Tips offered on updates to clients and investors from entrepreneurs
There are five suggestions coming from David Cummings, Founder of Atlanta Tech Village and also Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Atlanta Ventures.
One of the recent columns from David Cummings, Founder of Atlanta Tech Village and also Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Atlanta Ventures, deals with an important topic: the best practices for sending updates from entrepreneurs. There are actually five.
- Connect the Reader with the Mission: Why are we here? Why are we on this mailing list? What are we trying to accomplish with this startup? While it might seem obvious from the entrepreneur’s perspective, it’s important to get in the reader’s shoes and think of it from their perspective.
- Provide Highs and Lows: Too often, entrepreneurs use their regular communication as a hype session, trying to make it sound like everything is going well across all aspects of the startup. We know from experience that that’s never the case. There are always challenges. It’s important to have the hype, excitement, and energy in the communication while also level-setting that it is hard, there are challenges, and here are some of the current challenges. Again, be real with the challenges—don’t sugarcoat them.
- Goals and Metrics: Every entrepreneur needs a simple one-page strategic plan at a bare minimum, and the regular communication should incorporate updates on the project goals as well as the quarterly and annual metric goals. Again, they should be succinct, understandable, and focused on the highest priority items. These goals and metrics should not be lower-level or department-specific. The most common ones are big, company-wide rocks that have to get moved, as well as metrics like revenue, profitability, cash in the bank, and burn rate. The metric goals should not be more fine-grained, low-level items unless they somehow tie in at a very strategic level.
- Consistency of Communication: Whether it’s weekly, monthly, or quarterly, the most important thing is that it’s done on a consistent basis. Too often, I see an entrepreneur get excited about providing updates, do it one or two times, and then fall off the wagon. If it’s something that the entrepreneur is excited about and committed to, great—do it weekly or monthly at a minimum. If it’s something that’s really painful for the entrepreneur to do, try to convince them of the value of regular communication and provide it at a minimum quarterly. Personally, if the entrepreneur really enjoys it, they should do it weekly, as it’s a great way to organize thoughts and priorities and reflect on what was learned the previous week. As a tool for the entrepreneur’s own development, writing and synthesizing everything that’s happened recently is a great exercise.
- Make It Reflect a Personality: Some entrepreneurs like to focus on the product and the innovation—great, reflect that in the communication. Some entrepreneurs like to focus on energy and momentum—great, reflect that in the communication. Some entrepreneurs love the people side and characters, both in and outside their business—great, reflect that in the communication. Entrepreneur updates and communication are more fun when they reflect the voice and style of the person behind them. Don’t be afraid to make it feel and sound authentic.
He concludes the column with this advice: “Every entrepreneur should write a regular communication, and the best time to start is now.”
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