Category: Entrepreneurship

Article Contributed by Gary Jordan

It sounds easy – knowing who you are. It should be a given, right? Knowing and understanding who you are is a lifetime process that begins in childhood, on the playground, when you begin the process of learning just where you fit in. But where you fit in as an entrepreneur is a whole different question!

Most people start a business because they have an area of expertise. If they’re in tune with who they really are and what makes them happy, chances are, this area of expertise is also an area of deep personal passion. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs take the time for self-discovery once they start their business – and wonder why they’re not happy actually running their business, day in and day out..

After all, the focus of the business is something they love, and the products and services reflect that passion. Shouldn’t that be enough?

Well, actually, no – for one simple reason. Starting a business means that you’ll wind up wearing all kinds of different ‘hats’, playing a multitude of different roles, from accountant to marketing director, personnel director to chief financial officer.

The entrepreneurs who are actually happy in their businesses, day in and day out, are those who have gone one step further in their own process of self-discovery and determined the types of roles they actually enjoy filling, and the sorts of tasks they’re naturally suited for. They’ve found a way to focus in on those roles, developing what they do best – and delegating the rest. All of this benefits their businesses.

First, by freeing them up to do their ‘genius’ work’ – the work they truly do better than anyone else. Second, by filling the other roles with people who are actually happy and fulfilled in those capacities that bog down the entrepreneur and sap his drive. To be happy in business, it is vital for people to do what they naturally prefer to do and find engaging, because they will be more productive, happier, and, as a rule, procrastinate far less.

The business owner who understands how important it is to build his business around his natural strengths and abilities in this way also discovers exactly where he fits within the context of his business. These entrepreneurs also stop trying to do everything themselves, exponentially increasing their effectiveness with the help of a dynamic, powerful team.

Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs fail to reach this point. They look around at the business they’ve built, based on a real passion in their life, and wonder, why am I not happy with this? What’s missing? And (worst of all!), what’s wrong with me?

About the Author
If you’ve ever felt this way, take heart: there’s nothing wrong with you. But it’s high time you honored yourself enough as an entrepreneur to discover your natural strengths and put them to work for you in your business.
Gary Jordan, Ph.D., has over 27 years of experience in clinical psychology, behavioral assessment, individual development, and coaching. He earned his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology – Berkeley. He is co-creator of Perceptual Style Theory, a revolutionary psychological assessment system that teaches people how to unleash their deepest potentials for success. He’s a partner at Vega Behavioral Consulting, Ltd., a consulting firm that specializes in helping people discover their true skills and talents. For free information on how to succeed as an entrepreneur or coach, create a thriving business and build your bottom line doing more of what you love, visit www.YourTalentAdvantage.com

Article Contributed by Lisa Cherney

I believe that life is a journey, and just like any journey, it has some bumps in the road along the way. For me, those “bumps” came in the form of three layoffs in two years.  I drove home from my last job, the remains of its existence in a cardboard box beside me, and I received this message: “Why go to work for somebody else when you can work for yourself?” I literally looked around like, “Who said that?”  And then I realized: “This is my life. I need to create a way for it to support me and bring me freedom and joy.” So… I started on that journey of entrepreneurship.

I knew that the road to entrepreneurship would not be an easy one to travel – with fear, risk, and uncertainty lurking around every corner. But as I drove down that freeway, I also knew there was no turning back now. It was time to follow the right path, and for me, that path was helping others discover theirs!

That third layoff was a turning point in my life: a point in which I realized I needed to make a change. And that change resulted in helping others to make changes as well. In fact, this is a step in my “Stand Out, Be Juicy” program that I call Juicy Benefits – communicating how you change someone’s life. And we all do it! We, as entrepreneurs, all offer services that change people’s lives. You just have to realize it.

To illustrate this point, one of my clients, a professional organizer, wasn’t meeting her goal of making a six-figure income. While she viewed herself as an organizer of stuff, her clients were saying, “You’re so much more than a professional organizer!” She couldn’t see it. So I asked her: “How are people different after working with you?”

Like most people, she couldn’t answer. But I helped her find her voice, her answer, which was: “I help people get to the root of the cause of their clutter so it never comes back.” Ta-da! There it was. Her Juicy Benefits. She started charging more and hit her six-figure mark that year.

The answer to, “How are people different after working with me?” should roll off your tongue, but most likely, it doesn’t. For most entrepreneurs, this is the case.  My own dissatisfaction while working in corporate America should have been obvious to me, but it wasn’t. My point? We don’t always see what’s right in front of us. Sometimes it takes someone from the outside to help us see what we should see, say what we should say, do what we should be doing. Juicy Benefits is just a piece of the puzzle, one curve in your road to discovery. Take the wheel for a moment, and let’s see where we can go!

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.

Article Contributed by Lynda-Ross Vega

Just as in the human body, the strength of a business comes from its core. A strong core facilitates growth and endurance, and in business, that growth equals success, and that endurance equals longevity. Naturally, a successful, long-living business is what we all want and strive for!

You are the core of your business. You are its strength, its heartbeat, its reason for being. As its core, your strength comes from understanding your skills and talents and applying them in everything you do. That’s where we come in. We call it strengths-based business building – a process of helping you develop your natural entrepreneurial skills.

Imagine the core of your business becoming as strong as the core of your body: the muscles that provide you with power and stability are essential in everything you do. As the core of your business, you are just as essential to its success as those muscles are to your body. You are the reason for your business’s success, and it is only as strong as you are.

Understanding that you are at the core of your business is the easy part; the challenge is making sure that the core is as strong as it needs to be for your business to succeed. The technique of strengths-based business building involves accentuating the your strengths, and those of your team, the two most essential parts of your business.

Your strengths – your talents, abilities, ideas and skills – are what we call your “genius,” and as a business owner, you want and need your “genius” to come first. That’s what differentiates you in the market place; that’s why your clients seek you out. It’s a waste of your time and talent for you to focus on mastering parts of your business that are not based on your natural strengths. You want to do (and should do) what you love to do, what you’re good at doing. We help the rest fall into place by showing you what skills your team members must have that compliment you and keep the core of your business strong and vibrant.

Building a business around its core, around you, is essential and easy with the right tools. Our guaranteed system combines science and psychology, and while we’ve done the hard part of creating this approach, it’s now your turn to do the easy part and let us help you implement it.

About the Author

A partner at Vega Behavioral Consulting, Ltd., Lynda-Ross specializes in helping entrepreneurs and coaches build dynamite teams and systems that WORK. She is co-creator of Perceptual Style Theory, a revolutionary psychological assessment system that teaches people how to unleash their deepest potentials for success. For free information on how to succeed as an entrepreneur or coach, create a thriving business and build your bottom line doing more of what you love, visit www.YourTalentAdvantage.com

Article Contributed by AccountingDegree.com

Every big business had to start out somewhere, right? Some have come from more humble beginnings than others, launching with no more than some basic equipment, a couple employees, a garage space and a big idea. Whether you’re a business or finance student hoping to follow your own path to entrepreneurial success or already working in your own garage on the next big thing, these stories of companies that rose from obscurity to be multi-million (or billion) dollar industries can be a big inspiration. They may very well help you finally realize your dream of getting out of that garage and onto bigger and better things.

1. Apple: Today, consumers will wait in line for hours just to get their hands on some of Apple’s latest products, but once upon a time this electronics giant was a mere blip on the technology industry’s radar. Back in 1976, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniack and Ronald Wayne started a business out of a garage in Cupertino, CA, putting together one of the first prototypes of their personal computers. Over the next decades, the company would introduce several more models, including their Macintosh line in 1984, arguably what turned them from a struggling startup into a fully fledged business. Today, the company manufactures much more than computers, has almost 50,000 employees and brings in revenues of over 14 billion each year.

2. Google: Google might be a household name today, but back in 1998 the search engine giant was just starting out. Their corporate headquarters? A Menlo Park, CA garage. For the next five months, Google’s staff of three would work out of this garage, perfecting their search algorithm, indexing web pages, and raiding the refrigerator of their friend’s attached home. By the next year the company had outgrown the garage and eventually moved into what is today known as the Googleplex. To celebrate their 8th birthday, Google purchased the garage and intends to preserve it as a lasting legacy to the humble beginnings of their business.

3. Mattel: Mattel wasn’t always the toy maker we know it as today. When the Handler’s got their start in the 1940’s in a Southern California garage, they were making picture frames, not toys. Ruth Handler began taking the scraps of wood from those frames and making doll furniture, a side business which proved quite successful. Because of this, the entrepreneurs decided to change their focus to toys instead. In 1959, they introduced the first Barbie, and afterwards became a household name. Today they’re home to big names in the toy business like Fisher Price, Hot Wheels, American Girl and a number of board games.

4. HP: Back in 1939, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard decided to establish their own electronics manufacturing company. Based out their garage in Palo Alto, CA, with an initial investment of only $538, the two helped establish the technology hub that would become Silicon Valley. When they started out, they made everything from high-tech electronics to agricultural products but by the 60’s were homing in on the tech market exclusively. Today, the company is an electronics giant, with some of the highest quality personal computing products on the market. They have opted to preserve the garage where they got their start, making it into a museum.

5. Amazon: In 1994, Jeff Bezos laid the foundations for what would be the online retailing giant Amazon in his garage, hoping to follow in the footsteps of fellow garage entrepreneurs HP. With a strong foundation, the company grew very quickly, and before long was in need of a much bigger space to house their operations. Today, there are few people who haven’t shopped with the online retailer, buying everything from food to televisions to electronic media. This small business had become one of the leading retailers in the world, with billions of dollars in sales each year.

6. Disney: While he would go on to build an animation and entertainment empire, Walt Disney’s first studio was a tiny, one car garage in Hollywood. There he worked on a variety of animation products, setting up a makeshift studio in the space, while he waited to see if his Alice in Wonderland pilot would be picked up by any major distributors. It was, and the company quickly moved out of the garage into a proper studio. These days, Disney is an entertainment giant for kids and adults alike with movies, theme parks and products around the world. That tiny garage was almost torn down, but the dedication of a few interested citizens helped to save it and interested visitors can go there today to see where it all began.

7. Microsoft: In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft, with just a few resources and an available garage space. Unlike Apple who developed both software and hardware, Microsoft homed in on the software market. Working with IBM, the company licensed their first OS for a mere $80,000. Later, they would go on to develop more sophisticated operating systems that would evolve into those we know as Windows today. The business would grow to be one of the most profitable and powerful in the world, dominating the personal computing market.

8. MagLite: Anthony Maglica started his dream of owning a business by working long hours to earn the money it would take to put a down payment on his first lathe. Working in a Los Angeles garage, he began to design and build precision parts for industry, aerospace and the military. By 1974, he was incorporated as Mag Instrument and the company was gaining a reputation for the quality of their products. In 1979, MagLite released their first flashlight, the product they are best known for today. It would help them to become a household name and secure their place in the market.

9. Yankee Candle Company: Unable to afford a present for his mother, young Michael Kittredge created his first scented candle from some melted crayons in his garage. Neighbors saw the candles and began purchasing them from him, eventually motivating the high school student to found a business with two high school friends. Kittredge sold the company in 1999 after a cancer scare, but it has gone on to even greater success and is now sold at many major retailers and a number of its own standalone stores.

10. Harley Davidson: It makes complete sense that a company selling vehicles would get its start in a garage or outbuilding, because that’s where those products eventually end up. Harley Davidson did just that, starting out in 1901 with a small business that built engines for bicycles. Of course, it wasn’t long before they started developing the motorcycles for which they are known, and in 1903 they had already released their first racing bike, constructed in a small wooden shed. Buoyed by the popularity and speed of their motorcycles, the company expands, constantly rethinking the best ways to build a bike. Today, they’re still known for producing some of the biggest, best motorcycles on the market and have become a household name.

10 Big Businesses That Started in a Garage [AccountingDegree.com]

Article Contributed by OEDB

The selection of books on business seems limitless, but entrepreneurs can pay special attention to those that offer a spark of entrepreneurial spirit. Inspiration, innovation, management, leadership, and more are all addressed in these books. Read on to find an excellent collection for any entrepreneur’s library.

Entrepreneurial Passion

In these books, you’ll learn about the passion behind entrepreneurship.

1. The Fountainhead: Ayn Rand’s book encourages entrepreneurs to work without asking for permission.
2. Oh, The Places You’ll Go: Dr. Seuss’ book will remind you to stay positive and focused.
3. The Little Big Things: Tom Peters explains how you can pursue excellence in your business.
4. Crush It!: Gary Vaynerchuk explains how to cash in on your passion with this book.
5. Never Get a “Real” Job: In this book from Scott Gerber, you’ll find out how to ditch the idea of getting a real job.
6. You Need to Be a Little Crazy: Read this book to understand how to be just crazy enough to grow your business.
7. Impro: Keith Johnstone discusses how to face the unexpected as an entrepreneur.
8. Ready, Fire, Aim: Serial entrepreneur Michael Masterson offers important business lessons.
9. A Whole New Mind: Daniel Pink’s book encourages reinvention for entrepreneurs.
10. Rework: Rework will inspire you to toss out the old rules of business.
11. How to Own the World: How to Own the World explains habits and attitudes that can make you successful as an entrepreneur.
12. Go Big or Go Home: Take Wil Schroter’s approach to business and go big.
13. The Winning Spirit: Build an excellent network with a winning spirit inspired by Lisa Wicker’s book.

Read more about the entire list of 60 books at OEDB.