About WorkSavvy

Why WorkSavvy and what is it for?

Business startup is exciting and scary. WorkSavvy is about demystifying the process and mentoring those who are determined to set up in business.

WorkSavvy's quizzical owl logo represents what WorkSavvy is about. Owls have the <div id="toc>reputation of wisdom. This one tips his head wryly because, while he aspires to be wise, he also has many questions about entrepreneurship. He does not know it all, despite being pretty savvy. A rather more severe owl was also the logo of the William Keyser's great-grandfather's business—a City of London investment bank, A Keyser & Co.

The beautiful owl on the left, I was lucky enough to photograph on a meditation retreat. He seemed to be meditating too.

WorkSavvy uses "Sustainability from the Startup" to describe the outcome of our work and because WorkSavvy seeks to encourage business startups with right purpose.

The Startup Savvy website offers a wealth of information, many free ideas and observations, tools and techniques, as well as resources and further sources to anyone seeking to set up in business. This desire comes from a deep passion for entrepreneurship and the positive role that it can play in the world.

WorkSavvy, the business, established by William Keyser, the Managing Director, works with startups, before they exist and in their early stages—to help entrepreneurs:

• with personal development so they are in the best possible position to succeed in their new venture;
• with business development in all its aspects, and above all in business strategy, planning, financing and marketing.

What does WorkSavvy do?

WorkSavvy helps entrepreneurs starting a business to

• clarify their business purpose
• sharpen their business model
• better their business plan
• speed their market entry
• offer customer value
• finance their business right
• grow their business strongly
• survive their business challenges...

...more effectively than they might on their own.

Business Plans

Our approach to business planning is that it is essential, but takes many forms. There are some key ingredients to all business plans, but there is no one-size-fits-all. It can vary from back-of-the envelope style to the bound weighty document with graphs, tables and diagrams.

The business plan essentially serves two main purposes:

1. help the entrepreneur define the opportunity is and where the business is going;
2. provide compelling information about the startup for partners.

If you seek equity financing, the plan will have all the bells and whistles including details on markets and money, with full numbers and data-rich appendices. It may have up to 50 pages. If not, something simpler will work. The same degree of rigor in analysis and presentation will be required.

An executive summary of no more than 3 pages will be appropriate for capturing the interest of equity financiers, or for most bank loans.

We work closely with you to ensure that your strategic planning is going to work.

Be sure about your purpose before embarking on hundreds of hours or work and months of time. You risk delaying your startup and the flow of revenue. Read more about Business Planning.

Finance

The financing of your business is not easy. That is why we support your process and help to position your business to attract and secure appropriate financing. Our aim is to help[ you towards the least financing necessary. Far too many businesses stumble with too much, rather than too little money.

Getting the business launched is hard enough without being overly stressed by interest and debt repayment or dancing to the tune of an external source of finance. The kind of money should be appropriate to the business and it should come from a source with whom you can partner. You should make sure that your purpose is aligned with the goals of whomever is providing funding, either equity or loans.

You must be master of your own funding. It is not a task that you can subcontract to an outsider. However, we can facilitate the way in which you determine the amount and means of raising equity or obtaining loans. Read more about Business Financing.

Marketing

Ah! 'Marketing', the catch-all word. What we mean is the process of identifying buyers who will purchase your product or service because it offers them distinct value.

How we can help is by asking you all the awkward questions that you might like to avoid in your enthusiasm for your projected business. Also, the chances are high that we will not have the in-depth knowledge of your marketspace and thus will be able to take a detached look at the opportunity.

If you are raising money, even if it is only a line of credit from your bank, you will want to be able to demonstrate the market need, more than its size. You will identify the customer's pain and how your business will relieve it—better than anyone else. This will require reasoned evidence, not hyperbole. A supportive outside perspective will make your chances of success much better. Read more about Marketing.

Mentoring

Mentoring a much over-used term. It also is wonderfully vague, depending as it does, upon the skills and experience of the mentor and the way in which the client seeks to use the mentor. However, I do seek to play the role. I am not about telling people what to do, rather I am about helping them towards the best process of how to get there.

Testimonials: I cannot do better than to quote a recent client, a green fashion retailer in Durham, NC, who said at the end of our assignment, "You're the best Will! Thanks for all the insight, needling and good cheer. We're on our way..." A year later the same client reports, "Biz is booming!"

Another client, in Houston, TX, commented almost a year after our assignment, "You are a great man and I appreciate you." I am not sure I deserve the first part, but the second part is very satisfying. He also said, "I will hook up with you soon. I miss my connection with you." I like clients who return. A strategy client reported, "You really helped us think differently, provided enormous stimulus for new thinking and stopped our navel gazing!"

You will determine the nature of the contract with WorkSavvy. The only object of working together is for your business to get launched sooner, more effectively and in a way that gives it the most chance of a sustaining and sustainable life.

About William Keyser

entrepreneur · consultant · mentor

I am the Managing Director of WorkSavvy LLC and creator of the Startup Counselor website. I am also directly involved in a startup with a long-time friend and business associate. The company, Eyes2Health, while presently in hibernation, detects diseases of aging at the earliest time using low-cost, non-invasive diagnostics that utilize the many biomarkers that are present in the human eye—the body's only transparent organ. WorkSavvy LLC is based in Newfane, in the south east of Vermont and is a founding member of B Corporation. B Corporations are a new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.

First venture at 10: My first entrepreneurial venture was at 10 years of age—trading with weekenders on the turnpike back into New York City from Long Island where I lived—selling them bunches of lilies of the valley! Entrepreneurial blood runs in my veins. I have merchant banking on one side and rope manufacturing on the other.

Adventures: Educated in the UK, USA and France, I attended the University of Westminster (UK) and the London College of Communication (UK), as well as l'Université de Besançon (France), l'Université de Lille (France). After participation in Outward Bound Mountain School (I did Outward Bound again, sailing off the coast of Maine in an open boat, when I was 69) and an Arctic expedition, I did my military service as an officer in the British Army Intelligence Corps.

Backed into business: After a number of non-career jobs (interpreting, teaching, farm laboring, taxi-driving, journalism...), I ‘backed into’ business when I took on the responsibilities of marriage and family. Soon I found that business was engaging, and simply a special form of social organization with a well-defined purpose. The objections I had built up through student days were not overcome, but transformed into benefits.

Entrepreneurial business: Always aiming to have my own business, I worked in several small entrepreneurial companies, moving up to senior management. I was appointed business development manager of a major international management consulting firm (Sema, now Atos Origin). I was seconded for a couple of years as a senior public official in the field of national economic development, (I written/edited eight books on public enterprise).

My own venture: On return to consulting practice, I set up a new subsidiary of the firm—a sort of out-of-town try-out for my own enterprise. After a few years and with my partner, I became an entrepreneur myself, establishing and growing a company in a similar field, over 11 years. The business grew to have about 30 people employed and about $4m a year in sales and was the UK member of the Foresight Group. Clients included banks, petroleum companies, food manufacturers, engineering firms, utilities, hi-tech innovators and many others.

MBA teacher: I am an Faculty Partner on the MBA in Managing for Sustainability at the Marlboro College Graduate School in Vermont. I have also been on the board of a regional venture capital company and have been providing voluntary help to a range of small startups. These have included an online holiday accommodation agency, a botanical theme park, an organic cotton clothes designer and others. I created and then sold a regional website, ranked No.1 by the top 10 search engines worldwide. My long career interest in business startup resulted in the establishment of WorkSavvy, where clients have ranged from aviation, fitness, natural cemeteries, low-tech communication, leadership development, to green retailing.

Community service: I served on many professional boards in a voluntary capacity: an international management association, a regional employer federation, national institutes for linguists' and public relations practitioners. In the community field I served on boards of community organizations, in culture, radio and sailing. Currently I am on the Board of the Brattleboro Food Coop¹, a $16m 2-store food retailer; I am consultant to Community Capital of Vermont²; a member of the Vermont Entrepreneurship Collaborative³; a Reparative Probation panellist at the Brattleboro Community Justice Center⁴; other volunteer activities include being a night guardian at the local homeless shelter.

William Keyser, Managing Director, WorkSavvy LLC. Contact me at will@startup-savvy.com

1. The BFC exists to meet its shareholders collective needs for:

• Reasonably priced food and products with an emphasis on healthy, locally grown, organic, and fairly traded goods;
• A welcoming community marketplace;
• A regenerative business that has a net positive environmental impact;
• A strong local economy;
• Relevant information about food and related products, the environment, and the Cooperative Values and Principles;
• Reasonable access to participation in the cooperative.

2. CCV aims to be an effective, sustainable source of capital and business development services that supports the successful start-up and growth of Vermont-based micro and small businesses owned by individuals who lack sufficient access to conventional sources of financing.

3. The VEC is a loose network of people in Vermont committed to furthering entrepreneurship through collaborative action and brings together a variety of voices, perspectives, and ideas on the topics of Vermont entrepreneurship and sustainable local economies.

4. BCJC aims at creating opportunities for community members to help repair the harm done by criminal behavior, through Restorative Justice principles and practices.

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