Great Achiever:

Entrepreneurial Success

Entrepreneur

The Key Personality, Environmental, and Action Factors

 

 

 

"Everyone has a talent. What is rare is the courage to nurture it in solitude and to follow the talent to the dark places where it leads." ~ Erica Jong

   

Steve Jobs' 12 Rules of Success

  1. Make SWOT analysis. As soon as you join/start a company, make a list of strengths and weaknesses of yourself and your company on a piece of paper... More

4 Entrepreneurial Strategies

By: Peter Drucker

  1. Being "the Fastest and the Mostest" – the "greatest gamble", aiming from the beginning at permanent leadership... More

3 Strategies of Market Leaders

10 Commandments of Innovation

  • Take risk: Take entrepreneurial action – nothing venture, nothing win... More

Entrepreneurial Creativity

5 Action Areas

  1. Personal Development

  2. Building Enterprise

  3. Discovering and Pursuing Opportunities

  4. Effective Competing

  5. Winning Customers... More

Buzz Marketing: Success Story

 

Creativity Opportunity Spotting

80/20 Principle

10 Golden Rules for Successful Carriers

  • Become self-employed early in your career... More

 

12 Reasons Why Companies Fail

By Terry Collison

  1. Inadequate planning of the business

  2. Inadequate planning of the business

  3. Inadequate planning of the business

  4. Insufficient initial capital for the start-up period and development stages due to inadequate planning... More

Seven Sources of Entrepreneurial Opportunities

By Peter Drucker

Internal

  1. The unexpected – the unexpected success, the unexpected failure, the unexpected outside event... More

7 Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurial Firms

By: NBIA

  • Entrepreneurs who are passionate about their ventures and communicate that excitement to potential investors, customers and mentors... More

SWOT Analysis

Questions To Answer

  • What is your strongest business asset?

  • What do you offer that makes you stand out from the rest?

  • Do you have any specific marketing expertise?... More

10 Commandments for Building a Growing Business

  1. The Customer is King. Define the business of the enterprise in terms of what is to be bought, precisely by whom, and why. Avoid disaster by testing the market prior to development of a product... More

What Is Entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurship is first and foremost a mindset. It is the art of finding creative profitable solutions to problems.

Every successful entrepreneur, every successful businessperson has been someone who's been able to identify a problem and come up with a solution to it before somebody else did.

Who Is the Entrepreneur?

Entrepreneur is a person who habitually creates and innovates to build something of recognized value around perceived opportunities.1

In this definition, all words are key words:

  • 'Entrepreneur' – can be an individual entrepreneur, but also an entrepreneurial team or even entrepreneurial organization

  • 'A person' – emphasizes a personality rather than a system

  • 'Habitually' – just cannot stop being an entrepreneur

  • 'creates' – starts from scratch and brings into being something that was not there before

  • 'innovates' – able to overcome obstacles that would stop most people; turns problems and risks into opportunities; delivers - sees ideas through to final application

  • 'Builds something' – describes the output of the creation and innovation process

  • 'Of recognized value' – encompasses economic, commercial, social, or aesthetic value

  • 'Perceived opportunities' – spotting the opportunity to exploit an idea that may or may not be original to the entrepreneur; seeing something other miss or only see in retrospect1

What Entrepreneurs Are Like?

Source: Entrepreneurs, Bill Bolton and John Thompson

  1. Personality factors

    • born/made ratio – 50/50, a synergy of genetic and environmental influence

    • motivation and emotion – independence, competitive spirit, challenge, wealth

    • behavioral characteristics – perseverance, determination, orientation to clear goals, need to achieve, opportunity orientation, creativity, persistent problem-solving, risk-taking, integrity, honesty, internal locus on control

    • personality attributes – preferred styles: extrovert/introvert; sensor/intuit; thinker/feeler; and judger/perceiver

  1. Environmental factors

    • family background – entrepreneurial heritage

    • age and education – begin entrepreneurial activity early; are not over-educated

    • work experience – most entrepreneurs first gain some work experience in the line of business they later start up

  2. Action factors

    • make the difference – initiate change and enjoy it

    • Create and innovate – a continuous activity, seeing creative idea through to the end, and then start climbing another mountain

    • exploit opportunities – able to see or craft opportunities that other people miss

    • find resources and competencies – experts at exploiting contacts and sources

    • network – expertise oriented; know when they need experts and how to use them effectively

    • face adversity – resolve problems under pressure; turn problems into opportunities

    • manage risk - not adventurers, but manageable risk takers; their success lies in caution, learning, flexibility and change during implementation

    • control the business - pay attention to details and essential ratios; exercise strategic control over their business

    • put the customer first – listen to the customer and respond to the customers' feedback

    • creates capital – financial, social, and aesthetic

The Critical Role of Your Business Model

Business model converts innovation to economic value for the business. The business model spells-out how a company makes money by specifying where it is positioned in the value chain. It draws on a multitude on business subjects including entrepreneurship, strategy, economics, finance, operations, and marketing... More

The Art of Innovation: 9 Truths

By: Guy Kawasaki

  • Break down the barriers. The way life should work is that innovative products are easy to sell. Dream on. Life isn't fair. Indeed, the more innovative, the more barriers the status quo will erect in your way. Entrepreneurs should understand this upfront and not get flustered when market acceptance comes slowly. I've found that the best way to break barriers is enable people to test drive your innovation: download your software, take home your hardware, whatever it takes.... More

10 Commandments of Innovation

DOs and DON'Ts of a Successful Innovator

By: Peter Drucker

DOs: Start small – try to do one specific thing...

DON'Ts: Don't undershoot, or you will simply create an opportunity for competition... More

Value Innovation

Inspirational Business Plan: Successful Innovation

Growth Strategy: "Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth." – Peter Drucker... More

 Case in Point  Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was one of the most successful entrepreneurs of our generation. His success story is legendary.

Put up for adoption at an early age, dropped out of college after 6 months, slept on friends’ floors, returned coke bottles for 5 cent deposits to buy food, then went on to start Apple Computers and Pixar Animation Studios.

On June 12th 2005, Steve Jobs gave the commencement address at Stanford University. He revealed the two secrets of his great success:

  1. Find your true passion and do what you love to do.

Innovation Is Love

Venture Financing

Obtaining venture funding is one of the biggest challenges for the entrepreneur in a company's early stage.

Steps of the Venture Financing Process

Technology ventures demand an unbroken financing chain, from pre-seed capital to stock market. The financing chain is no stronger than its weakest link.

High-tech start-ups usually go through multiple funding rounds. Equity financing conventionally follows the below trajectory:.. More

Find a New Business Idea

"How do you find a new product or service, recognizing that 80 percent or more will be new in five years? Here's a series of ideas. Number one, begin with yourself," advises Brian Tracy. "Begin with your own talents, your abilities, your experience, knowledge, interest, background, education, and so on. Look carefully at your current work, your current business, your current position, or your current product or service. Seek for what is called your own acres of diamonds. Look under your own feet."... More

Two Rules for Business Start-Ups

Entrepreneurship is the art of finding profitable solutions to problems. Every successful entrepreneur, every successful businessperson has been a person who has been able to identify a problem and come up with a solution to it before somebody else did. Here are the five rules for entrepreneurship... More

Customer Success 360

7 Simple Steps to Small Business Success

Many businesspeople achieve their greatest successes in unexpected areas. They begin a business and then they find that it isn't as profitable as they had anticipated, so they change direction, using their experience and their momentum, and strike paydirt in something else. The most important thing is to begin. To take action. To move forward one step at a time, learning and growing as you go. There is enough information available in virtually every field for you to become knowledgeable enough to achieve success. But action is necessary.... More

The Complete A to Z Plan for Business Success

By: Brian Tracy

Here's why most businesses fail:

  1. Lack of money – you don't have enough to get started and grow

  2. Lack of knowledge – you don't know what you're doing

  3. Lack of support – you're not able to get the support of other people and sell them on your ideas... More

Guidelines for Getting (and Keeping) Funding in Today's Market

 

  

 

References:

  1. Entrepreneurs, Bill Bolton and John Thompson

  2. High Tech Start Up, John L. Nesheim

  3. "Money Hunt", Miles Spenser and Cliff Ennico

  4. Direct from Dell, Michael Dell with Catherine Fredman

  5. Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Peter Drucker

Venturepreneur

Resources:

  1. Business On the Mound – Helping Your Startup Business To Hit a Home Run