Category Archives: Blog

Blog, Enterprise Creation

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.

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Do Politicians create Entrepreneurs?

When a new government comes into power and they don’t have too much money, they look to get entrepreneur to work to generate them more money (so they can work out ways of spending that). So around the world we see Entrepreneurs, Business Growth, Enterprise Zones…  etc being announced by politicians.

So are these politicians creating new Entrepeneurs?

The fact that the economy is on it knees means that the most logically person would think twice between the three news stories, first: government has no money, second: economy reducing, third: why don’t you start a business. Within the 60 seconds news flash, you mind has to say, hang-on your trying to brain wash me into bankruptcy, and maybe you’re right.

The fact is existing businesses are declining, new businesses tend not to, as their cost and staffing structures are more flexible and they can capture new customers who are looking for new service propositions and experiences faster. Those businesses which start in a recession also manage higher growth when the economy starts to increase.  So it’s never been a better time to start a business, keeping these factors in mind.

Those that fail will come into two areas, those that spend money on the wrong things and those that don’t develop fast enough. During a recession many people who are thinking of starting a business will have some form of redundancy payment which they hope to use in developing their business ownership hopes. These people either think that paying for high value websites, marketing material and franchises will automatically bring success. The development of the business and the entrepreneur is very important. We see people who think of starting a business as a similar role, yet with more freedom as their previous job, meaning they can come into the office at 9am and leave at 5pm with 5 weeks off holiday each year. Successful businesses don’t run that way (pop down to the 24 hour Tesco’s and sit, watch and learn) and the extra effort is an important factor in ensuring success.

The message given by a government is taken in on many levels, the basic on is “get off your sofa and make your own job, cus no one else ‘at this point in time’ can and you are the champion of your own destiny (until we get a bit more money).” This message is digested by a vast range of people from 12 to 50 year olds who then decide to make the changes to ensure their destiny is one of self esteem, motivation and focus. There is no better way to live your life and this is why an entrepreneur’s role the world is secure and thankful leaving the politicians just to talk about it.

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Do we need a knowledge or a skill’s economy?

We hear the term ‘knowledge economy ‘ used by many people and this week I finally made a decision, its not good for us entrepreneurs. The essential facet of a knowledge economy is that focused on the production and management of knowledge. It means Universities can get paid to make new discoveries, without ever wanting anyone to use them.

So lets take a look at history, Greek scholar named Pythagoras, who lived around 500 BC was also fascinated by triangles with these special side ratios and came up with a theory which we still use today. So the Greek’s had a knowledge economy. I don’t have to say how they have factored since taking the cheap finance available since joining the Euro. However, the development of knowledge itself does not bring prosperity, it’s the continued exploitation of it.

The fact is with a truly international economy and information sharing through the internet, knowledge is not an asset until you have the skills to use it. The frontiers of knowledge are only today’s and tomorrow we shall have new frontiers which make yesterdays knowledge redundant and obsolete. With more people on the planet the pace of this knowledge development increasing as the human race, races for more knowledge. How can you expect to win a race when you have over 6 billion people against you? Small countries do not have the man power or money.

The answer is to master the skill of managing, exploiting and capitalizing the knowledge. Society needs to develop people who have these skills to transfer knowledge into successful enterprises.

When I look at successful entrepreneurs, they develop industry knowledge, but never technical, they know the trends, but never the detail, they understand what works and what does not, but could not build any product themselves. The skill to adapt to whatever life throws at you is a skill we should all have and this skills needs to be learnt at every stage of education, even a university one.

In a knowledge-based economy, knowledge is a tool. So if we are going to anything we need an knowledge-based economy with a population who have access to the knowledge and the skills to master it for our enterprising future.

Pythagoras gave us a tool and we should never forget the skill of using it.

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What business should I start?

This is the million dollar question, and so hard to explain to people.

I always talk about passion and how if you have passion then you will be more successful. It’s more than this, if you do not believe in what you are doing and have the ability to drive yourself 12 hours a day to strive for success then success will not be able to find you. Passion for the product, the service and your customers is a real source of energy, drive and determination which is an enormous help.

However some people have a passion for making money, being financial stable and independent. These people would have the passion to sell tea spoons, or sand or just about anything. For these people I tell them:

Its about Basic Needs

Maslow is famous for setting out people’s needs. He stated that people need the following in the following order:

Physiological(food, water, health, sleep), Safety and Security(employment, finances, resources, family, property), Love and Belonging (friendship, family, sexual intimacy), Esteem (confidence, achievement, respect) and Self Actualisation (creativity, problem solving, acceptance of facts).

If you walk down the high street, every shop is based on one of these needs. The most successful ones are those which basic needs, food, water, health. The more basic the need, the greater the market size, the more people wait it and the better chances you have of selling more and being more successful. There are lots of examples: Bottled Water, Coffee Shops, Hotels, Fast Food….

Take a look at you spend and what products you buy, how can you better or improve on the products you buy?

Its about trends

People are living longer. This means there will be larger population, resources will be have to be shared and will cost more (supply and demand). The price of land, minerals, financial resources and even the virtual world will increase. More of these people will be old(er), more will have an illness, more will need help, more will be in the process of dying. There is money to be made out of each and every stage of life.

People have more money. The rich will always be rich and the poor will always be poor. Be definition you cannot have one without the other. Greed drives one to master the other. Those with money will and always have wanted to live in individual place, have different social clubs and have people to help them enjoy and spend their money.

There will always be people moving around the globe, people will move for work, holidays and migration as they have for thousands of years. Every day China and India get richer and this massive population will wait to travel, have the experience of seeing the Pyramids, Eiffel Tower and Sydney Harbour.

The economies of the world will change to develop new sources of energy which ensures the growth. Do you think China and India have done all this hard work only to run out of energy? With new energy sources come new opportunities to manage, measure and profit from it.

The internet will get bigger, faster. Moores law will continue to ensure we can double processing power every 18 months. Applications will be created which will allow the most amazing integrations of library information, personal environmental data and social interaction. Please remember the words of Darth Vader “All your technology is insignificant to the power of the force.” The force being peoples habits. After all we still live in houses created hundreds of years ago.

In short there are so many opportunities that you just need to look for the one that fits your skills, appetite for risk and aptitude.

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-03-06

  • We’ve removed the ceiling above our dreams. There are no more impossible dreams. – Jesse Jackson #business #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #
  • Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions. – Harold S. Geneen #business #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #
  • Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them. – John Updike #quotes #life #work #love #change #
  • What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say. – Ralph Waldo Emerson #business #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #life #work #
  • The moment of enlightenment is when a person’s dreams of possibilities become images of probabilities- Vic Braden #motivation #quotes #work #
  • No one ever excused his way to success. – Dave Del Dotto #business #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #life #work #love #change #money #help #
  • I attribute my success to this – I never gave or took any excuse. – Florence Nightingale #business #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #
  • Don’t be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so. Belva Davis #motivation #quotes #
  • Just as you began to feel that you could make good use of time, there was no time left to you. Lisa Alther #motivation #quotes #love #change #
  • Never confuse motion with action. – Benjamin Franklin #business #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #life #work #love #change #money #help #
  • Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die tomorrow. – James Dean #business #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #life #work #love #
  • Niney-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. George W. Carver #motivation #quotes #
  • A man is the sum of his actions, of what he has done, of what he can do, Nothing else.- Mahatma Gandhi #
  • Download YOUR Motivated Entrepreneur Business Mindmap NOW! from http://dld.bz/HduQ #business #entrepreneur #business #entrepreneur #
  • Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.- Theodore Roosevelt #business #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #life #work #
  • Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. – Wayne Dyer #business #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #life #love #change #money #help #
  • The great end of life is not knowledge but action.- Thomas H. Huxley#motivation #quotes #life #work #love #change #
  • Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action- Benjamin Disraeli #motivation #quotes #work #love #change #
  • Commitment leads to action. Action brings your dream closer.- Marcia Wieder #business #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #work #love #change #
  • Character isn’t inherited. One builds it daily by the way one thinks and acts, thought by thought, action by action.- Helen Gahagan Douglas #
  • Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. – Henri Louis Bergson #business #motivation #quotes #life #work #love #change #help #
  • The true gentleman does not preach his beliefs until he does so by his actions. #business #motivation #quotes #life #work #love #change #
  • Good intentions are not good enough…ultimately we are measured by our actions. #business #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #life #work #love #
  • Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favourable do nothing -William Feather #motivation #quotes #
  • The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing – Edmund Burke #motivation #quotes #life #work #love #
  • Read my blog: "Empathy and Ego make good Entrepreneurs" at http://dld.bz/GJ6H #
  • It is on our failures that we base a new and different and better success,; Havelock Ellis #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #love #change #
  • David Bozward's Entrepreneur Motivation Blog http://t.co/FuGcaQd via @wibiya #
  • When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for people telling you that you are nuts -LarryEllison #motivation #quotes #change #life #work #
  • We live in a world where you’re not being eaten by a lion when you fail, you just have to get another job -Michael Arrington #quotes #love #
  • Stay self-funded as long as possible:- Garrett Camp #business #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #life #work #love #change #money #help #job #
  • If you’re building a product, you can’t be afraid of hearing criticism about it: -Kyle Bragger #business #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #
  • To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe,: Anatole France #quotes #love #change #
  • You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to d,; Henry Ford #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #life #work #love #change #money #help #
  • Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now,: Goethe #quotes #love #change #
  • Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go :-T. S. Eliot #motivation #quotes #life #work #love #change #
  • Make your product easier to buy than your competition, or you will find your customers buying from them, not you: -Mark Cuban #quotes #job #
  • Forget about your competitors, just focus on your customers: -Jack Ma #business #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #life #work #love #change #
  • But above all, try something,; Franklin D. Roosevelt #business #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #life #work #love #change #money #help #job #
  • The lean startup method is not about cost, it is about speed: -Eric Ries #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #work #love #change #money #help #
  • Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right: -Henry Ford #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #love #change #money #help #
  • Always deliver more than expected:-Larry Page #business #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #life #work #love #change #money #help #job #life #
  • The cost of hiring someone bad is so much greater than missing out on someone good -Joe Kraus #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #life #work #
  • Don’t let people tell you your ideas are stupid: if you’re really passionate about something, find a way to build it-Dennis Crowley #quotes #
  • Any time is a good time to start a company: -Ron Conway #business #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #life #work #love #change #money #help #
  • Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower :Steve Jobs #business #entrepreneur #motivation #quotes #love #change #money #help #
  • Download YOUR Motivated Entrepreneur Business Mind-map NOW! free from http://dld.bz/HduQ #business #entrepreneur #life #work #love #change #
  • The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing -Walt Disney #motivation #quotes #life #work #love #change #money #help #job #
  • The quality of a university is measured more by the kind of student it turns out than the kind it takes in– Robert J. Kibbee #quotes #life #
  • Everyone is trying to accomplish something big, not realizing that life is made up of little things:– Frank A. Clark #motivation #quotes #
  • Every time you don’t follow your inner guidance,you feel a loss of energy,loss of power,a sense of spiritual deadness– Shakti Gawain #life #
  • Read "Empathy and Ego make good Entrepreneurs" Blog at http://dld.bz/GJ6H #life #work #love #change #money #help #
  • You must have control of the authorship of your own destiny: – Irene C. Kassorla #motivation #quotes #life #work #love #change #
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  • You are educated when you have the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or self-confidence:– Robert Frost #quotes #
  • Download Motivated Entrepreneur Business Mindmap.Free NOW from http://dld.bz/HduQ #business #entrepreneur #business #entrepreneur #
  • Who should be in your entrepreneurial team blog at: http://dld.bz/QP76 #

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