriptions, project details, blog articles, testimonials, etc.) across the site automatically.  The valuable articles we had posted on our blog were also trapped in one place and could be better accessed if highlighted across the site.  Finally, a major requirement was moving to a content management system (CMS) so that we could control the content on each page.

Enter Kevin Leary,  FTS’s very talented lead CMS designer who helped us architect a platform using WordPress (an open source CMS) and WordPress plug-ins that treated each individual object as an asset that could be used in multiple places across the site. The practical result is that the client page now shows individual project attributes and testimonials ( www.acceleration-partners.com/clients/) cross referenced with service detail pages (www.acceleration-partners.com/what-we-do/marketing) that then highlight which client used the service, relevant testimonials, and articles.  This set-up using WordPress is an ideal platform for businesses that see their website as a key sales and marketing asset as the enormous collection of plugins connect the dots between the CMS functionally and the SEO and social media goals.  We can control every element of the website though a very simple WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor without any developer involvement. The entire site is hosted by FTS, which for a small monthly fee includes monitoring resources, security, upgrades, patches, and core bug fixes so that we only have to worry about content.

I know a lot of people still believe that WordPress is just for blogs, but that’s really not true anymore.  Most companies, especially professional services firms are finding that it’s a great, cost-effective solution for their website needs. We are excited about how the new site looks, but even more excited about how it works.  Let us know what you think.

2. When We Get a Chance to Market, We Market Ourselves
At industry conferences, many affiliate managers are often found promoting their management services rather than their programs—even though such events offer a rare opportunity to meet and recruit affiliates. This should be a warning about priorities. The best managers are found by referrals from existing programs they’re managing.

3. The Reason We Can Charge So Little Is That We Do Very Little
Many companies and managers spread themselves too thin, taking on a lot of small accounts to meet a client’s limited budget. If you are paying less than $1,000 a month for management, you are likely getting a manager who’s inexperienced, spread thin, not very engaged and may be managing 10+ accounts. Maybe this person sends out a few emails each month and possibly a newsletter, in which case it is pretty profitable work for $1,000. Between four and five accounts is the maximum that anyone can manage well on a full time basis.

4. Coupon and Incentive Sites Are Our Best Friends
Coupon and incentive sites are often the steroids of affiliate programs as they can provide a short term boost that create long term issues. They have the ability to drive a large percentage of sales for your program, but also have the potential to be margin killers and can make the program less attractive to non coupon affiliates based on their behavior. Make sure that your affiliate manager is not too cozy with these sites and can hold the line for your terms and conditions if there is a violation.

5. Our Industry Expertise Is Whatever Industry You Are In
Relationships in the affiliate space tend to be specialized around industries. A manager who runs non-competing programs that target the same demographic will be in a much better position to find and recruit new affiliates who are a good fit for the program. Make sure to ask potential managers about their clients and contacts in your industry.

6. When We Say Personalized Outreach & Communication, We Mean Mail Merge & Answering the Phone
Everyone knows a plug-and-play form e-mail when they see one: “Dear X, it looks like your site, Y, is a great fit for our program,” and affiliates read right through this. Sincere personal outreach is far more effective, but also more time-consuming. Less than 1% of managers will put in this type of effort and tend to just wait for what comes to them. You should work with your manager to indentify affiliates who are a good fit for your program as they might not be from the traditional affiliate base. Research and one to one outreach is time intensive, but it works.

7. You Will Be Lucky to Hear From Us Once a Month
A good program can’t be run without frequent two-way communication. If someone says they can run the program without your involvement, that’s a bad sign.

8. Our Background in Marketing Is Limited To Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is just one piece of a company’s larger marketing plan and how it integrates with these efforts will have a large effect on its success. To sell affiliates on the program and help them market effectively, a manager needs a strong background in online marketing. If your manager’s knowledge of online marketing is limited to the affiliate space, his or her performance will be limited as well.

9. There Is a Lot of Fraud in Affiliate Marketing
Fraud monitoring is an integral part of effective affiliate management. The issue is that managers want to reach their sales goals, so there is a disincentive to police this carefully. A good manger will see the forest from the trees and make sure that you keep dishonest affiliates, trademark bidders and other offenders out of the program. They will also set up processes to proactively void fraudulent or returned sales.

10. Our Past Clients Are Mostly Out of Business & We Often Get Fired
You want to associate yourself with success and people who are successful over the long term. Many new online retailers come into online marketing with a lot of money to burn, no real business plan and a lack of focus on profitability. Good affiliate manages are interested in clients who are going to be in business for the long haul. Check out past clients and see if they are still around. Also, the average affiliate manager tenure is often less than a year. Ask firms or managers why they lost accounts or call a few clients who fired them and find out the reason for yourself. The references that people don’t give are sometimes the most relevant.

Bonus

11.  Our Last Big Hit Was a Long Time Ago
What do venture capitalists, athletes, MC Hammer and many affiliate managers all have in common? The answer is that their reputation was based on a past success that has not been duplicated. This success may have also been during the bubble days of the internet for retailers when every site was growing their top line as fast as they could at the expense of profit, making for a rising tide that raised a lot of boats. Also beware of managers who tout a single blue-chip client because this client may claim the majority of their attention at the expense of other clients who feel underserviced. Focus on recent performance and client satisfaction

Early-stage investors want to hear from and have their questions answered by company management, not from intermediaries who may or may not understand the company’s business. A successful fundraising campaign begins with a solid strategy, a clear understanding of the market opportunity, excellent presentation materials, and a carefully developed list of targeted investors. These are not projects that should be undertaken independent of management. That said, hiring someone to help behind the scenes (especially if this is your first time fundraising) can make your team look stronger. We work with clients to help them prepare.

First impressions matter in fundraising. Don’t let someone else become the face of your business. Your ability to find, reach out to, and connect with investors speaks volumes about your entrepreneurial abilities.

Many business owners and marketing managers unfortunately skip this critical step. They build a website without a clear mutual understanding of scope or priorities (think a house framed for a ranch when you wanted a colonial or framed out for 4,000 square feet when you wanted a 2,000 square foot home). Or they will start a search engine optimization (SEO) campaign without understanding the work being done. Too often, the result is not properly tied to business objectives (think kitchen on the second floor) and as a result the business owner and the vendor may have very different definitions of success or completion. This often leads to expensive mistakes and dissatisfaction. Acceleration Partners provides high level strategy and project management, bridging the gap between the business and the technical and design implementation teams.

Learn More About How We Can Help

Consider SPEC Engineering, a client of ours that builds specialty process engineering plants. In the past, the majority of its sales came through referrals and traditional sales efforts such as conferences and trade shows, which have a long lead cycle. Then the owner decided to let us help him apply search marketing principles from a new venture to his core business, changing the way the company generated leads at a time when many of its big competitors lacked even a fully functioning website.

Working with web designers Fresh Tilled Soil (FTS), the company first developed a very professional looking and detailed website. We then worked with management to design and execute a strategy in partnership with the SEO group at FTS to get information out in front of searches around key products, product categories, services and geography. These searches might not have the volume of more popular consumer terms, but in many ways they are more important for prospective buyers. Our thorough plan required organizing and publishing more than 200 specialized pages of content designed to attract and convert targeted customers over a 6-12 month period. But the work paid off.

Recently, SPEC closed a $15M deal (one of the largest in their history) that originated from an organic web search around a key term that we had been working to optimize. The client was searching for expertise in this area and was very impressed with the company’s overall web presentation, enough so that they reached out to start a discussion. SEO worked for SPEC because the strategy was designed around the needs of the business—targeting industries with the fastest growth and the company’s strongest product lines—and by thinking about what a prospective customer might want. SPEC is not an Internet business, but the Internet now plays a huge part in how it markets and presents its business to prospective customers.

We continue to meet each month with management to review results and make changes based on what’s working and not working, trying to consistently innovate and expand our presence in fast growing and high value market segments. Search Engine Optimization is an ongoing commitment. As with any industry or marketing program, if you become complacent, the competition will eventually copy you and catch up.

First and foremost, we never promise companies that they can raise money. Such promises are typically made in an attempt to win a client’s business, but we believe a third party cannot make these representations in good faith. Once management has been introduced to an investor, a company’s ability to raise capital is based on the merits of its business plan and the ability of management and the investors to reach a mutually acceptable deal. Our work is centered on getting the company ready and making sure that management puts its best foot forward. But, deals can fall through in ways that beyond our control. For example:

1. Founders want to retain too much control. We have had clients reject term sheets because the founders decide to retain control, often at the 11^th hour.
2. Investors aren’t sold on the team. No matter how good your business plan is, an uninspiring or inflexible management team can derail the deal.
3. The management team changes in the process. When the management team changes, so can an investor’s interest.
4. Intellectual property is not as strong as presented upon due diligence. If the business has low barriers to entry and the IP is not very strong, that can be a deal breaker.
5. Due diligence raises red flags. Good investors do a fair amount of due diligence, including background checks on your entire team. What they discover can change their interest—although they often won’t relay this information back to the company, they will just declare they are not moving forward.
6. First offer syndrome: Founders often assumes that a quick offer is a bad offer. Some investors move quickly, and we have seen founders who stated that they would be happy just to get funding change their stance once the first term sheet is in hand. Investors do not want to offer a term sheet to be used as leverage and will often lose patience if they feel their deal is being “shopped around.”
7. Parties cannot agree on a valuation or terms. This obvious problem is the most common sticking point in a deal.
8. Entrepreneur decides to do something else, i.e. take a full-time job. We have seen founders get attractive offers yet go back to their previous business or to school.

For all these reasons, we get paid for our time on fundraising projects. Results are measured in specific deliverables, not the ultimate outcome. What we do guarantee is that we can help position your company in the best possible light for investors and, where appropriate, provide introductions to investors and guidance through the fundraising and due diligence process. Although a business needs to stand on its own two feet at the end of a day, first impressions can make the difference between fundraising success and failure.