Luke Lazarus’ No-Nonsense Approach Closes the Gap to Business Success
New businesses are built every day. Unfortunately, 50 percent of new businesses don’t last more than five years. Australian-born Luke Lazarus is out to change that. He has refined his own methods to help entrepreneurs launch scalable companies that go public.
Job growth has been declining for several years. The waning market is encouraging innovative types to develop their own businesses. Those that make it seem to know the special formula for success. These go-getters end up founding several businesses, growing them into IPOs and making enormous profits when they sell them.
These savvy individuals are few and far between. However, they demonstrate that it takes more than luck to make a business survive. Some people have the wisdom and skill that enable them to repeat their formula over and over again to develop businesses that flourish.
But even the most fruitful entrepreneur can get bored with the cycle of transforming startups into IPOs. The next challenge comes from teaching others to exponentially grow their businesses. For people like Luke Lazarus, showing other entrepreneurs how to navigate the obstacles that prevent so many startups from thriving is as fulfilling as padding their bank accounts.
Is an Entrepreneur Born or Grown?
Born in Perth, now based in Melbourne, Australia, Lazarus quickly showed promise as an entrepreneur. He launched his first operation when he was 8 years old. He poured himself into his studies and extracurricular activities, showing his prowess as a self-starter and an affinity for succeeding under pressure.
Because he was a straight-A student and proficient athlete, Lazarus had the opportunity to further his education at a number of universities across the globe. Although he received scholarship and financial aid offers from Ivy League institutions and Division I schools in the U.S., Lazarus chose to study in Melbourne.
Lazarus earned an MBA from the distinguished Melbourne Business School. Although he learned many skills for business success during his studies, his interest in entrepreneurship always drove him.
Driven by More Than Money
It’s ok to admit that you’re motivated by money. The idea of being financially free is enticing. Many entrepreneurs dream of the day that they don’t have to worry about covering their overhead and can relax in the face of their financial independence.
Lazarus achieved that by the time he was in his mid-thirties. By then, he had founded four companies, which he eventually sold for generous amounts of money. Once the pressure to turn a profit was off, Lazarus realized that he could give back more meaningfully to the world.
Instead of focusing on making millions, he transitioned into consulting. It was time to use his genius to help other businesspeople who were wrestling with the same issues that he had dealt with when he started his journey. He had already generated solutions to those problems. Sharing them was the logical next step.
As a business consultant, Lazarus doesn’t use the same worn-out approaches that lead 50 percent of new companies to nosedive. He has a meticulous, demanding style that requires business owners to take a hard look at their systems and analytics.
Some say that Lazarus is overbearing because he is so direct and intense. But his methods are transformational. He says that his secret is emotional connection. Lazarus knows that the key to success is in the story. He helps his clients connect on a personal level with their customers and stakeholders.
An Aptitude for Entrepreneurship Isn’t the Same as Skill
Many entrepreneurs have the drive and talent to create thriving businesses. Lazarus has helped many of them shift from struggle to success by encouraging ruthless realism.
Instead of sugarcoating their weaknesses, Lazarus urges his clients to take inventory of their skills and knowledge. Most entrepreneurs are brilliant. However, they may be blinded by their virtuosity and ignoring the areas where they lack proficiency. Lazarus helps bring awareness to the art of branding, messaging, networking and high finance. He works with people who are already motivated to succeed and takes them to the next level.
One of the most significant aspects of his work is helping new businesses follow the rules of the game. He has been through them time and time again and understands what venture capitalists and investors are looking for. This is a skill that many new business owners lack. They may believe that they understand the ins and outs of venture capital, but they haven’t had direct experience with investors. Lazarus has.
Lazarus helps companies standardize their operations, communication and accounting. These improvements make businesses magnetizing to investors. Securing enough capital is one of the keys to helping companies go public or establish a significant presence in the marketplace.
It’s no longer enough to earn a degree and pore through business publications in search of knowledge that you need to get investors to believe in you. People are out there waiting to contribute to growing businesses. But a sleek PowerPoint presentation and enthusiastic meeting won’t necessarily make them put their money on you.
After a few failed attempts at securing capital, many startup entrepreneurs decide to finance their businesses themselves. That’s a big mistake, according to Lazarus. You have to start somewhere, but growing a self-financed business to international success is rare. The market today is aggressive, and you have to position yourself for exponential growth if you don’t want to be run over.
Powerful Messaging with Purpos
Decades of experience have taught Luke Lazarus that time is of the essence. You have to stand out to venture capitalists, capturing their attention within seconds. The best way to do this is with purposeful messaging. A company that churns out products doesn’t just manufacture goods; it changes lives. If you can’t express a powerful mission in your elevator speech, you’ll have trouble getting investors interested in you.
Effective messaging creates a liaison between customers’ and stakeholders’ emotions and the product or service that you offer. Lazarus helps businesses demonstrate how they can create abundance in the space of personal, community and industry insufficiency.
He rounds out his offerings by whittling a startup’s operations into one that mimics those of the most successful corporations. He goes deep, transforming companies into tantalizing options that a venture capitalist would be ill-advised to pass up. Lazarus tells entrepreneurs what the venture capitalists don’t. Instead of succumbing to rejection after rejection, businesses that consult with Lazarus create a solid internal structure that adapts to venture capitalists’ expectations.
Making companies more appealing to investors positions them for success whether or not they land a deal. With a solid and purposeful foundation, the sky is the limit for the companies that work with Lazarus.
Author: Emma Davidson
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