The secret to Entrepreneurial Happiness

During our childhood years, measuring success was as simple as counting gold stars and smiley face stickers. In high school and college, we relied on report cards. But how do we determine success now, as entrepreneurs?
In Southern California’s bustling startup scene, known as “Silicon Beach,” many professionals leave the comfort of a steady paycheck to pursue the American dream of starting something they can call their own. And after numerous conversations with like-minded entrepreneurs, we found that many of these entrepreneurs measured their venture’s success not in dollars, but by their own satisfaction or happiness.
It’s no secret that money can’t buy happiness. In fact, according to an off-sited study by Stanford University economist Angus Deaton and psychologist Daniel Kahneman, once you’re pulling in a salary of $75,000, any additional dollar earned does nothing more to increase personal life satisfaction.
So if happiness cannot be bought — and yet we use it to measure our business success — what can we do to attain it? Over the last decade, researchers in Positive Psychology have discovered a number of behaviors that boost happiness. To boost your own, practice these four behaviors:

1. Create a social circle of like-minded entrepreneurs.

Two heads are better than one when it comes to problem solving. A team of entrepreneurial peers can see what escapes our own attention, point out pitfalls ahead of time, and become a sounding board for critical decisions and actions.
Commit to creating a circle of like-minded entrepreneurs in which no money is exchanged between members.

2. Give your time away.

Many entrepreneurs think that devoting every waking moment to their company will ultimately be the key to success. But when you spend time helping others instead of yourself, your sense of time expands.
Professor  Cassie Mogilner, a researcher on happiness and time management atthe Wharton School, explained this recently: “The results show that giving your time to others can make you feel more ‘time affluent’ and less time-constrained than wasting your time, spending it on yourself, or even getting a windfall of free time.”
Whether it be through mentorship, volunteering, showing interest, or lending an ear to a friend, giving time to others expands your sense of time and results in greater life satisfaction.

3. Set attainable goals.

The art of goal-setting can take years to master. As entrepreneurs, we all have big goals, and to experience success we have to learn to break large goals into smaller goals that are within our daily reach.
Try creating one goal per day that you want to accomplish outside of your day-to-day emails and meeting commitments — then do everything in your power to turn this into a lasting habit.

4. Practice gratitude.

There are a variety of ways to practice gratitude that entrepreneurs can easily incorporate into their daily routine. One approach is to set aside time every week to write thank you notes, sent via snail mail or over email.
If you thank a client, that’s expected. But if you thank someone for an unexpected task, research from Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky at the University of California suggests that your mind becomes more sensitive to positive interactions — and less sensitive to negative ones.
By practicing gratitude, you will begin to cultivate a chronic state of happiness.

Happiness is the new gold standard.

The traditional gold standard for measuring professional success is money, yet entrepreneurs almost always cite happiness as the highest-priority goal for attaining success.
Do you already practice any of these four happiness-promoting behaviors? If not, try integrating them into your daily practice today.
And guess what? Happiness can also lead to better health, more energy, productivity, and yes — more money.

Dmitriy Katsel is the founder of Spring Theory, an organization that matches corporations with universities in semester-long collaborations to explore solutions to big challenges. Sara Gershfeld, behavior analyst and founder of LoveMyProvider, also contributed to this article.


Read more at http://under30ceo.com/the-secret-to-entrepreneurial-happiness/#11p2d9U8JPmb7sAV.99

8 Key Focus Elements Will Attract Startup Investors

One of the most common failures I see in startups is lack of focus.
Unfocused entrepreneurs boast that their new technology will generate multiple disruptive products for consumers as well as enterprises around the world. Investors hear this as trying to do too many things with limited resources, meaning the startup will not shine at anything, and will not survive the competition.
For example, just last week, I received a startup executive summary, requesting Angel investor funding, that touted technology for a line of new medical devices, also to be offered in a new military radar device. Even a company with unlimited money and people shouldn’t try to step into those two domains for the first time at the same time.
Other elements of startup focus are a bit fuzzier, so let me zoom-in on some key ones here:

1. Type of business model. Startups that try to mix a non-profit entity with a for-profit entity to share resources don’t work, and scare off investors. Providing shoes for the poor is a laudable goal, but quite a different business than Zappos, which sells clothes profitably, and provides free shoes for the needy due to social consciousness.
2. Solve one problem really well. Focus means starting with a problem that is painful, rather than a technology, and showing how you can solve that problem better than anyone else. Later in the pitch, you can show that you are not a one-trick pony by prioritizing related solutions in your long-term plan.
3. Limited goals and priorities. No organization can manage more than 3 to 5 goals and priorities without becoming unfocused and ineffective. Keep these balanced and aligned between people (customers, employees) and process (quality, service, revenue), and keep the scope realistic (eliminating world hunger is too broad).
4. Segment the opportunity. Targeting all the people in China as your opportunity gives you big numbers from a small penetration percentage, but will be seen as lack of focus by investors. Narrow the scope more realistically to people with specific age, income, and education demographics, that you can realistically reach with your marketing plan.
5. Keep your value chain consistent. Your value chain is your preferred business model, like premium quality, high service. If you mix that model with some commodity items, with no service, that will be seen as a lack of focus. Your team, customers, and investors will all be confused, leading to a lose-lose situation.
6. Simplify product scope. Your product will never have enough features to satisfy everyone, and it will never be perfect. Focus means creating a minimum viable product (MVP) first, and validating it in the marketplace. Feature-rich products take too much time and money to build, are hard to pivot, and will likely be slow and difficult to use.
7. Realistically frame the competition. If you really believe that IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle are your competition, you probably don’t have a business. It’s better to focus on a niche that none of them do well, and build your plan around that opportunity. Claiming you have no competition also implies lack of focus, or you don’t have a business.
8. Prioritize marketing channels. For a startup, it’s impossible to run an effective Facebook, Twitter, content marketing, and Google AdWords online campaign all at the same time. Focus on one channel at a time, measure results, and then move to the next. Offline, it’s not credible to talk about direct marketing, distributors, and integrators all in the same breath.

I certainly understand the pressure add more of everything to your plan, as you listen to more and more people, all with their own priorities and biases. But in the long run, you need a narrow and memorable focus to build a strong company. Even in the short term, customers and investors alike will help you carry a simple and clear focus all the way to the bank.
Marty Zwilling
more of Marty on http://blog.startupprofessionals.com

10 Surprising Assertions From Elite Entrepreneurs

Most people agree that entrepreneurs have to think differently and take risks to have much chance of building a successful business. Yet I have found that serious entrepreneurs usually go way beyond these platitudes in their actions and thinking, and often won’t volunteer their real views, for fear of alienating “regular” people, and being branded a fanatic.
In his new book “The Entrepreneur Mind,” by serial entrepreneur Kevin D. Johnson, he outlines 100 essential beliefs, insights, and habits of serious entrepreneurs. Most of these are predictable, like think big and create new markets, but I found a few, like the ten below, that will likely raise the hackles of many people outside this lifestyle, and many “wannabe” entrepreneurs.
Yet, based on my own years of experience “in the business”, mentoring many entrepreneurs, and following stalwarts like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, even these potentially controversial mindsets ring true to me:

1. All risk isn’t risky. Entrepreneurs surely understand the high probability of failure, but they don’t necessarily like to gamble. Instead, they take calculated risks, stacking the deck in their favor. They must have enough confidence in themselves, supplemented by expert knowledge, solid relationships, or personal wealth, to see the risk as near zero.
2. Business comes first, family second. This view isn’t a selfish one, but a recognition by serious entrepreneurs that family well-being is dependent on the success of the business, not the other way around. This is why airlines ask you to put on your oxygen mask first. Should you forego closing a million dollar deal to attend a ball game with your son?
3. Following your passion is bogus. Look for a good business model first. Your passion may be for a good cause, like curing world hunger, but it may not be a good business. In any young business, you inevitably find things that are not enjoyable, but need to be done, like cold calls or firing unproductive employees. Just doing fun things is a myth.
4. It’s not about being your own boss. Great entrepreneurs aren’t interested in being bosses at all. People who crave the freedom to do what they want when they want generally make terrible entrepreneurs. In order to be a successful entrepreneur, discipline is a must, and accept your new bosses as investors, partners, and customers.
5. Fire your worst customers. We have all had customers who take advantage of us, to the detriment of other good customers. The best entrepreneurs are quick to make the tough decisions to bypass bad customers, with proper respect, to minimize frustration, resource drain, and reputation loss. You can’t please everyone all the time.
6. Ignorance can be bliss. It’s great to be highly familiar with the industry in which you plan to compete, but many times people see too many challenges, and never start. In other cases, entrepreneurs are opening up new business areas, so no one yet knows the challenges. Serious entrepreneurs trust their ability to beat a new path to the opportunity.
7. You’re in no rush to get an MBA. If you are already an entrepreneur, more education, including an MBA, will only slow you down. Consider it a waste of time. If you plan to become an entrepreneur, and already have business experience or an undergraduate business degree, skip the two-year delay and cost of the MBA.
8. You are odd, and it’s OK. Entrepreneurs, especially those in technology, usually don’t start out as well-rounded, well-adjusted leaders. In fact, being odd is quite the norm. According to other studies, attention-deficit disorder (ADD) is common, as well as host of other personality disorders. It’s actually cool to be a geek in this lifestyle.
9. A check in hand means nothing. Every entrepreneur remembers their naïve days when that first customer check bounced. When you receive a new purchase order, a check, a verbal agreement, or even a written agreement, don’t get too happy and excited. Save the celebration until you have cold cash in hand, or the funds are verified.
10. There’s no such thing as a cold call. If you are an elite entrepreneur, you don’t go into anything cold. With the Internet and a plethora of other resources, you can warm up any call quickly, and not waste your time or theirs. Doing your homework first is one of the best ways to get an advantage over your competition.

If you think Johnson is on the right track, see his book for 90 more challenging insights. Even if you disagree with some of these, try to open your mind to the value of the seemingly backward way of thinking required to be a great entrepreneur – others seek refuge, they take risks; others want a job, they want to create jobs; others follow the market, while they define the market.
Have you caught the entrepreneur bug yet? If so, prepare for a lifetime commitment, and learn from the elite. There is no turning back.

Marty Zwilling
http://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Why hire an Entrepreneurial Coach?

If your reason has to do with time or money, then my response is: you can’t afford to be without one.

In an era of stiff competition both on domestic and global scales, no family business or any enterprise owner needs to be an island. Even the CEO of Google once said, ‘Everyone needs a coach.’

There are generally three problems for the typical business owner/entrepreneur:

-You are overwhelmed with ideas and information and you need a trusted source to help you design and implement a compelling action plan to take your business to the next level.
-You need to learn more business and marketing skills so you can increase revenue and grow your business.
-You know what you need to do – but simply can’t find the time to juggle all the responsibilities of owning a business.

Without support and knowledge in running a business, you’ll end up struggling to make your business a success, and all your passion and enthusiasm will drain away. Presuming you know all the basics, what else can an Entrepreneurial Coach do for you?

Let’s go to sports. If we examine the word ‘coach’ and think of sports, we ask how coaches function to enhance the performance of their athletes.

One way is by imparting new skills, tricks of the trade that they learned or figured out for themselves, that aren’t intuitively obvious to their players. Coaches get their players to play harder. They do this through all kinds of means, among them goal setting and encouragement, to name a few.

 

Coaching addresses the loneliness of business owners who just don’t have anyone they can turn to in order to discuss their challenges. Left on their own, struggling entrepreneurs or start-ups will be tempted to kick back, especially after achieving only moderate success. This can lead to backsliding and to a downward cycle of achievement. With a business coach, they’ll get a prodding, pushing, and occasional kick in the pants that they need to reach peak performance.

Hiring an Entrepreneurial Coach will:

-Help business owners and CEO’s clarify their vision and goals;

-Craft a cohesive action plan for growing your business;

-Turn breakdowns into breakthroughs;

-Show you how to accomplish more by working smart and not just working hard;

-Identify and put into action: what‘s working, what’s not working, what’s missing and what’s next;

-Develop momentum and keep one from diverting from one project to another before completing the previous one;

-Create a culture of accountability by holding the owner accountable for the goals he/she sets and never let reasons or excuses justify weak performances;

-Manage/resolve conflict and build teams;

-Show the owner ‘the forest through the trees’ more clearly by identifying effective, as well as ineffective behavior patterns that others might not see or be aware off;-

-Improve communications throughout the entire organization;

-Generate substantial increases in sales and profitability;

-Increase revenue and profits;

-Provide a complete toolbox of coaching skills for managers to use to inspire employees.

 However, let me point out that entrepreneurial coaching is not consulting. What’s the difference between an Entrepreneurial Coach and a Consultant?

Like a sports coach, an entrepreneurial coach works on bringing out the best that’s already inside you. In small business coaching, you will be asked to focus on the ‘bigger picture’ of what it is you want to create for your business (and your lifestyle), and talk about what will keep you motivated to move forward on your dreams, goals and tasks.

A consultant will tell you what to do regardless of whether it suits you and it’s up to you to put the plan in motion. Very often, clients do not implement the plan because they have no motivation or they do not like the plan. An Entrepreneurial Coach will help you figure out what you do best, make a plan, push you to do more, and will stay with you as you implement the plan. It’s no accident that professional athletes have coaches – they know the value of partnership.

Entrepreneurial coaching is not a quick fix. Rather, it’s a partnership between coach and client lasting from several months to several years. Building a business takes time and energy. True success comes from doing the work necessary to achieve results. You must be ready to do the work that will maximize your potential.

There is a good analogy that illustrates the difference between an Entrepreneurial Coach and a Consultant:

-An Entrepreneurial Coach will help you understand how and why you ride a bicycle, help you to determine what’s holding you back from riding properly, and jog along next to you as YOU ride;
-A Business Consultant will explain you why one bike is superior to another, teach you how to ride the bike, and if necessary, ride the bike for you.

Which one is best for you is based on your needs, values, as well your time constraints and deadlines.

Professor Enrique Soriano III (Ateneo de Manila University)

Article first published in Franchising.PH

How Entrepreneurial Instincts Can Boost Your Career

 

The days when you locked and loaded your career in school, and then blasted away down that same narrow path the rest of your life, are gone, never to return. Career survival today requires thinking and acting like an entrepreneur starting a business, staying nimble and resilient, willing to pivot, and supersensitive to the market realities of supply and demand.
Over the years I have spent mentoring entrepreneurs and startups, I often notice the similarities between successful professionals managing their careers and successful entrepreneurs building a business. Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn, helped me crystallize these similarities with his book “The Start-up of You.” Here are key survival skills for both lifestyles:

1. Adopt the mindset of a permanent beta. Finished ought to be an F-word for all of us. We are all works in progress. Each day presents an opportunity to learn more, do more, be more, and grow more in our lives and careers. Keeping your career in permanent beta forces you to acknowledge that you have bugs, and intend to improve yourself.
2. Regularly assess and refine your competitive advantage. Your competitive advantage is the interplay of three different, ever-changing forces – your assets, aspirations and values, and the market realities of supply and demand. Smart professionals constantly assess the market, and strengthen and diversify skills.
3. Plan to pivot as you learn. Change is the only constant in this world, and every change is an opportunity to learn. Plan to adapt, and start it every day on the side. Don’t wait for something to fail before you learn, or before you consider a change or pivot. The best pivots are to take advantage of an upside, rather than avoid a downside.
4. Build and use your network. World-class professionals don’t try to take on the world alone. People playing a solo game will always lose out to a team. Successful entrepreneurs are ones who put together the best teams. Build your network with people smarter than you. With effective networking, who you know is what you know.
5. Pursue breakout opportunities. Success begins with opportunities, but these mean nothing unless you execute on them. Others taking breakout opportunities can be dismissed as lucky, but more often it’s the result of their work to be at the right place at the right time, with the right mindset. Be curious, confident, and willing to learn.
6. Take intelligent risks. We are all risk takers. But we are not all equally intelligent about how we do it. In a changing world, minimizing risk is one of the riskiest things you can do. The most intelligent risks are those where the potential downside is limited, but the potential upside is virtually unlimited. Those are the risks every business jumps to take.
7. Maintain that sense of urgency. Entrepreneurs know that in business, change overtakes the best of big companies, and even startups have to maintain a sense of urgency to stay ahead of the curve. For every professional, opportunities come and go at an astonishing speed, so only a continuing sense of urgency will keep you alert.

In addition to you and the network around you, there is a broader environment that shapes your career potential. It’s the local culture and society around you. So think carefully about where you choose to live and work, or where you choose to start a business. Your maximum potential may be in another place in the global environment, or as a volunteer versus an employee role.
In the bigger picture, I’m convinced that we were all born as entrepreneurs, with the instincts listed above to survive, grow, and prosper. How many of these career survival instincts have you used lately to deal with the changes we all see?
Marty Zwilling

http://startupprofessionals.com

The Basics of Branding

Learn what this critical business term means and what you can do to establish one for your company

 

Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or small, retail or B2B. An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets. But what exactly does "branding" mean? How does it affect a small business like yours?

Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from your competitors'. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.

Are you the innovative maverick in your industry? Or the experienced, reliable one? Is your product the high-cost, high-quality option, or the low-cost, high-value option? You can't be both, and you can't be all things to all people. Who you are should be based to some extent on who your target customers want and need you to be.

The foundation of your brand is your logo. Your website, packaging and promotional materials--all of which should integrate your logo--communicate your brand.

Brand Strategy & Equity

Your brand strategy is how, what, where, when and to whom you plan on communicating and delivering on your brand messages. Where you advertise is part of your brand strategy. Your distribution channels are also part of your brand strategy. And what you communicate visually and verbally are part of your brand strategy, too.

Consistent, strategic branding leads to a strong brand equity, which means the added value brought to your company's products or services that allows you to charge more for your brand than what identical, unbranded products command. The most obvious example of this is Coke vs. a generic soda. Because Coca-Cola has built a powerful brand equity, it can charge more for its product--and customers will pay that higher price.

The added value intrinsic to brand equity frequently comes in the form of perceived quality or emotional attachment. For example, Nike associates its products with star athletes, hoping customers will transfer their emotional attachment from the athlete to the product. For Nike, it's not just the shoe's features that sell the shoe.

Defining Your Brand

Defining your brand is like a journey of business self-discovery. It can be difficult, time-consuming and uncomfortable. It requires, at the very least, that you answer the questions below:

What is your company's mission?

• What are the benefits and features of your products or services?
• What do your customers and prospects already think of your company?
• What qualities do you want them to associate with your company?

Do your research. Learn the needs, habits and desires of your current and prospective customers. And don't rely on what you think they think. Know what they think.

Because defining your brand and developing a brand strategy can be complex, consider leveraging the expertise of a non-profit small-business advisory group or a Small Business Development Center  like  BETA – Business & Entrepreneurial Training Academy.

Once you've defined your brand, how do you get the word out? Here are a few simple, time-tested tips:

• Get a great logo. Place it everywhere.
• Write down your brand messaging. What are the key messages you want to communicate about your brand? Every employee should be aware of your brand attributes.
• Integrate your brand. Branding extends to every aspect of your business--how you answer your phones, what you or your salespeople wear on sales calls, your e-mail signature, everything.
• Create a "voice" for your company that reflects your brand. This voice should be applied to all written communication and incorporated in the visual imagery of all materials, online and off. Is your brand friendly? Be conversational. Is it ritzy? Be more formal. You get the gist.
• Develop a tagline. Write a memorable, meaningful and concise statement that captures the essence of your brand.
• Design templates and create brand standards for your marketing materials. Use the same color scheme, logo placement, look and feel throughout. You don't need to be fancy, just consistent.
• Be true to your brand. Customers won't return to you--or refer you to someone else--if you don't deliver on your brand promise.
• Be consistent. I placed this point last only because it involves all of the above and is the most important tip I can give you. If you can't do this, your attempts at establishing a brand will fail.

John Williams is the founder and president of LogoYes.com, the world's first do-it-yourself logo design website. During John's 25 years in advertising, he's created brand standards for Fortune 100 companies like Mitsubishi and won numerous awards for his design work.

Source Entrepreneur Magazine : http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/77408#ixzz2OGgKINXt

 



5 Ways to Find the Perfect Business Idea

                      
Not sure what kind of business you should start?
Here are five things you should keep in mind while considering different business ideas.

 

 

One of the biggest struggles I had in starting my business was actually coming up with the idea. I wanted something that was scalable as well as needed in our society. I combed through hundreds of ideas before settling on my current venture. Through this discovery period, I uncovered what I believe are the five most important concepts in determining what makes the perfect business idea.

So, what is a perfect idea? Each individual entrepreneur has their concept of the perfect business. While Google is a great business for the founders of that company - it may not be a great business for others that are non-tech savvy or who do not want to run such a large organization.

Therefore, each perfect business is defined by the business owners. Keeping this in mind, let's start on my five concepts of finding the perfect business:

 

Number One - Understanding your customer

This might seem strange to start here as how do you know your customers before you have a business idea in place. The answer is simple - your customers make the business, therefore without customers there is no business. If you have a business idea don't try to develop the idea around what YOU think potential customers will like or need, but find out what your customers actually desire. Too often business owners get an idea in their head and jump right in with both feet. However, they soon find out that their target market does not want what they are offering. Spending both time and money on a project just to see it languish is not the perfect business idea.

Moreover, let's say you don't already have an idea - getting out and understand consumers (those who will eventually become your customers) may lead you to the perfect idea. Knowing what potential consumers need and building products to meets those needs will get customers beating a path to your door - that is a perfect business idea.

Number Two - Passion
Passion here does not mean being fanatical about your product or service. But, it does mean having some interest in what you do. More times than not, you will be spending 15 to 18 hours a day working on your business in the beginning - usually for the first 12 to 18 months (more like 2 years in this economy). You have to constantly be thinking about ways to improve and grow your business as well as be out talking about it to everyone, everywhere. If you end up starting a venture that you don't have passion for, something that does not make you jump out of bed each morning, it will be very hard to put in the hours and energy to make it successful - thus not a perfect business idea.

Number Three - Understand Your Competition
Every business has competition - either direct or indirect. Think about movie theaters. They have direct competition from video rental stores or at home television. They also have indirect competition from any other activity that consumers spend their disposable income on like bowling, paint ball, golf, etc. Anything that people do in their spare time.
Further, some competitors are ruthless. Meaning that if you promote and offer a product that is similar to theirs but at a lower price, these competitors will just lower their price to match or beat you. If they are already established businesses - they may be able to undercut your price enough to drive you out of business.
If you don't know your competition - what they are willing to do to keep you out of their market - you may be spending more of your time in a pricing war then growing your business - not the perfect business idea.

Number Four - Cash Flow
Lots of entrepreneurs enter the business world with great ideas but very poor understanding of the capital it will take to get their venture off the ground. Most will prototype their product or service and understand what it takes to make the product or provide the service but they don't understand the capital it takes to manage the rest of the organization - including marketing (very expensive but extremely necessary), employees (more than just salaries or wages), insurance or supplies and all the little miscellaneous expenses that add up very quickly like phone, internet, computer services, etc. Knowing your total cash flow will help ensure that all of your costs (variable and fixed) can be covered by the business - the perfect business idea. I have seen way too many businesses with great products fail because they could not cover simple expenses like rent or utilities.

Number Five - You
Know who you are. Know your strengths and weaknesses. Know that you are ready, willing and able to do what it takes to make your venture a success. I have worked with many business owners in the past that think all they have to do is hang out their shingle and they have it made. Thus, when it comes down to actually running the business day-to-day - they are unwilling to invest the time, energy or money necessary for success. Thus, know how hard you are willing to work.
Moreover, know your personal financial situation and what you need the business to generate to cover your lifestyle. If you think your business will pay you a great salary from day one - it will not. And, if you need it to, it is not the perfect business idea for you. Take away outside distractions like your personal financial situation - get those in order - thus, when your business concept does materialize - you will be able to solely focus on its conception and growth. In the end providing you the financial security you are seeking - it will be the perfect business idea.
Regardless of the level of your desire for your business - a lifestyle mom and pop operation or a multi-national conglomerate - if you develop a business idea with these five concepts in mind - your idea will be the perfect business idea for you.

Joseph Lizio
Copyright 2009 - BusinessMoneyToday.com