SEE SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT IN RED AT END OF POST

Your Role In History As An Entrepreneur

CHARACTERISTICS OF 

THE NEW ENTREPRENEUR

Adapted from the book 30 DAYS TO THE NEW ECONOMY written and published by Peggy Salvatore

Many long-standing entrepreneurial success characteristics remain on the front-lines. Reasonable risk-taking and possessing of some mysterious instincts are but two examples. NOW, as we approach the 2020s, other “quieter” ingredients are gaining traction and emerging as higher level success characteristics. Today, Peggy leads us to four of these: Nimble. Flexible. Responsive. Personal.

About 10 years ago, when my three kids were all in high school, I decided to go back to school to fulfill a dream of earning an advanced degree in economics. Okay, geek alert! Yes,I know that not every girl’s dream is to study what most people have always seemed to consider such a dismal science. But it was mine.

A for-profit online university called Cardean University advertised an MBA with a specialization in economics and strategy. The curriculum was developed by professors from The London School of Economics, the University of Chicago and Stanford. And I reasoned that they couldn’t advertise that fact if it weren’t true.

Yet, I still wasn’t sure of the value of an online degree in the real world. I phoned a friend I thought would know the answer. When I asked her if an online MBA would be akin to getting your degree on the back of a matchbook cover (ah, you do remember matchbooks, yes?;).

Okay, so my friend said the credibility issues I was concerned with were no longer the case, and that in the real world, virtual degrees counted just fine. (Eventually, Cardean was sold so my degree ended up being from a bricks-and-mortar school anyway.)

Here I was, attending classes and studying online, and learning real stuff that I still use.

I had classmates all around the globe — many from private sector corporations like General Motors and others from federal entities like the U.S. Army — which had a value all by itself.

I share this here because the Internet has become and remains a legitimate business and educational channel. Unlike the fly-by-night money order, cash-for-gold side street vendor-type people who open their virtual doors with the intention of fleecing the public or churning cash, and whose daily email bombardments we all readily block or delete, I suggest they will not ever gain credibility among credible people. In fact, it’s unlikely they will ever even get as far as the cash-for-gold fleece-master.

The Internet is designed for integrity. Internet Joe needs to have valuable wares he is exchanging for income. If not, he’ll be sniffed out and escorted out of town. So if integrity is the bedrock of business, the Internet is the place where it is most solid. After all, who among us wants to do business with the fleece-master? On the Internet, you probably have less chance of that happening than you do of winning some big-time cash prize at the carnival coming through town.

For Internet Joe, this is good news. The foundational principle of all business is that the owner must have integrity to conduct business successfully and continually. Nowhere is this more likely that in the place where one star versus five stars. Comment boxes and the online star and thumbs-up reviews are available to everyone.

So, if like me, you are concerned that perhaps a virtual business might be less legitimate than a storefront on Main Street, my friend’s “take” on virtual classes was right. The Internet business playing field is for real, and that means you must be, too.

Besides integrity, Internet Joe has a few other characteristics that ideally suit him for success in a rapidly unfolding New Economy.

Internet Joe is:

• NIMBLE: He assembles the pieces necessary to build an online presence.
• FLEXIBLE: He is working his way around obstacles and making adjustments as the terrain changes daily. Updates that change the way his online meeting service functions? He’s on top of those.
• RESPONSIVE: He is always “on alert” for his customers. Customers get answers from his smartphone on the road, his tablet on vacation, and his home office on a 24/7 global schedule. Internet Joe responds with spontaneity!
• PERSONAL: When his name is out there, his Facebook, Pinterest and far more private information is just a click away. Customers know that.

RETURN HERE TOMORROW 9/22 FOR DAY 11

AND THE TRUTH ABOUT INTEGRITY

# # #

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Sign up NOW for NOVEMBER 29th (Sunday Night after Thanksgiving for 2 hours) $99 LIMITED SEATING COACHING WEBINAR: “Accelerating Your Business Growth and Development.”

Get fresh, informed, proven insights geared specifically to your business market, your biggest problems, your biggest opportunities.

With Hal and Peggy’s wealth of business coaching experience, you’ll learn what successful entrepreneurs need to be thinking and doing NOW. Simply call 931.854.0474 Central Time: 11AM to 4PM Monday-Friday for details and to reserve your seat!

———-
For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS or visit ow.ly/RysnP for the E-book

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US      Peggy@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

Thanks for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!

Your Role in History as an Entrepreneur

To Infinity And Beyond

Adapted from the book 30 DAYS TO THE NEW ECONOMY written and published by Peggy Salvatore

Can you grasp the fact that we are living on the cusp of incredible opportunity? The amount of information available to us instantaneously is staggering, and we have come to take it for granted.

Let me contrast today’s mobile app world to just 20 years ago when I did health policy research. Before writing a white paper, I had to write physical letters or make a landline phone call to Washington DC to the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) to request government documents.

Then, guess what came next? Right. I would wait a week or two until some diligent librarian gathered the documents and sent me a bulky yellow envelope stuffed with the precious statistics I sought.

• Since I did a lot of government-related policy work at that time, most of my contact was with the U.S. GPO. The GPO was arguably one of the most responsive organizations I encountered. In those days, for data and studies not conducted by the U.S. government, gathering information was—believe it or not—actually more challenging.

• Non-government-generated research required me to spend time at local public or university libraries, getting to know the research librarians, hunting through dusty stacks and filling out paper request forms to be sent into the library system to look for information.

Imagine the limitations

Linear indexes. No embedded links. No Google. No social media. Books, studies and reports were listed in sets of thick, hard-backed tomes lining the research shelves of local libraries. Legal and medical research required similar effort.

That linear aspect of gathering information first required that you had some clue about what you were looking for. Nobody was pushing information to your inbox because you expressed an interest in a topic.

You were of course also limited in the ways that knowledge was built. You only knew the information that you specifically sought, so your research would have a defined trajectory from a specific point.

Today, global consulting firms like Deloitte and IBM make white papers available for download in my inbox literally every day. I can’t begin to consume all the information that is interesting to me. And guess what? I now know to look for knowledge that I could not have even imagined existed two decades ago.

My research now has multiple starting points and can take me in an almost limitless number of directions. Knowledge indeed has become exponential. After all, anyone can edit a Wikipedia entry, all 3 billion of us with an Internet connection.

In 1995 (yes, just 20 years ago!), less than 1% of the world’s population had an Internet connection. I had one, but connected to what? We hadn’t really begun to explore the potential of what would reside online.

[Accessed 6/3/2015 at www.internetworldstats.com]

This evolutionary process repeats itself for everything.

Not too long ago, if I wanted new shoes, I walked to the shoe store, looked at a limited selection of colors, styles and sizes and either settled for whatever was in my size or ordered something more to my liking through the retail store and waited for delivery.

Some online catalogs have delivered products directly to consumers since the early 1900s, but—with a few notable exceptions like LL Bean—catalog purchases were considered low quality and provided even more limited selection than the venerable old department stores.

You may think I am belaboring the obvious.

You may even be yawning…?

Realize, though, that I describe life only 20 years ago, when today’s college graduates were teething. The speed of knowledge has grown exponentially, so much so that I saw a statistic yesterday that stated 90% of the data available today has been collected in the last two years (!). Phenomenal or what?

What are the gems hiding in that data? How much more will we know by next year? What other assumptions and paradigms will be smashed next year, next month . . . next week?

Your ability to collect and process information makes you part of this surge toward a future none of us can fully grasp, although some futurists have come very close. Raw data has no inherent value but the interpretation of that data is priceless.

Boiled down to its simplest essence: Economics is the trading of value among individuals, corporations and nations. We are accruing a mind-boggling amount of value in transactions involving information, goods and services occurring in milliseconds simultaneously among billions of interconnected humans today, right now . . . as we speak . . . as you read . . . as I write.

The New Economy is just breaking out.

To quote that great “Toy Story” character Buzz Lightyear, we are headed “To infinity and beyond.”

Are you ready? Are you on the way?

# # #

When you need some personal, one-on-one coaching beyond the Internet offerings, give us a call. (Direct line numbers on masthead above.) In the meantime, follow us HERE for FREE for the next 22 weekdays to see what others think, and discover some of the surprise findings we have in store for you—new and proven “mental apps” to apply to your own entrepreneurial and business development!

See you here tomorrow 9/18 for Day 9.

———-
For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS or visit ow.ly/RysnP for the E-book

# # #
Hal@Businessworks.US       Peggy@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

Thank you for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!

Your Role in History as an Entrepreneur

The Virtues of Internet Joe

Adapted from the book 30 DAYS TO THE NEW ECONOMY
written and published by Peggy Salvatore

It takes a lot of hustle to open your own business.
I recently met a young married couple starting a boutique brewery. Location. Licenses. Equipment. Employees. And some real hassles. A lot to consider. But it was worth it to them. They’ll end up making their own beer.

Internet entrepreneurship requires the same kind of hustle. He might not be cleaning vats or hoisting foamy mugs, but Internet Joe does his own version of cleaning and heavy lifting. Think about it. He will integrate years of expertise (could be 2, could be 50) to come up with a product or service that will provide value to people somewhere, anywhere on this planet.

That’s a pretty wide swath to cut, so Internet Joe (and maybe you too?) needs to build his pursuits on the following ESSENTIAL 7 TRAITS:

1.  CONFIDENCE: Internet Joe has enough confidence to believe he has something to offer and is willing to put in the time, effort and money to offer it.

2.  KNOWLEDGE: He has a defined skill set that he may have used or is using at a corporate job, but he has acquired other skills and knowledge that he did not use in his tightly defined corporate role. He is anxious to use these skills and knowledge in his new Internet business.

3.  DEPENDABILITY: He opened the business for a few reasons, including but not limited to the need for an income. By taking the chance of investing both time and money in developing the Internet business, Joe has already proven that he is a go-getter and is responsible. Customers can depend on delivery from Internet Joe.

4. CREATIVITY: Internet Joe has the energy and creativity to build a business online from scratch. He also has the ability to put that kind of thinking to work for customers. And all those skills that weren’t used by the last employer? Now’s the time to figure out how to integrate his interest in fine art with his sales and marketing expertise.

5. REASONABLE RISK-TAKING: Joe took a risk by putting himself and his products, services and ideas out for sale to the public. That investment of time, money and creativity to build the business came at the risk of not doing something else with those resources. It also came at the risk that his endeavor could meet with crickets.

6. INTEGRITY: This is the core requirement for any business person online and offline. Your word is your bond. You can be trusted and you respect yourself as well as everyone you come in contact with. Without integrity, you have nothing in business. Internet Joe is putting himself in the public eye and subjecting himself to levels of scrutiny heretofore impossible without investing in private investigation services.

7. ADVENTURESOMENESS: The Internet is new. Even if you are following a proven model in your online business, you are bound to uncover some new ways of doing things and improving upon the existing system. Because Internet business is in its infancy, Internet Joe is learning along with everyone else. Internet entrepreneurs are learning together and there is a lot of room for innovation.

Certain personal qualities are essential for success in any business. With an industry that is new, people who succeed will be among the first to find effective ways of operating in this environment.

Businesses and products have a life cycle. The business cycle is traditionally divided into four segments:
• Early Adopters
• Pragmatists
• Conservatives
• Skeptics

“The Chasm” is the space between the innovative early adopters and the majority of early pragmatist entrants when a majority of people jump on to a new idea.

I reproduce this graph here to suggest that we have not crossed the chasm but we are rapidly approaching it.

The Early Adopter phase is the place where

history is made. It is where you are!

The seven traits I list above are essential for success at the Early Adoption phase. I will dedicate the next seven weekdays talking about them . . . the Success Traits of Internet Joe.

There are lots of Internet Joe’s in the new economy. Are you one of

them? Are you one of the “Frontier Pioneers” staking your claim?

C’mon back TOMORROW 9/16 for Day 7
to find out how you and Joe compare.

When you need some personal, one-on-one coaching beyond the Internet offerings, give us a call. (Direct line numbers on masthead above.) In the meantime, follow us HERE for FREE for the next 24 weekdays to see what others think, and discover some of the surprise findings we have in store for you—new and proven “mental apps” to apply to your own entrepreneurial and business development!
———-
For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS or visit ow.ly/RysnP for the E-book

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US      Peggy@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

Thanks for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!

Your Role in History as an Entrepreneur

Low Cost, High Quality

AND Personal Service

in the New Economy

Adapted from the book 30 DAYS TO THE NEW ECONOMY

written and published by Peggy Salvatore

INTERNET JOE has cost and customer service advantages
that elude the big boys. Customers buying from YOU
—the Internet entrepreneur—in the new economy,
enjoy High Quality, Low Cost AND Personal Service.
Purchase from a major corporation yields only one of these three.

1.   HIGH QUALITY: The owner of a small Internet business is often a former employee or consultant with a large organization. That means the small Internet business is run with the same degree of expertise and quality as you get from a major player without the major price tag. When the global corporation laid off or downsized its expertise, that talent found another outlet and became INTERNET JOE.

2.   LOW COST: With a virtual retail storefront, the cost of business for Internet Joe is minimal. So the pricing of products and services through an entrepreneurial Internet business is far lower than the global enterprise that is supporting a huge infrastructure.

In fact, INTERNET ENTREPRENEURING has turned what used to be the price advantage of scale on its head. In the days of large manufacturing dominance, “bigger” meant competitive pricing due to volume. But in today’s New Economy, bigger now means more overhead and higher fixed costs.

NOW
. . . the small business entrepreneur

holds the price advantage.

3.   PERSONAL CUSTOMER SERVICE: When you buy a product or service from an Internet entrepreneur, she or he is very happy to have your business. He or she is running a little virtual store to meet your specific needs. You are his/her bread and butter so—as a customer—you get responsive and agile customer care.

THAT MEANS

. . . as your needs evolve and the Internet entrepreneur sees the evolution by staying in close personal contact, he/she can respond and change with you in lockstep.

. . . due to small size, Internet Joe (as the virtual Mom and Pop) can pivot long before large corporations can get the word that a market has changed.

It can take a large corporation a year or more to engage its strategic planning office, hire a consultancy, conduct an environmental scan, do a SWOT analysis, report to the board, and consider a change in direction.

Meanwhile, the Internet entrepreneur has been

at the customer’s side from the git-go!

Real Internet entrepreneurs are usually hungry critters. With the same kind of determination that drove their forefathers and foremothers—the Mom and Pops—they stake out their virtual storefront (get a URL), pay rent (server space), pay vendors (Internet services to run their business such as mail clients, shopping cart software, writers, graphic designers, etc.) and worry about their online enterprises 24/7.

They probably sweep their own virtual doorstep or hire the kid next door to do it. The daily sense of responsibility alone makes it a great place for customers to send their business. These small online business owners get their customers with self-determination and by NOT acting corporate.

Let’s talk more tomorrow about the

virtues of online business owners.

# # #

When you need some personal, one-on-one coaching beyond the Internet offerings, give us a call. (Direct line numbers on masthead above.) In the meantime, follow us HERE for FREE for the next 25 weekdays to see what others think, and discover some of the surprise findings we have in store for you—new and proven “mental apps” to apply to your own entrepreneurial and business development!

See you here tomorrow 9/15 for Day 6.

———-
For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS or visit ow.ly/RysnP for the E-book

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US  Peggy@Businessworks.US

Open Minds Open Doors

Thank You for Your Visit and Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Your Role in History as an Entrepreneur 

TWITTER FEED FROM SYRIA

Adapted from the book 30 DAYS TO THE NEW ECONOMY

written and published by Peggy Salvatore

Remember the Arab Spring? What was that, anyway?   People protesting for freedom, I think. People

    throwing off the shackles of oppression —
as portrayed by the press. That was the official meme.

Like King George issuing an edict to America’s colonies, the official meme was received with a jaundiced eye by the people in the middle of the action and their Internet friends around the globe.

Let’s face it. People are playing video games with other people all around the world, all the time. And global business ties keep everyone in close proximity to every-one else via Skype or a short jet hop.

Like never before in the history of the world, people get to know each other (or at least a little ABOUT each other). And it gets harder each day for an official story to go unchallenged. So it was with the Arab Spring.

As tumult rocked the Middle East, video gamers texted each other across and between continents. They started Twitter feeds. People talked about what was going on.

This dynamic affects business. At the same time as global corporations are capable of spreading influence instantaneously, so is the small on- line entrepreneur. If knowledge is power, power is no longer hierarchi- cal. Power is flat. It is matrixed. It favors the nimble.

Global corporations may be SEO and Google search engine masters. But today’s Internet entrepreneur has a real shot at reaching customers in her/his space using various networking opportunities in his/her field — darting around, past, over and under the global giants.

The average Internet Joe can connect with other Internet Joe’s and Jane’s in small to medium sized businesses and make an excellent living working for individuals who need his expertise.

Like the video game friends texting real-time human concern during the Arab Spring, personal networks have a flexibility and humanity that allow them to reach people on a level that the major players cannot.

The Internet offers small service and product providers the same, if not better, opportunities for personal service and connection to many poten- tial customers around the world as those exercised by huge multi-national corporations.

Customers benefit from low cost, high quality and personal service using Internet Joe businesses operating in the new economy.

This democratization of knowledge and power has leveled the business playing field. It has also leveled the political playing field which is, if not the same thing, something very highly related and correlated.

Just as politics attempts to control who gets what, and who decides, the proliferation of information puts control into the hands of the aver- age Internet Joe. He is the customer and the provider as the flattened power matrix envelopes everyone with an Internet connection.

From this vantage point, new products and services are being develop-  ed in a way that is not just close to the customer, but are being develop- ed in conjunction WITH the customer!

And with Internet Joe now everywhere, all the time, the New Economy transcends borders, nations and politics.

C’mon back MONDAY 9/14 for Day 5 to find out
how this impacts commerce.

When you need some personal, one-on-one coaching beyond the Internet offerings, give us a call. (Direct line numbers on masthead above.) In the meantime, follow us HERE for FREE for the next 26 days to see what others think, and discover some of the surprise findings we have in store for you—new and proven “mental apps” to apply to your own entrepreneurial and business development!

———-
For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS  or visit ow.ly/RysnP for the E-book
# # #
Hal@Businessworks.US    Peggy@Businessworks.US

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Thank you for your visit and make today a GREAT day for someone!

Your Role in History as an Entrepreneur

A FANTASTICAL JOURNEY

Adapted from the book 30 DAYS TO THE NEW ECONOMY

written and published by Peggy Salvatore

Watching the world from your computer? Isn’t it a fantastical place? Nimble entrepreneurs in the Internet economy are zigging while major corporations are zagging. Zigging is the new orange.

Anyone still zagging, who is stuck in the old paradigm, is feeling the dislocation and loss. Those who are still trying to restore large, lumber- ing, industrial manufacturing entities, or even trying to keep alive a monetary system based on physical representations of value, are going to feel like things are coming apart at the seams.

So, is the world economy coming apart at the seams?
Nah! It’s just shifting gears!

Customer experience is driving this new economy. Those who are zigging are responding to their potential markets in massively impress- ive ways… from a platform of inquisitiveness that is part of a burgeon- ing online conversation among techies, marketers, leadership gurus and innovators of all stripes. Learning is no longer “one-way.”

This is YOUR Time to Build

[See NOTE FROM PEGGY below]

Internet entrepreneurs are building the new economy with instant responses to real customers on the ground all around the world in real time. Many are brilliant and amazing. Some are even generous.

The “spontaneous combustion” of the New Economy is leaving many in its tracks who don’t know how to run a business. And problems must be solved instantaneously now.

But help IS available, lots of it, online—and much of it for free—including apps and resources that offer excellent education and great content. For the monthly price of access to a service provider, anyone can learn, have, do, or know just about anything or anyone, 24/7.

I used to wonder how that business model will survive. The dot.com bust at the turn of the 21st Century appeared to signal that online businesses could not be monetized. In retrospect, that was wrong. People figured out how to make online businesses profitable. Given motivation, inspired humans will find a way to make money doing anything. Ask PT Barnum.

For the last nine months, I have been studying the Internet economy and many of the entrepreneurs who are building it. My quest started in an attempt to figure out how they fit into a business plan. That began a fantastic journey. I discovered quite quickly that there is a phenomenal amount of highly valuable free information available in the form of extremely well-done training: Free Webinars; Free E-books; Free Podcasts; Free Every-imaginable-kind-of-thing-you-want-to-know!

I dedicated my pursuit to consuming as much information as possible. Online content has led me to a new crop of physical books and seminars as well. So, while it isn’t all virtual, the virtual environment is the glue that holds all the physical pieces together. And here are just some of the disciplines I’ve been exploring:

• Business Development and Entrepreneurship
• Internet Business Structure and Technology
• Personal and Professional Growth
• Markets, Marketing, and Management Leadership
• Blogging, Podcasting, Webinar and E-book development
• Motivational and Spiritual underpinnings of business success

# # #

NOTE FROM PEGGY: WILL YOU PARTNER WITH HAL ALPIAR AND ME? This is just the first of 30 Days’ worth of prompting, provoking, igniting, and seeking YOUR input and ideas for Building the New Economy!

Please join the conversation in the comment section and tell us:

??  What’s YOUR contribution to the New Economy? (Talk about YOUR business pursuits!)

??  What do you think of “Corporate Entrepreneurship”© (Training/Coaching Corporate Executives to THINK like entrepreneurs)?

??  We want to know YOUR part in building a new, integrated, humane world… (On the Internet and through your own business).

??  And what’s YOUR sticking point? (What’s keeping you from where YOU want to go?)

When you need some personal, one-on-one coaching beyond the Internet offerings, give us a call. (Direct line numbers on masthead above.) In the meantime, follow us HERE for FREE for the next 29 days to see what others think, and discover some of the surprise findings we have in store for you—new and proven “mental apps” to apply to your own entrepreneurial and business development!

See you here tomorrow 9/9 for Day 2.

———-
For more information on Peggy Salvatore’s book: 30 Days to the New Economy [© Peggy Salvatore 2015. All Rights Reserved.] click on ENTREPRENEUR NEWS or visit ow.ly/RysnP  for the E-book

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US   Peggy@Businessworks.US

“MATTER” Matters!

In just this past week, without even trying, and with minimal exposure to advertising, I’ve seen or heard the following:

• Black Lives Matter!
• Police Lives Matter!
• All Lives Matter!
• People Matter! (Sub shop chain)
• Dog Food Matters! (Pet store chain)
• Your Gums Matter! (Plaque removal products)
• Protect What Matters! (Life insurance company)
• Kids Matter! (Goat farm sign)
• Your Package Matters! (Delivery service)
• We’re There When It Matters! (cellphone service)

And surely Firefighters Matter and EMTs Matter and Doctors and Nurses Matter. And what about animals and fish and birds and trees and plants and oceans and mountains? Can there be any doubt that Children Matter? Or Pets? How about Grandparents? Teachers? Scholars? Boy Scouts? Girl Scouts? Athletes? And then there’s Hollywood people and Politicians? (Wellllll, the jury is still out on those two).

What about Artists, Writers, and Musicians?  And Tan people? Pink people? Albino people? Yellow people? Green people? Polka-dotted people? Purple people? Handicapped people? Poor people? Rich people? Sad people? Happy people? Developmentally-disabled people? Babies?

Where does it end? Or does it?

Will “Matter(s)” be this generation’s buzzword version of “Where’s The Beef?”

Are scientists now gathering from around the world to launch their new “happening” slogan?

MATTER MATTERS!

Do we really want to go back thousands of years and pronounce that Cavemen Matter?

And there is no doubt whatsoever that ENTREPRENEURS MATTER . . . because—without them and their creations—the rest of global society would have very little to point to by way of missions accomplished.

Instead of simply choosing to accept the bottom line– that if you are a human being, a creature or planet creation, YOU matter(!)— it seems we have been instead choosing to lose trust and confidence in ourselves and buy into the implied exceptionalism of which lives matter, with the implication that no others do!

Unfortunately, stampedes are rarely stopped before innocents are trampled. But at some point each of us needs to simply stand tall, look in the mirror, and proclaim to ourselves:

I  MATTER.

# # #

Tune in here starting Tuesday, the day after Labor Day, to read and contribute comments to short DAILY excerpts from Peggy Salvatore’s new book, 30 DAYS TO A NEW ECONOMY for 30 weekdays in a row! Free. No strings attached. Why?
Because YOU Matter!

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US    931.854.0474

Entrepreneur Programs

Do Not Make Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship can be taught. And those who are entrepreneurs can be made more productive. But the truth is that those not born with entrepreneurial instincts and attitudes can only learn what the tools and ingredients are –and maybe even how to use some of them– yet never become entrepreneurs.

Not everyone, after all, can consistently look at problems and count them as opportunities. Thomas Edison saw his 10,000 attempts to invent the lightbulb as 9,999 ways to learn from, that led him to the last.

Just as tools and ingredients do not bake cakes, neither do they make entrepreneurs. What happens to the cake if you put the egg in at the wrong time? What happens to a well-informed entrepreneurship student who’s afraid to take reasonable risks?

Can risk-taking be taught? Maybe. But when the moment of truth arrives, will a top student who fully understands reasonable risk-taking, but lacks entrepreneurial instincts, actually take the risk she or he needs to take to achieve success?

Entrepreneurial instincts practically dictate resistance toward and distrust for authority figures. Does this preclude meaningful instruction? Who can teach entrepreneurship except an entrepreneur?

And how many entrepreneurs are driven by the entrepreneurial-essential fire-in-the-belly desire to put themselves in the middle of a complex politically-stratified organization that relies on academic authority channels to exist, when they themselves could instead be developing the next great medical treatment or mobile app, or self-tying shoelace?

Entrepreneurs are driven by making their ideas work, not by others’ ideas, not by money, not by organizational achievement. Though there undoubtedly must be some exception somewhere, my lifetime of entrepreneurial pursuits and independent coaching (to instill entrepreneurial values in organizations), has yet to uncover even one.

An entrepreneur is an entrepreneur is an entrepreneur. [That’s sort of like: “if it quacks like a duck . . .”] Learning as much as one possibly can about entrepreneurial-thinking-and-doing will, without doubt, strengthen one’s business and career odds for success — on a campus, in a corporation, or in small businesses run by entrepreneur-savvy people. And, yes, even in government captivity.

Realities:

• Don’t expect such efforts to crank out legions of entrepreneurs
• Many succeed beyond their dreams without even an inkling of entrepreneurial values
• Almost every business and career can benefit by infusions of entrepreneurial energy and style

Like teaching those few-and-far-between truly brilliant musicians that they have what it takes, entrepreneurship teaching and training efforts can provide much-needed wakeup calls! Programs grounded in entrepreneurial traits, characteristics, behaviors, and action-orientation do indeed succeed. They raise consciousness for students and corporate executives who have what it takes, but who never quite cultivated the awareness levels needed to put it all together for themselves.

Deliverables include: increased innovation, productivity (less wasted time, energy, resources and money), and sales; increased customer and market awareness and responsiveness; sharper and quicker decision making; accelerated market testing; rapidly expanded networking and referral bases; enhanced communication skills; and a stronger across-the-board sense of teamwork, self-fulfillment, and self-motivation.

The ultimate entrepreneurship determinant is REALITY

. . . existing as much of the time as possible in the

“here-and-now” present moment. 

Are you?

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US    931.854.0474

ENTREPRENEUR ON THE FENCE

Like stunned fish floating aimlessly to the surface after an underwater explosion, corporations and colleges lacking entre-preneurial mindsets have been equally lifeless for decades . . . standing on the fence, trying to decide the next move. But, Aha! That is now changing.

UNLIKE entrepreneurial thinkers and doers (who have long known that an “ostrich attitude” only produces a head-full of sand), corporate and campus leaders –for very different reasons– have failed for decades to embrace entrepreneurship as a viable management methodology.

Shell-shocked by a quicksand economy, slippery-sloped job ops, and blink-of-an-eye marketplace changes, big business and academia are now beginning to regain consciousness as corporate and campus entrepreneurship training centers, programs, teams, and projects are rapidly moving front and center.

Reality is that America’s businesses and institutions of higher learning can no longer afford to manage from the “analysis paralysis” platform that requires months of committee meetings to recommend action instead of simply acting and adjusting immediately, then acting and adjusting again.

It takes an entrepreneurial mindset to dig out of the holes corporate managers and academic administrators have found themselves embedded in . . . to be airlifted out by technology-piloted choppers if need be . . . and accept the fact that entrepreneurial ideas, actions, instincts, and traits are yet again tantamount to paving the way for economic rebirth.

As quickly as we once reined in or abandoned Theory X, Theory Y, Theory Z, One-Minute Manager, Quality Circles, MBWA, Just In Time, Empowerment, Assertiveness Training, Anger Management, Lean Management, MBO, BOSCARD Management, and a hundred other such success fad formulas and piecemeal methodologies . . . we have come full circle from the 1980’s to realize we must think like entrepreneurs and act like entrepreneurs to truly make a difference!

CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The perpetual champion of management success, CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP, was billed in 1981 training program promotions by this blog post author, as:

“the new tack in the race for innovative business solutions that work”

— and reinforced by INC. Magazine‘s Executive Editor Stewart Alsop II (in April 1981):

“Entrepreneurship is in, it’s hot . . . a renaissance in American society, especially for entrepreneurs now buried in large corporations.”

Regardless of size, sales, or clout, if your business or academic organization is not already riding the new, revitalized 2015-2020 entrepreneurial wave of “Reality Success” that builds cruise-control managers into enlightened decision makers, you can be sure your competition is!

When it’s time to put more heart, more walk-the-talk attitude, and fewer politics into your business –to  ignite dormant organization spirit and foster more innovative business and market leadership thinking– CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP coaching and hands-on training can be your answer.

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Hal@Businessworks.US    931.854.0474

Being critical and judgmental of other businesses does nothing but get us a bad rep and (believe this!) make it harder to succeed. What we get back isn’t much different than the return on our investment for putting down other people. At some point, it all comes back to bite us in the butt!

When you feel a judgmental statement winding it’s way up your throat, suck it back down with a deep breath before it ever gets to your tongue. Use your teeth like gates in case it actually does get that far. Hold your tongue. Shut the gates. And mind your own business. (Oh, uh, it might hurt if you hold your tongue while you close your teeth.) If all of this is too hard to swallow, you should not be in business to start with.

Anyway, we all like to criticize. We all think we can do better. And, guess what? Maybe we can do better, but remember that no matter how great we think we might be at something we’re good at (like running a business?), it’s a no-brainer bet that someone else is even better.

It should be needless to say, but those few folks who’ve been holed up like hermits with no outside world awareness’s beyond their smartphones and tablets (is that like everyone under the age of 25?), this tidbit of caution goes –in spades–for Customers! They are the people who are NEVER wrong . . . even when they’re not right!

Real entrepreneurs exist for their customers.

Just because corporate muckity-mucks make a lot of “Love the customer” noise doesn’t mean they really care. But customers are literally the lifeblood of entrepreneurial enterprises.

I mean, just imagine:  If corporate employees were properly trained, and –no matter who called or answered whatever phone– everyone would know how to deal with every customer and no Customer Service Department would even be needed.

Companies could literally save fortunes that could be reinvested in their people . . . and their customers! Sadly, this bit of entrepreneurial thinking has not yet met with acceptance as the effective antidote it is for corporate career contamination.

So just because the corporate guys delegate Customer Service to others, entrepreneurs cannot. Entrepreneurs don’t have that luxury. Entrepreneurs, true entrepreneurs, are who they are because they–always and everywhere–tend to their customers and mind their own business.

Do you?

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Hal@Businessworks.US    931.854.0474