Dr David Bozward

Category: Blog

  • What skills do you need to be a successful Entrepreneur?

    What skills do you need to be a successful Entrepreneur?

    When starting a business, we all come at from different directions, at different ages, different backgrounds. There are so many skills required to run your own startup. Successful Entrepreneur skills, are the ones you’ll need to run everything from serving customers to preparing your accounts. Below are listed 13  core skills required in running a startup business and how you might develop your core skill set further. The successful Entrepreneur skills are:

    1. Opportunity Recognition – The recognition of new markets and opportunities, such as a new customers’ need is core to becoming a successful entrepreneur.
    2. Ideation – Ideation is the creative process of generating, developing, and communicating new ideas. Always write your ideas down in a book and come back to them when you can do something about it.
    3. Research & Analysis – This involves both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. Understanding the customers, competitors and costs structure are important in making a startup work.
    4. Resources Identification – Working out the resource requirements then leads to determining what types of resources you will need to start-up and operate your startup.
    5. Risk Analysis – This process of defining and analysing the dangers to your startup business posed by potential natural and human-caused events.
    6. Tactical Planning – As a startup the horizon is low, so focus on this process of outlining business plans for the coming year. This differs from strategic planning as strategic planning encompasses longer-term goals that reflect the company’s direction and its purpose outlined in its mission statement.
    7. Operational Design – Operational design is the first level of strategy implementation and rests upon operational art. This cognitive approach uses your skill, knowledge, experience, creativity, and judgment to develop operations to organise and employ the resources available.
    8. Business Modelling – A business model is the map of how a startup generates revenue and makes a profit from its value proposition. From this a business plan and processes may be derived.
    9. Cash Flow – In the early days of a business maintaining a healthy cash level, liquidity ensure the business survives. Cash is king.
    10. Team Building – As a new business building a team is important, which requires various types of activities used to enhance social relations and define roles within team are developed and maintained.
    11. Branding – Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, it develops you icon and a connection with your suppliers, customers and financial stakeholders.
    12. Marketing – The communications of you value proposition should generate leads which can be turned into sales.
    13. Negotiating & Selling – Getting the right prices from your suppliers and selling at the right price is fundamental for a startup to grow. These skills go hand in hand together.
  • 7 obstacles experienced by entrepreneurs

    7 obstacles experienced by entrepreneurs

    As an entrepreneur we have lots of do, but sometimes we just do it wrong, we let obstacles get in our way. So what are the typical obstacles we entrepreneurs have to deal with:

    1. Perfectionism – For entrepreneurs, practice doesn’t make perfect; action does. You simply cannot wait until you are 100 percent ready before you take action. Think MVP.
    2. Procrastination –  Sometimes its easier to delay the decision, the action or even dealing with the problem, so each day “Eat the Frog” and take action of the real issues within your business.
    3. Fear – Entrepreneurs’ resolve is tested from the very first step of starting a business. In fact, one entrepreneur compared starting a business to jumping off a cliff and assembling your parachute on the way down.
    4. Worry – As an entrepreneur, worry comes with the territory. In fact, over a third of entrepreneurs told Gallup they worried a lot about yesterday. While worry is a quotidian experience, it is not productive. You have to make peace with the things that concern you, and not let them stop you from taking action and pursuing your dreams.
    5. Financing – Experienced entrepreneurs don’t have it easy when it comes to funding a new business, but they do have a few advantages over newcomers. They might have a pool of capital from a business they previously sold or a steady stream of revenue they can use to fund a new business’s cash flow.
    6. Team building – This is especially hard if you’ve never run or managed a team before, but even if you have management experience, picking the right team for a startup is stressful and difficult. It’s not enough to find candidates who fill certain roles — you also need to consider their cost to the business, their culture fit and how they’ll work as part of your overall team. Such considerations are exceptionally hard when you’re under the pressure of filling those positions as soon as possible.
    7. Decision-making – Believe it or not, this is probably the most stressful challenge on this list. New entrepreneurs are forced to make hundreds of decisions a day, from big, company-impacting decisions, to tiny, hour-affecting ones. Decision fatigue is a real phenomenon, and most new entrepreneurs will experience it if they aren’t prepared for the new level of stress.
  • 5 Sources of funding to start a business

    5 Sources of funding to start a business

    If you are looking to fund your startup and not sure where to start? Here is a quick guide to five potential sources of funding for your small business. I have tried to put them in order with the best way first:

      1. Bootstrapping: Many billionaire entrepreneurs find a way to grow without external financing so that financiers don’t control their destinies or grab a disproportionate slice of the business.
      2. Customers: Advance payments from customers can give you the cash you need, at a relatively low cost, to keep your business growing. Advances also demonstrate a level of commitment by the customer to your operation.
      3. Friends and family members:  If you’re lucky, friends and family members might be the most lenient investors of the bunch. They don’t tend to make you pledge your house, and they might even agree to sell their interest in your company back to you for a nominal return.
      4. Startup Loans: Start Up Loans is a government-funded scheme that fund your startup and mentors entrepreneurs. They have a series of delivery partners  who will help you develop a business plan.
      5. Bank loans:  Banks are like the supermarket of debt financing. They provide short-, mid- or long-term financing, and they finance all asset needs, including working capital, equipment and real estate. However, they typically are not the first place to look for funds for your startup.

    When taking loans to fund your startup from friends and family, banks or another you must, have a written agreement covering every last detail regarding the loan. This includes the loan amount, the repayment period, the amount of each repayment instalment, the interest rate if any, consequences of non-repayment etc.  If in doubt get a lawyer to help you.

  • 12 months of successful entrepreneurship in 2017

    12 months of successful entrepreneurship in 2017

    Each year I sit down and make a set of new years resolutions and this year I wanted to try something new. So this year I thought I would make a series of statements which I could live by, to make my life more successful. So the following 12 statements are aimed to make our lives more entrepreneurial this coming year.

    1. Self believe in yourself.

    As Henry Ford famously said, “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right.” You HAVE to Believe that you can succeed, and this believe will help find ways through different obstacles.

    2. Have and communicate the vision.

    The difference between a manager and a entrepreneur is the vision they have for the business, an entrepreneur is someone who has a vision for something and a desire to create it. This vision needs to be clear at all times.

    3 Take the risk.

    We never know the outcome of our endeavours unless we actually try it. Jeff Bezos said it helped to know that he wouldn’t regret failure, but he would regret not trying.

    4. Deliver more than expected.

    Google’s Larry Page encourages entrepreneurs to deliver more than customers expect. It’s a the only way to get noticed in your industry and build a loyal customer following and turn them into advocates.

    5. Make it happen.

    The world is full of great ideas, but success only comes through action. Walt Disney once said that the easiest way to get started is to quit talking and start doing. That’s true for your success as well.

    6. Manage energy, not time.

    Your have limited amount of energy, so  limit what you can do with your time, so manage it wisely.

    7. Hire character.

    As you build your new venture team, hire based on their character and your common values. You can always train someone on skills, but you can’t make someone’s values fit your company after the fact.

    8. Learn from YOUR mistakes.

    Many entrepreneurs point to mistakes as being their best teacher. When you learn from your mistakes, you move closer to success — even though you initially failed.

    9. Spend with discretion.

    When you spend money on your business, be careful to spend it wisely. It’s easy to spend too much on things which provide little return and run out of finances too soon.

    10. Find good people.

    Who you’re with is who you become. Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, noted that the fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be.

    11. Accept it takes time.

    No one succeeds immediately, and everyone was once a beginner. As Steve Jobs wisely noted, “if you look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.” Don’t be afraid to invest time in your company.

    12.  Make friends with successful entrepreneurs

    There are so many trick of the trade, so the easiest way to learn is by talking to those who have done it and understanding the little things which is needed to make you successful.

     

  • Student Led Incubators

    Student Led Incubators

    There is always a real need to get student involved in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship within the university. They have a real need for enterprise skills and developing it into an Entrepreneurial career or a full blown Entrepreneur.

    So on a recent visit to the the Tianjin Urban Construction Management Vocational Technology College, we had the opportunity to visit their incubator.

    This college is looking at developing Energy Entrepreneurship, developing new businesses which address saving energy or using it in a more effective way, especially within China.

    IMG_7685

    So the real surprise was the cafe within the business incubator was run by Students for Students and business owners. We had the chance to meet the three owners of the business and provide some advice and support. The development of this student led cafe provides a real insight into both the management of the college and also the students within it.

    The management have placed trust in the students to start, run and make a success of the cafe. This has resulted in:

    1, Trusting students is such an important part of Entrepreneurship and we sometime forget to place this on students.

    2, The students have taken a opportunity to run the cafe, something which every student on campus will have an opinion about. I know many students wouldn’t do this as their peers would look down on them or have something to say. The risks and rewards associated with this is a great lesson, but the greatest one is that these students have the largest network on campus.

    3, Having a go, should always provide winners, as experience of entrepreneurship will ensure students leave with more skills that we educators could ever teach them.

    IMG_7688

    The cafe was the centre of the business incubator and so made it student led, the cafe was the heart of the space, just as it should be.

    So when we arrange, we were saw a great space being used by other students and it was the centre of campus live. So good luck.

     

  • Setting Objectives when Starting up a Business

    Setting Objectives when Starting up a Business

    When Setting Objectives when Starting up a Business you should always use SMART objectives -the most well known method for setting objectives. S.M.A.R.T refers to the acronym that describes the key characteristics of meaningful objectives, which are:

    Specific

    • WHAT am I going to do?
    • WHY is this important for me to do?
    • WHO is going to do what? Who else need to be involved?
    • WHEN do I want this to be completed?
    • HOW am I going to do this?

    Measureable

    • How do I know when I have done it?
    • Can these measurements be obtained?
    • What are the numbers, quantity, comparisons?

    Achievable

    • Can we get it done in the proposed timeframe?
    • Do I understand the limitations and constraints?
    • Can we do this with the resources we have?
    • Has anyone else done this successfully?
    • Is this possible?

    Realistic

    • Do you have the resources available to achieve this objective?
    • Do I need to revisit priorities in my life to make this happen?
    • Is it possible to achieve this objective?

    Time-Bound

    • When will this objective be accomplished?
    • Is there a stated deadline? (a defined time line)

    Setting Goals Summary

    Remember what gets measured gets done, so write your goals down, share them constantly with those who can help, are part of the goal and your team. Keep refining your goals to ensure achievable. If necessary, split goals down into achievable tasks.

  • Effective Listening Skills for Entrepreneurs

    Effective Listening Skills for Entrepreneurs

    Why Listening Skills?

    The most important skill you can develop as an entrepreneur is the ability to listen and understand what your prospects are telling you. There are two forms of listening active and passive. Most people develop lazy passive listening skills which mean they hear the words, don’t process the aural sounds into understanding and follow through with feedback.

    Understand the speakers body language ensures you are developing a higher understanding of the situation. Avoid letting the speaker know how you handled a similar situation. Even if the speaker is launching a complaint against you, wait until they finish to defend yourself.

    Engage yourself to understand what is being communicated to you

    Active listening is about using every sense, processing the words, creating understanding and following through with encouraging feedback.

    Feedback

    Encouraging – It is the technique through which the speaker is encouraged to continue talking. The expressions like “I see” are generally used in this activity. The technique of ‘encouraging’ is an effective way to reinforce the speaker’s belief that one is listening to him keenly. It also helps the speaker understand which part of his speech is being appreciated and helps him elaborate on that particular topic.
    Paraphrasing – In this process, the words spoken by the speaker are presented by the listener in different words. The benefit of paraphrasing is that the speaker gets positive feedback and ensures that whatever he has spoken is being understood by the listener. This prompts the speaker to proceed further and stops him from repeating the same statement more than once.
    Reflecting the Feelings – The activity of reflecting the feelings is similar to paraphrasing. In paraphrasing feedback about the meaning of words is given, while the feelings underlying the words are reflected in this activity; identification and sorting of the speaker’s feelings is carried out in this process. If one is listening to a client, reflecting the feelings helps the speaker understand that one empathizes with his feelings; it encourages the speaker to proceed.
    Summarizing – As the name suggests, this activity involves summarizing the sentences of the speaker. It is somewhat similar to paraphrasing except for the fact that summarizing provides a complete and comprehensive feedback.

     

    Ten Tips for Developing Effective Listening Skills

    1. Understanding the difference between ‘active’ and ‘passive’ listening.

    To listen ‘actively’ means to be engaged, involved. You are actively using every sense you have to listen.

    To listen ‘passively’ means you hear the words with your ears. You are letting the sound of the words wash over you rather than going forward to meet and greet them. They ‘go in one ear and out the other’ very easily.

    1. Eliminate outer distractions.

    If you are giving someone your full attention then sounds other than those you want to hear can distract. Turn off what you can and consciously block the rest.

    1. Eliminate inner distractions.

    Quell the urge to think about anything other than what you are hearing. If you allow your mind to wander you are letting yourself lapse into ‘passive’ rather ‘active’ listening.

    1. Pay close attention to the speaker’s body language and in particular the face and hands. Watch for non-verbal cues giving suggestions as to how the spoken information is to be interpreted.

    Click for a quick basic guide to body language . If you’re unfamiliar with the notion of ‘reading’ the way a person holds their body, this will serve as a good introduction.

    1. Listen to the tone of the voice.

    What feelings does it evoke? What does it let you know about the speaker’s emotional state beyond the words they are using? Listen too for changes in tone, pitch or pauses within the speech. These can signal subject shifts or transitions. They may also be letting you know what is important and what isn’t.

    1. Listen to the tone of the words chosen to express the speaker’s ideas. Most of us use differing vocabularies depending on whom we are speaking to and what it is we are saying. What is the speaker’s choice of words saying to you beyond the words themselves?
    2. Pay close attention to cues heralding note-worthy information or summary statements. Example: ‘There are two things I want you to remember…’, ‘There are three important steps. The first is…’, ‘To sum up…’
    3. Resist the urge to respond or react.

    Let the words communicate with you freely. They are not free if you are already deciding what you’re going to say because you have shifted your focus from the speaker to yourself. A premature outburst either in your mind or outloud can block communication.

    1. Practice playing-back what ‘you think’ you heard. If it’s appropriate check your understanding. Use your own words to paraphrase and or/summarise what was said. Ask if you heard rightly. Get confirmation or clarification.
    2. Be aware of cultural-difference.

    Body language varies significantly across cultures as does what can and what can’t be talked about. Before leaping to a conclusion reflecting your own interpretation or prejudice, ask.

     

     

     

  • A true Entrepreneur never fails, just learns

    A true Entrepreneur never fails, just learns

    In the recent months, I have been thinking about the journey we take as entrepreneurs. This is not always a logical one and it has many twists and turns but as a lecturer I know it’s important to present a structured approach with a limited set of options. But as a realist, I also know the path to true enlightenment may be through the pit of delusion.

    The message that failure is a good thing is one which many people are now talking about, yet I find our education system still thinks in a binary way, you either pass or fail and this can only be done at defined points, normally set by your age.

    Our Examination system teaches us from a young age that there is only one right answer and many wrong ones. This then provides society with a view of you, typically a grade from A* to U. We sit and judge you from afar, if too many get high marks then the exams were easy, if too little get high mark then the youth of today are spending too much time on their Xbox. The hard fact for many young people is that the grade is final and they be able to change it, even if they get better at that subject. You never get the opportunity to learn from your mistakes or gain a higher grade.

    Yet Entrepreneurship is about the path your take and the reactions to the decisions and not the decisions themselves.

    Everyone is expected to take the wrong turn at some point and the important thing is how you get back on track. How do you learn from the situation? How do you react to your mistake? How do you reflect on the situation and opportunities surrounding you at this point?

    Let me explain this in terms of driving from London to Paris. If you made one wrong turn at any point, then as long as you recognized this fact and acted on this information to rectify it, you would still arrive in Paris. It may or not take longer or extra time. yet our education system would have failed you and asked you to never drive this route again.

    I always explain starting a successful business as having to make one hundred right decisions. Out of how many I do know know. Over what time I do now t know. I don’t know what feedback loop will be in place. When will I know that I have done it?

    We all agree that these decisions will need to be made and that some of them will be shown to be wrong. (Either the right decision at the wrong moment or the wrong decision at the right moment) This is not a fail, just another opportunity to learn, rethink the plan and evaluate your surroundings.

    Our secondary education system needs to develop an opportunity to reflect on the learning and allow the learner to build this into their learning plan moving forward.

    Your path is your own and only on your reflection can you mark yourself.

  • The Guitarist Entrepreneurs

    The Guitarist Entrepreneurs

    What if I tell you that, there are more than five British people who have made more than $1.1 Billion dollars between them by just using one (maybe the greatest) entrepreneurial tool, the guitar.

    If there was a group of people who have a way of making money using a simple formula, you would imagine that there would seminars on how to do it, the internet would be full of adverts stating this get rich scheme. Every school would tell young people that this is a career option, but no, because its rock n’ roll.

    There are lots of these people around the world but I wanted to focus on just five, so selected these five, who past retirement and still making money, just to emphasis the long term viability of this global self employment opportunity.

    This group of people found a secret formula in the 1960s and created such an incredible demand for their services that the world continues to consume it decades later. They made so much money that some governments created special taxes, just to try and get into the act.

    Below I have shown you, just five “Guitarists”, each very successful from the same age 67-71 years old.

    So what’s ‘secret’ formula and how can five people be worth $1.150 Billion?

    Jimmy Page

    Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven Live
    Aged 71
    Net worth: $170 million
    PRACTICE – While still a student, Jimmy Page worked as a session musician and doing a lot of busking. He states “I had to come to grips with it and it was a good schooling”, and this practice provided an opportunity to get feedback from real customers and also build a solid product which could then be taken to mass market.

    Eric Clapton

    The Yardbirds / Cream – Cocaine
    Aged 70
    Net worth: $250 million
    INDUSTRY INFLUENCE – Eric Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. This is why successful people still go on TV or write blogs, you can never underestimate how this influence can provide limitless opportunities.

    Pete Townshend

    The Who – Quadrophenia
    Net worth: $105 million
    SIGNATURE MOVE – If there was a move which every person knows, its the windmill swing when playing the guitar. On stage, Pete Townshend developed a signature move in which he would swing his right arm against the guitar strings in a style reminiscent of the vanes of a windmill. Others have followed since, e.g. Michael Jackson with his backward walk, that signature move is the most powerful marketing tool available.

    Keith Richards

    The Rolling Stones – Out Of Control
    Aged 71
    Net worth: $340 million
    LUCK – If there is one person on this planet would has luck on their sides, it’s Keith Richards. Every entrepreneur knows if you have some luck then it makes a big difference.

  • Startup Incubator Best practice

    Startup Incubator Best practice

    What do people need from an incubator when starting a business ?

    Over the last six years I have visited, be a participant of and worked in an startup Incubator. So I have had the opportunity to see it from all sides. The one thing I learnt very early on was it’s not about the physical space. Those with the most colourful, innovative decor or largest wall hanging tended to be the worst. Those that I liked focused on a few important things, so lets consider them in the right order:

    Business Networking

    The opportunity to network and be associated with a network is the most important factor. Entrepreneurs that do well network, it provides co-founders, investors, customers and the most importantly great staff. So having this provided on a plate to you, when starting out, is the golden egg which your business should be incubated in.

    Mentoring

    Most people who run incubators have never started or run a business, so having a mentor is very important in creating perspective, inspiration and raw guidance. The mentor and mentee should be trained to understand the expectations placed on the each other. The selection of the mentor should be based on the stage of the business, business sector and the location of the entrepreneur. Having more than one mentor should also be encouraged.

    Flexible Space

    It’s important that formal meeting space, serendipitous meetings and water cooler moments are all facilitated within the incubator. The majority of business people today expect to meet in a cafe or open space but a closed space is also needed for formal meetings. The hot desking should have great wifi.

    Friendly Support

    Having people who can support you when things don’t go as expected is important. The ability to ask someone who can sign post you to additional support, grants, loans and people is so important when starting out, pivoting and trying to bootstrap your business. When selecting an incubator, do the staff seam helpful and knowledgeable.

    Skills Development Events

    In the process of starting a business most people learn new skills naturally, but don’t know it and need reminded of the distance covered. Some people need organised session whereby they develop skills and knowledge which will be needed in the future, next month/year. The majority of incubators will have a speaker series to support this.

    Funding Support

    Most people don’t need that much, if you are outside London, the costs of living is less. If the office is free then it’s just some living expenses and then some Stuff to move the business forward. However access to finance at various stages is important to scale businesses and the staff should be able to support you in this endeavour.

    Free or Discounted Stuff

    Most businesses need a tool bag of stuff which can help them more forward their business. This may include websites, accounting software, payment solutions, discounted travel, …etc. Its also helpful if the incubator can recommend software solutions for you, saving you the research space and money.

     

    The important factors in starting a business are sometimes softer that you think. Its not always Money, Staff and 1000 sq ft office space. It may just be a cup of tea with someone who has done it before and has a story to tell.