A Quick Start Guide to Online Entrepreneurship
Many aspiring entrepreneurs want to start an online business. The idea of low or no start-up costs, running an empire from your laptop, and being able to use all the latest technology in your day-to-day operations is appealing and romantic.
Many believe online entrepreneurs move faster, get things done easier, and reap immediate rewards by keeping their entire business infrastructure online.
The Internet is full of success stories from people doing what you want to do. But what, if anything, makes their process different from any other type of entrepreneur?
To listen to these tips, check out the Ready Entrepreneur Podcast Episode 062: A Quick Start Guide to Online Entrepreneurship at Apple Podcasts or wherever you like to listen to your podcast
What does it mean to be an online entrepreneur?
Being an online entrepreneur is the same as being an entrepreneur in general.
Entrepreneurs identify value to deliver to the global marketplace. If you have a product or service that people want or need, and you want to bring that product or service to a potential community, then you are already thinking like an entrepreneur.
You become an entrepreneur when you get the business started and reach out your potential customers.
What is different for an online entrepreneur?
To understand any potential differences between online entrepreneurs and traditional entrepreneurs start with the definition of an online business.
An online business means a business enterprise that delivers products or services only over the Internet, and you earn your revenue the same way. You take advantage of online tools and resources to get your idea in front of your community.
Some of the most popular online businesses include blogger, vlogger, podcaster, author, teacher, software designer, artist, editor, copywriter, marketer…and the list goes on and on. These are all businesses that can be started and function only online.
For the purposes of this article, online businesses are those that were created through the rise of the Internet, and its applications.
Old vs. New
Traditional businesses that are now conducted online are different from new economy businesses that were invented online. If you are a licensed professional in a traditional business like healthcare, and you start providing medical advice online, you are governed by a different set of rules than a blogger who starts providing opinion about a healthcare issue online.
An aspiring entrepreneur starting an online business must decide: what business you are in. If you are in a regulated industry, you must follow that industry’s rules even online. If you are in a new economy industry, the rules are still murky and somewhat free. However, the environment of online law is changing rapidly, by the day, and all entrepreneurs must be aware of how these changes may effect their business.
A Website or Landing Page vs. Social Media presence
When starting an online business, an aspiring entrepreneur must know if there are potential customers. And the potential customers must know where to find the entrepreneur.
Many online businesses start with a website, but some avoid even that early expense by focusing on a social media presence.
If you have only social media, your biggest challenge will be in knowing who your audience is, and finding a way to keep them as part of your business. Setting up on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram provides you with a free forum for posting about your product or service offering. You may even be able to communicate directly with your community using services like Messenger. This may set up your initial business, and even provide you with a few customers.
But you also have to think of the customer experience. With a website, you can set-up and organize all your information in an easy-to-navigate format. Most importantly, you can host a permanent location for new and interested customers to sign-up with you and learn more about your product or service.
Own your audience
From the first day you begin an online business, you want to be able to own the potential customers who come looking for you by maintaining a relationship with them. You start by giving them a place to sign up for more information. When they sign up you get their e-mail address, and you can ethically continue to communicate with them about your product, service or related issues.
If your audience is only located on a third party platform like Facebook, then that company owns the audience. You can be kicked off of Facebook at any minute, and at that point you lose the audience and all the comments and connections you may have made.
If you own your audience, you control the relationship.
To own your audience, you can sign-up for an e-mail management service like ConvertKit that provides both forms and landing pages for you to collect e-mails, and back end organization for the e-mail lists you have. You can learn to use the service’s features which automatically upgrade your plan as your email list grows.
New Rules
Aspiring entrepreneurs should be aware of the regulations that are being implemented to protect people’s personal information, children, and commerce in general.
Taking possession of someone’s email information means you are subject to privacy regulations. Most legitimate entrepreneurs state upfront that they never sell or share an e-mail with a third party. This type of transparency helps build trust with your audience, and positions you as a business that does not need to run scams to attract people for only their e-mail address.
If the content you provide is not suitable for children, you must also be aware of the appropriate warnings that you need to include to warn parents and others.
Even with the focus on issue like privacy, other Internet practices are not diligently governed, and you must police yourself using common ethical standards and practices.
The Internet is global, anyone, anywhere in the world can put up any type of online front page and be in business. The governance for this behavior is not universal, nor recognized by everyone.
The reality is both an opportunity and a trap. If you are doing business with the public, you are subject to certain rules and ethical practices. If you abuse people’s trust, they will find a way to bring down your business. The same forces that allow you to successfully join the global business community in a matter of minutes can end your business just as quickly if you prove to be unworthy of their trust.
The best practice for an aspiring entrepreneur is to be prepared to behave online as if you are facing your customer directly in the face, and not as if you are anonymous and unaccountable for your actions.
Which Online Business should you select?
The criteria for deciding which business idea is best for you to start is another article. In general, you should consider:
- A thoughtful, truthful personal brainstorm on your strengths
- Issues or problems that come up in every day life
- Products or services you would use to make your life better
- Align the above with your education, experience, knowledge and hobbies
When you have your idea, you decide which platform is best for delivering it to the global marketplace. Here are some useful links depending on the type of person you identified with above:
For personalities – Start Video-blogging
For Teaching Others – Start an Online courses
For techy types and gamers – Create an App
For software designers – Create Software as a Service (saas)
Online entrepreneurship is the same as all entrepreneurship. You identify value you can deliver to the global marketplace through a product or service that will solve a problem, or deliver a solution.
Summary of The Quick Start Guide to Online Entrepreneurship:
- As you are getting started, decide if you are moving a traditional physical world business online, or starting with a new economy purely online business like blogging
- If you cannot decide, check out the resources just above this section for how to get started in the new economy areas
- Once you have an idea of what you want to do, decide if you want to have a website or strictly social media presence as the place where your potential community can connect with you. If you have a website or landing page, you can begin immediately to collect e-mail addresses and communicate directly with people who are interested in your product or service. If you only use social media, you can get started right away, but you do not own your audience
- Be aware that just because you are online does not mean you are above the law. You must still recognize laws, regulations and ethical practices when dealing with the public and operating online
Disclosure: links to ConvertKit on my site are affiliate links which means I earn revenue for eligible purchases that helps support this website and other resources for aspiring entrepreneurs.
How Entrepreneurial Wealth is Achieved
by Case Lane
Getting rich is part of the entrepreneurial story. Successful entrepreneurs start out focused on the product or service they will bring to the marketplace, but when their idea takes off, they become even more defined for having achieved wealth.
To learn how the wealth emerges, the biographies and autobiographies of successful entrepreneurs form a blueprint for an aspiring entrepreneur to understand the process.
But many people do not take the time to read the books, and remain curious about how an entrepreneur was able to become wealthy.
Image by DarkWorkX from Pixabay
We have a natural curiosity about how people became wealthy. There are many wealthy people who are not entrepreneurs and never were in their whole family line. You can get rich by winning the lottery or inheriting. You might even just buy an expensive piece of art for a bargain price at a flea market. Multiple roads to wealth exist.
But people primarily equate entrepreneurship with getting rich and living the life. People tend to forget about the work part, and only focus on the money and the life of leisure money can buy.
But if you dig deeper into the lives of entrepreneurs, the millionaires and billionaires who highlight all the stories, you might discover a reality about achieving wealth that people seem to be forgetting.
If you investigate a little further, you may realize, the secret to accumulating wealth is, as it has been for millennia: doing the work.
Part of the entrepreneur story is about money, the books and articles are written about the people who get rich. But for the wealth generated by entrepreneurs, the story is simple: Wealth is achieved through work – continuous, dedicated, unwavering work.
Build the Business Over Everything Else
On the road to wealth, you cannot have your cake and eat it too – meaning no birthday parties. When the most successful entrepreneurs tell their stories, they have nothing to say about going to parties, hanging out with friends, gossiping, surfing the Internet, playing video games, or binge-watching videos.
They talk about focusing day and night on their business idea, and bringing it into reality.
The willingness to be singular focused on business separates the wealth creators. You have to be obsessed with your business idea.
For some people, dropping all leisure pursuits sounds frightening, especially if you have already begun a regular life full of birthday parties. The most successful entrepreneurs never seem to have succumbed to the repetitive socializing routine, at least not once they were working on their business.
Change Your Life Routine
But for aspiring entrepreneurs who already have a ‘regular life’ full of social obligations and friendships, switching gears is a daily challenge.
If no one you know is doing what you are doing, and you want to focus on business 24/7, you have to make a choice.
The next time you receive an invitation for a general social function – not a wedding or funeral – but a theme party or drinks or dinner with friends – you have to decide what’s more important to you. Having yet another drink in yet another bar, or bringing your business idea into the global marketplace.
You are already someone who thinks differently from your circle. You are interested in delivering value into the world by helping people solve a problem using the product or service you create. Not everyone thinks like this. Most people do not think about big world problems at all – but you do.
And because you do – you have an opportunity to transform your life by bringing your business into the market. But you have to do the work. No one is going to know about your great idea if you do not develop it. No one is going to see or hear about it if you don’t market and promote it. The entire story is in your hands, and therefore it’s your responsibility.
Wealth is achieved by making the commitment to fulfill a need and then doing it. Once people become consumers, you can manage the market, and the reward that comes from helping them. But they know nothing about you until you’ve done the work to make yourself relevant to them.
The wealth that’s waiting for you is dependent on the effort you put in to obtain it. The question you have to ask yourself is – are you willing to do it?
Summary for How Entrepreneurial Wealth is Achieved
As a rising entrepreneur, you are curious about how wealth is achieved. You see many entrepreneurs who are rich, and you know their products or services, but how did they become the people who delivered those ideas to the market.
- They did the work. It’s that simple and that difficult.
- If you already have a regular life, and have not been tinkering in your garage since you were 10, you have to make an adjustment, which other people may not understand. You have to begin turning down social invitations, stop idle conversations and focus on your business
- Change your day, change how you behave and start operating like an entrepreneur by working on your business in every spare moment
- Change the conversation to business. If people in your life are not interested, you have to make a choice. You are not trying to convince other people that you can be an entrepreneur. You are trying to bring your great product or service to the people who need it.
- Make a commitment to yourself that you will work to success, just like every big-name entrepreneur has done in the past
Stay One Step Ahead of the Robots
by Case Lane
The rise of technology into every area of our lives has frightened many people into believing the unchecked advances will eventually overwhelm us. Humans will fight the machines…and lose.
But when humans face a new fear – diseases, rodents, other humans – the response has usually been to…fight. Throughout history, humans have challenged attackers head on. The survival instinct has made fighting part of human DNA.
The Rise of Robots
Now comes the rise of robots. Or more specifically the advent of robotic and artificial intelligence products and services that can replace the work currently being done by humans. The fear is that these technological marvels will render humans useless.
People with no work lose their self-confidence and dignity. They turn to substance abuse, violence and other harms to express their frustration. A world where humans believe they have no work is a world no humans would want to live in.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Although many people have been faced with technological change in the workplace, to the point of losing their jobs to technology, the response has been to expect more of the same.
But the response could be…to redefine your value.
The New Hope for Humans
The rise of technology matches the rise of human freedom and independence. Although there are many governments who will use technology to control their population, the difference with advances in the past is that those governments can also have technology used against them.
For the first time, the people have within their ‘brain’ power, the opportunity to override government action with technology solutions of their own. And in so doing to maintain their freedom and independence.
Aspiring entrepreneurs can take advantage of the same opportunity. The rise of a global, high tech future means the every day person has the opportunity to live life on their terms.
This type of freedom has never existed before in history. People were always constrained. In the beginning you were politically free but controlled by your resources, and up to the 20th century your freedom was politically controlled although resources were abundant.
Now the shackles are being thrown off, but a new fear has emerged. The one where you are so free, you are not wanted by anyone, and your value is reduced to nothing by technology that can do everything you can do.
Entrepreneurs Do What the Robots Cannot Do
For an aspiring entrepreneur, this potentially dire fate is actually an open door. Aspiring entrepreneurs can control of their own futures, by starting a business, defining the value you intend to create, and becoming valued for being human with the ability to deliver your product and service in a way only humans can make viable.
Entrepreneurs by definition identify new opportunities. Sometimes the product or service you intend to bring to market already exists in form. If you want to help people learn to paint, or sing or you want to create a new bag or t-shirt. Those products and services exist – but they may not necessarily exist for the audience you intend to target.
For the aspiring entrepreneur, your audience is the one that wants the product or service from you because of the way you design, produce and/or distribute it. You can buy books anywhere, but you buy books on Amazon because they are delivered to your door.
Many companies make computers, but people buy Apple computers because they’re slickly designed.
And when it comes to fashion – t-shirts to haut couture dresses, flip-flops to high heels – the marketplace wants an extraordinary variety of products.
Entrepreneurs fill gaps in the global marketplace. The plan for the robots is to do work that already exists. But not all work can be delivered by robots. Even if you believe that may not be the case someday, the chances that you living right now, will see robots do absolutely every single possible job in the world is probably zero.
Robots also do not do the most human-contact type of work from hair stylists to surgeons. As long as humans want to maintain contact with humans in professions where human thought and interaction are required, the robots will be one step behind.
The Technology Risk to Entrepreneurs
Now obviously there are no guarantees. Science and technology can accelerate at any moment and place your business at a disadvantage. But that has been the prediction throughout history. Sometimes when technology replaces an entrenched product or service, the product makes a comeback, or evolves to fulfill a new need.
Vinyl records now sell for 5 or 10 times the price people used to pay for them because the once ubiquitous item has become a novelty people purchase as a gift or collector’s item.
Other items like the 8-track tape player are not expected to return, ever.
But as an aspiring entrepreneur with one eye on the global marketplace and the other on your niche audience’s demands, you can hedge your own bets about what may or may not work by focusing on fulfilling the need your audience has right now.
The path to controlling your professional life runs through entrepreneurship. By turning yourself into a person who recognizes a gap in the market, you can deliver value to more people who are searching for the same thing.
Because you have to find a product or service that your audience wants or needs, by definition, that product or service does not already exist. And therefore the chance that robots or A.I. can deliver the product or service also does not yet exist.
If you are fulfilling someone else’s vision or working at a company where someone has a specific idea about how the product or service is delivered, you likely have limited flexibility within your job, and perhaps in the not to distant future, no job at all.
Any product or service that exists today is vulnerable to replacement by technology. Robots or A.I. can do many of the activities that humans have always done.
Which job is next for replacement?
At Singapore’s state-of-the-art Changi International Airport, one of the best airports in the world, passengers with time to spare can leave their luggage in traditional baggage storage, or self check-in the baggage at the same time as themselves.
The process involves no humans, only sensors, cameras and prompts provided to you by a screen. An airline ticket counter agent was a position that required training. But the functions were easily automated. The checks and controls gate agents used to provide were covered by cameras. And the rest of the task was left up to the passenger.
As you consider today’s employment field, focus on the positions that have repetitive and mechanical steps. Those are the jobs that can be replaced.
As an aspiring entrepreneur, you create the job for yourself and your team. You are not, at least not immediately, facing the same vulnerability to replacement as existing controlled positions. As long as you maintain your unique approach to the product or service you are delivering, you maintain your distinct advantage over the robots.
The job you create for yourself by becoming an entrepreneur puts you in charge of a future you create.
Cherish the Value of Humans
Your vision is singular. Can robots see the world as we do? Not yet, and probably not ever. Because it’s the essential humanness of ourselves that we put into our business that makes it valuable to other humans.
As long as humans value humans. We will value what humans do. And your opportunity to be your own boss and be part of the global marketplace comes from your ability to put something new and differentiated in to it.
You stay one step ahead of the robots by identifying the value you add to the marketplace, and making that value available to those who want and need your product.
If you are still trying to think of an idea, or you are working on building your business, either way, you are already ahead of the airline counter agents, and those like them whose tasks can be performed by technology.
And if you continue to build on your idea and make your business successful. You are also one step ahead of those who are missing out on the life they really want because they work on someone else’s dreams.
You get to your life dream through globalization and technology. Even if you have been negatively affected by the twin forces of 21st century change, you can use the setback to your advantage, by leveraging the exact same forces that upended you, to make a better world for yourself.
In summary:
Stay One Step Ahead of the Robots:
- Globalization and technology are the twin forces of change that are here to stay
- Many jobs from airline ticket counter agents and beyond will be replaced by technology solutions
- You can hedge your bets against being replaced by robots or A.I., by developing your business idea
- Your business idea is designed by you to bring value to the global marketplace based on gaps and opportunities that you can see need to be filled.
- You develop your idea based on your individual uniqueness and qualities that appeal to your audience
- You create a product or service that is valued for its innovation, production or distribution – and therefore is unique to the vision you have seen
- You stay one step ahead of the robots by creating your own business, providing a product or service that is valued in the global marketplace, and continuing to deliver results for your audience
Yes, Shy People Can Be Entrepreneurs too
Aspiring entrepreneurs who are a little intimidated by those ‘slick Willie’ type of entrepreneurs who come at you strong, almost shouting, about how you can do it too, as they ooze confidence and bluster all over a stage may think that the world of entrepreneurship has no place for those with less bombastic approaches.
For the quiet, serious and methodical in life, the question of whether or not there is an entrepreneurial personality type, also evokes the question of whether or not you’re on the right path.
But you are.
In studying entrepreneurs all over the world, one trait is clear, the common denominator is not personality type – it’s doing the work.
Entrepreneurial Personalities
When asked to name some entrepreneurs , many people pick from the same same dozen or so familiar people who are known to have started their own business. The most famous people are seen on TV, and make news.
And that’s not a coincidence. People who make noise, make news, and some make themselves famous as part of their overall business strategy. So outgoing people who happen to be entrepreneurs can become well known.
But the most famous people do not represent al entrepreneurs.
In the United States alone in 2016, the census bureau says there are 5.6 million employer firms, and that does not count the big Fortune 500 companies that were started by one person whose name you know. Around the world, estimates say there are 600 million entrepreneurs. That’s a lot of personalities. And it is doubtful that every one of them is a Slick Willie Salesman.
An entrepreneur is anyone with an idea that they are willing to bring into the public marketplace.
Using the definition from UNCTAD, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development:
An entrepreneur is an individual who identifies opportunities in the marketplace, allocates resources, and creates value.
Entrepreneurship—the act of being an entrepreneur—implies the capacity and willingness to undertake conception, organization, and management of a productive new venture, accepting all attendant risks and seeking profit as a reward.
The definition applies to action, not personality.
The definition does not say an entrepreneur must be able able to talk to strangers.
Nor does it say the entrepreneur has to be funny and make jokes in an interview, or on stage.
The definition definitely does not imply the ability to get rich quick, make a million dollars in ten minutes and let others know about it.
Being an entrepreneur is about identifying a big idea…and running with it. Since you cannot copyright an idea, you have to write the book. You have to bring your idea into fruition.
Entrepreneurs allocate resources – often your own. If you’re shy or slow or both, you only need yourself to get your business going. Allocate your own resources to researching your business idea, figuring out how to bring it to the marketplace, and defining the other tools and resources you may need to help you.
Working this way, you do not need to ensure that thousands of people ‘like’ you before you get started.
You need to create value. Entrepreneurs create value. And thousands or millions of people recognize that value if appeals to them and their needs.
If you have business ideas in your head and you are thinking about opportunities to bring a product or service to market that will help people. You have to get it out there. No one will know about it if it stays in your head. The key is to bring it forward for people to see. The validation comes from the market.
New products and services are introduced all the time. When speaking about your business idea, people love to make comments like – ‘it’s been done before,’ or ‘no one is asking for that’ or ‘why would anyone buy that.’
But time and again the market defines what it wants – after the product or service has been introduced.
So many products that we take for granted today like corn flakes – which apparently was a cooking experiment by a guy named Kellogg – were just invented and placed in the market. No one asked for the exact product, but the entrepreneur had an idea that could appeal to many others.
The definition of entrepreneurship does not include the need to laugh, smile or glad-hand (pretend to be nice).
You have to be a person – often exactly the type of person who is shy and slow – who is willing and able to turn the idea into a business, and willing and able to meet the risks – and more than willing to reap the rewards.
Options for promoting your venture
Even knowing this definition, an entrepreneur may struggle with the idea of bringing a product or service into the marketplace. At some point, the new venture must be presented to people in some forum.
When the product or service is developed, a shy entrepreneur can look for other methods for introducing the venture. For example, advertising, giving away free samples, writing promotional materials or creating a video.
When Help from Others is not Intimidating
If those activities fail to attract attention, you can partner with one or two kindred spirits, outsource to someone you pay to promote for you, or hire someone else with the skill to promote your product or service.
Each option has its own risks and rewards. But those factors can be considered in any plan you move forward.
The key is go ahead and create your business even if you think you are too shy or too slow. The personality traits you need to start the business applies to you regardless of who you see on TV, and who you think might be a more classic example of an entrepreneur.
It’s the people who start the business who are entrepreneurs. Willing and able to make it happen – that’s the key.
The common trait for entrepreneurs is getting the work done to bring the product or service to market. Successful people get the job done. You can work full-time, part-time, weekends, do all-nighters, take a month from work, take 15 minutes a day, update on the ride home – any time frame or time allotment that you can give yourself brings you one step closer to realizing your dream.
If you have business ideas in your head, you are already thinking like an entrepreneur. The next step to being one is based on your ability to accomplish your own dream.
If you are shy, or slow or doubting your entrepreneurial personality traits, understand that entrepreneurship is for anyone who is willing and able to do the work.
You are an entrepreneur if you identify an opportunity in the marketplace, allocate resource to it, and create value, which is something the shy and slow can definitely do.
Read to Wealth: How to Select Books for the Road to Success
by Case Lane
You have probably read that many successful people read. The world’s movers and shakers, billionaires and influencers read books (and magazines and newspapers). They read to stay informed, learn practices and strategies for success, and to continuously improve their minds.
Part of your success strategy for transitioning your life to entrepreneurship, should include reading.
But where do you start?
There are hundreds (probably thousands) of “best book” lists that you can Google and reference. But how do you even choose which books to read from that list?
One way to start is to think first about what you want to get out of the books. What do you want books to teach you? You want to be reading for implementable action, things you can do to improve yourself as you build your business.
Here are five categories of books to begin with:
The Definition of an Entrepreneur: Read biographies, autobiographies, and books about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship to learn who entrepreneurs are, what they do and how they are formed.
Skills of Successful people: Read personal development books to learn how to improve your success skills and yourself, so you can move more efficiently in the entrepreneurial world.
General business environment: Read books about the business of business, the histories of specific industries and companies to learn how the broader global economy functions.
Think like a Billionaire: Read books about investing, the road to super-wealth to understand how markets work, and how entrepreneurs access private funds to fuel growth.
Life in Action: Read fiction about successful people, business people and business-related ideas to see the big picture, and get background and inside information about how people function in a success-driven life.
Here are suggestions in each of these categories. There are dozens of books in every category considered “the best” or “must-haves,” below are only some initial suggestions. You can start in any order.
If you find you would prefer to read books about your specific product or industry, of course add those ones as well. The key is you want to understand which books to read, and why. You want to be able to implement the learnings from the book into your lifestyle
DEFINITION OF AN ENTREPRENEUR
When you are starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur, and the only idea you have in your head the concept of starting a business, you might not be confident about what your vision will really mean.
To develop a more specific idea of how entrepreneurs are formed and what entrepreneurs do, you can read biographies and autobiographies, and books about entrepreneurial ideas. People often wonder: how did so-and-so get rich? One of the best ways to find out is to read the biographies about rich people, and learn the facts for yourself.
You are looking for an in-depth accounting of the entrepreneur’s story – what were the actual steps this person took to become successful. The best biographies tend to be those thick ones that take you back not only to the entrepreneur’s childhood, but also through his or her parents, or other significant influences. This additional insight will help you realize the most successful entrepreneurs come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and have had an even wider variety of experiences on the road to success.
While industry and technology do change our economic landscape, the day-to-day realities of humans rarely change. Everyone still must secure food, clothes and shelter to have a civilized life. The actions taken by John D. Rockefeller in the 1800s – walking up and down the street to ask for a job – are still relevant today. Despite all the online employment services, in the 21st century people still often find work by word-of-mouth.
Use biographies and autobiographies to help you understand how you can write your own story as you transition to entrepreneurship. Look for the lessons that explain the idea of an entrepreneur.
Books in this category include: Biographies and Autobiographies
The Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow
Shark Tales: How I Turned $1000 into a Billion Dollar Business by Barbara Corcoran
Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw
Morgan, American Financier by Jean Strouse
Entrepreneurship:
The Four-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-to-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
The Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness by Jeffery Gitomer
Zero to One: Notes on Start-ups or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel
SKILLS OF SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE
Most of us are not born ready to take on the world with our entrepreneurial ideas. In fact, when you realize how big the personal development book market is, you realize that being an organized, attentive, polished, successful person takes information – ideas and strategies that you can learn and implement for yourself.
Successful people have a mix of skills, but they are not always the same. If you learn some of the basic, timeless behaviors, you can use those attributes anywhere. Personal development must be taught and practiced. It is not enough to read the books, you also have to implement the ideas from the book. And you must be consistent in applying the changes to your life.
Perennial sellers like Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich have been around for decades, yet the number of people who stick to the advice is certainly not visible in today’s economy. If everyone who had bought or read Think and Grow Rich had applied all the activities, average incomes would likely be much higher.
You can be an exception. You can use personal development books to actually make changes to the way you behave. The advice exists (and continues to sell) because it works. And it works because people like you make it happen.
Books in this category include: Personal Development:
Choose Yourself by James Altucher
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale
GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
As an entrepreneur, you want to be thinking about the global economy in which you run your business. Even if you have a small enterprise, you are affected by global economic changes in the price of oil or the value of the dollar. Having a more knowledgeable background on these issues can help you manage your business rationally.
You can muse about inflation or trade like the average person, or you can read books that explain current economic development and trends. These books will provide you with an insight that you can use to develop your own business. They tend to be interesting histories giving you the information you did not know, and helping to dispel certain fallacies about business, trade and investment.
Although these reads can often be dense, they are well worth the effort to give you a broader grounding and overview of the business world that you now occupy.
Books in this category include: Business of Business:
Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Peter L. Bernstein
A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World by William J. Bernstein
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras
Guns, Germs, Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power by Daniel Yergin
THINK LIKE A BILLIONAIRE
As you read the biographies of entrepreneurs, you may notice a pattern – the big money, mega wealth, came from the stock market. Either the entrepreneur became an investor or was invested in, when the company was taken public. The real jump to billionaire wealth, comes from owning the factors of production, from owning capital.
You can begin to build your billionaire mindset by reading books about investing. These are books that help you develop a money consciousness, to see money not just as the tool that pays the bills, but as a factor that can be transformed into changing your life for the long run.
Many people have a poor financial management and investing education. Without these types of books, the situation would be even worse since this information is not taught in schools. In fact, good investment advice is passed on from one generation to the next within the same family, but not transferred horizontally through a society. This is information you are unlikely to hear.
So your best bet for putting yourself in line to understand the business of money is through an investment in time spent learning more about how investment works in the global economy. Educate yourself before you become an investor.
Books in this category include: Investing and Financial Management:
The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing by Benjamin Graham
Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham and David L. Dodd
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis
The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy by Thomas J. Stanley
LIFE IN ACTION
As a bonus, fiction books featuring characters in business can give you a broader overview of the world you are entering. By reading about fiction characters, you have a sense of day-to-day life, as well as the road to wealth.
Unlike a biographer, a fiction writer can tell you everything. You get inside the character’s head, and maybe even read words that resonate with you, and your entrepreneurial vision for yourself. You may even decide to emulate the behaviors and practices of business or success-oriented fiction characters who you feel connected to through the story.
Books in this category include: Fiction
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The High Flyer by Susan Howatch
The Financier by Theodore Dreiser
If you are starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur and looking for guidance on how to face the entrepreneurial world, start by reading. When you set aside, 15 minutes a day to work on your business, your time can be focused on reading, your research for creating the life you really want.
Many of the classic books now have e-reader versions and you can upload copies to your phone or tablet to read when you are standing in line or commuting on public transit.
If you have no idea where you want to start, begin with a few books. You will likely find yourself inspired to keep going until you have your business up and running, and you can begin to live your life on your terms.
NOTE: In future blogs, I will follow-up on each of these books and provide more detail about what you may be able to learn from each (especially the fiction) as you move forward on your entrepreneurial journey.
Disclosure: book links are affiliate links to Amazon.com which if used may result in compensation to the author to help support this business and future posts
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.
Ready to get started on your entrepreneurial dream? Get more strategies and tips by signing up below for the Ready Entrepreneur mailing list.
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.
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.
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
