Episode 258： What Startup Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Non-Profit Organizations
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
191.97194
Summary
In this episode, Patrick talks about what entrepreneurs can learn from running a non-profit organization. Non-profit organizations are very different from profit organizations in that they are run by people who are dedicated to a cause and a cause only. There is a lot to be learned from non-profits.
Transcript
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30 seconds, one time for the underdog, ignition sequence start, let me see you put em up, reach
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the sky, turn the stars up above, cause it's one time for the underdog, one time for the
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I'm Patrick Medebi, your host of Valuetainment, and today we're going to talk about what entrepreneurs
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and executives actually can learn from non-profit organizations.
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This past week, I visited Toronto, Canada, and then I went to Jacksonville and Fort Lauderdale
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and San Francisco, and during that trip, I was visiting several other entrepreneurs, startup
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entrepreneurs, business owners, and a question was brought up, question was brought up, is
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it harder to run a non-profit or is it harder to run a profit organization?
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I asked the question this, a person who runs a non-profit, if we took them and we planted
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them in a profit, would that person do better than a person who's been in profit all day
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There is a lot we can learn from non-profit organizations, especially startup entrepreneurs, lots to be
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I came up with six, there was a lot of points, but six main points I came up with on what we
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as startup entrepreneurs can learn from different non-profit organizations, leaders who lead non-profit
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First one is this, if you're around a leader of a non-profit organization, they cannot help
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but talk about their cause and the purpose of their non-profit all the time.
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There is no way in the world you can be around a non-profit organization leader, anybody, and
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Sometimes, you know, profit entrepreneurs, they're going to talk about profits, they're
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going to talk about business, they're going to talk about their revenues, the numbers.
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A non-profit knows what gets you to get the funding is you have to constantly talk about
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Sometimes startup entrepreneurs talk too much about the business, the how-to, not enough
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There's a lot to be learned there from what non-profits do no matter who they talk to.
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Second thing about non-profits that's very unique that we can all learn from as a startup
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entrepreneurs is, because they work with volunteers every day, they're constantly having volunteers
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that come, they end up becoming very, very good teachers of teaching the basics.
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Reason why is because in the corporate world, you're going to train somebody, you don't need
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to teach them that thing anymore, they're already good at it.
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Then you have to teach them something else, and then something else, and then they're set.
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They could stay with you doing the same thing for the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years.
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Non-profits are dealing with 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500,000, 2,000,
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So here's how you say this, here's how you fold this, here's how you do this.
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So non-profit organization leaders become very good teachers, because they're always teaching
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when they're dealing with volunteers, and they become very good at teaching new people.
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Startup entrepreneurs can learn a lot about that on what they do.
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Sometimes startup entrepreneurs, we tend to, you know, success comes, and in the family,
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friends, people say, you know, I'm doing this, I'm running a business, I'm running this, I'm
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running that, and more people start hyping you up, and you start really thinking you're
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there, and compared to other people you may be there, but you're not there yet.
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And that ego prevents you from asking for help.
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So we no longer want to ask for help, or sometimes even new rookie startup entrepreneurs don't
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like to ask other people for help, because you're not supposed to ask anybody for help.
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Well, anybody who runs a non-profit organization, they are always asking people for help.
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Hey, Mary, do you mind helping us out about this?
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Do you mind if you help us out for this project?
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Please, if you could really help us out, we would definitely appreciate it.
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We needed three people who can come out and help us put these things up.
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Sometimes startup entrepreneurs, they think they don't have the right to ask for help, and
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When you're smaller, you've got to ask a lot of people for help.
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When you're getting, you've got to ask a lot of people for help, and sometimes it's
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You're giving help to another person to partner up with.
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Here's another thing nonprofit organizations do very well that startup entrepreneurs can
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They're very, very good at stretching the money.
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They can put a $20,000 event together with $1,000.
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A startup entrepreneur sometimes tends to put a $20,000 event together with $50,000.
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Who can we get that can help out with this part?
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At the beginning stages of a company, being an entrepreneur yourself, you're attacked with
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You can't spend a lot of money on a lot of different things.
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You need help as much as possible to figure out how you can stretch $2,000, $3,000, $4,000,
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because you don't yet have capital of $400,000, $4 million, or $40 million to be able to do
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You need to learn how to work with the $4,000 or $40,000 to stretch it.
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Nonprofits are very, very good at breaking it down and trying to get it to be as tight
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Here's another thing that nonprofit organizations leaders do very good at.
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They eventually, because they ask so many people for help and get rejected, because they ask
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so many people to raise money with and they get rejected, because every day they're told
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Because to run a nonprofit, you cannot run a healthy nonprofit without being rejected
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Whether you're running a church, whether you're running a nonprofit organization for a cause,
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So many people will constantly say no to you, and you still got to be able to learn how
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And then last but not least, nonprofit organizations, they see a lot of people come and they see
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They see a lot of people come and help out for a few months and they're gone.
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Another person comes and another person comes and another person comes.
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And eventually, they find the right leaders within a nonprofit that buy into the cause because
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That eventually, that person who was a volunteer, they get promoted to a leader.
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They get promoted to somebody who wants to run, maybe a director, maybe a person that's
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managing different parts of the nonprofit because their heart's now in it.
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But they don't emotionally get attached to somebody coming in and somebody leaving.
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And I sometimes see entrepreneurs, you know, that guy, he was going to come, I thought
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Oh, this is why my business is not going to work.
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And when you think about those things and you think about what nonprofit organizations,
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leaders do, I would tell you, if you know locally any nonprofits that do very well
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and you're an entrepreneur, take them out to lunch.
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How do you raise money when you ask people to voluntarily give $1,000, $2,000?
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How do you get people to volunteer their time to help you out?
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How do you go through having such a thick skin where it doesn't bother you?
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You would be amazed how much you will learn from somebody who's a leader running a nonprofit
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It'll uptake your business to a whole different level.
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