Mario Armstrong (Photo: Armstrong)

MARIO ARMSTRONG
Digital Lifestyle Expert, Mario Armstrong Media, L.L.C.
Black Enterprise Small Business University Instructor

The Process: As a tech expert known for his insights via Web, radio, television and speaking engagements, one of the first things Armstrong does in the morning is check his RSS feeds for news. He does his social media check-ins for everything except Facebook. (He says he finds less business value there in the morning hours.) But before he does any of that, he looks at a motivational phrase he came up with that he has on his bathroom mirror: “Each day, take one step toward the right path to your ultimate goal.” Armstrong says that centers him and prepares him for the “craziness” of his day.

The Vision: Like many of today’s entrepreneurs, Armstrong found himself being an intrapreneur while holding staff positions at other people’s companies. “You have to protect and nurture your brand as you are simultaneously maintaining the company’s brand,” Armstrong says. When he was working for a company, he got the idea to cultivate his own brand of speaking about technology, so he convinced his wife of almost 15 years to quit her job and help build the brand.  As CEO of the new company, his wife, Nicole Hunter, got everything in order on the back end, and just in time too. He was soon laid off from his job just a few months later. Since then, the two of them have grown the company into a full-time entity and are currently pitching television show ideas.

The It Factor: Armstrong says his brand is different from all those other tech sites, speakers and firms because his approach is to talk about technology to the laymen, not the early adopters and those already entrenched in the industry. “I’m going way beyond serious talking about a new phone. I dig more into how this will help you get better with your diabetes. I’m looking at real-world problems through the lens of technology.”

The Defining Moment: “When I was 21, I worked for a cable company,” Armstrong says. “My boss was ready to fire me because she said I was spending more time trying to sell the music video channel I had developed than the company’s product, but her boss, the general manager, liked me and kept me on. That was a light-bulb moment for me because I got to see how some people react to initiative, and I knew it could potential be a special, powerful thing.”

The Life: Unlike a lot of other techies, Armstrong does not turn off his phone or computer at a certain time.  “My creativity spikes at different moments. Setting a time to turn off everything just doesn’t work for me,” Armstrong says. But he does have some rules: There are no computers and no texting or tweeting allowed in bedrooms. (That goes for the bedroom he shares with his wife, as well as his 9-year-old’s bedroom.) He is also a stickler for his every Thursday date night with his wife and his gadget-free lunch from 12:30 to 1:30 everyday.

Register now at blackenterprise.com/sbu to see weekly video courses from Armstrong and other industry experts on how to build, grow and nurture your business. On top of that, you’ll have a chance to win more than $50,000 in prizes, including one-on-one consultations with successful entrepreneurs like Emerson, a small business makeover for your biz courtesy of Dell, and much more!

Visit blackenterprise.com/sbu for more details now!

(Image: Thinkstock)

Working for a startup can have unique perks and issues, from being able to advance quickly to not having the same resources as a larger, more established business or corporation. As an employee at a newbie company, there are several things to consider to successfully grow and advance.

AOL Jobs offers 12 things a professional should think about before accepting a position at a startup or when embarking on a new career move at one.

Can You Roll With the Punches? “Working at a startup means being comfortable with wearing many hats. Unlike bigger organizations, small companies require more flexibility and creativity. If you prefer to work in an environment where there are set positions and goals, then a larger company may be more appropriate. However, if you enjoy dynamic and constantly evolving experiences, then working at a startup could be a good fit!”

—Alexandra Mayzler | Founder and Director, Thinking Caps Tutoring

Endless Motivation “It’s hard to constantly be motivated on what you’re working on. Sometimes you just want to take a long break or work on something else temporarily, but it’s crucial to stay motivated. The more persistent you are, the greater the chance of success for your startup.”

—Ben Lang | Founder, EpicLaunch

Read more at AOL Jobs …

(Image: Christine Johnson)

In her nine to five job, Christine Johnson creates platforms, events, and workshops to help get ideas and technologies from the military, federal labs, and universities to market them to mainstream consumers.

So it only makes sense that the entrepreneur would have a knack for doing the same thing with people—making their ventures more visible and useful for general consumption. Hence, why she started DiversiTech (short for Diversity in Technology). Johnson founded the organization not only to nurture minority tech startups and make sure they have access to an array of opportunities, but also to ensure that mainstream tech communities know where they can find viable minority-owned startups.

Her interest in Internet startup companies was piqued once she got involved with social media. Johnson began visiting conferences and realized she was often times one of very few minorities in the room. She asked herself: “What can I do to change this?” Johnson and her team started holding events to help aspiring tech entrepreneurs network with one another, as well as devising educational programs that prepare them to be a part of the tech ecosystem.

Last month, her self-funded organization hosted an event to help Philadelphia-based DreamIt Ventures collect applications for the new cycle of their highly successful minority accelerator. At the event, William Crowder, managing director at DreamIt Ventures, spoke to the crowd about the formula for a successful minority startup.

“He spoke about getting away from our cultural norms,” says Johnson. “We are so used to partnering with people who look just like us.  We are so insular and that is to our detriment. You have to get out there and mingle with the masses; that may mean having a founder that is Caucasian or Latino, but you have to be open. If you’re only looking for someone with brown skin, you’re putting yourself at a huge disadvantage.”

But Johnson says this advice doesn’t counter her goal of building an organization focused on minority networking. “DiversiTech is important because there needs to be a home base to come back to. When mainstream communities are asking, “Where are the black technologists? [We can say] we’re here.”

She has made it a point to build partnerships with numerous individuals, groups, and companies who want to ensure the tech landscape is diverse. Corrie Davidson, Google’s DC community manager, made an appearance at the meetup, informing attendees about Google’s local endeavors and tools the corporation has available for small businesses.

The Entrepreneurial Development & Assistance Center at Morgan State University is a DiversiTech partner. The organization’s events are well-attended,  attracting tech enthusiasts such as Chad Womack from The American 21 Project, Inc., Women In Bio co-founder Robbie Melton and Marc Mathis of Mataron Development. They all provide mentorship and support to the organization.

In the future, DiversiTech will host monthly events at a coworking space called GeekEasy. They will also be working with the women and career-focused organization NewLatina and Foster.ly, a community of entrepreneurs in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia, to expand partnerships between various ethnic groups. In addition to bringing in speakers, Johnson hopes startups will use her events to fine tune their pitch before presenting to investors.

Owners: John L. Wright, Tammy Wright

Location: Waldorf, MD

Product: Gym and fitness center that offers personal training, group exercise classes, nutritional guidance, weight training area, and fitness boot camps

Fitness Services Launch: 2006

Fitness Center Launch: 2009

Launch Costs: $200,000

2009 Revenues: $70,000

2010 Revenues: $140,000

2011 Revenues: $160,000

Projected 2012 Revenues: $210,000

Now: Fitness training facility in addition to on-site child care, nursing lounge for mothers, and classes for lifestyle change; community outreach focused marketing and promotions

Next: Form strategic partnerships by contracting services to government agencies, churches, and local business, including offering organizational memberships

When John L. Wright’s neighbor grew frustrated with the lack of progress she experienced while working with a personal trainer, she turned to him for guidance. Wright, a former semi-professional bodybuilder and former dietician in the U.S. Army Reserves, took on the task of creating a customized fitness and dietary regimen. “We changed her nutrition and we made her accountable,” says Wright, who had been laid off from his managerial position at a food and facilities management company.

That chance business proposition between Wright and his neighbor eventually birthed Anointed Body of Christ (ABC) Fitness Center & Day Spa L.L.C.
(www.abcfitnesscenter.com), a Waldorf, Maryland-based gym that Wright, 50, runs with his wife, Tammy, 40, a member of the National Guard with more than 21 years of military service.

ABC Fitness has grown organically over the years, with the Wrights testing the needs and wants of their customer base. The couple initially launched their fitness training business in 2004 by offering mobile service, which included nutritional guidance and one-on-one personal training, to clients in the comfort of their homes. Customers were charged up to $65 per hour with the average session lasting one hour and with most clients signing up three times per week.

In 2008, the Wrights opened a small studio, allowing them to provide group training classes. By 2009, thanks to an aggressive grassroots community-based marketing strategy, the business grew to occupy a 5,000-square-foot facility located 45 minutes outside of Washington, D.C.

Today, the couple’s ABC Wellness & Fitness Center offers group fitness, one-on-one personal training, nutritional guidance, and weight training stations, in addition to on-site child care, a nursing lounge for mothers, and classes for lifestyle change. Tammy says the gym is not religious-based, but it is driven by the belief that the body is a temple, and it should be taken care of.

“At least 70% of our members have come from community [outreach],” she says. For example, the husband-and-wife duo hosted a cancer awareness gala in 2010 to bring attention to the different forms of the disease impacting their community and offer preventative measures after someone they knew was diagnosed with breast cancer. Tammy also teaches Zumba classes throughout the community to spur brand awareness and get the community moving.

The couple’s total capitalization for their brick-and-mortar fitness center was $200,000, of which $50,000 came from personal savings and the other was $150,000 from a community bank loan backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 7(a) loan program. The couple admits that at the time the odds were not in their favor. Indeed, between 2008 and 2010 small-business loans from large- and medium-sized institutions dropped by more than 8%, according to the SBA.

It was ABC Fitness’ agile beginnings that positioned the company to receive a loan. “[With a mobile business], you have a proven track record, you ‘sold’ the business before you built it so you know there’s a market, there’s a demand,” says Carol Roth, business strategist and author of The Entrepreneur Equation (BenBella Books; $24.99). The Wrights’ proven track record as a mobile business demonstrated a sustainable and viable business model.

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ABC Fitness generated $70,000 during its inaugural year at its physical location and $140,000 in revenues in 2010. It closed out 2011 with a 14% increase, bringing in $160,000. The Wrights project the business will reach $210,000 in revenues this year as they aim to expand their membership base from 125 to 200.

To grow the business, the Wrights will continue with their aggressive marketing efforts, hire two 100% commission sales reps, and form strategic partnerships by contracting services to government agencies, churches, and local businesses. They also intend to focus more on providing organization-wide discounts on annual memberships and/or fitness boot camps. Their target “organizational” audience is police departments, fire departments, and local businesses.

Tammy, who holds a Master of Science degree in information resource management from the University of Maryland, is responsible for the overall strategic planning and direction of the business.  Her husband, who became a certified personal trainer through the American Sports and Fitness Association in 2009, is responsible for the day-to-day operations. He also manages recruitment; the company currently works with four independent contractors due to the costs associated with hiring full-time employees.

The Wrights have three major competitors in the surrounding area who offer fitness equipment, personal training, nutrition, and one of them also has on-site child care. David Washington, Ph.D., owner of Washington & Co., a business consultancy, says the couple needs to boost their brand in order to continue to grow the business. One way to do this, he says, is to white label products (offering other manufacturers’ goods affixed with your company’s private label or logo) to generate additional revenue.

The Wrights currently private label sports water bottles, key chains, and other items but Washington recommends that the couple expand to include nutrition bars and nutrition plans, which other manufacturers have already developed. He also advises the couple to incentivize customers to boost word of mouth. For example, Washington says, customers can receive a small discount for bringing a friend or telling a friend, who would also receive a small discount for actually showing up at the gym.

The Wrights are clear that when it comes to marketing and promoting ABC Fitness, people and community involvement will be key to their long-term success.

(Image: ThinkStock)

How does someone who is running a startup think? Before answering that question let’s start by segmenting the workforce into two groups, “intrapreneurs” (employees) and “entrepreneurs” (self-employed/employers). Here’s how the workforce is categorized:

Builder: Intrapreneur (employee) is defined as a person who works for an established company or organization and is building their resume while building someone else’s dreams.

Leaper: Entrepreneur (self-employed/employer) is defined as a person who organizes and operates a business and assumes the financial risk. I am referring to these individuals as leapers, because they have taken the training wheels off and made the leap from working for someone else to the world of self-employment.

Now, we must discuss the mentality of the workforce. The U.S. workforce is hemorrhaging with an unemployment rate of 8.6% nationally with companies slashing headcounts, eliminating people they view as expendable. How do you position yourself in this type of unstable job market? Let’s start with the employee vs. startup mentality. (Note: An unbridled workforce without boundaries can be damaging to a corporate culture and the organization they are apart of. Understand my statements from a philosophical perspective.)

Employee Mentality: An individual that understands their job description puts the round peg into the round hole. This is a factory mindset and makes this type of worker expendable. These individuals typically work with their heads down doing what has always been done.

Startup Mentality: Startup founders have eyes that are wide open to the possibilities of what could be. They operate with their heads up.

Do you think with a startup mentality? Yes, if you are someone who can (1) Create solutions with limited resources, (2) Identify a specific problem that you solve better than anyone else, and (3) pitch or communicate their ideas and then turn them into a viable business.

Most people are educated and trained to think like an employee. Public education in the United States was designed during the industrial age to produce workers that could be trained to work in highly structured industrial/manufacturing environments. College education at most universities reinforces this same model. We are taught the following: (1) go to school, (2) get an education, (3) get a good job, and (4) work that job until death do us part. Universities are factories with efficient systems to produce workers, but are they preparing the next generation workforce to compete against a global talent pool?

Historically, as an employee you didn’t have to think about marketing yourself. You marketed yourself to get the job by developing a resume and cover letter, rehashing the answers that you knew the interviewer wanted to hear. Once you got the job you focused on living up to the requirements. This was the picture of a secure career path. But in today’s arena employees can no longer think of themselves as employees. To remain relevant you have to think about yourself in the following ways:

Business Model Development: Think about yourself through the prism of a business model, which is how any business makes money (i.e. authors: speak and sell books).

Platform Thinking: Every person needs to develop a platform, which is the specific idea that the business model is wrapped around through which you leverage your intellectual capital to create business opportunities (i.e. a platform could be small business development for mompreneurs).

In an unstable job market everyone needs to be positioning themselves for future opportunities that probably lie outside of the company, organization and/or position they are in today. It is time to re-wire how we think!

(Image: ThinkStock)

“Creativity and persistence is the new gangsta…”

—George Fraser

That quote from entrepreneur and networking master George Fraser defines the tech revolution that continues to course through African American entrepreneurial communities, from Silicon Valley to Detroit to Newark. In fact, this trend was evident last week with the unveiling of CNN’s Black in America 4: The New Promised Land – Silicon Valley, which highlighted a number of entrepreneurs BLACK ENTERPRISE has featured in our August cover story, “Geeked,” as well as articles and blogs on our Website. Across the nation, a series of screenings of that special placed a bright spotlight on a cadre of business visionaries as well as drove dialogue around African American participation in entrepreneurial development and STEM education. Such activity, in part, may help power further initiatives to transform urban centers into “21^st Century innovation ecosystems”—future hotbeds of start-up activity.

What’s needed to maintain forward momentum for the emerging digerati? You guessed it—capital. Financing continues to be elusive: Less than 1% of venture capital-backed companies have been Black-owned entities. But for those seeking to make connections with angels and VCs, one of the places to be last week was Newark. The invitation-only event—“A Gathering of Angels Urban Entrepreneurship Summit”—was organized by Rutgers Business School’s Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (CUEED) and The America21 Project, an outfit founded by a trio of tech innovators in their own right—A. Michael Green, Dr. Chad Womack and Jonathan Holifield. Green, a Huffington Post blogger and developer of digital education games, and Womack, a biotech entrepreneur and White House adviser, shared the idea for this innovation confab with me over lunch at the National Association of Black Journalists Conference in August. (Holifield, who helped create one of Ohio’s first IT-based high schools, and CUEED founding director dt ogilvie were also instrumental in its development.) They more than kept their promise of bring together heavyweight backers like  Timothy Reese, co-founder of the Minority Angel Investor Network; Terrence Hicks, VP of the investment group at Ben Franklin Technology Partners; William Crowder, a managing director with DreamIt Ventures and entrepreneurs such as BlackEnterprise.com blogger Hajj Flemings, founder of gokit.me, a personal branding strategy firm; Wayne Sutton, business advisor and creator of one of the industry’s leading blogs, SocialWayne.com; and Hank Williams, CEO of KloudCo, an early stage developer of a new data management platform.  Flemings, Sutton and Williams were all participants in the SiliconValley-based NewMe (New Media Entrepreneurship) Accelerator.

Click here to continue reading…

(Image: ThinkStock)

The day I attended the conference, several start-ups, from an expansive social discovery site to a fitness app producer, shared concepts in the entrepreneurial pitch session. During a tech entrepreneurship panel, speakers offered war stories and advice: “How many of you are Angelist.com? I don’t mean Angie’s List,” Sutton says of the site that facilitates fundraising through a community of start-ups and investors. “We have to be there.”

In a session on Black capital, financiers like Ben Franklin’s Hicks revealed the following: “How do you get to the money? Get to know [a investor group's] members. Find a champion.” Marc C. Mathis, executive director for Early Stage East, one of the nation’s largest venture capital conferences, added that his Club Pitch events rarely attract African Americans. “You have to get to spaces that will create capital resources…there must be outreach to the vast majority,” he says. “At my event, I can count fewer Black entrepreneurs than the fingers on one hand.”

Fraser echoed a similar theme related to the importance of building personal, operational and strategic relationships to achieve goals. “Strength is not in the wolf…it’s in the pack,” he asserted, citing that African Americans spend 9% of their time networking to garner roughly 50 contacts versus their White counterparts who employ 19% of their time and develop about 125 connections.

But Holifield, a former football player and economic development expert who has led, among other things, industrial innovation and tech workforce development efforts in Ohio, says African Americans can orchestrate high-impact business turnarounds and convert urban centers into “innovation ecosystems” if they act “more like more trim tabs,” the device that enables rudders to “turn big ships.”

He identified assets such as entrepreneurial talent; capital; customers; educational institutions; commercial research; philanthropic institutions; and professional services in his presentation. Next, he stressed entrepreneurs must “comprehend the speed of the game, ” understanding that today’s business strategy can’t be approached like the civil rights struggle since they now operate in a flatter, hyper-connected global environment driven by an increased democratization of information. “Everyone will not be entitled to innovate,” he said. “In fact, this is the most meritocratic economic period ever.”

Another principle calls for connection of vital components—innovation councils, university and corporate research capabilities, capital sources like angel networks and VCs, incubators and advance manufacturing operations—through what he calls “innovation asset stewardship mapping.” And his execution process is driven by A.O.L. (not to be confused with the Internet site) in which “you aggregate key wealth and resources; organize them into actionable forms; and leverage them to achieve the desired impact.”

Holifield approach requires flexible, enduring trim tabbers to effectively move rudders, ensuring the ecosystem remains sustainable but adaptable. “In this model, we encourage entrepreneurial churn. We must discard the old notion of economic stability. In [that type of environment] the lowest rates of business failures resulted in the lowest rate of business start-ups,” he says. “Entrepreneurs should not be risk averse but risk astute. That will create greater energy, vitality and creative destruction. You will have losers but you will also create new customers.”

Of course, I abbreviated Holifiled’s convention-bending model. The end game, however, is development of high-growth businesses to ignite true wealth formation and produce the multiplier effect of job creation and urban resurrection. In fact, Hajj Flemings, who co-hosted a Motor City screening with the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program that brought 212 students and parents to the UAW/GM Building, seems to embrace this philosophy when he says: “Detroit was the Silicon Valley of its day with the automotive industry and Motown… My plan is to be part of a Detroit comeback…”

The merger of creativity and persistence. Now, that’s gangsta.

Is Michael Arrington Racist?

After watching the video clip, where he states, “I don’t know a single Black entrepreneur,” and reading his blog post, “Racism: the Game,” I truly don’t believe that Michael Arrington is a racist based upon those two slices of information. What I do believe is that whether he thinks he was bamboozled or hoodwinked into the CNN interview, it is clear that he was stating how he truly felt—right, wrong or indifferent. The reality is that Arrington is not alone in his sentiment. He may be the most outspoken but, definitely not alone.

My NewME Accelerator Experience

Why am I jumping into the conversation? First, let me provide you some context of who I am. I’m a 39-year-old mechanical engineer from Detroit and co-founder of a startup called Gokit (the startup world would call me a non-technical founder because I don’t code.) I was one of the 11 startup founders in the NewME Accelerator this past summer, which was the first minority led tech accelerator. I had a very eye-opening experience living in Silicon Valley. For anyone in the tech startup space spending time in Silicon Valley is imperative if you have the opportunity. It provides you a contextual understanding of the startup ecosystem: veteran entrepreneurs, angel investors, startups, events and venture capitalists (VCs).

During the nine-week program, I had the opportunity to be immersed in the startup culture spending time at Facebook with their platform developer, Mitch Kapor, a mentor who commercialized the spreadsheet at Lotus, and much more. I found that there are some very good people in Silicon Valley that see talent and are willing to provide information for those who get access.

The reality of Silicon Valley hit me the first week of the program when I heard two terms/phrases that embodied my trip and the obstacles that many African American founders face in launching successful startups: “meritocracy” and “pattern matching.”

Let’s first start by defining both terms:

• Meritocracy is defined as opportunity being determined purely based upon talent, merit, credentials, and education alone.
• Pattern Matching is a selection criteria based upon built in basis, meaning that I select people that look and are like me.

In the U.S. it’s pretty safe to say we don’t live in a meritocracy and Silicon Valley and the startup space is not exempt from that. I will go on the record and say that Silicon Valley is absolutely diverse in terms of an ethnic perspective, but there is a total void of an African American presence.

Our experience is captured in CNN’s Black In America 4: The New Promised Land: Silicon Valley. This documentary is groundbreaking. Think about this point; when way the last time you saw a group of African Americans on primetime TV and they were not athletes or entertainers?

Is Silicon Valley Diverse?

Is Silicon Valley unique in the sense of this issue on diversity? According to data in the CB Insights, a report on startups that focuses on gender and race, the answer is absolutely no. The reason that I make this statement is that the report covers New York (Silicon Alley) and Boston, and the issues are the same in those markets. Currently, there is a huge demographic that is totally excluded from the startup space in terms of representation, this group is African American founders, which make up 1% of VC backed startups nationally.

In The Year 2042 Minorities Become the Majority

Where do we go from here? According to the U.S. Census, by the year 2042 minorities (primarily Blacks and Hispanics) will be the majority of the population. How will this change the mindset of the startup space as we move towards that date? Tristan Walker refers to this point in his recent interview with Laurie Segall of CNN Tech Money.

“[2042 is] the year underrepresented minorities—Blacks and Hispanics—will no longer be the minority. They’ll be the majority, and if that’s the case, we need to start thinking about putting folks—Blacks and Hispanics, among others—in positions of leadership and/or leading companies [toward] that goal and that year… There aren’t very many folks who look like me in positions of leadership all around the Valley, and I think that’s something that needs to be discussed and hopefully changed.”

Writer, producer, director, entrepreneur: Pete Chatmon (Image: Courtesy of subject)

Let’s face it. Not all projects are the same. They come in different shapes and sizes with a variety of adjectives to define them. You’ve got your “cool” projects, your “big idea” projects, your “pet” projects—I could go on and on. But, no matter how your project can be described, if it’s not fundable, it’s a waste of your time.

Now, before we dive in here, let’s take a moment to define “project”. Whether it takes shape as a product or a service, a project is something you do or create with the ultimate goal of generating revenue and further establishing your brand.

Here’s a real world example of how you can make a project fundable:

Before anyone ever hired us to do anything, and I mean anything, we were our very first client. The project, was my debut feature film, “Premium”, for which we needed to raise over $500,000. This was no small sum for a kid not born with a silver spoon and less than $1,000 in savings. I’d spent more than five years writing the script, traveling the festival circuit with short films I had directed, and teaming up with a squad of hungry artists and entrepreneurs selected to assist in transitioning the film from script to screen. I had a plan, yes I did! As a matter of fact, you couldn’t tell me that the project wasn’t fundable, but for many years — it simply wasn’t.

Entrepreneurs often consider funding or investment in our projects a preordained reality. We wouldn’t be working on the project if we didn’t think we’d see it through to completion and completion means we’ll secure the funds necessary to execute. But, why then are so many of our friends, colleagues, as well as our very own projects perennial eyesores on the proverbial to-do list? Because we easily fall victim to that all too common entrepreneurial ailment: assuming that people care about our project as much as we do.

All those years, I woke up every single day and thought first about “Premium” and then about going to the bathroom. I am sure that’s a little TMI, but it was that serious. What I failed to understand was that no one else shared my obsession. Until I could ignite similar feelings — until I took the time to ponder what aspect of the project would inspire support and investment—I’d have an un-fundable project on my hands.

After more than 300 meetings across two coasts hadn’t panned out as desired, I decided to take a closer look at our approach. I realized that there were gaps in our presentation that caused potential investors and collaborators to tune out. Once I finally accepted that no one cared about my dream as much as I did, I developed a handful of key strategies that enabled our team to meet our financial goal and cast some amazing talent in our “little film” including Zoe Saldana (Avatar, Star Trek).

Click here to see the five key steps my company uses to ensure our projects, as well as the campaigns we create and manage for our clients, are fundable. The same strategies can you a little time and heartache while you work tirelessly to fund your own project:

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1. Set A Timeline
   This is more for you than anyone else. Once you set a deadline for each stage of your project, starting with the fundraising period, you tend to wake up with the same priorities I mentioned above. It also illustrates to potential investors, collaborators, and supporters that you are serious. Only a person who means business would say “I intend to have x-amount of funding by this day.”
2. Shape the Path
   Sure, you’ve got the whole thing figured out, but your project is a meal you will not be cooking alone. Outline the ingredients, the process, and the all-important hows and whys behind every single move. The more people can understand the plan, the sooner they can be as excited as you are about seeing your project come to life. This helps your project become their project too.
3. Profile For Your Cause
   Think about every person or group you hope to speak with and create a profile. What I mean is, you just need to be prepared with something that appeals to each of these different groups so you can speak to the points of your project that would be of most interest to them. For “Premium” there were friends and family, people looking to diversifying their portfolio with a film investment and there were folks who supported the script’s positive portrayal of African-American life. There were also a few investors who saw some of themselves in my hustle, as well as those who may have responded to things I did not foresee. Think about the authentic, organic elements of your project that would appeal to each potential group and don’t be afraid to lead with your best punch. The words you speak must not only be heard, they must provide impact.
4. Educate Your Audience
   Every time you pitch your project is a teachable moment. Whether it’s a film, a new technology, or the next great soft drink, explain the art and science behind what you are doing. This transforms you from a beggar to an educator and allows everyone you come in contact with to be that much smarter because of their conversation with you. Yes, you. Do this right and they’ll also be thinking about how they can help this exciting new project come to life.
5. Tap Into Your Community
   Once you’ve determined the best way to navigate all of the above, it’s time to start testing the waters. Make all of the introductory information on your project easily accessible online, and then work your network like you’re Barack Obama trying to win the Iowa Caucas.

Article originally appeared on theyec.org. Reprinted with permission.

In today’s age of Social Media, writer/producer/director, Pete Chatmon is the guy you want behind the lens. Whether feature filmmaking, commercials, music or viral videos, Chatmon develops content with one focus: to engage and entertain audiences and consumers through honest storytelling. Double7 Images, his media production and marketing boutique, is based in NYC.

YEC Urban is an initiative of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the country’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC promotes entrepreneurship as a solution to youth unemployment and underemployment and provides its members with access to tools, mentorship, and resources that support each stage of a business’s development and growth. YEC Urban’s members are successful minority business owners, entrepreneurs and thought leaders.