Great video from my session at London Metropolitan University – Business Society talking about the motivations for starting a business while still at university.
Month: April 2011
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Learning by Doing
It is from classrooms we learn so much about life, this starts at a very young age and we are now expecting the young to stay for longer periods of their lives. These safe environments are where the young can develop knowledge of their surroundings in a way which ensures their growth. However, they tend to be risk adverse, safety aware, one size fits all and also very bureaucratic.
Last week I had the pleasure to be at two very different National entrepreneurial events which enable students to learn while doing, SIFE and FLUX500. These are two very different programmes of events engaging students at extremely different levels, learning and outcomes.
However, they both get students from diverse backgrounds, skill sets and outlooks in life to engage in entrepreneurship without even making reference to business or entrepreneurship. These both empower the students to develop, explore, make mistakes and reflect on the outcomes.
Setting out in business is requires you to have multiple skills, finance, manager, sales, marketing, leader, employer and entrepreneur. These diverse skills have to be learnt and it’s through developing these we can become a professional and accomplished entrepreneur. These are life skills which no text book or online course can even attempt to fine tune. However, they are skills which employers, investors and fellow entrepreneurs love to be associated with.
Therefore we need more of it at all levels of education. However, it’s not about governments providing more cash, as both of these events received no direct finances from government agencies. They are funded by sponsorships from corporations who are looking for the most talented young people who can come into their businesses and make a difference, have ideas and be multi-skills in areas such as finance, manager, sales, marketing…
The involvement of business in developing the young is important in setting the needs and evolution of the learning outcomes. This business model is a very robust one which ensures the needs to every party involved, the students, educators, third sector, entrepreneurs and employers. It is therefore something which should grow and develop to ensure more opportunities are available to the young.
Take a look at www.sifeuk.org and www.flux500.co.uk and engage yourself.
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The Three Stages of Entrepreneurship
The process can be easily split into three stages: Thinking, Doing and Growing.
Thinking about Starting
The start-up phase is thinking, making plans, developing the right motivation to start and develop the aptitude to be an entrepreneur. For some people this is the hardest part and they struggle to choose an idea, develop the idea past just that and get other involved in making the idea reality. The majority of entrepreneurs never had the luxury to have to sit down and brainstorm ideas, then using innovation techniques decide on the best idea and then market research which one of the shortlist to take forward to a business. I still believe in the ‘gut instinct’ method, if you don’t have the guts to make the decision you want to take forward, then you don’t have the guts to make it work, so stay and get yourself a job in someone else’s business.
Doing a Startup
The doing phase is the hardest, it’s the one all the famous entrepreneurs don’t talk about, it’s the part where you spend 18 hours a day, 7 days a week making this business inch forward to some form of success. In this stage you need to start to build relationships with your staff, your bank, your suppliers and your customers. This relationship has to develop a trust and a strong bond which allow everyone to understand who they are and what value they provide into the business model. If someone doesn’t understand this then they will become the weakest link in your business.
Growing a Startup
The final stage is growth, personal growth, business growth, network growth and sales growth. This stage is normally post 36 months and it’s the point where the business model and relationships with suppliers is well established. The bank actually like and trust you. The most important part of this stage is to figure out ‘what type of entrepreneur you are?’ and what you can and cannot do, what you want and do not want to do. The things you don’t want to do, hire someone better that you. The thing you want to do and no good at, then develop some skills, in fact you will need to develop skills anyway. Knowing yourself will ensure your business has a solid foundation. In this stage you need to develop stronger bonds with your local community as you require more employees, more space and more flexible and understanding relationships with those around you.