Entrepreneur Tips

Elur Business Opportunity Email

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:50:00 +0000

Elur is a newly built network marketing company located in Tampa, Florida dealing with the health and wellness industry. This business officially started on July 28, 2010 and is actually a multi-level marketing (MLM) home-based company. This company promotes different forms of products such as: powder mix, multivitamins, and a nutritional healthy drink in the maqui berry flavor and others. These products are categorized by four main selections; Cardio, Mind, Multi-V, and Immune. Home-based employees strive to get the best advertisement results by online postings and emails only.

Most MLM home-based firms barely stay in business for a year so Elur is reaching for new opportunities to advertise and sell their products. Most businesses still believe in spreading the word through friends/family, business brochures, DVDs, or fliers. Elur does not believe that that type of advertisement will be as beneficial as online contact and networking.

This company has grown rapidly using modern but smart ways of advertisement. The results are accessible by doing a quick Google search by finding nothing but positive outlooks and reviews. This marketing company has a strong management team who have set very powerful expectations. The business works as a team to efficiently contact and advertisement their products over the web. The purpose of this method is to spread the word of the business through networking and friends of friends. This process is a great tool to use because mostly everyone searching for ideas and solutions to their needs online.

Small Business 504 Loans in Utah

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 21:10:00 +0000

If you live in Utah and have a small business, or you want to start up a small business, then it's likely that you'll need a loan. If that's the case, you should go to UTAH CDC (certified development company). They have two locations - in Ogden, Utah and in Salt Lake City, Utah.

They are authorized by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to serve the Utah small business community. They assist small businesses in financing up to 90% of the purchase of long-term fixed assets, such as land, building (existing and new construction), and equipment.

As you can see from the image above, they offer low, fixed interest rates on a 20-year term, and only require a small down payment. Visit their website for the specifics on the terms of their loans and their process, as well any forms you need and contact information for you to reach them with any further questions.

NEBS Business Forms

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:28:00 +0000

NEBS, or New England Business Service, began in 2004. What they offer is resources for small businesses by providing products and services to help manage, promote, and grow their businesses. They sell to over 6 million businesses and home offices across North America.

Their products include checks, business forms, envelopes, labels, greeting cards, merchandising aids, advertising specialties, promotional apparel, embossed foil anniversary seals, stationary, and packaging, shipping, and warehouse supplies. If you visit their website and look through their products, this is one of the pages you might see:

They currently have some holiday specials, where you can save up to 50% so check them out ASAP and see what you can get for your business today.

Nike Unethical Business Practices

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:38:00 +0000

Nike is very well known, especially for the specialty in work-out wear, like shoes:

Despite how well-known they are and how fantastic their products may be, the also deal with several unethical business practices that have been brought to our attention. These issues are child labor laws, wages, and outsourcing's effect on sales.

One example is a Nike sweatshop labor case which stirred up a lot of controversy over ethical business practices. They tried to recover from the bad press, but they still struggle with negative feelings for customers all around the U.S. Even though they provide jobs to people who would not otherwise have one, they were paying just $1.60 a day to Vietnamese factory workers when the living wage is at least $3 per day.

Another issue they have encountered is that workers with skin or breathing problems hadn't been transferred to departments that don't deal with any chemicals and more than half of the workers that handled these chemicals did not wear protective masks or gloves.

Also, Nike hired children who were not allowed to work and forced them to work overtime for lower than minimum pay. Children in Korea were as young as 13 making only 10 cents an hour and working 17 hour days.

Nike did take appropriate steps to fix these unethical practices they were accused of, but they shouldn't have waited until they were caught - they should have done it as soon as they realized it once they were made aware of the conditions their workers were working in.

Pytheas Business Development

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:24:00 +0000

Pytheas is a top-management advisory firm that helps its corporate, nonprofit, and government organization clients to achieve lasting and substantial improvements in performance. They concentrate on matters of concer to top management.

What they do is put together a team of specialists who work full-time for the client for the duration of the project. The teams are led by an engagement partner, who provides thought leadership for the group and is responsible for the day-to-day planning and distribution of tasks. They usually include the clients' managers on their teams and work with them side-by-side in doing detailed analytical work to ensure their commitment to the team's recommendations, and building their own skills and knowledge for the benefit of the entire organization. They regularly step back from the analysis and think about any implications so they can report back to the client, usually weekly, and bring up any issues requiring senior client input.

Pytheas has a basic business strategy that they use as a guideline with their clients. They combine innovative and in-depth industry and company analysis with high-level, comprehensive macro-economic perspectives, their research staff to steadily raised a well-established tradition of excellence to gradually higher levels.

Product experts, country specialists, and industry analysts work together to design, recommend, and customize and fine-tune investment strategies that clients can act on in keeping with their portfolio preferences and imperatives.

For more information about this business, visit their website.

Entrepreneur Personality

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:21:00 +0000

Every business is different, but there are certain personality traits that stand out among many successful business owners. I'm going to share with you six key traits that typically define the personality of a successful entrepreneur.

First trait is that they are collaborative. You might think that business owners would tend to micro-manage every little detail, but the successful ones actually know how to collaborate. The best bosses can delegate tasks to others, create strong relationships with other team members, and create opportunities that motivate everybody on staff.

Curiosity tends to be another common trait among entrepreneurs. They are constantly researching and scouring on the internet to try to find ways they can improve their business, retain their employees, and innovate their products. If you can't stop asking questions or wondering what the competition is doing, then you're on the right track.

You need to be focused on the future. Keep a keen eye on what's coming up. If you plan out your cash flow and succession plans far in advance, you'll likely to better than your short-sighted peers.

Many business owners like to be self-fulfilled. They are the kind of people who like to be in control of their own destiny over the security of a corporate position. They value the freedom to make their own choices over affluence and structure.

You also need to be pretty tech-savvy. You can become a better business owner by putting a high value on keeping up with the latest technologies. Those that do, figure out how best to track their packages and keep company e-mail in high gear. Most of all, they are convinced that technology can help make their business more efficient.

Lastly, entrepreneurs are, above all, action-oriented. They are highly motivated to set themselves apart from the competition. Motivation makes them work harder and makes them less likely to worry about the state of the economy.

Those six traits are the most important things to keep in mind. If you possess all of them, then you are likely to be a very good and successful entrepreneur with your business.

Entrepreneurship Development

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:45:00 +0000

An entrepreneur usually has highs and lows in their career, as many people do. Usually, the lows are in the early states of the development, while learning to master the trade and maintaining the momentum to make sales. When they hit the highs and become more established, it usually sticks and at this point, they end their trail as an entrepreneur and move onto the next idea.

What I'm going to go over with you here today are the different stages that you go through while developing your business to become an entrepreneur.

The first part of the process are usually taken in small strides. It starts with the initial idea, some research, and a little investment. You need to take this slowly - you can't run before you know how to walk - so this is of ultimate importance that you don't walk into the world of business and fall at the first jump because you went too soon. Take that initial idea seriously but don't obsess. Try to keep a clear mind about the potential, but don't get caught up with your imagination of having your product selling millions each year. The most important thing here is to not put off til tomorrow what you can do today because you'll pick up bad habits and become a procrastinator, which rarely makes good business people.

On your way up the ladder, stand tall. This phase comes a few months after you've taken those first initial steps. You should, at this point, feel comfortable being an entrepreneur and should be making some money from your ventures. This phase is also the most risky. For many, this is where the trip ends because they either don't have the confidence to give their idea a real go or they ultimately become more afraid of success than failure and quit right before they become a success. This stage is the true test for entrepreneurs. If you pass it, you're well on your way to the final goal.

That final goal is actually achieving what you've set out to do and are on the up. There is a good chance that there will be more on the road ahead after this point, but it varies for each business. The good news is that once you've reached this far, you've made it as an entrepreneur. You should not be reaching any financial goals from your venture and be looking to expand soon. You will have earned the respect of friends and family and can safely call yourself an entrepreneur. It does take a lot of hard work and some luck and a lot of motivation, but you made it and now you can enjoy the fruits of your success.

There are a few things that you can do which would cause you to fail as an entrepreneur in the development process, but, being an optimist, I know you'll just pay attention to the advice above and become a success.

Eco Entrepreneur

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:47:00 +0000

An eco entrepreneur is just like any other entrepreneur except that one of their goals in business is to be friendly to the environment, or "go green." So how does a business do that? Is it just recycling plastics and paper or is there more to it?

There are definitely challenges presented from working a green business. They need to keep up with a few general guidelines:

Follow trends in regulations and standards, which can change overnight. Governments change them for a variety of reasons, including lobbying and scientific evidence.
Become familiar with international environmental agreements. The markets created from those will be massive, and cut across many regions and industries. Technologies developed to comply with the agreements will focus on eco-efficiency, pollution prevention, and sustainability.
Monitor technological advances, such as those taking place in electronics and photovoltaics. Technical advances, and reduced costs, can make new activities, products or services possible.
Watch for economic and social trends that are pulling the development of sustainable technologies. These include higher prices for resources and a move by governments away from regulation towards economic instruments and performance standards.

There are even some tools available to help you select from the vast range of these technological developments:

Technology trees organize technologies into functional groups. They show which technologies should be regarded as competitors, which might be especially promising, and which have the largest potential markets.
Assessment criteria for technology opportunities help evaluate the appropriateness of a technology for a particular market and entrepreneur. Useful criteria include the state and timing of the technological development, its physical and financial scale, its potential market size, and barriers to entry.
Characteristics of the technology that make it sustainable.

So follow the guidelines and use the tools and you're on your way to becoming and eco-entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur Salary

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:04:00 +0000

The easy answer to give you for this one is that it depends. There is no real exact number to give you of what entrepreneurs make. It depends - on success, business type, etc. There is a lot that goes into figuring out what your salary is as an entrepreneur

You're the business owner so you're the one that sets the budget. You need to factor in three key items: pay yourself what you need to cover expenses, what your business can afford to pay you, and the salary you left behind to launch the business.

Start off by calculating what you need. What are your living expenses and your current financial situation? Put together a list of your expenses, including annual, quarterly, and monthly (rent or mortgage, car payments, insurance, credit cards, etc.). Underestimating your personal needs can be one of the biggest mistakes. Once you have your total annual expenses, divide it by 12 to come up with your monthly salary that you will need. Then decide what portion of your savings you'll feel comfortable drawing on during the early stages. If you're going to keep your current job, add your annual salary to the personal savings figure. Then subtract that number from your total annual expenses and divide by 12. That gives you the minimum salary needed per month.

Once you have that all figured out you need to determine what you're worth. What I mean by that is, based on your knowledge and skills, the time you'll put in, and the work you'll perform, you need to compute your worth. You can do this one of two ways. First, do an open market value. What that means is what would you be paid by an employer in today's market. The second is comparable companies. What do owners of similarly sized and industry and geographic location pay themselves? Neither of these calculations take into account the work you'll be doing, but it's a good place to start.

And lastly, what can your business afford? Once you know the salary you need and deserve, you have to balance that figure against your business' finances. Check the cash-flow to make sure you have enough money coming in to cover you and other operating expenses.

Deciding what you should get paid is based on just a few factors. You need to make sure other expenses are covered first before you decide how much you'll get. Make sure you can make enough to meet at least the minimum requirements for your expenses, to start off. The more your business grows, the more you can increase your own salary.

Global Entrepreneur

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:07:00 +0000

Global entrepreneurs look at content, context, and contacts to design and launch successful new ventures based on innovative technologies. They chase opportunities that are created by distance, learn how to manage operations from far away, and hunt for the planet's best manufacturing locations, brightest talents, most willing investors, and most profitable customers, no matter where they might be.

Global entrepreneurs are innovators and job creators who launch start-ups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth, and expand human welfare.

Next week is this year's Global Entrepreneur Week (GEW). It's from November 15-20. During this week organizations in 118 countries conduct a range of different activities, events, and competitions, which are designed to promote some level of entrepreneurial activity. These activities, at a minimum, connect participants to potential collaborators, investors, and mentors.

Global entrepreneurs, like all others, are fired up by their dreams and passions. They have the ambition to create new jobs, generate revenue, advance innovation, enhance productivity, and improve business models and processes.

Entrepreneur Mindset

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:59:00 +0000

One of the main reasons people choose to go out on their own and start their own business is so they can love what you do. You like the flexibility the job gives you, as well as getting to be creative and shaping your own future. Entrepreneurs seem to grow their businesses effortlessly and maintain a steady growth.

An entrepreneur is a great strategist and a master at getting others excited about helping them grow their business. They know they need to develop multiple profit centers, not just one or two, so they're constantly looking for creative opportunity to do that. They're not always selling time for money. They know how to make the most of every opportunity to bring in new prospects and convert them into paying clients, and get them to continue purchasing. What that means is carefully planning, strategizing, and measuring results against expectations and then readjusting. They take calculated risks and learn from the ideas that fail.

To keep the mindset of an entrepreneur, keep in mind that in a world of uncertainty, your philosophy needs to be to take charge. Nobody knows that the future will hold, but if you take charge you can at least attempt to navigate your way to your vision. You need to experiment, but do so intelligently. Don't view every business move as a do-or-die, but focus on your priorities and weed out unprofitable endeavors. Good entrepreneurs balance current, profitable, business operations with an eye for future opportunities.

Create an opportunity portfolio, where you have all of your options and each one is either pursued or abandoned. The goal is to learn as you go and convert assumptions to knowledge at a low cost. Don't try to undertake too many product launches or pursue too many forays into test markets at the same time. Learn to manage your opportunity portfolios by allocating both physical assets and personnel resources.

Map out all of your company's projects and the monthly people-hours demanded by each so you don't take on too much at once. Keep in mind that sometimes abandoning an activity that has been a central focus of a business is required if it appears the the future profitability of the endeavor will be low. Making such a change is demanding.

You need to evaluate how you're doing. Focus upon your performance with benchmarks and guides. Ratios are a key tool to know your performance level because they help align the efforts of everybody in that company based on a common set of measures.

Once that mindset is in place, small business growth can explode. These people are the ones who a big vision for their business and life. Become obsessed with the potential of your business and be determined to think like an entrepreneur.

Qualities of Entrepreneurs

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:18:00 +0000

Successful entrepreneurs have several traits in common with each other. They are confident and optimistic, self-starters, and open to new ideas that come across. Following are some of those traits that most successful entrepreneurs possess.

Discipline. Entrepreneurs are focused on making their business work and to do so, they eliminate any distractions. They very typically have strategies and tactical outlines to accomplish those goals. They are disciplined enough to take steps toward achieving their objectives.
Confidence. Entrepreneurs don't ask questions about whether or not they can succeed or if they are worthy of success. They're confident with knowing they will make their business successful and exude confidence in everything they do.
Open-minded. They realize that every even and situation is an opportunity for business. Ideas are always generated about workflow and efficiency, people skills and potential new businesses. Entrepreneurs are able to look at everything around them and focus it toward their goals.
Self-starter. They know and understand that if something needs to be done, they need to start it. Entrepreneurs set the parameters and make sure that projects follow those parameters. They're proactive and don't just wait around for somebody to give them permission.
Competitive. Many companies are formed because entrepreneurs know that they can do jobs better than anybody else. They tend to feel the need to win at the sports they play and at the businesses they create. Entrepreneurs will highlight their own company's track record of success.
Creativity. They need to make connections between events or situations that seem unrelated. Entrepreneurs can come up with solutions which are the synthesis of other items. They will repurpose products to market them to new industries.
Determination. They are not thwarted by their defeats. Entrepreneurs look at those defeats as opportunities for success. They are determined to make their endeavors succeed and will try and try again until that happens. They do not believe that something cannot be done.
Strong people skills. They have strong communication skills to help sell the product and motivate their employees. Most entrepreneurs know how to motivate employees so the business can grow. They're very good at highlighting the benefits of any situation and coaching others to their success.
Strong work ethic. Entrepreneurs will be the first person to arrive at the office and the last one to leave it. They come in on their days off to make sure that an outcome meets their expectation. They are constantly thinking about their work, even if they are not in the workplace.
Passion. This is the most important trait of a successful entrepreneur. They genuinely love what they do and are willing to put in extra hours to make the business succeed because there is a joy their business gives that goes beyond money. They will always be reading and researching ways to make the business better.

Successful entrepreneurs want to see the view from the top of the mountain. Once they do, they want to go further up. They know how to talk to their employees and their businesses soar because of that. If you have and possess these qualities, then it is likely that you are, or can become, a very successful entrepreneur.

Immigrant Entrepreneurs

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:18:00 +0000

Did you know that Google, McDonald's and General Electric (GE) were all founded by an immigrant to the U.S. or a child of an immigrant? Research has shown that immigrants not only disproportionately start companies, but are especially successful in launching high-growth, high-tech firms. More than 40 percent of the companies on Fortune magazine's list of the 500 largest U.S. public companies were founded by immigrants or their children.

Despite all of their successes, immigrants are now facing so many obstacles here in America. Immigrant entrepreneurs don't take away other people's jobs - they make them and do it at no cost to the government.

There are a couple of ideas that would bring more entrepreneurs to the United States who could build high-growth companies. The first idea is contained in legislation, called the Startup Visa Act. With this, immigrant entrepreneurs would initially be screened for a temporary visa based on outside capital they had already recorded. Permanent work visas, or green cards, would then be granted once those entrepreneurs had hired a minimum number of U.S. workers.

However, that puts a cap on the number of startup visas that can be granted, which is hard to believe, knowing that the more immigrant entrepreneurs we bring into the U.S., the more jobs Americans can have access to. Roughly one million skilled immigrants are here on temporary H1-B visas and there are about 60,000 foreign students who graduate each year with an undergraduate or graduate degree from a U.S. university.

A second idea would be to grant green cards to foreign students when their receive their degrees from U.S. universities. American universities train these students in STEM subjects, but under the current law, once they graduate and earn their degrees, they must go back home. We should give those individuals the right to stay here and contribute to the innovation our country needs.

So don't think of immigrant workers as a bad thing - people who steal Americans' jobs. That's ridiculous! They come here to create their own jobs and they work hard to do it. We shouldn't be sending them away, we should be welcoming them with open arms and giving them the opportunity to help our economy and help with our country's innovation.

Entrepreneur Traits

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:44:00 +0000

To be an entrepreneur, you must be a leader. To be a leader, there are some traits that you should possess. If you have these traits already, then you are likely to be successful in becoming an entrepreneur (if you're not already).

First of all, you must have a vision. You need to stand firm when it comes to your company's policies and procedures, as well as learning how to communicate your vision, or the vision of your company, to the people you want to follow you. There are a few ways you can incorporate that. Paint a picture with words. Speak it, write it, draw it, touch it, do whatever you can to create a picture because "a picture is worth a thousand words." Ask all of the other managers to tell you in their words about the vision of the company. Is it close to what you thought they understood and are they on the same page as you? Keep that vision in your mind everyday and reevaluate it occasionally so it stays current with the times, and keep your staff involved if you really want them to buy in on the vision.

Secondly, you have to have passion. Your passion can inspire your employees to take on new and sometimes dangerous challenges. To build an extraordinary management team, you have to get them to feel passion about the company and connect to the leader's vision. Passion is a key part of being a great leader. Also, passion is contagious. When you talk about your vision, let your passion shine through. Others will sense it and hop on board with you. If you don't have that passion, you need to recreate your vision so it's connected to what your passion is.

You have to become a great decision maker. Some leaders have a set process for making decisions but others do it spontaneously. You don't want to consult no one before making a decision. You'll end up announcing it the next day and everyone will be frustrated and not follow it. Use a system to help you come to make a decision. Be quick, but not hasty. Then commit yourself to the decision, but don't be rigid. Analyze next, but don't over-analyze. Lastly, be thoughtful about the concerns, but don't obsess. These steps will help you decide when to bring other people into the decision making process and what needs to happen to help you make better decisions.

You need to be a team builder. Create a great team by handing off responsibility to your team and letting them run with it. Don't breathe down their necks or micromanage, but be available if they have questions or problems. Teach them your decision making process and give them some freedom to work through their own decisions. If projects fall behind, it doesn't serve anybody well if you start pointing fingers. That's when you need to inspire confidence in your employees; let them know you support them and are ready to help. Be ready to alter or make new plans. Keep their spirits up with humor during a crisis, that way, when an emergency arises, your team will look to you to be a tower of strength and endurance.

Lastly, you have to have character. Your character strengths and limitations play a critical role in your leadership style. You need to take the steps to learn about your individual personality and what part it plays in your leadership style. There are a number of different style assessments available on the market, so just do it and see how you rate. I'ts a good way to do a character check on yourself and your skills as a leader. Once you get the results you need to see if your character matches what the assessments are pointing out. If you don't think they do, then look deeper and be honest with yourself. Don't go on the defensive. You need to be open to feedback about yourself as a leader and separate it from you as a person.

Do you think you're a great leader? Do you or can you learn to possess these qualities? A great leader has all of these things - can turn a vision into a picture that others can see, with passion. A leader can make decisions and be responsible for his or her own actions and can constantly assess their own character. Never stop growing personally or professionally.

Entrepreneur Characteristics

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:28:00 +0000

There are a number of characteristics that many entrepreneurs share. No matter what your definition of success is, if you possess some, most, or all of these characteristics, then you may be ready to go. If you don't, you can learn most of them just by practicing and having a better attitude about them. Set goals and apply yourself to reach them.

Following is a list of things that you must do to be a characteristic entrepreneur.

Do what you enjoy. If you don't, it's likely you won't succeed.
Take what you do seriously. Don't expect to be successful if you get easily sidetracked and don't stay motivated.
Plan EVERYTHING. This builds habits that are important because to be a success you need to constantly be analyzing every business situation, researching, and making conclusions.
You must manage money wisely. You need to buy inventory, pay for services, promote your business, repair and replace tools and equipment, and pay yourself. Two aspects are income and expenses. Manage them and make them work together.
Remember that it's all about the customer. Get to know them and form a relationship with them.
Project a positive image for your business - rely on your imagination and creativity to the smallest detail.
Become an expert. As a consumer, you want the best information and advice to solve your problems, so become that problem solver within your industry.
Be accessible. People are giving you their money, make sure that they'll want to keep doing so by being easy to get a hold of and communicate well with.
Multitask, but not too much. Take one what you can and delegate the rest to others.
Follow-up constantly. Always keep in contact with your customers and prospects. Follow-up with them. Once you have them purchasing, you want them to keep coming back for more.

So those are just 10 characteristics that most entrepreneurs have or develop. Like I said, if you don't already do these things, you can learn to. There are a number more of characteristics - these are just a few. Once you do, you'll be a successful entrepreneur.

Roles of Entrepreneur

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:07:00 +0000

As an entrepreneur, you have your strategies and tasks that you have to perform. Your list of things to do is constant and always growing; there is always something to do. As such, you need to take on different roles as an entrepreneur so you have your mind set to specific assignments that you need to get done while taking on that role.

The first role is that of the architect. You need to plan for the big picture. Set the vision and culture around a risky goal. You need to have a general plan for where you want your business to go, but not get hung up on developing that plan perfectly. Think like an architect in the concept and design development phase rather than one in the detailing schematic phase. Every initiative should change with new customer feedback. The best entrepreneurs bet first on the people, and second on the plan. It's easier to adjust a plan than to adjust people. Begin at the start-up stage by having a clear purpose and a few top priorities to achieve that purpose, but you need to know that many aspects at this point are night priority and you need to wait.

The second role for an entrepreneur is the storyteller. You need to constantly sell the story of your vision and research how it should evolve. If it's raising funds, explaining to employees, recruiting top talent, or selling the product, you need to constantly pitch, like a salesman, and act as the company's chief storyteller. People can learn many aspects of effective selling. Even if they're only somewhat good at it, they come to realize by telling a story, they can gain access to invaluable customer and product research. Customers' interactions help turn a vision into one of precise focus.

The third, and final, role we'll discuss today is the disciplinarian. You have to give excellent execution, which comes from sticking to a strict set of controls and principles. You have to have the right set of operating metrics to measure the progress. Have a dashboard that includes customer counts, recurring customers, and online usage metrics. The key to delivering what you want is to know how to pick the customers and operating metrics that will serve as indicators for the financial metrics desired.

Planning, selling, and executing may sound like a pretty straightforward thing to do. But to play all three roles at one time can produce its challenges, especially for an early-stage CEO. But you don't have to possess the talent to do all three if you build a strong team. To assess your own aptitude and effectiveness, look at recent tasks, meetings, and other activities you've done. Where do they fit in to these three roles? When you understand which areas you are strongest in, you can focus on your skills and fill the gaps with the best talent you can find.

Entrepreneurship is rarely a one-man task. Find help from the best and you'll be able to manage all of these roles smoothly.

Moral Entrepreneurs

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:50:00 +0000

In the last few blogs I've posted, I've discussed what an entrepreneur is, what an entrepreneur does, and what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Now I'm going to go over what a "moral" entrepreneur is. It might not be common knowledge like an entrepreneur, or even a serial entrepreneur is, but by the end of this blog, you'll all be a pro on knowing what a moral entrepreneur is.

Basically a moral entrepreneur is someone who seeks to influence a group to adopt or maintain a norm. They press for the creation or enforcement of a norm for different reasons. Some examples of this type of group is MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) or the pro-life movement. Those are groups that have been established because they belief in something "morally" that needs to be corrected or made more aware.

Their goal is to persuade society to make policy from a particular moral viewpoint. A few more examples for you include the gun lobby, anti-tobacco lobby, and anti-pornography groups. They have a belief that something is immoral in our society and want to create a movement to make this immorality known to more people to influence the masses to join the movement and stop the problem.

To become such an entrepreneur, you need to start a movement yourself. You can do that by posting your viewpoint almost anywhere. When you have a group following you, you've already begun. Then that group can grow and grow and grow until the masses all know about your group (really, who doesn't know about MADD?) and become a phenomenon. It may even become a political debate someday (like pro-life vs. pro-choice). But you have to start somewhere. If you believe in something and have a passion for it, there's nothing wrong with making that known. If you've got what it takes, be a moral entrepreneur.

Functions of an Entrepreneur

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 19:46:00 +0000

There are several primary functions of an entrepreneur. They are what makes the business what it is, so there are certain fundamental ideals that he/she must do to get the business started, then keep it up and running. Following are a few of the important steps and entrepreneur must do to be functional.

First comes the planning of the project itself. An entrepreneur must be the organizer to create the idea of launching the project and to program the structure of the business that he/she is creating.

An entrepreneur must also be management. They are responsible for managing the business as time continues and try to have a cost combination of factors of production.

They must be willing to face risks. Entrepreneurs will face uncertainty and therefore must accept risk in their business.

They are in charge of distributing the rewards. They are responsible for giving out those rewards to all factors of production. Entrepreneurs pay the reward in the shape of rents, wages, and interests and risks taking a loss for him/herself.

Entrepreneurs are also responsible for marketing and advertising. They want to maximize their profits by selling their products in the markets.

They also must decide the scale of business in accordance with the provision of capital. They have to figure out what, where, and how the to produce the goods and services being offered.

Very often, entrepreneurs also need resources. Whether it is money to get the business started or machines, material, and workers, resources are needed to run the business successfully.

And finally, once the business achieves its desired results, entrepreneurs must explore the next goal for proper growth to develop. Entrepreneurs are not satisfied with just one set goal, they constantly push for excellence.

Those are some of the basic functions of most entrepreneurs. They require a special skill and a consistency of wanting to achieve more. Do you have what it takes?

Inspirational Entrepreneur Quotes

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 19:09:00 +0000

This blog is dedicated to some fantastic quotes that were stated by entrepreneurs. The goal is that they will inspire you and encourage you to be a success and follow your ideas.

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. - Thomas Edison
The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake - you can't learn anything from being perfect. -Adam Osborne
Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. - Winston Churchill
You can't ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new. - Steve Jobs
Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it. - Maya Angelou
In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. - Bill Cosby
Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. - Henry Ford
Try not to be a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value. - Albert Einstein
Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often. - Mark Twain
The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions. - Confucius
Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning. - Benjamin Franklin
An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
The way to get started is to quit talking and being doing. - Walt Disney
Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. - Bill Gates
You won't get anything unless you have the vision to imagine it. - John Lennon
Live out of your imagination instead of out of your memory. - Fortune Cookie
If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way. - Napoleon Hill
Tell everyone what you want to do and someone will want to help you do it. - W. Clement Stone
The best way to predict the future is to create it. - Peter Drucker
A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. John C. Maxwell

So there are some inspirational quotes for you from some very famous and successful people who have been able to climb that ladder and make it to the top. I hope you can take something away from them and pursue your aspirations and be a success, as well.

Serial Entrepreneur Definition

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:10:00 +0000

Today I'm going to discuss with you the difference between an entrepreneur and a serial entrepreneur.

As I stated in the previous blog, a typical entrepreneur is someone who comes up with an idea, starts a company, and then sees it through. He plays an important role in the every day functioning of the new company.

However, a serial entrepreneur is one that will come up with the idea and get things started, but then passes the responsibility on to someone else, and then moves on to a new idea and a new business. This can definitely be an advantage if the person has a lot of unique ideas and is the best one suited for getting each idea started. It is a disadvantage if the individual decides to stop putting time into a company that really needs his help because he is too busy trying to move forward with a new idea that might, or might not, succeed.

One example of a serial entrepreneur is Andy Nash. He has been in charge of 12 management buyouts and buyins since 1996. In that time, he was part of several multi-million dollar deals. He wrote a book called "The Management Guide to MBOs," (MBO stands for Management by Objectives) and came out in 2005 (a revised edition came out in 2009). He managed to not only be successful in business and entrepreneurship but he is married and has four children (grown up now).

So being a serial entrepreneur does present its challenges. It is certainly no easy task. But if you are able to do it successfully, you will have many companies that consist of responsible and self-sufficient employees, which will in turn, help both themselves and you become even more successful.

Entrepreneur vs Intrapreneur

noreply@blogger.com (SMA) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 21:39:00 +0000

Many people have heard of entrepreneurs but fewer have heard of intrapreneurs. What I am here to do is give you a short lesson on the differences between the two and you can decide from there which one you are or want to be.

An entrepreneur is a person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture. An intrapreneur is someone within a large corporation who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea into a product; a profitable one, preferably. Being an entrepreneur holds a great deal of responsibility. As an entrepreneur, you would have to set up paperwork to become a corporation, create an accounting system, which includes payroll and insurance, and have personal or professional liability.

An intrapreneur has a lot of responsibility as well, but he/she is part of a corporation or partnership; in charge of a group of people that create ideas for the company and encourages the production of those ideas. Both entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs hold responsibility in their own ways.

Which one are you?