Business Entrepreneurship

If you desire to make money and realize financial freedom then starting a small business would be a legitimate way out. Many of us are not happy at our work places but keep up to put food on our tables. If given an option, most of us would definitely opt out of our regular jobs. As much as the risks are high once a business starts generating profits, the entrepreneur can then begin the journey towards financial freedom.

Statistics show that most businesses fail within their first five years. But this should not be a reason for us not to try out either offline or online business. Entrepreneurship is more about taking risks, conducting thorough market research, being innovative and most importantly having passion to succeed.

The other thing that needs to be looked at seriously is management of business accounts. Poor financial management has brought down many businesses. Thanks to the internet one can now outsource affordable accounting services.

Link up with people who have already succeeded in business and allow them to mentor you. You can also attend lectures on entrepreneurship and learn guidelines to follow that will ensure your business survives. Reading business related books, journals and magazines will also keep you informed on current business trends and marketing tips.

Yes, there are possibilities that your business may not work but it all comes down to what scares you more; your business collapsing one day or waking up one morning and discovering you never took a shot at your dreams.

Corporations are a vital part of an economy.  So are foundations, government, and faith based initiatives.  In corporations employees are starving for a new direction to create a new economy and adapt.  Corporations are largely responsible for more business transparency because of the push for information technology (IT) and access to relevant information.  Look at what information can be gathered from a Google search and now we can go directly to the consumer via Twitter and most importantly made our voices heard to produce positive change.

If you’re in a corporation trying to catch the next trend, then see what you think of this approach.  Instill corporate entrepreneurship by:

1.    Find Your Entrepreneurial Spirit

Answer the following questions: 

Have you created anything new, improved a service or process to get work and get it done better?  Are your employees excited like kids or dragging in with a bewildered look?  Are you proactive in your industry or reactive?  Do your employees even know what to do with an idea and how it flows through your organization?  Are you finding the right partnerships to serve the marketplace in a unique and better way?  Are you creating new relationships and do you really understand how to grow an idea and what it takes to germinate?   

2.    Maintain a Winning Mental Mindset

Employees need to know and believe what they are doing really makes a positive difference.  They are more interested in having serious fun at work hundreds of days a year versus the weeks of vacation they receive.  Work on instilling the mental motivation skills so your employees can be proud of the work they do to compete in a capitalistic marketplace.  Put winning back into the workplace culture.  More successes increases confidence, builds a foundation for mental motivation skills, and acts as a resource to grab from to create more successes.  Increasing your employees’ mental motivation skills to learn at another new best level is the fastest way for performance improvement to grow, profit, and evolve.  

3.    Use Leadership Teamwork

The top down structure of leadership has been diminishing more and more and this will continue because of the will of the people and technology.  Sure, for every decision there is a decision maker or group of decision makers.  As a decision maker or non-decision maker are you involved in facilitated sessions or retreats to help decipher what your team really wants, prioritize, and produce goals and metrics?  My research indicates that the majority of employees want to be on a team.  However, the dynamics of a team are missing because they are not empowered to input for various reasons.  Therefore, they feel isolated and this disrupts their mindset by putting their thinking in a rut.  Sure, they can be fired but isn’t the purpose of a corporation to develop and grow each employee as an individual with unique talents and skills as well as a teammate.  You’ll be surprised that instead of handling moral and attitude issues they will be forcing you to look at ways for you as a leader to grow, distribute, and incentize them to make your job easier and corporation more productive and profitable.  Empowerment is not a buzzword.  It is real and if you are willing to garner its creative force it will create the excitement you are looking for as a leader, boss, and employee. 

Your clients will see the difference in your work and offerings.  Spruce up your entrepreneurial spirit, winning mental mindset, and leadership teamwork on a regular basis.  It’s not a one shot deal.  You’ll have more serious fun.  It just takes investment of work, time, and money.  That’s real good because you receive a return on investment.  It will make the hundreds of days at work just as exciting as those vacation days unless, of course, you’re going on an all expenses paid trip to Hawaii.   

There is a new type of entrepreneurship that is sweeping the United States in the wake of terrible economies. Recently, an Indianapolis, Indiana couple started a new business venture, Tombstones and Daisies. They offer grave tending services such as flower placement, headstone clean up and grave site maintenance. The target market for this grave site maintenance service is people who have friends or loved ones buried far away. Many people have moved to different areas of the country, but still want someone near Indianapolis to help them with remembrances.

This type of out of the box thinking is an example of American ingenuity in the face of tough economic times. Who would have thought there would be a market for this kind of service? Obviously, this couple did. They are indicative of a wave of people that have been hit hard by tough economic times. These folks have two choices. They can refuse to become victims and try to create their own security, or they can give up and try to let an already bankrupt federal government entitlement system try to take care of them.

With high unemployment in most parts of the US, many people are turning to the creation of their own jobs. Unemployment benefits are not enough to keep the credit wolves away from the door, and they expire after a limited time. It’s estimated that 35% of those out of work don’t show up in unemployment statistics. They’ve either dropped off the benefit rolls or were independent contractors to begin with.

Many of these unemployed have skills that make them perfect candidates for entrepreneurship. In the case of the Indiana couple, he was in the radio sales management and marketing business for over 30 years. His ability to promote a new service business is invaluable. She has a Masters Degree and was the chief financial officer of a small business corporation. As a team, they are building a business that they hope will offer replacement of some of their security in turbulent times.

Time will tell if the central Indiana couple are right about the market for a grave tending business. Who knows whether a business of grave site maintenance and flower placement on tombstones will be the next sustainable, “green business” opportunity. I wouldn’t bet against them. They represent the type of small business that is the backbone of the United States.

One thing is certain about the creation of a small businesses. People around the United States are resilient. Many are not afraid to try new things, in order to make a living and enjoy their work. Hard economic times have always seemed to bring out the best qualities in people. When the US comes out of it’s recession, part of the credit will go to those individuals who refused to become victims, when faced with hardship. They will be part of the wave of new businesses that keep people off welfare rolls and earning their own way.

Creating a successful business is about more than financial achievement; it’s more about the satisfaction of creating a service or a product.  It’s about taking something that didn’t exist before and making it become reality.  It’s about the sheer enjoyment of focusing on a vision and enjoying the risks and possibilities that come from creating a business through entrepreneurship.  More and more Americans are leaving the corporate environment and becoming their own bosses.  Some enter the realm of business ownership as a result of a downsizing, others as a result of a mid life crisis.  Whatever the reason, the growth of small, privately owned business across the nation is at record levels.  The bottom line is we live in a country that allows us realize our dreams, both professionally and personally, if we work hard.  

Your passions will help you to create a business you understand.  That’s very important – do something you appreciate – something you enjoy.  Do what you know.  Do what you like.  Success is never a foregone conclusion, but if you do something you identify with, you’re more likely to realize positive results.  Remember, an entrepreneurial attitude is just as important to a firmly established company as it is to a start-up.  If you can maintain the “start-up” approach to building the business, you foster a mentality of accomplishment throughout the organization, no matter what its age or its size.  But never forget – entrepreneurship is difficult. 

Your attitude can make all the difference.  There are always challenges and you should focus on opportunities rather than problems.  Make the customer number one and strive for high productivity.  If you have employees, make sure you set the pace and the example and foster an attitude that creates an “ownership” process throughout the company.  Don’t ever stop taking reasonable and evaluated risks.  Communicate your vision with employees and customers and keep it simple.  

Don’t be misled; there is a lot of information to learn.  Business owners need to develop working relationships with a variety of individuals including customers, wholesalers, dealers, staff, bankers and other professionals such as lawyers, accountants and other specialized professionals.  Entrepreneurs must make important decisions daily, often at a moment’s notice and most times, under pressure.  Owning a business can be very challenging but remember it’s going to take a lot of hard work and long hours.  Get to know your strengths and your weaknesses and then adjust to make sure that success becomes more likely.  Entrepreneurship isn’t always as attractive and glamorous as some pundits may portray. Ask someone who’s done it. If you start your own business, life as you know it will never be the same.  It might be better than expected, then again, it just could be worse than you could ever imagine; but it will definitely be different from anything you’ve ever done.  

If you decide to make a go of it, follow your heart, your passions, and learn all you can about your business and your customer base.  Perhaps your company will be the next one that is included in the Forbes Celebrity 100 as a global billion dollar a year power player.  Keep pushing forward and never give up. 

A few days ago, my 7 year old daughter came home with what I thought was a challenging school project—designing and creating her own game from scratch. Jenna was stumped at first. She came up with a few ideas but then quickly gave up as she found some “glitches” in her plan. This got me thinking about Smart Women and the game of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship can be fun, exciting, challenging and risky all at the same time—just like any other game we play. There are days when I’m on top of the world because everything is working out just the way I had planned and, there are days when I want to crawl in bed and pull the covers over my head because it feels like every move I make or card I play turns out to be ones that don’t move me forward at all.

Jenna’s game will be graded on several factors; easy for anyone to understand how to play, organized and neat presentation, and of course, turned in on time. If you want your business to get high marks and become successful, there are several questions that you need to ask yourself:

1. Decide what game you’re playing.  What type of business do you have or want to have? Is it something that the marketplace needs? Are there other people doing the same thing or a version of your business that have been successful? Jenna sat down in her room and I put her favorite games all around her—Chutes and Ladders, Sorry, Trouble, etc. This exercise helped her to see how other games were put together in terms of pieces, die, cards and rules.

It’s always a good idea to research other people who’ve been successful in your industry. It’s not to copy what they’re doing but to see similarities—what’s working, what’s not working.

2. What’s the object of your game? What product or service are you offering? When your ideal client makes a choice to work with you, what will they receive at the end of your time together? This is critical to your business process. Helping the client understand how they will be better or different after working with you is of high interest to them.
 
3. How do people play your game? In other words, how do they work with you? Is it in person? By phone? Online? Do you offer packages or bundle services together? You have to make the access to your service easy for the client.

4. Make the experience rewarding! People want to enjoy the relationship they develop when working with someone. Price is not always the major factor in why people buy. They want to work with someone who has the expert knowledge they need and who will make the process enjoyable.

Jenna created a game called, “Math Baseball.” It’s a game that she knows a lot about and enjoys playing. The rules she made up for the game are both fun and challenging involving some risk. Sounds a lot like the game we play called “Entrepreneurship.”

Anything is possible. Everything is waiting for you.

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