Entrepreneurialism: Seven Unnecessary Traits

When you are working to establish your own business you may believe certain things to be true about entrepreneurialism. While some traits may have merit there are other traits that may not be as necessary as you might have imagined.

Leadership Skills vs. Personal Drive

Interestingly, leadership skills are less important than personal drive. In most entrepreneurial efforts the seeds of an idea are cultivated by ONE not MANY. In the end if you believe in the idea you do not need the ability to lead others to pursue your dream.

Money vs. Dream

Entrepreneurial efforts are often about achieving a goal and less about making ‘money’ the primary goal. Certainly if you do your job well the money is likely to follow, but your efforts should be based on your dream first.

Power Broker vs. Average Joe

An entrepreneur does not need to pursue power in their business pursuits because they already possess the power they need to step out and follow their dream. In effect, an entrepreneur answers to themselves so, seeking personal power makes little sense in entrepreneurial efforts.

Extrovert vs. Introvert

You may find it interesting to learn that many introverted or shy individuals actually do well in many entrepreneurial endeavors. If you are outgoing it can be helpful to your overall goals, but the Internet has made it possible for introverted dreamers to find a place to let those dreams thrive.

Gamblers vs. Methodical Planning

Becoming an entrepreneur is often thought of as a gamble, however many entrepreneurs are better served by making careful plans and exercising proven strategies to minimize the chance of failure. Entrepreneurialism is not so much about throwing caution to the wind as it is about taking a dream and finding ways to make that dream a reality.

Organization vs. Creative Thought

You may find it interesting to note that some of the best business owners are not especially organized – it takes away from their ability to create new ways to make their business better. This is why you usually find these individuals with a quality assistant as the business grows. The end result is a mind that can envision where the business needs to go and steps over the pile of paperwork to get there.

As you take a look at the list you find that leadership skills, money, power brokering, being an extrovert, being a gambler and having strong organizational skills may not be as necessary to the role of entrepreneur as you may have thought.

So, with those excuses out of the way, what prevents you from following your dream?

Business Plan Outlines - The Very Basics

Business plan outlines vary in their complexity.  Depending on your situation you may just want to follow a very basic business plan outline.  Regardless, the process of sitting down, creating a business plan outline, and writing a business plan is one of the most valuable exercises you will do.

Basic Business Plan Outline

List your business credentials - why are you qualified to start this business and sell your products and services?

List your staff:  Is it going to be just yourself, or do you have a definite plan in terms of when you are going to hire sales, technical, or administrative staff?

Project revenue:  Will you be selling services, products, or a combination of both?

How much revenue will come from products?  How much profit will come from products?

How much revenue will come from services?  How much profit will come from services?

Sales and marketing plan:  outline your major sales and marketing activities - the things that you're going to do to bring in key, sweet spot clients. Talk about what you're doing on a month-by-month or week-by-week basis. How much time you think it’s going to take up and how much money you think it’s going to cost to execute.

Operations: Where will you be located? Home office or rented space? How will you get to your clients' places of business?  Personal car or leased vehicle? Will you need to rent facilities from time to time for meetings, seminars, etc...

Finance:  What capital do you need to start?  Where will you get this capital? Where will you get additional capital during your first year in business?

Salary and Payroll:  What are your expectations for your personal salary or drawings.  Do you have to pay staff as well?

Expertise of principals:  What makes you and/or your partners qualified? What kind of skills and experience do you bring to the table that will be of valuable to this business venture and valuable to the clients you want to pursue? 

The Bottom Line On Business Plan Outlines

Business plan outlines can be as detailed as you want.  The most important aspect is that your business plan outline covers off the basics.  Make sure the business plan outline you adopt allows you to answer the five W's and provides you with a plan for how you will start and operate your business.

7 Signs of an Entrepreneur

Do you have the right personality type to successfully run your own business?

It takes an entrepreneurial fire in your belly tostart a business and make it succeed. Not everyone has it.
How do you know if you have what it takes to start a business? There's really no way to know for sure. But I do find things in common among the emotional and family fabric of people ready to consider an entrepreneurial venture.
You don't have to fit all seven of these categories to be a good candidate for entrepreneurship. But it probably wouldn't hurt. In general, the more you have in common with these characteristics, the closer you probably are to being ready to try going out on your own.
1. You come from a line of people who couldn't work for someone else. I don't mean that in a negative way. People who are successful at establishing their own business tend to have had parents who worked for themselves. It's usually easier to get a job with a company than to start your own business; people who strike out on their own often have the direct example of a parent to look to.
2.You're a lousy employee. No need to sugar-coat this one. People who start their own businesses tend to have been fired from or quit more than one job. I'm not saying you were laid off for lack of work or moved from one job to a better-paying one. You were asked to leave, or you quit before they could fire you. Think of it as the marketplace telling you that the only person who can effectively motivate and manage you is yourself.
3.You see more than one definition of "job security." I am truly envious of the few people I know who have stayed with one employer for 25 or 30 years. They look very secure. But how many people do you know who are able to stay with one company for that long? In a rapidly changing economy, job security can be frighteningly fleeting.
4. You've gone as far as you can go, or you're not going anywhere at all. Sometimes the motivation to start a new venture comes from having reached the top of the pile where you are, looking around, and saying, "What's next?" Early success can be wonderful, but early retirement can sometimes drive energetic and motivated people totally crazy.
5. You've done the market research already. Don't even talk to me about your great business idea if you haven't put the time into figuring out if there's a market for your product or service. As the people behind any number of failed Internet ventures will tell you, "cool" doesn't necessarily translate into "profitable." Don't bother building it if you haven't figured out whether there's a good chance the customers will come.    
6. You've got the support of your family. Starting a business is stressful under the best of circumstances. Trying to do it without the support of your spouse or other significant family members or friends would probably be unbearable.
7. You know you cannot do it alone. You might excel at promoting a business. Maybe you love running the financial end of the enterprise. You could be someone who starts a business because you have unique creative or technical know-how to create a product.
Any of the above is possible, but it's unlikely that you are going to excel at all of these tasks — or at all of the tasks involved in running any business. Forget all that doing it alone stuff. You are going to need some help sometime.
The willingness to get that help — having employees, partners or consultants for those areas in which you are not an expert — is one indicator of likely future success. "No successful entrepreneur has ever succeeded alone," development consultant Ernesto Sirolli writes in "Ripples From the Zambezi." "The person who is most capable of enlisting the support of others is the most likely to succeed."

3 Must-Have Strategies to Stay on the Cutting Edge

1.  Explore New Advertising Methods
The first sign that you might need to explore new marketing strategies, is a sharp decline in the effectiveness of your advertisment campaign.  Yeah, you shell out a lot of hard earned cash to advertise, and the public turns its nose up!  Don't wait until your profits are plunging to start hunting for new marketing strategies.

Keep searching for the pot of gold.  The whirlwind of change that continuously sweeps through the marketplace offers great opportunity for discovering new advertising mediums. Be on the lookout for one that will set you up for brand new heights of success.

Here's the rule of thumb for advertising:  Keep 80 percent of your advertising budget invested in the "tried and true" methods that bring in a steady flow of profit, and invest 20 percent into the exploration of new ways to get  your message to potential customers.

2.  Be On The Lookout For New Markets
Be alert! Diversification is the key to staying on the cutting edge of an everchanging marketplace.  You'll be insulating yourself against the effects of these changes by continuously changing as well.  And hey... you never know when a brand new market will translate into millions of dollars in sales! 

You don't have to go out on a limb to reach new markets.  There are marketing niches within the market you are currently dealing with.  Think of it like this...your market can be subdivided into several narrowly defined markets.  A Multi Level Marketing company may notice that many of its prospects are stay-at-home moms and retirees.  Hey a few advertisments directed at the right people...two additional Web pages targeting stay-at-home moms and retirees linked to their home page...and they've effectively customized their markets and are likely to see a 20 percent increase in sales.

3.  Invest In New Products or Services
Have you noticed a continuously progressing slump in the sales and profits of a product or service you currently offer?  It's no sweat if you have other products and services to fill the gap.  Keep a sharp eye out for new products and services that complement what you already have to offer.

A bridal shop owner may have a humming business that sells gowns and veils, but what about tuxedos?  Wouldn't it be easier for the wedding party to get everything in one place?  Tuxedos aren't just for weddings...proms and parties call for bow ties and tails as well.  The potential is expansive.

Yeah, you don't have to be intimidated by clever competition and new technology when you stay on the edge, and make changes with it.  Try these 3 strategies to keep you sales numbers vibrant and climbing!

3 Effective Tactics Every Business Should Implement

Do you remember your first day as a business owner?  You were probably just like the rest of us... pretty darned happy and bit on the proud side.  Yeah, back then we thought we could conquer the world.  Now we're too busy conquering our own little corner of the world to pay a lot of attention to the rest of the world... unless it's to learn a few tips from successful marketers just like us who have made it big.  Tips just like these... that will apply to every market - regardless of the product or service - are a great motivators to try something new.  Yeah, you never know when the next idea will be worth a million dollars!

1.  Create  a Special Offer
A special offer is exactly that... an offer that is special.  Normally, customers would not be able to purchase this product or combination of products, and once the products are gone... sorry! 

You don't have to go out and order a bunch of new products to put together a special offer.  It don't take a whole lot... just use what you've got.  Grab a few items that are related, group them together, discount the price, and your customers will be excited to be getting a good deal.  Think about it from your standpoint... you've sold three or four items rather than one.  Yeah, combination offers are winning deals for everyone!

2.  Address the Small Customer Groups
Niche markets are everywhere, right under your nose!  Within the customer audience that you serve right now are groups of people who share common traits.  Think about it... maybe you have a group who speaks Spanish, a group of teens, and a group of middle class family men and women.

Evaluate these classes of people, and discover the unique needs and desires they share.  That will set you up to customize your advertising campaign directly to them.  It's not hard to take your current ads, and make a few changes to adjust to the niches.  They'll be impressed that you understand THEM, and the increase in your profits will be the best thanks you can get.

3.  Set Up a Winning Referral Program
Successful marketers develop the ability to turn their customers into advocates.  Often, they don't even have to directly ask customers to refer them to others.  Their willingness to go the extra wins customer loyalty and support.  Naturally, satisfied customers refer their friends and family to the place that will take good care of them.
Quality service and is the first step toward referrals, but you can easily take it one step further.  Studies show that every satisfied customer tells three people about you.  What would happen with a little incentive added to the picture?  Yeah, a lot more.  Give customers who refer friends a thank you - whether it's a discount, special gift item, or a simple thank you card - and watch the referrals spiral!
You can get two birds with one stone by implimenting customer surveys.  A few quick questions about what the customer does and doesn't like about your product, followed by a request for the names and addresses of friends and family who would benefit from the product, and you're all set to go with the contact information of a prospective customer!

Are You An Entrepreneur?

If you were to look up the word entrepreneur in the dictionary you would find that it means "a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, a business usually with considerable initiative and risk.”  These days the term entrepreneur is used so much that it seems like everybody from stay at home moms, to the local tattoo artist, are claiming to be such.  The truth is that as fancy as this word maybe, anyone can be an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs can be any shape, size, age, race or religion.  What makes an entrepreneur an entrepreneur is commitment, the willingness to lead and the passion to succeed.  There are certain characteristics that many of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs share.  Listed below are a few traits that can help you determine if you truly are an entrepreneur.

Great Focus - True entrepreneurs have great focus.  These are individuals that once they have a goal set, no one or nothing can stop them from accomplishing that goal.

Creative - Most entrepreneurs have a seemingly effortless way of being creative.  Thinking outside the box;  that characteristic alone creates a greater earning potential for their business.

Good With Money -  Being able to keep track and manage money wisely is another well-known characteristic of an entrepreneur.  Knowing where every dollar and cent is and where they are going is very important to entrepreneurs.

Decision Maker - One who can make big decisions on their own without worrying about others opinions.  Being able to stand behind their decision without any doubt whatsoever.

The Ability To Lead - Most entrepreneurs put themselves in the position of being the boss.  This may mean that this person has employees under him/her.  In this instance, the individual must be able to lead and give direction to others in a clear and productive manner.

Always Learning - True entrepreneurs never stop learning.  They are always eager to discover new, more efficient ways to make their business more successful.  Learning is a desire, not a necessity for these people.

Fearless - Having no fear is definitely a characteristic of a entrepreneur.  Not fearing critics, competitors, consumers and most of all, not fearing failure. Not fearing these things is automatic for any real entrepreneur.

The list above will help you determine if you are indeed an entrepreneur.  If you are not an entrepreneur, but aspire to be one you will need to develop most if not all of these traits.  If you take the time to embrace and practice these traits; you will be well on your way to becoming a successful entrepreneur!

5 Tips to Help You Market When You Think You're Too Busy

What if you've taken the time to create a marketing plan but now you're so busy servicing your current clients that you're having a hard time keeping on track with your plan?

Is it okay to set the plan aside for awhile? After all you've got enough business to keep you busy. And, you're not sure you could handle additional clients right now anyway.

While marketing may not seem like a necessary activity when your business is going gang-busters, it's only a matter of time before your lack of marketing starts to impact your business.

Staying on top of your marketing plan, even when you're busy, ensures you always have a pipeline full of prospects and clients into your business.

While you may be busy right now, if you stop marketing for the next three months, you may find yourself high and dry when it comes to clients, because you've stopped the flow.

As an independent professional myself, I can totally relate to being too busy to market. It seems the days are never long enough to get everything on my to-do list done.  But as a marketing professional I know I can't afford to NOT get my marketing done.

So what's a busy gal (or guy) to do?!?

Here are 5 suggestions  :
(1) If you haven't already, create a marketing calendar. Schedule all of your marketing activities in the calendar according to how frequently you planned to do them in your marketing plan.

If you planned to do something monthly, enter it on the calendar once each month. Weekly? Enter it four times per month. Do this for every planned activity.

(2) Hang your marketing calendar over your desk on a bulletin board or on the wall. Make a habit of looking at it every morning. This way you won't have the problem of "out of site out of mind."

I can't tell you how many clients I've had whose marketing plans have ended up in a file folder in a drawer. You're certainly NOT going to grow your business that way!

(3) Try incorporating your marketing activities into your weekly and daily to-do list.  Enter the activities as to-do tasks in your calendar or PDA just like all your appointments and other business activities.

I do this with all my marketing activities. I use Microsoft Outlook and a Pocket PC and it's the only way I know I'll keep myself on track. If something is on my calendar, I treat it like any other meeting or appointment and I do it.

For example, every Wednesday, a little notice pops up to remind me to write my weekly ezine. If that didn't happen I'd either be writing it on Monday's at midnight, or it wouldn't get done.

(4) Pick one day per month to review your marketing calendar in detail and to look three months ahead. What is coming up that you need to prepare for now? What do you need to transfer into your to-do list or PDA to make sure you don't forget to do it?

I usually do this at the end of the month when I'm doing all my month-end work ... things like running sales reports, doing billing, and updating my marketing tracking reports.

Make it a habit to review your marketing at the same time you do these tasks. After a few months you won't even have to think about it anymore, it'll become a habit.

(5) Consider hiring an assistant or support person to help. If they can take some of the tasks off your plate that really don't require your expertise, it will free you up to focus on what I call "revenue producing activities."

These are things like working with clients, creating products and services and marketing. I couldn't believe the difference it made when I hired some help.

I didn't think I could afford it, but now I don't see how I lasted so long without help!

When you find a way to get back on track with your marketing and you do it on regular basis, it really does become a part of the way you do business.

Suddenly it doesn't seem like marketing anymore. It's just what you do to run your business. That's when it becomes effortless.

And, that's when you know your business will be continue to be busy and profitable for the long-haul.