Value P-What?

This is the second of a five-part blog series on the role of internships for the aspiring entrepreneur.

By Tim Peters

In my first blog post, I focused on the innovation side of Peter Drucker’s simplified business ingredients of “marketing and innovation.”

For some of you, your reaction was “been there, done that, innovation is my middle name.”

Fair enough, but let’s see how you stack up with the demands that marketing has in order to make your entrepreneurial idea really fly.

It’s not enough to dream up, think up, or build a prototype of a great solution to a huge need. The only way to unleash the power of the idea is to communicate why people need it. Think that’s hard? It is. If you are the rare person who thinks it’s easy, you are either wrong or a born/practiced marketer.

Take for instance the concept of a value proposition; your entrepreneurial solution to meet a need. In 5 seconds, spell out a concise statement to convey its value. If one doesn’t come quickly to mind, developing one will likely be a significant task. One option would be to scour the web or a textbook for step-by step examples on how to do it, but there is nothing like dealing with a working value proposition to help further develop your own. It has to come from you.

This is where an internship can yield significant value for you as an entrepreneur. You get first-hand exposure to value propositions tied not only to the products or services related to the company where you intern, but also exposure to the value propositions of their suppliers, competitors, and customers.

In effect, you get immersion exposure. Just as immersion is the best way to learn a new language, getting immersion exposure to value propositions is a great way to learn to propose your own value. Want to take an internship experience even further? Find an area where there is a gap in the content grid of the company, develop a solution, and take it live. Not only will you gain some practice, if it’s a good value proposition, you’ll also distinguish yourself through your creativity. While some naysayers may lampoon your action, recent findings show high likelihood that today’s CEO crave this type of creativity.

Bottom line: as a young college graduate and aspiring entrepreneur, an internship provides huge value in helping you to become practiced in developing powerful value propositions to back your next great idea and market it to its greatest potential.

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Tim Tim has a BSBA from Thomas Edison State College with a concentration in Finance and elective focus on Russian. He currently resides in San Antonio, TX with his lovely wife Sara and two daughters. Favorite activities include hikes with the family and windsurfing. Share

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