In this new\u00a0weekly column, Marco Greenberg, a long-time PR and marketing jedi specializing in venture-backed start-ups, will share his experience of the most common mistakes young entrepreneurs make that keep them from getting the love\u2014and the buzz\u2014they so justly deserve.<\/i><\/p>\nChapter Five: Because You\u2019re Cheap<\/b><\/h2>\n
I take pride in being a connector, often introducing clients.<\/p>\n
Sometimes they really connect over business. Sometimes, they even click personally.\u00a0 Usually, they just say hi, chat for a bit, and walk away glad to have met a fellow professional who may one day prove relevant to their business.\u00a0 But in one case\u2014and one alone\u2014the casual coffee ended up being a total disaster.<\/p>\n
It involved a man I\u2019ll call Jason, a good-looking and bright guy in his 20s. He hired me after his hot shot tech company received a generous round of funding, and after we worked together for a bit he asked me to introduce him to another client of mine, a woman I\u2019ve worked with for almost 20 years. He needed her advice as he was hoping to enter a foreign market to which she was a key gatekeeper. I happily made an email introduction, and the two agreed to meet at a Starbucks a week later.<\/p>\n
The morning after the meeting, I got a phone call.\u00a0 The gatekeeper said she debated whether or not to call me, and was afraid she might sound petty, but she just couldn\u2019t help it. She and Jason were standing in line to get coffee, she told me, chatting amicably. Then, when the barista finally handed them their grande mochas, Jason turned to my friend and suggested casually that they split the bill. It came out to under $10.<\/p>\n
After getting over the initial shock, the gatekeeper, who was taking time out of her busy day to help this kid, replied gruffly: \u201cdon\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll get it.\u201d She admitted to me that she was too distracted\u2014and too disgusted\u2014to offer the young technologist any help.\u00a0 I, too, was horrified, as she knew that I am similarly allergic to people who suffer from this particular affliction. \u00a0I thought about raising the matter with Jason, but eventually just let it go. To this day I don\u2019t think he has a clue of what really went down. And, unfortunately, he\u2019s not alone.<\/p>\n
Too often, young entrepreneurs take pride in being shrewd negotiators, smart fiscal operators, responsible executives that keep that burn rate under control.\u00a0 Even though they would never try to save a few bucks while on a date, say, they believe, for some reason, that different rules apply in business.\u00a0 They don\u2019t: in business, like in life, the key thing is to first and foremost be a mensch, a Yiddish word describing a person whose behavior is caring, considerate, and kind.<\/p>\n
And too many young business bucks, reared on watching Wall Street <\/i>repeatedly and idolizing its hard-charging anti-hero, Gordon Gekko, ignore this rule, believing that the less they pay, the more they win.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t get me wrong: I concede that cheap isn\u2019t always bad. Cheap airline tickets or discount clothes can be an awesome find, and being overly generous and ignoring your P&L is no virtue. But most of the time, being cheap is going to come back to haunt you and your startup.<\/p>\n
Too cheap: too cheap to recruit the best talent because it costs too much. Too cheap to invest in marketing and PR budgets because you can\u2019t see the immediate ROI. Too cheap to throw a holiday party or do an offsite because it will suck money out of product development.<\/p>\n
Any of this sound familiar? As the saying goes, you can\u2019t get there on the cheap. But you can by being a mensch.<\/p>\n
I was blessed to learn this lesson from my own father, a star architect in southern California in the 1960s and 1970s. He was generous with his time, with his creativity, with his charity, with his love, and with his spirit. He was generous with his money, too, in good times and in bad. He would often pay for friends who were far richer and yet more reluctant to reach in their pocket.<\/p>\n
He also knew that being cheap is usually a sign of much larger trouble ahead. The same entrepreneur, boss, client, partner, or friend who visibly tenses up when the waiter brings the check, will be similarly stingy in giving compliments, more likely to cannibalize the company\u2019s assets and more prone to zero sum thinking, less likely to share the credit when things go right and more likely to point the finger when things go bad.<\/p>\n
As we close the books on 2014, and as we make resolutions for the new year, let\u2019s strive to be mensches and give as much as we can afford to, maybe even more. It\u2019s not just good karma, it\u2019s good business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In this new\u00a0weekly column, Marco Greenberg, a long-time PR and marketing jedi specializing in venture-backed start-ups, will share his experience of the most common mistakes young entrepreneurs make that keep them from getting the love\u2014and the buzz\u2014they so justly deserve. Chapter Five: Because You\u2019re Cheap I take pride in being a connector, often introducing clients. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1360,"featured_media":10583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43902],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n