The ABCs Of Entrepreneurship

Whether you're just starting out or struggling through a rut, relearning your ABCs may be just the attitude adjustment you need to take your business to the next level.

written by Paige Arnof-Fenn

I meet and work with other entrepreneurs regularly and have started to see a lot of common traits shared among them. So it got me thinking: If all these entrepreneurs share the same values and traits, then launching and growing your business can really be as easy as ABC.

A is for attitude, and having a good one makes you a magnet for top talent in good times and bad. So much of success in business comes down to a great concept and even better execution. Inevitably there are bumps in the road, so keeping a positive outlook can really inspire others to stay with you through the ups and downs of the journey. An entrepreneur never lets their dreams or vision die. Be bold, take a stance and stick to it, whether the position is popular or not. Oftentimes we see opportunities where others don't, so a little brashness may be required.

The best entrepreneurs I know are courteous, charming & candid, a great combination indeed. They're also determined to turn their ideas into reality.

Everyone talks about the importance of time-management skills, but managing your energy is critical as well. Most entrepreneurs I know are energetic to a fault, which is a great quality because it'll take every bit you have some days just to get through. Staying focused on the important things, not the small stuff, is critical so that you don't get derailed or distracted along the way. Being gregarious and generous will help you make friends before you need them, which can never hurt, and will certainly pay dividends down the road. Never underestimate the power of good deeds and small gestures; others will love you for them and remember them when you least expect it.

Having a great sense of humor and being able to laugh at yourself as needed will get you through many a late night. A funny joke or happy comment can go a long way in the trenches. Innovation is the key to creativity and growth today, and it will inspire thinking big and broad so others want to join your cause. The ability to juggle many tasks simultaneously without dropping any balls along the way is a great quality and comes in handy often. Every entrepreneur has had a few kooky ideas that just might work, so give them a shot, you never know. Sometimes it's those crazy ones along the way that make all the difference.

The best entrepreneurs lead others to a place where they had no idea they even wanted to go. They mentor others along the way, sharing their experience and stories. Creating a new path can be daunting, so it's important to encourage promising ideas; that's where the magic happens and they can learn as much as they give. When entrepreneurship comes naturally as part of your DNA, you've chosen the right career. Entrepreneurs are born more than made I think, and the best ones can't imagine doing anything else. Authenticity always rules. Not everyone is cut out to start a company, so play to your strengths for the best results.

The ability to be optimistic yet realistic is an important trait. It helps you think of creative ways to solve problems that pop up along the way so that you keep trying to find possible answers and exploring ideas. Striking the right balance of being pleasantly persistent as needed is tough to master. Success is about the follow-up and follow-through, not just the great idea. Successful entrepreneurs always question the status quo, and they never get complacent. They also ask a lot of questions to uncover opportunities and issues that exist.

In today's world you have to be remarkable in some way so you stand out from the pack. Blending into the wallpaper will get you nowhere. Be known for doing something better than anyone else out there. Successful entrepreneurs are strategic yet opportunistic so they can take advantage of the right offers along the way. By having a roadmap, you're able to take detours, and sometimes you end up getting to a better place than you ever imagined. But you need a plan so that you can recognize which paths are worth pursuing as you go. There are no shortcuts to paying your dues, so entrepreneurs must be technically competent and have their homework done along the way.

Great entrepreneurs are unflappable with thick skin, and don't take it personally when things don't go their way. They know that's part of the experience and what makes it exciting. Entrepreneurs create value and are incredibly valuable to their most important customers. They wow them at every opportunity they get so they're remembered. The best entrepreneurs create x-traodinary x-periences every time (ok I cheated here). It's really the experience more than the actual product or service that's important, and it's what brings customers back for more of what you're selling. They're young at heart, and never lose their sense of curiosity and wonder. Their eyes still sparkle when they get excited by a great idea. And finally, entrepreneurs are zealous about life; after all, if you're not having fun, why bother?

So the next time you hit a wall or get blocked along the path, just remember your ABCs and get unstuck. Remind yourself why you chose this route. At least for me, I'm certain I'm in the right place--Anywhere But Corporate!

Paige Arnof-Fenn is the founder and CEO of Mavens & Moguls, a strategic-marketing consulting firm whose clients include Fortune 500 companies as well as early stage and emerging businesses.

Retrieved on 16^th October 2009 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/worklife/worklifebalanceadvice/theentrepreneurslifecolumnistpaigearnoffenn/article163592.html

Celebrate Your Customers

written by Mark Stevens

Instead of saying 'thank you,' show customers some real appreciation by giving them your time.

Do you ever give your customers a standing ovation? I mean a real flag waving hoopla?

Do you make a fuss over them? Do you go over the top in demonstrating that you see them as the royalty of your business?

Or do you think it's good enough just to have your invoices printed with 'Thank You' at the bottom? Maybe you send a 'Merry Christmas' email dutifully every year because the business-as usual playbook says so.

If you have fallen into this trap reverse your engines.

· Mediocre salespeople think it's all about them. And that perfunctory thank you is not enough.

· Great salespeople know that it is critical to start with the customer, take a step back to determine what will delight them to make the sale, and then fast forward again to shower the customer with love.

At this point, you may be confusing the idea of celebrating your customers with fawning over them. But I have something else in mind.

Something like actually paying attention to them: caring, thinking, dreaming and wondering enough about what they say and what they are asking, to challenge them. To developing a solution to their needs based on what your analysis tells you is even more valuable to them, instead of just giving them not what they ask for; even if it flies in the face of what they started off thinking they wanted.

You don't serve your customers by dutifully taking orders. That's old school salesmanship and a sure fire way to do the opposite of celebrating your customers. Yes, you may make them happy for the moment but--and this is important--it's at the expense of truly identifying what's in their best interests. You're robbed of the opportunity to influence a change from what they think they want to what it is you discover they really need.

As a CEO and an adviser, I find that my and my firm's best and most productive business relationships are born when a client enters the room thinking they know what they want, and using experience, insight and intuition, we prompt them to change their mind.

The goal is never to be contrarian for its own sake, but to celebrate your client in such a substantive way that you care enough to:

1. Invest in the development of a wiser solution than what the knee jerk response would be.

2. Take the risk of displeasing the client at the outset because you don't agree with them.

3. Engage in something far more powerful than a vendor relationship by transitioning to a collaborator. The fact is, the process of collaboration not only leads to an unusually close affiliation but opens doors of opportunity that are richer and more sustainable than those driven expressly by the desire to make a sale.

Celebrate the customer in the true sense of the word and the economics will take care of itself.

Mark Stevens is the CEO of MSCO, a results-driven management and marketing firm, and the bestselling author of "Your Marketing Sucks" and "God is A Salesman". He is also a popular media commentator on a host of business matters including marketing, branding, management and sales. He is also the author of the popular marketing blog, "Unconventional Thinking".

Retrieved on 2^nd October 2009 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/sales/salescolumnistmarkstevens/article203570.html

Direction Needs Motion Because Goals Are Moving Targets

written by Joel D. Canfield

Seems like a lot of folks are looking for a new direction these days. More and more unintentional entrepreneurs are trying to find their way through an ocean of choices. Too many choices, though, can be worse than too few. Faced with, apparently, an infinite variety of options for the future, paralysis sets in; our hero or heroine feels rudderless, trying to decide which direction to go.

But it's not a rudder they're missing. It's motion.

Goals are rarely set in stone. What's important, even vital, for your business today, isn't necessarily so tomorrow, and almost certainly won't be next year. We have to achieve the paradox of investing mentally, physically and emotionally in a goal as if it were eternal, while recognizing that it may cease to have value, even before it's fully achieved. It will most certainly stop being a goal once it's achieved-after all, it makes no sense to chase something you're holding in your hand.

It's human nature to want the security of a roadmap. We want a step-by-step procedure to get from where we are to that clear destination over there.

That's not how goals work. Reaching goals isn't so much like taking a road trip; it's more like crossing the ocean in a sailboat.

A sailboat is a fine thing, even sitting at the dock. But sitting at docks is not what they're designed for; they're designed to use the wind to push against the waves and, between the two opposing forces, create forward motion.

And now, once the sailboat is under way, the rudder starts working.

As you move across the water, a number of forces affect your direction. Currents in the water, the force and direction of the wind, the shape of the boat's hull, even the distribution of people and things inside the boat, all make it impossible to simply aim at the goal, hold a steady course over some period of time, and arrive at your destination.

You can sit at the dock 'til the cowfish come home, swinging the rudder from side to side, and you'll never find direction. It's only in movement that we can measure our progress against any kind of standards to see if we're heading somewhere we want to go.

Feeling rudderless? Get away from the dock. Head, first, into the safety of a nearby harbor. Check out your rigging and stock the galley with supplies. Do what you reasonably can to prepare for the journey.

And then go. 'Away from the dock' is automatically 'toward something new.' Keep one eye on the compass to see where you're heading, and one on the horizon, to see where you want to go.

And now, now that you're moving, you'll find direction.

For more information about Joel D Canfield's counterintuitive 'business heretic' thinking in his books, audio programs, business coaching, teaching and training, visit his website where you can download the first chapter of his book 'The Commonsense Entrepreneur' absolutely free (you don't even have to give your email address!) Get it as an ebook, audiobook, or even both.

Retrieved on 24 September 2009 from http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/direction-needs-motion-because-goals-are-moving-targets-1259976.html

5 Top Trends To Turn Into Business Ideas

written by Rieva Lesonsky

A great way to get a new business idea or fine-tune the one you have is to look at trends in the marketplace. Here are 5 hot trends to inspire you.

• Seniors - The number of 65-plus people, currently about 35 million Americans, will double in the next 25 years. Seniors (and their kids, the baby boomers--see #2) will need services from in-home care to products designed for seniors to senior day-care or services that help find the best solution for housing and caring for aging parents.
  
  
• Baby Boomers - The 77 million baby boomers make up nearly a fourth of the U.S. population and, by next year, will account for half of all U.S. spending. There are many opportunities here: Boomers need everything from financial services (to help them recoup their retirement losses) to products and services to fit their aging bodies, to anti-aging products. Boomers are big Internet users, so be sure to make the Web part of your business plan.
  
  
• Children - At least 3.8 million children have been born each year since 1987 in the U.S. These babies need lots of stuff--Americans spend hundreds of billions annually on children's products and services. Kids spend their own money too--tweens spend $4 billion a year, and teens spend $125 billion. Products like clothing or grooming products and services like day care, college planning and tutoring are hot areas here.
  
  
• Weddings - Couples spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year getting married, and that number is about to get bigger. The kids (see #3) born in 1987 turn 22 this year; the average U.S. woman marries at 25. In just a few years, a huge wedding boom will start and will continue for at least 22 years. Weddings mean huge opportunities for wedding clothing, accessories, catering, wedding planners, flower shops, honeymoon planners, travel and gifts. As more states legalize gay marriage, the potential will only increase.
  
  
• Business Services - As businesses large and small lay off staff, more business services are being outsourced--meaning opportunity for entrepreneurs to provide those services. Demand for temporary workers is rising, and niche staffing services l specializing in health care, technology and sales will grow. Social media experts are also hot, as are tech consultants and digital storage services.

Rieva Lesonsky is CEO of GrowBiz Media, a content and consulting company that helps entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. If you have business questions you can ask her at www.askrieva.com.

Retrieved on 8^th October 2009 from http://www.ideablob.com/posts/366

What's Your Best Business Advice?

Retrieved on 6th October 2009 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/199826.html

Becoming An Entrepreneur Is Not Always Easy

written by Marya Miller

Becoming an entrepreneur may have been the last thing on your mind, when you first dreamed of coming “home” to work, long before actually taking the Big Step. There are many motivations for turning our back on the corporate world; some common, some unique. Common reasons include:

• Wanting to be there for our children
• Wanting to be our own boss
• Needing more flexibility
• Being frustrated by limitations to creativity
• Wanting to work in an area we’re passionate about

But there are two more reasons hardly anyone talks about…

• Wanting to hide
• Not being able to “cut it” in the “real world”

These latter two reasons are at direct cross purposes with the spirit of entrepreneurship. If these reasons featured in your decision, do stop to take a long, hard look at your motivations – and check out the truth of confidence-crashing assumptions you may be secretly making about yourself.

The truth is, maybe the “real world” just didn’t cut it for you – and was it so “real”, to begin with? If so, you may have good reason for feeling like wanting to hide for a while. Burn-out will do that to you.

What is an entrepreneur? Someone who thinks “outside the box”. Someone who always takes things that one step further – he’s the one most liable to put a slice of mango on his burger, just to see if it works better than relish or mustard.

Entrepreneurs are always looking for that extra way to tweak something past “great” into “outstanding!” While everyone else is busy looking for ways to make their business more complicated, the true entrepreneur is focusing on making the same service brilliantly simple and more accessible to her target market than anyone than anyone else.

Most of all, a true entrepreneur looks at mistakes and failures as tremendous learning opportunities. And this is such an identifying entrepreneurial characteristic, it’s become almost a cliché!)

So if you’re at home, staring at your computer screen, wondering where to start and fending off thoughts like, “I’ll never figure this out” and secretly being afraid that you’ve already “failed” – relax. It’s time to shift your mindset a little. After all, you’re reading this article just now, right? You haven’t given up. You’re not hiding.

Maybe you’re just having a bad day.

When you’ve had that rest, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, look in the mirror and lift your chin. Say “I am an entrepreneur! I freelance because I love it!”

Trust yourself. Trust your values and reasons. Then stick your Viking helmet back on your head, mount your muscly white charger and head back into the fray.

After all, it’s much more fun.

About the Author: Marya Miller is a freelance copywriter based in Canada. Formerly a scientist wrangler, Marya is compulsively addicted to both writing and marketing.

Retrieved on 28^th September 2009 from http://www.thesavvyfreelancer.com/management/entrepreneur-not-easy#more-361

Entrepreneurial Survivor Stories

Retrieved on 1st October 2009 from http://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/173762.html