Category — Entrepreneurship

Go back to basics.
Take a couple of steps back and address the fundamental facts or principles of your business. Going back to basics can mean cleaning the slate and focusing on basic elements that create success.

Come from a place of Integrity.
As the saying goes ” Honesty is the best policy.” Base all your decisions and actions on integrity. What do you know to be true?

Look for Profit holes.
These are expenses or areas where money is often spent unnecessarily. Don’t ignore the intangible profit holes. Examples may include : Unproductive staff, wrong media, wrong message, wrong agency. Others includepaying late or missing discount deadlines.

Constructive Communication.
Miscommunication cause’s misunderstandings. Encourage your team to communicate clearly with each other and with clients. Ensure that all communication is constructive and supportive.

Apply the Pareto Principle.
The value of the Pareto Principle for a manager is that it reminds you to focus on the 20 percent that matters. Of the things you do during your day, only 20 percent really matter. Those 20 percent produce 80 percent of your results. Identify and focus on those things. When the fire fighting of the day begins to sap your time, remind yourself of the 20 percent you need to focus on. If something in the schedule has to slip, if something isn’t going to get done, make sure it’s not part of that 20 percent that counts. 80 percent of your clerical time is wasted of activities that produce 20% on your income. 80 percent of your sales comes from 20% of your existing client base.

Focus on what is working and capitalise on that.
Where is there a natural flow in your business? What works well for you? These are your strengths and if you keep doing what comes naturally, you will have success. Take the path of least resistance, Don’t reinvent the wheel - less can be more.

Think outside the box Think differently!
If what you’re doing now isn’t working, change direction -explore. Look at alternatives and keep asking ” What opportunities have we available to us right now?” If you do something different you will resolve the problem quicker. If you keep doing what you have always done, you will keep getting the same results.

Create some short term wins.
Identify areas within your current environment that need to be focused on to achieve your desired end result. Create three short term wins to be achieved in a specific time frame. What three short term wins can I put in place for the immediate future ? How do you feel when you win ?

Look for your “Acres of Diamonds”.
There is a story about a farmer who lived in Africa and through meeting a visitor became tremendously excited about looking for diamonds. He was so excited about the idea of millions of dollars worth of diamonds that he sold his farm to head out to the diamond line. He wandered all over the continent, constantly searching for diamonds and wealth which he never found. Eventually he went completely broke and threw himself into a river and drowned. Meanwhile, the new owner of his farm picked up an unusual looking rock about the size of an egg and put it on his mantle piece in his lounge. A visitor stopped by and in viewing the rock practically went into terminal convulsions. He told the new owner of the farm that the funny looking rock on his mantle piece was just about the biggest diamond that had ever been found. The new owner of the farm said, “Heck, the whole farm is covered with them” - and sure enough it was. The farm turned out to be the Kimberly Diamond Mine, the richest the world has ever known. The original owner of the farm was literally standing on “Acres of Diamonds” and he never knew.

Accelerate your growth.
Hire a coach to help you facilitate this change. If you keep doing what you have always done , you will keep getting the same results. A coach acts as an independent catalyst for change and is an asset to any organisation looking to accelerate their growth.

A lot of people never start businesses because they believe they don’t have enough money to do so. Unfortunately, these same people don’t realize that many of the world’s most successful companies were started on a shoe-string budget by an entrepreneur with limited resources. Below is a list of tips to help you save money when you’re first starting a company:

* Manage your finances in MS Excel, not Quickbooks.
* Manage your contacts in MS Outlook, not ACT.
* Get free legal and accounting advice from law/business students or lawyers/accountants who are willing to do pro-bono (free) work.
* Look for and join organizations that support youth entrepreneurs and small business owners.
* Hire unpaid interns and make their job exciting.
* Partner with somebody instead of paying them.
* Use credit cards.
* Get free, professional advice from SCORE, Teachers, and Professors.
* Get investments from family and friends.
* Find organizations who incubate startup companies or companies who might have office space that might be willing to let an aspiring entrepreneur use it. Perhaps, your school will let you use their copy machines and phone lines.
* Swap services with a company instead of paying them.
* Learn how to do graphic design and web design yourself. If you have these two skills, the startup costs of every business you have in the future will be dramatically reduced.

If you look at those Corporations in franchising today you see the great companies that use these systems to move markets and deliver products and services to America. Franchising is obviously a power play in the marketing strategy game book. General Motors uses the franchise system or special teams, dealerships, to move their products in each market. Now take your mind to the “Family and friends Program” in Telecom, that is still being done by all those selling mobile communications. Think of some of the ways hyper type marketing has been done in so many areas and market sectors with so many different niches or market segments. Think of the new term appropriately named as viral marketing thru the use of ezines, forwarding emails and adhoc networks of friends and acquaintances within one’s email box. Look at the organic evolution of a real virus and how it gets what it needs within your body; virus vector modeling is fascinating as it is so close to grass roots political campaigns, referral marketing or Internet link exchanges.

If you look at the demographic software used to break down markets into pieces; that exact computer modeling is used by the CDC to estimate the growth or exponential risk of a runaway virus. Just ask anyone in Atlanta’s CDC research center about this. You do not have to read as many books as I to figure this out. Books like Virus Hunters of the CDC, Cobra Event, some of Tom Clancy’s stuff and I submit to you that to stop a virus mimic one, to catch an International Terrorist become like one in mind with special teams, to catch a socio path become one, to catch a corrupt politician hire a criminal, to expand a brand name or market a service or product model your efforts like that of a virus. After all that is the best design evolution has come up with and they along with the cockroaches will be here long after the human species has died out or headed for distant stars.

To stop an expanding business competitor operate like a big Corporation or a government, create choke points, become the back ground of the gamma subject target, watch for flipping patterns and mirror their efforts. Studying business strategy is more than just reading business textbooks in college and a few of the Best Seller business books on the list. It takes entrepreneurial thought processes, good observational skills and a little abstract thought. Think about it.

Have you ever heard that only a small part of ‘all’ Home-Based Business entrepreneurs achieve success? Do an online research on your favorite Search Engineand you will understand what I mean. In this article I’m going to show you the KEY to Home-Based Business entrepreneurs success; you’ll find out what makes an entrepreneur succesful in the home-based business field.

Below are five tips for home based business entrepreneurs:

1. It’s their mindset that brings success

Serious entrepreneurs have ‘programmed’ their mind to succeed no matter what. They don’t lack focus on their home-based business and let nobody stop their plans in achieving what they want. They know what they want and they have the DESIRE to succeed. If you don’t know exactly what you want when it comes your home-based business, think about it again and re-consider your plans, what you want to achieve, a get-rick-quick or a profitable, long term business.

2. It’s their start-up plan that brings success

Smart entrepreneurs know that it takes time to set-up and grow a profitable home-based business. They plan to succeed. They have a start-up plan that might fail but they never give up and start again with a better plan. Serious entrepreneurs know that it takes discipline andtime to build a strong and solid home-based business, which delivers ongoing income through many years to come.

3. It’s their initial RESEARCH that brings success

Smart and serious entrepreneurs know the importanceof market research. They know that in order, for a home-based business to succeed, they have to research their target market (their potential customers) and study their competitors. Research your target market and study your competitorsin order to have a long-term, profitable home-based business. Know what your customers want and give it to them.Keep an eye on your competitors, study their offer(s)and make sure you come up with a better deal thanthem.

4. It’s their marketing strategy that brings success

Study each successful entrepreneur in your marketingfield and you’ll notice how they market online / offline. Each of them have their own ‘unique’ marketing strategybut they use the same basic principles. Don’t re-invent the wheel. Use the main marketing conceptsthat are proven to work but try to improve and adjust themto your own situation. Make them work for your home-based business. Make your offer better and unique than your competitiors if you want to WIN in this business, or simply quit (I know that’s no what you really want!)

5. It’s their investment that brings success

Smart entrepreneurs know that the KEY is to work SMART, not hard. If you don’t have the required skills to develop a NEW marketing tactic for your home-based business why not hire a consultant who knows his stuff? If you have ‘enough’ money why not invest in someone who can help you grow your home-based business and give me something to work at too? What is more valuable to you, your time or your money?

A serious entrepreneur is ready to invest (both time and money). He knows that he will build a long-term successful business for him and the one he loves (friends, family, children, etc.) The final (or first?) STEP you need to take in order to succeed is to act (take ACTION!). Yes, put into practice what I have told you above (the 5 TIPS for Home-Based Business Entrepreneurs) and you’ll succeed, no matter what.