Unit of 1 - Building Your Virtual Company

Working with other business owners can help you create a "virtual" company where everyone benefits.

by Andrea C. Carrero

"Building Your 'Virtual' Company" was the topic of discussion at the August 13th Breakfast Club Meeting at Eastern University in St. Davids. The presentation, given as a result of the member survey conducted at the July meeting, was made by Steve English, president of Center Point LLC (www.centerpoint.biz), a management consulting firm for small and mid-size companies.

English provided a methodology for how to work with other independents to create a virtual company. He defined a virtual company as "bringing together outside entities to work together in an informal setting."

The first step is to define your primary aim. "You need to understand yourself first," he said. "Define your goals in life."

Once that is done, you can move onto defining your strategic objectives. Analyze how your business fits in with your primary aim, English said. Look at your business as if it were a franchise, he suggested. According to English, 80 percent of start-up businesses fail within the first two years due to lack of planning, motivation, time, etc. But 75 percent of franchises succeed, he said. "Fashion your business like a franchise," he said, suggesting that Units of 1 read "The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It" by Michael E. Gerber.

Next, identify your individual competencies and value proposition. Define your skills in find and closing business, he said. And define the markets you are best suited for--industry, function, geography and company size, for example. Creating a competitive analysis and looking at your prospects' needs will help you develop a value proposition, he said.

Selecting partners that will help you moves you to the next step. Identify potential partners that focus on your area of competency, complement your skills and bridge any gaps you have. Build those relationships, he said, then create a project team where you establish a team/meeting leader, define skills for each member and make the ground rules for working together.

Once the group is in place, create the group's collective value proposition. What is the collective message, English asked? Does it support your individual message?

Next, develop the group's approach to finding business. Define marketing tactics, target markets, prospect lists, promotion, etc. And then develop an approach for responding to those leads.

"The bottom line is to produce results," English said.

Following the presentation was a small workshop where Units of 1 discussed how each table of people could create a virtual company and what each person brought to the virtual company it might create. The findings from the workshop included:

There's a fine line between a virtual company, networking opportunities and business relationships.

Don't waste time if there's no complementary relationship that will generate business.

Use relationships for referrals.

Dig deep to find the relationships--they may not be apparent within the first five minutes.

Set up an accountability group (a group of business owners that meets regularly where each business owner sets weekly or monthly goals and then is accountable to the group for reaching those objectives).

Andrea C. Carrero is president and founder of Word Technologies Inc. (www.wordtex.com), which provides custom technical documentation, training and related services. She can be reached at andrea@wordtex.com.