Accelerator Content

In line with EO’s mission to help young entrepreneurs grow their businesses, we have created Accelerator as a high-energy, content-rich learning opportunity. Content focuses on four key areas: strategy, people, money, and sales and marketing.

To gather all this content, we interviewed 37 subject-matter experts from nine countries. Among these experts are Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK; Avnish Bajaj of India, who recently sold his company to eBay; and Frank Cianciulli, recently named one of Canada’s “40 Under 40” in business, who sold his company for $32 million (CDN).

We distilled the information from the interviews into 40 specific learning sessions. Here is a sampling of those sessions:

Strategy
Finding Mentors
In building a company, it can be intimidating to think that you have to be the expert, or at least come up with the right answers, for all the new challenges you face every day. Luckily, though, the good news is that you do not have to struggle to be that expert. Instead, you can call on real experts — people who have already solved the problem you face — and ask for the benefit of their guidance. You can find mentors to help you along the way.
 
Brian Scudamore, Founder and CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, calls mentors “the best education money can’t buy.” He strongly believes that everyone should experience the mentoring relationship from both sides — as the person receiving advice and as the person giving it. In this session, he shares tips for finding
and working with mentors.
 
Outsourcing to Streamline Your Business
Outsourcing — using outside firms to handle work normally performed within a company — is a familiar concept to many entrepreneurs. When you choose the appropriate functions to outsource, you can streamline your business. You might even gain the advantage over your competitors.
 In this session, David Hauser, Chief Technology Officer of GotVMail, provides tips on how to get started outsourcing. You will identify benefits your company could derive from outsourcing, as well as functions in your company that could be outsourced.

People
How to Hire A Players
If you have hired many employees, it is highly likely that you have had at least one regrettable hiring experience. The great news is that you can prevent ever going through the grief and expense of another such bad hiring experience.
 
In this session, you will learn the basics of Geoff Smart’s new book, StreetSmart Hiring: A Solution to Every Manager’s #1 Problem (due out in 2008 from Random House). The session presents a four-step hiring process that guides you in finding and hiring the absolute best employees available anywhere.
 
Employment Agreements
Growing companies have growing concerns about protecting their assets: intellectual property, customer lists, patents, trade secrets, and so on. One important tool for protecting such assets is a comprehensive employment agreement. The more assets your company has, the greater your need for employment agreements.
 
Andrew Sherman is an internationally known and published author on employment law. In this session, he gives you the information you need to construct basic employment agreements for non-key employees. He also covers many of the considerations you must think through for the agreements you put in place for your company leadership.

Money
Maximizing Cash Flow
As entrepreneurs, probably one of the first pieces of advice you received was, “Whatever you do, don’t run out of cash.” Sounds reasonable, but what does it really mean and what can you do to make sure your cash flow is healthy? This session will tell you what cash flow is, why it is important, and ways you can improve your cash flow.
 
Robert Kulhawy, CEO of Commerx Corporation, provides tips on improving receivables collection. Methods for improving cash flow are presented, and a simple way of projecting cash flow is also shown.
 
You Can Always Find 5% — Tips for Improving Your Bottom Line
Often the difference between making and losing money is 5%. And there are only two ways to find that 5% — reducing expenses or increasing revenue.
 
In this session, Bob Pritchett, author of Fire Someone Today, shows you some ways to find that 5%, including tools to help you find the 5% of expenses that you can eliminate, guidelines for asking your suppliers for reduced rates, and tips to add 5% to revenue.

Sales and Marketing
Competitive Advantage
A competitive advantage is what sets your company or product apart from the competition. It should be either the thing that you or your products or services provide better than anyone else or something that is not easily replicated. A business can have more than one competitive advantage; but, from the mouth of Jack Welch, “If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.”
 
Juan Cintron, Chairman and CEO of Grupo Industrial Cintron, a very successful holding company in Mexico for over 35 years, provides advice on taking stock of your business, analyzing your competition, and leveraging your competitive advantage.
 
Developing an Integrated Marketing Strategy
An effective marketing approach today is an integrated marketing strategy that goes beyond the Four P’s — product, price, placement, and promotion — to relationship building. This marketing approach shifts the focus from the inside-out to the outside-in.
 
Troy Hazard, a veteran Australian entrepreneur and international public speaker, suggests a six-level approach to develop an integrated marketing strategy that is focused on the consumers and their needs.
 
As Peter Drucker so aptly put it, “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service sells itself.”

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Accountability Trios

As an Accelerator participant, you will be matched with two other Accelerator participants in an Accountability Trio. These groups will ensure that you are learning and growing as an individual, both through the learning provided in the classroom and through the interaction with your peers. Groups will be provided a framework and tools to keep in touch between meetings to help each keep on track with their committed goals.

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Connections to Experts

Entrepreneurs' Organization Members
As a program that is facilitated by the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, the Accelerator Program enables you to meet on a quarterly basis with an Entrepreneurs' Organization member in your area. This Entrepreneurs' Organization member, a successful entrepreneur who leads a business with at least US$1 million in annual revenue, will serve as your local Entrepreneurs' Organization Accelerator contact, helping to guide the program locally with a committee of other Entrepreneurs' Organization members who are dedicated to the success of the program and its participants.

Entrepreneurs' Organization Facilitators
Each quarterly program will be led by a trained facilitator who has been a first stage entrepreneur. These moderators will bring a wealth of experience and connections to help you navigate through the content and glean as much as possible from the learning that is presented. The facilitator will answer questions from personal experience, helping you deal with the issues you face in your company with thoughtful and practical insights.

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Peer-to-Peer Learning

Once accepted to the Accelerator Program, you will be able to network with other emerging entrepreneurs who can offer lessons and insights from their personal experience. Each location of this powerful program is limited to 30 participants who have been highly screened and qualified. The networking among Accelerator participants will be an invaluable part of the program not only in your local city but in the additional cities launching around the world.