Connor Group - Jeff PIckett

This week, Jeff Pickett from the Connor Group came and gave a brilliant speech about “Accounting and Entrepreneurship”.  He has a lot of experience starting businesses of his own and is currently running three successful startups right now.  He first wanted to dispel a myth about entrepreneurship, he told us that most entrepreneurs are usually dirt poor, and normally accountants are well off.  Accounting majors are already off to a good start because we will know what all of the cash flows mean in different businesses.

Everyone will have their own path to entrepreneurship if that is where they want to be, and Jeff gave us a few pointers that will get us into a good position to do so.  He suggested, “find a first job that will get you involved with people.” Most entrepreneurs he talked to as an auditor said that they would first start a business after being 10 years out of college.  He pointed out that it is cheaper to learn off of another’s nickel then paying for experience out of your own pocket.  Second, he said that we should always know where we are going in the coming year.

He gave us three success factors for running a business, that are also applicable to life, he gave them in order of importance as follows:  (1) Your Spouse, if your spouse does not want to take the risks and support you in entrepreneurship then either the marriage or the business will not work out.  The spouse’s support can make or break a business.  (2) Funding and Finances, you need to have the funding to be able to leave the day job.  To do this live student cheap for 5 years after college, be thrifty, and try to save up three years of living expenses in a bank.  (3) Leverage is your best friend.

Leverage is what you usually think of when you try to answer “what does an entrepreneur need to succeed?”  Jeff gave us four levers that if a business can use three of them they are usually well off. 

The first lever is People.  You need to build yourself up by networking and finding ideas.  It is also important to involve others; if your business is ever going to be great it needs to be bigger than you.  You need to have a great opportunity to employ tons of good people.

The Second lever is Technology.  Understanding in technology is usually the biggest gap accountants have.  It is not too hard to learn, but if you really do not like it be best buddies with the software and IT guys.  They can help you leverage technology so that your company soars.

The third and fourth levers are Time and Money.  Time can increase the value of certain assets, or allow you to get in a position to buy the assets you want.  He gave us an example of the land that he just bought.  He was looking in the ads and found a piece of property that he and his wife fell in love with.  He could not afford it at the time but he decided to ask if he could put down a down payment to tie up the lot for a year.  The owners agreed and Jeff was able to buy it a year later.  Money is pretty straight forward, use money well and you are in business.

Jeff had a couple ideas throughout the presentation that are very important for all entrepreneurs to know.  First is to avoid debt and build up reserves.  By avoiding debt you can worry about less when you start.  This allows you to start your business and hire Stanford business students who have a lot of debt.  Also, good ideas do not mean much.  Venture capital groups want to know more about the people not the product.  For example Google did not come up with a new idea, they were just able to execute better than anyone else.  It is the people that drive the business.