Category: Entrepreneurs

Starting a business is hard work, but making it successful is a whole other challenge. Some entrepreneurs want to do something that’s never been done before, while others want to build upon existing business niches or ideas and become a strong competitor. Whatever the goal may be, entrepreneurship is a tough undertaking and these risk takers have helped change the world for the better. Here are nine unlikely entrepreneurs who changed the market:

1. Bill Gates
It’s hard to believe that the genius behind the co-creation of software giant Microsoft never finished college, but it’s clear he didn’t need his diploma to do big things. Gates made the decision to leave Harvard to go work with Paul Allen at Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS). This risky decision to leave school truly paid off when Gates and Allen partnered up to create Microsoft in 1975. Today, Microsoft and its line of operating systems are the biggest and most widely used in the world. His entrepreneurial spirit and incredible intellect have made him one of the world’s wealthiest people and most admired entrepreneurs.

2. George Eastman
George Eastman was the mastermind behind the Eastman Kodak Company, in which he invented roll film and helped make photography a mainstream form of art. Eastman’s roll film invention also paved the way for the invention of motion picture film. His incredible contributions and commitment to the field of photography and filmmaking helped change the industry in so many fundamental ways.

3. Sergey Brin
Sergey Brin is a co-founder of Google and one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world. Before starting the multinational Internet and software corporation with Larry Page, Brin was a student at the University of Maryland, studying mathematics and computer science. He went on to get his PhD at Stanford University and met his future business partner Page there. Together, the two developed new search engine designs and algorithms, which led to the creation of the PageRank system and later Google.

4. Henry Ford
Henry Ford gave us the first affordable automobile and prompted the use of assembly lines in mass production. His incredible contributions to the American public changed the way people got from place to place and performed work. But Ford didn’t become a successful businessman overnight. In fact, he had to overcome some adversities, such as dyslexia and rejecting taking over the family farm to pursue his own business ventures.

5. Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban is best known for his wide range of business ventures, ranging from owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks to the owner of Landmark Theatres, Magnolia Pictures, and chairman of the HDTV cable network, HDNet. But the tech-savvy businessman and investor wasn’t always a huge success. Before Cuban struck gold, he was working as a bartender, then a salesman at a computer software store. Cuban was fired less than a year after working at the store, and decided to turn his attention to starting his own company, MicroSolutions. Cuban diversified his wealth and business ventures as a serial entrepreneur and influential leader in sports business.

6. John Mackey
Whole Foods Market might be a household name today, but back in the late ’70s it wasn’t quite as promising. Before becoming a supermarket chain, Whole Foods was a small natural foods store in Austin, Texas, called Safer Way Natural Foods. John Mackey and his then-girlfriend Rene Lawson Hardy opened up the store in 1978 and later partnered with Clarksville Natural Grocery owners Craig Weller and Mark Skiles to join the two grocery stores. Together, they opened the original Whole Foods Market in 1980, and it soon became a hit among health-conscious shoppers. It is now a leader of the premium natural and organic supermarkets, and thanks to Mackey’s expert leadership, it has maintained its ranking as one of the 100 best companies in America.

7. Walt Disney
No one would have guessed that the man who created Mickey Mouse and one of the largest motion picture production companies would have ever been doubted or rejected for not being good enough. But the truth is Walt Disney and his creations weren’t always a hit. In 1919, Disney was fired from his job at the Kansas City Star because he lacked imaginative ideas. He went on to create a cartoon series that later developed into what we now know as The Walt Disney Company. Walt’s undying creativity, drive, and entrepreneurial spirit helped him become one of the most admired and successful businessmen of all time.

8. Mark Zuckerberg
Who would have guessed that a young brainiac from Harvard would create the biggest and most successful social network in the world? Facebook originally served as a directory-like website for Harvard students, but was later expanded to other colleges in Boston and in the Ivy League. Facebook quickly spread to various universities around the world and eventually became available to anyone 13 and older. The incredibly popular social network now has more than 845 million active users. Zuckerberg’s creation has significantly changed the way people socialize and use the Internet.

9. Oprah Winfrey
It’s hard to believe that anyone could ever doubt the incredibly powerful and successful Oprah Winfrey, but in the beginning, few thought she had what it takes to be a successful talk show host. The odds were against her as an outspoken black female working in a field dominated by white males. Despite the doubts and negative predictions, Oprah’s talk show career became a huge success. After the initial success of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah began to explore her entrepreneurial side by creating Harpo Productions, Inc., which includes Harpo Films and Harpo Radio, Inc. After seeing how successful her Harpo Productions creation has been, Oprah joined with Discovery Communications to create a new channel called OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network in 2011.

Contributed by Business Insurance

Article Contributed by Dr. Joey Faucette

When I made a New Year’s resolution a few years ago to start exercising regularly, I did pretty well at first, going often and really enjoying the time and feeling better. After a while though I noticed my enthusiasm waning. I had more excuses not to go and I let them get in the way.

I knew I needed a partner—someone to hold me accountable, committed to our mutual success, and who brings out the best in me. Our younger daughter became my partner. She helped me push away from my desk and get up and do what I intended.

We business owners often try to go it alone and do pretty well at first. After a while though, for a variety of reasons, we find more excuses not to do what we should.

Who is your partner? Who is someone with whom you can conceive positive outcomes in your business?

Here are the three key characteristics your partner must have for you to get to where you want to be in your business.

Accountability

A rubber band has a shape of its own which isn’t very useful. It just lays there in the palm of your hand without any obvious use. Put a little pressure on it, it changes shape, and suddenly becomes very usable for a variety of purposes.

Accountability is the pressure your partner puts on you to move beyond your current business practices to ones that are more purposeful. You shift your shape toward more productivity and conceive more positively how your business can grow.

Mutual Benefit

I bought a bird feeder that promised to be squirrel proof. A counterweight system closed the gate on the bird seed slots when a heavy squirrel sat on the perch. It worked…until one day I watched as a squirrel ate eagerly from the perch while another squirrel sat on the counterweight. Then they switched places.

Now if squirrels can Work Positive for mutual benefit, we can find a partner with whom we can enjoy a similar relationship.

Insure that your partner is committed to your mutual success.

Brings Out the Best

When you are around some people, you look brighter, act sharper, and move more effectively to get things done. You just sense that you’re at your best.

Who brings out the best in you? Whether it’s offering you words of encouragement, or helping you assess accurately a situation, or doing some heavy lifting, your partner must be that person with whom you reach higher, accomplish more, and achieve greatness.

Regardless of how talented or skilled you are as a business professional, you develop personally and grow your business professionally more effectively and efficiently when you remember that it takes two to positively partner for greater success!

Conceive your business for positive profits and productivity starting today!

About the Author:

Best-selling author, speaker, and coach Dr. Joey Faucette shares how all of us working together create a more positive world this week. Adapted from his #1 Amazon best-seller, Work Positive in a Negative World.

Interview contributed by Young and Successful

Young and Successful has found someone a little out of our normal network. All the way down on the Caribbean Sea in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula we found Chris Rauton, an American Ex-Pat who lives in Playa del Carmen. Chris is American by birth and has lived the last few years in Mexico since finishing college. He is a serial entrepreneur, selling candy bars to kids at school at age 12, starting his first company at 23, and making his first big chunk of cash and becoming financially independent by his mid twenties. He has also managed to fit in studies at no less than the Harvard Business School into the mix, in a program specifically developed for business Owners/Founders, and even lobbied and succeeded to get the venerated (and no doubt averse to change) HBS to actually change the program while he was there. We got the idea that he is one of those people who tries to make everything he touches a little better than he found it, but that can sometimes backfire, as we found out.

 He has put together quite the list of start ups in the area known as the Riviera Maya just south of Cancun, but his latest vision is one that is a bit unorthodox as it has to do with climate change. Always looking to be on the forefront of what is happening in our world, Young and Successful sat down with Chris to talk about his new venture, how it is going to change the world, why the current jobs program that the politicians are talking about is all wrong, how to become younger, and why everybody but him seems to deserve the credit for success. Being that the interview involved a trip down to one of the most beautiful places on earth, nestled right on the Caribbean Sea, we were happy to oblige. Here is what we asked, what he had to say, and what we really thought of this guy:

By Valarie Huerta:

 (NOTE: The quotes in bold are author’s additions.)

We met up with Chris on a perfect September afternoon at a coffee shop specializing in Mexican grown, organic chocolate close to his offices. He was early as most of our interviews seem to be, already leisurely sipping a cup of the delightful chocolate, which we were more than happy to partake in. At first glance he is both one part twenty-something guy on vacation and one part retired dot com millionaire without a care in the world, projecting both an aura of financial success and the ability to enjoy himself. He is wearing a white button up shirt, white linen pants, open toed leather sandals, and has closely cropped hair. He arrives with a uniform Caribbean tan, the kind of tan that guys in movies have, the kind of tan that people who move to Paradise covet, carefree. That is until you get to the eyes. As with most of Young and Successful’s interviewees, it’s all about the eyes. Chris’ are grey, in the all white outfit he has on (not sure if somebody forgot to tell him that labor day has passed) they look as if they have no color at all, but I am pretty sure they are blue most of the time. They are intense and they have a look of self confidence that he could conquer the world. He looks exactly as I had expected he would look…

Thank you for joining us, it is a pleasure to do an article on an American Success story in Mexico, it seems as though all we hear about Mexico is the bad news:

Yea, it does seem like that. (Chris smiles as he says this, he has a very easy way of smiling when he makes a point that makes you comfortable. This involuntary reaction is surely one of the reasons he has found self-made success so quickly).

We get US TV down here and the difference between what they say is happening here and what is actually going on is night and day. There are of course dangerous parts of Mexico, but thankfully the Riviera Maya, where we do the majority of our business, is not one of them.

It sure seems safe to us in the few days we have been here. Good roads, friendly people, great food, and some of the best nightlife I have ever seen. I can see why you chose this place.

Playa (the locals and those in the know refer to Playa del Carmen as just “Playa”) has so much going for it. It is heavily influenced by Mexican, American, and many European cultures. There is a reason it is consistently one of the top vacation destinations on the planet, it’s pretty great.

So how does such a great place get you focused on climate change?

The world is getting warmer. Specifically for this area, that means that the Caribbean Sea, which fuels hurricanes and tropical storms, is staying warmer, longer into the year. That means more and stronger storms.

What you are talking about is pretty controversial, many people including some renowned scientists; think that sun spots are the cause of all this warming.

The cause is not the key issue. It is happening and the storms will come. We can either bury our heads in the sand, or we can prepare. That is what this business was founded on, helping those in the “strike zone” be prepared when they do come.

But how can you hope to stand up to Mother Nature?

Human beings already do it, and have been doing it for thousands of years. They tamed the Nile Delta through engineering of irrigation systems, in California they build to withstand earthquakes, there are even people who live all year in Antarctica! If we can set up permanent settlements at the South Pole, we can engineer against Hurricanes.

OK, OK, I get your point, I had no idea that there was even anything you could do to protect against hurricanes, besides boarding up your house like you always see on the news before a storm. What do you do specifically?

That is a good place to start. We see these images of people before a storm, it’s almost like they use stock footage over and over, of people putting tape on their windows and boarding up with plywood. Well when you look a little further the only thing both are good for is to make you feel a little better, the purpose of the masking tape is for is when the window shatters it is easier to clean up. The plywood seems like a good idea, but independent studies have shown that it offers almost no protection to a projectile in a storm. Add that to the fact that the plywood is usually put up in haste, nailed or drilled directly to your home, and you have damage to the façade of the home regardless of what the storm is going to do.

So are you saying that you are better off with nothing than with the plywood?

Probably so. The type of wood that most people end up putting up is so thin that forget a projectile, the wind will rip it off. Instead of protection you are creating more things flying around in the vicinity of your house, which makes it more dangerous than it would be if nothing had been done in the first place.

Is this how the hurricane protection industry started?

Actually the industry can date itself back to Japan. Years ago, the fisherman who came in before a storm would throw their fishing nets over their huts. After the cyclone came through the houses with the nets would often be the only one standing.

Of course the world has changed a lot since fishing nets and huts. Today we have homes that are sealed from the elements. Our biggest risk during a storm is pressure equalization. Inside we have what is referred to as negative pressure, and outside we have positive pressure. During a storm there are drastic changes in barometric pressure, and if the seal to your home is broken at any point, that pressure wants to equalize. We have seen situations where every window in the home at the same time blasts out, just from that equalization of pressure.

So what you are doing is protecting the glass?

NO!!! That is not the point of hurricane protection. The point is to make sure that the seal is kept. Sometimes, normally in commercial projects and not in homes, but sometimes we get zero separation from the screen to the glass, which means a projectile launched just right, would

actually break the glass behind the screen. But that’s OK. As long as that seal is not broken the things inside are still protected. The point of hurricane protection is not to prevent glass from breaking, it is to prevent the things inside the home from being ruined.

OK, slow down, what is all this talk about screens? What is hurricane protection anyway?

Hurricane protection is covering the openings of a home or building to create a seal that stops the elements from coming inside. We use a patented ballistic fabric with a special coating to applied to accomplish this. The system is professionally installed before a storm comes and once it is here it is easy to put up and take down.

I think I get it now. Changing subjects for just a minute, what did your studies at Harvard teach you in terms of changing the world?

Wow, that’s a tall order, changing the world! Any school gives you what you put in, Harvard is no different. What an experience being around so many successful people teaches you is you have to have a vision, a strategy, and you have to stick to it. If you are true to yourself, the world will recognize it.

You did not answer the question….

Wow, you’re good… Pin me down why don’t you… Harvard teaches that changing the world is doing the right thing at the right time. Now climate change is something that is a very important topic, and it will be with us with lasting repercussions for a long time. The entire human population that lives in the areas most affected are not going to simply move to higher ground, so we need to look at ways to live with it, and minimize its impact on the world around us. That is really what this business is about.

OK, I guess I can live with that, so back to the product, is it actually made in the USA?

That is correct. 100% designed, developed and made in the USA. The entire system is patent pending and was developed by some very, very smart people in Florida.

Not something you hear everyday. A start up US manufacturer. Isn’t that the truth!

(Chris laughs. It’s a real laugh, not one done for making a point. I just made up my mind, this guy is genuine).

People think that all the manufacturing jobs are leaving the US, and here we are starting a company based on US manufacturing. But sometimes it is best not to follow the crowd.

The key to innovation is thinking differently than those before you. There are still many things that are done very well in the US, like quality control. On something that can literally save your life, you cannot afford to outsource so somewhere with questionable quality control. We like to say that we are protecting property and saving lives, which in a strong tropical storm or hurricane, is true.

With all this talk about jobs plans lately, maybe the politicians should pay attention to what is going on here.

Wouldn’t that be the day! What we have learned over the last few years is jobs come from new ideas being executed. We saw a need for something that could protect in any sort of storm, was easy to put up and take down, then developed it. The rest is easy, educating the public and getting the world out.

OK, back to the product a second. So I put the system on my house or on my building?

We actually have 2 systems. One is the retrofit one we developed with the clip, the other is proprietary called Astroguard. If you put up the Astroguard in your house, you basically turn it into a bunker. We have taken lobbies of hotels and turned them into Class 5 hurricane refuges with Astroguard.

What does that mean exactly?

It means the lobby could withstand the direct hit of a class 5 hurricane.

Wow, that is impressive. So do you have some sort of certification that verifies that?

Of course. We have all the industry standards most people have some knowledge of, Florida Building Code approval, Miami Dade approval, but recently we passed a test that is for “Level E” certifications, “E” standing for essential like hospitals and Government Instillations. This raises the bar to the rest of the industry, to say the least.

What about installing this product?

Our background is a construction company. We have on our team some of the most knowledgeable engineers and architects anywhere on staff. When you work with very high end hotel and commercial clients, retrofitting a system that was never thought of when the building was designed can be a challenge. We have been able to do things that have made our clients very happy, and that in turn makes us very happy.

To what do you owe your success?

Our success (It occurs to me that Chris has not used the word “I” one time since we sat down. Although it is my understanding that he is the sole owner of his company, he always talks in terms of “we”, another reason why success has come so quickly) has been the product of a concentrated team effort to satisfy the needs of our clients from top to bottom. The designers developed a fantastic product, the engineers figured out how to best install it in any situation, and now the marketing guys are getting the word out. So far those that have been able to find out about it, have really liked the product.

It seems that everybody deserves a bit of the credit except you?

(Chris smiles, and pauses for just a second before going on).

There are a lot of very talented people who have gotten us to this point and I am just happy to be able to be a part of it.

Come on, don’t be so modest. We have done our homework, it seems everything you touch has been a success. That has to have something to do with this as well.

Far from it! I have had my share of let downs. The first business I started was a complete failure!! We just try to get a little wiser every time life throws us a curveball.

This one is really something special. It simultaneously addresses one of the most important topics of this century in climate change and does it in a way that saves both lives and property. (Chris squints when he says this and his blue eyes get very intense. He really means what he says).

Again, I am impressed. What should we look forward to with HF Mexico?

We are just getting our feet wet in this market. Mexico is a very big market and we will be doing major expansion in the near future. This season was really our first with the new product and the response has been fantastic! We are going to expand throughout the country of Mexico in the next 12 months, and are also looking to expand in the US, we have no presence is some of the major markets like Texas and the Carolinas.

We hear that your next project has something to do with anti-aging. So first you are going to protect the world, and then you are going to make it younger?

We have a couple of other irons in the fire, but for the rest of 2011 we are focused 100% on Hurricane Protection and how to make this model work.

Come on, we want more than that. I am still in my 20’s and would love to know how to not get any older. Give us something… I am guessing you are talking about Botox and the like…

No, not Botox. We are not talking about cosmetic surgery. We are talking about slowing the process fundamentally. When we talk about aging, we talk about it on 2 levels, cellular and the entire organism. Cells are just little machines, and the more efficient we can make them run, the longer they will work well. We are a lot more complex overall, so that has to be addressed separately.

Now I am really intrigued, you have to tell us more.

All I can say is when we have it all worked out, you will be the first to know.

OK, I guess we leave off there, thank you for your time and good luck in all your upcoming ventures.

Same to you Valarie. It was a pleasure.

Author’s Note: We have seen over and over, the most successful companies are founded in industries that are rapidly growing. By having the best product in a rapidly growing

industry, HF Mexico seems destined for success. As we have seen from his track record, anything that Chris has touched has been very successful and we look forward to hearing more from him and his ventures.

Article Contributed by Dave Thomas

In a day and age when it seems just about everyone has to work additional years in order to have a relatively secure retirement, more and more entrepreneurs are finding the need to come out of retirement.

Not only are older entrepreneurs realizing the need to work harder, in some cases coming out of retirement to make ends meet, they are also coming to the realization that their status as ideal entrepreneurs works to their benefit.

According to a number of studies, individuals ages 60 and older are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in the nation.

For the older worker who has been let go from a job and is finding a new position hard to locate, more of them are turning to entrepreneurship to cover their financial needs. In many cases, they draw on their previous experience or venture into something entirely new to fulfill a lifelong dream.

According to a report from AARP and Urban Institute, nearly one-fourth of individuals who switch jobs after the age of 51 turn to self-employment to meet their career and financial needs.

In the event you are leaning towards being an entrepreneur in what would normally be viewed as your retirement years, here are some things to consider:

• Use your work background to your advantage – With a wealth of experience, it only makes sense to draw on what you’ve learned during your career. Tap into what you’re most comfortable with and where you have the most experience;
• Secure financial backing – It is of utmost importance to make sure your new business venture is financially secure. Given the state of the economy, it is not surprising that many potential entrepreneurs are hesitant to tap into their financial savings. Before looking to savings to start your venture, consider other avenues, including taking out a bank loan or going to family and friends to invest in your business;
• Be prepared to work extra hours – For many individuals coming out of retirement to be self-employed, the work hours will be intense in many cases. In the event these individuals choose to add staff, they’re still responsible for managing them. Be prepared to put in more hours than when you worked for someone else and be ready for increased levels of responsibility;
• Focus in on having fun – While having to work extra years for older entrepreneurs may not sound like fun, you can still make it an enjoyable situation. If you’ve ever dreamed of running your own business, just because you’re older does not mean you can’t do it. If you take time to enjoy the fruits of your labor, both you and those working under you will benefit.

With the economic forecasts saying more and more individuals will not be able to rely on Social Security alone to make a go of it in their later years, starting your own business can be both personally and more importantly financially satisfying.

Are you ready to become an older entrepreneur?

About the Author:

Dave Thomas, who covers items like business phone service writes extensively forBusiness.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.

Article Contributed By Lisa Cherney

How do I balance being a full-time mother and a full-time entrepreneur?  After five+ years of doing both, I can say it’s been crazy, fun, and worth every minute!  I started by creating the life that I wanted, and then I worked my business into it.  If you want to be a mother and entrepreneur without sacrificing either, start by asking yourself these questions:

1.    What transitions do I need to make in light of being a mother?  There’s nothing like a child to make you do a 180 with your business.  For me, I was inspired to get smarter and work less. Being a mom forced me to get real about how I was spending my time.  Not in a time management sense, but in the sense of how I wanted to be of service with my life’s work,   which leads to the second question.

2.    How do I design my business around my most profitable activities?  Let go of what’s not working and get support for what is.  At first I needed to just pare things down.  I was working five plus days a week before I had my daughter.  After Bella was born I was able to cut back to one or two days a week with no change in income.  I was just working off of the momentum that I had created.  When she turned two and started preschool, I still only wanted to work three days a week, max.  It took a huge mind-set shift, and I took some big risks, but by focusing on my most profitable activities, I was able to triple my income again.

3.    What are some of the action steps I can take to make a full-time business model work with part-time hours? First, I changed the way I was charging for my services.  I had to get out of the whole “economy” conversation, because it gives people an out instead of really taking a hard look at the way they do business.  Look at what you really want to do.  Try charging by the project instead of by the hour, or experiment with value-based pricing where you create service packages.  Maybe you need to leverage your programs instead of doing so much one-on-one work.  For myself, I went straight to the leveraged model.  I keep it very simple, with just a few highly impactful programs.  I created programs that I believed in, I set an implementation date, I enrolled people in the program, and I went for it.

4.    Where can you give yourself a raise?  Here’s an exercise.  Think about the last time you raised your rates.  Make a list of the reasons why you did it.  Now think about doubling your rates today.  There is no difference between where you were when you last raised your rates and where you are now.  So why can’t you do it again?  Any reason you come up with to not justify your true value is just an excuse.

If being a full-time mother and a full-time entrepreneur is your goal, take action now.  Find a mentor who shares your values and vision for your life and don’t leave their side until you make the change. Investing in a mentor when Bella turned 3 gave me the courage to take those steps.  Even now that my daughter is in First Grade, I still work only three to four days a week, because I’m willing to do what I need to do to create the life I want.  You can too!

About the Author:

Lisa Cherney, a.k.a. the Juicy Marketing Expert, founded Conscious Marketing 12 years ago to help small business owners find their authentic marketing voice, attract their ideal clients and increase their sales. Following her own Stand Out & Be Juicy program, which centers on owning your unique self and laser-focus marketing, Lisa has tripled her income while working part-time.

Prior to Conscious Marketing, Lisa worked with many Fortune 500 companies, including AT&T, Lipton, Nissan, Blue Cross and Equal. She is a highly sought after speaker and often shares the stage with experts such as Jack Assaraf (The Secret), Jack Canfield and Jill Lublin. Learn more about Lisa at www.consciousmarketing.com or call 887-771-0156.