Your Role In History As An Entrepreneur

Side note: In editing Peggy’s book chapters for blog adaptation, I’ve found her style to be surprisingly (for an economist leadership expert, itself, to me, an oxymoron) engaging. Today’s topic, however, encompasses the object of my business teething and career so I feel compelled to spotlight a bit of the professionalism of marketing. Factoids (such as the components of marketing and the distinction between creating and stimulating desire, for example) are seldom addressed or positive-ized in economic treatises or website meanderings. Thank you. Enjoy the journey! Hal

Imagine Marketing

One of the great advances of the 20th Century was the development of the field of marketing. As industrialists were able to mass produce clothing, cars, homes and candy bars, they sought a method or methods to promote those things to a public who may not have known that they needed or wanted them.

Psychology and sociology combined with imperatives to maximize business profitability and the science of markets was born. Where markets existed, they were maximized. Where markets did not exist, they were created. Yet marketing is not a creator of society wants and needs. It is simply a reflection of society–a mirror of what already exists.

You know you need a home but you probably didn’t know you need or want a certain type or brand of kitchen appliance or configuration of closets until marketers educated you about the differences in price, performance, design, function, impressions, and longevity.

You know you need a car to get to work, but marketers let you know which models and styles were available so you could choose those that would best serve your practical functional and budget needs as well as those that best meet the conscious or unconscious emotional wants you most closely identify with (e.g., power, status, sex appeal, safety/service focus, family/parental focus, environmental/energy focus, etc.).

Marketing attaches meaning to the products and services we consume. Think of marketing as a big umbrella over a broad spectrum of marketing functions, which include sales, advertising, branding, pricing, packaging, promotion, merchandising, public relations (news releases, events, media communications), and more. Marketing also raises life necessities to luxury levels for a price.

Marketing does not create desire because humans already possess desire. Marketers stimulate desires that already exist. Marketing sometimes prompts us to purchase or consider purchasing products and services we didn’t know we needed or wanted until subliminal interests are created for them, and our desires are stimulated.

By the mid-20th Century, mass production meant that businesses could create enough products to satisfy the desires of mass markets. Mass communication through a mix of limited channels (using television, radio, magazines, direct mail, and outdoor and transit billboards) standardized desire for mass produced products.

The Internet changed the whole world of marketing. The Internet is a personal communication device. What comes through my computer is as different as what comes through yours as we are. No two computers deliver the same content because the content is a reflection of the fingerprint of the user. One user accesses religious content, another pornography, and yet a third spends most of her or his time surfing the net for the best price on handbags, shoes, or on hunting and fishing equipment and gear.

How do you market to EACH individual on his or her personal communication device?

Like finance, we’re rewriting the discipline of marketing while we’re practicing business in the New Economy.

As an Internet entrepreneur, you find your markets by searching for people who are interested in buying what you are selling. You contact them through social media using list serves, groups, email blasts and subscriptions, blogs and connectivity/referral platforms . . . following where each thread leads. When you pull on a thread, it will lead to a tapestry of related interest groups. As a business person, the end of each thread is a potential customer.

The hardest job of Internet Joe is to refine his product or service to meet the needs of a specifically defined target market within the potential of a global customer base. Expect that it could take time to refine your approach. You will go through several iterations before you hit on exactly what specific flavor of what you offer appeals to which specific individuals.

In the New Economy, your customers are in New Zealand and Newfoundland. Get to your keyboard and go find them.

# # #

C’mon back tomorrow 10/2 for Day 19 —

It’s all about SALES, SALES, SALES, and more SALES.

# # #

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———-

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

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Hal@Businessworks.US      Peggy@Businessworks.US

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Your Role In History As An Entrepreneur

C O N F I D E N C E

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

Confidence has two meanings.

In relation to business, we think about the assurance of self. Self-assurance means one believes in oneself enough to trust their decisions. They take measured risks and can make hard decisions because self-assured people believe they have the capacity to act correctly.

The second definition of confidence is to hold something close and keep it in secret. When I tell you something in confidence, I trust that you will not broadcast it. The term “con man” in the vernacular means someone who pulls tricks someone else. But it derives from the term “confidence man” or one who acts in secret.

It requires both types of confidence to run today’s entrepreneurial business in the New Economy.

First and foremost, entrepreneurs in the New Economy need the self-assurance to operate in the global environment, make assessments and act quickly. After all, the universe loves speed and the spoils go to the person able to grab opportunities as they arise. Even more accurately, the spoils go to the entrepreneur who grabs opportunities just before they arrive . . . to the entrepreneur who trusts herself.

He sees markets that don’t yet exist or envisions ways to serve existing markets in ways that others do not see. The ability to act on unrealized markets and opportunities ahead of their manifestation requires much self-assurance.

And importantly, spreading self-assurance is the mark of a true leader. It requires only a consistent and mindful effort to use inspiring language in daily electronic, telephone, and in-person conversations. Go here for a starter list!

The second definition of confidence, the ability to hold things closely and quietly, also plays an important role in entrepreneurial success. All of the advantages of the global market on the Internet everywhere, always and everything, also mean that the opportunities that are not yet realized are also evident for anyone who has eyes to see.

For someone who imagines the possibilities, it is important to hold your vision close to your inside team long enough to realize it but briefly enough to bring it into full realization before someone else does.

Quick, quiet, assured. These are among the most confident and most meaningful behaviors of the new entrepreneur at the top of his or her game.

# # #

C’mon back MONDAY 9/28 for Day 15 —

DO YOU REALLY KNOW ENOUGH TO MAKE IT ALL WORK?

# # #

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

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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

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Your Role In History As An Entrepreneur

A D V E N T U R E S O M E N E S S

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

Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. Actually, leadership of any sort is not for the weak-kneed, and taking this trip into the new frontier requires stamina and hard work. Risk-taking is at the core of starting a business and putting your time, resources and reputation on the line. To move forward taking resources and reputation along for the ride certainly requires an adventuresome spirit.

A Master Key to successful business

is to take calculated risks.

Taking calculated (reasonable) risks means both your experience and your instincts kick in when you make a decision. Like Indiana Jones when he stepped off the cliff into thin air, entrepreneurs have an instinct–a sixth sense–that when they take that footstep into the sky, a footbridge will appear.

Internet Joe [See DAY 5, DAY 6, and DAY 9 in this series of posts] understands the difference between adventuresomeness and foolhardiness.

He is adventurous. He is willing to spend enormous amounts of time and money (often investor money) to initiate and implement his creative vision. He is building a business and making promises to customers that he will be there to deliver on his promises. He is also promising employees they can count on him and that it is safe to bet some of their life and livelihood participating in his vision.

Internet Joe is not careless, though.

He is backed by a good (though probably not “formal”) business plan . . . it may just be scribbled on the back of an envelope! But he will for sure have at least a professional grounding in what he is doing.

As I mentioned earlier in this blog-adaption series, Internet Joe probably landed on his own after a stint at a major corporation. He has a finely-honed sense of quality and what it takes to build his vision. The adventure is taking on both planned and unforeseen opportunities to execute it in a whole new way — serve new markets, create products and services, and uncover new revenue streams where none existed.

If he has venture capital or crowdsourced income, people have already vetted his credentials. So the risk may have a stronger likelihood of an upside for investors than backing a relative unknown venture or creator, but working with other people’s money invested because they believe in someone or the idea puts stress on entrepreneur shoulders.

Regardless of whether a venture is investor-backed or self-funded, it is critical to regularly step back from the idea workbench to execute good judgment and seek the advice of close associates moving forward. Successful business development always reduces itself to being an authentic boss!

In either case, at the core, Internet Joe is taking some risk. Many ventures are well-vetted by professional investors, many people build businesses based on solid skills, and yet the annals of business are littered with failures within the first two years. More than half fail in the first five years according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics . . . and this is likely understated.

Soooooooo, “The Force” may “be with you,” but the odds are not, and your success is clearly not guaranteed . . . at least the first time around.

BEST BET: Pepper your adventuresomeness with

calculated, educated, realistic, well-advised

moves to increase your chances for success.

But don’t let all that practical good sense dampen your adventuresome spirit. Hey! Who knows where you’ll end up?

# # #

C’mon back TOMORROW 9/25 for Day 14 —

ARE YOU CONFIDENT ENOUGH TO MAKE IT ALL WORK?

# # #

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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

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Your Role In History As An Entrepreneur

C R E A T I V I T Y

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

Many entrepreneurial thinking-and-doing hardliners are justifiably quick to distinguish between creativity and innovation! They say ANYone can have creative ideas, but the true measure of success in entrepreneurland is innovation–taking a creative idea all the way through to the point of completion.

 

Just dreaming up a new behind-the-knees deodorant, for example, means nothing without also being able to produce accurate cost estimates, ingredient and package testing plans, financing and manufacturing sources, liability issues, distribution/warehousing arrangements and costs, marketing and branding strategies and tactics, etc., etc. etc.

 

That said, we need to be reminded that all of these, and other innovation-based issues, nonetheless begin with a single creative idea . . . the adopted child of every entrepreneur!

Peter Diamandis, President of Singularity University and Founder of the XPrize, is known for promoting “moonshot thinking,” as are the people at Google X. Moonshot thinking, as Diamandis describes it, doesn’t seek to achieve 10% sales but rather 10X more sales. Moonshot thinking is at the heart of the entrepreneurial spirit driving our culture into the New Economy. It is a creative kind of boundlessness that sees where nothing is and imagines what can be, full blown, in color, in 3D.

Entrepreneurs who will succeed well into future decades have a 360-degree view of the world, and it is magnified by a high-powered telescope. When the world was more linear, it was enough for an entrepreneur to see around corners and make an educated guess about where the world, his business and the two were going together. But today, an entrepreneur who merely sees around the next corner isn’t seeing far enough to guide a business into the New Economy.

SUCCESS calls for the kind of vision and creativity

that combines what we know now with what we are

working on– and what we haven’t yet figured out!

It calls for the kind of disciplined creative genius that birthed the light bulb, the airplane, the automobile, the Statue of Liberty, and Superman. It requires the kind of creativity usually associated with the arts . . . creativity that calls into being, something that has no grounding in the present and can’t be imagined by the minds of others . . . David, Mona Lisa,The Sistine Chapel, The Beatles, the pyramids, the Ferris Wheel, space travel, comic strip character Dick Tracy with a 2-way, video wristwatch in 1946 — long before television became a common household device, and very long before cellphones.

Creativity calls forth the left brain (which dictates outgoing, communicative right-side-of-the-body activities and associated analytical, practical, methodical thinking) in concert with the right brain (which dictates introvert-ish, artistic, left-side-of-the-body activities marked by free-spirited and unencumbered out-of-the-box thinking) a rare combination of thinking and behavior not often associated with business decision making.

Internet Joe [See earlier posts] can typically make cross-brain connections. He is wired to think out of the box (“Box? What box? I didn’t see any box!”) and yet to organize it in a way that his imaginings are usable and replicate-able. Viable businesses, after all, aren’t built on one-of-a-kind products or services.

Because creativity pulls in so many different skills and types of intelligence, great products and services are mostly built by cooperative teams. Creativity can and should be managed to result in something truly valuable. Great project managers who understand the creative process and can corral moonshot thinking are essential members of these teams, and every entrepreneur needs a good PM if they aren’t one themselves.

Creativity is a team sport.

Creativity isn’t as lone an enterprise as it might be romantically portrayed, a baggy-eyed, frizzle-haired Einstein sleepless and obsessed. Yes, creative entrepreneurs need to be very creative to envision what’s possible. But speed is often the key to success, and acceleration happens when teams multiply their vision geometrically and when project managers assemble the pieces into viable products and services.

Dream, be agile and connected. And then once the idea is born . . . then: innovate!

# # #
C’mon back TOMORROW 9/24 for Day 13.
Find out if YOUR sense of adventuresomeness measures up!
# # #

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!

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

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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

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!

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?

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Hal@Businessworks.US    931.854.0474

Every career success requires

this entrepreneur discipline:

No matter your career, you need this. Whether you’re a corporate muckity-muck, teacher, politician, healthcare specialist, secretary, retail clerk, telemarketer, athlete, stylist, cowboy, sales rep, business owner, logistics manager, IT guru, pilot, media mogul, entertainer, writer, lawyer, pastor, government administrator, student, or a stay-at-home Mom (or Mr. Mom) . . . or add your own description: ________________.

No matter your career, you need this entrepreneur discipline.

Well, sure. You’re reading this, so you already have a commitment to learn and grow. You’re already motivated to achieve. Odds are you have some degree of integrity—doing the right thing even when no one else is watching! And you likely have some entrepreneurially-embedded sense of urgency.

Entrepreneurs are also willing to take reasonable risks and adapt readily to change. But risk-taking and adaptability are not always reliable measures of career success. You work hard at making the most of your communication skills by listening and observing carefully and tenaciously. Well, that’s a good thing, and may even be worth a few points toward achieving the magical level of success you crave.

But all of these assets—and many more you undoubtedly possess aren’t worth a hill of beans without a highly developed sense of vigilance. Huh? You thought that was a discipline relegated to the military or research scientists.

Well, here are a couple of not-too-shabby practitioner/advocates:

• Henry David Thoreau, the noted American author, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and environmentalist who urged followers to “be forever on the alert.”
• And how about Thomas Jefferson: “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!”

So how does vigilance fit here? What makes it so special? Why should those who aspire to some measure of success really care? What’s the deal? What’s in it for me?

The answer: Vigilance is as Thoreau described, being forever on the alert. Alert to what? Alert to opportunities, market changes, society changes, world changes, job changes, personal and family changes . . . and assessing the impact of each, based on HOW (not why) you do what you do, HOW (not why) you use what you have, HOW (not why) you make the most of the skills you’ve developed.

It is all about being continually focused as much of the time as possible on the realistic present “here and now,” instead of the fantasy-filled past and future. Vigilance occurs in the present. How much of your life and success pursuits are in the present? The more they are, the closer you get to where you’re going.

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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