Venture Forth - DIY'itice Recovery Plan

You know the cliche: husband is driving, wife is in the passenger seat. Husband is lost, but trying to pretend he's got it under control. Wife is getting frustrated, they are running late. She points out a gas station where they can ask for directions. Husband scoffs. Wife shakes her head and sighs, annoyed, but not surprised.

Trite, yet not uncommon. (Though, in the name of gender equality, I will be the first to point out that, in our house, those spousal roles are actually reversed.) I have a theory that one of the things that makes an entrepreneur an entrepreneur, is a very strong Do-It-Yourself gene. The trick, of course, is to make the most of that DIY value, without letting it scuttle your venture.

Tech Ranch's Venture Forth program is a great way to provide entrepreneurs some help on that front. In fact, the program is specifically designed to help address the 'lone wolf' syndrome many entrepreneurs experience:

• Engaging with the other entrepreneurs in your class. Seeing where they can help you with your venture, and returning the favor by helping them with theirs. Other people's insight, suggestions, experience and ideas can be a valuable way to help push your venture to the next step faster than you could have done on your own.
• Using the access to your class to extend your network. It's been proven time and time again: the greatest value in your network is not in your first degree connections, but in your second degree connections. What does that mean? It means the people that your friends and colleagues know. Being in class every week, raising issues, asking questions and actively looking for opportunities to connect means that you are constantly putting yourself in a position to leverage the power of that extended network.
• Identifying resources that can do things better, faster and more effectively than we can always do them ourselves. Whether it's SEO/content strategy, development, time management, legal or financial services, most entrepreneurs do not achieve their truest potential until they find a way to let go of the low-value things on which they spend a disproportionate amount of time. And who better to understand that, and help with solutions that other entrepreneurs who've gone through the same thing -- and who have found providers whose services truly do make a difference?
• Access to training, products and services beyond the most immediate content of Venture Forth's curriculum. I recently wrote about the value of Tech Ranch's products and services and what that can mean to an entrepreneur just getting started. But the team at Tech Ranch is constantly iterating through the packages to add more value, bring in more training topics, connect more subject matter experts and ensure more and more resources are on-hand to help entrepreneurs be successful.

Doing things yourself can be very satisfying. But a bootstrapping entrepreneur with limited resources needs to be creative, and to be willing to accept help where he or she can get it. Joining Venture Forth is a great way to start thinking about your venture in the context of the best return on investment for your time and effort. And to save the DIY projects for tinkering in the garage.

Have you signed up for the next Venture Forth class yet? Better hurry. Time is running out and the next class won't be until 2010.