Five Practical Tips to Get Started as an Entrepreneur
Maybe today was the day. The rudest person at work interrupted you for the tenth time, your supervisor ignored your brilliant suggestions, and you had to cancel lunch with a friend because a useless meeting was just scheduled up against your lunch break.
You’ve had it.
It’s time to get serious about starting your own business.
First question: Where do you start?
Many people know they want to start a business. And for many the reason to start is to gain control of your own schedule and manage your time as you see fit. Entrepreneurship is not easy, and will often be frustrating, but being the boss means you have ownership. You can make the process as difficult or complex as your resources permit.
Yet even after you’ve made the decision to start your business, you are often distracted by the endless directions advice you receive. From start a business plan to build a website to complete market research, deciding where to start your entrepreneurial dream can be confusing.
Here are five tips:
1. Pick a business idea (which can, and probably will, change)
If you already have a business idea, skip to point 2.
If you do not have a business idea, pick one. You do not have to stick with your pick. Having a business idea simply gives you the context for getting started on the rest of your business. Points you will learn about Idea A may help you with Idea B. So the time you spend on an idea you do not actually turn into a business will still be useful.
If you have no idea, start with your hobbies and interests. Where is there a gap you have identified in the marketplace when people say about a particular good or service: I wish we could have this? Or I wish it could do that? That is your opening to slip in your business idea.
Pick your business idea first because this will give you a specific topic to focus on while you get through the next four tips. It’s easier to say, you need 15 minutes to work on a specific idea than it is to continue to sound as if you are just “thinking about” starting a business.
But if you are still lost for an idea and really want to move forward with your entrepreneurial dream, then keep going. Part of “starting” your business will be to define your idea, you can still move forward on the next four steps.
2. Identify your Space
You will want to have somewhere to work on your business. But when you are just getting started your space does not have to be elaborate. You can decide to work in the bathroom or closet if that’s the only quiet place you can find.
Maybe you prefer the library or local coffee shop. All of these options are viable.
But if you choose a space that is not near your home or work, include the time it will take you to travel to and from that space in the time you are setting aside for work. So if you are going to do 15 minutes of work and it takes you 15 minutes to get where you need to go, you need to set aside 45 minutes to make it happen.
Be realistic about the time you need and how you plan to use it before settling on a space. You might find you need a spot closer to home to preserve your time.
3. Gather your tools
The tools you need to work depend on how you like to work.
When you are first getting started you might not even think about this topic, but the minute you sit down to do some research you realize you need a notebook (digital or paper?), a cup of coffee or tea, a brighter light (artificial or natural), a power outlet, a sweater/blanket, a timer, a bottle of water, some chips, maybe cookies, light music (Spotify or playlists?)….
And you do not want to make excuses or get up every minute because you forgot to put one of your productivity tools in your work space.
If you have no idea which tools you like to have around you, go ahead and start with nothing, and add your preferences at the end of that day’s work session.
4. Clear your distractions
In our busy worlds, distractions are not only living all around us – ie. kids and dogs – but digital also. You have to figure out how to turn everything off for the time you want to work on your business.
For the family, find the time to do your work within the family schedule. However that works best for you. Since you have your business idea (see #1), you can tell everyone what you are doing and how you really need to move forward with transitioning to lifestyle freedom.
For digital, you know what you have to do. Turn off the phone. Or at least turn off the sound and lay the phone upside down so you cannot see the screen. And don’t try and work around any other screens like the TV or your partner’s mobile.
You only need to give yourself that first 15 minutes to get the ball rolling, so push the distractions away.
5. Take 15 minutes
The best way to start a business is just to get started.
That may sound roundabout but it’s true. People often make excuses like they do not have enough money or are not sufficiently qualified for a business idea. But you really do not know the truth behind those excuses because you have never spent any time working on the business.
Take 15 minutes. I know you have it. Before you start bingeing on Netflix take 15 minutes to research your business idea.
What are you researching?
- Similar businesses to see what other people are doing
- Specifics about your business idea and your industry.
- Courses in your area of expertise or about the product or service you are interested in.
As you continue researching, you will begin to move towards creating your action plan for starting the business. But it’s just brain-storming at this point. You do not have to pursue anything formal. You will likely find that the more time you spend researching your business and putting together ideas, the more time you will have to work on your business.
Before you know it, you will forget to watch Netflix.
Once you get to number 5, you have started your business. Because when you set aside time to transition your life, every step counts. From here you will begin to formulate the questions you want to ask, the activities you want to do and even the courses you may want to take to transform your business idea into a viable reality.
You will also start to build your confidence. The more you know about your business idea and industry, the stronger you will feel about your capabilities and the possibilities you have for making your lifestyle dream come true.
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Understanding Tech as an Aspiring Entrepreneur
Why should you care about technology as an entrepreneur? Not the smartphone in your hand or the laptop on your desk, but the entire realm of technology advancement and achievement. The transition from an industrial to a technology society.
Technology is the practical application of knowledge in a particular area, or the capability presented by that knowledge (Merriam-Webster dictionary).
What does that mean to you as a business person in the 21st century?
How should you be thinking about these incredible tech developments as an entrepreneur?
In this article, we look at the use and application of technology for your business, lifestyle and the future, this article and the accompanying three-part podcast series look at technology not from a purely technical place, but from a more philosophical place.
As an aspiring entrepreneur in the 21st century, you should have an idea of how you view the advent of technology in our economy, and the impact on our society.
You can develop a tech plan that fits your business, lifestyle and future plans.
Business: As a business person, you will implement technology into your operations, but you will also have to be aware of how technology affects your business, and your customers.
Lifestyle: As you use technology to build your business, you (hopefully) will be in a position to transition your lifestyle, and use some of the advances you have learned to improve your own standard of living.
Future: And what does the future hold for your business and lifestyle as technology continues to advance and change our lives? What are some of the issues you should be aware of as you make the transition to the next century?
Your Business
As an aspiring entrepreneur, you need to formulate in your mind how you want to see technology as you build your business. Aside from determining which technology tools you are interested in using such as e-mail management software or websites, what will technology mean to you as you move forward?
Is technology a life force you will incorporate at every turn, a hindrance, or a conspirator in exploitation you will use for nefarious ends?
For comparison, we can look at how technology was viewed by witnesses of the transformation from the agrarian to the industrial age. Imagine how people had to view their lives when they began to see the transformation as described here in Frank Norris’s 1903 book ‘The Pit: A Story of Chicago:
…the life was tremendous. All around, on every side, in every direction the vast machinery of Commonwealth clashed and thundered from dawn to dark and dark till dawn..carrying Trade – the life blood of nations…bringing Trade – a galvanising elixir – from the very ends and corners of the continent…The Great Grey City, brooking no rival, imposed its dominion upon a reach of country larger than many a kingdom of the Old World. For, thousands of miles beyond its confines was its influence felt…It was Empire, the resistless subjugation of all this central world…whence inevitablity must comes its immeasurable power, its infinite, inexhaustible vitality…the true life – the true power and spirit of America; gigantic, crude with the crudity of youth, disdaining rivalry; sane and healthy and vigorous; brutal in its ambition, arrogant in the new-found knowledge of its giant strength, prodigal of its wealth, infinite in its desires…In its capacity boundless, in its courage indomitable; subduing the wilderness in a single generation, defying calamity, and through the flame and debris of a commonwealth in ashes, rising suddenly renewed, formidable and Titanic.
The character Laura says….”I suppose it’s civilisation in the making, the thing that isn’t meant to be seen, as though it were too elemental – primordial….”
The character recognizes a little bit of fear for this force of technology and industry that is changing civilization, but is also impressed and awed by its presence. At the turn of that century, and in the coming of the industrial age, people had to understand not only the obvious power of the machinery, but the impact it will have on humanity.
But in the industrial age, you could look technology in the eye. You could see it in its drama and majesty. The negative impact on the environment and the average worker was visible and obvious. The changes that were to come – in law and society – had plenty of examples about why they were needed.
Today, in the 21st century, in the transition to the technology age, many of the impacts are unseen, far-reaching and unknown.
Certainly you know Facebook is a gigantic company used by billions, but you probably have no idea what the technology is doing each time you click, post, like or follow on a page.
As an aspiring entrepreneur, when you think about how you want to build and grow your business. Think about how you will use technology, and consider these four issues: privacy, opportunity, accessibility and impact as you either formally or informally create your tech plan.
Privacy
The changing concept of privacy is one of our biggest challenges. Most people have traded privacy for convenience, the right to use free services. But few truly understands what their acquiescence means. Technology companies do not reveal the details of their algorithms, nor the scope and range of how they use and manipulate data. 
An entrepreneur, using the Internet in any form, must be aware of these issues. For example, you may collect e-mail addresses. What are you going to do with those e-mail addresses? When you add a Facebook pixel to a webpage, what data are you collecting and how will you use it?
As an entrepreneur, you should be prepared to explain what you are doing with the data you can collect. You should also be aware of your responsibility, and have a plan for protecting the data. The blanket ability to collect data does not necessarily mean you should blindly participate in the process. But if you do, you should also have policies that clearly define how you are participating and your intentions going forward.
Opportunity
With new technologies, opportunity is rapid and tempting. A new software, service or device may allow you to change your business model, provide better products or make more money. New technologies are rapidly adopted, and companies encourage early adopters to promote their views.
As each new technology comes on line, even if the product permits you to have access to data or applications you were not expecting, you must still consider if using the product makes sense for your business and your consumers.
You may have an opportunity to do something spectacular or destroy your business with recklessness. Opportunity does not necessarily mean an open door.
Accessibility
Technology is everywhere and there are many ways that you can use it. Accessibility in this case does not refer to tech tools for the physically-challenged. This accessibility concept is about how a global audience can find you.
As a globally-thinking entrepreneur, you want to make your product or service as accessible as possible through the available tools. When you do this, think about who you are trying to reach and the best methods for spreading information about your offering.
Some potential customers may only access the Internet on their phone, others may use public services with time limits. If you want to spread your message widely, use technology in a way that lets others access it as well.
Impact
You have a chance today to make an impact far beyond your own laptop. In Frank Norris’s Chicago described in the book The Pit:
…axes and saws bit the bark of century-old trees, stimulated by the city’s energy…her force turned the wheels of harvester and seeder a thousand miles distant…spun the screws and propellers of innumerable squadrons of lake steamers….
The impact is direct and present.
In the 21st century as you build your business now, your impact is likely to be through words if you teach or coach online, or contact if you create an app or software as a service, or even directly if you place a product in someone’s hands.
In all cases, you are still part of an economy of industry and action, but with technology you can move faster and have a greater reach, even more so than in a newly industrializing city in the last century.
A 21st century entrepreneur should have a position on technology. For example, consider:
Technology as a force for good, one that will help us mend our ways and fix our ills – but only if it is deployed well
To make technology a force for good, society needs innovative practices, creativity and facilitation – recognizing that there are things we do and do not want in our economy.
In so many aspects of our lives, we want the best that technology has to offer, but we have to recognize that also means taking the worst. As an entrepreneur, are you fueling a hate-filled society by using social media? Or just trying to get the word out about your product?
Given the customer-facing issues discussed above: privacy, opportunity, accessibility and impact – you can create your own tech policy.
You may decide you will always protect your customers’ data and never sell e-mails to third parties. But you cannot stop there. You have to understand how other technology services that you are using affect your customers. You do not want to inadvertently break your own policy by not understanding the one used by entities you access.
On opportunity – decide to weigh your technology decisions carefully. You do not want to just chase the shiny apple. If there is an idea that might work for you, make sure the technology is really an opportunity and not just another fast sale from the latest hot thing.
On accessibility – think global, always. If appropriate for your product or service, keep your content simple, clean, clear, open and honest for an audience that can understand your message at all times. And even if your product or service is more ‘adult,’ remember you still have a global audience.
On impact – recognize you are delivering a message in everything you do. What is it? How do you want to potential customers to see you? And what should be the takeaway?
The purpose of Ready Entrepreneur is to help aspiring entrepreneurs achieve the dream lifestyle of financial and schedule independence by learning how to use the global marketplace and new technologies to start your own business.
In my book Life Dream: Seven Universal Moves to Get the Life you want through Entrepreneurship, you can find the steps you can take to help you move forward with getting your business launched. As you move through each of those steps, you want to be considering where technology fits in your progress.
The goal is to help you deliver the value you have as an entrepreneur to the global marketplace.
YOUR LIFESTYLE
One of the key benefits of becoming an entrepreneur is to live your dream lifestyle – right? Where does technology fit in that picture? Are you prepared to use technology to separate you from day-to-day work? Or are you just waiting for the cocktail-serving robot to get you through your day?
If you are a fan of technology, you may be thinking all the time about how you can incorporate technology solutions into your business to help facilitate your lifestyle.
Some of you may have the Hollywood vision – lying by the pool, being waited on, driving a fast Italian sportscar or a Rolls-Royce, and having people do whatever you say whenever you say it. You have no demands, no unmet desires and no troubles or issues.
Others may be thinking – you just want to quit your 9-to-5, get away from annoying people and do what you really want to do all day.
Some of you, like me, are traveling all over the world.
Considering your vision and how the idea of a ‘dream lifestyle’ plays out for you – what is technology doing to help you?
At Ready Entrepreneur, the idea is to get you started on your business. We focus on getting the confidence, time and money to get started, picking an idea that delivers value to the global marketplace, putting that idea into action, and then transitioning to the lifestyle of your dreams.
When you follow the path – confidence, time, money, value, action, lifestyle – how does technology move in to help you make that final transition into the life you really want?
And why do you care?
The idea is to develop an approach and understanding about technology and what it means to you, so that you can adapt your tech plan to your purposes as you make the transition to entrepreneurship.
And in your entrepreneurship transition is your new lifestyle.
For many people this means business runs in the background, which means tech tool are in place to transform your life.
Business in the background
In the typical entrepreneurial dream lifestyle world, your business runs itself. That means in almost all cases you will be using technology to make that happen. If that’s your approach, you are going to want to set-up systems and processes from day one that are automatic or independent. You may even want to build your business around this idea.
What are the ideas you can use to have your business running on auto-pilot without you?
Virtual assistants, concierges
You can start with remote personal help. In your dream life, you tend to be self-sufficient which means you may want to add a virtual assistant or concierge who supports your work.
When you go to work with someone virtually the key is to know exactly what you want that person to do and how you want them to do it – then leave them alone.
Once you have set up a good working situation with a virtual assistant, you can feel confident in freeing up time for yourself.
Outsourcing
The term outsource has become a bit of a dirty word in the corporate world where the practice removes people from their jobs and gives their tasks to people who earn less money.
But as an entrepreneur, you are likely going to look at outsourcing as a way to help you avoid tasks that you do not do well.
One of the best ways to use outsourcing is to fill in for the type of work that you do not like to do. This frees up your time to do other things while the job gets done in the background. As you develop your business consider the tasks you do not want to do and look for outsourcing options.
Once you have the business running in a way that frees up your time, what are you going to do with the time?
If you are a fan of technology, you will likely find apps or other tools to help drive your leisure activity as much as your business.
As you make the transition to an entrepreneurship lifestyle, keep in mind what you like to do and how you like to do it. Use the tech tools that facilitate your decisions and make your life easier. And stay connected to your own ideas about how you want to make things work.
Technology in your lifestyle does not have to be a burden – an extension of the always buzzing smartphone tied to your hand. It can be a support, an assistant, a part of the infrastructure of your new business that you are able to use to your advantage.
As you develop a tech plan for your business, develop one for your lifestyle too. Incorporate technology into your decisions beyond the obvious. And keep an eye out for new technologies that may be even more useful as your processes are understood.
The complete path to life as a ready entrepreneur includes making a successful transition to your dream lifestyle by incorporating the ideas and practices of your business life into your civilian life. You use one to support the other.
THE FUTURE
Is technology taking over the world? Will we eventually be slaves to the machine? And either way how do you manage to prevent this apocalypse from happening to you? As an entrepreneur you want to be ready for the future, for the role technology will play and for the adjustments society will have to make.
At some point in the not too distant future, we as a society are going to have to define what the technological revolution means to humanity. And you as a globally-thinking entrepreneur will be right there, trying to decide where we are going. Changes may be imposed on you by technology before you have even had a chance to think differently.
How do you plan to adapt?
Here are some ideas to think about:
The world is moving from an industrial to a technological society. In the past when we moved from agriculture to industry, the changes were profound. But human beings still maintained an element of control.
Now as we go from industry to technology, changes are happening quickly. So quickly, we do not even know all the changes that have taken place and the impact these processes have had on society.
As an entrepreneur, you need to be aware of these transitions because a changing economy, and evolving consumer behavior have an effect on your ability to deliver your product or service to the global marketplace.
If the government brings in legislation designed to control big tech companies, and it ends up limiting your ability to function online – what happens to your business?
If all education moves online, will you understand the knowledge background your potential customers have?
Do flying cars and drone delivery affect your business opportunity if you have to send everything via courier services?
In a surveillance world, do you have a product or service people do not want to be seen buying?
In the battle for online privacy, are you protecting your customer data? How far is privacy going – are you aligned with companies that are using your consumer data?
If law enforcement tools are enriched to target people before they act will your business be caught up in delivering customer information to law enforcement entities without your customer’s approval?
If social media and the use of smartphones changes consumer behavior, what does that mean for your business?
While all these questions may not all seem relevant today, you are probably aware that processes are taking place that already have upended common practices.
For example, if you are surfing online for something like – storage spaces – you begin to get promoted ads in social media for – storage spaces? Why does that happen? And do you care? You should care if you are in the storage business and not one of the promoted ads. And you should care as a businessperson in general.
We are learning to live with cross-site tech tools that follow us all over the Internet. But if your company cannot afford to compete at that level, can you afford to compete at all?
Online and digital tools are being invented based on the way society functions today. But how will we evolve if the status quo is literally coded in to our machines? How will your business be successful if the playing field is coded against you?
These questions are designed to plant into your mind the idea that technology is moving forward without consumer input, regulation or oversight. That’s not always a bad thing, but as an entrepreneur you have to stay awake, aware and ready to correct or adapt to advances that negatively affect your business.
In general, without an idea about how society wants to move forward or where we want to take our future, we do not have a say in the changes that are taking place and how they will affect us.
We need to develop fundamental ideas about where we want to end up as a society.
Do we want to trade privacy for convenience? In many cases, we already have.
Do you want a world that is free if you pay with your data? In reality, nothing is free. There is a price to be paid for the tools we are using for free. So far the price is your personal data. If these services move to pay for privacy services, the gap between rich and poor could also become a privacy gap.
How do we encourage creativity and innovation, reward those who do the work, but continue to provide free services?
Whose world do you want to live in?
Regardless of the laws or regulations created in one jurisdiction, a tech maverick can change the game by inventing new applications or software that upend the law. If democratic, fair and free jurisdictions do not encourage relentless technological development, undemocratic, restraining and corrupt jurisdictions might. In that scenario, we are subject to the more powerful technology and the race is won.
In the past when other major societal beliefs – women’s rights, climate, human rights – were evolving, organizations like the United Nations formed commissions that developed guidelines and blueprints for countries.
The United Nations has commissions on and science and technology. But there is no comprehensive global go-forward plan on the impact of technology and the opportunities and issues that are coming up for adapting societies. There is not yet a globally negotiated approach for the world on the changes facing humanity and the cross-border impact of the role of technology in our lives.
But almost certainly entrepreneurs will help drive these changes. Entrepreneurs who are operating in the global marketplace and can see the opportunities and constraints of technology and potential legislation will be in an excellent position to help define these processes going forward.
To start, define for yourself the world you would like to see. If you want to get some ideas, jump over to my writer’s site, www.claneworld.com and download the free Guide to the Future.
As an entrepreneur, look at the issues that affect you and your business and be prepared to come up with a solution before a solution is designed for you.
The best way to predict the future is to create it – Abraham Lincoln apparently once said. Which means you need to understand the possible future developments and make adjustments that work to your advantage.
Continue to ask yourself where you stand as you navigate your business. At Ready Entrepreneur, we use technology to grow our business and reach the global marketplace. But we cannot be indifferent to the impact technology is having nor the concerns from the consumer marketplace about privacy, surveillance and tracking.
We have to decide the world we want to live in. And as an entrepreneur, you demonstrate your decision by the way you run your business.
BUSINESS, LIFESTYLE, THE FUTURE
The world is changing and as active entrepreneurs you can see these changes daily. Technology will be used to facilitate the growth of your business and to improve your lifestyle. At the same time, you must stay alert to how the changes affect your customers and how you can protect data and processes from evolving negative practices.
Technology is a powerful force, transforming our society as dramatically as the world was transformed by industry. But this time, you are in the midst of it, and how you adapt and evolve with the changes can help build, or destroy, your business.
Disclosure: This website participates in the Amazon Affiliate program. Links to books and physical products are affiliate links to the Amazon store, and compensation may be paid that supports this work.
Turn Good Habits into Your DNA
Does this list describe you, or the activities you find impossible?
Get up early with a smile
Cleaning up after yourself
Complete a task from beginning to end
Listen
Be on time
Save money
Do you wish you could, or would, automatically do all the good behavior actions you are supposed to do? You know the activities you think will make you a stronger person able to achieve your goals like starting your own business. And imagine if the process of converting your good habits into your DNA is not annoying or a burden.
What if you could build good habits in to your everyday life and not have to be reminded to make an exception?
Having good habits is a skill on the road to success. People who are able to consistently perform and to get things done are the people who end up completing the work necessary to achieve lifestyle freedom by starting a business and becoming an entrepreneur.
Those that don’t have to settle for a life of struggle.
You can make yourself the person you want to be by focusing on six abilities: desire, effort, progress, consideration, reliability and thrift.
You have heard it all before, but how do you actually make those abilities part of the person you are on a daily basis?
Self-help books are full of ideas for developing good habits. But how many people are able to keep the habits? You know you want to be one of those people who function at the highest levels of competency at all times. How do they do it? And why is it so difficult for many others to embed good habits into our DNA so we are able to live in success mode all the time?
What does it take to turn good habits into your DNA?
Desire
To set yourself off on the right direction to embed good habits into your DNA, you have to want the goals you are striving for. And wanting does not mean you expect to be rich by doing nothing. ‘Wanting’ means you are absolutely committed to figuring out how you can be rich and do nothing, and then execute on the plan to make that vision a reality.
You will work to ensure you do not have to work.
People who are taught to get up early because they ‘have to,’ for chores or school, end up resenting losing the time they could have spent sleeping. But if those people were excited about every day, because they were anxious to learn or contribute to the harmony of their family life, they would want to be up long before anyone told them they had to be.
You have to match the activity to the desire for achievement of a higher goal to help convince yourself the work is worth doing.
Effort
Habits that require actual physical labor, like cleaning up after yourself, are not going to be sustainable unless you make the practice automatic.
We hate chores. We want to avoid work as much as possible and pursue a life of leisure. We constantly put off the activities we do not want to do and become more and more anxious as those activities pile up and begin to threaten our peace.
How do we make a chore part of our DNA? You do it by forcing yourself to complete the task at the exact moment you are aware of the work must be done. You have to train your brain to do the activity without thinking.
As you stand up from a table after eating, gather plates and cutlery into your hands. As you walk into the kitchen, go directly to the dishwasher and unload into the racks. Do not stop to place the plates on another surface, where they will be left for days.
Do the activity immediately without thinking about it. Resist the urge to moan and groan about something you have to do. For every chore you are required to do, make the prior act and the chore the same activity. For example, make the act of getting up from the table and removing your plate one continuous motion. Remember: no thinking.
Train yourself to follow all the way through until the work is done. Soon you will realize there are no more chores haunting you from the imaginary to-do list in your head.
Progress
Any task without a deadline inevitably is only done on deadline. Too often we do not complete work from beginning to end because we do not feel a sense of urgency. One way to overcome this lackadaisical approach is to focus on just one task at a time.
Instead of making to-do lists with 20 or 30 items you have to check off, make a list of one item. Just one that you must finish before you do the next one.
If you are afraid of forgetting your bigger list, write each item down on index cards (or tear up paper into smaller squares), and place the one card with one activity at a place where you can see it until the item listed on it is done.
Finish the task as if it’s the only thing you have to do. If the work is particularly difficult, it may roll over until the next day or the next, but you cannot put your card away until it’s done.
When it’s done, go for the next card. Before you know it, you’ll have no more cards to deal with, and you would have made incredible progress.
Consideration
Where does your mind go when someone is talking to you? Do you drift towards unfinished business at work, or maybe the bad date you had the night before? Do you forget to listen? We are easily distracted not just by actual events and activities before us, but by our own minds and our ability to think about too many things at once.
But when you fail to listen you could be missing a range of vital information from heartfelt confessions to a critical work assignment. You have to teach yourself how to hear what others are saying.
To do this, you can try hanging on every word. That is, make it a habit to repeat in your mind the words that are said by the speaker. When you are learning another language, you have to focus on every word the other person says because you are not familiar with the hearing and processing the sounds. The more you become familiar with the sounds, the more fluent you will be.
Use the same technique when listening to others. This will help you concentrate on the words the speaker is expressing and force you to transform those words in your brain to understanding, and perhaps action that supports your own goals.
Reliability
When the stresses and strains of modern living began to change our concept of politeness, we got out of the habit of always being on time. As soon as we had excuses like traffic, kids, and holiday shopping to deflect attention away from our tardiness, we used those words to elicit sympathy for our rat-race lives.
But you do not have to operate under those excuses. To avoid being late, leave earlier. Give yourself enough time to get where you are supposed to be. This applies to the meeting down the hall, as much as the dinner across town. When you have an important meeting with a senior executive or investor, you strive to be on time. The same reliability should apply to meetings with friends or subordinates. You know how long you will need to get there, make a point of preparing ahead.
This is not a trivial matter. Sometimes you are running behind the whole day and never find the scope to catch up. In that case, start your whole day earlier. If other people are late to meet with you point out their faux pas, perhaps in front of others, as a reminder that people are waiting. But do not be the one who others are waiting for.
Thrift
Money comes in, and money goes out. How can you keep any of it around for the times when you really need it?
We like to spend money, especially if we grew up with little and learned fear and scarcity about money. Or we feel an obligation to purchase items for others or in recognition of our own virtue.
But loosely spending money is detrimental to your chance to have a comfortable and secure future. You can discipline yourself to protect money by making sure you put a portion of your earnings away immediately. As soon as you are paid, have an automatic deduction taken and transferred to another account you do not touch. Put the account in a different bank so when you go online to check your accounts you do not see money accumulating that you think you should be spending. Make that designated percentage disappear so that it is available to reappear when you really need it to exist.
You can make good habits part of your DNA by focusing on these six abilities: desire, effort, progress, consideration, reliability and thrift. Once you have implemented the practices that turn your fortunes around, you will realize you are exactly that person who lives in success mode, all the time.
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Developing World Markets and Your Business Strategy
If you are old enough to remember the songs ‘Feed the World’ or ‘Do they know it’s Christmas?’ your image of the country of Ethiopia may be of a long line of starving people holding a bowl as they wait for a spoon of food.
If you were paying attention to the news headlines the week of October 22, 2018, you know the country just appointed its first female president, in a country where women hold half the seats in the cabinet.
If you are young enough to have never heard of Ethiopia except during the Summer Olympics, you may need an update. Because Ethiopia today is indicative of the changing global landscape all entrepreneurs should understand and embrace.
Ethiopia is a country in north east Africa, with a land-mass covering most of the Horn of Africa. Wars and disputes made the second most populous country in Africa land-locked, but they are not without water. The ancient civilization is built around the start of the Blue Nile river. Today there are over 100 million people, who live, not in a desperate dusty desert, but in one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
When global charity was galvanized by Irish rocker Bob Geldof to help save the people of Ethiopia from starvation in 1984, the country had fewer than half as many people as it has now. But today, three decades later, agriculture is one industry’s leading the economy’s turnaround. This remarkable achievement should galvanize those who seek to provide aid to the suffering in hope of a better future; and humble those who said failed states should be left to die.
Ethiopia today is being heralded as a country that has made an effort to build infrastructure, stabilize the economy and promote growth. The African nation is one of the many development growth stories that are unknown to the typical North American media consumer, and therefore ignored by the typical rising entrepreneur.
Of course there are still problems. Ethiopia is both one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and one of the most impoverished.
But understanding the transformation in Ethiopia and other developing countries is critical for positioning your business in the expanding global marketplace. Remaining aware of the countries that may provide open markets gives you an opportunity to participate in the growth.
Because if you miss the story of a developing Ethiopia, you miss the opportunity of the broader global marketplace. Every entrepreneur can reach out to the entire world through businesses that solve global problems. In Ethiopia, as in many other countries in the developing world, actual development – the building of infrastructure, creation of jobs, running of schools and hospitals – is taking place at an unprecedented rate. The effects – new highways, skyscrapers, housing, healthier citizens – are visible and reflect a renewed hope in global progress.
Of course there is no denying many countries still face the challenge of poverty, malnutrition, disease, internal instability and civil unrest, but these issues also place a threat to the developed world. The emphasis in the rising economy countries is on moving forward, and working to change the history to reflect a more promising future for its citizens.
For rising global entrepreneurs, it is important to look at Ethiopia and other countries from the perspective of their emerging middle class. For countries moving towards what the World Bank calls ‘middle income’ status, the government targets continued investment and access to credit as the key economic policies to encourage. Once a reliable infrastructure – electricity, water, sanitation, road, communication – has been built out, investors feel more comfortable pouring money into factories, office buildings and resource mines.
For entrepreneurs with smaller businesses, especially those operating online, there is no need to wait for these large scale physical pieces of the structural pie to be constructed. An alert entrepreneur who is looking for opportunity can use Internet resources to find out what people are looking for online.
A quick glance at Twitter #ethiopia #ethiopian includes references to investment like a call for policies for startups to raise capital; as well as notes about products like – hair, food, Ethiopian airlines, jewelry, coffee, music. My disclaimer: this post is focused on business and entrepreneurial issues but I will note the overwhelming number of tweets are about politics, migrants and refugees, and government action against different ethnic groups.
These difficult development issues do dominate the headlines. But if you looked at the opportunities in the United States from the perspective of the twitter feeds, your focus would be on election inquiries, voter suppression, corruption, civil rights protests and opioids. In other words, there is more to the business economy than the news cycle is prepared to discuss.
Many people would not be prepared to do business in Ethiopia because of the country’s history and potential instability. But for rising entrepreneurs who want to stay alert and interested in the global marketplace, consider the needs of the developing world middle class in your plans.
- Acknowledge there is a developing world middle class to whom you could be engaged in business.
- Incorporate broader consumer wants and needs in your business planning. What did you need as someone functioning with a good job, growing family and maybe a new residence to keep up? What are the types of services currently not available to people in rising economies? Pay particular attention to information and entertainment products. These types of products travel well, have universal appeal and can be translated for different markets. If you teach value skills, you may find you have a market in the countries where education is coveted.
- Decide how you will approach new markets. This will not be easy. But when you begin marketing and promoting, for example when you look at blogger sites, see if there are more international sites you can appeal to. Also the global media has sites for news, which can be approached to determine opportunities for promotion, and to provide leads to other influencers in that market. If you want to actively target a particular country – try finding their most popular media sites first.
- Stay connected to your new global market. It would be a shame to take the time to build and cultivate a particular market only to abandon it later because of the extra legwork required to establish a connection in the first place. New markets are here to stay and should have a permanent place in your business plan. Of course keep following blogs at Ready Entrepreneur where we always incorporate global marketplace ideas into our discussion.
One other note, as the developing world becomes developed, there will be no shortage of new businesses arising on streets and online that will be able to market goods and services to the locals. Stay focused on your niche, the particular product area, which could be valuable to any consumer anywhere in the world.
Authenticity is important in business, and trying to imitate locals in their own market rarely works. Instead play to your differences. Locals are often curious about foreigners and foreign products. Use your uniqueness to your advantage.
The growth of Ethiopia’s middle class is an example of how the developing world is moving rapidly towards development. These busy and exciting markets provide plenty of opportunities for business especially rising entrepreneurs who are interested in operating wherever you see a problem that needs to be solved.
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How to Keep Your Entrepreneurial Dreams Alive
Some of us come from cultures where being a businessperson or entrepreneur may be frowned upon. You might hear phrases like: “Get a Real Job,” “You can’t dream your way to paying the bills,” “Your ideas are just dirty business not helpful.”
Have you heard those types of phrases? In some cultures, if you do not become a doctor or a lawyer, you are a failure. You have responsibilities to ‘do the right thing,’ and you cannot take any risks.
People may go after you about becoming a businessperson because they either fear for you and want to keep you safe from risk OR they are afraid you will surpass them in life and be lost to them forever. Both of these reactions are primal responses to our basic human instinct for survival.
If you become a successful entrepreneur you may become be the richest, and therefore most powerful person among your family and friends. Someone else currently holds this title, and if that person is insulting your entrepreneurial dreams it’s could be because they do not want to give up the crown.
If you are an entrepreneur running your own business, you may also be the only person in your circle with lifestyle freedom. For some around you, your ability to do what you want may be worse than your ability to make more money. When they go off to work every day, fighting traffic and colleagues they cannot stand, you will go into your own domain, maybe a comfortable home office, a coffee shop or the beach. If you have an online business, you may even wear your PJs all day or at least comfortable sweats. You will have no commute, no gasoline expenses, no office gossip, no internal fighting.
Is this your office?
Although no commute and no time wasted at the office water cooler may mean you also work at least four hours a day longer than those who are envying your freedom, but they will not see that. They will only see that you can arrange your own schedule, attend the events your really want to see, and get work done on your terms.
If negative emotions arise, like jealously, anger and conflict, you could be facing someone who simply does not know how to compete with you.
For humans, survival is at the heart of all their reactions. It’s that classic concept: if you and your friend come upon a bear in the woods, you do not have to outrun the bear, you only have to outrun your friend.
It’s a rare person, maybe Mother Theresa type nuns, who is not in some kind of competition with the people around them. Look at social media. The number of “likes” and “followers” you have is your way of showing people your value in the world. People love to tell you how many people are following, implying behind, them. If their number is higher than yours, you are subtly reminded the bear will stop to devour you.
But if you are running your own business, focused on your value and the product or service idea you plan to deliver to the world, you can ignore social media and all the other distractions designed to make you feel like you should put your dreams in check.
“Likes” and “follows,” are not the most important metric when you are your own CEO. You are going to be looking at growing an audience, earning revenue, and investing for your own benefit.
You will be operating on a stage those around you cannot even see. You will be out there, hustling, with like-minded people in your own separate world. And you’ll be loving it because you have business ideas in your head and have always wanted to be an independent operator.
You will put in the time every day knowing every drop of sweat is coming right back to you in direct compensation you control. Those around you may be facing struggles at work, you will not have those concerns. If the business is facing hard times, you will know about it. If it’s thriving, you’ll be planning how to reinvest your money. Your entire picture defining entrepreneurial success will be written on your terms.
Keep your entrepreneurial dreams alive by remembering these factors:
- Those around you who are against your plans are activating their own survival mechanism, which essentially says they need to hang on to you to keep you at their level. Understand where they are coming from, but do not let them win. For the ones who say they do not want you to get hurt in the entrepreneurial arena, tell them that will be impossible. Everything that happens as you are working on setting up your business will be part of your learning. If the first business does not work out, you take the lessons learned and move on to the next one.
- Do not linger on your decision and give naysayers a chance to say “I told you so.” Keep moving forward. People will tell you most businesses fail – but what about most entrepreneurs. Do you know the term “serial entrepreneur?” Those are the people who keep setting up businesses until they find one that works.
- For the people who say you should not move forward with your entrepreneurial dreams because they are afraid of losing their own place in your world, you can say good-bye. There is not enough time in life to fight with people who do not support your hopes, dreams and plans for your life.
You could be an entrepreneurial success if you keep pursuing your goals.
Everything you are doing as an entrepreneur is to have a better life. Whether to gain control of your work schedule so you can spend more time with your friends or family, or to earn more money so you can build financial security. All of these activities are about improvement.
People who do not support your plans to have a better life do not deserve to be in your life unless they are willing to grow with you. If they are afraid for their futures, you might want to encourage them to start a business too, and be part of the solution, not the problem.
In a world where everyone should lead, follow or get-out-of -the-way, those who choose neither and become obstructionists have cost society a fortune. They have slowed down progress that could have helped people, in the name only of protecting their own status quo. I’m not talking about governments and kings here, only your siblings, colleagues, friends, teachers, or the guy next door who can’t wait to tell you: “you will never make it in business.”
Those people are not your people.
You keep your entrepreneurial dream alive, by first recognizing why others are trying to slow you down. Separate the naysayers into two groups. Those who love you and want to protect you from risk can be educated about the value of entrepreneurship.
Those who are acting on their evolutionary instinct to be king of the jungle can be removed from your life.
This may be a tough call. But it’s a lot tougher to live a life you do not want to live, and die disappointed you did not even try to fulfill your dreams.
Be Born With Confidence
You know those people you see who speak freely to strangers, laugh without inhibition, and take on every room as if they own it – all those people have is more confidence than you. And their confidence, if they’re entrepreneurs, leads them to establish businesses, make connections, and reset their life to be the living vision of their dreams.
Were those people born with confidence or did they learn to develop their self-assurance?
Do you want to wake up every morning feeling exhilarated, excited and ready to work on your dreams and goals for the future?
How can you be born with confidence if you wake-up every morning feeling afraid?
What can you do to change the way you feel?
You can overlay the feelings you have on inadequacy or intimidation by creating the impression you were born with confidence by: understanding your personal value, knowing your goal, practicing excellence and thinking as a business leader.
These are activities you do on you own. You do not need anyone to validate your behavior or give you permission to be you. You begin immediately to implement the steps necessary to wake up as a confident person. As an aspiring entrepreneur, if you are thinking you cannot start a business only because you are feeling you do not have the ability or courage to go out on your own – quickly change your mindset.
This is a common feeling, but you have to overcome it if you want to use entrepreneurship to achieve your lifestyle dream.
You can be born with confidence if you evolve the way you think, act, and do to reflect confidence. Once you understand your personal value, know your goals, practice excellence and think like a CEO, you will transform your mental limitations into the boundless opportunity to move forward.
Understand Your Personal Value
Do you have the answer to the question: why do humans exist? As far as I know, there are no perfect answers to this question. Some say we are just existing, others say we are here to make a contribution. Others attribute their existence to the will of a religious deity, for some the reason lies in science. I agree with those who say, you are here for a reason. You do not have to know the reason right now, but you do have to recognize the reason exists.
You are valuable. Few people are taught to recognize and embrace their value. Maybe people told you, you were conceited or self-centered if you tried to define your unique gifts. But people like you who think about business ideas and doing more than the average person are the people who move all of society forward.
Since you have decided you want to be an entrepreneur, you know you want to contribute more. What is the business, product or service you want to establish in the global market? What is the problem you want to solve? Your ability to answer these questions goes a long way into helping you recognize your personal value.
Embrace this fact about yourself.
Know Your Goal
Right now, you may be at the beginning or end of another workday. What was it like? Were you able to be productive and valued in your work environment, or counting the hours until you could get home? Most of you were probably counting the hours.
If you were focused on starting your business, you could have been doing research or even thinking about your business opportunity. The time you have available may be directed towards activities that really interest you. Of course, you cannot use this approach if you work in a company where you have no downtime, but if you have a break, use the opportunity to work on your business idea.
You must know your goal – to leave the 9-to-5 grind and establish your own business. Formulate and embed your goal in your mind. Keep the goal in full view as you pass through your day.
Practice Excellence
There is a story about Apple founder Steve Jobs’ father teaching him to be just as careful when painting the back of the fence, as the front, even though people will not see it. By doing every job with a commitment to quality and excellence, you instill a life-long habit of making sure your work is always the best you can do. This applies to every activity you undertake from making a telephone sales request to writing another tedious report.
As you continue to do your own work with excellence, you will instill a success habit into your capabilities. The quality of your work will likely be noticed, and the compliments will help boost your self-esteem. Even if the quality is not noticed, you will be aware of your own improvements and capabilities. The more you feel good about what you can accomplish, the more the feelings will dominate your mind.
Think as a Business Leader
In any job you may have you could be critically looking at the operations and procedures within your current company and identifying the processes you could use in your own business. You can also think about the operations that do not work well and consider how you would change them to improve the situation.
Think like a CEO at all times. Even if you are not in a decision-making position at work, make decisions (even in your own mind) based on your own analysis and understanding of a situation. Always be thinking as the leader and operator of the business.
This practice will help boost your confidence because you will be able to see where ideas that you had been thinking about were considered and launched. You may miss out on the accolades but next time, you may have the confidence to speak up and implement the new idea first.
The ability to build your confidence comes from within you – not someone else.
Understand your value – be proud of yourself and the contribution you know you can make to the world
Know your goals – You want to be an entrepreneur. You want to start your own business. The activities you do each day should be supporting and defining those goals to help you achieve your dreams faster.
Practice Excellence – This may be difficult but you will start to feel better and better about your abilities and your prospects if you know the work you produce is consistently among the best you can do.
Think like a CEO – Regardless of your job, ask yourself what you would do if you were the boss. Think critically and strategically about the options available to you, and make decisions. Even if you are only making decisions for your own mind , the practice will help you develop the habit of being a leader and a decision-maker.
Being born a person of confidence now means erasing years of unfavorable comments and unsuccessful moments. But knowing your goal is to have confidence means embracing a future of active engagement with your own plans and goals with a positive, successful, winning attitude.
Ultimately the accomplishment of your objectives, starting your own business and achieving the lifestyle freedom you have always wanted will serve to validate your confidence practices and the decision you made to place yourself among those who can walk into any room.
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Ready to make the move to entrepreneurship? Download Life Dream: 7 Universal Steps to Get the Life You Want through Entrepreneurship and begin implementing the changes you need to transition to start your own business and transition to your dream lifestyle.
Disclosure: book links are affiliate links to Amazon.com which when used may result in compensation for Ready Entrepreneur and Case Lane.
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Popularity vs Excellence: The Hollywood Version
This blog sidebar is background on my position for the issue of popularity vs excellence as it applies only to the Academy’s decision to create the ‘Popularity’ Oscar. The opening paragraph of this sidebar reads the same as the original blog.
On September 5, 2018, the Academy rescinded its decision to award a ‘popular’ Oscar. So this post is now dated but still applicable to the overall message.
As a former Hollywood executive, I was inspired to use the decision to create a ‘Popularity’ Oscar as an example of the decision rising entrepreneurs face when positioning their business in the market. I also consider this story another example of how we need to be a aware that technology is changing our world, and react appropriately.
Excellence vs. Acceptance: The Hollywood Version
The Academy has given in.
Popularity vs Excellence: A Decision Guide for Rising Entrepreneurs
In the battle for relevance between popularity and excellence, how should rising entrepreneurs market their business?
This post discusses how the decision to create a ‘popularity Oscar’ signals our society’s shift from value, quality and excellence to popularity. Rising entrepreneurs must make a decision about how to market a product, service or business, and decide whether to place emphasis on popularity or excellence. This post looks at some of the factors to consider.
The Academy has given in.
On September 5, 2018, the Academy rescinded its decision to award a ‘popular’ Oscar. So this post is now dated but still applicable for the overall message.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the people who put on the Oscars, have announced their latest category “outstanding achievement in popular film.” Although the eligibility rules for this category have not been announced yet, people are assuming this will be the Oscar for ‘getting people to like you.’
The most glaring example yet of the transformation of our society from value to likeability, from excellence to acceptance.
Do you feel the Urgency to become an Entrepreneur now?
The number #1 reason to become an entrepreneur right now in the 21st century is because the world has changed irrevocably. The twin waves of globalization and technology are changing the economic and employment landscape for every profession.
You will not escape. This is already happening.
In Yuval Noah Harari’s fabulous book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, he says:
“The global empire being forged before our eyes is not governed by any particular state or ethnic group. Much like the Late Roman Empire, it is ruled by a multi-ethnic elite, and is held together by a common culture and common interests. Throughout the world, more and more entrepreneurs, engineers, experts, scholars, lawyers and managers are called to join the empire. They must ponder whether to answer the imperial call or to remain loyal to their state and their people. More and more choose the empire.”
If you are a person who has business ideas in your head, you can become an entrepreneur right now and avoid being ‘left behind’ by “the empire.’ To visualize the rapidly changing world, think back to the past twenty years on earth and the impact the iPhone, Amazon and Facebook have had on business and culture. Now think forward to consider where we will be twenty years from now. If you think the ‘rise of the empire’ is unlikely to affect you and the way you live your life, you are missing your opportunities as an entrepreneur.
The dangers of waiting to start your business
Both globalization and technology help you start a global business, and reach out to a global audience of potential customers and clients from anywhere in the world. This reality is incredibly liberating and exciting for anyone who has dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur. You are free to get started on the work you want to do.
If you wait, you may face a situation where you are scrambling to start your own business because you have run out of options. If globalization and technology, replace more traditional jobs and transform your local labor market, you may find your ability to get the kind of challenging and valuable work you seek is no longer available. There is no issue with starting a business at any point in your life. But it’s more fun to do it when you are feeling comfortable about your future, and you can make good decisions based on your own timetable.
Waiting to start your business also puts you up against issues you may not understand. You may face increasing competition as more global markets develop, tighter financial markets as lenders become more selective, restrictive legislation from overzealous lawmakers, and personal inertia from the debilitating effects of your own procrastination.
But if from the beginning, you think of globalization and technology as resources you can use, you can rapidly move forward on your plan to start your own business and live your life dream.
Globalization as a resource you can use
If you are thinking about your business ideas and trying to get started, you likely feel compelled to deliver value to the marketplace through a product or service you know people want or need. Just like big businesses that must make decisions supporting the goals of shareholders who are based all over the world and expecting economic gains, you have to make decisions to satisfy your own hopes, dreams and economic plans.
To deliver your product or service to the global marketplace, you may end up hiring, for example, a Latvia-based graphic designer to create your logo, just as a big company moves an entire factory offshore to make parts for their product. The process is efficient and straightforward. Once you look at the best offers you receive for a project, the quality of the test work and prior reviews, are you going to look at the person’s location to determine whether or not to give her the job? Maybe some of you will, but it’s possible many of you will not. You’ll participate directly in the global economy by hiring the most qualified, accessible person you could find.
This type of decision-making is happening right now all over the world. You may even be directly affected if your work has been impacted by offshoring or outsourcing. As difficult as cutting jobs is for a business, managers look at what’s best for their company.
The value of global competition
As an entrepreneur, you may find yourself in the same position. But in the long-run being forced to compete on a global scale is typically beneficial to the work force. What would be the quality of the NBA brand if the league did not recruit the best players from around the world? Do we as fans, as an audience and customers really want to miss out on seeing the best in the world play the game? And do we want to miss out on becoming the best in the world through our exposure to the best competition?
In business as in basketball, competing with the best can only make you better by compelling you to improve your skills to keep pace with your competition.
Or get out of the game.
Although the reality is competition can force you out of a particular organization that does not necessarily mean you are completely out of an industry. Many tech companies were started by people who were not necessarily the most successful where they were, but could not get their ideas taken seriously until they went out on their own. You can find an angle for your product or service that creates its own market and finds its own customers in the marketplace. The experience, although painful in the short-term, will ultimately be a huge boost for you if you stay with your plans.
Technology as your primary tool
And you do not only get better on the basis of your personal skill. Your ability to use technology to your advantage is a major factor in success and the other major driver of changes in the new economy. As a rising entrepreneur, you can employ technology tools to support your business in every area from accounting, to design and email management and marketing. The new technologies allow you to produce high quality work at a fraction of the price the work used to cost. This is called reducing barriers to entry. You can enter into the global entrepreneurial workforce by using technology to ensure your product can compete.
Technology is even more certain to take direct aim at employment by humans. Technologists are all over the world. Every company must compete with bright minds in Russia, India and South Korea who can severely disrupt a business enterprise overnight. This fear does not only apply to hackers or pirates. All over the world bright minds are engaged in developing new software and innovative ideas designed to disrupt the functioning of traditional business. Since the Internet is global and most people have access to its possibilities, there is no reason to believe the technology will stop at anyone’s border.
We adapt to technology (not the other way around)
Lately some people are getting a little concerned about the influence of companies like Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook. In less than twenty years, these companies have fundamentally changed the way we shop, communicate and decide where to eat. Those companies were built with rules set only by the people who built them. And we are adapting to how they are making the world.
As an entrepreneur who uses these online platforms, you have to approach your business decisions on their terms. In medieval times when ‘ancient you’ was farming a plot of land, a new landlord could come by and tell you now submit to his demands or face dire consequences. If you did not have a Knight or some other defender to help you, you were forced to do as you were told or lose your land, or at worst be killed. You effectively had to play along to get along.
The same is true today of technology’s key consumer-facing Internet platforms. In today’s world, if you do not behave on Amazon or Facebook as required, you will lose access to the site, which may mean the end of your business or your social life. Most people are not willing to take that risk. Although it’s technically possible for a new company to rise up tomorrow and replace the big names on the Internet, you have to manage your business in the world you see before you today. You will both have access to a global market through the mega online platforms, and you can lose access just as easily. Your goal is to hang on while remaining true to your vision for your company.
Your business or your job
As globalization and technology define our world, opportunities for continued employment are dependent on these twin pillars that are out of your control or the control of governments. Most people will have to try and get into a job without any hope of staying in the position for a long time. At the same time, millions of jobs go unfilled because the education system, and popular thought, cannot adapt quickly enough to the changing demands of the job market. If the teachers are not trained, the students will not be either.
Where does that leave you?
If you have a business idea in your head, you should be feeling it’s time to take that idea into the global marketplace. Globalization and technology are already here and the world economy is changing right now. The global GDP, or gross domestic product is currently valued at the $78 trillion, with a T, mark. You can take your business idea – your product or service – and deliver it to the market and take your part of that soon-to-be $100 trillion dollar pie.
But you have to get started. The time to become an entrepreneur is now when the field is wide open, your product or service idea is needed, and the available tools and resources provide access to the global marketplace.
Do you feel the urgency?
Struggling with how to get started? Download my book Life Dream: Seven Universal Moves to Get the Life You Want through Entrepreneurship.
Disclosure: book links in this article are affiliate links to Amazon.com meaning I may be compensated if you click on the link to go to the Amazon.com website
Why the World Wants You to Be an Entrepreneur
If you have always wanted to start your own business, but were afraid to because ‘no one you know is doing it,’ you may be surprised to learn that your instinct to be an entrepreneur is in line with global economic development programs.
Multi-lateral organizations, like the United Nations, that were founded to help create a world of peace and prosperity, include an emphasis on entrepreneurship in their agendas. When you consider that most of the world’s people live in countries that are struggling to create a strong economy, this commitment to entrepreneurship signals that people who want to start a business are on the right track.
Entrepreneurship is recognized as a ticket out of poverty and an opportunity for innovative, creative, hustling people to separate themselves from the pack and focus on self-reliance and personal economic development.
Even though many individual countries prefer to emphasize government control, community commitment and self-sacrifice.
Why does entrepreneurship hold a favored place?
According to the OECD’s report on Youth Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship can “foster job creation, economic growth, poverty alleviation and formalization of the economy. And has the potential to “spur innovation, increase competition and encourage social cohesion by acting as a mechanism for the disadvantaged and socially excluded.”
The United Nations calls for entrepreneurship to “create jobs, drive economic growth and innovation, improve social conditions and address environmental challenges.”
In other words, entrepreneurship has a huge role to play in getting the world in working order.
So where does that leave you? One person with an idea and a dream and maybe even a plan to bring a product or service to the global marketplace that you think will deliver value. The commitment to entrepreneurship leaves you at the absolute forefront of delivering on these great goals. As you begin to start your business, you can think about the broader global goals that you can contribute to just from your own enterprising efforts.
Here’s is an overview of some of the issues and what the policy items may mean to you as an entrepreneur:
Job creation
Entrepreneurship can create a job for, at least, you. Now you may already be in a job, so your ‘side hustle’ ends up creating a second job. If you outsource work to a virtual assistant or use an e-mail service provider or web hosting company, you are creating even more jobs. When you think about getting your business started, think about all the other people who stand to benefit from what you’ve created. You don’t have to create two million jobs like Wal-Mart, one is a great place to start.
Economic growth
When you provide a new product or service to the marketplace, you are adding to the economic pie, not subtracting from it. The economy grows and expands because each new product builds upon the last one. You may think adding something will replace something else so jobs will be lost and growth will stagnate. But that’s not how it works. When you bring in your new product or service, you are filling a gap in the marketplace. Which means you are increasing the value of the market. Sure some products are created that wipe away old ones, goodbye phone booths. But for the most part, new innovations are additive and we all want to keep the pie growing.
Social Conditions
Are you one of the people who is frustrated by your current job in the familiar economy? Do you find your time spent wasted commuting, or attending meetings that do not make any sense? How much would your life improve if you were in charge of your own business? When it comes to improving social conditions, global organizations might be thinking about alleviating poverty for millions, (and you can think about that too), but you are more likely hoping to improve your own lot in life. And there’s nothing wrong with that. You cannot help others to have a better life if you have not managed to create one of your own. So go ahead and focus on improving your world and your immediate world around you before you jump to fixing everyone else.
Innovation and competition
Take a look at all your favorite products. Are there any that were not first invented by entrepreneurs? I once tried to think of an every day popular product that was invented by government, I could not think of one. Maybe a weapon of war, but hardly a product used by all people to have a better life. If you are thinking about a product or service that can provide value to the marketplace, you should go ahead and bring it on. The world needs a variety of ideas and interests to keep moving forward. Our progress comes from people like you who are available to risk, sometimes everything, to make lasting change. Competition helps you get better and better. We should have open markets so you can continuously see all available products and improve your own production and practices. You would not want to watch the Olympics with just one country right? So why would you want to participate in the global economy all alone?
Environmental challenges
You may be thinking that tackling the grand problems of the global environment is outside the scope of an aspiring entrepreneur. Well not necessarily. You can do your small part simply by participating and ensuring your business is part of the solution to building a healthier and cleaner world.
Big, lofty pronouncements on strategic multilateral goals may sound foreign to you. But when you look closely at the ideas that are being expressed, you may find that your own thoughts and plans are in direct alignment with the global agenda.
Over the years, the mandate for organizations like the United Nations has grown (along with the bureaucracies) to deliver a more, universal message around activities countries can do to boost their economy, health and well-being of citizens. One of those initiatives that receives attention is entrepreneurship.
The reason this is interesting is because entrepreneurship is often about individual achievement and financial independence. Yet most countries do not support those specific concepts except when it comes to growing the economy and encouraging innovation, then entrepreneurship becomes a favored goal.
The fact is, most countries know that entrepreneurs are needed to support economic growth and development. Without people who are willing to take risks, come up with ideas for products or services or deliver new products or services, human beings would not progress.
From Edison and Tesla and the commercialization of electricity, to Bezos and the “everything” store, entrepreneurs have led development, not governments.
If you are one of the people ready now to pursue your entrepreneurial dream but lack the confidence to get started, you can find inspiration, assistance and guidance from global government agencies that actively promote the idea of entrepreneurship to build a better world.
Your entrepreneurial dreams are not a weakness or bad idea. The dreams are critical to making the world a better place and improving the economic well-being of all.
Struggling with how to get started: Download my book Life Dream: Seven Universal Moves to Get the Life You Want through Entrepreneurship. (Disclosure: this link is an affiliate link to Amazon.com meaning if you use the link to go to the Amazon website I may receive compensation.)
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