Category: Entrepreneurs

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Entrepreneurs

Just Do It May Be The Right!

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OnStartups: Chances are, if you’re reading this article, you are either involved in a startup already, or looking to be involved in one.
This article is for the folks in the latter category, the “wannabepreneurs”. The ones that have always wanted to be entrepreneurs, but haven’t quite gotten around to it. The folks still slogging it away in BigCo land waiting for the “right” entrepreneurial opportunity to come along.
Here’s my advice: Stop Waiting!
If you’ve got a passion for startups, you need to be in a startup. Either run with the best idea you have and start your own thing (even if the idea sort of sucks), or join the best people you know that are already doing something. Just get out of the daily slog that is most big businesses. Scratch that itch.
Be an entrepreneur, not a wannabepreneur.
Here are a few quick points to help convince you:
1. You’re probably overestimating the risk of leaving that BigCo job. Chances are, that sort of job (or something awfully similar) will be there a year from now if things go miserably.
2. Though nothing compares to doing your own thing, joining a startup team is not bad either. It’s a great way to dip your toes in the water. Often, half the battle is just getting out of your comfort zone and being around startup people.
3. Regardless of what your risk tolerance is, you can likely still find opportunities that are more entrepreneurial than what you’re doing now. There are startups with really high risk, with nothing but a dream and a developer (or two) all the way to startups that have raised several rounds of funding and are on the IPO path. You should be able to find a startup that meets your risk profile.
4. Unless you have some compelling evidence that things are going to get easier later to do something more entrepreneurial, chances are, they’re not (going to get easier). So, if the question is when, not if, then ask yourself “why not sooner, rather than later?”
5. For those that are thinking: “Yeah, this is all easy for you to say, you’re not walking in my shoes”, I say this: You’re right. If you truly don’t have the situation or circumstances to take the leap, that’s ok. I just implore you to at least think about it and decide for yourself whether your obstacles are real or perceived.
I’ll close with a quote that’s been on my list of favorites for a while:
“Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.” -Sydney Harris
Taking The Leap: Don’t Just Be A Wannabepreneur [OnStartups]

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Entrepreneurs

Expand Your Team and Add More Hours To Your Day Without Losing Any Sleep!

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There are only so many hours in a day and working on your own as a solopreneur means that if you want to really grow your business you either have to find a way of going without sleep, or expand your team!

Personally, I prefer the latter! And this is what I’ve been doing recently too. My web host takes care of anything technical for me related to my website, and over the summer I partnered with a bookkeeper so that she could take over this area of my business for me! It’s made such a difference being able to hand over a large area of my workload to someone else.

So how can you ensure that your new-found team all work together and provide the best possible support for you and your business? Here are my top three tips:

1. Create a Team Directory. List your virtual team members with their name, role, email, telephone number, website, and job description and circulate it amongst everyone on your team. That way everyone will know who is doing what and can go directly to the appropriate team member with questions rather than have to go through you.
2. Schedule in a Weekly Call. This would be the equivalent of an office staff meeting, but you can do this virtually using a teleconference service. There are many services available and a lot of them are free, you just pay for the call at your end. This is a great way to stay in touch with your team.
3. Encourage communication between team members outside of the weekly call. Set everyone up on a Yahoo group or instant messaging service so that they can communicate with one another and get your projects done.

With my clients as well as having a weekly call we utilize a wonderful virtual office service that lets us upload and share documents, centralize our contacts, allocate tasks, and maintain our calendars. Members of our ‘team’ can also communicate with one another via a forum, and we can also hold team votes!

So if you’re finding that you’ve reached a plateau in your business, and you enjoy getting your nightly sleep! follow my advice above and expand your team.

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Entrepreneurs

Should Entrepreneurs Be Getting Your MBA?

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Younggogetter: This post written by Ryan, an entrepreneur, who, writes about relationship marketing, eCommerce, and other elements of business as it relates to Generation Y, on his blog, Ryan Stephens Marketing, outlines 3 reasons why you should skip obtaining your MBA.
Reason #1: It’s about PEOPLE — not rules, theorems, and formulas.
Being a great business person, or a great marketer is about connecting with people; it’s about building and solidifying relationships, and it is about making your brand a Lovemark. Managerial Cost Accounting doesn’t help you do that. I do not want to spend my life tucked away in a cubicle (or an office), but out on the streets interacting with and learning from consumers. What do they really want? How can I facilitate our relationship by providing them with the solution they are looking for?
What theorem teaches me how to do that? When you start seeing your business as a business of margins you are in danger of becoming a commodity. You can learn all the strategies in the world to get attention for your business, but what do you do when you get it? Is it sustainable? Learning about the people, your consumers and what they want enables you to thrive and consistently answer these questions. A piece of paper that dictates how well you ran regressions does not.
Reason #2: I’d rather build my network via Happy Hour and other events.
One of the reasons people decide to get an MBA is because it is a great opportunity to meet other ambitious people, and when one of them gets wealthy, they might hire you one day. But seriously, most good programs ensure that you get to hear some great speakers, work in groups with some talented peers, etc. and this is a valuable experience.
All I am saying is that I would rather do it at happy hour. Chances are you are working with some brilliant people right now. Maybe they fill stifled by their career, maybe underneath their rule-following, drone-like performances in the office they have brilliant business ideas that just need a little social lubricant to come to the forefront. I have had some great conversations with some really intelligent people at Happy Hour. I suspect it is because we do not feel confined by the rules of corporate America, but free to dream big, and showcase our passion for unique business approaches.
Aside from all of that, there are a lot of great people who will communicate with you if you make the effort. Is the CEO of Proctor and Gamble going to have lunch with you? No, the odds are not likely. However, if you contact someone in a company and tell them you respect the work they do (provided you have done your research and know what that is), and would like their advice concerning that particular field, job, etc. you would be surprised how many people would accommodate you.
Most people are nice people. Most people like helping other people. Build your network from the ground up. Just because a CEO comes and talks to your class does not mean he’s going to answer your email that you sent the next day. Take networking into your own hands.
Reason #3: I’m in too much of a hurry to waste time getting an MBA, when I could read some great books in one summer and get a very similar education.
For most MBA programs you need a few years work experience so by the time you work, then come back, then get the MBA, that’s approximately 5 years you could have been in the workforce, unleashing your ideas on the world (or at least trying to). And that’s my vantage point. I like to think of myself as an entrepreneur anxious to get out into the real world and to start making things happen.
Give me Keith Ferrazzi’s Never Eat Alone and I’ll learn about relationship marketing. Give me Kevin Roberts’ Lovemarks and I’ll learn about the future of branding. The point is a couple of good professors, business people, or bloggers could provide me with a list of great books I need to read. I could read one every other day or so and get a lot of the same education I would get in an MBA program.
Perhaps I do not get the actual experiences in terms of practicing presentations, but what better way to practice than to be giving presentations for my own company or whomever I am working with. Grades honestly do not matter that much to me anymore (I know, I know – you freak out if you don’t maintain that 4.0) but aside from obtaining higher education or that first job, when do they really matter ever again?
My aim is not to discredit or to diminish the idea of an MBA degree. I will freely admit that they can potentially accelerate your career path and provide you with a great opportunity to meet some phenomenal people and obtain some phenomenal opportunities in the process. All I am saying is that they are not the necessity that so many people believe them to be.
You can save all the money and invest your time emotionally connecting with people. You can build great relationships and hash out lucrative business ideas over a drink (or other social event), and you can obtain a solid education by reading best-selling business books by brilliant authors that probably know a lot more about that particular subject than your professor. I would say that is three pretty good reasons to skip getting your MBA.
3 Reasons To Skip Getting Your MBA [Younggogetter]

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Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship Home-Based Business Starting Up

Cash In Minus Cash Out Does Not Equal Profit

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You’ll pay too much in taxes if you don’t understand that cash in minus cash out does not equal profit.
This is the most important thing you need to know before you start keeping records for your business…cash in minus cash out does not equal profit. It simply equals cash left over. Or, in many cases, it’s a negative number, so it equals cash you owe somebody.
What this means is that you’ll need to understand the IRS rules and keep your records according to those rules so you report your profit correctly and take (and be able to prove) all the deductions you’re allowed to take. Because you want to pay the least amount of tax possible, right?
The way you’ll need to keep your books will be different depending on whether your business is a sole proprietorship, a partnership or a corporation. The rules for calculating income and deductions (and therefore profit) and the forms used for reporting to the IRS are different for the different business types.
What counts as income? Most or all of the money you take into your business will count as income. This includes fees for services and/or product sales.
But not all the cash that comes into your business counts as income.
If you get a rebate for a purchase you made at your local office supply store, that’s cash in, but it’s not income. It’s a reduction in your supplies expense.
If you get a refund of part of your insurance premium at the end of the year, that’s cash in, but it’s not income. It’s a reduction in insurance expense.
If you borrow money (and it doesn’t matter if it’s from your brother or the bank), that’s cash in, but it doesn’t count as income.
What counts as expenses? Most of the money you spend for your business will probably count as expenses. This includes advertising, postage, office supplies, and similar items.
But not all the cash that goes out of your business counts as expenses.
When you buy business property like cars, computers, and furniture that will last longer than a year, you’re not allowed to deduct their entire cost as an expense in the year of purchase (except in special circumstances).
These items are called capital assets. Sometimes they’re referred to as fixed assets.
You have to depreciate them over several years. Basically, depreciation is a process of spreading the cost of an item over its useful life.
You might have cash of several hundred or thousands of dollars go out the door when you purchase fixed assets, but you can’t deduct the entire amount of the purchase price as an expense when you buy them.
Some things that your business pays for might only count as partial expenses. An example of that is business meals and entertainment where you can only deduct half of the cost.
That doesn’t mean that your business can’t pay for 100 % of the cost, but only that you’re limited in the amount of the tax deduction you can take. This is another example of cash out that doesn’t translate directly to expenses.
Some things your business pays for might not be tax deductible at all.
An example of this would be a contribution to a Political Action Committee. That doesn’t mean that the business can’t pay for it, just that it’s not a deductible expense on your tax return.
Some more examples of cash that goes out the door that doesn’t count as expenses are: draws for sole proprietors and distributions for partners or S corporation shareholders.
There’s also one type of expense that can be more than the amount of cash that the business actually spends. It’s the home office deduction that some sole proprietors can take.
So you see why it’s so important to understand that cash in minus cash out does not equal profit.
Unfortunately, the IRS rules and regulations don’t always make logical sense; they might seem complicated and unfair. One thing is certain. They are the way they are, so we have to deal with them. Learn what you can. And get help when you need it.

SherylSchuffPhoto.jpgSheryl Schuff, CPA, is a Certified Public Accountant, author, and consultant who teaches entrepreneurs how to get their businesses organized, keep good accounting records, and maximize their business tax deductions. She is President of Schuff & Associates, PC and has been in private practice for over 30 years. She recently started an information products company www.TaxesForSmallBusiness.com to provide individual training materials for small business owners.

Categories
Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship

Top 20 Entrepreneurs Mistakes

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Young Entrepreneur: After polling our Young Entrepreneur readers, here is our list of the top 20 mistakes that startups make when creating a new business. I’ve also included a few of the comments that were left for some of the top points.
#1: Not Having a Clear Plan or Vision
“The biggest mistake people make is not looking far enough ahead in your market. So many businesses are losing ground to new technologies as example, so think ahead on how to better utilize these new technologies. With the current recession, how many planned for it? Every business will go through cycles of growth and market demize, just as we are all now seeing, so again, think ahead, have vision beyond today is one of the keys to success.”
#2: Surrounding Yourself With People Who Don’t Believe In Your Idea
“Another mistake would be surrounding yourselves with people (whether by accident or because they’re family, etc) who don’t believe in your idea. You need to be around positive feedback all the time.”
#3: Not Having Enough Money
“I think this is big for those businesses that have the incentive to only reap the benefits and not focus on the longevity of your venture. Taking out $10k now may prevent making $100k in a few months. Mindsets should not be “Yeah I own a buiness I make this much” but rather “Yeah I own a business, we invested in XYZ and were able to afford this new service/expand here/etc” Also, too many people plan on the basic expenses of starting up, and don’t think about the increased expense that come with a more successful, growing, developing business.”
#4: Doing It All Alone
“Lots of CEO personalities think they have to be the answer to all problems, and this is not the case. Their pride and mindset of “I must live up to this role” is skewed and they may fail to tap the most important and valuable resources that surround them in their management team and affiliates.”
#5: Not Seeking Mentors
“I think having a mentor – a much more experienced entrepreneur that can give you some valuable advice is so IMPORTANT…especially when you are a young and overly ambitious… and with so many challenges to meet on the way to success.”
#6: Losing Momentum
“Being satisfied and content with functioning can lead to “big headedness” and false hope that it will always be this way. You need to constantly improve your product/service, research your around-the-clock changing market and competition, and promote innovation and forward progress amongst your management and team.”
#7: Not Marketing Your Business / Expecting People To Come To You
“A few mistakes that I personally made was the lack of focus on a targeted marketing plan, and the miscalculation on future expected growth.”
#8: Not Looking At Your Competition
“I think it is a big mistake to start a business without really understand the market.”
#9: Being Overly Enthusiastic and Not Having Realistic Goals
“A few mistakes that I personally made was the lack of focus on a targeted marketing plan, and the miscalculation on future expected growth.”

#10: Not Thinking Survival
“Too many people think that so long as everything is done “textbook” and they have the proper set up, and plans down on paper, that they will succeed. Also, many people have the idea that it is easy to keep it up after they get an initial consumer base. Not true. small businesses are small fish in a big pond, constantly competing against emerging and growing bigger competitors that have the backing, both monetarily and resourcefully, to push them out of the picture.”
The remaining 10 common startup mistakes are:
* Doing It Just For The Money
* Not hiring right away
* Getting to year 1, past year 2
* Not getting involved in the community
* Working in your business instead of on it
* Going wide instead of deep into a niche
* Not using email marketing
* Having a lack of ambition
* Failing to network with others
* Growing too quickly
The Top 20 Startup Mistakes – Entrepreneur Poll Results [Young Entrepreneur]