Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give to a new entrepreneur?
I’m often asked this question as I travel around the country speaking to groups on 21st century capitalism and leadership. This is a great question.
I would offer these 10 11 truths:
- The moment you decide to create something for others you are a leader. Act as such. Be an example. An example to your employees. An example to your vendors. An example to your customers. And, most importantly, be an example to your family.
- Your job as a business is to solve problems, not create them. For far too long too many businesses have created more problems then they are solving. (e.g. energy industry, food industry, health industry) Let that not be you. Make the commitment to be a business that focuses less on the bottom line and more on improving the well-being of others.
- You must have the willingness to do whatever it takes. Ask yourself, “Am I willing to do whatever it takes?” If your answer is anything less than, “Hell yeah!” close up shop and go do something else. [continue reading…]
Are you continually adding features to your product or service? It’s easy to do. And it may seem like a smart move.
It’s a classical formula: Adding More = Better
But does it? Is adding more really better… Or is it overwhelming?
As you work on your products and services, are you including more and more stuff logically? Or are you just adding stuff to add it? Maybe, you’re including more in the sales conversation to help overcome objections. Maybe you’re trying to reach a larger audience by offering more options. Or maybe you want to add more functionality for your current clients. Whatever you’re doing, you must painstakingly watch out for feature creep.
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Reading books is one of the best ways to invest your time. But as a busy entrepreneur, you probably don’t often find the time to sit down and read.
And a common cure is to turn your commute, trips, and other adventures into a mobile library. In other words, audiobooks.
But the problem with the traditional audiobook is two-fold. They’re on CD’s, which isn’t the most preferred format these days. And more importantly, they are expensive. Often over thirty bucks an audiobook. Yikes!
What if I told you there was a better way to consume a book?
Well I am…
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If you are like many entrepreneurs on a tight marketing budget, social media seems to be the best answer for your online marketing. And for good reason: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the new Google+ have millions and millions of users and are all free!
So why not leverage these platforms for all your web marketing efforts, right?
Wrong.
When you put all of your “marketing eggs” in the social media basket, you’re on a losing path. Because you have little control over the marketing campaign. You don’t own the basket. You’re renting the basket with no guarantees of that basket existing in two years, two months or even two days.
And history proves this. Myspace was once all the rage. So was AOL (remember those CD’s we all received in the mail). Giants can fall.
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Now, I’m all for being an entrepreneur. I’ve been one for nearly 12 years. And, I’ll assume since you’re reading this blog you’re either an entrepreneur or seriously considering it.
But, I want to caution you. There’s a lot of talk in recent years about how easy it is to become an entrepreneur. Well, yes. It’s never been easier to start a business. That is true. But, no one ever tells you the rest of that statement. It’s also never been harder to succeed.
As Carol Roth in her brilliant book, The Entrepreneur Equation, says, “Many people ask themselves, could I be an entrepreneur? The real question is should I be an entrepreneur?”
The reality is…
There are over 30 million businesses in America. That’s basically one business for every 10 Americans.
You can start a business today on less than a shoestring budget. In fact, depending on the business, you could legitimately have only one expense (business entity cost) to get started. That means everyone has the exact same opportunity.
While one could look at the above statements as a sign of opportunity, they are also a sign of great challenge. So how do you overcome these challenges?
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