Entrepreneurship 03 (Sep 15 - Dec 27)

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Rules for Business Start-ups

by Brian Tracy

Entrepreneurship is the art of finding profitable solutions to problems. Every successful entrepreneur, every successful businessperson has been a person who has been able to identify a problem and come up with a solution to it before somebody else did. Here are the five rules for entrepreneurship.


Find A Need And Fill It

First, find a need and fill it. Ross Perot, when he was working for IBM, saw that his customers who were buying IBM computers, needed help in processing their data. He went to IBM with this idea and they said they weren't interested, so he started his own business. He eventually sold it out for $2.8 billion dollars. He found a need and he filled it.


Find A Problem And Solve It

The second rule is to find a problem and solve it. A secretary working for a small company began mixing flour with nail varnish in order to white out the mistakes she was making in her typing. Pretty soon, her friends in the same office asked if she could make some for them. So she began mixing it on her kitchen table.

Then, people in other offices started asking for it, and she eventually quit her business and worked full time creating what is today called Liquid Paper. A few years ago, she sold her company to Gillette Corporation for 47 million dollars.


Look For Solutions

Find a problem and solve it. Find a problem that everybody's got and see if you can't come up with a solution for it. Find a way to supply a product or a service better, cheaper, faster or easier. Clemmons Wilson saw that there was a need for hotels that could accommodate families that were traveling, and he started Holiday Inns. And Holiday Inns has now become one of the most successful hotel chains in the world.


Focus On Your Customer

Here's the key to success in business. Become obsessed with your customer. Fixate on your customer. Think of the customer. Think of what the customer wants, what the customer needs. What the customer will pay for, what the customer's problems are.

Thomas J. Watson, Senior, the founder of IBM, taught his people and built his company on this principle. See yourself as working for the customer. Once you've come up with a product or an idea, then start to invest your time, talent and energy instead of your money, to get started.


The Source of Most Great Fortunes

Remember this, most great fortunes in America were started with an idea and with personal efforts. Most great fortunes were started with the sale of personal services. This is called sweat equity. In other words, instead of cash equity, put in sweat equity. Put in the sweat of your brow to begin your business. You can learn valuable lessons operating on a small scale.


Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action:

First, find a need and fill it. Look around you and search for needs that people have for products or services that are not being met. One small idea is enough to start you on the way to business success.

Second, find a problem and solve it. Look around you for problems that you or other people have that are not yet being solved. Look for solutions that nobody has thought of and give them a try. One good solution could change the whole direction of your life.


Source: Brian Tracy International

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4 Success Habits


Success Habit #1: Surround Yourself With Smart & Successful People

One of the very first moves I made as a new online entrepreneur (this was before I even had a product to sell) was attending an internet marketing seminar. Man, I felt like the dumbest guy in the room.

But that day, I made friends with guys and gals who I now call my closest friends and business partners. In order to become successful, you must surround yourself with people who know more than you. Intellectual osmosis


Success Habit #2: Be A Sponge

If you’re not actively learning every single day, you’ll never get closer to your goal of having an online business. Set aside at least 5 hours a week of study time to soak up as much knowledge as possible. The more you learn, the quicker you’ll be able to confidently implement.

There are plenty of teachers out there with resources on how to start your business… and remember, it’s not a “one-fits-all” approach. Find the strategy that works best for YOU.


Success Habit #3: Invest in Your Success

You have to spend money to make money. That is a fact of business. One of the scariest decisions I ever made was to join a high-ticket mastermind group, knowing full well I couldn’t afford it.

That decision (and I have to give credit to Natalie for pulling the trigger) completely shifted my mindset and propelled me forward. The good news is, you don’t need to start there. Today, there are so many lower priced programs, tools and events you can invest in to get off on the right foot.


Success Habit #4: Recognize Opportunities

How many times have you let an opportunity slip through the cracks? Maybe you procrastinated, or worried about the cost, or argued that you didn’t have the time. You don’t want to say “YES!” to every opportunity that comes your way… but recognize the good ones.

Are you saying “no” because it’s truly a lemon? Or are you just scared of stepping up and playing a bigger game? Some food for thought.

Source: Abundant Entrepreneur

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"A mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm, will go further than a great idea that inspires no one.”

— Mary Kay Ash

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Formula for Entrepreneurial Success

By Ev Williams


1. Work with Amazing People

Don’t compromise on who you choose to found your company with and hire. Do not put up with ego-centric personalities or downer attitudes.


2. Take on Big Challenges

It’s pretty simple: Hard things are valuable; easy things are not so valuable. Reaching the mountaintop is rewarding because it is hard. If it was easy, everybody would do it.


3. Focus

Say no to most things: Features. People. Partnerships. “Coffees.” Projects. Only a few of them really matter. (Yes, it’s hard to know which.) Don’t get distracted.


4. Take Care of Yourself

When you don’t sleep, eat crap, don’t exercise, and are living off adrenaline for too long, your performance suffers. Your decisions suffer. Your company suffers.


5. Love those Close to You

​Failure of your company is not failure in life. Failure in your relationships is.


Source: ETR

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10 Bad Habits Preventing Your Business From Succeeding

Source: Entrepreneur.com

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/270130

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My Advice for Starting a Business

BY LEO BABAUTA

http://zenhabits.net/startup/

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“You don’t need to know how to create products or motivate people or manage anything to successfully start a business.

What you need are two fundamental skills:
1) You have to know how to make a sale.
2) You have to be able to put that sales process into action.

Once your business is making sales and you have achieved a minimum critical mass of customers, your problems, challenges, and opportunities change.”

– Mark Ford

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7 Steps to Small Business Success

by Brian Tracy

Many businesspeople achieve their greatest successes in unexpected areas. How, you ask?

Some begin a business and then they find that it isn't as profitable as they had anticipated, so they change direction, using their experience and their momentum, and strike paydirt in something else. The most important thing is to begin. To take action. To move forward one step at a time, learning and growing as you go.

There is enough information available in virtually every field for you to become knowledgeable enough to achieve success. But action is necessary. Below are seven simple steps that will give you the tools you need to succeed. But, first, I want to give you my free report called "Building Your Network" so you can start making connections and building a business network for greater success.

The Two Parts of Business Success

Success author Orison Swett Marden once wrote, the first part of success is get-to-it-ivness. The second part is stick-to-it-iveness.

Every business beginning requires an act of faith and courage, a bold leap into the unknown. Only one in ten people who want to start their own businesses ever develop enough courage to begin and enough persistence to continue. Get-to-it-iveness. And stick-to-it-iveness. The fear of failure, more than anything else, holds people back. It paralyzes action. And it makes failure inevitable.

Begin With a Dream

Fortunately, even if you know nothing about business, you can begin with a dream, a castle in the air, and then build a foundation under it.

Seven Simple Steps

The starting point of many great fortunes has been these seven simple steps. Number one; set a goal and backs it with a burning desire. Number two; begin accumulating capital with a regular savings program. Nothing else is possible without this. You cannot move forward until you start a savings program.

Use Your Current Job as a Springboard

Number three; use your current job as a springboard to later success. Learn while you earn. Take the long view. Number four; experiment in business on a limited scale so you can learn the key abilities necessary for success. Number five, search for problems, needs unmet, products or services you can supply of good quality at reasonable prices.

Read Everything You Can Find

Number six, read everything you can find on your chosen field. Remain flexible. Be willing to change your mind if you get different information. And number seven; implement your plans with courage and persistence. Have complete faith in your ability to succeed and never, never give up.

Action Exercises

Now, here are two actions you can take immediately to start moving toward entrepreneurial success:

First, set a goal, make a plan and then launch your plan. Get started. Do something. Begin on a small scale with limited risk and investment but get going!

Second, resolve that, no matter what happens, you will never, never give up until you are successful. Before you accomplish anything worthwhile, you will have to pass the persistence test. And the test will come far sooner than you imagine.

Source: Brian Tracy International

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The Eight-Step Plan to Overcoming Your Biggest Fears

By Mark Ford


When business writers talk about why so few people become entrepreneurs, they cite "fear of failure" as the No. 1 challenge.

I agree. Fear of failing is a real factor. But to overcome it, you need to figure out what it means in more specific terms.

When I feel trepidation about starting a venture, I'm not worried about something as abstract as "failure."

I worry mainly about three things…

I sometimes worry I don't have the knowledge or skills to make the idea successful. I worry I might lose all the time and money I'm about to invest in the idea. And I worry if word gets out I've had to close, businesspeople will think I'm a fool. (Especially the people who doubted my idea in the first place.)

Bestselling author Seth Godin talks about that first fear. He says most people who buy books on entrepreneurship never get beyond the dreaming stage because "deep down inside, they don't think they have what it takes to succeed."

I don't know if that's the most common fear of starting a business. I wish it were. But I'm afraid too many entrepreneurs have the opposite problem.

They don't realize they don't have what they need to succeed.

If you have that fear, you should respect it… because nine times out of 10, it's valid.

My No. 1 rule of wealth-building is to invest only in what you know. If you think you might not know enough or have the right resources, you probably don't.

The solution to that fear is to put your plan on hold and acquire the experience to know what you need to know.

If your fear is being shamed by a failure, you can – and should – move forward. You can overcome this kind of fear by simply imagining the worst possible outcome and visualizing being emotionally OK with that.

Another thing you can do is be a bit humble when you're announcing your venture.

Rather than bragging about all the money you'll be making, keep the claims small and try a little self-deprecating humor. "This is probably a terrible idea, but I'm going to try it."

If your fear is losing your time and money, you need to follow the protocol I outline in The Reluctant Entrepreneur…

1. Keep your current job and all your current income.

2. Start the business in your spare time at home.

3. Spend the first few days creating a short business plan. Identify your product and why you believe you can sell it. List the media where you can advertise. Do a quick and dirty cost/benefit analysis. The entire plan should be no more than four pages.

4. Spend the next few weeks or months, spending as little money as you can, testing your "optimal selling strategy" – your plan for selling your product: how you will position it, how much you will charge for it, what media you will use to advertise it, and what sort of advertising copy you will use.

5. Find a corner of the overall marketplace where you can test your selling strategy cheaply. If your ultimate market is retail, for example, you could consider selling your product on Sundays at a flea market.

6. Create a cash-flow projection that'll allow you to ramp up your marketing if the initial testing is positive.

7. If possible, get someone to act as your mentor – a retired business owner who's willing to teach you what you need to know and encourage you to take the steps you have to take.

8. When the business starts growing, read Ready, Fire, Aim, my book on the subject. That will give you the details of what you need to do to take your business from inception to $100 million in annual revenues and beyond.
Fear is a good and useful emotion. Successful entrepreneurs don't deny it. They overcome it sensibly and cautiously by taking baby steps and proving the optimal selling strategy before going big.

If you have what it takes, don't let either the fear of embarrassment or the fear of losing time and money get in your way. Keep your risk low and your dreams high.

Source: The Palm Beach Research Group

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Getting True Value Out of Life

By Mark Ford

Here is a short list:

1. You will never get rich chasing the next hot opportunity. Understand the larger business trends. Discover how wealth builders of the past have profited from them. And do the same with your time and money.

2. All businesses develop in much the same way. They go through stages, each one of which has its own problems, challenges, and opportunities. To take your business from one level to the next, you must learn what these problems, challenges, and opportunities are and take advantage of them.

3. Never invest in a business or an industry that you don’t understand. It doesn’t matter how great the opportunity seems. If you don’t know the market well, you will inevitably make bad and costly decisions.

Source: ETR