7 Things Great Entrepreneurs Dont Do

From entrepreneur.com
Summary from post by Steve Tobak 11-4-2013 - Managing partner of Invisor Consulting

  These days everyone with a MacBook and a blog thinks he/she is an entrepreneur. Calling yourself a CEO doesn't make you one and a small army of Twitter followers doesn't make you a leader. There are entrepreneurs and there are Entrepreneurs.

  Not to dash your hopes and dreams but the truth is, the vast majority of people simply aren't cut out to be entrepreneurs or leaders. Having grown up in the high-tech industry, working with hundreds of CEO's and and entrepreneurs for decades; One thing I can tell you is the word entrepreneur has become so overused, it has become almost meaningless. What makes real entrepreneurs unique is what they do and perhaps more importantly what they don't do.

1. They don't think about work-life balance - They are mostly workaholics, meaning their work comes first; Its what they live for.They are not freewheeling , fun loving people who live for the weekend. They live to do what they love and that's work.
2. They don't try to be what they are not - Probably the most damaging business myth to come along in decades is personal branding. You are not a product; Real entrepreneurs don't think about themselves, they think about their ideas and how they can turn them into great products and service.
3. They don't do it for the money - They don't whine about how they work for peanuts; They just do it. Because they are passionate about what they do and with laser beam focus, the money eventually comes - big time.
4. They don't have day jobs - Great entrepreneurs don't just tip their toes in the water. They jump in head first without any regards for the rocks below. They don't do a little of this and a little of that; When they think they have hit on an idea that is really cool and exciting, they go all in.
5. They don't give in to fear - They don't pay attention to the voices in their head that tells them, everything can go wrong. They are not fearless, no one is; They just don't let their fear stop them from taking risks.
6. They don't have grand visions - While some do have grand delusions that they are destined for greatness, a prophecy that's often self-fulfilling. Interestingly enough- for the most part, they generally don't have grand visions for their companies. The creator of Facebook, created it to rate his classmates.
7. They don't have virtual mentors - Many people follow all sorts of writers, bloggers and tweeters these days. That's fine, but to get somewhere in life, you must have a real mentor, in real life. Former Intel chairman Andy Grove mentored Steve Jobs, Jobs in turn advised Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Real entrepreneurs don't call themselves entrepreneurs and they don't do what everyone else is doing. They carve their own unique path; They are leaders of their own destiny. That's what drives them and that's why they succeed.

Home Based Business Ideas

From allbusiness.com

1. Personal Trainer - An aging baby boomer population eager to invest in longevity, along with a growing concern over childhood obesity, make it a great time to join this expanding field. As a personal trainer you can visit clients at their homes and work with fitness centers on a contract basis.

2. Tutoring - This field no longer only caters to struggling children or those with learning disabilities. ultra competitive parents are flocking to tutors to help their children get ahead. You can start by tutoring students in their homes, local YMCA's or other children care organizations.

3. Medical Transcription - Because they perform a necessary function, medical transcriptionist are always in demand. They have a very low overhead, all you need is a computer, headphone, foot pedal, medical dictionaries, a printer and software for audio playback. Medical transcriptionist listen to audio recordings of medical records and transcribe into a word processing program.

4. Photographer - While royalty free stock photo websites are taking a bite out of some photographers profits, assignment photography is still big business. If you are skilled with a camera and have a mind for business, you can make money as a portrait, event or wedding photographer. It requires capital for lighting, cameras, lenses and photo editing software.

5. Bakery - Americans have a love affair with desserts, the cuter and tinier the better. If you have a knack for baking delectable desserts, consider starting a home based bakery. Before getting started contact your local public health department, to find out about laws governing at home food production.

6. Junk Removal - People will always have junk; for a fee you can help them get rid of it. First find out what type of junk removal services are needed in your area. Research local and state regulations; and learn about proper removal and disposal techniques.

7. Craft Business - In a world of mass produced junk, shoppers feel good about buying handmade, one of a kind pieces. Turn your creativity and talent into a business by selling jewelry, ceramics, unique decor, purses etc, the sky is the limit.

8. Dog Walking - Consider this opportunity if you like dogs, know how to handle them and enjoy outdoor activities.Do your research, inquire about insurance and special licensing.
   
 

The Entrepreneurial Spirit

By: Brandon Gaskins


  I believe every person has the ability to turn their dreams and passions into a viable business. Just like a mechanic, entrepreneurs must have the right tools to get the job done.Regardless of what type of business you decide to venture in there are an infinite number of challenges you will face. Life is all about challenging you to see what type of person you are becoming. You must see these challenges, not as problems but tools to sharpen your skills; always remember, there is no glory without struggle.

  The entrepreneurial spirit requires no cash or credit, all you need is the belief that you can turn your idea into a business. Here is a small blueprint of what you should have if you want to move forward.

1. Product/Service - You may think this is easy, but many people have so many ideas they find it hard to focus solely on one.  Once you have narrowed it down to one make sure your offering is something the public will find beneficial and useful. The key to success is an offering that will lend itself to be a repeat business.

2. Persistence - An entrepreneur will rarely find his/her niche, the first couple of attempts. There will be countless hours of second guessing yourself. Instead of second guessing yourself work and rework your idea until you feel comfortable enough you can turn your idea into a viable business.

3. Patience - You cannot put a time limit on becoming a success; you have to throw all time clocks out the window. With laser point focus, you must be willing to create for yourself what you cannot expect others to. Coming up with an idea is only a small step in the process; you have to do your due diligence and find your market.

4. Personality - You don't have to become an infomercial salesman but you do have to speak enthusiastically about what you have to offer. You must speak with the confidence that your offering is something the public needs and wants. You have to become a product ambassador; you cannot expect everyone to find your product useful, but they may know someone who can. There is never a time where you should not be pitching your business.

5. Passion - You cannot expect your business to become a success if you only spend 30% of your time working on it. How can you expect the public to be excited about your offering if your are not.

Building A Successful Brand For A Small Business

From: makeyourideasart.com
guest authored 4/12/2013

 Brand building is an important strategy for any business, no matter how big or how small it is. Yet small business owners often lack the acumen or knowledge in how to brand their business successfully and what strategies are open to them to achieve this. Here are some tips to get great branding on the road.

Know who you are- A strong brand let's other's know what it does. Make sure you fully understand your own brand- who you are, what your goals and values are, what you want to achieve etc... If you do not fully understand yourself, then it will be hard to communicate this well to your customers.

Be unique- With lots of competitors in the marketplace, your branding needs to scream out, what makes you different from the rest. Let others know why you are unique and what it is you do differently from your competitors.

Consistency of messages- Successful branding involves reinforcing strong messages, so that your customers will retain information about who you are and what you do. Make sure you are clear on what message you want to give out and stick to the same message on all mediums of communication. Consistency is a key component to branding success.

Name and logo- An instantly recognizable brand name and logo is a sign of good branding. Whatever name or logo design you choose, make sure it is recognizable, inspires trust and makes a connection to the types of goods or service you offer.

Get your name out there- Organizations both large and small understand the importance of building networks with existing customers and new customers as well as generating trust for what they offer. By building an online and offline community, you are in the driving seat to get customers on your side and love your brand.

Be original- There are many great brand names out there and there is nothing wrong with taking inspiration from them and learning from their achievements. But, never ever nick ideas from them. Do not copy the big boys, as you will soon be seen through. Try to always think of original ideas or at least add a twist to tried and trusted branding messages and strategies.

Build relationships- Get to know who your customers are and what they like about you. Valuable customers who like your offering can become brand ambassadors, spreading the word to others about what you have to offer. Spend time nurturing the important relationships and get to know who your brand ambassadors are.

Top 32 Quotes Every Entrepreneur Should Live By

Summary from Forbes.com post by Tanya Prive 5/2/2013

 The nature of being an entrepreneur means that you fully embrace ambiguity and are comfortable with being challenged regularly. Choosing this career path is completely irrational because the odds of success are dismal. Most succeed because of their unwavering belief, laser focus on delivering and persistence. Starting a business, is a riveting roller coaster of emotions with tremendous highs and at times, difficult lows.

1. "The best way to predict the future is to create it".- Peter Drucker
2. "It is fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure". - Bill Gates
3. "Your time is limited, so don't wast it living someones else life. Don't be trapped by dogma- which is living the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others opinions, drown out your own inner voice. And most important have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary". - Steve Jobs
4. "My biggest motivation? Just to keep challenging myself. I see life almost like one long University education that I never had. Everyday I am learning something new". - Richard Branson
5. "Every time you state what you want or what you believe, your the first to hear it. It is a message to both you and others, about what you think is possible. Don't put a ceiling on yourself". - Oprah Winfrey
6. "One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don't choose your passions, your passions choose you". - Jeff Bezos
7. "Logic will get you from A to B; Imagination will take you everywhere". - Albert Einstein
8. "As long as your going to be thinking anyway, think big". - Donald Trump
9. "Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm". - Winston Churchill
10. "Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you did not do, than by the things that you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail from the safe Harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sail. Explore. Dream. Discover.". - Mark Twain
11. "I do not know the keys to success but the key to failure is trying to please everyone". - Bill Cosby
12. "Success is not what you have but who you are". - Bo Bennet
13. Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people wont, so you can spend the rest of your life like most people cannot". Warren G. Tracy's student
14. "Keep away from people that try to belittle your ambitions. Small minded people always do that but the great ones make you feel like you too, can be great". - Mark Twain
15. "There is only one success- to be able to spend your life in your own way". - Christopher Morley
16. "Success is not the key to happiness; Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing you will be successful". - Albert Schweitzer
17. "When you cease to dream; You cease to live". - Malcolm Forbes
18. "Formal education will make you a living, self education will make you a fortune". - Jim Rohn
19. "The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake; You cant learn anything from being perfect". Adam Osborne
20. "A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way". - John C. Maxwell

Get Real Attention For Your Blog

Summary of post: How to Make Your Blog Get Real Attention
By Jacquelyn Smith of Forbes.com 8/6/2013


 Writing a successful blog is about getting the word out there and actually being seen by the public. A successful blog aims to serve the reader and not bombard them with marketing material and gadgets. The most significant way to develop a loyal online following is by creating useful content that readers will consume and share. Your blogging strategy should be about building and cultivating an audience- this cannot be achieved if your only talking about yourself.

1. Determine the purpose of your blog and stick with it- Start by defining for yourself what readers you want to serve and then build a strategy about how to reach them. Be true to the goals you set out for your blog. If a blog post is not useful or worth sharing it wont produce much value for any reader or the blogger, says Mike Merriman, vice president of marketing at Mzinga, a social services and software firm.
2. Leverage social media- Make the most of social media by including "share" on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Reddit, Google+ and Stumble Upon buttons on your blog. The easier you make it for people to share your content with their network, the more likely they will do so.
3. Make Sure Your Content is SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Friendly- Identify the keywords for searching for a postings subject matter and think about the best way to incorporate those search terms into the title and body of the post. For example, "Hiring a Patent Attorney: Seven Things to Look For" will rank better than, "Seven Things to Look For When Hiring a Patent Attorney", because the desired keywords "patent attorney" comes earlier in the sequence.
4. Speak your audiences language- Sometimes when marketers start the blogging process they start typing words that sound more like a press release than a conversation. You benefit more from using terms that resonate with your readers. So do not use your blog to impress your high school English teacher, try to impress your customers instead.
5. Be a part of the conversation both on your blog and of others in your industry- Drive traffic to other blogs and respond as much as you can to both negative and positive comments about your own blog. Allow your blog to become a vibrant exchange of information and ideas with prospective and existing readers.
6. Post regularly- writing a successful blog requires a significant and sustained effort. The trick is to be consistent, whether that means blogging 10 times a day, 3 times a week, or once a month.
7. Mix it up- far too many people use the same exact format for their blog day in and day out. Make it a point to try out a new type of content once in awhile. Mix up your format, length, authorship and content.

Put The Laptop Down and Promote Your Business

By Brandon Gaskins


  Now that you have your blog, you want to build an audience of readers. This usually consists of networking on social media platforms like; Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Instagram and others. From these pool of resources you will start to see a gradual incline of visits to your posts. You will begin to feel like you have this social media thing down pack. You spend countless hours, researching information to add to your blog; you start to find gadgets and widgets that you think would fit good on your blog. Then as fast as your readership grew, things begin to plateau and your numbers start to slow down.You have no idea as to why your readership has stop growing but you think you can solve the problem by adding better content and putting advertisement on your blog; Surely that will solve the problem.

  Unfortunately you are doing the worst thing possible, most readers don't want to see a bunch of advertising and gadgets when they are viewing a blog. They want to get clear cut information without a bunch of clutter. The solution is not trying to get the same readers that have already visited your page to do the same everyday, it is going out in the public and find new prospects to visit your site. Visit Vista Print and other sites that offer affordable promotional items. Use those items and find areas where people who are more likely to find your blog useful might be. For example if your blog is about families, careers or skateboarding you want to promote near parks, career centers or skate parks. It would be a good idea to find the cost to advertise on local media. Once you are able to increase your readership you want to start networking with bloggers with similar interest and possibly send traffic to each others sites.

How to break the Mold and Be an Independent Thinker

From entrepreneur.com
By Nadia Goodman 7-4-2013

To come up with truly creative products and unique ideas, great business leaders need to become independent thinkers. Our brains are wired to recycle ideas we have already heard from others but you can learn to think independently or to come up with novel ideas, with a few easy psychological tips and tools.

1. Place a lot of Constraints on the Problem- Open-ended problems are the enemy of independent thinking. Independent thinking requires you to break the mold; Everything you think is influenced by years of experience and cultural upbringing. If you do not have constraints, you will come up with answers that are really similar to what others have done before.
2. Combine Ideas That Seem Ill-Matched- When you are trying to solve a problem, your memory will retrieve solutions or concepts that seem like logical matches, often because others have used that match already. To think differently, consider ideas that do not seem compatible at all. For example: Coming up with a way to cook breakfast for the comfort of your bed. Many of your ideas will fail but any that succeed are likely to be unique and marketable.
3. Take the Birds Eye View- When your trying to solve a problem, zoom out to see variables that others might overlook. Thinking about the big picture, takes you out of the familiar way of thinking about the problem. What would happen if I succeed? How can I find a solution, that makes that outcome work.

SBA Host Twitter Chat for Entrepreneurs on Business Start Up

From sba.gov
Tameka Montgomery 1/31/2014

The U.S. Small Business Administration is hosting a twitter chat for entrepreneurs in recognition of National Entrepreneur Week (February 15-22) to learn how to turn their business idea into a reality. Includes the steps to starting a business and the know how needed to help their business succeed.

Details:
Wednesday Feb 19, 2014
3p-4p est
Hashtag- #sbaEweek
Twitter handle @sbagov

Participants will hear from SBA's associate administrator for Entrepreneurial Development, Tameka Montgomery.
Participants will also get advice from Bridget Weston Pollack, with the SBA resource partner SCORE (service corporation of retired executives). She will answer questions and give valuable insight on starting a business.
Twitter handle @SCOREmentors

Things Every Entrepreneur Must Know

Summary of post from Forbes.com
By Paul B. Brown 9/22/2013

Things Every Entrepreneur Must Know

1.The best way to predict the future is to create it.
2.If you want to become a successful entrepreneur, there is no such thing as work-life balance.
3.The best entrepreneurs do not come up with great ideas, they solve market needs.
4. The one thing all successful entrepreneurs have in common is the desire to make their ideas a reality.What     entrepreneurs need most of all, above motivation, focus, financing, and marketing is the will to bring their        idea into existence.
5. Action trumps everything, so stop thinking about it and just do it.
6. Forget about working on your weakness, play to your strengths. This is what will make you successful in       the long run.
7. You need to be able to turn every obstacle into an asset; Yes every single one.
8. Here's the only market research you need; Get your product out in the marketplace and see if it sells.
9. Unpopular products will remain so; If the customer does not like the product, there is not much you can         do about it with pricing, promotion, or positioning.
10. If you are going to fail and sometimes you will fail quickly and cheaply. Always take small steps towards       your goal and pause after each one to make sure you are on the right track.

10 Warning Signs Your Job is Becoming Obsolete

Summary from salary.com by Laura Laemmie Frongillo

 In our unstable economic times, there are few employees who feel absolutely sure their jobs will be around a decade from now. However it is unproductive to be distracted by needless worry everyday. Pay attention to true warnings, but don't get too caught up in office gossip, it can lead to low morale. Just keep your eyes open for these warning signs that your job may be on the way to the downsize dump.

1. There Are Rumors- Generally when there are rumblings about layoffs, it is going to happen. Who, what, when and how are the only questions. Google your company, you may find related articles, editorials or blogs about your company or even former employees airing dirty laundry.
2. Company Stocks Continue to Plummet- A quarter or two of weak earnings is to be expected, some drops are actually anticipated and written into the overall financial picture. Look at the stock history and read what the analyst are projecting for the future.
3. Your Work Load Has Decreased- If your boss is reassigning your projects or giving you less to do, be concerned. If you are being asked to train others (especially lower paid employees) to do what you do. 
4. Your Last Review Contained Nearly A Rave- If there was nothing positive in your recent performance review, despite the fact that you took steps to increase your workload and training, consider this a warning
5. Decreased Benefits and Other Cost Cutting Measures- If you have noticed a general decline in benefits like medical insurance, 401k plans, even company picnics and holiday parties, chances are there are other bigger changes a foot.
6. New Boss, Shuffled Management- Although it does not necessarily indicate anything bad, a shuffling of management positions or getting a new boss are signs that a layoff could be eminent. Pay close attention to the reasons of the reorganization.
7. Are You Getting The Cold Shoulder?- Are you suddenly not in the loop, either not invited to meetings or ignored when you are present, you or at least your job could be head for obsolescence.
8. Rumors of A Merger or Acquisition Are Flying- Many times when a company is bought by, or merged with another organization, pink slips are bound to fly.
9. Company Starts Outsourcing and Offshoring- If you notice your company is starting to, dabble in hiring overseas workers, especially if the employees do what you do, it could be time to worry.
10. Machines Are Doing Your Job- If you are a telephone switchboard operator, bank teller or cashier you are working on borrowed time. basically if technology has made you a middle man your days are numbered.