Entrepreneurship Archives - Page 3 of 3

Techniques For Entrepreneurship Development

There is a certain way to carry out entrepreneurship. One has to follow certain fixed guidelines to develop an entrepreneurship of any choice. Designing a clear cut plan is necessary. Following are seven guidelines or techniques on the basis of which any entrepreneurship or business can be developed;

1. Focusing on the key product:

Your business revolves on the key product so focusing on your core product is the first step to create a business opportunity. A certain successful entrepreneur has stated that “Prospects buy when they trust your value is applicable to them and believe your company is stable” suggesting that an entrepreneur should focus on providing value to the customers. This suggestion is the key to the core plan. An entrepreneur of small business needs to differentiate from big business by concentrating on the core products. Specialization is the biggest asset of entrepreneurs.

2. Keeping it simple and short:

One should be able to tell what their business is in few precise and concise words(I.e the patter or pitch) lasting for 30 seconds since any prospect can understand clearly about the business without being confused.

3. Staying true to who you are:

You can reach your goals by knowing who you are and what gets you excited and not. Notably procrastination as human nature is can delay your growth plan so it’s better to not procrastinate and go for a perfect result oriented plan

4. Mapping it:

The best way to determine your service strategy is by mapping your capabilities with your target clients’ needs. Hence the customers who do not need your particular expertise are also avoided. The urge to cast a wide net is one common trait among many entrepreneurs. However a small business flourishes since it has limited service offering. Specializing in distinctive top quality service is the value in having a small business. So in many instances, a small business flourishes. Significantly, while choosing a provider, a list of decision making criteria can be made, from which, your client can choose as per your expectation. Then categorize yourself honestly or evaluate intensely as to where you would be position in each category. After this, make sure that your patter or pitch is still on target.

5. Utilizing the best marketing tools that work for you:

Implement the best marketing strategy that suits your personality and that of customers to be served. Identify the top two marketing tools that have worked for you in the past and then start adding new ideas from a fresh perspective. It’s also important to evaluate the selected marketing tools from cost basis. You have to take a decision as to which marketing tool will yield the best returns on your efforts. In one or another each tool should be result oriented or revenue productive.

6. Implementing a plan of action:

It’s essential to know whether the plan of action made is in progress or not. This can be done by establishing goals at short term say 3 months to long term of 6 months. During short term, you need to check your plan every month. If the plan is not being met you need to ask questions to yourself like did I select the appropriate tools for my target customer? Did I integrate the strategy into the plan? Or did I focus on only one of the marketing tool? Thus there should be a strategy check on a day to day basis so as to know if the plan is in progress as per your plan.

7. Exercising the plan:

The final step is to complete the daily actions and to put n extra efforts to accelerate your plan towards success. Precious time should be not wasted and used for reaching your goal soon.

These are the basic most important techniques for Entrepreneurship development.

Thanks

Entrepreneurship and Project Management – The Missing Link

There has been a great deal of emphasis on entrepreneurship and the need for more and more entrepreneurs in the region to help create jobs for the future of the region. There is also a lot of enthusiasm and encouragement for new entrepreneurs – but are we forgetting something? It is great to have the “spirit” but is spirit enough? Do our prospective entrepreneurs know how to take their dreams from the idea into effective operation? Is business planning over emphasized or is it enough? This article will offer an opinion and try to answer these questions and offer a suggestion on what is missing. It is the author’s opinion that Project Management is the missing link that could make the crucial difference between success, challenge, and even failure.

The Need for Entrepreneurs

Various sources and global studies show that small & medium organizations/enterprises (SMO/SME) have huge contributions to economies around the world in term of gross national product and employment. Studies in the Middle East show that SME contributions in our region are lower than developed countries. However, many in government and private sector leadership recognize the need to change this in order to deal with the tremendous challenge of the needs for job creation across the Arab World.

All of private or government initiatives share in playing a role to promote the “spirit of entrepreneurship,” but is spirit the only thing that we need? What is missing? Let us say someone quit his/her job to become an entrepreneur, then what?

There are too many challenges facing an entrepreneur today – some of it is legal structure and regulations. Other challenges are related to the fear of failure and the stigma associated with that. Even if we overcome the fear of failure we will encounter the challenge of availability of capital. With capital resolved or at least somewhat resolved, do we have the right infrastructure to help the entrepreneur launch the business? Do we have the necessary support? How about beyond the launch? The support that is available (business / cash / logistics / management / etc.) is available for someone following a dream, but only to realize that realizing the dream is much more challenging than expected. How do we help the entrepreneur or the small business owner sustain and grow?

Business Planning

Most, if not all, venture capital, foundation, and other sources for funds — in addition to business schools and MBA programs focus on a business plan as an essential deliverable / requirement to seek funds or start a business. Here we ask once again: Is the business plan enough? It is our view that a ‘traditional’ business plan is not enough. Quite a few business plans, that we call ‘traditional’, focus on the business aspects with a heavier focus on operation of the business. The question is: Do these traditional business plans provide a proper focus on the venture (most call a “project”) from idea to launch of the business?

The Missing Link

It is interesting to point out that many call a new venture a “project”, as we mentioned in the earlier section. We like the word “project,” but most definitions of the word “project” mean something that is temporary. So is the venture temporary? We hope not! So is the word ‘project’ the wrong one to use? Yes and No. The business is not a project; it is a business, a venture. So to be academic, the word “project” is not the proper one to use for the new business. Let us call it venture or business. Yet to launch the business is exactly what we call a project – the launch project is to take the venture from the idea to operations. Our objective here is not to get into an English lesson; rather we aim to define the proper use of words in order to have the proper context and fully understand the missing link. So what is this missing link? Well if launching the business is a project, then how do we manage it? Where is Project Management in managing the launch? The next section will provide a methodology to follow in launching the business.

A Proposed Sequence

Our proposed model will focus on the venture launch from idea to initial operation, using the missing link – Project Management. Future articles could focus on the use of Organizational Project Management to help build and sustain a small business and grow it.

The proposed model, which is derived from Customizable and Adaptable Methodology for Managing Projects it isa project life span model that divides the project life span into three distinct phases; which we explain here.

Business Concept

The business concept is a crucial phase of the project that spans a period from the idea for the venture until an initial decision to go ahead and encompass a feasibility study. The idea owner is likely to be the entrepreneur who has an idea for a business that could be a passion, an income opportunity, filling a need, fixing a problem, among other drivers for the business.

This is the time for dreaming, but one has to be careful that the dream is realistic and it is possible to achieve. It is highly risky for someone to launch a new venture without proper understanding of the challenges and opportunities, although one could argue in rare cases that spontaneous action could also result in good profit.

Therefore, the entrepreneur (small business owner to be) has to study the feasibility of his idea, and for this we think that existing business planning techniques are very important to use at this stage. However, in addition to the focus on the financials, competition, market demand, operation and other factors, the entrepreneur needs to also think about Project Management including proper Project Management planning. Proper Project

Management planning includes understanding of the stakeholders and their expectations and requirements, setting realistic time and cost targets, have a fair understanding of the project and venture risks (threats and opportunities), in addition to other factors.

Development of the Business Concept

The earlier phase emphasizes the feasibility study and the requirement for business planning. With the business basics in place, Project Management will become more important and the entrepreneur becomes a project manager.

So what do we do now? The project manager/entrepreneur needs to think and act per two aspects, two sides of the same coin. On one side he needs to think about the project from idea to initial operations, but he cannot ignore post project completion, which would be leading and sustaining the business (operations).

For the project aspect, the project manager needs to put in place all of the requirements in details for launching the business, including defining the success factors, time line, required resources, licensing, legal, financial/funding requirements and alternatives, regulations, budget for the launch, time line, communication with stakeholders, procurement strategy, in addition to risks identification, assessment, and management. All of these activities focus on planning to taking us from the idea through project completion but primarily to produce a detailed plan that would give us the necessary information to make the final decision on whether we should continue with the venture or not. This detailed plan is used extensively in the next phase.

For the business aspects, the project manager needs to start planning for operation readiness; which means identifying all of the things needed once the business is operating; such as financial control, human resources, policies, operational processes, in addition to marketing and business development. If the venture is not for profit, it would still require most of these activities but may be with the addition of the needs for volunteers and volunteer management or the need for sponsors.

Project Delivery (Launching the Business)

With a plan for the project and a plan for operation readiness, it is time to start implementing the project leading to initial operations. In this phase we implement the activities that we identified in the detailed plan. For example, in the plan we specified we need a permit, then it is time to do the activities necessary to obtain the permit. In the plan we defined the need for a marketing plan, it is time to define the marketing plan and develop the necessary collateral, whether print or online.

Therefore, the primary purpose of Project Delivery is to perform all of the activities necessary to produce the required deliverables that would be critical for the successful launch of the new business and start initial operations.

Throughout this document we discussed “initial operations” and “operations” as two independent terms and this is intentional. We use initial operations to define the period of time that starts with opening our doors as a business or a not for profit organization. We call it initial operations because as we start to offer services we might recognize that forms need to be adjusted, some documents might be missing something, among other things that might not go as well as we planned.

Therefore, initial operations will allow us to make the necessary refinements before we go into steady and normal operations. In some situations, we might eliminate initial operations and go straight into normal operations. In other scenarios we might have a “soft start” as an initial operations period, which we might call also as a pilot period / trial period. Which approach to take, it all depends on the nature of the business and if it allows a trial period / initial operations or not.

The Importance Of Perseverance In Entrepreneurship

Perseverance is undoubtedly an important aspect of successful entrepreneurship. The saying “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” means that few individuals are able to achieve great things without first overcoming the obstacles that stand in their way.

Here are four examples – two from the past and two from the present day – of successful perseverance in business to help inspire you to achieve the seemingly impossible.

Thomas Edison

When he was young, Thomas Edison’s parents took him out of school after his teachers declared that he was “stupid” and “unteachable.” Edison spent his early years working and being fired from various jobs, culminating in his firing from a telegraph company at the age of 21. Despite these numerous setbacks, he Edison was never discouraged from his true calling in life: inventing. Throughout his career, Edison obtained more than one thousand patents. And although several of these inventions — such as the light bulb, stock printer, phonograph and alkaline battery — were groundbreaking innovations, the vast majority of them could be fairly described as failures. And now Edison is famous for saying that genius is “1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”

One of Edison’s best examples of perseverance occurred after he was already a successful man. After inventing the light bulb, he began seeking inexpensive light bulb filament. At the time, ore was mined in the Midwest of the United States, and shipping costs were very high. In order to combat this, Edison established his own ore-mining plant in Ogdensburg, New Jersey. For nearly ten years, he devoted his time and money to the enterprise. Edison also obtained 47 patents for innovations that helped make the plant run more smoothly. And even despite those inventions, Edison’s core project failed because of low quality ore on the East Coast.

However, despite that failing, one of those 47 inventions (a crushing machine) revolutionized the cement industry, and actually earned Edison back almost all of the money he lost. Later, Henry Ford would credit Edison’s Ogdensburg project as the main inspiration for his Model T Ford assembly line. And in fact, many believe that Edison paved the way for modern-day industrial laboratories. Edison’s foray into ore-mining demonstrates that dedication can pay off even in a losing venture.

Milton Hershey

Milton Hershey had a long path to the top of the chocolate industry. Hershey dropped out of the 4th grade to take an apprenticeship with a printer, only to be fired. Next he became an apprentice to a candy-maker, and then started 3 unsuccessful candy enterprises.

However, Hershey was not giving up. After these unsuccessful attempts, he founded the Lancaster Caramel Company. Despite his initial setbacks, Hershey’s caramel recipe was a huge success. Looking beyond caramel, Hershey believed that chocolate products had a much greater future, and sold the Lancaster Caramel Company in order to start the Hershey Company, which brought milk chocolate to the masses.

In doing so, Hershey overcame failure and accomplished his goals. He also created hundreds of jobs for Pennsylvanians and was generous with his wealth, building houses, churches, and schools.

Steve Jobs

Perseverance is not just limited to the beginning phases of a person’s career. In fact, failure can often occur after a long period of achievement.

Apple founder Steve Jobs achieved phenomenal success early in life. When he was 20 years old, he founded Apple from his parents’ garage, and within ten years the company had grown into a $2 billion juggernaut. However, when Jobs turned 30, Apple’s Board of Directors fired Jobs from the company he created, and he found himself unemployed. Rather than seeing this as a curse, Jobs treated it as a freedom to pursue new initiatives. In fact, Jobs later stated that being fired was one of the best things that ever happened to him, since it provided him with the opportunity to think more creatively and to start a new company.

After being fired from Apple, Jobs founded NeXT, a software company, and Pixar, the amazing movie company that has produced animated films such as Finding Nemo. NeXT was subsequently purchased by Apple. After founding these companies, Jobs not only went back to Apple, but he helped launch their current resurgence in popularity with the creation and success of the iPod and iPhone. Jobs credits his career success and his strong relationship with his family to the fact that he was terminated from Apple.

Simon Cowell

Although Simon Cowell is now a pop icon and wealthy man, Cowell faced struggles earlier in life. When he was fifteen, he dropped out of school and worked various odd jobs. Cowell eventually received a job working in the mail room at EMI Music Publishing, where he was able to work his way into the A&R department. After EMI, Cowell formed his own publishing company, E&S Music.

Unfortunately, Cowell’s new company folded in its first year of operation. As a result, Cowell was burdened with a lot of debt, and had to move back in with his parents. However, he was persistent, and eventually landed a job with a small company called Fanfare Records. Cowell worked at Fanfare for eight years and was able to help build the company into a successful record label. From there, he spent several years signing musicians and cultivating talent before launching the “American Idol” and “X-Factor” franchises that would make Simon Cowell a household name.

Entrepreneurship Formula – Step by Step Guide to Start Your Own Business Through Online Marketing

Many people have a big misconception that they have to quit their job to start their own business. In reality, it is perfectly doable to start a new business while you are still working. I highly recommend that anybody starting their own business gives themselves a year to start getting online exposure before leaping into anything. Laying down the foundation for online marketing success is most important. These days, if you are not online, you will struggle to be truly successful.

First, I recommend that you start your own business as opposed to buying a franchise or becoming a reseller. Subway is not in the business of making you rich. Yes, some manage to do it. If it was a foolproof plan, however, everybody would own one. To avoid having to deal with manufacturers, begin a service type business. Also, think locally. When you are just getting started, don’t try to compete on a national level. Start small and work your way up little by little. If you take care with each step in the process, a few years down the line you’ll be ready to launch a much larger campaign and your competitors won’t know what hit them.

Lay down the foundation to get ranked highly on Google so your business can last for years to come. Follow these guidelines to make sure you do it right:

1. Pick a domain name that describes what you do. Do not name your company after your last name. Name it after the product or service. When I began my firm, I did not know this and it took me a while to get Google’s authority on a particular subject. Now, my site gets around 400 hits per day, though I feel this could have been achieved far more quickly if I had chosen a domain based on the service I was providing. Only use.com domains, and shorter names are better than longer ones. To give you an example of how important this is, Google “NYC Sales Recruiters.” Look at a company by the name of Sales Expert Executive recruiters. They have a template based 10 page website. Then, look at mine. We have 170 pages of articles written about sales recruiting. That is how much weight the search engine puts on domain names. It took me nearly a year to learn how to beat them in most categories.

2. Brand your company for Google. Start out with what are called long-tail keyword phrases. Long-tail keyword phrases are 5 words. When I began to learn online marketing, I went after words like “New York City sales recruiters.” Then, as time progressed, I began going after shorter keywords and the traffic to my site increased.

3. Study how to build backlinks to your website. There are tons of articles out there telling you how to do this. Building backlinks to your site is very important, and at first, should be done gradually. Right off the bat, the best way to build links is to submit your website to several website directories. You can find these through some very basic research. It’s well worth the money. Then, begin a blog and frequently update it with posts. Have HTML links with the keywords you are going after pointing back to your site. Also, write interesting articles and submit them to online article sites such as Ezine. Writing is the key to gaining backlinks to your site and is the most important facet of online marketing success. However, when submitting your first articles to these sites, make sure they are perfect. If you mess up on the first few, the editors will dismiss your subsequent efforts.

4. Keep track of your site’s progress. You should begin to see an increase in website traffic and your Google page rank start to climb. Make sure people can contact you through the website. There is no better way to gauge your success with online marketing then how many clients are coming in.

So that’s opening your own business, in a nutshell. Depending on the industry you choose and the product or service you are selling, you will run in to your own unique problems and obstacles. Figuring out how to get past them, however, is just part of the fun.