At a recent business finance meeting, well known business incubator owner and business finance provider Paul Graham was asked to comment on the type of business plans they are providing business finance for. Graham was very optimistic about the opportunity available to entrepreneurs and spoke about a wide range of of business plans they are interested to see more of. This is something very useful to be aware of as an entrepreneur and important to consider of you are wondering what type industry or business to go into.
Not all of the businesses on the list will surprise you especially considering that Graham is mostly interested in Tech type of businesses but a number of the suggestions may very well fit into your area of interest. It was also interesting that such a wide variety of businesses are being mentioned giving a good indication as to the vast amount of opportunity for business finance available out there.
1. A cure for the disease of which the RIAA is a symptom. Something is broken when Sony and Universal are suing children. Actually, at least two things are broken: the software that file sharers use, and the record labels' business model. The current situation can't be the final answer. And what happened with music is now happening with movies. When the dust settles in 20 years, what will this world look like? What components of it could you start building now?
The answer may be far afield. The answer for the music industry, for example, is probably to give up insisting on payment for recorded music and focus on licensing and live shows. But what happens to movies? Do they morph into games?
2. Simplified browsing. There are a lot of cases where you'd trade some of the power of a web browser for greater simplicity. Grandparents and small children don't want the full web; they want to communicate and share pictures and look things up. What viable ideas lie undiscovered in the space between a digital photo frame and a computer running Firefox? If you built one now, who else would use it besides grandparents and small children?
3. New news. As Marc Andreessen points out, newspapers are in trouble. The problem is not merely that they've been slow to adapt to the web. It's more serious than that: their problems are due to deep structural flaws that are exposed now that they have competitors. When the only sources of news were the wire services and a few big papers, it was enough to keep writing stories about how the president met with someone and they each said conventional things written in advance by their staffs. Readers were never that interested, but they were willing to consider this news when there were no alternatives.
News will morph significantly in the more competitive environment of the web. So called "blogs" (because the old media call everything published online a "blog") like PerezHilton and TechCrunch are one sign of the future. News sites like Reddit and Digg are another. But these are just the beginning.
4. Outsourced IT. In most companies the IT department is an expensive bottleneck. Getting them to make you a simple web form could take months. Enter Wufoo. Now if the marketing department wants to put a form on the web, they can do it themselves in 5 minutes. You can take practically anything users still depend on IT departments for and base a startup on it, and you will have the enormous force of their present dissatisfaction pushing you forward.
5. Enterprise software 2.0. Enterprise software companies sell bad software for huge amounts of money. They get away with it for a variety of reasons that link together to form a sort of protective wall. But the software world is changing. I suspect that if you study different parts of the enterprise software business (not just what the software does, but more importantly, how it's sold) you'll find parts that could be picked off by startups.
One way to start is to make things for smaller companies, because they can't afford the overpriced stuff made for big ones. They're also easier to sell to.
6. More variants of CRM. This is a form of enterprise software, but I'm mentioning it explicitly because it seems like this area has such potential. CRM ("Customer Relationship Management") means all sorts of different things, but a lot of the current embodiments don't seem much more than mailing list managers. It should be possible to make interactions with customers much higher-res.
7. Something your company needs that doesn't exist. Many of the best startups happened when someone needed something in their work, found it didn't exist, and quit to build it. This is vaguer than most of the other recipes here, but it may be the most valuable. You're working on something you know customers want, because you were the customer. And if it was something you needed at work, other people will too, and they'll be willing to pay for it.
So if you're working for a big company and you want to strike out on your own, here's a recipe for an idea. Start this sentence: "We'd pay a lot if someone would just build a ..." Whatever you say next is probably a good product idea.
8. Dating. Current dating sites are not the last word. Better ones will appear. But anyone who wants to start a dating startup has to answer two questions: in addition to the usual question about how you're going to approach dating differently, you have to answer the even more important question of how to overcome the huge chicken and egg problem every dating site faces. A site like Reddit is interesting when there are only 20 users. But no one wants to use a dating site with only 20 users—which of course becomes a self-perpetuating problem. So if you want to do a dating startup, don't focus on the novel take on dating that you're going to offer. That's the easy half. Focus on novel ways to get around the chicken and egg problem.
9. Photo/video sharing services. A lot of the most popular sites on the web are for photo sharing. But the sites classified as social networks are also largely about photo sharing. As much as people like to share words (IM and email and blogging are "word sharing" apps), they probably like to share pictures more. It's less work and the results are usually more interesting. I think there is huge growth still to come. There may ultimately be 30 different subtypes of image/video sharing service, half of which remain to be discovered.
10. Auctions. Online auctions have more potential than most people currently realize. Auctions seem boring now because EBay is doing a bad job, but is still powerful enough that they have a de facto monopoly. Result: stagnation. But I suspect EBay could now be attacked on its home territory, and that this territory would, in the hands of a successful invader, turn out to be more valuable than it currently appears. As with dating, however, a startup that wants to do this has to expend more effort on their strategy for cracking the monopoly than on how their auction site will work.
11. Web Office apps. We're interested in funding anyone competing with Microsoft desktop software. Obviously this is a rich market, considering how much Microsoft makes from it. A startup that made a tenth as much would be very happy. And a startup that takes on such a project will be helped along by Microsoft itself, who between their increasingly bureaucratic culture and their desire to protect existing desktop revenues will probably do a bad job of building web-based Office variants themselves. Before you try to start a startup doing this, however, you should be prepared to explain why existing web-based Office alternatives haven't taken the world by storm, and how you're going to beat that.
12. Fix advertising. Advertising could be made much better if it tried to please its audience, instead of treating them like victims who deserve x amount of abuse in return for whatever free site they're getting. It doesn't work anyway; audiences learn to tune out boring ads, no matter how loud they shout.
What we have now is basically print and TV advertising translated to the web. The right answer will probably look very different. It might not even seem like advertising, by current standards. So the way to approach this problem is probably to start over from scratch: to think what the goal of advertising is, and ask how to do that using the new ingredients technology gives us. Probably the new answers exist already, in some early form that will only later be recognized as the replacement for traditional advertising.
Bonus points if you can invent new forms of advertising whose effects are measurable, above all in sales.
13. Online learning. US schools are often bad. A lot of parents realize it, and would be interested in ways for their kids to learn more. Till recently, schools, like newspapers, had geographical monopolies. But the web changes that. How can you teach kids now that you can reach them through the web? The possible answers are a lot more interesting than just putting books online.
One route would be to start with test prep services, for which there's already demand, and then expand into teaching kids more than just how to score high on tests. Another would be to start with games and gradually make them more thoughtful. Another, particularly for younger kids, would be to let them learn by watching one another (anonymously) solve problems.
14. Tools for measurement. Now that so much happens on computers connected to networks, it's possible to measure things we may not have realized we could. And there are some big problems that may be soluble if we can measure more. The most important of all is the defining flaw of large organizations: you can't tell who the most productive people are. A small company is measured directly by the market. But once an organization gets big enough that people on in the interior are protected from market forces, politics starts to rule, instead of performance. An improvement of even a few percent in the ability to measure what actually happens in large organizations would have a huge impact on the world economy, and a startup that enabled it would be entitled to a cut.
15. Off the shelf security. Services like ADT charge a fortune. Now that houses and their owners are both connected to networks practically all the time, a startup could stitch together alternatives out of cheap, existing hardware and services.
16. A form of search that depends on design. Google doesn't have a lot of weaknesses. One of the biggest is that they have no sense of design. They do the next best thing, which is to keep things sparse. But if there were a kind of search that depended a lot on design, a startup might actually be able to beat Google at search. I don't know if there is, but if you do, we'd love to hear from you.
17. New payment methods. There are almost certainly things whose growth is held back because there's no way to charge for them. And the people who could implement solutions don't realize how much demand there would be, precisely because this growth has been held back. So pretty much any new way of paying for things that's easier for some class of situations will turn out to have a bigger market than its inventors expected. Look at Paypal. (Warning: Regulated industry.)
18. The WebOS. It probably won't be a literal translation of a client OS shifted to servers. But as applications migrate to servers, it seems possible there will be something that plays a central role like an OS does. We've already funded several startups that could be candidates. But this is a big prize, and there will probably be multiple winners.
19. Application and/or data hosting. This is related to the preceding idea, but not identical. And again, while we've already funded several startups in this area, it's probably going to be big enough that it contains several rich markets.
It may turn out that 4, 18, and 19 all have the same answer. Or rather, that there will be things that answer all three. But the way to find such a grand, overarching solution is probably not to approach it directly, but to start by solving smaller, specific problems, then gradually expand your scope. Start by writing Basic for the Altair.
20. Shopping guides. Like news, shopping used to be constrained by geography. You went to your local store and chose from what they had. Now the space of possibilities is bewilderingly large, and people need help navigating it. If you already know what you want, Bountii can find you the best price. But how do you decide what you want? Hint: One answer is related to number 3.
21. Finance software for individuals and small businesses. Intuit seems ripe for picking off. The difficulty is that they've got data connections with all the banks. That's hard for a small startup to match. But if you can start in a neighboring area and gradually expand into their territory, you could displace them.
22. A web-based Excel/database hybrid. People often use Excel as a lightweight database. I suspect there's an opportunity to create the program such users wish existed, and that there are new things you could do if it were web-based. Like make it easier to get data into it, through forms or scraping.
Don't make it feel like a database. That frightens people. The question to ask is: how much can I let people do without defining structure? You want the database equivalent of a language that makes its easy to keep data in linked lists. (Which means you probably want to write it in one.)
23. More open alternatives to Wikipedia. Deletionists rule Wikipedia. Ironically, they're constrained by print-era thinking. What harm does it do if an online reference has a long tail of articles that are only interesting to a few people, so long as everyone can still find whatever they're looking for? There is room to do to Wikipedia what Wikipedia did to Britannica.
24. A buffer against bad customer service. A lot of companies (to say nothing of government agencies) have appalling customer service. "Please stay on the line. Your call is important to us." Doesn't it make you cringe just to read that? Sometimes the UIs presented to customers are even deliberately difficult; some airlines deliberately make it hard to buy tickets using miles, for example. Maybe if you built a more user-friendly wrapper around common bad customer service experiences, people would pay to use it. Passport expediters are an encouraging example.
25. A Craigslist competitor. Craiglist is ambivalent about being a business. This is both a strength and a weakness. If you focus on the areas where it's a weakness, you may find there are better ways to solve some of the problems Craigslist solves.
26. Better video chat. Skype and Tokbox are just the beginning. There's going to be a lot of evolution in this area, especially on mobile devices.
27. Hardware/software hybrids. Most hackers find hardware projects alarming. You have to deal with messy, expensive physical stuff. But Meraki shows what you can do if you're willing to venture even a little way into hardware. There's a lot of low-hanging fruit in hardware; you can often do dramatically new things by making comparatively small tweaks to existing stuff.
Hardware is already mostly software. What I mean by a hardware/software hybrid is one in which software plays a very visible role. If you work on an idea of this type you'll tend to have the field to yourself, because most hackers are afraid of hardware, and most hardware companies can't write good software. (One reason your iPod isn't made by Sony is that Sony can't write iTunes.)
28. Fixing email overload. A lot of people, including me, feel they get too much email. A solution would find a ready market. But the best solution may not be anything as obvious as a new mail reader.
Related problem: Using your inbox as a to-do list. The solution is probably to acknowledge this rather than prevent it.
29. Easy site builders for specific markets. Weebly is a good, general-purpose site builder. But there are a lot of markets that could use more specialized tools. What's the best way to make a web site if you're a real estate agent, or a restaurant, or a lawyer? There still don't seem to be canonical answers.
Obviously the way to build this is to write a flexible site builder, then write layers on top to produce different variants. Hint: The key to making a site builder for end-users is to make software that lets people with no design ability produce things that look good—or at least professional.
30. Startups for startups. The increasing number of startups is itself an opportunity for startups. We're one; TechCrunch is another. What other new things can you do?
As mentioned these ideas were mentioned in an interview with Paul Graham from Y-Combinator, a site probably well worth checking out if any of the above may fall into your area of expertise or interest. Make sure that you do your homework on what they would want to have included in your business plan and financial forecasts. And as always be proactive!
As the majority of entrepreneurs in South Africa start out as solo entrepreneurs I thought it may be useful to consider what exactly it is that makes solo entrepreneurs successful. Its already well known hat effective market research the the creation of a well thought out business plan makes a real difference but so does the attitude and commitment of the entrepreneur. The point-of-view or perspective the solopreneur has on how to operate his/her business determines the speed at which he/she achieves the success he/she desires.
1. Marketing is more important than mastery.
Being a master of his craft, skill, or talent doesn't ensure
that the solopreneur will be successful in his business. He
can be the greatest at what he does, and if nobody knows about
him, he's quickly out of business. Yes, it's important that
he deliver a quality service. But it's even more important
that he consistently and appropriately promote his business.
2. Risk is always reducible.
Everyone faces risk -- in life and in business. And risk is
always reducible. The solopreneur may find that at times,
even after she's reduced the risk, it is still too costly.
Great! She just needs to find another path to the goal.
Tip: Make sure your clients know that you're also helping
them reduce risk -- it makes you more valuable.
3. There is usually an easier or better way.
No matter what strategy, process, or procedure is under
consideration, there is usually an easier or better way. The
solopreneur needs to think beyond the traditional ways of
solving a problem, creating a deliverable, or accomplishing
an outcome. Doing so will result in finding a new, better,
easier, faster, less expensive, or less risky way.
4. Delay is unacceptably expensive.
Today the windows of opportunities open more often and shut
more quickly than ever before. Delay lets those opportunities
pass by without the solopreneur or his client being able to
take advantage of them. When the soloprenuer reduces or
eliminates delay in her business, it can have the added
effects of reducing costs in projects, increasing her perceived
value to her clients, and giving her more opportunities for
success.
5. Self-confidence can be arranged.
The solopreneur doesn't need to rely on himself to create
a sense of confidence. Nor does he need to wait until he has
attained a high degree of mastery in his services. Instead, he
can arrange for support structures and encouragement, and
can design situations that feed him the confidence he needs.
6. The answer is somewhere.
Does the solopreneur have the answer? Does her client have
the answer? Does a competitor have the answer? Is the answer
on the Internet? The point is that it doesn't really matter
where the answer is, but that there is an answer somewhere.
And it's up to the solopreneur and her client to find it.
Knowing that the answer is somewhere, but that she isn't the
only source for the answer, releases the solopreneur from
needing to be the "answer person." This, in turn, frees up
her energy for collaborating with her client in finding the
answer.
7. Problems don't exist.
Okay, this one might require a big shift in perspective.
Especially if the solopreneur thinks of himself as a problem
solver! Flip it over and what you have is an opportunity,
not a problem. An opportunity for the solopreneur to showcase
his magnificence. An opportunity to challenge his knowledge,
perceptions, and beliefs. An opportunity to really get
creative!
8. Everything is a project.
Regardless of what service the solopreneur provides to
her clients, she is a project manager. Running a business,
whether for one person or 500, is a series of projects.
Creating the business identity is a project. Creating the
web site is a project. Upgrading the company's technology
is a project. So is creating and implementing a marketing
plan. Successful soloprenuers use project management tools
and techniques to save time and keep the business on the
right track.
9. The client is always right, or just say "No!"
Enter the paradox. Successful solopreneurs don't "go
along to get along" with their clients. As the hired-gun
professional, the client wants the solopreneur's expertise
and needs the solopreneur's insights. Although the client
is always the final decision maker, she doesn't always
know what's best. The solopreneur needs to tell the client,
gently and gracefully, when she is going down the wrong
path, misusing her resources, or being unreasonable.
The solopreneur's Ideal Clients will love it when he
says "No!" in this way. His Clients from Hell won't, but
then these clients will receive the ultimate refusal from
the solopreneur -- not to work with them again.
10. It's all solvable, or it's not.
When the solopreneur approaches her business, clients,
and projects from the perspective that it's all solvable,
her options open up. Determining that it's not solvable,
for whatever reason, releases energy and resources for
more appropriate action.
11. Success requires mistakes -- lots of them!
The solopreneur won't stay in business long if he hides
his mistakes or blames them on others, the system, or
the processes. Our best growth and most important lessons
come from making mistakes and then correcting them.
By the way, most people avoid even the possibility of
failing (because they don't understand that failure is
a requirement for success)!
12. Creeping excellence beats perfection.
The solopreneur can't afford the luxury of being a
perfectionist -- and neither can many of her clients.
Instead, the soloprenure who is successful has adopted
the habit of creeping excellence, in which she ensures
that everything she does is just a bit better than
it was the last time, leaving everything better than
when she found it. Creeping excellence reduces the time
and costs racked up by perfectionism. Perfectionists
spend 80% of their time and resources perfecting the
last 20% of everything. Encourage the solopreneur to do
what she does best and hire others to do the cleanup.
13. Focus is power.
"If you chase two rabbits, both will escape."
Chinese Proverb
Being a Jack-of-all-trades is a sure way to fail as
a solopreneur. The solopreneur can't market his
business to the entire world -- he doesn't have the
time, money, or energy for that. Encourage the
solopreneur to narrow it down to one market segment
of Ideal Clients for whom he provides one primary
service. That's not only doable, it's powerful!
Another place to apply the power of focus in in
stopping the multi-tasking. It takes 4 mintues to
return to the same level of concentration each time
a person is interrupted. Staying in the flow increases
productivity, efficiency, and creativity.
14. The goal's the thing, not the plan.
To what does the solopreneur commit? The plan or
the goal? If the solopreneur is getting the same
unacceptable results over and over, he is committed
to the plan. To change the results, get a new plan!
15. Independent employment is joyous!
What good is owning a business if it doesn't bring
the solopreneur pleasure? When work is joyous for
the solopreneur, her clients find her easier and
happier to work with. And that increases their
enjoyment in working with the solopreneur, which
enhances her chances for a long-term, profitable
relationship with them.
For solo entrepreneurs, selecting the appropriate business funding is a critical decision that can significantly impact the trajectory of their ventures. The right funding option should align with the unique needs and goals of a solo entrepreneur, providing the necessary financial support without compromising autonomy. Traditional avenues like bank loans may offer stability but often come with stringent requirements and lengthy approval processes. On the other hand, alternative options such as crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending enable entrepreneurs to engage directly with their audience and secure funds more quickly. Bootstrapping, wherein the entrepreneur self-funds the business, offers unparalleled control but requires a careful balance to avoid limiting growth opportunities. Ultimately, the key lies in evaluating the specific financial needs, risk tolerance, and growth aspirations of the solo entrepreneur to determine the most suitable funding avenue that fosters sustainability and success.
As many of the points above show, its not just the business plan, product or service and the industry that determines the success of the business but much depends on the entrepreneur and the attitude and drive that s/he is showing in working towards making that dream become a reality.
Entrepreneurial failure has long been a major barrier to talented and experienced individuals taking the leap from long time employee to business owner. The perceived risk may often simply be to big, with financial and family commitments considered, many a new idea is often suppressed even before it has the opportunity to see the light. Banks and small business investors today see the business plan as a major move forward in ensuring the risk is reduced as the entrepreneur gets to thin and work through the various issues prior to the business starting. Still entrepreneurs feel that more can be done to address this issue.
Young Business for South Africa (YBSA) is helping young entrepreneurs to confront their fear of failure. On 17 March 2011, YBSA is hosting a "Fail Fast, Fail Forward: How failure makes successful entrepreneurs" at the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Illovo, Johannesburg.
Telana Simpson, YBSA Director and entrepreneur, will be chairing a panel of experts gathered to dispel the myths around failing in entrepreneurship, and to start changing the mindsets of our young leaders towards failure.
Sitting on the panel are Yashivan Govender of FirstStep.me (Entrepreneur and author of the 'Fun Side of Being Serious'), Danny Tuckwood of MetaCo (professional Leadership & Entrepreneur Coach), Allon Raiz of Raizcorp (founder and CEO of Raizcorp, the only privately-held, unfunded, profitable business incubator on the African continent), Dr Marius Pretorius (Associate Professor of Strategy, Leadership and Turnaround at the University of Pretoria). The panel will discuss what attitudes would be more beneficial for encouraging entrepreneurs and those who support them, to develop business in our country.
The event is free to all YBSA members and R100 for non-members at the door (membership enquiries can be directed to admin@ybsa.org.za). Please note that booking is essential as the seats are limited.
Attitudes and Perceptions about Entrepreneurship
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Global Report 2010 states that "if the economy in general has positive attitudes toward entrepreneurship, this will generate cultural support, financial resources, networking benefits and various other forms of assistance to current and potential entrepreneurs." Their investigation reveals that in South Africa, 29% of respondents have a fear of failure and only 16.7% have entrepreneurial intentions.
In the report South Africa and a further 23 other countries are classed as efficiency driven economies. When it came to indicators of attitude, GEM noted that in SA 40.9% of respondents' perceived opportunities in the entrepreneurial arena, and that South African's were 2.7% less fearful of failure than the un-weighted average. 77.5% of people surveyed thought entrepreneurship was a good career choice, yet only 16.7% of respondents had entrepreneurial intentions, 6.5% below the un-weighted average for this category.
With perceptions indicating that a high status is given to successful entrepreneurs and that there is a great emphasis placed on entrepreneurial endeavours in the media, why are our entrepreneurs still battling to find support?
Some of the most influential people of our time include; Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Donald Trump. They all failed to some degree before they got their formulas right and achieved the heights of success they enjoy today. Why is it in South Africa we are still battling to see failure in a positive light, as a learning device instead of something of which we should be ashamed?
Endeavour's white paper on "The State of Entrepreneurship in SA" in 2009, highlights the concern that there is a low tolerance for entrepreneurial failure in South Africa. "People disassociate themselves from them, banks shut them down and the press demonises them" (pg.11). Entrepreneurial failure is an experience that financers in other parts of the world look for in entrepreneurs that they consider funding. This culture in South Africa of not supporting entrepreneurs who have failed needs to be confronted if we are to create an environment conducive to fostering more entrepreneurial activity.
Its interesting to look at the motivation and inclination of entrepreneurs in South Africa. Entrepreneurs are those who are passionate and driven about the business plan that they intend to implement. Neither a shortage of business funding, not the opinion of others will stop them from what they know they can achieve. If you compare them with the rest of the population we will quickly find that entrepreneurs are go getters, not blaming anyone for their situation and not waiting for anyone else to improve it. For entrepreneurs the use of digital marketing services will also be crucial. These are people who take responsibility for their actions and futures. A great example of this was one of the finalists of the country's most prestigious empowerment awards program
Unique motivation has powered Design Communications Group CEO Zoë Molapisi into the finals - a burning desire to encourage South Africa's 'no capital, no connections' entrepreneurs.
"I'm honoured to be a finalist," said Zoë Molapisi. "The accolade is for personal achievement, but I won't be at the finals in my personal capacity. I will be there for all the start-up entrepreneurs who began with no capital and no connections and asked for no favours.
CEO of By Design Communications Zoe Molapisi
"It's important a strong message goes out that you don't need patronage and a handout to succeed in business. You can do it by hard work and perseverance; by holding your head up and never holding your hand out.
"It's satisfying to be recognised for that type of success and a great opportunity to give encouragement to self-starters, hard workers and go-getters that have very little else going for them."
Eight years ago, Zoë Molapisi launched her 'one-stop' communication group By Design as a one-woman start-up with no seed capital and no contracted clients. Today annual turnovers are fast approaching the R100 million mark and clients include major brands and institutions such as Coca-Cola, Telkom, Cell C and many blue chip clients across different sectors.
In addition to local communication and promotional projects, By Design organizes conferences and travel incentive programmes in several markets in sub-Saharan Africa and island territories in the Indian Ocean.
Expansion to South America is being explored.
"My message to tomorrow's entrepreneurs is simple," said By Design's founder. "You don't need government incentives. You don't need hand-holding by some official program. You don't need to be well connected.
"You need passion, commitment and the sort of commonsense that tells you to keep overheads low and service standards high. You can make it. I know ... because I did."
This is certainly a very important lesson for many who see their futures relying on others. When speaking to young people about their futures this is a key message I try to get across. Yes of course you need to connect with and work with others to get where you want to be but no one else is responsible for your future success other than yourself.
For many, pursuing their business plan and becoming a successful entrepreneur is a dream prevented from coming true by fear of risk, the uncertainty of irregular income and perhaps also a lack of business finance. Having access to digital marketing consulting services in South Africa will of course also be important. Despite this many are so passionate about their ideas that decide to take the leap, often with rewards of self fulfillment, independence and the freedom to run the business in the way they may choose. But of course starting a new business is not always that straight forward and even the best known entrepreneurs out there have not achieved what they have without good business planning, plenty of hard work and a strong sense of commitment and flexibility in working towards their dream.
So what does this mean for you? What can we learn from those who have gone before us?
Here are some entrepreneurial skills that you can work at developing as you learn how to become an entrepreneur.
1. Create your new entrepreneurial mindset. Before you can become successful, you have to create a new mindset to achieve the things you want in your life. Examine your current mindset, and how that way of thinking has gotten you to where you're at right now. Be honest with yourself when looking over your current results, because this will give you an accurate measure of the choices that you have made over the years. Only then will you begin to see for yourself that it is time for you to work on your new mindset in order to start living the life you want to experience, regardless of your current circumstances. Once your new entrepreneurial mindset is in motion, you will start making very creative choices to move you faster to your desired goals. Find three to four successful entrepreneurs that have the lifestyle that you want, and ask them if you can interview them individually to understand the reasons why they are so successful at what they do in their current business as an entrepreneur. While you are listening to them, take notes, examine what they say to you about themselves and their success, and grasp what type of mindset they have now in their lives. This will propel your own success in so many different ways because you will be able to apply what you have learned to your own mindset.
Apply personal development in your daily life starting today. For example, read good self-help books like the one mentioned at the end of this article. Listen to self-improvement tapes, CDs, and as an extra bonus, attend a least one personal development seminar a year to help grow, maintain and keep your new entrepreneur mindset growing everyday. Your level of awareness will increase greatly with the new mindset that you are creating to go after the things you want in your life. Having an open mind as an entrepreneur will also help you make better decisions quickly, and become more creative.
2. Get out three blank sheets of white paper and a pen or pencil. Take out three blank sheets of white paper and a pen or pencil. You are going to write down your new mindset as an entrepreneur on your sheets of paper. Writing down what you want (and what you are going to achieve as an entrepreneur) is a very powerful activity that you are making a habit of now. Taking out your sheets of paper right now is a serious gesture that you are making to let your subconscious mind know you are a person of action. This step will help propel you on your new journey, the journey of taking the necessary steps needed to achieve your desired goals. These three blank sheets of paper represent your future. As an entrepreneur with a new mindset you can paint any picture you want to on the three sheets of paper, regardless of your current circumstances.
3. Write down all of your new ideas as an entrepreneur on the first sheet of paper. Label the first blank sheet of paper you have as number one. You have been spending some time changing the way you think, and creating a new entrepreneur mindset: Start writing down all of the new ideas that you have as an entrepreneur now. The entrepreneur ideas that you are writing down now are the ones that you have been thinking about in your mind that you want to create and achieve in your physical presence now. For example, if you have a burning desire in your heart to start your own daycare center, restaurant, hotel, or create a product for people to buy, then write down all of your ideas in every detail. Write down how big the daycare center is going to be, where it is going to be located, what color the building is going to be, how many children you will allow to be kept in your daycare, how many people you will staff, what type of services you will provide to the parents and children coming to the daycare. This is a perfect example of how you can start writing down all of your ideas as an entrepreneur on the sheet of paper now.
4. Write your short-, middle- and long-term goals down on the second sheet of paper. A short-term goal is something you want to achieve in one day, one week or one month. A middle-term goal is something you want to achieve in ninety days to six months. A long-term goal is something you want to achieve in one year or more. Write down what you want to achieve as an entrepreneur on the second blank sheet of paper. List them in the categories stated above as short-, middle- and long-term goals. At the top of the paper, you can have your short-term goals, in the middle section of the paper, you can have your middle-term goals, and at the bottom of the paper you can have your long-term goals (if necessary use the back side of the sheet of paper). Be creative when writing down your goals because this is your life that you will be experiencing in the near future. This is one of the biggest reasons why 1% of our population is earning around 96% of all the money that’s being earned in our world today. They set goals, and they keep at them until they have seen them through into their physical manifestation.
5. Write down fifty things you want to experience in your life now on the third sheet of paper. Write down fifty things that you want to experience in your life now on the third blank sheet of paper. You can start really having some fun in this step by writing down fifty things that you want right now regardless of your current bank account, job, business or relationships in your life now. Those fifty things that you write down will help you to understand that you can have whatever you want in your life as an entrepreneur. However, you have to first know what you want in detail. For example, you might want a brand new house in the city that you are currently living in. If you write down that you want a brand new house, however, that is not what you really want, and it is not in enough detail for you to realize that you can have what you want now. If you write down that you want a brand new two-story house that has five bedrooms, and four bathrooms with a whirlpool Jacuzzi in the master bedroom upstairs, and brown hardwood floors all throughout the downstairs of the house, now you are really writing about wanting that house! You can see it clearly in your mind, and you will surely take the necessary actions when the time comes to buy that home (without violating the rights of others in achieving your goal). This will surely move you in the direction of taking the steps necessary to meet your goals. Many wealthy entrepreneurs get what they want every time because they write it down on paper first; then, they go after it in their daily life.
6. Integrate personal development into your daily lifestyle. Start applying personal development everyday in your daily life. With the new mindset you have now, you should continue to feed your mind everyday with personal development. For instance, you can take out three minutes in a day and meditate on goals or just clear your mind of everything for the moment. Read a good book on personal growth, listen to meditation music, have a conversation with a positive person and people or obtain a personal development program to help keep your mind on track in accomplishing your goals. The meaning of personal development can be found in the term "self-help," which means any practice whereby an individual or a group attempts self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually or emotionally. So you see this is some great stuff to add as a part of your daily life and it will certainly help move you in the right direction. Successful entrepreneurs apply personal development in their daily lives everyday. They work ninety percent on themselves, and ten percent on their businesses. So with that in mind, personal development is a must to achieve success as an entrepreneur.
7. Give yourself a command and follow it. Now that you have been thinking and writing about your goals, the things you want, and your ideas as an entrepreneur, give yourself a command on what you want to achieve first as an entrepreneur, and follow it until you see it through to the finish. Then you can move on to something else that you want to focus on and achieve. You will continue the same process over and over--whatever you decide you want to achieve, give yourself a command and follow it until it is achieved. This is part of achieving entrepreneur success.
8. Keep your new mindset positive by hanging around like-minded individuals. Hang around more like-minded individuals daily, monthly and yearly to keep a positive mindset. Hanging around individuals that have the same entrepreneurial concepts that you do will keep your mindset in a positive state, and on the right track to achieve your goals. You can hang around like-minded individuals by either listening to a group of individuals on the phone via conference calls, attending seminars, being part of an online forum of positive people like yourself, and keeping in contact with the positive like-minded people you have formed a relationship with on your journey in achieving your goals. The more positive like-minded people you associate with regularly, the more it will certainly keep moving you in the direction of becoming successful as an entrepreneur.
9. Take seven minutes out of everyday to visualize the end result of your goal in your mind. Take seven minutes out of your day to visualize the end result of your goal that you have decided to achieve within a specific time frame (as mentioned in step number three). For example, if you decided to own your own daycare center, then you could spend seven minutes in the day visualizing about every aspect of your daycare center as if you currently owned it in the present moment. You can also start off visualizing everything that you wrote about the daycare center in step number three. Then you can work your way to the end result of having the daycare center in your possession now. For instance, visualize the amounts of checks that you are receiving from your customers now that you have the daycare center, visualize different cars parked at your daycare center parking lot, visualize the joint ventures that you have created with other daycare center owners in your area in providing better services in your city. Before successful entrepreneurs became successful, they first visualized the end result of their goal, and continued to dwell on that end result a few minutes of everyday until it became a part of their experience in life.
10. Put four positive affirmation statements on a sticky note around your home, office, and work area in times when you need to be encouraged as you move forward with your new idea. Place your affirmation statements in a specific area in your home, office, and work area to help continue your encouragement in accomplishing your new ideas. Affirmations should always be written as positive statements in the present tense. Placing four affirmation statements on a sticky note around an area that you visit most often will further your actions toward your goal because your affirmations will began to work as supportive thoughts, and a placeholder for a more positive mindset in your daily life. Your affirmation statements should always be written in present tense such as, "I own a daycare center in South Africa," or you can write, "I am a daycare center owner in South Africa." Keep your affirmation statements short, positive, and to the point of what it is that you want to see manifested as an entrepreneur in your life now. You will definitely be putting yourself in the 1% bracket of our population that gets everything they want out of life.
11. Sign your name to the sheets of papers with your new ideas, goals, and the things you want in your life as an entrepreneur. Put your signature on the end of the sheets of paper where you have written down all of your new ideas, goals and the things you want to experience in your life as an entrepreneur. By doing this step, it will promote a sense of seriousness within yourself, that you mean business in accomplishing your ideas, goals and what you want. You also will feel that you have already completed your aspirations by signing your documents of personal achievement. Your signature represents a decided heart and a new mindset. Eric Rodriguez
12. Make a decision to yourself that you will never give up on your new ideas and goals until you see them manifest in your life. Do yourself a huge favor right now and go ahead make the decision to never give up on your new ideas, and goals until you see them manifested in your life as an entrepreneur. Many unsuccessful entrepreneurs in today’s society give up on their goals and ideas at the first sign of temporary defeat. There is no such thing as failure, only temporary defeat in life, period. When a successful entrepreneur has a temporary defeat, he remains calm, relaxed, and confident in his quest to achieve his goal because he understands that every temporary defeat is backed by a great or equal number of successes in his life. That’s why many successful entrepreneurs always get what they want in life; they never give up on what they want.
13. Take action on your new ideas and goals as an entrepreneur. You have been taking action all throughout this article in the steps listed above, so now it is time for you to take the necessary action to make it happen. This step is the meat and potatoes or the salad and yogurt (if you are watching what you eat, you get the picture). Take action everyday on your new ideas and goals as an entrepreneur. You deserve the best that life has to offer, so the only gap between knowing what to do and doing it, is action. Take action everyday regardless of your current circumstances in life. As an entrepreneur with a new mindset, you are the leader, and it's time for you to start living successfully as an entrepreneur in today’s world.
These ideas may not all be straight forward and perhaps not what you see as important to secure business success but the key issue here is that we have to learn from both the best and worse who have gone before us to ensure our own changes of success increases.
The start of the year brings a new mind set, a fresh start. As an entrepreneur its the perfect opportunity to renew your passion and enthusiasm for the business that you are running or are looking to start. Many would be entrepreneurs will take this opportunity to get your business plan written, find the business finance that you need or look for that business partner that will get you past the obstacles you have been facing thus far.
In many ways this is also the best time to forget about failures and ensure you move on and improve the way you do things the next time round. Its time to evolve as an entrepreneur. And that needs to start now!
So what are some of the resolutions you may be making?
Focus on the client
Relentless focus on what the client wants will ensure that you not only take time to understand your clients but also that you give them WHAT THEY WANT. To often do we get caught up into what we want to/can provide while not focusing on what the client wants. Whatever your views on clients - they are the source of revenue for your business so they have to come first.
Take a Risk
Over the past two years, it may have felt that every business decision you made was a risk. Since the market was topsy-turvy and the stocks were diving, you might have felt that just being in business was success enough. It’s not. If you want to thrive in your market, no matter what it is, you need to step up, take a deep breath, and take a risk. You need to do something or say something that NO ONE else has thought of. Or you might want to just do something so insane that people can’t help but talk to you. Risks are exactly why you became an entrepreneur…stop playing things safe this year.
Be Ready for a Stormy Day
That said, having some funds saved up for a rainy day is a good idea too. You want to take risks without having to resort to Ramen noodles for your meals. Each time you get paid, pay your savings account first, then the rest of your bills. It’s going to seem like a lot at first, but once you see that nest egg grow and your blood pressure go down, you’ll see just how important it is to stop spending it all today. You want to have a future, don’t you?
Know Your Market
If you don’t know your market by now, you need to start yesterday. Each and every person that comes to your website, your store, or your Facebook page needs to be someone you know. Even if you don’t know what their middle name is, you need to know their hopes, their dreams, their education level, their income, etc. You need to know who you’re trying to persuade to buy your products. If you don’t know who you’re selling to, you may not be using the most effective sales tactics. For example, if you’re trying to market to a group that’s never on Facebook via a Facebook fan page, you’re not going to get a lot of return on that investment. Get to know your customers through surveys, market research, and talking to loyal customers.
Adapt, Adapt, Adapt
You can’t simply put something out into the market and expect it to be perfect forever. You change, the market changes, and the world changes. For example, today, you can buy your books to read on an e-reader. While this doesn’t seem like a big change, this also means that you should sell any informational products in that e-reader format since that’s what customers will be looking for. Be aware of the changes in your market, adapt your services to them, and see what happens. You don’t have to change your entire business to stay effective.
Look at what the market wants, what the market has, and how your business can stay caught up.
Spread Out
If the last few years taught businesses anything, it’s that you need to spread your marketing out. You need to make sure that you’re not just advertising via mailing lists, but also on Facebook, on Twitter, etc. There are a number of ways you can post your information in all of these spots at the same time, so don’t think this is going to take up a lot of your time. That’s not an excuse. What you will want to do is to find as many social media markets as possible and make sure that your company message and brand are there. You can’t be singularly minded anymore.
Take some time to think of and put an action plan in place to ensure you resolutions are not left behind the first time the going gets tough. Entrepreneurs are a hardy bunch and if you are really passionate about your business you will start TODAY!
Every day we read about new and exciting new businesses in the press or online. Just yesterday there was a story about Amazon, who through their expertise in digital marketing are now dominating the ecommerce space, buying LoveFilm. Amazon already owned 42 percent of Lovefilm. The LoveFilm service and website will remain live, but no other details of Amazon’s plans for the service have been released. If only you wrote that business plan and looked for business finance two years ago when you thought of your great idea the first time then who knows what could have been! Whethr you are starting a business providing commercial paving services , or a fintech or renewable energy business, the fact remians that planning, execution, resilience and a bit of luck, is always need for a business to succeed.
Lovefilm is the top DVD-rental subscription service in Europe. As with Netflix, users sign up for a subscription online and then request DVDs, which are sent by mail. A digital streaming service to PCs, Internet TVs and the Playstation 3 is also available. LoveFilm offers 70,000 titles and has nearly 1.6 million members across the UK, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
You also may have been reminding yourself of what could have been by now if you started that great idea you thought of a few years a ago. If you could only get the money together to actually start the business then you may be the next business attracting interest from Amazon or Google or Yahoo, who are all seemingly interested in buying promising start-ups at the moment. So how do you go about it? Where do you get the business finance you need?
Here is a list of four suggestions that have helped me and will help you be successful when raising money from Angel Investors:
Honesty: Angels, partners and investors appreciate frankness when talking about the business they might invest in. Being an optimist is good, but give honest answers, even if it may hurt your chances of having them invest. Bad news is always better than no news or incorrect news.
Communicate: Go out of your way regularly to communicate after investment. Too many people raise money and then fall of the Earth. Investors are left guessing (unless they call a lot) how things are going. It’s is better to over-communicate about the up’s and down’s of your business. No one likes bad news – but surprises are even worse. Take the time to keep your partners updated with exactly what is going on in your business. This takes a lot of discipline as it is easy to fall out of the habit. If you are willing to keep up with it, and your partners make money, then it will be more much more likely they’ll invest with you again.
Understand before being understood: Before trying to get someone to understand your perspective, first try understanding their perspective. Many entrepreneurs only see the up side to their company and its future value. They tend not to see the down side of their idea. Keep this in mind when you are coming up with potential partnership structures. The risk really should equal the reward. I read recently about an angel that owned 100% of the companies he invests in until a certain return is achieved. Once reached, the Angel converts to 20% permanent equity and hands the business over to the entrepreneur as the instant 80% owner. Although some may hate this idea, it’s this type of creativity that may attract angel investors for your new business idea.
Cash is king: No matter how much time and effort you put into a business it will never be worth more than cash. Never. You will be in for a tough sell with any respectable Angels if you try to convince them that you have a lot to lose (your time and effort) if things don’t go well. This is crap! You will feel hurt, disappointment and some pain, but you can get a job or start another company and they are left with a hole in their pocket. Be respectful of this fact and you will be more successful in your negotiations.
Make sure your business plan is well researched and chances are you will actually get the funding you need. Who knows what may lie on the horizon for you and your business?
