tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68700003650077255122024-02-26T00:01:34.503-07:00The GIST ExchangeThe GIST Exchange is a curriculum based community, founded to maximize and streamline the creation and development of an entrepreneurial lifestyle.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05305164952121893254noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870000365007725512.post-55282519044339525692015-07-22T01:07:00.002-06:002015-07-22T01:38:09.833-06:00Are you a mindful entrepreneur?<style>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-klQznAXkC6U/Va9Aw6g6LfI/AAAAAAAAPGg/tIqUEOA5NZo/s1600/mindful-entrepreneur.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-klQznAXkC6U/Va9Aw6g6LfI/AAAAAAAAPGg/tIqUEOA5NZo/s200/mindful-entrepreneur.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Local Singapore boy Chade Meng-Tan has made it to the highest ranks of Google, yet he’s not recognised for his exceptional engineering talent (which he clearly has), but is globally recognised and sought out for his contribution to the field of mindful leadership.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">"<span class="tweet_quote"><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpax.io%2FBBaZCg&text=A%20mindful%20leader%20embodies%20leadership%20with%20focus%2c%20clarity%2c%20creativity%20%26%20compassion%20in%20the%20service%20of%20others%20%40thegistx" target="_blank">A mindful leader embodies leadership presence by cultivating focus, clarity, creativity, and compassion in the service of others.<span -1px="" 1px="" docs.google.com="" export="download&id=0B7FYMNoVsrfzZWl2alU3RXFnMUk" https:="" left:="" no-repeat="" position:="" relative="" style="-moz-transition: all .2s ease-out; -o-transition: all .2s ease-out; -webkit-transition: all .2s ease-out; background: url(; padding: 0 10px; transition: all .2s ease-out;" uc=""></span></a></span> …It requires full and complete non-judgemental attention in the present moment. Those around a mindful leader see and feel that presence" so says the Institute of Mindful Leadership.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Chade Meng-Tan was responsible for developing Google’s ‘Search Inside Yourself’ course back in 2007. Today, the waiting list for this in-house Google course can be up to 6 months. Most major companies from Google, Facebook, Twitter, Intel to Apple, Starbucks and Yahoo are using some forms of mindfulness as a business tool.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Mindfulness is about consciously paying attention to where you are, who you’reworking with and how you are impacting the now. By being present, managers can have a greater awareness of the value of their actions with those around them. Mountains of data exist to prove that mindfulness, both personal and professional, reduces stress and boosts clarity and concentration and thereby enhances leadership.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Here’s a couple of key exercises entrepreneurs can do to bring about calmness, clarity and compassion that will serve you well in life and business.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Breathing</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Putting aside a few minutes of your day to do a brief breathing meditation routine is one of the easiest ways to cultivate mindfulness. Sit still and observe your breath as it goes in and out of your lungs. Just observe and focus on your breath. Any creeping thoughts that enter your head (which they will, seemingly relentlessly!) should be banished as you consciously return to your breath. Whether it’s for 15 minutes or 60 seconds, you should experience a degree of immediate calm.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span class="tweet_quote"><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpax.io%2FBBaZCg&text=With%20calmness%20comes%20clarity%20%26%20perspective%20that%20can%20hone%20your%20attention%20levels%20and%20make%20you%20more%20effective%20%40thegistx" target="_blank">And with calmness comes clarity and perspective that can hone your attention levels and make you more effective.<span -1px="" 1px="" docs.google.com="" export="download&id=0B7FYMNoVsrfzZWl2alU3RXFnMUk" https:="" left:="" no-repeat="" position:="" relative="" style="-moz-transition: all .2s ease-out; -o-transition: all .2s ease-out; -webkit-transition: all .2s ease-out; background: url(; padding: 0 10px; transition: all .2s ease-out;" uc=""></span></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Eliminate rush</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Swap your multitasking for delegation. Pare back the number of fronts that you are operating on and focus on what is most important. By eliminating needless rush you can focus on matters and people that are before you, here and now.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Dorotea Brandin, a Singapore based author and entrepreneur, says that mindfulness for SME’s “… should not be misunderstood as fire fighting by reacting as best we can to present circumstances. It is instead a state of being where you slow down and where you are perceptive to your own emotions as well as those of others.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Take a break</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Spend time in nature. Recharging your batteries through a short walk through a park or along the coast where you might also listen to your breath can be of huge benefit to your focus and attention span, making this time for your mental landscape is healthy and habit forming. Thinking thoughts of kindness and compassion whilst you take your break will re-invigorate you.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Cultivate compassion</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Chade Meng-Tan swears by compassion. He says highly effective people feel you, understand you and want to help you. Empathising with those around you inhibits excessive self-obsession and creates humility. Compassion grows high-level leaders.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Ask yourself how you can be of value to those around you? What will make them happy? How can you make a difference to someone’s day? By consciously empathising and feeling for those around you on a regular basis you form the habit of compassion. Cultivate compassion.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">So next time you find yourself a few spare moments amidst the hustle and bustle of business, resist the urge to pull out your phone and instead, take a moment to listen to your breathing, focus on clearing your mind and just take time to empty your mind.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">In fact, before you share this article with someone who needs it, take a couple of minutes to yourself right now…</span></div>
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<i>by Callum Laing</i><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;">Source: <a href="https://www.techinasia.com/talk/mindful-entrepreneur/" target="_blank">TechInAsia</a></span>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870000365007725512.post-85441951478951395102015-07-21T20:22:00.001-06:002015-07-21T20:57:57.902-06:00Why Embracing Uncertainty Is Critical To Your Success<style>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OD72rYcbRG4/Va7-qFk8DwI/AAAAAAAAPFo/ra9fCcZlXWY/s1600/uncertainty-ahead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OD72rYcbRG4/Va7-qFk8DwI/AAAAAAAAPFo/ra9fCcZlXWY/s200/uncertainty-ahead.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">It’s official: We live in uncertain times.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Just pick up today’s paper and the headlines are screaming with news that let’s us know we are living uncertain times. Economic instability. Corporate restructures. Shifting tectonic plates.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">There’s no doubt about it, uncertainty can be uncomfortable. <span class="tweet_quote"><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpax.io%2FlQu9iP&text=We%20human%20beings%20are%20wired%20to%20want%20to%20control%20%C2%A0our%20environment.%20So%20it%20takes%20courage%20to%20let%20go%20control.%20%40thegistx" target="_blank">We human beings are wired to want to control our environment.</a><span 1px="" docs.google.com="" export="download&id=0B7FYMNoVsrfzZWl2alU3RXFnMUk" https:="" no-repeat="" style="background: url(;" uc=""></span></span> We enjoy the stability that comes from having continuity between our past and future, a future that is familiar, stable and predictable. We like to feel that we are masters of our own ship, in control of our fate, and so it’s entirely natural to find ourselves feeling a little out of sorts when our future becomes an unknown quantity.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">But as much as we may try to do otherwise, it is impossible to chart a certain path through uncertain waters. The reality is that in our fast changing, unpredictable and accelerated workplace and world, it’s those who are willing to embrace uncertainty and take decisive action, risky action, despite the many “unknowns” who will reap the greatest rewards.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">When I first left my parents’ dairy farm at 18 to move to “the city” for college, I was part excited, part terrified and completely outside my comfort zone. What lay ahead was all unknown. But as I found then and countless times since, <span class="tweet_quote"><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpax.io%2FlQu9iP&text=No%20worthwhile%20aspiration%20can%20be%20accomplished%20without%20surrendering%20the%20comforts%C2%A0of%20the%20familiar.%20%40thegistx" target="_blank">no worthwhile aspiration can be accomplished without surrendering the comforts of the familiar.</a> </span> Only in giving up the security of the known can we create new opportunities, grow capability, build confidence and expand our influence.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">It’s a lesson that was reinforced in my interviews with accomplished leaders across a diverse range of fields while researching my second book <a href="http://www.margiewarrell.com/books" style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Stop Playing Safe. </em></a>While each person had forged their own unique path to success – either up an organizational ladder or as an entrepreneur – the common thread of wisdom they all shared was that in today’s competitive and fast changing workplace, we can never hope to achieve success unless we’re willing to embrace the unknown and get comfortable with the innate discomfort of risk taking.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">One of those leaders was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Garver" style="color: #555555; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lori Garver</a>, who worked her way up in the male-dominated aerospace industry from an administrative assistant role to be appointed the Deputy Director of NASA. Like so many successful leaders, Lori has always been driven more by what inspires her than what scares her. While it would be convenient to assume Lori was born with a coating of psychological Teflon, the reality is that along her road to success, she’s experienced setbacks, and copped her fair share of criticism. She has just never let fear of failure hold her back from challenging old assumptions and pushing the boundaries of possibility. She’s spent a lot of time outside her comfort zone in the process.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span class="tweet_quote"><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpax.io%2FlQu9iP&text=Throughout%20your%20career%20you%20must%20continually%20assess%20whether%20ur%20fear%20of%20the%20unknown%C2%A0is%20holding%20you%20back%20%20%40thegistx" target="_blank">Throughout our careers and lives we must continually assess whether we are letting our fear of the unknown keep us from taking the actions to move us forward.</a> </span> If you’re not sure whether it is, then ask yourself what you would do if you weren’t afraid of failing. The first answer that pops into your head will point you in a direction you need to go, albeit an uncertain one.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Of course, being willing to take a risk and step into unknown territory doesn’t mean everything you try will work out. But as every successful person will tell you, it’s only by being willing to risk ‘miss-steps’ (from which the word mistakes derives) and try something new that you can ever accomplish more than what’s been done before. To quote John F. Kennedy: “Nothing worthwhile has ever been accomplished with a guarantee of success.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Too often we interpret our failure’s as permanent inadequacies on our part and use them as an excuse to stick to what we know we’re good at. Yet, as Dr. Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology once said, “It’s not our failures that determine our future success, but how we explain them to ourselves.” Likewise, if you were willing to embrace the uncertainty that risk entails:</span></div>
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<li style="outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">What actions would you take that you aren’t taking now?</span></li>
<li style="outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">What conversations would you engage in that you’ve been avoiding?</span></li>
<li style="outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Where would you step up to the leadership plate more boldly, and in doing so open up the possibility for new opportunities, new relationships, new alliances, and new ideas to take bloom?</span></li>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Ten years from now there will be people who have achieved extraordinary success in every field of endeavor. While we don’t know who they will be, one thing is sure - they won’t be people who have played it safe and stuck to ‘business as usual’. Rather, they will be people who have continued to stretch themselves, to forge new ground despite the unpredictability it invites, and to risk failure in the process. Because if one thing is certain, <span class="tweet_quote"><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpax.io%2FlQu9iP&text=Certainty%20can%20be%20comfortable%20%26%20demand%20little%20from%20you%2C%20but%20clinging%20to%20it%C2%A0limits%20your%20future%20%40thegistx%20%40Forbes" target="_blank">certainty can be comfortable and demand little from us, but clinging to it limits our future, stifles potential</a> </span> , shrinks opportunity and precludes us from ever realizing just how much we’re capable of doing.</span></div>
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<div class="tweet_line" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<span class="tweet_quote"><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpax.io%2FlQu9iP&text=Uncertainty%20can%20ultimately%20enrich%20your%20life%2C%20or%20diminish%20it.%C2%A0%20Embrace%20it%20as%20critical%20to%20ur%20success.%20%40thegistx" target="_blank">Uncertainty can ultimately enrich your life, or diminish it. Embrace it. </a> </span></div>
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<em style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Margie Warrell is a keynote speaker and the bestselling author of three books. Check them out, including her most recent book “Brave” at <a href="http://www.margiewarrell.com/books" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">www.Margiewarrell.com/books</a></span></em></div>
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<i>by Margie Warrell</i><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;">Source: <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/margiewarrell/2015/07/21/why-embracing-uncertainty-is-critical-to-your-success/" target="_blank">Forbes</a></span><br />
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870000365007725512.post-71434834173060387552015-07-21T17:31:00.001-06:002015-07-21T17:37:19.385-06:00Creating a Road Map to Business Success<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-amgHicODjRE/Va7WTtPLWOI/AAAAAAAAPEg/20H4U3XPGos/s1600/roadmap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="85" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-amgHicODjRE/Va7WTtPLWOI/AAAAAAAAPEg/20H4U3XPGos/s200/roadmap.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Starting a new business venture from scratch can sometimes feel like jumping out of an airplane and assembling the parachute on the way down. That's because, as is often the case, business success happens largely through trial and error. And that's where a road map comes in handy -- yours should help you so you don’t get stuck.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">If your path is like most people's, here’s how it will proceed:</span></div>
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<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">You'll start out with a personal road map, and when you find your passion, you'll develop a business road map.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Your journey will start at point A, but point B will not be linear: There's often no straight line between the two.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">You'll plant seeds to achieve your personal goals and see which ones grow. When you find one that does, you'll chart a course to follow that growth.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Should that growth become a passion, and a business, you'll then plant more seeds (typically, more calculated ones) within your business, to see which ones work. This is the start of your business road map.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Don’t be afraid to aim high. Google wasn’t built in a day, and you won't reach your primary goal in a short time, either. In your business, production, marketing, sales and other departments will have to establish their responsibilities. Budgets will need to be created and adjusted. Products and services will need to be developed. Sales will need to be made, and orders fulfilled.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">All these incremental activities are necessary to reach your goal. You’ll want to focus on the pieces of the journey as you build your road map, not just the end goal or the quickest way to get from point A to B.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Of course, not all incremental steps will go as planned. That won't be the end of the world or necessarily a major failure. Instead, the next thing on the horizon will be where you can refocus your attention, within the scheme of the larger goal of building and running a successful company. Each new incremental goal will become your next mountain to climb as you travel the road to your final goal.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">So, start by defining your passions and goals, and you’ll already have the makings of a definitive plan. And don’t be afraid to give it 100 percent. Once you have set an intention and a goal, don’t just dream about it, attack it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Keeping your road map fluid</span></h2>
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Startups have to be nimble and open to change, especially in the first few years. Groupon started off as an online collective action and fund-raising platform before pivoting into the social commerce space. There’s a fine balance between retaining products that fit your market and stubbornly trying to hold on to ideas, products or marketing strategies that are not attracting a significant target market.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Sometimes you can pound a market, but the product will still not work. It’s the old square pegs-into-round holes scenario, and of course that does not work. Consider these stories of well-known pivots in which companies changed in order to grow:</span></div>
<ul style="line-height: 1.5em;">
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Flickr was a role-playing gaming site for several years before emerging as the now-popular photo-sharing social media site.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Apple started out selling computer kits to kids before making its own computers and emerging as a $700 billion business.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Lego started by making wooden ducks. A few years after a fire burned down its factory, management switched to plastic toys, and what emerged? The interlocking bricks that spawned a multibillion-dollar business, which today encompasses TV shows, movies, creation contests and more.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Nokia began as a paper mill and expanded into rubber goods before moving to electronics, and eventually mobile phones.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Avon was started by a door-to-door book salesperson who gave away free samples of perfume. The perfume got better reviews than the books, so he did a pivot and dumped the books in favor of starting the California Perfume Company, a precursor of Avon.</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Here, then, is a (broad) step-by-step list of how to get where you're going in business. It's worked well for me:</span></div>
<ol style="line-height: 1.5em;">
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Plant seeds and constantly observe your garden, looking for growth opportunities and pockets of passion.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Network.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Set an intention and write it down.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Network.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Learn the business thoroughly through classes, internships, seminars, books, networking, etc.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Network.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Work for someone else first, and keep learning.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Network.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Conduct due diligence on product-market fit prior to writing a business plan.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Network.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Find talent, steal talent and keep that talent happy.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Network.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Talk to your customers consistently to capture feedback.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0em 0em 1.0em 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Network.</span></li>
</ol>
<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Also, don’t forget to always be flexible. There's no straight line from point A to point B. And success is never linear.</span></div>
<br />
<i>by Jeremy Bloom</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;">Source: <a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246888" target="_blank">Entrepreneur</a></span><br />
<br />
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870000365007725512.post-27546068296963181112015-07-21T16:47:00.001-06:002015-07-21T17:05:30.536-06:0012 Steps to Go From Employee to Entrepreneur<div style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; padding: 0px;">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qs5DbgA2wd8/Va7L1VKKQPI/AAAAAAAAPEA/CMBeXCslYnA/s1600/employee2entrepreneur.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qs5DbgA2wd8/Va7L1VKKQPI/AAAAAAAAPEA/CMBeXCslYnA/s200/employee2entrepreneur.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">If you’re fed up with your job, it may seem like there are only two steps to becoming an entrepreneur. The first is to quit your job, and the next step is to start a company. While it is possible to transition successfully from employee to entrepreneur, it’s a little more complex than that.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Here are the 12 steps you’ll need to take to become your own boss.</span></div>
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1. Determine what you’d like to do.</span></h2>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Some people call this finding your passion, but it’s more than that. Think about your skills, abilities and experience. Consider what you can realistically see yourself doing for hours each day, for weeks and years.</span></div>
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2. Think about what others will pay for.</span></h2>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">A viable business is the intersection between what you’d like to do and what others will pay for. Remember the “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRxqY4wuTHw" style="outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Jump to Conclusions Mat</a>” from the movie<em> Office Space</em>? Todd loved building it, but no one was going to buy it. It wasn’t a viable business opportunity.</span></div>
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3. Interview ideal customers.</span></h2>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Find a few people that you think would be your ideal clients. Ask them about their biggest needs, fears and aspirations related to the business idea you plan to pursue. Are the benefits of your product or service in line with their real needs? Also, make a note of the words they use, as they’ll eventually help make your marketing more authentic.</span></div>
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4. Design your marketing and business plans.</span></h2>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Today’s<a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/43026" style="outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"> marketing</a> involves content creation, social media, email outreach and more. Make sure you know how you’ll approach each of these alternatives to introduce your idea to customers. At the same time, lay out a business plan that details how you intend your business to function. It doesn’t need to be super formal, but it does need to cover your operating structure, product, delivery systems and expansion plans.</span><br />
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5. Set up your business on a small scale.</span></h2>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">If you can, test your company idea by launching on a small scale on the side, while still working your day job. This gives you a no-risk opportunity to test your ideas, get your first clients and see if the business will hold up over time before you leave the security of your current position.</span></div>
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6. Assess feedback and adjust.</span></h2>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Running a small-scale operation will help you determine which parts of your idea are great and which ones need adjusting. Take<a href="http://mashable.com/2013/06/27/startup-customer-feedback/" style="outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> customer feedback seriously</a> and make any necessary changes before you begin scaling up.</span></div>
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7. Assemble a team.</span></h2>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">If your idea seems viable, determine who you’ll want on your business leadership team when you eventually launch full time. Depending on your personal experience, you may need help in areas such as finance, marketing, customer service and production.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">
8. Secure financing.</span></h2>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">For a small venture, this might mean saving up some money to get through the first few months or taking cash from your 401(k). If your aspirations are a bit larger, you may need to think about how to procure venture capital or other outside investment.</span></div>
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9. Set up the structure of your company.</span></h2>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">At the same time, you’ll also want to decide what kind of company structure to register. Do you want to incorporate, form an LLC or create a partnership? Get this taken care of legally and carefully define the roles and investment of each of your leadership team members.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">
10. Leave your job.</span></h2>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">When you’re ready, leave your day job. This may feel like an amazing relief after all the work you already put in, but trust me, more work awaits. Although it may be tempting, be sure<a href="https://hbr.org/2014/12/how-to-quit-your-job-without-burning-bridges" style="outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> not to burn any bridges</a> as you leave -- you never know when you’ll encounter former bosses and colleagues again, and you may need to work with them in the future.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">
11. Set up a working budget.</span></h2>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">With your full-time schedule now devoted to your business, set up a company budget. This should include payments for marketing expenses, salaries and other important purchases. Just be sure not to <a href="http://sujanpatel.com/business/10-startup-expenses-you-shouldnt-waste-money-on/" style="outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">waste money on frivolous expenses</a>!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">
12. Scale up your business according to your marketing plan.</span></h2>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Finally, all that’s left to do is to work the plans you’ve carefully laid out for yourself. Of course, that plan may change over time as you encounter and overcome obstacles. But, this is it -- you’re a full-fledged entrepreneur. Congratulations!</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">As you can see, becoming an entrepreneur requires a lot of work before you even consider quitting your day job. However, if you follow each of the steps listed above and your idea still seems viable, you can leave your life as an employee and become an entrepreneur instead.</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">There are still many challenges you’ll face, but for most entrepreneurs, the benefits of meaningful work and self-direction are much more important.</span></div>
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<br />
<i>by Sujan Patel</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;">Source: <a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/247194" target="_blank">Entrepreneur</a></span><br />
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870000365007725512.post-23671010758042955922015-07-20T02:03:00.001-06:002015-07-20T02:03:16.878-06:0013 Secrets to Success from Serial Entrepreneurs<div style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r6R3iEutBmA/VayrBE2ylPI/AAAAAAAAOzU/PcLV_iArHHY/s1600/climbing-stairs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r6R3iEutBmA/VayrBE2ylPI/AAAAAAAAOzU/PcLV_iArHHY/s200/climbing-stairs.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'PT Sans', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 14px; text-align: start;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: xx-small;">Credit: design36/Shutterstock</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">For most entrepreneurs, starting and running one successful business during their career is enough of a challenge. But for serial entrepreneurs — those who start, run and often sell multiple businesses — the thrill of startup life is too appealing to do it only once.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">These founders have mastered the art of growing a business from the ground up, and therefore have a lot of wisdom to impart to current and aspiring entrepreneurs. Whether you just want to focus on the one business you have or dream of launching several companies in the future, here's what you can learn from 13 successful serial entrepreneurs.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Hannibal Baldwin, co-founder and CEO of </strong><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.sitezeus.com/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">SiteZeus</a> </strong>(previous company — Baldwin Beach Capital): "I believe the success of progressive entrepreneurship lies within ... <strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">identifying and understanding the gap worth solving</strong>, the system-level technology or design to solve that gap and the business and financial intelligence to execute with strategic speed."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Steve Gefter, managing director of </strong><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.iddsgroup.com/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">IDDS Group</a> </strong>(previous company — TSG Management): "Serial entrepreneurs have a mindset unlike anyone else; they are entrepreneurs on steroids. A <strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">'get it done' work ethic</strong> is the most essential trait. Starting a business takes a lot — financially, emotionally and physically. To start one business requires a 'roll up your sleeves' mentality, so imagine what it takes to start five or 10. You either have it or you don't; and the most successful serial entrepreneurs do."</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Devaraj Southworth, CEO of </strong><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://thirstie.com/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thirstie</a> </strong>(previous companies — Tailfin Ventures, iThinkLabs, 30Seven Design): "I watched [my grandfather] build his own business, Gotham Button Company, from an early age. He loved his business and the people that helped build it with him. What I remember the most was that he was <strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">always striving to do things better</strong>. I knew the road of the entrepreneur wasn't going to be easy, and that chances of success were very small, but I also knew it was the path I wanted and needed to try. Anyone can have a great idea, but turning that idea into a reality and executing on it is the difference between success and failure. For any entrepreneur, anything is possible, as long as you work incredibly hard, stick to your vision and build the right team."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Georgianna Oliver, founder and CEO of </strong><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://t.sidekickopen03.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XX45vfVJ-W5vg7Pz8rBKlbVRrZFz56dP3sf7pYw8H02?t=http://www.packageconcierge.com/&si=4942894717730816&pi=aa3904cb-e709-40c2-8d7e-bcf4eb60fe73" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Package Concierge</a> </strong>(previously founded and sold two businesses in the multifamily housing industry): "<strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Leverage your connections</strong>. Your network can make valuable introductions, contribute financially and most importantly provide realistic, experiential advice. I maintain connections with past employees, colleagues, managers and other influencers in the multifamily space, and even now, I run business ideas and challenges by them for input."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">David Goldin, president and CEO of </strong><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.amerimerchant.com/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">AmeriMerchant</a> </strong>(previously co-founded Media Connection of New York): "You need to be constantly thinking of how to enhance and grow your business because your competitors are doing the same. Remember that losing is not an option and when you're in stressful situations, you've got to figure out ways to navigate and overcome the obstacles. If it was easy to be an entrepreneur, then everyone would be one. The best entrepreneurs need to <strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">be resilient and bounce back</strong> from anything."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Charles Michael Yim, CEO of </strong><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.breathometer.com/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Breathometer</a> </strong>(previous companies — Chatterfly, ProBuddy): "At a young age I realized that I needed to <strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">keep trying, push myself and experience new things</strong>. It helped a great deal that I was also a good listener and learned to accept feedback and seek guidance from people I respected. With Breathometer [which was featured on Shark Tank], I have been able to gain access to people that I always aspired to follow — Mark Cuban, Richard Branson and the amazing people these great leaders surround themselves with."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dane Atkinson, CEO of </strong><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://sumall.com/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">SumAll.com</a> </strong>(previous companies — Sense/Net, <a class="vglnk" href="http://yourday.com/" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">YourDay</span><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">com</span></a>, <a class="vglnk" href="http://yourstuff.com/" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">YourStuff</span><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">com</span></a>, <a class="vglnk" href="http://iensure.com/" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">IEnsure</span><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><span style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">com</span></a>): "I have [served] as CEO [of] a dozen companies ... [and] the majority have been in service to the small business. I wish there was a single north star, but some advice has fared true through it all. <strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Hire smart, value work and stop meddling when you can</strong>. Stay attuned to your own perspective, as a slight change there affects all."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Scott Tannen</strong><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, CEO of </strong><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.bollandbranch.com/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Boll & Branch</a> </strong>(previous companies — red5 Capital, Funtank): "We all have a tendency to think that people who seem superstressed and ultraserious are the most successful. In my experience, almost the exact opposite is true. Great leaders inspire others to make them even greater. You can inspire with fear and anger, but your tower of power is really just a house of cards. <strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Keeping things in perspective and lightening up </strong>on a regular basis make you more approachable. When you need to get serious, the change in your demeanor will be a great unspoken cue to your team that it's time to buckle down. But, try to smile a lot — it makes you feel better and makes people want to be around you more."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ben Wong, vice president of marketing at </strong><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://bindopos.com/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Bindo</a> </strong>(previous companies — Versed, NiaSolvo, KCL Investment Club): "There's nothing more exhilarating than starting a new business and building everything from scratch — the processes, the team and the product. Learning new things is what really drives me, and I think there is never enough you can learn when you start your own business. I find the fast-paced nature of startups, and the freedom to make your own mistakes and take responsibility for them frightening but also very exciting. You need to have a personality that never gives up. [You] <strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">should not be afraid to wander into unchartered territory</strong> and to learn new things."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ellen Rubin, CEO of </strong><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.clearskydata.com/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ClearSky Data</a> </strong>(previous companies — CloudSwitch, Netezza): "<strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Build a solid executive team and board.</strong> Strong partners make a strong organization. [Your startup also] needs to consist of several layers of knowledgeable individuals, from the engineering team to sales and marketing. Build [your] team from the best and brightest ... to bring depth of knowledge and skill to the organization."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jason Hogg, CEO of </strong><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.b2rfinance.com/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">B2R Finance</a> </strong><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and senior lecturer at Cornell University's Johnson School of Management </strong>(previous companies — HangIt, Revolution Money): "Serial entrepreneurship breeds intellectual curiosity. I like to think about it as innovation versus creation, where innovation is improving upon existing ideas and creation is starting fresh. Societal demands are constantly changing and technology is continually advancing. However, there is a gap that takes place in leveraging these technology changes to properly address new demands. Incumbents have a tough time quickly responding to these shifts because they are dealing with legacy systems and entrenched processes designed to serve their existing consumer base. Meanwhile, serial entrepreneurs are <strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">focused on creation and leveraging these technologies to create new solutions</strong>optimized to address the market need."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Beerud Sheth, co-founder and CEO of <a href="http://www.teamchat.com/en/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Teamchat</a>/Webaroo</strong> (previous company – Elance): "After my first startup, I stopped riding the emotional roller coaster inherent in the startup journey. In startups, the highs are higher and the lows are lower — the emotional swings can drive you crazy. I learned to <strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">stay level-headed, even-keeled and focused</strong> on the longer term."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Stephen Bradley, CEO of </strong><strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://tweet.authorbee.com/" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">AuthorBee</a> </strong>(previously helped build several successful media ventures): "It's thrilling and rewarding to start with a possibility and see your vision come together and turn into something with a life all its own. [But start] one [business] at a time. You really have to be 'all in.' I didn't set out to create multiple businesses — I set out to create a business. You may get to where you feel it's time to move on to the next thing for whatever reason, but until then it takes all your focus. You [also] always have to be prepared for failure. Just because you were successful once doesn't mean you will be the next time. You've got to be resilient and <strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">enjoy the ride as much as the reward</strong>."</span></div>
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<span style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><i><b>Each entrepreneur quoted is the founder or co-founder of his or her current company, and was a founding and/or executive member of the previous companies listed.</b></i></span></span></div>
<br />
<i>by Nicole Fallon</i><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;">Source: <a href="http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/8125-successful-serial-entrepreneurs.html" target="_blank">Business News Daily</a></span><br />
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870000365007725512.post-75391151282322216112015-07-20T01:47:00.001-06:002015-07-20T01:47:21.072-06:004 Tips to Help Entrepreneurs Succeed<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; outline: none; text-align: justify;">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ExZ_pWnh-qw/VaynVCg0YvI/AAAAAAAAOzE/laKDsCbFFZ8/s1600/succeed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="101" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ExZ_pWnh-qw/VaynVCg0YvI/AAAAAAAAOzE/laKDsCbFFZ8/s200/succeed.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Many first-time entrepreneurs think their first steps should be to build a product or service and raise money to turn it into a successful business. But most experienced entrepreneurs and experts of entrepreneurial practices believe this thinking is wrong. They say the first thing an entrepreneur should do is validate that his or her idea solves a real existing problem in the marketplace.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Very few ideas ever survive the first contact with a customer, said Bill Mayer, vice president of entrepreneur services at <strong style="outline: none;">Ann Arbor Spark</strong>. This is because entrepreneurs are often engineers, tinkerers or inventors who come up with ideas for things that they think everyone will love and buy. They don’t take the time to prove their concepts will address the needs of those who are not getting the job done. Consequently, most ideas fail.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Before they start building their products or services, entrepreneurs should talk to dozens of people they think will buy them, Mayer and other experts suggest. Through these conversations, they can find out with certainty if their idea will solve real problems; if by tweaking it in some way, they will solve existing problems; or if they need to discard their initial concepts and replace them with new ones.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Beyond validating the idea, Mayer offers three other tips to the entrepreneur hoping to turn a concept into a growing, successful business. They are based on his own experiences starting businesses and on working with many entrepreneurs at Ann Arbor Spark, a nonprofit business incubator and a <strong style="outline: none;">Comcast Business</strong> customer. His other tips follow:</span></div>
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<strong style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Build a team</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Every experienced entrepreneur knows one thing for certain: No entrepreneur can start a business alone. He/she will need a team of people who can provide advice, answer questions and give referrals.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">So investing in a solid people network is among the most important steps an entrepreneur just starting out must take, Mayer said. Unfortunately, inexperienced entrepreneurs often overlook the importance of building this network.</span></div>
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<strong style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Work with an incubator</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">The physical space provided entrepreneurs by incubators, like Ann Arbor Spark and <strong style="outline: none;">TechTown Detroit</strong>, is not just a place to work. More importantly, it puts entrepreneurs together in a community of like-minded people who share resources and best practices and who motivate each other.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">This community includes entrepreneurs, of course, but also investors, mentors and other skilled people who can help those trying to grow their businesses.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">In addition, the incubator can provide investment funding, business development assistance and marketing ideas. Furthermore, it can offer the high-speed bandwidth (along with security, encryption and advanced services) most startups need but can’t afford in the early stages of their development.</span></div>
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<strong style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Leverage technology</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Entrepreneurs are more likely to succeed if they take advantage of the latest technology, which typically requires high-speed bandwidth.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Startups need high-speed bandwidth to easily move their huge digital coding onto hosted servers or local development servers. They need it to access the cloud where they can rely on Web service companies that run virtual machines with the software they are building. And they need it to leverage video conferencing and other technology-intensive means to engage and train staff at remote locations and to help sales reps communicate with potential customers.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Many entrepreneurs depend on the bandwidth offered by an incubator. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Ann Arbor Spark has recently upgraded its network from cable to fiber, giving it a stable, secure, extremely fast network. This high-speed bandwidth strengthens Ann Arbor Spark’s position as a world-class incubator and boosts the ability of the many entrepreneurs there who want to leverage the latest technology to build their businesses.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Beyond this high-speed network, Ann Arbor Spark also recently adopted fiber-based Ethernet technology to connect its three locations. This efficient, scalable platform enables its own employees to be on the same secured network to share resources and access the company’s file and exchange servers. It co-exists alongside the high-speed bandwidth network used by the entrepreneurs but is totally separate and secure from it. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Although an Ethernet may be beyond the needs of early-stage startups, Mayer said that as they grow and open remote locations, they, too, should consider such a network.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">These four tips can start entrepreneurs on the right path to turning their ideas into successful, profitable businesses.</span></div>
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<br />
<i>by Michelle Pluskota</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;">Source: <a href="http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20150305/BLOG122/150309893/4-tips-to-help-entrepreneurs-succeed" target="_blank">Crain's Detroit Business</a></span><br />
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870000365007725512.post-11286957818017572052015-07-20T01:17:00.001-06:002015-07-20T01:17:36.897-06:007 Habits of Innovative Thinkers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B0etz33To3I/VaygUkHjw7I/AAAAAAAAOyw/Ez1SBqajz9A/s1600/innovation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B0etz33To3I/VaygUkHjw7I/AAAAAAAAOyw/Ez1SBqajz9A/s200/innovation.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<h2 style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><b>Emotional Intelligence Plays a Big Role in Innovative Thinking. Here are Traits that these People have in Common.</b></span></h2>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Many people believe that creativity and innovative thinking are traits that we are born with—we either have them or not. However, we have found that people who are highly innovative are a work in progress, forever questioning and examining themselves and the world around them. Far from being something we are born with, we can all become more innovative and creative by developing the traits that innovative people share. Here are some of the emotional intelligence-related attributes that innovative people share.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">1. INNOVATORS HAVE THEIR EGO IN CHECK</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Emotional intelligent people have their egos under control and are open to other people’s ideas. They don’t think their ideas are always the best. As a result of their openness to other ideas, they are able to accumulate a larger source of data from which to draw from. They are also less likely to fall into the trap of following up on ideas and prospects that are only popular and then receiving kudos for them.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">2. EMOTIONALLY INTELLIGENT PEOPLE ARE CONFIDENT, NOT ARROGANT</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Even though they may not think their ideas are always spot on, there is always a belief in their craft and innovate accordingly. They see failures as temporary setbacks. By failing, this will uncover a way that doesn’t work, bringing them closer to a way that will. Great innovators such as Edison, failed countless times before achieving a breakthrough that led to success. A common factor in all innovators is they see failures and setbacks as temporary and do not take them personally.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">3. THEY ARE CONTINUALLY CURIOUS</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Emotionally intelligent people are curious about people, concepts, and issues. They’re open to new information always on the lookout for new ideas that can be put into practice. Being avid readers, forever seeking out new ideas, and expanding their knowledge base increases their repertoire of tools for future use. Noticing every opportunity, a random meeting with a stranger, conversation, or an event they are attending is always an occasion to learn something new. Every person they talk to is seen as possessing some knowledge that may be beneficial to them.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">4. THEY ARE GOOD LISTENERS</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Emotionally intelligent people pick up on information and are able to sit back and take it in, and are adept at processing information that makes them excellent listeners. When someone is speaking, most people are formulating a response in their minds instead of just focusing upon what the person talking is saying. Good listeners are able to focus not only on the words that are being spoken, but are aware of the tone of the words, the body language expressed, and the emotions behind them. This allows the individual to not only absorb valuable information but develop strong relationships with others. We all have a strong desire to be heard and are attracted to those we feel have taken the time and effort to hear us.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">5. THEY DON'T LET THEIR EMOTIONS AFFECT THEIR INNOVATION EFFORTS</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Emotionally intelligent people see failure as a process—this takes them one step closer to being their best self. They don’t have to defend an idea that is proven to be wrong as they’re seeking to advance themselves personally and are looking to advance their ideas. Emotionally intelligent people just love to create because this fills their soul and life purpose.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">6. THEY CAN TAKE DIRECTION</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Emotionally intelligent people have a keen sense of awareness.They can express their emotions in a way that isn’t confrontational. They can be assertive without being aggressive. One must be able to take direction in order to give direction.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">7. THEY EMPATHIZE WITH CO-WORKERS AND CUSTOMERS</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Being emotionally intelligent allows people to feel comfortable around you. To truly understand a customers’ needs you have to have empathy. It’s not just about the product. It’s about the people. As Maya Angelou said: "You may not remember what someone said to you, but you will remember how they made you feel."</span></div>
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<i>by Harvey Deutschendorf</i><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;">Source: <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3048397/hit-the-ground-running/7-habits-of-innovative-thinkers" target="_blank">Fast Company</a></span>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870000365007725512.post-41142969366921994882015-07-12T16:15:00.001-06:002015-07-12T16:19:34.238-06:00Why You Should Quit Your Job<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bGAbsHQ82nM/VaLmo0qF2JI/AAAAAAAAOqo/5tu4EBViS4w/s1600/i_quit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bGAbsHQ82nM/VaLmo0qF2JI/AAAAAAAAOqo/5tu4EBViS4w/s200/i_quit.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; line-height: 1.0em; margin-bottom: 1.0em;"><b>Elliott Hulse talks to Tai Lopez about how to do what you love and earn a living from it.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em;">Elliot Hulse is a professional strongman and strength coach known for his YouTube fitness channel called strengthcamp. He has a another popular channel called elliottsaidwhat and runs a workout blog as well called hulsestrength.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em;">Tai Lopez is an investor, partner, or advisor to over 20 multi-million dollar businesses. Through his popular book club and podcasts Tai shares advice on how to achieve health, wealth, love, and happiness with 1.4 million people in 40 countries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">Elliott Hulse On Why You Should Quit Your Job - </span><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Part 1</span><span style="color: #333333;"> - Interview w/ Tai Lopez</span></b></span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="color: #333333;">Elliott Hulse On Why You Should Quit Your Job - </span><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Part 2</span><span style="color: #333333;"> - Interview w/ Tai Lopez</span></b></span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870000365007725512.post-82966500924428311132015-07-12T14:52:00.000-06:002015-07-12T21:29:45.483-06:00Ambition. Discipline. Purpose. The Journey of Being an Entrepreneur<h3>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Ambition. Discipline. Purpose. The Journey of Being an Entrepreneur with Gurbaksh Chahal</span></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em;">Gurbaksh Chahal is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Radium One. A die-hard internet entrepreneur, he started his first company, at the age of 16. Series: "Distinguished Innovator Lectures"</span></div>
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</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870000365007725512.post-18364747099039771032015-07-12T13:49:00.001-06:002015-07-12T13:50:10.582-06:00How to Cultivate a Creative Thinking Habit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6qn9VNCOtoc/VaLEoomVx-I/AAAAAAAAOqU/8-3rzy_dBy8/s1600/creativity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6qn9VNCOtoc/VaLEoomVx-I/AAAAAAAAOqU/8-3rzy_dBy8/s200/creativity.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">CREATIVITY ISN'T A MYTHICAL CREATURE TO BE CAUGHT AND TAMED. IT'S A HABIT, STUDIES SUGGEST; A WAY OF LIFE THAT'S BUILT OVER TIME.</span></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">Think of your most common habits and the regular culprits come to mind—biting your nails, snacking late at night, cracking your knuckles. Do something enough times and it becomes a behavioral pattern you do almost involuntarily.</span></span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: MuseoSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 21px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">But what about creativity? Dictionary definitions can be misleading, offering the impression that creativity is something you either possess or don't. Here's <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/creativity" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(255, 224, 38); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">one</a>: Creativity, "the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations." The ability to transcend. Sounds almost mystical.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">Not so fast. According to research by psychologist and psychometrician <a href="http://www.intelltheory.com/sternberg.shtml" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(255, 224, 38); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Robert Sternberg</a>, at its most basic level, there's nothing mystical about creative thinking. Like brushing your teeth first-thing every morning or biting your nails or any other regular action your brain is trained to automatically do, creative thinking, Sternberg argues, is a habit.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">"If we are to assess creativity, we need to assess it as a habit of ordinary life, not merely as something one can do at extraordinary times," Sternberg writes in <em style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Creativity Research Journal</em>. "Behind all innovations one finds creativity, so innovations arise from a habit."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">Creative thinking comes in different forms. According to Sternberg, there are four such forms, ranging from "Big-C"—the stuff of creative geniuses like Darwin, Picasso, and Beethoven—to "little-c" where everyday creativity comes into play.</span></span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: MuseoSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 21px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">What's certain is that you don't just magically land in "Big-C" land one day. It takes the cumulative effect of thinking creatively every day, so much so that you don't even realize you're doing it. In short, creativity becomes a default mode. "Creative people are creative … not as a result of any particular inborn trait, but, rather, through an attitude toward life," says Sternberg. "They habitually respond to problems in fresh and novel ways, rather than allowing themselves to respond mindlessly and automatically."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">As I write this, I cannot help but think of the magnificent short story writer Mavis Gallant, who died last week at the age of 91. Gallant made a life of her creative work. "When I’m here, <em style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">chez moi</em>, I write every day as a matter of course," Gallant said in <a href="http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/838/the-art-of-fiction-no-160-mavis-gallant" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(255, 224, 38); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">a 1999 interview</a> with <em style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">The Paris Review</em>. "Most days in the morning but some days anytime, afternoon or evening. It depends on what I’m writing and the state of the thing. <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">It is not a burden. It is the way I live.</strong>"</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">The way you live. It can seem impossible, breaking into this way of life. Routinely approaching problems in novel ways—essentially what you're doing when you think creatively—does not just happen on its own. <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Just as we are able to break bad habits, we can cultivate new ones.</strong> According to Sternberg, there are three basic factors that help turn creative thinking into a habit: opportunities to engage in it, encouragement to go after such opportunities, and rewards for doing so. "In this respect," says Sternberg, "creativity is no different from any other habit, good or bad."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">At a pragmatic level, this might mean finding a community of people who support and encourage your creative work. For fiction writer Stacey D'Erasmo, this community is a kind of lifeline. "My private community is where I dream, where I feel most deeply that I can be known, where I am bowled over, where I am changed, where I break down, where I break through; it’s where I sweat, and who I sweat with," she writes in <a href="http://therumpus.net/2010/07/the-blurb-18-the-long-haul/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(255, 224, 38); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">an essay for <em style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">The Rumpus</em></a>. "I always want to know: How do you do it? And how about you? How do you keep doing it? In seeking out people of whom to ask this question, I seem to have built myself a life."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">There is more, of course, to cultivating a habit of creativity than finding a community. Writes Sternberg:</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">Creative people habitually:</span></span></div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 18px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px; position: relative; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="color: #444444;">Look for ways to see problems that other people don’t</span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 18px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px; position: relative; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="color: #444444;">Take risks that other people are afraid to take</span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 18px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px; position: relative; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="color: #444444;">Have the courage to defy the crowd and to stand up for their own beliefs</span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 18px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px; position: relative; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="color: #444444;">Seek to overcome obstacles and challenges to their views that other people give in to.</span></span></li>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="Investment_Theory_of_Creativity" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;"><span style="color: #444444;">INVESTMENT THEORY OF CREATIVITY.</span></a></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">"According to this theory, creative people are ones who are willing and able to metaphorically buy low and sell high in the realm of ideas," says Sternberg. When you buy low, you're going after what is out of favor, in the hopes that it has growth potential. This means being ready to encounter resistance from others.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">"The creative individual persists in the face of this resistance, and eventually sells high, moving on to the next new, or unpopular, idea. In other words, such an individual acquires the creativity habit. The question is whether the creative thinker has the fortitude to persevere and to go against the crowd."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">When we start talking about buying low and selling high, it seems we're taking all the magic out of creative work. That's precisely what Sternberg is after. Creative work isn't magic. It's what you do. People won't always like it. That doesn't mean you haven't created something of value.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">He's got evidence for this too: a laundry list of brilliant creative minds who faced rejection or negative criticism when their work came out: writers Toni Morrison and Sylvia Plath, painter Edvard Munch, psychologist John Garcia. This list goes on.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #444444;">The takeaway here is that creativity isn't just a habit cultivated over time. It's also, to some extent, an act of bravery. Says Sternberg: "One has to be willing to stand up to conventions if one wants to think and act in creative ways."</span></span></div>
<i>[Image: Flickr user <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/heretakis/8281830768/" target="_blank">Lefteris Heretakis</a>]</i><br />
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by Jane Porter<br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;">Source: <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3026816/dialed/how-to-cultivate-a-creative-thinking-habit" target="_blank">FastCompany</a></span><br />
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870000365007725512.post-29588466920817895962015-07-12T13:17:00.001-06:002015-07-12T13:17:13.703-06:0010 Lessons Every Entrepreneur Must Learn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bo6YdWo0o5w/VaK8mZL6FBI/AAAAAAAAOqE/AKtkZ7kuywY/s1600/vision-skill-education.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bo6YdWo0o5w/VaK8mZL6FBI/AAAAAAAAOqE/AKtkZ7kuywY/s200/vision-skill-education.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">As entrepreneurs, we all follow our own path. For some, the rise to financial success is a long, slow, painful process. For others, things just seem to magically fall into place. I believe that the latter isn’t a result of magic, however, but is the sure sign of an entrepreneur who understands the importance of learning from, adapting to and growing with their business.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">The following are 10 lessons every entrepreneur must learn in order to build a long-term, healthy and sustainable business.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">1. The customer is not always right. </span>From day one, we’re told that “the customer is always right.” We’re expected to bend over backwards to please every single customer, even when they’re clearly and painfully wrong. This maxim, however, can do a serious disservice to ourselves, our employees and our customers. Give your customers the benefit of the doubt, but not at the expense of your (or your employees’) dignity.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">2. Time is money. </span>Money, customers, ideas: all resources you can potentially gain more of. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Time</em>, however, is the one commodity you’ll always have a finite amount of. One way to ensure you make the most of your time is to assign an hourly dollar amount to your tasks.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Ask yourself: What would be a fair wage for the tasks I perform? If someone else can competently accomplish these tasks for less money, let them do it so you can focus on higher level, revenue-generating tasks. As a business owner, you should only do the tasks that only you can do.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">3. Not all money is good money. </span>This is a lesson many entrepreneurs struggle with early in their career. When you’re getting your business off the ground, it’s easy to fall into the trap of taking money from anyone who offers it. The problem is, not all customers or clients are worth it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Avoid clients who take up too much of your time, who consistently have unrealistic expectations or who you just generally dread working with. It’s just not worth it!</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">4. There are no cheap shortcuts in marketing.</span> I often speak to business owners who want marketing advice, but who then shun my recommendations as being “too expensive.” The truth is, cheap marketing can make your brand look cheap.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Low-quality content, cheap ads and "budget" SEO may save you money in the short term, but the damage they do to your brand’s reputation can last far longer. For insight on how to market the right way, see my <a href="http://www.audiencebloom.com/ebook-the-definitive-guide-to-marketing-your-business-online/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">ebook</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">5. Outsource as much as possible. </span>If you don’t have in-house staff to share the workload, consider outsourcing. Many entrepreneurs find that <a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/236399" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">hiring an overseas virtual assistant</a> significantly reduces the time they need to spend on routine tasks, freeing them up to work on revenue-generating tasks.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">6. Build your personal brand as well as your company brand.</span> Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of focusing on building their company brand to the exclusion of building their personal brand. However, your personal brand will differentiate you from your competitors, give you authority and credibility in your field, and stick with you in the event your company ultimately experiences failure.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">For some practical tips, see my article, <a href="http://www.audiencebloom.com/2013/04/how-to-grow-your-personal-brand-with-your-content-strategy/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">How to Grow Your Personal Brand with Your Content Strategy</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">And while there’s been a lot of talk over the years about work-life separation or work-life balance, our whole thing is about work-life integration. Because it’s just life -- and the ideal would be if you can be the same person at home as you are in the office and vice versa</em>. -- Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">7. Work is life, and life’s too short to hate your work. </span>Work-life balance is something many entrepreneurs struggle with, which is why I’m such a huge fan of Tony Hsieh’s approach. When you’re passionate about what you do, and when you focus on happiness (both your own and that of your employees’), work isn’t just something you do to fund your "real life." It becomes infinitely more enjoyable and meaningful, and significantly reduces your chances of experiencing burnout.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">My philosophy is to always find the smartest people you can. Hire people smarter than you.</em> -- Donny Deutsch</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">8. Hire people who are smarter than you. </span>Face it: There will always be people who are smarter than you. If you’re lucky enough to find these people, hire them. Focus on the things that you’re best at, and give them the freedom to do the same.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">9. Best practices may not be best for your customers.</span> Particularly when you’re just starting a business, it’s easy to get caught up in doing what others tell you is the "best way" to do something. Problem is, "they" don’t know <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">your </em>customers or clients. Use best practices as a starting point, but adapt them to meet the unique needs of your business and customers.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">10. Just do it.</span> Planning, strategizing and weighing options all have important roles within a business. But there comes a point in time when you just have to do it. You know the quote: “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing perfectly.</em>”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Analysis paralysis or simply the lack of ability to execute a plan will stifle growth, innovation and progress in any business. Even if the payoff for work done now won't come for years. Successful people do the work anyway because they know how to delay gratification, and this ability is what separates successful people from unsuccessful people, according to renowned physicist and author Michio Kaku.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">There you have it: 10 lessons every entrepreneur must learn in order to build a profitable and sustainable business. Not easy lessons, to be sure, but ones that ensure the best possible chance of long-term success.</span></span></div>
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<i>by Jayson Demers</i><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;">Source: <a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237077" target="_blank">Entrepreneur</a></span><br />
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870000365007725512.post-30784634414758317252015-07-12T12:26:00.002-06:002015-07-12T12:26:57.312-06:008 Invaluable Online Classes for Entrepreneurs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_qJXJ-baK3I/VaKwBpXP4CI/AAAAAAAAOp0/8h4xlmqL6Nc/s1600/entrepreneur-classes.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_qJXJ-baK3I/VaKwBpXP4CI/AAAAAAAAOp0/8h4xlmqL6Nc/s200/entrepreneur-classes.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">You have to continually expand your knowledge to succeed as an entrepreneur. Thankfully, educational institutions and technology are making continuing your education more convenient through online course. While there are thousands of informative and inspiring online courses you can take, here are classes you definitely need to enroll in if you want to be an entrepreneur.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">1. How to Build a Startup</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">This<a href="https://www.udacity.com/course/how-to-build-a-startup--ep245" style="outline: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> free course over at Udacity</a> is instructed by Steve Blank, serial entrepreneur, educator and developer of the famous customer development methodology. The course is an introduction to the basics of the Customer Development Process which includes learning how to develop and test ideas, how to listen and engage your customers, and how to deliver your product to your audience.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">It only takes about a month to complete the eight lessons.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">2. Essentials of Entrepreneurship</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Through Coursera, you can learn some of the<a href="https://www.coursera.org/learn/entrepreneurial-thinking/" style="outline: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> basic components of entrepreneurship</a> by University of California, Irvine, instructor David Stranden, MBA. It’s an interactive course that consists of approximately four to eight hours of video and reading lessons, along with the occasional quiz.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">The course covers entrepreneurial skills and tools, marketing strategy, human resources and accounting.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">3. Stanford Innovation and Entrepreneurship Certificate</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">If you already have work experience, and about a grand to spend, then this <a href="http://online.stanford.edu/course/stanford-innovation-and-entrepreneurship-certificate" style="outline: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">online course offered by Stanford University</a> is designed just you. The course was influenced by the spirit of Silicon Valley and will provide students with the tools and strategies to launch their start-up. What’s most appealing about this course is you can hear from successful entrepreneurs and customize the program with classes relevant to you.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">The course is self-paced and should be finished within 90 days. After completing the course, you’ll have the official Stanford Innovation and Entrepreneurship Certificate.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">4. 21 Critical Lessons for Entrepreneurs</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Presented by Jason Nazar, CEO of Docstoc, <a href="https://www.udemy.com/21-golden-rules-for-entrepreneurs/" style="outline: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">this two-hour video course</a> includes 21 lessons Nazar has experience himself. Covered in the course is vetting ideas during the early stages of your startup, how to raise money, selecting the right team, and practical growth strategies.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">This priceless course is great for potential entrepreneurs and can be taken for free at Udemy. You’ll even get a nifty certification after completion.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">5. Startup Funding for Entrepreneurs</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Professor Michael R. Pratt from the University of Maryland instructs this <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/venturefinance" style="outline: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">great introductory class</a> on when and how entrepreneurs can raise funds. Additional lessons include where to find investors, looking at various funding options, the components of a term sheet, how to perform key valuations, and how to make your pitch to investors.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">This four-week course can be taken for free on Coursera.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">6. Introduction to Finance</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">It’s one thing to secure funding for your startup, it’s another beast when it comes to valuing the company. That’s why <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/introfinance" style="outline: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">this course, taught by Gautam Kaul of the University of Michigan</a>, is a must-take for all entrepreneurs. It will teach students how to make the appropriate personal and professional financial decisions by exploring the fundamental principles of valuation.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">The 15-week course can be taken on Coursera and includes real-world examples and video lessons.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">7. Law and the Entrepreneur</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Taught by Esther Barron and Steve Reed of Northwestern University, <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/law" style="outline: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">this course offered at Coursera</a> covers how to choose an entity for your business, selection of a company name and trademark, and protecting intellectual property. It also teaches entrepreneurs how to structure agreements with partners and investors.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">The format consists of case studies and four or five short video lectures each week, as well as reading assignments and a quiz.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">8. Introduction to Marketing</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">What’s the point in starting your own business if you can’t market to the right audience? <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/whartonmarketing" style="outline: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">This course</a> is instructed by Barbara Kahn, Peter Fader and David Bell from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, which is constantly ranked as one of the top marketing departments in the world. The course discusses key principles like branding, customer centricity and go-to-market strategies. I <a href="https://www.hostt.com/5-things-every-graphic-designer-needs/" style="outline: 0px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">used this</a> to learn how to better brand my online business. It's taught me to pay attention to detail and make things stand out.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">The four-week course consists of lecture videos, quizzes and discussions.</span></div>
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<br />
<i>by Peter Daisyme</i><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-size: x-small;">Source: <a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248055" target="_blank">Entrepreneur</a></span><br />
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870000365007725512.post-67576081194331992872015-06-23T13:17:00.004-06:002015-06-23T13:17:58.146-06:0023 Things Every Entrepreneur Must Know<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2Oh7t0gMMAM/VYmwfpwt-_I/AAAAAAAAKz0/OnrUHyJOvrA/s1600/hand-magnifying-glass-over-knowledge-words.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2Oh7t0gMMAM/VYmwfpwt-_I/AAAAAAAAKz0/OnrUHyJOvrA/s200/hand-magnifying-glass-over-knowledge-words.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">A buddy of mine is a big-deal business professor at an even bigger deal university. And for reasons I still don’t understand, he asked me to come in and explain to his graduate students what I have learned from spending 30 years talking to, researching and writing about entrepreneurs.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Here’s what I said.</span></div>
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<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>The best way to predict the future is <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/actiontrumpseverything/2012/03/13/the-best-way-to-predict-the-future-is-to-create-it/">to create it</a>.</strong></li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>The most important decision you can make is</strong>…<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/actiontrumpseverything/2013/07/21/the-most-important-decision-you-have-to-make-if-you-want-to-be-successful/">where do you want to spend your time.</a> You only have so much time, energy and ability to focus. That means, as much as you would like to, you can’t do everything. That’s a given. So is this: The places which receive your full attention will do better than the places that won’t. What follows from that is this: You need to make hard choices about what you will do–and what you won’t. And it is really is the important decision you can make, because everything else you do will flow from it…including the next point.</li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/actiontrumpseverything/2013/07/14/if-you-want-to-be-a-successful-entrepreneur-there-is-no-such-thing-as-work-life-balance/">there is no such thing as work-life balance</a>.</strong> I am not advocating that you spend a disproportionate part of your life working on your company. (I am also not advocating against it.) I am simply reporting that is what the most successful entrepreneurs do. I have never found an exception.</li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>The best entrepreneurs don’t come up with great ideas,</strong> <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/actiontrumpseverything/2013/05/05/if-you-come-up-with-a-great-idea-someone-might-pay-you-1-solve-a-market-need-and-you-can-basically-charge-whatever-you-want/">they solve market needs</a>. You and I can come up with wonderful ideas all day long but unless they satisfy a large enough need, one that can support a business, they don’t do anyone any good.</li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>The one thing all successful entrepreneurs have in common is the desire to make their idea a reality. </strong>What entrepreneurs<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/actiontrumpseverything/2013/04/07/the-one-thing-all-successful-entrepreneurs-have-in-common-a-case-study/"> need most of all</a>—above motivation, focus, hope, financing, marketing skills, a brilliant idea, etc.—is the will to bring their idea into existance. Unless you truly want to make something happen, the odds are nothing will. Without that desire, nothing else matters…or occurs. Your life will be filled in other ways.</li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>Action trumps everything. </strong><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqgj013HnAc">Stop thinking and get underway.</a></li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>Take small, smart steps towards your goals. </strong>Contrary to the popular press, the most successful entrepreneurs are not swing-for-the-fences, bet-everything-on-one-roll-of-the-dice types. They are extremely conservative.<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/actiontrumpseverything/2013/05/15/the-most-successful-people-take-small-smart-steps-toward-their-goals/">They take a small step toward their goal;</a> pause to see what they have learned from taking that small step and build that learning into the next small step. Then they pause to see what they have learned from that second small step, build that learning in and then take another small step and so forth. They don’t take large risks.</li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>If you want to build a successful company </strong><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/actiontrumpseverything/2013/09/08/want-to-build-a-successful-company-give-up-control/">give up control</a>. You can try to micromanage but: the business will never grow bigger than one person (you, the CEO) can handle effectively; the company won’t be able to move very quickly. Since everything will have to flow through you, you will create a bottleneck; you won’t get the best ideas out of your people. Once they understand the company is set up so everything revolves around you, people are not going to take the time to develop their best ideas. “Why should I,” they’ll ask. “He is just going to do what he wants anyway.” And it’s exhausting.</li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/actiontrumpseverything/2013/07/07/forget-about-working-on-your-weaknesses-play-to-your-strengths-a-case-study/">Forget about working on your weaknesses, play to your strengths.</a> </strong>This is what will make you successful in the long-run.</li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>You need to be able to turn every obstacle into an asset</strong>.<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/actiontrumpseverything/2013/02/17/how-the-most-successful-people-treat-everything-including-problems-as-an-asset-a-case-study/"> Yes, every single one</a>.</li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>All you need to know about marketing in exactly 30 words?</strong><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/actiontrumpseverything/2013/03/13/all-you-need-to-know-about-marketing-in-88-words-honest-2/">Marketing, when you strip everything away, is extremely simple: You figure out who you want to sell to, and then you determine what it is that will get them to buy.</a></li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>Here’s the only market research you need</strong>: Get your product out in the marketplace and see if it sells.</li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>If you insist on doing market research anyway</strong>, here’s <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/actiontrumpseverything/2013/08/28/the-one-vital-question-to-ask-potential-customers-before-you-introduce-a-new-product-or-service/">the one question you need to ask</a>. Show potential customers a prototype, or describe the service you are thinking of offering and then say: ”Is this something you would buy,” and if they answer yes, ask for the order then and there. If, as the cliché goes, they are willing to put their money where their mouth is, you are probably on to something. If they aren’t, you still have work to do.</li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>You must figure out <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/actiontrumpseverything/2013/09/18/how-to-get-paid-faster-8-tried-and-true-ideas/">how you are going to collect </a>what you are owed.</strong> Nobody thinks about this before they get underway and suddenly they learn first hand what they phrase “cash flow crunch” means.</li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>As much as you are going to fight it </strong>you need a (really smart) advisory board. You want a board to: give you new perspectives and ideas; to give you people to talk to and to provide honest feedback.</li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>If you want to get more done faster and better…</strong><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/actiontrumpseverything/2013/09/11/want-to-get-more-done-faster-and-better-create-checklists/">create checklists</a><strong>. </strong>Checklists are a wonderful way to make sure you don’t overlook anything, and that it is true whether we are talking about the best way to treat someone in the emergency room or if you are about to make a big presentation to a client you really want to land.</li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/actiontrumpseverything/2012/12/29/how-the-most-successful-people-motivate-themselves-and-stay-motivated/">How to motivate yourself and stay motivated.</a> </strong>Starting anything new is hard and the number of obstacles you are going to encounter can easily get overwhelming. Click on the link here for proven ideas that can keep you going.</li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>If the dogs don’t like the dog food it’s bad dog food. </strong>You don’t determine what a good product is. Only your customer does. And if they don’t like your product, it’s a bad product. Period. In others words, the customer is always right. Darn it.</li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>If the customer doesn’t like the product, there isn’t much you can do about it with pricing or promotion or positioning. </strong>Unpopular products are going to remain so. It is better to come up with a different version, than to keep trying to sell–at a discounted price–the one people don’t like.</li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>If you are going to fail, and sometimes you will, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/actiontrumpseverything/2013/06/01/if-you-are-going-to-fail-and-you-will-sometimes-heres-how-to-do-it-quickly-and-cheaply/">fail quickly and cheaply.</a></strong> Always take small steps toward your goal and pause after each one to make sure you are staying on the right track.</li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>(Really) Learn from your mistakes</strong>. You are going to make mistakes. That’s a) a given and b) okay, providing you truly understand what went wrong.</li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong>Creativity and innovation must be linked to a business objective. </strong>Creativity is wonderful. But creativity that isn’t tied to making money is just a hobby. It isn’t a viable business concept.</li>
<li style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;"><strong><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/actiontrumpseverything/2013/07/31/memo-from-the-most-successful-entrepreneurs-get-out-while-you-still-have-your-marbles/">Get out while you still have your marbles</a>.</strong> You never want to stay too long at the fair, even if you own the fair.</li>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><i>by Paul B. Brown</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Source: <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/actiontrumpseverything/2013/09/22/23-things-every-entrepreneur-must-know-2/" target="_blank">Forbes</a></span><br />
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870000365007725512.post-41655202238268079482015-06-22T23:43:00.000-06:002015-06-23T12:27:56.611-06:00A Better Way to Think About Your Business Model<div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em;">
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">The business model canvas — as opposed to the traditional, intricate business plan — helps organizations conduct structured, tangible, and strategic conversations around new businesses or existing ones. Leading global companies like GE, P&G, and Nestlé use the canvas to manage strategy or create new growth engines, while start-ups use it in their search for the right business model. The canvas’s main objective is to help companies move beyond product-centric thinking and towards business model thinking.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">To start, it lets you look at all nine building blocks of your business on one page:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Each of these nine components contains a series of hypotheses about your business model that you need to test (click or tap for a bigger version):</span></div>
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<a href="https://hbr.org/resources/images/article_assets/2013/10/canvas1.gif" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><img alt="canvas" height="416" src="https://hbr.org/resources/images/article_assets/2013/10/canvas1.gif?w=300" style="border: none; display: block; max-width: 100%; text-align: justify; vertical-align: middle;" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Nespresso, a fully owned daughter company of Nestlé, is a great example of a powerful business model. It changed the face of the coffee industry by turning a transactional business (selling coffee through retail) into one with recurring revenues (selling proprietary pods through direct channels). Here’s what their strategy looks like on the canvas (full-screen mode works best):</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">The canvas is one of the three key principles of the lean start-up approach. For the other two, read Steve Blank’s May 2013 article “<a href="https://hbr.org/2013/05/why-the-lean-start-up-changes-everything/ar/1" style="line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-decoration: none;">Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything</a>.”</span><br />
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<a href="http://pax.io/success" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;"><img alt="Be a Successful Entrepreneur - FREE Webinar" border="0" src="http://php.pax.io/images/Be_a_Successful_Entrepreneur.png" style="height: 100%; max-height: 400px; width: 100%;margin:0px;padding:0px;" title="Be a Successful Entrepreneur - FREE Webinar" /></a>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://hbr.org/search?term=alexander+osterwalder" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-decoration: none;">Alexander Osterwalder</a> is co-author of the global bestseller “Business Model Generation.” His Business Model Canvas is used by leading organizations around the world, and his start-up, The Business Model Foundry, is building strategic tools for innovators. Strategyzer.com and the Business Model Toolbox for iPad are the Foundry’s first applications.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Source:<a href="https://hbr.org/2013/05/a-better-way-to-think-about-yo/" target="_blank">Harvard Business Review</a></span><br />
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870000365007725512.post-87705342274438274562015-06-22T23:15:00.002-06:002015-06-23T12:30:42.573-06:0014 Ways to Apply the Business Model Canvas<div style="-webkit-transition: box-shadow 0.1s ease-in-out; clear: none; outline: transparent solid 1px; padding: 0px 17px 17px; position: relative; transition: box-shadow 0.1s ease-in-out;">
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<strong><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">When Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur wrote Business Model Generation in 2009 they couldn't have imagined all the different applications users would come up with for their Business Model Canvas. In this post I'll give you fourteen very different but very practical applications of the Business Model Canvas that we've observed first hand from our global community of practitioners.</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Over the years we've observed a lot of different types of people who are using the Business Model Canvas in a lot of different types of organizations. We wrote about those learnings in a previous post where we shared our recently published <a href="http://blog.strategyzer.com/posts/2015/2/9/why-and-how-organizations-around-the-world-apply-the-business-model-canvas" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">research report</a>. We shared why organizations around the world are adopting the tool and provided some general ideas for ways they are using it. We expand on those useful applications below. We focus primarily on applications we've observed from within large organizations but entrepreneurs and startups will find these ideas equally helpful. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Strategic Planning/Development</strong> - One of the primary ways we've seen organizations use the BMC is in their regular strategic planning and development cycles. They use it to create a blueprint of their strategy. The BMC provides a very clear foundation and direction for the conversation at hand, whether done in a corporate offsite with the executive team or done around the board room table .</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Retrospective/Outlook </strong>- When used as a strategic plan users apply the BMC to describe what they’ve done the past year and what they intend to do in the year ahead. If there are changes in the business model or entirely new building blocks to be developed then they would indicate that with color coding. An interesting trend here is that the BMC is increasingly used as a modern version of the strategic plan to co-create strategy with people from around the organization to boost alignment and buy-in.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><strong style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">Strategic Planning per Business Unit </strong><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">- In larger organizations we’ve also seen the canvas being used for strategic planning per business unit, because it gives you an overview of what the different business units are doing. The BMC works as a shared language across business units and provides you with a snapshot of your organization's business model portfolio (cf usage 4).</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Dashboard</strong> - We’ve seen a couple of teams and companies start using the BMC as a dashboard. They define a set of indicators for each building block of their Business Model Canvas that they want to follow. Then they define a performance threshold for each indicator. It's on green if they are happy with the performance per indicator, turns orange if there is something to look at, and turns red if there’s a problem. For us it was interesting to see how some users hacked the canvas to "repurpose" it in a very very innovative way in order to follow the performance of their organization.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><strong style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">Understanding Competition</strong><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">- Another interesting way to use the BMC is to understand competition. By sketching out the business model of each one of your competitors you gain a better understanding of their strengths, limits, constraints, and what they can or can't do. This increased understanding of your competitive landscape will allow you to act accordingly and design a better business model.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Portfolio of Business Models</strong> - A particularly interesting area for application of the BMC is the idea of developing a portfolio of business models, ranging from improving existing business models all the way to inventing new business models. While product and brand portfolios are relatively well mastered in large organizations, business model portfolios are an entirely new phenomenon.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">A business model portfolio helps you understand and highlight with which business model you are making cash today and with which business models you’re going to make cash in the future. Beyond growth and cash generation the portfolio approach also helps you understand synergies and potential cannibalization between the different business models.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Increasingly, organizations are moving away from just managing product portfolios and brand portfolios towards business model portfolios. This is still a very young field of development, but it’s a very very promising one.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">A good illustration of this business model portfolio approach is Nestlé's use of it's machine and pod technology. It all started with</span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"> </span><a href="http://www.nespresso.com/" style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Nespresso</a><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">'s innovative business model built around single portioned coffee. Today the same technology is used in its mass market coffee (</span><a href="http://www.dolce-gusto.com/" style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Dulce Gusto</a><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">by Nescafé), it's tea business (</span><a href="http://www.special-t.com/prehome/index.php" style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">SpecialT</a><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">), and even for its baby formula (</span><a href="http://www.babynes.com/" style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">BabyNes</a><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">). While they all use the same underlying technology all of these businesses have different business models with potential synergies and cannibalization.</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Design, test, and build new growth engines</strong> - This application is very closely related to the original intent of the BMC outlined in <a href="http://businessmodelgeneration.com/book?_ga=1.157398714.1011869589.1425072706" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Business Model Generation</a> and refined in <a href="https://strategyzer.com/value-proposition-design" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Value Proposition Design</a>. Here the BMC is used to prototype alternative business models and test them with the <a href="http://steveblank.com/2013/05/06/free-reprints-of-why-the-lean-startup-changes-everything/" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Lean Startup / Customer Development Process</a>. We call this <a href="http://blog.strategyzer.com/posts/2015/3/2/search-design-test-learn-iterate" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">the search for the right business model and value proposition</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><strong style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">New idea template </strong><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">- A lot of organizations use the BMC as a (sometimes mandatory) template to develop and/or submit new ideas. The interesting thing here is that then the ideas become comparable. This unifying lense or language allows you to compare all types of innovations ranging from process innovation and product innovation all the way to substantial business model innovation and the creation of new growth engines. Corporate incubators and accelerators in particular are huge fans of the BMC to manage the ideas of their different teams.</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Understanding customers</strong> - An incredibly interesting and innovative use of the BMC is that of companies that use the Canvas to sketch out the business models of their customers. By better understanding their customer’s business model they can develop better value propositions and/or better explain their solutions in the context of their customer's business.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">For example, Ericsson, the telecom equipment manufacturer, uses a version of the BMC to better understand the network operators they are serving. Or, SAP, the German software giant, uses the BMC in their pre-sales process. Sales teams map out the customer's business model in collaboration with the customer or as a preparation for sales meetings.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Alignment/CxO/executive on boarding</strong> - While we always saw the BMC as an alignment tool, it was a surprise to us that leadership teams would use the BMC as an onboarding tool for CEOs or senior executives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #333333;">The first time we discovered this type of application it was more of an accident. We were running a business model workshop in a company that just hired a new CEO. He loved the approach because it gave him an immediate understanding of the entire organization in one workshop. Another organization in Asia started using the BMC systematically for every senior executive on boarding. They get every new hire to sketch out the company's business model. In another case a CFO used the BMC to understand the business model he was getting into when he was starting a new job. He then got the entire leadership team to run an alignment workshop with the Business Model Canvas.</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Strategy diffusion and co-creation</strong> - A very powerful way to use the BMC is in the context of strategic alignment across the organization. On the one hand it can be used for strategy diffusion or on the other hand - as I mentioned previously (cf usage 1) - for strategy co-creation to create buy-in. The canvas plays a very powerful role in strategy diffusion because it becomes the blueprint of your strategy that shows more concretely, more clearly how you’re going to implement your strategy. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><strong style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">Shared language across functions</strong><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">- One of the biggest areas of application where we’ve seen the canvas succeed phenomenally is as a shared language across the organization. The Canvas is particularly helpful when applied across functions. People from marketing, technology, engineering, operations, finance, and so on can all work together around a BMC and have a shared language to discuss their ideas. Whether it's new ideas on the table, new businesses on the table, or new business models that are going to be developed, the Canvas becomes the central, unifying tool to center the conversation. The Canvas doesn't just provide a shared language to make conversations</span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">better</span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">, it also makes conversations more strategic, and in particular, it provides an outcome that can actually be implemented.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><strong style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">General alignment</strong><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">- The BMC helps generally with alignment because</span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">on one piece of paper</span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">we have all the essentials of the blueprint of your strategy. I</span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">n</span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"> </span><a href="http://blog.strategyzer.com/posts/2014/8/20/5-questions-business-mode-canvas" style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: none;">a previous post</a><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"> we shared </span><a href="https://youtu.be/LLKqthJOdN8" style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The Business Model Theatre</a><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"> video and how the Canvas is made up of a front stage and a back stage. On the front stage, the Canvas very clearly delineates how you’re creating value for customers and how that allows you to generate revenues. On the backstage the Canvas describes what resources, activities, and partners you need to create this value and how that generates costs. The BMC makes it possible for everybody to have a </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">shared understanding of what we’re trying to achieve as an organization. It makes explicit </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">what the pieces of your business model are, what the blueprint of your strategy is, and guides everybody to work towards that end.</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><strong style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">Investment decisions</strong><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">- Some organizations are using the BMC to make better investment decisions. Once you've sketched out a business model(s) and you understand the underlying business opportunity, you have a better understanding of where you should allocate resources. This is true both for improving existing business models to inventing entirely new business models. Of course we recognize that it’s actually easier to generate quick revenues from existing business models and harder to generate long-term revenues from new ones, but we need to allocate resources across the entire portfolio of business models. The Canvas makes business opportunities explicit and can serve as a guide to how those resources get allocated.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><strong style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">Mergers and acquisitions</strong><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.5;">- One application that we really didn’t expect would come up is the application of using the BMC in context of mergers and acquisitions. The idea here is that you would sketch out the business models of two organizations and figure out if there is a good fit. If you do this for a couple of organizations within a specific industry you'll better understand where there are potential synergies and opportunities for integration and where more differentiating factors will cause you to run into challenges. This application can be used for large and small mergers and acquisitions as well as in settings where an organization has an internal startup and wants to acquire or merge it back into the parent company or back into an existing business unit. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><strong>Exit strategies (IPO, acquisition)</strong> - The last application we'll provide here is using the Canvas in the context of exit strategies. When assessing the opportunity of bringing an organization to the market you can use the Canvas to determine where you are going to allocate the money, how you will create better value propositions, how you will acquire more customers, or how to decrease your costs and increase your revenues. If you aren't going for an IPO and you want to sell the company and get acquired you will want to understand if and how your organization fits with other organizations. In this case you would apply the Canvas in the same way as we’ve seen with Mergers & Acquisitions (cf usage 13).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Conclusion</span></h3>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">It has been incredibly exciting to see so many very different applications of the Business Model Canvas. Here we've provided 14 ways to apply the Canvas and I’m sure there are many more. Hopefully this gives you a little bit of a taste and some appetite to figure out how you could apply the Business Model Canvas within your organization. </span></div>
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<a href="http://pax.io/success" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;"><img alt="Be a Successful Entrepreneur - FREE Webinar" border="0" src="http://php.pax.io/images/Be_a_Successful_Entrepreneur.png" style="height: 100%; max-height: 400px; width: 100%;margin:0px;padding:0px;" title="Be a Successful Entrepreneur - FREE Webinar" /></a>
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<a name='more'></a>What new or interesting ways have you found to apply the Business Model Canvas? How will you apply it in your organization?</span></h3>
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<i>by Benson Garner</i><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Source: <a href="http://blog.strategyzer.com/posts/2015/3/23/14-ways-to-apply-the-business-model-canvas" target="_blank">Strategyzer</a></span><br />
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870000365007725512.post-7197363794400537602015-06-22T22:27:00.001-06:002015-06-23T12:30:53.331-06:00What the Smartest People Focus On<div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><i>Alexander Osterwalder</i> is an expert on business model innovation. Here's what he has to say about your current business model -- and why it's not working.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><b><em>Alexander Osterwalder </em></b><em>knows what your business needs: A new business model.</em><em> </em><em>So he created a tool to help you map it out, the Business Model Canvas. The entrepreneur also co-authored Business Model Generation, a book about business model innovation that has become a global bestseller. Inc.’s Caitlin Berens talks with Osterwalder about why you should think twice about your business model and how to develop it for growth.</em></span></div>
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<b style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><em><span style="font-size: large;">Why is it important to rethink your business model?</span></em></b></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As an entrepreneur if you want to find a way to grow and to keep ahead of others you better think of the business model and not just your products and technology, like most entrepreneurs. The smartest people are focusing on products</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><em style="font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit;">and</em><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">the business model, it’s a combination of both, it’s not either-or, it’s</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><em style="font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit;">and</em><span style="font-family: inherit;">. The iPhone is a good example of this, it’s not just the technology Apple has, but also their business model that utilizes a double-sided market, developers, and hundreds of thousands of apps.</span></span></div>
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<b style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><em><span style="font-size: large;">Where do many business models go wrong?</span></em></b></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Too often entrepreneurs fall in love with their first business model, which is often a very simple one, make and sell. Making the wrong business model choices can put you into a niche rather than putting you into a multi-million dollar business. You can’t just depend on the product—even a great product with a poor business model can still lead a business to bankruptcy.</span></span></div>
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<b style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><em><span style="font-size: large;">So how can you develop a business model for growth?</span></em></b></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">First, burn your business plan. Business plans are static documents where you describe an idea. We’re moving now toward a different way of thinking which is designing and testing business models. A business model is a dynamic model that you will change according to what you learn from the market until you figure out which model is best. So focus on the design of your business model; think through five to 20 different ones, make hypotheses, and then get out of the building and test them before you settle on one; just having something good on paper isn’t enough.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">If your assumptions were wrong, change your business model and retest it until you have a feeling that something could work, then start investing. Accept that you need to fail a lot and you need to fail quickly. These little experiments will help you actually validate or invalidate your hypotheses, rather than wasting a lot of time and money.</span></div>
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<b style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><em><span style="font-size: large;">But what if your co-founder or team is against the change?</span></em></b></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here’s the thing: Opinions don’t matter; people have opinions, “this is good, this is bad,” but what you really want to have is information from the market. It doesn’t matter what your co-founder thinks, it doesn’t matter what you think, it doesn’t even matter what your VC thinks; the only thing that really matters is what the market thinks. Get market data because the market is the ultimate judge. We’re moving away from opinion-based entrepreneurship toward more fact-based entrepreneurship where we have hypotheses that we test for feedback on what works and what doesn’t.</span></span></div>
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<b style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><em><span style="font-size: large;">Why did you create the Business Model Canvas?</span></em></b></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We’re only starting to learn how to really address this business model issue systematically, because “business model” is a word that everybody uses and nobody really understands it because it’s a buzzword. So I created the Business Model Canvas to help people visualize business models, discuss them, and ultimately invent better ones.</span></span></div>
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<b style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit;"><em><span style="font-size: large;">What makes it so successful? Describe it to me.</span></em></b></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Business Model Canvas is an approach that allows entrepreneurs to describe, challenge, and invent business models. At the very basic level people will use it as a checklist, so you write down and describe all of the components that are necessary to your business, like a strategic blueprint. This gives you a holistic view of what your business needs. It also helps you visualize other business model alternatives. The Business Model Canvas has been downloaded in the millions. People needed something to help them better discuss and visualize business models.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tZ_A9m7O-EQ/VYjf-PlIFjI/AAAAAAAAKwY/wEscfIMTcYU/s1600/bmc-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tZ_A9m7O-EQ/VYjf-PlIFjI/AAAAAAAAKwY/wEscfIMTcYU/s1600/bmc-2.png" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://pax.io/success" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;"><img alt="Be a Successful Entrepreneur - FREE Webinar" border="0" src="http://php.pax.io/images/Be_a_Successful_Entrepreneur.png" style="height: 100%; max-height: 400px; width: 100%;margin:0px;padding:0px;" title="Be a Successful Entrepreneur - FREE Webinar" /></a>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><i>by Caitlin Berens</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Source: <a href="http://www.inc.com/caitlin-berens/alexander-osterwalder-rethink-your-business-model.html" target="_blank">Inc.</a></span></span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870000365007725512.post-25257503554806346822015-06-22T22:03:00.000-06:002015-06-23T12:31:04.208-06:00Do You Have What It Takes to Be an Entrepreneur?<div style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 1.0em; text-align: justify;">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kldh3xM0R-U/VYjY5RYgHiI/AAAAAAAAKwA/sF35pmKpbM0/s1600/Do-I-Have-What-It-Takes-To-Be-an-Entrepreneur.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="165" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kldh3xM0R-U/VYjY5RYgHiI/AAAAAAAAKwA/sF35pmKpbM0/s200/Do-I-Have-What-It-Takes-To-Be-an-Entrepreneur.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><em>In their book, </em><a href="https://bookstore.entrepreneur.com/product/start-your-own-business-6th-edition/?ctp=Press&cnm=Editors&src=Excerpt" style="outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Start Your Own Business</a><em>, the staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc. guides you through the critical steps to starting a business, then supports you in surviving the first three years as a business owner. In this edited excerpt, the authors offer some tips to help you determine if being a business owner is a smart move for you.</em></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Before they get started, some people worry if they have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. If this is you, stop worrying. We firmly believe anyone with the desire and the initiative can be an entrepreneur.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">A fundamental desire to control their own destinies ranks very high on most entrepreneurs’ lists of reasons for starting their own businesses. This need is so strong that entrepreneurs will risk family, future and careers to be their own boss. Unable to feel truly fulfilled working for someone else, these individuals can't be happy following someone else’s plan or taking orders from a boss. They’re often convinced they have a better way, or an idea that would really revolutionize their industry—or at least their little corner of it—and working within a corporate structure is simply stifling that improvement.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Through surveys and research, we know that successful entrepreneurs share some common personality traits, the most important of which is confidence not only in themselves but also in their ability to sell their ideas, set up a business and trust their intuition along the way. Small business is fiercely competitive, and it’s the business owners with confidence who survive.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Your strengths and weaknesses</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">It’s rare that one person possesses all the qualities needed to be successful in business. What’s important is to understand your strengths and weaknesses. To do this, you need to evaluate the major achievements in your personal and professional life and the skills you used to accomplish them. The following steps can help: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">1. <b><em>Create a personal resume</em>.</b> Compose a resume that lists your professional and personal experiences as well as your expertise. For each job, describe the duties you were responsible for and the degree of your success. Include professional skills, educational background, hobbies, and accomplishments that required expertise or special knowledge. When it's complete, this resume will give you a better idea of the kind of business that best suits your interests and experience.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">2. <b><em>Analyze your personal attributes</em>.</b> Are you friendly and self-motivated? Are you a hard worker? Do you have common sense? Are you well-organized? Evaluating your personal attributes reveals your likes and dislikes as well as strengths and weaknesses. If you don’t feel comfortable around other people, then a business that requires a lot of customer interaction might not be right for you. Or you may want to hire a “people person” to handle customer service.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">3. <b><em>Analyze your professional attributes</em>.</b> Small-business owners wear many different hats, but that doesn’t mean you have to be a jack-of-all-trades. Just be aware of the areas where you’re competent and the areas where you need help, such as sales, marketing, advertising and administration. Next to each function, record your competency level—excellent, good, fair, or poor.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">In addition to evaluating your strengths and weaknesses, it’s important to define your business goals. For some people, the goal is the freedom to do what they want when they want, without anyone telling them otherwise. For others, the goal is financial security.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Setting goals is an integral part of choosing the business that’s right for you. After all, if your business doesn’t meet your personal goals, you probably won’t be happy waking up each morning and trying to make the business a success. Sooner or later, you’ll stop putting forth the effort needed to make the concept work.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><b>When setting goals, aim for the following qualities:</b></span></div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.0em 6px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><b><em>Specificity</em>.</b> You have a better chance of achieving a goal if it is specific. “Raising capital” isn’t a specific goal; “raising $10,000 by July 1” is.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.0em 6px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><b><em>Optimism</em>.</b> Be positive when you set your goals. “Being able to pay the bills” isn’t exactly an inspirational goal. “Achieving financial security” phrases your goal in a more positive manner, thus firing up your energy to attain it.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.0em 6px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><b><em>Realism</em>.</b> If you set a goal to earn $100,000 a month when you’ve never earned that much in a year, that goal is unrealistic. Begin with small steps, such as increasing your monthly income by 25 percent. Once your first goal is met, you can reach for larger ones.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.0em 6px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><b><em>Short and long term</em>.</b> Short-term goals are attainable in a period of weeks to a year. Long-term goals can be for five, 10 or even 20 years; they should be substantially greater than short-term goals but should still be realistic.</span></li>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><b>There are several factors to consider when setting goals:</b></span></div>
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<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.0em 6px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><b><em>Income</em>.</b> Many entrepreneurs go into business to achieve financial security. Consider how much money you want to make during your first year of operation and each year thereafter, up to five years.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.0em 6px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><b><em>Lifestyle</em>.</b> This includes areas such as travel, hours of work, investment of personal assets, and geographic location. Are you willing to travel extensively or to move? How many hours are you willing to work? Which assets are you willing to risk?</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.0em 6px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><b><em>Type of work</em>.</b> When setting goals for type of work, you need to determine whether you like working outdoors, in an office, with computers, on the phone, with lots of people, with children, and so on.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1.0em 6px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><b><em>Ego gratification</em>.</b> Face it: Many people go into business to satisfy their egos. Owning a business can be very ego-gratifying, especially if you’re in a business that’s considered glamorous or exciting. You need to decide how important ego gratification is to you and what business best fills that need.</span></li>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">The most important rule of self-evaluation and goal-setting is honesty. Going into business with your eyes wide open about your strengths and weaknesses, your likes and dislikes, and your ultimate goals lets you confront the decisions you’ll face with greater confidence and a greater chance of success.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div style="padding: 10px 0px 10px 0px;">
<a href="http://pax.io/success" target="_blank" style="margin:0px;padding:0px;"><img alt="Be a Successful Entrepreneur - FREE Webinar" border="0" src="http://php.pax.io/images/Be_a_Successful_Entrepreneur.png" style="height: 100%; max-height: 400px; width: 100%;margin:0px;padding:0px;" title="Be a Successful Entrepreneur - FREE Webinar" /></a>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><i>by Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Source: </span><a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/240603" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Entrepreneur</a></span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0