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I will endeavor to update this forum with my personal collection of inspirational and educational write-ups from various authors on the subject matter - Entrepreneurship

So, lets inspire and educate ourselves. You won't be disappointed. You will succeed.

First Lesson

Well lets start from the basics, this article's source is unknown but it is very educative. Please read on .........

Ten Things Every Entrepreneur Should Know
I have shared with you several keys to business success on this platform. In this feature, I want to show you ten things every entrepreneur should know. While there is no sure-fire formula for success under the sun, studies have shown that successful entrepreneurs share these ten characteristics. Check if you possess any one of them:
Running a one-person business is a creative, flexible and challenging way to become your own boss and chart your own future. It is about creating a life, as it is about making a living. It takes courage, determination and foresight to decide to become an entrepreneur. From the relatively safe cocoon of the corporate world, where pay checks arrive regularly, venturing into the unknown territories of business ownership is an act of courage.
Is there a way to determine whether you will be a successful entrepreneur or not? Alas, there is no formula for success. However, most successful entrepreneurs share these ten characteristics. Check if you possess any one of them:
Think Success
To attain the kind of success that you want, you need to dream big. Every success story starts with big dreams. You need to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve. But it doesn't stop in dreaming alone. You should actively visualize success in your mind that you can almost feel it, touch it or it is within your reach. Play this image back at every opportunity.
Successful entrepreneurs possess an attitude of openness and faith that you can have what you want if you can simply envision it as the first step on the path of action to acquiring it. If you want to be a successful writer, envision yourself signing books for a throng of people who have lined up to have your autograph. If you want to be rich, picture yourself in luxurious surroundings holding a fat bank account. And the process of envisioning success for you should be a constant activity!
You need to think that you are successful (or will be one) every single waking hour. This has been my secret as a writer, speaker and business advisor/coach.
Be Passionate With What You Do
You start a business to change some or all aspects of your life. To attain this change, you need to develop or uncover an intense, personal passion to change the way things are and to live life to the fullest.
Focus On Your Strengths
Let's face it; you cannot be everything to everybody. Each of us has our own strengths and weaknesses. To be effective, you need to identify your strengths and concentrate on them.
You will become more successful if you are able to channel your efforts to areas that you do best. In business, for example, if you know you have good marketing instincts, then harness this strength and make full use of it.
Never Consider The Possibility Of Failure
Ayn Rand, in her novel "The Fountainhead," wrote, "It is not in the nature of man - nor of any living entity, to start out by giving up." As an entrepreneur, you need to fully believe in your goals, and that you can do it. Think that what you are doing will contribute to the betterment of your environment and your personal self.
Plan Accordingly
You have a vision, and you have enough faith in yourself to believe that you can achieve your vision. But do you know how to get to your vision? To achieve your vision, you need to have concrete goals that will provide the stepping-stone towards your ultimate vision. Put your goals in writing; not doing so just makes them as intangible fantasies. You need to plan each day in such a way that your every action contributes to the attainment of your vision. Plan and plan - because without planning failure is guaranteed.
Work Hard
Every successful entrepreneur works hard, hard and hard. No one achieves success just by sitting and staring at the wall every single day. Working hard will be easy if you have a vision, clear goals, and are passionate with what you do.
Constantly Look For Ways To Network
In business, you are judged by the company you keep - from your management team, board of directors, to strategic partners. Businesses always need assistance, more so, small businesses. It is important to form alliances with people who can help you, and who you can help in return. To succeed in business, you need to possess good networking skills and always be alert to opportunities to expand your contacts.
Willingness To Learn
You need not carry an MBA certificate or PhD degree to succeed in business. In fact, there are a lot of entrepreneurs who did not even finish secondary education. Studies show that most self-made millionaires have average intelligence. Nonetheless, these people reached their full potentials, achieved their financial and personal goals in business because they are willing to learn. This willingness to learn becomes more crucial given the rapid changes in technologies and the ways business is run.
Persevere And Have Faith
No one said that the road to success is easy. Despite your good intentions and diligence, sometimes you will fail. Some successful entrepreneurs suffered setbacks and resounding defeats, even bankruptcy, yet they managed to quickly stand up to make it big in their fields. Your courage to persist in the face of adversity and ability to bounce back after a temporary disappointment will assure you success.
Discipline Yourself
Thomas Huxley once said, "Do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you like it or not." Self-discipline is the key to success. The strength of will to force yourself to pay the price of success - doing what others don't like to do, going the extra mile, fighting and winning the lonely battle with yourself will take you to the top.
You will succeed!

Lesson 2

What Motivates Entrepreneurs?
by Ryan May
Some entrepreneurs continuously struggle to bring a single idea or product to market while others seem to be able to do it almost effortlessly, time and again. Household names like Steve Jobs, who achieved a legendary level of success with Apple, Pixar and NeXT, serve as examples of these global business auteurs. But there are exponentially more men and women who successfully and continuously launch thriving businesses that may not achieve the same level of global recognition but remain highly profitable just the same.
How do they do it? Given the repeat success many enjoy, you can pretty much count luck out. And while a wide range of leadership abilities go into the mix, at the core is an innate drive toward success.
The greatest challenge for a serial entrepreneur is figuring out how to rekindle the initial hunger, passion and dedication that fueled their first venture. To do so, many surround themselves with connections who’ve supported them in the past, often leaning heavily on trusted partners for crucial financial, professional and emotional support. To continuously draw from these people, the entrepreneur must inspire an organic dedication among his or her followers.
Often viewed as optimistic and idealistic, the entrepreneur possesses a level of commitment and a vision that are easily observed. They’re inventive, aggressive, confident, tireless, highly (and often severely) competitive, and possess an intense level of focus. Entrepreneurs genuinely believe in what they’re doing and thereby inspire others toward the same goal. They typically place a high value on creativity and will take a calculated risk if they’re fairly certain they can sway the eventual outcome in their favor.
But what inspires such a fierce level of commitment?

Wealth
Money seems to be the common denominator among serial entrepreneurs. Taking a quick glance over a list of The World’s Billionaires compiled by Forbes, a large percentage are entrepreneurs, including Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Larry Ellison and Amancio Ortega. These men account for the top 1 percent of the world’s wealth and have achieved their standing as self-made entrepreneurs.

Intrinsic Motivation
Also known as the “entrepreneurial obsession,” intrinsic motivation is a term used to refer to the predisposition to work on something because it’s interesting, engaging, stimulating, satisfying or challenging on a personal level. This is in opposition to the larger set of people who are extrinsically motivated, driven by expected evaluation, supervision, competition or rewards. Entrepreneurs do what they do because they genuinely enjoy it. As a result, many serial entrepreneurs strive to create something that is both tangible and significant and will not pursue objectives they deem to be less of a challenge.
Social Responsibility
There is no guarantee on the success of any business startup, though the success rate of a serial entrepreneur would seem to argue with that fact. As mentioned above, those willing to risk both time and financial resources do so because they believe in what they’re doing. And with entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs or Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, we glimpse a desire to leave the world a better place by contributing innovations that improve the entrepreneur’s chosen field. These individuals, who may possess a nearly maniacal level of ambition, tend to provide products and services that strive to improve society and in the process leave a significant mark on the world – in short, a legacy.

Lesson 3

Top 10 Tips for Starting a Business That Will Succeed
Advice on Starting a Business to Ensure Success
By Susan Ward, About.com Guide
1) Do what you love.
You're going to devote a lot of time and energy to starting a business and building it into a successful enterprise, so it's really important that you truly deeply enjoy what you do, whether it be running fishing charters, creating pottery or providing financial advice.
2) Start your business while you're still employed.
How long can most people live without money? Not long. And it may be a long time before your new business actually makes any profits. Being employed while you're starting a business means money in your pocket while you're going through the starting a business process.
3) Don't do it alone.
You need a support system while you're starting a business (and afterwards). A family member or friend that you can bounce ideas off and who will listen sympathetically to the latest business start up crisis is invaluable. Even better, find a mentor or, if you qualify, apply for a business start up program. When you're starting a business experienced guidance is the best support system of all.
4) Get clients or customers first.
Don't wait until you've officially started your business to line these up, because your business can't survive without them. Do the networking. Make the contacts. Sell or even give away your products or services. You can't start marketing too soon.

5) Write a business plan.
The main reason for doing a business plan first when you're thinking of starting a business is that it can help you avoid sinking your time and money into starting a business that will not succeed. Remember, you don't have to work through a full scale business plan for each new business idea you come up with; but a good business plan will let you test the potential of your business idea much more quickly.

6) Do the research.
You'll do a lot of research writing a business plan, but that's just a start. When you're starting a business, you need to become an expert on your industry, products and services, if you're not already. Joining related industry or professional associations before you start your business is a great idea.

7) Get professional help.
On the other hand, just because you're starting a business, doesn't mean you have to be an expert on everything. If you're not an accountant or bookkeeper, hire one (or both). If you need to write up a contract, and you're not a lawyer, hire one. You will waste more time and possibly money in the long run trying to do things yourself that you are not qualified to do.

Get the money lined up.
Save up if you have to. Approach potential investors and lenders. Figure our your financial fall-back plan. Don't expect to start a business and then walk into a bank and get money. Traditional lenders don't like new ideas and don't like businesses without proven track records.

9) Be professional from the get-go.
Everything about you and the way you do business needs to let people know that you are a professional running a serious business. That means getting all the accoutrements such as professional business cards, a business phone and a business email address, and treating people in a professional, courteous manner.

10) Get the legal and tax issues right the first time.
It's much more difficult and expensive to unsnarl a mess afterwards. Does your business need to be registered? Will you have to charge Witholding Tax or VAT? Will you have to have Workers' Compensation Insurance or deal with PAYE taxes? How will the form of business you choose affect your income tax situation? Learn what your legal and tax responsibilities are before you start your business and operate accordingly.
Following the advice on starting a business above will make starting a business both a smoother, less stressful process and go a long way towards ensuring the business you start lasts and thrives.
Starting a business is one of the most exhilarating things a person can do. But unfortunately, a few bad decisions and some poor breaks and it can also be one of the most stressful and disappointing events in a person's life and a complete waste of time and money.
The following are the advice given by other people to anyone starting a business to increase their chances of starting a successful business:
One piece of advice
Have a goal; find your target; think of your goal every minute; find a path to your target which will lead you to your goal and take RISKS.
—Sabaoon rahimi
Just Start!
1) Don't wait until everything is perfect to get started...because then you'll never start. Get going and you can learn, make improvements along the way. 2) Be sure you love what you do, because you'll be spending a lot of time doing it. 3) Hire professionals for the areas you're not an expert in. You don't have to know it all. 4) Keep working in your day-job if you can because it might take a while to get your business going and you don't want to feel the financial pinch. 5) Failing is your greatest teacher! Don't be afraid. Embrace. Good luck! Claudia CEO and Founder www.RentingInternational.com
—rentinginternational
Books to read
4 Hour Work Week, Referral Engine, and E-Myth had the BEST and most practical examples of successful businesses and instructions on how to be like them, from using Social Media to networking clubs to build business. In 4 Hour Work Week Tim points out there's a market for dwarf entertainment. Your job is to figure out what market you can best serve, then develop a strategy and budget to go after them.
—chowsr
Starting a Business Takes Determination
You must make up your mind you want to do it; no looking back. Also, consider your abilities, capabilities and funds. Focus on your strength and work on your weakness. "You don't have to be great to start but you have to start to be great".- Zig Ziglar
—Bayo Farinade
Passion and Excitement
There are three things which you should ever consider when you start a business and want to succeed: Passion, Excitement (motivation) and Faith. If you don't love what you do, if you don't put passion in it, and feel motivated to wake up early in the morning, that business will never grow. It will find a way to survive in time but will never grow.
—CJ
Don't Run Away From Initial Failure
One thing you must know that when you are starting a business it won't start giving profit instantly from the time you start it. Hence you must wait and learn and apply new ways of doing business to succeed, not leave it after initial failure.
—sagun
vision
Don't let money get in the way of vision. Ideas and concepts are free. Do the legwork prep work and homework yourself. Prove to the people around you that you are dedicated and committed and they will want to invest in YOU, not your business.
—silver
Learning From Others
Learning from others' mistakes is perhaps the best way to strategize Success.
—nut
Don't Look Behind If Starting a Business
If you want to grow with your own business, just make sure first and than don't look behind. Always remember, loss and success fly together, so don't be disheartened about little things. Be brave and never be downcast.
—saman
The very first step is missing
About all the articles I must say, they are 2nd or 3rd or later steps in starting a business. What is missing and what causes even highly motivated and gifted people to fail, is a good strategy as the very first step in considering self employment. In my time-management-use.com site, I cover under Biz Time what I call meta time management and give a short description of the EKS ® Strategy (a bottleneck concentrated behavioral and guidance strategy) of the German business economist Wolfgang Mewes. Unfortunately found no better english description so far. I do not want to devaluate the countless useful points of view of all the authors. However, without the right strategy they miss informing business starters about the inevitable solid foundation Following the well meant advice and tips is nice, but do not secure a successful start.
—hero58
Know Your Industry
I do believe that all of these comments are true. Because when you start a business you need to know your business you want to start. Its very important to know where you stand. Always be on top of the game.
—mw
Base Your Business on Respect
Respect your customers and treat them well; because of them is what you are. Always be respectful with them for them to feel confortable with you and increase the trust they have in you.
—slatter
Be an Expert in Your Field
If you do not understand your business, the competitors, the cycles, and the industry, then you will fail. You must know everything about your field of business.
—Ron Floyd
making the right choice
When you start your own business it's all about making the right choice. What i mean is that you need to plan out what what you are doing and tell someone to check it for you to see if it's good and then make the choice.
—unknown
Grow With Your Business
Always remember that the best business plan today can be obsolete tomorrow.
—chibuikem

What one piece of advice would you give anyone starting a business to increase their chances of starting a successful business? Share Your Advice

Lesson 4

The Two Paths to Starting a Business
By Susan Ward

Part 1: Starting a Business Based on Your Wants


There are two paths to starting a business and while both paths may end up at the same place, with you running a successful established small business, one of the paths is a lot harder traveling than the other.
If you choose to travel the first path to starting a business, you've decided to start a business based on your wants. That is, you've decided that you want to do a particular thing, such as open a book store or provide Web site design services, and/or that you want to do this thing in a particular place.
Often people have very good reasons for choosing to go this route when starting a business. They have regular jobs or family obligations that tie them to a place, or possess a set of skills that they want to capitalize on. Many successful small businesses have been started because someone became passionate about a particular product or service (including mine)!
But if you decide to take this path to starting a business, you need to be aware that your path to business success may be much more circuitous and rock-strewn than if you had chosen the other path to starting a business.
If you choose this first path, you will be starting a business based entirely on your desires, rather than on the realities of the business environment. Wanting to do a particular thing in a particular place can be an especially troubling complication that can add years to your journey of successfully starting a business and even make success impossible.
What if, for instance, you insist on starting a book store in a town with a population of only 25,000 that already has seven book stores? Or decide that you are going to open a bed and breakfast in a place that's only accessible by air? Don't laugh; both of these are real-life starting a business examples - and both of these are businesses that failed.
Following the first path to starting a business can be very dangerous if you insist on following your dream without looking around to see who else has already implemented that dream. It can also be a bit like starting a business with blinders on; because you're so intent on doing what you want to do, you may not see other opportunities for starting a business that could be even more profitable.
If the first three rules of real estate are "Location! Location! Location!", then the first three rules of starting and running a successful small business are "Customers! Customers! Customers!" The true danger of following the first path to starting a business is that you ignore these three rules. Your idea of starting a business is based entirely on what you want to do or what you want to sell or on where you want to live, potentially ignoring your customers' wants and desires.
But there's a better route to starting a business which will give you a much better chance of success.
Part 2: Starting Your Own Business Based on Needs
The second path to starting your own business focuses on starting a business based on your potential customers' needs. It involves researching your customers' wants and desires, and then choosing to start a business that meets their wants.
When you follow the second path to starting your own business, your road to success is clear and unencumbered, because you're starting a business where your customers live, either figuratively or literally.
The interesting thing about this path to starting your own business is that even though it's the fastest path to success, it has two branches. Once you've studied your potential customers' needs, you can either decide to take your product or service to the customer, or you can examine the customers' needs and create a business tailored to meet those needs, filling a niche market.
For example, if it is your dream to run a book store, you can do the research and find a city or town filled with literate, book-loving people which doesn't already have enough book stores to fill the reading needs of potential customers and locate your new book store there. Or, if you live in the small town of 25,000 with seven existing book stores that I used as an example on the previous page, you study your potential customers and determine what needs of theirs aren't yet being met, creating a business to fit that niche market.
Perhaps there are enough potential customers in that particular town to support a bookstore specializing in religious books, for instance. Or perhaps the key to successfully starting your own business in that location is combining your passion for selling books with some other product or service that will appeal to those 25,000 people, such as starting a business that sells herbal products (with books on related topics as a sideline).
Businesses can't exist for any length of time without customers, so if you want to start your own business, you have to put your customers first, not your own desires. While I run a successful small business now, I investigated and rejected scores of businesses before I started this one, because they just weren't viable in terms of the needs of my potential customers.
Remember the Robert Frost poem? "..two paths diverged in a yellow wood." When it comes to starting your own business, letting your customers' needs guide you down the path will make all the difference to your success.

Lesson 5

Business Plan Outline
The Writing a Business Plan Series

By Susan Ward
Thinking of writing a business plan? Here is a business plan outline, listing the sections in the order in which they will appear in your completed plan with a brief explanation of each section to help you get organized and guide you through the process.
The Executive Summary
While appearing first, this section is written last. It summarizes the key elements of the entire business plan.
The Industry
An overview of the industry sector that your business will be a part of, including industry trends, major players in the industry, and estimated industry sales. This section will also include a summary of your business's place within the industry.
Market Analysis
An examination of the primary target market for your product or service, including geographic location, demographics, your target market's needs and how these needs are being met currently.
Competitive Analysis
An investigation of your direct and indirect competitors, with an assessment of their competitive advantage and an analysis of how you will overcome any entry barriers to your chosen market.
Marketing Plan
A detailed explanation of your sales strategy, pricing plan, proposed advertising and promotion activities, and product or service's benefits.
Management Plan
An outline of your business's legal structure and management resources, including your internal management team, external management resources, and human resources needs.
Operating Plan
A description of your business's physical location, facilities and equipment, kinds of employees needed, inventory requirements and suppliers, and any other applicable operating details, such as a description of the manufacturing process.
Financial Plan
A description of your funding requirements, your detailed financial statements, and a financial statement analysis.
Appendices And Exhibits
Any additional information that will help establish the credibility of your business idea,such as marketing studies, photographs of your product, and/or contracts or other legal agreements pertinent to your business.

Lesson 6

Top 4 Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs
by Carmen

Do you think you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? Becoming an entrepreneur takes a specific type of personality. Fortunately, it’s the type of personality you can develop by working on yourself, growing, and learning how to express these traits. Focus on the four top traits below and you’ll find yourself ahead of the pack.
An entrepreneur is a problem solver
An entrepreneur looks at a problem and knows it’s an opportunity. That’s not a cliché talking. A problem is literally an opportunity to get paid if you can be the one to solve it. Successful entrepreneurs make their name identifying problems without solutions, and providing those solutions. Every good product solves some sort of problem. Even video games solve a problem—they provide a way for people to unwind after a stressful day and fulfill a fantasy.
If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, your natural response to any given problem should always be to ask yourself how you can solve that problem. Not who is to blame, not how that problem came to be—just how the problem can be solved. Problem-solving becomes a habit. As you become alert to problems with no solutions, you become alert to new ways to create, grow, develop, and innovate new products. If you can marry this alertness to calculated action you will develop the instincts that you need to be an outstanding entrepreneur.

An entrepreneur takes calculated risks
Risk-adverse people don’t make very good entrepreneurs—but neither do extremely reckless people who leap first and look later. Real entrepreneurs evaluate their potential risks. They also know how to minimize the risks they need to take through hard work, dedication, and strategic planning.
When a risk goes bad an entrepreneur does not waste a lot of time looking for someone to blame. Instead a true entrepreneur analyzes what went wrong, learns from it, and moves on.

An entrepreneur is self-motivated
This is about more than simply being your own boss. This is about more than simply being able to get up in the morning and get to work. An entrepreneur is always capable of seeing a tomorrow that’s just a little bit better than today. He’s not satisfied to just sit on his laurels and enjoy the fruits of his success. He’s constantly looking forward—creating plausible plans to create more opportunities and find his next point of success. An entrepreneur is also willing to push himself. Last year’s success was fine, but this year’s success should reflect his growth. He’s always coming up with some new project and looking for ways to make that project succeed.

An entrepreneur is confident
There’s not much room in the business world for self-doubt. Fear can make you back away from projects that could be the key to your ultimate success. Furthermore, the entrepreneur has to be in the business of convincing other people that his ideas are good. Partners, investors, financing, creative structuring—it all depends on the entrepreneur’s ability to convince other people that they’re making a good bet when they team up with him. If the entrepreneur is not sure about himself, how can anyone else be sure of him?

Lesson 7

New Business Ideas for the Budding Entrepreneur
by Leo Sun

Many employees going through the day-to-day grind of their unsatisfying work dream of being entrepreneurs, to finally have that business epiphany on how to entwine their ideas together into a profitable business model. For most individuals, however, that dream is just that and nothing more, and many ideas are left half-baked and abandoned, never to be visited upon again. How did today’s successful entrepreneurs manage get their foot out of the door and risk it all to build successful enterprises? How did they gain the business acumen necessary to sniff out and follow an idea, and build upon it? Legendary investor Jim Rogers, who retired at 37, once traveled the world by motorcycle and Mercedes in search of business ideas. Steve Jobs once worked out of his parents’ garage building the future of computing. Do you, as a potential small business owner, have what it takes to search for that perfect idea and preach it to the world?

Here are some things to consider about yourself:
§ Do you dream of financial independence, to be free from corporate strings and monthly salaries, to be in total control of your monthly income?
§ Do you read up on market trends, and stay up to date on recent developments?
§ Are you willing to travel to far-off lands far outside your established comfort zone, in order to research potential markets?
§ Do you have enough cash in the bank to meet your expenses, in unpaid months?
§ Do you have enough cash to invest in a new business?
§ Is your family supportive of your decision to pursue your dream?
§ Will your family time be impacted by your new venture?


An old saying tells us that you can never be truly motivated to pursue your next goal until you quit your current, comfortable job. With comfort often comes decreased motivation and drive, which will not help you move to the next level. While financial security is important, with it comes apathy and with that, years pass, straight into your retirement. Of course, you should have a well-planned idea of where you’re headed before you quit your job, but once you do, don’t look back.

Look forward and start looking for ways to implement your ideas. While certainly no one expects you to follow in Jim Roger’s globetrotting footsteps, here are some places where you can start digging for ideas:
BRIC Markets. Brazil, Russia, India and China are widely forecast to become the economic powerhouses of the 21st century. China has already become the second largest economy in the world. Many of the companies in these nations, especially small businesses, operate in highly competitive environments that weed out the losers practically overnight. Many of these ideas, such as China and India’s ultra-budget auto businesses, have market potential in the West but have yet to be tapped effectively. Read up on foreign businesses to gain insight on what businesses work universally.
Build a global business network. It’s the 21st century, so there’s no excuse to not take full advantage of the Internet and social networking to build your business contacts across the globe as far as you can.
§ Read, read, read! Although this requires actively weeding out the hype from the facts, business magazines and websites can still be valuable sources of business ideas.

§ Market Currents. Even if you are not an active stock trader or investor, following the stock market on a daily basis can educate you on the state of commodities (a crucial factor in many businesses), the state of world markets, world currencies and profitable sectors and businesses. Stock investing is also good practice for picking profitable ventures.

§ Untapped Markets. New businesses often produce a product that a market has no need for, simply because its a cheap and easy solution, pray and throw it into a crowded market where it is swallowed up whole. Tread where others have not.

§ Patented Products. We can’t all be inventors, but if you are, patenting your product will immediately erect high barriers for your competition.

§ Existing Companies. Research companies, both good and bad, and see the choices that have driven them to the top or sunk them to the bottom.

§ Investing Partners. While it may certainly be a justifiable move to go at it alone, you may be better off finding several business partners who can share insights and capital, and who can keep you in line. However, pick carefully. As with any group effort, the decision making process gets complicated exponentially with each additional partner.

§ Market Research. Conducting your own market research to thoroughly analyze local and global markets can help gauge the probability of your idea’s success.
In the end, the most important thing is your determination and willingness to take a leap of faith. You can spend all your life dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur, then regret not taking the chance when you were younger, or you can spot that fleeting idea, hold onto it, and make it happen.

Lesson 8

You don’t need MBA to be an entrepreneur
Written by Ruth Olurounbi

The other time I was in a group meeting that had to do with starting up your own business. The facilitator asked us why some of us are afraid of starting our business and what we thought we needed to be our own bosses. A guy in the group offered that he thought an MBA was necessary to be your own boss and that he would never start his own business without one. He’s an engineering graduate. After a long debate that lasted 25 minutes, the facilitator drummed it into our heads that we do not need an MBA to start a business. He said although it wouldn’t be all that bad to have one, it really didn’t matter if you had or not. After all, Bill Gates was a Havard dropout and that didn’t stop him from starting his own company.
IF you are like some of us who thought having an MBA was the prerequisite to starting a company, I will refer you to Aliko Dangote and the likes in the country.
In the meantime, Guy Kawasaki, an entrepreneur, author and the chief executive of Garage Technology Ventures, a venture-capital investment bank for tech firms (in the United States of America), has expert answers to all your questions about starting a business.  
Kawasaki was previously an Apple Fellow at Apple Computers and is also the author of seven books. He has a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from UCLA, as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College. He is on the board of BitPass, a micro-payments systems company for online content.
In responding to what the value of an MBA is these days for young college graduates who want to start their own company, said probably not that much. “I don’t think an MBA matter very much for starting a company. A much better educational background is an engineering degree. You can always hire MBAs, but if you don’t have the ability to conceptualise and deliver a product, you’ve got nothing. By the way, the founders of Apple Computer, Microsoft , Yahoo! and Google don’t have MBAs, but I digress,” he explained.
If you have been looking for an answer to the question whether or not a good education is a key to success in the business world, then here’s an answer for you. “If by education you mean book learning and class attending, then the answer is no. If by education, you mean the totality of experiences in your life, then the answer is yes. For example, someone could never attend college and still be a great entrepreneur. And someone could get a Ph.D. in management and not be able to operate a lemonade stand,” Kawasaki said.
But then the question is can you succeed with a good team and hard work even if your initial idea is not a winner? Kawasaki said “Sure. Most initial ideas are not winners anyway. You have to be flexible: Sometimes you start with a great idea and a lousy team. Then you get rid of the team. Other times you start with a lousy idea and a great team. Then you get rid of the idea. Great companies often make radical changes in direction as the times change. Nokia, for example, started in forest products.”
So, what criteria should be used to determine what to do with a failing company? Invest more and try to save it or just fold?
Kawasaki said he doesn’t really know the answer to this question, but from what he could tell, “mostly you come to learn that you should or shouldn’t have invested more with hindsight.”

Lesson 9

Party and event planning business: Start with nothing, gain a lot!

Written by Olaoluwa Mimiola

WHO does not like a great party? Many people, among those who want a great
party, prefer handing it over to an expert, as that will enable them to achieve their
plan for a great event and also relieve them of the burden of planning. A beautiful venue,
fantastic music and the best of food, planning events is a good business.
Event packaging and management business includes management, design, planning, coordination
and promotion. Events can be classified into four broad categories, based on their purpose and
objective: Leisure e.g. sport, music, recreation; Cultural e.g. ceremonial, religious, art, heritage;
Personal e.g. weddings, birthdays, anniversaries; and Organisational e.g. commercial, political,
charitable, sales, product launches and expositions.

Start up cost
Capital is not a threat for whoever wants to venture into the business. You can start with just a
pen, paper and your personality. That does not undermine the place of capital in every business,
as having a good capital will help a great deal. And no amount is too big for the business, depending
on the scale you want to run the business.

Who is an ideal planner?
To begin a career in party planning and events management, you must have a genuine interest
in the industry, be charismatic, a good communicator and level-headed. You need to be able to
remain calm under pressure and be a good leader. According to the Chief Executive Officer of
Event Decorators, London, Mrs Abimbola Ashade, “to be successful in party planning and events,
you don’t need a lot of assets to work, as much of your asset is your intellect and personality,
and by extension, a telephone and a computer set.”

The party planner is a special mix. On the one hand, you have to be extraordinarily organised
in order to juggle all the logistical elements of a range of projects; on the other hand, there’s
the creative imperative, for which you need a completely different skill set. And on top of all that,
it really helps if you are ‘bubbly and outgoing’.

Learning
Learning the basics in the business is continuous. Any form of formal education and/or training
in it will be a huge advantage.

Planning and research
Do as much research and be as passionate about the events industry as you can. You are up
against well-seasoned professionals who haven’t got enough work to go around. You need to be
very clear on the area in which you want to run events. First, determine which events you will run,
then break down whose parties you will plan, and finally, decide on the style you’re going to have
as a business, because in event management, you need to tailor everything to your target audience.
Specialise in a niche and stick to it. Because there is tremendous competition in every single area
you can dream of, and unless you are the best in that field, there’s not much chance of you doing
well or surviving.

Costs and potential earnings
The needs of your clients, your contacts and relationship with venues and suppliers, and making
a list of contacts to get good rates in printing, among others, will help in reducing your running
cost. Your supplier costs will dictate your pricings for the most part. Just how low you can swing
your venue rentals and printing costs will also depend on your contacts. Your overheads, if you are
working on your own, could be as little as the cost of a phone line, and a website, if you can afford
it.
Marketing and promotions are considerations too. The biggest costs in big companies are in staff
and you shouldn’t have to worry too much about that during the early days. One well packaged
event witnessed or heard by the right people, time and chance will earn you an enviable financial
breakthrough in the business.

Reputation and marketing
As with all industries, word of mouth is key. In this digital age, word-of-mouth includes online
social networks too. Twitter and Facebook pages should form part of your portfolio of marketing
efforts. Link your pages to your own site or blog: this will feed traffic to your site, improve your
search rating.

No matter how successful your online campaign is, however, at the end of the day you can’t
really buy reputation with advertising, but by running a number of successful events and building
up good relationships in the industry, and your reputation will soon tower over your competitors.

You can as well do trial runs. Most of this will be free. Be meticulous and do it as if you have
been paid millions for it, and get the free clients to recommend you to at least three people.
Offer good incentives to whoever recommends you. Before you know it, you will have the crème
de la crème on your client list, and millions of naira will start rolling into your account.


Event planning is leisure turned gold for me - Abimbola AshadeMRS Abimbola Ashade, the Chief Executive
Officer of Event Decorators, Canary Wharf, London, is an ardent believer in the saying that whatever you find natural and easy to do is your predestined profession, and you cannot, but succeed doing it. The Mass Communication graduate of The Polytechnic, Ibadan and United Kingdom-trained computer scientist and interior designer, was once organising events for friends, churches for free. It was this interest that led her into the world of event planning and management. What she considered her natural interest and leisure, according to her, has become gold for her, making and giving her a voice in the industry in the United Kingdom.

“I realised I enjoyed planning and decorating: so I ended up starting event planning and decoration service, while my study of interior design has helped with project management and designing event space.

“I left computer software job four years ago, to pursue event planning and management which is my passion and is capable of giving me the most satisfaction and live balance. I’ve handled a lot of events for both private and corporate organisations, which have in turn earned me more material wealth. The business has also earned me good friends, life lessons, good reputation, and also made me closer to God,” Ashade disclosed.

Comparing the market abroad to Nigeria’s, Ashade said: “The scale of events is mostly bigger in Nigeria but can be chaotic. Even large scale events abroad are broken down and micro managed in an orderly manner. The similarity in events in both worlds is still the fundamentals whether it is a wedding or the Olympics. Yet I’ll say that it’s a lucrative and satisfying business to venture into.”

She revealed that the market for the business is not limited to planning and managing event alone, but it also extends to training potential event planners.
“I plan, manage and promote events, and also teach whoever plans to venture into the business.”


Success Nugget
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will. - Vince Lambardi

Source: Tribune

Have passion for children? Run school business, get rich

IT was Dr Nelson Mandela who said: “Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that a son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine; that a child of farm worker can become the president of a great nation.”

The above submission by the powerful symbol of the black struggle against apartheid in Southern Africa confirms the age-long importance of education and the reason parents strive to go the extra mile to ensure their children get adequate and qualitative education. This makes any venture in education lucrative.

An ideal proprietor
If you want to run a school, you must have a passion for children and be knowledgeable, be able to teach and assess a good teacher. You are the first basic raw material for a school business. Next is your passion for children. Importantly, you must be creative.

Start up cost
Most of the time, you don’t need money to start a school. It starts from your heart. Most states in the federation allow you to start in a rented apartment. But I prefer you start in a whole building, because it is against the law and it is not good for the business to share space with accommodation.


You don’t need hundreds of thousands to start, while tens of millions may not be enough. In case you do not have a dime to start, you can start from your sitting room, organising extra-mural classes for students. You can even start with a student. That, if well managed, will metamorphose into a continuing education centre, and later into a full-fledged school.

The first step is to go to the Ministry of Education in the state where you want to site your school to obtain form. It is between N10,000 to N15,000 depending on the charges of the government of the state where you want to site your school. Then name the school, make provision for the necessary facilities and get enough money to pay the salaries of your teachers for the first term.

Research and planning
Do a considerable research about the standard of schools around where you want to site your school to know their strengths and weaknesses and how you can use these to your advantage. Most importantly, do not site your school where there are popular schools. Explore the developing areas in the city where you want to site your school, if you cannot build, rent a whole building. You may start by offering good but cheap education.

Another thing is the quality of the teachers you are using. Teachers make schools, not the building. Even if your school is under a tree, with good teachers, you will get more children than schools in a better environment. And never owe your teachers. Once you begin to owe them, the standard will begin to fall as their zeal will depreciate. You can be sure that the parent of one student will propel another parent to bring his child.

You must know how to approach issues in teaching students, as it has been proved that a lot of the methods being taught in the universities and colleges of education are not applicable.

Cost and potential earning
What you charge as fee depends on the quality of the teachers you employed, the facilities available, and the value you placed on your services and your strategy which may gear towards offering cheap but qualitative education to get more students.

People must see that you are committed to school business and must make the facilities available. If the facilities are not yet on ground, they must be sure that you are going to make them available.

You are sure of getting money three times in a year as parents pay per term. You are sure of earning millions of naira from school business. But making money must not be the primary thing. Also note that you don’t divert school money, because as soon as you start diverting it, you will begin to owe your teachers, which may result in the falling standard of your educational services and finally kill your school. School is a living venture, if you don’t feed it, it dies.

Reputation and marketing
Good teachers and your creativity are the most potent marketing tools for you. These will endear your school to parents. But these do not undermine the place of advertisement in boosting patronage in every business.

I started in a borrowed shop, with a child, with no kobo, now I have a group of schools - Aladesemipe
LAOLU Aladesemipe, proprietor of Calvary Group of Schools, Felele, Ibadan, is a great motivation to whoever may want to invest in school business.
The B.Tech graduate of Bio-Chemistry from the University of Ibadan, ventured into school business out of frustration of being unemployed. He started his school business in a borrowed shop. Though without money, he had a keen passion for children.

“I started Calvary Group of Schools in 1998 with a child in a borrowed shop (where they now sell charcoal), opposite Splash F.M, at Felele Straight.
Later, I employed more hands to start a continuing education centre, preparing students for external examinations. It was from that I discovered the laxity in these children, who attended public schools. This made me start a cheap private secondary school in 2000.

“I was able to convince the teachers who I employed for the continuing educational centre alongside myself to start the secondary school. The level they established served as a yardstick for any teacher we employ in the school.

“I started the secondary school with 16 students and six teachers. After a year the student population grew to 40 and the teachers’ to nine, including myself taking Mathematics and Chemistry. I taught until the student population grew to about 250 and the school’s principal then, Mrs Ajetunmobi, sacked me and employed a Chemistry teacher.

Now we have about 150 teachers. Most of the students that finished from Calvary Group of Schools, now lawyers, doctor, et al, will tell you ‘Uncle Laolu taught me Mathematics and Chemistry.’

“When I wanted to start a primary school in 2004, I did a research, went on the internet and browsed through the profile of 3,000 schools in the United Kingdom, to set a standard. Then we kicked off with 80 students.

“Parents must have seen something before they could bring their children to the school. I think what they saw was the quality of teachers we have, our hard work, diligence and creativity. Five years after we started Calvary Group of schools, we did not have signboard, yet the student population continued to grow.

“It used to be only me with a child in a borrowed shop, but just about 13 years after, we have over 150 teachers, four primary schools and one secondary school.

“My creativity made me start Friday wears in 2003, which virtually every school in Ibadan has now subscribed to. We started Goggles Day to protect the students’ eyes, which is also being adopted by other schools,” Aladesemipe explained.

Written by Olaoluwa Mimiola
Source: Tribune

4 assumptions that ruin entrepreneurs

All businesses start on assumptions but the great ones don’t thrive on assumptions. Assumption is the starting point of a business because the promoter usually gets the idea to go into the business on the assumption that there is a need. However, while many business promoters stay at that level and build their businesses on hunches and feelings dictated by their assumptions, very few business promoters go beyond that level to conduct a thorough survey to see if there is indeed a need and how a new business can effectively meet the business at a competitive price. They talk to people and study the trend before putting their resources into the venture. So, while the one who planted his business wholly on assumption and refused to stretch himself a little will soon run into a problem beyond his capacity to handle, the one who was less presumptuous will have a good run and build a lasting business.


Another assumption that ruins a business is to think that a business exists to make profits. Many an aspiring entrepreneur is motivated by the desire to make money from his business. While it is true that a business cannot continue in existence without being profitable, to equate the essence of a business to profitability is to put the cart before the horse, a precursor of frustration. A business’ raison d’etre is to create customers, not to rake in profit. It is when customers are created and kept that a business can really become profitable. The difference between running a business to make profit and running it to create customers is that while the fellow with the first mindset is always looking at the bottom line, the other guy is concerned about satisfying the customer. While the first fellow wants to make profit irrespective of what happens, the other wants to keep his customer at all costs. These determine their actions as well as the result they get.
Many wannabe entrepreneurs operate on the assumption that their cash flow projection is water tight. But that is nothing but illusion grandeur. If there is anything that is sure of failing in a business, it is the cash flow plan because it is hinged on the number of customers generated, selling at the right price and using the right channel. Getting it right on all counts is as easy as a camel passing through the eye of a needle. So, running on the assumption of an infallible cash flow projection is akin to taking a new business on a trip to Golgotha.
One fundamental feature of humans is the desire for change. The average man gets bored easily, thus his crave for new things is always high.
Unfortunately, however, many entrepreneurs pay little attention to this; they go about with the assumption that the market will always take whatever they offer. This is a very erroneous assumption; the market can choose and pick and it will always choose and pick a product that appears new regardless of its age. That is why the axiom, innovate or die holds true. The entrepreneur that keeps on thriving is the one that keeps on innovating.