Six Keys to 13 Years of Entrepreneurial Success

January 9, 2021

Today Corevist celebrates our thirteenth birthday.  In my culture that is the age that a child transitions into adulthood.  Our ritual is to have the child memorialize the moment before the community. Such is the purpose of this article.

Every 13 year old is asked: “What have you learned in your first 13 years of life that has prepared you for your adulthood?”

Today I will answer that on behalf of Corevist.

Upon reflection, these are the six major lessons learned during the past 13 years:  

1. Being in it is winning it.
2. Know your Why and what makes you you.
3. Core values really matter.
4. Know the difference between working in, and working on, the business.  Do both.
5. Get really really good at negotiating.
6. Take care of yourself first. 

Being in it is winning it.

In youth, you are both invincible and immortal. 

Then you grow up and wake up.

You realize that your decisions and actions have consequences, some of them negative.  You can’t blame others for your mistakes. You have to own it.  Once you start owning your mistakes you realize that they are your teachers. You are now destined to be a student for the rest of your life.  

You also realize that you’re living life on the razor’s edge that separates overwhelming from exhilarating.  The cycle of accepting challenges and learning what it takes to overcome them, is intoxicating and can be quite rewarding in and of itself.  

And then it hits you over the head like a ton of bricks.  The real point of the game of business...as it is in life...is not to win the game.  The real point of the game, the way to “win it”, is to keep playing it for as long as you can and for as long as you can enjoy it.  

Evidently that isn’t so easy.  According to the Small Business Association, 60% of all businesses never make it to their 13th birthday and those statistics don’t include the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic.  

Don’t run out of cash. Don’t depend on any single employee or client for your success. 

Being “in it”, living to play again tomorrow, is winning it.

Know your Purpose and what makes you you.

From day one, we at Corevist have known why we exist, what our purpose is, where to look for our north star. Our purpose defended us from the infinite resource consuming temptations towards greener pastures that presented themselves daily.  

 Our purpose has always been to tame the complexity and cost of owning an SAP Integrated B2B eCommerce solution and make their benefits available to all Manufacturers.

We believe, and the pandemic has underscored our belief, that a Manufacturer’s ability to conduct business with their customers via the internet is not a privilege but a necessity.   

Corevist exists to bridge the B2B eCommerce digital divide for manufacturers on SAP.  

There should be no “have nots”.  Every SAP Manufacturer, regardless of their expertise or the size of their bank account, should be able to interact with their customers via the web, much as they do via the phone and email today.

What makes us uniquely suited to deliver on our purpose?  What makes Corevist Corevist? The combination of three things:

1. Our “day one integrated” customer portal solution
2. Our “let’s go live tomorrow” methodology that delivers value as quickly as possible
3. Our “we’ve got your back” approach to the support and evolution of our clients’ businesses. 

“Day one integrated”

Having the requisite support for various personas, and all of their use cases, simply allows you to participate in the industry.  You have to be able to find and buy products and track orders in a secure and “Amazon-like” friendly manner on desktops, tablets and smartphones.  

The digital divide manifests when the time comes to integrate the user experience with the back office.  The cost and complexity to bridge these systems is what makes these projects inaccessible to the majority of SAP Manufacturers. Integrating all of the business rules and data that exists in SAP is a really big challenge. It requires specialized expertise and considerable effort to manage. Not just to build the first time around but to maintain as the business evolves as well. If a solution is integrated on day one, and that integration requires no maintenance as long as SAP remains the system of record, the digital divide has been bridged.

“Let’s go live tomorrow”  

Software that isn’t in production isn’t delivering value.  In addition, the longer software isn’t in production, the harder it will be to get it into production because things change. People change. Requirements change. Business conditions change.    

That’s why we’re obsessed with getting our software into production which thereby shortens our client’s time to value. 

That’s why our technology is ready to go into production on day one. That’s why our project plans are designed around incrementally improving that day one version and constantly asking “ can we go live tomorrow?”.  If the answer is “no” then the reasons for “why not” become the focus of our attention. We rinse and repeat until we agree that we’ve got a minimally viable product (mvp) that is ready to launch.  This sets a firm foundation to continuously, and incrementally, release improvements to the website. 

Unless software is being used it’s nothing more than a liability.  We want it to be a valuable asset.

“We’ve got your back”

Once in production, every website issue starts as a Corevist issue. 

“Having your back” means we assume accountability for resolution of every issue regardless if we are the cause...and history has shown that we rarely are.  

We’re your one throat to choke. (Don’t take that literally :-))

Considering the number of technologies and companies that have to play nicely with one another, I am always amazed that not only is it possible, but that we have actually upheld a >99.9% SLA since our inception.  

“Having your back” also means staying on top of all of these underlying technologies (operating systems, browsers, versions and releases etc.), evolving governing body regulations (think GDPR, PCI, HIPAA), and industry innovations (AI, ioT, ML etc.) so that you don’t have to.   

Core values really matter

At the end of the day, it’s the people who make Corevist tick.  The cost of our team accounts for close to 80% of our overall expenses.  It stands to reason that what is critical to our success is making sure that everyone on the team is the right person, doing what’s most important for the company, and living by a set of agreed upon Core Values.  

It turns out that you can train smart people, who have an inclination to learn, just about anything it takes to make the company successful.  But what is extremely hard, nigh impossible, is to install our Core Values in people who don’t share them to begin with. Therefore, our starting point is to hire people aligned to our Core Values. 

We approach living by our Core Values as a daily challenge. We celebrate whenever we uphold them and strive to do better when we don’t. We all recognize that there is no place at Corevist for people who can’t, or won’t, live by our Core Values. 

These are the character traits that underlie our Core Values:

• Gratitude starts our day as we protect the work/life balance that we strive for. 
• Compassion for our clients keeps us focused on our Purpose.
• Courage prepares us to take risks and for the repercussions of being proactive.
• Simplicity prevents us from being immobilized by the pursuit of perfection.
• Humility neutralizes the ego that prevents us from becoming true professionals.  

It turns out that it’s quite enjoyable being around people that share your Core Values and is very rewarding to help each other live by them as life challenges us. 

Work both on and in the business.

I believe our true turning point from childhood to adulthood, from a wild and crazy startup to a real company that wouldn’t be dependent on heroes and overtime, was the day we decided to embrace the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS).  EOS is described in the book “Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business” by Gino Wickman.  

When you’re a child, you're having too much fun playing to worry about when and how you’ll spend your time tomorrow.  When you’re a startup, you only worry about that next client and that next paycheck. That’s the equivalent of working “in” the business.

When you transition into adulthood and start to work “on” the business, you think about:

• Tomorrow and the days after tomorrow.  
• How you will attract and retain clients and employees. 
• How to set goals and measure your progress.  
• How to prioritize your time and the issues that you tackle.  
• How you will pay for it all.  

Basically you acknowledge, and think about, your future.  

All of the energy  you spend on how to create the future of your desires is termed working “on” the business.  

Making that mental shift from working “in” to working “on” the business was monumental and EOS was indispensable to that transition.

Get really really good at negotiating.

3250.

If I only negotiated once a day for every working day over the past 13 years, that’s how many negotiations I would have  been involved in. 

That number is probably closer to 20,000 negotiations when you stop to consider that all of the following require negotiating:

• Scheduling a meeting
• Establishing priorities
• Employment contracts
• Client contracts
• Supplier contracts
• Contractor contracts
• Vacation schedules
• Scope of projects
• Leases
• Catering events
• Equipment purchases
• Product backlogs
• Tool selection
• Etc
• Etc
• Etc

 Granted not all of these negotiations have the same importance or complexity or risks, but they all require time, effort and skill.

By the way, these are only some of the negotiations that we’re engaged in at work on a typical day, but we all go home and have a similar number of negotiations that we participate in with our families.  

So maybe it’s closer to 40,000 negotiations in the past 13 years? 

You’d think that if you knew you were going to be in that many negotiations in your lifetime you’d become intentional about developing those skills.

At Corevist we have.

We are devotees of Roger Fisher’s and William Ury’s “Getting to Yes. Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In”.  It’s the second book that all Corevist employees are asked to read and commit themselves to master.  (The first is Gino Wickman’s “Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business”.)

The concepts are simple.  Yet after 10’s of thousands of negotiations, many still remain a challenge :-).

The key concepts in win-win negotiating are:

1. Recognize that you’re in a negotiation and prepare for it.
2. Know the difference between a position and an interest
3. Focus on developing and satisfying mutual interests (win-win) rather than having your position accepted (you win, they lose).
4. Always have a BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement...aka, know when to walk away)

Easy? Not really. 

Important? Very.

Get really really good at it.  

Take care of yourself first.

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”  Hillel the Elder circa 10 AD.

If I am not for myself, who will be for me?

These words of Hillel the Elder, spoken at the dawn of the first millennium, are a reminder to make sure that we never forget to take care of our mental, physical and spiritual health...first.  

If we burn out, we’re not of value to anyone.

Working 50, 60, 70 or more hours per week is not sustainable, nor is it productive. When you’re young, you have boundless energy and seemingly infinite reserves.  Transitioning into adulthood makes you realize that you have to pace yourself and find balance.

That’s a project in and of itself. 

You’ve got to make time to eat well, sleep well, exercise, clear your mind, gain perspective and engage with family and community.  

If I am only for myself, what am I?

As Hillel the Elder teaches us, focusing on our personal well-being is a great first step but we can’t stop there.  As human beings we have a responsibility to be empathetic to our colleagues, and offer our assistance where and whenever possible.  Having compassion is one of the most important character traits that make up our Core Values.

If not now, when?

Lastly, we must have a propensity towards action.  Years ago, a colleague of mine shared this ancient Ghanaian saying with me: “You can’t plow a field in your mind”. I evoke this saying whenever I feel as if we’re overthinking our plans.  At some point in time, you have to stop hallucinating about your future and go and make it happen.  

Live and learn is truly the bottom line lesson learned that Corevist will carry with us as we transition into adulthood.

Onward!

Sam Bayer

CEO

Corevist