From the Entrepreneurial Institute®: Learn from the Leaders Panel Discussion

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By Sheryl S. Jackson

The panelists may all have been entrepreneurs but their stories about how they came up with the idea for their business, how they funded their startups and what mistakes they made all differed.

Moderated by Charmaine Ward, Senior Director of Community Affairs for Georgia-Pacific and NBMBAA Board Member, the panelists included Chef Phillip Ashley Rix, founder of Phillip Ashley Chocolates; Necole Parker, chief executive officer and founder of the ELOCEN Group; Branden Gibson, franchise operator with Chick-fil-A and Harold Mills, chief executive officer of ZEROCHAOS.

When asked how they decided to start their particular business, Parker said she had been in the construction industry for many years, so she decided to stay with what she knew. However, Rix had been in corporate sales and wanted to try something different, saying, "I wanted to sell directly to consumers and combine it with my passion for food."

Funding their new companies also took different paths. Rix found investors by designing a unique royalty program that offered payback based on a percentage of numbers of boxes of candy sold in a specific time period. Mills turned to family and friends for initial fundraising efforts,but later worked with venture capitalists.

Although each panelist identified different mistakes they made in the past, all agreed that the biggest mistake small business owners make as their company grows is keeping people in their positions for the wrong reasons. As Ward points out, "It is especially hard when family members are involved because they might be invaluable at the start but as the needs of the company outgrow their skills, they need to be re-positioned in the company or exited."

Gibson, agrees with Ward, and says that most owners know when an employee can’t handle the job but may put off the tough decision, which is not good for the business. He said, "When you know, they got to go."

The key for entrepreneurs is to periodically review the people in the company and the roles they fill, suggests Ward. "You must constantly ask yourself if you still have the right people in the right place."