Category: Entrepreneurship

The Truth about the Role of an Entrepreneur

Scour the profiles across LinkedIn and you’ll be blinded by the countless “Entrepreneurs” and “CEOs”. Rummage through the business cards you collected at the last networking event and you’ll find an endless sea of “Founders”, and “Owners”.

While non-entrepreneur types may be impressed by these lofty titles, the rest of us can see right through you.  Those lovely euphemisms actually stand for “monkey”, “gopher”, “donkey” and various other creatures from the animal kingdom, and here’s why:

Monkey: Running around (sometimes aimlessly) fixing things

Gopher: Searching and fetching, then repeating the process

Beaver: Busy as one, sometimes biting off more than you can chew

Donkey:  Getting kicked around by investors and customers

So who do you pretend to be, and who are you actually?

Learning from my Business Card Mistakes

When I launched my own business I instantly printed business cards emblazoned with my self-appointed title. I might as well as written “your royal highness Excellency”.  I didn’t have a product but I had a shiny stack of glossy business cards declaring me as the head of the kingdom that didn’t exist yet.

What happened? Well within a couple of months, my logo changed, my website name changed, my company colors changed, and (gasp) yes my role changed. And here I was gazing at my pretty stack of unused business cards! I’m not committing that #entrepreneurfail again.

Alternatives to Business Cards?

I’m now here to overturn the conventional sport of printing and passing around business cards when you are just starting out.  Now introducing the MVP of a business card: No business card!  This is what I recommend:

1. Everyone has a smart phone.  If you meet someone interesting, do the green thing and take a photo his or her biz card.  Email the person on the spot.
2. If they don’t have a biz card, compose a blank email before you go your separate ways.  Ask them to fill out the To: field.  You should fill out the cc: field with your own email. The subject can say: “Nice to meet you today. Stay in touch.”
3. If email isn’t your style, ensure you have the LinkedIn app on your phone. As you meet an interesting person, ask them if they are on LinkedIn and before you bid adieu send them a request as a contact.

Do you have business cards? What do they say? Do you find them useful? Let us know in the comments below.

This comic and post were originally created by Kriti Vichare for #entrepreneurfail: Startup Success.

New Webcomics series brought to you by #entrepreneurfail and GetEntrepreneurial.com. Enjoy!

“Rome wasn’t built in a day either…” 

I first saw this unapologetic declaration on a billboard sign on a highway that is perennially under construction. And it always reminds me that startups have to be treated the same way.

Entrepreneurs and wantrepreneurs approach creating a startup empire differently.  Firstly, what’s a wantrepreneur? They are the eager beavers who may look, act, and seem like entrepreneurs – but all without owning an actual business!

Let’s examine the wantrepreneur scenario when building a startup empire:

1. This is the one…the idea of the century!” Wantrepreneurs rarely focus on the problem to solve.
2. “Oooooh features! I love features!” Wantrepreneurs don’t create a foundation and work incrementally, but instead fast forward and jump in the deep end before learning to swim.
3. “I’ll just whip together the business in no time!” Wantrepreneurs always underestimate the time it takes to grow a business.
4. “If you build it they will come.” Wantrepreneurs believe the only thing stopping them from customers, is the lack of product.
5. “Money… I’ll figure it out later.” Wantrepreneurs severely minimize the needed funding for their projects.

To build an empire you need a foundation, vision, support, and patience. Serial entrepreneurs know this; it is second nature to them. As they move with tremendous speed, they know they have to learn to walk before they run. A scalable, repeatable business model is necessary before expanding too big or out of reach.

How do you approach building an empire? Let us know in the comments below.

New Webcomics series brought to you by #entrepreneurfail and GetEntrepreneurial.com. Enjoy!

“With no marketing budget I resorted to techniques I would have never considered – cold calling, cold emailing, cold presentations, and crashing networking events, amongst others.” 

To spread the word to customers in a big company, the marketing department gets the big bucks to make sure the sales team is out there busting down doors to grow the business. And since chances are the brand or product already has recognition, the marketing helps reiterate and boost the brand in the market. The huge marketing budget pales in comparison to the return on the investment.

In a startup on the other hand, every employee – from founder to developer to gopher needs to be a marketer and a salesperson. The thick skin each employee will develop after hearing constant rejections will only make the value proposition stronger.

This article by Anita Newton goes deeper into the comparison! It’s a good read especially if you are making the transition from big company to small, or vice versa.

Key Startup Lesson: Use inexpensive methods of marketing and PR that all team members can use help grow the business.

Tell us about your experiences marketing in your startup in the comments below. 

This comic and post is from the book: Cheating on Your Corporate Job: A Comic Look at the Startup Dream. Read the review on Forbes.com. You can get the book on Amazon Kindle or PDF. Use the code “fifty” to get a 50% discount on the PDF.

New Webcomics series brought to you by #entrepreneurfail and GetEntrepreneurial.com. Enjoy!

“Don’t forget to strap in your friends and family! It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”  No one can deny that starting your own venture is like a roller coaster ride, but those closest to you probably have no idea that they are also in for a stomach-churning adventure.

As you embark on your entrepreneurial journey, you, and your friends and family need to be prepared for internal turmoil and drama. Your only certainty is no paycheck, no steady income, no fixed schedule and no predictability.  Everyday something in the news, on acclaimed publications or trending websites, may send dismay through your spine. Whether it is a new well-funded competitor launching the same product as you, or perhaps an expert claiming your industry is dead, this isn’t a ride for the weak or complacent. And this is just the beginning.

However, this emotional ride is the only path! So don’t worry. Pivot as necessary, be strong and make sure your loved ones take their (e)motion-sickness medicine.  Free fall coming up!

How did your family and friends handle you jumping into entrepreneurship? Let us know in the comments below? 

This comic and post was created by Kriti Vichare for #entrepreneurfail: Startup Success.

New Webcomics series brought to you by #entrepreneurfail and GetEntrepreneurial.com. Enjoy!

The entrepreneurial mind often skews to idealism.

Pull out those rose-colored glasses. Optimism signals confidence, abilities, perseverance and positive outcomes. These are clearly the traits startup founders need to get their first customers, funding or boost employee morale. Also, in some situations, confidence even trumps accuracy.  Sounds great doesn’t it? I can almost hear the applause for the aspiring “wantrepreneurs” out there.

Often someone who is harshly realistic suppresses the effort to realize a lofty goal, compared to someone who is foolishly optimistic. Take this example:

The optimistic entrepreneur (as foolish as they may be) may aspire to have the highest revenue of any company in his industry this year.  

And the realistic entrepreneur, on the other hand will hope to barely break even this year. 

Guess what – the ridiculous optimist, while he/she may not reach the intended goal, he/she will probably achieve more than the realist, because he/she won’t limit himself in efforts when close to breaking even.

But wait…

However, consider the flip side though: there are two potential problems with having too much optimism. When harsh reality does kick in, the idealistic entrepreneur may not even realize it, or casually brush the truth aside, thus ignoring signs of potential failure. Secondly, there is such a thing as too much optimism when dealing with stakeholders. Potential customers and VCs can see right through that. The only person you are fooling is you!  This is an avoidable #entrepreneurfail, so be aware.

So, what should you do?

Firstly, you may have heard of Jim Collins’ BHAG (big hairy audacious goal). Create a BHAG as soon as you start your company and tweak as necessary.  And then find a mentor, advisor or a board of directors who will push you to do your best, yet keep you grounded in reality. 

So where does your scale tilt? Foolish optimist or harsh realist? Why?  Tell us about it in the comments below. 

This was originally created by Kriti Vichare for #entrepreneurfail